michael jackson's death themed malware campaigns spreading
the sudden death of michael jackson quickly opened a window of opportunity for cybercriminals to capitalize on. with a malicious spam campaign, blackhat seo search results poisoning which is serving scaraware within the first 100 search results for michael jackson’s death, and an opportunistic participant in zango adware’s network using typosquatting, malicious activity is prone to increase during the next couple of days.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3682

big fine could be big trouble in downloading case
minneapolis (ap) - the $1.92 million verdict against a minnesota woman accused of sharing 24 songs over the internet could ratchet up the pressure on other defendants to settle with the recording industry - if the big fine can withstand an appeal. under federal law, the recording companies are entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement but the law allows the jury to raise that to as much as $150,000 per track if it finds the infringements were willful. the jury decided on $80,000 per song.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20090619/D98U0UJ01.html

5 things the iphone 3gs is still missing
the iphone 3gs brings some much-needed improvements to apple's mobile computing device, but still manages to leave out some key technologies and features. here are five that i could think of off the top of my head.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/06/5_things_the_ip.html

federal cto sees it leading u.s. out of recession
having survived their own dot-com bust, information technology cios may be the catalyst to help pull the country out of its recession.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217801252

html 5: could it kill flash and silverlight?
html 5, a groundbreaking upgrade to the prominent web presentation specification, could become a game-changer in web application development, one that might even make obsolete such plug-in-based rich internet application (ria) technologies as adobe flash, microsoft silverlight, and sun javafx.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/html-5-could-it-kill-flash-and-silverlight-291

microsoft's looming windows 7 licensing 'disaster' for xp users
microsoft's potential xp downgrade trap -- under microsoft's planned enterprise licensing rules, businesses that buy pcs before april 23, 2010, with windows 7 preinstalled can downgrade them to windows xp, then later upgrade them to windows 7 when they're ready to migrate their users. but pcs bought on or after april 23 can only be downgraded to vista -- which is of no help for xp-based organizations, silver notes -- and could cause major headaches and add more costs to the windows 7 migration effort.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/microsofts-looming-windows-7-licensing-disaster-xp-users-639

senators ask fcc to look into iphone-at&t exclusivity
with rumors flying about that apple plans to open up the iphone to verizon as well as at&t, four senators are calling on the fcc to investigate exclusive mobile deals like the iphone deal and verizon’s exclusive access to the palm pre, reuters reports.
http://government.zdnet.com/?p=4965

china caves, says green dam software is optional
caving to public pressure, china on tuesday said that use of its controversial "green dam youth escort" software is not required, though all pcs sold on the mainland will come with it pre-installed.
http://www.crn.com/software/217900033;

microsoft files lawsuit over "click fraud"
in the suit filed on monday in a u.s. federal court in seattle against the three individuals and companies they are believed to control, microsoft said it suffered at least $750,000 as a result of the click fraud scheme. under the scheme, large groups of people or automated computer scripts click on online advertisements without having any interest in the services or product being advertised.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090616/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_microsoft

palm gets friendly with pre hackers
palm appears to be giving tacit approval to groups trying to hack the palm pre and palm's new handset operating system, webos. the pre dev wiki says it received a note from palm warning the hackers not to try to unlock the pre's tethering ability during the handset's exclusivity period with sprint. tethering lets your mobile device double as a modem for wireless internet access.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/palm-gets-friendly-pre-hackers-589

the ext4 linux file system
in the face of rapidly rising data volumes, it is increasingly clear that ext3, the current default linux file system, is reaching its limits. a maximum file system, and thus volume size, of 16 tb can already be a tight squeeze for large raid arrays; ext3's 32-bit block numbers and 4 kb data blocks mean, however, that there's no way around this limit. a major refurbishment is therefore due.
http://www.h-online.com/open/The-Ext4-Linux-file-system--/features/113403

linux 2.6.30's best five features
windows and mac os updates every few years. windows 7 arrives on october 22nd and apple's snow leopard will show up in september. the linux kernel, the heart of linux distributions, however, gets updated every few months.
http://blogs.computerworld.com/linux_2_6_30s_best_five_features

china tells pc makers to install censoring software
the chinese ministry of industry and information technology plans to require that all personal computers sold in the country as of july 1 be shipped with software blocking access to certain internet sites, the wall street journal is reporting.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/China-to-PC-Makers-Install-Censoring-Software-438012...

microsoft ... kills "three app limit" on windows 7 starter edition
"there are still plenty of features missing from the starter edition, although i think that most netbook users can either live without these features of work around them"
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=4459

twitter gets targeted again by worm-like phishing attack
twitter users have been tricked into divulging their login and password details to a web site that then spammed their contacts. the culprit is a web site called twittercut. some twitter users began getting a message that appeared to be from one of their friends and included a link to the twittercut web site. the message implied they could gain more twitter contacts by following the link.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/twitter-gets-targeted-again-worm-phishing-attack-886

amd delivers the world's first 1 ghz graphics processor
nine years after launching the world’s first 1 ghz cpu, amd is again first to break the gigahertz barrier with the factory overclocked, air-cooled ati radeon™ hd 4890 gpu
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~131192,00.html

ryan naraine and dancho danchev
spammers are no strangers to the ever-growing twitter. from commercial twitter spamming tools, to re-tweeting trending topics for delivering their message, a new crafty search technique can provide spammers with fresh and valid emails harvested from twitter’s users in real-time. basically, the search query consists of common phrases such as “email me at” and “contact me at” in a combination with a domain of a spammer’s choice.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3402

facebook members hit by another phishing scam
in what's just the latest facebook phishing scam, hackers on thursday broke into accounts and sent e-mails to friends urging them to log on to fake facebook sites, according to new reports and anecdotes from members. facebook did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking confirmation and information about the hack. the number of users affected remains unknown
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10241573-83.html

home automation: the unfulfilled promise
aside from simple tasks like lighting and thermostat control, home automation systems have largely struggled to find a foothold in the household. however, as new technologies like home computer networks make headway into consumers' homes, and as smart grid technologies gain greater acceptance, home automation systems may reach a tipping point.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Home-Automation-The-Unfulfilled-Promise-66973.html

open source becomes a force in health care it
open source is picking up steam in enterprise computing, even as the economy peters out. if west virginia sen. jay rockefeller has his way, open source will soon make its mark on medicine, too, with the lower cost of open source a key impetus behind the move.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10230940-16.html

china hardest hit as malware attacks increase
china received the brunt of a rise in malware attacks around the world in april, doubling its share of attacks from the previous month as the lucrative online gaming market attracted hits from cybercriminals.
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24834/53/

enterprise applications slideshow: 10 iphone apps for it administrators
as the iphone and the ipod touch become increasingly integrated into the enterprise life, a number of application vendors and developers have started designing apps that add mobile functionality to it administration. even if out of the office, it administrators can use the following apps—all available from the itunes app store—to access and manage their systems remotely.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/10-iPhone-Apps-for-IT-Administrators-389944/

amazon and wikipedia phactor phorm out of the privacy equation
even if the uk government are not going to stop phorm spying on internet users on privacy grounds, it looks like some of the biggest brands on the web will.
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24578/1231/

vmware introduces the "internal cloud"
the point of vsphere 4 is to enable enterprises to set up cloud computing architectures within their own it environments.
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24562/1231/

all-in-one pcs: what's new and what's next
from budget-oriented 'nettops' with touchscreens to top-of-the-line designer models, it's easy to see why the single-piece desktop is making a comeback.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/163145/allinone_pcs_whats_new_and_whats_next.html

bluetooth 3.0+hs arrives without the hs
the next version of bluetooth is being launched today, though anyone hoping to see uwb capabilities will be disappointed to see that for the moment "hs" means wi-fi speeds over a wi-fi carrier.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/21/bluetooth_3/

amd loses cash less quickly
meyer put the blame squarely on the enterprise market. "stand back and look at it," meyer said, "our server business was down a little bit quarter-on-quarter, while both the desktop and notebook businesses were up quarter-on-quarter, which affects the overall asp and moves it down." on the plus side, meyer noted that he believes that gpu sales "might see a spike" when microsoft releases the directx 11-enhanced windows 7 expected later this year. he also has high hopes for the upcoming congo variant of amd's yukon platform, which he said will ship near the end of the current quarter.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/22/amd_q1_2009/

spam e-mails killing the environment, mcafee report says
if annoying users and wasting their time wasn't bad enough, spam e-mails are also responsible for clogging our atmosphere with carbon dioxide, a gas that shoulders much of the blame for global warming, according to a report commissioned by antivirus vendor mcafee. "when you look at it from an individual user perspective you're only talking about 0.3 grams of carbon dioxide per spam message," said dave marcus, director of security research and communications at mcafee's avert labs, in a telephone interview. "when you extrapolate the math out to the larger numbers, it definitely is significant."
http://www.pcworld.com/article/163141/spam_emails_killing_the_environment_mcafee_report_says.html

cybercrime surging: and it's your money they're after
a trio of quite separate reports released this week on different aspects of internet security reveals an alarmingly rapid increase in the scale, scope and success of organised attacks on it systems for financial gain.
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24439/1231/

symantec showcases digital malware snapshots for 2009 rsa conference
ever try to draw a picture of malware? eweek never has, but artists alex dragulescu and julian hodgson both have. using digital imagery, the duo has crafted a showcase of art depicting three-dimensional images of virus code. the pictures will be displayed at an art show hosted april 22 by symantec as part of this year's rsa conference in san francisco. to bring the malware to life, the artists used a special application to analyze virus code that uses the code's values to create a 3d image. from there, the image is transferred to modeling software, where it is positioned and lit to best capture the aesthetics of the model. the final image is then rendered for presentation.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Symantec-Showcases-Digital-Malware-Snapshots-for-2009-RSA-Conferen...