US Government Seizes Domains

By DustinPosted on

In a new battle against piracy, the US government has taken upon itself to seize domains that list any links to files on other servers that may contain copyrighted material. I am starting to feel that the “public” networks aren’t so public anymore. The Internet never left the governments hands, did it? Sites that were seized were replaced with the following image:

I am not for piracy at all, but I am more against government censorship. If they were a bit more knowledgeable in how torrents worked, and how search engines worked, this wouldn’t have happened. Guess what? I can search and download copyrighted materials using Google. Is that going to be shut down next? Who knows. Obama will have his way, as he and his administration have already proven to be more knowledgeable than anyone else in the IT industry…

While complex, it’s still possible for U.S. authorities and copyright groups to point at a fully-fledged BitTorrent site with a tracker and say “that’s an infringing site.” When one looks at a site which hosts torrents but operates no tracker, the finger pointing becomes quite a bit more difficult.

When a site has no tracker, carries no torrents, lists no copyright works unless someone searches for them and responds just like Google, accusing it of infringement becomes somewhat of a minefield – unless you’re ICE Homeland Security Investigations that is.

Super Secret Access To Ilomilo on XBox 360

By DustinPosted on

A free trial of ilomilo for the XBox 360, which still has no official release date, is available through a secret site. Grab the code, enter it in at XBox.com, and it goes to your download queue. I haven’t played it yet, but I will in the next few hours. We’ll see if it deserves a super top secret access page! The full game is $10, but officially isn’t available for everyone yet. So, you can be the cool kid on the block with the unreleased game on your XBox 360… Legally!

PC a Generation Ahead Of Consoles

By DustinPosted on

The XBox 360 and PS3 have been called a rock by Crytek, the developers of Far Cry and Crysis. They claim that the lack of great PC games (and the subpar ports from consoles) is due to the developers not seeing the PC as a profit maker. Yes, the PC doesn’t have as much of a pull as the consoles do in the cash flow department. But, the PC was where the great games were born, the ones that the consoles tried to emulate. I’d like to see some revolutionary games for the PC to show the console makers what it is capable of and what they should aim for on the next generation of consoles.

“PC is easily a generation ahead right now. With 360 and PS3, we believe the quality of the games beyond Crysis 2 and other CryEngine developments will be pretty much limited to what their creative expressions is, what the content is. You won’t be able to squeeze more juice from these rocks.”

New Unpatched Kernel Bug

By DustinPosted on

A new bug that opens UAC to attackers and has been unveiled to the public. While in itself it isn’t a threat, but by using a second form of malware it can cause a lot of damage. UAC was designed to block silent malware from installing, this bug leaves a big hole where the malware can execute without a UAC prompt.

“Microsoft is aware of the public posting of details of an elevation of privilege vulnerability that may reside in the Windows kernel,” said Jerry Bryant, a group manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center, in an e-mail. “We will continue to investigate the issue and, when done, we will take appropriate action.”

The bug is in the “win32k.sys” file, a part of the kernel, and exists in all versions of Windows, including XP, Vista, Server 2003, Windows 7 and Server 2008, said Sophos researcher Chet Wisniewski in a Thursday blog post.

Free Animated Christmas Tree For Windows

By DustinPosted on

For those in the Christmas spirit, you can grab an animated Christmas tree for your Windows 7 desktop for free. The files are small, no spyware/adware. Just a nice desktop Christmas tree for your enjoyment. There are 19 different styles to choose from!

Add a fresh touch to your desktop with Christmas tree. It can optionally stay on top and you can adjust transparency – a mouseover hint reveals how many days are left till Christmas.

MIT Chrome Extension Using Kinect

By DustinPosted on

The kids at MIT have come up with a gesture feature as part of a Chrome extention using the Kinect. This Kinect thing just hit the market a couple weeks ago, and we are already seeing some excellent applications for it. I can’t wait to see what else they come up with. Maybe a big part of Windows 8?

Hackers at the famous MIT Media Lab have built an open source Chrome browser extension that uses the Microsoft gesture-based controller Kinect to navigate around tabs and web pages. The group says the end result is like the movie Minority Report and that seems like a fair comparison.

Windows Phone 7 Hacked: MS’s Take

By DustinPosted on

Microsoft knew that their Windows Phone 7 would be poked and prodded until someone hacked it. Of course, they don’t want people doing it and have released their take on it.

“We anticipated that people would attempt to unlock the phones and explore the underlying operating system. We encourage people to use their Windows Phone as supplied by the manufacturer to ensure the best possible user experience. Attempting to unlock a device could void the warranty, disable phone functionality, interrupt access to Windows Phone 7 services or render the phone permanently unusable.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

By DustinPosted on

Happy Thanksgiving! This time of year is a great time to get together with family and have a great time. For those drinking this holiday, remember to give your keys to someone who isn’t!

Everyone have a great and safe Thanksgiving!

IE9 Beta 2 Leaked

By DustinPosted on

Internet Explorer 9 Beta 2 (Build 9.0.8027.6000) has been leaked on the internet. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise, really. It has stability and compatibility fixes. Give it a try if you are into leaked betas. Just remember that it comes with zero support!

The build, version 9.0.8027.6000 includes bug fixes, stability improvements and the latest rendering engine seen in the recent developer Platform Preview. It appears, from the digital signature, that the build was compiled as recently as November 19. Microsoft’s previous Platform Preview 7 build was labeled 9.0.8023.6000.

The new build doesn’t appear to include any UI enhancements. Microsoft has updated its download manager so that it now displays the transfer speed without the need to hover over individual downloads. The updated beta also performs better on Microsoft’s IE test drive site.