Many customers do not or cannot roll out security updates as soon as they become available, but still need to be protected against the risks that they mitigate. Each security bulletin that Microsoft delivers includes information that customers can use to help mitigate risk while they deploy the update. However, Microsoft is delivering other security technologies that provide additional mitigation when a security update cannot be deployed immediately. These security technologies cover the followi...

After six years of service, Microsoft is officially retiring its NetMeeting conferencing software. Instead, the company's Office Live Meeting software, based upon PlaceWare, will fill the void left by the gradual phase out of NetMeeting. Currently, both MSN and Windows Messenger utilize NetMeeting technology to power application and whiteboard sharing. Development is indefinitely frozen, however, and Microsoft's IM clients will be migrated to drive Live Meeting services. A Microsoft spokes...

Dick Tracy comparisons are inevitable. And there's nothing wrong with that. Until — and if — NTT Do Como ever makes its Seiko Wristomo phone for the United States, your best chance of imitating the square-jawed cartoon cop is to get yourself a WristLinx 2-Way Wristwatch Communicator by XACT Communications Two-way radios are drawing a lot interest these days. They're not just kids' toys. They are becoming a cell-phone alternative for certain private uses, from keeping the family togeth...

Once a mere copycat, AMD keeps cranking out innovative products, to the point where it finds itself on the leading edge of processor and system bus technology. But should you bank on a company that has earned the wrath of the world's largest chipmaker. You just gotta love a Cinderella story. Advanced Micro Devices is the hardscrabble kid who came to Silicon Valley with a dollar and a pack of Luckies and ended up in a building with its name on top. AMD’s rapid rise from startup to $5 b...

Microsoft is cutting back its Longhorn client's planned feature set so as to be able to make its current delivery targets: Beta 1 by next year and final release some time in 2006. Microsoft officially confirmed what had been leaked by developer sources late on Friday: changes to its future roadmap for the desktop version of Longhorn. And while developers and customers who expected they'd be required to rewrite their applications to take advantage of Longhorn may be happy with Microsoft's road...

Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music player for Windows. Winamp supports MP3, CD, Audiosoft, Audio Explosion, MOD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called skins, plus audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins. additional features including free-form skins, a new decoder, built-in cross fade, and an advanced Media Library. Change Log: a) Security bug fix Fix for upside down videos through DirectShow c) JTFE v0.96c d) Added prompt when loading a skin...

Physicists have carried out successful teleportation with particles of light over a distance of 600m across the River Danube in Austria. When physicists say "teleportation", they are describing the transfer of key properties from one particle to another without a physical link. Long distance teleportation is crucial if dreams of superfast quantum computing are to be realised. Researchers from the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Science used an 800m-long optical fibre...

The Norwegian hacker famed for developing DVD encryption-cracking software has apparently struck again--this time breaking the locks on Apple Computer Inc.'s wireless music-streaming technology. Johansen, an open-source advocate, has been critical of Apple's proprietary system, which largely restricts Apple's hardware and software products to work only with each other. On his Web site, for instance, Johansen praised a newly developed technology by RealNetworks Inc. that will make songs f...

With downloads of XP Service Pack Two due to begin on Monday, Microsoft is bracing itself for an expected flood of requests from users. On Monday morning US time (6.00pm in the UK) Windows users with Automatic Update turned on will be able to start downloading the 80MB (compressed) patch, albeit slowly at first. Microsoft estimates that 40 per cent of UK users use its Automatic Update service. "We won't be at full capacity on Monday. We'll be throttling the number of users who can downl...

A 19-year-old Minneapolis man pleaded guilty Wednesday to unleashing part of the MSBlast worm attack that wreaked havoc on the Internet last summer. Jeffrey Lee Parson admitted creating the "MSBlast.B" variant, also called "teekids," by modifying the original version of the worm and adding a backdoor that granted him control of infected computers, federal prosecutors said. "Sending out a computer worm may be viewed as a harmless prank," John McKay, a U.S. attorney, said in a statement. "Bu...

Caution in all things… While the eagerly awaited XP SP2 has finally got its release date, it looks like Microsoft's crown jewels of security revamps - thought to be costing the software behemoth $300m - could cause businesses as many headaches as it cures. Many businesses may find installing the service pack plays havoc with their custom-built software as well as bought corporate applications, for example, as their systems are reconfigured by SP2. It's a problem that has already hit t...

Apple Computer Inc. is unhappy with RealNetworks Inc.'s move this week to make its RealPlayer music service compatible with Apple's market-leading iPod digital music player and may take legal action to counter it, the company said on Thursday. Apple said in a statement it is "stunned that RealNetworks has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod," adding: "We are investigating the (legal) implications." Apple said once its iPod software is updated it is "highly lik...

The most recent version of the e-mail worm uses search engines to find new victims to infect and may be the cause of delays on Google, AltaVista, MSN* and Yahoo. A new variant of the MyDoom worm that hit the Internet hard on Monday is causing massive e-mail slowdowns across the Web, and it may be to blame for problems plaguing several search engines. Variously named MyDoom.M, MyDoom.M@mm or MyDoom.O, the new worm is little different from its predecessors in most of its behaviors and chara...

A research company unveiled some details about the upcoming IBM Cell processor that is mostly known as the base for Sony’s PlayStation 3 game machine. The research firm Petrov Group believes that the new era of computing will open its doors once the Cell processors from IBM are unveiled. According to Spoksman of Petrov Group, a well known research companey, "The year 2004 marks the birth of a distinctly new cellular computing era. As with past watershed computing events, the driving and trend...

Before the finals bits are released this summer, a second release candidate of Windows XP Service Pack 2 will be released mid-May. Microsoft issued a technical preview of SP2 in March to familiarize developers with the changes it was making to secure Windows, and to ward off potential problems brought about by applications malfunctioning post upgrade. Under the umbrella of its Trustworthy Computing initiative, Microsoft has fortified Windows XP with a new mix of security features. Service Pa...