The partner event registration page of the Microsoft UK events website, has been defaced by a hacker who managed to discover and exploit a web application vulnerability in one of the parameters used by the form on the website, which could previously be accessed at:

http://www.microsoft.co.uk/events/net/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=8399 [taken offline]

The hacker, known by the name "rEmOtEr", managed to deface Microsoft’s page by taking advantage of an SQL Injection vulnerability in one of the parameters used by the form that was embedded in the URL of the page. This particular parameter was not being filtered, thus it allowed the hacker to pass any type of crafted code directly to the database being used by this form.

Full Article

Enable the Display of File Extensions in Vista:

1. Open a folder or open explorer
2. Click the Layout button (to the left of the Views button) as shown in the picture below.

3. Click Folder Options
4. Click the View tab
5. Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types
6. Click OK

Ok Backup just sucks in Vista so let's get a method to get a handle on things for free.

SyncToy 1.4 for Windows Vista is available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.

There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Files are created by our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to primary location; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping track of whether the locations are synchronized in their heads. Other users may use two or more applications to provide this functionality.

Now there is an easier way. SyncToy, a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows Vista, is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without additional complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another case. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.

Get it Here:

US federal agents are reaching out to computer hackers for help fighting crime and terrorism as a tug-of-war between privacy and public safety continues on the Web.

The National Security Agency (NSA), the department of defence and the FBI were among the spy, military and police agencies represented at DefCon, an international gathering of hackers in Las Vegas.

Lawyers from the foundation are spearheading litigation accusing the NSA of illegally snooping on e-mail and telephone communications. NSA vulnerability analysis chief Tony Sager gave a talk at DefCon, saying the agency was increasingly sharing information with the public in the hope computer wizards wherever they may be become allies in cyber security.

Hacker Roger Dingledine is working on an "anonymity network" called Tor that bounces Internet traffic off "about a thousand" computer servers to thwart tracking who is doing what online.

"The NSA spent decades trying to do things themselves and that didn't work. I'm happy they realise other people can help," he said.

Dateline NBC associate producer Michelle Madigan was heckled and derided as she ran from DefCon, the world's largest computer hackers conference, and raced away in a car.

"They sent a moderately attractive young lady with a purse cam whose mission was to first capture someone on film admitting to a felony, which is really not cool, and second to catch a fed on film," said DefCon spokesman "Priest."

"She was basically trying to do a slam piece."

Federal agents openly, and covertly, mingle with hackers at the conference, which features a panel discussion titled "Meet the Fed."

"This is the Switzerland of hacking, neutral ground on which hackers and feds meet with a common goal of making computers safer," said Priest.

Dateline did not respond to AFP requests for comment but issued a general statement saying it does not discuss reporting tactics.

Priest and DefCon founder Jeff Moss, whose hacker name is Dark Tangent, lured Madigan to a packed conference room by putting out word they were going to have hackers finger federal agents in a game called "spot the fed."

After she was in the audience, it was announced the game was actually "spot the undercover reporter."

Without naming Madigan, Moss condemned her stealth tactics from a stage. Boos and jeers erupted from hundreds of hackers, one calling for her to be tarred and feathered.

Madigan shoved aside a DefCon "goon," one of the volunteers working at the event, and dashed from the room as the mob called for her to be booted from the premises.

Apple has issued three batches of software updates and fixes for its popular iPhone, Mac OS X operating system and the Safari 3.03 browser beta.

The iPhone fixes address a pair of Safari-related vulnerabilities that came up almost immediately after the phone's release, plus three more that were not disclosed.

A security firm called Independent Security Experts (ISE) first uncovered iPhone vulnerabilities last month and informed Apple of its findings. ISE planned to demonstrate what it found at the Black Hat security conference this week in Las Vegas.

Two of the fixes address cross-site scripting problems, one by preventing JavaScript in remote Web pages from modifying pages outside of their domain, the other by fixing an HTTP injection issue in XMLHttpRequest. Apple credited Richard Moore of Westpoint Ltd. for reporting the issue.

Apple credited the ISE crew for pointing out a heap buffer overflow problem in the Perl Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE) library, while Apple thanked Tomohito Yoshino, of Business Architects, for reporting an error in the International Domain Name (IDN) that allows for fake URL addresses in fonts that contain look-alike characters.

Once again security researcher Joanna Rutkowska took the stage at Black Hat, and once again she set out to prove in glorious detail how to exploit and attack Microsoft Windows Vista.

This year she brought a new pill and a few more tricks to take Vista to task. "I'm going to talk about Vista kernel protection and why it doesn't work," Rutkowska boldly declared to the overflow crowd.

She then read a quote from Microsoft's Vista documentation that stated that even users with admin privileges cannot load unsigned kernel-mode code on the system. Then she smiled mischievously.

"There are thousands, maybe tens of thousands of third-party drivers that are poorly written and could be a problem," Rutkowska said.

She then displayed two examples, both from video drivers companies, to prove her point. In her view both the ATI Catalyst driver and the NVIDIA nTune Driver are bad in that they could be used as an attack vector to circumvent Vista kernel protection.

With the NVIDIA driver, Rutkowska alleged that the driver was able to read and write registers without any additional checks.

"The whole problem in NVIDIA is that the driver doesn't do the proper checks and can do a write for an arbitrary registry."

To add further insult to injury, the target machine doesn't even need to have the bad driver on the system in order for the attacker to use it as an attack vector.

"The attacker could just include it as part of their own rootkit and then use it to exploit Vista," Rutkowska said. "It doesn't matter whether it's a popular driver or not. We can bring it to the target system and exploit it." Full Article

Root Servers.

The root name server operators do not determine the content of the root zone file. The file is edited by the IANA according to a process described on the IANA web site. The root name server operators publish the file as received from the IANA. See: http://www.iana.org/root-management.htm

No Internet traffic passes through the root name servers at all. They have nothing to do with routing, note the difference in spelling. Name servers just answer queries from other parts of the DNS.

The root name servers do not store all the information in the DNS. Storing all the information in one place would be totally infeasible today. This is exactly why the DNS was developed as a distributed database. So if you register thatnewdomain.org the root zone file will not change and the root name servers will not give different answers. The ORG zone file will be changed.

The root name servers are not queried every time you browse the web or send mail. Information is cached in the DNS. Your computer will query a caching DNS server to resolve domain names. A well behaved DNS server needs to query the root name servers only once every 48 hours for each particular TLD.

In the meantime it can resolve names for that TLD without involvement of the root name servers. Because of this caching almost all DNS queries are answered without involvement of the root name servers.

The Public-Root Servers are strategically deployed around the globe. They support a global network of domain name servers that provide access to all known, non-colliding, and operational Top-Level Domains Some of their locations

In 2005 the current 12 organisations providing root name service at 13 unique IPv4 addresses. They were:

A - VeriSign Global Registry Services
B - University of Southern California - Information Sciences Institute
C - Cogent Communications
D - University of Maryland
E - NASA Ames Research Center
F - Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.
G - U.S. DOD Network Information Center
H - U.S. Army Research Lab
I - Autonomica/NORDUnet
J - VeriSign Global Registry Services
K - RIPE NCC
L - ICANN
M - WIDE Project

IBM Corp. will stop selling the BlackIce PC Protection security suite, a product that came under its wing after buying Internet Security Systems (ISS) a year ago for US$1.3 billion.

The company will stop selling BlackIce on Sept. 19, and end technical support for the product, which is just for PCs running Windows, on Sept. 29, 2008, according to ISS.

IBM said its ISS division would no longer offer desktop or server protection software for the consumer market, but also noted that the company still has security software suitable for small businesses.

After the ISS acquisition users expressed concern about how IBM would continue to sell the company's stand-alone products. ISS focuses on network security products and managed security services, selling intrusion prevention and detection systems and security appliances.

Last year, AOL said it was giving away its e-mail accounts, software and other features to users as it moved to an advertising-focused business model.

Overall revenue at AOL was $1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2007, which ended June 30, down 38% from the same quarter in 2006. Advertising revenue increased 16% to $522 million, up from the $449 million in the same quarter of 2006, but down from the 40% increases the company had reported in the last four quarters, according to the statement. AOL's operating income climbed 9% to $360 million. At the end of June, AOL had 10.9 million U.S. subscribers, a 59% drop from the 26.7 million subscribers it had in September 2002.

In the company's earnings call, Time Warner Chairman and CEO Richard Parsons said the parent company no longer thinks that AOL's advertising business will grow "at or above" the rate of growth of other U.S. Internet companies. AOL is in trouble," said Rob Enderle, an analyst at San Jose-based Enderle Group. "The market they exist in is fairly robust, and they shouldn't be showing the significant declines that they're showing."

However, Enderle said changing AOL's model was probably the right thing to do because if it hadn't, the company would have been out of business by now.

As reported by John Schwartz in today's New York Times (registration required), security firm Independent Security Evaluators has demonstrated an attack that lets a hostile Web page take full control of an iPhone and capture a user's personal data. Although there is no indication that the vulnerability is being exploited in the wild, computer scientist Steven M. Bellovin of Columbia University is quoted as saying "it looks like a very genuine hack." (You can watch a video demonstration of the attack here.)

Bellovin points out that this sort of attack is inevitable as operating systems on phones get more and more computer-like. The iPhone runs a version of Mac's OS X operating system, though Apple has been extremely stingy with details on just which pieces of OS X are included. It's not clear whether the iPhone attack, which exploits a vulnerability in the Safari browser, might also work against Macs.

To date, attacks against phones have been relatively rare and not very damaging. The Symbian operating system, which is little used in the U.S. but is popular on European and Asian handsets from Nokia and Sony Ericsson, has probably been hit the hardest. I have not heard of any successful attacks on Research in Motion's BlackBerrys. And hackers have only struck a couple of glancing blows on Microsoft's Windows Mobile software, though the threat is taken seriously enough that you can now get protective software for your smartphone from Symantec and others.

Apple likely will move to plug the hole with a patch that can be downloaded to iPhones. But this incident is a clear sign that the cat and mouse game between security experts and hackers that has long been a part of life in the world of personal computers is going to become commonplace in phones too.

Finjan, a developer of Web security products, has found what has to be the nastiest of malware yet because it inserts itself into a legitimate online banking transaction that's supposed to be protected by SSL encryption.

The company is calling this new form of thievery "crimeware," as if we needed another term to keep straight, but it's nasty stuff. In just the month of July, Finjan identified 58 criminals using the MPack toolkit to infect over 500,000 unique users.

MPack may be the most dangerous malware development kit seen yet. It is a PHP-based kit produced by Russian hackers for building mostly keylogging software. It's actually sold and supported by the Russians, complete with a service contract for new versions, and is upgraded every two to four weeks. It's not the first time a service contract has been offered for software that supports the spread of malware.
Full Article Here

Barcelona: The code name given to AMD's upcoming Quad-Core Opteron processors, made using a 65-nanometer (nm) process. AMD plans to ship the first Barcelona chips next month, with the first servers based on the processors appearing on the market in September.

Bobcat: Code name for a future low-power CPU architecture for mobile devices such as ultramobile PCs and consumer electronics products. Will consume from 1 watt to 10 watts of power. Due in 2009.

Bulldozer: Code name for a CPU core designed for servers and clients that consumes from 10 watts to 100 watts of power. Set for release in 2009.

Eagle: Code name for an upcoming notebook chip package based on the Falcon processor. To ship in 2009.

Falcon: Code name for the first Fusion chip that will combine a CPU and graphics processor. Designed for laptops, Falcon will offer up to four Bulldozer cores. Due to ship in 2009.

Fusion: The code name for AMD processors that combine multiple components with the aim of lowering power consumption and improving performance. The first Fusion chips, called Falcon, will ship in 2009.

Griffin: Code name for an upcoming dual-core mobile processor. To ship in 2008.

Hardcastle: The code name given to upcoming chip packages designed for business users, including Perseus and Puma.

Leo: Code name for a desktop chip package based on the 45nm Phenom processor, which will offer 6MB of cache. Set for release in 2008.

Perseus: Upcoming desktop chip package designed for business users. To ship in 2008.

Phenom: The brand name for AMD's quad-core desktop processors, which are slated to start shipping during the fourth quarter of 2007.

Puma: Chip package for laptops based on the Griffin processor. To debut in 2008.

Ridgeback: Code name for AMD's 45nm desktop processors. Will include 6MB of cache. To be released in mid-2008.

ComputerWorld's On the Mark: Shift to Web Has Just Begun:

At the bottom of the article is this sub article which seems to have been clipped on as some type of public service announcement. While the concerns about infrastructure are true the questions are more related to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Live: Dog Pile on Microsoft

While certainly I am not a Linux hater; I honestly question people who think that an operating system can or should be compared to a religon. I have seen these zeolut comments all over the web for years now and it really does little to improve either the OS or its adoption.

Honestly if you talk bad about someone you achieve nothing. If you find a weakness in the MS OS, just make something better and that is all you have to do. It has nothing to do with Catholiclism verses Protestants. If you beat them at their own game that is all that is required. Saying that we have plans for server improvements in the coming year, then going off into that old time religon does nothing.

I suggest that time is better spent finding those areas where you can beat a company at their own game, and just do it. The rest means nothing and is truly a waste of time. Why would you build server OS strickly on the hate for something else. If you have a better mouse trap just build it. Seems that focusing on making Linux drop dead simple, more secure, more rapidly updated, would be more than enough to beat the hated Microsoft and their evil empire. But really likened to the Protestant Reformation?

High-Performance, Low-Power Storage Device for Mobile PCs is Light, Rugged and Reliable
Samsung's Solid-State Drive (SSD) is an advanced NAND flash-based replacement for traditional hard disk drives, leveraging the company's longtime leadership in memory technology. This next-generation solution offers several advantages over rotating magnetic media such as significantly lower power consumption, remarkable ruggedness, high reliability, less weight and outstanding performance.

Why Samsung chose an ATA-66 interface rather than ATA-100 or ATA-133 is rather bizarre, but seeing as there is no cache implemented on the SSD and the total read speed is limited to just under ATA-66, it is likely the two have just been matched together. A SATA version at 150MBit/s probably won’t actually offer any extra performance, just a more common interface. At a current street price of 595.00 the 1 terrabyte disk looks more attractive for the desktop. Though there is something to be said for using this in a laptop.

That being said the performance is almost always better than a 7200RPM hard drive, with certain aspects like boot times significantly so. However, for a few seconds less wait would you shell out six times more money for five times less space? Only those people who desire the latest $1000 CPUs and a couple of 8800 Ultras will be seriously considering an SSD, of which a couple Raid 0 Raptors might offer a more attractive proposition, certainly so from a bragging rights perspective. Though we get closer every year it just is not ready for prime time.

Consider the following scenario. You install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (SP2). You create an ASP Web application that uses the Session_OnEnd() event. You host the ASP Web application in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0. You run an ASP Web application that uses the Session_OnEnd() event. In this scenario, the Session_OnEnd() event is not raised in ASP Web applications as expected. Therefore, you may experience slow computer performance or memory leaks.

HotFix Here

Think you're smart at recognizing online scams? Take a quiz to find out. Visit http://tinyurl.com/ytec4u

McAfee Inc.'s SiteAdvisor service has created a 10-question test to see whether you can spot "phishing" attempts to steal passwords and other personal information by mimicking popular Web sites such as eBay Inc.'s PayPal and News Corp.'s MySpace.

If you forward your mail and click the Report as Spam button you are blocking your own mail server.

Instead of blaming your provider for the problem perhaps just do a search. You will find out that now Comcast has gone right to the top with lame email servers they are only matched by AOL.

Due to strict spam policies with Comcast and AOL and blacklisting our mail servers as a result of clients forwarding their email, we have been forced to change our policy with regard to email.

We have been left with no other course of action than to block forwarding to these domains server wide. Mail will no longer be allowed to be forwarded to any ISP that will easily blacklist a server with no way for the end user to whitelist an email address or domain name. This is to prevent issues with companies like AOL or ComCast blacklisting our servers without cause.

Now that Intel has lowered the price of its slowest quad-core processor to around £160 (inc. VAT), AMD has already got a price war on its hands even before its quad-core processors have launched and the chips apparently won’t ship for at least a month after launch. We’re hoping that Phenom’s performance will blow us away and make it worth the wait, but the problem at the moment is that Phenom is essentially an unknown quantity until it’s actually been tested. The question here is whether enthusiasts will be able to resist the lure of Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q6600 until Phenom arrives.

If you are dead set on an Intel CPU, obviously the question that I’m sure is on those people’s minds at the moment is whether you should opt for the Q6600 or the E6850, which are both at similar price points. Personally, I would opt for the quad-core processor every time, but that’s because I’m quite a heavy multi-tasker and I often find myself short of processing time on a dual-core processor. I like to be able to continue what I’m doing when I’m running a processor intensive task and since most applications that you’re likely to use benefit from no more than two cores.

Add this to the fact that there are a slew of games coming out in the future that will benefit from quad-cores – Crysis is the first, and from what we’ve heard there are plenty more too. In recent times, games haven’t really benefited from high processor clock speeds because they’re graphics limited rather than CPU limited. This trend is going to continue, but as games engines get more complex, more will need to be done at any given point in time – that’s where quad-core processors will really come into their own.

Full Article:

The acquisition of the security software outfit bolsters a product suite designed to loosen Microsoft's hold on business customers.

Google has long coveted the pot of gold represented by Microsoft's business customers, those lucrative users of such applications as Outlook e-mail, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint slide presentations.

In recent years, Google has been snapping up companies in hopes of replicating that suite of services, and it finally may be nearing a full quiver.

On July 9, Google said it is paying $625 million for security company Postini, which helps corporations and smaller businesses monitor e-mails and instant messages, encrypt information, and enforce company policies in such areas as the dissemination of confidential information. Google's third-largest purchase after YouTube and DoubleClick, Postini is the market leader in its field, with more than 36,000 companies using its products.

"With this transaction, we're reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes. With the addition of Postini, our apps are not just simple and appealing to users -- they can also streamline the complex information security mandates within these organizations," said Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Google.

Hosted services, like Google Apps and Postini solutions, provide organizations with high quality communications tools without the expense and hassle of traditional on-premise solutions. Google Apps, which includes Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs & Spreadsheets, and Personal Start Page, has been adopted by more than 100,000 businesses already. Postini solutions include Email Security, IM Security, Web Security, Message Archiving, Message Encryption, and Policy-enforced TLS.

Jobs begins his presentation by reviewing the "revolutionary" products Apple has introduced. According to Jobs, "every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything…Apple has been fortunate to introduce a few things into the world." Jobs continues by describing the 1984 launch of the Macintosh as an event that "changed the entire computer industry." The same goes for the introduction of the first iPod in 2001, a product that he says "changed the entire music industry."

After laying the groundwork, Jobs builds up to the new device by teasing the audience: "Today, we are introducing three revolutionary products. The first is a wide-screen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary new mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device." Jobs continues to build tension. He repeats the three devices several times then says, "Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device…today Apple is going to reinvent the phone!"

If the Iphone is really revolutionary! I have to ask what about that battery? No replaceable battery?

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 (formerly known as, Microsoft® Visual Studio® code name “Orcas”) delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences. With Visual Studio 2008, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions. Visual Studio 2008 enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable & reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system.

"It is Microsoft's desire to ship Visual Studio 2008 by the end of this calendar year (although, as always, customer feedback ultimately determines when a product is ready to ship)," the representative said in an e-mail. "The February launch event is more of an opportunity to show customers, partners, and the community the wave of innovation Microsoft is delivering with all three products represented (i.e. Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008)." 

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