Perhaps Microsoft was right all along. In the 1990s, it saw the new kid on the block, Netscape, as a threat, and did what it could to destroy the upstart. With Google, the 'Softies won't be so lucky.

Most of you have heard the story about Netscape Communications, but let me summarize for the newcomers: Netscape was the first serious improvement to the Internet browser, and it grew like crazy, pretty much dominating the scene overnight. Then out of the blue, Marc Andreessen (the man credited with developing the product) decided to blow smoke about how this would eventually lead to the end of Microsoft. He was vague as to how it would lead there, but Microsoft determined that it had something to do with thin-client, browser-based computing somehow taking over everything.

Microsoft went into high gear, bought up a slew of little Internet companies and a minor browser company, and rolled out Internet Explorer as a freebie. This was important. The business plan for Netscape was based on selling the browser, but Microsoft was going to give away Explorer forever and bundle it with every new system. That was pretty much the end of Netscape, which eventually morphed into Mozilla's Firefox, a nonprofit browser that makes its money off its little Google search box.

The destruction of Netscape was awesome, Microsoft's "peak oil," as it were. The company was under the gun after that from various antitrust initiatives, and has never really been the same since. Now it is indeed vulnerable despite its overwhelming market share.

The new kid on the block today is Google, and everyone knows it. But Google didn't make Netscape's mistakes. The company has never claimed to be targeting Microsoft. Google mostly says it is interested in search and whatever else its minions create. Its approach is far different from that of any company Microsoft has ever encountered.

First, Google has remained warm and fuzzy, with its cute name, cute logo, and cute gimmicks. Microsoft has never owned a fleet of jets featuring a 767. But to remain warm and cuddly, the 767 is called the Google party plane. Yay, a party!

The company also took a lesson from the early days of Yahoo, when keeping it simple was the key to success. Google just does search better than anyone else, and that's it for now. Of course, there are Google Docs, Gmail, and other "cloud computing" initiatives that Microsoft is watching warily. Just as Microsoft throws its weight behind the notion of the cloud, Google says it will build a client-side version of Gmail—so people can go through their mail the way an Outlook customer can. Before that it rolls out the beta of an entirely new smartphone. It's one little thing after another. Nothing quite consolidated, just little experiments.

All along I keep hearing talk about a Google OS, probably based on Linux. Yet there's no real evidence that the company would do such a thing. Still, it is on the phone; what would it take to port Android to a netbook?

Well that's what a lot of people are beginning to ask. Linux suffers from a flavor-of-the-month complex, where the best Linux distro comes and goes. For years, the Linux community has resigned itself to not competing with Windows and the Mac OS—this despite the fact that the Mac OS is, like Linux, Unix-based. What if Google tried to be that competition? With its resources, could Google take over the OS business and push Microsoft up into the miserable enterprise computing scene, where it could take the place of the old dinosaurs while Google and Apple get to do all the fun stuff?

And how would Google make money from this effort? Linux is open-source, after all, and selling copies or even licensing Linux is problematic. Well, how about a Google-branded computer?

I've always wondered why Microsoft, the dominant software company, could never manage a branding program for its OS that was more than a crummy sticker stuck on a machine as an afterthought. Where is the "Microsoft Windows Computer by HP," for example?

Had Microsoft followed a branding strategy with a reference design computer (in collaboration with Intel or AMD) that could be licensed, the company wouldn't have gotten into trouble for bundling Internet Explorer, for example. That approach would have changed the way the game was played.

But Microsoft long since missed that boat. Google can still release an Android Desktop or Android Netbook, or whatever. I'd like to see it. The topper would be offering Microsoft an opportunity to do MS Office for Android. That would be rich.

This possibility all stems from the fact that Microsoft seems to have lost its way, coasting on its main cash cows and unable to do anything else confidently. To end on a positive note for Microsoft, I've believed for years that the company can effectively counter all this momentum by itself embracing Linux and doing a fully supported MS-Linux as a kind of competitive jujitsu. It's the only long-term solution to this slow death we seem to be observing.

source : pcmag.com

OpenOffice.org 3.0 costs absolutely nothing but comes closer than anything else to letting you delete your copy of Microsoft Office (which probably cost you a lot). Even though OpenOffice.org—which is, yes, an application suite, not just a Web site—can't do everything Office can, it can do a lot, and it has some of its own tricks that even Office can't manage. Here are a few that may not be obvious, as well as a few ways to make OpenOffice.org less annoying out of the box.

1. Edit two or more parts of a document at the same time. Microsoft Word has a nifty split-window feature that lets you divide the current window into two panes, so you can edit page 5 of your document in the top pane and page 505 in the bottom. To switch from one pane to the other, you don't have to waste time scrolling back and forth—you simply click in the other pane. OpenOffice.org doesn't let you split a window into two panes, but it offers an even better feature. Click the Window menu, then New Window, to open a new window that displays the same document you're working on. You can open as many windows as you want, each at a different place in your document; any change you make in one window immediately appears in all others. You can reduce screen clutter by turning off toolbars in one or more windows (use View | Toolbars), and you can tile or cascade the windows by right-clicking on the OpenOffice.org button on the Windows taskbar.

2. Use OpenOffice.org to open legacy documents. Years ago, older versions of Microsoft Office could open documents created by almost any of the myriad word processors and spreadsheet programs that were widely used before Microsoft monopolized the market. Recent versions of Office can't open many of those older formats—including old Microsoft Word versions such as Word 6.0. By contrast, OpenOffice.org continues to open Word documents dating back to Version 6.0. OpenOffice.org also opens WordPerfect documents, including files created in WordPerfect for the Macintosh 3.5 Enhanced, which not even WordPerfect for Windows tries to open.

By the way, there's something confusing about OpenOffice.org's claims. The product purports to support at least one format that never existed: The list of supported file types in its File | Open dialog includes "Microsoft WinWord 5.0," even though there never was such a version. Word for Windows skipped from 2.0 to 6.0 in its version numbers.

3. Play a vintage Space Invaders game. Remember the days of software "Easter Eggs"? They were not-very-secret keystrokes or mouse clicks that brought up silly graphics in some programs and games in others. Even Microsoft Excel used to have a secret game built in before Redmond lost its sense of humor. OpenOffice.org's Calc spreadsheet program still includes a 1990s-era shoot-'em-up Space Invaders game. Open the Calc app, and in any cell enter:

=GAME("StarWars")

Make sure to copy the capitalization shown here. Calc will open a StarWars game in which you shoot down a fleet of evil alien ships. The explanatory text is in German (the original version of OpenOffice.org was written in Germany), but you don't need to know even English to play the game. Calc has a slightly Teutonic attitude toward fun-and-games, however: After you quit the game, you'll need to shut down Calc and start it up again before you can play a second time.

4. Turn off the blinking light bulb. By default, a light-bulb icon appears in a tiny window whenever OpenOffice.org does anything that isn't exactly what you typed—for example, when it replaces two hyphens with a dash. It doesn't exactly blink, but after the third or fourth time it opens, you may think of it as "that blinking light bulb" (you might use a word other than "blinking"). To turn it off permanently, go to Tools | Options, and then, in the left-hand pane, expand the menu tree by clicking the plus sign next to OpenOffice.org. In the General dialog, remove the check mark next to Help Agent.

5. Save files in Office formats by default. By default OpenOffice.org saves files in its own format, which most Microsoft Office users can't open. You can save individual files in Office format by using OpenOffice.org's File | Save as… menu and selecting a Word format from the Save as Type dropdown. But you can tell OpenOffice to save in Office formats by default by choosing Tools | Options, then find the Load/Save category, and the General subcategory. In the Document Type dropdown, choose Text Document, and in the Always Save As dropdown, choose Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP. Then, in the Document Type dropdown, choose Spreadsheet, and in the Always Save As dropdown, choose Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP. These choices will create files that can be read by any modern word processor or spreadsheet.

6. Automate actions easily. Many advanced Microsoft Office users take advantage of macros that run automatically when you open, print, or close a file, but Office's interface doesn't provide built-in clues for creating an AutoClose macro that will run whenever you close a document. OpenOffice.org goes Office one better by providing a menu-driven interface that lists all the actions that can automatically trigger macros—and these include a wider range of actions than the ones that can be automated easily in Office. For example, you can create a macro that is triggered every time the number of pages in a document increases and that inserts a header with a page number if the number goes above, say, two. Other actions that can automatically trigger macros include saving a document under a different name and running a mail merge. To use this feature, record the macros you want to use, then go to Tools | Customize | Events and assign your chosen macro to specific events.

7. Fix those single quotes. By default, OpenOffice.org Writer creates good-looking, curly "typographic" double-quotation marks as you type, but when you type a single quotation mark (or an apostrophe) it uses a vertical line, as if you were still using your grandfather's manual typewriter. Fix this by going to Tools | AutoCorrect…, then go to the Custom Quotes tab and, under Single Quotes, add a check mark next to Replace.

source : PCMAG.com

Microsoft on Wednesday released Service Pack 2 Release Candidate (RC) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

"Starting today, the RC of SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 will be available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers to test prior to final release," Brandon LeBlanc, a Windows communication manager, wrote in a blog post. "In the very near future, we will be making the RC broadly available for anyone to download and test. You can expect another blog post from me when that happens."

The final SP2 is expected to be released in the second quarter of 2009, he said.

"In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on supporting new types of hardware and adding support for several emerging standards," LeBlanc said. "SP2 will also continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage large installations of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008."

Organizations that want to upgrade to Vista or Windows Server 2008 do not have to wait until the final SP2 release, LeBlanc said, though SP1 must already be installed.

"We encourage them to begin their Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 evaluation and deployment now," he said.

Beta versions of Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 were made available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers in early December.

source : www.pcmag.com

The BlackArmor encrypted hard drive is tops for its intuitive out-of-the-box experience, good utilities bundle, and reasonable price.

The Seagate Maxtor BlackArmor ($135 for 320GB) is a marvel of simplicity. It's the first external hard drive with full-disk encryption--the encryption chip resides on the hard drive's circuitry. According to Seagate, all of the data is encrypted on the drive, so even if someone removes the drive from the housing and takes away the chip set, the data is inaccessible. When you first attach the BlackArmor to a Windows PC, the drive loads a read-only partition with the setup software. Initializing the drive and setting a password takes only a minute, after which the drive loads the encrypted partition and Windows shows it as a drive letter. Thereafter, every time you plug in the drive, the autorun settings will ask you to enter the password.

The BlackArmor also features a Secure Erase option (which overwrites data areas of the drive with zeroes), as well as a backup utility.

In our recent look at encrypted portable drives, we chose this model as our Best Buy for its value--it offers one of the best cost-per-gigabyte rates we've seen--as well as for its simplicity and its full-disk-encryption security.

source : PCWORLD

"We are applying to become a third party in the European Commission's proceeding," Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, said in a company blog today.

Last month, the EU's commission submitted a preliminary list of charges, or statement of objections, to Microsoft, and accused it of shielding Internet Explorer (IE) from competition by bundling it with Windows.

Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, had earlier been granted "interested third party" status , which allows it to submit arguments to regulators, to see the charge sheet the commission sent Microsoft and to participate in a face-to-face hearing if Microsoft requests one.

The Norwegian browser developer Opera Software ASA filed the original complaint with the commission in late 2007.

Pichai said Google is getting involved because the field tilts toward Microsoft. "The browser market is still largely uncompetitive, which holds back innovation for users," he said. "This is because Internet Explorer is tied to Microsoft's dominant computer operating system, giving it an unfair advantage over other browsers."

Google, which launched its own Chrome only last September, cited such features as browser tabs and privacy modes as some of the things that have appeared because of competition among browser makers.

"We believe that we can contribute to this debate," added Pichai. "We learned a lot from launching Chrome last year and are hoping that Google's perspective will be useful as the commission evaluates remedies."

Although the commission has not spelled out what actions it might demand Microsoft take, agency spokesman Jonathan Todd has provided some clues. Microsoft could be fined, forced to let users choose alternate browsers to install in Windows or ordered to allow users to disable IE if a different browser is desired.

Speaking of remedies, Mitchell Baker, the former CEO of Mozilla and currently the chairman of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, today offered her take on changes Microsoft might be required to make.

n a blog entry of her own, Baker, who has been commenting regularly on the issue since Mozilla joined the case as an interested party, listed several potential cures, but stopped short of calling them recommendations. One possibility would be to make Microsoft divulge all APIs (application programming interfaces) available to IE to other browser builders, while another would be to require Microsoft to offer rival browsers whenever IE or Windows is updated, she said.

Other ideas she offered up ranged from bundling Windows with multiple browsers to including none at all. "This implementation ... has some obvious drawbacks for users," Baker acknowledged.

One antitrust expert has called the EU's investigation pointless .

"I just don't see what it adds to the final judgment in the U.S. case," said William Page, the co-author of The Microsoft Case: Antitrust, High Technology, and Consumer Welfare , (University of Chicago Press, 2009) and a member of the faculty of the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida. "OEMs are already free to delete most of the visible evidence of [Internet Explorer] and to install another browser if they want."

According to Web measurement company Net Applications Inc., IE accounted for 67.6% of the browser market in January, the lowest number since the company began compiling data in 2005. Firefox, meanwhile, held down a 21.5% share, while Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome ended the month with 8.3% and 1.1%, respectively.

source : networkworld

Until recently, phone buyers in the United States had to splurge on an expensive unlocked handset to get one with a camera offering more than 5 megapixels. Enter the Samsung Memoir, a touch-screen smart phone with an 8-megapixel camera available at a carrier-subsidized price ($250 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile). This is T-Mobile's third high-end camera phone; last year the provider released the 5-megapixel Motorola Motozine ZN5 and the Samsung Behold. But while the Memoir's camera certainly impresses, other aspects of the phone could be stronger.

At first glance the Memoir resembles a stand-alone digital camera more than a mobile phone. Measuring 4.1 by 2.1 by 0.5 inches, the Memoir fits easily into a pocket. Dressed in black plastic with silver trim and a leatherlike grip, it is quite light at only 4.4 ounces, but its build feels a bit chintzy.

The Memoir's design is very similar to that of the Behold. A gorgeous, 2.6-inch full LCD touch screen occupies the majority of the handset's face. Three physical buttons (Talk, Back, and End) reside below the screen, and the camera lens and flash sit on the other side. On the left spine are a microSD slot and a proprietary headphone jack; on the right spine you find a volume rocker, a dedicated camera button, and a lock button.

The Memoir's headline feature, of course, is its 8-megapixel camera, with 16X digital zoom and a Xenon flash. The camera has seven resolution settings, four image effects (black and white, sepia, negative, and watercolor), light metering, adjustable ISO, and a self-timer. It also offers three fun shooting modes (continuous, panorama, and mosaic), as well as a smile-shot mode that will take another picture if the subject is frowning.

The phone has 180MB of internal memory and a microSD slot for expanding the storage up to 16GB, so you have plenty of space for pictures. And don't worry if you happen to run out of memory: You can upload your photos directly to online services such as Flickr, the Kodak gallery, Photobucket, or Snapfish.

A Xenon flash, a feature we also saw on the Motozine ZN5, emits a stronger burst of light than an LED flash and is therefore ideal for indoor or dim-light environments. My indoor shots, however, were less than impressive. Even with the flash on, my pictures appeared dark, with some noise and blur. Photos taken outdoors in bright sunlight, on the other hand, were stunning, with bright and accurate colors and sharp detail. The only issue outdoors was the screen: Since its glossy face gave off a lot of glare, reviewing my photos after taking them was difficult.

The camera's touch menu is intuitive, and I liked being able to flick through my photos à la the iPhone. The Memoir uses Samsung's TouchWiz interface, also seen on the Behold and Omnia. Like the Behold, the Memoir is very responsive and user-friendly. The Today screen--the Memoir's home screen--has a widget bar running along its left side. You can arrange the widgets in any order, as well as drag one into the main part of the screen to launch its respective app. To end the application, you slide the widget back onto the bar. Available widgets include a calendar, a phone book, a music player, and a clock.

Other than rearranging widgets and removing them, you don't have a lot of room for customization; you can't add new widgets to the bar or buy new programs (there is no app store), which is disappointing. The Memoir has no Wi-Fi connectivity, either, which is unfortunate--sometimes, loading pages over T-Mobile's 3G network seemed slow.

Call quality over T-Mobile's 3G network was a mixed bag. I heard a faint hiss in the background of all of my calls. Parties on the other end of the line reported the same, but the majority didn't find it distracting. Voices sounded natural and clear enough, for the most part. One of my calls to a landline, however, was dropped--never a good sign.

Like the Behold, the Memoir doesn't come loaded with the Samsung TouchPlayer, an impressive media player that we tested on the Omnia. Instead, the Memoir offers a no-frills music player that supports album art and playlists, and has shuffle and repeat modes plus six equalizer settings. And like the Omnia, the Memoir is missing a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can't charge the phone and listen to music at the same time. On the upside, transferring music from your PC to the Memoir via the USB cable is a simple drag-and-drop process.

Camera-phone fans will love the Memoir, but I'm not so sure about everyone else. Its average multimedia features won't impress audiophiles, and its lack of Wi-Fi and an app store won't satisfy those folks craving a handset with smart-phone capabilities. But it does deliver what it promises: a feature-rich camera with above-average quality.

source : PCWORLD

The Web is teeming with venomous exploits. And an ever-increasing quantity of that malware sneaks onto hard drives via the browser.

Which begs the question: Does your choice of browser affect your chances of being infected? Conventional wisdom says to avoid Internet Explorer, simply because it's the target of a magnitude more malware than any other browser.


That reasoning makes sense, but we couldn't settle for the easy answer. That's why we drilled deep into the security workings of the five most popular browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Chrome. Every control, checkbox, and slider was poked and prodded, as we browsed the most infected sites on the Web. In the end, we concluded that sensible user behavior and a commitment to install the latest patches had a vastly greater impact on security than which browser you choose.
Rogue Programs: Click Me!

Most malicious exploits require an accomplice: you. By now, you'd think people would know that if they're visiting a site they're unfamiliar with, and they're asked whether they want to download something, the correct answer is "No." But naiveté apparently knows no bounds. Ironically, the great majority of exploits occur when an end user falls for a bait and switch such as the fake anti-virus scam ("you've been infected; download this anti-virus program"). No browser can protect against such folly.

The good news is that smart users who don't make those mistakes and keep up with patches have little to fear, even from the worst neighborhoods on the Web. In our tests, which included exposure to more than one hundred known-malicious public Web sites, none of the fully patched browsers let through stealth infections or exploits, though browser lockups were frequent and complete system reboots sometimes necessary.

Just keep in mind that the browser is not alone in the battle. Through the browser, Web-based malware can exploit vulnerabilities in the operating system and in browser plug-ins such as Flash, Java, and QuickTime. In addition to the browser itself, these too should be kept fully patched. The good news is, the Web also mends. For most popular software these days -- including the five browsers we tested -- automated updates are available.

Browsers have many security features that help the end user avoid being bitten by malware, as well as some privacy protections.

All five browsers have pop-up blockers, anti-phishing filters, and password protection. Except for Opera, they allow for private session browsing where the browser saves nothing from the session that can be used to track your online movements -- no browsing history, no cookies, no temporary Internet files, and so on.

But only two, Internet Explorer and Firefox, have the coolest browser security feature of all: configurable security zones, which let end users set up different levels of security for Web sites based on their trustworthiness.

For instance, an end user can set up a "zone" where obscure, shady-looking Web sites must face the browser's most stringent security measures, such as disabled JavaScript, which often plays a role in malicious exploits. Firefox and Internet Explorer also let end users turn off add-ons, whereas Safari, Opera and Chrome do not.

These browser security features play an important role in keeping the end user safe. They also vary from browser to browser: some browsers have certain features, others do not. And some browsers are simply better at security than others. Here's a quick look at each of the five browsers.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 beta 2

Pros: Internet Explorer is the powerhouse browser, boasting more than 1,300 security controls, whereas the second closest browser (Firefox) has 150. Internet Explorer has five security zones that are easily configurable, and allows you to turn off JavaScript and add-ons. It's the only browser with parental controls.

Cons: Explorer's popularity makes it the primary target of hackers. Its unique support of ActiveX (another way malicious exploits get into a computer) poses an additional security threat that other browsers don't have.

Takeaway: Internet Explorer's superior security controls should be weighed against the fact that it's the most frequently attacked browser in the world.

Mozilla Firefox 3.12

Pros: This battle-tested veteran has security zones and a built-in add-on manager that allows you to easily turn off add-ons and JavaScript.

Cons: Setting up security zones isn't easy.

Takeaway: Firefox makes a good browser choice for PC users. In terms of security granularity and choices of controls, it's second only to Internet Explorer.

Apple Safari 3.2.1

Pros: Safari boasts the most accurate anti-phishing filter and always prompts users before downloading files. Safari (like Chrome) does a good job at blocking unwanted cookies.

Cons: Lacks security zones and the ability to turn off add-ons.

Takeaway: While Safari is a great looking browser, it's a mixed bag with respect to security. Still, Safari -- if fully patched and running on a fully patched system -- can be a secure environment.

Opera 9.63

Pros: Opera has extensive security controls and good protections against "denial-of-service" attacks.

Cons: Lacks security zones, the ability to turn off add-ons, and private-session browsing. Its lack of support for key Windows security features may put it at higher risk of buffer overflow attacks.

Takeaway: Opera is a great browser but hasn't been exposed to the crucible of constant attacks. Support for Windows' Data Execution Prevention and Address Layout Space Randomization features is needed before its use can be more highly recommended.

Google Chrome 1.0

Pros: JavaScript runs inside a virtual machine, thus providing some containment. Chrome (like Safari) does a good job at blocking unwanted cookies.

Cons: Chrome can't disable JavaScript -- a big problem considering JavaScript is involved in some of the most malicious Web exploits. Chrome allows passwords to be displayed in plain text, potentially exposing them to passersby, and has been plagued by relatively simple buffer overflow problems.

Takeaway: The security model Chrome follows is excellent, but the security choices Google has made for its browser are often abysmal. More troubling, the vulnerabilities that have been found in Chrome are simple and common ones that Google easily should have avoided.

source : PCWORLD

The Pavilion dv7t is one of HP's "entertainment powerhouse" notebooks, just one step down from the ludicrously oversize 20-inch HDX. Beyond the 17-inch screen, and under the cool "liquid metal" exterior, lies Intel's new Centrino 2 processor. The result: high-octane performance in an extremely shiny package.

The dv7t, with its 2.53-GHz Core 2 Duo T9400 processor and 3GB of RAM, turned in a blazing score of 98 in our WorldBench 6 tests. Interestingly, MicroExpress's identically stacked all-purpose machine, the JFL9226, earned a mark of 103.

The dv7t's nVidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics card makes this laptop a better gaming rig than many other portables. It produced an impressive 152 frames per second in our Doom 3 and Far Cry tests (and a respectable 95.26 fps with antialiasing turned on).

Battery life was 3 hours, 1 minute, not bad for an 8.4-pound unit with a 17-inch screen. If only we could see the screen a little better. In a typical fluorescent-lit office, viewing the display is hard. Even when ratcheted all the way up, the huge screen was not very bright--not what you'd expect from a high-end machine. Compared with the display of a 15.4-inch HP Pavilion DV6000t, in fact, the dv7t's screen was grayish. That said, the dullness shouldn't impede enjoying a flick on the Blu-ray drive or getting work done, especially with the lights turned down low. The 1680-by-1050-pixel resolution makes mainstream applications plenty easy to work in. Be sure to keep headphones handy, though: Despite the unit's subwoofer, to me it sure didn't sound like a Blu-ray movie was playing.

On the bright side, if you like shiny things, you'll love the dv7t. The lid and lower casing are black, but inside it resembles a slab of highly polished steel topped off with a similarly finished keyboard and icy-white status lights. It's so reflective that you can see yourself in the wrist rest, quite handy for surreptitious spinach-stuck-in-teeth and makeup checks. The keys gleam like pricey flatware, and even feel cool to the touch. Maneuvering about the keyboard is just as smooth, thanks to the great layout, the wide mirrored touchpad, and the dedicated number pad. The fingerprint reader is completely and conveniently out of the way in its right-bottom-corner location.

I only wish that the rigid mouse buttons depressed a little farther into the case, and that HP's volume swipe were better behaved. Though it's always a pleasure to use HP's signature one-touch QuickPlay media button for directly launching a movie and music menu and its forward and backward controls, HP still hasn't ironed all of the kinks out of its touch-sensitive controls. Getting the mute control working took a hard punch. The cranky volume swipe would lower but not raise volume--which, unlike movie sound, is quite loud and pleasing with CDs and MP3s. (We've had the opposite problem--the volume swipe raising but not lowering sound--on other Pavilions.)

If you can overlook those little problems, the dv7t is a handsome, fast unit. For our review it was nicely configured with a 400GB hard drive, a Blu-ray drive, and Windows Vista Home Premium. And if you're looking to replace a desktop, it's a better candidate than most other big notebooks because of its proprietary left-side connection for HP's xb3000 expansion base. Though the base is an expensive add-on, it incorporates a screen stand, a third hard-drive bay, far better speakers, and a wireless keyboard and mouse for a complete desktop experience.

Forget the peripherals right now, though. Without the docking station, the dv7t slightly stumbles as an end-all, be-all entertainment unit. If you're looking for the whole package, consider Toshiba's Qosmio line of massive desktop replacement PCs. They're hardly portable, but the Qosmios (or is that Qosmii for plural?) have consistently incorporated terrific audio into their designs. That said, thanks to its beefy new CPU, HP's powerhouse sails through performance tests and whips the current competition. If speed is what matters to you, the Pavilion dv7 has it in spades.

source : PCWORLD

Everyone likes to try new and shiny technology toys like the Windows 7 beta, but when the price is having to replace your existing operating system, that's too much for most people. That's when being able to use a virtualization program can come in darn handy.

To test out how well Windows 7 works on a virtualized system, I decided to use Sun's VirtualBox software. While there are, of course, other virtualization programs out there, such as VMware's Workstation and Parallels Desktop, VirtualBox has two significant advantages over the others. First, it's free. Second, you can use it with several operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris.

In my case, I decided to use VirtualBox to run Windows 7 on two Dell Inspiron 530S systems, one running Windows XP Pro SP3 and the other running MEPIS 7 Linux. Each PC came with a 2.2-GHz Intel Pentium E2200 dual-core processor with an 800-MHz front-side bus, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB SATA drive and an Integrated Intel 3100 Graphics Media Accelerator. While not powerful systems, these proved to have more than enough CPU power to run both their native operating system and Windows 7.
Running VirtualBox

VirtualBox comes in two editions. The full VirtualBox is free for personal use and evaluation, but doesn't come with the complete source code. VirtualBox OSE (Open Source Edition), also free, does come with the source code and includes several enterprise-level features, such as an RDP (Remote Display Protocol) Server and USB support. (Other virtualization applications, like Xen, require tweaking before they'll support USB.) Both versions can run Windows 7.

In general, you'll need at least 1GB of RAM to run VirtualBox and a guest operating system. More RAM is always better. In my testing, I found that Windows 7 would actually run on as little as 512MB, while Vista really needs at least 1GB of its own.

VirtualBox should run on any recent CPU, but it does best with high-end processors that support hardware virtualization enhancements such as Intel's VT-x and Advanced Micro Devices' AMD-V.

The first step is to download a copy of VirtualBox. To run Windows 7 successfully, you'll need at least VirtualBox 2.1.0 -- I ran it on the latest version, VirtualBox 2.1.2.

If you're a Linux or OpenSolaris user, you can also obtain a copy using your software package manager program. VirtualBox supports openSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), SLE (SUSE Linux Enterprise) and Xandros. You can also find additional support, both for specific operating systems and in general, in the FAQ file and in the User Manual (PDF).

On Windows and Mac OS X, installation requires little more than clicking on the installation file and letting it run. It's a bit more complicated on Linux and OpenSolaris. On Solaris, you need to compile the program. On Linux, you'll need to follow some additional steps, which are described in the Linux download section.

Finally, if you need more guidance, you can find step-by-step instructions for VirtualBox 2.1.0 at the Two Guys Tech site.
Setting up the VM

Your next step is to set up a new virtual machine for Windows 7. You do this by clicking the New button, which will then ask you how big a hard drive you want for the operating system. The default is to give it a 20GB virtual hard drive. With Windows 7, I decided to give it a more generous 40GB. You can also let VirtualBox dynamically determine how much hard drive room an operating system can have, but I prefer to decide for myself.

This done, you set up how much RAM and video memory Windows 7 can have. I prefer to give the operating system an ample 1GB of RAM and 128MB of video memory. You can get by with less, but you'll start noticing system delays.

VirtualBox also lets you set up 3-D graphics acceleration and access optical discs, USB devices, shared drives and so on through its main interface. You can set this up after you have Windows 7 installed, but I prefer to get this basic configuration out of the way first.

Installing Windows 7

With this done, you're ready to actually install Windows 7. You can either run the installation from a DVD or just load the Windows 7 ISO image file. Since I hate wasting time, I loaded the ISO. VirtualBox can load ISOs over both a network or from a local drive.

On both the Linux and Windows test systems, the Windows 7 installation was a snore. It took about half an hour, and the only thing I had to do was to set the proper time zone and enter the Windows 7 beta product key.

Once in place, I also loaded VirtualBox Guest Additions -- an additional set of functions that includes mouse integration (so you can mouse over from Windows 7 to your host desktop and back again without needing to hit the right-hand control button) and the ability to run the VM as a full desktop. They only work with Linux and Windows guest operating systems. But in either case, they're darn useful.

To install the Guest Additions (which downloads automatically with VirtualBox), you need to be running the VM and choose Devices --> Install Guest Additions from the VirtualBox main menu.

I found Windows 7 to run quite well as a VM under both MEPIS Linux and Windows XP SP3. As far as I'm concerned, the Windows 7 beta actually runs better than Vista SP1.

You should be aware, though, of some fundamental differences between running an operating system in a VM and running it natively. The most common problem is the inability to use the higher performance features of graphics, audio or network cards. That's because, like most virtualization software, VirtualBox provides the guest operating system with a virtual VESA-compatible graphics card, a virtual Intel ICH AC '97 audio and several virtual network cards. In short, your virtual Windows 7 can't use your high-end graphics card or what-have-you because only the host system has access to it, not the guest operating system, which must use virtual drivers instead.

Still, unless you want to run a high-end game, you're not going to notice these lacks. VirtualBox gives you everything most of you will need to decide for yourself whether Windows 7 will be worth your time. As far as I'm concerned, Windows 7 and VirtualBox are a great combination.

source : computerworld

At first glance, the Inspiron Mini 9, Dell's entry into the mini-notebook category, looks like what you might get if you left a notebook from Dell's full-size Studio line of laptops in the dryer too long. But the sub-$500 Mini 9 carries a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a solid-state drive, making it a good starter machine for basic computing at a reasonable price.

Our test configuration, priced at $474, included Windows XP Home and an 8GB solid-state drive; a 4GB version of the Mini 9 ships with Linux Ubuntu 8.04. The 8GB drive doesn't leave you much open space once the operating system and the preinstalled software (which includes Microsoft Works) are accommodated. For $40 more, you can upgrade to a 16GB drive, but then you've crossed the magic $500 threshold. One feature that is missing here--but is present in the Acer Aspire One--is an additional SD slot to allow users to insert a second SD Card, format it, and use it as another hard disk.

Working without two SD Card slots, we found that our WorldBench 6 test suite required more space than the Inspiron Mini 9's drive could spare. Since we couldn't run our benchmark tests on the Mini 9, we can't directly compare its performance with that of competing mini-notebooks like the MSI Wind NB U100. We do know that the Mini 9 loads Windows in about 30 seconds and fires up Microsoft Works in 8 seconds. Also, it can copy more than an album's worth of music (77MB) in about 7 seconds. In short, it falls in line with what we've seen from other mini-notebooks packing an Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and Windows. We'll update this review when we obtain more-precise performance results.

The Mini 9 performed well in our battery life tests. Its four-cell battery ran for about 3 hours, 34 minutes--far better the three-cell battery of the MSI Wind, which lasted just 2 hours, 24 minutes.

As its name suggests, the Inspiron Mini 9 is tiny. It measures 1.07 by 9.13 by 6.77 inches--barely enough room to accommodate the 8.9-inch screen--and weighs about 2.28 pounds.

The glossy 1024-by-600-resolution display looks reasonably sharp and reproduces color extremely well. Unfortunately, if you don't view it from precisely the right angle, the screen looks a little dim. You can adjust the angle, but you may still find yourself contorting into ergonomic stress positions in order to get an optimal view.

All of the alphanumeric keys on the Mini 9's keyboard are large enough to make cranking out a document easy. But everything else either gets scrunched (as the Tab, Shift, and Caps Lock keys do) or assigned to an unfamiliar location. For instance, the apostrophe key slides down to a spot by the space bar, and the function keys disappear altogether, replaced by combos. An empty bit of real estate lies between the keyboard and the edge nearest the display, but Dell chose not to fill it with shortcut keys. That said, if you can retrain your brain to know where a couple of wayward buttons are positioned, you'll find that the keyboard is quite good. Similarly, the mousepad is set to just the right sensitivity, and the buttons are firmly in place.

The front-mounted speaker, located just below the display, came across as a little hollow. In this department, the Mini 9 falls behind Asus's $650 Eee 1000H 80G XP.

The Mini 9 is otherwise packed with the usual arsenal of current mini-notebook specs: 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA out, an ethernet jack, an SD Card slot, and headphone and mic jacks. Our test model had Bluetooth and a 1.3-megapixel Webcam; both are extra-cost options.

The Mini 9 includes two handy additions that make it stand above the competition. First, accessible through the Start menu, is Dell's Support Center--a one-stop app for system information and performance tweaking. When you're online the Support Center also serves as a glorified link hub to different parts of Dell's support site for manuals, patches, and quick fixes. Second is a free, base-level account (good for 2GB of storage) with Box.Net's online file storage service.

Dell has crafted a solid mini-laptop that's good for kids and has plenty to offer anyone looking for an on-the-go system. The Inspiron Mini 9 isn't perfect, but it does offer a terrific design and a good price. I would have a tough time choosing this over Acer's Aspire One, but Dell's first venture into the world of mini-notebooks has produced a worthy competitor.

source : PCWORLD

What the average guy might call a con is known in the security world as social engineering. Social engineering is the criminal art of scamming a person into doing something or divulging sensitive information. These days, there are thousands of ways for con artists to pull off their tricks (See: Social Engineering: Eight Common Tactics). Here we look at some of the most common lines these people are using to fool their victims.

Social Networking Scams

"I'm traveling in London and I've lost my wallet. Can you wire some money?"
Social networking sites have opened a whole new door for social engineering scams, according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with U.K.-based security firm Sophos. One of the latest involves the criminal posing as a Facebook "friend." They send a message or IM on Facebook claiming to be stuck in a foreign city and they say they need money.

"The claim is often that they were robbed while traveling and the person asks the Facebook friend to wire money so everything can be fixed," said Cluley.

One can never be certain the person they are talking to on Facebook is actually the real person, he noted. Criminals are stealing passwords, hacking accounts and posing as friends for financial gain.

"If a person has chosen a bad password, or had it stolen through malware, it is easy for a con to wear that cloak of trustability," said Cluley. "Once you have access to a person's account, you can see who their spouse is, where they went on holiday the last time. It is easy to pretend to be someone you are not."

"Someone has a secret crush on you! Download this application to find who it is!"
Facebook has thousands of applications users can download. Superpoke is one example of a popular application many users download to enhance their Facebook experience. But many are not trustworthy, according to Cluley.

"It is impossible for Facebook to vet all of the applications people write," he said.

Sophos, which tracks cybercrime trends, is seeing Facebook applications that install adware, which cause pop-up ads to appear on a user's screen. The other danger, according to Cluley, is that installing many of these applications means you give a third-party access to your personal information on your profile.

"Even if they are legitimate, can you trust them to look after your data properly?" said Cluley. "A lot of these applications are really jokey. You don't really need those. People should consider carefully which ones they choose to accept."

"Did you see this video of you? Check out this link!"
Sophos is also seeing an increase in Spam on Twitter, the popular social network where users "Tweet" quick one line messages to others in their network (Read: 3 Ways a Twitter Hack Can Hurt You).

A spam campaign on Twitter in recent weeks involved a Tweet that said "Did you see this video of you?"

"If you think the link is from a friend, you are much more likely to click on it," said Cluley.

Unfortunately, users who clicked on the link ended up at a bogus site that only looked like the Twitter web site. Once there, unsuspecting Twitterers entered passwords, which then ended up in the hands of hackers.


Office Offenses

"This is Chris from tech services. I've been notified of an infection on your computer."
Before there were computers, email, web browsers and social network sites for communication, there was the phone. And although it may seem archaic now, it is still a handy way to pull off a social engineering scam, according to Chris Nickerson, founder of Lares, a Colorado-based security consultancy.

Nickerson said scammers often take advantage of a timely event to strike. The Downaup worm that is currently infecting many PCs is a good example (Read Downadup Worm Now Infects 1 in every 16 PCs). Nickerson's firm conducts what he calls 'Red Team Testing' for clients using techniques that involve social engineering to see where a company is vulnerable.

"I will call someone and say "I've been informed that you've been infected with this worm.' And then I walk them through a bunch of screens. They will see things like registry lines and start to get nervous with the technicality of it. Eventually, I say 'Look, why don't I fix this for you? Give me your password and I will deal with it and call you back when I am done.'"

The strategy plays on a person's fear and lack of comfort with tech, said Nickerson.

"If you can put someone in a position where they think they are in trouble, and then be the one to fix it, you automatically gain their trust."

"Hi, I'm from the rep from Cisco and I'm here to see Nancy."
Nickerson recently pulled off a successful social engineering exercise for a client by wearing a $4 Cisco shirt that he got at a thrift store (Read: Anatomy of a Hack).

Criminals will often take weeks and months getting to know a place before even coming in the door. Posing as a client or service technician is one of many possibilities. Knowing the right thing to say, who to ask for, and having confidence are often all it takes for an unauthorized person to gain access to a facility, according to Nickerson.

Well, cookies can't hurt either. Nickerson said he always brings cookies when he is trying to gain the trust of an office staff. In fact, a 2007 diamond heist at the ABN Amro Bank in Antwerp, Belgium involved an elderly man who offered the female staff chocolates and eventually gained their trust with regular visits while he pretended to be a successful businessman.

"It was just plain old chocolate," said Nickerson. "Sweets loosen everybody up."

Ultimately the bank lost 120,000 carats of diamonds because the man was able to gain enough trust to be given off-hours access to the bank's vault.

"Can you hold the door for me? I don't have my key/access card on me."
In the same exercise where Nickerson used his shirt to get into a building, he had a team member wait outside near the smoking area where employees often went for breaks. Assuming his team member was simply a fellow-office-smoking mate, employees let him in the back door with out question.

This kind of thing goes on all the time, according to Nickerson. The tactic is also known as tailgating. Many people just don't ask others to prove they have permission to be there. But even in places where badges or other proof is required to roam the halls, fakery is easy, he said.

"I usually use some high-end photography to print up badges to really look like I am supposed to be in that environment. But they often don't even get checked. I've even worn a badge that said right on it 'Kick me out' and I still was not questioned."


Phishing Lures

"You have not paid for the item you recently won on eBay. Please click here to pay."
"We see emails impersonating complaints from eBay for non-payment of winning bids," said Shira Rubinoff, founder of Green Armor Solutions, a security software firm in Hackensack, New Jersey. "Many people use eBay, and users often bid days before a purchase is complete. So, it's not unreasonable for a person to think that he or she has forgotten about a bid they made a week prior."

Rubinoff, who was once a phishing victim herself and was inspired to found Green Armor after the incident, said this kind of ploy plays to a person's concerns about negative impact on their eBay score.

"Since people spend years building eBay feedback score or "reputation," people react quickly to this type of email. But, of course, it leads to a phishing site."

Rubinoff recommends not clicking on any emails of this kind. Instead, if you are concerned about something like your eBay score, go to eBay directly by typing the url into the browser bar on your own.

"You've been let go. Click here to register for severance pay. "
With the economy in the state it is in now, people are afraid for their jobs and criminals are taking advantage of that fear, said Rubinoff. A common tactic includes sending an email to employees that looks like it is from the employer. The message appears to relay news that requires a quick response.

"It can be an email that appears to be from HR that says: 'You have been let go due to a layoff. If you wish to register for severance please register here,' and includes a malicious link."

No one wants to be the person that causes problems in this economy, so any email that appears to be from an employer will likely elicit a response, noted Rubinoff. Lares' Nickerson has also seen cons that use fake employer emails.

"It might say, 'In an effort to cut costs, we are sending W-2 forms electronically this year,'" said Nickerson.

source : PCWORLD

Hackers broke into a computer at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts last July and stole tens of thousands of customer credit card numbers, the hotel chain warns.

The break-in occurred at a property belonging to a Wyndham franchisee, but that computer was linked to other company systems. "That intrusion enabled a hacker to use the company server to search for customer information located at other franchised and managed property sites," the company said in a statement disclosing the breach.

The data was then uploaded to a Web site during July and August of 2008, Wyndham said. The company estimates that 41 Wyndham hotels and resorts were affected by the breach before it was discovered by the company's information security team in mid-September. The incident did not affect other Wyndham properties such as Days Inn, Ramada or Super 8.

Wyndham has not said how many guests were affected by the theft, but it may have affected as many as 21,000 customers in Florida according to that state's attorney general. Wyndham's representatives did not return calls seeking comment on the breach.

The criminals were able to get guest names, credit card numbers and expiration dates as well as data from the card's magnetic stripe, Wyndham said.

That magnetic stripe information, sometimes called a card verification value (CVV) code, is critical if the thieves want to make fake credit cards, according to Avivah Litan, an analyst with Gartner Research.

"That's the hot information," she said. "You can sell that information for much more on the black market." CVV codes were also taken in the high-profile Heartland Payment Systems and The TJX Companies credit card thefts.

When fraud is perpetrated using fake cards that include the CVV codes, the banks are responsible for the charges; when the fraudsters have only the card numbers and expiration dates -- the information used in online transactions for example -- then the retailer is responsible for the charges. "The banking industry is all up in arms whenever bank stripe data is stolen," Litan said.

After an eight-week investigation, Wyndham notified the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates financial crimes, as well as credit card companies. Customers were made aware of the breach in December. Last week, it posted more details on the incident to its Web site.

source : computerworld

Facebook may have done an about-face with its policies on using user data, but the social network's struggle to balance business with privacy is far from over.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company would revert to its old terms of use in a blog posting late Tuesday night. The decision followed wide-reaching outrage over the service's updated policies on user-generated content. The changes essentially gave Facebook a "perpetual" license to use any uploaded materials within advertising or any number of other venues--even if the user had long since deleted the content, or even deleted the account.

Advocates in Action

Facebook's backtracking announcement came just hours after word broke that the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., intended to file a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over the altered licenses.

"What we sensed was taking place was that Facebook was asserting a greater legal authority over the user-generated content," says EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg. "It represented a fundamental shift in terms of how the company saw its ability to exercise control over what its users were posting, and that really concerned us."

Shortly after Rotenberg shared those concerns and his complaint-filing intentions with PC World, he received a phone call.

"We got a call late last night from Facebook and they said that they were thinking of going back to their original terms of service," he says. "We said that if they would agree to do that, we wouldn't see the need to file the complaint."

The complaint--which ran 25 pages and had support from about a dozen other consumer and civil liberty groups--essentially asked the FTC to require Facebook to readopt its previous policies. The fact that Facebook ended up doing so on its own was a pleasant, though perhaps unexpected, surprise.

"We've been in this situation before with other companies that have really dug in their heels and tried to fight it out in the courts and the media. I think Facebook did the right thing," Rotenberg says.

The Power of Protest

Rotenberg gives much of the credit to Julius Harper Jr., a 25-year-old who formed the now-88,000-member-strong "People Against the New Terms of Service" Facebook group. Harper's efforts began as a simple protest, but they quickly became much more. He and other members, for example, formulated a list of "three big questions for Facebook" and submitted it to the service's legal team.

The list asked why the terms of service seemed to give Facebook the right to use user photos if the company didn't intend to exercise that option. "Will I wind up seeing pictures of my niece staring at me from a bus stop at some point and be told I shoulda read the fine print?" one user asked.

The note also raised the issue of what would happen if Facebook were to be bought out by another corporation at some point in the future, and the new owner were to hold less honorable intentions than Zuckerberg and his team may now. The updated terms of service, the document suggested, would give that owner powerful rights over user-generated content being created today.

"As we all know, corporate strategies adjust, CEOs change, boards of directors shuffle and companies get bought out. We're just looking for some legal assurances in writing that if and when that happens, we won't be left in the cold," the group stated.

Harper and his supporters received a response from a Facebook spokesperson Tuesday night. It said that executives realized "the new version of the terms might technically permit some of the hypothetical situations" the group had raised. It went on to assure that those weren't situations Facebook "had in mind" when updating its terms. Those kinds of consequences, however--even if unintended--were exactly what had troubled Harper.

"The legal language is very overarching and very scary if you really take a minute to think about what the implications are," Harper says. "[It] was basically saying, 'We own you.' And so that’s where the issue came from."

Now, Harper and his followers are claiming a victory--but the biggest work, staying involved in Facebook's efforts to reformulate its terms, is still ahead of them.

"What this issue is that I hope Facebook will stick with is that they should set a precedent by rewriting their terms of service in English," Harper says. "I'm hoping this will affect other companies in the industry as well, because Facebook is just one of many, many services that people like me use."

An Ongoing Effort

For privacy advocate group EPIC, a victory isn't yet so clear.

"It's great that Facebook has responded, and I think that’s a step in the right direction--but these issues don’t go away, and it's going to be an ongoing concern for users of new network-based services until we get comprehensive privacy laws in place," Rotenberg says.

In the immediate future, EPIC plans to keep a close eye on Facebook's progress and the rights of its users. Rotenberg promises he and his colleagues will step in if the need arises--and won't hesitate to appeal to the FTC if it becomes necessary, either.

"People shouldn’t have to run around trying to think about which stuff they're going to delete," Rotenberg says. "People shouldn’t be in that position. They should be able to sign up for a service with the confidence that their rights will be respected."

One new concern already on the horizon comes with Facebook's updated advertising models. The site is now utilizing APIs to pull user data off of status updates, Rotenberg says, then use it within ads placed on the page.

"People ... who care about privacy on Facebook typically don’t install applications, because they know that applications are pulling down a lot of their data. But if you're not installing applications and you learn that the information that you're putting in your status updates is being provided for advertising, you might be a little upset," Rotenberg says.

Luckily, organizations like EPIC are on the watch. And so, too, are thousands of regular users--people just like Julius Harper Jr.

"The fact that [the protest group] blew up so huge has to do more with how people on the service felt way more than it had to do with me," Harper says. "Had I not done it, it would have happened some other way. But I'm grateful that I got to be part of the process and make a real difference on something that affects millions of people."

source : PCWORLD

Service Plans

Does your plan have enough minutes? The basic plans of most carriers offer 300 to 450 minutes. Unless you intend to use your phone only for emergencies, you'll need at least that many.

Go national: Even if you don't travel extensively around the country, a national calling plan often provides the best mix of minutes, features, and cost.

Phones

Get at least 3 to 4 hours of talk time: Make sure a single battery charge on your phone covers at least that. This can save many headaches later.

Pick up a headset or earphones: Inexpensive hands-free earbud headsets let you safely converse while driving, working, or just walking. Some phones even allow you to set voice commands to dial frequently called numbers, so you rarely need to touch the keys.

Ask about E911: This is especially important if you are purchasing a cell phone to replace your home phone line. Ask your provider if its emergency services can track a handset to its exact location. Enhanced 911 service is critical if you intend to use the phone for emergencies.

source : PCWORLD

Shopping considerations include the cost of cartridge or toner refills. We'll also list things to watch out for when shopping for an inkjet or a laser printer.

Refilling the Tank: Ink and Toner Cartridges

Some people suggest that you can save significantly on the cost of printing each page by buying ink and toner made by a company other than your printer's manufacturer. That's fine, if you want just the cheapest possible printing for short-lived documents. If print quality is paramount, however, you're taking a risk. For example, at the temperatures applied by your printer's engine, generic toner may not fix to the paper as well as the manufacturer's compound. The result could be poorly shaped characters and gray banding across the page--and that's not a great way to impress a potential customer.

There are several ways to spend less on ink and paper for your printer. See our report "Six Savvy Ways to Get More Prints for Less Money" for sensible ideas to increase the efficiency of your printer and extend the page life of your ink cartridges.

Several laser printer manufacturers sell toner cartridges at a discount if you return empty cartridges for recycling. Lexmark, for instance, charges $115 for each 3000-page color cartridge for its C534n model if you return it, but a nonreturnable version costs $145. In part, this policy is intended to discourage customers from refilling the cartridges, but it can also help save the environment.

Other manufacturers have programs for recycling their inkjet and toner cartridges. For example, HP includes postage-paid shipping materials with most of its printers for returning used cartridges, but you can also order them from its Web site. Brother and Oki offer similar programs through their Web sites. Konica Minolta includes prepaid shipping labels with its new cartridges for returning the used part.

Your local school or charity may participate in a collection program that helps it raise funds. You can also look for an office supply store that pays you a small sum or offers a discount in exchange for refillable cartridges. Check out our report for other tips on staying green.
Inkjet Printer Considerations

Speed: Manufacturers often list faster print speed specifications on their packaging than we see in testing.

Photo printing: If you plan to print mostly photos, look for inkjets with features such as media card readers, a paper tray that fits photo paper, and an LCD panel that allows you to view and print an image without using your PC. Also look for bundled image editing software.

Overall value: Check the latest Top Inkjet Printers chart at PC World's Printer Info Center for the most recent test results. If you plan to print lots of graphics, keep an eye on our tested print speed for full-page graphics. Don't forget to research prices in PC World's Shop and Compare area before making a purchase.
Laser Printer Considerations

Text only? If you print lots of text-only documents, consider buying an inexpensive monochrome laser printer. They're very simple and affordable to operate, and these days even the least-expensive monochrome lasers consistently pass our rigorous tests for quality output and performance.

High-yield cartridges: When buying toner for laser printers, seek out high-yield cartridges. Many manufacturers produce cartridges for the same printer that come in larger capacities at a better price.

Print speed: PC World tests consistently find that color laser printers generate color graphics more slowly than the manufacturers claim they do. If print speed is a factor for you, always check the speeds on the latest Top Color Laser Printers chart listed at PC World's Printers Info Center before deciding on a model.

Recyclability: Most printer vendors accept spent toner cartridges for recycling. Make sure your vendor has a recycling program in place, or explore options through your local office store or recycling center.
Snapshot Printer Considerations

Speed: You buy these printers for fun rather than for speed. If you need faster output, buy an inkjet with a paper tray that fits photo paper. Manufacturers often list faster print speed specifications on their packaging than we see in testing.

Features: Look for a bright, well-designed LCD panel with menus that allow you to select and print your photos easily without a PC. Make sure the printer you're interested in has a slot for your specific media card.

Overall value: Look for snapshot printers that handle paper sizes up to 5 by 7 inches and have a lower cost per page; the lowest we've seen recently is about 25 cents per photo.

Attackers are already exploiting a bug in Internet Explorer 7 that Microsoft Corp. patched just last week, security researchers warned today.

Although the attacks are currently in "very, very small numbers," they may be just the forerunner of a larger campaign, said Jamz Yaneza, threat research manager at Trend Micro Inc. "I see this as a proof-of-concept," said Yaneza, who noted that the exploit's payload is extremely straightforward and explained that there has been no attempt to mask it by, say, planting a root kit on the victimized PC at the same time.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see this [exploit] show up in one of those Chinese exploit kits," he added.

The new attack code, which Trend Micro dubbed "XML_Dloadr.a," arrives in a spam message as a malicious file masquerading as a Microsoft Word document. If the fake document is opened, the exploit hijacks PCs that have not been patched with the MS09-002 security update Microsoft issued last Tuesday as part of its eight-patch February batch of fixes.

That update, which plugged two holes in IE7, was rated "critical" by Microsoft at the time.

"We first saw this over the weekend," said Paul Ferguson, an advanced threat researcher at Trend Micro. "But we're not sure if it's just a targeted attack or they're staging for something larger. It's hard to tell at the moment."

It's not unusual for hackers to swing into action with a new exploit only days after Microsoft has patched a previously-unknown vulnerability. "They know it takes users a while to patch," Ferguson added. "Even months after Microsoft patched, the Conficker worm was still able to infect millions of PCs because of lousy patching. That's not lost on the bad guys."

The "Conficker" worm, also known as "Downadup," continues to compromise millions of machines daily, even though, as Ferguson noted, Microsoft patched the vulnerability exploited by the worm nearly four months ago.

Yaneza and Ferguson speculated that the current attacks are precursors to a much larger assault that will revive a campaign that tempted users with news about Tibet. Those attacks, which Trend Micro reported in January 2008, share some characteristics with the newest exploits, including malware disguised as Word documents. Yaneza also said that it appears as though the hacker's command-and-control server is based in China, lending more credence to their theory.

"This is the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan freedom movement," said Ferguson, who said it's likely that a large-scale attack based on this exploit would use that news as bait. In 1959, when the People's Republic of China took full control of Tibet, the Dali Lama fled to India, where he is the head of a Tibetan government-in-exile.

One security expert has called on Microsoft to sever the links between IE and Windows to better protect users from attack. According to Wolfgang Kandek, the chief technology officer at Qualys Inc., people plug IE holes no faster than other critical Microsoft vulnerabilities, something that might change if Microsoft split the browser from the operating system and increased the frequency of its IE patches.

source : www.computerworld.com

Research In Motion Ltd. has patched a piece of software for Windows PCs that could leave them vulnerable to attack when loading new applications onto BlackBerry devices.

The flaw lies in an ActiveX control used to load third-party applications onto BlackBerries connected to a PC via a USB cable. An ActiveX control is a small add-on program that works in a Web browser to facilitate the downloading of programs or security updates. However, the controls have been prone to vulnerabilities.

RIM said in a security advisory that a vulnerability is introduced to a PC when someone runs the BlackBerry Application Web Loader Version 1.0 ActiveX control with any version of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser. The advisory contains a link to the patch.

The vulnerability is an exploitable buffer overflow, which is a problem in memory that could allow an unauthorized program to run on systems. RIM didn't give details on how the flaw might be exploited.

However, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) said an attacker could be able to execute arbitrary code with the system privileges of a user by getting the user to view a specially crafted HTML document. The vulnerability also could cause IE to crash, according to an advisory issued by US-CERT.

The flaw was given a score of 9.3 on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System, a tool used by vendors to evaluate the potential dangers of vulnerabilities. A CVSS score of 10 is the highest possible, and anything above a seven is considered to be highly dangerous.

RIM advised users to apply the new software patch. In Microsoft's latest security updates on Tuesday, the software vendor also released a "kill bit" for the affected ActiveX control to block it from running within IE.

source : Computerworld

License: Free

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Avast Home Edition is a complete ICSA & Checkmark certified antivirus, Checkmark certified anti-spyware & anti-rootkit package. Avast includes the following components: On demand scanner with skinnable simple interface, just select what do you want to scan in which way and press the Play button; On access scanner, special providers to protect the most of available e-mail clients; Instant messaging--ICQ, Miranda; Network traffic--intrusion detection, lightweight firewall; P2P protection for Kazaa, BitTorrent; Web shield--monitors and filters all HTTP traffic; NNTP scanner--scans all Usenet Newsgroup traffic and all operations with files on PC; Boot time scanner--scans disks in the same way and in the same time as Windows CHKDSK does.

Version 4.8.1335.90205 brings many improvements in the scanning engine as well as performance optimizations.


You'll have to register (free) on the publisher site to be able to continue using this program after 60 days.

you can download on avast

source : www.avast.com and www.download.com

Are you ready to buy a notebook? This recommendations for specifications that will fit the needs of the average user.

A 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo processor. For everyday work--word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail--you don't need the latest, greatest (read: "most expensive") processor, but thankfully, with the Core Duo, you get strong performance and great battery life.

2GB or more of memory. Anything less will slow your work. The only new machines that still carry less than 2GB of RAM are netbooks. Upgrade to a 64-bit OS if you want to carry more than 3GB on your laptop.

Supplemental battery. If you want more time away from an outlet, buy a higher-capacity supplementary battery when you purchase the laptop, or buy a notebook that has a modular bay capable of holding a supplementary power pack. Secondary batteries usually cost between $99 and $200.

A 13.3-inch wide screen. A screen larger than 12.1 inches permits higher resolutions. Unless you're pinching pennies--or you crave a tiny laptop--bigger is usually better, especially on your eyes. (Compare prices for laptops with screens that are at least 14.1 inches in size.)

A 160GB hard drive. Even some netbooks that cost under $500 are bundling a 160GB hard drive (granted, they spin slowly at 4200 rpm). So if you can get a large hard drive in your unit, do so. And as tempting as a solid-state drive may sound, it's an expensive choice for relatively little storage capacity.

A touchpad pointing device. Pointing devices are a matter of taste. Most people, however, find a touchpad easier to use than a pointing stick. For people who can't decide between a touchpad and an eraserhead pointing device, some notebooks include both. If you buy one of these, make sure that it provides two sets of mouse buttons--one for the touchpad and the other for the eraserhead--so you don't have to stretch to reach.

Multiple USB ports. Many laptops now come with two or more USB 2.0 ports, useful for connecting more of the latest peripherals.

All-in-one design. Unless you need a lightweight notebook, opt for one with an internal bay for the optical drive. This design enables you to swap in other devices, such as an extra hard drive or a second battery.

The Omnia has an elegant look, thanks to its chrome finish and black matte plastic back. The phone's crisp, 3.2-inch, 640-by-480-pixel-resolution touch screen occupies most of the space on its 4.4-by-2.2-by-0.5-inch body. (The screen is just 0.3 inch smaller than the one on the iPhone.) End and send keys surround a smallish optical mouse at the bottom of the device. A volume rocker and a dedicated camera button sit on the left spine of the phone; a proprietary headphone and charger jack, and a stylus tether sit on the right. The Omnia carries 8GB of internal flash memory and a microSD slot that can accommodate a card with up to 16GB of external memory.

The Omnia weighs 4.3 ounces--that's 0.4 ounce lighter than the iPhone--and it feels comfortable in hand and in pocket. Call quality was consistently good over Verizon's 3G network, though I did notice a faint hiss on one call. The vast majority of my calls sounded loud and clear with very little background noise or distortion. We haven't yet finished our lab testing of the Omnia's talk-time battery life. Once the PC World Test Center completes its battery life tests, we'll update this review with a final PCW rating.

The Omnia has a landscape QWERTY keyboard and uses T9 predictive text entry. The T9 function often made the wrong prediction, however, so I took advantage of the key that lets you turn it off. The keys themselves are a bit narrow, and I frequently hit the wrong ones while typing long messages. Another annoyance is that the Menu key, which launches a menu of messaging options, can be difficult to access because it's located directly below the minuscule space bar. On the plus side, haptic feedback made the Omnia's keyboard much more comfortable to type on than many other touch-screen keyboards are. Still, the Omnia would have benefited greatly from having a physical, slideout QWERTY keyboard.

Like HTC with its TouchFLO 3D, Samsung has its own proprietary overlay (called TouchWiz) that runs over Windows Mobile 6.1. Though not as visually attractive as TouchFLO 3D, TouchWiz is user-friendly and responsive. The Today screen--the Omnia's home screen--has a widget bar running along its left side. You can arrange the widgets in any order you choose and drag them into the main screen. Available widgets include a calendar, a phone book, games, and a world clock. I wish that Samsung had included a weather widget, though, as the one offered by HTC is spectacular.

In my hands-on tests, TouchWiz was sluggish in some areas. For example, dragging the widgets back to their bar sometimes took multiple finger swipes. I also noticed a lag when I scrolled through my contacts in the Phonebook app. Similarly, the accelerometer reacted slowly and sometimes got stuck when switching between portrait and landscape modes. Another issue is that not all of Samsung's applications support finger scrolling; for those that don't, you must use the optical mouse, which is small and not always responsive.

Like all Windows Mobile devices, Omnia comes preloaded with the mobile version of Microsoft's Office suite. Consequently it was easy to set up my e-mail in Outlook, and the phone's calendar widget integrates nicely with my Outlook calendar. Setting up POP and Web-based e-mail clients such as Gmail is a breeze as well. The Omnia also has an IM client, which supports AIM, Yahoo Instant Messenger, and ICQ. For Web browsing the Omnia offers Windows Mobile Internet Explorer and Opera 9.5. Pages loaded quickly over Verizon's 3G network and over the phone's built-in Wi-Fi.

The Omnia's 5-megapixel camera launches when you press the dedicated camera key on the device's spine. The camera has autofocus and a power LED flash, but it lacks optical zoom. It comes with a handful of advanced features, including white balance and shooting modes such as Sports, Sunset, Night Shots, and even one for shooting text. Image quality was very good, though I noticed some noise in several indoor, low-light shots. Video quality wasn't as good as the image quality of still shots, but adequate for sending short video messages.

The Omnia comes loaded with Windows Media Player and Samsung's own TouchPlayer, a touch-based player that supports album art and background music mode. Loading music onto the Omnia from a PC is a snap. And if you get tired of the music on your phone, you can listen to the Omnia's FM radio. Unfortunately, Samsung's failure to provide a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack undermines the device's potential as a music player--a shortcoming it shares with the T-Mobile G1 and the HTC Fuze for AT&T. If these phones' makers want to compete with Apple's iPhone, they should at least throw in a standard headphone jack.

The Omnia's other applications include a podcast organizer; VZ Navigator, a GPS app; TVOut viewer, which lets you connect the Omnia to your TV; and ShoZu, a picture-sharing service. Surprisingly, the Omnia lacks support for Verizon's multimedia V-Cast hub, which is included even on low-end Verizon phones.

Despite a few kinks relating to the interface and a few omissions in the design, the Samsung Omnia is a high-quality handset that delivers a generous array of features

source : PCWORLD

License: Free

Operating Systems: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000

Additional Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Limitations: No limitations

AVG Free Edition is the well-known antivirus protection tool. AVG Free is available free of charge to home users for the life of the product. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy to use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements. Highlights include automatic update functionality, the AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run, free Virus Database Updates for the lifetime of the product, and AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files.

Version 8.0.233 includes wide array of bug fixes and improvements, included a revamped UI that allows easier management via keyboard.

you can donwload free.avg.com

source : www.download.com/ and free.avg.com

There have been big computer worm outbreaks before, but nothing quite like Conficker.
First spotted in November, the worm had soon infected more computers than any worm in recent years. By some estimates it is now installed on more than 10 million PCs. But ever since its first appearance, it has been strangely quiet. Conficker infects PCs and spreads around networks, but it doesn't do anything else. It could be used to launch a massive cyberattack, crippling virtually any server on the Internet, or it could be leased out to spammers in order to pump out billions upon billions of spam messages. Instead, it sits there, a massive engine of destruction waiting for someone to turn the key.

Until recently, many security researchers simply didn't know what the Conficker network was waiting for. On Thursday, however, an international coalition revealed that they had taken unprecedented steps to keep the worm separate from the command-and-control servers that could control it. The group is comprised of security researchers, technology companies, domain name registrars who have joined forces with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the Internet's Domain Name System.

Researchers had taken apart Conficker's code and discovered that it uses a tricky new technique to phone home for new instructions. Each day, the worm generates a fresh list of about 250 random domain names such as aklkanpbq.info. It then checks those domains for new instructions, verifying their cryptographic signature to ensure that they were created by Conficker's author.

When Conficker's code was first cracked, security experts snatched up some of these randomly generated domains, creating what are known as sinkhole servers to receive data from hacked machines and observe how the worm worked. But as the infection became more widespread, they began registering all of the domains -- close to 2,000 per week -- taking them out of circulation before criminals had a chanc. If ever the bad guys tried to register one of these command-and-control domains, they would have found that they'd already been taken, by a fictional group calling itself the "Conficker Cabal." Its address? 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond Washington.

This is a new kind of cat-and-mouse game for researchers, but it has been tested a few times over the past few months. In November, for example, another group used the technique to take control of domains used by one of the world's largest botnet networks, known as Srizbi, cutting it off from its command-and-control servers.

With thousands of domains, however, this tactic can become time consuming and expensive. So with Conficker, the group has identified and locked up names using a new technique, called domain pre-registration and lock.

By dividing up the work of identifying and locking out Conficker's domains, the group has only kept the worm in check, not dealt it a fatal blow, said Andre DiMino, co-founder of The Shadowserver Foundation, a cybercrime watchdog group. "This is really the first key effort at this level that has the potential to make a substantial difference," he said. "We'd like to think we've had some effect in crippling it."

This is uncharted territory for ICANN, the group responsible for managing the Internet's address system. In the past, ICANN has been criticized for being slow to use its power to revoke accreditation from domain name registrars who have been widely used by criminals. But this time it's getting praise for relaxing rules that made it hard to lock down domains and for bringing together the group's participants.

"In this specific case they greased the wheels so that things would move quickly," said David Ulevitch, founder of OpenDNS. "I think they should be commended for that. ... It's one of the first times that ICANN has really done something positive."

The fact that such a diverse group of organizations are all working together is remarkable, said Rick Wesson, CEO of network security consultancy Support Intelligence. "That China and America cooperated to defeat a malicious activity on a global scale... that's serious. That's never happened," he said.

ICANN did not return calls seeking comment for this story and many of the participants in the Conficker effort, including Microsoft, Verisign and the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) declined to be interviewed for this article.

Privately, some participants say that they do not want to draw attention to their individual efforts to combat what may well be an organized cybercrime group. Other say that because the effort is so new, it is still premature to discuss tactics.

Whatever the full story, the stakes are clearly high. Conficker has already been spotted on government and military networks and has been particularly virulent within corporate networks. One slip-up, and Conficker's creators could reprogram their network, giving the computers a new algorithm that would have to be cracked and giving them an opportunity to use these computers for nefarious purposes. "We have to be 100 percent accurate," Wesson said. "And the battle is a daily battle."

source : PCWORLD

The BlackBerry Bold 9000, Research in Motion's formidable contender in the 3G market, has finally arrived. And though the Bold boasts a sleek design, a sharp display, and high-speed connectivity, it fails to impress in other areas--particularly, its call quality and its camera's image quality.

The most stylish BlackBerry yet, the Bold comes with a removable black leatherette cover that gives the phone a classy, sophisticated look and makes the handset comfortable to hold. (You can personalize the back cover with an optional blue, brown, green, gray, or red back.) At 4.5 inches by 2.6 inches by 0.55 inch, the Bold has roughly the same dimensions as its predecessor, the BlackBerry Curve 8300; it also has curved corners and a glossy face. The phone weighs 4.8 ounces, making it heavier than the the BlackBerry Curve 8320 (which weighs about 4 ounces) but equal in weight to Apple's iPhone 3G.

The Bold lacks the iPhone's touch screen, though that feature will appear on RIM's forthcoming BlackBerry Storm. But the Bold does have a terrific keyboard and the various corporate e-mail and infrastructure-friendly characteristics that the BlackBerry platform is known for.

The Bold also has superior battery life. In our lab tests, its battery provided 7 hours, 56 minutes of talk time. That's longer than any other 3G phone we've tested; the iPhone 3G's battery only provided five hours, 38 minutes of talk time.

Unfortunately, the Bold's call quality disappointed me. For some reason, while calls to landline phones sounded clear, calls to other cell phones (on various carriers) consistently suffered from background hiss. And though voices had ample volume, they sounded somewhat tinny. Meanwhile, the people I called on the Bold reported hearing a lot of background noise, as well as some distortion in my voice; one of my contacts said that I sounded robotic.

Though it takes a lot for a handset's QWERTY keyboard to impress me, the Bold succeeded. For this model, RIM revamped its keyboard with sculpted keys designed to minimize finger slippage. Thin metal dividers akin to a guitar frets separate the keys and enhance the keyboard's usability. The result is a roomy, ergonomic typing area that makes texting and e-mailing a breeze.

The BlackBerry operating system gets a makeover as well. Now in version 4.6, the interface looks cleaner and more attractive than it did in previous iterations. The home screen features background wallpaper, and a customizable application-shortcut view, also known as the Ribbon. Pushing the dedicated menu key takes you to the main application screen, which is populated with spruced-up new app icons. Sometimes it's a bit hard to tell what a particular icon symbolizes; many of them look pretty similar. But when you roll over an icon with the Bold's handy trackball, a label appears in a text line beneath, clearly identifying the icon's function.

The phone supports 3G, tri-band HSDPA and quad-band EDGE data connectivity. Accessed over AT&T's 3G network, Web pages loaded quickly on the Bold's browser. NBC.com's home page loaded in 21 seconds, as did PCWorld.com; and Amazon.com loaded in 31 seconds. Wi-Fi performance impressed, too, with NBC.com loading in 18 seconds, PCWorld.com loading in 14 seconds, and Amazon.com loading in 21 seconds.

The phone's display wowed me: Images and video looked spectacular on the Bold's 480-by-320-pixel VGA display (with support for over 65,000 colors). That's twice the resolution of the BlackBerry Curve, and it matches the iPhone's resolution (though not its screen size). Video playback looked great, and ran smoothly with little pixelation or blurring.

Unlike the T-Mobile G1 and the iPhone 3G--which display large album art and are highly visual--the Bold incorporates a fairly plain native music app that leaves much to be desired. You can view your library by song, artist, or genre. During playback, a miniature album thumbnail appears. The app also has playlist and shuffle features and a headphone equalizer.

The Bold comes with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack (the T-Mobile G1 does not), which boosts its potential as a media player.

The 2.0-megapixel camera includes some advanced features, including a flash and 5X digital zoom. But in my hands-on tests, the flash was blindingly bright, causing indoor pictures to look grainy and overexposed. For such an expensive smart phone, the Bold seems weak on megapixels (3.0 would have been a more suitable number) and extras (such as white-balance controls and a self-timer, both absent here).

The BlackBerry comes preloaded with Mobi4Biz (a subscription-based on-demand video service), as well as a few games. RIM's BlackBerry Storefront, due to launch in March 2009, will provide a centralized online market for BlackBerry apps, to compete with Apple's iPhone 3G App Store and the T-Mobile G1's Android Market.

The BlackBerry Bold delivers high-speed browsing and powerful messaging capabilities, and it represents a major step up in form and function over existing BlackBerry models. But faults such as mediocre call quality and an unimpressive camera impede its potential to compete with the iPhone and the Android-based T-Mobile G1. In addition, its high price will make competing for consumers' attention even harder for the Bold.