Possibly Related Posts:

• HP’s Envy 17 Laptop is a Multimedia Powerhouse
• Actress in HP scandal sorry Hurd lost his job
• RIM unveils BlackBerry Torch 9800 with touch screen and keyboard
• Acer netbook dual-boots Android and XP
• NASA robot to tweet experiences from space

SAN FRANCISCO - Of all the hassles that can plague a PC user (and, trust me, there are many), few are as infuriating as random lockups.

There you are, typing along, when suddenly everything just freezes. No error message, no bluescreen, just a locked-up, unresponsive system. I’ve been there. I feel your pain.

If you’re a Windows 7 (or Windows Server 2008 R2) user, you may be in luck: Microsoft recently issued a hotfix for systems that stop responding randomly.

What causes the problem? Microsoft says it’s “a deadlock condition between the Lsass.exe process, the Redirected Drive Buffering Subsystem (Rdbss.sys) driver, and the Winsock kernel.” Well, duh! That was going to be my first guess.

The hotfix is available for both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7. (Fun fact: you’ll often see these versions represented as “x86″ and “x64,” respectively.) To get it, click View and request hotfix downloads, accept Microsoft’s terms, choose the hotfix compatible with your system, and then provide your e-mail address.

Click Request hotfix, then check your inbox for an e-mail containing a link to the download. (I’m not sure why Microsoft makes you jump through these hoops, but, then again, I’m not sure why Microsoft does half the things it does.)

If you’ve encountered this random-lockup problem, let me know if this hotfix fixes it!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Update Firmware On Your HDTV, Camera, Smartphone, PC
• Keep Your PC Awake, Install Apps Fast & More–Free
• Use Facebook Places
• My Keyboard isn’t Working
• Keep Your Computer ‘Awake’ with Mouse Jiggler

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., has announced its new Application Control Software Blade that enables organizations to secure and manage the use of thousands of Web 2.0 applications in the enterprise.

The new blade integrates Check Point’s unique UserCheck technology to engage employees in the decision-making process and enables IT administrators to tailor application usage policies. In addition, it delivers unmatched application visibility by leveraging Check Point AppWiki, the world’s largest application library, with over 50,000 Web 2.0 widgets and more than 4,500 Internet applications, including social networking, instant messaging and media streaming. For the first time, companies benefit from a unique combination of technology, user awareness and broad application control - all available in a single solution.

According to a recent Check Point and Ponemon global survey of over 2,100 IT security administrators, the majority of respondents believe employees are essential to helping organizations mitigate security risks associated with emerging Internet applications in the enterprise. Check Point is bringing a differentiated, modern approach to application control that provides a unique combination of robust security technology and user awareness, both necessary for employees to utilize Web 2.0 tools without jeopardizing the security of the network. Check Point’s new Application Control software blade enables organizations to define granular policy controls for web applications tailored to meet the organization and employees’ specific needs. In addition, the new blade integrates Check Point’s innovative UserCheck technology to alert users of the potential risks applications may cause and asks employees whether the purpose is for business or personal use. The solution educates users on corporate use policies, while providing key usage trends to IT administrators.

Based on Check Point’s Software Blade architecture, the Application Control blade can be activated with a single click on any Check Point security gateway, enabling organizations to leverage their existing infrastructure. The new blade is centrally managed from a single security management console, and IT administrators can monitor and control application usage based on identity, user or group, frequency and level of risk with unified event analysis. The new blade also provides seamless, agent-based and agent-less, Active Directory integration to allow individual or group access to specific applications, while restricting others.

General availability for the Check Point Application Control Software Blade will be available for purchase through the Check Point worldwide network of value-added resellers in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Water cooling returns to IBM mainframe
• Microsoft still mum on programs prone to DLL hijacking attacks
• Mobile data traffic set to soar
• More IT managers plan to spend less, Oracle struggles with users, survey finds
• Researchers slate ‘month of bugs’ launch for Wednesday

FRAMINGHAM  - IBM next will will begin shipping a computer with something that customers have not seen in a new mainframe from the company since 1995 — water cooling.

The new mainframe, dubbed the zEnterprise 196 , can operate with up to 96 processors versus 64 in the System z10 mainframe using about the same amount of power.

IBM credits the improved efficiency to an assortment of updates affecting how the new system uses its resources. Nonetheless, IBM saw fit to offer water cooling to help reduce overall data center cooling needs.

The zEnterprise 196 doesn’t include the built-in, integrated water cooling systems of old, said Jim Porell, an IBM distinguished engineer who works on the zSeries. Instead, the company is offering users an optional water cooled heat exchanger,

“It’s actually kind of back to the future,” said Porell, of the water option. The last line of IBM mainframes that had built-in water cooling was the ES/9000 family.

Porell said the optional water cooling system can improve overall environmental needs by about 12%, which may help some IT managers ” squeeze the last piece of floor space in before they go buy a new data center,” said Porell.

Water is more efficient than air in removing heat, he added.

The mainframe quad core 5.2-GHz chip, which IBM claims is the world’s fastest processor, also runs a little hotter than the previous 4.4-GHz mainframe quad processor, said Porell.

IBM’s return to liquid cooling began in 2005 with the release of eServer Rear Door Heat eXchanger for its increasingly dense blade servers. But that technology was also optional add-on for user.

In April, 2008, IBM introduced a water-cooled supercomputer, the Power 575, which runs with Power6 chip. That system uses water-chilled copper plates located above each microprocessor.

IBM’s mainframe chip development continues to head in the direction of higher clock speed, and Porell declined to speculate on what the limit may be.

IBM’s mainframe chip was designed by the company in Poughkeepsie, NY, and is manufactured East Fishkill, NY.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Check Point clears the path to Web 2.0 application control
• Microsoft still mum on programs prone to DLL hijacking attacks
• Mobile data traffic set to soar
• More IT managers plan to spend less, Oracle struggles with users, survey finds
• Researchers slate ‘month of bugs’ launch for Wednesday

SAN FRANCISCO - These days, most of your electronics have miniature computers built-in: Home-theater gear, handheld devices, phones, and even appliances now have embedded smarts in the form of a microprocessor, memory, and software. And just like computer software, firmware–the software that runs on your gadgets–needs periodic updating.

Believe it or not, many new gadgets aren’t 100 percent complete when you buy them. Though a spiffy electronic toy may perform its basic functions, some of its promised features may be absent or incomplete. And to keep up with ever-changing kinds of content, your devices may require software enhancements to give old hardware new features.

To avoid antagonizing customers who might spend hundreds of dollars on a cool piece of hardware only to find a few months later that it no longer worked, manufacturers design much of their gear to allow updates. You won’t be able to get every feature of the latest and greatest product via downloadable updates, but firmware revisions can make your old equipment run faster and crash less often.

What Is Firmware?

Firmware is software stored in persistent memory–usually either flash memory or programmable, rewritable ROM (read-only memory)–that’s built into the device. Unlike apps loaded into your PC’s RAM, firmware doesn’t get erased when you power the system down. Firmware may store just the basic software needed to start up the system–like a PC’s BIOS–or it may store the entire operating system and applications suites, as with smartphones.
Why Should I Update?

Users often wonder why they should update their firmware. The real answer is “it depends.” Many PC manufacturers and motherboard makers recommend that users not upgrade a system’s BIOS, for example, unless an actual problem arises, such as memory compatibility issues, or unless the user is installing a new, unsupported CPU.

On the other hand, a Blu-ray player needs to be updated frequently, because new features on the content discs may render them unplayable on old firmware. So before you rush out to update your coffeemaker’s firmware, check the manufacturer’s recommendation first; otherwise, you might risk bricking your device (turning it into a useless assemblage of silicon and plastic) for nothing.

Of course, if you’re running third-party firmware (as in the case of a “jailbroken” iPhone), all bets are off. In this article we don’t consider updates that break the manufacturer’s warranty, so if you’re installing custom, user-created firmware, you’re well beyond the scope of this story.
Let’s start with PCs and laptops, and then move on to other computing gear, handheld devices (including smartphones), and other consumer electronics.

General Rules of Thumb for Updating Firmware

A few general rules for updating firmware apply to all devices. They’re simple, but critical:

• • Confirm that you have reliable power. For standard PCs and other electronics that you plug into a wall, power isn’t a big issue. If you’re paranoid, you can connect a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) to your device before proceeding.
  • Make sure that the hardware is plugged in. Never rely on battery power when updating your laptop’s BIOS or your phone’s firmware.
  • Create a backup of your current firmware. Not all devices allow you to do this, but if you can, you should. If the new firmware introduces a bug, you may need to revert to an older version.
  • Log your changes. Some firmware updates will reset your device’s settings to their default values, so document any adjustments you may have made before updating. That way, you can restore them properly. If the device allows it, save off settings to a file (this is common in routers, for example).
  • Warn other users before updating your router. If you’re updating a network device, be sure to let all users know in advance that the network may go down briefly.

Okay, now let’s move on to the updating process itself.

PCs and Laptops

Today’s PC firmware falls into two categories: the traditional BIOS (Basic Input-Output System), and a newer kind called EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface). EFI is much more capable than the old BIOS routines, which are still mired in the 16-bit world. On the Windows PC side, most systems still use BIOS, while servers generally use EFI. Apple MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iMacs, and Mac Pros use EFI as well. Earlier Intel-based Macs use a firmware architecture built around the SMC (system management controller); but in recent Macs, EFI has superseded that arrangement.

Current PCs typically permit updating through the BIOS setup screen. Copy the BIOS update file to a USB flash memory stick, and then plug the USB stick into the system that you want to update. When you start up the system, press a key that launches the BIOS update application. Alternatively, press a keyboard key (usually Delete, but in some instances another key such as F2 or F10) to enter the BIOS setup program.

At this point, you’ll need to navigate to the device that contains the firmware update. To do this (typically), select the file name and press Enter to launch the update process.

Updating the BIOS from an executable file is even easier. All Intel-built motherboards are updatable through a Windows-based application. Some other motherboard makers make this feature available, too, in which case you download the BIOS update app and launch it from the desktop.

A few motherboard makers include apps for updating the BIOS over the Internet. If the prospect of a wonky Internet connection failing in mid-update makes you nervous, don’t worry: Usually the site will download the entire update before the update process starts.

Laptop and desktop systems with much older motherboards may require you to start up from a bootable floppy disk containing the BIOS update. The update may start automatically when you boot, or you may need to type a command at the command prompt; for details, print out the readme file for the update before you boot from the floppy.

To update a Mac, simply download the appropriate firmware update for you system and launch it from the Finder. The update will take a few minutes, and you must ensure uninterrupted power during that time.

Routers and Peripherals

Some PC peripherals, including hard drives, network-attached storage, and high-end monitors, may have updatable firmware. The instructions for installing updates vary considerably, so pay careful attention to the manufacturer’s documentation.

Wi-Fi routers are perhaps the easiest peripherals to update; most have the capability built into their router management interface. We’ll use the update screen from a Netgear WNDR3700 as an example.

The Netgear interface tells you what the update may fix when installed, and it gives you the option to back out if you don’t think you need the update. Network-attached storage devices use a similar interface for firmware updates.

Monitors rarely need updates. In fact, most monitors don’t allow firmware updates, though I did perform an update on a high-end monitor a few years ago–from within a Windows app.

These days we’re starting to see more firmware updates for hard drives, especially solid-state drives, and these can be nerve-wracking to install. Before making any changes to a critical storage device, back it up! In at least two instances that I’m aware of, SSD firmware updates could brick the hardware, resulting in permanent loss of any data the drives might contain. Because the firmware updating process can be arcane, you should carefully study the documentation before updating.
As an example, updating an Intel X25-E solid-state drive involves downloading an ISO image, burning it to a CD, and then booting from the CD to install the firmware update. So you must be comfortable burning the CD and booting from it before you get to the firmware update process.

Perhaps the oddest firmware update I ever installed was for a Razer Mamba wireless mouse. The process involved unplugging the USB cable from the docking cradle and plugging it directly into the mouse–no updating over the wireless connection.

Sometimes even expansion cards need firmware updates. I’ve had to update graphics card firmware and network interface card firmware. In both cases, I had to run the updates from a command-line prompt, but was able to do so from within Windows.

One last rule of thumb: Whenever you update a PC peripheral, reboot the peripheral after installing the update (assuming that the device doesn’t restart automatically).

Smartphones

Mobile phones are usually very easy to update, and doing so is generally worthwhile: The updates may include critical security fixes, performance enhancements, and neat new features.

iPhones are easy to update: Plug your iPhone into your Mac or PC, and make sure iTunes is running. If a firmware update is available, click yes when asked whether you want to update.

Windows Mobile devices have become easier to install firmware updates on, but the process can still be somewhat esoteric.Many Windows Mobile updates may completely erase your phone, so be sure to do a sync to back up your contact, calendar, and other data from the phone before you proceed. Some phones update through ActiveSync; others rely on a dedicated app. First connect your Windows Mobile phone to your PC via USB to back up (sync), and then update. Read all dialog boxes carefully, and follow instructions carefully.

The update processes for Android phones are all over the map. Though you can manually download the firmware and update it, waiting for your cellular network to roll out the update may be a better approach. If you want to download and manually update the phone, start by downloading the latest version and copying it onto an SD card or to the phone’s storage via USB. Depending on the phone, performing the update will involve pressing some combination of phone buttons.

BlackBerry owners looking for an update should go to RIM’s BlackBerry Device Software page and follow the instructions there, though Mac users must install the BlackBerry Desktop Software first.
GPS Units, Digital Cameras, Media Players, and Handheld Gaming Devices

Normally, GPS devices are updated when new mapping data becomes available. Most off-the-shelf GPS units come with free updates for a set period of time; after that, you may have to pay for each update. GPS data tends to be quite massive, and updating the device may take an hour or more.

I recently upgraded my Garmin Nuvi handheld GPS unit. You can check for an update by downloading a Web browser plug-in that will determine whether your device needs an update (the GPS unit must be plugged into your PC via USB), or you can check by entering the device’s serial number. In either case, you then download a very large file that is both a Windows app and mapping data. Attach your GPS unit via USB, run the app, and let it update your firmware

Gaming devices like the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP update automatically over their network as needed. All you need is access to Wi-Fi. Though you can update these devices wirelessly, attaching them to wall power is preferable. If you go the wireless route, make sure that you have a healthy battery charge.

Digital cameras occasionally need firmware updates, whether they’re simple point-and-shoot cameras or professional-level digital SLRs. In most cases, to update the camera’s firmware, you download the update, copy it to a flash memory card, and insert the memory card into the camera. (Alternatively you can copy the update directly to a memory card in the camera, if it’s connected to your PC.) Then either select an entry from the camera’s built-in menu or press some combination of buttons to load the update. Usually, you’ll have to copy the firmware file to the top level (root) of the memory card, not to a subfolder.

To update a media player like Apple’s iPod or Microsoft’s Zune, attach the player to your PC and run the appropriate app (iTunes or Zune software.) Then updates occur almost automatically; just click Yes if prompted to update. Zune updates are almost always required if you want to continue to use the Zune store; iPod updates are optional in many instances.

Other music players, such as the Archos, typically copy the downloaded firmware file to the device over a USB connection, at which point you disconnect it and the update occurs automatically. In some cases, you may have to run a Windows app.

Firmware Updates for Your Home Theater

Firmware updates are relatively new to the world of living-room electronics. After all, you don’t typically think of “booting your TV”–you just turn it on.

But as consumer electronics gear becomes smarter and more capable, it also has a greater need for firmware updates. The two primary candidates for upgrades are Blu-ray players and HDTVs; but as other gear (such as A/V receivers) become networkable devices, firmware updates become available for them, too.

For example, I recently updated the firmware in my Onkyo TX-NR3007 A/V receiver, which solved an HDMI sync problem the unit was having. Such updates sometimes even fix problems you might have assumed were just a quirk of your HDTV set–problems with audio/video on certain ports cutting out, unexpected freezing and power cycling, image-processing errors, and more.

Most consumer electronics equipment is updated in one of the three following ways (though other techniques, such as updating through a serial port, also exist).

ISO file burned to CD: Some older Blu-ray players didn’t have a network capability and lacked USB ports. The only way to update them was to burn the downloaded firmware file to a CD and then install them via either a menu selection or a combination of remote-control button presses. Even some premium DVD players from a few years ago required this type of updating.

Despite talk (as the standard was being fleshed out) of using actual Blu-ray content discs to automatically install firmware updates, this feature seems not to have been realized in actual products.

Firmware copied to USB flash drive: This updating method is most common in situations where a network connection is unavailable or unreliable. I have updated several HDTVs via flash drive.

Firmware directly downloaded from the Internet: This is an increasingly prevalent method for updating firmware. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

You can set up a Panasonic DMP-BD85 Blu-ray player to automatically inform you of new firmware updates, as long as it’s connected to the Internet. However, the actual update screen is buried in the menus inside of the ‘others’ main menu selection–it’s not in the ‘network’ menu selection.

In the case of the Onkyo TX-NR3007 receiver, the update firmware menu is appropriately listed in the ‘Hardware Setup’ part of the setup menu.

Game Consoles

Quite a few users have game consoles as part of their home theater setups. Updating the firmware on current-generation units is simple, because it’s required. For example, the Xbox 360 needs to have an always-on connection to the Internet in order to make available most of its services, though you can play single-player games without a connection. When the console detects a new system update, a dialog box pops up and informs you that you’ll be logged off the network if you don’t install it.

These updates can add some fairly significant features–Microsoft revamped the whole user interface with the New Xbox Experience patch, and Sony added 3D gaming support to the PS3 (with 3D Blu-ray support coming in September)–so it’s a good idea to stay on top of them.

Final Thoughts

If you’re at all concerned about updating the firmware on your device, it’s worth cruising some key online forums to see whether the updates are working–or are useful. With devices such as smartphones, you might want to take a wait-and-see attitude. Apple supports iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G, for example, but users have reported significant performance decreases following the firmware update.

As we’ve seen, the process of updating your gear’s firmware can be easy or complicated, depending on the age and design of the hardware. Nevertheless, it’s usually worthwhile to perform the update, because you’ll get bug fixes and, often, new features. So the next time a message pops up on your Blu-ray player or handheld device prompting you to update your firmware, give serious consideration to saying yes.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Fix a Windows 7 System That Randomly Freezes
• Keep Your PC Awake, Install Apps Fast & More–Free
• Use Facebook Places
• My Keyboard isn’t Working
• Keep Your Computer ‘Awake’ with Mouse Jiggler

FRAMINGHAM - Microsoft on Tuesday again abstained from naming which of its Windows programs, if any, contain bugs that could lead to widespread “DLL load hijacking” attacks.

Also on Tuesday, the company published an automated tool to make it easier for users to block attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in a host of Windows applications.

The DLL load hijacking vulnerabilities exist in many Windows applications because the programs don’t call code libraries — dubbed “dynamic-link library,” or “DLL” — using the full pathname, but instead use only the filename. Criminals can exploit that by tricking the application into loading a malicious file with the same name as the required DLL. The result: Hackers can hijack the PC and plant malware on the machine.

“Microsoft plans to address those of our products affected by this issue in the most appropriate way for customers,” said Jerry Bryant, a group manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center, in a Tuesday entry on that team’s blog . “This will primarily be in the form of security updates or defense-in-depth updates.”

Although Microsoft again declined to call out its vulnerable software, outside researchers have identified as potential targets a number of its high-profile apps, including Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, Address Book and Windows Contact, and Windows Live Mail.

Other vendors’ software may also be at risk, including Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome, and Adobe’s Photoshop.

Bryant hinted that some Microsoft software could be exploited. “Due to the fact that customers need to click through a series of warnings and dialogs to open a malicious file, we rate most of these vulnerabilities as Important,” he said, referring to the second-highest threat ranking in the company’s four-step scoring system.

Microsoft typically uses Important to describe bugs that can be exploited remotely — via the Internet or e-mail, for example — but which also require that the user assist the attack in some way, usually by clicking through warnings or opening a malicious file.

In another blog , Jonathan Ness, an engineer with MSRC, and Maarten Van Horenbeeck, an MSRC program manager, described how customers can deploy and use a tool the company first offered Aug. 23 .

That tool blocks the loading of DLLs from remote directories, such as those on USB drives, Web sites and an organization’s network, and is aimed at enterprise IT personnel.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft acknowledged that users have asked for more help with the tool. Shortly after its release, IT professionals complained that the tool was confusing and asked colleagues for advice on how to configure it.

To simplify things, Microsoft has posted a “Fix It” tool on its support site that automatically blocks any DLLs from loading from WebDAV or SMB (Server Message Block) shares, two of the most likely attack vectors. Users must still download and install the original tool, however.

Ness and Van Horenbeeck also downplayed the threat to some extent, saying that DLL load hijacking bugs cannot be exploited via “drive-by” attacks, where a user’s PC is infected as soon as he or she browses to a malicious site.

“A victim would need to browse to a malicious WebDAV server or a malicious SMB server and double-click a file in the Windows Explorer window that the malicious server displays,” they said.

Microsoft has known of the issue since at least August 2009 , when researchers with the University of California Davis notified the company of their work. There’s evidence, however, of reports as far back as 2000, and attacks exploiting the flaw the following year, when the Nimda worm leveraged the bug in Office 2000.

HD Moore, chief security officer at Rapid7 and the creator of the Metasploit penetration testing toolkit, was the first to reveal the potential attacks when, on Aug. 19, he said he’d found 40 vulnerable Windows applications . Moore was followed by other researchers who claimed different numbers of at-risk programs, ranging from more than 200 to fewer than 30.

Some vendors have already patched the problem in their software. Both uTorrent and Wireshark, a BitTorrent client and network protocol analyzer, respectively, have been updated to address the bug.

Others are working on a fix. “We’re testing our own Firefox-specific fixes and plan to get them out to users soon,” Mozilla’s security team said in an e-mail reply to questions last week.

Even so, Microsoft said patches may be long in coming to some users. “We recognize that it may take quite a bit of time for all affected applications to be updated and for some, an update may not be possible,” Bryant admitted.

In lieu of patches, the blocking tool is the best defense, he continued. With that in mind, Microsoft plans to make the tool available “within the next couple of weeks” for downloading and deployment using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), Microsoft’s most-used business patch management mechanism.

The company is also thinking about pushing the tool to everyone, including consumers, via Windows Update, although it would be switched off by default, said Bryant.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Check Point clears the path to Web 2.0 application control
• Water cooling returns to IBM mainframe
• Mobile data traffic set to soar
• More IT managers plan to spend less, Oracle struggles with users, survey finds
• Researchers slate ‘month of bugs’ launch for Wednesday

SAN FRANCISCO - SAN JOSE, Calif. — Data traffic volumes have surpassed voice in the mobile space, a trend that is expected to continue well into the future, an Ericsson official said during an industry panel session in Silicon Valley Tuesday evening.

Three years ago, said Ericsson CTO Hakan Eriksson, there was very little data passing over the mobile network. “Two years later, last year in the autumn, data passed voice in the mobile network,” said Eriksson, speaking at a session entitled “The March to Mobility,” which also featured executives from Intel, Nokia, and Hewlett-Packard. “It has taken data about 18 months to do what voice took 20 years to do,” in building out traffic volumes, he said.

Ericsson expects data loads to keep growing. By 2015, there will be 30 times more data than voice on the network; by 2020, data will outpace voice by 1,000 times, said Eriksson.

“Data is going to overtake voice big time,” Eriksson said.

Some kind of volume-based billing system will be needed for mobile services, since a flat fee does not make sense, said Eriksson. While users may not understand what a gigabyte is as a possible measurement for mobile transmissions, they already pay electric bills based on kilowatt hours, a measurement also not really understood by electricity customers, he said.

Panelists also pondered form factors for mobile devices as well as location-aware systems and potential issues such as the safety of handheld phones.  More touch-oriented devices are anticipated, with a range of form factors eyed, said Phil McKinney, vice president and CTO of the personal systems group at HP.

“There’s really no one-size-fits-all as far as devices,” said Eric Klein, vice president of technology planning at Nokia. 

Not everything is practical on a handheld device, according to Mike Bell, vice president of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group. “I think trying to read a book on a three-inch cell phone screen is ridiculous. I just don’t buy it,” Bell said.

Meanwhile, handheld devices could eliminate the need to carry wallets, Klein said. Phones could maintain access to money, he explained. “You walk up and pay with a phone,” he said.

 Bell was critical of Apple’s iPhone App Store model for application distribution, describing it as akin to a  proprietary application to look at the Internet. “It’s this giant step backwards,” he said.

Panelists also were doubtful that cell phones presented any health hazards. “If there was a problem, we should have seen it with 5 billion people using [handheld phones],” Eriksson said.

Tuesday’s session was presented by the Churchill Club, a Silicon business and technology forum.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Check Point clears the path to Web 2.0 application control
• Water cooling returns to IBM mainframe
• Microsoft still mum on programs prone to DLL hijacking attacks
• More IT managers plan to spend less, Oracle struggles with users, survey finds
• Researchers slate ‘month of bugs’ launch for Wednesday

SAN FRANCISCO - Raise your hand if this has happened to you: You’re on an airplane, watching a movie on your laptop, when all of a sudden the screen goes dim. Or you’re giving a PowerPoint presentation and your PC suddenly goes to sleep.

These kinds of hassles can happen after a period of “idleness,” when the system detects no mouse or keyboard input. Blame Windows’ power settings, which by default try to conserve power if they think you’re not doing something. (Funny how Windows isn’t yet smart enough to know if a movie’s playing or there’s a projector connected to your laptop.)

As you probably know, all it takes is an occasional jiggle of the mouse to keep the system humming. And that’s the idea behind Mouse Jiggler, a free utility that “fakes” mouse input–and saves you from having to mess with Windows’ power settings.

Just run this tiny app as needed–say, before you start your movie or presentation–and click Enable Jiggle. Then take your hands off the mouse for a couple seconds. You’ll see your pointer start to hop back and forth a tiny bit–enough to trick Windows into stayin’ alive.

In some programs (like Windows Media Player), mouse activity like this can have the unwanted effect of making onscreen controls appear. For situations like those, enable the Zen Jiggle setting, which does the “jiggling” behind the scenes, with no actual cursor movement. Clever!

Mouse Jiggler works with all versions of Windows; it requires Microsoft’s .Net Framework 2.0 or later.

Install Your Favorite Apps in One Fell Swoop

Are you upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 or buying a new PC? In both cases, you face the same tedious chore: reinstalling all your apps. That means digging out a bunch of CDs and/or downloading programs from various sites, then installing them one at a time. I don’t know about you, but I can think of better ways to spend several hours.

The Ninite Web site creates a custom software installer with all the freeware and open-source apps you want. Just choose from the dozens of available programs–everything from AVG Anti-Virus Free and Dropbox to OpenOffice.org and uTorrent–and the service builds an installer that will download and load them all.

Once you start the installer, you can sit back and relax: Ninite automates the entire process, meaning you don’t have to sit around clicking Next a bunch of times. Even better, Ninite automatically chooses the proper version of each program–32- or 64-bit–and eliminates any toolbars that might try to sneak in during installation.

I love this service. I’ve used it several times on new PCs, and it saves time like you wouldn’t believe. Bookmark it!

Facebook Dislike Button is Real–And I Like It!

Perhaps you heard the news about a fake Facebook “dislike” button that quickly spread virally across the service.
What you may not know is that there really is a legitimate Facebook Dislike Button in the form of an add-on for Firefox. (Thankfully, an Internet Explorer version is imminent as well.)
Developed by FaceMod, the Official Facebook Dislike Button does about what you’d expect: adds a Dislike option right alongside the Like button. Now, when a friend says they’re “having the worst day ever!”, you can show your support by “disliking” it (which is obviously preferable to “liking”).

Just one little wrinkle: only other Dislike Button users will be able to see your “dislikes.” That’s one reason it’ll be better when IE users can get in on the action. (The developer says support for other browsers, like Chrome and Safari, is coming soon.)

Well, what do you think? Do you “like” the Official Dislike Button, or do you think Facebook should get a clue and build one of their own right into the service?

Possibly Related Posts:

• Fix a Windows 7 System That Randomly Freezes
• Update Firmware On Your HDTV, Camera, Smartphone, PC
• Use Facebook Places
• My Keyboard isn’t Working
• Keep Your Computer ‘Awake’ with Mouse Jiggler

The survey, conducted by research firm TheInfoPro in June, also asked IT managers from which vendors they were most likely to switch. Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Sun Microsystems, which was acquired by Oracle in 2009, took the top spots.

For the second year, results showed Oracle struggling, TheInfoPro said in a statement. Asked how difficult it would be to switch vendors, 21% of the IT managers surveyed said it would be hard to replace Oracle, while 43% said it would be easy, and 35% said it would be “somewhat difficult.” For IBM , 36% said it would be hard, 23% said it would be easy and 41% said somewhat difficult. For HP , 41% said it would be hard, 26% said it would be easy, and 33% said it would be somewhat difficult.

In other areas, equipment from Hewlett-Packard and IBM was seen as highly replaceable, according to InfoPro, which also conducted hour-long interviews with the participants. Respondents said EMC or Hitachi Data Systems would be the most likely candidates to replace their IBM equipment, Coulter said, adding 29% of IBM customers surveyed said they’re planning to spend less this year than in 2009, he said.

“From narratives we read from interviewees, it’s mainly about their storage,” said Marco Coulter, managing director of TheInfoPro’s storage and cloud sectors.

Among IT vendors, EMC remained the clear leader in respondent’s minds when it came to storage area networked (SAN) systems, and NetApp led the way with network-attached storage (NAS), Coulter said.

Five EMC products were listed as among the “most exciting” as was the company itself by the Fortune 1000 respondents. EMC was rated second most exciting by mid-sized enterprises, with NetApp as first. Many of EMC’s customers said they plan to spend more than $25 million with the company this year, InfoPro said in a statement.

In the category of data storage management software, CommVault came out ahead of Symantec, with 54% of CommVault customers indicating they will spend more on their products in 2010, compared with 28% of Symantec’s customers.

“They’re just sitting there taking away from Symantec. I think there’s a lot of frustration with Symantec,” he said. “This is only my personal opinion, but I think people have used Symantec over the years and seen backup as very difficult with them, while CommVault has a slightly easier way of solving the backup problem.

CommVault also received high scores for technical support, Coulter said, where Symantec got slightly weaker scores.

The survey also showed that 28% of respondents said their spending on data storage systems would be flat this year, while 42% said the same for 2011. For 2010, 30% of respondents said they plan to cut spending on storage, while 42% they expect to increase it.

“As we look at the storage market overall, there’s still growth in 2010 and 2011, but we do see the growth rate slowing down,” Coulter said. “Just keeping the lights on is becoming a growing narrative.”

For the first time, a category of spending titled “Just keeping the lights on” reached the number 10 spot in the “new initiatives” category in TheInfoPro’s survey.

The respondents, 165 of whom worked for Fortune 1000 companies and 113 for mid-sized enterprises, said that dealing with capacity growth was the number one pain point, followed by a lack of proper forecasting and reporting tools.

Many of the IT managers indicated that using thin provisioning, which allocates storage to applications on an “as-needed” basis, helped them to better use their storage capacity. They also said they were able to reduce backup array and tape drive capacity through the use of deduplication, Coulter said.

Coulter was quick to point out that primary deduplication, however, technology that removes duplicate data before it’s stored on disk storage systems, is still mostly unused by large organizations.

“At some point, once you’ve thinly provisioned everything and deduplicated everything, you can’t continue to store more data on the capacity you have. At some point, storage growth will pick up,” Coulter said.

The expected use of solid state drives (SSD) in storage arrays, saw a modest 2% to 3% growth rate among those surveyed.

As in previous TheInfoPro surveys, virtualization and cloud computing remain top of mind this year with 54% of respondents saying virtualization is changing roles and responsibilities, and one in four indicating they expect the majority of production to be virtualized by 2012. And, while 8% of enterprises use an external cloud for storage, 31% expect that by 2012 more than 25% of data services will be protected through the cloud.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Check Point clears the path to Web 2.0 application control
• Water cooling returns to IBM mainframe
• Microsoft still mum on programs prone to DLL hijacking attacks
• Mobile data traffic set to soar
• Researchers slate ‘month of bugs’ launch for Wednesday

FRAMINGHAM - A little-known group of security researchers will kick off a month of bug disclosures starting tomorrow that target unpatched vulnerabilities in software from Abode, Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple and others.

But the researcher who launched the month-long bug festival practice four years ago isn’t optimistic that reviving the practice would have an impact.

The “Month Of Abysssec Undisclosed Bugs” (MOAUB) will feature flaws in Microsoft’s Excel and Internet Explorer, the Linux-based cPanel Web hosting control panel, and other software, said Abysssec Security Research in a post to the firm’s blog earlier this month.

“They’re threatening — at least, the companies affected will see it as a threat — to release vulnerabilities on all kinds of software, from desktop applications to browsers,” said Jamz Yaneza, threat research manager at Trend Micro, today.

Microsoft , which figured prominently in the MOAUB announcement, said it’s aware of the group’s plan. “As always, if and when a vulnerability is publicly disclosed, Microsoft will take immediate action to determine the appropriate response for our customers,” said Jerry Bryant, group manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).

Yaneza said he had not heard of Abysssec before this.

According to the group’s Web site, it is made up of four researchers — none of whom were identified by a full name — that specialize in penetration testing, exploit development and application security review. Abysssec’s Web site was registered in 2008, but the WHOIS record is hidden behind a privacy wall.

However, LinkedIn listed Shahin Ramezany, of Albany, N.Y, as a researcher with Abysssec. The group did not reply to an e-mailed request for an interview.

“Starting on the 1st of September, we will release a collection of [zero-days], Web application vulnerabilities, and detailed binary analysis (and [proof-of-concepts]) for recently released advisories by vendors such as Microsoft, Mozilla, Sun, Apple, Adobe, HP [and] Novel [sic],” the foursome said.

Yaneza said users should pay attention to the MOAUB disclosures, but he didn’t seem worried about the threat.

“It’s all going to be low-hanging fruit,” he said, referring to the term that describes easily-found vulnerabilities. “We’ve seen vulnerabilities on these [programs]. I’m not too much concerned. If users patch as usual and keep their automatic patching turned on, they should be fine.”

Bug-of-the-month collections were popular several years ago, but the practice has been little used since 2007. In July 2006, HD Moore, now the chief security officer of Rapid7, used a “Month of Browser Bugs” event to showcase vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), Firefox, Safari and Opera.

Moore’s month-long bug event was quickly followed by others, including “Month of Kernel Bugs” in November 2006, and a “Month of Apple Bugs” in January 2007.

Yaneza called Abysssec’s upcoming bug month a “publicity stunt” designed to attract attention to the group.

Moore agreed.

“Sure, they are publicity stunts, but that’s not the point,” he said today. “Projects like Month of Brower Bugs, and the kernel and Apple ones, they get vendors to patch lots of vulnerabilities, dozens and dozens, and focus security research on a necessary area.”

But he wasn’t sure MOAUB would do that. “Other projects focused on one general area, like browsers or Apple,” Moore said. “But this seems like it’s just a bunch of vulnerabilities. I don’t know if this will have the same impact.”

Microsoft’s Bryant also took Abysssec to task. “Disclosing vulnerabilities publicly only puts customers at risk,” he said in an e-mail, repeating a long-time stance by the company.

Abysssec will post its findings on the Exploit Database Web site throughout September.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Check Point clears the path to Web 2.0 application control
• Water cooling returns to IBM mainframe
• Microsoft still mum on programs prone to DLL hijacking attacks
• Mobile data traffic set to soar
• More IT managers plan to spend less, Oracle struggles with users, survey finds