Barthos Computers Blog

Cambridge (MA) - Time to start the finger-pointing again. A class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has begun to track the carbon footprint of different lifestyle in different nations. And the picture painted for the U.S. isn’t pretty: Even the most power conscious people in this country use more than twice the energy of the average person around the world. If you are looking for people with the worst carbon footprint, look among the super-rich such as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, MIT says.

It is common knowledge that energy use in the U.S. has been at obscene levels for decades and that nations around the world aren’t happy with the fact that less than 5% of the world’s population is consuming almost one quarter of the energy available worldwide. A new study published by the MIT sheds additional light on this scenario and claims that no matter who you are, you are estimated to contribute at least twice and as much as five times as much greenhouse gas to the atmosphere as those living in the rest of the world.

Read more here

An instant portable note-taker, superslick (and easy) Flash Web site creation, and a versatile drop box for all things digital–check out these and other nifty Web-based apps that we saw at the Web 2.0 conference.

The Web 2.0 Expo at San Francisco’s Moscone Center West, which wraps up today, doesn’t take up a huge amount of space: Startups predominate, and most don’t have money for big flashy booths. But there’s more cool new technology per square foot here than at many big trade shows.

The quality and usefulness of the Web-based services presented here vary widely, and many will never see a real commercial launch. But if you have the patience and curiosity to try some intriguing free beta software, consider the ones described below. They are available now or will be available shortly.

Read more at pcworld.com

New York (NY) - Rockstar’s latest entry in the Grand Theft Auto series does not come out until next week, but some gamers are getting their GTA IV fill now because of a pirated version that was posted online.

The European PAL version of the Xbox 360 game has reportedly been ripped and posted to an online torrent site, which could then be burned to a disc and played on the Microsoft console.

Gaming site Kotaku reports that at around 7:50 AM EDT yesterday, the file made its way around multiple torrent websites. At 6.32 GB it appears to be the entire game.

The NTSC version of the game, which is the format used in North America, is expected to be ripped within the next day or so.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the Playstation 2 was also leaked a week early. The violent franchise is console gaming gold, and as such it has a very loyal fan base.

Electonic Arts tried to acquire Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two ahead of the GTA IV launch, but Take-Two vehemently refused to accept the offer. EA’s proposition remains on the table, though.

Grand Theft Auto IV will be released on April 29 for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Many stores including Gamestop and Best Buy will be holding special midnight openings for the anticipated title.

Source tgdaily.com

Redmond (WA) - The third service pack for Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system has reached the critical “release to manufacturing” phase, allowing computer makers and high-profile buyers/consumers to access the final version of what could be the last major XP update.

“Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers,” said said Windows release manager Chris Keroack on Microsoft’s official Technet forums.

“We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center,” he added.

XP is the longest-running operating system for any computer platform, and with an unanticipated resistance toward Windows Vista, it is experiencing a longer shelf life than Microsoft had planned. However, a fourth XP service pack is not currently expected.

According to the Windows XP SP3 White Paper, SP3 includes “all previously released Windows XP updates, including security updates and hotfixes, and select out-of-band releases. For example, the service pack includes functionality previously released as updates, such as Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 and the Microsoft Core XML Services 6.0 (MSXML6).”

Microsoft is reportedly not adding significant functionality from newer versions of Windows with this service pack, and it does not include Internet Explorer 7. The one notable exception is an upgrade to Network Access Protection (NAP), which helps organizations that use XP take advantage of some new features in the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

TGDaily.com

April 18, 2008 (Computerworld) PayPal, eBay Inc.’s payment service and the frequent target of fraudsters, plans to block browsers that don’t include anti-phishing features.

Under PayPal’s plan, Apple Inc.’s Safari would be banned completely, while only older versions of its rivals – Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox – would be barred.

“This is a good move, if [PayPal] can get away with it,” said Avivah Litan, an analyst with Gartner Inc.

PayPal spelled out the idea in a paper (download PDF) released at last week’s RSA Conference. “It’s critical to not only warn users about unsafe browsers, but also to disallow older and insecure browsers,” said Michael Barrett, PayPal’s chief information security officer, in the paper. “Letting users view the PayPal site on one of these browsers is equal to a car manufacturer allowing drivers to buy one of their vehicles without seatbelts.”

The two features that Barrett said browsers must have to be considered safe by PayPal were an ability to block known or suspected phishing site, and support for Extended Validation (EV) certificates. EVs, which are given to companies only after more stringent background checks than the commonplace SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates, are supposed to reassure users that the online site is legitimate. Browsers that support EVs typically shade the address bar green as a signal that the site is safe.

But while the current or soon-to-be-released versions of IE and Firefox support both of PayPal’s must-have features, Safari includes neither.

PayPal’s mentioned that before: in February, Barrett said users should steer clear of Apple’s browser because it wasn’t up to snuff. “Apple, unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do to protect their customers,” Barrett said then. “Safari has got nothing in terms of security support, only SSL, that’s it.”

Under PayPal’s plan, users running browsers lacking an anti-phishing blocking tool and support for EVs would first be only warned. Later, PayPal would block such browsers from accessing its site.

“PayPal’s having to take dramatic measures,” said Litan as she ticked off recent moves by the payment company and its parent, eBay, to limit fraud. “They’re desperate to do something, because the [level of fraud] has even hurt their revenue picture.”

Litan said that PayPal’s decision was smart, but smacked of too little, too late. “They’re really anxious to bring more shoppers to eBay, but consumers are staying away because of the fraud,” she said. “They’re right in trying to ensure the safe use of PayPal on the seller and the buyer side, but this is something they should have done a year ago.”

According to Barrett’s plan, older browsers such as IE3 and IE4 would be among those blocked. Conceivably, the no-longer-supported Firefox 1.x would also be kept off the site. In the paper, however, Barrett didn’t call out either Firefox or Safari by name.

“I don’t think it’s really an issue,” said Litan, referring to Safari. “How hard would it be to add those features? And I would think that most Mac users also have Firefox anyway.”

PayPal did not specify a timetable when it would switch on its browser blocking, and did not reply to request for one on Friday. Apple also did not respond to an e-mail asking for comment.

Computerworld.com

Apple on Wednesday released an update to its Safari Web browser for Mac OS X and Windows. The new release is available for download from Apple’s Web site and through the Software Update system preference.

Apple indicates in its release note that Safari 3.1.1 “includes improvements to stability, compatibility and security,” though the company did not offer any further clarification in that note. Apple recommends the update for all Safari users.

In a separately published tech note, Apple offered more details about what Safari 3.1.1 fixes in terms of security. Issues that affect the Mac version of Safari include a change to WebKit to improve handling of URLs to prevent cross-site scripting, and additional validation of JavaScript regular expressions to help prevent a heap buffer overflow that can cause Safari to unexpectedly quit or execute code.

For more Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld. Story copyright ? 2007 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

Mountain House (CA) - One of our readers informed us about very expensive AMD triple-core processors being sold in the U.S. retail market. The price may be one surprise but what is even more astonishing is the fact that these triple-cores are, well, available in retail.

AMD’s triple-core processors have a very simple mission - to protect the higher-end Phenom quad-core processors from pricing threats originating from Intel’s dual-core processors. Leaving aside the fact that AMD recently decided to attach near-mainstream price-levels to its fastest quad-core CPUs, we were told today that the triple cores in fact fetch more money than the quad-cores in the retail segment.

Here are the prices from Amazon, AMD’s tray-prices (1000-units) as well as the lowest retail prices.

Triple-Core
Phenom 8450, 2.1 GHz : Amazon: $169.99; AMD tray-price: N/A; lowest retail price*: $164.35
Phenom 8650, 2.3 GHz : Amazon: $273.26; AMD tray-price: N/A; lowest retail price*: $186.40
Phenom 8750, 2.4 GHz : Amazon: $305.60; AMD tray-price: N/A; lowest retail price*: $218.00

Quad-Core, B3 revision
Phenom 9550, 2.2 GHz : Amazon: $195.99; AMD tray-price: $209; lowest retail price*: $165.00
Phenom 9750, 2.4 GHz : Amazon: $215.99; AMD tray-price: $215; lowest retail price*: $215.00
Phenom 9850 BE, 2.5 GHz : Amazon: $235.99; AMD tray-price: $235; lowest retail price*: $235.00

*) at the time of this writing, according to Pricegrabber.com and Google Product Search

Two things surprised us about this scenario: First, we were not aware that the triple cores are being sold in retail. Three weeks ago, AMD mentioned that these processors would be made available to OEMs and system builders only, at least initially. We are not sure whether AMD is actually cranking out an enormous number of these processors or system builders don?t care about these CPUs, giving AMD enough room to send these chips into retail.

Second, the triple-cores are quite expensive, at least if we compare the price against AMD quad-core CPUs. On Amazon, the triple-core 8650 sells for 16% more than the flagship 9850 BE. Of course, these prices are set by retailers and current market conditions.

AMD has not listed tray prices for its triple-core CPUs yet.

Source: TGDaily.com

Hackers are trying to exploit a critical Windows vulnerability just patched on Tuesday, security researchers say – and the only version of Windows not at risk is the unfinished Windows XP SP3.

Fortunately, attack incompetence means that these initial sorties have been unsuccessful, Symantec Corp. said in a brief warning to customers of its DeepSight threat service. “The DeepSight honeynet has observed in-the-wild exploit attempts targeting a GDI vulnerability patched by Microsoft on April 8, 2008,” said Symantec in its alert.

On Tuesday, Microsoft patched two bugs, both pegged as “critical,” in Windows’ GDI, or graphics device interface, one of the core components of the operating system. According to Microsoft, every current version of Windows, including the very newest, Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Server 2008, is open to attack.

The vulnerabilities can be triggered by malformed WMF (Windows Metafile) or EMF (Enhanced Metafile) image files, Microsoft noted in its accompanying advisory .

Analysts on Tuesday fingered the GDI bugs as the most dangerous of the 10 disclosed and patched by Microsoft that day. They noted similarities between the two new vulnerabilities and others revealed in late 2005, which were extensively exploited by attackers for months afterward.

Amol Sarwate, manager of Qualys Inc.’s vulnerability research lab, said at the time that he expected attackers to quickly begin leveraging the bug. “Users who simply view an image online or in e-mail could be compromised,” he said.

Thursday, Symantec said it had spotted three different Web sites hosting malicious WMF/EMF image files that were targeting one of the two GDI bugs. However, those images weren’t able to exploit the flaw. “Analysis of the images has shown that although [they] appear to be malicious, they do not contain enough data in the associated image property to sufficiently trigger the vulnerability,” read Symantec’s warning. “We are still investigating the issue as to why this may be the case.”

The security company urged users to apply the GDI patches pronto if they have not done so already. “These attack attempts highlight the severity of this issue and it is only a matter of time before new images that successfully trigger the issue are observed in the wild,” Symantec concluded.

Ironically, the only version of Windows not vulnerable to attack is XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), the still-not-released final update to the aged operating system. Hidden in the MS08-021 security bulletin was the sentence: “Windows XP Service Pack 3 is not affected by this vulnerability.”

Windows XP SP3’s release date remains a mystery. Although Microsoft has not budged from its “first half of 2008″ public statements, others have speculated that the service pack will wrap up later this month. One Web site, which correctly predicted release dates for Vista SP1, has pegged XP SP3’s roll-out as coming in the second half of April.

Microsoft’s GDI patches can be downloaded and installed via the Microsoft Update and Windows Update services, as well as through Windows Server Update Services.

See more at Computerworld

MIAMI–Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Friday indicated that Windows 7, the next major version of Windows, could come within the next year, far ahead of the development schedule previously indicated by the software maker.

In response to a question about Windows Vista, Gates, speaking before the Inter-American Development Bank here, said: “Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version.” Referring to Windows 7, the code name for the next full release of Windows client software, Gates said: “I’m super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways.”

Most of Gates’ speech was devoted to topics closer to home for the crowd, such as how Latin America can be more competitive.

Windows 7 and its intended feature list have been the topic of speculation since Microsoft discussed some details of the new software last summer.

At that time, Microsoft said little except that Windows 7 will ship in consumer and business versions, and in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The company also confirmed that it is considering a subscription model to complement Windows, but did not provide specifics or a time frame.

Less than 24 hours ago, a Microsoft representative told CNET News.com that the company expects to ship the successor to Vista roughly three years from Vista’s January 2007 debut.

Unclear is whether Gates was referring to early testing of Windows 7 coming within the year, as opposed to a widespread release or debut. An early test geared toward developers would be conceivable. The company has repeatedly said that it will accelerate the development of new Windows versions, largely as a response to Vista’s roughly five year gestation period.

Microsoft on Thursday declined to extend a lifeline for Windows XP, saying that only a limited number of specialized machines will be sold with the operating system after June.

The company said it will continue to allow Windows XP Home edition to be sold for a class of computers it calls “ultra-low-cost PCs.”

Vista, the current version of Windows, has sold well, according to Microsoft. But the operating system’s debut was marred by repeated delays and shifting feature lists. Last week, Microsoft stepped up efforts to drive adoption of Vista by businesses.

CNET News.com’s Mike Ricciuti contributed to this report.

Info

Windows Mobile 6.1 also comes with improved Windows Live for Windows Mobile integration. Matter a fact, as you saw in the video above - there is a specific tile for Windows Live. This tile displays your Messenger display picture and personal status message. Your Hotmail isn’t the only thing that gets synced - your Windows Live Contacts are synced to your phone as well. I rely on the close Windows Live integration extensively. I’m going to talk about Windows Live on Windows Mobile and syncing my Windows Live stuff to my Windows Mobile phone more in-depth in a later post.

Overall, I find Windows Mobile 6.1 an exciting release. It has certainly improved my mobile device experience. Windows Mobile 6.1 devices should work just fine with Windows Mobile Device Center. I use Windows Mobile Device Center quite a bit to get photos of my Windows Mobile phone into Windows Live Photo Gallery or to throw a song or two on to my phone. You can download Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 for Windows Vista here.

Read more …

Graphics card makers including Micro-Star International (MSI), Albatron, Gigabyte Technology and Leadtek Research have launched graphics card based on Nvidia’s GeForce 9800 GTX GPU. The cards support Nvidia’s 3-way SLI technology, boasting up to 2.8 times more power than any single GPU system, and HybridPower technology to reduce power usage by switching from the GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card to a motherboard IGP when running less graphically-intensive applications.

More at Digitimes …

Google is today clearing one of the last hurdles it faces before truly competing with Microsoft Office. Starting this afternoon, some users of Google Docs word processing app will be able to edit their documents when they don’t have an Internet connection.

Not surprisingly, the functionality will be built on Google Gears, the offline synching technology that now powers unconnected use of Google Reader and task manager RememberTheMilk.com.

I haven’t been able to test the new functionality yet (I should get hooked up in a few hours), but if it works well this is a huge development. Google’s word processor already has almost everything I need to ditch Microsoft Word entirely. Having the ability to work offline will likely make a lot of people – and businesses – wonder why they should pay as much as $680 for Office. (Google says it’s working on adding offline capability for spreadsheets and presentations created through Google Docs.)

Obviously, there are also lots of companies and individuals that depend on some set of sophisticated tools that Office has and Google Docs doesn’t. But the very online nature of Google Docs – the ability to get to your files anywhere, share them with anyone and see the changes in real time – offers a lot that Office still can’t match.

A lot will depend on how well the implementation of Google Gears works. My previous experience with RememberTheMilk was that you had to go to RTM while you had a connection, then keep that window open to use it offline. A bit clunky. But the Google email promises:
“You’ll be able to go to docs.google.com without a connection and work on Google Docs; when you reconnect, your changes will automatically sync up.”

Read more …