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http://news.softpedia.com/news...

Haven't been able to try it out yet (poor internet), but according to the following link "...users have access to the Workshop and can download any custom map they choose". http://news.softpedia.com/news...

It is true. I live in San Cristobal too. Internet was shutdown. Zello was blocked. Twitter images were blocked.

You do not have to believe me.
Check Zello on twitter. @ Zello . They issued and update on Android to bypass the block and updated unblockable versions are on review for ios and bb10.

Twitter confirmed the block:
http://news.softpedia.com/news...

I'm not sure why healthcare.gov needs drivers license numbers, but those others are true of private healthcare companies, who appear to have more leaks than the government at least on this graph.

I'm not saying government is more secure, I'm just saying the dangers aren't unique to healthcare.gov.

Upcoming:

MS deletes Firefox, saying it was used to infect millions of computers.

Microsoft only deleted the install used as part of Sefnit. They didn't disable legitimate installs, and they're not out to squash your freedom.

Which does not prevent them from dumping extension garbage silently in Firefox. I forget if they do the same with Silverlight and .Net.
It seems they calmed down since 2010, but I still have or see it in some old systems, which we all know are going to stick around forever given Windows XP + Firefox's tag team.

Losing potential search hits due to Bing search redirects is probably why Chrome 25 introduced blocking of these silent extensions.

sorry here is the link saying it is just a concept not a real product

Maybe some of them were bought online and then intercepted by NSA to install that hardware. There is plenty of evidence that they are doing that kind of things, including a catalog, but not a lot of reports that show how they are actually doing it.

Now, that the actual number of devices with those radios is around 100000 could be an outdated number (50k in 2008 and 85k in 2012 according to Snowden documents, and maybe 100k by now according to other sources), and anyway, seems that be considered by them an obsolete technology, and targetting mainly offline computers and closed networks. Probably the kind of installations that won't disclose that they were intruded even if they found what happened. Landline phones and faraday cages could become very popular in some installations.

Probably there aren't used in US because may have other ways to get in, even in offline networks (maybe embedded 3g radios?) without needing to have that kind of reach.

D3 was the best selling PC game of 2012. I am not happy about that fact, but it does no good to deny it. Quality and sales are not always related.

It's using Microcode in the CPU that is received over 3G cellular.

Remember SandyBridge advertised this capability for supposedly stopping theft....

But it's really just a backdoor so they always have a network connection to your box. They can run compiler trust attacks or just read arbitrary data from memory after scanning application fingerprints.

I've been saying for awhile now that this is the next attack vector but the last few times I've mentioned it, you trolls downmodded me to infinity.

So please listen again. It's not the sound card.... they use that to detect when people are close to avoid transmitting if I were to guess. His tinkering proved they should stop before being detected.

Yeah, I thought of this, too. Here's some background info on the tech involved. It seems to fit, the article doesn't specifically say only certain newer intel processors are at risk, but it doesn't give any counterexamples that would rule it out, either. This is an obscure deliberately OOB data transmission channel that seems like it could well be the hidden vector, only... Surely a security specialist would be aware of this as a possible mechanism? Also, why would disconnecting the mic/speakers stop a transmission if it's really using 3G? Could be wrong, but I've reluctantly concluded that this line of investigation is probably a red herring in regards to the case at hand, although it's certainly alarming enough in its own right.

What about hardware backdoor activation? There had been rumors of intel putting 3G radios in vPro cpus, and there had been backdoors in FPGAs. There had been a nice presentation in DEFCON17 around this topic.

As much as it's fun to make fun of him now, there are 2 things to remember: 1) Apple was in pretty bad shape in 1997 -- a year before the iMac, 4 years before the iPod. 2) He's the CEO of the competition -- what would you expect him to say? "They're in trouble, but Steve is a great guy, he's done some creative things in the past, they should stay the course, work hard on making great products, and maybe someday they'll wipe up the floor with us!"

It's not like he's the only CEO to ever do this.

Exhibit A:

Clark is not afraid to publicly dis a company like Apple, much as Steve Jobs once mocked IBM.

"Apple," Jim Clark will sigh, as if he were talking about a horse on its way to the glue factory. "They're not doing anything... Apple blew it."

Then, with a dismissive wave of his hand, and just the hint of a grin: "I think they're in serious trouble."

-- SGI founder & chairman Jim Clark in Wired, 1994

Exhibit B: Steve Ballmer laughing at the iPhone

His complaints about the iPhone were somewhat valid at the time, but 1) he forgot that people WILL pay for a good product, and 2) if he wasn't aware of how Apple refined the iPod over the previous six years -- making it better and cheaper every year -- he's dumb as a rock. Oh wait, he was aware:

Business Week: How much money will you lose per Zune?

Ballmer: None. Apple put the hammer down there, dropped the price down to $249. If they had been $299, it would have been nicer. They have the advantage of scale. So we're at $249, too. We don't make a lot of money, not to start out.

So I just mark that down to "standard CEO bluster." Or maybe he really was that stupid.

Like Intel embedding 3g radios in the vPro processors? Putting trojan in FPGAs? If i can't walk to the next continent, why worry to start walking?

Do what you have at your hands, you can improve a lot your security in the points where you control. And let the rest of the world figure the missing pieces, with open source software you also have portability, when an alternative comes in that area (i.e. moving to ARM) you will be able to take a step forward. Just don't get too tied to a solution that you can't control.

Credibility = 0.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/30/microsoft-privacy-chief-nsa
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Gives-the-Australian-Government-Details-on-More-than-1-000-Users-388003.shtml
http://techrights.org/2011/12/26/microsoft-and-nokia-astroturf/

The problem is that every card on a PCIe bus can be a master, has access to all of memory, has a processor of some kind, and has insecure firmware. Pick any popular card - network, storage or graphics - and you have a potential attack. Find a bug people are having and post a fix or a tool to fix it. There will always be some sucker who will download it and run it.

If these links are to be believed, this is just another rebadge:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/First-Sighting-of-Radeon-R9-280X-Really-a-Rebranded-HD-7970-GHz-Edition-386239.shtml

http://videocardz.com/45877/amd-radeon-r9-280x-rebranded-hd-7970-ghz-edition

http://www.techpowerup.com/191440/radeon-r9-280x-is-rebranded-hd-7970-ghz-edition.html

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/radeon_r9_280x_could_be_a_rebadged_hd_7970_ghz_edition.html

Remember when Samsung, Elpida, Micron, Mosel, Infineon, Hynix, Vitelic and NEC were sued for a total of $263 million dollars for price fixing? It wasn't the first and it won't be the last.

Uhhhh...you just NOW figured this out?

Sigh, more anti-FOSS fud from somebody who should know better. Plenty of people have explained this to you in past conversations.

In fact, Google is not the default search engine in all the localized versions of Firefox. There's long been a Yandex version of Firefox and Yandex is the default in Russia and Russian speaking countries.

More recently, Mozilla partnered with Microsoft, once its arch nemesis, to offer a Bing-themed version of Firefox. Bing, of course, is a default search option in Firefox.

Now, Microsoft and Mozilla are partnering once again with a MSN-themed version of the browser, for the people that still use MSN for some reason. Probably the same reason why people still use Yahoo Mail.

This version of the browser comes with the standard modifications, Bing as the default search engine, both in the search box and the AwesomeBar, a link to msnNOW in the toolbar and MSN as the homepage.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/MSN-ified-Version-of-Firefox-Dilutes-Mozilla-s-Dependence-on-Google-310533.shtml

Innovation is the key, he said, pointing out that Microsoft had completely failed to get itself noticed in the tablet and smartphone markets.

"Since I've left [Microsoft], what have they done that's interesting? Microsoft [Xbox] Kinect is the only thing I can think of and for a company that has 90,000 employees, to have only one product that you can point to that's innovative, that's pretty disappointing I think,” he said according to The Age.

"Compare that to Google, which is showing you self-driving cars, Google Glass and a phone that you can talk to, the Moto X, and on and on — automatic picture improvements on Google+ — It's a much more innovative company that is driving the future harder and faster."

One of the reasons why Microsoft fails to innovate right now is the current leadership, Scoble explained, revealing that Steve Ballmer is actually trying to make more money by rolling out innovative technologies.

“I just don't believe Steve Ballmer really likes the future. When I interviewed [him] he said innovation is something cool that makes a lot of money. And that's absolutely not true. [Google Glass] might never make a dollar but it's new, it's interesting [and] it causes conversations. If you're an innovator, you push the future ahead. You don't care whether it necessarily makes a dollar,” he continued.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Former-Employee-Says-That-Microsoft-Is-Not-Longer-Cool-Blames-Steve-Ballmer-373770.shtml

Just go with TT-RSS and host your RSS aggregator yourself if you have the skill/hardware. The Old Reader will still need to find a business model. Feedly announced their cash grab earlier today. The lunch will not be free anyway in the long run.

If you don't want to host it yourself, go with one of the up-front honest for-pay services. "No cost, hosting for free!" obviously means "no reliability" in this new era of online feed aggregators.

I do not think that has been possible because of the UEFI. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Linux-on-a-Microsoft-Surface-Tablet-Is-Nearly-Impossible-318152.shtml

Everyone is in luck: June 21st, 2013, 07:09 GMT By Eduard Kovacs http://news.softpedia.com/news/LinkedIn-Outage-Caused-by-DDOS-Attack-on-Network-Solutions-362473.shtml --- This means, that on Sunday, you will all find out it was a DoS attack. This also means, on Sunday, if you visit that site you can also get the Powerball results which haven't been posted yet and all retire.

In common usage TSMC is the foundry not Apple (even if apple started buying equipment to process wafers, then it would simply be running a captive fab).

FWIW, the common terms of large foundry contracts have varied greatly over the last few decades. Some examples of "pure" pricing models:

* wafer starts (to reserve some fraction of capacity)
* processed wafers (that had their wafer process monitor circuits working within a range of pre-agreed parameters).
* working die (pre-diced chips that pass a short customer defined wafer probe tests)

Nearly all large contracts are a blend between these pure pricing models and are a function of the times.

When wafers are cheap and factories have lots of capacity (say when a new process comes on line, the older factories may have extra capacity and/or a competitive yield advantage relative to other companies), OR when the process is new and proper yield correlations are unknown, most customers can get the working die pricing model.

When capacity is really tight, a large customer might have to pay some amount of money for a wafer start just to reserve capacity at the factory (even if the processed wafer doesn't yield any working parts). Typically this somewhat negates most of the volume discount they would get and puts the pricing more on par with a smaller customer.

Of course everything is negotiable and there is probably a price for everything. However, given the current pricing environment with the capacity limitations TSMC had with 28nm, I doubt anyone could negotiate pure working die deal now unless they paid a handsome penny for each one.

http://alkyproject.blogspot.com/

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/DirectX-10-for-Windows-XP.shtml

http://www.afreecodec.com/windows/top-windows-software/directx-10-for-windows-xp-404947.html

you can run crysis in dx10 mode in xp with it

i run win7 though so dont need it

Let's try that Again!
After being called out on not reading the links I posted, I did some research and it seems Chrome might be safe after all:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Google-Chrome-to-Remove-Unique-ID-137535.shtmlrel=url2html-8704/

Nothing prevents you to put a link to the binaries on your website. And if you can't afford a to host a website, there are still file hosting service happy to finally get some legal files.

Also, you know, there were some malware abusing the system and downloading some files on some popular legitimate projects ( http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-TDL-Malware-Variant-Uses-Chromium-Embedded-Framework-339791.shtml ). I don't know many projects affected beside this one and I'm sure Google knows better and this move wasn't just to mess around with legitimate users and reduce the costs.

Google seems to be cutting lots of services in the name of abuse...

Google Code downloads gone because they were being abused.
XMPP federation gone because it was being used by spammers.
CalDAV gone because... well, that one just seems to be because its open and Google wants to push everyone to their proprietary APIs instead.

I'm just waiting for them to pull the plug on email federation with Gmail and Google web search because they both get used by spammers too...

Guess what; pretty much any useful service is going to get abused - its an ongoing battle to reduce abuse whilst keeping the service useful and if Google are going to pull the plug on everything that might be abused they may as well give up and wind up the company now... (FWIW, I see a lot of spam email originating from real gmail accounts or using gmail accounts as contact addresses for replies; also a lot of phishing emails that use Google Docs to collect responses).

Nothing prevents you to put a link to the binaries on your website. And if you can't afford a to host a website, there are still file hosting service happy to finally get some legal files.

Also, you know, there were some malware abusing the system and downloading some files on some popular legitimate projects ( http://news.softpedia.com/news/New-TDL-Malware-Variant-Uses-Chromium-Embedded-Framework-339791.shtml ). I don't know many projects affected beside this one and I'm sure Google knows better and this move wasn't just to mess around with legitimate users and reduce the costs.

The opencl performance really speaks for the direction AMD is going with their APU's in the future. The design of this chip will be directly imbedded into AMD's next generation Kaveri APU where the GPU and CPU share the same cache, which should allow all sorts of crazy performance optimizations in everything from Programming languages http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-and-Oracle-Team-Up-for-Heterogeneous-Computing-on-Java-295882.shtml and databases: http://pbbakkum.com/db/ I know the database link deals with sqlite and CUDA, but that should be SLOW compared to what an AMD Kaveri APU will be able to perform as the latency from a CPU operation to a GPU operation should next to nothing.

Yes. The Civet.

Already farmed for centuries, for the "musk..."
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Get-the-Best-Perfume-From-the-Cat-039-s-Ass-48517.shtml

"It's the cats ass!"

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Cluster-Live-23558.shtml

Your mother is using and is familiar enough with running Windows XP, so why not just give her a machine that looks like XP? Install Ubuntu, then install XPGnome (video at http://blog.hostonnet.com/xpgnome-make-ubuntu-look-like-windows-xp, download from http://linux.softpedia.com/progDownload/XpGnome-Download-52808.html). If you really want to stick with M$ Windoze or you / your mother have a desire to buy a new machine, install Classic Shell (http://www.classicshell.net/) and set the interface to look like XP.

You certainly cannot do this but waste half of your life trying to undo the metro system and have to do some registry changes and even that does not work to get rid of the offending system. There was a report on slashdot about M$ blaming manufacturers about the failure of Windows 8.

Here are some links below that will help you out;

http://www.classicshell.net/

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/149299-Method-to-hide-the-Charms-Bar

But that only helps so far as the damn thing does keep on appearing the only thing you can do after booting up is to run the metro killer

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/Metro-Killer.shtml

The metro system is that intrusive that one might want to think about downgrading and you can get help with that from;

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/36726-UpDown8-Windows-8-Upgrade-Downgrade-Helper

hope that helps and if all else fails just get hirens boot cd; reformat and start over from scratch

Official untouched links to windows iso's Digital River here http://www.mydigitallife.info/download-windows-7-iso-official-32-bit-and-64-bit-direct-download-links

October 24th, 2012. Microsoft has no intention to release a new service pack for Windows 7, but the company will instead focus on smaller updates that will be rolled out every month. -- According to The Register citing sources close to Microsoft's sustained engineering team, there are no plans for Windows 7 SP2, which means that Windows 7 users will have to update their operating systems every month until support for this particular version is no longer offered.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Cancels-Windows-7-Service-Pack-2-301719.shtml

The ads pay for the "free" email, and also help pay for Google's research into autonomous vehicles, improved search technology, etc.

In an ideal world, perhaps. The truth is, most ad-servers end up compromised and serving up malware or iframe redirectors which serve up malware.

Furthermore, I fail to see how maturity equates to putting blind faith into a Corporation to do no evil. Especially when you consider it's Microsoft - the same people who brought us UEFI as well as funded most of the SCO legal debacle.

absolutely ZERO outbreak of malware

90,000 people might disagree

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Japanese-Police-Arrest-Developers-of-The-Movie-Android-Malware-303438.shtml

I've been saying this for quite awhile, if the FOSS community would put their money where their mouth is more companies would be willing to support FOSS. And this isn't just some minor offering, not only has AMD been opening the GPUs as fast as they can but they are moving to Coreboot so for the first time you'll be able to have a fully open system from the BIOS on up.

And when you consider that you can get a 6 core AMD kit for just $260 frankly its not a hard choice. Even though I primarily use Windows I think open hardware is important and competition is vital so I've put my money where my mouth is and have been selling nothing but AMD in my shop for the past 5 years and the customers couldn't be happier. I also put my money where my mouth is with regards to my family, we have 5 desktops and 2 laptops, ALL AMD.

So if you support open hardware then frankly the choice is clear, buy or build AMD for your next system. They have plenty of great desktop chips and if you need a laptop I have gotten several Liano quads for customers and they just love the performance, and if you'd like a really cheap HTPC just pair a Bobcat board with OpenELEC which is a really nice XBMC based Linux with the Fusion drivers baked in. Pair it with one of the Bobcat "VCR style" barebones kits and for less than $200 you can have a damned nice HTPC that sucks less than 18w under load and does full 1080P. Truly a kick ass little system and you can't beat the price.

the solution is to not use vulnerable crap like windows for

Right. So there would never be any risk when using Linux?

http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/USB-driver-bug-exposed-as-Linux-plug-pwn-1203617.html

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Researcher-Demonstrates-USB-Autorun-Attack-on-Linux-183611.shtml

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/02/07/1742246/usb-autorun-attacks-against-linux

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/02/how-usb-autorun-malware-could-easily-infect-linux

You are stupid to think that any OS is free of such problems. Or you are just blind to facts because of Linux fanaticism.

1) That's actually a low rate for Windows adoption

Windows 7 sold as many licenses in the same period (ref). According to IDC, the PC industry in Q4 2012 sold 89.8M units worldwide (ref). IDC also claims in Q4 2009, the PC industry sold 89.6M units (ref). So between 2009 and 2012 we see no growth and the same sales... we can see Windows 8 is selling at the same rate as Windows 7.

Actually, the only real problem was a replacement for Exchange and Outlook, and the new release of Kolab combined with Kontact seems to cover this pretty well (I wish there was a version of Kontact for OSX, seems to be an abandoned project).

As for which desktop, well, *there* I can see some challenges. 2 years ago I would have said Ubuntu, but they screwed up badly so I think Linux Mint may be worth a shot. The fun bit is that Microsoft has just set a development budget: as long as they stay under 43 Million they make a profit.

And with 43 Million even *I* can get a decent platform out. They've shown it in Münich and (less well known) in the Extremadura region of Spain. As a matter of fact, knowing what I know of that project, that project would be the best place to start, because it goes beyond school and enterprise straight into governance.

Albeit, "beneath the covers", ala this tiny partial list only from me next:

HEAP Protection via "Guard Pages", as well as "Chunk Randomization" -> http://news.softpedia.com/news/Chris-Valasek-The-Windows-8-Heap-Manager-Is-the-Most-Secure-to-Date-282466.shtml

Plus lastly for performance' sake?

* "Self-Terminating Services"...

(However, this last one can be compensated for by doing it yourself manually if/when you don't need them in former builds of Windows NT-based OS').

APK

P.S.=> Before you guys "mod me down" as troll, OR call me "MS SHILL"? Realize, I too, have "bitches" about the new "metro" interface & Windows 8, ala -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3330901&cid=42354181 & thanks - I don't LIKE it anymore than many others do...

... apk

Well, I started off thinking 2D games, but then I was thinking for the absolute basics you could start off with very simple command line stuff, but you can even turn that into a game. For example a simple game where you are presented with 2 integers that the user has to add together and type in the answer. Then randomise the numbers. Put it in a loop. Then add in subtraction, multiplication and division. Keep track of how many answers the user got right or wrong. You could even add in a high score table and teach them how to do basic array sorting. Then you could save and load the high score table to a file. You can teach a lot of basics by building up a simple little game like that.

Basic 2D graphics are a fun way to demonstrate programming features too. When I was something like 4 years old I'd type in the program listings into my Commodore 128 to draw circles and triangles on the screen. When I was older, my dad taught me about looping through arrays by helping me to build a Moire style screensaver. Having an animated visual output like that is quite satisfying, especially to a new programmer, yet it's really simple to implement and so is a good early project :)

I agree that it's crazy some of the questions you see online.. some people are clearly just copy and pasting with no clue wtf they're doing. Right now I'm often Googling pretty simple Javascript/JQuery stuff (how to create and reference Objects and hash tables for example) myself though simply because I don't have a paper reference manual :p

and unlike the consoles it can game AND IM

I thought Xbox Live has always supported Windows Live Messenger.

AND surf

Wii and PS3 got web browsers early on, but I discovered this past weekend that Xbox 360 has finally added IE.

AND watch YouTube

I've watched YouTube on both my cousin's Wii and my other cousin's Xbox 360. I haven't had a chance to try YouTube on a PS3 (or anything on a PS3 for that matter) but the official PlayStation blog has a post about YouTube.

AND be a media tank

I'm not sure what you mean by "media tank", but all three consoles have Netflix in countries where Netflix is available.

AND do any other task a full fledged PC can do

Why would you want to do tasks that are designed for a desktop input device on a set-top PC?

Anyway, I'm mostly trying to ensure that your arguments aren't themselves straw men.

Maybe not so legitimate, but he is certainly an active hacker. For example : http://laetitia-schlumberger.com/index0.php and http://horeblawski.eu/euricms/
Softpedia profiled this person in an article: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Hackers-Around-the-World-No-Flaws-Escape-This-Georgian-s-Longrifle0x-252180.shtml
However, a subsequent comment by the author says:
"When this article was published the researcher was a respected member of an important security research team. In the meantime, his work became more "controversial."

HEAP Protection via "Guard Pages", as well as "Chunk Randomization" -> http://news.softpedia.com/news/Chris-Valasek-The-Windows-8-Heap-Manager-Is-the-Most-Secure-to-Date-282466.shtml

Pus lastly for performance' sake, "Self-Terminating Services"

(However, this last one can be compensated for by doing it yourself manually if/when you don't need them in former builds of Windows NT-based OS').

APK

P.S.=> IF they left an option in it during install, so that I could have a std. desktop (meaning classical Win9x style we've all used for, oh, what? 1994-present??) plus those features?

Then, yea - I'd have bought a 64-bit copy perhaps.

The metro interface may make sense on smartphones/tablets whatever, but not on a PC desktop OS - it is still way, Way, WAY NOT "touch" in the huge majroity & will continue to be!

In fact - Heh, & it makes me laugh is, MANY PEOPLE, @ least that I've seen (I can name off a handful right off the bat from friends of mine), that if you put your fingers anywhere NEAR their screen, they absolutely "FreAk"... lol!

(Well, you know, they don't like it).

Yes - I've seen it, I am not that way though (I just use Windex & a paper towel, lol) but my point is, a lot of folks have like, phobias about touching their PC monitor screen - how will "touch" ever make it with them? It won't & would even 'cut them out' possibly...

... apk

Funny the Robert Morris Worm got to UNIX though eh? See here -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_worm

(As far back as 1988 no less...)

---

PERTINENT QUOTE/EXCERPT:

"The Morris worm or Internet worm of November 2, 1988 was one of the first computer worms distributed via the Internet... It is considered the first worm and was certainly the first to gain significant mainstream media attention... The Morris worm worked by exploiting known vulnerabilities in Unix sendmail, finger, and rsh/rexec, as well as weak passwords."

---

* NOW, what was that YOU said again about security on UNIX?

"the *nix model is a good one... It was designed for security and it was Unix." - by raymorris (2726007) on Saturday November 10, @12:47AM (#41940085)

(HOW IRONIC! I just noticed YOUR LAST NAME, is morris, upon quoting you... lol!)

It was "good", until the hacker/cracker type started "probing" it & poking around in it, exposing the weaknesses in it & apps that run on it... same will happen to Windows 8!

It's not so much the OS being exploited anymore as it is the apps or middlewares that "ride on it", ala Flash & other "browser plugins & toolbars", Java, Javascript, iframes, ActiveX (IE), etc./et al...

NOW - Personally, I do LIKE some of the new features in Windows 8 though (beneath the foolish tablet/smartphone-based "metro" interface that is):

---

Guard Pages -> http://news.softpedia.com/news/Chris-Valasek-The-Windows-8-Heap-Manager-Is-the-Most-Secure-to-Date-282466.shtml

Chunk Randomization -> (same link as above)

And, my "favorite" (not really security-related as much as the other 2 above): Self-Terminating Services - which means services (like *NIX daemons) finding themselves inactive, "auto-magically" shut themselves DOWN... this saves "tuners/tweakers" a bit of work, since we've been doing services tuning since, forever (myself back into the Windows NT 3.51 days onward to present into Windows 7 64-bit, currently)...

---

(HOWEVER - like I said above, & you guys all pretty much KNOW this too: The apps will be "targetted-for-termination" more than ever! History above even shows us that on UNIX... So, is that a "bad thing"?? Yes, sure, initially... but, not when the bugs & security holes "shake out", & they WILL, eventually!)

APK

P.S.=> Also, again - lastly: Hate to "burst anyone's bubble", but the original UNIXES were NOT designed with security in mind... No more than the internet was!

In fact, & this is some "interesting trivia"?

UNIX was designed initially for TEXT PROCESSING WORK -> http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-textprocess.html

PERTINENT QUOTE/EXCERPT:

"The origin of UNIX® lies in simple text processing"

"Believe-it-or-not"...

... apk

Wonder what percentage of users would rather be tracked by default.

According to a 2012 Pew Internet study, 73% of search engine users said they were against tracking by the search engines, and 68% were against targeted advertising.

The corollary is that respecting DNT even for IE 10 matches what over 70%(*) of the users want, while ignoring it only satisfies the wishes of 28%(**) of the users.

(*) I'm starting with the 'targeted ads' numbers which are the more conservative ones. The survey shows 28% of the users want them and 68% oppose them. Furthermore another study shows that, when they have to manually hunt and set DNT, 5 to 6% of the overall population turns it on. Given that we know 68% favor DNT that means 7 to 9% of the users will go through the hassle. So if DNT is on by default on IE 10 we can expect 7 to 9% of the I-want-targeted-ads crowd to turn it back off which translates to 2 to 2.5%. So if DNT is honored for IE 10 these 2 to 2.5% users will get what they want as well as the 68% who are fine with the default setting, yielding a total of 70 to 70.5% users getting what they want.

(**) Or, conversely, going against the wishes of 68% of the users (the remaining 4% don't know what they want).

I think you totally missed the fact that they were in such a hurry to release this new feature that they missed a major security bug. Their focus was on adding new features and not verifying that any code that was changed is still working correctly and securely. They should be embarrassed that the user community had to point out this glaring issue. Also FF16 apparently broken a number of add-ins as well. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Firefox-16-Bug-Causes-Some-Add-ons-to-Malfunction-298217.shtml

Obviously they do have functionality testing as evidenced by https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases/Firefox_16/Test_Plan, but security testing seems to be lacking. Interesting to note btw, that FF17 is due out next month. Also interesting to flip through the test plans and see that they regularly (re)break things that were previously working.

though that's really what 90% of the users want anyway.

Citation needed?

I'll bite. So according to a study, 73% users said they were against tracking by the search engines, and 68% were against targeted advertising.

So it's not as high as 90%. But still, what's best? Respecting DNT for IE 10 users and thus doing what 70%(*) of users want or ignoring it and only satisfying the wishes of 28%(**) of the users?

If you tell users, "click this checkbox to prevent people from tracking your behavior online!", yes, most users would click that checkbox. Unfortunately that promise would be a lie

Nobody said anything about wording it that way and that not how it's worded in IE's dialogs. So I'm not sure where you're getting at with you 'lying' insinuations.

Make it an informed choice, and the number of users that enable it will be less than 90%, and advertisers would have an unambiguous signal about the user's intent and no reason to not honor it.

Bullshit! I'm on a national Do-Not-Call phone registry. You cannot get on the list without explicitly asking for it. Does it mean I never get telemarketing calls? No. Does it mean telemarketers remove me from their list when I tell them not to call me again? No. Instead they hang up in my face and call again a few days later!

IE 10 is just the advertisers' latest excuse to continue doing whatever they want.

(*) I'm starting with the 'targeted ads' numbers which are more favorable to your point of view. The survey shows 28% of the users want them and 68% oppose it. Furthermore a separate study shows that, when they have to manually hunt and set DNT, 5 to 6% of the overall population turns it on. Given that we know 68% favor DNT that means 7 to 9% of the users will go through the hassle. So if DNT is on by default on IE 10 we can expect 7 to 9% of the I-want-targeted-ads crowd to turn it back off which translates to 2 to 2.5%. So if DNT is honored for IE 10 these 2 to 2.5% users will get what they want as well as the 68% who are fine with the default setting, yielding a total of 70 to 70.5% users getting what they want.

(**) Or, conversely, going against the wishes of 68% of the users (the remaining 4% don't know what they want).

And they're perfectly secure.

Ahahahah! Oh man, you must be great in parties!

http://news.softpedia.com/news/JPMorgan-Chase-Bank-Server-Hacked-Tiffany-Employee-Details-Exposed-294557.shtml
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9116933/Report_World_Bank_servers_breached_repeatedly
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/12/bank_server_breached/
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-13711528
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/062612-operation-high-roller-260478.html
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9033999/Bank_of_India_site_hacked_serves_up_22_exploits
http://www.net-security.org/news.php?id=3181

And this was just with a 5m search.

Sure about that?

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=599
http://news.softpedia.com/news/039-Island-of-Stability-039-the-Holy-Grail-of-Physicists-82654.shtml

Windows FLP, which boots in 7 seconds and not even a second after hitting enter on your password to get to a desktop. It does not belong to 8.

The same can be said for Windows 8. My machine boots in 7 seconds to a usable desktop (no harddrive churning or loading). Don't believe me? http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-8-Boots-in-8-Seconds-220917.shtml

Marketing nonsense.

Features that have benefitted my workflow: enhanced multi-monitor support with a taskbar for both screens, and quick access to start button, app switching, or search/settings from any screen; improved task manager with more detailed process informatin, more detailed hardware information, process history, and startup program options; improved file copy with more detailed support for handling file collisions, grouping all file transfer in a single window, and ability to pause file transfers individually; improvements in explorer such as the re-inclusion of the up directory button in the, and the making more obvious features like show hidden files, show file extensions, and one feature I never knew about (invert selection) but thankfully have learned thanks to its inclusion as a top-level option; native support for mounting ISOs; native data usage monitoring over metered connections; and finally the ability to dock metro applications like news, chat, or music, or browser next to my desktop. Can't tell you how useful this last one has been, and will only improve as more useful apps are available in the store.

Out of the lists of changes to Windows in 8, none have listed any major changes in security. If there are changes, they aren't ever listed.

Windows 8 includes smart screen and windows security essentials are both baked into the OS. Yeah, I'd say for the majority of users it's more secure than Windows 7 out of the box. And as much as it's maligned on Slashdot, secure boot does in fact have a purpose other than locking out Linux.

No it isn't. That belongs to Windows FLP and XP.

Windows XP scales down better, but not up. Windows 8 has extensive built-in support for hardware not widely available when XP was released including better support for: multi core processors, wifi, SSD, USB 3.0, and bluetooth. However, I have managed to run Windows 8 on a machine from 2005 (Dell 700m) and it performs much better than 7, but not as good as XP.

But wait, isn't this article about the Intel CEO complaining about drivers not being ready?

No, you didn't read the article apparently. What the CEO said is unknown and if he said anything at all is a rumor. What the article says about drivers is some unknown and unnamed "others" are talking about lack of support.... for an unreleased OS. From my experience, Windows 7 drivers work fine for the most part, and Windows 8 specific drivers will be released in due time (you know... perhaps when the OS is actually available?) as has been the case with *every* major OS release. That drivers and applications are not available before the general availability of the OS is no indication that the OS is not actually ready.

No, it's not the only complaint even though you frame it that way. See this current article.

The article contains nothing except conjecture about what someone might have said, and some vague comments about drivers and nebulous bugs. Well... okay, so pretty much every OS ever has problems with drivers and bugs. You think if they problem were pervasive (as anyone can download the OS and try i