Take a peek at Firefox 3's new download manager

Mozilla Links has posted details and a few screenshots of how Firefox 3's new download manager will look and function. In general, users will gain more control over their downloads, actions such as opening a file have been changed from text links to icons to comply with the rest of Firefox's design paradigm of buttons for actions, words for website links. Users will also be able to click an (i) icon on completed downloads to view details such as the website the download came from, the location of the downloaded file on local computer and when the download finished. Chronic downloaders will also appreciate a new search box, and an option to show the download manager in the status bar or sidebar is also being considered.

Overall these look like some strong features for a much-needed upgrade to the download manager, but we would still like to see a little more innovation here. For example: the download manager in Camino, a Mac OS X browser that uses the same Gecko rendering engine as Firefox, can not only clear the download manager's list of files, but also move those files to the trash. And what about actual download file management features, such as moving files to specified folders or importing into apps based on file type (ZIP, audio, video, etc.)?

If you're itching to try out these new features, Mozilla Links says this new download manager should be available in tonight's nightly build.

Google selleth then taketh away, proving the need for DRM circumvention

It's not often that Google kills off one of its services, especially one which was announced with much fanfare at a big mainstream event like CES 2006. Yet Google Video's commercial aspirations have indeed been terminated: the company has announced that it will no longer be selling video content on the site. The news isn't all that surprising, given that Google's commercial video efforts were launched in rather poor shape and never managed to take off. The service seemed to only make the news when embarrassing things happened.
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Yet now Google Video has given us a gift—a "proof of concept" in the form of yet another argument against DRM—and an argument for more reasonable laws governing copyright controls. How could Google's failure be our gain? Simple. By picking up its marbles and going home, Google just demonstrated how completely bizarre and anti-consumer DRM technology can be. Most importantly, by pulling the plug on the service, Google proved why consumers have to be allowed to circumvent copy controls.
A consolation prize

Google contacted customers late last week to tell them that the video store was closing. The e-mail declared, "In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective August 15, 2007."

The message also announced that Google Checkout would issue credits in an amount equal to what those customers had spent at the Google Video store. Why the quasi-refunds? The kicker: "After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos."

See, after Google takes its video store down, its Internet-based DRM system will no longer function. This means that customers who have built video collections with Google Video offerings will find that their purchases no longer work. This is one of the major flaws in any DRM system based on secrets and centralized authorities: when these DRM data warehouses shut down, the DRM stops working, and consumers are left with useless junk.

Furthermore, Google is not refunding the total cost of the videos. To take advantage of the credit Google is offering, you have to spend more money, and furthermore, you have to spend it with a merchant that supports Google Checkout. Meanwhile, the purchases you made are now worthless. To do it right, Google should either provide users with non-DRMed copies of the videos they bought, or they should refund the money entirely. The current option is hardly acceptable, however. Would you buy a TV, a car, a book, or anything if the guy who sold it to you could take it back at any moment so long as he offered you a coupon?

Did you buy Kobe Bryant's 81-point game to commemorate that bit of NBA history? Enjoy staring at an unplayable file come Wednesday. But hey, at least you get $2 back to go buy underwear!
Copyright Office, here we come

Since the death of the commercial part of Google Video will render thousands and thousands of purchases useless, the Library of Congress will have no choice but to consider the matter when they return to their triennial review of the DMCA. To date, the Library of Congress has granted exceptions to the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA in instances where DRM has rendered something completely unusable, such as eBook DRM which can render eBooks useless for handicapped people. Recent exceptions from the last review are detailed here. Of note: the right to bypass DRM on products that no longer work properly was considered but rejected last time around.

Now, thanks to Google, we have a case study, a real-world example we can point to and say: "Hey, this isn't right." It features one of the world's most innovative and financially powerful technology companies bagging out on users. It features thousands of consumers buying DRMed goods in earnest, and it ends with a bang; Google decides to exit the market, leaving consumers with a load of useless goods.

Needless to say, this could happen with any player. Google could float its store if it wanted to, but it is exiting the business. What happens when Amazon does the same? Or Apple, or the next guy?

If this isn't further proof that parts of the DMCA should be gutted, at the very least it is a strong sign that the Library of Congress needs to address this issue. Congress should be thinking about this brave new world of "unproperty" where you're charged good money to "buy" products that, in reality, you're only renting until AverageCorp gets bored of the business.

Suprnova: What Will Change and What Will Remain The Same?

The new and improved SuprNova will be launched very soon. Sweet revenge, according to the title of Suprnova’s “coming soon” page. In anticipation of the (re)launch we will list some of the new features, and some things that will remain the same.
Direct downloads

Suprnova will be extremely friendly to BitTorrent illiterates. One of the new features is a Java applet that allows you to download .torrent files without having a BitTorrent client installed. This is not only useful for newbies, but also if you’re working on a PC that doesn’t allow you to install a BitTorrent client like some workplaces or Universities have. The Java applet that will be integrated into SuprNova will be similar to BitLet.
Torrents and Trackers

SuprNova’s aim was and is to index more content than any other site. Unlike The Pirate Bay, SuprNova will also index torrents from other sources. Upon its release it will crawl more than 25.000 trackers and have a database of more than 1.000.000 torrents. This will make SuprNova one of the biggest BitTorrent indexing sites right from the start.
Search

Suprnova wasn’t perfect, but the really annoying thing was that there was no search feature. In the early days this wasn’t really a problem, only a couple of torrents were added every day. But as the site grew bigger and bigger it became nearly impossible to find what you want without spending minutes digging through the categories. The new Suprnova will therefore have a search function, a significant change, but a good one.
Design

Suprnova: What Will Change and What Will Remain The SameSloncek, the former owner of SuprNova donated the domain to TPB under the condition that they would keep the nostalgic design more or less intact. There will be some changes design wise, but most people will still see that it’s inspired by the old Suprnova look. Brokep, one of the TPB admins told TorrentFreak: “The idea was to bring SuprNova to what it would have been today it if never closed. So, it’s supposed to be an updated version of the old beloved site! We hope that people still get the SuprNova-feeling and that it also feels like a modern website.”
Community

The new Suprnova will have its own IRC channel, just like in the old days. In fact, it is already up and running, so if people want to chat about Suprnova (or other things), go to #suprnova at freequest. As mentioned in our previous post, Suprbay.org will be the new forum for the Suprnova and TPB community, over 5000 people signed up already, and SuprNova hasn’t even been launched yet.

Another new feature related to the community is the comments system. Similar to other BitTorrent sites people are now allowed to post comments on every torrent. Apart from the usual rants the comments are useful to get an indication of the quality of the files.
Front Page

Like in the good old days the frontpage will show all the latest torrents by category. The categories will be on top of the page, and they will be the same as before: Games, Movies, TV-Shows, Anime, Music, Apps, Mac & Misc.

This was only a sneak peek at some of the changes on the new Suprnova. I guess you have to wait for the launch if you want to check out all of the changes and new features, the wait will soon be over.

Google, Microsoft and Apple building online storage havens: you win

Cloud computing is still far off, but Microsoft and Google are both eagerly working on "cloud storage" solutions in the hopes that you'll start keeping more and more of your data on their servers, keeping you coming back to their services (and the occasional advertisement). Apple has even awoke from its slumber to improve .Mac's storage options. Last week was a big one for these three behemoths, so let's take a look at what they've done.

First up, Google squashed any hopes that the company would keep on adding endless, free storage for its users when it formally rolled out paid storage upgrades that can be used across both Picasa Web Albums and Gmail (and coming soon, Google Docs & Spreadsheets). For $20 per year, Gmail users can add another 6GB of storage on top of the 2.8GB already offered (for free) through Gmail as well as the additional 1GB offered for Picasa. There are more storage options available, going up as high as 250GB for $500 per year. "When you reach the limit of free storage," writes Google Software QA engineer lead Ryan Aquino, "consider this your overflow solution."

At the same time, Microsoft announced that Windows Live SkyDrive—previously known as Windows Live Folders—has opened to the public. The free beta service offers up to 500MB of online storage for nearly anything, not just e-mail and web albums like Google's offering. With a revamped UI that integrates into Windows, users can drag and drop files and browse the public directories on the SkyDrives of other users. Brandon LeBlanc of the Windows Live Blog describes it as a personal hard drive on the Internet.

Finally, just this week, Apple also bumped the storage offered through its own service, .Mac, from 1GB to 10GB. The price of .Mac's overall subscription remained the same at $99 per year, but the service comes with a number of other tools such as Mac training, web hosting, and heavy desktop software integration.

All of these moves reflect a growing battle over online storage geared toward more average users. While storage services like Amazon S3 might seem simple to many of us, setting it up still seems like a daunting—or at least inconvenient—challenge to many less savvy users. Google, Apple, and Microsoft are all hoping that their own approaches to integration will also seem like no-brainers to end users.

Indeed, they all offer something slightly different than the next: Google's storage doesn't (currently) allow the user to just upload files from his or her hard drive like Windows Live SkyDrive, while Microsoft's offering provides only a fifth of the storage offered by Google for free. Apple's .Mac provides the most default amount of storage out of the three but does so for the highest price, as there is no true "free" option for .Mac. If only we could combine them into one super-service that would provide Google-levels of storage with the ease of use found in SkyDrive or .Mac. Let the gDrive rumors commence (again!).

As competition heats up, it won't be surprising to see these services gain functionality and drop in price in order to compete more fiercely with each other, and we still believe that the gDrive is coming. For Microsoft and Google, the competition will be wide open, while Apple will continue to focus solely on Mac users, hoping they don't bail on .Mac for different pastures (especially Google's green, cozy Gmail). All of this pressure means that these companies will have to keep upping the ante, which only leads to better services for all of us.

In closing, don't forget about the all of the online backup tools that are also available. Joel reviewed the best online backup options recently and found a keeper.

irst up, here's a brief transcript of the open source exchange during the Q&A with John Carmack:

Q: I wanted to say thank you for open-sourcing the Quake 3 engine, it's made a huge difference to the community. I wanted to ask your opinion about the future of Linux and open source gaming.

A: I do take a great deal of personal pride and satisfaction with what I've been able to do with getting so much of the stuff out. Sometimes I think about it, and while I know it's not something I'm generally considered for, I may be one of the most prolific open source authors considering all the code that I've written over the last 15 years that I've made open source, or have made open source there. I do think it's very valuable. I'm very happy when I see both user gaming community stuff, or research universities, or people doing simulation tests, or bringing up things. Every new piece of hardware ends up having Doom or Quake titles used as an early form of test application. So I'm very happy to have done that. It's certainly going to continue. I mean I won't commit to a date, but the Doom 3 stuff will be open source. We still make those decisions even today when we're doing the Rage code when we have decisions about "do we want to integrate some other vendor's solution, some proprietary code into this". And the answer's usually no, because eventually id Tech 5 is going to be open source also. This is still the law of the land at id, that the policy is that we're not going to integrate stuff that's going to make it impossible for us to do an eventual open source release. We can argue the exact pros and cons from a pure business standpoint on it, and I can at least make some, perhaps somewhat, contrived cases that I think it's good for the business, but as a personal conviction it's still pretty important to me and I'm standing by that.

Next, as I mentioned briefly earlier, a beta test release of the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Linux dedicated server was made available at the event to the BYOC LAN; of note is this passage in the README:

You need a low latency kernel for good performance (this applies to both client and server installs). Mostly, make sure your kernel configuration has CONFIG_HZ_1000=y. You should also enable other low latency desktop settings, such as the various preemption capabilities.

You've been warned; get your kernels ready! ;)

It was announced at the convention that ET: Quake Wars for Windows will ship on October 2. There's a new preview of the game at Atomic Gamer and a few new screenshots at Shacknews.

Game Informer has a lengthy interview with John Carmack where some additional detail was provided regarding their newly announced projects:

* "[Rage is] about 50/50 racing and first person action. [...] I think there’s going to be some neat stuff in it. We’ve got the whole outdoor wasteland – big areas, going between lots of different areas. We’re doing some of the sandbox play there. [...] Then you’ve got the run and gun internal shooter stuff, id’s always done well, and we’re going to do a good job on that. Then you have the sort of RPG-ish elements, pimping out your ride, getting money to buy accessories and building it up."
* "There will be a Doom 4, we don’t have it scheduled or a team assigned to it, but there will be a Doom 4. There’s going to be a Quake Arena sequel. There’s a Wolfenstein thing in production. We’re following along with all those. This game [Rage] doesn’t have to be Doom. It’s going to be something different."
* "We have a kernel team and we’ve seeded it with people from our main team and moved them over, and the plan is right now to do a bridge project that we’re calling Quake Zero. This is experimental and this is one of my pet ideas. We’re taking the Quake Arena code base data sets and repackaging it for incremental web downloads and make it a free game and we’re going to try a sponsored advertising supported free version of the game. I want to try this. Where the website is the hub for everything, most of the menus are gutted out of the game. The game is something that launches instantly. You set up everything on the web page, all of your community stuff there. You get sponsors and advertisers on there to see if we can support this. We have a unique opportunity for this because we own all the stuff on there – it’s still a good game. We can do this with the kernel of the first six developers on here."
* "The goal is here to make – after Quake Zero – then we’ll probably take all of the lessons we learn from that interaction and make an id Tech 5 Quake Arena sequel with all the bells and whistles."

There's a lot of discussion about what's changed in id Tech 5 at:

* An AtomicGamer interview with id's Steve Nix.
* GameTrailers.com's three-part technology walkthrough hosted by Carmack.
* Shacknews, where they've posted video of the id Studio tools presentation conducted by id's Matt Hooper at QuakeCon.

Speaking of, high resolution video of the Rage trailer is also up at the Shack. The id Studio tools themselves are Windows widget-based; such utilities have been problematic to port in the past, but maybe something akin to GtkRadiant will come together over the next several years.

Besides our audio recording of the Carmack keynote, QuakeUnity.com has posted a video recording of the talk's first hour. There's also video of the presentation's initial announcements.

Finally, QuakeCon is also a tournament, and the winners were announced at the event's conclusion:

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars 6V6 Championship

* 1st Place: Team-Dignitas -- $22,000
* 2nd Place: Team HOT -- $16,000
* 3rd Place: Check-Six -- $8,000
* 4th Place: DEMISE -- $4,000

QUAKE Quad-Damage Tournament

* 1st Place: Johan “toxjq” Quick -- $20,000
* 2nd Place: Magnus “fojjji” Olsson -- $12,500
* 3rd Place: Timothy “DaHanG” Fogarty -- $7,500
* 4th Place: Mikael “purri” Tarainen -- $5,000
* 5th Place: Tim “naymlis” Bowes -- $1,250
* 6th Place: Chance “EG/chance” Lacina -- $1,250
* 7th Place: Rafik “LoSt-CaUsE” Bryant -- $1,250
* 8th Place: Tom “griffin” Wall -- $1,250

The Quad-Damage tournament spanned all four Quake titles; you can see videos of the matches at GGL, or download the Quad Damage demos from the QuakeCon site.

Skype on iPhone. No, seriously.

OK, this has to be the coolest news this morning. SHAPE Services, a Stuttgart, Germany-based company, well-known for making mobile IM clients, has just announced Skype for iPhone, an iPhone-optimized Web site that allows you to access Skype via the browser on the iPhone. You can try out this for free for a limited time.

It took me less than two minutes to get up and running. Sending messages was as simple as typing SMS messages. I am guessing that, since they ask you for your mobile number when you log in, there is some kind of call-back service built into the app. After all, the company says you don’t need WiFi.

IM+ for Skype works with BlackBerry RIM, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Palm OS, Symbian and J2ME devices. The application works in any network and doesn’t require WiFi, the company says.

PHP 101: PHP For the Absolute Beginner

Novice PHP101 PHP5 Tutorials

This area is intended for everyone new to PHP. It opens with a series of informal, entertaining tutorials written by Vikram Vaswani, founder and CEO of Melonfire. These tutorials build on a previously-published 5-part series which has now been updated and extended to embrace PHP 5, making parts of it suitable for those of you who already have worked with PHP 4 in the past.

If you came here to learn about elementary PHP 4 or basic PHP 5, this is for you. Enjoy!

See the whole instructions on the source: devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/627

Apple Beats Microsoft at its Own Open XML Game

Mac support for Microsoft's Open XML document standard has arrived, but it's Apple's iWork '08, not Microsoft's Office, delivering the goods.


Apple Inc.'s release of iWork '08 this week is "embarrassing," an analyst said Friday, not for its maker, but for Apple's rival, Microsoft Corp.

Tuesday, Apple rolled out a refreshed iWork that added a spreadsheet, dubbed Numbers, to the earlier mix of a word processor/page layout Pages and presentation maker Keynote. But it was iWork's ability to handle the Open XML file format -- the new native format for Microsoft's own Office 2007 application suite -- that Michael Gartenberg of JupiterResearch talked about.

"This was the ultimate insult to injury," Gartenberg said. "Not only has Microsoft not delivered the ability to read and write Open XML in its Mac Office, but at the end of the day, Apple was the one who delivered."

Gartenberg referred to Microsoft's problems developing Office 2008 for Mac, which the company announced last week would be delayed until mid-January. Among the roadblocks, said Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MBU), is the shift to Open XML as Office 2008's native file format. The company has also been slow in releasing conversion tools that let earlier editions of its Mac suite work with Office 2007's Open XML documents.

"This is embarrassing for MBU," Gartenberg said. "It has said that the shift to Intel has caused [its] problems, and changes in development tools, and the file format, too. But every other major vendor has pretty much managed to get their apps over to Intel [on the Mac]. Microsoft is one of the oldest Mac developers out there, so it's not like it doesn't have experience [on the platform]."

IWork '08 applications can open the OpenXML formats churned out by their Office 2007 counterparts -- Pages with Word, Numbers with Excel, Keynote with PowerPoint -- but cannot save in those formats. Currently, Office 2004 and Office v. X users can both open Word and PowerPoint Open XML files and save in those formats using beta converters MBU has issued. No such converter has been released that handles Excel 2007's Open XML files, however.

Ironically, one of those who praised iWork's handling of the Microsoft file format was a program manager for Office 2007. "[iWork '08] reads the Office Open XML files with very high fidelity," said Brian Jones on his company blog.

At the same time, Jones defended his fellow developers at Microsoft in MBU. "The Mac Office folks have a ton of stuff they are working on for the next version, so it's not surprising that you aren't seeing full Open XML support until they reach that point," Jones said in response to a question asking how Microsoft lost the race to Apple's iWork.

"Office for the Mac is just not a real priority for Microsoft," said Gartenberg as he spelled out his take for Microsoft's tardiness creating software on the Mac that can handle what are, after all, its own file formats. "And that's not likely to change anytime soon."

Asked to explain why Microsoft hasn't been able to match Apple, MBU's marketing manager, Amanda Lefebvre, ticked off the development issues that have delayed Office 2008.

"The transition to the new file format is one of several reasons the development cycle is longer with Office 2008," she said. "Office 2008 [for Mac] will run natively on Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs with a Universal Binary [and] this transition necessitated a switch to a new set of development tools as well. The combination of these two technology shifts definitely impacted our schedule."

Not quite, Gartenberg said. "What this really shows is Microsoft's inability to ship software on time these days," he said.

Apple, meanwhile, is doing the smart thing. "They're making sure that they're not dependent on Microsoft for any of the important software [for the Mac]," said Gartenberg.

That strategy, along with the US$79 price of iWork and the window of opportunity because of Office 2008's delay, puts Cupertino in the cat bird seat. "It's going to be hard for Microsoft to get those people who try and buy iWork back," he said. "Microsoft's let down its Mac customers."

LEAKED: Vista SP1 analysed in-depth

It's no secret that there's a leaked beta of Vista SP1 floating around, but no-one yet has really taken the time to analyse it in detail to find out what it really does.

I made it my mission this weekend to trawl through the registry and file changes in SP1 to find out as best I could exactly what SP1 does.

First up, I can say that there is a very noticeable performance increase. It is obvious that since Microsoft released Vista to manufacturing, it has been optimising the code ever since. (I suspect this revelation will fuel the fires of the people who say Vista was released before it was ready for prime-time.) There’s far less hard drive thrashing and in general the system seems much smoother and more responsive.

Amusingly, the build of SP1 we saw (which in this beta comes fully integrated into a 3.2GB Vista install DVD, rather than as a standalone update) still has Microsoft's internal network shares embedded as the source of the updates. For example:

\\\\winbuilds3\\longhorn_SP1Beta1\\longhorn_SP1Beta1
\\6001.16549.070628-1825\\x86fre\\packages\\ServicePack"

Not that that info is really useful to anyone, but it mildly tickled our curiosity bone (next to the funny bone) to see the file layout of Microsoft's internal distribution shares.



Vista SP1Vista SP1

The first noticable change is obviously the version number. Windows Vista has a build number of 6.0.6000, whereas this build is 6.0.6001 (full version number is 6001.16549). This is quite interesting as one of the much-anticipated (and officially acknowledged) changes in SP1 was to bring the Vista kernel up to the same kernel as that used in Windows 2008 (version 6.1). It's possible that this aspect of the service pack is still in development, and not included in this version of the private beta.


Vista SP1 Build NumberVista SP1 Build Number

Normally, service packs don’t include new features – Windows XP SP2 being the standout exception. By and large this seems to be true of Vista SP1, although there is a new maintenance application called “Create a Recovery Disc”. This isn’t the same thing as creating a backup of the system to DVD – instead this process creates a recovery DVD which you can use with system recovery options if you don’t have an original Windows DVD or you can’t access OEM recovery tools.


Create Your Own Recovery DiscCreate Your Own Recovery Disc

At this point in its development, SP1 comes installed with four updates:

* Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330)
* Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB937286)
* Hotfix for Microsoft Windows (KB937287)
* Update for Microsoft Windows (KB938371)

There is a full list of suspected hotfixes that were to be included with Vista SP1 (check them out at www.vistasp1.net), but these four are not on the list. Unfortunately as the beta is not yet public, there’s no publicly-accessible information out there about these updates.

However, some hours of digging around in the registry did uncover quite a bit of information, mostly to do with the package load of each update and the Windows components it influences (bear in mind that this information is current for this particular version of SP1 – it may change in the public beta and in the final release).


Poking around in the registry: reveals a surprising amount about the private life of an OS updatePoking around in the registry: reveals a surprising amount about the private life of an OS update
Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330) contains 133 individual packages and is by far the biggest of the updates, so will probably be the service pack as we think of it. It is applied to the following Vista components:

* AxInstallService
* Backup
* BLB Client
* Branding Ultimate Client
* BRCpl Basic/Premium/Pro & BRCpl Basic/Premium/Pro Language Pack
* Capture Wizard
* Client Features
* ClipsInTheLibrary
* CodecPack Basic Encoder/Package
* Desktop Manager
* DFSR Client Edition
* Disk Diagnosis
* Fax Client (for all versions of Vista)
* Foundation
* Group Policy Client Extensions / Client Tools
* Help Core Client
* IIS WebServer AddOn (38 packages are devoted to this component)
* IIS WebServer (another 18 packages for this component)
* Indexing Service
* Media Center / Media Format / Media Player
* MobilePC Basic/Premium/SideShow
* MovieMaker
* MSMQ Client
* NetFx3 OC
* NFS Client
* Offline Files
* Optical Media
* Parental Controls
* Peer-to-Peer AdHoc Meetings / Full
* Photo Basic/Premium
* Previous Versions
* Printing Foundation / Printing Premium Tools / Printing XP Services
* RDC (Remote Desktop Connection)
* RecDisc
* Remote Assistance
* Removable Storage Management
* Secure Startup
* ServicingBaseline (for all versions of Windows)
* Shell Inbox Games / Premium Inbox Games
* Simple TCP
* SNMP Package
* SUA (Subsystem for UNIX Applications)
* System Restore
* TabletPC OC
* Telnet Client / Telnet Server
* Terminal Services Command Line Tools / Misc Redirection / USB Redirector / WM Provider
* Windows Foundation Language Packs
* WMI SNMP Provider
* WMP Network Sharing Service
* MSSSVC Rules (for all versions of Vista)
* Server Help (for all versions of Vista)

Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB937286) contains 28 packages. The bulk of the updates are applied to the Windows Help Core Client, but it also affects client packages for:

* Windows MobilePC (Basic, Premium, SideShow and Help)
* Windows ServicingBaseline (for all versions of Windows Vista)
* Server Help (for all versions of Windows Vista).

Hotfix for Microsoft Windows (KB937287) contains just one package, which is applied to the Servicing Stack, a component used in Vista imaging.

Update for Microsoft Windows (KB938371) contains three packages, which are applied to:

* OS loader
* Windows Task Scheduler Service
* Windows Update Standalone Installer (WUSA)
* Foundation Package
* Common Log
* Delta Package Expander
* OLE Automation
* All Windows Foundation and WindowsPE Language Packs

The services packs are very clearly directed towards backend services rather than frontend features. I pointed the SP1 system to Windows Update to see whether it needed any Vista updates, and it didn’t. So as expected, all Vista updates since Vista was released (and there haven’t been many) have been bundled into SP1.

The Vista SP1 packages: you can uninstall them from the SP1 build if you so desire, and return to bog standard Vista RTM.The Vista SP1 packages: you can uninstall them from the SP1 build if you so desire, and return to bog standard Vista RTM.
Performance and Compatibility

This service pack isn’t to be confused with two enhancement packs which were leaked to the public a few weeks ago, and then officially released by Microsoft with virtually no fanfare on the 8th and the 9th. These two updates address compatibility and performance features in Vista.

The “compatibility” update (KB938194), “improves the compatibility and reliability of Windows Vista” in the following scenarios:

* The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
* 932539 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932539/) The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver on a Windows Vista-based computer
* The computer stops responding, and you receive a "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer's power button.
* The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.
* The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.
* The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off. For example, this problem may occur when a projector is turned off during a presentation.
* There are stability issues with some graphics processing units (GPUs). These issues could cause GPUs to stop responding (hang).
* Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.
* You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.
* Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.
* Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.
* Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.
* The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.
* You receive a "Stop 0x0000009F" error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
* 931671 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931671/) Error message when you put a Windows Vista-based computer to sleep while a PPP connection is active: "STOP 0x0000009F"

The “performance” update (KB938979), “improves the performance and reliability of Windows Vista” in the following scenarios:

* You experience a long delay when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
* A memory leak occurs when you use the Windows Energy screen saver.
* If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.
* When you write data to an AVI file by using the AVIStreamWrite function, the file header of the AVI file is corrupted.
* When you copy or move a large file, the "estimated time remaining" takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.
* After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.
* When you synchronize an offline file to a server, the offline file is corrupted.
* If you edit an image file that uses the RAW image format, data loss occurs in the image file. This problem occurs if the RAW image is from any of the following digital SLR camera models:
o Canon EOS 1D
o Canon EOS 1DS
* After you resume the computer from hibernation, the computer loses its default gateway address.
* Poor memory management performance occurs.

That last one is wonderfully vague. And I’ve certainly experienced the “estimated time remaining” problem, so I’ll be applying that particular update.

Both updates are available for 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista.

Because the packages bundled into the service pack aren’t labelled by their KB number, it’s hard to say with certainty whether these updates have been incorporated.

There are many rumours flying around as to when SP1 will be released, but there's nothing really concrete. The best that can be said is that the public beta is due later in the year, with the final release happening sometime in 2008.

The big question is whether the hint of a service pack on the horizon will encourage businesses to hold off deploying Vista, especially if they're contemplating Windows Server 2008 as well. This isn't a situation Microsoft wants, but if it's generally known that Vista SP1 has substantial advantages of non-SP1, it's difficult to make a business case for early adoption.

Personally, I haven't had too many problems with Vista to speak of, but if this private beta is anything like the final release, it can’t come soon enough. I want those performance improvements on my main desktop machines!

Linus explains why open source works

Linus Torvalds is often described as an open source champion, interested in licensing only insofar as it affects his ability to share code and improve software more quickly. However, his real position is more complicated -- and to some, perhaps surprising.

Asked point-blank which is more important, sharing code or empowering users -- the declared goal of the free software champions whom Torvalds is routinely depicted as being in opposition with -- and his first response in what he calls "the usual Linus polite words" is "That's a really stupid question. Why do you put it as an 'either or' kind of concept?" He then goes on to explain that, because open source operates in the same manner as scientific query, and is a matter of enlightened self-interest, sharing code and empowering users "are not at odds at all" -- a view that, in the end, places him closer to the free software position than either free software or open source followers might care to admit.

Torvalds has been quoted many times about his emphasis on sharing code, especially during the debates about the recently released third version of the GNU General Public License (GPL). Most famously, in an interview with Forbes magazine in March 2006, Torvalds explained his preference for the second version of the license by saying, "The GPLv2 in no way limits your use of the software. If you're a mad scientist, you can use GPLv2'd software for your evil plans to take over the world ('Sharks with lasers on their heads!!'), and the GPLv2 just says that you have to give source code back. And that's OK by me. I like sharks with lasers. I just want the mad scientists of the world to pay me back in kind. I made source code available to them, they have to make their changes to it available to me. After that, they can fry me with their shark-mounted lasers all they want."

However, responding recently to the question of whether code sharing or user empowerment was more important, Torvalds makes clear that such quotes are only half the story.

Torvalds begins his explanation by talking about science, implying that free and open source software development falls into that category. The dichotomy in the question, he says, "makes no sense. Science clearly does empower humans, but, the fact is, it does so because it has hit on a working model of the universe, and the reason it has done that is because it has a process in place for getting there that works. Sharing information is a small part of that model.

"Human inquisitiveness is an even bigger part. The fact is, what's most important is people. How they are inquisitive, and want to figure out and control the world. How they all have that selfish interest in improving their own lot in life, and almost by mistake they then end up improving other people's lot in life, too, by uncovering some small detail that explains a bit more about the universe.

"The same is true of open source. It's not about 'sharing information' per se: that's just a small part of it -- it's a part of the tools to create better software."

Nor is open source about altruism in Torvalds' view. Instead, he sees it as a matter of enlightened self-interest. "That is worth celebrating: the constant individual struggle to improve your own standing. That little selfish person who tries to take advantage of everybody else by making the minimal possible outlay (preferably by using mostly the source code that somebody else has done) and incrementally improving it with relatively small effort."

The short-term result of this attitude, Torvalds says, is that "for a while, that person gains an advantage, because now the tool did what he wanted. And in the longer term, we all gain that knowledge. One small and meaningless advantage at a time, and it just builds up and up.

"That is where it's at. It's about 'empowering everybody' by letting some enterprising users empower themselves, and then taking advantage of it for everybody else."

The worldview that Torvalds expresses here helps to explain why he has been so vocal in his opposition to the latest version of the GPL, and plans to stay with the second version. No doubt past clashes with the Free Software Foundation color his outlook, but the conflict is more fundamental than one of different personalities.

For Torvalds, the problem with the provisions for patent-sharing and for restricting the use of lockdown technologies -- what the Free Software Foundation prefers to call TiVoization -- is that they keep some people out of the free exchange of ideas that characterizes open source. "That's the whole point of open source -- different people and entities have different goals, and the very differences are what makes it work well for everybody," he says. "Anybody who tries to hobble science by saying that they won't share information with people they dislike (the military, for example) is seen as an obvious crackpot and idiot. The same, to me, is true of open source."

However, amid the echoes of ongoing conflicts, what is even more important is the often overlooked fact that the distinction between free software and open source philosophies is not as great as it is frequently made out to be.

Torvalds is understandably cautious about journalists' uses of his words. He points out that they often use quotes to say what they don't have the courage to say for themselves, and that how people represent him tells a lot "about the opinions they hold." Yet, even so, Torvalds' denial of the dichotomy between the supposed aims of the two camps suggests that the differences between free software and open source are not so much a matter of philosophy, but a matter of tactics to realize that philosophy. While the Free Software Foundation tries to reach those goals by legal means, open source advocates like Torvalds suggest that all that is needed is for people to act as people normally do.

From this perspective, Torvalds' views highlight a fact that has often been overlooked in the recent GPL debates: free software and open source supporters are allies. They may be uneasy allies, blowing raspberries at each other and slinging mud at each other at every opportunity, but they are allies all the same. It's a fact worth mentioning, simply because it hasn't been repeated much recently.

Top Five (5) Best Criminal Computer Hackers of All Time

The Black Hat Hackers - Criminals

These hackers are the ones that you've seen in shackles arrested for cybercrimes when they were just getting out of puberty. Some have done it for financial gain others just for fun.

1. Kevin Mitnick.

Mitnick is perhaps synonymous with Hacker. The Department of Justice still refers to him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." His accomplishments were memorialized into two Hollywood movies: Takedown and Freedom Downtime.

Mitnick got his start by exploiting the Los Angeles bus punch card system and getting free rides. Then similar to Steve Wozniak, of Apple, Mitnick tried Phone Phreaking. Mitnick was first convicted for hacking into the Digital Equipment Corporation's computer network and stealing software.

Mitnick then embarked on a two and a half year coast to coast hacking spree. He has stated that he hacked into computers, scrambled phone networks, stole corporate secrets and hacked into the national defense warning system. His fall came when he hacked into fellow computer expert and hacker Tsutomu Shimomura's home computer.

Mitnick is now a productive member of society. After serving 5 years and 8 months in solitary confinement, he is now a computer security author, consultant and speaker.

2. Adrian Lamo

Lamo hit major organizations hard, hacking into Microsoft and The New York Times. Lamo would use Internet connections at coffee shops, Kinko's and libraries to achieve his feats earning him the nickname "The Homeless Hacker". Lamo frequently found security flaws and exploited them. He would often inform the companies of the flaw.

Lamo's hit list includes Yahoo!, Citigroup, Bank of America and Cingular. Of course White Hat Hackers do this legally because they are hired by the company to such, Lamo however was breaking the law.

Lamo's intrusion into The New York Times intranet placed him squarely into the eyes of the top cyber crime offenders. For this crime, Lamo was ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution. Additionally, he was sentenced to six months home confinement and 2 years probation. Probation expired January of 2007. Lamo now is a notable public speaker and award winning journalist.

3. Jonathan James

At 16 years old, James gained enormous notoriety when he was the first minor to be sent to prison for hacking. He later admitted that he was just having fun and looking around and enjoyed the challenge.

James hit high profile organizations including the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which is an agency of the Department of the Defense. With this hack he was able to capture usernames and passwords and view highly confidential emails.

High on James list, James also hacked in NASA computers and stole software valued at over $1.7 million. The Justice Department was quoted as saying: "The software stolen by James supported the International Space Station's physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space." Upon discovering this hack, NASA had to shut dow its entire computer system costing taxpayers $41,000. Today James aspires to start a computer security company.

4. Robert Tappan Morris

Morris is the son of a former National Security Agency scientist named Robert Morris. Robert is the creator of the Morris worm. This worm was credited as the first computer worm spread through the Internet. Because of his actions, he was the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Morris created the worm while at Cornell as a student claiming that he intended to use the worm to see how large the Internet was at the time. The worm, however, reproduced itself uncontrollably, shutting down many computers until they had completely malfunctioned. Experts claim 6,000 machines were destroyed. Morris was ultimately sentenced to three years' probation, 400 hours of community service and assessed a $10,500 fine.

Morris is now a tenured professor at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His focus is computer network architecture.

5. Kevin Poulsen

Frequently referred to as Dark Dante, Poulsen gained national recognition for his hack into Los Angeles radio's KIIS-FM phone lines. These actions earned him a Porsche among many other items.

The FBI began to search for Poulson, when he hacked into the FBI database and federal computers for sensitive wiretap information. Poulsen's specialty was hacking into phone lines and he frequently took over all of a station's phone lines. Poulson also reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for a partner who operated a virtual escort agency. Poulson was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and then captured in a supermarket. He was assessed a sentence of five years.

Since his time in prison, Poulsen has worked as a journalist and was promoted to senior editor for Wired News. His most popular article details his work on identifying 744 sex offenders with Myspace profiles.

Best Web Conferencing Services

Web-based conferencing systems use Internet browsers and servers, specific software selections, and other equipment to allow home-based individuals and businesses to interact with one another.

On the market, a multitude of web conferencing companies offer a wide range of services.

When it comes to the best, a careful analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of top products is necessary to come to a conclusion based upon individual or corporate needs.

In helping consumers locate best web conferencing software and services that cater best to their requirements, a few factors help make the decision much easier to accomplish.

Top 7 Web Conferencing Solutions

In no apparent order, you will find some of the best web conferencing software options on the market, offering a variety of pricing options and convenient features to consider:

1) Citrix GoToMeeting

One of the best web conferencing options is GoToMeeting, where potential buyers may try out services over a free trial period lasting 14 days.

A wide range of features is offered, accompanied by a high level of user friendliness, effortless meeting setups, easy installation of software, and a decent cost.

The latest version of the software also gives Macintosh users a chance to participate, but not organize meetings. GoToMeeting allows consumers to purchase a monthly plan of $49.00 (annual cost of $588) or an annual plan with a savings of 20% ($468).

With one flat fee, the hosting of unlimited online meetings is made possible with up to 10 attendees per meeting. Integrated voice conferencing services are also included.

2) WebEx MeetMeNow

WebEx produces the MeetMeNow web conferencing software, which is quite user-friendly, with easy software installation and meeting setup capabilities.

WebEx is quite accommodating, as it caters to individual needs, small-to-medium business ventures, and large companies and enterprises. Consumers are often satisfied with the price of the software.

For example, individuals are able to enjoy unlimited meetings with up to 10 participants for $39 per month with an annual commitment or $49 per month without a commitment. This service also provides access to document sharing, presentations, and decent customer collaboration.

3) Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Live Meeting offers a number of convenient, wide-ranging features with an exceptional range of system requirements, including Mac OS X 10.3 or higher, Windows 98 2nd Edition, Netscape 7.2, Solaris 9 with Netscape 7 (or Mozilla 1.4), and Sun JVM 1.4.2.

Since there are so many features associated with the software, this option may appear difficult for some users, although it is quite easy to set up a meeting.

The price attached to Microsoft Office Live Meeting is often seen as undesirable because it is centered on a "per use" basis. Beneficial features include anytime-meeting scheduling, satisfying interactivity, and an overall increase in productivity.

4) WiredRed e/pop Web Conferencing

The e/pop Web Conferencing offers high-quality sharing of PowerPoint, documents, desktops, and applications.

Buyers also receive audio and video conferencing capabilities, where consumers may enjoy quick access to web meetings with a full line of features that makes the overall process fast and easy.

The server software installs in under five minutes with clear interactivity. Additional features include enhanced video quality, real-time Powerpoint sharing, and convenient records/playbacks.

Fixed pricing supplies two different purchase plans: hosted services with monthly fees ($350 to $900 on the average) and annual installable software with licenses ($3,000 to $9,600 on the average).

5) Acrobat Connect Professional

Acrobat offers many different features with their web conferencing software, which accommodates a wide range of operating systems, as well as provides a high–level of security.

Many consumers enjoy the ability of customizing and elevating their functions through the Collaboration Builder SDK. The software quickly helps buyers generate, establish, and track online meetings, trainings, and on-the-spot presentations.

Convenient pay options include software licenses, annual subscriptions, monthly payments, or pay-per-use arrangements.

6) PGi Netspoke Web Conferencing

Customers are blown away with the effective visual presentation, audience involvement, and live feedback associated with PGi Netspoke web conferencing software and services.

Handling anything from small member meetings to large Web debates involving up to 125 participants, PGi Netspoke is ready to offer a wide-range of features including application sharing, Q&A, chat, polling features, rapid agenda transmission, and satisfying demonstration software.

Additionally, a flexible pricing schedule is set to accommodate the varying needs of consumers.

7) MegaMeeting

When using MegaMeeting, the ease of services is seen through the many different companies and individuals who benefit from the software.

The effective marketing tools allow small, medium, and large businesses to thrive across the Internet. Face-to-face web conferencing, video conferencing services, and VoIP capabilities are just some of the things offered with MegaMeeting.

The price is also decent, as unlimited meetings are supplied for $75 per month. Additional features include the allowance of up to 16 simultaneous video participants, free integrated toll conference calling, unlimited logins, and the ease of not having to deal with contracts.

Weighing the Pros and Cons Of Web Conferencing Companies

When scanning the benefits and setbacks associated with a particular web conferencing company, you may base your final decision on budget, while another will spare no expense for decent operating system support. Each decision is based upon individual expectations and limitations.

To date, web conferencing companies may offer their services for free, while some costs thousands of dollars to acquire. The operating system often becomes a concern of buyers, as numerous selections cater to Unix servers and most Windows servers, while Macintosh users face limited choices.

A buyer may analyze the compatibility of web conferencing options with other environments, as well as the level of administrative capabilities.

Browser support, search and filter tools, access control, speed, host tools, overall level of performance, and the ability to customize are also additional elements and factors that influence a final web conferencing selection.

Overall, what makes a decent conferencing system for one does not necessarily translate into the same for another. It is important to remember that there is no one single solution that effectively satisfies the demands of all.

Google Mashup Editor

I just got in to the shiny new beta for the Google Mashup Editor and I wanted to share my thoughts on it with you. Like Yahoo! Pipes before it (our review here), the Google Mashup Editor provides a simple interface that enables developers to make basic web applications and mashups quickly. And again, like Yahoo! Pipes, it is very definitely aimed at developers.

The idea behind it is to provide a rapid development framework for mashing feeds into Google services, using common technologies such as XML, JavaScript, CSS and HTML. It also offers a JavaScript API for more advanced behavioral interactions. Google describes the Mashup Editor as "a great tool for grabbing information from feeds and letting users see and manipulate it."

Google Mashups Editor, showing code for a 'Hello, World' application.

Documentation

For keen developers who haven't yet received access to the beta, there is a strong set of resources you can use to start learning the GME application functionality, structure, code and controls that don't require a login. Ample documentation is available, including a diagram of the application structure and a comprehensive tag reference. Typical of Google, the documentation is the bare necessities, without even a index of the listed tags at the top of the reference page. Also, there is currently a short list of articles & tutorials, a FAQ, the official project blog, and, of course, a Google Group.

Components

The application itself is divided into 3 main parts: the Editor, Feed Browser and Sandbox. A screenshot of each is included in this article.

The Editor is for building projects. Each project can have multiple GML files (I'd guess that stands for Google Markup Language, but it's not documented), and you can also upload resource files such as JavaScript or images. Each GML file can contain a mix of XML, HTML, JS, CSS and the GME tags. The examples don't encourage good coding practices, but at least you have a lot of flexibility with how you code the applications.

The GME Feed Browser, browsing the Read/WriteWeb feed.

The GME Feed Browser is a convenient tool for checking your source feeds. You can use Google Base, or external feeds that you source yourself. The documentation frequently suggests using Yahoo! Pipes to clean up feeds before bringing them into GME. It offers some simple options for choosing the maximum number of results and pages you want returned.

The Sandbox is the simplest of the GME components. It's a running version of your applications. Just hit 'Test' in the Editor and, after a sluggish pause, you're automatically delivered to the Sandbox where your application begins running. You can test all functionality and see how your app will look. It also offers a simple option for viewing it as a Google Gadget.

The GME Sandbox, displaying a quick basic app I wrote for reading Read/WriteWeb feeds.

Publication

Publishing is as simple as pressing a button and choosing a name for your application. That name becomes the subdomain at googlemashups.com, such as this sample application at http://mapwiki.googlemashups.com/. Google curates a full gallery of other mashups. Getting your mashup live and into that gallery as quickly as possible will result in massive exposure - the balance will be making sure it's good enough to stand out.

Conclusion

The Google Mashup Editor is an incredibly powerful tool for rapid testing and deployment of mashup concepts, particularly those that utilize Google services or products. This opens the space to all those developers who don't have their own servers to play on and gives them a framework to kickstart development. It's simple easy and fun to produce something very quickly, but it will be much harder to produce fantastic products. Nonetheless, the cost-savings in development time are going to make this a popular testbed for all sorts of concepts. Google Mashup Editor is a name you will hear a lot in future.

Hackers Extract Main Key to iPhone Unlocking, Freedom Closer than Ever

After uncovering its communications core's secrets, today hackers have reached a big milestone towards freeing the iPhone from the AT&T network: they extracted the full content of the radio memory. In other words: now they have the plans for the fucking Death Star —"the main key to achieve true unlock." Want to help the iPhone Dev Team but you are no expert? Keep reading.

We hope you'll all enjoy this important step and we of course welcome any donations to encourage or to help us achieving the final goal. Please be assured that any donations are wisely spent, otherwise you can slap us.

iPhone Dev Team, we like. If you do too, please send them your donations using PayPal. I don't care if they spend mine on pizza as soon as they unlock the phone. Their PayPal address is iphone.donations(at)gmail.com.

If you are a programming expert you can also help them. They have released the tool to get your own NOR memory dump, called NORDumper.tar.bz2. Get it from here. And to to the iPhone IRC channel to learn more about it.

We are pleased to announce that another big milestone toward the unlocking has been reached.

Just a couple of days ago we managed to extract the full content of the NOR memory (from the S-Gold2), which is the main key to achieving a true unlock. Releasing this dump would be of course illegal and risky, as it contains personal information and copyrighted code. That said, we're going to release the NOR Dumper binary to enable everyone else to continue working on the iPhone's unlocking. We'll release the source code at a later date when we feel it is mature enough to do so.
We hope you'll all enjoy this important step and we of course welcome any donations to encourage or to help us achieving the final goal. Please be assured that any donations are wisely spent, otherwise you can slap us :P

DOWNLOAD: http://www.deadbeef.cn/NORDumper.tar.bz2

To run this, copy it to /usr/bin and set the executable flag with chmod.
add Disabled to /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist and reboot.
run: NORDumper dump.bin

Stay tuned, -- the dev team

Rooting

Published by: paranoiahax, on hackthissite.org

An article on gaining root to a remote system: Too often have I seen articles that claim to teach how to hack into a server, but all they do is just show you how to scan open ports, and many many people have no idea what to do with an open port. So I am going to show you pretty much all the basics, to get you well on your way to your first ever successful hack of a server, giving you root privileges. First tool that you will need is a good port scanner. Nmap and SuperScan are my favourites by far, and Nmap is by far the most popular port scanner in the world because of its many features. You can download both at: http://www.hackinglibrary.ws/dl/downloads/superscan4.zip and http://insecure.org/nmap/ SuperScan: If you have a website that you mainly want to target, then just copy and paste the URL into the box and click lookup. It will automatically determine the IP address, and with this you can simply scan away. Nmap: Nmap is all used through CLI (Command Line Interface). Now to determine the IP address of a website, just run a WHOIS on it, http://whois.domaintools.com is the best one I know of and has many features, also check out http://www.dnsstuff.com/ which is also very useful and has many features. So now if you just simply typed "nmap 192.168.1.1" (changing the IP you see here to the target's IP address) it will scan the target for open ports and using -O will fingerprint the OS the remote system is using. Once you have your port list at hand, now you will need to find out what programs each port are running, and the best manual way to do this is to connect to each port through telnet. When you are connected, you will be welcomed by a screen with some information, if you now copy and paste all this information into a .txt file, and do this for each port, it will become clear which programs run on which ports, and also the you will be able to see if it has the latest versions of the software (remember that new versions come out, securing the program more, so if the program has an extremely old version of the software, it will more likely be exploitable). Once you have done this and got a list of all the programs running on the open ports, now is the time to search for an exploit. There are many ways to do this: Milw0rm is an old favourite of mine http://www.milw0rm.com if you go to http://www.milw0rm.com/port.php it will give you a drop down menu of ports, just look through each one, and check if the exploits for the programs there match any of the programs you have in your .txt file, and finally check the versions. If you see an exploit there, then click on it, if it's a Perl exploit (will start with #!/usr/bin/perl) this is even better because it means that you don't have to mess about compiling the exploit. If not, then you will have to compile the exploit yourself, look up on another article for this, but you will need cygwin if you are running Windows. All you have to do is run this command "pl exploit.pl [target]" and if you're lucky it will be successful and all you need do now is either connect through netcat (the hacker's best friend, an alternative to telnet) and you will have root priviladges. Or if the payload is a reverse bind, then your computer may open another terminal automatically with root rights. Now you may go to the directory that the site is stored in (usually /home/site here) and you can do whatever you feel to the site in question. Metasploit is another great method. You can download metasploit from: http://framework.metasploit.com/msf/download Now once you have this, run it (msfconsole) and type "show exploits" this will give you a list of all the exploits in metasploit's library. Look for one that exploits one of the port's programs you found, and when you find it, type "use [exploit here]" Now, "show targets" this will give you a list of targets, just set it to the OS you found while fingerprinting it with Nmap, type "set target x" now, "show payloads" will show you the payloads available, using a reverse bind will give you the prompt, others you will have to connect yourself through netcat. Also, note that it has FreeBSD, win32, and Linux payloads, depending on the system. Right, now type "show options" and it will give you a list of options, which will show you the various parameters for the specific exploit you're working with. Set RHOST to the IP of your target by "set RHOST 192.168.1.1" and set LPORT as the listening port you want, port 4444 is the default. If you want to reset it all, just type "back" into your console. If all is well, then all you need to type is "exploit" and metasploit will do it all for you, and once again you have just owned another system. The final method is writing the exploit yourself. This is a more advanced level, and there are many places that teach you the basics, phrack.org has some good tutorials. But there is no tutorial that will teach you how to write your own exploits all the time, because after all, programming is about learning yourself through experience and practice. If you have any further questions, then please please use google, google really is a hacker's best friend, and it has all the answers to life's problems ;-) If all else fails, then please feel free to mail me at paranoiahax@live.com. This article was intended for the newbies out there who are still unsure about what the elite call "real hacking" and I apologise if it isn't very well structured, as I am not too good at writing articles. Once final note is that using these methods illegally and improperly will probably land you a one way ticket to jail, you will not pass go, will not collect £200 and will get raped by a big white man called Bubba. Use the skills taught here for ethical reasons only, and HackThisSite nor myself are responsible for any actions that you do, or any damage that you cause. You have been warned.

TorrentSpam: Report Fake and Malware Ridden Torrents

The popularity of BitTorrent also has its downsides. Over the past months we reported about fake torrents, torrents that force you to download malware, and torrents that spy on your download behavior. TorrentSpam is a new service that allows you to report such scams, and clean up BitTorrent sites, bit by bit.

Unfortunately there still is a lot of torrent spam on most BitTorrent sites. Some torrents are uploaded by anti-piracy outfits that try to trace your IP. Others are from people that force you to download some shady video player to play the file you just downloaded. This video player (e.g. 3wPlayer) is of course filled with malware that infects your computer.

A good way to check whether a torrent is legit or not is by looking at the comments. If people found the torrent to be fake, it will probably reported there. But up until now there was no central database for checking fake and spam torrents - TorrentSpam is trying to fill this gap. A search for the torrent name on TorrentSpam will return a list of torrents, and the score each torrent has indicates how likely it is that this torrent is actually SPAM.

Some administrators of BitTorrent sites (not all of them) already spend hours every day removing and blocking these fake or malware ridden torrents, but it is nearly impossible to have a 100% clean site at all times.

TorrentSpam will be really useful if admins of BitTorrent sites have access to their database, something that will happen in the near future. The site is currently working on an API section so all torrent sites can utilize TorrentSpam. In the meantime they obviously need you to fill (and check) the database.

Or as the admin of TorrentSpam puts it: “The more reported torrents the better the P2P experience! By letting people know of invalid torrents, the less data will be jamming the networks.”

Old Mac Keyboards No Longer Shipping, New iMacs Probably Coming

The plot is thickening: it has yet to be confirmed, but it seems that Apple and Best Buy stores are no longer going to receive old Apple keyboards shipments. What could this mean?

The reader is claiming he discovered this while inquiring at the Apple Stores in Oakbrook and Michigan, He points out that they are still receiving iMacs, however. Likewise, the same reader reports that Best Buy is not receiving any old keyboards either.

Since we doubt Apple will be releasing just new keyboards this week, our money is in new iMacs and new Mac minis.

Microsoft Censoring .info domains in MSN Messenger

Sun, 5 August 2007, posted in Other

As most regular readers know, I own CSS3.info, and because of that, I talk quite a bit about it on MSN messenger. Recently, I started getting problems when I was sending links with css3.info in it to my contacts. Tonight, after doing a bit more research, I found out that ALL .info domains are being censored in Messenger. For some silly reason, Microsoft seems to think that all .info domains are bad. .biz domains don’t get censored though...

Now it has been known for quite a while that MSN censors URL’s, as covered here for instance, but I had not ever heard of them censoring out complete TLD’s… This is, IMHO, insane… Come on Microsoft, stop doing this sort of nonsense!

Some offtopic news! Sochi, Russia, wins 2014 Olympic Games

By STEPHEN WILSON, AP Sports Writer
July 4, 2007

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi was awarded the 2014 Olympics on Wednesday, rewarding President Vladimir Putin and taking the Winter Games to his country for the first time.

Sochi defeated the South Korean city of Pyeongchang in the final round of a vote by the International Olympic Committee.

The Austrian resort of Salzburg was eliminated in the first round of the secret ballot, setting up the decisive head-to-head contest between Sochi and Pyeongchang. The vote totals were not immediately released.

The result was a triumph for Putin, who put his international prestige on the line by coming to Guatemala to lobby IOC members and lead Sochi's final formal presentation to the assembly. Putin had left by the time the result was announced.

Ninety-seven IOC members were eligible to vote in the first round. Members from bidding countries are ineligible to vote as long as their cities remain in contention. With Salzburg out, 100 delegates were eligible in the second round.

Russia, an Olympic power which has won 293 Winter Games medals, has never hosted the Winter Games. That was a strong point in Sochi's favor with the IOC, which likes to spread the Olympics to new host countries. Moscow hosted the 1980 Summer Games, which were hit by the U.S.-led boycott following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The Sochi bid won out over the appeals of its rivals -- Salzburg, presenting itself as a safe, no-risk winter sports mecca at the heart of Europe with world-class venues already in place; and Pyeongchang, offering the potential for peace and reconciliation on the divided Korean peninsula and promoting winter sports in Asia.

Putin's government has pledged $12 billion to develop Sochi into a world-class winter sports complex linking the palm-lined Black Sea coast -- the so-called "Russian Riviera" -- to the soaring Caucasus mountains nearby.

Putin, one of the world's most powerful figures, emphasized his commitment by making a rare formal presentation in English to the IOC. He praised Sochi's natural setting, saying, "On the seashore you can enjoy a fine spring day, but up in the mountains, it's winter ... a real snow is guaranteed."

Although the site would have to be built largely from scratch, Putin assured, "We guarantee the Olympic cluster in Sochi will be completed on time."

"No traffic jams, I promise," he said with a smile.

Noting that athletes would have a short walk to their venues, Putin said, "Five minutes' walking distance, not bad."

It was the second straight first-round defeat for Salzburg, which also mounted a failed bid for the 2010 Winter Games, which went to Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Austrians were squeezed out by the political and economic might of the Russian and Korean bids.

Updated on Wednesday, Jul 4, 2007 7:29 pm EDT