Skype For iPhone Now Available, Has VoIP over 3G With 3.0 Firmware

Apple's just about finished rolling out Skype for iPhone, and now you can go download the VoIP app for themselves.

Our quick test showed that voice quality is quite good—definitely on par or better than actual 3G calling over AT&T's network—and connects rather quickly. It's unfortunate that 2.2.1 doesn't have background notifications, so there's no way somebody could Skype you unless you had the app open all the time.
What's also interesting is that voice calling only works when you're on Wi-Fi in the 2.2.1 firmware, popping up a restriction message if you're on 3G, but 9to5Mac says it works just fine in the 3.0 firmware. Not sure whether that's because the 3.0 developer's beta is less locked down, but it's one pretty good reason to risk the upgrade.

Honda Asimo Creators Turning Your Brain into the Ultimate Robot Controller

You know what I think the worst thing about having a robot army is? You have to press buttons. It's much more satisfying to get every automaton to do your bidding by just thinking it.


Apparently, the people at Japan's Honda Research Institute had the same idea, because they've now partnered with ATR and Shimadzu Corp. to come up with a way to use your brain as a robot remote control.
Called BMI (Brain Machine Interface - not the acronym that tells you you're fat), the tech uses electroencephalography, which measures slight electrical currents, and near-infrared spectroscopy, which looks at brain blood flow. Putting the two together gives you up to 90% accurate robot control without the use of physical implants.
Unfortunately, you still have to strap yourself to this giant chair and ridiculous-looking cap that kind of makes you resemble Dark Helmet from Spaceballs. But one day, when your mobile minions appear suddenly in the horizon, wordlessly laying waste to your enemies with nary a peep from you... oh, how glorious a time it shall be.

xtensor gamer hand exerciser gets your button-mashing, joystick wiggling fingers in fighting shape

Do you play lots of video games? Here’s a great way to limber up your trigger fingers to get ready for some serious gaming action. Especially good for warming up for quick fret presses in music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, the Xtensor hand exerciser is perfect for getting your hands in shape for the big game.

Just strap the open-fingered glove around your wrist, put your digits through the fingerholes, and get to stretching the tiny elastic exercise bands. By stimulating hard to isolate finger extensor muscles and tendons in your hands, wrists and elbows, you’ll build up hand strength you never knew you had. All the better to kick your ass in Tekken 6 when it comes out this fall.

And even if you’re not constantly glued to your game console, the Xtensor can help you keep your hands, arms and wrists in shape whether you’re an avid golfer, tennis player, spend your days in front of the computer keyboard, or frequently use your hands for (um) something else (nudge, nudge).
So give your fingers a hand and grab an Xtensor hand exerciser over at ThinkGeek for $39.99 (USD).

swiss army usb hub: brando’s rota-rota combo hub

Brando, sellers of some of the weirdest stuff I have ever seen in my life, are cutting back on absurdity with their latest gadgets. For example, their USB hub is functional and versatile. But still a bit weird.

Brando calls it the “USB 3-in-1 Rota-Rota Combo Hub”. I think its named like that because each of the 3 USB ports can be turned up to 90°, but you never know with Brando. Also, I don’t see how having rotating USB ports is useful. Does it make it easier to remove a device that’s plugged into a port?

Aside from the rota-rota ports, the Rota-Rota is also a multi-card reader and can read SD, SDHC, Memory Stick Duo, MicroSD and M2 cards.

The miracle of modern China: fantastic fake eggs!

The production in China of fake phones, cars, designer accessories, sneakers and more is well known. But did you know they make fake eggs? The eggs have convincing shells, yolks and whites, and even hard-boil more or less like the real thing (or maybe they come that way). Of course, fake Chinese eggs are often toxic and can turn you into an "idiot," according to the post on the other side of this link. But, still, you've got to marvel at both the manufacturing prowess and sheer audacity of the counterfeiters. It's also amazing to me that a human being can make an egg cheaper than a chicken can. Check out this first-hand experience with fake Chinese eggs, along with video evidence.

Tactical assault throat mic now available for phones

Sanwa plans to ship a cell phone throat microphone based on the ones used by SWAT teams and military commandos. The mic design should improve calls in noisy environments.

iPhone 3.0 OS Guide: Everything You Need to Know

NEW IPHONE OS 3.0 FEATURES
The new iPhone OS 3.0 adds over 100 new features including—at friggin' last—cut and paste.
• Copy & Paste text.
When you double-tap over text, you will get a "cut, copy, and paste" bubble dialog. Double-tap again and a "paste" bubble will appear if there's anything stored in your clipboard.
galleryPost('iphone3cutpaste', 10, '');
This works across applications. You can expand your selection points using your thumbs and, if you accidentally paste something you didn't want to paste, just shake your iPhone to undo it.
• Copy & Paste photos.
You can also copy and paste photos. Now you will be able to select multiple photos by tapping the action button, copy some of them, and paste them in an email, ready to send.
• New Spotlight.
iPhone OS 3.0 will allow you to search across the entire information contained in your device, no matter where, as soon as the information is supported it. If an application is written to support the new Spotlight, its data will also be available in the search.
In this screenshot you can see Spotlight bringing results from your address book, maps, your iPod, and apps in your springboard.
• Search in Mail, Calendar, and iPod.
These Apple applications have specific search interfaces. The search in Mail doesn't support the message content yet, but it supports searching in IMAP servers—that will save a lot of time logging into Gmail.
• 3G Tethering.
This feature will allow you to connect your iPhone 3G to a laptop, to use it as a modem to access the internet. Carriers still have to sign-off on it, and probably charge more for it. None have announced it yet.
• Landscape keyboard.
Apple has added the landscape keyboard mode to other applications, like Mail, SMS, and Notes.
Multimedia messaging. A big one to send rich content to people without mail-enabled telephones: The new MMS function will allow you to include everything, from images to sound to vcards (no word on video, however.) Personally, I find these useless having email, but some people seem to want it.
• Support for new calendar types.
In iPhone OS 3.0 you will be able to subscribe to calendars on the web using two protocols: CalDAV—supported by Google and Yahoo—and subscriptions via the .ics format—which is what Apple uses in iCal.
Improved stocks application. The stocks application now allows you to read related news, so you can enjoy yourself learning about the latest market scandals, stock crashes, and executives getting bonus packages from government aid while their companies sink into hell. Thank you, Apple.
• Stereo Bluetooth A2DP audio.
You will be able to pair your iPhone 3.0 with a stereo Bluetooth A2DP device, like headphones or speakers.
• Note synching with iTunes.
• Automatic login in Safari.
The new version of Safari will remember login credentials, so you won't need to introduce your username and password again while accessing Scoreland your work intranet.
• Shake to shuffle music.
If you are in your iPod application, you just need to shake it to start the shuffling mode. Hopefully this will be optional for sports people out there.
• Wi-Fi auto-login.
In case you have a subscription to a paid hotspot, your iPhone or iPod touch will autolog into it.
• Anti-phising.
Mobile Safari now can warn you against malicious sites trying to scam you.
• Extended parental controls.
Adult content filters can now be applied to movies, TV shows, and applications, in addition to web sites and music (porn apps, here we come).


NEW THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS FEATURES IN IPHONE OS 3.0
The new iPhone OS 3.0 adds 1,000 new APIs to extend the capabilities of new applications.

• Peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connectivity.
A new API will allow for two iPhones to connect directly—peer-to-peer—via Wi-Fi, without needing any Wi-Fi network.
They will be able to discover each other using Bluetooth, and then start a Wi-Fi connection transparently (we saw this technology at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, so you can check the video about how it works here.)
This opens a lot of possibilities. I doubt they will allow you to pass music, but you would probably be able to pass any other information, as well as directly communicating between applications in the two devices. One example: A pets game that allows two dogs to play with each other.
This feature could be combined with push notification, so your iPhone may receive a note from another iPhone, inviting you to play a game one-on-one.
Browse remote content. While the built-in iPod application doesn't allow you to browse songs in other people's iPhones or iPod touch, third-party applications will allow you to do that, according to Apple's Forstall.
• Use your iPhone/touch to control peripherals.
A new API will let you use your iPhone or iPod touch as a control to your accessories. In this example, the iPhone is being used to equalize the sound in a loudspeaker.
Maps inside other applications. New applications will be able to use Maps directly, which is now an API.
• Turn-by-turn directions. Developers will also be able to create turn-by-turn applications using the GPS information from the iPhone and combining it with their own maps, without depending on 3G connectivity or Google.


PRICE
iPhone OS 3.0 will be a free upgrade to all iPhone users, including the first generation (not all features will be supported in the first generation, like Stereo Bluetooth support). iPod touch users will be able to but it for $US9.95.

Gmail adds "Undo Send" feature in Google Labs

Gmail has added an "Undo Send" feature -- you can recall messages you send if you do it within five seconds after clicking on the Send button. To enable the feature, click on the greet lab bottle in the upper right corner of the Gmail page. Find "Undo Send" and click on the "Enable" radio button. Click "Save Changes" at the top or bottom of the page. Once enabled, all e-mail sent will show an "Undo" link at the top during the five seconds before the mail is sent for good.

Areaware 2b radio

Areaware’s 2B Radio lets you enjoy the “big, warm, radiant sound” that can only be produced by vacuum tubes, along with a Braun-inspired minimalist design

Aside from an AM & FM internal antenna, the 2B Radio also has an aux input and a recording output, so you can pair it with modern audio devices.

Nice. Wish I could say the same for the price: $350 US. Still cheaper than a PS3 though. You can check out more details about the 2B Radio here (pdf), and the Areaware store’s here.

UK government track all social network traffic.

The UK government is considering the mass surveillance and retention of all user communications on social-networking sites including Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo.

Home Office security minister Vernon Coaker said on Monday that the EU Data Retention Directive, under which ISPs must store communications data for 12 months, does not go far enough. Communications such as those on social networking sites and instant messaging could also be monitored, he said.

"Social-networking sites, such as MySpace or Bebo, are not covered by the directive," said Coaker, speaking at a meeting of the House of Commons Fourth Delegated Legislation Committee. "That is one reason why the government are looking at what we should do about the Intercept Modernization Program, because there are certain aspects of communications which are not covered by the directive."

Under the EU Data Retention Directive, from the March 15, 2009, all UK internet service providers (ISPs) are required to store customer traffic data for a year. The Intercept Modernization Program (IMP) is a government proposal, introduced last year, for legislation to use mass monitoring of traffic data as an anti-terrorism tool. The IMP has two strands: that the government use deep packet inspection to monitor the web communications of all UK citizens; and that all of the traffic data relating to those communications are stored in a centralized government database.

Indian call centre credit card 'scam' exposed

Symantec renewal details end up on black market

An undercover investigation by the BBC has exposed evidence of the theft of credit card details by workers at an Indian call centre used by security giant Symantec.

A BBC reporter posing as a fraudster bought allegedly stolen but valid UK card details from a Delhi-based man, who denies any wrongdoing. Three of the victims of the scam had bought software renewals from a call centre which handles Symantec software licences.

In a statement, Symantec said it had launched an investigation into the incident, which is thought to be isolated. In the meantime it is offering credit monitoring services to the three confirmed victims.

The BBC ran a story alleging that they have purchased three credit card numbers from a call center that handles some Symantec customer transactions. Upon notification by the BBC of this situation, Symantec immediately launched an internal investigation. We are still determining the facts behind this allegation but there is no indication that Symantec's online network has been compromised.
As a precaution before we have finished our investigation, we are extending an offer for credit monitoring services to the three customers in question. As we continue our investigation, we will promptly notify any additional customers impacted by the situation and will take appropriate action to protect the interests of our customers. Any customer who believes they may have been impacted by this situation should email their contact information to: Global_Purchase_Query at symantec.com.

Microsoft Debuts IE8, Only to Have It Hacked

Microsoft introduced its new version of Internet Explorer on Thursday, touting its new security features such as the SmartScreen phishing filter. However, the new features weren't enough to keep a the browser from being hacked at the CanSecWest conference.

Microsoft's unveiling of Internet Explorer 8 on Thursday was marred by news that the browser, touted to be its most secure ever, already has been hacked.
The launch has also kicked off a new round of browser wars, with Google unveiling a new beta of its Chrome browser, and Mozilla releasing Fennec, the mobile version of its Firefox browser, in beta.
IE8 was cracked at the 10th annual CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, Canada, Wednesday by a hacker who identified himself only as "Nils." To be fair, the first browser to go down at the hacking contest at CanSecWest was Apple's Safari.

"Microsoft is investigating reports of a possible vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "While we're not aware of any actual attacks using this possible vulnerability or of any customers affected, if the vulnerability is confirmed, we'll take action to help protect our customers."

The security expert who won $5,000 hacking a MacBook Air in less than two minutes

Charlie Miller won $5,000 after demonstrating a

new Safari exploit as part of the Pwn2Own hacking contest at CanSecWest.

Google Launches Chrome Beta for Adventurous Browser Users

What's Chrome doing back in beta? Well, the version that was given full 1.0 status a few months ago is still the stable product, but Google has now opened a distribution channel for a beta version. The beta will feature more experimental tweaks -- the latest is a speed boost -- but it may also have more bugs, which Chrome developers hope users will report back on.

Google opened a new channel on Tuesday to distribute its latest beta release of the Chrome browser. The company also began on Tuesday a blog devoted exclusively to the Chrome browser.
Google launched Chrome as a beta in September of 2008; a final-release 1.0 version come out in December. By last month, it had grabbed 1.12 percent of the market behind Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, according to data from Net Applications. Since then, Google has issued 29 updates, each revision finessing Google Chrome's speed, stability and usability, according to a post in the new blog by Jason Toff of the Google Chrome team.
Speed is clearly the most noticeable improvement in the latest Chrome beta release, Toff noted. Compared to the current stable version, this new Chrome beta is some 25 percent faster on Google's V8 benchmark and 35 percent faster on the Sunspider benchmark, he said. It is nearly twice as fast as the first Chrome beta version, he added.

New DNS trojan taints entire LAN from single box

Internet security experts are warning of a new rash of malware attacks that can hijack the security settings of a wide variety of devices on a local area network, even when they are hardened or don't run on Windows operating systems.
Once activated, the trojan sets up a rogue DHCP, or dynamic host configuration protocol, server on the host machine. From there, other devices using the same LAN are tricked into using a malicious domain name system server, instead of the one set up by the network administrator. The rogue DNS server sends the devices to fraudulent websites that in many cases can be hard to identify as impostors.

A new variant of Trojan.Flush.M is making the rounds, Johannes Ullrich, CTO of the SANS Internet Storm Center warns here. It offers several improvements over its predecessor, which was discovered in early December. Among other changes, the new strain no longer specifies a DNS domain name, making the rogue DHCP server harder to detect.

"This kind of malware is definitely dangerous because it affects systems that themselves are not vulnerable" to the trojan, Ullrich told The Register. "So all you need is one system infected in the network and it will affect a lot of other nonvulnerable systems."

Of course, one way to thwart the attack is to hardwire DNS server settings into your iPhone, computer or other net-connecting device. This will direct it to bypass the rogue DNS server even if the device is unfortunate enough to get its internet connection from the impostor DHCP server.

Such countermeasures are impractical for networks with thousands of machines, so Ullrich recommends administrators monitor connections to all DNS servers other then the one that's approved for the network. A third choice is to blacklist 64.86.133.51 and 63.243.173.162, which are the DNS servers used by the most recent variant. This is the least effective measure, since future variants will surely tap new IP addresses.

iPhone OS 3.0 is knocking on the door, launch set for 17 March

A word is out that Apple is now officially inviting representatives of the press to attend their next big announcement event on 17 March. The event will be dedicated to the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0. There's no word of an upcoming mobile phone, but our hopes are high as always.
Engadget.com report to have received an invitation by Apple for an upcoming event with its main theme set on iPhone OS 3.0.

Apple will display an "advance preview of what they're building", meaning that you probably won't see any working full-fledged iPhone OS 3.0 there (or iPhone 3 anyway).

Wolfking Dual Hockey Puck Gaming Keyboard Gets a Name, and It's Hardcore: Warrior Xxtreme

Wolfking's unnamed turntable gaming keybard, so kindly leaked by the FCC, actually has a name, and it's pretty extreme: Wolfking Warrior Xxtreme. Billed as "the world's first hybrid 2-in-1 PC game pad keyboard," you can see the thing's sexier than the FCC pics let on, which are the gadget equivalent of driver's licence headshots.
Of course, aesthetics and functionality aren't equivalent, and looking prettier probably isn't going to sew up the reader divide on how useful this thing will be. No official price or street date yet, but some Googlage pegs it as around $US60.

S. Mahinda Thero - Book Launch - 16th March 2009 3.00p.m. at Dharma Vijaya Foundation Colombo 07

S. Mahinda Thero - Book Launch - 16th March 2009 3.00p.m. at Dharma Vijaya Foundation Colombo 07.

Oracle facing 'worst' quarter in 15 years?

One of the driving forces behind Oracle's three-year corporate buying frenzy has been to add customers to its roster by owning the 44 tech companies supplying them.
Problem is, you you can have all the customers under the sun but if they ain't spending on IT they ain't buying your products.

Now, it seems Oracle's $13bn plus M&A binge has hit its logical flaw, as Oracle is this month expected to report the worst quarter since the early 1990s - another recessionary period for those who can see past the dot-com crash of the early 2000s.
JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens reportedly said: "Our due diligence suggests that the February quarter was, in some respects, the worst Oracle has experienced in over 15 years. The tone of the commentary from our industry sources regarding new license revenue is the worst we have ever heard."
These words comes after Oracle reported a second-quarter in December that was broadly in line with Wall St's expectations, despite a tanking economy.
If Walravens is correct, Oracle won't be the first tech company to bet pulled under by the economy.
In the case of Oracle, though, the recession has given customers reason to pause when it comes to buying or renewing Oracle. These people, it seems are opening the door to fully paid-for open source, instead of just dabbling with the free version at the edges of their infrastructure or getting by without paying the support fees.
Pressed by economics, customers are looking for alternatives to simply bolting another expensive Oracle database on to the network just to hold application data or simply spinning up another Oracle-owned application server.
For these people, open source is providing not just a lightweight alternative to an all-you-can eat Oracle middleware architecture, it's also proving cheaper in areas considered mission critical. ®

Filmmaker plans "Eyeborg" eye-socket camera.

A Canadian filmmaker plans to have a mini camera installed in his prosthetic eye to make documentaries and raise awareness about surveillance in society.

Rob Spence, 36, who lost an eye in an accident as a teen-ager, said his so-called Project Eyeborg is to have the camera, a battery and a wireless transmitter mounted on a tiny circuit board. www.eyeborgblog.com/

"Originally the whole idea was to do a documentary about surveillance. I thought I would become a sort of super hero ... fighting for justice against surveillance," Spence said.
"In Toronto there are 12,000 cameras. But the strange thing I discovered was that people don't care about the surveillance cameras, they were more concerned about me and my secret camera eye because they feel that is a worse invasion of their privacy."

Spence, in Brussels to appear at a media conference, said no part of the camera would be connected to his nerves or brain.
He does not intend to create a reality TV show and the camera will be switched off when not needed, he said.

"I don't want to go into a locker room. I don't want to show the world me going to the bathroom either ... I'm not a life-caster and I don't plan to be one," he said.

Apple exploring Magic Wand controller for next-gen Apple TV

Apple is exploring the possibility of including a wireless "remote wand" with future versions of its Apple TV media system that would provide users with precise control over a cursor on the Apple TV screen in very much the same way a conventional mouse controls a cursor on a PC. It would also unlock three-dimensional controls similar to those offered by Nintendo's Wii controller.

The wand, which was revealed in a patent filing published for the first time this week, would control the movement of a cursor displayed on a TV screen by the position and orientation at which it is held by the user. As the user moves the wand, the on-screen cursor would follow.

Unlike the current 5-button remote shipping with the current version of Apple TV, the wand would be capable of controlling a plurality of new operations and applications that may be available from the media system, including for example zoom operations, a keyboard application, an image application, an illustration application, and a media application

According to Apple, the Apple TV media system could identify the movements of the wand using any suitable motion detection component such as an embedded accelerometer or a gyroscope. Another approach for identifying the movements of the wand would be to determine its absolute position relative to one or more infrared modules positioned adjacent to the screen in the living room.

"The wand may include an optical component for capturing images of the infrared modules, and may calculate its orientation and distance from the modules based on the captured images," the company said. "In some embodiments, the electronic device may direct the infrared modules to identify the position of an infrared emitter incorporated on the wand, and may calculate the absolute position of the wand relative to the infrared modules."

In January acting chief executive Tim Cook said, "We will continue to invest [in Apple TV], because we believe there is something there for us in the future."

BlackHat Hackers vs WhiteHat Hackers !

What Is Black Hat Hacking?
A black hat hacker, also known as a cracker or a dark side hacker (this last definition is a direct reference to the Star Wars movies and the dark side of the force), is someone who uses his skills with a criminal intent. Some examples are: cracking bank accounts in order to make transferences to their own accounts, stealing information to be sold in the black market, or attacking the computer network of an organization for money.

Some famous cases of black hat hacking include Kevin Mitnick, who used his black hat hackers skills to enter the computers of organizations such as Nokia, Fujitsu, Motorola and Sun Microsystems (it must be mentioned that he is now a white hat hacker); Kevin Poulsen, who took control of all the phone lines in Los Angeles in order to win a radio contest (the prize was a Porsche 944 S2); and Vladimir Levin, which is the handle of the mastermind behind the stealing of $10'000,000 to Citigroup.

Differences Between White Hat And A Black Hat Hacker :
The difference between black hat and white hat hackers is that white hat hacker uses their skills and knowledge as a way to defend someone from attackers. That means that white hat hackers offer their services to corporations, public organizations and educational institutions.

These services include a complete revision of their computer network security, implementation of new security systems (they may be hardware or software), user training and future recommendations. All these measures will be able to combat unauthorized hacking; black hat hackers, however, will continue trying.

Try Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Today!

Last week Microsoft announced the Release Candidate (RC) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2. We initially made it available for TechNet and MSDN subscribers. Today, we’re making it available to anyone interested in testing SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 prior to final release.
You can download the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 RC from our Customer Preview Program site or install through Windows Update using our Windows Update Experience Kit.
If you have the SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Beta installed, you will need to uninstall that first before installing the RC.
You can also check out the SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 RC notable changes here. And you can submit feedback on SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 here on the TechNet Forums.

Microsoft.com

Windows Games for Windows 7

If you’re running the Windows 7 Beta and hadn’t already noticed, we are introducing 3 new Windows Games for Windows 7.

Internet Backgammon:

Internet Checkers:

Internet Spades:

These games were well liked in Windows XP. Due to the amount of requests we received, we are bringing them back!
The new versions of these games have been completely redesigned and improved over their old-school predecessors. With each game, you can:
Play online against human opponents (up to 4 players at the same time with Internet Spades).
Select from 3 skill levels to be matched with similarly skilled players from all around the world.
If your opponent drops out, a computer opponent takes over to finish the game.
Choose from cool different backgrounds and piece/card designs.
And as I mentioned in my post about Games Explorer, you can track statistics for games played as well.
Tired of Minesweeper? Definitely give these games a try and join the thousands of other players online who are playing too. I’m actually quite addicted to Internet Checkers.

Open sourcey bulletin board offline after hack attack

The website for one of the net's more popular bulletin board software packages has been taken offline following a security breach that gave an attacker full access to a database containing names, email, address, and hashed passwords for its entire user base.In a message posted Sunday, administrators of phpBB.com said the attacker gained access through an unpatched security bug in PHPlist, a third-party email application. The miscreant had access for more than two weeks before the breach was discovered, and phpBB remained down at time of writing, more than three days later.

Administrators didn't respond to emails seeking comment.A blogger who claimed to have carried out the attack said that details for more than 400,000 accounts were intercepted. The writer claims to have created a script that was able to crack more than 28,000 passwords hashed using an unsalted MD5 algorithm, before posting them to the internet. The passwords were not accessible at time of writing.A notice posted to a temporary support forum said that the latest version of phpBB uses "a complex hashing algorithm in order to prevent someone from determining the plaintext value of a password." An earlier version used less secure protection based on MD5. To be protected by the more robust algorithm, users had to have registered or logged into their accounts since the upgrade was made.

The number of users fretting over the breach in this phpBB discussion thread is a testament to the sad fact that many people still use the same password for numerous online accounts. Administrators at phpBB reminded users that isn't a safe practice. They also admitted to making mistakes of their own.

"We apologise for not securing our servers in time to prevent this from happening," they wrote. "This demonstrates how critically important it is to always make sure that you keep up to date with any software that is running on your machine.

"phpBB is an open-source software package webmasters use to run discussion forums on their sites. It is based on the PHP language and stands for PHP bulletin board. The breach had nothing to do with phpBB, and there are no known vulnerabilities in the most recent version of the program.

Rather, the attacker gained entry through a recently patched vulnerability in PHPlist, an open-source package for managing newsletters. On January 29, the program was updated to fix a security bug that allowed unauthorized access.Interestingly, according to the time line provided by both the purported attacker and phpBB, the attack was carried out some two weeks before the PHPlist patch was issued, courtesy of this published exploit.Sadly, the attack could have been prevented by adding a single line to an administrator's index file. There are some useful lessons that can come out of an autopsy of this breach, especially for fanbois who claim open-source is so much more resistnt to these SNAFUs.

Source: www.theregister.co.uk

Always remember to build and patch your system before connecting it to the network or internet

• Only install required components. Do not install items like simple TCP/IP services, Internet Information Server, WINS, etc. unless they are needed.
• Configure windows auto updates.
• Use System Policy Templates .
• Disable unnecessary services in the services control panel and registry .
• Enable Windows XP or 2003 firewall .
• Enable IP Security Policies .
• Disable IIS ftp and smtp services if IIS is needed.
• Disable or wrap unencrypted services (e.g., MSSQL) .

Chinese hackers attacking U.S. computers daily, congressman says

Chinese government and freelance hackers are the primary culprits behind as many as several hundred daily attacks against U.S. government, electric-utility and financial computer networks, a senior congressman said.
"Sophisticated hackers could really wreak havoc on our financial systems if they were successful," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said in an interview. The threat is "primarily from China."

While cyber plots to disrupt U.S. computer networks have been thwarted, significant vulnerabilities exist, said Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.
Many of these problems will be detailed in a 60-day review the Obama administration said it would conduct on government cybersecurity efforts, Thompson said. President Barack Obama also has said he would appoint a computer-security chief who will report directly to him, a move Thompson supports.

Currency trading is among the financial networks targeted by hackers, Thompson said. An attack would be particularly damaging in light of the financial system's troubled state, he said.
He said electric utilities' networks also have several points of weakness.
"We were provided alarming data on the vulnerability of our electrical grid in this country," he said.

Call to Blank Out YouTube in Emirates Too

DUBAI - It is ranked among the top 10 most popular sites in the UAE, but Dubai’s police chief believes that YouTube ‘incites hatred’ and, therefore, should be banned from computers.
On Sunday, Bangladesh became the latest country to impose a block on YouTube after a 40-minute discussion between the Prime Minister and senior generals was posted online. Earlier, in February 2008, the Pakistani government blocked the video-sharing site, because it republished cartoons blasphemous to Islam. Last April, Indonesian officials temporarily blocked YouTube for carrying the film, but restored service a week later.
The Commander in Chief of Dubai Police, Lt Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, appeared to have launched a campaign on Sunday when he called upon Etisalat to ban YouTube, which uploads more than 200,000 videos each day. He was addressing the general assembly of the Juveniles Education and Care Association here.
Tamim said that the website contained videos that ‘sparked dissension’, especially on religious belief. “Publishing pornographic material and defamatory ideas is not freedom,” Tamim later commented in the Arabic daily Emarat Al Youm.
Mohammed Okour, spokesman for Etisalat, said that the company had received no request from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), which determines whether or not a website should be banned in the UAE. None was available for comment on Monday.
In 2006 YouTube removed videos from right-wing activists such as Michelle Malkin, who posted several videos defaming Islam. A film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, which criticises Islam, is banned in the UAE through conventional websites. However, it still available on YouTube.

Google software bug shared private online documents

Google has confirmed that a software bug exposed documents thought to be privately stored in the Internet giant's online Docs application service.
The problem was fixed by the weekend and is believed to have affected only .05 percent of the digital documents at a Google Docs service that provides text-handling programs as services on the Internet.
"We've identified and fixed a bug where a very small percentage of users shared some of their documents inadvertently," Google Docs Product Manager Jennifer Mazzon wrote in a message at the firm's website on Saturday.
"We're sorry for the trouble this has caused. We understand our users' concerns (in fact, we were affected by this bug ourselves) and we're treating this very seriously."
The problem occurred in cases where people had chosen to collaborate on multiple documents and adjusted settings to allow access to others, according to Google.
Collaborators were unintentionally given permission to access documents aside from the ones intended.
"As part of the fix, we used an automated process to remove collaborators and viewers from the documents that we identified as having been affected," Mazzon said.
"We then emailed the document owners to point them to their affected documents in case they need to re-share them."
The slip comes as Google and other Internet firms entice people to rely on applications offered online as services "in the cloud" instead of buying software then installing and maintaining it on their own machines.
While the trend toward cloud services is growing, some still worry about the privacy of data kept online and whether it is shrewd to rely on the Internet for access to information and applications.

Our Liones......

Our Lions......

Remove IE Supervisor Password

Here we look at how to remove supervisor password on Internet Explorer

One of the more common things I have seen is for a user to set a supervisor password on Internet Explorer, making it so that they control what you can and can’t access on the internet from that computers browser. The best solution for this problem (besides hitting the user over the head) is to simply use the registry to remove this supervisor password.

Click on Start, choose Run, and type “regedit” to access the Windows registry editor. Once here, on the left hand side of the screen, browse to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies

And then click on the Ratings folder. Once here, look at the right side of the screen, find the entry named Key, click on it, and press the delete key. Close the registry editor and the content advisor password will be removed. Restarting the computer should result in your browser being unlocked.

We must win.....

Dehra city, Dubai

Recently I had an opportunity to go to Deira city.I went to Deira city by crossing the Dubai creek.
At that moment I took some pictures of Dubai Creek and Abra.An abra is nice boat which is made by wood
and used to transport people across the Dubai creek.

Here in these pictures you can see Abra and Dubai Creek.

Belkin Flip DVI-D

Another device for people with more than one computer is Belkin's Flip DVI-D switch, can connect one DVI monitor to two computers. A remote control lets you switch the display from one computer to the other, and it works with Mac or Windows operating systems.

Windows 7 Editions Clarified

Here is a little clearer description of the Windows 7 SKU’s for those who didn’t quite understand what was posted yesterday. Now, there is only 3 “mainstream” editions of Windows 7; Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, and Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise. Below is a description of each edition, quoting Ed Bott from ZDNet:

Windows 7 Home Premium –
This is the successor to Windows Vista Home Premium, and Microsoft expects it to be the most common edition sold, the standard for virtually all consumer PCs. It includes the Aero interface with its Windows 7 enhancements, plus Windows Media Center, DVD playback support, and multi-touch and handwriting features. I’m also told (but can’t yet confirm) that image-based backup is included in this edition for the first time.

Windows 7 Professional –
This edition drops the Business label used in Windows Vista and goes back to the old XP-era name, presumably to give XP users more comfort in their upgrade decision. Unlike Vista Business, this edition contains all features in the Home Premium edition, including Media Center. For the extra cost, you get more traditional business features like the ability to join a Windows domain, group policy based management tools, Remote Desktop host capabilities, network-based backup features, and support for the Encrypting file system.

Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise –
In the retail channel, this edition will be called Ultimate; for corporate customers with a Select license agreement, it will be called Enterprise. In either case, the feature set includes everything in Professional edition plus support for BitLocker whole-drive encryption (and the new BitLocker To Go feature, which adds high-grade encryption to removable media). This edition also includes all supported language packs (those cost extra for other editions) and the capability to boot from a VHD.

Gphone(frm Google) vs Iphone(frm Apple), which is better?

As iPhone is the most talked about smart phone on the planet and it has won millions of hearts of users by his multi-touch screen and other powerful/beautiful design. Of course, iPhone has brought so much money for Apple.On 23rd, Sep 2008 Google released G1 and claimed that they will have a share of the big market of smart phone.So, which is better about iPhone and G1? That maybe asked by many people who want to buy a new phone. Here I will give some of opinion about G1 and iPhone.I will compare these two phones in three aspects, hardware, software, and their performance as a media player.

Part 1: Hardware1.
The price and storage memoryFirst, the price and storage memory is what I concern most, for iPhone $199 8GB, $299 16GB, for G1 $179 1GB. When you see this you will say G1 is $20 lower than iPhone but G1 is only 1GB and you will pay another $40 for an 8GB SD Card. So I think iPhone win in this round.2. AppearanceiPhone is 133 grams/4.7 ounces and G1 is 158 grams/5.57 ounces. G1 is taller while iPhone is thinner (G1: 117.7*55.7*17.1, iPhone: 115.5*62.1*12.3).3. Mobile NetworkFor mobile Network, they both have Quad Band GSM/EDGE UMTS, but G1 uses T-Mobile-only US 3G and iPhone uses AT&T-only US 3G.4. Touch screen and inputAbout touch screen display, iPhone has Multi-touch 3.5 480*320 163 ppi, but G1 does not support mulit-touch. And in input aspect, G1 uses keyboard, Trackball, 6 buttons and touch screen, while iPhone has home button and multi touch screen.5. ExpansionIn expansion ports, G1 uses SD, ExtUSB(USB+audio) but iPhone has headphone, Dock connector (USB+ audio, video, remote). They have the same wireless WiFi 820.11b/g Limited Bluetooth 2.0 EDR.6. OthersG1 has GPS and fixed focus 3.2 MP camera, iPhone has fixed focus 2 MP camera and GPS.
About hardware, the two phones perform almost the same and the only big difference is the iPhone uses multi-touch screen and G1’s camera is better than iPhone. And iPhone has a 1400Ah battery with 300 hours standby time but G1 only has a 1150Ah battery with 5 hours talk time and 130 standby.

Part 2: Software.
iPhone and G1 are both using Webkit as their browser engine. In media playback aspect, iPhone supports music, audiobook, video, streaming, downloads and rental, while for G1, only music playback. G1 has Android Market as its third party software store while iPhone has iPhone app store. G1’s platform is Modified Java development and iPhone uses Cocoa Touch.

Part 3: Their performance as media player.
G1 supports H.264, 3GPP, MPEG4, Codec 3GP video and MP3、AAC、AAC+、WMA、MPEG4、WAV、MIDI、REAL、AUDIO、OGG audio formats.iPhone supports AAC，Protected AAC，MP3，MP3 VBR，Audible (formats 1, 2, 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV audio formats and H.264 (up to 1.5Mbps), MPEG-4 (up to 2.5Mbps) 640*480, 30fps, AAC-LC (up to 160 Kbps), 48kHz dimensional sound .m4v, .mp4 and .mov format.
Amazon MP3 Store allows you to download 6 million songs without the DRM protection, 89 cents per song. It is similar with the Apple iPhone, you need to pay for the video and audio sources on the Apple store. But how to get free sources for your G1.

As I mentioned here, you all can decide the best phone from Gphone and Iphone.but the main thing ,you should consider is ease of use (user friendly) ,durability and facilities it provides.

:::Hello World:::
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