Itching to make Windows Vista behave the way you want it to, not the way Microsoft does? Take these fun and useful hacks for a whirl.

You've run Windows Vista, you've played around with the Aero interface, and maybe you've even mucked around a little bit in Vista's innards to see what makes it tick.  Now what?

Now is when the fun begins. There are plenty of ways you can hack Windows Vista, make it jump through hoops, bend it to your will and generally make it behave the way you want it to behave, not the way Microsoft does.  Full Article Here!

When a Windows tip becomes popular, it spreads through the community like wildfire. Unfortunately, there's usually only a random relationship between the speed of transmission, the quality of the advice, and its relevance to you.

Case in point: I've seen at least 10 sites this week echo a tip that shows how to use an obscure command-line tool to trim the amount of disk space Windows Vista sets aside for System Restore. But is this good advice? Before you start chopping, make sure you understand the facts and the alternatives.

The stated reason for making this tweak is that, by default, Windows Vista allocates 15% of your hard drive to storing System Restore points and doesn't provide an easy way to shrink that space, as Windows XP does. Lifehacker (a generally excellent site that I read regularly) put it this way:

Full Artilcle:

We have been being listed at ComCast for spamming without any method to determine why. It appears many users forward their mail to ComCast then use the ComCast interface to view their mail. This in itself seems odd but whatever. 

Then they use their ComCast Mail interface to try to report spam. Guess what you are really reporting as spam? Think about it, if you have forwarded your mail? Thats right you are reporting the server that forwarded the mail to you. Think about it the next time that you are not recieving your mail.

Since ComCast is amoung the list of providers who do not allow whitelisting per user you are blocking the your own mail server for all ComCast subscribers.

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button with the Windows flag in the lower left corner.
3. Click on the Control Panel menu option.
4. When the control panel opens you can either be in Classic View or Control Panel Home view:
   
   If you are in the Classic View do the following:
   1. Double-click on the Folder Options icon.
   2. Click on the View tab.
   3. Go to step 5.
   
   If you are in the Control Panel Home view do the following:
   1. Click on the Appearance and Personalization link .
   2. Click on Show Hidden Files or Folders.
   3. Go to step 5.
      
      
5. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders.
6. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.
7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.
8. Press the Apply button and then the OK button and shutdown My Computer.
9. Now Windows Vista is configured to show all hidden files.

Solid-state disks (SSDs) are fast becoming popular as drop-in replacements for hard-disk drives but they are not all alike, according to South Korea's Mtron Co. Ltd.

SSDs use flash memory rather than magnetic storage, which means faster reading and writing of data, lower power consumption and zero noise. They've been around for several years although it is only recently, after flash memory chip prices fell, that they have become practical for use in laptop computers.

Major PC makers are starting to offer them as options in some laptop models, but consumers looking to SSDs for a performance boost should pay close attention to the specifications, said Sean Roh, assistant manager of the marketing department at Mtron.

Mtron's 'Multi-Channel Processing on Flash Memory¡± architecture performs astonishing Read: 100MB/second and Write : 80MB/second sustained transfer rate with less than 0.1 millisecond of access time.

Mtron is targeting wide application areas with its high performance Flash SSD, ranging from portable consumer electronic market such as notebook PC, camcorder storage to enterprise / industrial high-end market. Mtron also develops DRM based MMC business with its advanced technology of flash memory control.

Microsoft fended off Google's antitrust complaints by agreeing to make it easier for computer users to choose competitors' programs, an increasingly common response from a company long accused of using its operating system's dominance to choke competition.

Microsoft's compromise with the U.S. Justice Department, detailed in a report released late Tuesday, allows Windows Vista users to set a non-Microsoft program as the default search engine on hard drives. Microsoft will also add a link to that alternate program in the Windows Start menu, but will not change the way Vista "Instant Search" technology works.

Recent concessions by Microsoft are part of a broader battle between the two companies. While Windows continues to dominate the desktop operating system market, Google's ability to make money from search advertising has left Microsoft scrambling to catch up. Google has also stepped into traditional Microsoft territory in the past year with a set of free, Web-based programs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.

"Windows Security Center (in Vista) was sort of biased toward Microsoft products," Heron said. But after talks with the security community, Heron said Microsoft opened Vista up more to competing software. Microsoft is also expected to release code that restores security programs' access to the Vista kernel.

Tuesday's regularly scheduled status report came after Google filed a 49-page document with the Justice Department in April, claiming that Vista's desktop search tool slowed competing programs, including Google's own free offering. Google also said it's too difficult for users to figure out how to turn off the Microsoft program.

Google's claims were intended to show that the world's largest software maker is not complying with a 2002 settlement in which the government concluded Microsoft used its near-ubiquitous Windows operating system to throttle competition. Microsoft is now bound by a consent decree that requires it to help rivals build software that runs smoothly on Windows.

Make sure you only mouse over your Hallmark E-Card it might not be real they would never use an IP address associated to postacard.exe

Comcast Corp. Chief Executive Brian Roberts dazzled a cable industry audience at Las Vegas, showing off for the first time in public new technology that enabled a data download speed of 150 megabits per second, or roughly 25 times faster than today's standard cable modems.

The cost of modems that would support the technology, called "channel bonding," is "not that dissimilar to modems today," he told The Associated Press after a demonstration at The Cable Show. It could be available "within less than a couple years," he said.

The new cable technology is crucial because the industry is competing with a speedy new offering called FiOS, a TV and Internet service that Verizon Communications Inc. is selling over a new fiber-optic network. The top speed currently available through FiOS is 50 megabits per second, but the network is already capable of providing 100 Mbps and the fiber lines offer nearly unlimited potential.

The technology, called DOCSIS 3.0, was developed by the cable industry's research arm, Cable Television Laboratories. Instead of using one TV channel to transmit data, it uses four.

The laboratory said last month it expected manufacturers to begin submitting modems for certification under the standard by the end of the year.

In the presentation, ARRIS Group Inc. chief executive Robert Stanzione downloaded a 30-second, 300-megabyte television commercial in a few seconds and watched it long before a standard modem worked through an estimated download time of 16 minutes.

Stanzione also downloaded the 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007 and Merriam-Webster's visual dictionary in under four minutes, when it would have taken a standard modem three hours and 12 minutes.

"If you look at what just happened, 55 million words, 100,000 articles, more than 22,000 pictures, maps and more than 400 video clips," Roberts said. "The same download on dial-up would have taken two weeks."

Other cable industry executives, including Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Richard Parsons, News Corp. President Peter Chernin and Viacom Inc. Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, cheered the demonstration during a panel afterward.

The Cable Show: http://www.thecableshow.com  Cable Television Laboratories: http://www.cablelabs.com

Is it possible to restore email deleted by a client from a backup?

Yes, you can move the grp files back into the folder, delete the mailbox.cfg file and then stop and restart the SmarterMail service. One thing that will happen is that for all the times on the emails will be lost and reset to midnight.  However, the dates of the emails will still be correct.

When making a website today, there are many of pieces that need to work together. You need to create the WebForm in HTML, the codebehind in C# or VB, the stylesheets in CSS, the scripts in Javascript and the animations in Flash / ActionScript. Just making the form look just right by switching back and forth between the code editor and browser, determining which shows up in Internet Explorer but not Firefox. Internet Explorer handles bugs in Javascript by saying "Object expected" on the wrong line in the wrong file. Even the codebehind is messy because it's very difficult to separate the view from the application logic.

Silverlight will make the web application look better, and will be easier to create. WPF applications are the next evolution in user interfaces; Expression Blend is a powerful way to create beautiful applications. You don't have to worry about time-consuming cross-browser CSS issues because the Silverlight plugin will ensure that things are consistent across browsers and operating systems. This makes it easy to separate the code affecting the view into the XAML file and the application logic on the server. Consider Silverlight's ability to stream audio and video and you can get an idea of what's possible. While it is still in beta some people are already showing us how powerful Silverlight really is.

"LearnMore" "Getting Started"

A new, stealthier version of a previously known Russian Trojan horse program called Gozi has been circulating on the Internet since April 17 and has already stolen personal data from more than 2,000 home users worldwide.

The compromised information includes bank and credit card account numbers (including card verification value codes), Social Security numbers and online payment account numbers as well as usernames and passwords. As with its predecessor, the new version of Gozi is programmed to steal information from encrypted Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) streams and send the stolen information to a server in Russia.

The variant was discovered by Don Jackson, a security researcher at Atlanta-based SecureWorks Inc. who also discovered the original Gozi Trojan horse back in January. One of improvements is its use of a new and hitherto unseen "packer" utility that encrypts, mangles, compresses and even deletes portions of the Trojan horse code to evade detection by standard, signature-based antivirus tools. The original Gozi, in contrast, used a fairly commonly known packing utility called Upack, which made it slightly easier to detect than the latest version.

This version of Gozi also has a new keystroke-logging capability for stealing data, in addition to its ability to steal data from SSL streams. According to Jackson, the keystroke logger appears to be activated when the user of an infected computer visits a banking Web site or initiates an SSL session. It is still unclear how exactly the keystroke logger knows to turn itself on and capture information.

Apart from those two differences, the variant is identical to Gozi, Jackson said. The Trojan horse takes advantage of a previously fixed vulnerability in the iFrame tags of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer to infect systems. Users typically appear to be infected when visiting certain hosted Web sites, community forums, social networking sites and those belonging to small businesses.

The original Trojan horse stole more than 10,000 records containing confidential information belonging to about 5,200 home users, companies, government agencies and law enforcement organizations before being detected. The server to which the data was being sent to had a very professional-looking front end that allowed users to log into individual accounts, view indexed data and get results from queries based on certain fields such as URL and form parameters.

Here are some great web casts for learning future development in Vista and Windows Server 2008 for the future. Learn all the things that are not there anymore. Really what is not going to be there is a bit daunting at first for many administrators and developers. If you have the will to move forward you certainly will not regret the downsides.

• Getting Started with IIS 7.0
• An Insider's Look at IIS7 Features
• Get the Facts on Windows Vista & IIS 7.0 Compatibility
• Putting the Lego Set Together:  Inside IIS 7.0's Componentization
• How "Today's" Web Applications will work with IIS 7.0
• End-to-End Overview of IIS7
• Exploring the Future of Web Development and Management with IIS7

Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line shell and scripting language helps IT professionals achieve greater control and productivity. Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation. Windows PowerShell is easy to adopt, learn, and use, because it works with your existing IT infrastructure and existing script investments, and because it runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003. Windows PowerShell is now included as part of Windows Server 2008 and can be evaluated in Windows Server 2008 Beta 3. Exchange Server 2007, System Center Operations Manager 2007, System Center Data Protection Manager V2, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager also leverage Windows PowerShell to improve administrator control, efficiency, and productivity.

Windows PowerShell included as part of Windows Server 2008
Windows PowerShell for the first time is included as part of the Windows operating system. Windows PowerShell is one of the numerous manageability enhancements of Windows Server 2008 including the new Server Manager, Server Core, new Event Viewer, new Task Scheduler and new Reliability and Performance Monitor.

Download Windows PowerShell 1.0
Windows PowerShell 1.0 is available as a download or can be evaluated as part of Windows Server 2008 evaluation versions. Download Windows PowerShell 1.0 for Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Vista via our Windows PowerShell download page.

The following partners have developed products that leverage Windows PowerShell to help with management of Windows or to improve applications running on Windows. Most of these products have a free component that can be used by all Windows administrators.

F5 Networks: Support use of Windows PowerShell to manage F5's BIG-IP network hardware.
Full Armor: Group-Policy Management via Windows PowerShell.
/n Software: Network management, messaging and ability to remotely manage Windows via Windows PowerShell.
PowerGadgets: Visualization product that allows users to run real-time Gadgets such as charts, gauges and maps. Uses Windows PowerShell to allow users or administrators to easily create Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets.
PowerGUI by Quest Software: Graphical user interface for executing Windows PowerShell commands and writing scripts.
PowerShell Analyzer by Shelltools: Graphical User Interface for developers as well as administrators.
Quest Software: Active Directory Management including new Windows Server 2008 features including read-only domain controllers and new user configuration.

• Still free of charge!
• Build complex regular expressions by selecting components from a palette
• Test expressions against real or sample input data
• Display all matches in a tree structure, showing captured groups, and all captures within a group
• Build replacement strings and test the match and replace functionality
• Highlight matched text in the input data
• Test automatically for syntax errors
• Generate Visual Basic or C# code
• Save and restore data in a project file
• Maintain and expand a library of frequently used regular expressions

Here are some of the additional features available in Expresso 2.x

• Expresso Analyzer interprets and diagrams a regular expression to aid in understanding and debugging
• Analyzer produces an English description of the expression that can be automatically incorporated into comments in the generated code
• Improvements to the user interface
• New "Partial Match" and "Exclude Match" enable testing selected portions of a regular expression to aid in debugging
• Code generation now supports Managed C++
• More extensive options for customizing the generated code
• Multithreaded operation allows interruption of time-consuming matches
• Performance tester for timing optimization
• Improvements and added features in the Expression Builder
• More extensive Help features
• Built-in regular expression tutorial
• Improvements to the Expression Library

We have had several requests for a simple contact form sample that one can place on their website. The requirment was to have different departments in a drop down. The second requirment was to use .Net 2.0 and the most important was to be able to use something simple like Expression Web to edit and deploy it. 

A text editor will work as their are only a couple of fields to edit. Add and edit the mail destinations, and department names, in the default.aspx. Name the mail server in the web.config that is all there is to it.

Smart Code is an Open Source template-driven code generator that lets software developers automatically produce programs and components that interact with database systems. Smar Code' templates are programs that access the Smar Code Object Model to produce tailored programs and components. Templates may be written in C# or VB.NET (or theoretically in any language that supports the creation of dynamic-link libraries). This is a very powerful paradigm.

Smart Code is the right tool for you if:

• You want to automatically generate n-tier .NET web applications, all the way from the user interface to the SQL Server stored procedures.
• You have designed the user interface for your (windows or web) application, automatically generate the code to access and update the database.
• You have developed the business tier for your application and want to automatically generate the data access layers based on the database schema.
• You want to automatically generate stored procedures for creating, deleting, updating, and searching for records in the database.
• You want to quickly build fully-functional prototypes of web-based applications that interact with database systems.
• You want to standardize the architecture of the applications that are developed in your organization.
• You want to learn by example how to architect enterprise-level web applications.
• You want to develop templates of the code you write so that in the future you can generate code automatically.
• You want to deliver applications with consistent quality.
• You are tired of writing the same repetitive code over and over again.
• You want an powerful and Open Source tool.

This is a great Expression web 2 part tutorial on creating an ASP.NET contact form that sends e-mail.

In the first part of this tutorial, you'll learn how to create the user-interface portion of the form and add ASP.NET validation so that the fields are required and valid.

The second part of the tutorial covers the server-side C# code that sends the e-mail. Downloadable examples in both VB and C# also area available.

See the tutorials here.

This is a very basic contact form which can be used for any kind of website. Web form contains name, email, subject and message inputs. Change only mail server and default email within the script.   Code: ASP.NET v2.0 & VB

<%@ Page Language="VB" Debug="true" %>
<% @Import Namespace="System.Web.Mail" %>
<script language="vb" runat="server">

Sub Send2Mail (sender as Object, e as EventArgs)

Dim objMail as New MailMessage()

  objMail.To = "Whoever@DomainName.com"
  objMail.From = strEmail.Text

  objMail.BodyFormat = MailFormat.Text
  objMail.Priority = MailPriority.Normal
  objMail.Subject = strSubject.Text

  objMail.Body = "Name : " + strName.Text + vbNewLine + "Email : " + strEmail.text + vbnewLine + "Message : " + strYourMsg.text
  
  SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "mail.Domainname.com"
  SmtpMail.Send(objMail)

  strMessage.Visible = true

End Sub

</script>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>How to send email</title>
</head>
<body>

  <asp:panel id="strMessage" runat="server" Visible="False">
      Thanks for your kind message ...  </asp:panel>

    <form runat="server">
      <b>First Name:</b> <br/>
      <asp:textbox id="strName" runat="server" />
      <br><br>

      <b>Email Address:</b><br/>
      <asp:textbox id="strEmail" runat="server" />
       <br><br>

      <b>Subject:</b><br/>
      <asp:textbox id="strSubject" runat="server" />
       <br><br>

       <b>Your Message</b><br/>
      <asp:textbox id="strYourMsg" runat="server" Columns="45" Rows="10" TextMode="MultiLine" />
        <br />
      <asp:button runat="server" id="func" Text="Send Message"
                  OnClick="Send2Mail" />
    </form>
</body>
</html>

This is a simple application to deter spammers. ASP.NET Version Features: Put an end to those exposed mailto links to robots. C#/Access2003 driven. Easy set-up, the database holds the true email addresses. It is next to impossible for a bot to expose these links.

Authors Website  safermail-ASPNET.zip (17.2 KB)

There are many approaches to doing this for protecting your server though personally the worse thing is to have none when you need one. We have put together a really simple down and dirty approach to backing up IIS 6.0 meta backup below. This approach first creates the backup then renames them to the current date. We run the first bat file daily to assure your system is protected.

@ C:
@cd %systemroot%\system32

@cscript iisback.vbs /backup /b backup

@cd %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\MetaBack"

ren backup.MD0 %DATE:~4,2%-%DATE:~7,2%-%DATE:~10,4%-backup.MD0
ren backup.SC0 %DATE:~4,2%-%DATE:~7,2%-%DATE:~10,4%-backup.SC0

Then to avoid the folder from filling up and retaining 7 days of backups we just run a second script we only run once a week.

echo on
rem Delete Meta Backup File
FORFILES /p C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\MetaBack /s /m *.MDO /d -7 /c "CMD /C del /Q @FILE"
FORFILES /p C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\MetaBack /s /m *.SCO /d -7 /c "CMD /C del /Q @FILE"
rem

All web applications make extensive use of the HTTP protocol (or HTTPS for secure sites). Even simple web pages require the use of multiple HTTP requests to download HTML, graphics and javascript. The ability to view the HTTP interaction between the browser and web site is crucial to these areas of web development:

• Trouble shooting
• Performance tuning
• Verifying that a site is secure and does not expose sensitive information

Seven reasons to use HttpWatch rather than other HTTP monitoring tools:

1. Easy to Use - start logging after just a couple of mouse clicks in Internet Explorer. No other proxies, debuggers or network sniffers have to be configured
2. Productive - quickly see cookies, headers, POST data and query strings without having to manually decode raw HTTP packets
3. Robust - reliably log thousands of HTTP transactions for hours or days while tracking down intermittent problems
4. Accurate - HttpWatch has minimal impact on the normal interaction of Internet Explorer with a web site. No extra network hops are added, allowing you to measure real world HTTP performance
5. Flexible - HttpWatch only requires client-side installation and will work with any server side technology that renders HTTP pages in Internet Explorer. No special server-side permissions or configurations are required - ideal for use against production servers on the Internet or Intranet
6. Comprehensive - works with HTTP compression, redirection, SSL encryption & NTLM authentication. A complete automation interface provides access to recorded data and allows HttpWatch to be controlled from most popular programming languages.
7. Professional Support -  updates and bug fixes are provided free of charge on our website and technical support is available by email, phone or fax.

Download it here

This is a very simple method to redirect a single IIS entry to multiple FQDN's. You can add as many as you wish just repeat Elseif code. Place this as the default document and you are set.

<%
Dim srvrname
srvrname= lcase(Request.servervariables("SERVER_NAME"))
if srvrname="www.domainname.com" or srvrname="domainname.com" then
 Response.Redirect "default.htm"%>
<%Elseif srvrname="www.domain2.com" or srvrname="domain2.com" then
  Response.Redirect "/domain2/default.asp"%>
<%end if%>

IIS Redirect
In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
Select the radio titled "a redirection to a URL".
Enter the redirection page
Check "The exact url entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource"
Click on 'Apply'

ColdFusion Redirect
<.cfheader statuscode="301" statustext="Moved permanently">
<.cfheader name="Location" value="http://www.new-url.com">

PHP Redirect
<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com" );
?>

ASP Redirect
<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently";
Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.new-url.com/");
%>

ASP .NET Redirect
<script runat="server">
private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.new-url.com");
}
</script>

JSP (Java) Redirect
<%
response.setStatus(301);
response.setHeader( "Location", "http://www.new-url.com/" );
response.setHeader( "Connection", "close" );
%>

CGI PERL Redirect
$q = new CGI;
print $q->redirect("http://www.new-url.com/");

Ruby on Rails Redirect
def old_action
headers["Status"] = "301 Moved Permanently"
redirect_to "http://www.new-url.com/"
end

University of Missouri officials said campus computer technicians confirmed a breach of a database last week by a user or users whose Internet accounts were traced to China and Australia.

The hacker accessed personal information of 22,396 University of Missouri-Columbia students or alumni who also worked at one of the system's four campuses in St. Louis, Kansas City, Rolla or Columbia in 2004.

The hacker obtained the information through a Web page used to make queries about the status of trouble reports to the university's computer help desk, which is based in Columbia. The information had been compiled for a report, but the data had not been removed from the computer system.

In January, a hacker obtained the Social Security numbers of 1,220 university researchers, as well as personal passwords of as many as 2,500 people who used an online grant application system.

The university is contacting people affected by the latest breach and providing instructions on how to monitor their credit reports and other financial records for suspicious activity, officials said.

Symantec Corp. researchers Friday warned of an in-the-wild Trojan horse that poses as a Windows activation program to dupe users into entering credit card information in an attempt to reanimate their machines.

Dubbed Kardphisher, the Trojan is nothing much technically, reported Takashi Katsuki, a Symantec researcher. But its author has "obviously taken great pains to make it appear legitimate."

Once the Trojan's installed, it throws up an official-looking screen that claims the user's copy of Windows was activated by someone else. "To help reduce software piracy, please re-activate your copy of Windows now," the screen reads. "We will ask you for your billing details, but your credit card will NOT be charged."

Selecting "No," said Katsuki, shuts down the PC. "Yes," meanwhile, takes the user to a second screen where he or she is asked to enter her name and credit card information, which is then transmitted to the hacker's server. "This Trojan teaches us all a good lesson," added Katsuki. "Trust no one."

Software maker Microsoft Corp. asked search engine operator Yahoo Inc. to re-enter formal negotiations for an acquisition that could be worth $50 billion, the New York Post reported on Friday.

At the time The search and advertising industry could change drastically over the next year if Microsoft has its way with Yahoo. In the last several weeks, it was well publicized that Microsoft and Google went head on in a bidding war for Internet advertising giant DoubleClick. Eventually, Google won and settled with DoubleClick for roughly $3.1 billion -- a sum that had analysts questioning Microsoft's true motives.

of the acquisition, Microsoft had roughly $25 billion of available cash in its bank; more than double that of Google's $11.9 billion. Observing these figures, it was odd to see Microsoft back out of a deal it could easily win. "The best side to be on in a bidding war is the losing side," said legendary Wall Street tycoon Warren Buffet. Buffet is implying that the loser in a bidding war has forced the winner to over-pay for something.

Today, Forbes is reporting that Microsoft is in negotiations with Yahoo for a possible acquisition that could be worth $50 billion. According to the report, Microsoft is feeling greater pressure to compete in the online advertising space. Just recently, Yahoo announced its acquisition of online advertising firm Right Media for $680 million. While this is far from Google's $3.1 billion expense on DoubleClick, it does indicate that Yahoo is already quite a force in online advertising.

Another sticking point for Microsoft is the fact that both Google and Yahoo are ahead of the game when it comes to search. Microsoft has been playing catch up to Google and Yahoo with MSN Search, but having Yahoo under its belt would surely set the company onto a different playing field altogether.

Despite an impending deal with Yahoo, Microsoft hasn’t taken its eyes completely off the Google – DoubleClick deal. Microsoft is loudly voicing its opinion against the deal and has asked regulators to carefully monitor the acquisition.

AMD prepares its Phenom FX, Phenom X4 and Phenom X2 lineups for launch

AMD is preparing the launch of its next-generation K10-derivedStars-family single, dual and quad-core processors. The next-generation Stars-family splits into three different brand names – Phenom, Athlon and Sempron. Ringing in the flagship are three Agena FX-based AMD Phenom FX processors. AMD has yet to confirm clock speeds for the three models; however, the latest roadmap reveals ballparks for the processors.

The top-end AMD Phenom FX processor clocks in the 2.4-2.6 GHz speed range. Slotting below the top-end Phenom FX is a 2.2-2.4 GHz model. These two models occupy AMD’s upcoming Socket 1207+ and current Socket 1207 Quad FX platforms. AMD also has a Phenom FX for single-processor customers as well, clocked at 2.4-2.6 GHz.

AMD further differentiates its Phenom FX processors with different Hyper Transport 3.0 clock speeds. The flagship 2.4-2.6 GHz model features a 3.6 GHz HT 3.0 clock speed while the two 2.2-2.4 GHz models have a lower 3.2 GHz HT 3.0 clock. All three models share the same 4x512KB L2 cache and 2MB L3 cache configuration. AMD has yet to determine the TDP of its Phenom FX processors.

Catering towards high-end user are two Socket AM2+ AMD Phenom X4 processors. AMD remains undecided on its model numbers; however, clock speeds on the Agena-based Phenom X4 processors are set. The two AMD Phenom X4 processors clock in at 2.4 GHz and 2.2 GHz. These models share the same 4x512KB L2 cache and 2MB L3 cache configuration as the Phenom FX processors.

HT 3.0 speeds differ on the two models, the 2.4 GHz features a 3.6 GHz HT 3.0 speed while the 2.2 GHz model features a 3.2 GHz HT 3.0 speed. AMD rates the Phenom X4 processors with 89W TDPs. AMD plans to start taking orders for its Phenom FX and Phenom X4 processors in Q3’2007. "Road Map and full article"

Cold fusion, the ability to generate nuclear power at room temperatures, has proven to be a highly elusive feat. In fact, it is considered by many experts to be a mere pipe dream -- a potentially unlimited source of clean energy that remains tantalizing,  but so far unattainable.

However, a recently published academic paper from the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (Spawar) in San Diego throws cold water on skeptics of cold fusion. Appearing in the respected journal Naturwissenschaften, which counts Albert Einstein among its distinguished authors, the article claims that Spawar scientists Stanislaw Szpak and Pamela Mosier-Boss have achieved a low energy nuclear reaction (LERN) that can be replicated and verified by the scientific community.

Cold fusion has gotten the cold shoulder from serious nuclear physicists since 1989, when Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann were unable to substantiate their sensational claims that deuterium nuclei could be forced to fuse and release excess energy at room temperature. Spawar researchers apparently kept the faith, however, and continued to refine the procedure by experimenting with new fusionable materials.

Szpak and Boss now claim to have succeeded at last by coating a thin wire with palladium and deuterium, then subjected it to magnetic and electric fields. The researchers have offered plastic films called CR-39 detectors as evidence that charged particles have emerging from their reaction experiments.

The Spawar method shows promise, particularly in terms of being easily reproduced and verified by other institutions. Such verification is essential to widespread acceptance of the apparent breakthrough, an important precursor to scientists receiving the necessary funding to fuel additional research in the field.

An external computer hard drive containing the personal, bank and payroll information of up to 100,000 former and current Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees was reportedly stolen from a human resources office in Crystal City, VA.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Secret Service are now helping the TSA investigate the theft -- FBI is conducting the investigation, with the Secret Service conducting a "forensic review of equipment and facilities."

The TSA learned about the missing hard drive sometime Thursday, but the agency informed possibly affected employees Friday evening -- a delay which has upset some employees.  TSA spokesperson Ellen Howe reassured agency employees by stating the TSA was "not trying to stall."

"TSA has no evidence that an unauthorized individual is using your personal information, but we bring this incident to your attention so that you can be alert to signs of any possible misuse of your identity," said Kip Hawley, TSA Administrator.

The TSA is unaware if the hard drive has left its premises.  The hard drive contained sensitive information on employees who worked for the TSA from January 2002 until August 2005.  The agency employs almost 50,000 people and is the agency responsible for securing transportation systems in the country, including airports and railroads.

Letters were sent out to all affected employees promising one year of credit monitoring services.