Computer & Computers Update

Bing gains more ground in search war with Google

2009-09-27T23:28:00.004+05:30

Microsoft's Bing continues to show strength as comScore Inc. is set to report this afternoon that the new search engine increased its share of the competitive market by 4.5% between July and August. Bing held a 9.3% share of the market at the end of August to hold third place, according to comScore.

And comScore is reporting that the share held by market leader Google slipped 0.1% to hold 64.6% of the market at the end of last month.

Meanwhile, comScore reports that Yahoo maintained its second-place spot in the search business with a solid 19.3% share. AOL's share dropped an unspecified amount to 3% of the market.

Today's report comes on the heels of last week's report from The Nielsen Co. that three-month-old Bing saw its share of the search market grow by 22.1% between July and August. Neilsen said its research concluded that Bing held a 10.7% share in August. Bing was the fastest-growing search engine on Nielsen's top-10 list.

Nielsen, though, also had Google showing growth, increasing its share by 2.6%, to 64.6%.
"This seems like a milestone for Bing," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research. "Ten percent is a big number for a new entrant. They've become 'the other' search engine."

Microsoft definitely is looking to become "the other" search engine, busily beefing up Bing in hopes that it will eventually give Google a run for its money.

For example Microsoft last week released a beta version of a tool called Visual Search, which is designed to let Bing users search through galleries of images instead of mainly text.
And in another shot at Google, Microsoft this summer signed an agreement calling for Yahoo to use Bing as the primary search engine on its site. The proposed alliance -- which still must pass antitrust muster -- could give the two companies some much-needed leverage in their ongoing battle against Google.

"Bing has made some good progress against Google, although both Microsoft and Yahoo, along with some of the market watchers, were expecting greater progress," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group Inc. "However, we can't underestimate just how entrenched Google is in the search and advertising market. Displacing them will be a long-term effort. In fact, even getting parity with Google will require a sustained effort in terms of innovation and investment."
While Olds said 10% market share isn't a magic number for Bing, it does show that Microsoft is making progress.

"It will be another couple of quarters before we can tell if Bing will be a serious competitor for Google search," he added. "Google is definitely taking the Bing threat seriously, despite its still-overwhelming market position. Google understands just how important this battle is. More importantly, they know that Microsoft and Yahoo are determined this time to grab a big slice of the market. The resources that Microsoft and Yahoo can devote to the battle, along with their determination, make them a serious threat to Google. And Google knows it."

How to set up Ubuntu Linux on a Windows PC

2009-09-21T23:33:00.006+05:30

Netbooks have soared in popularity over the past year, offering consumers portable PCs for word processing and Web browsing at rock-bottom prices. Such mini laptops use inexpensive processors that consume a minimal amount of power and thus offer a far longer battery life than most portables.

But there's one problem: Windows Vista is a resource-hungry operating system, and it will run painfully slow unless your system has plenty of memory and processing power. Installing Windows on a netbook also adds a significant amount to the machine's overall cost.

To get around this, netbook manufacturers tend to favor Windows XP, Microsoft's older, cheaper and less resource-hogging operating system. But you may find that Linux, which runs perfectly well on just 512MB of RAM, is a better alternative.

Linux will be unfamiliar to most users, but it's a far more attractive proposition than it used to be. While most of us are put off by our lack of knowledge of the operating system, the addition of graphical user interfaces to its various distros and the widespread availability of free Microsoft-compatible applications, such as OpenOffice.org, mean you no longer have to compromise on usability.

With this article, we aim to demystify Linux. It's not just netbook owners who will benefit from using this alternative to Windows; as a free, open-source operating system, Linux is also a great option if you want to breathe life into an elderly machine.

You can install Ubuntu alongside your existing operating system, too, so if you don't want to dump Vista entirely, you can keep it as a secondary option. You'll find it's faster than Vista Home Premium and less restricted than Vista Basic.

If you've tried Linux before and were put off by the setup process, fear not. If Windows is already installed on your PC, adding Linux is a simple, two-step process, with no drive partitioning required.

There are, of course, a few differences between the Ubuntu Linux distro we've installed here and the Windows interface, but you can get to grips with most features very quickly. We'll show you how to set up Ubuntu and get started with the most common apps.

Installing Ubuntu Linux

1. Ubuntu is available in server, desktop and netbook editions. The easiest way to get the latest version is to use Wubi. This installs Ubuntu as a standard Windows application. Simply indicate the drive where you want to load the operating system, then click the Install button.

2. Ubuntu will appear as an option in your boot menu; select this and log on. The operating system's Gnome interface is similar to that of both Windows and Mac OS X. At the top left you'll find menus to access Applications, Places (folders and drives) and System (tools and settings). To turn off your PC, click the symbol at the top right.

3. To modify the interface, go to System, Preferences, Appearance. The resulting dialog box contains separate tabs for Theme, Background, Fonts, Interface and Visual Effects. The last of these lets you alter visual settings, whether for aesthetic reasons or to speed up performance on a low-powered system.

4. Because Linux mounts drives before you can access files, no disk drives are displayed on the desktop when you first log on. Files, folders and drives are accessed via the Places menu at the top of the screen. For some of these you'll need to provide your password before you can access the contents.

5. To set up a Web connection, go to System, Administration, Network Connections. In the resulting dialog box, click either Wired or Wireless and hit Add. Enter your setup details in the next window. Click the Security tab and select the encryption type. Enter the key that you need to get online, then click Close.

6. To customize Ubuntu's Applications, Places or System menu, right-click it and select Edit Menus. From here you can select icons and choose which apps should appear in the menu by ticking the box next to them. To add a new entry, go to File, New Entry, enter a name and browse to the command that launches it.

Get to grips with Ubuntu Linux

7. Much like Windows' Toolbar, Ubuntu's panel allows you to load applets for helpful tasks such as keeping an eye on the weather or storing "sticky" notes. You can run multiple panels on one screen. To add an applet, right-click the panel and select Add to Panel. Select an applet and click Add.

8. Several applications come preinstalled with Ubuntu. The Firefox Web browser is accessible via an icon next to the System menu; Pidgin instant messaging and the Evolution e-mail client can be accessed via Applications, Internet. To use Evolution you'll need to enter a username, password and details of your e-mail server.

9. OpenOffice.org is another application that's preinstalled with Ubuntu. To use this productivity suite, go to Applications, Office and select Writer, Calc or Presentation. OpenOffice.org is compatible with Microsoft Word and has a similar interface. Those migrating from Windows should find it extremely easy to use.

10. Ubuntu also preinstalls The Gimp, a highly capable image editor that gives Adobe Photoshop a run for its money. Go to Applications, Graphics to launch it. As well as offering the basics for cropping, drawing, painting and adding text to images, The Gimp includes a number of filters and support for multiple layers.

11. To add new programs, right-click the Applications menu and select Add/Remove Applications. The Application Manager displays applications that are guaranteed to work with Ubuntu. Tick the box next to any you wish to install and then click Apply Changes. The app will be downloaded and automatically installed.

12. To access Ubuntu's multimedia options, go to Applications, Sound & Video. Brasero Disc Burner creates discs for data, audio or DVD; Rhythmbox is a fantastic audio player that supports Internet radio; and Totem is a fairly versatile video player. If you wish to play DVDs on your PC, follow the instructions at help.ubuntu.com.

13. Like Windows, Ubuntu requires regular updates. To check whether any updates are available for your PC, go to System, Administration, Update Manager, then click Check. Select the updates you want, then hit Install Updates. Click the Settings button if you'd prefer for your PC to be updated automatically.

14. To share your desktop with other Linux PCs on your network, go to System, Preferences, Remote Desktop and tick "Allow other users to view your desktop." To access your desktop from another machine, go to Applications, Accessories, Terminal. Enter the command vncviewer -fullscreen and the IP address provided.

No more Linux security bragging: botnet discovery worry

2009-09-21T23:29:00.002+05:30

A security researcher has discovered a cluster of infected Linux servers that have been corralled into a special ops botnet of sorts and used to distribute malware. ... The infected machines ... serve legitimate traffic on port 80, the standard TCP port used by websites. Behind the scenes, the rogue server sends malicious traffic over port 8080.
...
Malicious payloads are then delivered with the help of dynamic DNS hosting providers, which offer free domain names that are mapped to the IP address of the zombie webserver. ... With about 100 nodes, the network is relatively small, making it unclear exactly what the attackers' intentions are. All of the boxes examined so far have run the Apache webserver on various distributions of Linux.

Ubuntu 9.10 boot optimizations: 5 second startup with an SSD

2009-09-21T23:16:00.001+05:30

Canonical has announced the availability of Ubuntu 9.10 alpha 6, the final alpha release before the transition to beta testing. Ubuntu 9.10, codenamed Karmic Koala, introduces a number of important architectural improvements and also improves boot performance, especially on computers with solid state hard drives.

Earlier this year, Canonical revealed plans to significantly optimize boot performance. It aims to deliver 10-second startups for the Ubuntu 10.04 release, which is due in 2010. In the latest Karmic alpha, the team has already taken some important steps toward achieving this goal. Their roadmap indicates that 25 seconds is the target for Karmic, and the reference device used to benchmark progress is the Dell Mini 9 netbook. We did some testing of our own to see how the OS is coming along.

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 alpha 6 on a Dell Inspiron 1420n, the Ubuntu laptop that I reviewed in 2007. I conducted extensive startup performance testing and used the bootchart utility to measure the results. My average boot time was 22 seconds, with Xorg starting roughly 13 seconds into the boot process.

Users with solid state drives will see a far more dramatic improvement in boot performance. Canonical external developer relations coordinator Jorge Castro (a former Ars Linux contributor) supplied us with a boot chart from his computer, which has an SSD and boots Karmic alpha 6 in only five seconds. If you examine his chart, you will see that Xorg comes up in only two seconds.

One of the most significant technical factors contributing to awesome SSD boot performance is the inclusion of sreadahead, a system service that uses prefetching to load data that is used by the boot process before it is needed. It will also cache the prefetched data and store it so that it can be used during subsequent boots, but it's less effective on conventional hard disks where seek latency introduces some challenges. Ubuntu developer Scott James Remnant explained some of the technical nuances in a mailing list post a few months ago.

In Ubuntu 6.10, which was released several years ago, Canonical introduced a new event-based boot daemon called Upstart to replace the traditional System-V init. One of the primary advantages of Upstart is that it is highly conducive to parallelizing the boot process. In previous versions of Ubuntu, Upstart has largely been used with traditional init scripts. Karmic is the first version where it's really being used to its full potential. On an interesting side note, Upstart has been gaining a whole lot of traction in the mobile space and is used in both the Palm Pre and Nokia's upcoming N900.

Not just boot time

In addition to the improvements to boot performance, a number of other significant enhancements are also featured in Ubuntu 9.10. This is the first Ubuntu version to use GRUB2 and Ext4 by default. Another major change is the adoption of DeviceKit, which will displace HAL, the previous hardware abstraction layer. Pidgin has been replaced in favor of Empathy, a new instant messaging client built on the Telepathy framework that has been adopted by the GNOME community. Client software for Canonical's Ubuntu One cloud storage service is also included by default for the first time.

Ubuntu 9.10 alpha 6 is available for download from the Ubuntu web site. According to the release schedule, the first beta is due on October 1, and the final release is coming on October 29.

Microsoft offers Windows 7 to students for $30

2009-09-21T23:08:00.001+05:30

Microsoft today announced students would be able to purchase upgrade versions of Windows 7 for a significantly reduced price until January 3, 2010 at 12:00am CST. A valid e-mail address given by a college or university must be used. An e-mail will be sent telling the student if he or she qualifies for the discount. Eligible students are allowed to purchase one copy of either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional from the online store. The discount price applies to the following countries: the UK (£30) and the US ($30). More information is available at win741.com, a site just launched today that is dedicated to advertising Windows 7 to students.

"In the US, students can pre-order their copy of Windows 7 beginning September 17th and can download the OS beginning on October 22nd (general availability)," a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed with Ars. For US students, we checked and saw that they need to have a .edu e-mail address or be attending one of the 158 schools Microsoft lists. "Students in the UK can pre-order their copy beginning on September 30th for download on October 22nd. Students in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea, and Mexico can participate in this offer on October 22nd. In most markets, the offer ends on January 3rd (in Australia the offer is available until March 31st)."

Many college and university students can already get Windows 7 Professional for free through the MSDN Academic Alliance (MSDNAA) but this is offer is aimed at those who cannot. This deal reminds us most of the Ultimate Steal discounts for Microsoft Office the company also offers to students

Open source management community launches

2009-09-21T23:00:00.001+05:30

Open source monitoring tools and management applications will soon enjoy a new home online as commercial vendors and open source supporters unveil a community devoted to the flexible, free IT software.

MonitoringForge.org launched Tuesday in beta and welcomes developers and users of open source network and systems management and monitoring applications to share their tools, experiences and plans for future work. GroundWork Open Source, a maker of open source applications offered as commercial software, started the online effort earlier this year after realizing how many projects specific to management exist. The site is meant to cull management tools – 1,700 have been verified for the site so far – and provide a venue for discussion, development and downloads.

"This is the first attempt to really create a neighborhood for all these projects to be represented in that is truly neutral. There is no one tool that fits every environment, and IT administrators can share success stories and experiences with the various projects to find which works best for their needs," says Tara Spalding, vice president of marketing at GroundWork.

MonitoringForge.org is collaborating with SourceForge.net to deliver a niche community focused on monitoring, and organizers explain the site is not a replacement for other open source communities, but rather an environment for IT administrators to target their search for open source management projects and plugins. Industry watchers say the site could flourish and become a valuable resource for the monitoring community.

"The effort should get some attention, but the key is whether it gets attention from the right people – which I believe are the open source developers and IT administrators who create, refine, use and combine the projects and code for which MonitoringForge.org is intended," says Jay Lyman, an analyst at the 451 Group covering open source. "With a couple hundred or more sites for open source systems and network monitoring and management, GroundWork has a point that there needs to be consolidation."

The vendor says the site will remain vendor- and project agnostic, meaning no one tool will be promoted over others. GroundWork is reaching out to fellow commercial open source vendors Zenoss and the recently launched RiverMuse. Lyman notes that while the effort has already garnered support from some 500 individuals, MonitoringForge would benefit from participation from groups such as Nagios Enterprises, OpenNMS Group and others. And while the site is designed to promote open source, proprietary vendors can contribute their open standard API developer kits and any component that doesn’t conflict with an open source license, according to GroundWork.

"The site will be completely vendor agnostic. It was created to promote existing projects and inspire future ones," Spalding says. "GroundWork organized this in the spirit of open source, and we know IT administrators know the tools they want to see and we welcome that input to help spawn new projects."

Spalding says the site has about 65 active beta users at this time and intends to add a governance board to ensure the site’s neutrality. Analysts are hopeful the site will provide open source advocates with a focused forum on IT management and monitoring, but still believe the success of the site could rest on whether IT administrators and end users find it useful.

"It may be possible to create a community of developers … but to include membership and participation from IT administrators and end users is more challenging," Lyman adds. "MonitoringForge.org comes at a time when we are seeing a trend toward greater cross-collaboration in open source software, which bodes well for its future. This is a fast-moving, fast-changing area of software and IT administration, so this type of community could help to deliver more continuity for users and customers."

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Oracle, Sun launch high-end OLTP server

2009-09-21T22:56:00.001+05:30

Oracle has launched a high-end database and storage system that it co-developed with Sun Microsystems, the companies' first joint product since announcing their plans to merge almost five months ago.

Called the Exadata Database Machine Version 2, it combines Intel-based servers and other Sun hardware with Oracle's database and storage management software in a rack-based system optimized for enterprise data warehousing and high-speed online transaction processing (OLTP).

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison unveiled the product on a webcast Tuesday from Oracle's California headquarters, where he was joined by John Fowler, executive vice president in charge of Sun's systems business. The system uses an unusually large amount of flash memory -- up to 5TB in a fully loaded rack -- to achieve high levels of OLTP performance, Ellison said.

Neither of the executives made any reference to the companies' pending merger, which Oracle had hoped to close by now but which has been held up by competition regulators in Europe. Nor did they disclose any more information about which Sun products Oracle will support or discontinue if the merger goes through.

The system that launched Tuesday uses Linux, rather than Sun Solaris, and Intel-type processors, rather than Sun's Ultrasparc T2 chips, as some had expected. But Oracle has pledged to support Sun's Sparc platform in the future.

The Exadata system is a follow-on to a similar product that Oracle developed last year with Hewlett-Packard. Both systems combine database servers, storage servers and networking in a rack-based system preconfigured with Oracle's software.

The first Exadata system was for data warehousing only, Ellison said, while Exadata 2 is for both data warehousing and online transaction processing. "Exadata Version 1 was the world’s fastest machine for data warehousing applications,” he said. “Exadata Version 2 is twice as fast as Exadata Version 1 for data warehousing, and it’s the only database machine that runs OLTP applications."

The first version was based on HP's Intel-based ProLiant G5 servers, while the new machine uses Sun Fire X4275 servers with Intel's quad-core Nehalem processors. It also uses a faster memory type, DDR3, and faster disk and InfiniBand components, Ellison said, explaining the performance boost over the first Exadata.

But the main advance is a new flash-based memory system from Sun that is used in the storage servers. Called FlashFire, it packs four flash accelerator cards into each storage server, each with a capacity of 96GB. A fully loaded rack with eight storage servers has 5TB of flash memory, as well as 100TB of SAS disk capacity or 336TB of SATA disk capacity, Ellison said.

"We have a huge, fast flash cache built into our storage servers," Ellison said. "These are not flash disks -- make no mistake, these are not flash disks. This is a smart memory hierarchy made up of DRAM in our database servers and flash in our storage servers, with very sophisticated algorithms. This is a very smart memory hierarchy where the Oracle software manages that memory extremely efficiently, much faster than flash disk."

The use of flash memory and InfiniBand allows the system to perform 1 million I/O operations per second, according to Ellison. "We can move data much more rapidly than any other computer in the world," he claimed.

All that speed comes at a price. A full rack configuration, with eight database servers and 14 storage servers, starts at US$1.15 million for the database hardware alone, according to a price list. The Oracle database software and Exadata Storage Software are extra, as are the storage hardware and installation fees.

The system is also offered in half-rack, quarter-rack and single-server configurations, however. The entry product starts at $115,000 for the database server hardware.

"I think it's incredible the amount of flash they're using," said Dan Olds, principal analyst with Gabriel Consulting Group. "It's not quite an in-memory database, but it's not far off it. Couple that with the Nehalem processors and the InfiniBand, and that's where the OLTP performance is coming from."

Terms of use are "quite restrictive, though," he noted, pointing to an Oracle FAQ. Exadata customers have to use the latest Enterprise Edition of Oracle Database, version 11.2 or higher, and the system can't be modified in any way.

Customers also can't run any other software on the machines, he noted. "They didn't really talk about whether you can do OLTP and data warehousing at the same time," Olds said. "As these machines get bigger and bigger, there are fewer and fewer customers that can use them for just one workload."

In some ways the event was notable for what Ellison did not say. With Sun customers facing uncertainty about the future of their platforms, rivals HP and IBM have been courting Sun customers away with aggressive migration programs. Oracle has been trying to contain the damage with newspaper ads saying it will invest more in Sun's Sparc than Sun does.

But Ellison said nothing about his plans for Sun on Tuesday. He and Fowler both stressed that the Exadata 2 was developed under the companies' long-standing partnership. The webcast ended abruptly with no time for questions.

Oracle has won approval for its Sun acquisition from U.S. regulators, but the European Commission has held up the deal, possibly until January. The Commission says it's concerned that Oracle's ownership of Sun's MySQL database could harm competition in the open-source software market.

While most analysts expect the deal to go through, the uncertainty has been hammering Sun's server business. Its server revenue plunged 37 percent in the second quarter, a much greater decline than for any of its main rivals, according to IDC.

Lenovo T400s gets four-finger touchscreen input

2009-09-21T22:39:00.001+05:30

Lenovo has announced new touchscreen laptops including the ThinkPad T400s multitouch, the company's first laptop to support four-finger touchscreen input. Until now many laptop makers, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell, were offering touchscreen laptops with two-finger touch input.

Lenovo said ThinkPad T400s will allow manipulation of images using up to four fingers on the laptop. Multiple fingers can be used instead of mice to zoom into maps, or to scroll through documents.

The four-finger touch input capability could be useful to manipulate objects like images in engineering and design applications, which have more edges and require higher levels of precision, Lenovo officials said.

Touch capabilities allow users to be more productive by serving as a mouse replacement, said Mika Majapuro, worldwide ThinkPad product marketing manager at Lenovo. For certain tasks like turning a page or pressing a button, directly touching the computer is natural and intuitive.

"It provides a faster, more natural, and easier way to use their [PC] instead of using the keyboard or bezel buttons," Majapuro said.

The ThinkPad T400s is priced starting at US$1,999 and will become available by the end of September. The laptop is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors running at either 2.4GHz or 2.53GHz with 6MB of cache. It will support up to 250GB of storage and 4GB of memory. The laptop weighs 3.91 pounds (1.77 kilograms) and has up to 5.5 hours of run time on a 6-cell battery. It also includes 802.11 b/g/n wireless networking, an integrated webcam and Intel integrated graphics.

Lenovo also launched the two-finger version of the ThinkPad X200 ultraportable laptop. The laptop's weight starts at 3.5 pounds and it offers a battery life of up 10.4 hours with an 8-cell battery and an SSD drive. The laptop is powered by Intel's low-power Core 2 Duo chip with up to 6MB of cache. It's priced starting at $1,654 and the company didn't comment about when it will become available.

The laptops are being introduced ahead of Microsoft's official launch of Windows 7 on Oct. 22, which will come with built-in support for touchscreen capabilities. In anticipation of the OS, Lenovo on Tuesday announced an application called SimpleTap, which is a software environment to give simple touch access to hardware controls and software.

Tapping two fingers on a screen activates the SimpleTap environment on top of Windows. Tapping on specific icons allows users to mute the speaker or adjust screen brightness. The application also provides one-touch access to Web sites like YouTube.

"It's a easy, highly customizable way to work with your ThinkPad," said Aaron Stewart, a member of the user experience and design team at Lenovo. SimpleTap also works with Windows XP and Vista operating systems, and will be available for download from Lenovo's Web site after the launch of Windows 7 on Oct. 22.

Fujitsu on Tuesday also jumped into the multitouch laptop race, introducing an updated version of its LifeBook T5010 convertible tablet PC that supports two-finger touch input. The laptop has a 13.3-inch screen that allows for either touch and stylus input. The laptop weighs about 4.5 pounds and is powered by Core 2 Duo processors. A customizable version of the multitouch laptop is priced over $1800 on Fujitsu's Web site. The laptop will initially come with the Windows Vista OS.

Top PC makers Dell and Hewlett-Packard already offer two-finger touchscreen laptops. Hewlett-Packard launched the TouchSmart TX2 last year, while Dell earlier this year launched the multitouch Latitude XT2 laptop.

Intel announces Nehalem processor aimed at storage, communications

2009-09-21T22:35:00.001+05:30

Intel Corp. today announced it will ship an enhanced version of its dual-processing Nehalem Xeon chip aimed specifically at the data storage and communications market with the ability to natively create RAID and is integrated with PCI Express (PCIe).

The processors, due out in early 2010, are aimed at applications such as ultra-dense blades, IPTV, VoIP, network-attached storage (NAS) and storage area networks (SAN).

Intel first debuted its Nehalem-based Xeon microprocessor in April.

The new Jasper Forest processors are capable of configuring storage as a RAID 5 or 6, protecting against single- or dual-disk failure, respectively.

"Nehalem cores are quite powerful, but customers still want to be able to offload storage functions to a core, especially when you get down into two-core and single core versions of processors, really simplifies the architecture," said Seth Bobroff, manager of Intel's Server Platform Group - Storage.

Intel said the enhanced processor lowers system power consumption by 27 watts when compared to the Intel Xeon 5500 series and it integrates two Jasper Forest processors with 16 PCIe Generation 2.0 lanes each and is paired with the Intel 3420 chipset platform controller hub. This integration of the I/O hub via PCIe enables significant power and space savings, resulting in one of the highest performance-per-watt Intel Xeon chips ever.

The processors, which come in single or quad-core models, will offer a bridging functionality that allows multiple systems to connect over a PCIe link, removing the need for an external PCIe switch.

Jasper Forest provides a scalable option to system designers with a single-core, 23-watt processor to a quad-core, 85-watt processor using the same socket.

The chips will also protect against data in case of a power failure with a function called Integrated Asynchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory Self-Refresh memory. The feature automatically detects a power failure as it's happening and enables allows memory controller sequences to finish and forces the system memory to a self refresh before shutting down.

Bobroff said that in terms of work load consolidation, the new Jasper Forest chip can natively handle storage management processing functions such as data deduplication, data snap shots, storage virtualization and any basic storage management requirements.

"All the control and management aspects of storage management systems and with RAID being integrated into a CPU can simplify hardware and software design," he said. "There's no hardware acceleration for algorithms like we have here."

The processor is also suited to support the Storage Bridge Bay specification, which is currently being developed as a way to plug control boards directly into storage arrays, allowing for a denser architecture. Today, storage controllers require a separate blade slot.

The processors will be offered with 7-year lifecycle support.

Facebook releases real-time Web server tech as open source

2009-09-21T22:02:00.001+05:30

Facebook is releasing as open source a Web server technology because it wants to make it easier for developers to create applications that let users post status updates in real time, a functionality popularized by Twitter.

The Web server framework that Facebook will offer as open source is called Tornado, was written in the Python language and is designed for quickly processing thousands of simultaneous connections, the company said Thursday.

"Tornado is a core piece of infrastructure that powers FriendFeed's real-time functionality, which we plan to actively maintain. While Tornado is similar to existing Web-frameworks in Python ... it focuses on speed and handling large amounts of simultaneous traffic," wrote David Recordon, Facebook's open programs manager, in the Facebook Developer blog.

"We believe in releasing generically useful infrastructure components as open source ... as a way to increase innovation across the Web," he added.

Twitter is the best-known application for people to post real-time updates on their thoughts, status and whereabouts, and Facebook has been tweaking its site to tap into this trend.

For example, Facebook revamped its profiles to make the stream of friend notifications and status updates more prominent. It also added an option to let members display this stream and other parts of their profiles more broadly to everyone on Facebook, not just to hand-picked friends and members on mutual Facebook networks.

Recognizing that the large network of developers who build applications for Facebook is also interested in creating applications for real-time updates, Facebook in April released its Open Stream API. This API (application programming interface) lets developers build applications that access these Facebook notifications and help users manage them.

Toshiba squeezes 160GB onto 1.8-in. drive for handhelds(The drives have a 100MB/sec data transfer rate)

2009-09-21T21:33:00.002+05:30

Toshiba's Storage Device Division today introduced a new line of 1.8-inch hard disk drives (HDD) with up to 160GB capacity aimed at next-generation portable media players, digital video cameras and other consumer electronics products.

The new line of parallel ATA HDDs - about the size of a credit card -- come in thinner and lighter form factors and have the quietest seek operation and best power consumption efficiency of any of Toshiba's hard disk drives, the company said.

The drives' single platter, which spins at 4200RPM, has an areal density of 467Gbit per square inch. The drives have an average seek time of 15 milliseconds and a data transfer rate of 100MB/sec. The drives also come with 8MB of buffer memory.

The 160GB model provides enough capacity to store as many as 45,000 digital photos, 42,000 digital music files or 130 digital videos. Apple Inc. today announced its latest iteration of the classic iPod, which comes with a 160GB hard drive, but Toshiba declined to say whether its drive was being used in the device.

The MKxx34GAL hard drive series comes in 60GB, 80GB and 120GB models and are shipping now to consumer electronics manufacturers,

"With the increasing demand for anytime content access and capture, we continue to see healthy opportunity for 1.8-inch HDDs in portable devices," Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at Toshiba Storage Device Division, said in a statement.

Microsoft, Linux join forces in software law debate

2009-05-19T22:07:00.000+05:30

In an unusual twist, Microsoft and Linux have joined forces in a legal tussle.

The companies jointly sent a letter expressing their common disagreement with advice regarding software law that a group plans to send to judges.

The American Law Institute (ALI), an association that develops documents meant to help guide judges as they make decisions on complicated legal subjects, is presenting a final draft of its guidelines for software contracts on Tuesday during its annual meeting. The document has been in the works since 2004 and if it is approved it will be published.

Despite the differences that most often divide Microsoft, which relies on proprietary software sales for its lifeblood, and the Linux Foundation, which promotes open-source software, the two agree in this situation.

They urge the ALI specifically to clarify a section of its document that concerns warranties on defects in software. The document appears to absolve commercial open-source software from the types of warranties that would be applied to proprietary software. But because many open-source software providers make money, such as through advertising, it's unclear if such providers would be liable for defects according to the document.

"The principles outlined by the ALI interfere with the natural operation of open source licenses and commercial licenses as well by creating implied warranties that could result in a tremendous amount of unnecessary litigation, which would undermine the sharing of technology," Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, wrote in a blog post about the letter.

Microsoft and the Linux Foundation are writing and publishing the letter because it is essentially the only way for them to express their opinions about the ALI document. Only ALI members can participate in the process of drafting such documents and there is no public review prior to publication, Zemlin said.

The draft of the document is available for download for $45.

Microsoft and the Linux Foundation are asking the ALI to delay adoption of the principles to allow more time for input from interested parties.

They both recognize how unusual it is to be on the same side of such a debate. "The mere fact that the Linux Foundation and Microsoft are joining forces may be viewed by some as remarkable," wrote Horacio Gutierrez, deputy general counsel for Microsoft in a blog post. "But there is a wide range of issues that affect all software developers alike."

Microsoft confirms serious IIS bug, downplays threat

2009-05-19T21:54:00.000+05:30

Microsoft late Monday confirmed that its Internet Information Services (IIS) Web-server software contains a vulnerability that could let attackers steal data, but downplayed the threat.

"An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by creating a specially crafted HTTP request to a Web site that requires authentication, and thereby gain unauthorized access to protected resources," Microsoft said in a security advisory issued Monday night.

"[But] only a specific IIS configuration is at risk from this vulnerability," Jonathan Ness, an engineer with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), said in a post to the center's blog.

Earlier in the day, security organizations, including Cisco and the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) had warned that IIS 6 harbored a bug that a researcher claimed could be used to both view and upload files to Web servers.

According to Microsoft, the flaw affects IIS 6 servers where WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning), a set of extensions to HTTP used to share documents over the Web. WebDAV is also used in Microsoft Exchange 2003 to access inboxes through a browser.

Microsoft also confirmed that the older IIS 5 and IIS 5.1 software is vulnerable; The newer IIS 7, which debuted alongside Windows Vista and is included in Windows Server 2008, is not affected, however.

The vulnerability was revealed last week in a message by security researcher Nikolaos Rangos on the Full Disclosure mailing list. Although Rangos said the bug could be used to upload potentially malicious files, Belgian researcher Thierry Zoller said there was no way for an attacker to actually run malware planted on the server.

Ness echoed Zoller, with the caveat that Microsoft is still looking at the bug. "What we have found is that the IIS installer applies an NTFS access control entry to explicitly deny write access to the anonymous account (IUSR_[MachineName]) in wwwroot and subdirectories that inherit wwwroot's ACL," he said. "So in the default case, this vulnerability will not allow a malicious attacker to upload or modify Web pages."

He also ticked off four criteria that must be met to put a server at risk, and noted that "this vulnerability is primarily an information disclosure threat."

Rangos' bug can be traced to 2001, the year that the "Code Red" worm slowed Windows-based networks to a crawl, said Zoller, who noted that eight years ago Microsoft patched a path traversal bug in May 2001. "Its resemblance to the IIS Unicode flaw from 2001 was so similar that my jaw first dropped," he said in a blog entry last Saturday. "The bug discovered by Rangos seems to suffer from a similar logic mistake [as MS01-026]. Later that year, Microsoft patched other IIS bugs, including the one exploited by Code Red.

This newest flaw, however, is not related to the Code Red vulnerability.

Microsoft's Ness outlined several workarounds that users could take until a patch was available, including disabling WebDAV, in IIE 5, 5.1 and 6. The company did not explicitly promise a patch, but its advisory included boilerplate language -- "Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers -- that typically indicates a fix is forthcoming.

The next regularly-scheduled Microsoft patch day is June 9, three weeks from today.

5 steps to help protect your new computer before you go online

2008-02-24T23:28:00.004+05:30

The most important aspect of setting up a new computer is to ensure your system has the latest updates and security software installed.

Make sure these are downloaded and installed to help defend against viruses and other potential threats before you connect to the Internet.

And once you're connected, it's equally important to update the operating system and antivirus software on a regular basis.

The following steps will help you set up your new computer with the latest security tools available.

Step 1: Verify firewall

If you're running Windows Vista or Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), you should already have Windows Firewall running, and you can proceed to Step 2.

To see what operating system your computer is running, click Start, My Computer, and then click View system information to open the System Properties window. This information is listed on the General tab under System.

System Properties window

Tip: With Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2 installed, you can manage Windows Firewall and other security settings in one place to help protect your computer. If you don't have SP2 installed or do not wish to install it, see How to Enable Internet Connection Firewall in Windows XP.

Step 2: Get software updates

•	Turn on Automatic Updates.
•	Plug in your modem or network cable for Internet access.
•	Click Start and point to Control Panel. Select Network Connections in the Control Panel.
•	Choose Create a new connection to start the Network Connection Wizard.
•	After you're connected, allow Microsoft Update to install the latest security and software updates.

After all updates are installed and your settings are defined, you're ready to surf the Internet.

Just remember that it's important to be diligent with computer security technologies, so run Microsoft Update regularly, check the latest downloads and product updates, keep Automatic Updates turned on, and be aware of the latest security threats.

Step 3: Download antivirus software

Review the inventory or packing list that came with your computer to make sure the hard disk has all the listed software installed and the original installation CDs are there. This bundle typically includes security software from a recognized computer security company.

In most cases, a trial version of this software should have been preinstalled on the computer or included on a disk. If it wasn't, contact the computer manufacturer for a replacement.

If security software wasn't included with the original order, you should obtain and install antivirus software before continuing.

Microsoft offers Windows Live OneCare, a comprehensive service that helps protect your computer from many different kinds of threats, inlcuding viruses.

Step 4: Download antispyware software

After you've confirmed that you have antivirus software, you should confirm that you have antispyware software. To find out why you need both, see What's the difference between spyware and a virus?

Microsoft offers Windows Defender to help protect against spyware and other unwanted software. If your computer is running Windows Vista, you already have Windows Defender. If your computer is running Windows XP, you can download Windows Defender for free.

Step 5: Record system information

It's a good idea to record your computer's system information in case a technician needs it later. To do so:

•	Click Start, then Run, and type "msinfo32" in the text field. Click OK to open the System Information window.

System Information window

•

In the window, on theFile menu, click Export.

•

Name the file and save it to an external storage device such as a blank CD or thumb drive, and store it in a safe place.

Note: Windows Live OneCare also offers easy file backup and restore.

You should also keep the Windows installation CDs and related product key handy.

Source: MICROSOFT OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Toshiba Backs Up Sony

2008-02-24T23:18:00.001+05:30

Toshiba recently dropped out of the format wars, allowing their HD DVD format to die in favor of Sony’s Blu-Ray. It was assumed by most that this was a business decision made purely because it looked as though Blu-Ray was going to win the battle anyway. However, there may be more to the story. Toshiba and Sony have agreed to a business deal in which Sony will be selling its Japanese microchip production facilities to Toshiba.

"The equipment will be used by their semiconductor joint venture that will make high-performance Cell chips and RSX graphic chips, both used in Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, as well as other microchips that go into Toshiba products."

Some are suggesting that Sony used this deal as a bribe to get Toshiba to back off of the HD issue. However, the deal was apparently already in discussion back in October. In November, Sony CEO Howard Stringer expressed the wish that the two companies had collaborated more. With this deal, Toshiba is almost exclusively backing the PS3.

Digital downloads will be Blu-ray's downfall

2008-02-24T23:12:00.002+05:30

With the fall of HD DVD, Blu-ray has assumed the throne as the next format of choice, but its reign will be short-lived.

Blu-ray won't enjoy the same decade-long dominance DVD did after it succeeded VHS. But that's not because there will be other challenger physical disc formats. Rather, instead of buying discs from Amazon, Best Buy or Wal-Mart, people will begin getting their entertainment in the form of digital downloads in larger volumes.

The studios backing Blu-ray already know this. At an HDTV confab last fall, Warner Bros.' vice president of high-definition media development likened HD packaged media to a set of training wheels for digital downloads.

"We can use HD discs to train consumers to move into digital, but it's a transition," said Warner Bros.' Dan Silverberg. "Downloaded content will come, but the consumer will get quicker tutorial into video-on-demand, etc., by owning a Blu-ray player or HD DVD."

It'll happen sooner than they think. With a growing number of alternatives to packaged media, combined with the relatively high prices of Blu-ray players and discs vs. inexpensive, so-called upconverting DVD players, Blu-ray will likely be the last major disc format you'll ever buy.

Netflix, a purveyor of rental discs, obviously saw the writing on the wall, instituting its Watch It Now feature last year. Amazon.com, which sells plenty of packaged media, has its own Unbox video download service.

The likely reason? Overall consumer spending on DVDs and high-definition discs (HD DVD and Blu-ray), both purchase and rental, has been steadily decreasing since its peak at $24.5 billion in 2004. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, a trade group that represents all disc makers, spending last year amounted to $23.7 billion.

To the chagrin of disc patent holders, discs are not the only way to consumer high-definition media now. There are so many other ways to get content: Set-top boxes are getting far more sophisticated and will continue to do so in the next few years. Vudu, for instance, stepped up the video on demand option by adding more content than any of its predecessors, including the option for HD purchases and rentals. Apple recently upgraded Apple TV to include rentals--standard definition and HD--and a way to bypass the need for a PC to watch films on a living room TV. Even Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console has a download service for movies.

TiVo and other DVR makers that support cable giants like Comcast have traditional VOD options, and hard drive space will continue to expand. Netflix has its rentals available to watch right from its Web site, and watching TV shows online and for free at sites like ComedyCentral.com, Hulu.com, Joost, means you don't have to buy whole seasons of TV shows on physical discs anymore. If watching TV on a PC isn't your thing, technologies like Sony's Bravia Internet Link and Sling Media's SlingProjector bring Web video directly to the TV.

Perhaps most importantly, consumers will continue to get more and more comfortable with the idea of their library being digital. We're already there with music, and it's a relatively easy transition to make to one's movie collection. But it's also true of other things like Fandango's digital movie tickets, or even airline tickets and gift cards. We live in a world where oftentimes the value is not in the object itself, but in the digital information stored on a computer somewhere. (It's an attitude that's anathema to the likes of Disney and its studio cohorts who have always pushed the concept of personal movie collections, hence the push to upgrade to the "special edition" of older films.)

"The challenge for studios is really about convincing consumers to upgrade their libraries, (and) upconverting to 1080p (the highest resolution currently available) doesn't necessitate buying a whole new format," said Josh Martin, HD and video analyst for The Yankee Group.

People will get tired of replacing their favorite films to the trendy format of the moment. The price of the software ranging from $20 to $30 for Blu-ray discs right now will eventually drop. But digital copies costing less than $5 a pop, it's an easy decision for many.

The biggest roadblock is of course bandwidth, which causes the process to be long, painful, and ultimately not worth it for many. But that will change. Consider, for example, this scenario:

Using Fios from Verizon, it's possible to currently download several episodes of a TV show at approximately 5 megabits per second, or 625 kilobytes per second.

A 44-minute 640x360 (not high-definition) episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that my colleague Declan McCullagh downloaded via iTunes is 510MB.

"It requires 193 kilobytes per second to watch live, which is easily doable on Fios barring network congestion," McCullagh points out. (Levels of compression or a change from the H.264 video codec will have different results, of course.)

Comcast customers--and there are far more of them than Fios customers--have speeds today that vary widely, but 187 kilobytes per second in real-world tests is a good estimate. Assuming a one-hour high-definition TV show (with commercials) is around 5GB, that requires 1,388,888 kilobytes per second or 1.38 megabytes per second to watch.

So Fios is about halfway there about at best, and Comcast's 100 megabit per second connection, which it promised at CES would be a reality by 2009, could pull it off.

Vista SP1 Update Process Kills Some PCs, Microsoft Responds

2008-02-24T23:03:00.002+05:30

Microsoft hurriedly pulls one bad prerequisite update which caused a world of trouble for some Microsoft users

Microsoft rolled out it Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to select customers recently. The SP1 update drew mixed reviews according to initial testers. However, while SP1 is relatively stable, it pulls in Windows Updates and one particular prerequisite update is giving people serious problems.

Microsoft rolled out three prerequisite updates last week through Windows Update to prepare users computers computers for Windows Vista SP1. If customers tried to install Vista SP1 without the update, the SP1 install process would simply go and grab the update.

One of these updates, KB937287, caused some serious issues among some users. As Vista SP1 automatically grabs this update, some users experienced side effects during the SP1 installation process.

During the Vista SP1 installation process, some unfortunate users report their computer gets stuck on the third step -- the Windows Update step. Their installation process read, "Configuring updates: stage 3 of 3 - 0% complete" according to one user, and then the system reboots. After rebooting the installation process resumes -- then the computer reboots again. The computer becomes frozen in an unbootable loop. Numerous users on the Microsoft forums have reported having the same problem. Other users have reported that their computer simply would not boot properly.

Exactly how widespread the problem is at the time is unknown. Microsoft is trying to look into what is causing this unrecoverable crash. In the meantime they have pulled the prerequisite update.

For afflicted users, who already received the update, the only solution is to reboot their computers, boot from their original Vista disk and do a system restore to restore their computer to a state several days prior. Users may have to choose multiple restore points to find a working one, if any work at all. Some users report finding working restore points after several tries. However, users must then turn off Windows automatic update or the problem may recommence.

Some users have reported hardware and hard disk problems after restoration.

Many mistakenly labeled the problem as an issue caused directly by Vista SP1. While SP1 did inadvertently trigger the problem, it was the prerequisite update for Vista SP1 that raised havoc on users' machines. Microsoft has responded quickly, acknowledging this problem, and hopes to fix the update.

All about Worm.AutoRun.CBI

2008-02-24T21:13:00.002+05:30

Overview

Worm.AutoRun.CBI is a worm that tries to spread via network shares and removable media.

Virus Type:- Worm
Affected OS:- Windows (Vista,XP,2003 Server,2000,ME,98
Length:- Varies
Aliases:- Worm.Win32.AutoRun.cbi(AVP)

Technical Information:-

On execution, the worm performs the following operations :-

Copies itself as amvo.exe in the Windows System folder.
Copies itself as xo8wr9.exe in the root folder of all available drives.
Drops the files amvo0.dll,amvo1.dll in the Windows System folder.

Removal Procedure:-

Make sure you have the latest version of antivirus,antispyware,...........in order to have complete protection.

A Explorer Can be a Virus Too, Be Careful, VBScript exploiting it.

2008-02-24T20:59:00.001+05:30

Explorer.exe is a windows essential file, but i have found a Explorer.exe that is malacious.
This Explorer.exe is copied to USB Storages devices with autorun.inf file and attributes set hidden.
Note the icon of usb memory changed to Explorer style ?
Yes i am quite sure it exists there.
But the virus is not detected by AVG Free, Kasparesky and Norton too, till this date.
This Explorer.exe size is 0.98 KB. It stays in your original Explorer.exe space replacing it if it can exploit administrative prevlidges.
Later on, several VBScripts files query the file to corrupt your computer.
May this virus removal tool can help you to remove the viruses. Virus Removal

Virus Removal Tool

2008-02-23T23:52:00.003+05:30

Here are some virus removal tool for removing the virus like impad.exe, hinhem.scr , kinza etc.
Download all the files from the below links:

NewFolder
Isetup
BothNewFolder&Isetup
Kinza_isetup_hinhem