Friday, January 25, 2008

Best Buy gets framed

Best Buy gets framed by ZDNet's Josh Taylor -- If you were the recipient of a new Insignia digital picture frame for the holidays, you may have gotten an extra bonus with your gift. Turns out the 10.4-inch Insignia model (NS-DPF10A), which was available at Best Buy, included a virus that could allow the frame to infect Windows-based PCs via its USB connection. Insignia says [...]

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The polycarbonate all-in-one 22″ LCD PC

The polycarbonate all-in-one 22″ LCD PC by ZDNet's George Ou -- The last time I built a wooden all-in-one 19″ LCD PC, my family wanted it in the kitchen and my mother wanted it in hers. To keep everyone happy, I built my mother another one (pictured above and below) out of 3/16th inch jet-black polycarbonate which makes the chassis look like the material from [...]

Linux security guru joins Microsoft

Linux security guru joins Microsoft by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- Crispin Cowan, the Linux security expert behind StackGard, the Immunix Linux distro and AppArmor, has joined the Windows security team. In a blog post last week, Microsoft’s Michael Howard, author of Writing Secure Code, wrote: For those of you who don’t know Crispin, Crispin is responsible for a number of very well respected Linux-based security technologies such [...]

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Is there a rootkit stashed in your boot record?

Is there a rootkit stashed in your boot record? by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- The latest rootkit in the wild hides on your hard drive’s boot sector and is starting to infect Windows PCs, according to security researchers. And the real kicker: The rootkit can’t be detected by most antivirus applications. Symantec has been tracking the latest rootkit–Trojan.Mebroot–and provides a good overview of master boot record (MBR) rootkits. In general, an [...]

2008: Linux’s year on the desktop

2008: Linux’s year on the desktop by ZDNet's Robin Harris -- Desktop Linux hurts Microsoft Linux has kept a big chunk of the server business out of Microsoft’s hands. But in 2008, Linux will hurt Microsoft on the desktop. Here’s how. A new computing platform Thanks to Moore’s Law and evolving application needs, a new computing platform arrives every 10 years. Mainframes in the ’50s, minicomputers in the ’60s, [...]

Will touch drive Microsoft Surface sales or will Surface drive touch?

Will touch drive Microsoft Surface sales or will Surface drive touch? by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley -- But at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, Microsoft is discussing and demonstrating some different Surface application prototypes that seem somewhat more compelling -- customizable retail, education -- and dropped hints about gaming and office-productivity Surface apps that might be in the pipeline.

Intuit bug resurfaces at public Wi-Fi hot spots

Users of a popular accounting package have been warned not to use the software at public Wi-Fi hot spots, such as those found in coffee shops, airports and hotels.

Users of the 2006 Mac version of Intuit's QuickBooks software could find that a serious bug manifests itself again under certain conditions in Wi-Fi hot spots.

QuickBooks is one of three key product lines for Intuit, whose software has been sold to thousands of small businesses across the world.

The bug, which was contained in a flawed product update released in December, has already been responsible for deleting documents, including financial files, from users' PCs.

QuickBooks released a patch for the bug on Saturday, but warned users two days later of the dangers of using the QuickBooks software when connected to Wi-Fi hot spots.

"We have determined that the prior bug remanifests itself when QuickBooks Pro 2006 for Mac is initiated at public Internet hotspots and a redirection error occurs (for instance, when you are at a cafe that requires you to pay to use its services)," wrote Ian Vacin, leader for Mac financial software at Intuit, on the company's Web site.

"If you must use QuickBooks Pro 2006 for Mac at Internet hot spots over the next few days, please contact us directly... so that we can provide you a temporary work-around."

Vacin said that Intuit would release a patch in the "next few days" that will disable the software's upgrade mechanism and so cure the issue.

Intuit also urged users to download Saturday's patch because if they don't a refresh of the users' preferences could result in the original bug occurring again.

Although the company is releasing patches to address the problem, it has so far been unable to recover lost data from users' machines.

Data-recovery companies can often recover deleted Mac data, as long as the files have not yet been overwritten.

Microsoft restores Office 2003 users’ access to old file types

Microsoft restores Office 2003 users’ access to old file types by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley -- Microsoft, justifiably, has come under a lot of criticism for blocking Office 2003 users' access to older file formats -- even if it was in the name of security. But it looks like the public outcry did some good, as Microsoft has detailed options to allow users continue to access the old formats.

Microsoft hoses user data - again!

Microsoft hoses user data - again! by ZDNet's Robin Harris -- Update final (I hope) I mistakenly overstated the breadth of Microsoft’s changes with SP3. I’ve struck out the incorrect data below. See also my mea culpa here. Update title to: Microsoft hoses user data - again! For most users the Office SP3 means that they won’t be able to recover their old documents. They won’t know to [...]