*HOT* Tech News And Downloads, I Would Read This Thread And Post Any Good Info

Thanks little155 ... someone's phone just rang; right now, I don't even want to know who. A hell of a way to do this!

 

Windows Vista Beta 2 Download Available Now
per baldbear..
Use this link to download using the Download Manager (recommended)

Windows Vista Beta 2 x86 or x64
http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/beta2/en/x86/download.htm

Direct Link:
• Windows Vista Beta 2, English 32-Bit Edition
http://download.windowsvista.com/pr...60518-1455_winmain_beta2_x86fre_client-LB2CFR E_EN_DVD.iso

• Windows Vista Beta 2, English 64-Bit Edition
http://download.windowsvista.com/pr...60518-1455_winmain_beta2_x64fre_client-LB2CxF RE_EN_DVD.iso

Vista Beta 2 license

W3R6Y-2PHCD-8YGMJ-TWPPM-M2DYF

 

@ireland

Have you tried it? It looks so tempting........

 

I SURVIVED ... I SURVIVED ... I SURVIVED!!! 20% of our organization got laid off this morning but I survived it. It's such a wierd feeling; I'm elated on the one hand yet sad to see friends I've known for many years in tears on their way out. Out of eight offices around the city, I seem to be the only one who has survived the downsizing ... I think I've been reduced to a department of one. Now I've got to attend four "emergency meetings" all scheduled for the same time. Hmmm ... who cares, at least I have a job! Thanks All for all the good wished! ... Gerry

 

i is happy for ye gerry1,






Norwegian iTunes victory

p2p news / p2pnet: Norway's consumer watchdog says it's rung up a major victory against Apple's iTunes.

The Consumer Council of Norway says it's on track to win case against Apple, claiming iTunes breaches of fundamental consumer rights.

And it now wants CDON.com, prefueled.com and MSN.no brought into the picture.

"iTunes can change the your rights to the music after you downloaded it," said the council in January. "This is a violation of basic Principles of consumer contract law. Consumers who want to play they're music on a non-iPod player must first remove the copy protection, this removal for legitimate private use is however stopped by iTunes DRM technology and Terms of Use. iTunes stopping this removal for legitimate private use like playing the music on a non-iPod mp3 player is obviously in violation of the Copyright Act, says Waterhouse."

Now, "The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman has ruled that the Apple iTunes service breaks the law, and has given the company two weeks to fix the problem," says The Register, going on:

"According to the ruling, iTunes breaks section 9a of the Norwegian Marketing Control Act. The regulator said it was not reasonable that the consumer must sign up to a contract regulated by English law, rather than Norwegian law. It also said iTunes must accept responsibility for damage its software may do, and said it is unreasonable to alter terms and conditions after a song has been sold."

States the council:

In order to start using iTunes, consumers must agree to a number of terms and conditions. When the Consumer Council investigated these terms and conditions, it found a number of questionable clauses.

"iTunes’ terms and conditions are unreasonable. We are now therefore asking the Consumer Ombudsman to use Section 9a of the Marketing Control Act to have the terms changed," says Senior Adviser Torgeir Waterhouse.

"iTunes is able to alter your rights to music that you have already bought. This is breach of fundamental principles of contract law. iTunes also blocks consumers from breaking the copy protection, or DRM, if they want to use other MP3 players than Apple’s iPod. This is a clear breach of the Copyright Act," says Waterhouse.

iTunes is also breaking the Cooling-off Period Act by failing to provide information that consumers are entitled to when shopping on the Internet. On account of this, consumers are entitled to a cooling-off period when they download files from iTunes.

The Consumer Council feels that in general the terms and conditions are unbalanced and one-sided.

"Consumers are given few or no rights, whilst the vendor, iTunes, reserves a number of rights, some of which are unreasonable," says Waterhouse.

iTunes Europe is located in Luxembourg and is, according to the terms and conditions, subject to English law, says the Norwegian consumer watchdog, declaring it's in complete disagreement with this.

"iTunes.no can only be used by Norwegian consumers," it observes. "The domain name and language are Norwegian, and prices are stated in Norwegian kroner.

"All of these factors indicate that iTunes may be subject to Norwegian consumer protection legislation, and that the service may be governed by the Norwegian Marketing Control Act," says Waterhouse.

iTunes’ terms also restrict consumers’ entitlement to compensation, the council says, going on that the Terms of Service state:

Apple does not represent or guarantee that the service will be free from loss, corruption, attack, viruses, interference, hacking, or other security intrusion, and apple disclaims any liability relating thereto. You shall be responsible for backing up your own system.

Thus, "Consumers are barred from lodging compensation claims if iTunes' software creates security holes that can be exploited by computer viruses," says the council, referring to the infamous Sony BMG DRM spyware scandal as a case in point and, "This kind of limitation on iTunes’ liability for compensation is in breach of the general principles of contract law, and the Consumer Council of Norway believes that it is unreasonable."

But iTunes isn't the only problem, the council says. Other music download services have similar terms and conditions.

"CDON.com, prefueled.com and MSN.no are examples of other affected services," declares Waterhouse. "We are therefore asking the Consumer Ombudsman to investigate the terms and conditions of these download services."

Digg this story.

Also See:
change the your rights - Norway group attacks iTunes, January 26, 2006
The Register - iTunes guilty of breaking Norwegian law, June 7, 2008

==================

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(Thursday 8th June 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/9003

 

Well gerry, hope you don't have eight times the work. But, glad you survived the cuts. Later, good luck. George

 

@gerry

Happy for you, although you must feel like someone let the air out of your tires by now. You need some relax time to get over your PTSS, so chill for awhile today

 

Movies File Share Top Ten



p2pnet.net Feature:- p2pnet's Movies File Share Top Ten is compiled from statistics supplied by p2p research company Big Champagne.

Only on p2pnet.

If you want to see how BC develops them, head over to our Q&A with ceo Eric Garland here.

Note: If a movie returns after being out of the charts for two weeks or longer, it's designated 'new'. 'Return' means back after a week's absence.

Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, Global
Week ending June 8, 2006
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> X-Men: The Last Stand (unchanged) 1,367,021
02 >>> The Da Vinci Code (unchanged) 1,363,190
03 >>> Mission: Impossible III (unchanged) 1,329,502
04 >>> Over The Hedge (unchanged) 1,306,002
05 >>> R.V. (unchanged) 1,301,914
06 >>> Big Momma's House 2 + #7 1,294,081
07 >>> Poseidon - #6 1,284,557
08 >>> The Wild + #9 1,254,508
09 >>> Date Movie (new) 1,244,941
10 >>> The Break-Up (new) 1,238,905

Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, USA
Week ending June 8, 2006
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> X-Men: The Last Stand (unchanged) 799,347
02 >>> The Da Vinci Code (unchanged) 788,266
03 >>> Mission: Impossible III (unchanged) 787,536
04 >>> Over The Hedge + #5 784,664
05 >>> Big Momma's House 2 + #6 764,286
06 >>> R.V. - #4 762,469
07 >>> Date Movie (new) 755,671
08 >>> Poseidon - #7 752,718
09 >>> The Wild - #8 746,180
10 >>> The Break-Up (new) 707,338



(Thursday 8th June 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/9012

 

Thanks for the nice words guys! I appreciate your support and while I'll be pulling my hair out in a few days because I've been left with everything to do, at least I still have my job so I'll celebrate for a few days before I start complaining! Thanks ... Gerry

 

DESKTOP GRAFFITIST..........Desktop Graffitist is a small program that enables you to spray paint your desktop, and anything else that might appear on screen. DG is designed for recreation and creativity, and can be used to relieve office stress and boredom. Aside from the added bonus of allowing you to vent on that stupid monthly report or the latest homework as@ignment, the program is also good for leaving messages on other people's computers that they can't miss (love notes, hate notes, grocery lists, and art/vandalism et cetera)......(free).....GO THERE!
http://www.roggel.com/NGNeer/DesktopGraffitist/index.shtml

 

good morning to all ye afterdawners,
drinking me first cup of coffee postng this article..

thanks to cdfreaks
Time Warner networks try zapping Cablevision's new DVR
Posted by Dan Bell on 08 June 2006 - 19:03 - Source: CNN

mrdataNY used our news submit to tell us "This will be interesting to see how far they get... Perhaps this will open some legal options for others."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. cable operator Cablevision Systems Corp (Research). on Wednesday said its planned network-based digital video recorder is protected by "fair use" legal precedents established in the famous Sony Betamax video case.

In an 18-page counterclaim filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the company defended itself against a lawsuit filed by four Hollywood movie studios and five cable television networks that charged the planned service would violate U.S. copyright laws if launched.

The company claimed its network DVR would allow users to engage in ""fair use," which gives consumers limited use of copyrighted material, such as making personal copies of purchased music or movies, without requiring permission from the rights holders such as record or movie companies.

Let's hope that our fair use rights are upheld and not further eroded! Full story at CNN Money.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13526

_____________________________________________________________________

What appears to be a 1080p TV, may actually not be a 1080p TV
Posted by Dan Bell on 08 June 2006 - 19:48 - Source: TG Daily

Buyer beware! If it isn't bad enough with the format wars for high definition, coupled with the strangling DRM of the content constraints, now we have to be darn careful if we decide to buy a device to watch the content upon! In a report last week, TD Daily wrote about some new 1080p displays hitting the market. Trouble is, only the chip inside the set can appreciate it, as the picture will be downrezzed to fit the resolution of the TV! Talk about misleading...

Chicago (IL) - Shame on us. Last week, we reported about four new LCD TVs from Hitachi that integrate a new generation video processor that is capable of "advanced 1080p histogram processing" for about $2200 in a 32" package. Our conclusion that the highest grade of high definition - that we generally see advertised in glossy ads and TV commercials - is finally heading for the mainstream was drawn too fast. Turns out, the existence of a 1080p processor does not necessarily translate into a 1080p capable TV.

Bill Whalen, senior prod manager at Hitachi, told us that while the chip can create and convert the highest resolution, the TV itself cannot. In fact, the chip may take a 1080i (interlaced) or 1080p source, convert it to 1080p (in case of 1080i sources) - and then render it back down to a resolution the TV actually supports. In the case of the four new Hitachi LCD TVs, which will be introduced later this year for prices between $2200 and $3000, that would be 768p (1366x768 progressive).

Shame on us my foot! Shame on Hitachi! Those interested can check out the article in it's entirety at TG Daily.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13527

 

Super battery developed

Lightning recharge

By Nick Farrell: Friday 09 June 2006, 06:05
MIT boffins have come up with a battery that recharges itself in a few seconds and might never need replacing.

Joel Schindall's team looked at the battery's capacitor, which was invented nearly 300 years ago, and concluded that was the weakest link.

Rechargable and disposable batteries use a chemical reaction to produce energy. This is pretty effective, but after many charges and discharges the battery loses capacity and has to be chucked out.

The MIT researchers covered the electrodes with nanotubes which increased the surface area. This enabled the capacitor to store more energy.

In tests, the batteries could be recharged many times and it could be recharged in a matter of seconds rather than a matter of hours.

The technology would be good for laptops, hearing aids and battery powered cars. Of course having batteries that are recharged quickly take humanity one step closer to total redundancy of the male.

More here.

Ever wish you could charge your cellphone or laptop in a few seconds rather than hours? As this ScienCentral News video explains, researchers at the Mas@achusetts Institute of Technology are developing a battery that could do just that, and also might never need to be replaced.

The Past is Future

As our portable devices get more high-tech, the batteries that power them can seem to lag behind. But Joel Schindall and his team at M.I.T. plan to make long charge times and expensive replacements a thing of the past--by improving on technology from the past.

They turned to the capacitor, which was invented nearly 300 years ago. Schindall explains, "We made the connection that perhaps we could take an old product, a capacitor, and use a new technology, nanotechnology, to make that old product in a new way."

Rechargable and disposable batteries use a chemical reaction to produce energy. "That's an effective way to store a large amount of energy," he says, "but the problem is that after many charges and discharges ... the battery loses capacity to the point where the user has to discard it."

Schindall Battery Researcher
But capacitors contain energy as an electric field of charged particles created by two metal electrodes. Capacitors charge faster and last longer than normal batteries. The problem is that storage capacity is proportional to the surface area of the battery's electrodes, so even today's most powerful capacitors hold 25 times less energy than similarly sized standard chemical batteries.

The researchers solved this by covering the electrodes with millions of tiny filaments called nanotubes. Each nanotube is 30,000 times thinner than a human hair. Similar to how a thick, fuzzy bath towel soaks up more water than a thin, flat bed sheet, the nanotube filaments on increase the surface area of the electrodes and allow the capacitor to store more energy. Schindall says this combines the strength of today's batteries with the longevity and speed of capacitors.

"It could be recharged many, many times perhaps hundreds of thousands of times, and ... it could be recharged very quickly, just in a matter of seconds rather than a matter of hours," he says.

This technology has broad practical possibilities, affecting any device that requires a battery. Schindall says, "Small devices such as hearing aids that could be more quickly recharged where the batteries wouldn't wear out; up to larger devices such as automobiles where you could regeneratively re-use the energy of motion and therefore improve the energy efficiency and fuel economy."

Schindall thinks hybrid cars would be a particularly popular application for these batteries, especially because they are expensive to replace.

Battery Nanotubes
Nanotube filaments on the battery's electrodes
image: MIT/Riccardo Signorelli
Schindall also sees the ecological benefit to these reinvented capacitors. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 3 billion industrial and household batteries were sold in the United States in 1998. When these batteries are disposed, toxic chemicals like cadmium can seep into the ground.

"It's better for the environment, because it allows the user to not worry about replacing his battery," he says. "It can be discharged and charged hundreds of thousands of times, essentially lasting longer than the life of the equipment with which it is as@ociated."

Schindall and his team aren't the only ones looking back to capacitors as the future of batteries; a research group in England recently announced advances of their own. But Schindall's groups expects their prototype to be finished in the next few months, and they hope to see them on the market in less than five years.

Schindall's research was featured in the May 2006 edition of Discover Magazine and presented at the 15th International Seminar on Double Layer Capacitors and Hybrid Energy Storage Devices in Deerfield Beach, Florida on December 2005. His research is funded by the Ford-MIT Consortium.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392803

 

@Ireland ... thanks for the desk top graffiti site; I'm going to have some fun with that!

Iced coffee again this morning! A bit depressing to see so many empty desks and experience the absense of all the usual morning chatter and laughter before work begins but I'm still here, I'm in a good mood for the first time in awhile and will grieve the loss of some long time friends at another time. Today shouldn't be a bad day; all our appointments were cancelled as no one knew who'd still be here. Monday will start with a bang though ... clients and no clerical support staff at all; sh**, that means I'll have to use those possessed copiers that don't like me and I'll also have to learn to make an internal phone call on our machines ... after fifteen years, I guess I should learn LOL! I can't just yell out the door anymore as there is no one there! Have a great day all!

 

RIAA can fine you if you install Kazaa

Shared folders are proof of crime

By Nick Farrell: Friday 09 June 2006, 06:07
THE RIAA can sue you for having shared folders on your hard-drive, according to a "Law Geek"

Stewart Rutledge, writing here, said that the recent Elektra v. Barker case shows that the recording industry can sue merely having shared folders on your computer.

According to the case law, you are "making files available for distribution". Even if the files were legally obtained, the fact that you have them available for others to have a look at mean that you are considered a law-breaking copyright infringer and public enema number one.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32309

 

Holy crappers, now you can be guilty just by association, bah

 

Hollywood and the hackers

By Adam Livingstone and Richard Taylor
BBC Newsnight

Motion Picture Association President Dan Glickman locks horns with Electronic Frontier Foundation's John Perry Barlow over big media's war with the internet.

The biggest pirate movie site on the Internet was raided by police a few days ago. Within 48 hours it was up and running in a different country. It's just another week on the barricades of the information revolution.

Over and again we at geek central find ourselves reading about the latest skirmish between the copyright cops and the darknet without ever hearing that there might be a war going on.

The hackers want to break Hollywood on the wheel of their collective ingenuity and show the suits who is in charge.

Big media wants to make money from the internet like it does with every other outlet, or at the very least not have piracy forever draining away their profits.

And they have been hammering away at each other for years now.

Grateful Dead

But could there ever be peace between these two warring tribes? Have they got anything to teach one another, or will they spend yet another decade 'not getting' each other's point of view?

DVD
Copying and sharing films has never been easier
Newsnight decided to track down the two most powerful voices on either side of the divide and ask them about their own philosophies and what they thought of their opponent.

John Perry Barlow used to be the lyricist in the US supergroup 'The Grateful Dead.' He went on to co-found the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the pressure group that's placed itself front and centre in the fight to keep the tanks of government and corporation off the lawns of cyberspace.

Congressman Dan Glickman became US Secretary for Agriculture under Bill Clinton. Nowadays he's the President and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, the body that wields the collective political and legal muscle of the Hollywood studios.

Here's an edited highlight of what they have to say about one another:

John Perry Barlow: The entertainment industry is as it always has been. It's a rough bunch of people and a rough industry. I don't think that the movie industry is any more ready than any other part of the information industries to adapt itself to the information age. But it's going to go there one way or the other.

And whatever its cries of protest and growing pains, it'll make it eventually - it's just going to do everything it can, as the record industry has done, as the publishing industry has done, to stop progress in that direction until it gets its act together.


There are a lot of kids out there copying and distributing movies... because they want to stick it to the movie business
John Perry Barlow, Electronic Frontier Foundation
And I fear that it's done grave harm to itself and to the future in the process of trying to slow down progress, but it'll go there inevitably.

Dan Glickman: John Perry Barlow is the one who's doing a disservice to the consumers, because you see if you don't adequately compensate the artist, the director, the creator, the actor, they won't do it in the first place so people won't get movies.

So, yeah, we should be protecting our copyright but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be looking for new ways to get that content to people in modern ways - particularly young people who [understand] computers and electronic equipment and the internet very well.

John Perry Barlow
Barlow believes the studios will ultimately lose the digital battle
JPB: These are aging industries run by aging men, and they're up against 17-year-olds who have turned themselves into electronic Hezbollah because they resent the content industry for its proprietary practices. And I don't have a question about who's going to win that one eventually.

There are a lot of kids out there copying and distributing movies not because they care about seeing the movies or sharing them with their friends but because they want to stick it to the movie business. It's widely assumed that you can't compete with free and that seems like a reasonable thing to think. But this has not been my experience. I mean I've made a fair amount of money over the years writing songs for 'The Grateful Dead' who allowed their fans to tape their concerts.

We were at one point the biggest grossing performing act in the United States, and most of our records went platinum sooner or later.

It's an economic model that has worked in my experience and I think it does work. It's just that it seems like it wouldn't. It seems counter-intuitive.

DK: It is ridiculous to believe that you can give product away for free and be more successful. I mean it defies the laws of nature.


All of us kind of need to chill out
Dan Glickman, Motion Picture Association of America
Would a clothing store give all their clothes for free? Would a car dealership give all its cars for free? Of course not. If they don't make a profit in this world they're out of business. That's just the laws of human nature.

JPB: If I were to encounter Dan Glickman on the street and we were to have a civilised conversation about this subject, which would be a long shot, I'd tell him to relax.

I'd tell him to spend less of the resources of his industry on fighting the inevitable and more on learning about the conditions that they find themselves in and recognising the opportunities, which I think are vast and very encouraging. But they can't get to those opportunities until they quit trying to stop progress.

Dan Glickman
Dan Glickman says if consumers do not pay the product will not exist
DK: First of all I'd tell John Perry Barlow that I'm very relaxed and if we met each other we'd probably have a very good time. But all of us kind of need to chill out.

The fact of the matter is that people who create content for movies and television have to make a profit. If they don't you won't see all this wonderful stuff and listen to it.

But he is right to the extent that we need to be finding new and different ways to get our content to people, whether it's internet or whether it's iPod or whether it's remotely accessed in various parts of the world. If [we] don't the consumer will not be satisfied and in this business the consumer is king and queen. If you don't make them happy they won't buy your product.

JPB: I've got good news and bad news and good news. And the good news is that you guys have managed to buy every major legislative body on the planet, and the courts are even with you. So you've done a great job there and you should congratulate yourself.

But you know the problem is - the bad news is that you're up against a dedicated foe that is younger and smarter that you are and will be alive when you're dead. You're 55 years old and these kids are 17 and they're just smarter than you. So you're gonna lose that one.

But the good news is that you guys are mean sons of bitches and you've been figuring out ways of ripping off audiences and artists for centuries.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/5064170.stm

 

THANKS TO CDFREAKS FOR THIS ARTICLE

Anti iTunes DRM protests to take place outside Apple stores
Posted by Seán Byrne on 10 June 2006 - 13:49 - Source: Boing Boing

Despite Apple's major success with its iTunes music store, it looks like not everyone is happy, particularly when it comes to consumers who are aware of its DRM and iPod locking system. Many iTunes customers are probably not even aware that the music they buy is infected with DRM, particularly if they have only been transferring it to their iPod until now, where the DRM appears transparent. However, should they decide later on to buy a competing MP3 player, such as an iRiver, Creative or any other brand, they will quickly find out that all of their investment in iTunes has potentially been a big waste of money and time. This is not the case when it comes to buying CDs, since virtually all competing MP3 players and even the iPod series can play music copied from these, assuming the CDs were not crippled either with copy-protection.

So to help make consumers aware of DRM, the Free Software Foundation's "Defective by Design " group has organised demonstrations to take place across the USA today (10th June '06) outside of various Apple stores at 10:30am local time. These demonstrations will protest Apple's use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) on its iTunes store and its iPod series and will offer handouts to make consumers aware of the hidden dangers of DRM in Apple's iTunes.

Unlike CDs, DRM is widely used by online music stores including iTunes to prevent customers from attempting to give away, resell or lease its music. Unlike Winamp, dBpowerAMP and other software music players, Apple has already blacklisted various iTunes plug-ins and made legal threats to try and stop consumers adding functionality to iTunes or the iPod. Finally, while the artists may seem to be doing well with 99c price changed per song, in fact, most get 7c or less per song, with a vast majority of the price going straight to the music industry. Thanks to RTV71 for letting us know about this news:

Activists in seven cities across the US will picket Apple Stores, handing out information about the dangers of the DRM hidden in Apple's iTunes. iTunes DRM may seem pretty innocuous at first, but every time you invest in an iTunes Store song, you make it more expensive to switch to an Apple competitor's product at any time in the future. You didn't have to abandon your CDs to switch to MP3s (in fact, the more CDs you owned, the better your MP3 experience was, since you could rip those CDs to seed your MP3 collection), but if you want to go from Apple's iTunes to a competing device, ever, you have to be prepared to abandon your whole investment.

This is the first time I’m aware of protests being carried out over the use of DRM, however it seems like it is too late to do much about it, particularly with iTunes running for several years now. On the other hand, we have already seen how well the controversial Russian music download stores get on without the use of DRM. In fact, the AllOfMP3 Russian music store has already grabbed 14% of the music download market in the UK, thus showing that it is possible to have a successful music store that lacks the unwanted restrictions. However, rather than the music industry learning from their very successful approach, all they care about it trying to shut it down and get anything like it out of site! In fact, if the only improvement AllOfMP3 made is pay royalties to the artists for each song purchased, it would potentially be the perfect music download service in my opinion.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13530

 

No fix for 'critical' hole in Windows 98, ME
By Joris Evers
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: June 9, 2006, 1:03 PM PDT
Tell us what you think about this storyTalkBack E-mail this story to a friendE-mail View this story formatted for printingPrint

Microsoft will not fix a serious flaw in Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition because a patch could break other applications.

The security bug relates to Windows Explorer and could let an intruder commandeer a vulnerable PC, Microsoft warned in April. The software maker has made fixes available for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and Windows 2000, but it has found that eliminating the vulnerability in Windows 98 and ME is "not feasible," it said.

"To do so would require re-engineering a significant amount of a critical core component of the operating system," Microsoft said in a Thursday update to its MS06-015 security bulletin. "After such a re-engineering effort, there would be no assurance that applications designed to run on these platforms would continue to operate."

Instead, Microsoft recommends that people who still use the older operating systems protect their PCs by using a network firewall that filters traffic on TCP Port 139. "Such a firewall will block attacks attempting to exploit this vulnerability from outside of the firewall," it said.

The software maker even had trouble with its fix for Windows XP. It had to revise the update and release it a second time because the patch caused problems for people who used Hewlett-Packard Share-to-Web software or older Nvidia graphics drivers.

Microsoft is phasing out support for the older operating systems. Windows 98 was released in June 1998, Second Edition followed a year later, and Millennium Edition came out in 2000. Microsoft has been providing fixes for only "critical" flaws the past couple of years and is ending support altogether next month, after its planned July 11 patch release. Windows XP with Service Pack 1 reaches its end of support on Oct. 10, 2006.

Not providing fixes leaves users vulnerable, but software can't be supported forever, said Michael Sutton, a director at security intelligence company iDefense, a part of VeriSign. "At some point, any vendor has to make a business decision to cease product support, and these products are now 7 to 8 years old," he said.

The older Windows versions have never been secure, said Russ Cooper, a senior scientist at Cybertrust, a security vendor in Herndon, Va. "The lack of a 'critical' patch does not weaken these OSes. Instead, it should merely put an end to their perception that they were secure before this fault came to light," he said.

And as far as blocking traffic on port 139 goes, it is a network port that has been abused in the past for attacks, said Don Leatham, director of solutions and strategy at PatchLink. "Most organizations will already have port 139 blocked," he said. "Although it is good that Microsoft is reiterating this, I don't see it being a huge impact."

The best way to secure PCs that run older versions of Windows is upgrading the operating system, Microsoft suggested.

"With the upcoming end (of) support for these products, we strongly recommend that those of you who are still running these older versions of Windows upgrade to a newer, more secure version, such as Windows XP SP2, as soon as possible," Christopher Budd, a staffer in Microsoft's' security response center, wrote on the team's blog.
http://news.com.com/No+fix+for+critical+hole+in+Windows+98,+ME/2100-1002_3-6082307.html?tag=nefd.top

 

iTunes shut-down in Scandinavia?

p2p news / p2pnet: On Thursday we posted an item saying Norway's Consumer Council of Norway is, "on track to win case against Apple, claiming iTunes breaches of fundamental consumer rights".

But it looks like Apple has more than just Norway to worry about.

"Apple Computer’s iTunes online music store could be shut down across Scandinavia following joint action by three Nordic nations to force it to make downloaded songs usable on all digital music players," says the Financial Times.

"Ultimately Apple can be put out of business,” Thorgeir Waterhouse, a senior adviser to the Norwegian Consumer Council, is quoted as saying.

The FT has Apple saying, "We have received a letter from the Norwegian Consumer Council and are looking into it. We’re looking forward to resolving this matter."

The story also points out that when France tried to legislate on the same matter, Apple called it, "state-sponsored piracy".

Apple's Digital Restrictions Managagement for iTunes is C.R.A.P., as ZDNet's David Berlind summed it up.

And yet people around the world still allow themselves to be ripped off by Apple to the iTune of $1 and up for each lossy download.

Also See:
fundamental consumer rights - Norwegian iTunes victory, June 8, 2006
Financial Times - Apple faces a new threat to iTunes music, June 9, 2006
summed it up - Apple and its C.R.A.P., March 4, 2006

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http://p2pnet.net/story/9024

 

GOOD MORNING ALL,I AM READY FOR THE NEWBIES







God fails to save idiot in lion enclosure
Dutch heron drowns bunny - World Cup omen?
By Chris Williams
Published Sunday 11th June 2006 07:02 GMT
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RZSL It's bad news this week for those who were hoping some divine intervention would help humanity overcome its power-thirsty animal attackers.

A man in Ukraine set out to prove that the Lord would protect him when he clambered into the lion enclosure at a Kiev zoo Sunday, The St Petersburg Times reports.

An official at the zoo said: "The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions."

The man got his answer when an affronted lioness grabbed him by the throat and killed him in front of horrified visitors. The official helpfully explained: "A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."

A deer in Wisconsin meanwhile staged a daring solo raid on an apartment in Racine. The Journal Times reports the arsearsein crashed in through the window.

Victim Jerry Falkner said: "I heard glarse breaking and I thought someone was breaking in. The next thing I know, a deer is running toward my room." A frightened Falkner retreated to the bedroom, leaving his pit bull Shadow to face the wrath of the murderous Bambi. Unable to reach its intended human target, the one-year-old doe settled for knocking out the pooch, and flooding the apartment by kicking in pipes, before being tranquilised by wildlife officers.

A bad week for canines all round in fact, after a dead chihuahua was used as a makeshift kosh in a woman's dispute with a dog breeder.

It seems much of humanity has simply given up though, and instead of repelling the animals, decided to find a way join them. The Times of India reports an Orissa woman married a cobra this week in a ceremony watched by 2,000 people. Blushing bride Bimbala Das said: "Though snakes cannot speak nor understand, we communicate in a peculiar way."

We're sure you do, and this is in no way along the same lines as a case going through Alabama courts where Henry Lewis, of Sweetwater, is accused of getting so friendly with his pony he killed it.

The Sun reports a similar case in England's very own Dixie, Somerset, where a 67-year-old was given a caution for attempting sex with a cow from a stepladder.

To end on a distessing note, our low country bunny drownings correspondent Robin Pollard provides this translation of a story appearing on dutch site NieuwNieuws:

The bird grabbed the cute bunny by its ear, with it squirming and screaming it flew to a ditch and drowned it, after which without care for proportion it swallowed it with little difficulty.

Frankly upsetting images of the attack are available here.
http://www.nieuwnieuws.nl/archives/2006/06/reiger_eet_konijn.html

Can't we all just get along?