Xaggeration

If it's just a USB dongle with a bunch of code and whatnot on it, couldn't you just order one, copy the code and put it on the net for others to download and place on their own usb dongles. $170 bucks seems a little expensive for code and a jumpdrive. Couldn't you just buy the game you wanted? lol

Whats the error message say?

The program your talking about gives people who buy a PC with Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate a "free" upgrade to their respectible couterparts: Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate once the new operating system ships. People who buy an "eligible" PC between June 26, 2009 and Jan. 31, 2010 qualify for the upgrade. Although almost every brand of computer makers are chargeing for the upgrade, only 10-15 bucks, but rediculous none-the-less. And more than likely, it'll be like the upgrade process between XP and Vista. A month after the release date of 7, you'll get your copy. But hey, Windows 7 looked promiseing, maybe Microsoft has actually started doing something right.

I use Slimbrowser/Firefox/and Chrome. Slimbrowser for it's ease of use. Firefox for it's add-ons and Chrome cuz I'm trying it out. And Firefox is as safe as any other browser. The reason firefox is getting more exploits and such is because it is becoming more popular. As with any program, no one is going to bother exploiting a little known program. Theres no point. If only 3 people use one program and 300 use the other, which would you exploit if you were a hacker/cracker? I don't know about you, but I'd hit the 300. Now as Firefox is gaining ground in the browser race, more people are looking for exploits in the browser. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers Looking at that chart alone, any hacker with half a brain is going to hit up ie and firefox. They hold the most to gain from if exploited. Your Opera browser is only that safe because no one is going to bother trying to hack a browser which only takes up .68% of browser usage.

Trist me, there are plently of people navigateing the net without lives....

I have Ubuntu as a partition on both my laptop, and this pc. Although I haven't used it in a long time, I still find it very fun and versitile.

Congradulations. Hope you have many many wonderful years of marriage!

Might have been a hardware compatability issue. As Linux isn't as widely used, Not every setup is supported 100%. I know mine took awile, but not 45 min. But I'll let you all know how dual booting on my laptop goes. I can't wait to load a bunch of pretty neat software on it. Beryl mainly.

I ran it off live cd. I loved it. I think I'm going to try dual booting it on my laptop tomorrow.

Thursday marks the official stable release of Ubuntu 7.10, but by Wednesday -- with the Ubuntu community Web site ticking off the time as "1 day to go" -- the Internet was awash in glowing tributes to Ubuntu's latest advancement. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for desktops, laptops and servers. In preparation for the event, developers got to work with a release candidate, ensuring one last round of testing before going live. Going 3-D and Green The highlights of the latest release include 3-D desktop visual effects that raise the appeal of using the system; a new security layer; automatic printer installations; hard-disk encryption options; tailored kernel feature optimized for virtual appliances and an idle-mode feature that results in savings on power and heat. With the latest release, tagged as "Gutsy Gibbon," the writing is on the wall, or, to be more specific, on Wall Street. Ubuntu's commercial sponsor, Canonical, is set on placing Ubuntu on a growth path on the enterprise level. Support Signs "Given that organizations are leery of trying out unknown or unsupported software, the fact that Ubuntu has gained support from major systems providers such as Dell and Sun should help," Clay Ryder, president of Sageza Group, told LinuxInsider. "Right now, it is unlikely to unseat Red Hat or Novell from the number 1 and 2 spots, but overseas Red Hat is not the leader, and both distros are controlled by North American companies," he added. Earlier this year, Canonical's reps saw encouraging signs at a virtualization show in the U.S. Those circling the Canonical wagons could no longer be typified as tech enthusiasts as much as people from traditionally "conservative" business sectors, government agencies and energy suppliers. On the eve of the official release of 7.10, that is pretty much where enterprise uptake stands, on the edge of the network, but inching closer within. People are prototyping and experimenting with new applications or virtualization, Canonical's marketing manager, Gerry Carr, told LinuxInsider. "This use of Ubuntu is extremely widespread across all industries, and we are starting to see that use move into production," he added. Energy Conscious Nonetheless, one feature being highlighted by technical types is the new "tickless kernel," tied to easing up real-life business issues of power consumption and missions toward going environmentally green. "Any business interested reducing their power costs or simply trying to save space -- the more VMs (virtual machines) the fewer actual machines and racks -- would find this advantageous," Carr said. As good as Ubuntu's technology advancements may be, Canonical's business future may largely rest in building out sales and support. "Technocrats and developers will always be defining which solution is technically 'better,' but ease of support and purchase thereof is a greater concern," Ryder said. "Applications are the ultimate driver of deployment, not the operating system itself." If Canonical is set to win over business customers, it will not follow the open source vendor herd in terms of charging business users for an "enterprise edition." Canonical's management makes no distinction. In Class by Itself Its revenues come solely from commercial support contracts and custom engineering services. Not unrelated to its popularity has been its consistent championing of the principles of open source. That is unlikely to change, according to Carr. "We won't produce an enterprise model in the sense of it being exclusive to payers," he said. "Ubuntu is developed and supported by its community and it would be wrong for us to deny that community access to what is essentially their own work. We take the view of charging people only where they truly need support and moving toward revenue that way." Source: TechNewsWorld

A Web site that leaked details of Windows XP Service Pack 3 over the weekend claimed that the update includes several new features, including some borrowed from Windows Vista. According to NeoSmart Technologies, Windows XP SP3 build 3205, which was released to beta testers on Sunday, includes four new features among the 1,000-plus individual hot fixes and patches that have been issued since XP2's debut three years ago. Features backported from Vista, said NeoSmart, include Network Access Protection (NAP), an enterprise policy enforcement technology that inspects client PCs before they access a corporate network, then updates the machines if necessary or blocks them if they don't meet specified security criteria. Other additions range from a kernel module containing several encryption algorithms that can be accessed by third-party developers, to a new Windows activation model that doesn't require users to enter a product key. Microsoft had previously announced SP3 support for NAP, which is part of Windows Vista and will be included in the not-yet-finalized Windows Server 2008. Windows XP SP3, which Microsoft has said will be released early in 2008, will be one more move by the developer to extend the lifespan of the six-year-old operating system. Last month, for example, Microsoft gave Windows XP a five-month reprieve by pushing back the end of retail sales and sales of XP-powered PCs by large resellers to June 30, 2008. And last week, Microsoft debuted a new "get-legal" program that lets companies purchase large quantities of Windows XP Professional licenses through their usual resellers. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment on the leak, or the new features touted by NeoSmart. Source: Computer World

Microsoft is extending the time it will allow original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and retail outlets to sell PCs with Windows XP as customers continue to balk on upgrading to Windows Vista. Microsoft had planned to stop selling XP through OEMs and retailers on January 31, 2008, while custom system builders have until January 31, 2009, to pre-install XP on machines. But because sales of Vista PCs have not been as strong as expected, OEMs and retailers have asked Microsoft to extend XP's availability. OEMs and retailers will now have until June 30, 2008, to sell PCs with Vista preinstalled on machines, Microsoft said. Retailers also can sell XP out of the box until that time if they choose, the company said. "While we’ve been pleased with the positive response we’ve seen and heard from customers using Windows Vista, there are some customers who need a little more time to make the switch to Windows Vista," Microsoft said in a press statement. Microsoft also is extending the life of Windows XP Starter Edition, the version of XP for emerging markets. The software will be available until June 30, 2010, so users in those markets can take advantage of low-cost, hardware-constrained PCs that Vista may not be compatible with. Vista requires hardware upgrades that most PCs running XP do not have. Per Microsoft's policy as of 2002, a new Windows OS would stay on the market about four years after its original availability date. But XP was released on Oct. 25, 2001, more than five years before Vista limped out the door to consumers January 31, 2007, after several delays and a major code overhaul. Microsoft had high expectations for customer adoption of Vista, and claimed the launch would be one of the most successful in Windows history. Unfortunately for the company, those predictions so far haven't panned out, and in July, Microsoft lowered its projections for customer adoption of Vista. The company had said the split between XP and Vista sales in its fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, would be 15 per cent to 85 percent; now the company is saying the split will be 22 per cent XP and 78 per cent Vista. Source: Pc Advisor

Mozilla Corp. updated the preview of Firefox 3.0 to alpha 8 late yesterday, unveiling for the first time to users several security features it's talked up for months. Among the security provisions debuting in the new alpha of "Gran Paradiso," the code name for Firefox 3.0, are built-in anti-malware warnings and protection against rogue extension updates, according to documentation Mozilla posted to its Web site. The malware blocker, which was first mocked up in June, will block Web sites thought to contain malicious downloads. The feature, a companion to the phishing site alert system in the current Firefox 2.0, will use information provided by Google Inc. to flag potentially-dangerous sites, warn anyone trying to reach those URLs with Firefox and automatically block access to the site. Mozilla also pointed to a URL that demonstrates the new malware blocker for alpha 8 users. Also taking a bow is a check meant to prevent plug-ins' automatic updates from sending users to malicious sites where they might be infected by attack code or drive-by downloads. Firefox relies on small plug-ins -- called "extensions" in the Mozilla vernacular -- for much of its power and flexibility. Several thousand extensions have been written, the vast bulk of them by outside developers, that do everything from boost browsing speed to block irritating Flash animations. Firefox regularly checks to see if the installed extensions are up to date, and if not, automatically pulls in the newest version and installs it. "Firefox automatically checks for updates to add-ons using a URL specified in the add-on's install manifest," Mozilla spells out in a developer's document. "Currently there are no requirements placed on these URLs. In particular, [they are not] required to be https. This allows either the update manifest or the update package to be compromised, potentially resulting in the injection of malicious updates. A demonstration of one form of compromise is already public." Most extensions are hosted on Mozilla's own servers -- at the servers feeding its Add-ons site -- but some are not; it's those off-site extensions that Mozilla wants to lock down. To stymie attacks through a compromised extension update, Mozilla will require updates -- both the actual update package and the much smaller "manifest," or notification of an update -- to be delivered over an SSL-secured connection. Or the update must be digitally signed. The change doesn't affect the initial installation of an extension, something Mozilla recognized. "[This] has no impact on the security of initial add-on installs," it told developers in the online guide. This newest preview, which can be downloaded in versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from the Mozilla site, still comes with a warning to end users. "Alpha 8 is intended for Web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox should not use Gran Paradiso Alpha 8," the browser's release notes. Mozilla has not officially committed to a release date for the final version of Firefox 3.0. Source: Computer World

Skype users are being warned about a new worm. The Skype malware spreads through the peer-to-peer internet phone-application's chat feature. The attack begins when a Skype user receives an instant message containing a link from someone in their contact list or an unknown Skype user, said Villu Arak, a Skype spokesman based in Tallinn, Estonia. There are several versions of the chat messages, which are "cleverly written" to fool users, Arak wrote on the Skype heartbeat blog. The link appears to contain a jpeg photo file, but if clicked causes the Windows run/save dialog box to appear, which asks whether the user wants to save or run a ".scr" file. The file is malicious software that can then access a user's PC via Skype's API (application programming interface). The malicious file has been named W32/Ramex.A. "Users whose computers are infected with this virus will send a chat message to other Skype users asking them to click on a web link that can infect" their computers, Arak wrote. To avoid trouble, users should not download the file. At least two security vendors, F-Secure and Kaspersky Lab, have updated their software to detect the worm, Arak wrote. Instant message programs are another way hackers can try to gain control over PCs. Access to one person's instant messenger or email account can mean contact details for many others, allowing hackers to use malicious emails or instant messages to lure victims into downloading malicious software. Source: Pc Advisor

The first version of Ubuntu scheduled for next year will be called Hardy Heron and will be the second of Canonical's Linux products to feature long-term support. Ubuntu Developer Jono Bacon posted news of the new version on a mailing list and his blog on Wednesday. He invited interested people to submit feature requests for the release at its Launchpad site. Canonical will hold an Ubuntu Developer Summit in October 2007 in Cambridge, Mass., to hash out details and implementation plans, he added. Ubuntu's next update, Gutsy Gibbon, is due in October and will sport the version number 7.10, a reference to the year and month of its release. Following the six-month release cycle, Hardy Heron, or 8.04, is scheduled for release in April 2008. Hardy Heron will be the second release to feature long-term support, in which Canonical sells support and provides bug fixes for three years for desktop versions and five years for server versions. The first release to feature long-term support was Dapper Drake, released in June 2006. Ordinary versions have support for 18 months. Numerous companies and projects have emerged in recent years to challenge leaders Red Hat and Novell's Suse, but Debian-based Ubuntu is one of the few to gain any prominence. Ubuntu founder and Canonical Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth set up the project so that freely downloadable versions of Ubuntu are identical to the supported versions. In contrast, Red Hat and Novell only support versions that people pay for through subscription plans. Source: C|net News.com

A new method of attack is baffling security software and researchers with the lengths it goes to avoid detection. The stealth attack involves websites that have been hacked to host malicious code, an increasingly common trap on the internet. If a user with an unpatched PC visits such a site, the computer can become automatically infected with code. The attack code can then record keystrokes and steal financial data typed into forms. The method uses special JavaScript coding, and ensures that malicious code is served up only once to a computer, according to security vendor Finjan. "These attacks represent a quantum leap for hackers in terms of their technological sophistication," states the report. "Equally important, this minimises the exposure of the malicious code to forensic analysis or security research, as there is just one opportunity for a visitor to actually see the code." After a user visits the malicious website, the hackers record the victim's IP (Internet protocol) address in a database. If the user goes to the site again, the malicious code will not be served, and a benign page will be served in its place, Finjan's report said. It's also possible for hackers to block exposure of malicious code for users in a particular country. And the hackers can identify IP addresses of crawlers used by search engines and reputation services, which evaluate the risk in visiting certain websites, and serve them legitimate content. These methods are used to avoid alerting security researchers. Hackers generally want their malware to be effective for as long as possible, but that window has increasingly been closed by faster reaction times from antivirus companies. For example, a huge spam run with a Trojan horse program - one that looks harmless but isn't - is usually quickly detected by antivirus companies, which issue updates for their software to detect the malware. However, the quantity of malicious code has moved security vendors to add other defenses to their software, such as the ability to detect when a new program is doing something suspicious, such as suddenly communicating with a remote server. It wasn't immediately clear how many websites may be using this style of attack. However, Finjan said it's an example of how hackers are raising the bar to mask their attacks on computers and steal data, such as bank details. "Large numbers of infected users means higher revenues for the attackers," Finjan said. ~~PC Advisor

Microsoft Corp. said that patches for a Windows Update lockup problem do fix the flaw, even though users still see their computers' CPUs maxed out at 100%. The "svchost/msi issue" issue has plagued Windows users, particularly those running Windows XP, for months. When users tried to retrieve security patches from Windows Update or Microsoft Update, manually or via Automatic Updates, their PCs' processors would hit 100% and stay there, making the machines unusable. A two-part patch available for manual download was posted earlier this month, but users who installed it said the repair was worthless: They still saw CPUs redlining. Tuesday, Microsoft began offering the first half of the update as a high-priority, non-security fix to Windows users through its various patch services. "This update is the first part of a two-part fix that is the comprehensive solution to the problem," Microsoft stated in an advisory published on its Web site. "In June, another update will involve the Windows Update client. The update for the Windows Update client will also be automatically offered through Automatic Updates." Although users will have the fix in place only after both parts are installed -- making anyone who relies on Automatic Updates vulnerable to the svchost/msi bug until sometime next month -- even users who downloaded both pieces manually were initially unconvinced that it worked. "Doesn't appear that the fixes address the issue I experience on multiple machines," said one user in a posting to the Windows Update support forum two weeks ago. This week, Microsoft said that the full fix really does work, appearances notwithstanding. "It's important to note that with the MSI fix and the new client installed, the CPU may still go near 100%, but the system should still be responsive and not lock up," said Bobbie Harder, a program manager on the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) team, on the group's blog. "If another task requires CPU cycles they will be shared, but if the system is idle, MSI will use the full cycles available. If a task is running at the same time as MSI, the system may be slightly slower, but should still be responsive during this time." The patches, Harder added, are meant to address locked up systems, not knock down CPU usage. "CPU spikes during some scans are expected, machine unresponsiveness is not," said Harder. "If your [sic] watching the process monitor, you will still see 100% CPU during some scans and this is expected behavior." That high, and expected, CPU load, was what prompted users to erroneously report the updates didn't do the job, Harder intimated in a post the next day. "After installing the new 3.0 client and the MSI fix, we tested scan times, system responsiveness and CPU utilization on a variety of systems running multiple applications simultaneously," Harder said. "There was the expected CPU usage spike in the task manager, however all the systems remained responsive. We are seeing many more posts in blogs, forums and newsgroups where users are reporting these installs alleviate these issues, while the CPU consumption does temporarily spike as expected." A Microsoft support document contains links to the appropriate downloads for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Windows Vista is not affected by the svchost/msi issue. ~~Computer World -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So in other words It's okay for it to max out my pc and make useing any other program a pain....

Seven groups of patches, called updates in Microsoft parlance, were released yesterday, fixing a total of 19 bugs. Microsoft rates all seven of these updates as critical, but security experts said that IT administrators should be particularly concerned with the MS07-026 and MS07-029 updates, which fix flaws in Exchange and the Windows DNS (Domain Name System) server. The Exchange update fixes previously undisclosed flaws in Microsoft's messaging software that could be exploited to seize control of the server, said Paul Zimski, director of product and market strategy at PatchLink. "The biggest impact to organisations is going to be the Exchange update," he said. "It really affects core business." If hackers were able to develop the right kind of Exchange exploit code, they could install unauthorised software on the server simply by sending it a maliciously crafted email message - something that would be extremely difficult to block, Zimski said. Microsoft has released its May set of security patches, fixing critical bugs in Windows, Office and Exchange. Unlike the Exchange bugs, the flaw in Windows' DNS server flaw has been known for about a month. Attackers have already developed code that exploits this flaw and security vendors have been seeing some online attacks over the past several weeks. The DNS flaw "stands as the number one issue", this month, according to Amol Sarwate, manager of Qualys's vulnerability research lab. "A lot of people were waiting very anxiously for that patch." The problem affects Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 systems, which can be tricked into running unauthorised software when an attacker sends them maliciously encoded RPC (Remote Procedure Call) packets to the DNS server. The latest versions of Windows 2000 Professional, XP and Vista are not vulnerable to this attack. There is no shortage of other worrying bugs this month, however. Microsoft also released updates that fixed vulnerabilities in Excel, Word, Internet Explorer, Office and the CAPICOM cryptography technology used by BizTalk Server. These updates fix a pair of vulnerabilities in Word and Excel that had been exploited by criminals in online attacks, said Mark Griesi, a security programme manager with Microsoft's Security Response Center. Griesi agreed that the Exchange and DNS server vulnerabilities should be given priority, though many administrators have now taken steps to mitigate the DNS attacks. "If I were an admin, the first thing I'd be doing would be getting the Exchange update deployed, assuming I had the DNS mitigations in place," he said. ~~Pc Advisor

I myself would rather have 5- 200gig drives. If ones goes, I don't lose everything. With a Terabite drive,if it goes, you lose everything. Maybe in the future when I can have several terabite drives running at the same time, I'll buy one. But for now, I'll stick with my terabite of space made up of several drives. But I'm guessing in the future that Windows and desktop applications will become worthless. I believe the internet will become your pc and that nothing will be stored locally. At least not an operating system and applications. Maybe pictures and music. That's about it.

Hitachi today announced the first 1TB (one terrabyte) capacity single internal hard drive available to all UK consumers. The Deskstar 7K1000 first shipped in March 2007, and is now available through PCWorld.co.uk and PC World stores throughout the UK for £249. There are already several '1TB hard drives' available in the UK, but they incorporate two smaller drives. Hitachi's Deskstar 7K1000 is the first single-platter 1TB hard drive on sale in the UK. The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 was announced at CES 2007. The 1TB hard drive is built on perpendicular magnetic recording technology, allowing Hitachi to extend capacity beyond that available in current products. The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 features a 3GBps (gigabytes per second) Sata (Serial-ATA) interface and a 32MB data buffer to provide the performance required for high-end PC applications. The Deskstar 7K1000 delivers high capacity and high performance and is ideally suited to meet the requirements of PC enthusiasts," said Nick Kyriacou, director of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Dell recently shipped the world's first PC systems with 1TB hard drives in the US , and Seagate has announced that it plans to launch its own 1TB hard drive in the next month. Huge 1TB hard drives such as the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 are set to become important as home users stack up hefty video, music and image files on their PCs. ~~PC Advisor

Fans of Linux hope that the move will persuade more mainstream PC users to abandon Microsoft Windows and opt for the open-source operating system. London-based firm Canonical, the lead sponsor of the Ubuntu project, will ensure the software works on Dell PCs. Ubuntu includes software like office programs, e-mail, a browser, instant messaging software and a media player. Michael Dell, the founder, chairman and chief executive of Dell, is himself an Ubuntu user. He has the operating system installed on a high-end Dell Precision M90 laptop he uses at home. 'Strong endorsement' For a long time Linux had been considered to be too difficult to use for normal computer users. However, more recent versions of Linux distributions, like Ubuntu 7.04, have become much more user-friendly. "Dell are going to work with us to make sure Ubuntu works fully on its hardware," said Chris Kenyon, Ubuntu's director of business development. "For us it is a strong endorsement of Ubuntu and the unique support model we provide," he told the BBC. Open-source software is developed by thousands of developers, and is usually free to use and download. Firms like Canonical make money by providing software support for users of the operating system. Dell has not yet confirmed which computers it will sell with Ubuntu pre-installed, only to say that it would offer Ubuntu 7.04 as an option on select consumer models in the United States in the coming weeks Reports on internet bulletin boards suggest that Dell will offer Ubuntu on an e-series Dimension desktop, a high-performance XPS desktop, and an e-series Inspiron laptop. Prices and availability in countries other than the US have not yet been released. Benefits and drawbacks Running Linux makes desktop computing cheaper, as it strips out the cost of buying a proprietary operating system from Microsoft or Apple. This has made Ubuntu - and other Linux distributions - popular not just in developing countries. In France, the National Assembly has just started using Ubuntu on more than 1,100 desktop computers. But using Linux also has drawbacks. Most makers of software and hardware focus on Microsoft's Windows operating system, as it holds about 90% of the desktop PC market. As a result Linux users often find that software - especially for computer games and accounting - does not work on their computers, and that plenty of hardware is not compatible either. However, Mr Kenyon insists that Ubuntu is "an excellent option" for most users, especially if they want web, e-mail and standard office functionality. He also points to the fact that Ubuntu is supported in more than 40 languages, with more to come. And the more popular an operating system becomes, the more companies will start developing software for it, he predicts. The man driving the Ubuntu project, Mark Shuttleworth, shot to global prominence as one of the world's first space tourists, when he flew to the International Space Station on board a Soyuz rocket. The self-made millionaire from South Africa founded Canonical in 2004 to promote and support open source software projects. ~~BBC News

Google has renamed its personalized home page and added several new "gadgets," or mini applications, to the newly minted iGoogle. The company announced yesterday that it will rename its personalized home page to iGoogle, which will now include Google Gadgets. Users with no programming experience or Web design experience can create gadgets for iGoogle and send them to their family and friends. The new gadget templates include a photo gadget, a "GoogleGram" greeting card-style gadget, a YouTube video channel gadget and a Free Form gadget that can link text and images. A "Daily Me" gadget is similar to the increasingly popular Twitter, and will allow users to include daily quotes, brief descriptions of what they are doing at a certain time and other ideas that can be made available to all friends and family, Google said. Users can choose a gadget template, enter information about themselves, add their friends' e-mail addresses and then use the gadget, said Sophia Brueckner, an iGoogle software engineer. Users can make changes to the gadgets, and some gadgets can update automatically so a user's friends can see new information daily, she added. Google also announced that it is expanding the personalized page themes that it unveiled in March for users in the U.S. Those themes will now be available for all iGoogle editions. Users can choose from six different desktop themes, including a beach, a city or winter hills. Google announced the rebranding of iGoogle and the new gadgets at the same time its executives detailed how the company plans to defend itself against Viacom Inc.'s $1 billion lawsuit against Google subsidiary YouTube Inc. Google rejected claims that it enables copyright infringement on YouTube and noted that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act will be core to its defense. ~~Computer World Yeah, asnd with this new renaming, I just lost all of my previously saved gadgets on my personalized homepage. Fun.... ...and now all my old stuff is back. lol.

Xbox 360 Elite will start shipping in the US on Sunday, bringing a slightly different look, more storage capabilities and built-in HDTV support and $479.99 (£240). Announced in March, The Xbox 360 Elite, clad in black with metallic detail, comes with a 120GB hard disk and a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). Also included are HDMI and component video cables, XBox Live headset, used to communicate with other players in multiplayer games through Microsoft's Xbox Live online gaming service, and a wireless game controller. By comparison, the Xbox 360 Premium bundle - the white Xbox 360 in its most commonly available configuration - sports a scant 20GB of storage, no built-in HDMI and component video cable only. The 120GB hard drive is also available as a $179.99 (£90) accessory for existing Xbox 360 owners who want to upgrade their console's storage capacity. ~~PC Advisor

In a move to strengthen its response to security threats, Microsoft is opening two labs to study the growing amount of malicious software circulating on the internet, security executives announced today. The Malware Protection Centers, in Dublin and Tokyo, will be staffed with analysts who will create updates - called ‘signatures’ - for its Windows security products to detect malicious software, said Roger Halbheer, chief security advisor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The formal announcement was made by Vinny Gullotto, a Microsoft general manager, at RSA Conference Japan 2007 on Wednesday morning. The labs will be similar to ones run by competitors such as Symantec and McAfee. Microsoft is doing a bit of catching up: Microsoft has run just one lab at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, which is available, if needed, on a 24-hour basis, company officials said. Microsoft will now have facilities in three times zones. Officials stressed they weren't trying to directly compete facility-for-facility with competitors, but were rather trying to meet a need from their customers. "We know we are building a capability that others already have," said Richard Saunders, a Microsoft spokesman in the UK. The labs will support Microsoft's array of consumer and enterprise security products. On Tuesday, Microsoft said that its antivirus and antispyware product for business desktops, Forefront Client Security, come out of beta and be available in the next month. ~~PC Advisor

Mozilla Corp. yesterday extended support for its 17-month-old Firefox 1.5.0.x browser until mid-May, citing the need to roll out a patch that will automatically update users to the newer Version 2.0 before it pulls the support plug. Even that date looks iffy, however, according to information posted to Mozilla development wikis. The company had earlier said that yesterday would be the termination date for Firefox 1.5.x support -- meaning it would issue no new security updates after that. But when it released Version 1.5.11 last month, Mozilla hinted that the final security fix would not make that deadline. This week, in fact, developers decided to delay that last update, Firefox 1.5.0.12, because of a higher-than-expected number of bugs awaiting attention. Only after 1.5.0.12 appears will Mozilla tackle what it's been calling Major Updates, an automated upgrade from 1.5.0.x to 2.0.0.x. Initial testing of the upgrade, which will update all Firefox 1.5.0.x users who have the browser's auto-updating tool turned on, has been completed. But Mozilla will wait until after 1.5.0.12 is out before dealing with that upgrade. "Major Updates will [not] likely be pushed out after [1.5.0.12] ships," according to notes of a Mozilla meeting held last week. "We'll gather to discuss why and how we will get there." According to the most recent schedule on its Web site, Mozilla had pegged May 15 as the release date for 1.5.0.12 (and a similar security update that brings the newest version to 2.0.0.4). With the delay announced this week, however, that deadline is at risk. A note on Mozilla's schedule stated, "Will likely be pushed out, at least by a week." Mozilla has committed to supporting older software for only six months after the release of a major update. The policy affects not only Firefox, but also the Thunderbird e-mail client, which recently shifted to Version 2.0. ~~Computer World