Microsoft is spammer’s choice

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MICROSOFT has been dubbed the spammer’s friend making number five in the list of top ten spamming ISPs.

According Spamhaus.org, spammers are advertising links to sites that “peddle fake pharmacy products, porn, and Nigerian 419 scams” on Microsoft’s Live.com and Livefilestore.com sites because they know that the Microsoft sites won’t get blocked by antispam groups.

Brian Krebs, on his Security Fix Blog at the Washington Post, said that it has been warning Vole about the problem for ages but the outfit is putting its paws in its ears and going lah lah lah.

Other security companies, including McAfee and Marshal, have also been warning about increases in spam and scams on Microsoft-hosted sites.

 

 I wonder why Microsoft is doing nothing and plays deaf about this issue? It’s pretty obvious that plenty of their hosted sites are indeed filled with spam.

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Malware spoofs AVG web site

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A DANGEROUS new variant of malware is attacking PCs in the UK, the INQ has discovered. It hijacks the victim’s browser and directs them to a fake site masquerading as AVG’s own front page.

THE URL which the INQ has discovered is http://0fficial-page-com/AVG1. [Note that it uses a zero not a capital 'o'.] Don’t be fooled.

According to Rick Ferguson, a senior security advisor with anti-virus specialist, Trend Micro, this type of attack isn’t original but the danger has so far received only minimal publicity.

 

Again, please make sure that the site you’re accessing is the real deal. Carefully look at the URL before you make a transaction with it (login especially).

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IT cutbacks for 2012 Olympics

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IN A MOVE FOR SUSTAINABILITY the IT backbone for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is to be cut.

According to the Games’ chief integrator, Michele Hyron of Atos Origin, each section of the computing infrastructure will be made more efficient in order to minimise redundant equipment and hopefully reduce energy consumption.

Atos will be coordinating the technology infrastructure that will handle sporting results from over 90 venues across the UK. The IT company hopes to continue building and using the Commentator Information System it offered during the Beijing Games.

 

Reading this, I remembered what my INFORES Professor, Ms. Marilyn Libunao, said about costing, “It’s always the IT that gets a cut in costs and budgeting.” Hopefully the quality will not be sacrificed by removing some of the “redundant” equipments needed.

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Lycos Europe comes to the end of the road

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LYCOS EUROPE IS WAVING the white flag of surrender and admitting no one actually wants to buy the flailing portal, once so popular in the late 90s.

Lycos has been sinking for a while, last month announcing it had seen a 20 per cent drop in revenue to $60.8 million and a net loss of €17.1 million. The firm will be packing up its portal and its web hosting activities as well as selling off bits and pieces of its assets to the highest bidder. Lycos Europe’s domain names, Danish business and shopping sites are all up for grabs.

In a press release, the firm said its investors would vote on certain management proposals at a December 12th meeting, after which Lycos Europe would probably be handing back €50 million to its shareholders. Whispers are already hinting that between 500 and 700 souls will lose their jobs.

 

Lycos was indeed one of the famous site providers in the 90’s. Too bad it had to give up to giants such as Yahoo, Google, and the rest of the gang.

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Nokia announces new home automation platform

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NOKIA HAS ANNOUNCED today that it is developing a ’smart home platform’ which will open up a new era for networked home services and solutions.

Nokia Home Control Centre will be the basis for next generation home security, home solutions as well as a household energy management system.

The system’s core consumer value will be a plug and play experience across all solution sectors with an integrated security system built-in.

All solutions based on the platform can be used through a smart phone or PC locally or remotely meaning that consumers can monitor and control their electricity usage, switch devices on and off, and monitor different objects, such as temperature, camera, and motion.

 

Nice, the notion of Bluetooth being the one to create an all-in-one home is now being transferred to a mobile phone. Imagine having your mobile phone turn on your lights, turn off your aircon, etc.? It’s finally nearing reality – hopefully at a cost that doesn’t peg higher than the worth of your home.

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Scientists explore magnetic properties of semiconductors

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SOME SPECIALLY BUILT semiconductors have been found to display important magnetic properties which could lead to the development of smaller, faster gadgets.

Boffins from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Korea University and the University Of Notre Dame carried out tests which demonstrated the rare magnetic property, prompting hopes for future magnetic data storage in semiconductor material. This potentially means faster data processing through built-in logic circuits controlled by electric fields because Semiconductors with magnetic properties would not only be able to process data, but also store it.

 

Imagine your desktop’s CPU box being as small as that of your Netbook without sacrificing the processing speed – pretty neat. Now if only this theory will come into production lines soon enough.

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Aussies revolt over government’s censorship plans

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THE AUSTRALIAN government’s plans to set up a Chinese style firewall and censor the web so that it only says good things is facing a backlash from important political activists.

The group which helped free David Hicks and abolish Work Choices scheme, GetUp, has now set its sights on the Government’s censorship plans.

GetUp plans to run mainstream ads and offline action that will be as elaborate as its ‘Free Hicks’ campaign. A petition on its website has attracted over 22,000 signatures in just a day and GetUp said it had received more emails urging them to act on this issue than any other campaign in recent history.

 

Well, I suppose at least we can be relieved that corporations are not the only ones putting up walls around us – or should we be relieved? Governments are doing it! Come on! Why censor the web? Can’t everybody read somebody else’s rant and make a benefit out of it?

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Nokia to pull out of Japan

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THE WORLD’S LARGEST mobile maker has decided to pull out of the largest market on the planet.

Nokia has announced it will stop manufacturing cell phones for NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Mobile.

Nokia executive vice president Timo Ihamuotila said in a statement that his outfit will continue producing its luxury Vertu brand, for now. But the current global economic climate, means that chucking money around investing in Japan-specific localised products is no longer a good idea.

 

Talk about a mobile phone giant leaving Japan – I guess the pressure of having Japan’s market looking for more flexible and innovative gadgets than what even Apple’s iPhone could not offer has made Nokia chicken out of the country.

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Toshiba optimistic about SSD rescuing NAND maker

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SENDING POSITIVE VIBES to NAND flash memory makers everywhere, Toshiba says it’s optimistic about wider NAND flash deployment in the next couple of years, mainly within Solid State Drives.

Analysts believe that Toshiba’s positive outlook could do much to lift the sagging spirits of firms like Phison Electronics – Tosh’s strategic partner flash controller – as well as Data Technology, Kingston Technology, Power Quotient International (PQI) and Transcend Information.

 

Solid State Drives (SSD), are some of the drives used in the netbooks we have today such as that of Asus EEE, Acer Aspire One, and HP’s Mini Note. Currently just at 8GB, and pretty recently at 16GB, it can’t be pretty far off that these SSD’s will soon reach hard drives capacity at just 5% of the size of the drives we mount on our computers today. It’s pretty obvious as to why Toshiba’s optimistic about it.

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US retail websites slowed on Black Friday

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IN A HOPEFUL SIGN for the health of this year’s holiday shopping season, US retailers’ websites staggered under the crush of online traffic Friday.

Sears.com slowed at about 9:30 am, when loading a webpage took more than a minute. It finally went down under the crowd of wibbling bargain hunters at about 10:30 am. For the next two hours the site displayed a message asking punters to try again later.

 

Finally, good news behind all the economic turmoil – at least sales are somewhat picking up. Barely can I read news like these lately of retail websites earning traffic more than it can handle.

This post is also available in our VERTSOL Class’ group site. Feel free to check it here.