Windows XP allowed to live again

Microsoft has given yet another reprieve to its seasoned Windows XP operating system.
The cut off date for PC makers to obtain licenses for the software was 31 January 2009.
But now Microsoft has put in place a scheme that will allow the hardware firms to get hold of XP licences until 30 May 2009.
Previously Microsoft extended XP's life until 2010 - provided it was installed on netbooks and low-cost laptops.
Windows XP was originally due to disappear off shop shelves on 30 January 2008. It was to be removed so as to make way for Windows Vista which went on sale to consumers early in 2007.
Despite Microsoft's claims that Vista has sold well, consumers have reacted badly to its release.
Microsoft granted the reprieve largely because of customer's preference for XP.
Many PC makers also got around the restrictions by exploiting a clause in Microsoft's licensing terms that allowed them to offer a "downgrade" licence. Issued with a new PC running Vista it allowed customers to replace it with XP.
The latest reprieve affects PC makers and resellers who were working to a 31 January 2009 deadline to order licences for XP.
Many feared they would have to stockpile licences before the cut-off and hope they could sell them in the coming months.
Now, Microsoft has changed the terms allowing the resellers to order before 31 January but take delivery at any time up to 30 May.
The change in policy is another indication of the general resistance to Windows Vista.
Early versions of Windows 7, the replacement for Vista, are due to appear in late 2009.

BBC iPlayer now available on Mac

The BBC has created a version of the iPlayer that works with both Mac and Linux computers.
The two systems, which have been able to stream BBC programmes via the iPlayer for a year, will now be able to handle downloads.
The BBC, working with Adobe, has developed the new version, known as BBC iPlayer Desktop.
The Corporation also ran tests of a system to help ISPs cope with increase in traffic generated by the iPlayer.
Lab edition
The iPlayer is the BBC's online media player that lets viewers stream programmes for up to seven days after broadcast or download and watch them for up to 30 days.
When the iPlayer first launched the BBC was criticised for producing versions that only worked with Microsoft's Windows XP and which used Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) system to enforce viewing restrictions.
The BBC's head of digital media technology, Anthony Rose, who is responsible for delivering the next generation of BBC iPlayer, said the structures put in place by the BBC Trust on how the iPlayer can operate meant DRM was a necessity.
"The BBC Trust said we could make content available for seven or 30 days after broadcast," he said. "The ability to take things away after some time requires DRM."
The new version of the iPlayer has been written with Adobe's AIR technology which aims to make it possible to create applications that can be downloaded to your computer, rather than just embedded in browser web pages as is possible with the widely used Flash software.
Those who want to try the new player must first install Adobe AIR and then get the trial version by signing up to be an iPlayer Labs tester via the iPlayer site.
A beta version of the BBC iPlayer Desktop that uses the Adobe AIR technology was made available on 18 December with a finished version likely to be released in February 2009.
The cross-platform nature of Adobe AIR means the iPlayer will work with Open Source and Apple Mac computers "out of the box" on 18 December, said Mr Rose. It fulfilled the Trust's demand that the iPlayer be "platform neutral", he said.
Mr Rose said the iPlayer now supported three separate DRM technologies: Microsoft, Adobe, and the OMA standards for mobiles.
"We may embrace other DRMs as needed," said Mr Rose, adding that putting the iPlayer on phones, game consoles and many more computers was helping to drive the success of the application.
Traffic congestion
At the same time, said Mr Rose, the BBC has carried out tests to help ISPs mitigate the bandwidth demands of iPlayer users.
In early 2008 ISPs complained that the popularity of the iPlayer was putting a strain on their networks and forcing up their costs.
Net provider Plusnet published figures which suggested the cost of carrying streaming traffic increased from £17,233 to £51,700 per month largely because of the iPlayer.
The BBC has worked with British company Velocix to test a system which puts servers in ISPs that store, or cache, the most popular iPlayer programmes.
Mr Rose said smart software in the iPlayer would check these caches to see if the programme a user wants is loaded locally on a caching device near the user. Streaming from within an ISP's network cuts the cost of transporting that traffic for both the BBC and the net supplier.
It was up to ISPs now to get hold of the caching boxes and install them, said Mr Rose.
"The BBC is not building its own content delivery network," he said. "But we can help move the market in this area."
Mr Rose said it would establish commercial relationships with ISPs that use the caching technology in the same way it did with other firms that carry or broadcast BBC content.

US questions net overhaul plans

Plans to offer hundreds of new web addresses as alternatives to .com have been criticised by the US government.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees net addresses has floated plans for the radical change to the existing system.
But the US Commerce department has questioned both the benefits and the costs of such a scheme.
Officials have also raised concerns about whether the plans will destabilise the current system.
Clear rationale
The US government's response includes two letters sent separately by officials raising concerns about the plans.
In a letter sent last week, Commerce Department official Meredith Baker questioned Icann's proposed pricings for the new addresses.
The net body planned to offer between 200 and 800 new addresses for sale at $185,000 (£125,000) per domain with a yearly cost of $60,000.
But Ms Baker said Icann needed to "articulate a clear rationale for the proposed fee structure".
She also called on the net body to supply evidence that the changes would "not compromise the stability or security of DNS (Domain Name System)".
There are currently 21 so-called gTLDs (Generic Top Level Domains). They include .com, .org, .net and .gov.
In June 2008 Icann announced proposal to allow an unlimited number of new gTLDs, citing greater competition and lower costs as the benefits of a more open system.
But another Department of Commerce official, Deborah Garza, has questioned the plan.
In her own letter to Icann she wrote: "The DOC is unconvinced that new gTLDs will alter the preference for .com domains, and fears that a huge number of new gTLDs will simply force companies to register them in order to maintain and redirect appropriate traffic".
The criticisms are pertinent because the US government is still nominally in charge of Icann despite calls from the net body for administrative freedom.

Yahoo throws down data gauntlet

Search engine Yahoo is to cut the time it stores personal data from 13 months to three.
It is hoping its decision will provide a benchmark for industry. Currently Google stores data for nine months and Microsoft for six months.
International data protection officials have been urging firms to do more to protect the data of users.
Privacy advocates have welcomed the move and challenged rivals to go even further.
"I would challenge industry to move to 30 days across the board. People should demand that their information is expunged as rapidly as possible," said Simon Davies, head of Privacy International.
Business needs
A recent rash of data leaks has left users concerned and organisations embarrassed, he said.
"The less time data is online means less risk that rogue companies can establish dangerously comprehensive profiles on users," he added.
Yahoo said its decision to cut the time it stores information gathered from web surfing came about following a "review of its data practices".
"This policy represents Yahoo's assessment of the minimum amount of time we need to retain data to respond to the needs of our business while deepening our trusted relationship with users," said Anne Toth, Yahoo's head of privacy.
As well as anonymising user log data, the policy will also apply to page views, page clicks and ad views and clicks.
But the search giant has reserved the right to keep data for up to six months if fraud or system security are involved.
Privacy campaigners have argued that firms are currently keeping data unnecessarily. Mr Davies is sceptical about what he described as "mixed messages" from industry.
"Only last year, firms were saying that they couldn't go below 15 months but the logic of what Yahoo has done suggests there is no reason why they can't go even lower," he said.

Serious security flaw found in IE

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.
The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.
Microsoft urged people to be vigilant while it investigated and prepared an emergency patch to resolve it.
Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of the world's computer users.
It's a shame Microsoft have not been able to fix this more quickly
Darien Graham-SmithPC Pro magazine
Q&A: Stay safe online
"Microsoft is continuing its investigation of public reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer," said the firm in a security advisory alert about the flaw.
Microsoft says it has detected attacks against IE 7.0 but said the "underlying vulnerability" was present in all versions of the browser.
Other browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, are not vulnerable to the flaw Microsoft has identified.
Browser bait
"In this case, hackers found the hole before Microsoft did," said Rick Ferguson, senior security advisor at Trend Micro. "This is never a good thing."
As many as 10,000 websites have been compromised since the vulnerability was discovered, he said.
"What we've seen from the exploit so far is it stealing game passwords, but it's inevitable that it will be adapted by criminals," he said. "It's just a question of modifying the payload the trojan installs."
MICROSOFT SECURITY ADVICE
Change IE security settings to high (Look under Tools/Internet Options)
Switch to a Windows user account with limited rights to change a PC's settings
With IE7 or 8 on Vista turn on Protected Mode
Ensure your PC is updated
Keep anti-virus and anti-spyware software up to date
Said Mr Ferguson: "If users can find an alternative browser, then that's good mitigation against the threat."
But Microsoft counselled against taking such action.
"I cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw," said John Curran, head of Microsoft UK's Windows group.
He added: "We're trying to get this resolved as soon as possible.
"At present, this exploit only seems to affect 0.02% of internet sites," said Mr Curran. "In terms of vulnerability, it only seems to be affecting IE7 users at the moment, but could well encompass other versions in time."
Richard Cox, chief information officer of anti-spam body The Spamhaus Project and an expert on privacy and cyber security, echoed Trend Micro's warning.
"It won't be long before someone reverse engineers this exploit for more fraudulent purposes. Trend Mico's advice [of switching to an alternative web browser] is very sensible," he said.
This could be the moment when the minnows in the browser wars finally score a significant victory
Rory Cellan-JonesBBC technology editor
PC Pro magazine's security editor, Darien Graham-Smith, said that there was a virtual arms race going on, with hackers always on the look out for new vulnerabilities.
"The message needs to get out that this malicious code can be planted on any web site, so simple careful browsing isn't enough."
"It's a shame Microsoft have not been able to fix this more quickly, but letting people know about this flaw was the right thing to do. If you keep flaws like this quiet, people are put at risk without knowing it."
"Every browser is susceptible to vulnerabilities from time to time. It's fine to say 'don't use Internet Explorer' for now, but other browsers may well find themselves in a similar situation," he added.

Microsoft issues patch to fix IE

Microsoft has issued a security patch to fix a critical vulnerability in its Internet Explorer browser which it said has attacked over 2m Windows users.
The flaw is believed to have already infected as many as 10,000 websites.
The "zero day" exploit let criminals take over victims' computers by steering them to infected websites.
Microsoft's Christopher Budd said the software giant "encourages all IE customers to test and deploy this update as soon as possible".
He also said the threat led Microsoft to mobilise security engineering teams worldwide to deliver a software cure "in the unprecedented time of eight days".
MICROSOFT SECURITY ADVICE
Change IE security settings to high (Look under Tools/Internet Options)
Switch to a Windows user account with limited rights to change a PC's settings
With IE7 or 8 on Vista turn on Protected Mode
Ensure your PC is updated
Keep anti-virus and anti-spyware software up to dateThe company's security response team said the patch consists of more than 300 distinct updates for more than half-a-dozen versions of IE in around 50 languages.
"Even with that, the release Emergency Response process isn't over," said Security Response Alliance director Mike Reavey.
"There is additional support to customers and additional refinement of our product development efforts."
Microsoft stressed that the flaw was proven to exist only in IE 7 on all applicable versions of Windows, but that IE 6 and the "beta" release of IE 8 were "potentially vulnerable".
Users who have automatic updates turned on will receive the patch over the next 24 hours while others can access it via a download.
'Wildfire'
The AZN Trojan has been making the rounds since the beginning of December but became public knowledge in the last week . Unlike other exploits, users only have to visit a malicious site with Trojans or other malware in order to become contaminated.

Microsoft developed a patch for the "Zero day" flaw in record time
Once an infected web page is opened, malicious downloaders are installed on the computer designed to record keystrokes and steal passwords, credit card details and other financial information.
The sites affected are mostly Chinese and have been serving up programmes to steal passwords for computer games which can then be sold for cash on the black market.
Internet Explorer is the world's most widely used web browser with nearly three quarters of the market share.
Microsoft estimated that one in every 500 Windows users had been exposed to sites that tried to exploit the flaw and the number of victims was increasing at a rate of 50% daily.
Researchers at the software security firm Trend Micro said attacks were spreading "like wildfire".
"This vulnerability is being actively exploited by cyber-criminals and getting worse every day," said the company's advanced threat researcher Paul Ferguson.
Microsoft labelled the bug as "critical," the most serious threat ranking in its four-step scoring programme.
Firefox update
The update is something of an unusual move for Microsoft and underscores the seriousness of the zero day flaw.
The company rarely issues security fixes for its software outside of its regular monthly patch updates.

Firefox will soon end its support of earlier versions of its popular browser
Meanwhile Mozilla has released a scheduled update for its open source Firefox web browsers for at least 10 different vulnerabilities.
The bugs in the browser could have been "used to run attacker code and install software, requiring no user interaction beyond normal browsing," said Mozilla.
It is also reissuing calls for users to upgrade from Firefox 2.0 to Firefox 3.0 as soon as possible and said it is "not planning any further security and stability updates for Firefox 2".
This means Mozilla will no longer support the Firefox 2 browser against future online scams and attacks.

Is the storm over for the Storm?

A major operating system upgrade that makes badly needed improvements to the troubled BlackBerry Storm has been released, making the smartphone much smoother to operate and to use,
Research In Motion's first all-touchscreen smartphone, considered to be one of the leading iPhone competitors of the year, now behaves more responsively and quickly with an operating system upgrade from OS 4.7.0.65 to OS 4.7.0.75, made available by Verizon Wireless, the phone's exclusive carrier in the United States.

6 signs that aliens might exist

In "The Day the Earth Stood Still," a remake of the 1951 science-fiction classic, an alien named Klaatu (played by Keanu Reeves, right) visits Earth to save us humans from ourselves. The story is a work of science fiction, with the emphasis on fiction, says Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute and a technical adviser on the film. For example, to be able to detect a dangerous buildup of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and come save us from global warming, an alien that could travel at light speed would have to reside no more than about 50 light-years away. "I doubt that there are any aliens that close," Shostak says. And even if there are, "they might not care about our problems."Scientific accuracy aside, Shostak says the film could hook a new generation on space science, just as the original film helped direct his career, which is dedicated to the search for E.T. As kids stumble out of the theater, they might ask, do aliens exist?Click the "Next" arrow above to explore the evidence — from the scientifically plausible to the incredible — suggesting that we may not be alone.

Free Internet plan faces lawmaker opposition

WASHINGTON - A top Democratic lawmaker is expected to ask the Federal Communications Commission on Friday to delay voting on a controversial auction of radio spectrum, which includes a requirement for free Internet services, said a source following the issue in Washington.
The FCC is scheduled to consider the action, known as the AWS-3, at its meeting next on Thursday.
Cell phone companies, in particular Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile, oppose the proposal, saying it will create interference, among other concerns. T-Mobile paid about $4.2 billion for an adjacent piece of spectrum.

Gadgets that make you look like a jerk

Gadgets are confusing.According to a recent Pew study, almost 90 percent of American nuclear households (married with kids) have multiple cell phones. How that happened when other studies keep demonstrating cell phone use by men is associated with less "motile" sperm is anyone's guess.But again, gadgets are a conundrum. The iPhone, for instance, still has no copy-and-paste, which kind of sprains the brain doesn't it?Further enhancing gadgetry's yin and yang nature is that while sometimes tech makes you appear hip, assertive and dynamic, it can just as easily make you look like an utter pain.So, before you rush out to buy Apple's new laptop or BlackBerry's new Storm, click the arrows above for seven high-profile gadgets you might look cooler without.