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Microsoft News Update

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the fun-for-the-whole-family dept.

Microsoft news of the past few days: Media Player 9 is the subject of a few articles, including one on its integrated digital restrictions and one on changes in its privacy options. Microsoft is releasing certain API's, and is releasing a service pack for Windows XP, under the requirements of its antitrust settlement with the Federal Gov't. On the downside, code to crash any modern Windows machine with NetBIOS enabled is now floating around the net, and there's been more publicity of the vulnerabilities in Microsoft IIS/SSL.

4 of 498 comments (clear)

  1. Dumb Question: by Schnapple · · Score: 4, Interesting
    OK, so the headlines are all "Microsoft is disclosing Windows Code", "Microsoft is disclosing Windows Source Code", "Microsoft is revealing/giving away Source Code". My question is this - it sounds from the headlines like Microsoft is taking source code from Windows, zipping it up, and handing it to everyone. However, all I've seen is documentation on API calls - not actual "source code". Am I missing something? Is source code forthcoming? Or is this all that Microsoft is revealing and the news media is vastly confused as to what "source code" actually is?

    By that logic, is this part of Microsoft's plan? Since Linux is seen as good by the general public for, amongst other reasons, giving away the source code, is Microsoft trying to make the (erroneous) impression that they're giving away source code as well?

    All you have to do is winess the general confusion when a game maker releases some source code ("The RtCW Source Code has been released! This means the game is free!") to see that the general public still doesn't "get" this idea.

    --

    Schnapple

  2. Release of API by crazney · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, im not sure about everyone else.. But I know us developers at the WINE project have found the new APIs (documented here) to be anything but useful..
    Well, the register does say "what Microsoft has got in there is a grotesque, badly-documented pile of poo it doesn't fully understand itself." (in regards to the fact that the few new APIs microsoft released doco's on are other useless or all together wrong!.)

    David.

    --
    stuff
  3. How ironic by hacker · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Does anyone else find it funny that the SMBdie script that is used to supposedly crash Windows machines by sending a specifically-crafted SMB packet... is a Windows executable?

    In the era of security conscious people, running someone else's .exe file is really stupid, even if you think it might be funny.

    And this tool got front-paged on Slashdot. How stupid can you possibly get?

  4. Re:My MS Activation Story: True Story. by KelsoLundeen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nope. I'm not lying.

    I have a valid key but not a valid installation ID. Thus far -- last night and this morning -- it has stumped everyone.

    Apparently, mine is the first case they've seen. I can't believe that, but that's what I'm being told.

    I've read my MSDN key over 10 times in the past hour. They've verified the key, checked it, and even issued me a "temporary" key. Everything works, but *everything* fails when the installation ID is generated.

    In fact, this "activation" is so anonymous that right now -- as of this morning -- Microsoft now has my name, address, email address, MSDN ID#, MSDN key, and a listing of each component in my computer.

    How's that for "activation" anonymity?