Windows Live Messenger 9.0.1407.1107 beta

Windows Live Messenger 9.0 is designed as the successor of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 released in its final form at the beginning of November.

The past week, Microsoft began sending out invitations to the private beta testing program of Windows Live Messenger 9.0. Subsequently, on November 27, the Redmond company opened up the beta testing program to a pool of some 5,000 participants.

The screenshots included in this article will let you feast your eyes on the latest version of Microsoft's instant messaging client. As you will be able to see, in this initial beta testing phase, the company has focused little on overhauling the graphical user interface of Windows Live Messenger 9.0. The similarities with Windows Live Messenger 8.5 are evident, but all the goodies this version delivers are of course under the hood.

With Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta, users will be able to sign-in and send messages from multiple locations, as well as enjoy signature, personalized and per contact sounds. Build 9.0.1407.1107 also brings to the table SPIM Reporting, Animated Display Pictures, Link in Personal Status Message, Behind the Scenes Changes and Windows Live Contacts Server.

"This is a beta version of Windows Live Messenger. Beta versions are pre-released versions of software products. Because you're using a beta version of Messenger, you may experience problems signing in and connecting to the Messenger service. If you are having these problems, uninstall messenger Beta, and then install the latest, released version from the Messenger home page," is a fragment of the information accompanying the release of Windows Live Messenger 9.0.






Download here...

Forgotten your password? Google can find it for you. Unfortunately...

When a Cambridge University team wanted to break a hacker's password, they turned to Google - with startling results. But there's a lesson for you too..

There's a certain amount of crowing associated with hacking the blog of a security team - which might be why a hacker, apparently Russian, broke into the blog of the Cambridge University security team at the Light Blue Touchpaper blog.

He did it via some weaknesses in their Wordpress installation, upgrading himself from a plain "can post" user to an admnistrator of the blog using a zero-day (that is, previously unnoted) vulnerability, via SQL injection.

But the interesting part came later, when the team was clearing up. They could see the user, but what password had he used? All they had was the entry in the MySQL database for the password; but that had been loosely encoded (encrypted is too strong a word) using the MD5 hash.

You shouldn't, in theory, be able to extract the original text from an MD5 hash. That would take millions, or at least thousands, of computers running all the time.

But Steven Murdoch began thinking. Who is there out there who has thousands of computers running all the time? Um, everyone. And some might be generating MD5 hashes and putting them on the web...

He took the hash - 20f1aeb7819d7858684c898d1e98c1bb - from the database and stuck it into Google. Lo and behold, it turned out to be "Anthony".

So far, so trivial. Except this: if someone does the same trick on a site that you use, they might be able to get read access to the database. They'll be able to see the username and email associated with the MD5 hash. And, on the assumption that you use that password repeatedly, such a hacker could trawl the web looking for places you log in.

So: want to check the security of your favourite password(s)? First, use the MD5 hashing page here (it's a Javascript function; there's nobody grabbing your password, I'd wager, though if you want to feel safe and have OSX, go to the terminal and type md5 -s mypassword - though use your password, not mypassword.

Second, paste that code into your favourite search engine. If it returns no results - well done! You've evaded that hack, for now.

So, how did you do? (I passed. Phew.)

Hints if you failed: change that password to one which includes both letters and numbers.

And no, we don't know if the junior official at HMRC used MD5.

Source

DirectX 10.1 in Windows Vista SP1.

As Windows Vista brought to the table the exclusive DirectX 10, the first service pack for the operating system will evolve Microsoft's graphics technology to version 10.1.




DirectX 10.1 is already available to over 12,000 testers via the first beta of Vista Service Pack 1, concomitantly with the official release of Build 6001.16659. Although the testing milestones of Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP SP3 Beta, are officially limited in terms of access, a hack is available designed to permit the download of Windows Vista SP1 Beta Build 6001.16659 straight from Microsoft, and simultaneously test drive DirectX 10.1.

However, Vista users have to understand that DirectX 10.1, as well as DirectX 10 is a technology intimately connected with the underlying graphics card, such as the upcoming ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series. According to an AMD whitepaper focused on the implementation of DirectX 10.1 in the ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series, the latest application programming interface from Microsoft, manages to "unlock the state of the art in GPU technology."

"DirectX 10.1 maintains the overall structure and programming model of DirectX 10, while providing numerous enhancements. The vertex, geometry, and pixel shader instruction sets have been updated to Shader Model 4.1. The new features of DirectX 10.1 can be divided into three general categories: new shading and texturing capabilities, anti-aliasing improvements, and tighter specifications. The following table highlights some of the key features in each of these categories, as well as some of the benefits they provide," states an excerpt of the ATI whitepaper on DirectX 10.1, via TeamATI.

There is little doubt over at AMD on the evolution represented by the move from DirectX 10 to DirectX 10.1. The fact of the matter is that, Vista SP1 in combination with DirectX 10.1 will bring to the table the next generation of interactive 3D graphics. Vista SP1 is currently planned for availability in the first quarter of 2008, following the launch of Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn. Still, one relevant aspect of DirectX 10.1 is the fact that, in order to enjoy the enhanced shader model, anti-aliasing support, and the increased flexibility of data access, Vista users will not only have to deploy SP1 but also upgrade to DirectX 10.1 ready graphics cards, even though they have moved for less than a year to DirectX 10 compatible hardware.

Source

AdSense: advertising in games will be worth 1 billion by 2010

From sports games to irreverent parodies on platformers, the world of in-game advertising has pretty much grown since video games have been on the rise the past few years. Bernie Stolar, Google's "Dean of Games", talks about the role of advertising in today's gaming industry and how AdSense for Games - an ad serving program run by Google - is planning to take on the in-game advertising scene.

When Google procured AdSense for Games in March 2007, it paved the way for the Internet search giant to gain its own advertising niche in the video game market. Ever since the industry started in the 70's, the demographics have slowly changed. From 15 year old kids playing on the Atari 2600, the median player of a PlayStation 3 console would be around 29 years-old now.

This is what AdSense is taking into consideration, especially with how the market has grown over the years. Stolar relates how his first coin-operated game, Shark Attack, cost him US$ 25,000, while his latest game from Sega cost US$ 25 million. He said it wasn't even possible to make a top-selling PS3 game for under US$ 20 million.

This was the reason why he believes there's a huge potential for the in-game advertising to blossom into a billion dollar industry by 2010 - by talking with major publishers into generating more income through advertising, the possibility for growth was staggering.

He also mentioned that the biggest advantage that AdSense for Games had over its competitors was the fact that, aside from its powerful backing from Google, they had a direct line while working with game producers and developers. He further explained it by saying:

The industry is going online. The whole thing of putting boxes on shelves is changing. There are close to 10 million people on Xbox Live. As soon as Sony straightens out their [online gaming] act, they're going to get to the same place. As a matter of fact, they've already said that all the games they want to do are online games. Yes, we can put games on the shelf that have advertising, but those are going to wind up being static [ads]. The whole thing is going to come to dynamic.

However, the most important thing Stolar has learned after going through so many major gaming companies is that, as a client, you have to be sensitive to the consumer and make sure that the consumer has fun. Take it from him, he says. He's already 60 years old and still enjoys gaming.

The quality of the advertising and how it will affect the consumer is their primary concern so far. This is the reason why they even have a whole review system to ensure nobody gets turned off by any inappropriate advertising in a product.

For more...

Get 500 MS Points for free - XBOX Live

Microsoft is personally thanking everyone after all the birthday wishes sent in by gamers for the fifth anniversary of Xbox Live. Aside from releasing Carcassonne for free, it is also giving away 500 Microsoft Points to every member who's been with them since 2002.

You can avail of these precious Microsoft Points by signing up at Microsoft's Xbox 360 website using your Windows Live ID associated to your Gamertag. The latest you can sign up, however, is until midnight (PST) of November 29.

You'll then have to wait for an e-mail from them with the 25-digit code to activate your Microsoft Points through your Xbox 360 console. Don't expect that e-mail to arrive instantly, though, since the deadline for the e-mail is December 21 of this year. After you get your MS Points, you have until June 30, 2008 to spend it, but if you're anything like us here at QJ.NET, those Microsoft Points will be long gone before then.

So go ahead and check out the website we've provided through the via link below and get to spending those Points.

Check it out!

Unreal Tournament 3 to use Gamespy technology for PC and PS3

GameSpy will be incorporating its multiplayer tech into Epic's Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and PS3.

The big question sitting in gamers' minds is whether or not the deal will mean cross-platform console-to-PC fragging for UT3.

GameSpy's technology does allow for cross-platform gameplay between the two platforms, but Epic has said UT3 will not be shipping with such a feature. There is still a possibility of an update down the line that incorporates cross-platform play. GameSpy's features include multiplayer matchmaking, in-game and out-of-game messaging, player statistics, voice-over IP and a leaderboard and ranking system.

GameSpy recently became part of Epic's Integrated Partners Program, which means GameSpy's multiplayer tech would be integrated into Epic's popular Unreal Engine 3. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty from Codemasters and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway from Ubisoft are a few games that will feature PS3-to-PC cross platform play, thanks to the agreement.

UT3 ships on PC in November, while its PS3 counterpart is expected to be pushed back into Q1 2008. An Xbox 360 version is coming next year at an unannounced date, and will instead use Xbox Live for multiplayer.

Source

40Gb PS3 SKU using 65nm afterall :)

Well well, even though it was reported that Sony was using the 90nm (nano metre) Cell processor in the new 40Gb Playstation 3 console units, Sony boss Kaz Hirai confirmed it in fact uses a 65nm processor.

Today, Sony Computer Entertainment boss addressed the issue directly. In an interview posted at Japan's Impress Watch, Kaz Hirai confirmed that the new model uses a 65nm process for the Cell chip.

The system's RSX graphics chip, on the other hand, still uses a 90nm process. However, the shrinkage of the CPU alone was enough to cut the power usage of the system considerably.

Source

What makes this noteworthy is the fact that a smaller die size Cell processor (from 90nm to 65nm) means it generally costs Sony less money to produce these processors, less power consumption (less on power bills overall) whilst bringing down the price retail.

Explains why the ventilation holes on the newer 40Gb SKU is less whilst remaining cooler whilst being quieter at the same time. :)

New iPhone Firmware 1.1.2 Hacked Before Release

When Apple announced the release of the iPhone for the UK, it also announced that iPhone and iPod touch firmware version 1.1.2 would be released at the same time. Released today, firmware 1.1.2 closes the TIFF vulnerability in mobile Safari that was used to jailbreak firmware 1.1.1.

Confirmed by DailyTech, the TIFF vulnerability no longer works. However, despite Apple's effort to lockdown the iPhone and iPod touch, firmware 1.1.2 has already been jailbroken.

Credit go to the people behind AppSnap, the same utility used to jailbreak 1.1.1 devices. According to TUAW, testing of the new jailbreak began several nights ago, when the new 1.1.2 firmware was made available for download not through iTunes, but through Apple's website.

In its current stage, the new jailbreak requires several steps in order to complete, and is by no means release ready and user friendly. AppSnap and jailbreakme.com still remains open for 1.1.1 only, but the new jailbreak is being prepared for the same single tap installation.

According to TUAW's report, firmware 1.1.1 is required in order for the jailbreak to work with 1.1.2, although it is unclear at this point whether or not this will still be a requirement once AppSnap is officially updated.

Those with hacked 1.1.1 devices may wish to hold off from upgrading to 1.1.2 since it does not appear to provide any significant upgrade. The only noticeable change is the inclusion of several international language packs.

Jailbreaking may become a thing of the past if Apple keeps its promise. Apple announced in early October that come February 2008, developers will have an official iPhone SDK. The announcement was well received by the developer community. Currently, third-party applications for the iPhone are done via web applications and are mostly cumbersome to use and slow in nature.

Source

Download Free Windows Vista Enterprise

Microsoft is offering Windows Vista Enterprise as a free download in combination with the Office 2007 Professional System.




While all editions of the Windows Vista operating system can be test driven from anywhere from a month to 120 days, this copy of Vista Enterprise is limited to only 30 days. This coincides with the Initial Grace period of the latest operating system from Microsoft.

The limitation is associated with the whole Vista Enterprise and Office 2007 professional bundle. The marriage of Microsoft's flagship products comes in the church of virtualization. The download Microsoft is providing is in fact nothing more than a pre-configured Virtual Hard disk. The Microsoft Office 2007 Professional VHD is essentially an installation of Windows Vista Enterprise with Office 2007 Professional deployed on top of the platform.

This is not the first time that Microsoft has made the bundle available for download, but the VHD was updated on November 5. "This VHD contains both the 30 day edition of Windows Vista Enterprise Edition and an evaluation of Office 2007 Professional which includes Publisher, Excel, Outlook, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, and Word. See how with these new platforms can simplify how people work together, find information and improve business insight, help protect and manage content, and reduce IT costs and improve security. Test drive today to experience how Windows Vista and Office 2007 work better together", Microsoft informed.

All other SKUs of Windows Vista can have their Initial Grace period prolonged up two 120 days via the slmgr -rearm command. The same is not valid for the Enterprise edition of the operating system, which comes to the table with an entirely different activation mechanism. The various editions of the Office 2007 System are also available as stand-alone downloads 60 days trial versions.

Microsoft Office 2007 Professional VHD weighs in at a maximum of 2678.9 MB, coming with no less than 12 archives (238.4 MB each with one exception) and is available for download via this link.

Leopard and Vista - More alike than you think?

When Vista was released the chorus of complaints and criticisms quickly grew from a low hum to a near deafening roar. A little more than a week since Apple released Leopard and that low hum of discontent has already been amplified to the point where it’s starting to hurt my ears.

Within weeks of Microsoft unleashing Vista on the buying public the issues facing those making the switch from XP to Vista were clear and you could sum them up in a few bullet points:

* UAC too intrusive
* Too many bugs
* System slow-downs
* Too many compatibility casualties
* Glitchy interface
* Baked-in vulnerabilities
* Install buggy and prone to crashing
* Systems that were rock-solid under the XP now falling over regularly

Now that Leopard has been in the hands of users for a little under ten days and you can draw up a similar list for Apple’s latest OS:

* Too many bugs
* System slow-downs
* Too many compatibility casualties
* Glitchy interface
* Baked-in vulnerabilities
* Install buggy and prone to crashing
* Systems that were rock-solid under the Tiger now falling over regularly

Dave Winer does a good job of summarizing the problems affecting Leopard:

I’ve given Leopard a chance, but it’s pretty clear, this is not a good operating system release.

I’ve been out of the Mac loop for most of the last decade, just got back in a bit over 2 years ago. I don’t know if early OS releases are generally as crappy as this one, but I wasn’t prepared for where we’re at now. If I had known, I would have waited, instead of upgrading most of my Macs to the new system.

In fact, Winer also goes on to compare Windows to Mac OS X:

Talking with a friend a few days ago, he asked what I thought of Leopard. He had installed the new version, like me, the first day it came out. “I’m not liking it,” I said. He said something that was simple, profound and revealing: “It’s like Windows.” It is. It’s that unpleasant to use. It disappears for long periods of time. Systems that didn’t used to crash now crash regularly. On one system three hard disks were rendered unusable, and I lost a couple of full days restoring them (luckily I had good backups). The user interface is quirky. The new networking interface is a big step backward. The firewall moved and lost features! That’s simply never done, you don’t charge customers to remove features, esp security features. I think Apple doesn’t understand how many people depend seriously on their Macs.

I’m guessing that the root cause for these problems echoes Vista too - a rush to get the OS out of the door. It makes me sad to say it but we as consumers are now having to put up with buying far too many flawed products because companies are rushing to get products out to market and leaving us (the poor saps stuck with the defective product) to road test it properly, I’ll bet that the road to fixes for these problems will be as long and rocky as the one for Vista. Something else that the two operating systems will have in common.

Leopard’s not generating good press for Apple at the moment (actually, when you stop and thing about it for a moment, not much is generating good press for Apple lately) and it might help is affected users were given a timetable of when to expect robust fixes to come down the tubes.

The strange thing is that I’m quite happy with my Mac and Leopard. I’m guessing that this is because I’m still near the bottom of the Mac OS X learning curve and not pushing the OS too hard.

Source

Windows 7, to Take Networking Up a Notch

Microsoft has yet to define Windows 7 (Seven), the successor of Window Vista, when it was announced that it planned to ship the operating system in mid 2010, but the next Windows platform is slowly starting to take contour.

Back in mid 2007, when Msft first started to talk Windows 7, there were approximations made that the reason why Microsoft was failing to provide any palpable details about its next operating system was the fact that the product was still yet to take shape.

Now Msft is promising that while Windows Vista has evolved wireless networking in comparison to Windows XP, Windows 7 will literally blow your mind.

Vista was about making Wi-Fi connections as seamless, manageable and secure as wired networks. The next Windows version is really about taking Wireless networking to the next level by enabling new complete end to end scenarios and experiences that are going to change how windows PCs interact with each other and other devices and nodes over a wireless network

Microsoft revealed in the details for the job of Software Development Engineer.

The Windows Networking Ecosystem Technologies team will center on a range of new development scenarios focused on building new wireless networking capabilities into Windows 7. In this context, Windows 7 will bring to the table virtualised Wireless design to permit connections to multiple networks simultaneously. On top of this, Windows 7 will enhance wireless throughput and latency for Windows to Windows wireless connections.

As a part of this work, you will be working closely on existing and in-works wireless standards such as IEEE 802.11s, 802.11k, 802.11r, 802.11w. This position will provide you the unique opportunity of working on core wireless areas as well as collaborating with several other key Windows technologies to deliver a complete functional end to end scenario. The work will be in both the Windows kernel and user space.

Personal Note: Even though I personally like Windows Vista and can vouch for the beta SP1 available for the latest public Windows Operating System on the market today, I do look forward towards Windows 7 and believe Msft will prosper in the areas they originally hoped to with Vista. I see this upsetting many 'Vista Ultimate' owners but I still rather Msft progress than sit still. Vista will still blossom as Windows XP has and still continues to, so I see this as good news myself.

Sony says the 40GB PS3 is still using 90nm chips

We've all been hearing that Sony's new 40GB PS3 featured a revised design with a 65nm Cell processor and improved cooling, but sadly it looks like those reports were in error.
A Sony spokesperson has told Heise Online that the 40GB model continues to use 90mn processors, but does feature an updated design with a lower power consumption of just 120 to 140 watts, compared to 180 to 200 watts for the older models. Sony says its still planning on moving to 65nm processors in the near future, but for now, it looks like the PS3 is 90nm across the board.

Translated Source

D-Link’s Got a New 802.11n Gaming Router

D-Link’s Xtreme N Gaming Router.

Designed for the best online gaming experience ever, the DGL-4500 is supposedly friendly with any incarnation of the 802.11 spec. According to CrunchGear, the unit promises speeds up to 300Mbps. Gamers can also choose between the 2.4 of 5GHZ band to help them slay opponents all over the world.

Other features include D-Link’s own GameFuel technology, which promises to cut interference from other programs to keep games running smoothly. There’s a also a nifty looking Network Activity Display, which allows users to check Internet, LAN, WAN and other various settings all from one screen.

The new 802.11n router is now shipping for $240USD.

More info.

Major Nelson on XBL protection, Gamerscore cheating

Due to the onslaught of phishing and other identity theft-related cases in the Xbox Live Network (XBL), Major Nelson of Microsoft reiterates the importance of guarding your account information when logging on to XBL.

Using an example of how some Halo 3 player would ask for your XBL ID and password to rank you up or find you all the skulls in the game, the Major reminds everyone not to give out their info, tempting as the supposed benefits might be. His stern reminder reads:

If that "friend" of yours decides not return your account and buys a bunch of Arcade titles and movies on your account, there is nothing we can do except cancel the account since you willingly shared your information.

Cancelled.

As in you can never get it back.

Which means... yep, you guessed it. Goodbye Gamerscore, goodbye game saves, goodbye Gamertag, goodbye Hayabusa Armor. Ouchie.

On a related note, Major Nelson also discussed the consequences of tampering your game saves. Any and all users caught messing with their Achievements and Gamerscore can have their numbers totally wiped out. All of it. And if push comes to shove, Microsoft might even ban those accounts and/or console from XBL.

What's the lesson here? Play by the rules. Earn whatever you can using legit ways. No tampering, no cheating, no problems!

More from the source.