...from:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1640211,00.asp
Microsoft to Gut Longhorn to Make 2006 Delivery Date
By Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft Watch and Darryl K. Taft
August 27, 2004
UPDATED: After the cuts, Longhorn won't look much like the early
builds that Microsoft has been distributing, but it should run existing
applications.
Microsoft is cutting back its Longhorn client's planned feature set so
as to be able to make its current delivery targets: Beta 1 by next year
and final release some time in 2006.
Microsoft officially confirmed what had been leaked by developer
sources late on Friday: changes to its future roadmap for the desktop
version of Longhorn. And while developers and customers who expected
they'd be required to rewrite their applications to take advantage of
Longhorn may be happy with Microsoft's roadmap changes, others who were
banking on promised Longhorn features, such as the next-generation
Windows File System, will be far less so.
The Windows File System (WinFS)$B!=(Btechnology that was set to simplify
information storage and retrieval$B!=(Bwon't make it into the final,
shipping versions of Longhorn client, company officials said. WinFS
also won't be part of Longhorn server, the server complement of
Longhorn that is still due out in 2007, as Microsoft announced earlier
this year.
The end result? Longhorn is going to be a lot more of an evolutionary
than a revolutionary Windows release.
"Longhorn is going to stop being a whole new thing and more of an XP
with a lot of good new stuff," said one developer close to Microsoft,
who requested anonymity.
[...]
===========
...from:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/Aug04/08
-27Target2006PR.asp
Microsoft Announces 2006 Target Date for Broad Availability Of Windows
"Longhorn" Client Operating System
Windows WinFX Developer Technologies Will Be Made Available For
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
REDMOND, Wash. -- Aug. 27, 2004 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced it
will target broad availability of the Windows(I.(B client operating system
code-named "Longhorn" in 2006, and make key elements of the Windows
WinFXTM developer platform in "Longhorn" available for Windows XP and
Windows ServerTM 2003.
"Longhorn" will deliver major improvements in user productivity,
important new capabilities for software developers, and significant
advancements in security, deployment and reliability.
"Getting 'Longhorn' to customers in 2006 will provide important
advances in performance, security and reliability, and will help
accelerate the creation of exciting new applications by developers
across the industry," said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software
Microsoft will deliver a Windows storage subsystem, code-named
"WinFS," after the "Longhorn" release. The new storage system provides
advanced data organization and management capabilities and will be in
beta testing when the "Longhorn" client becomes available.
[...]
============
The Microsoft "LongHorn" page is at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/
..from:
http://www.apple.com/motion/video/
Demonstration of Apple's new MOTION software - Apple’s high-performance
motion graphic design and production application
(http://www.apple.com/motion) - done at the most recent National
Association of Broadcaster's (NAB) exhibition.
=======================================
So you want to be a cybercrook...
By James Sherwood
CNET News.com
August 19, 2004, 3:24 PM PT
Some Web sites are now offering surfers the chance to download free
"phishing kits" (definition of Phising at
http://inews.webopedia.com/TERM/p/phishing.html) containing all the
graphics, Web code and text required to construct the kind of bogus Web
sites used in Internet phishing scams.
According to security firm Sophos, the kits allow users to design
sites that have the same look and feel as legitimate online banking
sites that can then be used to defraud unsuspecting users by getting
them to reveal the details of their financial accounts.
"By putting the necessary tools in the hands of amateurs, it's likely
that the number of attacks will continue to rise," said Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant at Sophos.
Sophos warned that many of the kits also contain spamming software that
enables potential fraudsters to send out thousands of phishing e-mails
with direct links to their do-it-yourself fraud sites.
"The emergence of these 'build your own phish' kits means that anyone
can now mimic bona fide banking Web sites and convince customers to
disclose sensitive information such as passwords," Cluley said.
Many online banking Web sites now carry messages urging users not to
open any e-mail that they suspect may be fraudulent and to telephone
their bank for further information if they do receive suspicious
e-mail.
Phishing has become such a problem that there are now several online
antiphishing guides to educate users about the con artists' common
tricks.
=====================
...complete article at:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5316664.html?
part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnet
How eight pixels cost Microsoft millions
By Jo Best
Silicon.com
August 19, 2004, 11:36 AM PT
Microsoft's lack of multicultural savvy cost the Redmond behemoth
millions of dollars, according to a company executive.
The software giant has seen its products banned in some of the biggest
markets on earth--and it's all because of eight wrongly colored pixels,
a dodgy choice of music and a bad English-to-Spanish dictionary.
Speaking at the International Geographical Union congress in Glasgow
on Wednesday, Microsoft's top man in its geopolitical strategy team,
Tom Edwards, revealed how one of the biggest companies in the world
managed to offend one of the biggest countries in the world with a
software slip-up
When coloring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft colored
eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed
Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was shown as
non-Indian, and the product was promptly banned in India. Microsoft was
left to recall all 200,000 copies of the offending Windows 95 operating
system software to try and heal the diplomatic wounds. "It cost
millions," Edwards said.
Another social blunder from Microsoft saw chanting of the Koran used
as a soundtrack for a computer game and led to great offence to the
Saudi Arabia government. The company later issued a new version of the
game without the chanting, while keeping the previous editions in
circulation because U.S. staff thought the slip wouldn't be spotted,
but the Saudi government banned the game and demanded an apology.
Microsoft then withdrew the game.
The software giant managed to further offend the Saudis by creating
another game in which Muslim warriors turned churches into mosques.
That game was also withdrawn.
[...]
==========================
...complete article at:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5316507.html?
part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnet
IBM asks for Linux ban on SCO
By David Becker
CNET News.com
August 19, 2004, 10:13 AM PT
IBM asked a federal court to bar the SCO Group, a Linux adversary,
from distributing any Linux software, in the latest filing in their
ongoing legal battle.
In a motion for partial summary judgment filed Wednesday in U.S.
District Court in Salt Lake City, IBM asks the court to rule in favor
of its counterclaim alleging SCO has violated the terms of one of the
most common licenses under which Linux software is distributed.
An IBM representative declined to comment beyond the text of the
motion. An SCO representative said the company disputed IBM's
allegations and would respond soon in court.
The motion says that by distributing Linux software governed by the
GNU General Public License (GPL) while at the same time declaring the
GPL invalid, SCO has forfeited the right to distribute Linux code,
particularly code to which IBM has made contributions. SCO has been a
harsh critic of the GPL, declaring it a violation of the U.S.
Constitution in one legal document.
[...]
==================
...from:
https://depot.info.apple.com/batteryexchange/index.html
15-inch PowerBook G4
Battery Exchange Program
In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
and other international safety authorities, Apple is voluntarily
recalling certain lithium ion rechargeable batteries that were sold
worldwide from January 2004 through August 2004 for use with 15-inch
PowerBook G4 (Aluminum) notebook computers. These batteries were
manufactured by LG Chem, Ltd. of South Korea.
...complete article at:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5316570.html?
part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnet
By John Borland
CNET News.com
August 19, 2004, 1:27 PM PT
A federal appeals court has upheld a controversial court decision that
said file-sharing software programs such as Grokster or Morpheus are
legal.
Following the lead of a lower-court decision last year, the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles said on Thursday that
peer-to-peer software developers were not liable for any copyright
infringement committed by people using their products, as long as they
had no direct ability to stop the acts. (Download the decision.)
The ruling means that companies that write and distribute peer-to-peer
software can't be shut down because of the actions of their customers.
It did not say file-trading itself is legal, and lower courts in the
United States have said individual computer users are breaking the law
when they trade copyrighted files without permission. But the ruling
does lift the cloud of potential liability from defendants Grokster and
StreamCast Networks, as well as from many of their rivals.
"The (record labels and movie studios) urge a re-examination of the law
in the light of what they believe to be proper public policy," the
court wrote. "Doubtless, taking that step would satisfy the copyright
owners' immediate economic aims. However, it would also alter general
copyright law in profound ways with unknown ultimate consequences
outside the present context."
[......]
============================
...from:
http://news.com.com/Study%3A+Unpatched+PCs+compromised+in+20+minutes/
2100-7349_3-5313402.html?part=rss&tag=5313402&subj=news.7349.20
Study: Unpatched PCs compromised in 20 minutes
Published: August 17, 2004, 12:22 PM PDT
By Matt Loney and Robert Lemos
Special to CNET News.com
Don't connect that new PC to the Internet before taking security
precautions, researchers at the Internet Storm Center warned Tuesday.
According to the researchers, an unpatched Windows PC connected to the
Internet will last for only about 20 minutes before it's compromised by
malware, on average. That figure is down from around 40 minutes, the
group's estimate in 2003.
The Internet Storm Center, which is part of the SANS Institute,
calculated the 20-minute "survival time" by listening on vacant
Internet Protocol addresses and timing the frequency of reports
received there.
"If you are assuming that most of these reports are generated by worms
that attempt to propagate, an unpatched system would be infected by
such a probe," the center, which provides research and education on
security issues, said in a statement.
The drop from 40 minutes to 20 minutes is worrisome because it means
the average "survival time" is not long enough for a user to download
the very patches that would protect a PC from Internet threats.
Scott Conti, network operations manager for the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst, said he finds the center's data believeable.
"It's a tough problem, and it's getting tougher," Conti said.
One of Conti's administrators tested the center's data recently by
placing two unpatched computers on the network. Both were compromised
within 20 minutes, he said.
The school is now checking the status of computers before letting them
connect to the Internet. If a machine doesn't have the latest patches,
it gets quarantined with limited network access until the PC is back up
to date.
"We are giving the people the ability to remediate before connecting
to the network," Conti said.
The center also said in its analysis that the time it takes for a
computer to be compromised will vary widely from network to network.
If the Internet service provider blocks the data channels commonly
used by worms to spread, then a PC user will have more time to patch.
"On the other hand, university networks and users of high-speed
Internet services are frequently targeted with additional scans from
malware like bots," the group stated. "If you are connected to such a
network, your 'survival time' will be much smaller."
In a guide to patching a new Windows system, the Internet Storm Center
recommends that users turn off Windows file sharing and enable the
Internet Connection Firewall. Microsoft's latest security update,
Windows XP Service Pack 2, will set such a configuration, but users
will have to go online to get the update, opening themselves up to
attack.
One problem, experts say, is network administrators' reliance on
patching and their assumption that users will quickly patch systems.
Speaking recently at the Microsoft TechEd developer conference in
Amsterdam, Microsoft security consultant Fred Baumhardt said the day is
likely to come when a virus or worm brings down everything.
"Nobody will have time to detect it," he said. "Nobody will have time
to issue patches or virus definitions and get them out there. This
shows that patch management is not the be-all and end-all."
Baumhardt stressed the importance of adaptability, using the human
immune system as an example: "Imagine if your body said, 'Hmm, I have
the flu. I've never had this before, so I'll die.' But that doesn't
happen: Your body raises its temperature and so on, to buy time while
other mechanisms kick in."
"If the human body did patch management the way (companies do), we'd
all be dead."
The First FireWire 800/1394b DVD Optical Technology
Disc-for-DATA Drives Records 23GB onto a Single Sided Disc.
Based on blue laser technology, the AfterBurner stores up to 23 GB of
native capacity per rewritable or write-one, read-many (WORM) single
sided media, delivering an advanced optical storage and archiving
solution for professional data-intensive applications. The high
capacity and high performance FireWire 800 External AfterBurner Series
drives are designed specifically for professional storage applications,
graphic design, audio/video editing/authoring and medical imaging,
e-mail archival, enterprise content management and multimedia projects.
...more information and at:
http://www.nitroav.com/store/customer/home.php?cat=3
===============================
...from:
http://www.apple.com/isync/
iSync makes it even easier to make — and keep — your dates. That’s
because iSync, Apple’s hot synchronizing software, now works with over
thirty cell phone models, as well as multiple Macs, your iPod and your
PDA.
=============================
...from:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/proapplicationsupport.html
Pro Application Support 2.1
This update provides improvements for Apple's professional
applications, and is strongly recommended for all users of Final Cut
Pro, Cinema Tools, Compressor, LiveType, Soundtrack, and DVD Studio
Pro. This update improves general user interface appearance and
reliability and is required to receive future updates for these
applications.
NOTE: these updates may be easily be installed by choosing "About this
Mac" from the Apple menu and clicking on the "Software Update..."
button.
Apple Mac OS X Bulletins (APPLE-SA-2004-08-09)
Yesterday, two bulletins were released by Apple. The first bulletin
involved the libpng (Portable Network Graphics) vulnerability that has
been in numerous patches in the Unix and Linux world in the past 2
weeks. The Mac OS X CoreGraphics and AppKit frameworks have been
updated to protect against the flaws in the reference library. The
software update is available for these versions of OS X:
* Mac OS X v10.3.4 "Panther"
* Mac OS X Server v10.3.4 "Panther"
* Mac OS X v10.2.8 "Jaguar"
* Mac OS X Server v10.2.8 "Jaguar"
The second bulletin announced the availability of Mac OS X v 10.3.5.
The new version of OS X includes the patch for libpng, and also
includes security updates for the Safari Web Browser and the TCP/IP
stack (the rose fragmentation attack).
For more information on either of these, please see the following URLs:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/
...from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/travel/08prac.html?th
[NOTE: free registration required for article access]
Logging On at 30,000 Feet
By BOB TEDESCHI
Published: August 8, 2004
IN late May, Ortwin Freyermuth readied himself for an 11-hour flight
from Munich to his Los Angeles home - a journey typically preceded by a
flurry of last-minute e-mail messages, in anticipation of a day's worth
of traveling incommunicado.
This time, though, Mr. Freyermuth eased onto his Lufthansa flight less
harried than on previous trips. When his plane reached cruising
altitude, he opened up his iBook, logged onto the Internet and answered
messages from 30,000 feet.
"It was amazing," said Mr. Freyermuth, a lawyer. "Now I don't have to
stress out before every flight."
The price of a stress-free flight - Lufthansa's Connexion by Boeing
service costs $30 for a long-haul flight (six hours or more), or $10
for 30 minutes - is perhaps more than some are willing to pay. But
Connexion is at the leading edge of a trend that analysts and
executives said will gain momentum this year, and is likely to lead to
lower prices, a greater selection of vendors and much more mouse
clicking on flights.
Connexion made its debut in May on Lufthansa, which calls its service
FlyNet, and is the first full-feature, in-flight Internet service to
reach travelers, after years of half-starts.
The airline industry had originally planned to roll out airborne Web
surfing in late 2001, but companies shelved those plans after Sept. 11
and the ensuing financial malaise.
The service is only available to those with wireless Internet
connections for their laptop or handheld computers. Increasingly
wireless connections are built into portable devices, but those with
older laptops can buy a wireless PC card for $50 to $100. What you get
is a better experience than most Internet users receive at home.
Wireless connection speeds are generally up to 20 times faster than
those of dial-up service, and if just a few people are logged on in the
plane, the speed can rival that of some workplace connections. And
unlike many workplace Internet connections, Connexion's service offers
unrestricted Web access.
5 Planes and Counting
So far, five Lufthansa airplanes are equipped with the satellite
receivers and wireless networks necessary to run the system, and the
only routes served as of July were Munich-Los Angeles and Munich-Tokyo.
But the company plans to equip all of its long-range aircraft with the
technology, and add New York routes by the end of the year.
According to Terrance Scott, a Connexion spokesman, Japan Airlines
will be the next to add the service, sometime this summer or early
fall, followed by Scandinavian Airlines and All Nippon Airways.
Singapore Airlines, China Airlines and Korean Air will follow early
next year. Mr. Scott said Connexion is in "active discussions" with
several United States carriers, but none has signed on yet.
[...]
=======================
...from:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2004/
tc2004085_0709_tc153.htm
AUGUST 5, 2004 • Editions: N. America | Europe | Asia | Edition
Preference
SPECIAL REPORT: APPLE: THE NEXT GENERATION
Apple Aces Academia
Its college sales are surging as students flock to its well-designed
laptops and the popular iPod/iTunes combo for digital music
The University of California at Berkeley has some of the best and the
brightest students in the Golden State's vaunted university system.
When they want to arm themselves with the best tech tools, they head to
the Scholar's Workstation. The on-campus computer store sells thousands
of machines each year. Lately more of those models have come with an
Apple (AAPL ) logo on the box.
According to store administrator Mark Laws, the percentage of Apple
computers sold has risen steadily. And in the fast-growing laptop
category, Mac sales make up over half of the total at the Scholar's
Workstation. That's a nice jump from less than 40% of total laptop
sales at the store three school years ago. "People really seem to like
them. We're definitely seeing more and more people come in to ask about
them," says Laws.
ONE-TWO LAPTOP PUNCH. Berkeley isn't the only campus where Macs are
flying off the shelves. While the percentage of Macs sold at the
Scholars Workstation is far higher than Apple's market share as tracked
by PC market-research firms, CEO Steven P. Jobs and his troops have
clearly been on a college roll. In each of the past three quarters,
Apple has posted 40% increases in year-over-year sales for this
segment.
During the first half of its current fiscal year, Apple posted an 18%
bump in year-over-year education sales. And most of that has come from
higher education, since the K-12 market has remained almost flat for
Apple (see BW Online, 8/3/04, "Apple's Back-to-School Blast"). Clearly
the Mac is climbing the Ivory Tower.
What's behind the college revival? Credit Apple's one-two laptop punch
-- the lower-end iBook and the more powerful PowerBook, which are
packing a wallop. "They have the right products at the right time,"
says Kenneth C. Green, director of the Campus Computing Project, an
ongoing industry-funded study that examines how computing is used in
higher education. (Apple helps to fund this study, along with rivals
such as Dell (DELL ) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ )).
IT'S ALL PORTABLE. True, in higher education Apple has less ground to
make up than in the broad PC market, where Jobs and his troops hold 3%
or less of the total PC pie. That contrasts with Apple's 11.9% share in
colleges in the first quarter of 2004. Moreover, that share could go up
even more this year if Apple keeps up its torrid pace. Jobs & Co. sold
193,000 Macs into higher education in 2003, up 17.7% over the previous
year. During that period, the entire higher-education market grew by
only 11%.
The biggest reason for Apple's expansion is the growing popularity of
notebook computers on campus. According to collegiate market researcher
StudentMonitor, 36% of all university students had laptops by the fall
of 2003, up from 21% in 2000. During that same period, desktop
ownership remained roughly flat in the high 60% range.
No surprise, then, that notebook sales to universities soared by 33.8%
from 2002 to 2003, according to IDC. Apple laptop sales rose by a
whopping 58.5% in that same period. "When I go around and talk to
colleges, I find out that well in excess of 90% of incoming freshmen
have laptops," says Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice-president of
worldwide marketing. "They don't bring desktops anymore. It has all
gone portable. So it makes sense we'd be doing better."
LURE OF MUSIC. Surprisingly, this laptop explosion for Apple came
without major product introductions. Schiller says the key is that
Apple's core design expertise outshines raw speed comparisons with
rival offerings. "You want a lot of features, but not a lot of doors
and things that can break. And we're the only ones left that actually
design our own products. Other companies don't have the talent or the
tech to invest in breakthrough new designs and technologies such as
widescreen [LCD laptop displays,]" says Schiller.
Indeed, the pricey PowerBook has become the favorite portable
workstation of the campus Unix clique, which wants a nifty graphical
interface and the ability to crunch serious code. Add Apple's smooth
WiFi access software and its laptops are doing well in a highly
competitive market. "They're well positioned in the mobile space, which
is where the market is growing," says IDC analyst David Daoud (see BW
Online, 8/3/04, "Apple: Sweetness Regained").
Then there's the music factor. Apple's iTunes software, which comes as
a free download for either PCs or Macs, has become the de facto
standard for managing digital tunes on the desktop. That, plus the
runaway success of Apple's iPod music player, could be fueling a slow
but steady increase in Apple customers. "My sense is that music and the
iPod are influencing purchasing decisions," says analyst Charles Wolf
of Needham & Co. (He owns Apple shares and has a "buy" recommendation
on the stock).
YOUNG CONVERTS. Will Apple's newfound success in the halls of higher
learning add much needed fresh blood to the adult Mac user base? That's
the million-dollar question. To date, no one has tracked the percentage
of college Macs buyers who remain loyal to Apple after they receive
their sheepskin.
In some respects, students may be more valuable customers because
they're younger and have many more computer buying years in front of
them. "It's hard to get people to move to a Mac, but once they do they
tend to stay," says Wolf. If Apple can stay on a roll at college, then
the Mac could well become a campus fixture once again.
By Alex Salkever, Technology Editor for BusinessWeek Online