Microsoft has signed an agreement that will allow it to take a look at Yahoo! Inc.'s financial documents to help them in their bid for the company. 3 years ago they failed to buy Yahoo! for $45 billion and take control of the company. The goal of that purchase was to create a competitor to go against Google.
Yahoo! has said that their advisors want bids to be submitted by next week. These bidders are most likely to offer to buy only a minority stake in Yahoo! rather than go for a full takeover of the company. Microsoft along with other investors would all pitch in on this upcoming bid.
Recently Microsoft joined Yahoo! in a 10 year agreement to provide search functionality for Yahoo! where their Bing search engine gets answers to user queries and Yahoo! sells ads against those results. The agreement was aimed at helping both companies compete with Google. The Yahoo of today is in a weaker position than it was in 2008.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Facebook defends against wave of spam
Facebook said they have been working hard to stop the spam that has been filling many users pages with inappropriate pictures. Spam is not new to Facebook but this current wave has been showing pictures of graphic violence and pornography causing many Facebook users to complain.
The attackers duped Facebook users into posting links into the address bar of their browser which took them to the graphic sites and shared the content with their friends. Then users would click on these links thinking it was posted by their friends on purpose. Facebook said the attack exploited a vulnerability in an certain web browser which they haven't named. Then this javascript was able to take control of their news feed.
Facebook says they have already got rid of most of the spam caused by this attack.
The attackers duped Facebook users into posting links into the address bar of their browser which took them to the graphic sites and shared the content with their friends. Then users would click on these links thinking it was posted by their friends on purpose. Facebook said the attack exploited a vulnerability in an certain web browser which they haven't named. Then this javascript was able to take control of their news feed.
Facebook says they have already got rid of most of the spam caused by this attack.
Monday, November 14, 2011
AMD releases new 16 core processor
AMD has been working on its processor technology and has just launched its Opteron 6200 and 4200 Series processors. The Opteron 6200 series features 16 cores which is really eight dual core units and four memory channels. The Opteron 4200 features eight cores, or four dual core units, and two memory channels. The 16 core processor packs the largest number of cores available on x86 chips today. The processors are based on AMD's new chip design called Bulldozer, which provides performance improvements while saving on power. The Bulldozer architecture mixes the CPU with integer units and a shared floating point unit so more operations can be executed per clock cycle while drawing lower power.
The new processors offer optimized scalability for virtualization with up to 73% more memory bandwidth and up to 24% to 84% better performance on key cloud, virtualization and HPC workloads making them ideal for virtualization of servers. They also provide more efficient economics for the cloud with half the power per core, requiring 2/3 less floor space and up to 2/3 lower platform price. The chips are shipping now and will be available in servers from HP, Dell, Cray and Acer soon.
The new processors offer optimized scalability for virtualization with up to 73% more memory bandwidth and up to 24% to 84% better performance on key cloud, virtualization and HPC workloads making them ideal for virtualization of servers. They also provide more efficient economics for the cloud with half the power per core, requiring 2/3 less floor space and up to 2/3 lower platform price. The chips are shipping now and will be available in servers from HP, Dell, Cray and Acer soon.
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Firefox 8 just released
Mozilla has just updated its Firefox web browser for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Firefox gets updated every 6 weeks like Google's Chrome browser. The most notable feature of the new version of Firefox is the built in search box in the navigation toolbar now supports Twitter searches. Users can select Twitter from the drop down list of available search engines. Mozilla partnered with Twitter to release a special build of Firefox that ties into the Twitter.
Another nice feature of the new browser is stricter control over side loaded addons. Mozilla is cracking down on 3rd party applications that install addons in Firefox without the user knowing. If Firefox 8 detects these addons when it starts, it will disable them and prompt the user if they want the addon to be enabled or not.
Another nice feature of the new browser is stricter control over side loaded addons. Mozilla is cracking down on 3rd party applications that install addons in Firefox without the user knowing. If Firefox 8 detects these addons when it starts, it will disable them and prompt the user if they want the addon to be enabled or not.
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Microsoft releases a fix for the Duqu Zero Day Trojan
Microsoft has just announced that they have a Fix-it tool that allows Windows users to manually patch their systems to remove the Duqu Trojan.
Duqu, or son of Stuxnet as it is also know, can be a real nuisance because it installs a keylogger to record passwords and uses those passwords toreplicates itself across secure networks. Then it communicates with other servers over the Internet to give hackers access to the infected computers. Then it will remove itself after 30 days.
Microsoft is investigating a vulnerability in the Win32k TrueType font parsing engine Windows component. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could then run arbitrary code in kernel mode. This would allow the attacker to install programs as well as view, change, or delete data. Plus they would have access to create new accounts with administrative access.
Microsoft has released a Fix-it tool that allows users to manually disable the affected code in their systems. One downside to this tool is that applications that rely on embedded font technology will fail to display properly according to Microsoft.
Here is a link to the Fix-it tool
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2639658
Duqu, or son of Stuxnet as it is also know, can be a real nuisance because it installs a keylogger to record passwords and uses those passwords toreplicates itself across secure networks. Then it communicates with other servers over the Internet to give hackers access to the infected computers. Then it will remove itself after 30 days.
Microsoft is investigating a vulnerability in the Win32k TrueType font parsing engine Windows component. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could then run arbitrary code in kernel mode. This would allow the attacker to install programs as well as view, change, or delete data. Plus they would have access to create new accounts with administrative access.
Microsoft has released a Fix-it tool that allows users to manually disable the affected code in their systems. One downside to this tool is that applications that rely on embedded font technology will fail to display properly according to Microsoft.
Here is a link to the Fix-it tool
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2639658
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Hackers try to crack 600,000 Facebook accounts every day
Facebook reported that computer hackers try to break into around 600,000 Facebook accounts using stolen username and password details every day. Facebook has around 800 million users and receives over a billion login attempts every day.
If a hacker takes over a someone's Facebook account, they can do things such as post images, send messages and access all of that person's private information. Facebook is able to determine the number of stolen or compromised logins because it challenges the hackers with additional authentication questions. But this doesn't work 100% of the time and some of hacking attempts are successful. Other common scams include criminals hijacking friends accounts and trying to talk users into sending them money.
One of the new security features Facebook has come up with is called Trusted friends which will allow you to choose 3 to 5 trusted friends who can help you if you have a problem accessing your account if your email or password gets changed. The idea is that if you need to login to Facebook but can't access your email account, Facebook will send codes to your friends that they can pass on to you.
If a hacker takes over a someone's Facebook account, they can do things such as post images, send messages and access all of that person's private information. Facebook is able to determine the number of stolen or compromised logins because it challenges the hackers with additional authentication questions. But this doesn't work 100% of the time and some of hacking attempts are successful. Other common scams include criminals hijacking friends accounts and trying to talk users into sending them money.
One of the new security features Facebook has come up with is called Trusted friends which will allow you to choose 3 to 5 trusted friends who can help you if you have a problem accessing your account if your email or password gets changed. The idea is that if you need to login to Facebook but can't access your email account, Facebook will send codes to your friends that they can pass on to you.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Facebook pans to build server farm near the Arctic Circle
Facebook plans to build a new server farm on the edge of the Arctic Circle to improve performance for European users. The huge server farm facility will be located in Luleå, northern Sweden which is 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle.
"The climate will allow them to just use only air for cooling the servers," said Mats Engman, chief executive of the Aurorum Science Park. "If you take the statistics, the temperature has not been above 30C (86F) for more than 24 hours since 1961. If you take the average temperature, it's around 2C (35.6F)."
Facebook plans to build 3 giant server halls covering an area the size of 11 football fields. Each building will be 300,000-square feet in size and the project is scheduled for completion by 2014. Even though they will rely on air cooling, keeping the servers running will still require 120MW of power and cost £45m a year. Facebook currently stores data at sites in California, Virginia and Oregon and is building another facility in North Carolina and has 800 million users world-wide.
"The climate will allow them to just use only air for cooling the servers," said Mats Engman, chief executive of the Aurorum Science Park. "If you take the statistics, the temperature has not been above 30C (86F) for more than 24 hours since 1961. If you take the average temperature, it's around 2C (35.6F)."
Facebook plans to build 3 giant server halls covering an area the size of 11 football fields. Each building will be 300,000-square feet in size and the project is scheduled for completion by 2014. Even though they will rely on air cooling, keeping the servers running will still require 120MW of power and cost £45m a year. Facebook currently stores data at sites in California, Virginia and Oregon and is building another facility in North Carolina and has 800 million users world-wide.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Windows XP, still going after 10 years
10 years ago this month, Microsoft introduced what would eventually become the world's most popular desktop operating system. Windows XP was one of the most significant Windows releases to date. Windows 2000 was the first Windows NT based OS for the desktop which could be used by regular PC users without any issues. But it was Windows XP that brought the NT based OS to those who were afraid of Windows 2000. Windows XP introduced several useful user interface features and was far more advanced than the outdated Windows 98 or ME that it replaced. And once companies got accustomed to XP in the office, the idea of an operating system that they wouldn't have to change for years on end became something they couldn't pass up.
Microsoft on the other hand is eager for Windows XP to simply go away. But for that to happen, they need millions of XP users to drop the old OS and migrate to Windows 7, or even to Windows 8, when it comes out next year.
According to analytics firm Net Applications, XP finished September 2011 with a 50.5% share of all desktop operating systems which is a drop of 10% from just 10 months earlier. Windows 7 currently has more than 32% of the desktop OS market, and that number is on the rise. Microsoft has made it clear that it will be ending support for Windows XP in April 2014. XP may have been outed sooner if Windows Vista wasn't such a flop.
Microsoft on the other hand is eager for Windows XP to simply go away. But for that to happen, they need millions of XP users to drop the old OS and migrate to Windows 7, or even to Windows 8, when it comes out next year.
According to analytics firm Net Applications, XP finished September 2011 with a 50.5% share of all desktop operating systems which is a drop of 10% from just 10 months earlier. Windows 7 currently has more than 32% of the desktop OS market, and that number is on the rise. Microsoft has made it clear that it will be ending support for Windows XP in April 2014. XP may have been outed sooner if Windows Vista wasn't such a flop.
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