News on the Go.... http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:29:54 +0000 30 http://www.thehotfix.net/hotfix.jpg http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29413-earthquakes-for-christchurch-since-435-am-sat/ http://images.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz_images/news2010/disaster-nz/chchquake/church3-pgb.jpg
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more pics
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/photogallery-canterbury-earthquake-aftermath-3761278

Reference Number: 3367776
NZST: Tue, Sep 7 2010 0:51 am
Magnitude: 3.9
Depth: 5 km
Details: 20 km north of Leeston

Reference Number: 3367774
NZST: Tue, Sep 7 2010 0:47 am
Magnitude: 3.5
Depth: 15 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367765
NZST: Tue, Sep 7 2010 0:21 am
Magnitude: 4.7
Depth: 15 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367749
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 11:40 pm
Magnitude: 5.4
Depth: 9 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367748
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 11:38 pm
Magnitude: 4.0
Depth: 15 km
Details: 20 km west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367742
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 11:24 pm
Magnitude: 5.2
Depth: 9 km
Details: 20 km south-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367740
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 11:14 pm
Magnitude: 3.7
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367703
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 10:21 pm
Magnitude: 3.6
Depth: 10 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367681
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 9:20 pm
Magnitude: 3.5
Depth: 9 km
Details: 20 km south-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367638
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 7:28 pm
Magnitude: 3.8
Depth: 7 km
Details: 10 km east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367629
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 7:03 pm
Magnitude: 3.7
Depth: 6 km
Details: 10 km north-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367613
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 6:19 pm
Magnitude: 3.8
Depth: 6 km
Details: 20 km south-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367612
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 6:13 pm
Magnitude: 3.7
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367608
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 6:01 pm
Magnitude: 4.4
Depth: 4 km
Details: 20 km south-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367565
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 4:31 pm
Magnitude: 3.0
Depth: 8 km
Details: Within 5 km of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367552
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 3:54 pm
Magnitude: 3.7
Depth: 20 km
Details: 20 km west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367543
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 3:34 pm
Magnitude: 4.2
Depth: 7 km
Details: Within 5 km of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367535
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 3:07 pm
Magnitude: 4.4
Depth: 8 km
Details: 20 km west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367527
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 2:48 pm
Magnitude: 4.1
Depth: 6 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367512
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 2:06 pm
Magnitude: 3.7
Depth: 12 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3367476
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 12:35 pm
Magnitude: 4.5
Depth: 20 km
Details: 20 km south-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367470
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 12:18 pm
Magnitude: 3.5
Depth: 15 km
Details: 20 km south-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367413
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 9:46 am
Magnitude: 3.5
Depth: 5 km
Details: 20 km west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367407
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 9:31 am
Magnitude: 3.6
Depth: 5 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367355
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 7:18 am
Magnitude: 3.8
Depth: 5 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367316
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 5:42 am
Magnitude: 3.6
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km south of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367305
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 5:18 am
Magnitude: 4.2
Depth: 15 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367302
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 5:07 am
Magnitude: 3.6
Depth: 5 km
Details: 20 km north of Leeston

Reference Number: 3367280
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 4:10 am
Magnitude: 4.0
Depth: 10 km
Details: 20 km east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367278
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 4:06 am
Magnitude: 4.8
Depth: 10 km
Details: 10 km south of Coalgate

Reference Number: 3367203
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 0:52 am
Magnitude: 3.5
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367202
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 0:52 am
Magnitude: 3.9
Depth: 15 km
Details: 10 km north-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367191
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 0:18 am
Magnitude: 4.7
Depth: 300 km
Details: 210 km north of White Island

Reference Number: 3367190
NZST: Mon, Sep 6 2010 0:16 am
Magnitude: 4.3
Depth: 7 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367159
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 10:55 pm
Magnitude: 3.5
Depth: 15 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367147
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 10:18 pm
Magnitude: 3.5
Depth: 5 km
Details: 20 km south-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367131
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 9:44 pm
Magnitude: 3.5
Depth: 2 km
Details: 20 km west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3367116
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 9:07 pm
Magnitude: 4.1
Depth: 9 km
Details: 20 km south-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3367071
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 7:10 pm
Magnitude: 3.2
Depth: 8 km
Details: 10 km north-east of Springfield

Reference Number: 3367026
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 5:15 pm
Magnitude: 3.2
Depth: 12 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3366973
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 2:53 pm
Magnitude: 3.8
Depth: 15 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3366965
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 2:34 pm
Magnitude: 3.4
Depth: 12 km
Details: 20 km north of Leeston

Reference Number: 3366951
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 1:55 pm
Magnitude: 4.3
Depth: 12 km
Details: 10 km south-east of Darfield

Reference Number: 3366933
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 1:04 pm
Magnitude: 5.0
Depth: 12 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Lyttelton

Reference Number: 3366925
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 12:43 pm
Magnitude: 4.3
Depth: 12 km
Details: 20 km north-east of Leeston

Reference Number: 3366920
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 12:27 pm
Magnitude: 3.9
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Darfield

Reference Number: 3366916
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 12:19 pm
Magnitude: 4.3
Depth: 12 km
Details: 20 km west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3366873
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 10:23 am
Magnitude: 3.5
Depth: 7 km
Details: 10 km north-east of Springfield

Reference Number: 3366870
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 10:15 am
Magnitude: 4.3
Depth: 15 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3366865
NZST: Sun, Sep 5 2010 10:03 am
Magnitude: 4.1
Depth: 7 km
Details: 20 km south-west of Christchurch


and Quakes are still hitting chch city
more info
www.eqc.govt.nz

and upto date as Quakes hit
http://www.eqc.govt.nz/img/ql-nz-quake.jpg

updated to new stats]]> Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:29:54 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29413-earthquakes-for-christchurch-since-435-am-sat/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29410-microsoft-intel-deliver-new-distributedparallel-tools/ Microsoft, Intel deliver new distributed/parallel tools





Microsoft execs haven’t been beating the parallel-computing drum as loudly as they were a year or two ago, but that doesn’t mean nothing is happening in this space.

Late last month, Microsoft made available for download a new version of the HPC (High Performance Computing) Toolpack, which is a collection of utilities that can be used on Windows Server 2008 R2-based clusters. The latest tool pack includes two tools, one known as “Lizard,” and the other as “ClusterCopy.” Lizard, the Linpack Performance Wizard, calculates peak performance of HPC clusters in billions of floating-point operations per second (GFLOPS) and allows users to save those results and the parameters that helped achieved them. ClusterCopy is a tool for distributing files around a cluster using a tree-based copy system.

As I noted in a previous blog post, Microsoft is gearing up to make some more noise in the HPC space this fall, when the company is expected to release a first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of its Dryad parallel/distributed computing infrastructure technology. A final commercial version of Dryad is due out some time in 2011. Dryad has been a Microsoft Research project, but is in the process of being commercialized, according to a Microsoft presentation I saw.

“Lizard and ClusterCopy have no direct relationship to Dryad today,” a Microsoft spokesperson said when I asked if there was any connection between the products. “Microsoft periodically releases additional tools for HPC that they developed out of band (between formal releases/updates) of the product. These provide additional value to our customers, at no additional cost, through online tool packs.”

In other parallel/distributed computing news this week, Intel rolled out an updated version of its Parallel Studio tool suite for Windows developers. The new Intel Parallel Studio 2011 is designed to help developers increase the performance and reliability of both serial and parallel applications running on multicore processors. The new Studio 2011 adds a set of parallel models, known as Parallel Building Blocks, as well as a new threading assistant, known as Parallel Advisor. The new Intel suite supports Visual Studio 2010.

Intel has been working with Microsoft on adding and improving support for parallel/multicore systems.

Microsoft’s recently formed Technical Computing Group is the part of the company that has the charter these days for parallel, technical and high-performance computing.


Source]]> Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:04:05 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29410-microsoft-intel-deliver-new-distributedparallel-tools/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29409-earth-like-exoplanet-could-have-a-comets-tail/ ‘Earth-like’ Exoplanet Could Have a Comet’s Tail

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2010/09/corot-7b.jpg


When the super-Earth COROT-7b was discovered in 2009, it was heralded as the rockiest, most truly Earth-like exoplanet yet. But a new study suggests it’s more like a comet.

In a paper to be published in the journal Icarus, an international team of astronomers led by Alessandro Mura of the Italian Institute for Interplanetary Space Physics in Rome argue that, given the planet’s likely composition and distance from its star, COROT-7b probably loses its surface elements to space in a long, comet-like tail of charged particles.

COROT-7b is less than twice the size of Earth and about five times Earth’s mass, and orbits a sun-like star about 390 light-years away. Because COROT-7b’s density is similar to Earth’s, astronomers hailed it as the first rocky exoplanet discovered and one of the best candidates for hosting extraterrestrial life.

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2010/09/COROT-7b-tail-small.jpg

But the rocky world also sits almost 100 times closer to its star than the Earth is to the sun, and it orbits its star once every 0.85 Earth days. The temperature on the daylight side of the planet is a scorching 4000 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough for minerals on the rocky surface to break down and release charged particles into space, where they would be picked up and blown away by the stellar wind.

“We expect that the stellar radiation pressure and the plasma environment will cause the build-up of an elongated comet-like exosphere,” the authors write. Depending on what the planet is made of, and whether it was once the rocky core of a “super-Neptune” as some have suggested, the tail could be composed of elements like sodium, oxygen, magnesium or silicon oxide.

The researchers compare this vision of COROT-7b with Mercury, which has a similarly antagonistic relationship with the sun and also leaks charged particles in a long tail.

“The planet appears to be more like a ’super-Mercury’ under much extremer environmental conditions,” the researchers write.

The team suggests that a tail composed of sodium or calcium could theoretically be detected on COROT-7b from ground-based telescopes. Although detecting such a tail would probably eliminate COROT-7b as a candidate habitable world, “this project would be the very first attempt to learn something of the mineralogy of a rocky planet orbiting another star.”




Source]]> Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:02:06 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29409-earth-like-exoplanet-could-have-a-comets-tail/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29407-90s-game-hero-duke-nukem-returns-after-delay-of-more-than-a-decade/ 90's game hero Duke Nukem returns after delay of more than a decade




Friday, 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced they will be releasing Duke Nukem Forever on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC in 2011. The game was first announced in 1997 and has long been considered the most legendary case of "vaporware," that is, hardware or software that is announced but released either too late or not at all.

The story of Duke Nukem Forever is so legendary that its delay inspired its own parody game franchise. D3's Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard was released in 2009, and featured a gun-slinging action game hero very similar to Nukem returning to video games after a six-year hiatus.

"Gearbox has enabled die-hard key Duke Nukem franchise builders and skilled veteran game makers to stand together and deliver," Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software said today. "All gamers deserve a happy ending and after all of us gamers feeling the full range of emotions about Duke Nukem Forever, I am thrilled to be in a position with the trust, power and means to make it happen."

Following 3D Realms' hit Duke Nukem 3D in 1996, the company announced Forever a year later. In November 1997, it was featured on the cover of PC Gamer, and hype for the title was pretty high. A series of setbacks pushed back the game's release, but it was never cancelled. 3D Realms changed its website to say the game would be released "when it's done."

Five years after the title was announced, 3D Realms' then-president George Broussard told Wired magazine, "We're undeniably late and we know it. We've switched engines a couple of times, and we've started over a couple of times. We've made some mistakes, and we've learned from them. I'm just glad we're in a position to do those things, and to be able to make the game we want to make, instead of being rushed out the door to meet stock projections."

In 2008, 3D Realms' president Scott Miller spoke on rumors that Duke Nukem Forever would be released some time that year, but still did not announce a date.

"We can't make an official announcement," Miller said. "Frankly, we may miss the mark by a month or two, but I feel very confident that we're on target this time. It's definitely an internal push."

Of course, 3D Realms never did put out the game. In 2009, funding issues caused the company to shelve development, which then caused publisher Take-Two Entertainment to sue 3D Realms for breach of contract.

"Our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis at the time. "In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever."

Gearbox Software --which recently scored a big hit with dystopian first person shooter Borderlands-- subsequently picked up development of the title, and is giving attendees at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) this week an opportunity to actually play portions of the game.




Source]]> Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:58:32 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29407-90s-game-hero-duke-nukem-returns-after-delay-of-more-than-a-decade/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29399-more-microsoft-codenames-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at/ More Microsoft codenames than you can shake a stick at





The latest update to my Microsoft Codename Tracker chart is done and ready for download.

This PDF is the same chart I use myself to keep up with the many, morphing codenames of products and technologies coming from Microsoft. The tracker is free and downloadable from the ZDNet site. If you’ve already registered on ZDNet, just grab it. If you haven’t, registration info will be requested before you download it. Whether you’re a Microsoft customer, partner, analyst, competitor (or even employee), you might find it useful.

This month’s version includes a number of brand-new entries in the high-end server space — including MFx, Dryad, Nectar, Orleans, Quincy and TidyFS. There are also updates throughout on Microsoft’s various consumer-focused products and projects, too.

If there’s a codename missing from my chart that you’d like me to check out and ultimately add, please don’t hesitate to contact me via e-mail. All e-mails I receive are treated as confidential — unless you want a mention/credit line, of course.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to get posts from “All About Microsoft” in e-mail form (hourly, daily or weekly), you can subscribe here. And if you are all about Twitter, you can follow me there, as well.


Source]]> Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:52:05 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29399-more-microsoft-codenames-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29398-microsoft-bpos-down-for-90-minutes%3B-second-outage-in-a-month/ Microsoft BPOS down for 90 minutes; second outage in a month





Microsoft’s hosted suite of enterprise applications — the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) went down for 90 minutes on September 3 for a number of customers in North America.

This is the second BPOS outage reported in the past month. The previous one hit on August 23, and like today’s, was attributed to an unspecified networking issue.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and co-founder of InterKnowlogy Tim Huckaby alerted me to today’s outage via a Facebook status update.

“I made it to 40!…and i cannot tell you how frustrating this is…My InterKnowlogy Exchange Account on Microsoft BPOS has been down 40+ hours. This calamity combined with the last one in July brings my “Uptime” ptcg in the 5 months my Email has been hosted in Microsoft Hosted Services down to 98.0747%.”

BPOS is a Microsoft-hosted bundle of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Communications Online and Live Meeting. There are dedicated, shared (multi-tenant) and government versions of the suite. Microsoft is working to update the BPOS bundle with the latest versions of these various point products, something that will happen over the next few months.

Microsoft touts service level agreement (SLA) guarantees of 99.9 percent for its Online services (of which BPOS is a key component). If Microsoft falls short of that mark, a spokesperson recently told me, the company “give(s) customers money back.” The spokesperson also told me that Microsoft considers “any service issue as downtime,” but said (as of June 2010) that “Microsoft Online Services have averaged 99.9% or better uptime since the start of this year.”

Microsoft confirmed today’s outage when I asked.

“This morning, beginning at roughly 10 AM eastern, some customers in North America began experiencing intermittent access to our data center. We identified a network issue as the source, and the issue was resolved roughly 90 minutes later. During the duration of the issue, customers may have experienced intermittent access to services,” a different spokesperson told me. “Customers received regular updates on the issue via our normal communication channels. We apologize for any inconvenience the issue may have caused our customers,” he added.

The spokesperson also said that Huckaby’s 40-hour-plus reported downtime was specific to his account and escalated prior to my inquiry.

Yes, all online services experience periodic outages. But Microsoft and its competitors are pitching services like BPOS as ready for prime-time in the enterprise.

Any other BPOS users out there hit by today’s glitch?




Source]]> Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:49:53 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29398-microsoft-bpos-down-for-90-minutes%3B-second-outage-in-a-month/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29397-windows-7-freezes-randomly-for-30-45-sec-finally-solved-pcstatscom-windows-7-freezes-randomly-for-30-45-sec-finally-solved/ Windows 7 freezes randomly for 30-45 sec - Finally Solved! - PCSTATS.com Windows 7 freezes randomly for 30-45 sec - Finally Solved!



After a grueling 12 hour stretch trying to find the solution to why Microsoft Windows 7 would randomly freeze up and not respond for about 30-45 seconds, PCSTATS finally, successfully, found a fix!!!! When Windows makes you work for a solution to one of its many problems, it really makes you work hard!

The Problem: - Windows 7 would randomly freeze for about 30 seconds, while frozen there would be no error messages or BSOD.... the mouse still worked, but icons and windows and even task manager didn't respond. After 30-45 seconds the computer would come back to life and act normally as if nothing had happened. This problem with Windows 7 freezing would happen at random times, in random applications. Most frustratingly there wasn't an apparent trigger. Nor were there any signs anything had happened immediately after the computer momentarily froze. Task Manager showed nothing. There was no crash message, no BSOD error message, nothing showed up in Event Viewer... there simply wasn't a trace.

PCSTATS tried a number of solutions that didn't work:

Changing the computer power mode to "High Performance" (no change)
Updating every single hardware driver (no change)
Patching the OS to the latest updates (no change)
Update to the latest BIOS (no change)
Disabling Services, cleaning out MSCONFIG (no change)
Virus Scan and Malware searches (nothing showed up)
System Diagnostic scan (no problems, no change)
MemTest or Memory Diagnostic (no faults, no change)
Installing more memory wouldn't have changed anything as this issue is not an memory problem.

Short of reinstalling Windows 7, we'd exhausted just about every problem solving solution in PCSTATS's extensive Beginners Guides. After wading through countless forums it became clear that reinstalling Windows 7 wasn't going to fix anything either.

Based on systematic troubleshooting; 1) update all drivers, 2) update BIOS, 3) ensure no hardware faults by testing with diagnostic programs 4) updating graphics drivers 5) cleaning out MSCONFIG 6) scanning through Services and last but not least 7) contacting the manufacturer Support department for Tech Support help (no help, recommendation was to reinstall from factory OS image) we had eliminated most of the potential errors that normally would be responsible for a computer crashing, hanging or freezing up.

In the end, we did everything right. It wasn't any one of these things. It was a much more complicated issue solved with a very specific Microsoft Knowledge Base Patch released just two weeks ago!

PCSTATS' solution was to apply Microsoft Hotfix KB2265716 and restart twice.



Source]]> Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:47:56 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29397-windows-7-freezes-randomly-for-30-45-sec-finally-solved-pcstatscom-windows-7-freezes-randomly-for-30-45-sec-finally-solved/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29396-chrome-table-release-hits-v6-firefox-4-loses-features/ Chrome table release hits v6, Firefox 4 loses features





Two bits of browser news.

First, the stable release of Google’s Chrome browser hits version 6, only four months after version 5 went stable.

Download Squad have the details:

The update means that all Chrome users can now take advantage of extension and autofill sync — both important parts of Google’s desire to keep your ‘browsing platform’ uniform across all the computers you use.

Version 6 also brings the new consolidated menu, richer content settings (JavaScript, plug-ins, notifications, and the like), and the first-run search engine selection screen. There’s also a faster V8 JavaScript engine under the hood.

The pace of development of Chrome doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of slowing down. Great news for users!

Information on how to get the stable build can be found here.

Bad news at Mozilla though, as Firefox 4 loses features to keep to the release schedule:

Mozilla has started slimming down the next major iteration of Firefox in order to make the release deadline set for Octobers or November 2010.

The first feature to go is Account Manager. Mozilla confirmed on August 31st that Firefox 4.0 will ship without Account Manager.

The fate of silent updates on Windows, Inspector and Web Console also hangs in the balance.

Not so good news for users …




Source]]> Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:45:55 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29396-chrome-table-release-hits-v6-firefox-4-loses-features/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29387-microsoft-launches-vmware-lock-in-ad-to-kick-off-vmworld/ Microsoft launches VMware lock-in ad to kick off VMworld



Microsoft is running an ad in USA Today, in the form of an open letter to VMware customers, asking them to talk to Microsoft before signing a contract that might lock them in to a less-than-complete cloud solution from Redmond’s foremost virtualization rival.

The ad/letter, which debuted on August 31 — the first official day of VMworld 2010 — echoes the sentiments Softies have been airing in recent blog posts on TechNet: That cloud computing is not synonymous with virtualization and should provide a lot more. Virtualization is “only a stepping stone toward cloud computing,” Microsoft officials are contending. (My ZDNet blogging colleague Dan Kutsnetsky voiced the same argument in a recent blog post.)

“VMware is asking many of you to sign 3-year license agreements for your virtualization projects. But with the arrival of cloud computing, signing up for a 3-year virtualization commitment may lock you into a vendor that cannot provide you with the breadth of technology, flexibility or scale that you’ll need to build a complete cloud computing environment,” said the letter, signed by Brad Anderson, Corporate Vice President with Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business.

“If you’re evaluating a new licensing agreement with VMware, talk to us first. You have nothing to lose and plenty to gain,” the letter continued.

Microsoft is exhibiting at VMworld this week in San Francisco, although it won’t be showcasing its Hyper-V virtualization technology there. (Network World reported that Microsoft is refraining from talking up Hyper-V because its officials “believe(s) the conference’s sponsor and exhibitor agreement prevents vendors from demonstrating products that compete against VMware.”) Instead, Microsoft execs will be highlighting Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-computing operating system, at the event. Virtualization is built into the Windows Azure core.

Microsoft’s message at the VMworld event will be that server consolidation equals virtualization, but server elimination equals the cloud, quipped David Greschler, Director of Virtualization Strategy for Microsoft and the founder of Softricity, a virtualization vendor that Microsoft acquired in 2006.

“VMware is really talking about virtualization when it talks about the cloud,” Greschler claimed.

Greschler said there are a number of differences between Microsoft’s and VMware’s approaches toward the cloud. He mentioned the differences in how the two companies are pursuing the goal of delivering a consolidated cloud management console. Greschler said while VMware is promising one view between the datacenter and the service provider, Microsoft is going a step beyond that with its Operations Manager management-pack plug-in, due out before the end of this calendar year, which will provide users with a view of their datacenter, hoster, and private Azure cloud all from the same server.

VMware is making a number of cloud-specific announcements at its conference today, including the unveiling of VMware vCloud Director (its integrated management solution for hybrid clouds); VMware vCloud Datacenter Services; and VMware Shield, a security offering for enterprise-cloud customers.

I think it’s interesting Microsoft chose to focus on potential lock-ins with its VMworld ad, given how often the Redmondians are chastised for attempting to lock in customers by creating dependencies on .Net and SharePoint. What’s your take? Is VMworld any more open than Microsoft when it comes to the cloud and virtualization?



Source]]> Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:27:21 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29387-microsoft-launches-vmware-lock-in-ad-to-kick-off-vmworld/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29386-new-windows-7-sp1-beta-build-760117077-available-for-download-to-select-testers/ http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/6383/newwindows7sp1betabuild.jpg

Microsoft has released a new Beta Build of the first "major" upgrade for Windows 7. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Build 7601.17077 is available for download, offered as a Refresh to the initial Beta development milestone that the Redmond company launched in July 2010.

Of course that, as it was the case with the previous Beta of Windows 7 SP1, Build 7601.17077 is not limited to the Windows client, with new Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta bits also pushed to early adopters.

The software giant has confirmed officially the availability of Windows 7 SP1 Beta Build 7601, after details of the release made their way into the wild.

"Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta Refresh – 7601.17077 Available for TOP MS Partners," reads a Tweet from sp3ciali5t.

However, Microsoft is indicating that the latest release is nothing more than a new interim Build of Windows 7 Service Pack 1, and a part of the normal development process.

At the same time, the software giant indicated that unlike the original public Beta of Windows 7 SP1, the Build 7601.17077 bits were shared with just a select number of early adopters that are extremely close to the Redmond company, namely partners and original equipment manufacturers.

"A private interim release went out Friday as part of our normal feedback loop with a small group of our testers – our TAP and OEMs," a company spokesperson told Mary-Jo Foley.

By calling Windows 7 SP1 Beta Build 7601.17077 a private interim release, Microsoft is downplaying the importance of the release.

However, the initial source of the leak, called Build 7601.17077 a Beta Refresh. This detail is important since Microsoft seems to have embraced a new model of labeling post-Beta 1 pre-release development milestones.

In this context, Windows 7 SP1 Beta Build 7601.17077 is not referred to as Beta 2, Beta x or Release Candidate (RC), but simply as a Beta Refresh. The software giant did something similar with the second Beta build of Windows Live Essentials 2011 / Wave 4.

Windows 7 SP1 Beta Refresh Build 7601.17077 was offered to a select pool of testers on August 27, 2010, with the public Beta Build 7601.16562.100603-1800 having shipped last month.

Microsoft noted that it will release Windows 7 SP1 to customers in the first half of 2011, but did not indicate a specific general availability deadline.

The company insists that customers don't need to wait for SP1, and that the Service Pack will be nothing more than a minor upgrade for Windows 7, delivering no new features for the client.

Windows 7 Service Pack (SP1) Beta Build 7601.16562.100603-1800 is available for download here.


Source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-Windows-7-SP1-Beta-Build-7601-17077-Available-for-Download-to-Select- Testers-154380.shtml
]]> Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:53:16 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29386-new-windows-7-sp1-beta-build-760117077-available-for-download-to-select-testers/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29384-google-and-skype-set-to-face-indian-crackdown/ http://www.imgftw.net/img/776186523.jpg

India's security agencies have turned their attention towards Skype and Google this week after a reprieve following high-profile talks with Blackberry maker Research in Motion about ways to allow Indian security forces to monitor data.

The security agencies have been struggling to monitor content shared via Gmail and Skype due to the high encryption used by the services. India's security agencies are concerned that services such as Skype are being used by terrorists to bypass traditional monitoring systems put in place for telephone calls. Skype and Google are both set to receive an ultimatum from the spies in New Delhi.

"The notices to these entities will be issued beginning Tuesday and all of them will be asked to comply with the directive or else they will have to close down their networks," a senior official told PTI news agency late Monday. India is also targeting "virtual private networks", which give workers secure access to their company networks when they are working away from the office.

The move follows similar threats to Research in Motion (RIM) who manufacture BlackBerry devices. A ban had been threatened for this week after security agencies requested greater access to RIM's networks and encrypted data services. RIM said it would support India's need for "lawful access" and India has delayed the ban for 60 days.

A spokesman for Google, Gaurav Bhaskar, told AFP the company was yet to receive a notice. "Once we receive it we will be in a better position to comment on what they are looking for," he said, adding that he expected the concern to be the Gmail service.

Image Credit: DFID / Pippa Ranger (Flickr)

Source : Neowin

]]> Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:08:49 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29384-google-and-skype-set-to-face-indian-crackdown/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29383-bing-for-android-hits-the-verizon-wireless-marketplace/ Bing for Android hits the Verizon Wireless marketplace


Microsoft has been getting a lot of download love for its Bing app for the iPhone. On August 30, the company announced delivery of a new Bing app — this time for Android.

http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/bing-for-android-204x300.png

Microsoft is rolling out the expected “Bing for Mobile Android” app and is making it available for free via the Verizon Wireless Android Marketplace, according to a new blog post by the Bing team.

Bing for Mobile Android App available to Verizon customers. You can now download the free Bing App from your Verizon Wireless Android phones’ Marketplace.

Like the Bing for iPhone app, the homepage features the Bing image of the day with clickable hotspots. Users will be able to swipe through up to seven days’ worth of Bing images, Microsoft officials said.

Voice search is enabled in the new Bing Android app, as well, according to the blog post, as is integration with Bing Maps.

Bing on the iPhone has proven surprisingly popular (in terms of number of downloads from the Apple store). Microsoft has issued a few fixes for it since its initial release in December 2009. Some Windows Mobile phone users have said they felt left by the wayside, in terms of the functionality and appearance of Bing on iPhone compared to how it works/looks on Windows Phones.

I’ve asked Microsoft for more details as to which other carriers might be getting Bing for Android next. No word back yet. Stay tuned….

Update: This just in from a corporate spokesperson: “The Bing for Mobile Android App is available on any VZW Android 2.x devices and higher. The only device we don’t support today is the Motorola Devour. Given the deep partnership with VZW on Bing search, we’ve decided to roll out our Bing search experiences on VZW first. We’re working to make Bing available on the other mobile operators and their Android devices.”

Microsoft unveiled Bing for Android the same day that the Hotmail team announced Exchange ActiveSync push support for a variety of phones, minus Android ones. (The reality is many Android phones currently do work with the new EAS capability, but Microsoft officials are not yet making support for Android “official.”)


Source]]> Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:47:38 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29383-bing-for-android-hits-the-verizon-wireless-marketplace/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29382-7-skills-every-it-manager-needs-to-survive-the-2010s/ 7 skills every IT manager needs to survive the 2010s
Pure technology is out, communication and business insight are in


As companies emerge from the recession, IT managers need to rethink their careers, especially as businesses recast IT's role more as growing the business than running the operations. The old approaches to career growth won't work. Instead, IT managers -- and those who aspire to be managers -- should focus on seven key skills for the new era.

Although no single set of skills can bulletproof your career in this decade and beyond, the foremost of these seven is the ability to continuously learn and possess a broad range of valuable tech and leadership capabilities, according to IT experts interviewed by InfoWorld.com.

"The survival skill for an IT manager is the ability to think about where you develop your career," contends Kathryn Ullrich, an executive IT recruiter and author of "Getting to the Top" (Silicon Valley Press, 2010). "How do you stay on the cutting edge of tech so you're continuing to develop your skill set? And career resilience? If you're developing into a manager, director, or VP, it is about adding leadership skills."

Although IT managers can't be proficient in everything, they are expected to have fluency in major business and technology issues. "Unless they want to be order-takers, [IT managers] should have a point of view on the business -- its strategy, its operations, and how it can be improved," says Hank Leingang, an IT strategy consultant and former CIO at Bechtel and Viacom.

Many IT managers focus solely on mastering new tech skills to increase their value to their employers -- a strategy that makes perfect sense, but only up to a point. Once you reach that point, you can damage your career by becoming viewed as only technically proficient and being perceived as unskilled in business planning and learning how to communicate and collaborate well with customers, coworkers, and service providers. But if you have a balance of these "hard" technology skills and "soft" business and people skills, you can go a long way toward insulating your career from recessionary woes.

Here are the seven essential survival skills for IT managers seeking to reinforce their position or springboard to greater responsibility.

Essential IT skill 1: Balance specialization and cross-functional expertise
If you become adept at disciplines such as global sourcing, enterprise architecture, or virtualization, you may find that your technical skills make you more valuable to a large organization -- for a while. But at some point, you may also hit a wall in your career. "What makes you strong as an individual contributor in the tech space doesn't necessarily prepare you for a leadership role," says Leingang.

What's often lacking is adaptability. "You have to be able to shift gears," says Kent Kushar, CIO of E&J Gallo Winery. You need cross-functional expertise and the ability to shift your mode to the situation at hand. A successful IT manager "must have a wider vision to better understand the business." That means being "part chameleon," he adds.

"When you get in front of salespeople, you need to be like them. When you get in front of technical people, you need to be comfortable there as well." Consider what management is thinking, he says: "Do you understand supply chain, HR, finance -- or are you a one-trick pony?"

Consider Ron Lamb, a former Accenture consultant and a seasoned IT executive who left a senior planning role at Safeway a few months ago. He's now interviewing for IT manager and industry opportunities, and is boning up on cloud computing and various types of financial models to keep himself sharp. "The people at the very top absolutely think that cross-functional experience is invaluable," he says. "They are looking for people who can deal with significant change or can take advantage of new opportunities."

Making the trade-off between specialization and cross-functional expertise is a leap of faith for some IT managers: Will they succeed at the new discipline? Will they have credibility in a management role with other IT workers who have been at this specialty longer? The truth is that you have to take a chance on expanding your range of expertise and, subsequently, make that leap of faith.

Essential IT skill 2: Become an arbiter of risk
Odds are they didn't teach you about risk assessment in college. But as you seek higher positions of authority and responsibility in your organization, you'll need to have this skill. If your superiors respect your risk awareness and mitigation abilities, they'll view you more positively as senior management material.

If your organization is risk-tolerant, being a proponent of cutting-edge technologies may add business value. But there's a strong chance that in the lean years your organization has become more risk-averse. So rather than position yourself as cutting-edge or conservative, you should offer the business management choices organized by degrees of risk and complexity, particularly with new tech investments. They'll appreciate your ability to think this way -- after all, it's how executive managers think and decide.

That's certainly the case at Gallo, which has instituted such thinking in its IT project evaluation process: "We have a business case discipline for IT projects that captures lifecycle costs and business risks before they get approved," says Kushar.

"All IT managers and above have to understand risks and how to mitigate risks," says Lamb, the former consultant. "Few organizations talk about it overtly. But it's a requirement for all jobs and it's as a smart manager it would be prudent to understand the risks and how to mitigate them."

Essential IT skill 3: Build strong working relationships
Can you build strong working relationships with customers, coworkers, and suppliers? If not, you need to learn to do so.

In politics, the quality of charisma -- or likeability, if you prefer -- is a valuable trait. But in dealing with coworkers, it's even more important to be respected. The trouble is, IT managers -- just like everyone else -- tend to be more concerned about whether they're liked than whether they're building a strong working relationship.

The difference? An IT manager should be able to level with a business "customer" by asking questions such as "What are you trying to accomplish and am I in the way?" You can build tremendous credibility in an organization by showing that you can listen. It's a necessary step to achieving your ends.

Another area where you can demonstrate -- and sharpen -- your skills in building working relationships is in how you navigate the consolidation of suppliers as the IT industry matures. One consequence of that consolidation is that IT customers often must rely upon fewer key vendors, so there's more time to develop deeper relationships. But as your choices diminish and you have fewer alternatives, the vendor gains more power over you, so you have to be better at extracting the most value from the smaller field of vendors. For IT managers, the bottom line is that managing a key vendor relationship effectively demonstrates your strategic value to an organization.

Essential IT skill 4: Embrace analytics
From operational metrics to supply chain data, from syndicated data to data from manufacturing systems, the science of analytics is becoming more pertinent to IT, says Gallo's Kushar. Thus, he looks for IT managers who can create and understand data dashboards.

Lamb believes business analytics is a hot skill in many organizations: "How do you translate that data into something that will allow a businessperson to change his or her mind, to reach a decision point? Unless you can abstract information in a meaningful way, who cares?" Companies need IT managers who can extract such information.

Mastering business analytics not only establishes your technical chops, it closely aligns you with business partners, making it one of the most effective career survival techniques for IT managers.

Essential IT skill 5: Embrace enterprise architecture
Getting all the disparate pieces of IT to fit together smoothly is like solving a Rubik's Cube blindfolded. Lamb lauds IT managers with the skills to "deal outside of your domain to understand dependencies, to be able to communicate with business type of people." For such IT managers, "enterprise architecture is the next level of structure from business and IT strategy."

IT strategist Leingang agrees: "You have to have a working knowledge of [enterprise architecture] as CIO, and it's a critical skill to have on the team."

But "there isn't much of a talent pool companies can go to -- so somebody who is capable of broad thinking abut architecture is a gold mine right now," asserts Vinnie Mirchandani, author of "The New Polymath" (Wiley, 2010), a book that examines how a Renaissance man or woman achieves innovation by applying domain expertise in multiple arenas.

Grooming enterprise architects is especially hard in verticals like manufacturing, where ERP is the dominant part of the enterprise portfolio, says Mirchandani. In such environments, CIOs don't see a need for a full-time architect, given how much of the core architecture is defined within the ERP system. It's also hard to build architecture skills in organizations where third parties such as outsourcers provide this expertise, he adds.

This talent availability is a double-edged sword: The scarcity can make those who learn enterprise architecture more valuable, but the company you currently work at may not provide the opportunity to gain architecture skills.

Essential IT skill 6: Move from project management to program management
Managing a project is a tactical skill set that is a proven starting point for IT managers. But as skills go, it's also an easily replaceable commodity. The real skill is to use your project management capabilities to lead to a more strategic role in an organization: program management.

"Being a great project manager is a great way to star," says Lamb. "From there you can get involved in program management." But program management requires much stronger business skills than IT managers often have, especially in building business cases vital to obtaining funding and executive buy-in. He cites two examples of such missing business skills: understanding net present value (NPV) and internal rates of return (IRR).

Learning these skills can earn you "tickets to a boardroom, rather than standing outside," says Lamb. But there's an even bigger trick to it, which most aspiring managers often fail to consider: "If anyone asks, 'Do you really believe in this business case?' ask whether they want the political or nonpolitically correct answer. Those are career-changing situations." Be prepared to give an honest assessment of the initiative and risk a disagreement with others for the chance to earn the respect of higher-ups in the organization.

Program management provides IT managers an opportunity to become a trusted advisor to business units, and that's a key skill for anyone wanting to prove his or her strategic value. As you rise in your organization, recognize that what you manage also changes, says Ullrich, the recruiter: "From VP/director level, the 'doing' skills are different than the 'leading' skills. You can be a top-notch engineer, but as you get to a director level you have to be able to manage teams. It goes beyond project management to team leadership and how do you set the direction, motivate, and delegate."

Essential IT skill 7: Actively communicate
In large organizations, it's not unheard of for a CIO to work with a writer to convey ideas to various stakeholders such as employees or customers. Some CIOs even hire writers to tweet or blog for them. But what if you're not yet a CIO? Are communication skills essential career survival skills? Absolutely.

"Think of all the IT workers -- [it's clear that] you can distinguish yourself with strong communications," says Ullrich. "If you're strong at communicating, you'll get noticed," she promises.

The keys to this skill are listening and effectively explaining: "It's working with customers and understanding their requirements and what would help drive the business. It's not just the project manager but the person who can communicate ideas and bridge the technology to business," she says.

It's all about having business value
There are countless ways to develop your career, but you can best succeed in an IT organization by continuing to find ways to add business value that makes you too desirable to lose. But you need to do the work: Attaining this bulletproof status requires a commitment on your part to embrace continuous learning -- adding new skills, of both the hard and soft varieties -- that continually up your game and improve your standing in the organization.



Source]]> Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:44:27 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29382-7-skills-every-it-manager-needs-to-survive-the-2010s/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29381-amd-introduces-inexpensive-active-displayport-adapter/ AMD Introduces Inexpensive Active DisplayPort Adapter



AMD's Eyefinity technology, which lets you control a number of monitors (up to six) with a single video card, has been one of the video world's most interesting developments since its introduction a year ago, but hasn't been within the budget realm of all gamers. That may change today with AMD's introduction of a new Active DisplayPort–to–DVI dongle.

The 5000-series AMD video cards come with one DisplayPort jack, which has made adding an extra monitor difficult (very models currently support the technology), but active dongles have typically been expensive. This new active dongle will translate the DisplayPort signal to the much more common DVI signal, without requiring additional software, at a price of $29.99 list.

This is a significant drop from the over-$100 price of many current active dongles, with two key differences. First AMD's dongle does not require the use of an additional USB port, as many of the more expensive dongles two. Second, AMD's dongle translates only to single-link DVI, meaning if you have a large monitor capable of displaying resolutions higher than 1,920 by 1,200, you won't be able to take advantage of them.

According to AMD, the new dongle will be bundled with cards manufactured by AMD partners such as XFX, Sapphire, Accell, and others, or be available separately beginning in early September.


Source]]> Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:40:28 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29381-amd-introduces-inexpensive-active-displayport-adapter/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29380-amd-kills-ati-brand-you-can-look-forward-to-blood-stained-radeons/ AMD kills ATI brand, you can look forward to blood-stained Radeons
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/08/10x0830ub124sd24azc.jpg



This, dear friends, is a sad, sad day. ATI, the name of hope for all PC gamers who were sick and tired of NVIDIA rebadging the same GPU over the past couple of years, is to be no more. The callous souls over at AMD have decided that our little consumer brains aren't sophisticated enough to handle two awesome brands, so they're just axing the use of the ATI moniker from here on out. Product line names will be retained, with the Radeon and FirePro branding still intact, but ATI Eyefinity will now be known as AMD Eyefinity. The first graphics cards to, erm, benefit from the new nomenclature will ship "later this year," and the whole thing is said to have been motivated by AMD's move to Fusion APUs -- hybrid CPU and GPU chips -- where it's considered beneficial to have a unified branding strategy. Great, but did anyone consider the fact that the graphics wars will now be fought between two teams wearing green jerseys?

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/08/radeon-logos2.jpg


Source]]> Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:37:50 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29380-amd-kills-ati-brand-you-can-look-forward-to-blood-stained-radeons/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29373-commodore-64-is-back-from-the-dead/ Commodore 64 is back from the dead


http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/commodorepc64-3.jpg


No one misses the screeching tape drives, primitive graphics and 20-minute load times of the 8-bit home computing craze, but you have to admit they don't make keyboards like the Commodore 64's anymore. Until now, that is, as Commodore USA says the classic beige wedge is getting a new lease of life as an Atom PC.

At this point it's worth pointing out that the manufacturer isn't the original Commodore of the 1980s, with Jack Tramiel and all. Commodore USA is a new firm that was founded this year, and has now licensed the Commodore brand from Commodore Licensing B.V. And nope, that's not the original Commodore either.

Even so, Commodore USA promises its new PC64 will feature an "exact replica" of the 8-bit machine's original beige chassis. Sadly, the specs aren't going to blow anyone away, but the machine should suffice as a novelty nettop.

Inside the retro case you'll get a 1.8GHz Atom D525, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 1TB hard drive and an Nvidia Ion2 graphics chip. There's also an optional Blu-Ray drive, and an HDMI output to plug into the telly; perfect for recreating the lounge-floor BASIC coding days.

Meanwhile, a dual-link DVI connector will enable you to hook up the PC64 to a standard monitor, and you also get 802.11n WiFi, a Bluetooth adaptor, six USB ports and a media card reader.

Commodore USA's CEO Barry Altman claimed the "reintroduction of this legendary form factor, combined with the world's most recognisable consumer electronics brand, is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We look forward to bringing these new products to market, and welcoming a whole new generation of computer users to the Commodore experience."

In this case, however, it looks as though the "Commodore experience" sadly means an extremely low-end basic PC, rather than a cutting-edge, innovative home computer such as the Amiga or PET.

Commodore USA has already experimented with the keyboard-based PC design with its Phoenix range of PCs, as well as its Amigo (see what they've done there?) systems. These, says the company, have "once again catapulted the Commodore namesake to the forefront of consumer electronics brand recognition."

We have to say that planet Commodore USA sounds like a very different place from planet Earth, especially as this apparently also passes for a professional company website.

Commodore USA says the new beige retro boxes will be available to buy "this holiday season," which means somewhere around Christmas this year if you don't live in the US.


Source]]> Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:21:42 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29373-commodore-64-is-back-from-the-dead/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29372-how-googles-call-feature-could-be-an-affront-to-privacy/ How Google's call feature could be an affront to privacy



Google recently launched a new Gmail feature that allows users to call telephone numbers around the world from directly within Gmail. It's a direct challenge to Skype's domination over the internet call market. With Google's fingers firmly entrenched in every pie, it creates a worrying trend for everyone's privacy.

For those who doubt the possible exodus from Skype to Google we have only to look at a statistic released today by Google itself: “Over 1,000,000 calls placed from Gmail in just 24 hours!” That's a lot of calls.

Of course, Gmail has 175 million monthly users and many of them may have been tempted to try out the new feature on launch day, so potentially those call numbers could go down when the novelty wears off. Or, the numbers might go up, as the feature is currently only available to US users. When Google finally launches it around the world we can expect a further boom to calls which may give Skype a serious run for its money.

TechEye spoke to Skype to see how threatened it felt by Google's entry into the market, but it fobbed us off: “In regards to Google's new Gmail calling feature, unfortunately Skype isn't in a position to be able to comment at this time.”

We also asked if it could provide call figures to compare them with Google's statistics, but Skype said it “cannot release calling statistics”. The reluctance to comment and reveal statistics makes us wonder if Skype really is worried about Big G stepping on its turf.

The problem for Skype is that Google is now offering free calls to and within the United States and Canada - and calls as low as $0.02 per minute to most of Europe. Skype's US rates are around $0.024 per minute, while the EU rates are €0.02 per minute. That's roughly the same price and still much less than using a standard telephone, but the free calls in the US and Canada clearly give it the advantage in that region.

Calls to European mobiles, however, are significantly more expensive, such as $0.18 per minute to the UK but that's still cheaper than Skype does 'em.

Money talks. If Google eventually rolls out free calls in more regions, since it gets so much dosh from advertising anyway, people will flock to it in droves regardless of what potential privacy invasions may result.And there may be many.

Firstly, Google can send you text transcripts of your voicemail straight to your email account, which sounds handy at face value, but means that it now becomes another message for Google to trawl through, like it can do with all Gmail messages. This means, if it wants, and it does, it can present more targeted ads based on your voice conversations.

It also opens doors for Schmidt's gang to monitor and save your voice chat, which sounds just a little bit like phone tapping. Speaking of phone tapping, we shouldn't forget Google's links with the CIA.

Secondly, the privacy risk may not come from Google itself. TechEye Teuton John W. Daly reckons: “The NSA eavesdrop on foreign communications, not chatter inside the US itself. It is likely that Google will have to supply a backdoor to US agencies for eavesdropping.” With this feature currently limited to the US that may not be a major worry. However, Skype may also share this risk, particularly on US servers.

Thirdly, Google may not intentionally log call data, but we all know what they say about the road to Hell and good intentions. Google's Street View snooping fiasco is an example of just how intrusive the search giant can be and yet bandy about the word “accidental”. It has basically also gotten off scot-free all over the shop. Which gives it the message that it can do pretty much anything it likes. What is to stop it from “accidentally” logging all your phone calls as well?

Finally, Google's empire is growing extremely quickly. While it has contributed some great software and technology amidst this expansion, there is a risk of it swelling in so many sectors that it eventually has too much power, creating an entity that Winston Smith would have feared. Or is it already there? Google knows a lot about us from its search engine and email services alone. Do we really need to supply it with our phone calls as well?

TechEye spoke to Dylan Sharpe, Campaign Director at privacy group Big Brother Watch, about just how dangerous Google might become.

“Whether or not there is any overt privacy threat from using Gmail calls is not yet clear, however this does represent the latest move by Google towards a monopoly of our online communications.”

“As the CEO, Eric Schmidt, admitted recently, people have to be more careful about what they put on the internet and how they use online services. At Big Brother Watch we would be wary of giving too much information to any one company - especially Google.”

He was referring to a recent warning Schmidt gave about a future without privacy, where he said that “people aren't ready for the technology revolution that's going to happen to them,” a future where Google knows just about everything there is to know about you. The more we think about it, the more we think it's already arrived.




Source]]> Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:19:40 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29372-how-googles-call-feature-could-be-an-affront-to-privacy/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29362-microsoft-issues-advisory-and-tool-to-address-dll-loading-issue/ Microsoft Issues Advisory and Tool To Address DLL Loading Issue



In response to new developments in the old vulnerability of insecure DLL loading Microsoft has released an advisory describing the problem, actions that may be taken by users, administrators and developers, actions they plan to take and a tool that administrators can use to mitigate vulnerable applications.

The basic vulnerability is an old one, reported at least 10 years ago for Windows. An attacker that can trick a user into opening a data file from the current directory may be able to cause the program to load a DLL of the attacker's creation from the same directory. Previous Windows versions of this attack, which also goes back many years on UNIX, required that the data file be on the local system. The innovation is that it can now be exploited on a network share or even a server on the Internet through WebDAV, firewalls permitting.

When the initial reports came out for Windows, Microsoft made changes to the default DLL loading order and provided other mechanisms for developers to prevent this from happening in their own programs. They moved the current directory way down the list of possibilities for loading a DLL, but they didn't eliminate it, fearing that it would cause too many incompatibilities with existing systems. But it's fair to say that where this problem exists, it exists as an error in the application, not in Windows.

The advisory gives a lot of advice. For developers, it recommends that they follow DLL security practices described on MSDN. For administrators, it lists workarounds of blocking TCP ports 139 and 445 at the firewall and disabling the WebClient service.

Microsoft also has issued an update to Windows which introduces a new registry key administrators or users can use to control the DLL search order, including the ability to prevent loading DLLs from shares or the current directory. The update and instructions for using the registry key may be found at MSKB article 2264107.

Finally, Microsoft says that they will be working with the security community and application vendors to determine where problems exist and help to remedy them.


Source]]> Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:29:53 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29362-microsoft-issues-advisory-and-tool-to-address-dll-loading-issue/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29361-whooping-cough-outbreak-could-be-worst-in-50-years/ Whooping cough outbreak could be worst in 50 years



An outbreak of whooping cough in California could be the worst in 50 years, the state's Department of Public Health said last week.

The disease, caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, is spread via coughing or sneezing and is highly contagious. On average, one infected person can spread the disease to 12 to 17 others, says Lynnette Mazur at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Eight people have died of it in California so far this year, and some 3000 cases have been reported – seven times the number over the same period last year. Idaho, Texas, South Carolina and Michigan have also reported increases.

James Cherry at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center says this looks set to be a particularly large outbreak, but it is not totally unexpected. Outbreaks occur every two to five years because the vaccine given to children is only 80 per cent effective and only protects up to about age 10, he says. What's more, few adults receive boosters.

The greatest danger is to unvaccinated infants: seven of the eight deaths in California were babies under two months of age.

Some areas of California are vaccinating all family members who might be in routine contact with a baby in its first months – a strategy called "cocooning". But all adults could do their part to minimise the outbreak, says Mazur. "Take a look at your immunisation record," she says.


Source]]> Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:27:22 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29361-whooping-cough-outbreak-could-be-worst-in-50-years/ http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29360-amd-touts-next-gen-processor-cores-at-hot-chips/ AMD touts next-gen processor cores at Hot Chips



AMD has offered journalists a detailed glimpse of its next-gen "Bulldozer" and "Bobcat" processor cores at the Hot Chips 2010 conference in Silicon Valley.

"The new [cores], codenamed 'Bulldozer' for high-performance PC and server markets, and 'Bobcat' for low-power notebook and small form-factor desktop markets, were designed from the ground-up to address specific requirements and compute workloads," explained senior AMD VP Chekib Akrout.

"These cores are central to AMD's future roadmap, including the Fusion Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), [our] new high-performance server and client CPUs."



According to Akrout, Bulldozer and Bobcat are two of the "most important" achievements in the company's history.

"x86 architecture lies at the very heart of computing and AMD has continuously evolved and improved its core designs. 

The Bulldozer and Bobcat cores continue that evolutionary path and are designed to change the user's experience with the resulting products."

Highlights of the new cores include:

Bulldozer

* Multithreaded compute performance that balances dedicated and shared compute resources to provide a highly compact, high core count design easily replicated on a chip for performance scaling.
* New x86 instruction support (SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, and XOP including 4-operand FMAC).
* Advanced power management features.
* Manufactured on advanced 32nm process technology.

Bobcat

* Sub-one-watt capable operation.
* Out-of-order instruction execution for higher performance.
* Estimated 90 percent of today's mainstream PC performance in half the area.
* Core power gating and a microarchitecture optimized for low power.
* Highly synthesizeable design that moves easily across manufacturing technologies.




Source]]> Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:25:49 +0000 http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/29360-amd-touts-next-gen-processor-cores-at-hot-chips/