Archive for January, 2007
Monday, January 29th, 2007
Before spending the money for Windows Vista, set to debut this week, is there any guarantee that the software you buy will run as advertised on your PC? Not exactly, analysts say.
Microsoft does offer its Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0 which scans computers for Vista readiness, indicates which of four versions will adequately run and makes upgrade recommendations, should hardware need help. CNET and other tech sites also offer free tools to analyze a PC’s Vista readiness and version compatibility. Still, such tools won’t absolutely certify that consumers will be able to run the version of Vista they pay for, analysts say.
“Just because a machine came back Vista-positive, I am not ready to make the assumption that all the features of Vista will run on this machine,” said Michael Cherry, lead analyst for Windows and Mobile at Directions on Microsoft. His advice: “If it says (a PC) will run Vista, you still want to think about which features are important, and in talking to a vendor, you want to get an assurance that the unit (you are buying) will, in fact, accomplish those things you want.”
While Microsoft’s tool, and others like it, provide a general indication of whether a computer is Vista-compatible, they do not let users probe to see if specific features–such as Vista’s new graphical interface or BitLocker drive encryption–will work, Cherry said.
Full article: CNET News.com
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Sunday, January 28th, 2007
Microsoft versus the European Union — Part II?
Officials have reported that Microsoft is risking a new showdown with EU regulators when they roll-out its Vista operating system nearly three years after a landmark antitrust ruling against the US software giant.
After numerous delays, Microsoft’s next-generation Windows Vista operating system is to make its debut with home computer users on January 30, 2007. It was shipped to business clients in November, 2006. While Microsoft prepares to roll out its first new operating system in five years, its rivals are preparing to do battle again with the IT giant after they scored one victory in March 2004 with an EU antitrust ruling against the company.
Full article: digitaljournal.com
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Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Enigma Coding Software is The Ultimate File Encoder. Create and use your own personalized, yet very secure, encoding script!
Download: Enigma CS 0.3.3 Build 475
Posted in Security | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Linux on the Playstation 3 (PS3)? IBM thinks so. A tutorial now available on IBM’s developerWorks site provides the rundown on how to deploy Linux on the latest game station from Sony. But there’s more than a Linux endorsement story at work here.
The approach is also a showcase for IBM’s Cell broadband processor, which IBM and partners Sony and Toshiba spent billions to develop.
A key part of the technology’s long-term success rests in the hands of developers who can work with the Cell platform. That means training time.
“This was posted as an informational technology piece for developers looking to broaden their horizons on programming Cell BE-based blades and other Cell BE-based systems,” Kathy Mandelstein, IBM’s director of worldwide developer programs, told internetnews.com. “IBM collaborated with Sony and Toshiba in the development of the Cell BE technology discussed in this tutorial.”
Furthermore IBM does not officially endorse the installation of Linux on the PS3.
Full article: internetnews.com
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Saturday, January 27th, 2007
World Wind lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there.
Virtually visit any place in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps, or along the African Sahara.
NASA has released World Wind as an open source program to improve its quality through peer review, maximize awareness and impact of NASA research, and increase dissemination of World Wind in support of NASA’s mission: To inspire the next generation of explorers … as only NASA can.
World Wind requires that you have Microsoft .NET Framework and DirectX installed.
Download: NASA World Wind 1.4.0 | Screenshots | Forums
Posted in Misc | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Download the remover vcleaner.exe. Restart your computer in Safe mode and run the remover on the infected computer. Vcleaner removal utility will detect and remove following viruses:
I-Worm/Stration
Worm/Generic.FX
Agent.A-AN
BackDoor.Agent.A-Z, AA-BG
Downloader.Agent.AS
I-Worm/Atak.A-I
Bagle.DA-IU
I-Worm/Bagle.A-Z, AA-JD
I-Worm/Bugbear.D
I-Worm/Mytob.A-GC
I-Worm/Netsky.A-Z, AA-AD
I-Worm/Sasser.A-F
I-Worm/Zafi.A-E
PSW.Bispy.A-E
Win32/Gaelicum
Win32/Hidrag
Note: Some viruses can stop the action during the removal process. In this case rename the vcleaner.exe to some different exe file (e.g. something.exe). Restart your computer in Safe mode (recommended) and run the remover on the infected computer.
Download: Vcleaner 0.998
Posted in Antivirus | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Sonic Visualiser is an application for viewing and analysing the contents of music audio files.
The aim of Sonic Visualiser is to be the program you reach for when you find a musical recording you want to study rather than simply hear.
As well as a number of features designed to make exploring audio data as revealing and fun as possible, Sonic Visualiser also has powerful annotation capabilities to help you to describe what you find, and the ability to run automated annotation and analysis plugins in the new Vamp analysis plugin format.
Sonic Visualiser is Free Software, distributed under the GNU General Public License and available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It was developed at the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London, by Chris Cannam.
Download: Sonic Visualiser 0.9
Posted in Audio/Media/Video | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
The Windows NT Backup ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Restore Utility runs on Windows Vista and Microsoft?Ç¬Æ Windows Server?Ç¬Æ code name ?¢‚Ǩ?ìLonghorn?¢‚Ǩ¬ù (currently in beta testing) to restore backups (saved as files with the .BKF extension) that were created on Windows XP or Windows 2003.
This utility requires that the Removable Storage Management feature is enabled
Download: Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility 1.0
Posted in Windows | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Penryn hailed as ‘greatest semiconductor breakthrough in 40 years’
Intel has produced the world’s first 45nm processors, and is on schedule to start shipping the units by the second half of this year.
The company showed off working models of the ‘Penryn’ chip at a presentation at its corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Intel demonstrated a low-power dual-core processor for notebook computers, as well as dual-core and quad-core versions of desktop and server processors. It is also working on 10 additional 45nm models.
The chipmaker touted Penryn as the greatest semiconductor breakthrough in 40 years because it allows the company to continue to use current-generation silicon dioxide technology.
Intel claims that the chip will put the firm a year ahead of the competition.
Read more: vnunet.com
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Saturday, January 27th, 2007
ZSNES is a Super Nintendo emulator programmed by zsKnight and _Demo_. On April 2, 2001 the ZSNES project was GPL’ed and its source released to the public. It currently runs on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and DOS. Remember that this is a public beta so don’t expect this to run on your machine.
Download: ZSNES 1.51
Posted in Games, Linux | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
Apple late on Thursday released a security update to plug a publicly known security hole in its AirPort product.
The update fixes a vulnerability that affects both the server and client versions of Mac OS X, Apple said in its alert. The problem was disclosed in November as part of the Month of Kernel Bugs campaign.
An attacker could exploit the flaw over a wireless network by sending malicious data to a vulnerable Mac, Apple said. “An attacker in local proximity may be able to trigger a system crash by sending a maliciously-crafted frame to an affected system,” it said in the alert.
Read more: ZDNet Australia
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Friday, January 26th, 2007
Feeds Plus is an Internet Explorer 7 add-on that makes your feed reading experience easy and efficient. You can read your feeds in a combined view (aggregate feeds) and get pop-up notifications when there are new items to read.
This add on was developed by members of the IE RSS team at Microsoft. Note that Feeds Plus is not an official product and hence is not supported by Microsoft.
System Requirements: Windows XP/2003/Vista, Internet Explorer 7. Available in English only.
Download: Feeds Plus 1.0
Posted in IE | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
TrayDevil is a Window to Tray Minimizer with a set of powerful extra tools: It can Hide the TrayClock, disable a window’s Min, Max and Close button, set windows On Top, Shutdown, Restart, Stand By, Hibernate, LogOff, Lock your system and Turn Off your Monitor.
TrayDevil can also automatically run a program (e.g. backup) before it shuts down your system, triggered by a CPU-usage threshold.
TrayDevil is Freeware and was tested on Windows 95/98/NT4/2000/XP/2003
Download: TrayDevil 1.4.4
Posted in Desktop | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
Samurai repairs all of the major flaws known to exist in Microsoft Windows operating systems. Unlike signature-based protection, Samurai repairs the problem, so that all attacks capitalizing on a specific vulnerability are stopped, not just attacks with known signatures.
Today’s security solutions mix firewalls, anti-virus software, patches, detectors, host and network intrusion prevention and all manner of encryption to achieve a high level of security. This layered approach has been proven to be the only viable solution to Internet connected computing. Unfortunately, this approach creates a great deal of complexity. Is your firewall configured properly? Is your anti-virus software up to date? Do you have the latest service pack for your operating system? And how do you know if your computer is being used by someone else through a backdoor or a rootkit? Fortunately, you don’t need to be a security expert to have expert security.
Samurai provides the most extensive host based security available today without adding to the complexity of your existing security solution. There are no complicated installation procedures, no complicated user interfaces, no complicated enterprise deployment procedures, no complicated licensing requirements and no complicated update procedures. Just download and run; select all of the solutions from the solutions list, and click Apply Configuration. Thats all there is to it! Security professionals may elect to customize security settings and save specific configurations for enterprise deployment, but Samurai does not require security expertise.
Download: Samurai 2.7
Posted in Security | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
Google’s plans to preserve and maintain separate identities for Google Video and YouTube have been outlined in more detail.
Google bought YouTube for $1.65bn (about ?Ǭ£880m) in stock options last year, as Web User reported.
Google yesterday announced that the two sites would continue “to play to their respective strengths”, and that the brands would be kept separate.
“Google’s strength - and its history - is grounded in search and in innovating technologies to make more information more available and accessible.
“YouTube, meanwhile, excels at being a leading content destination with a dynamic community of users who create, watch and share videos worldwide,” said Salar Kamangar, vice president of product managament at Google.
Read more: Web User
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Friday, January 26th, 2007
Convert downloaded Google Video *.avi and *.gvp files so they can be played in Windows Media Player.
GVideoFix is a program that will make your life easier when it comes to getting AVI’s out of Google Video. GVideoFix handles parsing and modifying so videos downloaded from Google Video can be played on Windows Media Player. GVideoFix also makes batch downloading videos from Google an easy process.
Download: GVideoFix 2.5.1
Posted in Audio/Media/Video | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
How open is Open XML entry?
Microsoft has reportedly agreed to pay a blogger and standards guru to make changes to Wikipedia articles.
The Redmond software giant had agreed to pay blogger Rick Jelliffe for time spent altering purported inaccuracies in an article on Microsoft’s document standard Open XML. No money has yet changed hands, however.
Australia-based Jelliffe is described as a “long-time standards activist” by his current employer Topologi, a company which makes products and tools to help with XML deployment.
On his blog, Jelliffe stated he intended to do some “mythbusting” and did not intend to “add any pro-Microsoft FUD” to Wikipedia.
He wrote: “I was a little surprised to receive email a couple of days ago from Microsoft saying they wanted to contract someone independent but friendly (me) for a couple of days to provide more balance on Wikipedia concerning ODF/OOXML. I am hardly the poster boy of Microsoft partisanship! Apparently they are frustrated at the amount of spin from some ODF stakeholders on Wikipedia and blogs.”
Jelliffe said he intended to accept the offer to clear up inaccuracies - and claimed he had already seen some.
Full story: silicon.com
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Thursday, January 25th, 2007
SXBandMaster is multifunctional application that embraces all features of such widespread programs as Download Managers, FTP Upload Applications, Web Spiders (Offline Browsers), Mail Agents, Dialers, Time Synchronizers and others. Your favourite browser and SXBandMaster are the only programs you have to use when working with the Internet.
Unique Technologies
- Event-Handler-based Scheduling System
- Three-level User Interface (Standard, Advanced and Professional)
- JavaScript Interpreter with HTML-Links Changing
- Advanced Schedule-Time Specification Technology
- and lots of unmatched features…
System Requirements
- Processor: 32-bit AMD/Intel 1GHz (recommended: 2GHz)
- RAM: 128Mb (recommended: 256Mb)
- Hard Disk: 50Mb Free + Space for saved files and sites
- OS: Microsoft Windows 9x/ME/NT/2k/XP (recommended: XP)
- Video: 800×600 16bit (recommended: 1280×1024 32bit)
- Software: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher
Download: SXBandMaster 0.94 Build 10
Posted in Utilities | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
When Google bought YouTube back in the fall of 2006, questions immediately arose: Is this the end of Google Video? Would Google integrate YouTube into the Google experience, or would it remain separate?
Today Google announced that Google Video will be transformed from today’s repository of video resources into a broader search index for all video online. Starting today, Google Video search will include results not only from Google Video but also from YouTube. Users who find YouTube videos via Google Video search will be directed to YouTube for viewing, ending speculation that Google might bring YouTube videos to Google Video. More importantly, Google says that “Google Video will become even more comprehensive as it evolves into a service where users can search for the world’s online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted,” according to a company statement.
Full article: Ars Technica
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