Archive for the ‘PC Software’ Category
August 2nd, 2008 | 
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At the Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas next week, researchers will demonstrate software they’ve developed that could steal online credentials from users of popular Web sites such as Facebook, eBay and Google.
The attack relies on a new type of hybrid file that looks like different things to different programs. By placing these files on Web sites that allow users to upload their own images, the researchers can circumvent security systems and take over the accounts of Web surfers who use these sites.
“We’ve been able to come up with a Java applet that for all intents and purposes is an image,” said John Heasman, vice president of research at Next Generation Security Software Ltd…
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Only hours after it fixed nine vulnerabilities in several of its programs, Microsoft Corp. late Tuesday confirmed that attackers are exploiting an unpatched bug in Word.
In a security advisory it issued shortly before 10 p.m. EST, the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) said attackers were exploiting a flaw in Word 2002. However, MSRC spokesman Bill Sisk downplayed the threat. “At this time, Microsoft is aware only of limited, targeted attacks that attempt to use this vulnerability,” Sisk said in an e-mail.
As is its practice, Microsoft provided few details of the vulnerability other than to say that it could be triggered by rigged Word documents if the user opened them. The company did not say how the in-the-wild attacks were delivering the malicious .doc files, but if the past is any indicator, criminals are sending malformed files as e-mail attachments…
The Mozilla Foundation has set a world record and achieved new heights in its battle for browser market share. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Mozilla’s Firefox 3.0 Web browser set a record for the most downloads in a day. It was the first time a browser-maker attempted to set a record.
Mozilla set the record with 8,002,530 downloads in June. The Mozilla Foundation will receive the official certificate in London next week.
“Setting a world record really doesn’t matter. It’s a marketing stunt,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. “At the end of the day you still have to look at who has the overwhelming browser market share. It still belongs to Microsoft.”…
On his final full day at Microsoft Corp., Bill Gates went on stage to reminisce with his longtime friend Steve Ballmer, and neither man could hold back tears as Ballmer handed Gates a large scrapbook as a farewell present.
Gates, who is stepping back to focus on his philanthropy, sat with CEO Ballmer in a Microsoft conference room and meandered through moments in Microsoft’s history. They stopped to get in a few good digs at IBM Corp., whose first personal computers were loaded with Microsoft’s DOS operating system before IBM adopted its own operating software and their relations strained.
“They went off with OS 2, we were left with good old Windows, and sure enough the David versus Goliath story came out with the right ending,” said Gates, eliciting laughter from the crowd of 830 Microsoft employees.
Gates, who founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975, admitted that Microsoft has faltered along the way, and certainly isn’t perfect today…
Microsoft’s abandoned takeover bid for Yahoo appears to have culminated with a disheartening thud for those two companies but amounted to yet another coup for online search leader Google.
What began in January as Microsoft’s most audacious attack yet on Google instead paved the way for the Internet’s most powerful company to gain even more clout through a deal that gives Google access to a large chunk of Yahoo’s advertising space.
By submitting to a partnership that endorses Google’s search advertising technology as a better choice than its own, Yahoo is giving online marketers even more incentive to spend most of their money with its biggest rival, according to industry analysts.
It looks like such a sweet deal for Google that the U.S. Justice Department and lawmakers are expected to take a hard look at the arrangement to make sure it doesn’t give Google too much control over the Internet’s search advertising market.
Google currently has about 75 percent of the U.S. search advertising market followed by Yahoo at 9 percent, according to the research firm eMarketer…
In article introduces you to four built-in tools you can use to track down and fix performance problems.
Quote “I believe you have every right to expect excellent performance from Windows Vista, and I?m going to back that conclusion in today?s post, the latest in my Fixing Vista series, with details on how to use Vista?s built-in tools to find and fix the problems that stand between you and an excellent Vista experience. ”
3DMark?Vantage is composed of four full-bore benchmarking tests (2 different CPU tests and 2 different GPU tests) and 6 feature tests. Four presets, a groundbreaking new feature, vastly augment the variety of PCs that can be tested with the product. Presets range from value through performance to high end cinematic rendering resolutions and features. By creating a new set of high end presets, 3DMark?Vantage is future proofed for the new multi-core CPU and Graphics Processing Unit products as well as supporting the Physics Processing Unit to expand the range of technology, testing and prevent the benchmark from being bottlenecked for its users.
Microsoft withdrew its $42.3 billion bid to buy Yahoo on Saturday, scrapping an attempt to snap up the tarnished Internet icon in hopes of toppling online search and advertising leader Google.
The decision to walk away from the deal came after last-ditch efforts to negotiate a mutually acceptable sale price proved unsuccessful.
The talks reached a breaking point after Jerry Yang and David Filo, the co-founders of Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, flew to Seattle in the morning to meet personally with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, who runs the software maker’s unprofitable online services division, according to someone familiar with the talks. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified.
“Clearly a deal is not to be,” Ballmer wrote to Yang in a letter sent late Saturday…
As predicted almost a year ago, Microsoft has begun offering a free, advertising supported version of Microsoft Works, its office application suite for people too cheap to spring for Office. But it doesn’t appear that there’s any way to download and install Microsoft Works SE (Sponsored Edition) yourself just yet. Rather, computer makers are starting to install the software on new PCs.
Basically the program works just as well (read that statement however you’d like) as the full version of MS Works, but users will see a small advertisement in the program window, whether they’re editing a spreadsheet or text document…
Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system. This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers experience with the operating system…
