Archive for October, 2005
Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
Fewer businesses fell victim to the Zotob worm that struck corporate networks than previous attacks, but those it hit paid dearly, according to a new survey.
The August worm caused disruptions for about 13 percent of the organizations surveyed by computer security firm Cybertrust, which released the results of a 700-company study Wednesday. As reported earlier, Zotob’s victims included cable news station CNN, TV network ABC, The New York Times and DaimlerChrysler.
Six percent of survey respondents said Zotob’s impact on their company was moderate to major, which was defined as more than $10,000 in losses and at least one major business system affected, such as e-mail or Internet connectivity.
Alarming as it was, Zotob did far less damage than did other major worms designed to exploit Windows vulnerabilities, Cybertrust said. For example, the Nimda worm made a moderate to major impact on 60 percent of companies. MSBlast (aka Blaster) struck about 30 percent of organizations to that degree, the firm said.
Full article: ZDNet
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Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
Mockup is an Open Source effort to create a desktop operating system that’s both usable and accessible.
Its core is based on a Linux kernel and software from the GNU project.
The desktop environment uses TrollTech’s Qt 4.x, the most advanced toolkit with support for OpenGL, pixel-based graphics, vector-based graphics and a powerful model-view architecture.
The so called “Linux desktop distributions” don’t fit our requirements because they are bloated and full of a lot of stuff, for example you will found too many ways of doing things with these operating systems. The lack of an integrated and unique desktop environment is a problem, successful desktop operating system (such as Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS X) have their coherent and integrated system.
Unfortunately GNOME and KDE become even more bloated with each release and they are developed for too many platforms. Unlike these projects we design both the foundation and the desktop environment, we provide coherent and lightweight applications.
Doing a lot of things on our own and focusing only on the desktop we can provide a great desktop experience based only on F/OSS software and open formats.
Download: Mockup 0.2.0 alpha1.1 | Screenshots
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Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
Code maker
Microsoft plans to adopt a stronger cryptography protocol in the next version of its web browser software, Internet Explorer 7. IE7 will replace the SSLv2 (Secure Socket Layer) protocol with the sturdier TLSv1 (Transport Layer Security) protocol in default HTTPS protocol settings as a means to provide improved security for ecommerce transactions, according to a posting in Redmond’s official IE development blog.
Users of IE6 can manually configure these stronger settings but the changes will mean that more users will be directed towards using the stronger SSLv3 or TLSv1 protocols rather than SSLv2. The change should be seamless for end users but adoption of the stronger encryption protocol by a wider percentage of surfers could create some work for sys admins.
Microsoft reckons that only a “handful of sites” left on the internet require SSLv2. “Adding support for SSLv3 or TLSv1 to a website is generally a simple configuration change,” said Eric Lawrence, an IE program manager.
Full article: The Register
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Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
And gets some digitising buddies…
In the wake of lawsuits filed against Google, Microsoft said on Tuesday that it would join a competing and less controversial library book digitisation project sponsored by Internet Archive and Yahoo!.
Danielle Tiedt, general manager of search content acquisition at MSN, said: “Given the copyright issues going on right now, it’s a dicey time.”
Google faces two lawsuits alleging it is violating copyright law by scanning and digitising all or parts of the collections at the libraries at universities such as Harvard, Michigan, Oxford and Stanford plus The New York Public Library. Last month, the Authors Guild filed suit against the search giant, and last week, the Association of American Publishers also sued.
Although Google says it will offer only a few sentences from books that are copyright-protected, unless the copyright holder gives permission to show more, the lawsuits allege that making copies by scanning the entire works violates the copyright law.
Full story: silicon.com
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Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
In a move that could put Google in competition with eBay, the search giant is testing a new service that would allow people to post and make searchable any type of content, a Google spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday.
A screenshot of a page for “Google Base” gives as examples of items that can be posted to Google’s server: “description of your party planning service,” “articles on current events from your Web site,” “listing of your used car for sale,” and “database of protein structures.”
“This is an early stage test of a product that enables content owners to easily send their content to Google,” a Google spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail. “Like our Web crawl and the recently released Google Sitemaps program, we are working to provide content owners an easy way to give us access to their content. We’re continually exploring new opportunities to expand our offerings, but we don’t have anything to announce at this time.”
Other screenshots show sample pages, including an entry for a Thai Glazed Chicken Lettuce Wrap recipe. One page includes policies including “posting is not permitted for the promotion of body parts or human remains” and terms of service that give Google the right to “reproduce, modify, adapt, publish and otherwise use, with or without attribution” the content on the site for promotional purposes. It also says the Google Base interface is currently available only in English, U.K. English and German.
Some bloggers speculated that Google Base was the precursor to an e-commerce site that would go up against online auction company eBay.
Full article: CNET News.com
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Monday, October 24th, 2005
Code has been published that demonstrates how to exploit a flaw in Windows similar to that used by the Zotob worm
Exploit code was published Friday for a Windows flaw similar to the vulnerability that led to the Zotob worm that wreaked havoc in August.
The code takes advantage of a bug related to plug-and-play technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Microsoft provided a patch for the flaw on 11 October in security bulletin MS05-047, along with fixes for 13 other Windows flaws. The software maker rated the issue “important”.
The plug-and-play exploit code is not the first to surface for a flaw that was fixed in Microsoft’s October patch cycle. Other exploits have been published on the Internet or reported privately. Release of such code typically is a prelude to an attack. However, while some experts have raised the worm alarm, attacks have yet to appear.
The exploit causes a vulnerable system to crash, but it’s unlikely to be used for a worm, a Symantec representative said. “It does not gain local access to machines,” the representative said.
Full story: ZDNet UK
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Monday, October 24th, 2005
Microsoft is adding business intelligence software in the next version of its Office software - Office 12 - due in the second half of next year.
Office 12 will make better use of Excel spreadsheets to analyse company data. It will be easier to link Excel to SQL servers to get better access to enterprise information. Spreadsheet functions will also be improved. Excel Services will make it easier to share and secure spreadsheets.
Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 will be available from November for $5,000 for the server plus $175 per user. It will allow users to track KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
Read more: The Register
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Monday, October 24th, 2005
Process Patrol helps you detect and stop spyware, adware, and virus processes on your Windows computer.
Version 2 of Process Patrol, the popular anti spyware and adware product, is now available!
Have spyware, adware, malware, and other forms of badware taken over your computer? These programs can slow your computer down to a crawl, and bombard you with popup ads. If you think your computer is infected, then download a free copy of our anti spyware and adware product and start regaining control of your computer today!
Process Patrol helps you detect and stop spyware and adware processes with the following features:
- It helps you understand exactly what is running on your computer.
- It helps you build a list of spyware and adware programs.
- It stops these spyware and adware programs at the push of a button.
- It can monitor your system in a schedule that you setup, and automatically stop the spyware and adware processes that it finds.
- It optionally notifies you whenever a new process starts up that you haven’t yet flagged as either good or bad.
Download: Process Patrol 2.01
Posted in AntiSpyware | No Comments »
Monday, October 24th, 2005
We know where you live
The US National Security Agency has been granted a patent for technology that can provide the rough physical location of internet users based on their IP address.
Granted last month, the patent application outlines how the geographic location of internet users could be used to “measure the effectiveness of advertising across geographic regions” or flag a password that “could be noted or disabled if not used from or near the appropriate location”.
The technology appears to be based on measuring the ‘latency’ (the time lag between computers exchanging data) of “numerous” locations on the internet and building a “network latency topology map”.
The location is then estimated based on how long it takes a known computer to connect to the unknown one.
Full article: vnunet.com
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Friday, October 21st, 2005
A small team of developers in California on Friday launched a cutting-edge Firefox-based Web browser dubbed Flock, which integrates next-generation Web technologies such as RSS content feeds, blogs and bookmark and photo sharing.
The team of developers was spearheaded by Bart Decrem, who is well known in the open-source community due to his involvement in the Mozilla Foundation and his ill-fated start-up Eazel, which from 1999 until its demise in 2001 aimed to bring greater usability features to the Linux desktop.
“Indeed the time is upon us,” wrote Flock co-founder Geoffrey Arone on his blog shortly before the release. “We are gearing up to allow public, unrestricted downloads of the Flock browser within the next couple of hours.”
“Please note that this is a developer preview and that there are still plenty of bugs, many of which we are aware of.”
The public unveiling comes after Decrem this week e-mailed invitations to try his new software to a select group of recipients who had previously registered their addresses on the project’s Web site. The round of invitations was the third to be issued for the software during its development.
Full article: CNET News.com
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Friday, October 21st, 2005
Shares of Google soared to a new all-time high late Thursday after the company’s third-quarter earnings and sales crushed Wall Street estimates.
Google’s pro-forma earnings of $1.51 a share trounced $1.36 estimates, and net revenues (revenues after traffic acquisition costs) doubled from the year-ago quarter to $1.05 billion, well ahead of $943 million estimates. Google ended the quarter with $7.6 billion in cash, a healthy war chest for potential acquisitions.
The results were even more surprising because the company had taken steps to lower expectations during its second-quarter conference call.
“Although this is typically a slower season for Internet properties, we had another exceptional quarter,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement. “Our focus on end users and on quality of information and advertising worldwide continues to work extremely well. We are very pleased with how well this is working at scale.”
Full article: internetnews.com
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Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
Microsoft has simplified its program for sharing source code in an effort to work better with third parties.
On the company’s Shared Source Initiative Web site, Microsoft on Tuesday posted details of three new licenses. Each license is short and designed to be easy to understand and use, the software giant said.
Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative is a program to allow third parties, such as other software companies and large customers, to see portions of Microsoft source code. Viewing the code enables other companies to create closer integration with Microsoft products, such as Windows CE, or build new products based on that code.
Until now, Microsoft had more than 10 licenses, many of which are specific to products or to the type of audience, such as academics, systems integrators, software developers or government customers.
Full article: C|net
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Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
A trademark dispute has forced Google to re-brand its Gmail web mail service in the UK. Existing users get to retain their Gmail address (at least for now) but from Wednesday onwards new UK users will be given a Googlemail email address instead.
UK-based financial services firm Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) said its subsidiary ProNet Analytics has been using the Gmail name for a web-mail application since the middle of 2002, two years before Google began offering Gmail accounts to consumers. The email service offered by ProNet, by contrast, is used mainly by investors in currency derivatives.
Full story: The Register
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Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
Pluck’s award-winning RSS reader helps you discover news and blog posting feeds, delivers that feed content right to your desktop as it’s published, and even synchronizes your browser bookmarks between computers.
Pluck Internet Explorer Edition
Requires IE 6.0 on:
:: Windows 2000 SP4 or higher, or
:: Windows XP SP1 or higher
Pluck Firefox Edition
Requires Firefox 1.0.4 or higher on:
:: Windows 2000 SP4 or higher, or
:: Windows XP SP1 or higher, or
:: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher
Pluck Web Edition
:: Works on any computer, any browser
Download: Pluck 2.0
Posted in Web/internet | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
A single wireless Lan card will connect to multiple wireless networks
Microsoft has developed a technique to allow people to access multiple Wi-Fi networks with a single Wi-Fi card.
Virtual Wi-Fi is designed to improve multitasking, save money on hardware and reduce the power needed for Wi-Fi communications. The software is designed to run with Windows XP.
“The current version of Virtual Wi-Fi allows a user to connect a wireless Lan card to multiple wireless networks,” said Microsoft Research in a statement.
Read more: vnunet.com
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Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF) helps users control how their computers exchange data with other computers on the Internet or local network.
Kerio Personal Firewall is a necessity for all desktop computers connected to broadband Internet, using DSL, cable, ISDN, WiFi or satellite modems.
Within an organization, Kerio Personal Firewall prevents a single computer from attacks initiated by internal users. Remote workstations and laptops running KPF are protected from Internet born attacks.
For home users, Kerio Personal Firewall 4 is available in two flavors - the full edition and the limited free edition. After installation, KPF works as the full edition for 30 days, after which it becomes the limited free edition.
Supported Platforms: Windows 2000 Professional / XP Home / XP Professional
Download: Kerio Personal Firewall 4.2.2 | Kerio website
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Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
A “critical” flaw that affects both Microsoft’s Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer has been uncovered, a security company reported late Monday.
The security flaw, which is found in the default installations of Media Player and the IE browser, could let attackers launch a remote execution of code, according to an advisory posted by eEye Digital Security.
Systems affected by the flaw include Windows XP with Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, Windows NT, Windows 2003 and Windows 2003 SP1, and all versions of Windows 2000.
Although eEye does not believe the vulnerability is “wormable,” the company rated it “critical” because it could allow for a remote execution of code and affects installations of Media Player and IE at their default settings, an eEye representative said.
Full story: ZDNet
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Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
Myster is a file sharing utility. Similar projects include BitTorrent, Hotline and FreeNet. Myster allows you to share your files with others and download files being shared by others on the Myster network, over the Internet. But Myster isn’t just any file sharing utility.
The Myster protocol and application have been developed as a stand alone, unique file sharing system which efficiently operates without the need for a central logistics server. Myster employs a completely new, unique and opensource distributed networking protocol which builds on the best features of past P2P efforts, raising the bar for distributed file sharing over the internet.
Some key features of Myster include:
-A completely distributed framework of peers, eliminating any need for a central server
-The ability to search the network without “flooding” it with requests for information.
-A real-time, self-organizing and self-optimizing network
-Support for multiple types of data, not just MP3s
-Cross platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.
-fully Java 1.1 compatible
-A user friendly interface
Download: Myster Public Release 9
Posted in Linux, Mac OS X, p2p | No Comments »
Monday, October 17th, 2005
“Acrylic” (code name) is the professional design program that brings together the richness of pixel-based painting and the performance of editable vector graphics for a more fluid and flexible creative workflow. Create sophisticated designs and graphic elements for your on-screen, web, and print projects.
Design within a flexible environment
A flexible hybrid graphics environment offers the best of vector-based and pixel-based design. Incorporate graphics from other applications, and export design elements to a variety of software tools and formats including support for the Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly code named “Avalon”) coming in Windows Vista.
Create sophisticated designs
A varied collection of highly-customizable vector and raster painting tools provide powerful creative options for drawing, painting, and editing both new and existing content.
Explore creative possibilities
Innovative styles and graphic properties such as textures, fringes, and dimensionality produce a variety of graphic visual effects. Add blurs, drop shadows, color correction, and other image effects and filters using nondestructive, editable Live Effects.
Download: Acrylic October 2005 Community Technology Preview (CTP)
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