Mozilla To Launch Firefox 3.5 Web Browser

Firefox, a rival to Microsoft's market domination, will release version 3.5 later this month.
Its features will include geolocation - information targeted to your location, in-built video players, and private browsing. It comes after nightly testing by 10,000 volunteers.
A "community" rather than a strictly commercial company, a lot of Mozilla's work is undertaken by thousands of helpers.

Only two full-time paid staffers man a support desk for 300 million users - the rest do it for free.
One of main features of Firefox web browsing is increased privacy - users can delete specific parts of their activity or ask the computer to "forget" whole chunks.
But some suggest this might help those viewing child abuse images avoid detection.
"It is not a piece we can control," the vice president of engineering, Mike Shaver, told Online.
"People who want to do illegal things have always had the ability to be private, to lie and to defraud."
He believes most people have legitimate reasons for secrecy.
"There's been a stigma around being private, we see it as just offering control."
Mr Shaver said Mozilla's community ethic had ended up being a "comparative advantage" during the economic downturn.
"We've never been set up to maximise our financial return," he explained. "We don't have shareholders to please or target numbers to hit."

If you're viewing a page coded in HTML 5 with video in an open-source format like Ogg Vorbis or Theora, Firefox 3.5 treats that video like it's just part of the page, not a separate little island of Flash content. That means instant commenting on videos. It could also mean offering links from inside a tutorial video that offer more details on what's being shown—soldering tips on an iPhone repair guide would be keen. In general, it's just a promising step forward into a seamless melding of video and text on a future web.

Google tackled on e-mail security

Google has been asked to explain why it is not making its Gmail e-mail service more secure.
In an open letter to Google boss Eric Schmidt, security experts, lawyers, and privacy advocates ask why Gmail users are "needlessly" being put at risk.
The 38 signatories want Google to start using the secure version of the HTTP protocol to protect Gmail users.
In response, Google said it was considering trials of the secure system with a select group of users.
Secure session
"As more of us end up using insecure internet access - such as wi-fi in coffee shops, libraries, and so forth - there's a real risk of session hijacking," said Ben Edelman, a signatory of the letter and assistant professor at Harvard Business School.
When users sign on to Gmail, their login name and password are encrypted as the data passes back and forth using the secure version of HTTP known as HTTPS.
However, said Mr Edelman, this is turned off once sign-on is completed. A similar system works for Google Docs and Calendar.
The risk, he said, was from hi-tech criminals who snoop on the unencrypted data passing back and forth to steal ID files called "session cookies" generated when these applications start being used.
Mr Edelman said that using the cookies could let a criminal pose as a user. In Gmail's case, this could mean they might send e-mails in the owner's name, abuse their identity, change a password, or hijack an account. "It's a frightening prospect," said Mr Edelman.
The open letter pointed out that Google used HTTPS to protect the data of users of its Health and Voice applications.
While Google does make it possible to use HTTPS all the time when signed on to Gmail, Docs, or Calendar the option was so hard to find that few would use it, suggested the letter.
It pointed out that most users retain default options and were likely to be leaving themselves at risk.
"...unless the security issue is well known and salient to consumers, they will not take steps to protect themselves by enabling HTTPS," said the letter.
If Google took the step to turn on HTTPS all the time, the risks would be removed.
In response, Google said it was looking into whether it made sense to use HTTPS all the time in Gmail. But, it said, before it did so it wanted to be sure that the average user experience of Gmail was not markedly changed by turning it on.
It feared that enabling the encryption would slow down response times as data was scrambled and unscrambled on a PC and Google's mail servers.
"We're planning a trial in which we'll move small samples of different types of Gmail users to HTTPS to see what their experience is, and whether it affects the performance of their e-mail," said Google.
Mr Edelman said it was not just Google that was putting users at risk. Every webmail company faced the same problem and should do more to protect the its users .
He said it was a problem that would get more acute as services move towards so called "cloud computing".
"Many of the systems we have built for authentication and session maintenance assume no man-in-the-middle attack," he said.

Microsoft's Bing continues to roll

Microsoft's Bing search engine has shown steady growth for the second straight week, according to researchers.
Data from internet research firm comScore shows that the Microsoft search engine has climbed up to a 12.1 per cent share of search results over the work week of 8-12 June. Over that time, Bing racked up a 16.7 per cent daily search penetration level.

Those numbers are up from an 11.3 per cent search result share the prior week and a 9.1 per cent share in the week prior to Bing's release.
"It appears that Microsoft Bing has continued to generate interest from the market for the second consecutive week,” said comScore senior vice president Mike Hurt.
"These early data reflect a continued positive market reaction to Bing in the initial stages of its launch."
The news of Bing's early success should be welcome to Microsoft. The company has been hoping to raise its search presence on the net in hopes of cashing in on the lucrative search advertising market currently dominated by Google.
The company has made in-house projects such as Bing the centrepiece of its search strategy ever since a deal to acquire Yahoo fell through last summer.

The Domain Revolution

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Microsoft to give away anti-virus

Microsoft is poised to start giving away security software.

The company is reportedly trialling free anti-virus software internally and said the beta version would be released "soon".

Called Morro, the software will tackle viruses but lack the broader range of utilities, such as parental locks, found in paid-for security suites.

Morro will be Microsoft's second venture in the highly competitive security market.

Microsoft's first attempt revolved around the Windows Live OneCare service that did not succeed in turning many customers away from rivals such as Symantec and McAfee.

Microsoft plans to discontinue Live OneCare once the Morro software is ready.

No specific date has been given for when Morro will be released, but in the past Microsoft has said it would be out by the end of 2009 at the latest.

Microsoft said Morro would tackle viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Janice Chaffin, Symantec's president of consumer products, said customers wanted more than just basic protection.

"A full internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected," she said.

Security software for home PCs typically cost around £30-40 and often allow users to install protections on more than one computer.

Other companies, such as AVG and Alwil already produce and distribute free anti-virus products.

Fake help

In its latest update, Microsoft added code that detects and deletes the widespread Internet Antivirus Pro family of fake security software programs.

Such programs, also known as scareware, have been proving more popular with hi-tech criminals in recent months.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimated that there were 9,287 bogus anti-malware program in circulation in December 2008 - a rise of 225% since January 2008.

The US government has moved to shut down some companies peddling the programs that falsely claim to find malicious software on PCs and then charge for the non-existent threats to be removed.

In addition, the Internet Antivirus Pro software displays fake Windows security messages to try and trick people into thinking the product is legitimate. The software also contains a password stealer that watches where people go online and grabs login data

Hackers Steal Secrets Of US Strike Fighter

Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's £200bn Joint Strike Fighter project and copied information about its design and electronics systems.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said intruders were able to copy and siphon off data potentially making it easier to defend against the craft.

The breach follows similar hacking attempts on the US air traffic control system.

Former US officials say the attacks appear to have originated in China although the exact identity of the hacker is unknown.

The scope of the damage to the US defence programme, either in financial or security terms, also remains unclear.

While the spies were able to download sizeable amounts of data related to the jet fighter, they were not able to access the most sensitive material.

This is stored on computers not connected to the internet.

The Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the F-35 Lightning II, is the costliest and most technically challenging weapons programme the Pentagon has ever attempted.

Britain announced it would purchase three of the aircraft for operational testing earlier this year.

The plane, led by Lockheed Martin Corp, relies on 7.5 million lines of computer code.

The Government Accountability Office says this is more than triple the amount used in the current top Air Force fighter.

Six current and former officials familiar with the matter confirmed that the fighter programme had been repeatedly broken into.

And the Air Force has launched an investigation.

The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up between the US and potential adversaries over data networks.

A recent WSJ report said computers used to control the US electrical-distribution system, as well as other infrastructure, have also been infiltrated by spies abroad.

Attacks like these - or US awareness of them - appear to have escalated in the past six months, said one former official briefed on the matter.

"There's never been anything like it," the source said, adding that other military and civilian agencies as well as private companies are being affected.

"It's everything that keeps this country going."

BT to roll-out faster broadband

BT Broadband is boosting the speeds of millions of its customers to up to 20 megabits per second at no extra cost.

The rollout is part of the firm's planned upgrade of lines to so-called ADSL2+ technology.

The firm said the rollout would start with 40% of the UK this summer and reach 55% of customers by March 2010.

Existing customers will have to sign a new 12-month contract to get the boost, while throttling of video streams in peak hours for some customers remains.

Earlier this week BT was criticised when it was revealed it cut the speed of customers on its cheapest broadband package to below 1Mbps in peak hours when using services like the iPlayer and YouTube.

That so-called traffic management will remain in place with the new speeds.

Download caps for the cheapest two packages, of 10 gigabytes and 20 gigabytes, will also continue, the firm said.

In a statement, Gavin Patterson, chief executive officer, BT Retail, said: "Unlike other providers, BT is upgrading customers to 20Mb/s for free. High-speed broadband provides a faster and more reliable service that will transform the way we live, work, learn and play."

BT said it was starting trials of its fibre optic 40Mbps service in Whitchurch, South Wales and Muswell Hill, London this summer, with the aim of offering these speeds to 40% of the country in the future.

The speed boost to 20Mbps is less than the firm's originally stated aims of offering up to 24Mbps.

On its website, BT says in tests "we've found that only a tiny number of customers can actually get 24Mb".

New DVD Which Can Hold Thousands Of Films

Technology that could see a single DVD hold more than 2000 films has been unveiled by scientists.

So-called five dimension data storage uses nanotechnology and can boost the storage potential of standard format DVDs by almost 10,000 times.

The latest development has come from a team of researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.

"We were able to show how nanostructured material can be incorporated onto a disc in order to increase data capacity, without increasing the physical size of the disc," the research leader, Min Gu, told.

Currently, DVDs have three data storage dimensions.

However, using nanorods made of gold, the Melbourne-based team were able to add two more - one based on the colour spectrum and the other on polarisation.

The breakthrough has meant it is now possible to record information in a range of different wavelengths at the same place on the disc.

Current DVDs record in a single wavelength, using a laser.

The relevant process is called polarisation, where nanoparticles react to light depending on their shape.

And the introduction of the new gold nanorods has meant this process can now be manipulated.

"The polarisation can be rotated 360 degrees," explained the co-author of the research, James Chon.

"We were, for example, able to record at zero degree polarisation.

"Then, on top of that, we are able to record another layer of information at 90 degrees polarisation, without them interfering with each other."

The team are still working on reducing the speed at which the discs can be written and commercial production is at least five years away.

Nonetheless, they have signed an agreement with Korea-based electronics giant Samsung.

The news comes soon after one of the largest US-based technology companies, General Electric, said it had developed a holographic disc capable of storing the equivalent of 100 standard DVDs.

Big drop in global server sales

Sales of servers worldwide fell almost 25% in the first three months of 2009, against the same period a year earlier, according to market research firm IDC.

Global sales were $9.9 bn (£6.14 bn), IDC said, the lowest figure since the firm started monitoring the computer server market 12 years ago.

Dell was the vendor hardest hit, with server revenue falling 31.2%.

IDC said they expected the situation to continue, although they predicted some recovery by 2010.

"Market conditions worsened in all geographic regions during the first quarter as customers of all types pulled back on both new strategic IT projects and ongoing infrastructure refresh initiatives," said Matt Eastwood, IDC's group vice president.

All three server sectors - volume, midrange, and high-end systems - registered a decline in sales. This is the first time this has happened since 2002.

The five big server vendors - HP, IBM, Dell, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens - all suffered a double digit percentage drop in revenue.

Revenue decline

Server operating system revenue also declined, IDC said.

Revenues for Unix servers fell 17.5% compared with the same period a year earlier.

Revenues for IBM's System z servers, running the z/OS operating system, fell 18.9%. Microsoft Windows server revenues fell 28.9% to $3.7bn and Linux server revenues fell 24.8% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, its lowest in five years.

Mr Eastwood said companies had suspended buying new equipment and were focusing on extending the lifespan of existing products.

"While these strategies are effective in the near term, server demand will begin to improve in the second half of the year as customers begin to rebuild their IT capabilities in advance of a meaningful economic recovery in 2010," he said.

Facebook sells stake in business

Facebook has sold a 1.96% stake for $200m (£126m) to a Russian internet firm, a move that values the social networking website at $10bn.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said he had been impressed by Digital Sky Technology's (DST) "impressive growth and financial achievements".

DST has investments in a number of internet firms across Russia and Eastern Europe.

US-based Facebook has more than 200 million global members.

'Ongoing success'

Facebook said DST would not be represented on its board or hold special observer rights.

"This investment demonstrates Facebook's ongoing success at creating a global network for people to share and connect," added Mr Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive.

"A number of firms approached us, but DST stood out because of the global perspective they bring."

DST's internet businesses account for more than 70% of all page views on Russian language websites.

It has investments in sites including Mail.ru, Forticom and vKontakte.

The deal comes two years after Facebook sold a 1.6% stake to Microsoft for $240m.

Credit card code to combat fraud

A credit card with a built-in display is being tested by Visa with the aim of reducing online fraud.
The Emue Card generates and displays a unique code each time it is used.
Developers say that the new technology would make it very hard for fraudsters, as any transaction would require the pin to generate the code.
The card is currently being trialled by 500 employees of Deloitte with the aim of assessing the technology by the end of the year.
The new technology comes against a growing backdrop of fraud. While chip and pin technology has helped reduce crime at the tills, when it comes to phone, internet, and mail order fraud - known in the industry as card-not-present or CNP fraud - the figures are growing every year and now make up more than 50% of all credit card fraud.
These transactions ask for the 16-digit code on the front of the card, and expiry date and some also ask for the three digit security card on the back. All of these details are available to a criminal who has a stolen card.

According to figures from the Association for Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) - the trade forum for banks, building societies, and credit card firms - CNP fraud accounted for more than £328.4 million in 2008, a rise of 13% from the previous year.
Michelle Whiteman, a spokesperson for Apacs, said there were a number of problems in tackling CNP fraud.
"Firstly, you aren't able to check the card's physical security measures, such as the hologram or signature.
"Then, at present, there is no form of chip and pin security.
"And finally, because of the anonymous nature of internet transactions, there fraudsters have a much lower chance of getting caught, which probably encourages some people who might otherwise not commit a crime," she said.
Visa say the new Emue system could help combat this by adding an additional layer of security. While the three-figure security code would remain, an additional four figure code - generated by the card - would also be required before a transaction could go through.
Backwards compatible
Sandra Alzetta, head of innovation at Visa, said that the card was bringing the principles of chip and pin technology to the online world.
"The card needs to be globally compatible: that means embossed characters for mechanical swipes, a magnetic strip for systems that require a signature, the fixed three digit security code and now the unique four figure code.
"You have to remember that our cards work across the world and not every country or retailer has access to the level of technology we might be used to," she said. Ms Alzetta said she hoped field trials would be completed by the end of the year.
Once certified by Visa it is then down to the banks and credit card companies to decide if they take up the new technology, but Ms Alzetta said she was confident they would.
"I see this as a very consumer focused product and any Visa bank could add it to their commercial cards and make it available, assuming it passes muster."
One of the problems facing developers was how to make sure the card could be handled like any other card without accidently pressing buttons or breaking the display.
"We've made the buttons in such a way that you need to 'pinch' them, rather than just press, for them to work.
"One of the things we're testing is how long the battery lasts - the plan is for it to work for more than three years, which means your card should expire before it runs out of power."

Google unveils 'smarter search'

Web giant Google has unveiled new products that it says will push search in a new direction. Google is using so-called semantic web technology to leverage the underlying data on websites to enhance results.

"The race in search is far from over and innovation and continued improvement is absolutely pivotal," said Google's Marissa Mayer.
Google said it could not afford to rest on its laurels in the quest to build the perfect search engine.
Google has over 63% of the US market compared with rival Yahoo, on 20%.
"I've said this many times but search is still in its infancy. Our engineers are worried about what is the next big thing in search and how are they going to find it," said Ms Mayer, who is the vice-president of search products and user experience.
She said that last year Google had released more than 360 products and in the first quarter of this year it had been 120. Ms Mayer added that this was proof that "Google gets better all the time".
Google has in the past said that despite its lead in the marketplace, users were "one click away" from switching to other alternatives.
Vanessa Fox of SearchEngineLand told that Google's ability to constantly innovate gave them a leading edge.
"Google is saying: 'We have to provide for all searchers and do things at scale.' It means they have to launch all sorts of features while some companies can concentrate on just one thing. The key thing behind why they are still ahead is because they are able to innovate at such a pace," said Ms Fox.

Rich snippets

During the Searchology event at Google's Mountain View headquarters, Ms Mayer and her team showcased four new products that she said would give users a "different way to look at the web". Rich Snippets are search results that return more information in every listing.
For example, users looking for reviews of a new restaurant might get a "rich snippet" of average review scores, number of reviews and the restaurant's price range.
"This is a step toward making the whole internet smarter," said Google product manager Kavi Goel.
Rich snippets use the metadata from web pages, such as address information, calendar information and semantic web mark-up specifications, called Resource Description Frameworks.
The use of these so-called microformats allows the search engine to better understand the meaning of data and to employ it more intelligently.

Google can understand the relationship between different sets of data, and so can pull the correct address listing of a shop without that information having to be specifically tied together.

Google Squared

One of the more experimental products was called Google Squared, which will go public in the next month or so. It takes information from the web and displays it in a spreadsheet in "split seconds", something Ms Mayer said would normally take someone half a day to do.

During the demonstration, a query for "small dog" was typed into the search box. Seconds later a table popped up showing photographs of various dogs, their origin, weight and height in a clear and simple layout.

While Ms Mayer described this product as "transformative", she would only hint at the specific techniques that Google uses to drive this feature.
"I think we can open the kimono a little bit without talking about the computer science behind it.
"What they are basically doing is looking for structures on the web that seem to imply facts. Like something 'is' something.
"Different tables, different structures, and then corroborating the evidence around whether or not something is a fact by looking at whether that fact occurs across pages.

"This is all in the secret sauce of what we are doing and it takes an incredible amount of compute power to create those squares," said Ms Mayer.

'Refine, filter and view'

Google Search Options is a tool that is aimed at letting users "slice and dice" results so they can manipulate the information and get what they want faster.

They come into play after a normal web search and allow users to drill down into the results by offering an option for different genres like product reviews, forum posts or videos. Other choices include recently added blogs, images, timelines and so on.
Ms Mayer said this new feature should help people who struggled with the "vexing" problem of exactly what query they should type into the search box.

It is meant to give users the opportunity to "refine, filter and view results in a different way".

'Skymap'

A final feature had Ms Mayer "reaching for the stars" with an app for mobile phones using the Android operating system.

"For a long time here at Google we joked could we actually find physical things like keys and now with the power and technology of Android, coupled with search, you can see we are starting to find some physical things like stars," said Ms Mayer.

Skymap displays the constellations. By using the smart phone's GPS capability, it offers the user a dynamic star map that knows where they are standing and which way they are pointing
The feature came about as a result of Google's 20% time, which allows engineers to spend one-fifth of their time working on pet projects.
The app is now available on the Android app market.
"Clearly Google is still pushing the envelope with all these new additions," said Rob Hof, Silicon Valley editor of Business Week.
"They are certainly continuing to improve daily. Whether it makes a difference and will stave off the competition, I don't know. But they are not standing still."
Ms Mayer said keeping the user happy was at the heart of everything they did.
"There is a shoe company called Stuart Weitzman and their slogan is 'a little obsessed with shoes'.
"Google is a little more than obsessed with search," confessed Ms Mayer.

Bill could mean jail for Internet flamers

A cyberbullying bill introduced last month has the potential to put half the Internet behind bars.

The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act is Congress’ response to the 2006 suicide of a 13-year-old girl who was harassed on MySpace. The bill makes electronic communication a felony if “the intent is to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person.”

Congressmen probably aren’t the most Web-savvy bunch, but anyone familiar with trolling, flaming, and various other forms of online bullying could see a problem with this bill.

Network World examines the bill and explains this new breed of Internet criminal:
Given the freewheeling exchanges that characterize everything from SMS text messages and instant messaging to blogs and Web site comments, the broadly written bill potentially could turn a lot of flamers and bloggers into felons.

Amid growing online criticism bill sponsor Rep. Linda Sanchez defended the Cyberbullying Prevention Act in a Huffington Post Article this month:
Congress has no interest in censoring speech and it will not do so if it passes this bill. Put simply, this legislation would be used as a tool for a judge and jury to determine whether there is significant evidence to prove that a person “cyberbullied” another… So — bloggers, emailers, texters, spiteful exes, and those who have blogged against this bill have no fear — your words are still protected under the same American values.

While Rep. Sanchez’s assurances may be comforting, judges tend to follow the wording of a law rather than its sponsor’s intent. So before you text your cheating ex, slam those Apple forum fanboys, or call me a ‘moron’ in the comments, consider the possible consequences of this new bill, or at least put your lawyer’s number on speed dial.

Article from http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/

Code-cracking and computers

Bletchley Park is best known for the work done on cracking the German codes and helping to bring World War II to a close far sooner than might have happened without those code breakers. But many believe Bletchley should be celebrated not just for what it ended but also for what it started - namely the computer age. The pioneering machines at Bletchley were created to help codebreakers cope with the enormous volume of enciphered material the Allies managed to intercept. The machine that arguably had the greatest influence in those early days of computing was Colossus - a re-built version of which now resides in the National Museum of Computing which is also on the Bletchley site.

Men and machine

The Enigma machines were used by the field units of the German Army, Navy and Airforce. But the communications between Hitler and his generals were protected by different machines: The Lorenz SZ40 and SZ42.

The German High Command used the Lorenz machine because it was so much faster than the Enigma, making it much easier to send large amounts of text.

"For about 500 words Enigma was reasonable but for a whole report it was hopeless," said Jack Copeland, professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, director of the Turing Archive and a man with a passionate interest in the Bletchley Park computers.
Allies first picked up the stream of enciphered traffic, dubbed Tunny, in 1940. The importance of the material it contained soon became apparent.

Like Enigma, the Lorenz machines enciphered text by mixing it with characters generated by a series of pinwheels.

"We broke wheel patterns for a whole year before Colossus came in," said Captain Jerry Roberts, one of the codebreakers who deciphered Tunny traffic at Bletchley.

"Because of the rapid expansion in the use of Tunny, our efforts were no longer enough and we had to have the machines in to do a better job."

The man who made Colossus was Post Office engineer Tommy Flowers, who had instantly impressed Alan Turing when asked by the maverick mathematician to design a machine to help him in his war work.

But, said Capt Roberts, Flowers could not have built his machine without the astonishing work of Cambridge mathematician Bill Tutte.

"I remember seeing him staring into the middle distance and twiddling his pencil and I wondered if he was earning his corn," said Capt Roberts.

But it soon became apparent that he was.

"He figured out how the Lorenz machine worked without ever having seen one and he worked out the algorithm that broke the traffic on a day-to-day basis," said Capt Roberts.

"If there had not been Bill Tutte, there would not have been any need for Tommy Flowers," he said. "The computer would have happened later. Much later."

Valve trouble

Prof Copeland said Tommy Flowers faced scepticism from Bletchley Park staff and others that his idea for a high-speed computer employing thousands of valves would ever work.

"Flowers was very much swimming against the current as valves were only being used in small units," he said. "But the idea of using large numbers of valves reliably was Tommy Flowers' big thing. He'd experimented and knew how to control the parameters."

And work it did.

The close co-operation between the human translators and the machines meant that the Allies got a close look at the intimate thoughts of the German High Command.

Information gleaned from Tunny was passed to the Russians and was instrumental in helping it defeat the Germans at Kursk - widely seen as one of the turning points of WWII.

The greater legacy is the influence of Colossus on the origins of the computer age.

"Tommy Flowers was the key figure for everything that happened subsequently in British computers," said Prof Copeland.

After the war Bletchley veterans Alan Turing and Max Newman separately did more work on computers using the basic designs and plans seen in Colossus.

Turing worked on the Automatic Computing Engine for the British government and Newman helped to bring to life the Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine - widely acknowledged as the first stored program computer.

The work that went into Colossus also shaped the thinking of others such as Maurice Wilkes, Freddie Williams, Tom Kilburn and many others - essentially the whole cast of characters from whom early British computing arose.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Windows 7 Release

A release candidate of Windows 7, the next major release of the world's most popular operating system, goes public in trial form in the next week. Microsoft is hoping it can avoid the negative press that surrounded the launch of Vista, the last major Windows release, almost three years ago.
Windows 7 has been designed to be compatible with Vista so users do not have to invest in new hardware.
A commercial release of Windows 7 is expected in the next nine months.
Microsoft's Charlotte Jones demonstrates Windows 7's new features

A test version of Windows 7 will be available to developers from Thursday, while the public can try it out from 5 May. John Curran, Microsoft UK's director, Windows Client Group, told that "shortfalls" in the Vista release had caused problems for some users.
"There were challenges on hardware and application compatibility with Vista in the first couple of months - and that has left a little bit of an aftertaste for a segment of people." When Vista was launched many users expressed frustration that the operating system did not work with all types of existing hardware and peripherals, or programs used commonly on PCs. And a Vista compatibility programme for hardware proved to be confusing and, in some cases, somewhat misleading.

Mr Curran said Microsoft had "learned lessons" and had been working with partner developers to ensure the same mistakes would not be repeated.
Windows 7 will also have "comparable system requirements" to Vista, which should mean that if your PC is capable of running Vista it will also run the new version.
Negative
Mr Curran said Vista had proved to be a success for Microsoft, despite the negative press that surrounds the operating system.
"Vista is the fastest selling operating system of all time and, in percentage terms, enterprise moved to Vista faster than it did to XP [an earlier version of Windows]," he said.
He said satisfaction surveys for Vista showed 90% of people were either satisfied or very satisfied and 85-90% would recommend it to a friend.

Microsoft embarked on a major advertising and marketing mission to improve the image of Vista after the muted reaction around its "The Wow starts now" campaign.
While Vista was released five months after the release candidate was made available, Mr Curran said Windows 7 would only be released when it is ready.
Bottom line
"Obviously in these times everybody is keeping an eye on the bottom line, but we are certainly taking a longer-term perspective here and always have done with Windows franchise.
"The timeline stated all along is that we are targeting Windows 7 within three years of of the launch of Vista and that would be the end of January 2010.
"We feel quite confident we are on trajectory that will deliver on that promise. But the exact timing will be based on quality."
Windows 7 promises a major usability improvement on Vista, and a simplification of security measures which caused frustration for many users.
Mr Curran said Windows 7 would build on the security improvements in Vista, which have seen a fall in the number of malware attacks and critical vulnerabilities identified.
Many beta testers of Windows 7 have reported that it is faster than Vista, especially in terms of start-up and shutdown sequence of the computer.
Mr Curran said that the Microsoft Windows team had been poring over every aspect of the operating system to make improvements.
"We were able to shave 400 milliseconds off the shutdown time by slightly trimming the WAV file shutdown music.
"It's indicative of really the level and detail and scrutiny on Windows 7."
A version of Windows 7 will also be available for netbooks, but with some caveats.
The Windows 7 Starter Edition will have limitations on how many applications can be used concurrently on a machine in order to preserve performance.

More on bbc.co.uk

Neural Networks

Traditionally, the term neural network had been used to refer to a network or circuit of biological neurons. The modern usage of the term often refers to artificial neural networks, which are composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus the term has two distinct usages:

Biological neural networks are made up of real biological neurons that are connected or functionally related in the peripheral nervous system or the central nervous system. In the field of neuroscience, they are often identified as groups of neurons that perform a specific physiological function in laboratory analysis.
Artificial neural networks are made up of interconnecting artificial neurons (programming constructs that mimic the properties of biological neurons). Artificial neural networks may either be used to gain an understanding of biological neural networks, or for solving artificial intelligence problems without necessarily creating a model of a real biological system. The real, biological nervous system is highly complex and includes some features that may seem superfluous based on an understanding of artificial networks.

An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is an information processing paradigm that is inspired by the way biological nervous systems, such as the brain, process information. The key element of this paradigm is the novel structure of the information processing system. It is composed of a large number of highly interconnected processing elements (neurones) working in unison to solve specific problems. ANNs, like people, learn by example. An ANN is configured for a specific application, such as pattern recognition or data classification, through a learning process. Learning in biological systems involves adjustments to the synaptic connections that exist between the neurones. This is true of ANNs as well.

Why use neural networks?
Neural networks, with their remarkable ability to derive meaning from complicated or imprecise data, can be used to extract patterns and detect trends that are too complex to be noticed by either humans or other computer techniques. A trained neural network can be thought of as an "expert" in the category of information it has been given to analyse. This expert can then be used to provide projections given new situations of interest and answer "what if" questions.Other advantages include:

• Adaptive learning: An ability to learn how to do tasks based on the data given for training or initial experience.


• Self-Organisation: An ANN can create its own organisation or representation of the information it receives during learning time.


• Real Time Operation: ANN computations may be carried out in parallel, and special hardware devices are being designed and manufactured which take advantage of this capability.


• Fault Tolerance via Redundant Information Coding: Partial destruction of a network leads to the corresponding degradation of performance. However, some network capabilities may be retained even with major network damage.

A simple neuron
An artificial neuron is a device with many inputs and one output. The neuron has two modes of operation; the training mode and the using mode. In the training mode, the neuron can be trained to fire (or not), for particular input patterns. In the using mode, when a taught input pattern is detected at the input, its associated output becomes the current output. If the input pattern does not belong in the taught list of input patterns, the firing rule is used to determine whether to fire or not.

Networking Commands used in Windows

• net - Used to start, stop, and view many networking operations
  Note: net is just the first part of the command; you'll need to combine it with a second command, for example, net config or net use . Available second commands vary depending on which version of Windows you have. To get a list of available options, enter net ? .



• ipconfig - Displays the IP address and other TCP/IP configuration information for your workstation



• hostname - Displays the Microsoft networking computer name



• lpq - Displays the print queue status of an LPD printer; available only in Windows NT, 2000, and XP



• ping - Verifies existence of remote host (connectivity)



• nbtstat - NetBIOS over TCP/IP; gives statistics and technical NetBIOS information for the TCP/IP layer



• netstat - Returns protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections



• ipxroute - Displays and modifies IPX routing tables



• route - Manipulates TCP/IP routing information



• tracert - Displays route taken by an ICMP to a remote host



• finger - Displays information about the user; finger is turned off in IU's ADS Domain.



• arp - Displays or modifies information in the ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) cache



• getmac - Lists the MAC (Media Access Control) Address on the computer network interfaces; available in Windows XP and Vista only

In Windows, how do I see all listening network ports?
One of the most revealing signs of a system compromise is new open or listening ports. Therefore, you should be aware of the open ports on your computer. Viewing open ports can help you determine if your computer has been compromised.
In Windows, you can use the netstat.exe program to view all listening network ports. To do so, from a command prompt, type netstat . You can use also use options to get more information, as in the following examples:
netstat -o - Show the process IDs (PIDs) associated with each port
netstat -a - Show all
netstat -n - Show numbers of ports
You can also combine options, e.g., netstat -oan .

April Fool's Day WORM

An April Fool's Day computer worm was launched on Wednesday but so far has not caused problems for the millions of computers that are believed to be infected. This piece of computer code tells the worm to activate on April 1, researchers found.

"I think joke's on us a little bit, which you would have expected with having an April 1 date," said Holly Stewart, threat response manager for IBM's X-Force, a computer security service. However, that doesn't mean the much-talked-about worm, called Conficker.c, is a joke, computer security experts told CNN on Wednesday. "By no means do I think we're in the clear," said Paul Henry, a forensics and security analyst for Lumension Security, based in Phoenix, Arizona. On Wednesday, a master computer gained control of an estimated 5 million "zombie" PCs infected with the worm, experts said. Security experts fear the author of the malicious computer program essentially could do anything with those Windows-based machines. No attempts by the author to upload anything had been noted as of 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, according to Phil Porras, program director at nonprofit research institute SRI International. Conficker's motive is probably financial, security experts said. The worm's author could steal financial information, shut down Web pages, track keystrokes or send spam from infected computers.
"They have full administrative-level rights to run anything they want on all of the infected machines," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for F-Secure, an Internet security company. Experts who spoke to CNN on Wednesday said it's unlikely the program's author will launch any sort of attack Wednesday or Thursday. But they said some sort of issue is likely to arise in coming weeks or months.

Experts urged computer users not to panic. The easiest way for computer users to see if they're infected is to try to access Windows updates from microsoft.com. If you can reach the site and if your system updates are working, it is unlikely your computer is infected, experts said. The worm does not affect Mac computers. A core group of about 40 computer analysts, researchers and policy experts is working to dismantle the worm, said Jose Nazario, manager of security research at Arbor Networks, and a member of the group, which some call the Conficker Cabal. Nazario said the group's unprecedented efforts may be one reason an attack hasn't happened. He said the April 1 launch date for the virus may have been a ploy by the program's author to get attention from the news media. Or it could be a twisted joke. "Either way, it suggests an interesting sense of humor, I guess," he said. The worm allows a master computer to communicate with the infected machines through Web sites the worm generates. That function became active April 1, experts said, and allows Conficker's author or authors to seize control of millions of computers around the world.

Infected machines are generating 50,000 URLs per day, which allows the master to talk with them. A previous version of Conficker created only 250 domain names per day. "What happened now, today, is that the machines started pulling 50,000 domain names in 116 countries around the world -- so that's the change," said Hypponen, another member of the Conficker Cabal. "The Conficker gang realized we could shut down 250 domain names a day, so they upped the ante," he said. Computer experts will continue to try to shut down the Web addresses that let Conficker's author communicate with infected machines, he said. Members of the Conficker Working Group have contacted security officials in all 116 affected countries and have shut down many active domain names, Hypponen said. Stewart, of IBM, said the sophistication of the worm is unprecedented. The situation has played out in the news media as an April Fools' Day joke. On a technology blog, The Washington Post mocked the hype about Conficker. "Londoners woke up to find the iconic clock tower Big Ben stopped at precisely one minute till midnight," Brian Krebs wrote. "The British tabloids blared that the giant timepiece had been felled by the Conficker worm."

The post ends with this statement: "In case you haven't guessed it yet, APRIL FOOLS!!!" Some have compared the situation to New Year's Day in 2000, when many feared the world's computers would crash but few problems were seen. Henry said that comparison doesn't fit. "Y2K was a one-time event," he said. "The update for Conficker has basically prepped it for its future. It now has the ability to gather marching orders in a way that, to date, we haven't found a way to block." Little is know about Conficker's author. A piece of code in a version of the computer worm prevents the program from harming machines in Ukraine, leading some to believe that's where the program's author lives.

Others say that could be a ploy. Many authors of previous computer viruses have come from Eastern Europe outside the jurisdiction of the European Union, experts said. Matt Watchinski, senior director of a research team at Sourcefire, a computer security company, said the author may try to split up pieces of the infected computer network -- called a botnet -- and sell them to bidders. The many unknowns about Conficker are what make it particularly concerning, said Patrick Morganelli, senior vice president of technology for Enigma Software.

"[An attack] could happen today, it could happen April 15, it could happen two months from now," he said.

Henry says an attack will happen sooner or later.

"They'll wait for the hype to subside," he said. "They'll wait for everyone to stop watching, and they'll take it for a test run. They've put together one hell of a botnet here, and they're going to want to exercise it."

Tips for SPEED UP windows Xp

Disable Indexing Services

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don’t search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:

• Go to Start
• Click Settings
• Click Control Panel
• Double-click Add/Remove Programs
• Click the Add/Remove Window Components
• Uncheck the Indexing services
• Click Next

Optimise Display Settings

Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimise:

• Go to Start
• Click Settings
• Click Control Panel
• Click System
• Click Advanced tab
• In the Performance tab click Settings
• Leave only the following ticked:

• Show shadows under menus
• Show shadows under mouse pointer
• Show translucent selection rectangle
• Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons

Speedup Folder Browsing

You may have noticed that everytime you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing significantly:

• Open My Computer
• Click on Tools menu
• Click on Folder Options
• Click on the View tab.
• Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
• Click Apply
• Click Ok
• Reboot your computer

Optimize Your Pagefile

If you give your pagefile a fixed size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file.

• Right click on My Computer and select Properties
• Select the Advanced tab
• Under Performance choose the Settings button
• Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
• Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

Important Run Commands

Enter the following commands in the Run Dialog box:

• appwiz.cpl -- Used to run Add/Remove wizard


• Calc --Calculator


• Cfgwiz32 --ISDN Configuration Wizard


• Charmap --Character Map


• Chkdisk --Repair damaged files


• Cleanmgr --Cleans up hard drives


• Clipbrd --Windows Clipboard viewer


• Control --Displays Control Panel


• Cmd --Opens a new Command Window


• Control mouse --Used to control mouse properties


• Dcomcnfg --DCOM user security


• Debug --Assembly language programming tool


• Defrag --Defragmentation tool


• Drwatson --Records programs crash & snapshots


• Dxdiag --DirectX Diagnostic Utility


• Explorer --Windows Explorer


• Fontview --Graphical font viewer


• Fsmgmt.msc -- Used to open shared folders


• Firewall.cpl -- Used to configure windows firewall


• Ftp -ftp.exe program


• Hostname --Returns Computer's name


• Hdwwiz.cpl -- Used to run Add Hardware wizard


• Ipconfig --Displays IP configuration for all network adapters


• Logoff -- Used to logoff the computer


• MMC --Microsoft Management Console


• Msconfig --Configuration to edit startup files


• Mstsc -- Used to access remote desktop


• Mrc -- Malicious Software Removal Tool


• Msinfo32 --Microsoft System Information Utility


• Nbtstat --Displays stats and current connections using NetBIOS over TCP/IP


• Netstat --Displays all active network connections


• Nslookup--Returns your local DNS server


• Osk ---Used to access on screen keyboard


• Perfmon.msc -- Used to configure the performance of Monitor.


• Ping --Sends data to a specified host/IP


• Powercfg.cpl -- Used to configure power option
  
• Regedit --Registry Editor


• Regwiz -- Registration wizard


• Sfc /scannow -- System File Checker


• Sndrec32 --Sound Recorder


• Shutdown -- Used to shutdown the windows


• Spider -- Used to open spider solitaire card game


• Sfc / scannow -- Used to run system file checker utility.


• Sndvol32 --Volume control for soundcard


• Sysedit -- Edit system startup files


• Taskmgr --Task manager


• Telephon.cpl -- Used to configure modem options.


• Telnet --Telnet program


• Tracert --Traces and displays all paths required to reach an internet host


• Winchat -- Used to chat with Microsoft


• Wmplayer -- Used to run Windows Media player


• Wab -- Used to open Windows address Book.


• WinWord -- Used to open Microsoft word


• Winipcfg --Displays IP configuration


• Winver -- Used to check Windows Version


• Wupdmgr --Takes you to Microsoft Windows Update


• Write -- Used to open WordPad

Windows 7 New Features

• Improved taskbar and full-screen previews

The taskbar at the bottom of your screen is what you use to switch between the applications you've got open. In Windows 7 you can set the order in which the icons appear and they'll stay put. They're easier to see, too. Click once on the new large icons or bigger preview thumbnails and you're ready to go. You can even see a full screen preview before switching to the window.

• Jump Lists

With Windows 7, we focused on keeping the things you use most right in front of you. One example: The new Jump List feature. It's a handy way to quickly reach the files you've been working with. To see the files you've used recently, just right click on the icon on your taskbar. So right-clicking on the Word icon will show your most recent Word documents. Plus, if there are other files you want to keep handy, you can just pin them to the Jump List.

• New ways to work with windows

Windows 7 simplifies how you work with the windows on your desktop. You'll have more intuitive ways to open, close, resize, and arrange them. You can drag open windows to screen borders, so you'll no longer have to click on tiny objects in the corner of a window to make it do what you want.
Maximize a window by dragging its border to the top of the screen, and return the window to its original size by dragging it away from the top of the screen. Drag the bottom border of a window to expand it vertically.
It's easy to copy files or compare the contents of two windows by dragging the windows to opposite sides of the screen. As your cursor touches the edge, the window will resize to fill that half of the screen.
To see all your desktop gadgets, just drag your mouse to the lower right corner of your desktop. That'll make all the open Windows transparent—making your desktop, and the gadgets on it, immediately visible. Want to minimize all your windows? One click and it's done.

• IE 8

Available now, Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 helps you do what you want online, faster. With innovations to the address bar, search, tabs, and the Favorites bar, Internet Explorer 8 brings you more information, with less effort.
Instant Search
To start, as you type a search request you'll immediately start seeing relevant suggestions from your chosen search provider, complete with images when available. The twist: search will also use your browsing history to narrow the suggestions. You'll start seeing search results while you're typing. If you see what you're looking for, you can go right to the list without finishing the request.

• Windows Live

With Windows 7, some features previously included in the operating system are now available for download through Windows Live Essentials, a set of free applications available for your PC and supported by Windows 7. You can download Windows Live Messenger, Photo Gallery, Mail, Writer, Movie Maker, and more. With these great applications, you can improve your Windows experience, and benefit from faster delivery of these features and services.

• Better device management

One of the great things about PCs is how they let us use such a wide array of devices. In the past, you had to use several different screens to manage different types of devices. But With Windows 7, you'll use a single Devices and Printers screen to connect, manage, and use whatever printers, phones, and other devices you have on-hand.

• HomeGroup

Setting up a home network can be complicated. With PCs running Windows 7, a home network will be easier to setup and a lot more useful. HomeGroup makes it easier to connect to other computers and devices on a wireless home network, so you can share files, photos, music, and printers throughout your home. To use HomeGroup, you’ll need to have at least two PCs running Windows 7. Once you've set up a homegroup, you can use the Network and Sharing Center to choose what you share with other homegroup members.

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor

Brilliantly fast
With faster, intelligent, multi-core technology that applies processing power where it's needed most, new Intel® Core™ i7 processors deliver an incredible breakthrough in PC performance. They are the best desktop processors on the planet.
You'll multitask applications faster and unleash incredible digital media creation. And you'll experience maximum performance for everything you do, thanks to the combination of Intel® Turbo Boost technology and Intel® Hyper-Threading technology (Intel® HT technology), which maximizes performance to match your workload.

Product information

• 2.93 GHz and 2.66 GHz core speed




• 8 processing threads with Intel® HT technology




• 8 MB of Intel® Smart Cache




• 3 Channels of DDR3 1066 MHz memory
  

Features and benefits

Go to the next level of multi-core performance.
Intel Core i7 processors deliver an incredible breakthrough in quad-core performance and feature the latest innovations in processor technologies
Intel® Turbo Boost technology maximizes speed for demanding applications, dynamically accelerating performance to match your workload—more performance when you need it the most.
Intel® Hyper-Threading technology enables highly threaded applications to get more work done in parallel. With 8 threads available to the operating system, multi-tasking becomes even easier.
Intel® Smart Cache provides a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem. Optimized for industry leading multi-threaded games.
Intel® QuickPath Interconnect is designed for increased bandwidth and low latency. It can achieve data transfer speeds as high as 25.6 GB/sec with the Extreme Edition processor.
Integrated memory controller enables three channels of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, resulting in up to 25.6 GB/sec memory bandwidth. This memory controller's lower latency and higher memory bandwidth delivers amazing performance for data-intensive applications.Intel® HD Boost significantly improves a broad range of multimedia and compute-intensive applications. The 128-bit SSE instructions are issued at a throughput rate of one per clock cycle, allowing a new level of processing efficiency with SSE4 optimized applications.

Facebook Rights Issue

Social networking site Facebook has backed down after being overrun with complaints following changes to the way it held personal information.

Facebook has an estimated 175 million users
Facebook changed the terms of using its site, enabling it to hold the rights to members' pictures and profile information, even if they had deleted their accounts.
Since Facebook made the changes two weeks ago the site had been inundated with complaints from users.
However, Facebook decided to reverse its decision and account holders found a message on their sites informing them of the change when they logged on today.
Based on feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg posted an explanation on the Facebook blog.
He said: "Over the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information.
"Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised."
But Zuckerberg was keen to reiterate that there would be changes to the Facebook rules in the future, but in language that would "clarify" the site's position.
He added: "Our next version will be a substantial revision from where we are now.
"It will reflect the principles I described around how people share and control their information, and it will be written clearly in language everyone can understand."
Facebook was founded in the USA in 2004 and has an estimated 175 million users. Use link for more details

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Facebook-Rights-Row-Site-Backs-Down-Over-Changes-To-Way-Profile-Information-Is-Held/Article/200902315225223?lpos=Business_First_Technology_Article_Teaser_Region__0&lid=ARTICLE_15225223_Facebook_Rights_Row%3A_Site_Backs_Down_Over_Changes_To_Way_Profile_Information_Is_Held

PC Tips & Tricks

How to change the windows XP Product Key?

Change Product Key without Reinstall:

1. Run regedit and go to:HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents, on the right double click on "oobetimer"and change at least one digit of this value to deactivate windows.

2. Choose run from start menu and type in this command: %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a to get theactivation screen and go to the second option which isactivate by phone.

3. In the new screen choose the option to change productkey, and type in the new product key (Corporate one only)***.

4. Close that window, reboot your system and enter thecommand in step 2 for the second time to verify youractivation , you should see "windows is already activated".