Microsoft: WGA Outage 'Not an Outage'
Microsoft said Tuesday that the glitch that caused Windows Genuine Advantage servers to fail this past weekend was due to human error. According to a post on the WGA blog, pre-production code was released on a production server, causing a domino effect of failures. About 12,000 Windows users were affected. The company said that it did not consider it an outage, since when the servers are down, the system is designed to default to "genuine."
"The production servers had not yet been upgraded with a recent change to enable stronger encryption/decryption of product keys during the activation and validation processes," Microsoft said. "The result of this is that the production servers declined activation and validation requests that should have passed."
Chicago Decides Against Citywide Wi-Fi
In a sure sign that the fervor behind municipal Wi-Fi is cooling rapidly, the city of Chicago announced Tuesday that it was canceling its plans to blanket the city with wireless Internet.
The city says it failed to reach an agreement with either AT&T or EarthLink, the two companies vying for the contract. Chicago first announced that it was considering citywide Wi-Fi early last year.
A List of What's New in Vista SP1
Now that Microsoft has set a release date for both the beta and final versions of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the company is also offering a detailed look at what's being fixed and changed. One thing customers will not see is major changes to User Account Control, although Microsoft says it will reduce some pop-ups.
Perhaps the most notable change will not be for customers, but rather Microsoft partners. The company is including an API that third-party developers can tap into in order to work with kernel patch protection on x64 editions of Vista. This patch protection has proven to be a problem to antivirus and other security vendors.
Nokia Launches Music, Gaming Services
Nokia has launched Ovi -- Finnish for "the door" -- in hopes of cashing in on the increasingly lucrative Internet services market.
Ovi will debut in English in the fourth quarter of this year, with more services and languages available throughout the first half of 2008. In addition to Nokia's own offerings, Ovi also acts as a gateway to existing social networks and content.
Vista SP1 to Bring Fixes, Not Features; Due in Early 2008
In response to media coverage and pressure from partners, Microsoft finally opened up about Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Wednesday, detailing what customers should expect of the update, and setting a final release date of Q1 2008.
The gist is this: Vista SP1 will not bring major changes to the operating system, but instead deliver improvements related to reliability, security and performance. Customers will not see any major new features, and in turn, Microsoft says they should not wait for SP1 to begin deploying Vista.
Microsoft Delays Windows Server 2008, Needs 'More Time to Bake'
In the clearest sign to date that not all is well in the state of Redmond, Microsoft cheerfully announced this morning that the release date for Windows Server 2008 is being pushed back to Q1 2008.
Citing the delay as a part of an "open and honest dialogue about the development process of a product of this magnitude," a spokesperson for the Windows Server development team posted on its company blog this morning, just after 11:00 am Eastern time, that WS2K8 will likely be one of the features of a rollout event that was already scheduled for February 27, originally slated to feature Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.
New iPods Expected September 5
Apple sent out invitations to a special event it is holding on September 5, which indicate the company is preparing to launch new iPods in time for the holiday season. It is largely expected the iPods will incorporate a touch-sensitive screen and "Cover Flow" user interface found on the iPhone.
Rumors of new iPods have been circling for months, and the timing is right for a new generation of the ubiquitous portable media player. Apple is holding the event at San Francisco's Moscone Center, which indicates it will be a large gathering, further fueling speculation that a major product announcement is in the works.
Windows Vista SP1 Will Uninstall Group Policy Management
Probably in response to a few users' bewilderment over the seemingly unrestricted accessibility of what had actually been one of Windows Vista's most requested new security tools, Group Policy Management Console, Microsoft announced today that the act of installing Vista Service Pack 1 will simply delete the tool altogether.
"Administrators requested features in Group Policy that simplify policy management," reads a white paper released by Microsoft this afternoon. "To do this, the service pack will uninstall the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and GPEdit.msc will edit local Group Policy by default."
FSF: Microsoft is Bound by GPLv3 Terms If It Distributes GPLv3 Code
Last month, Microsoft's legal department proclaimed it doesn't consider itself bound to the terms of version 3 of the General Public License, with respect to certificates it distributed for software, services, and support from Novell. Today, the Free Software Foundation responded by saying if Microsoft distributes software covered by GPLv3, then it's bound by the terms of that license.
"Microsoft cannot by any act of anticipatory repudiation divest itself of its obligation to respect others' copyrights, reads today's FSF statement. "If Microsoft distributes our works licensed under GPLv3, or pays others to distribute them on its behalf, it is bound to do so under the terms of that license. It may not do so under any other terms; it cannot declare itself exempt from the requirements of GPLv3."
New Creative Player Does iTunes Tracks
Has Creative capitulated to Apple and iTunes? If its new player is any indication, that answer may be yes.
Creative's newest Zen player is the first from the company to support AAC music and iTunes Plus tracks from the iTunes Music Store, the company said. In addition, it includes a 2.5-inch color screen and support for SD memory cards to add additional memory.
Evidence of Microsoft Influencing OOXML Votes in Nordic States
As the date draws near for the first round of discussions before the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on the topic of adopting Microsoft's Office Open XML format, allegations have arisen that Microsoft may have used influential tactics to sway the outcomes of recommendation votes in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.
Indications from voting members attending yesterday's meeting of the Swedish standards agency SIS are that between August 12 and August 27, the membership of the working group responsible for evaluating OOXML grew from 9 to 34. Apparently, under SIS rules, new members may pay a fee for the right to vote on a important ballot at any time prior to ballots being cast. And SIS members are apparently familiar with these rules, based on the account of one voting member who blogged this morning that he himself was asked to join on the last day, to help balance out an anticipated surge in pro-Microsoft votes.
TorrentSpy Ordered to Hand Over User Data
It looks like TorrentSpy's decision to ban US users from its site may have been done in response to a court order anyway.
Although it ceased operating in the US officially on Sunday, a court order was issued the next day which required it to hand over information on the activities of its US users.
EarthLink Pink Slips Half Of Workforce
In a continuing effort to cut costs, EarthLInk said it would lay off about 900 employees.
In addition, it would buy back about $200 million of its own stock, according to a statement by CEO Rolla Huff on Tuesday. The news was well received by Wall Street, as EarthLink stock closed up seven percent even in the face of a sharply lower market overall.
Sony USB Drives Pack Rootkit Surprise
Finnish security company F-Secure has reported on new rootkit-like software discovered on USB thumb drives manufactured by Sony. Although the software doesn't appear to cause damage to a user's system, it does create a hidden directory that is inaccessible via the Windows API and some virus scanners.
The product in question is Sony's MicroVault USM-F fingerprint reader software, included with the company's USB drives. Sony was widely derided in 2005 for bundling copy-protection software on its music CDs that utilized rootkit-like functionality. "It is our belief that the MicroVault software hides this folder to somehow protect the fingerprint authentication from tampering and bypass," says F-Secure. "However, we feel that rootkit-like cloaking techniques are not the right way to go here." The company contacted Sony about the issue, but received no response.
Court Rules Sharing Music is Illegal, Even if Nobody Downloads It
In what will undoubtedly be chalked up as a shutout victory for the recording industry, a federal court in Arizona last week granted summary judgment in favor of the RIAA in one of its many anti-piracy lawsuits against ordinary citizens.
The Howell family of Scottsdale, Arizona has been found guilty of copyright infringement after an investigative team hired by recording labels discovered copyrighted material being shared on Mr. Howell's computer through the Kazaa P2P program.
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