Daily News Brief: MS Conspiracy Theory Exposed!

Microsoft Fueling HD Wars?

That's what Michael Bay believes, who directed the Transformers movie. Still peeved that Transformers only appears on HD-DVD and not Blu-ray, Micheal wrote that "Microsoft wants both formats to fail" in an attempt to move consumers toward digital downloads, and that MS is "handing out $100 million checks to studios" to push HD-DVD and confuse the market. Makes perfect sense too, because, well, if two formats manage to gain a foothold in the market, said formats will spontaneously combust, leaving digital downloads to rule over masses of confused movie watchers.

Nokia Offers Free Music for a Year

As part of their 'Comes With Music Program', Nokia announced they'll be giving away free music from "millions of artists[...], past, present, and future." To qualify, consumers need only purchase a Nokia device, making them eligible to download free music for a year, which they can keep forever. As of yet, it's unclear which record labels will participate, save for UMG, who is already on board.

iPhone Searches Dominate Google

Score one for technology and entertainment, which saw more Google searches in 2007 than any other category. And the fastest-rising search term? The iPhone, of course, which didn't exist a year prior. Also making the top 10 list are Webkinz, celebrity news site TMZ, and transformer toys, which held the 2, 3, and 4 spots respectively. See the rest here.

iPhone Dominates France

French mobile phone operator Orange reports they've sold 30,000 iPhones in the first five days since it's November 29 launch. Meanwhile, T-Mobile in Germany said it sold 10,000 units on the first day, who yesterday won a lawsuit allowing them to lock iPhone customers into a two year contract. Orange remains the only Apple network partner to sell unlocked phones, which does so to comply with French law.

$222,000 RIAA Verdict Constitutional

After losing a copyright infringement suit brought forth by the RIAA to the tune of $222,000, Jammie Thomas appealed the verdict claiming the damages were in excess of actual damages the music labels might have incurred. But the U.S. Department of Justice didn't agree, dismissing Thomas' claims and stating that the Copyright Act serves both a "compensatory and a deterrent purpose." File sharers take note...

Shrinky Dink Chips

While most of us can remember using Shrinky Dinks to downsize Smurfs and He-Man characters, Michelle Khine recently found another use for them. Armed with a laser printer, a toaster oven, and Shrinky Dinks, the University of California Merced professor managed to make microfluidic devices, which are computer chips with plumbing typically fabricated in multimillion dollar labs. Read all about the process here.

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Daily News Brief: MS Conspiracy Theory Exposed!

Download of the Week: Windows Media Player Plus!

Unless you have some super-fancy configuration set up, odds are good that you--like most--default to Windows Media Player as your multimedia software of choice for playing just about anything that comes across your system. There's no shame in that. While a number of freeware tools support more codecs and/or file formats, and come bundled with other fun features and extensive customizations, it's alright to admit that you use Windows' built-in tool for the job.

In fact, you might very well have found yourself quite fond of your operating system's default media player. That's alright too. I'm not about to show or suggest third-party tools that might add confusion to your routine. Instead, you might want to check out a little chunk of software called Windows Media Player Plus! This app--really, a series of plugins--isn't a replacement for Windows Media Player. It simply builds free enhancements into Windows Media Player to give you even more options to tinker with and features to enjoy.

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Download of the Week: Windows Media Player Plus!

Critical Windows Fixes For DirectShow, Network-based Attacks

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com

Today's Patch Tuesday update release from Microsoft ships out a bevy of high-priority fixes, including five rated critical. Many of the vulnerabilities are likely to be attacked, according to Redmond.

A fix for a flaw involving DirectShow "should be at the top of your list," according to the Microsoft Security Reponse Center blog. Opening a poisoned .avi file could trigger an attack on a vulnerable system. The MS10-013 update is critical for all supported Windows systems except for Itanium-based Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 machines.

A second critical flaw in the Windows Shell Handler could allow a malicious Web site to execute commands (such as installing a Trojan) on vulnerable Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 systems. The flaw hasn't been publicly attacked, according to Microsoft, but the company still assigns the MS10-007 patch an exploitability rating of 1, meaning we'll likely see attacks against the underlying vulnerability.

Next comes a hole involving SMB (used for network file sharing) that is of most concern to business environments with a file server. According to Symantec, "if an attacker can find a vulnerable remote server that has a guest account set up, just like that, they've got access to the machine and possibly the entire local network." The MS10-006 patch is critical for Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2, but is only rated important for Windows Vista and Server 2008.

The MS10-009 update closes additional network-based vulnerabilities, this time in Windows' TCP/IP implementation. The patch closes four separate holes, the most serious of which can be targeted with a specially crafted IPv6 packets (the target system would need to have IPv6 enabled). MS10-009 is critical for Vista and Server 2008, but other Windows versions aren't affected.

A fifth and final critical-rated update rolls out additional killbits for Internet Explorer, which prevent vulnerable ActiveX controls from running in the browser. MS10-008 is rated critical for Windows 2000 and XP, important for Vista and Window 7, moderate for Server 2003 and only of low importance for Server 2008.

Yet another patch didn't rate critical, but is still listed as top priority by the MSRC post because of publicly available proof-of-concept attack code. The vulnerability fixed by MS10-015 allows a logged-in user to run a "specially crafted application" to gain additional privileges on a system. Such privilege escalation attacks are sometimes used in multi-pronged invasions of high-value networks to gain administrative control. This patch addresses Security Advisory 979682.

In addition to these high-priority fixes, Redmond's large patch batch also includes six other important-rated updates and one rated moderate. To pick up all the fixes for your system, fire up Windows Update.

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Critical Windows Fixes For DirectShow, Network-based Attacks