Carbon, the New King in the Semiconductor Industry

-Silicon is likely to be kicked out of the team.

                                                           
Silicon is one of the oldest veterans in the IT industry. It has marched a long way but modern requirements tend to ask for more than it can offer. Just like the transistor, silicone is about to retire, or at least this is what Princeton University researchers say.

The Princeton University engineers have discovered a method that is alleged to substitute the old fashioned silicon with carbon. They say that the team found a way to build transistors on a graphene substrate a few atoms thick. This will bring unimagined benefits to the semiconductor industry, as the method offers switching speeds up to ten times higher than the conventional, silicon substrate.

The main obstacle was getting a wide enough graphene sheet that can be used with modern wafer technology. Initially they could achieve a sheet of couple square millimeters in extreme laboratory conditions while a processor asks for 300 to 500 millimeter layers. The researchers needed to weld more tiny patches to achieve the desired surface and then to overlay them on a traditional silicon substrate wherever logic circuits are required. The final result is a set of graphene tiles paving the substrate.

The process is extremely delicate and involves an enormous amount of work, but "electronic hole" measurements show that carbon circuits can perform ten times faster than silicon. This will have a huge impact on tomorrow's technology, such as cell phones and wireless devices: they will be smaller and will consume less power at an improved performance rate.

The researchers consider that the technology will become truly viable in a few years. Once demonstrated, the technology must be scaled to match larger applications and it is highly likely that entire CPUs can be achieved – units that will be ten times faster at the same power consumption as the ones we are using today.

The full credit for the achievement goes to professor of electrical engineering Stephen Chou and graduate student Xiaogan Liang at Princeton University. As for the funds, the university is financed by the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as other government institutions.

NEC to Develop Next-Generation of Non Volatile RAM

- MRAM is a non-volatile type of memory for embedding in future consumer electronics products

NEC has announced that it has succeeded in developing a new type of memory that preserves the SRAM compatibility. The new discovery has been named MRAM, which stands for Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory, and is alleged to run at a speed of 250 MHz, the fastest MRAM speed in the world.

Apart from the fact that the MRAM is as fast as SRAM, one of the most important features of the new memory type is its non-volatility: the hardware is able to resume even if the computer power has been turned off. The unique memory type has been manufactured and designed exclusively by NEC. The company has adopted the 1 megabit capacity form factor.

The design incorporates a memory cell with two transistors, one magnetic tunnel junction, and a newly-developed circuit scheme that allows an operating speed of 250 MHz, which is almost double than the nowadays' MRAM speeds. Same speeds can only be achieved by the newer, LSI-embedded SRAM memory.

The NEC manufacturers have carried extensive tests on the memory, using an internal signal-monitoring circuit, and they have measured a data output time of 3.7 nanoseconds from a 250MHz clock edge.

"MRAM are expected to generate new value and applications for future electronic devices thanks to their nonvolatility, unlimited write endurance, high speed operation, and ability to cut memory power dissipation in half. For example, these features could enable instant start up of PCs and prevent drive recorders from losing data after a sudden break in power in the future. As substitutes for system LSI-embedded SRAM, MRAM can provide even more value as they are expected to enable extremely low power dissipation of system LSIs because they can sleep when they are not in use and wake up instantly."

Hackers Trying to Get Control over the World's Second Fastest Computer?

- “Jaguar” targeted by hackers

A new day, another hack attack. This seems to be the perfect motto for the companies and organizations around the world, as they are all attacked by more or less powerful hackers aiming to steal their data. But this time, hackers targeted the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which hosts the second fastest computer in the world, AP reported today. Although the lab's official said the attacks were supposed "to be part of a coordinated attempt to gain access to computer networks at numerous laboratories and other institutions across the country," nobody knows for sure if the hackers ever wanted to get control over 'Jaguar'.

The attack didn't cause any data loss, the lab's representatives said, according to the same source mentioned above. "There was no classified data of any kind compromised. There are people who think that because they accessed this database that they had access to the lab's supercomputer. That is not the case. There was no access at all," lab spokesman Bill Stair told AP.

Just like usual, the attack was based on infected spam messages, which attempted to deploy malicious applications on the computers. It seems like the first email reached the inbox on October 29, while six more assaults came afterwards. "At first glance, they appeared legitimate," lab director Thom Mason said. Obviously, the email messages contained all sorts of text messages supposed to convince the readers that they had to open the attachments. One of them informed the employees about a complaint sent at the Federal Trade Commission, AP continued.

The lab's representatives have already sent emails to approximately 12,000 potential affected visitors although they underlined the fact that no information had been stolen.

Certainly, there's a problem with the computers' security. I wonder if they've ever installed a spam filter and if yes, how efficient is it since the emails have reached the inbox? However, the employees should be advised not to open any suspect email which contains malicious information, as the attackers aim to infect every single computer in the world.

No More Memory Leaks in Internet Explorer 8?

Following the introduction of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 in October 2006, and then in November 2006 and January 2007, concomitantly with the business and consumer launches of Windows Vista, Microsoft debuted the next stage into the evolution of IE. At this point in time, early builds of Internet Explorer 8 are being dogfooded internally at Microsoft, but the Redmond company failed to deliver even the most anodyne details related to the browser's evolution, outside of a general perspective over IE8 dropped at MIX07.

Still, there are bits and pieces that slip through, just crumbs from the Internet Explorer 8. In this context, John Hrvatin, Program Manager Internet Explorer, revealed that for IE8 Microsoft is focusing strongly on resolving the current memory leakage problems associated with IE7 and IE6. Measures have been taken to mitigate the problems in the currently available versions of the Microsoft proprietary browser, but there is room for improvement.

"These memory leaks often occur as a result of circular references between Jscript objects and objects within IE’s DOM (document object model). Since the Jscript engine and IE have independent memory management schemes, each side can’t see the entire cycle of these circular references. Internet Explorer 7 improved the situation by releasing all references to Jscript objects attached to the DOM tree when IE navigates away from that page. This allows the Jscript engine to then garbage collect those Jscript objects and recover that memory. We’ve also made the same changes in IE6 on Windows XP SP2," Hrvatin explained.

Despite the work poured into IE7 and IE6, the browser versions, taking down the markup still causes IE to drop anything that is not connected to the tree. Users might have experienced memory leaks with Internet Explorer when keeping websites opened for prolonged periods of time. If the website has not been optimized to steer clear of leak patterns, Internet Explorer will cause memory usage to grow and grow delivering a heavy impact on the overall performance of the machine. "So no, it’s not perfect, but we’re also continuing to invest in improvements for future versions of IE", Hrvatin promised.

But before Internet Explorer 8 drops, at this time it is expected in late 2008, early 2009, Microsoft recommended two tools designed to help developers deal with memory leaks. "Drip and sIEve (joint SourceFourge site) are two such tools. Many of you may already be familiar with them, but a little extra visibility never hurts. Both applications host Trident – IE’s rendering engine – and add detection of memory leak patterns. They let you track memory and DOM usage while using a site and then detect any leaks when you navigate away from that page. Drip is an open source project under the BSD license. Based on Drip, sIEve improves the usability in a few ways including non-modal dialogs and a real-time graph of DOM usage instead of memory usage", Hrvatin added.

Internet Explorer 8

Following the availability of Internet Explorer 7 in October 2006 for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003, and together with Vista in November 2006 and January 2007, Microsoft debuted work on the next version of its proprietary browser. But at the same time, the Redmond company remained almost completely mute regarding the future of Internet Explorer. In early 2007, due to the scarce details from Microsoft, speculations pointed to both a 7.5 version and a 8.0. version, this is in fact being one of the issues that have been clarified at this point. The Redmond company will evolve Internet Explorer directly to version 8, and there will be no major interim updates. Early builds of IE8 are being dogfooded, but outside of Redmond, the browser version is as well as inexistent. Dean Hachamovitch, IE General Manager, confirmed that Internet Explorer 8 would succeed IE7 and that the browser was in the works, after Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates mentioned it first.

"Just as he was the first to talk about IE7, Bill Gates kept the tradition alive and discussed IE8 at the Mix ‘n Mash event here on campus yesterday. Bill was talking to some bloggers about IE.Next and called it IE8, the same way we do here in the IE team hallway. So, yes, the version after IE7 is IE8. We looked at a lot of options for the product name. Among the names we considered and ruled out: IE 7+1; IE VIII; IE 1000 (think binary); IE Eight!; iIE; IE for Web 2.0 (Service Pack 2); IE Desktop Online Web Browser Live Professional Ultimate Edition for the Internet (the marketing team really pushed for this one ;-) and Ie2.079 (we might still use this for the Math Major Edition)," Hachamovitch revealed.

Gates apparently had no idea of the secrecy surrounding Internet Explorer 8. "I'll have to ask Dean (Hachamovitch) what the hell is going on. I mean, we're not -- there's not like some deep secret about what we're doing with IE," he stated, as cited from a transcript of the meeting offered by LiveSide. "And so I don't know where Dean is in terms of if he's willing to commit what's in IE 8 and what's not in IE 8. In terms of standards support, he'll see that it's a glass half full. It adds a bunch of new stuff we didn't have before, it doesn't add everything that everybody wants us to do."

But still, at this point in time, all that Microsoft talked about was the fact that IE8 would succeed IE7. And nothing else. The company revealed after the release of IE7 that future versions of the browser would follow in no more than two tear time frames. In this context, IE8 will not drop any sooner than the end of 2008 or even early 2009. In the meantime, Mozilla has reached Beta 1 stage with Firefox 3.0 and is moving ahead into Beta 2 by the end of this month. In comparison, Microsoft is still not ready to breath any additional details about IE8.

"Of course, some people care about other aspects of IE8 much more than they care about the name. As I’ve walked different people through the plan, I’ve gotten "Does it have feature X?" "When is the beta?" "When does it release" and even the more thoughtful "What are you trying to accomplish with this release?" You will hear a lot more from us soon. In the meantime, please don’t mistake silence for inaction," Hachamovitch promised.

One Terabyte Drive, Small Enough to Fit Into Your Pocket

- The new solid-state memory type can be the basis for tomorrow's terabyte thumb drives

A group of scientists at Arizona State University have managed to obtain a new and efficient type of solid-state storage memory that is alleged to be not only cheaper but also much more efficient than the current NAND pieces. This memory storage is powered by an undisclosed type of nanotechnology, which allows the creation of extremely vast storage spaces that are cheap and very small-sized. The new type of memory has been named programmable metalization cell (PMC) and will be the cortnerstone of tomorrow's new and large portable storage.

The programmable metalization cell uses nanotechnology to charge the pure copper molecules in the alloy, with spectacular results as compared to the current flash storage technology. An energy-saving and pseudo-infinite solid-state memory drive will be the dream of any portable device owner.

Conventional flash memory uses electronic charges for information storage, but the PMC uses copper molecules to create nanowires. Information is stored in these nanowires as binary zeros and ones, and since it all happens on nano-scale, it's easy to imagine that a tiny space can contain an unimaginable amount of data. When the user needs to dispose of the old data, a positive charge would be passed through the memory, causing the nanowires to dissolve, just like the links in a chain.

"A thumb drive using our memory could store a terabyte of information", Michael Kozicki, director of ASU's Center for Applied Nanoionics, told Wired magazine. "All the current limitations in portable electronic storage could go away. You could record video of every event in your life and store it."

This might sound a little too fantastic, or too good to be true, but remember that flash-based memory density has halved, while the capacity has yearly doubled. Unfortunately, the flash memory is about to reach its physical limitations, and beyond this point, there's no way to expand it. Therefore, it's time to change it. We are living the solid-state storage boom, and the last months have shown us that size limitations are a time-overcoming obstacle. However, if capacities are continually increasing, their price would proportionally follow the same ascension. The new memory technology comes in handy for the next-generation of storage devices.

Director Michael Bay Lambastes Microsoft, HD DVD

Everyone knows (or at least suspects) that huge amounts of money are involved in just about every move in the movie industry, and even more so when we're talking about content distribution media, Blu-ray and HD DVD, to be more precise. However, it would seem that things might be a lot worse than we had imagined,at least if we were to believe that there's any truth in Michael Bay's latest statement (read rant) on this subject.Thus, after being questioned by a fan regarding the availability of his movies in the Blu-ray format on his personal "Ask Michael Bay" sub-forum , the director who brought us "Transformers" lost his temper and...well, see for yourselves what he had to say: "What you don't understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about.That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth."As some of you might know, this is not the first time when Bay has a bone to pick with HD DVD. Thus, back in August 2007, when Paramount announced that it had decided to go HD DVD only (a rather strange decision, engulfed in rumors regarding huge pay-offs), the director also had a brief moment of "insanity", when it lashed out against the deal and declared that he wanted all his movies in Blu-ray format as well. However, back then, he quickly retracted (or rather "sweetened") his statement, probably under pressure from the movie studio.But is there any truth to Bay's statement? Well, although the director has not provided any evidence to back-up his accusations, the truth of the matter is that his "conspiracy theory" might have some truth to it, if we take a look at the bigger picture. But on the other hand, this is a guy who made a movie about giant robots turning into cars, so you should really take it with a pinch of salt.

Windows XP SP3 Twice as Fast as Windows Vista – Leaves Vista SP1 in the Dust

Forget about Windows Vista. And forget about Windows Vista SP1. Microsoft's latest Windows client has been quite sluggish to begin with. This in both consumer adoption and in terms of the performance it delivers. As the operating system was crawling along, while performing the most common of tasks, even "speed bumps" seemed an integer part of the road's landscape. Right, that was uncalled for... But still, even on its best day, Vista is slow, and the first service pack for the operating system will change nothing in this aspect. Windows XP SP3 simply flies in comparison to Vista, SP1 or no SP1.

Benchmark testing delivered by the researchers at Devil Mountain Software, a software-development company based in Florida, revealed that Windows XP SP3 is twice as fast as Windows Vista, with or without SP1 installed. The company threw the two operating systems one against the other on the following configuration: Dell XPS M1710, 2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 1GB of RAM and nVidia GeForce Go 7900GS video. While Vista SP1 delivered minor and disappointing growth in performance, XP SP3 faired quite well.
"Windows XP Service Pack 3 (v.3244) delivers a measurable performance boost to this aging desktop OS. Testing with OfficeBench showed an ~10% performance boost vs. the same configuration running under Windows XP w/Service Pack 2. XP SP3 is shaping-up to be a "must have" update for the majority of users who are still running Redmond's not-so-latest and greatest desktop OS. Of course, none of this bodes well for Vista, which is now more than 2x slower than the most current builds of its older sibling", revealed a member of Devil Mountain Sofware.

Windows XP SP3 finished the OfficeBench test in approximately 35 seconds, XP SP2 went over 40 seconds with Vista RTM and Vista SP1 both exceeding 80 seconds. The company then added another GB of RAM. Moreover, they also tested Vista in tandem with Office 2007 instead of Office 2003. But while Vista dropped under the 80 seconds milestone it still doesn't even come close to the performance of XP. Commenting the benchmarking Microsoft explained that both Vista SP1 and XP SP3 are still under development and as such, not delivering a complete experience. Vista SP1 is currently planned for the first quarter of next year, while XP has been announced by mid 2008.

"By providing Vista (SP1) with an additional 1GB of RAM (that's a total of 2GB for those of you keeping score) we managed to achieve a "whopping" 4% improvement in OfficeBench throughput. Moving from Office 2007 to Office 2003 definitely improved Vista's showing. Instead of being over 2x slower than XP on the same OfficeBench workload, Vista is now "only" 1.8x slower", the Devil Mountain Software added.

One-Click Linux Software Installation!

After months of hard work, Linspire is proud to announce the beta release of CNR.com. On the 23rd of January, 2007, Linspire announced for the first time that they are working to extend their CNR (Click 'N Run) website for other popular Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE and Debian. The CNR service has already been available for all Linspire and Freespire users. Kevin Carmony, the President and CEO of Linspire Inc., stated that he had enough with complaints from MS Windows and Mac users about Linux, and that there are too many distributions and each one has a different way of installing software: "When we started Linspire, we knew that we'd need to overcome this complexity. This led to Linspire's CNR ("Click 'N Run") technology."

CNR is a FREE and easy way to access over 37,264 desktop Linux products, packages and libraries, all with a single mouse click. Finding, installing and managing software on your desktop Linux computer has never been that easy. CNR makes the finding of the right piece of software easy to do, with user reviews, screenshots, descriptions, charts, and so on. When you the software you want, with only one click, it will be installed on your computer and icons will be added to your desktop and to the Start Menu. Also, CNR notifies you when updates are available for the installed applications via the CNR.com website, which you can easily install with one click. CNR also offers dozens of commercial Linux software titles for sale, such as popular games, Sun's StarOffice, Win4Lin, CodeWeaver's Crossover Office, Parallels Workstation, TransGaming's Cedega, and many other commercial Linux products.

This is really a revolutionary moment for all computer users all around the world. I sure hope that it will bring many new users into the Linux world.

If you have Ubuntu 7.04 or Ubuntu 7.10 go right now at the CNR’s website, install the CNR client and grab your favorite applications with a single mouse click!

Getting started with CNR

· Go to Main Menu -> System -> Administration -> Software Sources
· Click on the Third-Party Software tab
· Click the Add button and add the following lines (one by one):

deb http://apt2.freespire.org/CNRUbuntuExtra gutsy-extra main restricted
deb-src http://apt2.freespire.org/CNRUbuntuExtra gutsy-extra main restricted

Note: We recommend to uncheck the Cdrom with Ubuntu 7.10 'Gutsy Gibbon' entry in the "Ubuntu Software" tab.

· Go to Main Menu -> Accesories -> Terminal and type:

sudo apt-get update

· If you get an error about a public key for the CNR repositories, ignore it and install the CNR client, from the command prompt with:

sudo apt-get install cnr-client

Once installed, you can activate the CNR client from System Tools -> CNR and let the client synchronize with the CNR.com website.

Here's CNR in action on Ubuntu 7.10

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First Firewalls, Now Botwalls, What Will They Think of Next?

People are using computers and networks more and more to power up their business, the web is changing, so is the threat landscape, hackers are getting smarter and smarter, but security experts are not slacking either! One of the newest things one IT manager can add to his company’s security modules is the botwall, and as its name says it, it walls off bots.

This is one great utility, since botnets with their DDoS attacks have really become a threat. They say this is the year of the bot or of the botnet, so security experts have stepped up to the challenge, creating something to battle the top threat!

The botwall is going to use appliances from (inside) the data center and work with systems deployed at Internet service providers (ISP) ant third party technology partners, to form a "botwall network" that will fight off any bot.

Using a technique similar to that of a honey pot, a botwall will easily identify any "bad" traffic, and while cooperating with off-network botwalls, it can block any traffic that it considers to be malevolent.

The only company that offers anti-botnet protection via these botwalls is FireEye, Inc. and here is a link to see more on their product, right on their official page.

"The FireEye Botwall system redefines coordinated network security going beyond traditional security mechanisms, such as blocking at the perimeter or inspecting traffic on the internal LAN, to accurately and continuously analyze the network for both bots and botnet activities," said Ashar Aziz, CEO of FireEye. "We've created a solution geared to stop the threat of botnet infiltrations in a coordinated and easy-to-deploy system for our customers."

To be honest, every week we get news of some security product improving cyber-defense and how security is getting better, but also each week, there is more news about how things are going bad in security and how high-profile targets get hacked. I really hope that the botwall will make a difference, since it is supposed to address one of the worst threats we’re facing right now.

The Hidden Aspects of Hacking and Viruses

I wanted to write about this for a long time, since it is pretty important, but I never got the chance to do it; plus, there wasn’t enough material to back up my statements… until now. Sophos expert Fraser Howard wrote a great technical paper on "Modern web attacks" that is very inspiring and also explains things really well. In any case, in this article, I’m going to concentrate on explaining the way e-mail borne viruses function.

Perhaps you’ve read a lot of news either written by myself or by my peers in which they would explain how e-mail borne threats work. Most of the times, nobody bothered to detail this too much, journalists limiting themselves to "when you click on a link you get a virus", but there’s much more to it than that. Sure, in some cases, you get the powerful virus on your machine directly after clicking on a link. That would be the work of a lazy/sloppy hacker. But pros have other ways of doing things. It’s all about multi-stage attacks!

So, how do these work? Well, after the victim gets the message (probably part of a torrent of spam) and clicks on a link, a download function is activated. As Fraser Howard puts it, this can be written within a very small binary and in a myriad of ways. Some of these will pass through the e-mail gateway without being noticed. And here comes the part where the hackers get clever – the download does not always start immediately, as this could be dubbed malicious script by heuristic based software. Instead, the download will start at a later time, as there is no rush.

Furthermore, using the same primary payload would be dumb, as it could be instantly detected and blocked, that’s why the ones in charge of the attacks are always updating the remote content (primary payload).

And probably, the most clever part of all this consists in the multiple stages of download. Don’t go thinking that you get a Trojan downloader and then the virus. Oh, no – it’s far more complex. The first will download another that will download another and so on and so forth, or the primary download will download the virus piece by piece, from different hosts and URLs. Also, it may be possible for the initial downloader to retrieve a configuration file, which contains further instructions of content to download, as seen in the same report.

"Coupling the use of automation to frequently update the malicious files with multiple levels of downloading (potentially across multiple domains), often results in fairlycomplex infection mechanisms, involving numerous items of malware and URLs. From the malware author's perspective, such techniques provide a very flexible framework in which to operate.", Fraser Howard wrote in the report.

Coolest Security Tool Ever!

Now this is certainly something really nice! Researchers are advising users kindergarden-style! These people are going out of their way to help people stay secure. Of course, the best way of protecting yourself against the threats on the web is to know what they are and how to act against them. That’s why the brainy dudes at Carnegie Mellon University have designed a game to help people out!

Now, I knew that some warnings and pieces of news were for the tech-savvy users that knew too much about security already, but they’re dumbing down security measures so much that even a 10-year-old could stay safe on the web. If this doesn’t make a difference, then I don’t know what will!

The game is called Anti-Phishing Phil, and you can play it by clicking on this link. Not only is it entertaining – I really like that fish – but it’s also going to teach you a lot. So, this is a great initiative – these people are making it stupid-proof – web users should understand phishing threats and know how to watch out against them a lot better after playing the game. And you can play it just for fun, if you’re a security geek. Or you can play it just to test your knowledge – in any case, I like this initiative a lot.

I’ve seen a similar thing on Agnitum’s website – it’s a quiz that will tell you if you’re a security wizard or not. That was pretty cool, but this fish beats the crap out of any other web threat awareness tool ever!

Be my guest and click on the link above to Anti-Phishing Phil. You’re bound to like it! And I wonder what’s next, are researchers going to come up with a game with "Sexy Lisa" warning against "porn-related spam"?

How to Remain Secure on Cyber Monday

With Cyber Monday almost here, it's very important to equip your computer with powerful and well-developed technologies which would be able to defend you and keep your data secure during the entire holiday shopping season. Today, the Zone Alarm developers, Check Point Software Technologies, offered several pieces of advice on how to remain secure and buy products online without any threat.

For those of you who don't know what Cyber Monday is, it marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. This day is usually the best time for shopping because most merchants launch special offers and prices for a wide category of products, all of them accessible via the Internet. Because millions of consumers will go online for shopping, some bad-intended persons a.k.a. attackers, phishers, scammers, hackers (you can call them however you want) will surely attempt to steal your money, products or even financial information.

"Internet holiday attacks get more advanced each year, but many people are still relying on outdated or nonexistent security solutions, which put their computers and identities at risk," said Laura Yecies, vice president and general manager of Check Point’s ZoneAlarm consumer division. "To stay safe online this holiday season consumers need to educate themselves on the latest types of threats, and make sure they are running up-to-date and comprehensive security software on their PCs."

Now that we understood that we have to secure our computers against hackers and attackers, what can we do to reach this goal? Well, the Zone Alarm creators give us some advice which might be really useful for an online holiday shopper:

1. Secure your computer with a powerful firewall, antivirus, antispyware and other security solution which could be able to block malicious attempts targeting your system.
2. Avoid publishing your details and especially the financial information on untrusted websites which doesn't seem to be genuine as some of them might be actually some phishing attacks.
3. Secure your browser in order to be able to protect your privacy as well as your identity. Beware! In the last few months more and more users became victims of identity theft!
4. Do not donate money to the organizations or websites promoted by email spam. Only donate money to trusted charities!
5. Buy stuff from the known merchants and websites. Some attackers might attempt to create fake online shops in order to steal users' information.

Google to Launch Its Operating System Next Week

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A while ago, the Internet world talked about a potential GooglePhone, especially created to fight with the Apple iPhone. At that time, the Mountain View company avoided commenting on the speculation; the only thing mentioned was that Google will remain a software firm and not a hardware one. So no GooglePhone; but in the meantime, the search giant released several new mobile flavors of its products. Take the example of Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Google Calendar. Now, what do you understand from this: Google remains a software company, but it develops mobile versions of its products? That's right, Google wants to conquer the mobile software industry but how else can you do it if not through a mobile operating system?

The most recent rumors sustain that the Mountain View company prepares a mobile operating system that is scheduled to be released very soon, maybe sometimes next week. The folks from Engadget claim that it might be entirely based on a Linux platform, because several Googlers are quite experienced in this domain. "At Google, Andy's team has developed a Linux-based mobile device OS (no surprise) which they're currently shopping around to handset makers and carriers on the premise of providing a flexible, customizable system -- with really great Google integration, of course," Ryan Block from Engadget wrote.

Obviously, the entire operating system would be bundled with Google's technologies such as search, YouTube or Gmail. Actually, I think it would probably contain all sorts of shortcuts to allow the handheld owner to access the Google services in a matter of seconds if an Internet connection is available.

But the main question is: which mobile companies will implement the operating system into their devices? As you might know, Google signed deals with some famous phone producers such as Samsung, but there is no evidence that the Mountain View company might bring the OS on their devices. In fact, the entire operating system might be only pure speculation, so...

Hidden Process Installed by Skype to Monitor Your Computer!

As far as I can see, this is one of the most serious accusations addressed to Skype as the president of Dynamic Internet Technology accuses the application of censoring certain computer activities. Bill Xia is a provider of specialized software which helps the local Internet consumers bypass the governments' filters and access the restricted websites. In case you didn't know, the Chinese authorities are very exigent when it comes to the content accessed by the local users so they are trying anything it is possible to restrict certain websites. Sometimes, the government demands the help of the Internet pages or software solutions in order to do that, Skype being only one of those selected.

Bill Xia sustains Skype supports the government in censoring the content and moreover, it installs a hidden process on users' computer which blocks certain words from being sent over the Internet. It all started when Skype redirected the users to Skype.tom.com, a website created in collaboration with Tom.com which is rumored to be used for tracking users on the Internet. Moreover, the Chinese user said for WebProNews that Skype puts a process called 'contentfilter.exe' on consumers' systems, blocking certain words such as 'dalai lama' from being sent on the web.

"We're sure it's not a redirection from the firewall of the Chinese government but from Skype itself," Bill Xia said for the source mentioned above.

Skype refused to comment on the reports but according to Bill Xia, the company detected that he uses the VoIP application to communicate with his clients in order to help them bypass the filters so it decided to redirect the users to the new portal and install that hidden executable file. However, these are serious accusations if we think that the company doesn't mention anything about a secret process to monitor the computer activity in the privacy policy published on its official page.

Mozilla Cooks the Mobile Flavor of Firefox

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The famous Firefox developer Mozilla is now working on a mobile flavor of the web-browser which would be able to work on most of the handheld devices available on the market. If we analyze the decision a little bit, it is pretty obvious because the world is changing, the mobile industry evolving a lot in the recent period.

Most of the mobile consumers aim to access their email or other web services straight from their devices. Just look at the Internet giants Google and Yahoo which struggle to expand their offerings into the mobile market. Mozilla confirmed the mobile version of Firefox and sustained the building process will start soon.

"Short summary: we are serious about bringing the Firefox experience and technology to mobile devices," it was mentioned in the introduction of Mozilla blog post. In case you don't know, Firefox already runs on Nokia N800 but the software company wants even more and prepares a version of the application which would be compatible with most devices.

But the interesting fact is that the mobile Firefox will be very similar with the PC version which I'm sure you know can be 100 percent configured using themes and extensions. "Wouldn't it be great if your bookmarks, history, extensions, etc. from Firefox on your computer just worked on your phone?" it is mentioned in the post.

If you're curios to find out the release date of the mobile Firefox, I feel sorry to disappoint you and say the browser is not going to be launched this year but it might come sometime next year. Firefox 3, the long-awaited version of the application, will be available only for PC as Mozilla plans to design a separate mobile solution for the handheld owners.

At this time, Opera Mini is one of the most popular solutions available for the mobile devices. Even if the PC version of the application didn't manage to challenge the market's leaders, Firefox and Internet Explorer, it leads the mobile battle which might have some new participants very soon.

Yahoo Messenger 9.0 Beta OUT! Download Link Inside!

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Hi, Yahoo Messenger fans, I have exciting news for you! No, it's not the Vista version of the instant messaging client, it's only Yahoo Messenger 9.0 Beta, a brand new version of the application designed to work on Windows XP and Vista. Besides the support for the latest version of Microsoft's operating system, Yahoo Messenger 9.0 Beta is available in six new countries, allowing the local consumers to use the program in their native language: Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India (Hindi), and Vietnam. Now let me introduce you to the new features:

First of all, you'll notice the new design, which is pretty attractive… with a few exceptions. Although you can choose from several color themes, I found at least one element which annoys me every time the contact window is opened: a communication bar which appears under a contact name, requiring you to choose from instant messaging, VoIP chat or SMS. The Sunnyvale company didn't say a thing on whether the bar can be disabled or not, or at least if we can set one of the options as default, because some of the consumers who use only instant messaging might find it useless.

The avatars are now displayed next to the contact names, while the status messages can be placed under them. You can choose between a detailed list view and a compact one, depending on your preferences. Besides these interface improvements, Yahoo Messenger 9.0 beta is fully compatible with video and photo sharing technologies such as YouTube, Yahoo Video or Flickr, allowing you to share pictures and clips in a matter of seconds. For example, to share a clip to your contact, all you need to do is type the link of the video.

Now, the juicy part: Yahoo Messenger 9.0 beta comes with some new skins and emoticons which I'm sure you'll like. Sarah Bacon, Product Manager, said that some of the emoticons were inspired by the Emoticontest and by your votes.

Yahoo Messenger 9.0 is now available on Softpedia; so if you want to test it, here's the link.

Intel Is Prepping Hardware for a Sub-$100 Vista-Ready Desktop PC System

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One of the most successful trends on the PC market nowadays is to produce low-cost platforms, targeting especially those customers from the emerging markets that can't afford to spend a lot of money on a high-end (or even a mid-range) PC or laptop, but want to get a fully-functional device with average computing capabilities. And it seems that Intel (maker of the Classmate PC, OLPC's rival) is seriously taking this trend into account, as reports have emerged that indicate the fact that the chip maker might be planning a special platform for under $100 for 2008.

Thus, according to Monica Chen for DigiTimes, who's quoting unnamed, but apparently reliable sources, it seems that Intel plans to launch next year its Shelton'08 low-cost desktop platform, designed to be integrated in desktop PC systems that will cost as low as 100 US dollars. Furthermore, due to its improved heat dissipation system and level of power consumption, it seems that the Shelton'08 will first be adopted for sub-$300 notebooks in the third quarter of 2008, with the aforementioned desktop PCs following shortly afterwards.

Furthermore, according to the same sources mentioned earlier, it seems that the Shelton'08 platform will be using 45nm Diamondville processors, with either Intel's 945GC or SiS 671 chipsets, and will be able to run Microsoft's Vista Basic, which means that the company from Redmond might actually record a certain increase in the sales of its latest OS.

The new platform might open up whole new opportunities for computer manufacturers, especially on the markets from those countries where the level of income per family is not exactly great. Thus, a $100 price point is quite an irresistible offer, especially if the customers are not looking for some high-end rigs, but just for something that will help them get in touch with technology. And, to be honest, there are a lot of such people around the world, so Intel and its partners might be on the right track for a huge market hit.

AMD Gets Back in the Ring with the ATI Radeon HD 3800 GPU Series

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Advanced processing performances at affordable price points seems to be the latest trend among the most important video card chipset manufacturers, as the competition on the market is increasingly tougher and high-end, uber-expensive models are not exactly very successful. And following this trend, AMD has just revealed the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series of graphics processing units (GPUs), which are, according to the company, the world’s first series of graphics processors to deliver Microsoft’s DirectX 10.1 support, 55nm process technology and tri and quad multi-GPU support with ATI CrossFireX.

One of the most important features provided by the new video cards from AMD is the full support for the Unified Video Decoder (UVD), which ensures a high level of platform efficiency and image quality in HD-DVD and Blu-ray decoding for both H.264 and VC-1 specifications. Furthermore, the enhanced HDMI functionality also continues on this series of products with integrated HDCP and audio for HDMI video.

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Moreover, with the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series, AMD delivers the first graphics processor with support for Microsoft’s upcoming DirectX 10.1 specification and also provides support for ATI CrossFireX, the company's innovative next-generation multi-GPU technology designed to deliver very high video performance levels with support for two, three and four graphics processors in CrossFire configurations. At launch, the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series will support dual-GPU CrossFire with tri and quad-GPU support scheduled for January 2008.

Furthermore, graphics bandwidth is also greatly enhanced with the introduction of PCI Express 2.0, capable of delivering over 16 gigabytes per second of bi-directional bandwidth, which, combined with the HyperTransport3 technology to be used on next-generation AMD platforms, will assure a huge increase in the amount of available system bandwidth.

The ATI Radeon HD 3800 series GPUs are the first graphics processors to use TSMC’s 55nm process technology. The smooth transition to 55nm has allowed for a 12X increase in performance-per-watt over the previous generation with a significant reduction in die size. In addition to 55nm, AMD has also added its patented ATI PowerPlay technology to the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series to provide increased control over the graphics processor in multiple power states.

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"With the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series we are redefining the market for enthusiast graphics with a new class of price, performance and features that have never been seen before in this industry," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Graphics Product Group, AMD. "Through a flawless transition to 55nm and Microsoft DirectX 10.1, we can deliver an unprecedented level of scalable performance, image quality enhancements and power efficiency at the sub- $200 segment that rivals today’s most expensive graphics processors and opens up enthusiast gaming to more end users than ever before."

The first two models to be released in the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series are the 3850, which comes packed with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and will retail starting at around 180 US dollars and the 3870, which includes 512MB of GDDR4 memory and will retail starting at around 220 US dollars.

World's Smallest Functional Electric Guitar

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In case you sometimes wonder why there are no rock bands with vertically-challenged people...there are a lot of possible reasons. Not that these individuals would somehow lack the needed skills for musical performance, but rather there aren't too much instruments made for the measure. As far as guitars are concerned, things are even worse as once with the downscaling of an instrument severe constructive problems appear rendering that instrument inaccurate and therefore no longer playable with proper results.


Well, it's time everybody could play serious rock as Hammacher Schlemmer has introduced the world's smallest fully functional and precise electric guitar, sporting a 26.5" total length, 6" width and 1.5" depth. Indeed, a guitar smaller than the very neck of any common electric guitar you can buy in shops, and yet retaining the punch and kick, as well as the precision of any Ibanez or Jackson you might already own.

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This guitar sports really advanced engineering as its 20.25" scale is set on a body made from injection-molded high-impact polymer composite; this body sports "billions of tiny air bubbles that reproduce the cellular structure of wood, giving the guitar the same resonant properties of hardwoods used in standard-sized guitars without the expansion and contraction associated with wood " as Hammacher specifies.

This amazing jewel runs on a humbucker pickup (and therefore is sworn to rock) while sporting a coil-tap switch. The push-pull volume knob also regulates the tone control and this is why this small-scale beauty is pretty much like any serious heavy metal guitar around. The tuners are non-slip so your axe will stay in tune as you thrash around while the pre-formed strap hooks will let you attach a strap of your own choice. This 20-fret guitar also sports a very attractive design and has a 12" fret radius for convenient playing without any playing style changes needed.

It comes with a special carrying case and sells for just under $800. Rock on!

Smaller Portable Recording Looking Great: M-Audio MicroTrack II

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After all the neat audio gear M-Audio have constantly been using us to, here comes a truly rocking piece of technology in the body of the MicroTrack II, a pocket-sized recorder that looks great and works even better.

The M-Audio MicroTrack II has been designed with functionality and portability in mind and as far as anyone can see without any special efforts, these goals have been marvelously reached.

First of all, what's the point of a portable recording device that's really a pain in the back for its owner due to its bulky and unfriendly design?

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Secondly, if you're set on spending some serious money on portable recording gear that performs well, who says it should look like a piece of crap? Actually, I guess that the M-Audio MicroTrack II is more of a looker than most other similar equipment available in stores...and this means a serious plus!

Technically speaking, the M-Audio MicroTrack II kicks a*s as it comes equipped with pretty much anything one could ever need for field recording, songwriting, training and why not, some worship purposes. You can even use condenser mics with the M-Audio MicroTrack II because it offers 48V phantom power in case you are in need for such a thing; you get a lot of input options, including an input limiter with bypassing option.

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You can record in the 24-bit/96kHz format in WAV and MP3 and you can even monitor the recording by means of RCA or minijack plugs. As for inputs, TRS and even S/PDIF are welcome, so it really does not matter whether you are recording a guitar riff or a whole set via a digital mixing console. Add in a large LDC dimming screen and a whole set of dedicated buttons for quick, easy and intuitive navigation and operation and there you go, your mini-studio in case you're planning to do a rehearsal demo of your band.

The M-Audio MicroTrack II can do recordings of WAV files larger than 2GB which really rocks and a fast-transfer USB port. It will work for 4-5 hours (3 hours with phantom power on) and sells for a MSRP of a nickel under $400, which is totally acceptable, especially as the street price will be lower and thus make the M-Audio MicroTrack II one perfect Christmas gift for the sound enthusiast.

I am a sound enthusiast, you know...

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Full specs, courtesy of M-Audio:

2-channel WAV (BWF) and MP3 recording and playback for pro recording, capturing live shows, songwriting, training, education, worship and more;

New features and enhancements including:

* extended input gain range
* analog input limiter with bypass
* 48V phantom power
* faster data transfer rate via USB 2.0
* easily add markers to BWF files
* monitor S/PDIF input via headphones while recording
* seamless recording of files greater than 2GB
* customizable folders for organizing files
* built-in CompactFlash speed test
* backlight dimmer
* hibernation mode

-storage via convenient CompactFlash or Microdrives (sold separately)
-immediate drag-and-drop file transfer to PC and Mac via high-speed USB 2.0 mini-connector
-powered via USB, built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery or included power supply
-separate left and right input level controls with signal and peak indicators
-professional balanced ¼" TRS inputs capable of mic or line-level signals
-dual microphone preamps with 48V phantom power for studio microphones
-1/8" TRS input with 5V power for use with stereo electret microphone (microphone included)
-S/PDIF coaxial input for digital transfers
-monitoring via RCA line outputs or 1/8" stereo headphone output
-output level control
-dedicated buttons for navigation, record, hold, pause, delete, menu, and power
-large LCD screen
-includes electret t-shaped microphone, software for editing and file format conversion, carrying pouch, 1/8" stereo, extension cable with lapel clip, power supply, and USB cable

-MP3 recording: 96 to 320kbps at 44.1 or 48kHz
-PCM recording: 16 or 24-bit at 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96kHz
-Storage capacity: variable based on data rate and storage medium
-Battery life before recharge: approximately four to five hours (three hours with phantom power)

System requirements:

-Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista
-USB 1.1 or 2.0 port on the computer for connection and power charging
-Mac OS X 10.3.9 or greater
-USB 1.1 or 2.0 port on the computer for connection and power charging

IBM Initiative for Light-Based Chip Cores Interconnection

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IBM has developed a technology that, if proven successful, would bring the world one step closer to the most unbelievable SF predictions. If electric current was a breakthrough, how would you consider substituting it with... light? The new technology is alleged to allow different CPU cores exchange signals through light pulses, instead of using electrons. The method is supposed to be faster and more efficient and would heavily reflect in the chip's performance.

The new technology uses a silicon electro-optic modulator, called the Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator, that converts electrical signals into pulses of light. The IBM research team has successfully achieved a 1,000 to 1 miniature version of the device and has created complete optical routing networks to be integrated onto a single chip. Electric current suppression would eventually result in faster, cheaper and cooler chips to feature a hundred times faster communications bandwidth than the wired equivalents.

"Work is underway within IBM and in the industry to pack many more computing cores on a single chip, but today’s on-chip communications technology would overheat and be far too slow to handle that increase in workload," said Dr. T.C. Chen, vice president, Science and Technology, IBM Research. "What we have done is a significant step toward building a vastly smaller and more power-efficient way to connect those cores, in a way that nobody has done before."

World's most advanced processor is not used on personal computers, as many may think, but is to be found inside Sony's Playstation 3 and features 9 cores on a single chip. At the moment, multiple core integration is handicapped by the fact that wired interconnectivity takes space and radiates heat at the same time. Eliminating the wires would allow hundreds or thousands of cores to be interconnected in a single chip. More than that, sending information between cores can be 100 times faster and 10 times more energy-efficient.

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The only problem with the optoelectronic devices is making them small enough to be ready for chip integration, as they have proven tricky to manufacture over the time. The only viable solution would be mass-manufacturing using the silicon manufacturing lines capabilities for components that measure only a few millimeters on a side. There is no estimated time for the products to be actually used in multiple-core chips, but the idea itself is enough to keep things moving towards the right direction.

Microsoft to Fix Poor Performance of Multiple-GPU Scenarios in Vista with SP1

Among the performance improvements coming with the release of the first service pack for Windows Vista, Microsoft is also preparing enhancements addressing issues that are associated with the integration of its latest Windows client with multiple-GPU. The Redmond company acknowledged the fact that Vista failed to play well with multiple display adapters. At the source of the problems, there are specific configurations using Linked Display Adapter.

“In some scenarios, games and benchmarks perform more poorly than expected on a Windows
Vista-based computer. This issue occurs when the games and the benchmarks use multiple display adapters in a Linked Display Adapter (LDA) configuration,” Microsoft revealed presenting the symptoms of the Vista and multiple-GPU issues.

And while the Redmond company has stressed numerous times the increase in relevance of Windows updates vs. the service pack strategy, the fact of the matter is that in this case, a resolve will not be pushed via the update infrastructure. Microsoft does have a hotfix available, but end users will have to specifically request it, otherwise they will not be permitted access.