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3 Reasons Why Mac OS X and Linux Won't Succeed against Windows Vista
Sep 24, 2007 - 2:47 PM - by soxrocker
...scary ain't it it...

Let me state from the get go that this is not a Mac OS X vs. Linux vs. Windows Vista article. It will not provide a conclusion over the superiority of one operating system alone and will only be limited to a total of three reasons why Mac OS X and Linux won't succeed against Windows Vista. Success in this context is equivalent to a scenario where either Mac OS X or Linux, or both, would negatively influence the adoption of Vista to such an extent that Microsoft's share on the operating system with Windows would suffer and become eroded. But in the end it is not about Vista, or a specific version of the three operating systems. The bottom line is that between the end of 2001 and early 2007, or from XP to Vista, neither Mac OS X nor Linux managed to dislodge Windows.

Softpedia


3 Reasons Why Mac OS X and Linux Won't Succeed against Windows Vista- Dislodging Windows is harder than it might seem
By: Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor

Windows Vista
Enlarge picture
Let me state from the get go that this is not a Mac OS X vs. Linux vs. Windows Vista article. It will not provide a conclusion over the superiority of one operating system alone and will only be limited to a total of three reasons why Mac OS X and Linux won't succeed against Windows Vista. Success in this context is equivalent to a scenario where either Mac OS X or Linux, or both, would negatively influence the adoption of Vista to such an extent that Microsoft's share on the operating system with Windows would suffer and become eroded. But in the end it is not about Vista, or a specific version of the three operating systems. The bottom line is that between the end of 2001 and early 2007, or from XP to Vista, neither Mac OS X nor Linux managed to dislodge Windows.

1. Windows Saturation

Since both Linux and Mac OS X are valid alternative platforms to Windows, each with its own footprint on the operating system market, the concept of a Microsoft monopoly is not valid by any means. Near-monopoly would more accurately describe the Redmond company's dominant position with its operating system, or even a Windows saturation of the market. According to the latest estimates for the install base of each platform as of mid 2007, Windows is on top of the world. The initial vision of Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates was to put a computer on every desktop in every home. Gates is currently transitioning out if his day-to-day role with the Redmond company and will complete the quasi-divorce from Microsoft as of mid 2008, in favor of Ray Ozzie - Chief Software Architect and Craig Mundie - Chief Research and Strategy Officer. And by 2008, Microsoft will have achieved a key milestone, a landmark fragment of Gates' vision.

Earlier this year, at the Financial Analyst Meeting 2007 on July 26, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer, delivered a perspective over the evolution of Windows in the company's 2008 fiscal year, or from July 1, 2007 until June 30, 2008. "The install base of Windows computers this coming 12 months will reach 1 billion. If you stop and just think about that, parse that for a second, by the end of our fiscal year '08, there will be more PCs running Windows in the world than there are automobiles, which is at least to me kind of a mind-numbing concept. I think it talks about the way the value has been driven from the Windows PC, and all of the applications from Microsoft to third parties that go with it," Ballmer stated.

And this is only on the client side. But Microsoft has also a strong presence on the server side with its Windows operating system. Clearly client- and server-side are two completely different dimensions. And the fact of the matter is that Linux is regarded as a prominent server platform, while the client version has failed to surpass the single-digit desktop market share since the introduction. Analyst firms Gartner and IDC, in their latest quarterly server numbers, gave Microsoft 67.1% of the market with Windows, and Linux 22.8%. Apple also produces a server operating system, along with the client version, but Mac OS X Server is an insignificant presence, although the Cupertino-based company is pushing ahead and will deal its next move concomitantly with Leopard in October.

And
what is even more relevant for Microsoft's dominance on the server-side is the fact fat the Redmond company is accepting the reality of Linux. The interoperability and intellectual property assurance agreement inked with open source distributer Novell in November 2006, is nothing more than Microsoft's way of evolving inside heterogeneous environments, running mixed solutions, as Linux is an established presence and not going anywhere for now. "I would look at the server market. Windows Server has done well, but has not grown as quickly in recent years as Linux has," stated Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft, explaining the company's position in relation to the lost antitrust battle in Europe.

Statistics look a tad different on the client-side. OneStat gives Windows a global usage share of 96.72% in mid 2007, while Mac OS X is credited with 2.70% and Linux with just 0.36%. W3Counter has Windows at approximately 93% of the market with 3.75% for Mac OS X and 1.37% for Linux, barely more than the percentage of Windows 98. Market Share by Net Applications also gives Windows the lion's share with over 93%, followed by Mac OS X with 6% and Linux still under 1%. The numbers are important because they reflect the fact that there is no empty space to grow for either Linux or Mac OS X. Windows is hugging the market, leaving little elbow room for its rivals. Both Linux and Mac OS X need a consistent amount of momentum to go against Microsoft, but in the Windows saturated market there is no way for that momentum to be gained. Things are simpler for Windows Vista. Microsoft's latest operating system has a natural growth trajectory by replacing older version Windows, and especially Windows XP. By definition, Windows users will look to Microsoft to provide their next operating system.

2. Security

There is a generalized perception of Linux and Mac OS X superiority over Windows when it comes down to the level of security each operating system provides as a de facto standard. The status quo is a direct result of a cocktail mixed with various ingredients, starting from the "inherent" and arrogant superiority attributed to Mac OS X and Linux supporters, continuing with obscure market shares and inexistent threat environments for the UNIX based and the open source operating systems. For Windows users on the other hand, the success of the operating system has as a logical consequence, the downside of running on the most attacked platform on the market. The simple fact that Windows is a large and facile target, in terms of the volume of potential victims, focusing on the threat environment is synonymous with insecurity. Just look at the "Top ten web threats" from Sophos in September or from "Virus Top Twenty for August 2007" from Kaspersky. Not a single piece of Linux or Mac OS X malware.

This is why Microsoft has invested heavily in security and in delivering the perception of security to the public since the release of Windows XP SP2 in 2004. Vista is constantly applauded as the most secure operating system to date, as a direct result of the implementation of the Secure Development Lifecycle methodologies in the building process of the operating system. The SDL is meant to deliver a result as close to the perfection of secure as default perfection is possible, and to reduce the maximum severity rating of the flaws that do get into the final product. Users have to understand that there is no panacea solution to security and that the number of vulnerabilities in Windows, Linux and Mac OS X will never be zero.

Still, the first characteristic of both Linux and Mac OS X is the fact that both operating systems deliver the perception of security by default. And not only the perception. There are long time Linux and Mac OS X users that have never run an antivirus and never got infected with a piece of malware. This is security that Windows Vista is unable to deliver. But at the same time, Microsoft has poured a consistent amount of work into catching up to the rival platforms, because security was the one aspect where Windows was suffering a stigmata of inferiority compared to Mac OS X and Linux. Now the Redmond company is able to market not only a product designed to be secure via SDL, but also a mature security environment and industry built around the operating system, the latter giving it the edge on Linux and Mac OS X. This is how, with Vista, Microsoft is reducing the relevance of security as a decisive factor in choosing an operating system.

You can access both "Windows Vista 6-Month Vulnerability Report" put together by Jeff Jones, Security Strategy Director in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group, or the independent "Symantec Internet Security Threat Report - Trends for January–June 07", for a perspective on the vulnerabilities impacting Windows, the major distributions of Linux including Red Hat, Novell SUSE, and Ubuntu, and Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

3. Evangelism

Evangelism is the zealous marketing of the operating system not to end users, but to software developers. Windows, as well as Linux and Mac OS X are platforms first of all. But the success of an operating system is relatively independent of its quality. However, it is directly dependent on the ecosystem of third-party solutions that are orbiting around it. An operating system will provide a center of gravity for additional software products from developers, partners, information technology professionals and end users. Microsoft, Apple and Linux distributors such as Red Hat, Novell or Canonical, the makers of Ubuntu, all offer support, tools, services and resources to developers building on top of their platforms. Evangelism is what keeps current partners happy and converts developers to one platform as opposite to another.

And make no mistake about it. Microsoft is dead-on focused on software developers. Back in 2001, the Redmond company gave birth to the Developer and Platform Evangelism Division. And Microsoft has been militating Windows with zeal. At this point in time the Redmond company can throw behind Windows not only household names such as Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie or Craig Mundie, but also the immense mass of Microsoft employees. The company's workforce, approximately 80,000 strong are all Windows missionaries to a higher or a lesser degree.

Do you want an example of Microsoft evangelism at work? Just look at Windows Vista. The number of applications supported by the operating system has grown from 650 at launch to over 2,000 by mid 2007. Additionally, the number of compatible devices grew from 1.5 million to over 2.2 million with in excess of 11,000 items labeled with the Works or with Certified for Windows Vista logos. And this in just the first six months of availability of the operating system. Microsoft Evangelism, on top of the ubiquity of the company's operating system, is the reason why the best and latest games come first to Windows and the reason why top worldwide applications and programs along with software entertainment products, are centered on the platform and not ignoring it.

The same scenario is valid for Linux and Apple but to a smaller degree. And with the Cupertino-based company the evangelism strategy is quite different, and it involves mainly the persona of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs. Apple however is doing not so much evangelism as pure marketing, because this is the trademark of Jobs. Gates is a monopolist turned philanthropist, the world's wealthiest man, and the one that will take Windows to an install base of 1 billion in 2008. Gates has "killed" competitors on the market and has gone head to head with the authorities in the Unites States and Europe, and Microsoft came out all right, more than ever regarded as an untouchable software monolith. Jobs instead can sell. He has the Mac Guy aura all over him, and he is able to sell every piece of hardware that Apple packages in a bubblegum white design, and every item of software produced in Cupertino. And first and foremost, Jobs is the living and breathing example that there can be a successful operating system outside of Microsoft's Windows.

In contrast, Linux has close to nothing. The Linux world, in fact the entire open source universe is an example of fragmentation. There is no center of gravity, no common criteria or ground and no balance. There is only a puzzle of disparate entities and interests, continually unsynchronized and in a perpetual motion. Linus Torvalds, the original developer of the Linux kernel is nothing more than a background figure. He is the all time good guy of operating system development and the embodiment of utopic open source principles and policy. But Torvalds and Linux evangelism are concepts that do not mix. Instead of being the driving force behind Linux adoption, Torvalds is just its passive father and nothing more. Fortunately for the Linux world, new figures emerge such as Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth. Now with Ubuntu, an operating system regarded as inferior to the products of Red Hat or Novell, Linux has got some comprehensive examples of evangelism, but it is too early to tell what the results will be. Still, for the first time since the availability of Linux, Ubuntu makes end users feel less alienated by the open source operating system.

A subject that can be easily correlated with evangelism is the support original equipment manufacturers and system builders are pouring in each of the three operating systems. Now obviously, this is not the case for Apple. The Cupertino company is a closed environment producing both the hardware and the operating system. This strategy has obviously hurt adoption, but with emulators, hypervisors and virtualization technology the Mac actually has a winning chance. For this Windows XP and Windows Vista had to be welcomed with open arms on Mac computers. With the introduction of Boot Camp, Apple is simply keeping up with the virtualization industry, offering an alternative. But either way Microsoft operating systems can run on a proprietary Apple platform, which gives users, and especially Windows users, the choice of either a PC or a Mac for their next new computer.

At the same time Microsoft has the support of all major original equipment manufacturers and system builders. Companies such as HP, Dell, Lenovo and Acer are all traditional Microsoft partners. According to estimates from Gartner, by the end of 2007, no less than 257.1 million personal computers will be sold worldwide, up from 231.5 units in 2006. The vast majority of these computers will come preinstalled with the Windows operating system. In order to get an idea of what this means you have to understand that in 2007, Apple will sell approximately 8 million Mac computers, but no more than 10 million. Now the fact of the matter is that PCs can easily run either Windows or Linux, and companies such as Dell with Ubuntu and HP with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 are also offering the open source operating system but on the note of a pet project aimed at a niche of the market, an accessory to the Windows offerings rather than an actual business.

As of February 2008, Windows XP will no longer be available to the retail and original equipment manufacturer channels. From 2008 until Windows 7 (Seven) is scheduled in 2010, Microsoft and its OEM partners will be selling only Windows Vista. And the estimated 257.1 million PCs to be sold by the end of this year will only grow in 2008.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/3-Re...9-t-Succeed-against-Windows-Vista-66458.shtml

 

PC Makers Offering a Bridge Back To XP
Journal written by kcarlin (99704) and posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 25, @12:08AM
from the bridge-too-far dept.
Windows Microsoft
The Telegraph is reporting on efforts by PC manufacturers to give customers buying systems pre-installed with Windows Vista a much-sought way to downgrade to Windows XP. ( A few months back we discussed Microsoft's similar concession for corporate customers.) "It took took five years and $6 billion to develop, but Microsoft's Vista operating system, which was launched early this year, has been shunned by consumers — with computer manufacturers taking the bizarre step of offering downgrades to the old XP version of Windows."

PC users still prefer Windows to Vista

By Josephine Moulds
Last Updated: 7:38am BST 25/09/2007

It took took five years and $6bn (£3bn) to develop, but Microsoft's Vista operating system, which was launched early this year, has been shunned by consumers – with computer manufacturers taking the bizarre step of offering downgrades to the old XP version of Windows.

A note on the electronics retailer website Dabs.com reads: "If you're not ready for Vista, you can downgrade to Windows XP without affecting your Sony VAIO warranty and switch back to Vista at any time."

Dell took a similar line earlier this year when it brought back XP on a range of computers for its US customers in response to a deluge of online complaints.

The software giant launched the Vista operating system to great fanfare in January, at least a year late.

Because of Windows' market dominance the system was to be pre-loaded on the majority of new PCs and it was hoped that the release would drive sales of new computers. Microsoft says it has sold more than 60m Vista licences to date, but hardware sales have disappointed.
advertisement

DSG International, which owns PC World and Currys, said it was forced to discount laptops after a lacklustre response to Vista.

Users complain that computers running Vista crash frequently and many of their favourite programmes such as Windows Mobile do not work with the new operating system.

Microsoft said: "We understand that our [original equipment manufacturer] partners are responding appropriately to a small minority of customers that have this specific request. But, as they have said before, the vast majority of consumers want the latest and greatest technology and that includes Windows Vista."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/09/24/cnpc124.xml


Microsoft to Simplify Downgrades From Vista to XP
Posted by Zonk on Fri Jun 29, '07 03:30 PM
from the where-do-you-want-to-go-today-besides-down dept.
Microsoft IT
castrox writes "Microsoft has noted that many corporate users want to run XP instead of Vista. They are now simplifying the downgrade process for top OEMs. Currently, all OEMs must call Microsoft whenever a downgrade is done. After the new procedure is put into place, OEMs may submit batches of keys to Microsoft online. According to the Microsoft blog on ZDNet, the 'downgrade software' will still need to be supplied by the end user. The deal is rather perplexing — it does not seem like you can convert the license since the only eligible versions for downgrading is Ultimate and Business. The company has more details available in a pdf document online."

 

Canada rocked by copyright scandal
Policy maker in bed with movie industry mogul

By Nick Farrell: Tuesday, 25 September 2007, 11:56 AM

ONE OF THE BODIES responsible for formulating Canada's copyright laws has been shaken by revelations that its organiser has been caught, um, hanging out with a movie industry bigwig.

The Hill Times says Patricia Neri, the Director General of Copyright Policy at Canadian Heritage has been removed from her position after rumours of a conflict of interest surfaced.

It turned out that she was holding a torch for one of Canada's leading copyright lobbyists Douglas Frith, who is President of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association.

Industry watchers had been a bit spooked about the speed that Bill C-59, the anti-camcording legislation sailed through the Senate.

The law was designed to stop people filming films with camcorders when they go to the pictures and backed by the main political parties.

One of the strongest advocates of the law, other than the copyright lobbiests, was Neri, who appeared as a witness before a Senate hearing on the bill.

Apparently, when she was giving her evidence, Frith was sitting in the room with her.

Frith's presence was noted by Senator Milne who said that he hoped that the bill was not written by a lobby group.

The Hill Times story has not appeared online but it is looked at on Michael Geist's bog here. µ

Canadian Heritage Copyright Policy Rocked By Conflict of Interest Concerns

Monday September 24, 2007
The Hill Times is reporting that Patricia Neri, the Director General of Copyright Policy at Canadian Heritage has been removed from her position to become a special advisor to Assistant Deputy Minister Jean-Pierre Blais with "duties still to be determined." While people move all the time in government, this development is noteworthy - not just because it comes mere weeks before a copyright bill may be unveiled, but because there are mounting rumours that the move comes as a direct result of a conflict of interest concerns.

Personnel at the Copyright Policy branch were advised by email late last week that the move was for "personal reasons," though Neri apparently stopped coming into work soon after Labour Day. According to multiple sources, the personal reason involves a personal relationship with one of Canada’s leading copyright lobbyists.

While Neri’s personal life is no one’s business but her own, this does raise troubling questions about the quick passage of Bill C-59, the anti-camcording legislation, since Neri appeared as a witness before a Senate hearing on the bill with the lobbyist in the room. The Privy Council Office places particular responsibility on public servants that appear before a Parliamentary committee since they do so on behalf of the Minister.

Further, when was this known to senior officials at Canadian Heritage? If weeks ago, why does it appear that no one took action, particularly since this came at a time when Neri was briefing Josée Verner, the new Minister of Canadian Heritage, and the Prime Minister’s Office on copyright matters?

This is not an easy issue to raise, but if these reports are true, it surely creates at least a perceived conflict of interest contrary to Government Ethics Guidelines on a file that is very controversial and likely to grab the spotlight this fall. The Hill Times notes that Canadian Heritage has been slow to comment on the situation other than to confirm the move. Although it is important to protect the privacy of those affected, public confidence in the copyright process will be undermined if there is not a frank and full disclosure about who knew what and when.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2251/125/

 

Belarc Advisor 7.2.20.9
Author: Belarc, Inc.
Date: 2007-09-24
Size: 1.42 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

Limitations: Free for personal use.

download
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1385.html

 

Dying Virgin urges punters: "rip to CD"
And burn the DRM

By Wily Ferret: Tuesday, 25 September 2007, 8:24 AM

VIRGIN DIGITAL is advising all its music customers to burn DRM'd tracks bought from its store to CD, and re-rip them as DRM-free MP3.

We kid ye not.

The service is being shut down this month, after lacklustre take up. However, since Virgin sold tunes with Windows Media DRM on, those who have bought songs already will have their licenses die when the store shuts down, thus rendering their paid-for music useless.

In a website posting, Virgin suggests that customers download their tracks and burn them out to a CD, allowed by the Windows DRM, thus circumventing the copy protection and allowing them to play on post closure.

The shop closure is an example of just why the anti-DRM brigade is constantly warning about the evils of copy protection. Should the copy protection enabler go out of business, those legally buying songs are totally screwed - unlike those who pirated the tracks.

With Apple continuing to dominate the market and Windows Media looking like a dead format for portable tunes, how long before we see another Windows-based shop folding, locking out even more customers? µ
http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/09/25/dying-virgin-urges-punters-rip-to-cd

 

Dear all,

DVDFab products 3.2.0.0 is out (Sep 25, 2007):

DVDFab Platinum/Gold 3.2.0.0:
http://www.dvdfab.com/download.htm

DVDFab HD Decrypter 3.2.0.0:
http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm

What's New:

* New: Brand new "PathPlayer" technology to remove latest DVD copy protection.

"PathPlayer" gives DVDFab the ability to copy DVD content only allowed to be played on a real DVD player. In this way, DVDFab will ignore unplayable content which may contain copy protection.

Please note when "PathPlayer" is enabled, opening a DVD may need up to several minutes, which is much longer than before.
* New: Added setting options for "PathPlayer".
* New: Added support for a new copy protection as found on "Blade: House of Chthon", (US).
* New: Added support for a new copy protection as found on "88 Minutes", (R2, German).
* New: Added support for a new copy protection as found on "Bridge to Terabithia", (R2, German).
* New: Added support for a new copy protection as found on "Curse of the Golden Flower", (R2, UK).
* New: Removed unreferenced VTS and PGC for cleaner DVD structure and better compression.
* New: Brand new "DVD to Mobile" framework which gives DVDFab the ability to take the power of dual core (or more cores) CPU. Our test shows the H.264 encoding on dual core system speeds up to 200%.
* New: "DVD to Mobile" feature uses a lot of of open source libraries, like FFmpeg, x264, xvid, liba52, faac, lame, etc. DVDFab is compatible with open source GPL/LGPL license, and thanks for the help of open source community.
* New: Program and installer are signed now for security.
* New: Updated language files.

Best Regards,
Fengtao
__________________
DVDFab - The ultimate DVD copying/converting/burning software! Copy any DVD to DVDR/PSP/iPod/etc.
DVD Region+CSS Free - Watch and copy any region code CSS-encrypted DVD on any DVD drive!
http://www.dvdidle.com/

 

e-mail from comcast

Comcast is upgrading the Personal Web Pages product to include up to 40 times more online storage than before! As part of the product upgrade, your online storage will automatically increase from 25 MB up to 1,000 MB per Comcast.net e-mail address - that's a full gigabyte - at no additional cost. And if you have opened secondary Comcast.net e-mail addresses for your account you will get 1 GB of online storage for each of them.

The product upgrade will take place over the next months and there is nothing you need to do to receive the increased storage.

Maintenance Period - While Comcast upgrades the Personal Web Pages, there will be a brief maintenance period during which you will be unable to make updates to your site. During this period, your Personal Web Pages will still remain active and visitors will still be able to access your site. The maintenance period should only last a few hours on a single day in the coming month.

 

Sorry for going off subject for a moment but my birth color is silver and that desription you posted ireland is pretty close

 

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13443
Thinking about caving in to the RIAA?

p2pnet news | P2P:- Liam Jewell, 21, is a full-time senior at Plymouth State University, reading for his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a minor in Information Technology.

In August he wrote an item pointing out PSU is insisting students download a Network Access Control application called Bradford Client Security Agent if they want to go online.

Now he’s suggesting anyone thinking about caving into RIAA extortion letters should think again.

“Is Plymouth Acting Illegally by allowing students to be persecuted for alleged downloading of music and movies?” - he asks on his blog, going on >>>

First, some terms you should know:

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) - The organization which subpoenas you for downloading music.

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) - The organization which subpoenas you for downloading movies.

Fast Facts:

* Did you know that neither the RIAA nor the MPAA have ever won a single civil or criminal lawsuit?

* Did you also know that just last week a judge ruled on a case and shot down the argument the RIAA and MPAA have used since 2003? Meaning every lawsuit between then and last Monday is effectively invalid, due to precedent.

* Did you also know that there is a class action lawsuit underway against the RIAA?

* The RIAA and the MPAA do not know who you are until Plymouth State University tells them.

* Did you know they use an IP address to identify you, which has been proven over and over in court as an ineffective way of identifying ANYONE?

The school knows.

The School’s IT Administrators also know.

Yet in spite of their knowledge of all of the above, they have already forwarded over 100 subpoenas this school year alone!

The subpoenas that the school blindly hands out to students have no bearing in court. The subpoena’s are simply designed by the RIAA and MPAA to scare the students into settling when there is no real lawsuit against them, and no evidence that would hold up in court.

It’s ridiculous! How can the school say it is protecting your privacy as a student when it forwards these meaningless letters on to you?

Do you think they are just following the crowd, doing what every other University does? Think again.

Harvard doesn’t forward on the subpoena’s and neither do dozens of other schools. This is because they know the notices are bogus and possibly illegal. Plymouth chooses to allow this illegal persecution of it’s students. Students are not putting up with it at other University’s however, and we shouldn’t either.

Just Tuesday, University of FL students in Interscope v. Does 1-40, had their motion to quash the illegal subpoenas forwarded on by their school granted. This means that the judge found that the RIAA subpoenas were bogus for all 40 students. What a surprise.

Don’t think they are alone, they are but one of many, Oklahoma State and the University of New Mexico students are also successfully fighting this kind of harassment.

What can be done to stop this practice? Well first we need to act as one and show our disappointment about this abusive practice. Writing letters to the heads of the IT department will not help in the matter, they will just try to confuse you with tech talk. You should definitely fight anything they hand to you however. Never settle, you are throwing away your money by doing so and are incriminating yourself. Also they can still sue you after you have paid them, so it’s pretty pointless.

Next, when you get a subpoena you NEED to read the information on this link before you do anything else.

I am not a lawyer and all advice given here is opinion only.

Isn’t it time Plymouth starting acting like they care about your privacy, instead of just saying they do?

Stay tuned.

SlashdotSlashdot it! Add to Technorati Favorites

Also See:
Network Access Control - Plymouth State student control system, August 30, 2007

 

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13444
Serious AIM security hole

p2pnet news | Security:- Core Security Technologies is warning AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) users about a serious security breach.

“AOL has acknowledged the vulnerability and recommended users upgrade to the latest version of the AIM beta client, which is immune to the problem,” says SearchSecurity.com, going on:

“Specifically, an attacker could remotely execute code on a user’s computer and exploit Internet Explorer bugs without user interaction, said Iván Arce, Core’s chief technology officer. The vulnerabilities affect AIM 6.1 and 6.2 beta, AIM Pro and AIM Lite. Arce called it a serious threat to millions of AIM users.”

The vulnerability has already shown up on several public bug-tracking Web sites, according to Arce.

AIM users running vulnerable client software should switch to AIM version 5.9, the latest version of the AIM client 6.5 (which is still in beta), or the web-based AIM Express, SearchSecurity.com says, adding:

“The vulnerable AIM clients include support for enhanced message types that enable AIM users to use HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) to customize text messages with specific font formats or colors, Arce said.

“An Internet Explorer object is embedded within AIM to render HTML, making for a rich user experience. Unfortunately, he said, it also makes it easy for attackers to take advantage of users because content isn’t properly sanitized.”

SlashdotSlashdot it! Add to Technorati Favorites

Also See:

SearchSecurity.com - Serious security flaw in AOL Instant Messenger, September 26, 2007

 

New cracks in Google mail
Penetrated via a persistent backdoor
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco → More by this author
Published Wednesday 26th September 2007 01:23 GMT

Yesterday, we reported on an unholy trinity of Google vulnerabilities that put emails, private photos and website security at risk. Today came word of a new weakness that makes it easy for bad guys to silently put a backdoor in Gmail accounts.

The technique comes courtesy of Petko D. Petkov, a researcher at GNU Citizen, who writes in a blog post that the backdoor is installed simply by luring a victim to a specially crafted website while logged in to Gmail. The naughty site uses a sleight of hand known as a multipart/form-data POST, which writes a filter to Gmail that causes all email with attachments to be forwarded to collect@evil.com.

Petkov didn't provide a proof of concept or detailed documentation, but Ryan Naraine of the Zero Day blog writes here that the exploit was demonstrated for him. The bug "is particularly nasty because of the way the exploit works without any user action and the fact that it’s difficult for the average Gmail user to know that emails are being stolen," he writes.

Users aren't likely to notice a filter has been added unless they think to check the "Filters" section of their Gmail Settings.

A Google spokesman said company bug hunters were looking into the report.

Petkov's discovery is just the latest way people can be burned when entrusting their personal data to Google. Yesterday, various researchers showed how a vulnerability in the Google search appliance, which the company sells to webmasters, can be used to inject code and overwrite content on the pages of third-party sites. Another flaw made it possible to steal photos designated as private on the Picasa application.

Google also suffered from a vulnerability that resided in the so-called polls application, a part of Google Groups, that made it possible to steal contacts and messages from Gmail accounts. A Google spokesman on Monday afternoon said the flaw had been fixed.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/26/gmail_backdoor_vulnerability/

 

Defense Lawyers Cringe at MediaDefender's Child-Porn Patrol Plans

New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is raising the eyebrows of defense attorneys over his recently exposed plans to pay the controversial anti-piracy firm MediaDefender to gather evidence for child-porn prosecutions.

A law enforcement partnership with the peer-to-peer policing company raises questions about possible conflicts of interest and the integrity and security of evidence collected for criminal prosecutions, say attorneys.

"Generally it is not looked upon favorably when a prosecutor engages a private company to collect evidence in a case or to ... partner with in a criminal case," says San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi. "This raises grave ethical concerns regarding the propriety of that relationship between the prosecuting authority and the private company, and it also could potentially show favoritism toward that company in the future," if the company broke a different law in New York and faced prosecution by the attorney general's office.

MediaDefender, a peer-to-peer policing firm that works with the entertainment industry to thwart the illegal trading of copyright works, became the target of hackers who stole and recently posted more than 6,000 of the company's internal e-mails online, along with a database, source code for its file-sharing tools and a recorded phone call between a MediaDefender employee and investigators with the New York attorney general's office.

The e-mails and the recorded phone call revealed that the attorney general's office planned to outsource certain steps in its evidence-collection process against New York child-porn violators to MediaDefender, a company based in Santa Monica, California.

Few specifics are known about the project, and MediaDefender did not return several phone calls seeking comment. The New York attorney general's office will not speak on the record about it.

But according to the e-mails, MediaDefender planned to unleash a peer-to-peer crawler to search unspecified file-sharing networks for child-porn videos and images based on keywords -- such as "young," "kids" and "taboo" -- provided by the AG's office.

Once suspected image files were found, the software would collect the IP address of the machines trading those files and filter for any addresses based in New York. The data MediaDefender collected would then be sent automatically to the AG's office, where investigators would analyze and investigate it, using a MediaDefender application to visit the IP addresses and download the suspect files.

It's unclear whether MediaDefender planned to download the suspected-child porn itself, or leave that to the AG's investigators. Jeffrey Lerner, spokesman for the New York AG's office, refused to comment on the record about whether MediaDefender was downloading child porn, due to "an ongoing investigation."

If the company knowingly downloaded child porn, it could run afoul of federal law, notwithstanding any arrangement it made with state authorities, legal experts say. Either way, several defense attorneys expressed surprise that a law enforcement agency would outsource any evidence collection to a private company.

"It is bizarre," says Martin Pinales, former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "What they're doing is saying, 'We're going to make you a bounty hunter. We're going to pay you to go collect evidence so that in the future we can prosecute somebody.' But (MediaDefender doesn't) have the training of law enforcement."

Jeffrey Douglas, a criminal defense attorney in Santa Monica, California, finds other aspects of the MediaDefender law enforcement partnership disturbing. A private company that's under contract to collect information for law enforcement investigators has a financial incentive to produce results, he says.

"At the end of the contract, if they haven't made 'x' number of cases, are they going to lose their contract?" he asks. "The company knows there are certain expectations that they're going to accomplish, or they're not going to get another contract."

He also expressed concern about what could be described as a fishing expedition to net as many suspects as possible using less-than-accurate tools.

The e-mails between MediaDefender and the AG's office, for example, discuss sending the AG 1 gigabyte of "media data" daily, along with "a couple thousand New York IPs that our geo IP database identified using our software." An initial test MediaDefender conducted for the AG's office produced "a lot of false positives," according to one of the exposed e-mails.

"No software can determine whether a person (in a picture) is 17 or 18," Douglas says, so there are bound to be a lot of innocent IP addresses collected by MediaDefender and sent to the AG, before further investigation weeds out innocent suspects from actual lawbreakers.

San Francisco public defender Adachi says the relationship also conceivably gives MediaDefender the power to decide whom to collect evidence against and whom to let go.

"Say I ... find a web site that's run by my sister-in-law and decide that, 'Geez, I'm not going to turn that over,'" Adachi says. "There's no sworn duty by the private company (collecting evidence for law enforcement) to prosecute people in a fair, evenhanded manner."

On top of all these concerns is the issue of data security and the integrity of evidence against manipulation by intruders -- either inside or outside the company -- particularly in light of the hack of MediaDefender's internal e-mail. Of course, evidence on a law enforcement computer is at the same risk of being accessed and altered, but the e-mail breach at MediaDefender makes the danger all the more glaring.

"It is extremely difficult to protect the material under the best of circumstances," Douglas says. "The more computers it passes through and separate control centers that it passes through, the less likely it is that the integrity of the material will be maintained."

In the phone call between MediaDefender and the AG's office, an AG investigator tells MediaDefender that the "intelligence information" MediaDefender is sending them needs to be able to stand up in court, and that the AG needs to know that there's no chance that the data coming from MediaDefender was compromised, edited or modified.

Then there's the question of MediaDefender's own trustworthiness. Legal experts says the biggest risk for prosecutors in using a private company like MediaDefender to aid in catching child pornographers is that the company's stock-in-trade is deception: It specializes in introducing decoy "pirated" content onto file-sharing networks.

A blogger even discovered in July that the company was secretly operating a video-download site called MiiVi -- apparently as another way of injecting decoy files and tracking downloaders. The hacked e-mails show the company tried unsuccessfully to hide its connection with the site, and even relaunched it under another name after it was exposed.

Mark Rasch, a former Justice Department cybercrime lawyer and current managing director of technology for FTI Consulting, says if he were defending a child-porn suspect against evidence produced by a law enforcement agency that worked with MediaDefender, he would raise an obvious question.

"How do we know that MediaDefender didn't put these files on the computer first?" he says.
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/09/mediadefender_police

 

ProcessMonitor 1.23
Posted by Mihai Asmanow on 24 September 2007 - 20:50 · 3 comments & 1429 views
Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.

Process Monitor's user interface and options are similar to those of Filemon and Regmon, but it was written from the ground up and includes numerous significant enhancements, such as:

- Monitoring of process and thread startup and exit, including exit status codes
- Monitoring of image (DLL and kernel-mode device driver) loads
- More data captured for operation input and output parameters
- Non-destructive filters allow you to set filters without losing data
- Capture of thread stacks for each operation make it possible in many cases to identify the root cause of an operation
- Reliable capture of process details, including image path, command line, user and session ID
- Configurable and moveable columns for any event property
- Filters can be set for any data field, including fields not configured as columns
- Advanced logging architecture scales to tens of millions of captured events and gigabytes of log data
- Process tree tool shows relationship of all processes referenced in a trace
- Native log format preserves all data for loading in a different Process Monitor instance
- Process tooltip for easy viewing of process image information
- Detail tooltip allows convenient access to formatted data that doesn't fit in the columna
- Cancellable search
- Boot time logging of all operations

Download: Process Monitor 1.23 freeware
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessMonitor.zip

 

Download: Ad-Aware 2007 Free 7.0.2.3

Ad-Aware 2007 Free?

free,Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.3
Posted by Mihai Asmanow on 26 September 2007 - 14:59 · 1 comment & 329 views
Ad-Aware 2007 Free remains the most popular anti-spyware product for computer users around the world, with nearly one million downloads every week. Ad-Aware 2007 Free version provides you with advanced protection against spyware that secretly attaches and takes control of your computer, resulting in aggressive advertising pop-ups, sluggish computer activity, even identity theft through stolen bank details, passwords, and credit card account numbers. If you want real-time scanning capabilities, consider upgrading to Ad-Aware 2007 Plus for real-time protection against spyware, all the time!

What's New in Ad-Aware 2007 Free?

* Redesigned Engine – Benefit from superior program flexibility and more accurate scanning methods with all-new program architecture.
* Improved Code Sequence Identification (CSI) Technology – Boost your privacy protection with precise detection of embedded malware, including known and emerging threats.
* Incremental Definition File Updates – Save precious time and resources with smaller update files resulting in faster download times.
* TrackSweep - Control privacy by erasing tracks left behind while surfing the Web on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera, with one easy click.
* Multiple Browser Support – Choose Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera with expanded browser support.
* New Straightforward User Interface – Effortlessly maneuver the complexities of malware detection and removal with our new user-friendly interface.

More Key Features

* User-Controlled Spyware Removal - Decide for yourself what to delete from your system and what to keep.
*ExtensiveDetection Database – Stay protected with regular updates fromtheextensive library of identified and analyzed spyware.
* System Restore Point – Easily revert back to your clean system to recover from a spyware attack.
http://neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42804
Download: Ad-Aware 2007 Free 7.0.2.3

ftp://majorgeeks.mirror.internode.on.net/spyware/aaw2007.exe

 

http://neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42802
FREE,DriverMax 3.0

Posted by Mihai Asmanow on 26 September 2007 - 09:24 · 1 comment & 941 views
Easily back up all your drivers (for later use or when planning to reinstall Windows)!

DriverMax is a new program which allows you to easily reinstall all your Windows drivers. No more searching for rare drivers on discs or on the web or inserting one installation CD after the other. Simply export all your current drivers (or just the ones that work ok) to a folder or a compressed file. After reinstalling Windows you will have everything in one place! Most of the situations when Windows is running slower are caused by faulty driver installations. Windows stores all versions of older drivers just in case you want to go back; sometimes it messes up older versions with more recent ones. The Export Wizard will only export the drivers you select by copying the needed files to a folder or a compressed ZIP file. After reinstalling Windows all drivers will be back in place in less than 5 minutes - sparing you of searching, inserting disc after disk and losing precious time. The Import Drivers wizard allows you to install all the drivers that you exported earlier. The entire operation might take up to 5-10 minutes.

Just one single computer restart will be required after all drivers are reinstalled!

DriverMax is able to display a complete report of all drivers (versions, release dates) installed on your system. This feature can also be very useful when you want to analyze the differences between the drivers installed on different machines.

Download: DriverMax 3.0 freeware
http://www.innovative-sol.com/soft/dmx/drivermax.exe

Link: Get your free registration code
http://www.innovative-sol.com/register/dmx.htm

 

Download: FlashGet 1.9.6 freewareFlashGet 1.9.6
http://neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42787

Posted by Mihai Asmanow on 25 September 2007 - 10:07 · 7 comments & 1250 views
FlashGet is a freeware download manager (formerly shareware,adware) for Microsoft Windows. It is extremely popular, and the standard download manager in China and many other places.

Features

* Integration with web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape, Mozilla,Firefox
* Can download a sequence of files
* Integrated web crawler
* Language support
* Support MMS, BitTorrent and RTSP downloads.
* Manages downloaded files easily.
* Automatically search for the fastest server available for the fastestpossible downloads.
* The ability to split files into up to 10parts, with each part downloading simultaneously.
* Superior ease-of-use. FlashGet's interface is logical,informative and customizable.
* Compatible with Vista

Changelog FlashGet Version 1.9.6

- Add "FlashGet Recommends"
- Optimized the BT module
- Fixed the messy code in "new download" window
- Other improvements

Download: FlashGet 1.9.6 freeware
http://down6.flashget.com/flashget196en.exe

 

Download: The Cleaner 5.0.0.130 free for personal use
http://neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42775
The Cleaner 5.0.0.130
Posted by Mihai Asmanow on 24 September 2007 - 19:54 · 3 comments & 784 views
The Cleaner v.5 is designed to keep your computer and data safe from Trojans, Worms, Keyloggers, Spyware and many other types of malware.

The Cleaner v5 works with:

- Windows 98 SE
- Windows ME
- Windows 2000
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Windows Server 2003
- Longhorn/Windows Server 2008

What's new:

- This is a rather large update as the scanning engine has been modified and the database has been updated.

Download: The Cleaner 5.0.0.130 free for personal use
http://www.moosoft.com/cleaner5/cleaner5free.exe

 

Download: PSI 0.1.0.2 Beta freeware
http://neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42777

Secunia Personal Software Inspector 0.1.0.2 Beta
Posted by Mihai Asmanow on 24 September 2007 - 20:05 · 5 comments & 835 views
The Secunia PSI is an invaluable tool for you to use when assessing the security patch state of software installed on your system. It constantly monitors your system for insecure software installations, notifies you when an insecure application is installed, and even provides you with detailed instructions for updating the application when available. The Secunia PSI detects installed software and categorizes your software as either Insecure, End-of-Life, or Up-To-Date. Effectively enabling you to focus your attention on software installations where more secure versions are available from the vendors.

Highlights of The Secunia PSI:

* The Secunia PSI will be available free of charge
* Calculates your unique Secunia System Score
* Automatically scans your computer
* Enables you to update Insecure/End-of-Life software
* Provides Direct Download Links to security updates & patches
* Detects and advises on more than 4,200 applications
* Direct correlation between thousands of Secunia Advisories and your specific system and software
* Secure SSL encrypted connection to Secunia

Secunia PSI version 0.1.0.2 (BETA) changelog:

* Fix for installation issue on Windows Vista

Download: PSI 0.1.0.2 Beta freeware
https://psi.secunia.com/PSISetup.exe

 

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13445
Deadly mutant bugs from space

p2pnet news | Off Topic:- No, it’s not the title from a sci-fi horror movie.

Space bugs or, rather bacteria carried into space aboard a shuttle, mutated to the extent they were three times Moore deadly than in their previous earthly forms.

Cheryl Nickerson at Arizona State University in Tempe, US, and her colleagues launched Salmonella typhimurium into space aboard the shuttle Atlantis in September 2006, says New Scientist, going on:

The shuttle returned after 12 days, during which time the microbes had altered the way they express 167 genes compared with bacteria that remained on Earth.

The team found that these space-mutated bugs were almost three times as likely to kill infected mice compared with their ground-grown counterparts. That could be bad news if the results hold true for astronauts, since some experiments suggest the weightlessness of space travel suppresses the immune system.

Their results are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which, “describes how the bugs became more virulent in the wake of a 12 day flight on board space shuttle mission STS-115 (September 2006) where bugs were tended by astronaut Heidemarie M Stefanyshyn-Piper,” says The Telegraph, adding:

“While infectious disease events have occurred and continue to occur in spaceflight, for the most part, they have been fairly minor in incidence,” said Prof Nickerson.

“However, as the duration and distance of future spaceflight missions in increased, including lunar colonization and a mission to Mars, the risk for infectious disease events is also increased. This is especially true given that data indicates that the astronauts immune system may not function as well in spaceflight as on Earth.”

(The pic is from WikiVisual.)

SlashdotSlashdot it! Add to Technorati Favorites

Also See:
New Scientist - Space creates mutant ’superbugs’, September 24, 2007
The Telegraph - Spaceflight ‘makes bacteria more deadly’, September 24, 2007

 

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/13446
Radio: a world of abundance

p2pnet news view | Radio:- Soon after taking over as chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Konrad von Finckenstein commissioned Laurence Dunbar and Christian Leblanc, two leading broadcasting lawyers, to conduct a comprehensive review of Canada’s regulatory framework for broadcasting services.

Dunbar and Leblanc sparked a firestorm when they released their 337-page report earlier this month with the Canadian Association of Broadcasters characterizing their recommendations as an assault on the foundation of Canadian broadcasting. In this instance, the broadcasters are correct. The report is indeed an assault on the regulatory foundation of Canadian broadcasting - one that is long overdue.

Canadian broadcast regulation was designed for a world of scarcity where broadcast spectrum and consumer choice was limited. This led to a highly regulated environment that used various policy levers to shelter Canadian broadcasters from external competition, limited new entrants, and imposed a long list of content requirements and advertising restrictions.

As a result, a dizzying array of regulations kept the entry of new broadcast competitors to a minimum, enshrined genre protection so that Canadians were treated to domestic versions of popular channels such as HBO and ESPN, and firmly supported simultaneous substitution, a policy that allows Canadian broadcasters to simulcast U.S. programming but substitute their own advertising.

Given that framework, it comes as no surprise to find incumbent broadcasters averse to significant change. Media consolidation has left the market with a handful of private Canadian broadcasters who fill their broadcast schedules with profitable U.S. programming, relegate most original Canadian content to undesirable timeslots, and generate an estimated $200 million annually from the simultaneous substitution rules alone.

Yet today’s broadcasting environment is no longer one of scarcity, but rather one of near limitless abundance as satellite, digital channels, and the Internet now provide instant access to an unprecedented array of original content. Spectrum limits have given way to broadband pipes that carry everything from original television networks to YouTube videos. Fledgling broadcasters rely primarily on Internet distribution, while conventional broadcasters make their programming freely available online on multiple sources and give users the ability to embed clips of their shows anywhere they choose.

In this new environment, Dunbar and Leblanc rightly conclude that many broadcasting regulations should be re-considered. They recommend dropping domestic genre protections, freeing up consumer choice by creating greater flexibility in program bundling, and removing some advertising restrictions.

More controversially, they suggest re-thinking the simultaneous substitution rules, which they note results in Canadian broadcasters having their schedules largely dictated by the decisions south of the border. Although highly profitable, the rules have not generated the anticipated Canadian content benefits. Moreover, increasing costs for U.S. programming and the move toward online streaming threatens to further erode this cash cow.

The report is at its most frank in discussing the Canadian new media environment. It notes that the influx of foreign content is only likely to increase as users access content “anytime, anywhere” whether by means of authorized or unauthorized services. In fact, the growing use of Internet streaming may soon mean that Canadian broadcasters will face competition from the very programs they purchase from U.S. distributors.

The authors remain optimistic, however, concluding that “the solutions to this issue lie not in imposing new regulatory restrictions on Canadian companies as some stakeholders have suggested - but rather in encouraging them to stake out territory on the Internet. . .to regulate Canadians, while the rest of the world competes in an open market, would in our view be counterproductive.”

The message is clear - broadcasters must adapt by shifting from their reliance on protective regulations and inexpensive U.S. content to instead competing on the unregulated global stage with their own, original Canadian content delivered to an international audience on conventional and Internet platforms. This should dramatically alter Canadian content production from one mandated by government regulation to one mandated by market survival.

The government can assist in this regard - the report calls for the establishment of a national policy for digital media - but its biggest contribution would be to follow the path outlined in the Dunbar and Leblanc report by launching their own assault on a regulatory environment designed for a bygone era of broadcast scarcity.

Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]