2011 - NEWS ARCHIVE
Mozilla
has just released Firefox 9.0 which, amongst other things,
promises a 30% performance increase when accessing websites
that make extensive use of JavaScript. It is also said to
offer improved HTML5, CSS3 and MathML web standards support,
improved integration for Mac OS X Lion, including theme
integration and finger swipe navigation. If all this wasn't
enough then it also includes 6 important security updates
and well over 1,100 general bug fixes since the last update.
For a link to the latest Firefox download visit:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Self-Healing Electronic Circuits
Scientists
and engineers at the University Of Illinois, USA have
developed a circuit that is able to heal itself when
damaged. The process sees metallic microcapsules (as small
as 0.01mm) pasted to the surface of the circuit; if the
circuit is physically damaged the microcapsules break open
and leak a highly conductive (eutectic gallium-indium)
material which repairs any cracks and restores the circuit.
If this was not impressive enough then the fact that the
whole repair process is almost instantaneous should raise a
few eyebrows. The uses of this type of technology are far
reaching, not only extending the life of devices but making
them more rugged in the process.
There
has been a marked increase in ‘Ransom-ware'. This is a form
of mal-ware that infects a system, rendering it unusable,
and then asks for a payment to release the system.
Unfortunately, even if a user pays the demand (which you
should never, ever do), the system is not released and
remains infected. One such recent scam claims to be from the
‘Met Police’ indicating a fine for use of illegal material,
with the message claiming the user has accessed ‘Child
Pornography’ and emails with a ‘terrorist’ background. As
with all these types of issue, make sure your system has
a fully working anti-virus application, and is kept
up-to-date with the latest Microsoft updates (not to mention
Java and Adobe Flash/Reader as applicable), as these
measures will have a positive effect on overall system
security and significantly reduce the possibility of being infected
with ransom-ware in the first place.
The Glitch is 7 Years old this Month!
The
Glitch has been in existence for 7 years now and I hope people are still
finding the site useful. As always, I would like to take this
opportunity to thank all those who have visited the site and
a special thank you to those who purchased items via The
Glitch, your continued support is very much appreciated. If
you haven't posted a message in my Guest Book, then please
feel free to do so, all comments are welcome. If you have
any suggestions for improvements to the site then please feel free to use my
contact page. The Glitch wishes you all a Merry Christmas
and a Happy, prosperous New Year!
Java
is not a product that is installed by default in Windows,
but it's sometimes required by other software
products that need to utilise it, and so you might be prompted to
install it. This is where the problems starts, once Java is installed
you must keep it up-to-date to maintain system security.
Un-patched versions of Java represent a real security risk
and so it's highly recommended you ensure your version of Java
is updated (Control Panel -> Java and look for the ‘Update’
button). But it’s not just current versions of Java that
need 'updating' that cause security issues, Legacy versions
are also a significant risk and these should be removed
completely, the only version of Java you should have
installed on your system is (at the time of writing) Java 6
Update 30.
Some computer
devices such as routers and network switches, software
packages and on-line services are developed with a certain
amount of security built-in, some will come
with a predefined ‘default’ user name and password to gain
‘initial’ access to the product, but unfortunately many users
forget to change these default credentials and leave their
products open to possible abuse. Many people are unaware
that anyone can quickly and easily find these default
credentials just but searching the internet for the relevant
product manuals/guides. Another
major issue is that people select easy to guess passwords
(too simple),
which is almost as bad as not changing them from the
defaults in the first place. So next time you purchase a new
device/appliance, software package or on-line service, check
to see if it has any default credentials that should be
changed, and instantly improve your security in the process!
Internet Explorer Automatic Updates
The
New Year will see an important change in the way Microsoft
pushes out updates to it's Internet Explorer (IE) browser.
Currently users are prompted for updates to IE, but
Microsoft will soon change this to an automatic process that
doesn't interact with the user. The consensus of opinion is
that this is a good move by Microsoft as many users become
concerned by software install prompts; many are simply
afraid of installing the wrong thing and end up not
installing important security updates. Other browsers such
as Google’s 'Chrome’ have been using this model for some
time. Microsoft have hinted that major browser revisions are
still likely to prompt for a user install, but this is an
important first step in removing some of the guess work from
users and in doing so help them maintain system security.
Earlier
this year Western Digital released the worlds first 3TB
(3,000GB) 3.5" hard drive; since then Seagate has brought out
the worlds first
external 4TB (4,000GB) hard drive and now Hitachi has
released their very own 4TB Deskstar 5K4000 internal 3.5"
hard drive. If these capacious drives are still not enough to satisfy
your storage needs then the news that 5TB hard drives are
already in final development will no doubt be good news. But
a word of warning, large capacity (2TB+) hard drives are all
well and good, but be aware that you can't boot a Microsoft
operating system with a hard drive larger than 2.2TB, unless
you are installing a 64-bit version of Windows Vista or
Windows 7 and have a motherboard that uses the latest EFI/UEFI
BIOS technology.
QR
Codes (Quick Response Codes) can be thought of as barcodes
on steroids, they are (unlike traditional bar codes) able to
represent a relatively large amount of data (up to 7,089
numerical characters) in a small area, and get their name
due to the speed in which said data can be read. QR
codes were developed for the automotive industry to track
parts in vehicle manufacturing, but more recently they have
been adopted by product marketing firms and the
entertainment industry as a way to convey information (such
as website addresses) to smart phones and other mobile
devices using a suitable QR Code reader application.
Unfortunately there are signs that QR Codes are being
abused, with deceitful individuals affixing bogus QR Code
stickers over legitimate ones which, when scanned, send
users to unsafe websites containing malicious code or
mal-ware, so be cautious what you scan in the future!
Schools Failing to Provide True IT Skills
The
government has promised change after a recent report was
published about the way ICT (Information & Communication
Technology) was being taught in UK schools. The report
indicated that the current ICT curriculum fails to inspire
or stimulate pupils in to wanting to develop all but the
most basic computer skills. With the UK still very much
thought of as 'a hub' for software development, the report
sited, in particular, the lack of any real programming
skills being taught, showing just how little significance
the UK's ICT schooling has. The report went on to state that
if the UK hopes to maintain it's strong standing in the
software industry it needs to start making changes now, or
it will end up with a nation of digital illiterates!
There
has been a marked increase in 'Phishing' attacks over the
past month, with customers from big name companies such as
Virgin Media, Google and Microsoft XBox Live suffering the
consequences. A Phishing attack will attempt to
acquire information such as usernames, passwords and payment
details, by masquerading as a known entity. This type of
attack can sometimes be as simple as an email purporting to
be from a well-known service asking you to verify your
details, this email might contain a link that redirects you
to an almost identical version of the legitimate site,
duping you into entering your security details. The answer,
as always, is to try and stay vigilant.
Elevated Hard Drive Costs Increase PC Prices
Hard
drive prices remain high in the aftermath of some of the worst
flooding in Thailand's history. Most of the main hard drive
manufacturer's fabrication plants are based in Thailand,
which are still running at limited capacity due to a
shortage of components and damaged equipment. Hard drive prices have
tripled due to limited stocks and unpredictable delivery
dates, and this is now having a knock on effect on PC
prices. PC Manufacturers are now having to increase system
prices due to the increased hard drive costs. It is
predicted that these costs will remain high for some time,
with some suggesting that hard drive production may not
return to previous rates until the end of next year at the
earliest.
Apple has decided to recall all iPod
Nanos, purchased between September 2005 and December 2006,
due to the possibility of battery malfunction. The issue
only effects 'first generation' iPod Nanos, which in rare
cases can overheat. Apple has stated it will exchange,
free of charge, all eligible devices; so if you think your
device might be one of those effected you should first
double check it's serial number with Apple's website. Apple
goes on to indicate that it could take up to 6 weeks for a
replacement device to arrive.
To check your serial number and for more information visit:
http://www.apple.com/support/ipodnano_replacement/
Nationwide Invests in IT Infrastructure
While
other banks and building societies make a mess of their IT
updates and upgrades, it seems the 'Nationwide Building
Society' is showing them just how things should be done. The
'Nationwide' started a £1bn IT update in 2008, and has, so
far, gone on to deliver a new state-of-the-art data
centre, new internet banking site and new mortgage system,
not to mention improved on-line security with two-factor
authentication. What is even more impressive is that these
updates bring together all their recent acquisitions of
other building societies, integrating them fully. If this
was not impressive enough then the fact that all these 'mile
stones' have been achieved with nominal interruption to it's
customers, should raise a few eyebrows. Nationwide hope to
complete their company wide IT overhaul within the next two
years, with the ambition to deliver the UK's most modern
banking system.
The
conspiracy theorists are having a field day over the sheer
quantity of issues our banks seem to be having with their
computer systems recently. Although most people appreciate
that Banks are always going to be a target for hackers, some
are beginning to speculate that recent system changes are in
fact desperate measures, hastily executed, in an attempt to maintain system security. In October The 'Bank of
Scotland' admitted that all their online banking issues seem
to stem from their parent group 'Lloyds' updating and
migrating their systems. Then 'HSBC' had issues with their
ATM and internet banking and now 'RBS' and 'NatWest' are
having similar issues after 'system upgrades'. I'm amazed
these companies seem to be so Avant-garde with such critical
systems, why the risks and dependencies were not properly
managed is just staggering!
Hard
drive prices soar in the aftermath of some of the worst
flooding in Thailand's history which has seen hundreds of
lives lost and many thousands more displaced. Thailand is
the location used by most of the main hard drive
manufacturers; their fabrication plants are now having to
close, or are running at limited capacity due to a shortage
of components and staff. Hard drive prices have doubled over the last
week, with further increases likely, due to limited stocks
and unpredictable delivery dates. Unless you are absolutely
desperate for a new hard drive my advice is to wait a few
months while this appalling situation improves. The Glitch's
thoughts are with the Thai people at this difficult time.
It seems that HTC has made some, less than ideal, changes to
the Android operating system running on a number of their
handsets. The issue stems from HTC adding what they have
called ‘Logging Tools’ to their handsets, but in doing so
left a security vulnerability that could give a rouge
application access to data stored on the handset, including
email addresses, phone numbers, SMS data and even GPS
location data, just by allowing said application access to
the internet. Open source software is generally a very good
thing, but HTC have failed to fully control and test their
updates, and in doing so, exposed one of the pitfalls of
open source software.
Further Security Breach at Sony
Hackers
have again attacked Sony; with Sony having to temporarily
suspend some of it's users, after unauthorised access was
gained to around 90,000 accounts. Sony was criticized for
not acting swiftly enough last time their systems were
compromised, but it seems they have reacted promptly on this
occasion. Sony was also quick to point out that no payment
card details were at risk during the unauthorised activity,
with all affected accounts now being sent email
notifications requiring passwords to be reset before being
reactivated. An initial investigation seems to suggest this
attack was based on information gleaned from a previous
security breach.
RIM
(Research in Motion) has been struggling, for an number of
days, to fully restore
it's BlackBerry service across Europe, Asia and Middle East, with
it's customers becoming increasingly frustrated with the
situation. The issue seems to have stemmed
from a failure of one of their core switches (used to pass
messages through the Blackberry system), and the
subsequent failure of their backup switches, which have not
performed as designed. Poor communication has also seen
little in the way of information being passed back to
Blackberry
customers, something that will no doubt further damage RIM’s
ailing market position.
BT is often
berated for it's slow network speeds, but this is slowly
changing with the introduction of it's fibre based services,
collectively known as 'BT Infinity’. BT is currently rolling
out it's Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) service, which offers a
standard speed of up to 40Mbps, a significant boost for
many; but it doesn't stop there, as BT hopes to double their
standard fibre speeds to around 80Mbps sometime in 2012. If
this was not enough then BT are also just starting to roll
out their Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) service, which will
initially provide around 100Mbps downloads, but should scale
to offer speeds of up to 300Mbps in the near future.
Importantly, BT are committed to offer these new services at
a level that the consumer is able to afford, with many
customers seeing little or no difference in their package
costs when they upgrade; this is in sharp contrast to some
of it's competitors.
Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs has sadly
passed away, aged 56, at his home in California; he was
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003 and had been
battling with the condition for almost 9 years. Many
consider Steve Jobs as a visionary and trailblazer, with
some even likening him to a modern day ‘Leonardo Da Vinci’,
but whatever your view there’s no denying his impact on the
worldwide technology market. He will be remembered for many
innovations that have enriched people’s lives, including the
Macintosh computer (first consumer system to use a graphical user interface), iPod
(pioneering media player), iPhone (some say it's the ultimate smartphone) and the iPad (the tablet revolution began with
Apple). And let’s not forget Steve Jobs also had a massive
impact on the animation industry when he formed 'Pixar', which was responsible for producing
the first totally computer generated animated movie 'Toy
Story'. Pixar
went on to produce some of the most successful feature films
of all time, including 'Finding Nemo', 'Wall-E' and 'Up'.
I leave you with a quote from
Steve Jobs
"Being the richest man in the cemetery
doesn't matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we've
done something wonderful … that's what matters to me."
Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011)
After much anticipation Apple have
finally released details of their latest iPhone, the iPhone
4S. It seems that my previous article about the
iPhone was on the money, with the iPhone
4S getting an improved processor in the form of Apple's A5
CPU and a much improved camera in the form of an 8MP device
(utilising a backside illumination sensor) able to record
1080p HD video. Battery life has also been improved, along
with support for faster HSPA networks running at
14.4Mbits/s. Memory size gets an inevitable boost with the
debut of a 64GB version, joining the 32GB and 16GB versions.
As is often the case Apple will release a new version of it's iOS operating system (iOS 5) a couple of days before the
release of the new iPhone, packed with around 200 new
features. The iPhone 4S will be available in the UK from the
14th October, with iOS 5 being available for download on the
12th October.
For more information visit:
http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/#
Microsoft have been actively scanning
and terminating 'Xbox Live' accounts that show signs of
illegal activity for some time now, but it seems they have
been getting it wrong recently. Although Microsoft have
indicated that only a handful of consoles have been wrongly
identified, it has taken the significant step to reverse all
console bans that were instigated between the 29th August
and 9th of September. This seems to suggest the issue
was more widespread than Microsoft is willing to admit.
Microsoft have indicated they will compensate any wrongly
identified users, with a free 3 month Xbox Live
subscription, and £20 worth of Microsoft points. Some users
even purchased new consoles as the only way around the ban,
(due to the fact that
Microsoft's enforcement policy ensures that all on-line activity for the Xbox console concerned is
terminated), but these people will be given a refund, as long as
they have proof of purchase and get their old console tested
for compliance.
Amazon's Kindle e-book reader has proved to be a great success, but it's about to be joined by a new product, the 'Kindle Fire'. What makes the 'Kindle Fire' very different from the original Kindle is that it's got more in common with a tablet device than an e-book reader. The 'Kindle Fire' has a 7" Multi-touch 1024x600 resolution full colour (169ppi) screen, 8GB of internal storage and is WiFi enabled. Battery life is said to be good, lasting up to 8 hours. Amazon has ensured that the 'Kindle Fire' is closely tied to it's on-line services, allowing users to quickly and easily download ebooks, magazines, music and video. The 'Kindle Fire' goes on sale on the 15th November 2011, but will only be available in the U.S. initially; and with a relatively small price tag of $199 it's sure to be a big seller. It's hoped that European distribution will follow soon after the U.S. launch, although no firm date has been defined.
Microsoft's Windows 7 has been very
popular with over 450 million copies sold world wide; this
is a clear signal to Microsoft that people like the
operating system. But things move on and Microsoft's new
operating system 'Windows 8' (still in development) will
debut a very different user interface called ‘Metro’ that
stems from it's new mobile platform ‘Windows Phone
7’. For tablet and many mobile users this new interface will
be seen as a huge improvement over the standard Windows
desktop interface, but is it relevant for your average
laptop or desktop system. Even Microsoft are not that brave,
they know that a Windows operating system that doesn’t
support standard Windows features will have limited appeal,
so Windows 8 will still have a standard Windows desktop
option available.
For more information on Windows 8 visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2011/jun11/06-01corporatenews.aspx
DigiNotar's Rogue Certificates
DigiNotar
is a Dutch based certificate authority who issues (amongst
other things) digital certificates to allow companies to
securely authenticate users over the internet. But it seems
DigiNotar has suffered a significant security breach with
over two dozen of their Certificate Authority (CA) servers being
compromised. This is pretty serious and places doubt in any certificate the company has issued;
in fact it's so serious
that many organizations (including Microsoft, Google, Mozilla to name but three) have already defined all
DigiNotar certificates as untrustworthy. What is also
beginning to concern governments and organizations alike is the
growing evidence that suggests that Iran is at the center of
the attack.
Many people complain about how slow their systems startup and shutdown, but this could soon be a thing of the past with Windows 8, with Microsoft making significant progress in these areas. By utilising multi-core processor technology and a new hybrid hibernation mode, it is said that Windows 8 will be between 30% and 70% faster at booting than Windows 7. But even Microsoft know that an Operating System needs fully shutting down from time to time, so you will still be able to perform a full shut down if required. Some of Microsoft’s testing has been done using SSDs (Solid State Drives) which are inherently fast, so we will have to wait to see just how impressive these new boot times are, especially when compared to more traditional hard drives.
Hackers Attack Domain Registrars
A
Turkish hacking group calling themselves ‘TurkGuvenligi’
have attacked two
accredited ICANN domain registrars. 'NetNames’ and 'Ascio'
were both infiltrated using a classic SQL injection attack;
the hacking group then proceeded to append their own DNS
servers to their systems and redirected almost 200 websites
to a holding page stating “Hacking is not a crime”. It
seems some high profile website names were affected
including, Vodafone, National Geographic, UPS, The Daily
Telegraph and Acer. But it’s important to understand that
the websites of these companies were not hacked, just the
companies that hold their domain name registrations. All the
websites affected now point to their appropriate
site addresses again, but 'NetNames' and 'Ascio' will now have
the tough job of explaining what went wrong!
It
wasn't that long ago that Microsoft released Internet
Explorer 9 (IE9), but it seems it's successor (IE10), is
already taking shape. Some of the features we can expect to
see in IE10 will be faster page rendering, further security
enhancements and support for many more of the latest HTML5
and CSS3 web standards. It's also believed that IE10 will
get an Office 2007/2010 'ribbon' style menu. For all those
who are interested, Microsoft have created a platform
preview which allows you to download an early development
version of Internet Explorer 10 to get a taste of what's to
come...but a word of warning, this pre-release software
represents an incomplete product and as such should not be
considered for mainstream use.
For a link to the IE10 platform preview
download visit:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/info/downloads/
In a strong case of déjà vu, it seems
that an Apple employee has, inadvertently, left a prototype
of the, yet to be released, iPhone 5 in a Tequila bar in San
Francisco. It was only back in April 2010 that a prototype
iPhone 4 was left in a German Beer Garden in Redwood City,
California by another Apple employee, so this is becoming an
all too common occurrence for the company. The iPhone 5 is
not due to be available until later this year, with October
being sited as the most likely release date, so this
prototype has unquestionably made a premature appearance.
It's said that the device was found by a member of the
public and later placed on Craigslist for $200, a sign that
the new owner had little or no idea of the value of the
handset. Apple has suggested that the prototype was
practically priceless, and that they are now devoting
significant resources in an attempt to retrieve the device.
Beyond Oblivion is a New York-based
start-up company that is hoping to offer a new type of
digital music service; Boinc (currently in Beta) could
change the face of music streaming for ever. What makes
Boinc so different to the likes of Spotify is Boinc will
allow you to download and share as much music as you want
without any download charges, monthly fees or
advertisements. It sounds too good to be true, but you do
have to purchase a one-off license that lasts for the
lifetime of your system or device. Currently Windows, Mac,
and Android devices will be supported with an iOS
application in the pipeline; critically Beyond Oblivion is
still yet to reveal it's license price structure.
For more information visit:
http://ww.boinc.com/
It was a significant day when
Bill Gates stepped down as
Microsoft's CEO in 2000, but it now seems that
another major figure in the IT industry is to stand down
with Steve Jobs resigning as Apple's CEO. Although no
official reason for his departure has been given, many
speculate that Steve Jobs recent ill health has played a
considerable part. The good news is that he won’t be leaving
the company entirely, but will continue as ‘chairman of the
board’; and this is important, as many people still see him
as the principal innovator at Apple whose ideas over the
last 15 years have helped the company grow into the global
giant that it is today.
Ofcom Fines TalkTalk £3 Million
It
was back in November 2010
that TalkTalk was given it's final warning by Ofcom over it's
continued breach of regulation. Ofcom made it very clear
that TalkTalk (which includes Tiscali UK) would face
significant fines, if they didn't resolve their billing
problems. Eight months on (and although TalkTalk have
improved their billing system) many issues still remain.
This has lead Ofcom to issue TalkTalk with a £3 million fine
for ‘Wrongly Charging Customers’. This may seem a little on
the hash side, but when you consider that over 65,000
customers have been incorrectly billed over the last 18
months, then the fine makes much more sense. Ofcom have
stated that "a financial penalty was required to reflect the
seriousness of the breach of the rules and to act as a
deterrent to other telecoms companies".
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Sales Halted
In
a surprise move Apple
has brought legal action against Samsung to stop
distribution of their latest product the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Samsung's latest tablet does look very 'Apple esk';
apparently even the configurations, prices and packaging are
very similar, but many are puzzled by the injunction. While
we can understand Apple's irritation,
there are other similar looking tablet devices already on
the market, and this raises questions over the decision of
the German District Court to grant the injection in the
first place. Saying this, Samsung has made it clear that
they fully intend to defend their own intellectual property
rights and have vowed to overturn the courts decision.
After
social networking was blamed for helping rioters organise
looting and violence in London, it seems it's now playing a
much more positive roll by helping people get together to
cleanup the streets of London. On Twitter 'riotcleanup' is
helping define times and places for people to turn up and
help out in anyway they can. In fact technology seems to be
working against the perpetrators with sites such as
http://catchalooter.tumblr.com/ helping identify the
perpetrators, CCTV, cops with cameras, even the general
public with mobile phone footage are all being used to
identify the people involved, such is the determination of
the police and community at large to bring these people to
justice.
Virgin Media
have announced plans to set up a totally free, city
wide, Wi-Fi network for London. It will cost Virgin Media several
millions to install, and provide a stock speed of 0.5Mb/s totally
free to anyone who is able to connect. Although this isn't a
particularly amazing headline speed, you have to remember
this is totally free with no strings attached...saying this Virgin Media subscribers
will be able to access said Wi-Fi at a more respectable 10Mb/s. Unfortunately
Virgin Media has not indicated when this network is likely
to be rolled out, but one thing is for sure, the likes of BT
(who already own many
thousands of Wi-Fi hot spots in the city) will be keeping a
very close eye on them!
Net
neutrality is all about making sure all internet information
(traffic) is treated the same. The idea, in principle, is
fantastic as it confronts, head on, organisations and
governments who either actively block content or create
biased networks that skew people’s perception of the World
Wide Web often for financial or political gain. But there's
a different side to ‘Net Neutrality’ which has concerned
many and that’s to do with ‘Quality of Service’. If all
internet traffic is given the same priority then the likes
of P2P (Peer To Peer) connections and VoD (Video on Demand)
services will quickly eat away at available bandwidth
reducing network speeds. ISPs continue to invest in high
speed broadband links, but until the UK has a network
infrastructure that can support unrestricted access, ISPs
will need to control data flow using technologies such as
traffic shaping, to ensure overall service quality does not
suffer, but even these technologies will need to be
monitored to ensure ISPs do not abuse them!
Adobe's HTML5 Alternative to Flash
Yes, you
did read the title correctly, it seems that Adobe has
decided that, if you can't beat them, join them. Adobe's
Flash has long been the core of many a media rich website,
but Flash based website development has always required
specific, specialized tools to generate, and hasn't had the
best press when it comes to security. But it seems Adobe is
now hedging it's bets when it comes to web standards and has
recently released something called 'Edge'. Adobe's 'Edge' is
powered by a combination of HTML5 and CSS3, and allows media
rich content without the need for Flash. Although Adobe's
'Edge' is still in it's early development stages, it will
(unlike Flash) run on any browser (without the need for a
plug-in) and also work with Apple's iOS platform...an
important consideration for any developer!
For more information and a link to the Adobe 'Edge Preview'
click the following link:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/edge/
High Court Orders BT to Block Website
In
a land mark case the UK's High Court of Justice has ruled
that BT must block access to a website called 'Newzbin2'; a
site known to aggregate copyrighted material. This decision
is right for many reasons, ultimately it's illegal to
infringe copyright, but censoring individual websites will
only ever reduce the problem, just as fining private
individuals did, but neither of these actions will
ultimately have any real impact on the issues of piracy.
Interestingly enough 'Newzbin2' was a subscription only
site, indicating that people are willing to pay...maybe the
Hollywood film studios have something to learn from this
site!
Intel 'Evy Bridge' Delayed Until 2012
It
seems we are going to have to wait until 2012 for Intel's
new 'Tri-Gate' or 3D transistor based processors. These new
chips will be based on an all new 22nm process, Intel's
smallest yet; previously indicated for launch in
late 2011. The 'Ivy Bridge' architecture promises many
improvements on Intel's current 'Sandy Bridge' based
processors, including a significant improvement in
performance (around 20%), a DirectX 11 based graphics core,
with a 30% improvement on the previouss integrated GPU and
support for PCI Express 3.0 interconnects and there's even
talk of quad-channel DDR3 memory controllers. All this
technology takes time to perfect and Intel must be keen to
get things right, especially after the recent issues with
their latest 6 series (C200) chipset.
Weak
passwords could soon be a thing of the past for Microsoft's Hotmail
service, as
they prepare to set in motion a new feature that will stop users from
creating simple passwords. Microsoft's
email service is a favorite target for brute force attacks; this is where common passwords are bombarded at the service
until accounts with weak passwords are guessed. Initially
new accounts and anyone who changes their password will be
required to select a more complex password, but ultimately
anyone who has an existing account that uses a weak
password may well be asked to change it. In another welcome
move Microsoft is also putting into place a system that
allows users to report hacked or compromised accounts; these
small but important changes should help Hotmail's email
security significantly.
The iPhone continues to sell well with
Apple shifting over 20 million handsets during the second
quarter of 2011, this means that Apple is now selling more
smartphones than Nokia (who's overall market share fell to
under 24% for the first time). Continued, strong iPhone
sales are great news for Apple, especially when you consider
the imminent release of their new iPhone in the next month
or so, which is bound to boost sales. But Apple has always
been more than a smartphone manufacturer, and so the news of
new versions of the MacBook Air (A light weight laptop) and
Mac mini (A small form factor PC), along with a new 27"
monitor will be welcomed by many. If this wasn't enough
Apple also unveiled the latest version of it's OS X 'Lion'
operating system, who's price is said to be a paltry £20.
Even
though Windows 8 is still a little way off Microsoft has
already indicated that it will continue it's current trend
for either declining or unchanged system requirements. This
move should ensure Windows 8 runs well on any
current Vista or Windows 7 system (assuming driver
compatibility). The idea of declining requirements is
further supported by the fact that Windows 8 is able to
dynamically adjust itself depending upon the processing
power of the device it's running on; this, in turn, indicates that
Windows 8 should even run well on lower powered devices,
such as netbooks and tablets.
Microsoft's Windows 8 is currently defined for release in
the latter part of 2012.
Windows XP Updates Cease April 2014
Security
updates form an important part of keeping any operating
system safe from viruses, spyware and other web nasties. So
when Microsoft announced April 2014 as the cut off date for
security updates for Windows XP, they basically announced
the end of the operating system. It's a fact that Windows XP
is not as secure as it's more modern counter parts (Vista
and Windows 7), and knowing that Microsoft will cease
security updates will only make things worse. Don't get me
wrong 2014 is still some time off yet, but anyone who is
still using a computer system (especially on-line) that is
based on Windows XP should seriously consider upgrading or
changing to a Windows 7 (or newer) operating system within
the next couple of years, or potentially face serious
consequences, due to an inadequately protected system.
This
isn't the first time Microdirect has got themselves into
serious financial troubles (previously in 2008). Although their website is still up and
running (at the time of writing), their choice of products
seems to be much reduced, and there are now reports that
their Manchester store has stopped taking card payments. Microdirect (like Mesh) could yet be saved;
but failing this they
will serve as yet another example of a computer reseller
that was unable to cope in the current economic climate.
Saying this, I can't help but wonder how they have got
themselves in the same financial
situation as they did just a few years ago!
The latest Firefox browser
from Mozilla is now available to download, but if your
expecting a whole new interface and loads of new features
then you're going to be disappointed. Much of the work on
Firefox 5 has concentrated on improvements in security and
stability, in fact it is said that Mozilla has packed 1000
updates into this release, including new privacy options. I
can't help questioning why Mozilla is so keen to release a
whole new version which essentially contains mostly bug
fixes...but then again maybe I'm being a little mean,
ultimately you will have to make up your own mind!
For more information and a link to the latest download visit
my Browsers page
No,
this is not something tasty to eat, it's all about RIM's
Blackberry business, and it's associated fall in share
price. Back in mid February RIM's share price was pretty
healthy at almost $70, but now it's more like $25 due to a
revised forecast that product shipments would be
significantly lower than previously predicted. Much is being
blamed on the time it's taking RIM to launch new products,
in a market that is fast moving at the best of times. It is
doubtful the RIM will disappear, but if they are to remain
competitive and want to hold onto their market share, they
will now have to greatly improve the speed at which they
develop their products and more importantly how quickly they
get said products onto the shelves.
'Anonymous'
are a group of hackers that have taken it upon themselves to
target companies, organizations and government bodies that
try to suppress freedom of speech/information. This
relatively new form of hacking is often referred to as 'Hacktivism',
but ultimately it's just as another form of 'Cyberattack'.
The authorities will never see beyond the illegal act of
hacking and it's only a matter of time before 'Anonymous'
take their actions too far, thus they are surely on a path
to destruction. It's only a matter of time before the ring
leaders are caught with another 35 supports being arrested
just this week; saying this 'Anonymous' would have everyone
believe that they have no real leaders or structure, but
this is never the case as there are always more significant
figures in every group of activists.
World
IPv6 Day was organized by the 'Internet Society' (ISOC) and
involved 434 internet companies over a 24 hour period in a
global-scale trial of the next generation Internet Protocol.
IPv6 is a new 128bit hexadecimal based address system that
will eventually replace the current 32bit numeric system;
this is needed because the current IPv4 address pool is now
becoming exhausted due to our ever increasing need to
connect internet enabled devices. Companies such as Google
and Microsoft said that 'World IPv6 Day' basically passed
without incident and that it was a great success. Although
this is good news, much more work will be required over the
coming months before users can start to be issued IPv6
addresses, least of all because IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are
not compatible with each other and to all in intense and
purpose represent two separate internets!
Mesh Computers In Administration
Mesh
Computers have gone into administrator after 25 years in the
computing industry. It's always sad to see one of the better
computer manufactures go under, but the administrators (MacIntyre
Hudson) have already found a buyer for Mesh in the form of
'PC Peripherals' a distributor of computer components. 'PC
Peripherals' have taken over control of the Mesh website and
is now trading under the Mesh name. Although this is little
comfort for all those waiting delivery of previously ordered
Mesh computers, it will hopefully mean that the Mesh brand
will continue in some form. Only time will tell if the new
owners will be able to produce systems with the same overall
quality as those previously offered!
It
seems Sony's systems have, once again, been compromised,
with many people now asking whether Sony can be trusted to
keep it's customers data safe. This time 'SonyPictures.com'
has been hacked by using a simple SQL injection attack. It's
shocking that a company such as Sony has allowed it's system
to fall prey to a common vulnerability which really
shouldn't have been present. The resultant breach saw 1
million user accounts accessed along with many millions of
Sony music codes and coupons. And to make things even worse,
none of this information was encrypted, with Sony choosing
to store all it's customer data in pain text. The last Sony
data breach was appalling, this new breach is even worse;
trust in Sony was already low but this latest fiasco will no
doubt cause many more customers to look elsewhere for their
entertainment!
Microsoft
acquired Skype (the popular, free internet video chat client) in early May
for £5 Billion, the largest sum Microsoft has ever paid for
a company. Skype's CEO (Tony Bates) will now become
president of Microsoft's Skype division, and work has
already begun integrating Skype into Microsoft's 'XBox' and
'Windows Phone 7' platforms as well as Microsoft's 'Outlook' email
client. Many feel that Microsoft has paid too much for Skype
(especially when you consider Skype is in serious debt at
the moment), but the integration of Skype into many more Microsoft products will
enable more users to communicate and collaborate using the
worlds most popular real-time, social communications
platform. On a less positive note Skype will now need to focus on reliability and stability, as
another bout of service outages and system issues have caused
more problems for it's users recently!
Microsoft
has been showing off a new version of it's Windows Phone 7
operating system. Code named 'Mango' it is said to contain
around 500 updates, with multi-tasking and integration
of
IE9 finally making there way to the platform. Windows Phone
7 uses something called 'Live Tiles' to display information,
and these are said to be more dynamic and able to display
more varied information in the 'Mango' update. Other
improvements include speech-to-text and text-to-speech,
linked inbox (so you can see multiple email accounts in one
place) and broader integration of social network sites. All
these new features sound great, but it seems you're going to
have to wait a while to get your hands on it, as no explicit
release date has been specified other than sometime in the
autumn!
June approaches, and rumour has it that
Apple may use their forthcoming 'Worldwide Developer
Conference' (WWDC) in San Francisco to showcase their latest
iPhone. If the rumour mill is working properly then we
shouldn't expect too much from this new handset, rather than
a full redesign, it's suggested that we will see an upgraded iPhone 4, maybe called the iPhone 4S (much like the iPhone
3S before). The main improvements are likely to be with it's
processor, with most sources suggesting it will contain
Apple's latest A5 processor (like that found in the latest iPad), an improved camera and an alteration to the main
antenna to improve reception. The iPhone 4S is expected to
be made available sometime in September.
The
theft of copper is on the increase, with companies who deal
with everything from copper pipe to copper cables, being
effected. Copper is currently worth well over £5k a tonne,
so it's no wonder it's become a popular target for thieves.
But technology is finally catching up, with 'SmartWater' now being used by many companies to
identify their goods. 'SmartWater' is a forensic solution
that is assigned a chemical code which is unique and so
specific to a particular company, it is also incredibly
difficult to completely remove once it has been applied to a
product. This makes it very easy for the police to trace the
origin of a product if it's suspected as being stolen. In
fact police and local authorities are now stepping up spot
checks at recycling centers, because of the easy with which
items can be identified, with significant fines being dealt
out to any center found handling marked products. In fact
prosecutions for copper theft have started to increase
significantly since 'SmartWater' was introduced.
Fujitsu
(Japanese Electronics Giant) has announced that they intend
to create a 'rural' fibre broadband network, providing super
fast internet to millions of households that are currently
suffering some of the poorest bandwidth in the UK. Fujitsu,
in collaboration with Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Cisco, plan
to provide every customer with a 1Gbit/sec link to the
internet, using a full Fibre-To-The-Premise (FTTP)
implementation in the majority of cases. Fujitsu were quick
to point out this will only be possible if Ofcom carries out
it's own plan to allow third-parties access to BT's
infrastructure. Even though it might take Fujitsu years to
complete this project, it still represents new hope for
thousands of small towns and villages up and down the
country who are unable to get decent broadband, because BT
is unwilling to invest, maybe now BT will re-think it's
current strategy!
Computer
security experts are warning people to be very cautious when
following links to information about the death of the
Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin-Laden. It seems cyber-criminals
are already exploiting the headline news, creating links
that profess to provide downloads of newly discovered images
or videos of Bin Laden, that in reality only serve up
malware. With rouge links already being discovered on
Facebook, and other social networking sites, many experts
are recommending that people limit their searches to the
better known news sites, when trying to gain information
about the dead Al-Qaeda leader, as this should significantly
reduce their exposure to the flood of new malware.
Intel's 'Tri-Gate' Transistors
In
2008 AMD sold off their chip fabrication facilities dividing
their processor design and manufacture processes; many
believe this was a bad move which has slowed AMD's processor
innovation. Intel, on the other hand, has kept it's chip
design and fabrication processes closely tied together, and
this has given Intel the scope and control it needed to
bring processor improvements to the market more quickly.
Intel's latest development is it's 'Tri-Gate' or 3D
transistor, a transistor that's no longer flat, but has fins
that increase it's surface area making it more conductive
and more efficient. Crucially, this technology will be
accessible very soon, and will début in the form of Intel's
new 22nm (Nanometer) 'Ivy Bridge' chips, later this year.
The 3D transistor is an important break through, allowing
Intel to make not only faster chips but more power efficient
chips as well.
Sony
made headline news this week when it suffered a massive
security breach of it's 'PlayStation' Network, (which holds
the personal details of almost 80 million users). Even
though Sony shut down it's gaming network, the moment the
system violation was discovered, it failed to notify the
public immediately only disclosing the issue several days
later. This has not only incensed many people, but damaged
Sony's reputation, in fact Sony's share price has dropped
significantly since this whole issue began. But this is only
the start for Sony, with many countries currently
investigating the data theft with an eye on legal
proceedings if it's deemed Sony's actions were tardy or
inadequate. Sony is all too aware of the damage this data
breach is having on it's customers and business as a whole
and so they were quick to offer, all eligible customers, 30
days free premium 'PlayStation Network' membership with free
downloads, once they finally get their gaming network back
up and running again.
Western Digital and Seagate Go Shopping
Just
weeks after well known hard drive manufacturer Western
Digital announced they were soon to acquire the hard drive
division of Hitachi (for $4 Billion), Seagate have now
revealed that they are to purchase Samsung's (faltering)
hard drive business for an undisclosed amount. This
acquisition should see Seagate's market share jump to around
40%, which helps close the gap with Western Digital's
current 50%. Interestingly enough neither of these main
stream manufactures have invested heavily in Solid State
technology until now; with both Hitachi and Samsung being
large 'NAND flash' suppliers, (the chips used to make Solid
State Drives), it can now only be a matter of time before
Western Digital and Seagate branded Solid State Drives (SSD)
start to appear.
The
Hubble Telescope (named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble)
is 21 Years old this month. Hubble was launched back in
April 1990 by Space Shuttle Discovery, and it's changed the
way we view the universe ever since. In 2009 Hubble's future
looked uncertain, but a servicing mission allowed Hubble to
continue it's amazing discoveries until at least 2014. To
celebrate it's 21 years in space, NASA has released a
particularly impressive image of a spiral galaxy (nicknamed
'The Rose'), that lies in the constellation Andromeda, using
it's now famous Wide Field Camera.
For more information visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/hubble-rose.html
Oracle washes hands of OpenOffice
In
a U-turn that has surprised many, Oracle has now made
it clear that it no longer wants anything more to do with the OpenOffice project. In fact they have discarded the whole
project and left it's future to the open-source community. This move
in it's self is not a bad thing, no one is more qualified to
continue the development of an open-source, office
productivity suite than the open-source community, but it
does show how right it's original developers were, when many
of them jumped ship to form LibreOffice a few months back.
Clearly Oracle's support was found wanting and the reasons
for this are now all too clear. Once the dust has settled we
will see what happens next, hopefully this will spur a
unification of OpenOffice and LibreOffice.
When
Spotify first appeared on the internet I have to say I was
quite impressed, it heralded the start of free streaming
music for all; unfortunately Spotify, over time, has slowly
squeezed it's free users until there is very little left for
them. It's a great shame that from the 1st of May free users
will only be able to play 10 hours of music a month, and
only be able to play the same track 5 times in total. I
think this is a bad move (especially the limit on the number
of times a track can be played) and it has spurred me look
around for an alternative. Interestingly enough Spotify
seems to have some serious competition and their disdain for
their free users could not come at a worse time, with the
likes of 'mflow' and others now offering a similar, totally
free, service.
A
group of international scientists, along with
representatives from both major industry
and governments has recently got together to discussed the
effects a major solar event would have on the worlds
communications and electrical infrastructure. The last solar event
occurred way back in 1859 when the only form of communication
was the telegraph and even then significant failures and
system malfunctions were reported. It doesn't take too much to
imagine the impact such a solar storm would have on our modern day
internet and mobile communications networks, not to mention
our almost total reliance on the electrical grid. The conference
concluded that no one could predict the actual severity of
such an event, but that it would happen within
the next couple of years and so some kind of early warning
system would be needed to hopefully allow sensible defensive
measures to be taken, to reduce the damage a significant
solar event would have on our 21st Century infrastructure.
In
one of the biggest data breaches in American history,
cloud-based email marketing firm Epsilon were recently
compromised. Epsilon handles many millions of email adverts,
every day, for a whole host of big named US based companies
including the likes of Chase, Kroger, Kraft Foods and the
Hilton Hotels group. Customer names and email addresses were
accessed and ultimately stolen, although Epsilon were quick
to stress that no financial information was retrieved by the
hackers. Sadly this does highlight another important issue
that cloud-based companies face, and that's one of security,
if you're going to place all your eggs in one basket, it
better be one of the most secure baskets ever made!
Many
users are happy with Microsoft's 'Windows 7' operating
system, and there's no doubt it's a vast improvement over
Windows Vista, but that's not slowed Microsoft's continued
development of the platform; in fact an early version of
'Windows 8' (final name to be verified) is already being
distributed to OEMs (HP and Dell to name two). Little is
currently known in relation to new features that Windows 8 will
bring, but one significant change comes in the form of a
special (additional) version that will run on the low-power
ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) architecture, where RISC stands
for Reduced Instruction Set. This is a significant move
considering all versions of Windows to date have been
written for x86 CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer)
based architectures only. This diversification of Windows
should see the platform appearing on a whole new class of
low-powered devices. A Beta version maybe released as early
as September this year, which, if true, indicates a late
2012 launch for Windows 8.
Earth Hour 26 March 2011 8:30PM
Earth
hour is in it's fifth year, and support is growing year on
year. To show your support and that you care about climate
change, just switch off as many of your electrical devices
as you can on Saturday 26th March at 8.30pm, for an hour. You can see how each area of the UK compares by
visiting the 'Earth Hour Map', this shows a league based on
the percentage of population signed up. Don't forget to peer
out of your window, at your neighbors during earth hour, to
see who's not showing their support!
To sign-up and see how your area is doing visit:
https://support.wwf.org.uk/earth_hour/index.php
After
many years of discussions it seems the creation of a domain
for adult material is now assured with ICANN (Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) recently
approving the use of a .xxx domain. Some disagree with this
move saying it will ghettoise the content, others say the
domain legitimises the content, and although I can
understand both of these points, I still believe this was
the right decision. Anything that gives people more control
over content is a good thing, and the idea that parents can
filter out a whole mass of inappropriate material just by
blocking a single .xxx domain is a step in the right
direction. Currently there is no mandate for existing adult
sites to move to the new domain, but I can see a time when
this might also happen!
Flash Issues with Chrome Browser
It
seems that Google updated it's Chrome browser recently,
but in doing so introduced a bug that causes Adobe Flash
based websites to stop responding. Chrome version 10,
which introduced sandboxing for Flash, seems to have a
critical flaw which causes it's Flash plug-in to crash,
especially when multiple instances of Flash are running
at the some time. Google software engineers are
currently working on a fix for the issue, but have
stated that it could take a while due to the complexities
of the problem. Interestingly enough, there have been reports of Mozilla's Firefox
browser also crashing when multiple
Flash sites are visited, it seems IE9 is looking better
and better every day!
Tsunami Causes Supply Constraints
There
are no words that can truly describe the horrific events
that have befallen the Japanese people over the last
week, and everyone I talk to is shocked by the extend of
the disaster and lost of life, and although this is the
real concern for us all, there is another problem
looming that directly affects us all. Japan's
significance in the global market is vast and anything
that causes Japan to slow or even stop supplying goods
will have far reaching repercussions world wide. And this is never more
true that for the IT industry, as constrains in the supply of
various computer
products and parts are already being felt. As product
supplies dwindle over the next few weeks, experts tell
us to expect significant price increases, and with
supplies (understandably) only improving slowly this
situation may
continue for a number of months to come.
Only
a month since their 'Release Candidate' version was made
available, Microsoft have today, released the official full
version of Internet Explorer 9. IE9 brings a clean, new
interface to the Microsoft's browser, HTML 5 support and GPU
accelerated page rendering as well as improvements to
security. Other noteworthy features include full multi-core
CPU support, to speed through tasks such as Javascript code
execution, full Tab isolation, improved browser crash
recovery and the list goes on. IE9 is only compatible with
Windows Vista or Windows 7, so all those with Windows XP or
older will either have to upgrade their Windows operating
system or try Mozilla's Firefox 4
internet browser instead!
Click Here for a link to the new IE9 Download.
French Government Computers Hacked
Hundreds
of French government computers have been hacked in a
sustained cyber attack targeting 'internationally sensitive'
G20 related documents. For over two months French computer
experts have been investigating the significant breach in
security which involved more than 12,000 computers being
checked and updated. Information gathered so far suggests
that a least some of the documents stolen were redirected to
sites in China, but no suggestions have been made that the
Chinese authorities were the instigators of the crime at
this time.
Intel's 'Thunderbolt' Interface
It was back in May 2010 that I
last wrote an article
on Intel's
'LightPeak' technology, and although 'LightPeak' is
still under development, Intel have produced a spin-off
product based on the technology, that does not use fiber-optics, but instead
standard copper interconnects. This change in
specification makes the
interface cheaper to produce, but importantly still very
fast. Now named 'Thunderbolt' the interface make USB 3.0 look
slow by comparison with a theoretical transfer rate of 10Gb/s, which is at least twice
as fast as USB3.0. Demonstrations bare out this performance with multi-gigabyte files taking just a few seconds to transfer, while
multiple, simultaneous, 1080p
HD videos play without a single frame being dropped; an impressive feet
by any measure. Apple's
latest MacBook Pro is one of the first systems to sport
the new interface, but generally Thunderbolt enabled devices
are still scarce at this time.
For more information visit:
http://www.intel.com/technology/io/thunderbolt/index.htm
Tiny Millimeter Sized Computer
The latest mini-ITX based systems are small, but although they
are compact they are defiantly not tiny, especially when you compare them
against the millimeter sized computer developed by the University of Michigan
(Seen left, against a one pence piece). At just over one cubic
millimeter it is
minuscule by any measure; it can be classified as a computer as it
manages to squeeze an ultra
low power microprocessor, memory, battery, solar cell, wireless capability and
pressure sensor into it's tiny form. What is equally
impressive is that it only uses 5.3 Nanowatts of power when
active. The device was created to be an implantable eye
pressure monitor for
Glaucoma patients, but the scientist who created the Millimeter computer say the
possibilities are almost endless. Nanobots here we come!
There has been a lot of speculation over
the specification of Apple's latest iPad (the iPad 2), so
it's good to see the final product at last. Although the
iPad 2 keeps the same 9.7" (1024 x 768 pixels) IPS LED
screen as the original iPad (which is a great screen
anyway), Apple have now added a 1Ghz Dual-Core custom
'A5' processor for much improved system performance and
faster graphics. It also now has two cameras, one front
facing (VGA Quality) camera and one back facing (720p HD
Quality) camera, which means 'FaceTime' (Video Chat) comes
to the iPad. Battery life remains at around 10 hours. All
this has been achieved while reducing it size, now just
8.8mm in thickness, and it's weight (just 600g) but
importantly the pricing remains the same. All in all
this represents a nice update to the iPad, no massive wow
factors, but enough to keep the competition at bay.
UK availability is currently planned for the 25th March.
Internet Explorer 9 Proves Popular
Even
though Internet Explorer's market share has been
declining recently, this does not seem to have affected
interest in it's new IE9 browser, with both it's 'Beta Release' and more recently the
'Release Candidate' receiving a surge of attention.
In fact the 'Beta Release' was downloaded more than 20
million times, while the 'Release Candidate' was
downloaded over 2 millions times in it's release week. This is a
strong indication that Internet Explorer still has a
very strong following, but sadly many
unconstructive things have been said about Microsoft's
IE9 browser, mostly by the
competition, but the real true is that these comments
come at a time when Microsoft have improved their internet
browser significantly and it seems the competition are
getting a little twitchy.
Increase In Shortened URL Abuse
URL
stands for 'Uniform Resource Locator'; a globally recognized
syntax to define and identify the location of a particular
resource/site on the Internet. Companies such as Google have
been offering a shortened URL service for a while now, and
although it's a useful way to represent a long website
address, it does have a significant downside. The trouble
with shortened URLs is that, by their nature, they disguise
the real address of the resource you are being sent to,
making them a prime target for abused. Unfortunately this
type of URL abuse is now on the increase,
with Google's 'Goo.gl' services being targeted by criminals
to create false links that take users to locations they did
not intend to visit, often infecting the users system with
Malware in the process. So be
extra vigilant when clicking on shortened (disguised) URLs.
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Released
Microsoft
have finally released Service Pack 1 for Windows 7. You
should find it available via 'Windows Updates' over the next
few days, and although I
have stated this before, it is worth repeating, that there will be no new features
in SP1, just all previous updates, bug fixes and any incremental updates and
improvements made to Windows 7 since it's original release. Even if you have a
fully updated Windows 7 installation, it is still
recommended that you install the official
service pack 1 as this will ensure all previous updates have been applied
correctly and are functioning as expected.
For a link to the standalone installer visit my Operating Systems page.
Apple Foreign Ethics Under Question
It seems Apple's foreign ethics are under
question after they seemed to do very little when 137
Chinese workers at
a factory in Suzhou (which makes iPhones and iPads), were
hospitalized due to poisoning. It turned out the poisonings
was due to the use of a chemical cleaning agent called Hexyl Hydride (n-hexane), which is
known to cause nerve damage. Although this cleaning agent is now no longer used
at the factory, many workers are still suffering illness related to the chemical
exposure. Apple seems to simply be pointing the finger at Wintek
(the factory owner) but it seems to me Apple should have a
more significant role to play in helping it's workers with
these long term health issues. It is a sad day at Apple when
the well being and on-going care of their factory workers is
being ignored, lets hope Apple comes to it's senses and does
more for these people.
When Cloud Computing Goes Wrong
Many people seem to think that cloud computing is the best thing
since sliced bread; centralise everything on-line and save lots of
money, but few people stop to consider the down sides to the cloud environment. Every cloud provider
wants to sell you their amazing infrastructure and all the
cost saving benefits
that it brings, but what they don't want you to know is what
can happen when things go wrong. In fact there are a number
of high profile cases of serious service outage and data lose due to the over reliance
in cloud computing. In late
2009 a group of T-Mobile servers failed, taking out over a
million of thier 'Kickstart' customer's, their personal information was
never recovered. JournalSpace's servers were totally
decimated by a disgruntled employee destroying 6 years of data. Blizzard
Entertainment's servers were taken out due to one bad server
update causing over 500,000 customers to lose connectivity
for more than 24 hours. Local power issues caused Valve's
'Steam' servers to fail, and the list goes on.
Cloud computing is a great idea, but it's not without it's
serious issues; great in theory but not in practice...total
reliance on a single resource is never a
good idea!
In
August last year OCZ indicated that they would be scaling
down their DRAM products, but in a new announcement OCZ have
now indicated that they will, in fact, be leaving the DRAM market altogether. Some
might not be too surprised by this sudden exit, as the
performance memory market is a little saturated these days,
and there are now a number of other well respected DRAM
manufacturers out there. There is no doubt that OCZ have,
over the last 10 years, produced some great DRAM products
and as a result of this they will be missed. But the good
news is that OCZ are not leaving the sector altogether, as they
have stated they will
be concentrating on their lucrative, high performance, SSD (Solid State Drive)
products instead.
Nokia 'Connects' With Microsoft
After
another significant drop in it's share price, there was no
doubt that Nokia needed to do something quick to turn things
around. Many would agree that one of Nokia's biggest
stumbling blocks is it's continued reliance on the outdated Symbian
operating system, but all this is about to change with Nokia announcing a huge
deal with Microsoft to offer Windows Phone 7 as their
primary platform for their smart phones. This move, along
with some new handsets, is just the sort of radical sake up
that they need. Lets hope this decisive move will finally
start to change things around for Nokia.
The
internet, as we know it today, began to develop in earnest in
the 1980s and ever since then our information traffic and
storage requirements have grown exponentially. Back in 1986
there were only 5,000 hosts accessing the
internet, but this ballooned to well over a million hosts by 1992 and by 2000 there were 1 billion indexable
pages of information available. By 2004 internet traffic hit one million
Terabytes, that's 1 Exabyte (EB). But by 2007 (globally) we
could access almost 300 Exabytes (EBs) of information and in
2009 we sent almost 500 Exabytes of information around the globe
with an estimated 25% of the Earth's total population
connected to the internet. It's now predicted that by 2013
IP traffic could hit 660 Exabytes that's almost two-thirds of a
Zettabyte (ZB) of information a year, with some suggesting
that even this is a conservative estimate at best!
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Coming Soon
It
was back in October last year
that the Release Candidate (RC) of Windows 7 Service Pack 1
(SP1) was made available. This in itself indicated that
the full public released should follow soon, and sure enough
Microsoft have now stated that SP1 is on track for a late
February release. There will be no new features in SP1, just
all previous updates, bug fixes and any incremental updates
and improvements made to Windows 7 since it's original
release. It does seem a shame that Microsoft has not seen
fit to add a little something extra in SP1, but as new
features seem thin on the ground in other recently released
service packs, it doesn't really come as a big surprise
either!
ACS Law (a firm of solicitors that was dealing with
illegal file-sharing cases in a less than professional
manner) has ceased trading, along with
their only client MediaCAT. It is remarkable that both firms
should close at exactly the same time, and I'm not the only
one to think this. It seems their closure has
raised a number of significant questions as to whether either company
was legitimate and more over whether their cases were even
genuine. Even though ACS Law had
tried to drop all of their illegal file-sharing
cases, lawyers for the defendants wish the cases to continue
so that they can now claim for damages. The owner of ACS Law
is now being investigated by the 'Solicitors Disciplinary
Tribunal'.
Intel Recalls Sandy Bridge Chipset
Intel
has discovered a design flaw in it's latest 6 series (C200)
chipset, which has been developed in conjunction with it's
new second generation Core i (Sandy Bridge)
processors. The problem seems to be with the chips used to
control Serial-ATA (SATA) devices which have been found to
degrade over time, this in turn impacts the performance of
Hard Drives and other connected SATA devices. Intel has
resolved the problem and is already shipping a new chip,
unfortunately, although Intel caught the problem quickly, it
has not stopped thousands of products being shipped with
potentially faulty chipsets. Saying this the fault would
only become apparent after a couple of years use and only
then in a very small percentage of chips (5%-15%); but Intel
is already working with manufacturers, OEMs and retail
partners to ensure a replacement program is put in to place
quickly.
Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate
It
was back in early September last year that Microsoft release it's first Beta of
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), and even then it seemed to be a feature complete, usable
application. Four months on and Microsoft have just announce the imminent
release of the IE9 Release Candidate (RC). As I have stated before Release Candidates
are an indication of a mature product, and so we can gauge that IE9
is that much closer to a final release that first thought. This is good news
for Microsoft as they, more than ever, need to prove they
can delivery a great browser and IE9 looks to satisfy this
goal perfectly.
ACS Law Flirting with Abuse of Process
ACS Law is a firm of solicitors that have been sending out letters to
illegal file-sharers on be halve of their client MediaCAT; but due to significant issues that seem to surround the
way in which the firm is conducting these cases, a
senior Judge has suggested that all further correspondence
cease until the firm gets it's act together. In fact the judge has threatened to
officially ban the firm from sending out any more letters, stating that the firm was
currently 'Flirting with Abuse of Process'. It is important to catch prolific
illegal file-sharers, but not at the
cost of the legal process, this is unhelpful to the
copyright owners and damaging to the legal process. But I
still can't help but wonder weather we should not perhaps
be targeting the original 'Uploaders' of the illegal content
(which are apparently very few in number) and not the resultant
'downloaders', this way you remove the problem at it's
source...or is that too logical!
BT Gives free WiFi To iPad Users
Following
on from the release of it's application for Apple iPhone
users, BT has now developed an application that allows Apple iPad users access
to their network of WiFi hot spots. As with iPhone users
this service is limited to BT Internet account holders, as a
valid BT Internet user name and password are required. The
application is said to contain a handy mapping function to
make it easier to locate BT's WiFi hot spots and to make
access as simple as possible; it's available for immediate
download via Apple's iTunes.
Intel's Sandy Bridge Processors
Intel
will very soon release a new processor range, codenamed
Sandy Bridge. Sandy Bridge (formerly Gesher) is Intel's
second generation 'Core i' processor micro-architecture. It's
based on a 32nm fabrication process, and brings a number of
improvements over the previous generation that will allow
significant performance gains; add to this their inherent
higher clock frequencies and you end up with one of the most
impressive CPUs that Intel have produced to date. It's also Intel's first
processor to have a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) in the
processor package itself (rather than bolted on afterwards)
which shares the main processors LLC (Last Level Cache).
This is not your standard integrated
Intel HD graphics as Intel have finally implemented a
significantly improved graphics chip to boot. The
downside to all this new technology is the need for a
new LGA1155 processor socket, thus a new
motherboard will be required if you want one of these new
CPUs. But on a more positive note, Sandy Bridge pricing
looks set to be very competitive!
Keep an eye open for these new processors on my CPU page soon.
World IPv6 Day (8th June 2011)
If
you are a regular reader of my news pages, you will already
know that the new internet protocol IPv6 is a subject of
some interest to me, mostly because of the general lack of
attention it's getting from the industry (this is not
another non-event like Y2K). The transition to IPv6 is
critical as it will ensure we can all continue to use the
internet when IPv4 addresses finally run out (which is
soon). To this end some of the big named websites have
decided to join forces and move their domain names to IPv6
addresses for 24 hours on the 8th June 2011. This day has
been named 'World IPv6 Day', simply because it will allow
the industry to test it's IPv6 compatibility and security
almost as if the change over had happen for real; if nothing
else it should help raise awareness and give people a taste
of what will happen if they don't take IPv6 seriously and
give it the attention it requires!
Microsoft's Security Essentials 2
Microsoft
has released a new version (second edition) of it's free
anti-virus software 'Security Essentials'. The good news is
that it's still as easy to use as ever, with an uncluttered
and easy to understand user interface. Under the hood the
protection has improved, and Microsoft have ensured
'Security Essentials 2' doesn't hog system
resources, which is something some of the latest anti-virus
applications (AVG 2011) could learn from. Security Essentials 2
is another good anti-virus product from Microsoft and I recommend upgrading your
previous version as soon as you can. It's worth noting that due to it's frugal use
of system resources 'Security Essentials 2' is a good choice for anyone who has an
older/less powerful system.
For a link to this latest version visit my
Anti-Virus page.
Gadgets Blamed For Rise in Street Crime
There has
been a significant increase in the use of smart phones and media players over
the last couple of years and it's this change that is being blamed for the
subsequent rise in street crime. Many of the latest portable gadgets are
expensive and it's this that has apparently fueled an increase in muggings and
street robberies. The Police's advice is very simple, keep your
gadgets away
from public view, and don't draw unnecessary attention to them.
Personally I like to vigorously wave all my gadgets to all
who pass me by; so it looks like I will have to alter my
behavior in the future! To quote Gollum's Lord of the Rings
"Keep the precious safe".
Intel's
latest innovation in Solid-State Drives (SSDs) is built around their 34nm NAND
Flash memory chips and utilizes a PCIe mini-interface that supports
standard SATA commands.
Measuring just 50.8mm by 29.8mm and weighing in at a mere 10 grams, the Intel
310 series SSDs are even smaller and lighter than the tiny 1.8" hard drives
produced by the likes of Toshiba. Reads speeds of up to 200 MB/s indicate that
access performance is very good and comparable with many standard SSDs,
but a write speed of 70 MB/s is a little disappointing for a
solid state drive; faster than
most conventional hard drives, but some compromise was
perhaps inevitable. Intel is
hoping these new devices will be popular with the growing ultra-small form factor and Tablet PC
market, but with stiff competition from numerous other
manufactures of small SSDs they will have their work cut out
for them!
For more information visit:
http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/310series/overview.htm
It
seems OpenOffice's future is in the balance after most of
it's current development team decided to up sticks and form
a new group under the name 'The Document Foundation'.
Trouble has been brewing ever since Sun Microsystems was
purchase by Oracle back in 2009, (Oracle does not have a
very good track record when it comes to supporting open-source
software), with many being concerned over Oracle's on-going
commitment to the OpenOffice project and with little to
re-assure the group otherwise, they did what they felt was
necessary to ensure the survival of their project. Time will
tell whether Oracle can convince them that they are indeed
committed to 'OpenOffice'; but for now we have a new
open-source Office Productivity suite named 'LibreOffice'.
For more information visit my 'Office
Applications' page.
Happy
2011. During
the past year I have worked hard to ensure 'TheGlitch' website adheres to current
web standards and finally rolled out my Javascript database
across the entire site. Due to time constrains, I was not
able to complete the work on my 'Search Index' but this is
an on-going project which should be completed at some point in 2011.
It's difficult to know how the site will develop over the coming months,
and I may need to scale down my hardware pages, (due to the
amount of work needed in recommending products and updating
these pages), as this will give me more time to develop other areas of the
website. As always, your comments and suggestions
are always welcome!