Tekorama

Some Windows Software Update Services (WSUS) users got a surprise on their patching servers on August 20: A mention of Windows 7 Client.

The actual Windows 7 client code was not distributed via WSUS. But the appearance of Windows 7 on the list of products that will be serviced over WSUS paves the way for Microsoft to start pushing something Windows-7-related to customers in the coming months.

“WSUS doesn’t push products - just patches. so this could just be in preparation for something that is weeks or months in the future. It’s just a new category.” said one WSUS customer, who confirmed that he saw the “Windows 7″ box on his update check list this morning.

View Full Article: Mary Jo Foley's Blog

There are some things in life that will always be the same. Taxes will be due April 15 (in the US). The United States of America will always celebrate Independence Day on July 4th. Grant will always be buried in Grant’s Tomb. And, Microsoft will continue to make decisions and provide solutions that make us all shake our heads. If you run Windows Vista, you were shaking your head and in many cases, very upset about the situation of not having the proper tools to perform administration of your Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 network and Active Directory environment. Now, with the recent release of the Remote Server Administrative Tools (RSAT), the wait is over. This article describes some idiosyncrasies, installation steps, and tools that are available in the new RSAT for Windows Vista.

View Full Article: WindowSecurity.com

Wintel is entering the era of parallelism in lockstep. Intel is partnering with Microsoft to create a suite of interoperable tools for parallel programming in Visual Studio in C and C++.

Today, at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel announced that it will be conducting open beta tests of Intel Parallel Studio products beginning late this year and through mid-2009. The studio consists of four separate components for code analysis, design, debugging and performance tuning that integrate with Visual Studio.

View Full Article: SD Times

According to an apology Microsoft has issued to Japanese consumers, the demand for Xbox 360 consoles has far outstripped supplies in Japan, and inventories will remain totally sold out until new shipments arrive in September.

View Full Article: BetaNews

A tool that automatically steals IDs of non-encrypted sessions and breaks into Google Mail accounts has been presented at the Defcon hackers' conference in Las Vegas. Last week, Google introduced a new feature in Gmail that allows users to permanently switch on SSL and use it for every action involving Gmail, not just authentication. Users who did not turn it on now have a serious reason to do so, as Mike Perry, the reverse engineer from San Francisco who developed the tool, is planning to release it in two weeks.

News Source: Slashdot

Energy issues seem to be top of mind for Bill Gates in the initial months following his departure from daily life at Microsoft. The big question: Is he piecing together some larger idea, or just learning more about a subject that affects all his other interests?

The latest tidbit comes from the Calgary Herald, which reports today that Gates and Warren Buffett quietly toured an oilsands development in northeastern Alberta this week. An executive with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers told the Herald that the group was asked to give Buffett and Gates "a general overview on the oilsands and Canada's role in the world of energy in general." (Link via CNBC.)

View Full Article: Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog

Ever since Bram Cohen invented BitTorrent, Web traffic has never been the same. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, however, is a matter of debate.

Peer-to-peer networking, or P2P, has become the method of choice for sharing music and videos. While initially used to share pirated material, the system is now used by NBC, BBC and others to deliver legal video content and by Hollywood studios to distribute movies online. Experts estimate that peer-to-peer systems generate 50 to 80 percent of all Internet traffic. Most predict that number will keep going up.

View Full Article: ScienceDaily

While the first part of the 2008 Intel Developer Forum focused on Intel processors for desktops, notebooks and server systems, the second day shifted focus to the Intel Atom processor and a new generation of mobile Internet devices or MIDs that Intel hopes vendors will develop using the Atom chip. The second phase of the Atom processor roll out is scheduled for 2009 with the debut of the “Moorestown” platform that will use a new processor called Lincroft.

View Full Article: eWeek

Engineers in Microsoft's Internet Explorer group are devising a new means to stamp out one of the web's biggest security banes: attacks that steal email, bank account credentials and other sensitive information by injecting malicious code into trusted websites.

Some of the web's biggest names - including Google, Yahoo and MySpace - have fallen victim to so-called cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Tens of thousands of other sites, some belonging to banks and health care providers, have also been been shown to be vulnerable. For the past few years, Firefox users have had the useful - but by no means perfect - NoScript plugin to insulate them, but currently no such protection exists for IE, which remains far and away the most popular browser.

View: IE 8 XSS Filter Architecture / Implementation
View Full Article: The Register

Comcast Corp. plans to slow Internet service to its heaviest users during periods of congestion, after regulators ordered the company to devise a new method for managing its Web traffic.

The top Internet speeds for targeted customers will be reduced for periods lasting 10 minutes to 20 minutes, keeping service to other users flowing, Mitch Bowling, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager of online services, said in an interview yesterday.

View Full Article: Bloomberg