2007 February

Microsoft has written the Fundamental Computer Investigation Guide for Windows. If you have suspicions and need more data - but you are not yet ready to call in someone for a complete forensic investigation - this guide will help you to investigate further using forensic principles. Using forensic principles will preserve evidence for […]

Security researchers at Indiana University and Symantec have discovered a hack that allows an attacker to enter common home routers if someone visits a properly designed Web page and the router’s default password hasn’t been changed. The attacker can then wreak further havoc such as denial of service, malware infection, or identity theft among […]

Thanks to the Windows Secrets newsletter for this one.
We’ve all seen the PC vs Mac ads by Apple, there are plenty of them. But now it’s time for the PC to counterattack, with the help of director Laurie McGuinness, who created four small hilarious clips, with the same character personalities (the PC being older, “boring,” […]

This applies to Windows Vista Ultimate and Window Vista Business only - no other versions of Vista. If Vista Ultimate or Vista Business came with your computer - OR you bought the full retail version of those (NOT an upgrade version), OR your organization has a Volume License Agreement using one of those versions […]

You IT managers who are not hiring older IT workers or are letting them go are losing access to a valuable resource (yes, I’m biased) as this story states:
Charleston Southern University CIO Rusty Bruns has a secret weapon to handle needy users — Buddy Gray, a 63-year-old network manager.
“His customer service is impeccable. He has […]

Here’s a free application that is “Internet filtering and [a] control solution for the home. K9 puts YOU in control of the Internet so you can protect your kids.” I have no experience with this software - but members of a technician’s mailing list I’m subscribed to liked it.

You database geeks - you think you have problems with your database’s performance - how’d you like to be the DB admin at MySpace? They went from startup in 2003 to 140 million user accounts in 2007. How’d you like to administer a system that serves 40 billion page views a month (more […]

Thanks to Tim Hodkinson for the link that led to this post. There’s more problems to the Vista EULA than meet the eye - and Microsoft has a very good chance of not being able to enforce it in both Washington state and the state of Maryland. Mark Rasch is a former head […]

You don’t need to be visionary or adventurous to try scripting, you just need to be the type of person who wants to save some time. (It’s still only the fanatics who think it’s fun though.) Scripts can not only make your work go faster, they can make your job easier. And once you learn […]

Before Microsoft bought Systernals, Mark Russinovich was the leading expert on Windows who didn’t work for Microsoft. Now that he works for them and can access the source code, his articles will be even more cogent.
This is the first part of a series on what’s new in the Windows Vista kernel. In this issue, […]

The competition’s overview page is here
One world. Unlimited possibilities.
Let’s face it — the world needs help. The kind of help that happens when you take the top young minds from around the globe and turn them loose on solving the world’s toughest problems. That’s what the Imagine Cup is all about. This is your chance […]

By now it should be clear that Diebold’s AccuVote-TS electronic voting machines have lousy security. Our study last fall showed that malicious software running on the machines can invisibly alter votes, and that this software can be installed in under a minute by inserting a new memory card into the side of the machine. The […]

Way to go Alex! You’re a Canadian - publish the code and let Microsoft be damned!
…the code I’ve written does not work out of the box on a Vista RTM system. Although it can be effective when combined with a reboot, this doesn’t provide any advantage of any of the myriad other ways that […]

If you are considering adopting Windows Vista in your business, you may want to have your lawyer examine the license to see if it conflicts with any of your existing contracts. Dan Shearer explains why:
Contracts common in certain industries cut across the Vista licence.
The Vista licence embodies technical surprises that may contradict your clients’ […]

Michael Geist writes this critique of Vista’s far more onerous licensing terms - he is a Canadian law professor and an expert in Internet law.
With Microsoft’s Vista set to hit stores tomorrow, my weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) looks at the legal and technical fine print behind the operating system upgrade. […]

Thanks to Brian Livingston and Fred Langa of Windows Secrets for this one.
“How to extend the Vista activation deadline“
Microsoft provides a command-line program in Vista known as the Software Licensing Manager (SLMGR) or slmgr.vbs.This is a Visual Basic script that resides in c:\windows\system32. You can read the contents of this script file with any text […]

Intel’s recent announcement of a 80 core processor on a single chip combined with this story on the huge amount of energy used by data centres has (I predict) data centre managers on the edges of their seats - hoping that the Intel innovation is released to market soon. If you combine that with […]

Interesting! Serving data via wireless to police cars that may be involved in a 160 km/h chase poses some unique challenges that this article explains.
Like everything else, modern police work is increasingly data intensive and network dependent. But when you are supporting 450 police cruisers spread over a county of 876 square miles (including […]

This would be useful for astronauts on the ISS - but the delay caused by the Moon’s distance from Earth would probably make it unpractical for a Moon colony.
“Doctors to reach out to patients thousands of miles away“
Now surgery from a distance may become a more pervasive reality thanks to a touch-simulation toolkit created by […]

“Which original ENIAC programmer helped develop COBOL and Fortran?“
For all those computer geeks out there who will spend yet another Valentine’s Day in the presence of a computer rather than a significant other, it’s time to change the game. Toss off the shackles of this Hallmark-addled so-called holiday, and celebrate a far more important and […]