Vista Can Be Taken Down by an Animated Cursor
In what could be the most embarrassing exploit to impact Windows Vista since its commercial launch in January, security engineers at McAfee's Avert Labs confirmed today - and posted the video to prove - that the operating system can be caused to enter an interminable crash-restart-crash loop, by means of a buffer overflow triggered by nothing more than a malformed animated cursor file.
It isn't even a new exploit, as researchers with eEye discovered in January 2005. At that time, Microsoft acknowledged it affected versions of the operating system from the first edition of Windows 98 through to early releases of Windows XP, though it stated at the time XP SP1 was unaffected.
IBM 160 Gbps Transceiver Actually Part of Optical Bus Research
A paper produced by IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, which debuted at an optical technology conference and which IBM released to BetaNews this morning, reveals new and intriguing information: The 160 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) optical transceiver project that news sources mistook for some kind of Internet accelerator earlier this week, is actually intended as a test of optical bus manufacturing processes.
Specifically, it's part of the IBM's and Agilent Technologies' ambitious Terabus project - an investigation begun in 2005 to determine whether relatively unsophisticated manufacturing techniques may be used to endow chips with a very sophisticated part.
Microsoft's Deepfish Offers Mobile Browsing with Zoom
It would appear the future of the mobile desktop is coming closer, quite literally. Just days after announcing it helped attain financing for one of its research projects into zooming mobile user interfaces to be spun off into a separate entity, Microsoft is trumpeting the release to the community of an early build of a zooming Web browser it's calling Deepfish.
The essential technology behind this early build (perhaps it should be called an "alpha") of what could become Microsoft's next browser for Windows Mobile 5 and WM6 is its zooming. Web pages in their native form are illegible on mobile browsers.
Intel Officially Confirms Integrated Memory Controller for 45nm Nehalem
This afternoon, Intel confirmed to BetaNews what its executive vice president, Pat Gelsinger, inadvertently revealed in comments to reporters several weeks ago, and what the Wall Street Journal learned this morning after having read The Register from several days ago: Intel's second generation of 45nm CPU architecture, code-named "Nehalem," will integrate memory controllers typically featured in the northbridge component of Intel chipsets, into the CPU itself.
Actually, knowledgeable sources came to the conclusion that Intel must be integrating its memory controller into the CPU based on information received as early as last July. TG Daily carefully glanced over the possibility at that time, before raising speculation the following September: Intel's comments to that time about something it calls scalable cache sizes led to no other conclusion. How could a chipset possibly scale the cache of something residing off the main memory bus?
GPLv3 Draft 3 Appears to Excuse Microsoft-Novell Deal
New language inserted into the third discussion draft of version 3 of the General Public License for free and open-source software would prohibit a license holder from paying another party to receive a patent license for works the GPL covers.
But a bracketed clause would make this language take effect for licenses issued from today (March 28) forward. As a result, the agreement reached last year between Microsoft and SUSE Enterprise Linux vendor Novell may be "grandfathered in," if this language is left standing.
Sun Rebuilds Microelectronics Division, Renews SPARC Interest
Dispelling any notions from analysts that by open-sourcing the design of its SPARC processors, it's continuing its slow exit from the chip production business, Sun Microsystems has set out marching in precisely the opposite direction as analysts expected. Yesterday, the company announced it is reforming the "Microelectronics Group" division that during the 1990s was the standard-bearer for RISC processing.
To that end, Sun is moving executive vice president Dr. David Yen, one of UltraSPARC's key architects, into the new division's leadership post, which has yet to be given an official title. Yen had been the head of the Scalable Systems Group, which was the department that acquired the resources of Sun Microelectronics - a.k.a., SPARC Technology Business - a few years ago.
HP Seeks to Block Acer PC Sales in US
Perhaps sensing an oncoming attack from the world's new #4 PC manufacturer, Acer, HP reached deep into its patent portfolio yesterday, uncovering five technology methods - including three acquired from Compaq - and filed a lawsuit accusing Acer of utilizing HP technologies covered by those patents without authorization. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages, but more importantly, it requests that a judge block the sale of Acer computers utilizing those technologies, imported from Taiwan.
That could quite possibly include all of Acer's notebook line, since the technology addressed by two of the listed patents (one granted to Compaq pre-merger, one to HP post-merger) concerns processor speed reduction - the capability for a computer to instruct its processor to power down in periods of reduced stress or workload.
Peering Through the Confusion Over IBM's 160 Gbps Optical Transceiver
After IBM released its initial teaser yesterday touting its demonstration of an optical transceiver with a theoretical 160 gigabit per second (Gbps) throughput speed this upcoming Thursday, press sources seized upon this phrase: "fast enough to reduce the download time for a typical high definition feature-length film to a single second compared to 30 minutes or more."
That may be a tall order, given the fact that the prototype in question is a transceiver and not an endpoint. A transceiver is a device that bridges between layers of the Internet, such as between the physical layer (Layer 1 in the OSI model, the "backbone") and the data link layer (2). So we're not talking about something that goes into your PC, despite what you may have heard on local TV news.
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Ratified, 'Touch-to-Connect' On the Way
Among the major draws at this year's CTIA Wireless show are a slew of devices outfitted with the new "touch-to-connect" pairing capability of Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). The new standard's ratification was made official this morning.
The key feature of the 2.1 spec is its vastly improved pairing procedure, which is only very slightly more difficult than using a "keypass" to pay for gas at the pump. For instance, with a 2.1-endowed mobile phone, you can tell it to "Add Device," and then pass it close to the item you want to pair it with, such as a PC. (In company demos, the pairing range is within a few feet, though some Bluetooth representatives are using the term "tap" or "touch" to indicate that the pairing range in everyday practice should be much closer.)
Microsoft Helps Launch Startup to Produce Next-gen Mobile UI
Sporting what appears to be a demo of a zooming, tiled Web browser for mobile handsets with larger displays, and borrowing a term coined by the creator of the Macintosh's user interface, a startup firm called ZenZui burst upon the scene at CTIA Wireless this morning. Driving its debut is about $12 million in venture capital secured through the direct and overt assistance of Microsoft's IP Ventures program.
As ZenZui's co-founder and vice president, John SanGiovanni, stated in his company's inaugural podcast this morning, it's been operating in deep stealth for about five months, in cooperation with Microsoft Research. "ZenZui, as a technology, was actually born in the halls of Microsoft Research," SanGiovanni remarked.
Viacom: DMCA No Defense for YouTube
In an editorial for the Washington Post this morning, Viacom general counsel Michael Fricklas defended what observers are remarking may be an unpopular position. Fricklas argued that YouTube cannot effectively shield itself from prosecution using the "safe harbor" provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying there's no way YouTube's millions of customers can be aware that copyright infringement takes place on the site while the company itself remains oblivious.
"YouTube's own terms of use give it clear rights," Fricklas writes, "notably the right to take anything down. YouTube actively monitors its content. For example, its managers remove pornography and hate content and, as was recently reported, claim they can detect and remove 'spam.' Without knowledge and control, how could YouTube create 'channels' and 'featured videos' sections on its site? YouTube has even offered to find infringing content for copyright owners - but only if they do a licensing deal first."
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enters Public Beta
As promised three weeks ago, Microsoft's first experimental foray into the click-to-call field of VoIP - its Office Communications Server 2007, due to replace Office Live Communications Server 2005 - has been opened to public beta tests today. Its aim is to integrate voice communication with other Office users as well as with the server itself, directly into Office 2007 applications.
Here is where we start to see Microsoft's plan to become a communications company take shape. With the acquisition of Tellme Networks two weeks ago, Microsoft now has a centralized platform for the delivery of search and other services via voice, worldwide. For potential customers looking to design enterprise telecom networks, this shifts the services logic out of the server room and onto an outsourced platform.
FCC Wireless Broadband Decision Re-opens Net Neutrality Debate
The day after the US Federal Communications Commission announced it would open an "inquiry" (as opposed to an "investigation") into concerns that certain major industry players may be able to attain preferential access to network bandwidth, it declared wireless broadband service an "information service."
On the surface, that may seem like a non-event; but as FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps warned in his concurrence with the decision last Thursday, declaring something an "information service" as opposed to a "telecommunications service" (like telephony) puts it in a very different regulatory bracket.
Neither Qualcomm Nor Broadcom May Prevail in Remaining Battle
A few days ago, Qualcomm elected to withdraw its patent infringement claims against Broadcom, and Broadcom in turn withdrew almost all of its counterclaims...except a few. Late yesterday, we learned why. US District Judge Rudi Brewster ruled yesterday in favor of Broadcom. In 2003, when Qualcomm failed to provide information to the US International Trade Commission supporting the two specific patents it's defending now, Judge Brewster found that Qualcomm waived its rights to enforce those same patents later.
This portion of the judge's ruling coincides with an advisory verdict made by a jury last January.
Russian Windows Trojan Discovered, May Point to Identity Theft Ring
The Atlanta-based security services firm SecureWorks discovered, by way of an inquiry from one of its Windows customers, what appears to be a very sophisticated Trojan horse program. Under intense analysis, the program was discovered to be attempting to deliver users’ certificates and other identifying data to a variety of IP addresses found to be hosted in Russia.
The Trojan trips only a handful of anti-virus programs using heuristic analysis, an in-depth SecureWorks report states, including Sophos, Symantec, F-Prot, and CA’s VET. But it just slips by most other protection programs; and evidence trails uncovered by SecureWorks indicate that specifically-targeted users may have been infected as far back as December 2006.
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