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Microsoft shows off finger licking Vista packaging

Microsoft isn't taking any risks. It's forthcoming Windows Vista operating system won't just feature a radically redesigned user interface, even the packaging will be completely new.

The new packaging features rounded corners. Because those cornery DVD boxes are completely uninspiring, explained product manager Nick White.

"Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that’s designed to protect the software inside for life-long use.  It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation."

At least they didn't rip off another Apple design.

technorati tags: vista, windows, vista, apple, microsoft

October 31, 2006 at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Broadband sharing project reaches first milestone

The FON Wi-Fi broadband sharing project is raising its hardware prices.

The project seeks to build a worldwide network of consumers sharing their broadband internet connections with outsiders. Those outsiders (Aliens in FON lingo) are charged 3 dollars or Euros for one day of internet access. Half of the revenues will be passed on to the broadband subscribers (the "Bills"). If you're in a sharing mood, you can also give away internet access for free (earning you the "Linus" moniker).

Users looking to share their connections require a special router. After months of subsidizing this hardware, FON founder Martin Varsavsky now claims that his network is large enough to end the subsidies.

Router prices in a few days therefore will be raised form 5 euro/dollar to 29.95.

Cynics could argue that FON is simply running out of money and is facing disappointing subscription rates, forcing the company to raise prices. But the current maps seem to indicate a decent ramp-up.

Wi-Fi access points listed on Fon's map in downtown San Francisco.

technorati tags: fon, wifi, wi-fi, internet, Martin Varsavsky

October 30, 2006 at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Information security student flunks proper disclose class the hard way

Computer security student Christopher Soghoian failed his first class in proper disclosure of security vulnerabilities. But instead of an "F", he found his front door window smashed in and all computers missing from his apartment.

The FBI decided to raid his apartment after the student put up an online service that allowed visitors to create fake boarding passes for Northwest Airlines.

The site has since been taken offline, but the bare page can still be accessed through Google's cache.

Printing your boarding pass at home is one of the conveniences air travel in the internet age. These printouts will get you past the first security check that allows passengers into the gate area. This security check is the only time when a passenger's identification is checked.

Soghoian wasn't the first to warn about the weakness in the online check-in system. But he is the first one to create a publicly available service that allows people to create new passes with just a few clicks.

As any seasoned security researcher knows, you don't warn the world against the dangers of nuclear weapons by setting one off. We've got governments to do that.

Soghoian's boardpass forging service

technorati tags: security, christopher+soghoian, airport

October 30, 2006 at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Acer grumbles at closed Windows pricing loophole

Acer is upset with Microsoft. The software vendor is cheating the system builder out of it profits because it positions the more expensive Windows Vista Premium as the main version of the operating system.

Vista Premium is more expensive than Vista Basic. If customers demand Premium on new computers, Acer's profit margins will suffer, the company claimed according to PC Pro.

Something smells rotten here. Acer's whining only makes sense if it is being singled out.

But if consumers demand that their new systems run Vista Premium, they will make those demands from every PC maker. Consequently, all PC makers have to buy Vista Premium from Microsoft and end up with the same cost structure.

The introduction of Windows Vista won't cause Acer's cost structure to change, compared to that of Dell, HP or Gateway.

Then why could Acer be upset?

Industry analyst Rob Enderle has a suggestion: the introduction of Windows Vista will change a loophole that Acer used to sell consumer PCs to small businesses.

Looking to cut costs, low cost system vendors often equip their business PCs Windows XP Home. Premium brands meanwhile stick to Windows XP Pro. The price difference is about $25 to $50, and most small businesses never really miss the features (such as Active Directory) in XP Pro.

But Microsoft doesn't agree with the practice. For once thing, the company likes the added revenues from the more expensive XP Pro sales.

Windows Vista Basic therefore has been stripped of several business features that make the systems easy to manage. Throw in Microsoft's marketing machine and businesses are expected to shy away from the consumer versions of Vista.

If Acer should be upset about anything, it should be upset about the unattractiveness of Vista Basic for bargain enterprise systems. But the evaporating profit margin argument is bullocks.

Microsoft shuts down Acer's blowout sale

technorati tags: vista, windows+vista, SKU, microsoft, Acer, bill+gates

October 28, 2006 at 04:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

IBM shows the true value of tracking systems: faster beer

IBM might sometimes look clueless in the IT market, but this time they created a solution that is bound to catch the hearths and minds of the IT sector.

Big Blue has opened up a Beer Living Lab where research ways think of way to use cellular and satellite technology to guide beer shipments through customs.

Beer actually is the essential ingredient that turns the project from a mundane IT pilot into the obsession of every IT developer.

It took IT geeks after all to explain the term free in open source software as "free as in free speech, not free as in free beer."

When Sun Microsystems unveiled its project Black Box earlier this month, one excited employee yelled the first (and only) question: "Does it have a beer cooler inside?"

Life is all about priorities.

More beer getting hauled across the big pond

technorati tags: beer, ibm, tracking, beer+living+lab, black+box

October 28, 2006 at 03:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Researchers crack open Vista's Patchguard

Instead of waiting for Microsoft to release the promised application programming interfaces that will allow security vendors to properly function on the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, researchers with Authentium crafted a technique that allows them to disable the technology altogether.

Why couldn't Symantec and McAfee think of this? Most likely because they know better. Microsoft isn't amused and plans to patch Vista and sabotage Authentium's workaround.

Authentium on its website explained that access to Patchguard was required for one of its forthcoming products. While the company probably expected the Microsoft patch, the hack will generate some nice publicity around its software.

Furthermore, it keeps the issue of Microsoft blocking access to Patchguard on the agenda.

Microsoft might have promised to provide APIs, but has yet to publish a timetable. Gartner last week suggested that it will probably take at least one year before the initial APIs will be launched, and even longer before they are fully done.

Independent security vendors can't wait that long. And more importantly, the world can't be left to rely on Microsoft as the main source of security applications.

technorati tags: symantec, mcafee, patchguard, vista, windows+vista, microsoft, antitrust, monopoly

October 27, 2006 at 05:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Adware purveyors wage mob war

A turf war has been raging in the underbelly of the internet, where shady companies like Zango and Direct Revenue test the boundaries of legality with their adware software. (or to say it more politically correct: this is "software which a reasonably security-or privacy-minded computer user may want to be informed of")

In the past month, adult webmasters started crying foul over other webmaster stealing their Zango cookies, which is cheating them out of their adware installation rewards.

Zango pays webmasters to push its adware, offering an estimated 50 cents per installation. Webmasters now are charging that Zango is letting other affiliates take credit for their installations.

Although the practice itself isn’t new, it has been the subject of heated debates in the past weeks. Webmasters are pissed off because they are cheated out of their money, and Zango allegedly isn't doing enough to fight this.

Zango's lacking response now has prompted a group of adult website operators to hit back. Visitors who run the Zango software are presented with a warning and receive instruction on how to remove the software.

But Zango isn't prepared to go down without a fight. The company will create blacklist of these online porn vigilantes, allowing it to launch a pop up screen that overshadows the warning screen.

It's great when internet rats turn on each other, but in this case things are only getting more confusing for users.

technorati tags: zango, adware, 180solutions

October 26, 2006 at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Google steps up anti-Google campaign

Google is getting more serious about its "stop googling" campaign.

The search provider on Wednesday put up a blog posting, urging internet users to stop using the word "google" to refer to performing an online search.

Google last summer launched a similar bid with media organisations. At the time Google requested to refrain from using the company name as a verb altogether. Yesterday's blog posting merely asks to save 'to google' exclusively for searches on Google.

At stake is Google's trademark. Once a decent percentage of the world's population starts saying: "I googled the shop for some tomatoes, but they were out," there is no way to prevent a maker of navigation systems to launch an ad campaign that states: "We'll do you're googling for you." And a porn site or Yahoo could do the same.

But language is a living cultural being that doesn't respect trademark laws.

The makers of scotch tape or trampolines will tell you that it doesn’t hurt to be genericized. But try explaining that to the makers of spam (the canned kind).

technorati tags: google, to+google, verb, trademark, commodity

October 26, 2006 at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Oracle explains its Red Hat assault (video)

Oracle today wiped out about $700m in Red Hat's valuation when the database and enterprise software vendor unveiled that it has started to offer support for Red Hat Linux at discounted rates.

Red Hat has failed the enterprise market, Oracle's Larry Ellison charged in a keynote at the Oracle OpenWorld conference. The company won't provide bug fixes for older versions of the operating system, won't indemnify its customers against legal claims (think of legal claims from SCO or Microsoft) and is overcharging for its support.

In the video below, Oracle's Edward Screven explains why the vendor feels it needs to step in with Red Hat support.

Oracle indemnifying could actually show benefits far beyond Red Hat. Anyone going after Linux, will now by default also go after Oracle. That alone could scare away the next SCO.

The small company (some call it a patent troll) EpicRealm earlier this year witnessed exactly how that could happen. Trying to enforce one of its patents, … sued some small companies hoping that they would settle. One of them however turned out to be an Oracle customer with indemnification. Oracle was forced to settle the case, and then sued …, seeking to invalidate the patent.

Click To Play

technorati tags: oracle, ellison, larry+ellison, linux, red+hat, oracleworld, oracle+openworld

October 26, 2006 at 03:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Penguins turn their back on Oracle

Oracle has launched support services for the Red Hat Linux distribution in a move that will clearly put the company in competition with the open source company.

The database vendor is offering two basic support products, one being very similar to what Red Hat is doing and the other going beyond, including legal indemnification and support for older software versions. At the same time Oracle is drastically undercutting Red Hat's prices.

Ellison stressed at the time of the unveiling that this isn't a move against Red Hat but will further advance Linux. But the move undoubtedly is going to put pressure on the Linux vendor. Red Hat stock fell by about 17 per cent in after hours trading.

Oracle putting the squeeze on Red Hat might not help the vendor win any popularity contests with the open source community.

The events on stage at Oracle OpenWorld could give an indication. Oracle sent out three penguins that were supposed to approach the billionaire. Except that they quickly turned around when they saw the executive. One caretaker picked up one of the birds and brought it closer. To no avail.

Tux is released (Ellison is standing further to the right)...

... glances at the 10,000 people in the keynote room ...

... and marches away

Oracle claims to make Linux even more unbreakable

technorati tags: oracle, ellison, larry+ellison, linux, red+hat, oracleworld, oracle+openworld

October 26, 2006 at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack