February 16, 2007 7:51 AM PST
Week in review: See Vista in your future?
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(continued from previous page)
The cell phone industry is also looking for a bigger piece of the mobile-music sector. But it must improve the experience for consumers or risk losing out to new competitors like Apple, Warner Music Group's CEO warned.
Edgar Bronfman Jr. said in a keynote speech that although there are already millions of music phones available throughout the world, only about 8.8 percent of people with the devices actually buy their music over the air. The reason, he said, is because such purchases are expensive, complicated and slow.
On average, Bronfman said, it can take a person 20 clicks to buy a ringtone, depending on the carrier network the consumer is using. He also complained about the fact that ringtones, full-track songs, music videos and album art are all sold in separate online stores.
Meanwhile, handset makers unveiled new phones at 3GSM. Hewlett-Packard plans to offer its own smart phone with voice command and remote-access features this spring. The iPaq 500 smart phone will run on the new Windows Mobile 6.0 platform and come with voice over Internet Protocol compatibility, push e-mail, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook Mobile.
Research In Motion introduced its BlackBerry 8800. , designed to offer multimedia consumer features to the corporate userAdopting some of the features of its consumer-oriented handheld, the BlackBerry Pearl, the BlackBerry 8800 includes a media player and a microSD expandable memory slot for music and videos.
Hacks, holes and heartbreaks
If you haven't changed the default password on your home router, let this recent threat serve as a reminder. Attackers could change the configuration of home routers using JavaScript code, security researchers at Indiana University and Symantec have discovered.
The researchers found that it is possible to change the DNS, or domain name system, settings of a router if the owner uses a connected PC to view a Web page with the JavaScript code. This DNS change lets the attacker divert all the Net traffic going through the router. For example, if the victim types in "www.mybank.com," the request could be sent to a similar-looking fake page created to steal sensitive data.
Meanwhile, Microsoft released fixes for 20 vulnerabilities in a variety of products including Windows, but none of the operating-system flaws affect Vista. The fixes arrived in a dozen security bulletins, released as part of Microsoft's monthly patch cycle.
Six of the alerts were tagged "critical," the company's most serious rating. These flaws could enable an attacker to gain complete control over a vulnerable computer with no action, or minor action, on the part of the user, Microsoft warned.
The critical Microsoft vulnerabilities are in Windows, Internet Explorer, Office and security tools such as Windows Live OneCare and Windows Defender. None of the Windows or Office flaws affect Vista or Office 2007, Microsoft's latest updates.
A few days later, Apple issued four security updates to fix flaws in Mac OS X and iChat identified by the Month of Apple Bugs project. Two of the flaws could allow an attacker to execute code on an unpatched system. Patches are now available on Apple's Web site or through the Software Update selection under the Apple menu on a Mac.
Apple noted that proof-of-concepts for the flaws were posted on the Month of Apple Bugs Web site. But it doesn't appear that attack code has surfaced using the concepts outlined by the project. Apple has fixed several flaws identified by the project, which took place in January, but some remain open.
In honor of Valentine's Day, at least two romance-theme security threats arrived in e-mail in-boxes Wednesday. One purports to be an electronic card from American Greetings and includes "Happy Valentine's Day!" in the subject line. When a recipient clicks on an in-message link to view the "card," however, a Trojan horse virus surreptitiously turns the computer into a spambot, or zombie, said Dmitri Alperovitch, a research scientist at Secure Computing.
Also of note
The Federal Trade Commission has asked a U.S. district court to permanently halt operations that engage in telephone record pretexting...A ruling against Google in a copyright case in Belgium may influence courts in other European countries but not in the United States, where copyright laws are more permissible...D-Wave Systems gave a public demonstration of Orion, its quantum computer, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif...Residents of New York, Detroit and Los Angeles are the most at risk of having their identity stolen, according to new research.
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Second Life, Week in review, IT professional, Microsoft Windows Vista, virtual worlds
44 comments
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now. No room for Vista anyway.
I am disgusted with Microsoft. Sold my stock.
Have converted my home machines to OPENSUSE and love it. By the way, it's FREE. The Openoffice Suite is not as slick as MS Office, but for the price difference, I can live with it. There's more than enough in the OPENSUSE package for me to surf, chat, work my POD, create music and video, and for the kids to crank out their homework. And did I mention...it's FREE?
Looking to convert my business to Linux in the near term. Tired of getting raked over the coals by Microsoft. Have invested well over $10,000 for their OS's over the years, have exactly ZERO to show for it.
It's over baby, Vista can bite me.
All of this crap was said when XP came out...how it was not much better than 2000.....yet now XP is perfect you need nothing else.
Vista is a solid upgrade with lots to offer, especially a corporation.
Seriously, if Windows were as bad as it it's made out, why would the overwhelming majority still use it?
I think both Macs & PCs are good- for what I do, Windows works better (database & number crunching), & I told my sister to get a Mac, because it fit her for what she likes to do.
But really, there's more to life than promoting an operating system.
bias of CNet agianst the Mac Platform. We happen to also be a
little sensitive to people that swear Windows is better but have
never spent more then a couple hours using a Mac.
Are you employed by M$
* I have a growing career based in all OSes, and work with a
huge percentage of them, including Windows, Linux, FreeBSD,
and Solaris. From that experience, I know which ones work
best... Windows' one and only advantage happens to be in the
availability of certain given apps. Otherwise it has naught but
disadvantages.
* There is also the fact that the vast, vast majority (statistically
as close to 99% as one can get) of OS-based problems/crashes/
viruses/etc for users at home happen to involve Windows. Kinda
sad, isn't it?
* Nearly every virus and worm works on... Windows.
Given all of that, I'm merely here as a public service.
and managing data from a Database is just plain uninformed and
unpracticed.
Or you're just another MS hatchet man.
CEO Steve Ballmer tells analysts that some forecasts for Vista sales are too aggressive, prompting investors to boot out of the shares
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/feb2007/pi20070216_409268.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_investing" target="_newWindow">http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/feb2007/pi20070216_409268.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_investing</a>
Vista - reality check, only x % of the installed base will upgrade.
My father-in-law, Emachine Celeron-XP, 1 yr old sys, will not upgrade.
My 13-year old son E-machine AMD 3200-XP, 2 yr old sys, probable upgrade.
My wife, Sony laptop 2+ yr old-XP, probably no.
My system, Gateway AMD 3700, 1 yr old sys, XP->Vista planned.
commercials. That word usually has a negative hurtful context
and applies to feelings of superiority between people.
Apple is not saying that Mac users are superior people. Nor are
they Apple is a superior company. They are simply pointing out
that they think they have a superior (for many people) PC
product. And they're conveying that in a light humorous way
that non-geeks can relate to..
I would say Apple's commercials are intended to be direct and
provocative, but not condescending.
poeple don't know about.
Cisco acquired the iPhone trademark as a fluke, and it's clear
they've never really had any intention of using it. Instead they've
justing been sitting on it ... over five years now and counting.
Cisco's so-called "iPhone" product was nothing more than some
iPhone stickers on the shrink wrap of a box containing a
completely non-iPhone product.
Cisco knows that Apple is very interested in that trademark (and
I'm sure Apple has offered to buy it), but instead Cisco is trying
to use it as leverage to manipulate Apple.
That's not what Trademark law was intended for, and I think
Apple is sick of begin jerked around by Cisco. So they
deliberately stepped on the iPhone trademark as a way to call
Cisco's bluff. It's time for Cisco to put up or shut up. That is,
either make a real iPhone or give up the trademark.
building to fail a bit (thus us HAVE to go to MS to "update") It was built to take over the home, media wise; for that it bows to the media-dealing-companies' policies, without caring much for the consumers' rights. That's why it costs so much, etc. but MS forgot the basic; US ,and they will pay for it.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=522208&SiteID=17&PageID=1" target="_newWindow">http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=522208&SiteID=17&PageID=1</a>
I'll stick with XP Professional SP2 and Ubuntu on my system for now.
To answer this article's title question, no I don't see Vista in my future. I'll stick with XP + Ubuntu til (1) Microsoft issues XP SP3; (2) Google releases its Linux-based OS.
Don't think so. Hasn't happened yet and won't happen any time soon.
Seriously, you Apple and Linux fans need to get your heads out of your ***** and realize that everyone who wanted to get Linux or Mac OS already did. Microsoft's 95% market share won't change anytime soon.
Everybody who's bashing Vista's bad sales obviously hasn't read the many articles that say that new computer sales increased by like two thirds (67%) on the week of Vista's release. Check this out:
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.techspot.com/news/24308-pc-sales-increase-on-week-of-vista-release.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.techspot.com/news/24308-pc-sales-increase-on-week-of-vista-release.html</a>
Vista clearly plans to stay, and stay very comfortably on the couch with it's legs propped up. After all, MS did put like 6 years of development time into this project!
I finally got through to Moduslink corporate office where I was put through to a voice mail. I left a message, hung up and called the corporte office again. I asked to speak to someone else and was told that was not possible. I asked for the name of the person I was talking to and her supervisor and mentioned that I might write about this situation. Suddenly she managed to get ahold of a real life person. Michael Powderly took my information but said it would take 4 to 8 weeks to send Vista. I told him that was not good enough because I made this purchase in November and should not haave to wait while others go into the store and purchase the system off the shelf. He said he would get back to me by Tuesday morning. It is now Saturday February 17. I have had one email telling me to send in a confirmation page from the website and proof a purchase. I never got far enough to get a confirmation number.
VISTA may be great product but the totally inept way the sales are being handled makes me wonder if I ever want to risk it on my laptop.
Is this runaround a result of poor planning or is it total disinterest in the consumer once they have their money? Either way it makes me wish I had switched to the IMAC. Right now I feel discounted and have lost all confidence in Microsoft products.