Hardware and Software Forum

If you’re developing applications for MySpace or just thinking about it, the social networking company has made it easier to get the word out about and popularize your apps. An update to the fledgling [URL="http://developer.myspace.com"] MySpace Developer Platform [/URL] released last week lets app builders add messaging and posting capabilities …

Microsoft is not old by corporate standards, but in the world of technology it is down-right staid. That’s why it takes a while for it to make major changes (or five years to roll out an OS). A few years ago when Bill Gates was still in charge, he recognized …

A new deal struck between Microsoft and its Linux ally Novell (SuSE Linux) is headed for mainland China. Microsoft claims now that Linux violates 42 of its patents (down from over 200 a year ago) and that purchasing SuSE Linux will indemnify Linux users from lawsuits for patent infringement. Thanks …

One of the best known soccer clubs in the world is tackling the phishing threat and has placed a penalty on the head of those who might try to con their fans on the web. As the annual InfoSecurity Europe show kicks off, so Manchester United has launched the implementation …

With the lackluster adoption of Vista, perhaps Microsoft plans to migrate XP users by attrition—one service pack at a time. The company today released Windows XP SP3, which enables in XP a slew of features, many native to Vista. Available now as a stand-alone [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=68c48dad-bc34-40be-8d85-6bb4f56f5110&displaylang=en"]installer pack[/URL], the update brings XP …

Jim Gamble, the chief executive of the [URL="http://www.ceop.gov.uk/"]Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre[/URL] has warned paedophiles who use the Internet that they will be tracked down and brought before the courts. The warning comes as CEOP figures reveal that the number of suspects arrested during the last year has …

There is a recent trend amongst those who’ve implemented virtualization solutions: Complaints about the costs. Why, they wonder, have they spent more on virtualization when it's supposed to be cheaper? Virtualization is greener in terms of power consumption, space, and cooling but don’t look for a lot of green to …

Kind of a quiet day on Wall Street, with traders wondering if Bank of America's less-than-expected Q1 forecast was a bump on the road to a bull market or a legitimate roadblock. With the market off 35 points in Monday trading (as of 3 PM EST), after rising four percent …

How stupid do you have to be to get caught by spam email with the subject line of 'we caught you naked [your name] - check the video' is a question I have been asking myself today. Not because I have been caught naked, and if I had my only …

I could have sworn that only Apple was making Apple-compatible computers. I remember well the era in which Apple famously granted—then revoked—licenses to Motorola and others to manufacture hardware that would run Mac OS. As I read today that a company called Psystar Corp. [URL="http://www.psystar.com"](www.psystar.com)[/URL] was selling “an alternative to …

There is an old saying that goes something like this: If you put 1,000 monkeys in a room with 1,000 typewriters (the things people used before computers), they would come up with the works of Shakespeare. Could the same be true of a great Desktop OS? No, but give me …

[URL="http://usa.asus.com"]Asustek Computer[/URL] on Saturday unveiled the Eee PC 900, a beefier version of the ultra-mobile PC it introduced late last year. The new unit is available with Xandros Linux or Windows XP, and is scheduled to begin shipping on May 12 with a sticker price of US$549. Last year’s model …

Following on from the RSA security conference the other week, where PayPal published a paper which included comment from chief information security officer Michael Barrett that suggested 'unsafe' web browsers would be banned, the eBay owned payments company has now appeared to backtrack somewhat. Online media channels, and in particular …

Research by security as a service specialists [URL="http://www.scansafe.com"]ScanSafe[/URL] has proven something that pretty much everyone knew already: namely that people working at home are more likely to view online pornography than those stuck in an office somewhere. I mean, it hardly needed a survey to dig up that little gem, …

I'm no Microsoft basher, but I've never hidden my personal loathing for Vista. Yet even I was surprised to learn this week just how cynical Microsoft appears to be regarding Vista. It started the other day when a Steve Ballmer speech to the [URL="http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/"]Microsoft MVPs [/URL]leaked out. According to several …

How cool is that? A financial software programmer has put his coding skills to good use by hacking into a popular video game and adding an Easter Egg with a twist. Hold on a minute, you are probably thinking, surely you are not condoning the illegal hacking into a commercial …

When he took the reins almost two years ago, new Novell President and CEO Ronald Hovsepian, was going to lead the charge in driving the Linux acceptance and conversion. Recently he said that the Desktop Linux market, in the next 3 to 5 years, is mainly enterprise-related and that the …

If you believe the results of a survey conducted by [URL="http://www.infosec.co.uk"]InfoSecurity Europe[/URL] then women are four times as likely to give away their passwords for chocolate than men. This reveals two things: women prefer chocolate to IT and men rather predictably do not. It also reveals that we, as a …

[URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/187851/apple-iphone-vulnerable-through-safari.html"]According to IT Pro[/URL] the Apple iPhone is vulnerable to Denial of Service attacks. These can occur when an iPhone user opens a JavaScript containing HTML page which triggers the vulnerability. An application Denial of Service attack can then crash the Safari browser on the phone, and quite possibly the …

[URL="http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=11463"]Reports are emerging[/URL] that according to a Gartner analysis, albeit a controversial one, Windows is on the verge of collapse. The conclusion being that unless something is done soon then it is only a matter of time before a competitor that is more able to tackle the problems it has …

New Scientist magazine has compiled a pretty darn interesting list of what it says are the [URL="http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn13656-ten-weirdest-computers.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news1_head"]top ten weirdest computers[/URL] ever. Some are weirder than others, like the chap at the University of Illinois who has developed a method of creating 3D optical waveguides out of photonic crystals, with the …

Rather surprisingly, Kaspersky Lab has forecast that the security threat landscape will increase by more than 20 million programs by the end of 2008 when compared to the 2007 year-end figures, a ten-fold increase no less. That is worth repeating: the number of [B]new[/B] malicious applications in circulation by the …

According to [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/186540/the-security-business-has-no-future-says-ibm.html"]reports[/URL] the general manager of Internet security with IBM has warned that "the security business has no future." Speaking at the RSA conference in San Francisco, IT Pro says, Val Rahmani warned that the enterprise must fundamentally change security strategies if it is to have any success within …

[URL="http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/04/08/hp.mini.note/"]Word is[/URL] that HP will debut the new Mini-Note micro-notebook PC next week, with the $500 base model shipping with a SuSe Linux OS. With an 8.9 inch display and a spill-resistant keyboard which somehow only manages to be around 8% smaller than a standard notebook device, the aluminium encased …

Today's trading was flat, with most of the tech news coming from the Yahoo & Microsoft camps. Microsoft seems to be getting all Tony Soprano-like on the Yahoo board, issuing a pointed letter that emphasized an April 26 deadline for accepting its $44.6 billion takeover bid for the mega-web portal. …

According to [URL="http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9911470-56.html?tag=cnetfd.blogs.item"]reports[/URL] it looks possible that the next big upgrade to the Windows OS, the fabled Windows 7, could arrive much earlier than expected. Within the next 12 months even. And who is responsible for making this prediction? None other than Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates himself, apparently. If this …

There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Or something like that. However, there are also some really interesting figures emerging about online life right now which are worthy of repeating here. How about [URL="http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10007735o-2000537720b,00.htm"]this report[/URL] that the numbers of web sites on the Internet has risen from, can you believe …

It should come as no surprise that the upcoming 'Patch Tuesday' from Microsoft should include critical patches covering the likes of VBScript and Jscript implementation in Windows 2000, XP and 2003. However, [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/184764/not-even-vista-sp1-escapes-next-patch-tuesday.html"]some reporters[/URL] have expressed just a little astonishment that both Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1 are also …

[URL="http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Sued+Over+Deceptive+Millions+of+Colors+Advertising/article11348.htm"]The word online[/URL] is that Apple is facing legal action over its claims the MacBook range supports millions of colours. This might actually be true were it not, say the reports, for the small matter of Apple ditching the old 16,777,216 colour supporting 8-bit displays used in MacBooks and replacing …

[URL="http://www.fortiguardcenter.com"]According to unified threat management specialist Fortinet[/URL] Facebook users had better start paying attention to the postings that appear on their message wall within the popular social networking site. It appears that spammers are moving away from targeting third party applications, as evidenced in the recent 'Secret Crush' case, and …

Security provider Webroot has today published its [URL="http://www.webroot.com/En_GB/land-sois-home.html"]State of Internet Security: Protecting Business Email[/URL] research report and estimates that every single business email account will receive some 42,000 spams during the course of 2008. Or 116 junk messages every single day if you prefer. That is an increase of some …

Wordpress 2.5 has been under development for 6 months. This past weekend, [URL="http://ma.tt/"]Matt Mullenweg[/URL] [URL="http://wordpress.org/development/2008/03/wordpress-25-brecker/"]announced[/URL] the release of Wordpress 2.5 at his keynote during [URL="http://dallas.wordcamp.org/"]WordCamp Dallas[/URL] 2008. You can read more about [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress"]Wordpress on Wikipedia[/URL]. You can get your copy here: [URL="http://wordpress.org/download/"]click here[/URL] But most of all, a huge congrats …

Oh the irony. According to [URL="http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/30/sony-bmg-sued-nicking-software"]The Inquirer[/URL] and [URL="http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9362/Sony+BMG+Sued+for+Software+Piracy+-+Assets+Seized"]others[/URL] it would appear that Sony BMG, you know the same Sony BMG that has fought such a high profile and bitter legal war against individuals for copyright violation by using music file sharing sites, is itself in trouble on charges of …

Hello! Since installing the shiny new Vista first service pack; I had been getting some problems browsing - although I hadn't actually changed anything apart from installed SP1. It was mainly websites that were running on flash or those that used ActiveX controls that seemed to be having problems loading. …

[URL="http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/facebook-friends-not-real-judge/2008/03/27/1206207279597.html"]According to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald[/URL] a UK judge has ruled, as part of a harassment case, that being a Facebook friend is not the same as being a real friend. The case revolved around a woman claiming that the act of sending a Facebook friend request …

As [URL="http://www.macrumors.com/2008/03/28/3g-iphone-in-bidding/"]rumored[/URL] around the web, the Apple iPhone with 3G support is coming out soon! The iPhone has been a revolutionary tool for consumers, corporate America, and users around the world. I held back from purchasing an iPhone largely in part because it lacked stable support for the 3G network. …

Researchers at web gateway security specialists [URL="http://www.finjan.com"]Finjan[/URL] have uncovered an underground crime data exchange service which is highly sophisticated in nature. The exchange, known as SellCVV2, promotes the sale of fraudulent credit card data, offering not only volume discounts for fraudsters with bigger ambitions, but guarantees as well. According to …

Computerworld is [URL="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9071638&source=rss_news6"]reporting the possibility[/URL] of a worm or bot in the wild that is specifically targeting D-Link branded routers. It refers to a three year old vulnerability which Symantec security researchers believe is being exploited by a new exploit. Apparently, the Symantec security response team has seen an increase …

[URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/181083/microsoft-offers-free-vista-sp1-support.html"]According to IT Pro[/URL] Microsoft has done a u-turn when it comes to charging users for installation or compatibility support with regard to Vista SP1. It says that Microsoft is now "offering free support to any Windows Vista SP1 user experiencing problems." Quoting Microsoft MVP Brandon LeBlanc, it reports "you …

According to [URL="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9070840&intsrc=hm_list"]reports[/URL] it would appear that Microsoft has confirmed the presence of a critical vulnerability which impacts upon users of MS Word for Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 SP1. Shame it has taken many weeks for Microsoft to admit this, and only after a second security vendor recently …

[URL="http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/180843/mozilla-boss-attacks-apple-over-autoinstalling-safari.html"]According to UK IT magazine PC Pro[/URL] the Mozilla CEO has accused Apple of coming close to using malware tactics to install the Safari browser on Windows PCs via the iTunes updater. It reports that the latest version of the Windows iTunes updater, designed to make upgrading to the latest …

According to [URL="http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9899151-38.html"]recent reports[/URL] the FBI has been using honey-trap hyperlinks which claim to lead to child pornography in order to entice offenders into clicking them. Last year, it seems, armed raids were carried out on homes in Nevada, New York and Pennsylvania as a direct result of such link …

[URL="http://www.frsirt.com/english/advisories/2008/0928"]FrSIRT[/URL], the French Security Incident Response Team, has reported that multiple vulnerabilities have been identified in various IP-PBX software applications that can be exploited by attackers to bypass security restrictions and cause denial of service attacks or otherwise compromise vulnerable systems. The software is used by an ever increasing number …

Evening everyone! As most of you will proberbly already be aware that the first service pack for MS Vista is looming. Although the final version won't be available on MS update until proberbly next month - it is available as a download (roughly about 450Mb) direct from MS. I decided …

Kind of a quiet week in the technology corner of the stock market. That's not so bad, as people can exhale and figure out if the latest Federal Reserve move to cut the Fed Funds rate by .75 points signals the bottom (finally) of the bearish stock market. if so, …

[URL="http://po-ru.com/about/"]Paul Battley[/URL] is a software developer from London who can probably lay claim to being the biggest thorn in the side of the BBC right now. No sooner had the mighty British Broadband Corporation [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7293988.stm"]announced[/URL] that his hack which allowed people to download iPlayer TV streams meant for an iPhone …

This is rather belated news, but I figured it was worth posting anyways. Apple has recently unveiled larger capacity versions of the iTouch and iPhone. The iTouch, originally only available in 8 gig and 16 gig versions, now boasts a whopping 32 gig version with a $500 pricetag. The iPhone …

Ever wondered just how smart a smartcard is, from the security perspective? Obviously there are problems as detailed in a DaniWeb blog posting last month which described how hackers can [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2115.html"]exploit hardware RFID weaknesses to access credit card account data[/URL] for example. But now a former member of the team …

[URL="http://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/03/15/gates-predicts-big-technological-leaps"]Speaking[/URL] to the Northern Virginia Technology Council this week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates made the distinctly predictable prediction that during the next ten years there will be even greater technological advances than during the previous decade. Amongst the advances that Gates suggests are likely to be of most importance were …

[URL="http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/03/12/another-mass-attack-underway/"]Security researchers at McAfee[/URL] have uncovered one of the biggest attacks of its kind to date, with some 10,000 web pages which had been rigged to entrap unsuspecting visitors. Although the infected web pages look the same as they always did, under the hood the cyber-crooks had added some redirection …