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Windows Vista Keygen a Hoax
Apparently, the keygen program does legitimately attack Windows Vista keys via brute force, but the chances of success are too low for this to be a practical method. Quote from the author: ‘Everyone who said they got a key is probably lying or mistaken!’
Microsoft can rest a bit easier now, although they probably knew already that such a technique was a waste of time. At least now, legitimate users won’t have their keys “stolen”.
Source: Slashdot
Microsoft OneCare Last in Antivirus Tests
Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare came in dead last out of a group of 17 antivirus programs tested against hundreds of thousands of worms, viruses, Trojan horses and other malware, an Austrian antivirus researcher reported Wednesday.
I guess this goes to show that new products shouldn’t be immediately trusted. It’s hard to believe that it would score last though, as One Care had an open beta period, while many other AVs don’t. The top applications might surprise you.
Source: PC World
Microsoft Cuts Price of Daylight Savings Time Patches
For users running that software, Microsoft charges $4,000 per product for DST fixes. For that amount, customers can apply the patches to all systems in their organizations, including branch offices and affiliates, said Sweatt. “All they can’t do is redistribute them,” he said.
$4,000 seems like a lot of cash for such a simple thing, but to larger businesses, it would likely outweigh the headache it would cause if they ignored the problem. It’s not mentioned whether Vista has the same issue, but it’s assumed not.
Source: PC World
Mass Market DS Homebrew Cart Released
Datel has finally released the Games n Music Homebrew cart for the Nintendo DS, this mass market entry level cart features a 128mb Micro SD card and comes with a 25 game CD of the best of DS homebrew games.” Games ‘n’ Music contains everything you need straight out of the box. It even comes bundled with a 25-game CD, offering some of the best games the DS home brew scene has to offer, as well as a video conversion program.”
Whew, it’s about time somebody released this! It’s not approved by Nintendo however, so I have to wonder how they feel about things. It’s just too bad it doesn’t include the software required to write your own games.
Source: Slashdot
Learn UNIX in 10 minutes
Learning unix is not so simple. but this can be done in 10 minutes.This is something a professor had given out to students (CAD user training) in years past. The purpose was to have on one page the basics commands for getting started using the UNIX shell (so that they didn’t call me asking what to do the first time someone gave them a tape).
We’ve all seen these “in 10 minutes” articles before, but this one is actually quite good. I have been a Unix user for some time now, but this list refreshed my memory and even taught me about a few commands I’ve never had to deal with. Not bad for a 10 minute ordeal!
Source: Discover Blog
Hard Drives Fail Quicker Than Manufacturers Say
Customers are replacing disk drives at rates far higher than those suggested by the estimated mean time to failure (MTTF) supplied by drive vendors, according to a study of about 100,000 drives conducted by Carnegie Mellon University.
This is something I’ve thought about before. Most drives are said to have an MTTF of one million hours, but how many people do you know who’ve had their hard drive die? I think I would have a harder time finding a person who hasn’t had that happen.
Source: Computer World
Sony vs Exxon
For a bit of childish fun, the Consumerist is holding a poll to let visitors decide who is more evil… Sony or Exxon. As much as I dislike Sony sometimes, I am going to have to go with Exxon. Something about major oil spills just grinds my gears.
Source: Consumerist
Build a Green PC
In Europe, regulations for lead-free computing such as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), are designed to reduce the effects of hazardous waste. Yet many U.S. PC makers have all but ignored the problem. That’s where you can help. Building a green PC means you can be part of the solution by using all lead-free parts that are also more energy-efficient.
I think this will be far more difficult for enthusiasts than the “average Joe”, but it is good food for thought if you want to try to make your computer just a wee bit more environmentally friendly.
Source: Extreme Tech
Putting Blu-ray in PS3 is “Smartest Decision We Ever Made”
“No regrets whatsoever, and it’s those kinds of decisions, painful though they were to live through in the last quarter of 2006, those are the decisions that are going to propel PlayStation 3 to be a platform that lasts for ten years, like we’ve seen with PS1 and PS2,” Harrison said. “And it will be, I believe, reflected on as the smartest decision we ever made.”
Well amongst those ninety bad decisions, there may as well be a smartest one. I would have to agree though, it was smart decision. I believe that, because anyone who buys one for gaming essentially has a “next-gen” video player right there. It’s no wonder Blu-ray is doing a smidgen better than HD-DVD.
Source: DailyTech
Woman Accuses Yahoo! Of Stealing Her Image
The message, according to a printout attached to the court complaint, leads off with the headline “Hooray! Your first e-mail” and a photograph containing two women, one of which is purported to be Stovall. It goes on to give Yahoo Mail users tips on how to transfer address book contacts and customize the look of their messages.
Why couldn’t this happen to me? $20 million would sure come in handy. Daddy needs a new 8800GTX!
Source: News.com
Vista Activation Cracked By Brute Force
It is a simple brute force attack, dumb as a rock that just tries keys. If it gets one, you manually have to check it and try activation. Is is ugly, takes hours, is far from point and click, but it is said to work. The method of attack has got to be quite troubling for MS on many grounds. The crack is a glorified guesser, and with the speed of modern PCs and the number of outstanding keys, the 25-digit serials are within range.
I’m surprised that this method hasn’t been done before, or at least one that became public. This is far from being a keygen, as it simply tries out random keys until one succeeds. One thing I would like to know is how many -total- Vista keys could exist while retaining the current algorithm. Assuming it’s in the millions, it might be a while before we see someones legal key become “stolen”.
Source: The Inquirer
Microsoft Hit By U.S. DOT Ban On Windows Vista
Citing concerns over cost and compatibility, the top technology official at the federal Department of Transportation has placed a moratorium on all in-house computer upgrades to Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system, as well as Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007, according to a memo obtained Friday by InformationWeek.
I’ve said it a hundred times before, but this is no surprise. I use Vista only occasionally and still have some popular applications not fully function. How long is it going to take to iron all these incompatibilities out?
Source: Information Week
Best Buy Confirms It Has Secret Website
Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.
BestBuy just cannot stay out of the news lately. What surprises me is how their business is still thriving!
Source: Courant
AMD Demos Barcelona, Claims 42% Floating-Point Edge vs. Xeon
At a press event today, AMD/ATI talked up their forthcoming quad-core Barcelona processor. The company claims that the next-generation processor, due out in the second half of 2007, bests the quad-core Xeon 5355 by 42 percent in SPECfp_rate. SPECfp_rate is a throughput benchmark used to test multiprocessor systems, and the fact that Barcelona beat the top end of Intel’s Xeon 5000 sequence by such a large margin bodes well for the platform.
It’s easy to get excited by such numbers, but Barcelona is still a ways off. Even at that time, Intels 45nm Penryn will be readily available, so comparisons at that time may have a completely different meaning. Either way, it’s going to get interesting!
Source: Ars Technica
European PS3 to Play Over 1,000 PS2 Titles
The mention of “thousands†of titles piqued our interest, as the thousands could come from PSone titles alone. For a ballpark figure for PS2 games, Harrison says, “The situation is changing every day, but on March 23, we expect the list to include over 1,000 PS2 titles,†adding that it’s Sony “policy†to be concentrating compatibility on the biggest PS2 blockbusters.
Better than expected, but is it good enough? More popular titles will likely work, but if you have real obscure ones, it will be iffy. Hopefully, unlike Microsoft, Sony will make it a priority to update the backwards-compatible list regularly.
Source: Daily Tech
Dell Censors IdeaStorm Linux Dissent
What’s the point of seeking ideas and feedback if you’re going to delete "merge" the ones you don’t like? That’s exactly what Dell is doing with its IdeaStorm web site, which has been set up by the company to solicit ideas and feedback.
What a roller coaster ride this has been. It’s hard to understand, really. First they agree to these terms, after astounding reactions from the community, then they back off? Even worse is they are trying to hide the disgruntled messages they obviously knew they would receive. Foolish.
Source: Blorge
Who wrote Linux 2.6.20?
This study looked at the stream of patches that changed the 2.6.19 kernel into the current 2.6.20 release. There were, as it turns out 4983 non-merge changesets in this release, contributed by 741 different developers. (Merge changesets mark where the contents of other repositories were pulled into the mainline, but they do not carry any code changes, so the analysis skipped them). These patches added 286,439 lines of code and removed 159,812 others, for a total growth of 126,627 lines over the 2.6.20 development cycle.
This is a rather exhaustive look at the differences between the 2.6.19 and 2.6.20, when it comes to lines removed/added, changesets, signoffs, etc. Quite an informative read that throws a few surprises around.
Source: LWN
EC Threatens Microsoft With More Fines
The EC claimed on Thursday that Microsoft wants to charge too much for interoperability protocol licences that enable third-party software vendors to develop software compatible with Windows servers. In a damning statemement, the EC claimed that the protocols “lack significant innovation”, even though Microsoft has been awarded patents on much of the technology in question.
It’s BS fines and lawsuits like this that are the reason Windows costs so damn much. At least I want to use that as the excuse from now on.
Source: ZD Net
Sun joins the Free Software Foundation
Sun Microsystems is the latest company to become a patron of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The FSF’s corporate patron program allows companies to provide financial sponsorship for the FSF in return for free license consulting services. High-profile FSF patron affiliates include prominent technology companies like Google, Nokia, IBM, Cisco, and Intel. FSF involvement represents Sun’s latest attempt to take a more active role in the open-source software community.
This is an interesting turn seeing as how Sun have been undecided on the GPL for the past few years. They seem keen on GPL3, however.
Source: Ars Technica
Blizzard Exposes Detailed WoW Character Data
Blizzard has introduced a new web site called the Armory which lets you get information on any World of Warcraft character, extracted from their live databases, in near real-time. This exposes a great deal of information that was not previously obtainable including profession choices, skill levels for all skills, and the character’s complete talent specification and all faction reputation data, along with all gear currently equipped.
It’s no real surprise that some are up in arms over this. I would be in the same boat if I played the game. In my opinion, there should be an option that allows you to trigger this ability for your character. Such information doesn’t really need to be kept secret, but Blizzard should at least give people the option, considering they unveiled this tactic so late in the “game”.
Source: Slashdot
We Love You, Rinbot!
What kind of anti-virus product only updates once a week (on Wednesdays). What kind of company labels a complete remote control vulnerability as “unimportant?†And most importantly, what kind of security company lets its product remain installed without updating?
Hah, classic! What a bad week for Symantec… it’s going to be difficult for them to retort this one.
Source: Neosmart
Oracle to Buy Hyperion for $3.3 Billion
Business software maker Oracle Corp. will buy Hyperion Solutions Corp. for $3.3 billion in cash, renewing a shopping spree aimed at toppling rival SAP AG. The deal announced Thursday will give Oracle an arsenal of Hyperion products that are widely used by SAP’s customers. Hyperion’s tools, known as “business intelligence” software, help chief financial officers and other top corporate executives track their company’s performance.
Oracle is now one step closer to being the “Microsoft” of business solutions.
Source: IB Times
Silicon Valley And World Leaders To Partner…
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 28, 2007 – Members of a special United Nations group met today with Silicon Valley leaders to explore how the technology industry, government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can come together to bolster development around the world.
Source: Intel Press Release
Asus Notebooks Now Available at Best Buy
Word of the appearance of Asus notebooks at Best Buy locations started over the weekend at NotebookReview. Readers noted that the Asus G1 was available at Best Buy’s online store as well as in some B&M locations. Today, Asus has officially announced that its notebooks will be available for purchase in over 150 of Best Buy’s 1,000+ locations across the country. As reported on NotebookReview, the G1 is the first model (and so far the only model) to be offered by Best Buy at this time.
I’ve been looking forever for a reason to like Best Buy, and I guess this is as good of a reason as any. ASUS hasn’t always been known as the top choice with notebooks, but they sure do seem to be gaining momentum fast.
Source: Daily Tech
First Look at BitTorrents Video Store
In the end, two of my purchased videos never played. I even transferred the torrent files to the PC and re-downloaded them from there, suspecting that downloading them on the Mac was messing up the DRM somehow, but I still got the same errors. $5 and too many hours lost, I was media-less and frustrated.
Ouch. This service has just launched and it’s already getting bad reviews. The issues experienced here seem entirely DRM related. Not only do these protections halt piracy, they even halt viewing of the media by anyone.
Source: Ars Technica