I’ve been testing Windows Vista Ultimate for a week now, and now I think I’ve just had enough and I’m removing it from my PC, it has not made me switch from my OpenSUSE 10.2 Linux installation, and I use Windows XP for some limited work, related to a project. I believe in the next few months there is an opening for Linux to penetrate into mainstream computing, you can see the signs: Dell customers are demanding Linux, Mono Project maturing to the point where it is becoming increasingly possible to port native windows applications to Linux, say C#.NET, VB.NET. Virtualization becoming increasingly more efficient and powerful, allowing the transparent integration of operating systems and blurring the lines of what can and run and what not!

So back to Vista, what were my experiences from a week of testing: Excellent Graphics and UI, but weak everywhere else!

So these are my reasons why the World is not yet ready for Vista

1. You require new hardware and 2: No geniune innovation: This is a major sticking point for me. I don’t want to get a new hardware for an OS that doesn’t allow me to do anything which my current OS don’t allow me to. In All the 4 days of Vista testing, I have not seen anything that is a geniune innovation and makes me crave for it! No, the post here, the blogger identifies some things which Vista can do and Windows XP can’t:

“Can I change the volume on a per-application basis in Windows XP? Do I have integrated system-wide search in Windows XP? Can I set the language on a per-user basis in Windows XP? Does Windows XP have per-file emails and contacts?”

First of all the first thing he highlights, is a completely redundant feature: Why would I want to set multiple volume for specific applications, given that I’m listening to only one at any one time! The Integrated System Search in Windows Vista, is better than the pathetic search in Windows XP, however it still doesnt beat Google Desktop Search for me! Again, I assume that you speak only one language or your family members or co-workers do the same, so I can hardly think of a scenario where people speaking different languages share the same computer, or how often does that occur?

The hardware support in Windows Vista is pathetic! When Windows XP came out, it supported all major hardware of its time. However Windows Vista doesn’t. I tested on a PC with the Intel D865GBF Motherboard, and it didn’t detect any hardware in it, neither are audio drivers for the said platform available for Windows Vista.

3: Not enough applications, in a recent talk, Bill Gates said “The strength of the windows platform comes from the ecosystem around it”. And that is the exact reason for Windows dominance in the Desktop. Microsoft has provided EXCELLENT development environment in terms of the Visual Studio, and APIs to facilitate development of all sorts of application. Millions of ISVs around the world are busy churning out Windows specific software. The title of this blog post is “Top 5 Reasons one should NOT get Vista, just yet!”. “Just yet”, because right now there are very few application which take advantage of the .NET 3.0 framework, or any of Vistas GUI features. Eventually they will, once we start seeing those applications then the adoption of Vista may rise, but we are not there yet! Also, there are very few games which take advantage of DirectX X, again once those games start appearing then Windows Vista may appeal to gamers.

The application which Windows Vista ships with it, are pathetic! For example look at MS Paint, couldn’t they replace it with Paint.NET.

4: Security: Although security in Vista is considerably better, however I still don’t want to rely on MS security tools, and tried installing third party security tools, and guess what: Vista won’t let me install them. I really love, Sygate Professional, it is one of the best firewalls I’ve ever come across, however in Vista it seems to be blocked or something for “known compatibility issues”.

5: DRM: Enough said about it in a lot of places elsewhere, I don’t think I need to go over it again

So in conclusion: If you absolutely have to get Windows, don’t get Windows Vista just yet, wait for the applications ie. The geniune innovation, if they are appealing enough then make the switch.

Eddie Murphy, fat girl ? What could you want more ? This movie will make you laugh as hell. Enjoy the Trailer.

Microsoft’s Windows Defender was only able to block 47% of spyware threats in quick scan mode, in a recent test of spyware products by independent lab Enex TestLab on behalf of security and utility products vendor PC Tools. In full scan mode, Defender was only able to block 53% of threats.“We have been watching with interest the development of Microsoft’s Vista security effort. We know that Microsoft is facing difficult challenges with the broadening scope of dangerous malware attacks while also trying to maintain backwards compatibility and usability. This independent research was designed to show how we compare in combating real-world threats over an extended period of time,” said Simon Clausen, CEO of PC Tools.

“We wanted to prove through an independent and unbiased review, where PC Tools did not choose or supply the sample-set, that Vista’s anti-spyware protection is in fact inadequate, and could result in a false sense of security to consumers.”

Enex Testlab compared identical threats against a number of leading anti-spyware products throughout 2006 —Spyware Doctor was the conclusive overall winner.

As you would expect, PC Tools’ own Spyware Doctor did very well in the test, blocking 83% of threats in quick scan mode, and 89% of threats in full scan mode. Spyware Doctor was ranked overall number one ranking for the complete year, against Defender, and other leading anti-spyware products.

That aside, Enex Testlads is widely recognised as an independent test lab, with more than 17 years experience in testing (I happen to have first hand experience of the company’s work through a previous job I had at a consumer protection organization). Enex Testlabs’ results can not be dismissed, and this is not the first time that Microsoft has performed poorly in security tests. Its Live OneCare anti-virus solution was recently slammed by Virus Bulletin.

According to Enex Testlabs, because Defender performed so poorly, Vista users still need to go to third-party security vendors for protection.“We have taken a look at several anti-spyware vendors over time to determine the current level of accuracy against spyware threats in 2006. These results show Vista requires more work to protect users. Third party security vendors—especially in the area of anti-spyware are still essential components in protecting users,” said Matt Tett, Senior Test Engineer for Enex TestLab.

There is something else you should know. Windows Defender is free, while a tool like Spyware Doctor is around US$30. It seems to be a case of you get what you pay for.

There’s a term that’s thrown around work offices with internet access. It’s NSFW. I’m sure you’re familiar with it. It means Not Safe For Work. Generally it’s anything adult related where if your boss popped a look over your shoulder you’d be embarrassed or even asked to leave.Tell that to James Pacenza, a 58 yr old Vietnam vet who used to work at IBM. He’s suing the company for $5 million because they fired him after finding out he was visiting adult chat rooms, reports the Associated Press.

We’re all very aware of workplace protocol and what would no doubt be IBM policy - no porn at work. However, James is a sex addict, and since he started surfing the web, an internet addict also.

After seeing his best friend killed in ‘Nam in 1969, James treats his traumatic stress by visiting chat rooms. While operating a machine that makes microchips - and being paid $65,000!! - there is some downtime of 5-10 minutes where IBM employees are allowed to use the internet.

On this particular day, James got to work after a Vietnam Veteran Memorial visit and wanted to get his mind off the war.

“I felt I needed the interactive engagement of chat talk to divert my attention from my thoughts of Vietnam and death. I was tempting myself to perhaps become involved in some titillating conversation,” James said in court papers.

After his chat session he failed to log out and was found out by a co-worker, who was subjected to his adult-related, and reportedly graphic, internet conversation.

James has no one to blame but himself here. We all engage in non-work related internet usage while at work, but we also keep it under wraps, or at least sanitary. So let me outline a few points that make James out as the bad guy, for me.

First of all, ‘treating’ a war-related stress syndrome with chat room conversation is ridiculous. He has co-workers, a family, probably a tea room with a phone at work. Telling a court that you need to visit adult chat rooms at work because of your friend’s death is beyond lame, it’s insulting.

Secondly, how does 5-10 minutes a day constitute an addiction? I’m on the web for half of my day. If this is a serious addiction, why hasn’t it been treated? James is 58. The Vietnam war was thirty years ago. How did he treat his stress in the 80s?

And finally, the amount he’s expecting. $5 million is insane. Apparently James might have retired the following year [2004]. He has two children, but how old are they? They have their own lives, no doubt. It’s greedy.

I know what you’re saying, “But Craig, they only fired him after reviewing his psychological disability’s history.” Well, I’m sure they knew about that when they hired him .

“Ok, what about the fact that he didn’t receive a warning, or the support from his workplace for a fairly minor mistake?” IBM says he was only fired after being warned for a previous incident.

“Then explain why he was fired and two other IBM employees were only transfered after being caught having sex on a desk at work.”

Touche.

On Tuesday Microsoft released its newest security patches. Most of the patches dealt with vulnerable places in Microsoft programs which were know to have been used. Wednesday, the day following, is now Zero-day for new cyber-attacks. These will not be fixed for a month.Microsoft has warned that a new, yet-to-be-patched security hole in Word is being used in targeted cyber-attacks. And that warning came on Zero-day, the day after Patch Tuesday, so you will not get a patch for four weeks.

Microsoft said in a security advisory posted late Wednesday that when a user opens a rigged Word file, it may corrupt system memory in such a way that an attacker could gain complete control over the PC. The programs at risk are Office 2000 and Office XP. The two recent versions, Office 2003 and 2007, are not affected.

Once again, these attacks do not materialize from thin air. They will come, most likely, as attachments to an email. So you should not open attachments unless you are very, very sure of the sender. And perhaps not even then.

This vulnerability is being exploited but, according to Microsoft, in ‘very limited, targeted attacks.’ Which seems likely. And Microsoft will issue a patch. But not today. Not this week. Next Tuesday month. The day before the next Zero-day when the happy cycle will start again.

This is an increasing and slightly worrying trend. With the new updates released this Microsoft blocked five Zero-day flaws. That is security holes that have been publicly disclosed but not fixed.

The problem is that these are ideal for targetted attacks on a specific business and, typically, will not be blocked by any existing anti-virus software.

Cybercrooks now wait for Patch Tuesday and strike the day after: Zero Day Wednesday.

Does it involve the average user? Hardly. These short term vulnerabilities are used to attack major but defined targets. Not your happy home user. But it shows, once again, that cyber-crooks are pretty damned smart. And evil.

Google will launch an assault on one of Microsoft’s biggest earners today when it unveils its first suite of paid-for office tools.

For $50 (£26) a year per user, Google Apps Premier Edition will offer corporate customers a bundle of web-based applications including e-mail, a word processor and a spreadsheet. It will compete with Microsoft’s Office, which includes the software stalwarts Word and Excel.

A Microsoft spokesman played down the threat, saying that online services such as Google’s were “not alone in altering today’s technology industry”. He added: “Productivity applications [such as Office] represent a very competitive space in which more than 450 million users around the world have consistently chosen Microsoft.”

Microsoft’s Business Division, which includes Office, accounted for $3.5 billion of the group’s revenues of $12.5 billion in the latest reported quarter, making it the largest source of sales.

However, industry insiders say that Google has been quietly preparing for months to tap Microsoft’s cash-cow. Keen to supplement its lucrative search business, Google has built massive data-storage plants, thought to be years ahead of those so far developed by Microsoft and IBM.

It is now using this “cloud” to host software and data. A user’s PC effectively becomes simply a “dumb terminal”, used only to access it via the internet.

Tom Austin, of Gartner, the technology analysts, said: “This constitutes a real threat to Microsoft’s business model. Eventually, it will have to switch from limited-use licences to software as a service. That will require a fundamental reengineering.”

Despite investing heavily in Office 2007, which was released earlier this month and which, like its predecessors, is anchored firmly to the PC, Microsoft has earmarked $2 billion to develop its own data centres.

The company added that it is now partnering other businesses “to capitalise on emerging services, such as advertising-based software, subscription or on-demand software”.

However, Google enjoys a significant lead, with most of the Premier Edition components already available free. From today, for the first time, it will charge for “white label” tools that carry its customers’ brands, so that e-mail addresses can be in the name of the client company.

It will also provide support and guaranteed service levels. Google is offering a contract that stipulates the service must be available 99.9 per cent of the time. It will offer each user 10 gigabytes of storage and support e-mail on RIM’s popular handheld BlackBerry device.

Procter & Gamble, the drugs group, has signed up to the Google offering, while General Electric, the American conglomerate, is trialling the system.

Google added that its own 10,000 employees have been using its system for several months, though as recently as October most of them were using Microsoft’s Outlook e-mail service. Robert Whiteside, head of enterprise services at Google UK, said: “We have been eating our own dogfood.”

Fishermen in the Ross Sea got quite a surprise early in February when they hauled something resembling the awesome beast Norwegian seafarers in the 12th century called Kraken up from the sea. A creature also featured in the movie success “Pirates of the Caribbean”

Jules Verne’s book “Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” also features a beastly squid much similar to what the Norwegian seafarers called Kraken. This story was allegedly based on an encounter between a French naval vessel and a giant squid in the 17th century.

There is also an account of sailors being attacked by a giant squid after their ship sunk during the Second World War. At least one sailor was supposedly eaten.

But this time it was all to real for the New Zealand fishermen, the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) was eating a hooked toothfish when it was hauled from the deep by the vessel San Aspiring, and is now lying frozen in a Timaru coolstore.

The Colossal squid they hauled to the surface is the biggest specimen of a colossal squid ever found, it was more than 150kg heavier than the next biggest specimen found and an estimated length of about 10 metres.

(Click for larger image)

Dr Steve O’Shea, a world renowned squid expert with the Auckland University of Technology, said the specimen eclipsed the previous largest find - another colossal squid that weighed 300kg found in 2003.

This squid was about 450kg and barely alive when it reached the surface and the vessel’s crew thought it would be very unlikely to survive if released.

Sadly only a handful of these colossal squids have ever been sighted, and New Zealand researcher Dr Steve O’Shea really caused a stir in 2003 with the photographs of an immature female, also caught while attacking a toothfish, the first “live” capture. This immature female weighed about 300kg.

Dr. Steve O’Shea, said

“This squid is a really nasty aggressive sort of squid. . . a gelatinous blob with seriously evil arms on it. … If calamari were made from the squid the rings would be the size of tractor tires”

This is thought to be the most intact of the seven specimens recorded, most of the other was found in the stomach of its worst enemy, the sperm whale.

Colossal squid are not related to giant squid, which also grow up to 12m long, and colossal squid have much larger body and smaller tentacles than the giant squid, and are a much heavier animal.

The colossal squid has swiveling hooks in the suckers at the tips of its tentacles, suggesting it is an aggressive hunter, while giant squid have suckers lined with small teeth.

The animal was first described in 1925 from just two tentacles found in the stomach of a sperm whale. The colossal squid makes up three quarters of the diet of large sperm whales and it therefore are thought to be large numbers of them in Antarctic waters.

Piracy charges have been dropped against a 40-year-old Russian school principal who purchased 12 computers, found to contain pirate software, for his school. The judge ruling on the case, Vera Barakina, said the value of the pirate software is ”insignificant” when compared to Microsoft’s annual revenue.Alexander Ponosov faced up to five years in prison and a fine of around US$10,000. Ponosov maintained that he purchased the computers with the software preinstalled and did not know that the software was pirated.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin called the case “utter nonsense.”

Former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev wrote to Bill Gates asking him to intervene in the matter on the basis that the case against Ponosov was unjustified, and because Ponosov was a life-long teacher who worked for a modest salery.

Responding to Gorbachev’s letter, Microsoft said it generally opposed going after teachers for software piracy:

“Our interest is not in prosecuting schools or teachers, it is in helping students develop the technology skills they need in the 21st century,” Microsoft said in a statement to Bloomberg.

The charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, though state prosecutors may appeal Barakina’s decision.

The first problem with this case is that Russian prosecutors targeted the wrong man.

Irrespective of whether Ponosov was actually guilty of installing the software on the computers, the man is a career teacher, trying to do the best he can for he students. Targeting a teacher, to make an example of them, and to show the world that Russia is clamping down on piracy, is pretty idiotic, and does not make for good PR.

Given that pirate music, movies and software is easy to obtain, how hard would it have been for prosecutors to find someone who actually makes money out of piracy?

The second problem is that now that the judge has thrown out this case, she sends a message to the world that piracy is sometimes OK in Russia, especially when its victim is a hugely successful company like Microsoft.

However, the botched handling of this particular case means that the issue is no closer to being addressed.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced that it will maintain a display hall and auditorium in the much-hyped Second Life online virtual game (note the use of the term “game” not “world”).AMD is hoping to use its new AMD Dev Central Pavilion on AMD Dev Central Island to engage with developers (both amateur and professional) about working with AMD. Its virtual hall will be available for meetings and training, and its auditorium will be used to run seminars. The first AMD event is scheduled for February 25.

“The Second Life metaverse is a gathering place for both new and established developers. Through the interactive virtual experience at the pavilion, we hope to provide developers with an outlet to learn and grow, such as helping them to optimize native code for multi-threaded applications,” said Paul Nolte, an AMD project manager Second Life Pavilion.

AMD joins other companies, such as Cisco, Dell, IBM and Sun, in establishing a presence on Second Life, seemingly oblivious to the fact that far, far fewer people actually play Second Life than the much touted 3 million registered users - but more on that in a moment.

What I find bothersome about companies jumping on the Second Life band wagon is that often do so thinking that they’re doing something innovative and ground breaking. What’s actually happening is that they’re getting sucked into Second Life hype.

Obviously AMD believes that Second Life is a good way of reaching developers. The logic being that game developers are likely to be “residents” of Second Life.

I’d would like to point out a number of issues.

First, while Second Life likes to talk about 3 million registered accounts, there are only around 100,000 active residents. It has a churn rate of 85% (yes, you read right). In other worlds there is small group of hard core users. Most people come, have a look, get bored, and don’t come back. I’d like to see how interested companies would be if Linden Labs touted the 100,000 figure instead of 3 million.

Second, there are other virtual games out there. Companies supporting one game over another, send a negative message to developers who are members of other gaming communities.

Third, trying to do business in a virtual world is far more difficult and time consuming than doing business via a regular web site. To access Second Life, for example, you have download a viewer, set up an account, work out the controls, orientate yourself in the 3D world, and them clumsily try to locate and get to the company you’re interested in finding out about. Personally, I’d rather google the company name, and access its web site, and this is why I think having a Second Life presence is a gimmick more than anything else.

As far as gimmicks go, setting up a shop front on Second Life is probably not a bad idea. At least it’s still getting publicity, and column inches, for companies that are doing it.

However, I suspect in the medium term, once the novelty of Second Life has worn off, companies need to start looking for a new fad in order to generate PR.

Iran says its nuclear programme is only for producing energy

Indian officials say exports to Iran that could be used in the country’s nuclear programme have been banned. Trade officials said the ban would prevent anything that could be used to enrich uranium from being exported directly or indirectly to Iran.

The restrictions comply with a decision taken last year by the United Nations Security Council.

The Indian government’s Communist allies attacked it for voting against Iran at the UN nuclear agency, IAEA.

The Indian government’s announcement was made just hours before the planned publication of a UN nuclear agency report which is expected to say Tehran has not complied with the Security Council’s demands - opening the way for tougher international sanctions.

India has maintained that it’s support for a resolution reporting Iran to the UN Security Council did not detract from its close relations.

Last month, Iran, Pakistan and India agreed on a pricing formula for the delivery of Iranian gas via a $7bn pipeline.

Talks on the 2,600km-long pipeline began in 1994, but have been plagued by disagreements.