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

like this

the key to the problem...is the realtek drivers....
rthdcpl.exe illegle system dll relocation

Known issues
After you install this security update on a Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2)-based computer, Realtek HD Audio Control Panel (Rthdcpl.exe) may not start.

THE FIX HERE
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/68/295688#2965021

 

Sony's Secret Weapon Against HD DVD: 20GB


Sony commits Blu-ray to be bigger than HD DVD, literally

Although the high definition optical format camps are divided into two, they both share many of the same characteristics. Both formats support nearly identical video and audio codecs and when all things being equal, should deliver identical experiences.

Aside from movie studio exclusives support, the main differentiating factor between the formats is storage space. In their current market iterations, Blu-ray Discs hold a 20GB advantage with its dual-layer 50GB media when compared to HD DVD’s dual-layer 30GB discs.

Sony realizes this distinct advantage, and is committing to rolling out 80 percent of all its forthcoming Blu-ray titles as 50GB discs, according to Video Business.

When transferring a film onto Blu-ray, compression engineers may utilize the extra 20GB to attain higher bit rate video and to accommodate lossless audio streams. While many dual-format releases of late, such as The Departed, feature identical video streams encoded with the same codec, engineers recognize that the added space afforded by Blu-ray can be spent to improve quality.

The encoders responsible for Nine Inch Nails: Beside You In Time, released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray acknowledges the difference. On the difference between the HD DVD and Blu-ray versions of the concert, a FAQ document on the NIN Web site reads, “Technically speaking, the video quality of the Blu-ray version has a slight edge over the HD DVD: It was encoded at a slightly higher bit rate due to the Blu-ray spec's higher bandwidth capabilities for encoded video streams. However, this difference is nominal and would only be noticeable by a pair of well-trained eyes on an extremely expensive professional 1080P monitor.”

No matter how indistinguishable the differences 20GB may make, Sony is keen on using every bit of that extra space to prove its superiority over HD DVD.

“It’s important, especially in this phase, that we make sure we are showing the absolute best quality in video and audio, and 50GB accomplishes that,” said Sony worldwide president David Bishop.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6751

 

Windows users: Patch your systems now

The MS07-017 update includes patches for a total of seven animated cursor (.ani) vulnerabilities, three affecting Windows Vista. In addition to Windows Vista, the update applies to Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and Windows Server 2003 SP2.

No doubt there will be other patches out on April 10, the regularly scheduled Microsoft Patch Tuesday. But Windows users shouldn't put off until then what they can (and should) patch today.

AND A MONKEY IN A TREE,A REAL MICROSUCK SCREW UP..

 

New twist in RIAA, Santangelo

p2pnet.net news:- US district judge Colleen McMahon, who's hearing the Big Music file sharing charges levelled at Patti Santangelo, says she can move for an order of dismissal with prejudice and, "The Court has the power to entertain such a motion, and to grant it on whatever terms and conditions the Court deems appropriate."

Santangelo long ago decided to stand up to the members of the Big 4 music cartel, and p2pnet readers have been contributing not only to her, but also to Michelle and Bobby, two of her five children who also became RIAA victims when the RIAA failed to intimidate Patti.

The last thing the RIAA or Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG want is for the Santangelo case to be heard. If that happens, they'll have not only to defend their position, but prove it, and so far, they've managed to avoid that, instead using the media to judge close to 20,000 men, women and children, finding them guilty of the non-existent crime of file sharing without having to go anywhere near a court, a jury or a magistrate.

Richard Gabriel, the Holme Roberts & Owen lawyer acting for the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in this and other sue 'em all cases, also wants the case halted before it gets to a trial, even knowing heavy costs would almost certainly be awarded against his clients.

Better that than actually having to go before a judge and jury, is the probable RIAA reasoning.

Dropping the case would in one sense relieve the pressure on Santangelo, who's beset by deep outside problems, and on her her lawyer, Jordan Glass, who's devoting hours of pro bono effort towards all three cases, at the same time trying to run a legal practice.

Now Santangelo, who's on record as saying she wants her case to be heard so she can clear her name and get on with her life, and Glass will have to think deeply about their next step.

Stay tuned.
http://p2pnet.net/story/11876

 

Not our fault, Apple tells EU

p2pnet.net news:- In a variation of its 'DRM is down to the Big 4' theme, Apple spokesman Steve Dowling says the company wanted a one-stop iTunes 'store' for the whole of of Europe, but wasn't able to achieve that because of the music labels and publishers.

The European Commission has picked up on what consumers around the world have been complaining about for years.

"Consumers can only buy music from the iTunes online stores in their country of residence and are therefore restricted in their choice of where to buy music, and consequently what music is available and at what price," says Jonathan Todd, European Commission spokesman.

But, "We don't believe Apple did anything to violate EU law," Associated Press has Dowling saying.

Investigators, "have been gathering evidence on Apple's deals with Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and EMI Group PLC for the past two years, after Britain's Consumers' Association filed a complaint with the commission in 2004," says AP. But, "We do not believe we have breached European competition law, and we will be making that case strongly," the story has EMI spokeswoman Amanda Conroy declaring.

"Sony spokeswoman Sylvia Shin offered no immediate reaction to the investigation and a call made to Universal Music was not immediately returned," says AP, adding Apple and the labels have two months to answer questions in a "statement of objections" from regulators and, "If found guilty, a company could face hefty fines, which in theory could total up to 10 percent of the company's worldwide annual revenue."

Agreements between Apple and the major labels violate EU rules prohibiting restrictive business practices, it says.

Downloading a track in Britain costs $1.56 (today, about $3), in Denmark $1.44 (today, about $2.85) , while in countries using the euro such as Germany and Belgium, a single costs $1.32 (today, about $2.60), says AP.

Meanwhile, Apple is also under intense international consumer pressure to allow people to be able to listen to iTunes downloads on any mobile player.

Norway, a non-EU country, says Apple's Fairplay DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control system isn't only unfair, it's unlawful.

"Fairplay is an illegal lock-in technology whose main purpose is to lock the consumers to the total package provided by Apple by blocking interoperability," says Torgeir Waterhouse, senior advisor at the Norwegian Consumer Council.

"For all practical purposes this means that iTunes Music Store is trying to kill off one the most important building blocks in a well functioning digital society, interoperability, in order to boost its own profits."

Norway has given Apple until October 1 to, "change its compatibility rules or face legal action and possible fines," AP points out.

In the background is yesterday's announcement that Apple and Britain's EMI which, with Vivendi Universal (France) and Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US) is a member of the Big 4, will sell EMI digital catalogue DRM-free.

And, "You all fell for it, the easiest PR trick in the book, Apple, EMI and DRM," says Charlie Demerjian in The Inquirer, going on:

The problem is they snowed you, there is no removal of anything, this is a completely different product. The older ones remain totally DRM infected, cost the same, and if you bought them, you are just as locked in as you were, unless you tithe more.

The content mafiaa distracted you with a shiny thing, and sold you back the rights they had no standing to take in the first place.

Stay tuned.

Slashdot Slashdot it!

Also See:
restricted in their choice - EU goes after Apple, major labels, April 3, 2006
Associated Press - Apple notified of EU inquiry, April 3, 2006
illegal lock-in technology - Apple Fairplay DRM 'illegal', January 25, 2006
DRM-free - Steve Jobs' DRM master-stroke, April 2, 2006
The Inquirer - Apple/EMI DRM deal is a big bad joke, April 2, 2006
http://p2pnet.net/story/11871

 

Firefox Also Vulnerable to Windows Cursor Exploit
Contrary to other reports, Mozilla's Firefox 2.0 is vulnerable to attackers armed with the Windows animated cursor exploit, a researcher says.
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld


Contrary to other reports, Mozilla's Firefox 2.0 is vulnerable to attackers armed with the Windows animated (ANI) cursor exploit, a researcher said tpday.

Alexander Sotirov, the vulnerability researcher at Determina who discovered the ANI flaw last December and notified Microsoft of it later that month, yesterday posted a demonstration of an ANI exploit that hijacks a PC when Firefox users are conned into visiting a malicious site. Microsoft today issued a patch for the exploit.

"It turns out that Firefox uses the same vulnerable Windows component to process .ani files, which can be exploited in a way similar to Internet Explorer," Sotirov said during the demo.
Demonstration

He showed how both IE7 and Firefox 2.0, when run on a Vista-powered PC, can be hijacked by an attack using the ANI exploit he created in December as a vulnerability proof-of-concept, which he also shared with Microsoft's security team. When the attack was run against IE 7, the ANI exploit gave access to all files on the system. "However, we cannot alter any system files" because of IE's protected mode, which is enabled by default in Vista, said Sotirov.

Vista's version of IE7 runs in a low-privilege mode--dubbed "protected mode" by Microsoft--that blocks disk write access to all but a temporary files folder.

An identical attack against Firefox 2.0, however, gave Sotirov complete and total access to the PC's drive. "Since Firefox does not have a low-privilege mode, similar to the protected mode in IE, we'll be able to overwrite files as well," he said.
Firefox Definitely Vulnerable

Third-party security vendors have claimed that Firefox 2.0 is not vulnerable. In a threat alert to its DeepSight customers, Symantec flatly stated "Mozilla Firefox is not vulnerable to the vulnerability."

Not so, said Sotirov. "The reason for the confusion over Firefox is that an exploit that works against it has not become public. So in a sense, since there are no attacks in the wild [that work in Firefox], it is safer. But people should also consider that the bad guys will figure out how to exploit Firefox."

Mozilla did not respond to requests for comment about Firefox's risk of exploitation, or confirmation that it is vulnerable.

So far this year, Mozilla has issued 10 Firefox patches.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130368-page,1/article.html

 

Microsoft Releases Emergency Windows Patch
Patch fixes Animated Cursor flaw and six others.
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
Tuesday, April 03, 2007 11:00 AM GMT-08:00

With attackers finding more ways to exploit a new Windows problem, Microsoft today published an emergency software patch, fixing a critical flaw in its operating system.

The update, released as expected today, actually fixes seven separate Windows vulnerabilities, but security experts are most concerned about a bug in the way Windows processes .ani Animated Cursor files. Online criminals have been exploiting this bug since late last week.

This, however, is the only one of the seven vulnerabilities rated "critical" by Microsoft.
Background

Microsoft was forced to release the early update a week ahead of schedule because attacks had simply become too widespread, said Ken Dunham, director of malicious code intelligence with iDefense. "We have over 400 different URLs identified and related to attacks, and multiple e-mails have been sent out that direct people back there," he said. "We have proof that organized groups are now launching attacks."

Dunham added that the .ani attack vector will probably be one of the "most prevalent and persistant types of attacks we will see in the next months and years."

Exploit code for the flaw has now been added to the widely used Metasploit hacking tool, and there are automated malicious Web site generation tools available he added.
Other Emergency Patches

This is the third such "out-of-band" patch release Microsoft has made since January 2006. While attacks based on this .ani flaw are still considered "limited," exploitation of the bug is following trends "similar" to the WMF (Windows Metafile) and VML (Vector Markup Language) vulnerabilities that were patched in the other two updates, according to Mark Miller, director of Microsoft's Security Response Center.

Microsoft has seen only Web-based exploitation of the .ani flaw, Miller said. "There have been some indications that e-mail has been used, but we haven't seen anything on that front."

Microsoft was first notified of this flaw in December 2006 by security vendor Determina.

A Determina executive said today that Microsoft would have been better off issuing a patch for the .ani flaw sooner, rather than waiting for the April update and forcing customers to rush an emergency fix. "The customers are now going to incur the same cost as they would before, except that they are going to have to do this in panic," said Nand Mulchandani, Determina's vice president of marketing. "I have no idea why they didn't do this earlier."

Miller defended Microsoft's decision, saying that because the .ani flaw could affect other applications it required a great deal of testing. "The amount of time taken to patch was appropriate given the level of quality we were trying to release with," he said.

Windows users are strongly encouraged to install the patch, because the .ani flaw can be used to exploit computers running virtually any version of Windows, including Vista, even if they are running non-Microsoft browsers like Firefox and Opera, Mulchandani said.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130361-page,1/article.html

 

WEP key wireless cracking made easy
Gone in 60 seconds
By John Leyden
Published Wednesday 4th April 2007 15:43 GMT


Code breakers have discovered a technique for extracting a 104-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) key in under a minute.

Cryptographic weaknesses with the first generation wireless encryption standard have been known for years, but the latest attack requires the capture of just a tenth of the number of packets required by previous approaches. The technique allows for 50 per cent probability of the recovery of a 104-bit WEP key in around a minute (on a 802.11g network running at full speed), and with the capture of 40,000 packets. Doubling the capture period extends the probability of capturing the key to 95 per cent.

Processing this data on a standard PC to reveal the key takes as little as three seconds, as explained in a paper by researchers Erik Tews and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann and Andrei Pyshkin of Darmstadt Technical University HERE.
As before, the code breaking approach relies on exploiting cryptographic weaknesses in the RC4 stream cipher used by WEP that have been known about since 2001.

The latest attack illustrates the need to use the new WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) standard, which is far more resistant to attack, though infrequently used, even on wireless networks that employ any form of defences. ®
Originally posted HERE

 

Microsoft Zune to be DRM-free

p2pnet.net news:- Having created the most widely used DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control systems in the world, Bill and the Boyz now say they're all set to sell DRMless music on their Zune.

"We've been saying for a while that we are aware that consumers want to have unprotected content," CNET News has Zune marketing director Jason Reindorp, saying.

When will Microsoft set the music free? Reindorp doesn't have a time frame, says the story.

But it's a step in the right direction. Bill Gates is at long last acknowledging what people have been saying all along - We don' wan your steenkin' DRM! - the news coming hard on the heels of other news that EMI is dropping DRM from its music products in a move The Inquirer describes as the "the easiest PR trick in the book," and that the EU is going after Apple.

But, Sorry, folks. Microsoft isn't dropping DRM from Zune because it's listening to you. It's only bidnes.

"Reindorp said the move could help Microsoft's effort, loosening the tight bonds between the iTunes store and the iPod," says CNET.

It, "potentially makes the competition more on a device-to-device or service-to-service basis," he said. "This does open things up a little bit. It will force the various services to really innovate."

Not only but also, Microsoft is, "expanding its palette of hues for the Zune. A baby pink Zune shade is set to debut early next month, while a watermelon red version is slated for summer."

Ooooooooo.

"People are responding so well to the colors," Reindorp gushes, according to CNET. "We're having a lot of fun playing and experimenting with them."

Slashdot Slashdot it!

Also See:
CNET News - Microsoft sees DRM-free music in Zune's future, April 4, 2007
The Inquirer - Apple/EMI DRM deal is a big bad joke, April 2, 2006
going after Apple - Not our fault, Apple tells EU, March 31, 2007
http://p2pnet.net/story/11885

 

Arctic Monkeys slags file sharers

p2pnet.net news:-"UK band Arctic Monkeys is doing well. Really well, not thanks to the efforts the Organised Music cartel," said a p2pnet story.

Then we quoted The Economist which said, "Music charts began as a way for record labels to market their acts.

"How galling then for the industry that the number-one spot in this week's chart was taken by Arctic Monkeys, a band from Sheffield whose first professional single owes its existence not to the image-makers but to internet file-sharing."

Nice one. File sharing, eh? So Arctic Monkeys owes Net music fans. Big Time.

Our post was in 2005 and the band is now Major, which means it's probably time it gave a little back to the people who made it what it is. Right?

Wrong.

Instead, Arctic Monkeys is giving the finger to fans. Or to put it another way, it's shitting on it's own doorstep.

"About to leak a copy of the new Arctic Monkeys album on the net?" - asks The Times Online? "Don't bother," it says, "unless you're willing to risk a knock on the door from the Web Sheriff."

Because, "when you have a million-selling album under your belt, letting your songs spread like a virus over the web doesn't seem so cool and ...

... Security surrounding Favourite Worst Nightmare, the hotly anticipated follow-up, is such that music writers must surrender to Arctic Monkeys' London HQ for an advance hearing.

Now cutting-edge bands who built a following by letting fans trade MP3 song files are secretly hiring web enforcers to track down and remove unauthorised leaks that might destroy album sales.

The web detectives trace the source of a leak and individuals found to have deliberately spread copyright-protected material receive a personal visit followed by legal threats.

Nice one.

But anyone who shares Arctic Monkeys and gets a threatening Web Sheriff missive as a result might think about following The Pirate Bay's example.

"A hardcopy of a reply from The Pirate Bay to Web Sheriff, in response to faxed legal threats, was sold on eBay June 8, 2005, for US $255," says Wikipedia.

Really nice one ;P

Slashdot Slashdot it!

Also See:
p2pnet - Big Music p2p wake up call, October 31, 2005
The Economist - Monkey Business, October 27, 2005
The Times Online - Arctic Monkeys go bananas over file-sharing, March 31, 2007
http://p2pnet.net/story/11884

 

DirectX End-User Redistributable 9.0c (April 2007)
Author: Microsoft
Date: 2007-04-04
Size: 50 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All
Downloaded: 118278 Times

DOWNLOAD HERE
http://www.majorgeeks.com/DirectX_End-User_Redistributable_d2924.html

 

Find My Credit Card 2.2.0.0
Author: Smart PC Solutions, LLC.
Date: 2007-04-05
Size: 719 Kb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All


Find My Credit Card is a software application intended for probing the confidential information stored on your computer on its vulnerability to unauthorized access by hackers. The software finds all personal information and suggests its unrestorable erasure. It supports Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Netscape web browsers.

DOWNLOAD
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Find_My_Credit_Card_d5276.html

 

Spyware Terminator 1.8.5.986
Author: Crawler LLC
Date: 2007-04-05
Size: 8.4 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All

Spyware Terminator is a FREE, easy-to-use and effective spyware remover providing real-time protection against spyware, adware, keyloggers, trojan horses, browser hijackers and other malware threats.

Spyware Terminator protects your computer through powerful real-time protection shield, advanced system scanning and keeping found spyware in the safe quarantine.

Here are some key features of "Spyware Terminator":

Free 100% Real-Time Protection
Free 100% Real-Time Protection is included in Spyware Terminator basic version – an essential function most other applications charge you extra for. Effectively remove spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, home page hijackers and other malware threats.

Safe Quarantine
Suspect files found during the scan are moved into Quarantine. Spyware Terminator prevents them from functioning and causing further damage to your computer. You can review and choose to permanently remove suspect files or safely store essential files.

Easy to Use
Spyware Terminator lets people of all skill levels detect and eliminate spyware. If you remove a program by mistake, you can easily put it back.

Manual & Scheduled Scan
Scan your computer manually or schedule an in-depth scan to be performed on a regular basis. The scan process runs in the background so that you will not be disrupted while working on other tasks.

Automatic Update Downloads
Spyware Terminator can be set to automatically download updates, ensuring the most effective protection for your computer.


DOWNLOAD
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Spyware_Terminator_d5242.html

 

In the hen house with Firefox

p2pnet.net news:- Mozilla has joined the crowd so you can join the crowd.

It's developing The Coop, a Firefox add-on meant to let users, "keep track of what their friends are doing online, and share new and interesting content with one or more of those friends".

Should there maybe have been a hyphen in there to make it Co-Op? Or does Mozilla really mean 'coop' as in a place where a bunch of hens cackle together? 'Coop' is also slang for 'prison,' or a place where cops skive off.

Anyway, Mozilla says it'll, "integrate with popular web services, using their existing data feeds as a transport mechanism.

"Users will see their friends' faces, and by clicking on them will be able to get a list of that person's recently added Flickr photos, favourite YouTube videos, tagged websites, composed blog posts, updated Facebook status, etc. If a user wants to share something with a friend, they simply drag that thing onto their friend's face. When they receive something from a friend, that friend's face glows to get the user's attention."

But wait! They really do mean poultry run!

"Like a real chicken coop, the UI will have boxes in which each of a user's friends will live," says Mozilla. "The boxes will be filled with an avatar (drawn from flickr by default?) and represent that friend."

The name may be a bit unfortunate (IOHO) but the idea will attract interest because it's Mozilla, and also because a lot of people are tired of seeing Rupert Murdoch's MySpace, and other corporate hang-outs of this ilk, represented as the only gathering places.

Slashdot Slashdot it!

If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the end (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you're Chinese and you're looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don't buy their 'product'. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you're into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep's doorstep, making sure you've contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don't just complain. Do something!

(Thursday 5th April 2007)
http://p2pnet.net/story/11879



http://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/The_Coop

Specification OF THE COOP

Overview
The Coop is a Firefox addon in development that will let users keep track of what their friends are doing online, and share new and interesting content with one or more of those friends. It will integrate with popular web services, using their existing data feeds as a transport mechanism.

Users will see their friends' faces, and by clicking on them will be able to get a list of that person's recently added Flickr photos, favourite YouTube videos, tagged websites, composed blog posts, updated Facebook status, etc. If a user wants to share something with a friend, they simply drag that thing onto their friend's face. When they receive something from a friend, that friend's face glows to get the user's attention.

Motivation
Perhaps the most common social interaction on the web today is sending someone a link. It's done over IM, email, weblogs, RSS feeds from aggregator sites, bookmark sharing sites like del.icio.us, social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, and even over the phone. The desire is the same: "hey, friend, go check out this neat thing and then let's talk about it!"

The goal of The Coop is to ease this interaction, and merge it with similar tools provided by a large number of popular web services.

Use Cases
This product should minimally provide support for the following use cases, making them intuitive, pleasant and delightful experiences.

1. Share a link with a friend.
1. Share a photo / set of photos with a friend.
2. Share a blog post with a friend.
3. Share a favourite video with a friend.
2. Keep up to date with a friend's web activity.
1. Read latest blog posts / LiveJournal updates / MySpace updates.
2. See recently uploaded photos.
3. Show recently tagged websites.
4. Show recently marked favourite videos.

Non-Goals
The Coop should not require any net-new server infrastructure, and instead leverage and integrate with existing web services. It should also not be a new interface for interacting with those services (ie: uploading photos to Flickr, updating status on Facebook, etc.)

Requirements
The first iteration of The Coop (represented by P1 items) will be a proof-of-concept experimentation, stripped down and bare-bones. Future iterations (P2/P3) can expand that functionality and refine the experience.

* P1: setup/preferences dialog allowing user to provide login information for various services
* P1: add friend to the coop, attempting auto-discovery of their Flickr, del.icio.us & YouTube data feeds, asking for blog address, Facebook ID, and others.
* P2: ability to encapsulate one's set of data feed addresses into a XML snippet that can be shared with/imported by friends
* P2: UI for representing a group of friends to aggregate across / send to
* P2: extensibility for adding arbitrary services or alternative services
* P1: UI for displaying 1..N friends
* P1: UI for indicating presence of new data items for a friend
* P2: UI for pivoting to display datatypes as primary key instead of friends
* P1: support for dragging URI onto friend and having that send the link to the friend along with a description
* P2: also send a preview when sending a URI

[edit]
Design
[edit]
Interaction Design

Like a real chicken coop, the UI will have boxes in which each of a user's friends will live. The boxes will be filled with an avatar (drawn from flickr by default?) and represent that friend.

* Icons in the box will indicate new/recent content
o Clicking an icon will take the user to that content
o Hovering over the icon will show a preview of the content
* Dragging an item onto the box will send that item to the friend.
o Multiple selection of friends should allow sending a link to multiple friends.
* The box will glow if there's a sent item from that friend waiting to be seen.
* A drop-down will allow the user to pivot the display on types of data
o "Movies" will show all the latest movies aggregated from all friends
o "Pictures" will show all the latest pictures aggregated from all friends
o "Links" will show page previews aggregated from all friends
o etc, etc.

[edit]
Initial Wireframes

Wireframe/Mockups
These are initial thoughts on how we might present the UI for The Coop. Of course we can skin it differently, and future mockups will add more detail highlighting the interaction of dragging content onto another user's face (ex: pop a little DHTML layer that showed a preview of the content you were sharing and let you comment) but these give a basic idea. Nothing's set in stone, hopefully this will stimulate future ideas and discussion:
coop-by-friends-2-thumb.jpg

* The Coop, sorted by friends
* The Coop, sorted by friends (alternate)
* The Coop, showing a preview of a friend's shared content
* The Coop, sorted by content type

(all images used in these mockups are Creative Commons licensed with the exception of the image of Elfina, which was totally lifted from this Penny Arcade cartoon)
[edit]
beltzner's thoughts on the wireframes

* More faces in less space is probably better
* Different zoom modes is probably best
* The drop a link to a friend interaction is the most powerful
* Subscribe to RSS feeds from flickr, youtube, etc is interesting, too, but secondary
* The ability to attach a comment is a must, but needs to be lightweight
* We could probably do some fun gesture based UI here, too

[edit]
Influences

Our design was influenced by Chris Messina's mockup for the unimplemented "People in the Browser" feature, with a horizontal bar containing avatars for a user's friends, and icons overlaid on those avatars to indicate the presence of new content:
people-in-the-browser-idea.jpg
mockup originally by Chris Messina

* comment by Canarsie

[edit]
Implementation Thoughts

The idea is to use RSS subscriptions to existing web service data feeds as a transport mechanism for all the various functionality. It will be up to us to cleverly mask this, but I'm thinking:

* When user adds a friend, subscriptions to their Flickr photo feed, del.icio.us tag feed, MySpace status (we might use a Microsummary here, since I don't think it provides RSS), YouTube favourites list, etc, etc.
* Indicators of new content are updated based on the content provided by those feeds (this is "pull").
* When a user sends something to a friend (which is "push") it is done by submitting the URI to del.icio.us with a special tag that indicates it's from The Coop and for a specific user (based on userid); when the other user checks the del.icio.us feed, items tagged with these special tags will cause the glow-effect. Or we could use the de.licio.us "send" feature. Need to think more about this.

Alternate idea, from Vlad:

* Set up an XMPP server that's the actual Coop that all users have to register with. They'll need an account somewhere anyway, unless everything is intended to be purely browser local.
* Use this XMPP server not for general IM, but for passing around data chunks about the stuff that's being shared.
* Depending on delicious/RSS/etc. seems extremely kludgey and fragile, not to mention intermittent. (IMO this thing would only work if the notification was instant.) So I don't see any value that delicious provides here, other than an extremely awkward way of passing links around between people.

Internal Representation (from danja, Apr 4 2007)

* I'd strongly recommend using FOAF as it can provide rich, extensible modelling of the interpersonal domain and is based on established web standards
* it already has: foaferson, foaf:knows, foaf:OnlineAccount etc.
* it has been mapped to many other person/social representations - microformats, vCard etc
* there is an XML serialization (RDF/XML) which can be used with XMPP, APP etc.
* many existing systems already have support, e.g. millions of users on LiveJournal
* it would give Mozilla a solid position on the Semantic Web of Data

Similar things to look at (Arnaud 4-Apr-2007)

* http://www.zweitgeist.com (used XMPP)
* http://www.dai.sy

[edit]
Great Ideas for The Coop

These are some great ideas...but possibly out of scope for the first release. Want to make sure we capture them someplace.

* Setup of custom server, the official Coop
* Bi-directional updating of multiple profiles.
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/The_Coop

 

Protect Firefox From a Critical Windows Flaw

Firefox is vulnerable to the nasty Windows animated cursor flaw that can hand over control of your XP or Vista computer, according to a video posted by Determina, the company that originally discovered the vulnerability.

In the Determina video, the speaker (possibly Alexander Sotirov, who posted the blog entry) says that under Vista, IE7's Protected Mode mitigates the potential attack damage by not allowing the browser - or any attack that takes over the browser - to change system files or perform other common malware attacks. He goes on to say that Firefox doesn't have a similar protected mode.

It doesn't, in a regular install. But you can give it one using a Microsoft tool called DropMyRights. In essence, DropMyRights lets you easily put any program into a Protected Mode. Set it up for Firefox like this:

1. Download DropMyRights
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,64213-order,1-page,1/description.html

2. Double-click the downloaded file to install it. Keep note of where it installs (by default it will go into C:\Documents and Settings\[yourusername]\My Documents\MSDN\DropMyRights\DropMyRights.exe).
3. Right-click the shortcut you usually use to start Firefox and choose Properties. You can do this with a shortcut on your desktop or on the Quick Launch toolbar.
4. On the Shortcut tab, edit the line in the Target box to add a reference to DropMyRights before the location of the Firefox executable. For my shortcut, that looks like: "C:\Documents and Settings\Erik\My Documents\MSDN\DropMyRights\DropMyRights.exe" "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"
- note those quotation marks, you'll need them too.


dropmyrights.jpg


5. On the General tab, change the shortcut's name to something like DropMyRights Firefox.

Now, when you use that shortcut, DropMyRights will in effect start Firefox in a protected mode, and Firefox (or again, an attack that successfully takes over the browser) won't be able to mess around with important system files.

You can test whether it worked by trying to save a Web page into a system directory. On any page, choose File->Save Page As, and navigate into the WINDOWS\system32 directory. If you get an error window like the one below when you try to save a page there, you know it worked.


dropmyrights2.jpg


The only gotcha in doing this is that you won't be able to install many downloaded programs straight from Firefox anymore. The install will start but then fail when it tries to write somewhere where it isn't allowed. Instead, go to the download in Windows Explorer and install it from there.

DropMyRights changes user privileges to protect you. If you're curious, I wrote about admin rights, user privileges, and other programs like DropMyRights in a story called "Disarm Net Threats."

Also, Michael Howard, who wrote DropMyRights, has plenty of info on his Microsoft blog.

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004010.html


License Type: Free
Price: Free
Date Added: Sep 2006
Operating Systems: Windows 2000, Windows XP
File Size: 164KB
Downloads Count: 4942
Author: Michael Howard
Though other apps provide more-expansive security, DropMyRights gives you simple yet effective protection against malware by limiting user rights-and it works with any program.
A growing number of security tools are taking a new approach to fighting malicious software. Rather than blocking each virus, they aim to limit malware's power to cause harm even if it gets in. One of the better free apps that adopts this preventive strategy is DropMyRights, a small program that opens selected programs under limited user rights.

Developed by Michael Howard, a Microsoft senior security program manager, it has been around since 2004; though Howard works for Microsoft, the company doesn't market the app. It works with any program, but before using it you need to make some quick changes. After installing it, you must create a shortcut for each program that you want to use with it (or you must modify the existing one). Howard provides full instructions with screen shots at his Microsoft Security Developer Center page.

If you click a Web link in another program, such as Word, your default browser will start normally, without DropMyRights protection (unless it is running with DropMyRights, too). To get the extra security, copy and paste the link after starting your browser via the specially prepared shortcut.

Microsoft plans to include a "protected mode" in Vista that will run IE 7 without admin privileges, much as DropMyRights does. Redmond is also trying to take the aggravation out of running day-to-day with a LUA (least-privileged user account), though current Vista betas suggest that it still has some work to do.

Click here for more information on the new types of security tools that proactively limit the power of viruses and other malicious software to infiltrate and damage your system.

--Erik Larkin

 

Windows cursor patch causing trouble, the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel may not start after you install security update KB925902


Windows cursor patch causing trouble

Update for Windows XP (KB935448) is needed
Brief Description
Install this update to resolve an issue where the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel may not start after you install security update KB925902 (MS07-017) and security update KB928843 (MS07-008).

go here to get it
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...88-3131-429C-8FCB-F7B3B0FD3D86&displaylang=en


Security: Installing Microsoft's Tuesday patch for a "critical" Windows vulnerability is c
=>Posted by: [NT].
=>Thursday, April 05 @ 14:08:12 CEST
Warp2Search News Microsoft broke with its monthly patch cycle Tuesday to repair a bug in the way Windows handles animated cursors. Cybercrooks had been using the hole since last week to attack Windows PCs. But the fix is not compatible with software that runs audio and networking components from Realtek Semiconductor, some Windows users have found.
"Apparently the update is not compatible with Realtek," CNET News.com reader Dave House wrote in an e-mail. "We lost all Ethernet and audio functions. Removing the update and doing system restores brought the systems back."

ZdNet has more.

Windows cursor patch causing trouble
By Joris Evers, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: April 4, 2007, 3:01 PM PT


Installing Microsoft's Tuesday patch for a "critical" Windows vulnerability is causing trouble for some users.

Microsoft broke with its monthly patch cycle Tuesday to repair a bug in the way Windows handles animated cursors. Cybercrooks had been using the hole since last week to attack Windows PCs. But the fix is not compatible with software that runs audio and networking components from Realtek Semiconductor, some Windows users have found.

"Apparently the update is not compatible with Realtek," CNET News.com reader Dave House wrote in an e-mail. "We lost all Ethernet and audio functions. Removing the update and doing system restores brought the systems back."

Microsoft is aware of problems with Realtek's audio software. In fact, it knew about them before releasing the fix and published a support article with the security bulletin. An additional update is available from Microsoft to remedy the problem, according to the company's Web site. Microsoft is not aware of networking issues, a representative said.

The audio problem occurs on Windows XP PCs that have the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel installed, Microsoft said. The application may not start after the patch is applied and Windows may display an error message, the company said.

Microsoft consciously released the cursor flaw patch despite the compatibility problem, Mike Reavey, a Microsoft Security Response Center staffer, wrote on a corporate blog. The company tested the fix throughout February and March and eliminated many problems, he wrote.

"At one point our testing had uncovered over 80 potential issues with the update that were investigated and resolved...at the time of release, only one minor quality issue was known," Reavey wrote.

The cursor vulnerability is one of seven flaws addressed by Microsoft's Tuesday patch--three of them also affect Vista. Cybercrooks moved quickly to exploit the cursor hole. Security firm Websense has spotted hundreds of Web sites that try to use the bug to compromise PCs, as well as an e-mail spam campaign with links to the malicious sites.

Microsoft plans to issue additional fixes next week on its regular monthly patch day, the company said.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6173413.html

 

p2pnet RIAA survey: online now


p2pnet.net news:- I've had an online question session going for just over a couple of weeks and I've found it so interesting, and useful, that I've decided to run a series of other surveys on a various subjects and I'm calling Survey #2 The Sultans of Spin.

Spin is the, "sometimes pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favor of an event or situation," the Wikipedia sums it up, continuing, spin, "often, though not always, implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics." And it's, borrowed, says the post, "from ball sports such as cricket, where a spin bowler may impart spin on the ball during a delivery so that it will curve through the air or bounce in an advantageous manner".

The Sultans of Spin examines spin-doctoring in the pejorative sense --- the art of presenting stuff as it isn't.

I have Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG's RIAA in mind, for this particular exercise, but it's not alone. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and most other cartel organisations are offered up as 'trade' outfits acting on various issues for, and on behalf of, 'members'.

And there are literally hundreds of them run by smooth-talking, twinkle-toed reality adjustment specialists who are so fast on their verbal feet that their words never actually touch the ground.

They're at the sharps ends of organisations such as the RIAA, MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), BPI (British Phonographic Industry), IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry), CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America), BSA (Business Software Alliance), FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft), and so on and so forth.

One of the most extreme examples of what spin can achieve comes in the manner in which RIAA fact realignment experts have turned a straightforward commercial concept, copyright infringement, into a major crime on a level with robbery, with which it's now equated.

Below is p2pnet survey # 2 - The Sultans of Spin. The RIAA questions are all based on direct quotes from the highly reliable and factual RIAA site, which in Talking With Your Kids About Tough Issues still says Hilary Rosen is the 'chairman and ceo'.

She quit close to four years ago.

The results should be interesting and I'll run them in a post when I wind The Sultans of Spin up in a couple of weeks.

I'lll also do a post on the results of the #1, the Reader Survey, in couple of days

Cheers! And thanks a lot for your help ...
Jon
Slashdot Slashdot it!

If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the end (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you're Chinese and you're looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don't buy their 'product'. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you're into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep's doorstep, making sure you've contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don't just complain. Do something!

(Friday 6th April 2007)
http://p2pnet.net/story/11902

 

The Top 5 Things I Hate About Linux
Last update: 04-04-2007
Discuss this article | Print this article

Submitted by Matt Hartley

(Column) - Even though I enjoy using my Linux boxes a great deal for the most part, there are still those little annoyances that are enough to drive a guy batty. After all, even something as elegant and as effective as the top Linux distributions can still do certain things to drive you nuts from time to time.

1. Lack of Driver Support for Select Hardware Products. Don't get me wrong, in many ways, I have seen Vista lag behind where Ubuntu (among others) have blown past the Windows OS when it comes to out-of-the-box driver support.

Still, there is always that one manufacturer that chooses not to bother with providing any kind of Linux support whatsoever. And thus far, these companies have been able to get away with it. But as Linux adoption continues to grow, this will have to change as people like me will top spending money on hardware that will not work as we need for it to.

2. Half-Done, Poorly Supported Open Source Projects. One of the best examples would have to be the Gyach project. Not to be confused with the well developed project fork, known as Gyach Enhanced, Gyach (the original) project was created with a real lack of support at no extra charge. The lackluster "readme" file was the extent of the support offered. Many of you think that this was a free project, how dare I say such things. Well, I, too, maintain an open source Linux project, and my opinion is this. If you are going to start the project, then do everything you can to do it right if you are maintaining it.

Understand that I have no problem with the developer dropping it. But to release anything as a "tarball only" type of thing and then extend support as far as a ReadMe file is not acceptable and quickly becomes an ammunition round for Windows Developers.

RedHat Returns: Better Than Ever

3. The Politics of the GPL License. Unlike more flexible open source licenses that would have given the Linux kernel the same protection and freedom to grow, the GPL has been a thorn in my side for years. Call it a love-hate relationship. See, with a license like BSD or MIT, we could have kept the kernel pure, but allowed others to take the kernel and bundle it with whatever they darn well please. If there is going to be an abuse here, the abusers would only be hurting themselves. It has been this policy that has made sure that Linux adoption has been all but a sideshow event on the desktop until Ubuntu came along, ignored the license and included proprietary firmware anyway.

The end result? Nothing. Other pure distributions are fine, and the kernel has yet to explode with malware or other threatening problems.

4. Hatred Towards Proprietary Applications. This single item is a non-debatable issue in my eyes. As with the GPL licensing politics, Linux users are bred early on to believe that proprietary software is a dangerous thing. Not only is this kind of thinking absurd, it is ill-informed and downright irresponsible.

Until the day arrives when I can legally watch mainstream movies in OGG or Theora format, quit whining about this issue. Yes, both are superior formats in almost every way, as is often the case with many open source solutions, but the fact remains that until we can pressure fair adoption, there is no reason to punish the rest of us who are simply looking for a cost effective alternative to Windows. Not to become a software martyr for your misguided cause.

5. Animosity Towards the Inclusion of Ubuntu Feisty's Hardware Detection Utility and Linspire's CNR. I have read a number of posts from people who feel strongly that Feisty is walking on the dark side by "encouraging" the use of proprietary video drivers and/or CODECs. Give me a break! What the developers are finally doing is providing functionality that beginners have been screaming for since Dapper. Yes, there are some amazing inroads being made with the open source Nouveau video driver project. I‘m thrilled to see it happening, and I’m going to work hard at promoting the heck out of it.

Polippix: The Political Linux Distribution of Denmark

But don’t dare to dictate to me which drivers I can use on my Linux box. If developers choose to provide me with tools to make driver and CODEC installation simpler, awesome. It will make showing it to my friends a whole lot more convincing than spending a fair portion of my day playing tag in a console with APT.

As for Linspire's CNR, I will go on record right now, and say that I applaud them with a thunderous round of clapping and cheering. To think that those of us living in the US, where installing many media CODECs and fonts is not legal, thanks to IP rights, will finally have the ability to do so legally, tickles me pink.

There we have it, my biggest pet peeves. This will surely serve to further label me as a black sheep. Rejected by the Windows lemmings, but equally hated by the GNU/Linux purists as well. I have but one answer to this - good. This is good because it shows that two completely different types of people with differing opinions are both in love with the same OS. Love my thinking or hate it, I will never change it, and I will continue to develop for the average user who is tired of the political nonsense. All of my endeavors will meet with the GPL standards, but not because I agree with them. It's because I agree with open source as a concept, not the specific license, known as the GPL.
http://www.madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=7827

 

International Group Issues Global Warming Report

By Arthur Max
Associated Press
posted: 06 April 2007
09:50 am ET

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)—An international global warming conference approved a report Friday warning of dire threats to the Earth and to mankind—from increased hunger to the extinction of species—unless the world adapts to climate change and halts its progress.

Agreement came after an all-night session during which key sections were deleted from the draft and scientists angrily confronted government negotiators who they feared were watering down their findings.

"It has been a complex exercise,'' said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators but in the end agreed to compromises. However, some scientists vowed never to take part in the process again.

The climax of five days of negotiations was reached when the delegates removed parts of a key chart highlighting devastating effects of climate change that kick in with every rise of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, and in a tussle over the level of scientific reliability attached to key statements.

There was little doubt about the science, which was based on 29,000 sets of data, much of it collected in the last five years. "For the first time we are not just arm-waving with models,'' Martin Perry, who conducted the grueling negotiations, told reporters.

The United States, China and Saudi Arabia raised the many of the objections to the phrasing, often seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections.

What is says

The final IPCC report is the clearest and most comprehensive scientific statement to date on the impact of global warming mainly caused by man-induced carbon dioxide pollution.

It said up to 30 percent of the Earth's species face an increased risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the average in the 1980s and '90s.

Areas that now suffer a shortage of rain will become even more dry, adding to the risks of hunger and disease, it said. The world will face heightened threats of flooding, severe storms and the erosion of coastlines.

"This is a glimpse into an apocalyptic future,'' the Greenpeace environmental group said of the final report.

Negotiators pored over the 21-page draft meant to be a policy guide for governments. The summary pares down the full 1,500-page scientific assessment of the evidence of climate change so far, and the impact it will have on the Earth's most vulnerable people and ecosystems.

More than 120 nations attended the meeting. Each word was approved by consensus, and any change had to be approved by the scientists who drew up that section of the report.

Though weakened by the deletion of some elements, the final report "will send a very, very clear signal'' to governments, said Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official.

Next steps

The summary will be presented to the G8 summit of the world's richest nations in June, when the European Union is expected to renew appeals to President Bush to join in international efforts to control emissions of fossil fuels.

This year's series of reports by the IPCC were the first in six years from the prestigious body of some 2,500 scientists, formed in 1988. Public awareness of climate change gave the IPCC's work unaccustomed importance and fueled the intensity of the closed-door negotiations during the five-day meeting.

"The urgency of this report prepared by the world's top scientists should be matched by an equally urgent response from governments,'' said Hans Verolme, director of the global climate change program of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

"Doing nothing is not an option,'' he said.

During the final session, the conference snagged over a sentence that said the impact of climate change already were being observed on every continent and in most oceans.

"There is very high confidence that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases,'' said the statement on the first page of text.

But China insisted on striking the word "very,'' injecting a measure of doubt into what the scientists argued were indisputable observations. The report's three authors refused to go along with the change, resulting in an hours-long deadlock that was broken by a U.S. compromise to delete any reference to confidence levels.

It is the second of four reports from the IPCC this year; the first report in February laid out the scientific case for how global warming is happening. This second report is the "so what'' report, explaining what the effects of global warming will be.

Who gets hit

European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the report will spur the EU's determination to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

"The world needs to act fast if we are to succeed in stabilizing climate change and thereby prevent its worst impacts,'' Dimas said in a statement.

For the first time, the scientists broke down their predictions into regions, and forecast that climate change will affect billions of people.

North America will experience more severe storms with human and economic loss, and cultural and social disruptions. It can expect more hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires, it said. Coasts will be swamped by rising sea levels. In the short term, crop yields may increase by 5 to 20 percent from a longer growing season, but will plummet if temperatures rise by 7.2 F.

Africa will be hardest hit. By 2020, up to 250 million people are likely to exposed to water shortages. In some countries, food production could fall by half, it said.

Parts of Asia are threatened with massive flooding and avalanches from melting Himalayan glaciers. Europe also will see its Alpine glaciers disappear. Australia's Great Barrier Reef will lose much of its coral to bleaching from even moderate increases in sea temperatures, the report said.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/070406_ap_GW_report.html

 

The World Rots Faster as Global Warming Fuels Fungi
By Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 05 April 2007
02:00 pm ET


Fungi are fruiting and spreading more rapidly thanks to global warming, a new study finds. The result: Things are rotting faster.

From polka-dotted mushrooms that push through cracks to slender tendrils that peak out from beneath tree barks, fungal freaks are flourishing in their balmy environment.

Compared to 50 years ago, many of the fungal species in England and possibly elsewhere now fruit much earlier in the year, and some of them even reproduce twice a year due to warmer temperatures and increased rainfall.

It is “unheard of for an organism to start reproducing twice a year instead of once,” said the study’s lead author Alan Gange of the University of London.

More fungi, more rot

The surge in reproduction means more fungi. “The amount of mushrooms produced would be about doubled over the course of a year,” Gange said. “My guess is if you would do the same study in North America you would get the same results because fungi respond to changes in the seasons.”

Since fungi “devour” rotting leaves and other forest debris, a feast that boosts decomposition, Gange expects stuff will decay twice as quickly as in the past.

The research, detailed in the April 6 issue of the journal Science, adds another data point to the list of organisms affected by global warming.

“Birds, we know, are nesting earlier, and they will also nest perhaps twice in a springtime, whereas before they used to nest only once,” Gange said. “But what birds do not do is nest in autumn as well as spring. They stay within the one season.”

Study details

Gange and his colleagues analyzed data spanning from 1950 through 2005 on 315 species of fall-fruiting fungi. They calculated average temperatures and rainfall amounts by month, season and years and compared these with the dates of fruiting for each fungal species.

Summer temperatures and rainfall amounts in the fall have increased since the 1950s, the scientists found. Statistical analyses showed the temperature and rain spikes caused early-season fungi to fruit earlier and late-bloomers to extend their fruiting to December, whereas before they only fruited until the end of October. On average, the fruiting season for the fungi examined has doubled since the 1950s, from 33 days to the current 75 days.

Many of the species that normally fruited only once in October now also fruit in April, a phenomenon the scientists think is the result of warmer temperatures in February and early spring.

Your backyard

Fungi don’t produce their own food, but instead degrade rotting tree trunks and leaf material to obtain energy and nutrients.

“Your compost heap would now rot, disappear, at twice the rate than it would have done in the 1950s,” Gange said.

Some nutrients contributed by fungal feeding also get released into the soil more rapidly now, where trees and leafy plants can access them. “My guess is that trees now have access to twice the nutrients as they used to, so their growth rates will be much increased," Gange said.

Next, Gange wants to find out if mushroom-munching insects will follow the changing fungi behavior and reproduce more frequently. “Lots and lots of insects feed on mushrooms," Gange said. "That’s really how and why a mushroom disappears.”

http://www.livescience.com/environment/070405_fungus_fruiting.html