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Mozilla in Scary Movie 3

Lorraine told me that Mozilla was used in Scary Movie 3. Although they do not use Mac laptop for the movie, but Mozilla is there! The website has pictures taken from the movie.

> Mozilla is used in Scary Movie 3 thread.

give up rights to sue MS, or you won't be able to pre-install Windows

According to this BBC report, Microsoft has set very unfair contracts that requires companies sign away their right to sue, even if they find Microsoft has used their patent technology.

Thanks God, Microsoft is dropping this from contract.

SillyDog701 recalls that Microsoft used to require PC retailers not to bundle other companies products (including Netscape browsers) if they want to get good deals in Windows OEM.

Windows XP Reloaded

DJGM brought the news of Windows XP Reloaded to us.
According to the source, the new XP Reloaded will be available before Windows Longhorn, and includes a number of updates including XP SP2 + Media Player 10.

> Discuss this in our Windows XP Reloaded thread.

shutting down an ISP is more efficient

According to Robert Accettura's blog, an "efficient" way FBI used is simply shutting down an ISP, rather than take specific data.
FBI has a search warrant for searching one of the IRC network CIT Hosting hosts. All CIT Hosting's clients got offline because of their clients has some content of FBI's interest?

This issue has been discussed in Slashdot and reported in this Carrier Hotels' article

From CIT Hosting's website 14/2/2004:

Dear Customers of FOONET/CIT:
We regret to inform you that on Saturday February 14, 2004 at approximately 8:35 am EST, FOONET/CIT's data center in Columbus, Ohio temporarily ceased operations.

Here are the facts of what occurred:

The FBI executed a search warrant issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio regarding the IRC network that we host. According to the warrant, it appears that the Bureau is investigating whether someone hosted on our network hacked and attacked someone else.

After several hours of attempting to track down, inspect and audit the terabytes of data that we host, the FBI determined that it was more efficient (from their point of view) to remove all of our servers and transport them to the FBI local laboratories for inspection. This was completed at 7:00 pm EST same day.

The FBI has assured us that as soon as the data has been safely copied and inspected, the equipment will be promptly returned. Unfortunately, the FBI has not been able to tell us when they will be completed with their inspection.

We have been told by the Special Agent in charge of the investigation that If you need access to your data you are asked to please contact the Bureau via email to rwhite3@leo.gov. Make sure to include in your email your name, mailing address, and telephone number with area code.

Since we wish to focus 100% of our efforts on restoring services, we would appreciate it very much if you do not attempt to contact us directly. Please rest assured that we are doing everything possible to restore service to you as quickly as possible.
To the many who have inquired, Paul and family are OK, although shaken by these events. They are at home and awaiting the blessed event of their new child's birth. We thank you for your good wishes and prayers.

Please check back here often. Through this site, we will keep you informed of ongoing developments as we know them.

Thanks again for your understanding.

Thanks god, they resumed business on 23/2/2004:

We have restored service at Equinix's Chicago Data Centers. We are in the same facilities as MSN and many fortune 500 companies. The facility has multi OC192 connections to the backbone.

The FBI has begun retuning equipment to CIT which is being shipped to our new facilities in Chicago.
At this time CIT will continue to provide dedicated DDOS Protected web hosting only.

If you are a customer missing data please be patient we will notify our customers as soon as we receive their servers, and will arrange for your data to be returned to you. If you have not been contacted it is because we don't have your server yet.

CIT provides reliable and scalable solutions for customers of all sizes and services. Located in Equinix's Chicago Data Centers , CIT has access to all the major carriers without the need for local loop circuits.

Our Chicago staff is focused first and foremost on customer satisfaction, and will take every action necessary to accommodate each customer. Unlike many large ISPs, CIT prides itself in its ability to provide personalized service to each customer – if a customer calls twice for assistance, they can usually speak to the same representative. Our sales and support teams are allowed a great deal of flexibility to work together to resolve each customer’s needs on an individual basis. Our success and rapid growth can be attributed to the satisfaction of our customers - word-of-mouth referrals account for a large portion of the new business we receive each month.

Since none of the IRC server has been return to us, the IRC Network will remain down until further notice. AS soon as we receive the IRC servers back we will promptly notify our customers of the return and arrange to get your data or collocated server back to you.

free MS security update CD

Hendikins told me that Microsoft is offering security update CD for free. Free of charge.
The CD is only available for Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows 98 Second Edition (SE).
You can get it from Microsoft Security Update CD page.

I guess Microsoft finally realised that there are far too many bugs in their products. Any links to the leaking of its source code?

Lindows is now Lin---s

Guess what?
Lindows is now Lin---s (pronounced as Lin-dash). Microsoft has successfully blocked the distribution of this alternative operating system.

"By removing 3 letters from our product name, Lindows.com will not be creating any confusion regarding Microsoft's supposed trademark on 'windows', and still offer choice in the marketplace," said Lindows.com CEO Michael Robertson in a statement today. "Any action from Microsoft to block Lin---s will show their true intentions are not to protect their trademark, but to eliminate competition and maintain their monopoly." (The Register reports)

Please do not forget the 17-year old Mike Rowe's MikeRoweSoft.com was forced to rename to MikeRoweForums.com and Microsoft apologised only after very bad publicity. (Antony took a screenshot of MikeRoweSoft.com website)

Microsoft does it again! Patch time again.

To Microsoft Windows Fans and Users:

Please take note of the vilnerabilities on MS Windows reported on Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin Summary for February 2004 (see summary below:)

Another patch this, update that time.

Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin Summary for February, 2004
Affected softwares: a number of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT 4 Workstation and Server.
Vulnerability Could Allow Code Execution
Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer
Vulnerability in the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) Could Allow Code Execution

Not just that, this serious vulnerability took Microsoft 6 months to acknowledge it. (eEye Digital's report)
(forum thread)

get back your money from Microsoft

The settlement applies to people or entities that indirectly purchased Microsoft Windows operating system, MS-DOS operating system, Word, Excel or Office, for use in California, from February 1995 through December 2001. It does not include software designed for use on the Mac platform. For example, Excel for Mac is not eligible for a claim. However, Microsoft software designed for PC compatible machines but purchased to run on Macs through a virtual PC emulator would be included.

What was the case about?
The Plaintiffs in the lawsuit claimed that Microsoft violated California’s antitrust and unfair competition laws and thereby overcharged consumers for certain of its software. Microsoft denies these claims and contends that it developed and sold high quality and innovative software at fair and reasonable prices. The Court did not decide in favor of the Plaintiffs or Microsoft. Instead, both sides agreed to a settlement.

Each license is worth: $16 for MS-Dos or Windows, $29 for Office, $26 for Excel, and $5 for Word.

Ends 15th March 2004.

for more detail, check this Microsoft Settlement with State of California from Apple's website.

Win apps on Mac without Windows

DARWINE, an open source project, intends to port and develop WINE as well as other supporting tools that will allow Darwin and Mac OS X users to run Windows Applications. The project is described as being in pre-alpha stage, which means the project is in its early stages, far from working software.

WINE is software for PCs running Linux or FreeBSD Unix. WINE runs Windows applications without running Windows--the Windows apps appear directly in a Unix windowing environment. Rather an emulating a PC, WINE (which requires Intel hardware) provides the Windows APIs for the apps. This means on PC hardware, it can run faster than an emulator such as Virtual PC.

DARWINE will also run on a PC running Darwin, Apple's open source Mac OS X core based on FreeBSD. To run on a Mac and Mac OS X, DARWINE will need an x86 emulator. The DARWINE project is working on integrating an emulator, such as Bochs, but has not gotten that far yet. However, even with an emulator, a DARWINE for Mac OS X could run faster than Virtual PC due to the absence of Windows itself. (MacWindows reports)

We hope to see a product faster and easier to use than VirtualPC.

Microsoft does Welsh?

According to this TheRegister report, "Microsoft is very nice to Welsh language." Is it? A step after open source Linux group?

Let me bring you another point arise from this report. What happened to Maori? Maori is an official language in New Zealand. Few years ago, Microsoft selected New Zealand for testing its Activation service in Office application before implementing it worldwide.

Personal comment: very unfair. (SillyDog701 Message Centre thread)