Eight-year-old Windows name resolution exploit re-emerges
Microsoft acknowledged the discovery of an exploitable bug in the way one of its services handles domain name resolution -- a bug it thought it fixed in 1999.
At a so-called "ethical hacker conference" in New Zealand last week, a programmer named Beau Butler revealed a method whereby a malicious user could intercept and re-route Internet traffic throughout a network, using a man-in-the-middle-attack. The method involved being able to masquerade as something called Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol (WDAP), whose purpose is to automatically detect whether a system utilizes proxies for domains higher than the second level (e.g., fileforum.betanews.com).
Comcast, Time Warner decline to bid in 700 MHz auction
The two largest cable television franchise holders will not participate in the FCC's auction for the old UHF channel spectrum this January, indicating it could all come down to the telcos versus Google.
However the US Federal Communications Commission's upcoming auction for wireless spectrum plays out, the nation's two largest CATV franchise operators will not be involved. A Time Warner Cable executive stated as much to a gathering of communications industry leaders in New York this morning, as covered by IP Democracy; and Comcast made its intentions known in a formal statement.
Firefox claims over 125 million active users
A study of "pings" to Mozilla's servers estimates nearly 49 million may be using a version of Firefox on a daily basis. That's 15 million more than a Mozilla study estimated, using a different metric, for users in July.
It has been notoriously difficult to determine how many people use the Firefox browser, though many have come to an agreement that the number of downloads of any new version is not a reliable indicator. Today, a new estimate by Mozilla's Chief Technology Officer, John Lilly, makes a claim that would appear to be a significant adjustment to one just four months ago by Mozilla's user experience lead, Mike Beltzner, by way of some unique mathematics.
Blizzard parent to acquire Activision, build new gaming empire
In a transaction that can best be described with the word "WOW," the remaining portion of the Vivendi media empire left over from the sale of Universal to NBC will acquire a 68% stake in Activision, the world's first independent game console software company.
The deal will create what Activision CEO Robert Kotick -- presumably the leader of the new venture -- calls the "largest pure-play interactive entertainment publisher in the world." That publisher, which may either rival Electronic Arts or surpass it in market capital, depending on the final numbers, will own and manage what may very well be the jewel in the crown for all game publishing: World of Warcraft, which is currently being produced by the Blizzard Entertainment division of Vivendi.
Analysis: Is Black Friday truly good for an ailing US economy?
As the final figures for last Black Friday's and Cyber Monday's sales show positive gains, is this really proof that the US economy isn't as lumbering as the housing market and credit crunch would indicate?
With the price of fuel tremendously higher than anticipated last year, and with inflation starting to creep back into the picture as a result; and with the US housing market in a state of free-fall and the credit markets in a state of crisis, you'd think there shouldn't be a lot of frivolity, gaiety, and merriment in the holiday mood. As it turned out, though, retail spending both offline and online have risen nicely.
Microsoft: Firefox users in danger due to more frequent updates
The author of a controversial white paper comparing Firefox' security integrity with IE's has released an update, which now makes an even more contentious claim than the original.
Because Microsoft releases Web browsers less frequently and supports older editions for longer periods, claims Microsoft Security Strategy Director Jeff Jones in his latest report, Internet Explorer 7 users are less susceptible to security vulnerabilities than users of Firefox, whose updates come more frequently and whose older versions are disavowed sooner.
Microsoft previews parallel processing for .NET Framework
With the multicore era already well upon us, the opportunities for multithreading are only now being recognized. Yesterday, Microsoft offered developers a taste of true parallelism with an experimental library for .NET.
Already, perhaps the most game-changing addition Microsoft has made to its .NET Framework is the addition of Language Integrated Query (LINQ), a long-sought provision that enables records or tables of data to be addressed within a single variable, all-at-once. If you're not a developer already, it's difficult to see how much of a breakthrough this really is.
CEO Schmidt confirms Google will bid in FCC 700 MHz auction
A rapid change in climate precipitated perhaps by Verizon Wireless' unprecedented move on Monday, brings the perennial fence-sitter back in the ballgame for wireless spectrum.
"We believe it's important to put our money where our principles are," stated Google CEO Eric Schmidt this morning, confirming reports that the company is prepared to not only meet the $4.6 billion minimum bid price it helped set for the so-called "C-block" -- the jewel in the US Federal Communications Commission's 700 MHz auction next January -- but will apparently make this bid from its own pockets alone.
Verizon Wireless to move toward LTE as its 4G platform
Proving it still had some fireworks left over from Monday, Verizon Wireless announced this afternoon its corporate parents will be steering its communications platform evolution away from the path it was already on.
Vodafone and Verizon will be jointly investing their efforts in LTE, the brainchild of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Although they are both members of the project, as are US competitors AT&T and Sprint, the Long Term Evolution platform competes with the technology portfolio of 3GPP member Qualcomm. So membership has never necessarily been an indication of platform preference.
Silverlight 1.1 beta to become 2.0 beta
The edition of Silverlight that Microsoft touted from the beginning as having the C# and .NET functionality that its 1.0 edition lacked, is evolving from what it had described as an upgrade into a major overhaul.
Since its inception, Microsoft has continually been developing two versions of its programmable Web graphics platform Silverlight. In fact, on the very day of its public premiere, the company introduced developers to what was being called the "1.0 beta" and the "1.1 alpha."
European mobile broadcast standard still up in the air
In an outcome that can best be described as quintessentially European, both sides in the debate over adopting DVB-H as Europe's official standard for digital mobile broadcasting have claimed full victory.
News of the outcome of today's vote of EU member states on, among other matters, the adoption of DVB-H as the one and only digital broadcast standard was so bipolar in nature that Reuters today reported the measure was adopted, while the Associated Press reported it was rejected.
HP's PC lead over Dell increases even further in Q3
As HP's market share soars, Dell's growth continues to underperform with PC shipment growth sagging to only 1.5% annually. Meanwhile, the flip-flop battle continues for the #3 and #4 slots.
Hewlett-Packard sold 16.8% more PCs worldwide in the third quarter of this year than the previous quarter, according to market research firm iSuppli, with just under 13.1 million PCs shipped. And its annual shipment growth rate of 32.7% is nothing short of astonishing; last quarter, that growth rate was only 4.4%.
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 rolls out tomorrow
The latest upgrade to what is fast becoming one of Microsoft's principal products will be released for download Friday, with significant new features including a long-sought disaster recovery tool.
One of the changes e-mail administrators had been wanting since the era of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 concerns replication -- the ability to source the e-mail database at multiple physical locations simultaneously. Exchange has always had this feature, especially on the local level, but effectively managing it has been a matter of tricky scheduling.
FCC abandons its 'a la carte' cable programming plan
Chairman Kevin Martin's proposed overhaul of the basic cable system was removed from a plan to help ensure minority-owned programmers have access to channel spectrum.
The five members of the US Federal Communications Commission found themselves unusually occupied yesterday -- not so much with ordinary business as they were waiting for Chairman Kevin Martin to bring his plan up for a vote. Knowing his unusually radical plan to replace some metropolitan basic cable plans with "a la carte" programming choices -- supposedly as a means of ensuring fairer access to minority-owned channels -- was doomed to failure (it literally said as much in that morning's New York Times), Martin periodically postponed yesterday's final vote on the matter in hopes his fellow Republicans would reverse their opposition.
Cyber Monday sales 4.7% above expectations
It was indeed a tremendous sales day in the US last Cyber Monday -- Yahoo's travails notwithstanding. ComScore estimates American consumers spent $733 million online that day.
According to comScore statistics released yesterday, sales volume for last Monday was up 21% over 2006, and 4.7% higher than its projection last week of $700 million even. But in an unusual prediction, the analytics firm's chairman, Gian Fulgoni, said it expects some days between now and Christmas to yield even higher online sales volume, past the $800 million mark.
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