[Archive] Technology & IT News from around the world

[panclanrider]

That's correct bro redbeacon...

 

Post #6 to be more precise...

 

 

:thumb:

[jB]

Buffett overtakes gates, stocks if played well can earn you more moolah

[Lass]

wow wat to do w all tat money???

[Firhas Bizar]

I think Mr. Gates got way too much money in his account that he got scared to earn anymore. I guess thats the main reason he quit.

[tanchunxun]

i tink bill gate going to enjoy liao.. lol

[mafitra]

Think He had enough of all the hackers trying to hack into his sytem hahaha.

[redbeacon]

Newer and faster Firewire will come out soon,

competing with upcoming USB 3.0 as well.

 

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2131/73008firewirekz2.jpg http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7236/firewirecablefq0.jpg

 

The IEEE has approved a new standard for "Firewire", introducing support for faster data transfers, marking a significant improvement for the serial bus interface.

 

The new "Firewire" (specification: 1394-2008) will introduce support for S1600 (1.6 GB/s) and S3200 (3.2 GB/s). It will be fully backward compatible with previous ports, S400 and S800.

 

Many older FireWire and i.Link devices are still running on the old specification, which tops out at 400 Mb/s, due to a connector design change when the 800 Mb/s spec was introduced.

 

With the new faster speeds, available starting in October, IEEE 1394 (aka "Firewire") will compete head-to-head with the upcoming USB 3.0, which will upgrade to 4.8 GB/s.

 

(via Crunchgear)

 

NOTE: If you want to readup on the unveiling of USB 3.0 (specifications), click here.

[LollyPoP]

cool, USB 3.0!

[PaLmEr]

PETALING JAYA: Starting Wednesday, users with pirated copies of Microsoft Corp's Windows XP Professional operating system (OS) on machines that are Internet-capable could find their computer displays going black and with no screen icons visible.

 

There are 8.6 million users of Win XP Pro in Malaysia and about three million are expected to suffer the “blackouts,” according to Microsoft Malaysia.

 

To continue working, the user would need to reset the machine’s desktop background. Everything will return to normal. But when 60 minutes are up, the black screen will reappear and the user must go through the whole process again.

 

This will keep happening until the user licenses the copy of Win XP Pro on the machine by going to a Microsoft reseller or getting a licence online at the http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/genuine. Each licence costs RM580.

 

This initiative is part of Microsoft’s antipiracy campaign, dubbed Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), aimed at educating users on the benefits of using genuine software, K.T. Ng, Microsoft Malaysia’s director of client business group, told The Star on Tuesday.

 

Win XP Professional was chosen for the antipiracy blitz because it is the most pirated version of Microsoft’s Win XP operating system. The other version is Windows XP Home, which is for home users.

 

This is the second time that Microsoft is needling users of pirated copies of its operating system to go legitimate. Two years ago, it sprang its WGA initiative on local users of Win XP Pro and Win XP Home.

 

That time, a pop-up message showed up whenever the PC with a pirated Windows OS was switched on, with the intention of shaming business and home users into getting legitimate copies. The message said “This copy of Windows is not genuine.”

 

It was quite successful. At that time, there were about 5.1 million pirated copies of Windows XP Pro and after the exercise, about two million of the copies were validated, said Microsoft Malaysia.

 

“We are encouraged by that response,” said Ng. "So this time, we have escalated the penalty to a black screen that reappears every hour until the user validates his or her copy of Win XP Pro.”

 

Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, chief executive officer of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), lauded the WGA campaign.

 

MDeC is caretaker of the country’s MSC Malaysia initiative, which is working to build up the nation’s knowledge economy.

 

“MDeC respects the rights of companies to protect their intellectual property. It’s a reminder that software piracy doesn’t pay, especially when Malaysians are themselves putting a lot of effort into creating original software,” he said.

 

Not clear

Several users and industry pundits that The Star spoke to believe Microsoft is using its WGA campaign to herd business users into upgrading to its newest operating system, Windows Vista, which hasn’t garnered interest among companies because of its higher hardware requirements.

 

“Microsoft has stopped selling Win XP in the market, so you have to wonder why it is spending time and money to take down users of pirated copies of this OS,” said a PC user, who asked for anonymity. “Why isn’t it also targeting users who have pirated copies of Windows Vista?”

 

“So if I’m using a pirated copy of Vista at this time, I won’t be hassled? Got to wonder about that.”

 

Ng replied that the concern now is XP Pro, which is widely pirated. “Vista isn’t pirated as much. WGA is continuous and should there be a Vista piracy problem, we will address it down the road,” he said.

 

Source

[kmax]

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/12/03/permanent-method-to-crack-wga-and-patch-windows-xp-inc-mce-or-2003-as-genuine/

 

above link does not cost RM580

[valwilder]

still using it but nothing happen yet:)

[MC28]

Cos it's being implemented in Malaysia and not locally yet???

[redbeacon]

The reason why WGA (a.k.a. the "I'll bug you with annoying messages every now and then stating your copy of XP/Vista is not legitimate and will mess up your wallpaper with cult messages..." technique) was dropped back in '06-'07 was because it sorta infringes upon people's privacy.

 

Imagine having your own computer with a Windows operating system that "phones home" to M$ headquarters to check on its validity as legit software, as well as to send some information about your computer to them...

 

Pitch forks were raised, complaints ensued amongst the public, and the once computer-halting WGA was lessened to just annoying messages only.

[ranzl]

Cos it's being implemented in Malaysia and not locally yet???

 

i hav no idea hw the OS gonna know it is in Msia or US or anywhere else. or the s/w bug is so clever to know tat the pc is in msia jiu blackout. not in msia, dun blackout?

[redbeacon]

i hav no idea hw the OS gonna know it is in Msia or US or anywhere else. or the s/w bug is so clever to know tat the pc is in msia jiu blackout. not in msia, dun blackout?

 

Possibilities:

 

1. IP address -- this does have information on where you are surfing from.

2. Some sort of a trace routing technique that sees whether you are connected to a Malaysian ISP.

3. Product key probably has a digit(s) that state which country this product was sold at.

4. Product default settings kept in the Windows registry that stores location information about the user using his copy of Vista (possible?)

 

...or any combination of either one on the list

 

P.S.: Now, I wonder whether Kopi $$ to these people will exclusively put ya off the list or not

[ranzl]

Possibilities:

 

1. IP address -- this does have information on where you are surfing from.

2. Some sort of a trace routing technique that sees whether you are connected to a Malaysian ISP.

3. Product key probably has a digit(s) that state which country this product was sold at.

4. Product default settings kept in the Windows registry that stores location information about the user using his copy of Vista (possible?)

 

...or any combination of either one on the list

 

P.S.: Now, I wonder whether Kopi $$ to these people will exclusively put ya off the list or not

 

well... im doubtful msia isp will help in this. and there are also oversea proxies too.

pirated copies are can also b copies from overseas. product keys may belong from other places.

 

well.. i dun hear anyone having this prob yet, or those tt hav blackscrn are afraid of admitting?

 

frankly speaking... sounds like a hoax to mi...

[redbeacon]

well... im doubtful msia isp will help in this. and there are also oversea proxies too.

pirated copies are can also b copies from overseas. product keys may belong from other places.

 

well.. i dun hear anyone having this prob yet, or those tt hav blackscrn are afraid of admitting?

 

frankly speaking... sounds like a hoax to mi...

Check this out dude:

 

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4081/blackoutvistaur0.jpg

 

and yep, I'm that surprised too!

[ranzl]

Check this out dude:

 

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4081/blackoutvistaur0.jpg

 

and yep, I'm that surprised too!

 

aft blackscrn, Zhen Zi will climb out from ur comp. HAHA

 

 

 

p.s: im not doubting abt the article or MS saying blacksrn, jus wondering if it is actually working.

[nacl]

Fellow netizens. Please see the link below, at BBC News.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7649761.stm

 

If you rely on Skype to encrypt your messages and conversations so that you cannot be eavesdropped... think again!

 

I am frankly very disappointed with this. Skype's claim on encryption is blatantly false!

[ChaoPuzzy1968]

of cse lah china mah........angmoh also have ......u think down here don't have meh?

[nacl]

The point here isn't about China.

 

It's about Skype. It claims end to end encryption.

 

If you're using PGP or any other software to encrypt your messages, how safe do you feel now? However, I still use it since they're very established... I have yet to come across any news incident regarding its use.

 

Nevertheless, here is Skype's reply.

 

http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2008/10/skype_president_addresses_chin.html

[ChaoPuzzy1968]

aiyah money talks bullshit walks .....skype is just another typical company mah...their word cannot believe one....

[WildCard]

That is why, many still say, dun post your credit card or other sensitive details using IM applications.

 

You want to have a secure conversation? Sure. Use a simple one-time-pad emulator program with the same key on each end.

Type the plaintext in program, encrypt into cyphertext and IM it across. The other end will copy the cyphertext and convert it into plaintext with the same program. Vice versa.

 

That said and done, some open-source firewalls have plugins that allow it to monitor IM traffic and view the conversation data.

So, beware when you chat heavily at your workplace....

[redbeacon]

of cse lah china mah........angmoh also have ......u think down here don't have meh?

 

aiyah money talks bullshit walks .....skype is just another typical company mah...their word cannot believe one....

 

Unless if you're a tech pundit (which, by the way you talk, may not be one), you'd be surprised to know that Skype is already worldwide and that a very established company like this with such a big geographical scale should promise to deliver. Sadly, they didn't, and I'm disappointed that they chose to succumb to China's dire need to eavesdrop on important political conversations. Double standardization indeed.

 

EDIT: Skype works with TOM, a Chinese distributor that brings Skype to the communi...err, Republic of China. TOM abides by Chinese' I.T. legislature, much like how the Internet needs to be monitored by the government.

It's been known by the President of Skype that they've breached their way of operations a few times these past few years. So it's not entirely Skype's fault.

 

You want to have a secure conversation? Sure. Use a simple one-time-pad emulator program with the same key on each end.

Type the plaintext in program, encrypt into cyphertext and IM it across. The other end will copy the cyphertext and convert it into plaintext with the same program. Vice versa.

 

Easiest way yet...fire up your IM at your workplace and chat with your buddy using calculate-on-the-fly Rot-13 encryption

 

True, personal choice reaps the benefits of having a totally different platform to securely chat with others as compared to Messenger, but it depends whether the guy (or 10 or a hundred) guys on the other line would wanna do the same. Download, install, and use it just like you are doing now.

[DarkPride]

On October 20, 2008, many users of Windows XP in China received a black desktop, as Microsoft introduced its WGA system for Chinese language systems, in an effort to combat piracy, which is extremely high in China. This version of WGA is of a more hostile approach as compared to previous forms, as it provides a hindrance to users and trespasses on usability. Since the majority of users in China run on a pirated copy of Windows, many users have experienced what is described as a "black screen syndrome", where the operating system changes the desktop background to a black screen every 60 minutes, as well as displaying constant warning messages.Some users have even reported the disabling of Office programs such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Outlook.

 

According to various polls carried out by Chinese portals such as Sohu.com, QQ.com, 21cn.com, and many others, more than 60 percent of Chinese Internet users are hostile to Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) and Office Genuine Advantage (OGA)

 

http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/genuine/wga/wga_faq.mspx

 

 

 

Source:Wiki

 

Some say just change the screen to black only..

 

Source:

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/08/28/latest-wga-for-windows-xp-professional-cause-wallpaper-and-background-auto-reset-to-black-screen-every-60-minutes/