SillyDog701

Windows Lite, a stripped-down version coming?

Microsoft said Monday that it is prepared to "put a stripped-down version of Windows on the market if its appeal to suspend a March antitrust ruling that found in favor of the European Union," according to the Associated Press. The original landmark decision included a "record €497 million (US$600 million) fine as well as orders to hand over software code to rivals in the server market, and to change the way it packages its own Media Player software into Windows."

"We'll certainly be ready to comply," Microsoft's chief lawyer, Brad Smith, said at a news conference. He said the U.S. software giant had "spent millions of dollars over the past few months" to prepare a version of its ubiquitous operating system that would satisfy EU regulators.

> Join our discussion -"Windows Lite? a stripped-down version of Windows" (Message Centre)

Microsoft to lock down iPod?

Microsoft says small device like the world's most popular mp3 device, iPod, can be used to steal data, and the next Windows (Longhorn) is working to lock such devices down.

SillyDog701 noticed that Microsoft is testing its MSN Music store in beta stage, MSN Music store works with Microsoft's Windows Media Player, although Windows Media support many MP3 portable player, but Apple's iPod is clearly missed from the list.

With Apple's iTunes (for Windows), it is possible to convert WMA (unprotected) to MP3 or AAC format to be used in iPod.

Microsoft is working on technology that will give companies more control over whether to prohibit devices that can easily be used to transfer data to and from personal computers.

So the real goal is to lock out iPod, and the storage device is just a good sounding excuse?

> Join our discussion - "Microsoft to lock down iPod?"

Microsoft is working on technology that will give companies more control over whether to prohibit devices that can easily be used to transfer data to and from personal computers.

The technology is due to appear in next version of Windows, dubbed Longhorn, due out in 2006. As devices including Apple's popular iPods become capable of holding more data, some worry that people could use them to steal data or unleash virus attacks on business networks.

Microsoft's goal is to have a system where people can use devices that help them in their work - such as a smart phone full of professional contacts - but not storage devices that could be used to quickly steal data, said Greg Sullivan, a lead product manager.
...

Longhorn locked against theft by iPod (13 Sept 2004, news.com.au)

> Join our discussion - "Microsoft to lock down iPod?"

MSN Music to compete with iTunes?

Microsoft joins the music download war. As expected.

Earlier, SillyDog701 reported Microsoft joins search engine war, competing with Google, it is still too earlier to call the result. As a Netscape Archive website, SillyDog701 immediately noticed the similarity between the browser wars many years back. Now Microsoft wants to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store.

>> Read more at MacCentre701
> Join our discussion - "MSN Music, Microsoft competes with Apple iTunes?"

get your online music through SillyDog701

SillyDog701 is proud to announce the introduction of iTunes Music Store programme now available through most SillyDog701 pages.

Users can now buy their legal music online from the world's most popular online music store - iTunes Music Stores (from SillyDog701).

Don't steal music.

Features of iTunes Music Store:

• Largest and Most Diverse Legal Music Download Catalogue: Over 1 million tracks from all 5 major labels and more than 600 independents.
  
• More than 8,000 audiobooks and popular public radio programs including, "This American Life with Ira Glass," "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," "Car Talk," and more.
  
• iMix: Allows music lovers to post and share their favorite songs
  
• Party Shuffle: A playlist that is always full of songs
  
• Seamless integration with iPod.

Win XP SP2 dissected

SillyDog701 moderator DJGM surprised that Windows XP Service Pack 2 does not actually do much improvement to the security for an average install of Windows XP machine.

While we found that there are indeed a few minor improvements worthy of acknowledgment, in particular, some rather low-level improvements that don't show to the admin or user, overall, SP2 did little to improve our system's practical security, leaving too many services and networking components enabled, bungling permissions, leaving IE and OE vulnerable to malicious scripts, and installing a packet filter that lacks a capacity for egress filtering.
(The Register)

> Read more about this issue - "Windows XP Service Pack 2 dissected".

4.8 million hits

SillyDog701 is proud to announce 4.8 million hits in August 2004. Again, we broke our previous record of 4.2 million hits in July, this is the fourth time in a row with more than 4 million hits in a month. This is our highest record so far.

Again, the statement of reaching more than "7 Million hits" in less than two months time is proven to be true.

> The detail of the traffic recpor can be found at SillyDog701 Traffic Report.