Archive for January, 2006
Wednesday, January 4th, 2006
‘Extremely critical’ vulnerability to remain unpatched for another week
Microsoft will issue patch for a widely abused security vulnerability in the Windows operating system next Tuesday as part of its monthly cycle, the company said in an update of the security advisory about the flaw.
Attackers could use the vulnerability to take control of a computer through a specially crafted Windows Metafile (.wmf) image.
Such an image can be used on a website or sent by email or in an instant message. Security vendors have reported that attackers are actively using all these methods in an attempt to infect systems.
Security website Secunia gave the vulnerability its most severe rating of ‘extremely critical’.
Full article: vnunet.com
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Wednesday, January 4th, 2006
But hardware theories live on…
Google has denied reports it is to make any moves into the PC sector.
Rumours of a low-cost Google PC first surfaced following an article in the LA Times which quoted sources as saying the search giant was in talks with Wal-Mart and other retailers with a view to selling a Google computer.
In addition to denials from Wal-Mart, a Google spokeswoman quashed the idea that the search company had its eye on the personal computing market.
She told silicon.com: “The LA Times story is completely untrue,” adding the company would prefer to work with its existing partners on PCs.
When queried over any plans Google may have to move into the wider hardware space, the company spokeswoman refused to be drawn.
Full story: silicon.com
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Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
Windows-free, of course
Google is planning to provide an own-brand Windows-less PC and sell the low-cost system through a partnership with retail giant Wal-Mart. The machine and/or the sales deal could be announced as early as this coming Friday.
So claims the Los Angeles Times, citing unnamed sources. Whether they’ve seen the text of Google co-founder Larry Page’s Consumer Electronics Show keynote, which he’ll make in Las Vegas on Friday, isn’t clear, but it’s suggested that the talk will cover the new box.
As the paper notes, analysts from investment house Bear Stearns last month claimed Google was preparing a box capable of shuffling digital Internet-sourced media content around the home across local wireless or wired networks.
Crucially, the rig is said to be based on Google’s own operating system - most likely Linux in Google clothing - rather than Windows.
Full article: The Register
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Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
Gartner claims the blurring of business and consumer technology will have massive implications for IT purchasing
The majority of the technology adopted by businesses in the future will have its roots in the consumer market, said analyst Gartner which also believes that companies will soon start encouraging employees to purchase their own PCs.
In a research note released last week, Businesses Need to Explore Consumer Technology Before the Next Internet Revolution Leaves Them Behind, the analyst group claims that while traditional enterprise software remains critical, many functions can be accomplished through technologies designed for consumers.
Applications that are making inroads into enterprises include the Google Desktop, AOL IM, and Skype’s voice-over-IP software, Gartner said.
Full article: ZDNet UK
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Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
Royalty hands out gong to Apple’s design guru
Jonathan ‘Jony’ Ive, the British designer of Apple’s iPod, has been awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours list.
The Commander of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ranks just below a knighthood and is awarded to individuals in recognition of their contribution and services to British interests.
Read more: vnunet.com
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Monday, January 2nd, 2006
XPFiremon is a system tray monitoring application for the builtin Windows XP Firewall. It will monitor the settings and services and alert if they are stopped or disabled. Windows should also alert you if the firewall is disabled but depending on the circumstances it appears slow to do so. It’s also comforting to many users to see something saying that their protection is active and not just inactive. XPFiremon also provides an easy right click interface for managing the firewall(stopping, starting, or configuring).
Download: XPFiremon 1.02
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Monday, January 2nd, 2006
Quick ‘n Easy FTP Server is a multi threaded FTP server for Windows 98/NT/XP that can be easily setup even by inexperienced users.New users can be easily created by a wizard which is guiding you step by step in the process.The server handles all basic FTP commands plus a lot of special FTP commands like MDTM, NLST, FEAT, PSWD, XCRC and many more!
Key features:
- Simple, intuitive and cool looking user interface, with several pages for managing the users, configuration and security.
- Easy to setup using the build-in FTP Server Setup Wizard.
- Add new user accounts with the User Account Wizard.
- Security: Allow/block specific ip addresses/ranges.
- Support for virtual directories.
- Limit download/upload speed per user.
- Display average download/upload speed of online users.
- Support for systems that are a part of a network with a router and/or firewall.
- Configuration is saved in XML format.
- Realtime server trace, which displays every command and it’s reply on the screen.
- Everything can also be logged to a file.
- Users can send messages via their FTP client to the FTP Server’s messages console.
- Integrated upload/download statistics (saved in XML).
- Remote administration option.
- Disk quota
- FTP Server Events can be used trigger actions like playing a sound or execute an application.
Dowload: Quick ‘n Easy FTP Server Lite 3.1
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Monday, January 2nd, 2006
This project started as a replacement for ?¢‚ǨÀúgood-old?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ Frontpage Express that used to be part of Windows. Just a simple, easy-to-use utility to generate web pages. Web Builder has almost all the features Frontpage Express had, but gives you much more freedom of where you put your web objects (such as images, text, tables etc). This means that the finished page will display in your browser exactly the way it was designed.
The program generates HTML (HyperText Markup Language) tags while you point and click on desired functions; you can create a web page without learning HTML. Just drag and drop objects to the page position them ‘anywhere’ you want and when you’re finished publish it to your web server (using the build in Publish
tool).
Features:
- No HTML knowledge needed!
- Drag and drop of the HTML objects: Text, Lines, Images, Marquees and Tables.
- Form layout object to create forms, including actions, hidden fields etc.
- Supports Form fields: Editbox, TextArea, Checkbox, Radiobutton, Combobox and Button.
- Rich text support: text object can contain different fonts, colors, links and sizes.
- Option to add custom HTML for each object (Before Tag, Inside Tag, After Tag).
- ActiveX, JAVA, Flash, Windows Media player, Quicktime and other Plug-In support.
- Publish to local drive or a FTP server using the build-in FTP manager.
- Easy Photo Gallery creation.
- Build-in Banner creator.
- Rollover images.
- Customize scrollbar colors for Microsoft Internet Explorer.
- Navigation bars
- Ready-to-use Javascripts
- Template support. Already more than 50 templates available!
- Support for Cascading Style Sheet positioning (layered layout)
- Insert Symbols (special characters).
- Verify links tool.
- Rotating Image component (useful for Ad Banners).
- Support for third-party add-ons, using the Web Builder Component Developers Kit.
- Import existing HTML pages!
- Hyperlink Style Sheet, to customize the colors/formatting of hyperlinks
- Show optional rulers.
- Page transitions in Page Properties.
- Inline Frame component (IFRAME)
- Go menu component: easily create a drop-down navigation menus.
- Menubar component: powerful menu script that can mimic complex menus found in popular GUI applications.
- Shape component.
- Embedded OLE component.
Download: WYSIWYG Web Builder 2.7.1 | Homepage
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Monday, January 2nd, 2006
The Free Software Foundation Europe claims that the fines that the European Commission is proposing to levy against Microsoft are too low to break its monopoly.
Last week, the European Commission said it may fine Microsoft up to 2 million euros (?Ǭ£1.3m) a day for failing to comply with antitrust sanctions. Microsoft has five weeks to reply to the Commission’s statement of objections and has already said it will contest this decision.
Joachim Jakobs of the Free Software Foundation Europe on Wednesday in the United Kingdom said the fines are “long overdue”, but are too low to impact Microsoft’s behaviour.
“It is basically a good thing but the fine should be 10 or 100 times as much,” said Jakobs. “Two million euros doesn’t really force them to do anything.”
Microsoft is likely to find it cheaper to pay the fine, than to disclose information that will allow non-Microsoft servers to interoperate with Windows servers, according to Georg Greve, the president of FSFE.
Full story: ZDNet Australia
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Monday, January 2nd, 2006
A company holding patents related to voice over IP (VoIP) sued Google (Quote, Chart) in early December, claiming Google Talk infringes on its intellectual property.
Gary Price first reported the suit, filed in October, in the Search Engine Watch blog.
A Google spokesman issued a statement saying, “We believe the lawsuit is without merit, and we will defend against it vigorously.”
John Ward, an intellectual property attorney and partner in the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, noted, “Regardless of whether Google may have added some bells and whistles to their Google Talk VoIP product, they may still have to account to others for using technology that others have already patented.”
Full story: internetnews.com
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