Archive for March, 2006
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
Emboldened by a growing appetite for its products in the enterprise server market, Microsoft is launching an aggressive push in the education and state-and-local government markets.
And its got its eye on customers of Novell’s Netware (current and former) as part of its market share plan. A recent report from IDC showed that for the first time ever, there were more migrations from Unix to Windows than to any other operating system.
Perhaps trying to take thunder away from Novell’s BrainShare conference last week, Microsoft is bragging that it took 1.8 million accounts away from Novell in 2005 and a total of 3.3 million over the last two years.
According to Ryan Gavin, Microsoft’s director of platform strategies, this trend is the result of confusing signals Novell is sending the market.
While Novell strongly reiterated its commitment to supporting Netware “through at least 2015,” its focus is clearly on the Open Enterprise Server (OES), which is based on SUSE Linux.
Microsoft sees an opportunity to gain share of the government and education markets, as those institutions decide whether to stick with their Netware environments — knowing there will be no upgrades to that product in the offing — or upgrade to SUSE.
Moreover, Gavin thinks Novell’s two-pronged approach of bundling Netware with SUSE Linux is alienating customers.
“Their customer base is not buying their vision, and even Novell isn’t very clear about their own vision,” he told internetnews.com.
“From a customer perspective, this is incredibly confusing.”
Full article: internetnews.com
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Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
ZABBIX is software for monitoring of your applications, network and servers. ZABBIX supports both polling and trapping techniques to collect data from monitored hosts. A flexible notification mechanism allows easy and quickly configure different types of notifications for pre-defined events.
ZABBIX offers advanced monitoring, alerting and visualisation features today which are missing in other monitoring systems, even some of the best commercial ones. Use of industry standards makes integration of ZABBIX into existing infrastructure trouble-free.
ZABBIX high-performance agents work under virtually all operating systems. Collecting of SNMP data is also supported. Thus ZABBIX takes care of monitoring and availability of any network device on your network.
ZABBIX is available free of charge and comes with full source code.
Download: ZABBIX 1.1 Beta 8
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Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
eEye Digital Security released a temporary fix on Monday for Internet Explorer to combat attacks that exploit a recently disclosed security hole in the browser.
The unofficial fix blocks access to the vulnerable component in the Microsoft Web browser, preventing malicious Web sites from taking advantage of the vulnerability, said Steve Manzuik, security product manager at eEye in Aliso Viejo, Calif. Microsoft does not have a fix for the flaw available yet.
Though eEye’s patch does protect PCs against attacks that take advantage of the flaw, the company recommends installing the fix only as a last resort. “Organizations should only install this patch if they are not able to disable Active Scripting as a means of mitigation,” Manzuik said. Disabling Active Scripting is Microsoft’s suggested work-around.
“This patch is not meant to replace the forthcoming Microsoft patch, rather it is intended as a temporary protection against this flaw,” Manzuik said.
Read more: CNET News.com.
A copy can be downloaded at
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http://www.eEye.com/html/research/alerts/AL20060324.html
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Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published three wireless-related patents filed by Google employees as the search giant seeks to delve deeper into the wireless market.
The patent applications, filed by Google employees Wesley Chan, Shioupyn Shen and former Google product management director George Harik, propose lowering the cost of wireless access by offsetting the costs via advertisements on the service. Google, which receives the bulk of its revenue from advertisers, is seeking to expand its potential advertising base by moving further into the wireless market.
The patent applications, filed in 2004 and published earlier this month, address three issues related to the wireless and advertising market.
Patent application No. 20060058019 seeks to develop a system for dynamically modifying the appearance of browser screens on a client device when connecting to a wireless access point. Under the patent, the browser’s appearance would be modified to reflect the brand associated with the wireless access-point provider.
The patent application says that Wi-Fi Internet access would be provided freely to customers in exchange for their agreement to receiving ads on their devices.
Full article: ZDNet News
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Monday, March 27th, 2006
Reg Assistant is a mini software that allows you to quickly import/export your registry.
Ideal for people who modify their registry settings frequently.
Reg Assistant is freeware and 100% CLEAN
Download: Reg Assistant 1.0
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Monday, March 27th, 2006
Microsoft agrees to go public with problems…
Microsoft is for the first time encouraging people to give public feedback on Internet Explorer, with the creation of a bug database for the next version of its browser, IE 7 beta.
The company admitted customers have often asked why it doesn’t have a public bug database, something that is standard practice for open source projects such as Mozilla’s Firefox.
Al Billings, a member of the IE project team, wrote in a Microsoft blog on Friday: “Many customers have asked us about having a better way to enter IE bugs. It is asked, ‘Why don’t you have Bugzilla like Firefox or other groups do?’. We haven’t always had a good answer except it is something that the IE team has never done before.”
Read more: silicon.com
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Monday, March 27th, 2006
Software developer says no shortcuts to Photoshop for Intel Macs
Adobe will not provide a quick update to allow its flagship Photoshop graphics editing suite to run on Intel-powered Mac computers because the costs of creating such an application are too high.
“There’s no limited-cost option for getting most of the performance available on the platform for Photoshop in a short amount of time,” Adobe engineer Scott Byer wrote on a company blog.
He noted that creating a version of the application for OS X on Intel “no small task” because Apple’s XCode development tool is unable to handle the job.
“Apple is doing an amazing job at catching up rapidly, but the truth is we don’t yet have a shipping XCode in hand that handles a large application well.”
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs revealed that the company would switch to Intel processors last June, when he also unveiled the latest version of XCode. He promised at the time that switching would be easy for developers. But Byer posting points out that the process is more complicated.
Full story: vnunet.com
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Saturday, March 25th, 2006
Exploit code is out for an unpatched flaw in Internet Explorer, and experts believe an attack is imminent
Code that takes advantage of a security hole in Internet Explorer has been published on the Web and could be used by someone to unleash an email virus that could put people’s computers and data at risk, Microsoft and security experts said on Thursday.
As with many such attacks, malicious code could sneak onto an unwitting victim’s computer after the user is enticed to open an email attachment containing the code or lured to visit a Web site with the code hidden in it. Once the computer is infected, an attacker could take control of the machine remotely, steal data and use the computer to attack others.
“We have seen examples of proof-of-concept code, but we are not aware of attacks that try to use the reported vulnerabilities, or of customer impact, at this time,” Microsoft said in a security advisory posted on its Web site.
People using fully patched versions of IE 6 and Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 are affected. Customers who use IE 7 Beta 2 Preview, which was released on 20 March, are not affected by the createTextRange vulnerability, Microsoft said.
Full story: ZDNet UK
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Saturday, March 25th, 2006
MacMAME is part of the MAME project, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the history of arcade videogames via emulation. MacMAME achieves this by running the original program code found in the arcade games. As such, it is much more than a reproduction, it is essentially that same game running via an emulated layer inside your Macintosh.
Download: MacMAME 0.103u2
Posted in Games, Mac OS X | No Comments »
Friday, March 24th, 2006
Amid the bombshell news from earlier this week that Windows Vista would be delayed, Microsoft has pushed back its Office 2007 release.
Microsoft said Office 2007 would be delayed until next year, a move that will coincide with the delay of the highly-anticipated Windows Vista operating system.
The software giant had originally planned to make Office 2007 and Vista available concurrently in the fourth quarter in late 2006.
The announcement is the latest blow to Microsoft’s product schedule that has the tech industry abuzz, starting with the Vista delay news, followed by a shakeup in management of the Windows platforms, and now with the latest delay for Office 2007.
Microsoft said in a statement it now hopes to finish the code for Office 2007 this October and make it available to the business customers through the volume licensing program in October 2006.
The finished Office 2007 will roll it out at the same time Vista hits retail store shelves in January 2007.
Full article: internetnews.com
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Friday, March 24th, 2006
FreeRAM XP Pro is a freeware application to free and optimize your computer’s RAM (Random Access Memory), resulting in an increase in system performance and productivity. Automatically configures itself for ease of use and also features advanced options and customizability. FreeRAM XP Pro has been designed to be easy to use yet highly customizable by computer novices and experts alike.
Features and options include:
?｢どｨｬ｢ Automatic, real-time memory monitoring and optimization
?｢どｨｬ｢ Fast, threaded memory freeing with stop option
?｢どｨｬ｢ AutoFree option intelligently optimizes RAM without sacrificing performance
?｢どｨｬ｢ system metric and performance monitors
?｢どｨｬ｢ Advanced tray support
?｢どｨｬ｢ Memory reporting and diagnostic logging
?｢どｨｬ｢ Simple, attractive interface
?｢どｨｬ｢ RAM-cuts (RAM-freeing Windows shortcuts)
?｢どｨｬ｢ Customizable Windows hotkey support
?｢どｨｬ｢ Access to Windows memory-related tweaks that could enhance system performance
?｢どｨｬ｢ Process memory usage reporting
?｢どｨｬ｢ Unique memory compression technology directly reduces applications’ “working set” memory requirements instantly and without swap file usage
?｢どｨｬ｢ More options and customizability
Platforms: Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP (NT4.x is unsupported)
Download: FreeRAM XP Pro 1.52
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Friday, March 24th, 2006
Personal transactions, online purchases and donations by text
Online payment service PayPal has announced plans to allow customers to make payments and money transfers via text message.
PayPal Mobile will be launched over the coming weeks in the US, Canada and the UK, with other markets to follow at a later date.
The service will allow users to make person-to-person transactions, buy online from places such as eBay, or make donations just by sending a text message from their mobile phone.
Read more: vnunet.com
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Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
Shiira mini is a small Web browser widget which works on Dashboard. It takes all advantages of Dashboard. Small and quick.
Shiira mini is not limited Web browser. It provides full features for browsing. Just shrink the image size. It supports also GIF animation and Flash. (Some plug-ins are not supported, ex. QuickTime plug-in.)
Since Shiira mini imports Shiira and Safari bookmarks, you can migrate with zero configuration. Bookmarks are displayed as HTML.
System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
Download: Shiira mini 1.3
Posted in Mac OS X | No Comments »
Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
Dell has put the industry buzz to bed about Alienware. The number one computer maker announced today that it would buy the high-end maker of PC and gaming PCs.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Dell said Alienware would continue as a subsidiary once the deal closes, and will maintain its own product development, product marketing, sales, technical support and other operations.
The deal could be worth as much as $400 to $600 million, according to analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates.
“This is a company with real profits and a real brand recognition,” Kay told internetnews.com. “It’s also a new thing for Dell since they haven’t bought a company and maintained it as a separate subsidiary before that I know of.”
Before the deal was announced, Dell’s stock was up almost half a percent Tuesday to 30.41. Dell’s been trading in the high 20’s to low 30’s this calendar year, but reached the 40’s last summer. Dell spokesperson Jess Blackburn told internetnews.com he didn’t think the deal would “have any material affect on Dell’s financial status.”
Full article: internetnews.com
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Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
Microsoft’s delay could be positive for Apple
The delayed launch of Microsoft’s Vista is expected to negatively affect the company and overall winter 2006 PC demand, but it could be positive for Apple Computer, analysts say.
Apple, with its refreshed Intel product line and anticipated launch of a new Mac operating system in the fall, could benefit from the diminished competition, according to a Wednesday research note from Bear Stearns.
As to other investment implications, analyst Andrew Neff said the Vista delay could be perceived as a negative for Dell, Gateway and Hewlett-Packard, ” although the weakness could be offset by strength in first quarter 2007.”
Full article: vnunet.com
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Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
This tool is designed to remove infections of the following threats:
W32.HLLW.Antinny
W32.HLLW.Antinny.E
W32.HLLW.Antinny.G
W32.Antinny.K
W32.Antinny.Q
W32.Antinny.AX
Trojan.Sientok
Trojan.Exponny
What the tool does
The Removal Tool does the following:
1 Terminates the associated processes
2 Deletes the associated files
3 Deletes the registry values added by the threat
Download: W32.Antinny Removal Tool 1.0.0
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Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
Yahoo! Mail Checker brings Yahoo! Mail to your desktop. Automatically logs in and checks new e-mails. Like Yahoo! messenger, only this one is much better. You can choose an interval in minutes for checking new mails. And has options like, start with windows and run in system tray.
Download: Yahoo! Mail Checker 1.0
Posted in eMail | No Comments »
Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
The Mozilla Foundation is planning to use some of its millions of dollars in revenues to fund active members of its developer community, the organization said Tuesday.
The foundation made $5.8 million in 2004 and is thought to have made tens of millions of dollars last year, predominantly from partnerships with search companies, such as Google and Yahoo. Though much of its money has gone toward increasing its head count, some has been used to bulk up its reserve fund.
Mitchell Baker, the chief executive of the Mozilla Corporation, the commercial subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, said Mozilla plans to put some of its excess revenues back into the community.
“The Mozilla Group–the foundation and the corporation–has a set of employees that provide a critical mass where things can happen, but it is only a piece of the project. There are vast numbers of things that happen outside our employee base,” she said. “We have a commitment that while we have funds beyond our operating levels, some of it should to go to community members. We want to do that in a way that promotes the community.”
Baker said she doesn’t yet have a date for when this will happen but is currently working on a model for how the funds will be distributed and hopes Mozilla will be able to start pouring money into the community “soon.” The Mozilla community will also be given a chance to comment on the model, according to Baker.
Full story: C|net News.com
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Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
In bid to avoid EC’s multimillion dollar displeasure…
Microsoft said on Wednesday it is taking new voluntary actions to comply with European Commission sanctions, as it seeks to avoid fines of up to $2.43m daily.
The EC found two years ago that Microsoft used its dominant position with the Windows operating system to damage rival makers of server software used to run printers, password sign-ins and file access for small work groups.
The Commission said Microsoft never complied with sanctions designed to put competitive makers of work group servers on a level playing-field and opened proceedings to fine the software behemoth.
In its latest statement, the company said on Wednesday it would provide free, unlimited technical support to companies that license its protocols for work-group servers.
Microsoft said in a statement: “In addition to unlimited technical support, Microsoft is further augmenting the program by offering on-site assistance to licensees.”
Full story: silicon.com
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