TechBulletin

Although it has been available for a few days now, WordPress 2.0 ‘Duke’ is now official.

In fact has already had been downloaded more than 33,000 times as I write this! You can download it from the revamped WordPress.org web site.

There is a lot of new code in this release, most of which is concerned with either the Administration interface, especially the WYSIWYG write interface, or under the hood stuff which will benefit plugin and theme developers. There are a whole bunch of bug fixes too.

» Read More: Wordpress.org
» Download: Wordpress 2.0 Duke

According to Eric Auchard who wrote this report on Reuters Internet users share many common interests, but men are heavier consumers of news, stocks, sports and pornography while more women look for health and religious guidance, a broad survey of U.S. Web usage has found.

» Complete report on Reuters.co.uk

According to TheStreet.com, Apple may well be on its way to update or phase out the 1 GB version of the iPod Shuffle if the availability of this model at the Apple online store and various Apple Stores is taken as an Indication.

Amazon.com simply says this model is “un-available”. Even on Apple’s online store, this model is out of stock since Mid-December.

According to a survey carried out at 12 Apple Stores, 7 of them didn’t know when exactly they will get new stocks of this popular digital music player.

Can this be taken as an indication that Apple will launch new iPod along with the Intel Macs at Mac World, San Francisco on Jan 10, 2006? Time will tell..

A newfound flaw found in Windows is being used by hackers to install malicious code on PCs. Users can infect their computers by visiting certain Web sites that are able to exploit some Windows-based applications, Internet security company Panda Software said. It called the discovery “one of the most serious vulnerabilities recently detected.”

The flaw leaves PCs open to adware,spyware and even Trojans, which can hide damaging programs. Internet Explorer, Outlook and the Windows Picture and Fax viewer are used to insert the potentially harmful code, said Patrick Hinojosa, chief technology officer of Panda.

According to a Microsoft official’s blog, Microsoft’s upcoming Outlook “12″ will be able to monitor Really Simply Syndication (RSS) feeds from within the e-mail client. RSS is an XML-based syndication protocol that has been gaining in popularity in recent years as more news sites add feeds to send information updates to subscribers and with the explosion of Weblog usage.

Outlook doesn’t currently have its own RSS aggregator and reader. So third-party developers have come out with an array of readers, including Outlook plugins like NewsGator, Attensa and IntraVnews, which let users access RSS feeds from within Microsoft’s e-mail client.

Source: ENT News

Microsoft has issued a Security Advisory (912840) concerning the recent WMF vulnerability exploit. Microsoft also confirmed the REGSVR32 workaround as a viable solution to protect your PC until they have had time to fully research the vulnerability and issue a patch. The following is a quote from the Microsoft Security Advisory.

Un-register the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (Shimgvw.dll)

Impact of Workaround: The Windows Picture and Fax Viewer will no longer be started when users click on a link to an image type that is associated with the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. To undo this change, re-register Shimgvw.dll by following the above steps. Replace the text in Step 1 with “regsvr32 %windir%/system32/shimgvw.dll” (without the quotation marks).

Antivirus and Security Experts at F-Secure advise that this method is more secure than simply filtering WMF content, as many types of image files (.GIF, .BMP, .JPG, .TIF, etc…) could be used in this exploit. F-Secure warns that to date they have only experienced spyware and fake antispyware / antivirus installations with this exploit but that more serious infections may be coming soon.

Source: Microsoft Security Advisory 912840

A new exploit has been discovered that affects Windows XP SP2 systems, according to reports by security firms F-Secure and Sunbelt. Malware is downloaded and installed on the affected systems by taking advantage of a vulnerabiliy in the WMF graphics rendering engine.

WMF, or Windows Metafile, is a vector based image format used by Microsoft’s operating systems. SHIMGVW.DLL is loaded to render the images and contains a flaw that opens the door for a malformed WMF image to cause remote code execution and potentially allow for a full system compromise.

F-Secure is detecting the offending WMF files as W32/PFV-Exploit.A, .B and .C.

According to F-Secure it is very easy to fall victim to this exploit, especially if you are using Internet Explorer. It’s as simple as visiting an infected web site or viewing a folder with infected files with Windows Explorer. F-Secure has informed Microsoft and while a patch is expected to be issued quickly, they warn that Windows administrators and/or users may want to filter all WMF files until a patch is released.

Source: BetaNews

Beta Coordinator for Microsoft,Eric Brodish, has sent out invites to testers asking them to participate in a new Service Pack for Microsoft Update v6. The beta is scheduled to start in the beginning of next year and will concentrate on improving services to Microsoft Update.

Microsoft Update combines Windows and Office updates to a central point and when a user activates the service it replaces Windows Update. It is not yet the default service linked from Internet Explorer or Automatic Updates from Windows XP.

Spyware and keystroke loggers have often been thought of as a Windows only problem, but Nicholas Raba, CEO of SecureMac.com and co-author of Maximum Security says many Apple Macintosh users may have a false sense of security. SecureMac has released MacScan which detects and removes Macintosh spyware, remote administration utilities and keystroke loggers.

MacScan, one of the few Macintosh anti-spyware programs, was released in 2002 and recently reached version 2.0. It currently recognizes, quarantines and deletes dozens of spyware programs and keystroke loggers.

Raba said that spyware makers have not hit the Macintosh as hard as Windows because there is much more money to be made by spreading spyware on Windows. He adds that it is technically a bit harder to get malicious code to run on Mac OS X’s BSD-based kernel.

Read more

Apple computer will adopt Intel processor next year. According to the understanding, the ODM order of new Apple notebook has been obtained by Quanta and Asustek.

It will help increasing the total production of first quarter next year for both companies. However, Quanta and Asustek both make no comments on this. Apple computer stated it would exhibit its desktop and notebook with Intel processor at Mac World Expo in San Francisco, USA from 9th to 13th January next year.

Due to the low price strategy to grab market share from the major notebook companies such as HP and DELL, Apple is occupying less and less market share. Apple initially used Apple processors provided exclusively by IBM. However, due to the lack of economics of scale, Apple has turned to Intel processors. Besides the cost consideration, analyst thinks the Intel processor’s low power consumption and the opportunities of developing other new markets are the main reasons contributing to Apple’s switch to Intel.

Quanta and Asustek are the main ODM notebook partners of Apple. Quanta is responsible to high level model, Power Book and Asustek is in charge of entry level model, i-Book. This working module for Intel ODM will maintain for next year. Asustek will work on the consumer type of products and Quanta will be in charge of high-level model M1.

Santa Clara (CA) - The successor of the first generation dual-core desktop processor Pentium D 800 has been in mass-production for well over three months. Intel announced the flagship of the upcoming second-generation Pentium D 900, code-named Presler: The Pentium D 955 rings in the transition from a 90 to a 65 nm production process and the final stage of the aging “NetBurst” architecture.

If it wasn’t for the new 65 nm production process, the features of the Pentium D 955 almost could be overlooked. In the end, the new chip, formerly code-named “Presler” can be viewed as transitional microchip that simply is here bridge the time until Intel’s new universal microarchitecture arrives in June or July of 2006.

Intel’s decision to first move the Pentium 4 architecture to 65 nm is in line with previous transition strategies, as the company typically uses the most mature processor to debut in the production process. The NetBurst architecture is the prime candidate, despite it is running out of steam in terms of scalability and can reach bunsen burner temperatures. It was introduced in November of 2000 with the first generation Pentium 4 (”Willamette”) and was produced in the hundreds of millions, which makes it less risky to transition than any other processor architecture Intel currently builds.

Read more

Intel Inside, the tag line that Intel has been using for the past 16 years, appears to be on its way out, according to reports. If the reports are true, Intel is ready to roll out a new identity the first week of January to coincide with a new advertising campaign. While rumors of this have been circulating since November, little else had been said until this point.

The Intel Inside logo was first introduced way back in 1991 and since then “Intel Inside” has become one of the most recognizable trademarks worldwide.

Source: The Economic Times

Earlier this month Microsoft released a preview of its design tool for its upcoming Windows Presentation Foundation subsystem, also known as Avalon. Known as “Cider”, Microsoft’s Visual Designer for the Windows Presentation Foundation is set to be part of Visual Studio “Orcas,” the next major release of Microsoft’s Visual Studio tool suite, which is expected to support Windows Vista development. Orcas is slated for release in 2007.

The December CTP (Community Technology Preview) build is the first public release of Cider, company officials acknowledged. Microsoft posted the Cider CTP code on its Web site for download as part of the Orcas WinFX Development Tools (CTP) release. The Orcas WinFX development tool CTP build enables developers building WinFX applications to use the final released version of Visual Studio 2005.

Source: eWEEK

A virus masquerading as a new beta version of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger has begun circulating, antivirus company F-Secure said on its blog Tuesday.

The virus, which F-Secure calls Virkel.F, comes as a file called BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE that can be downloaded from a Web site. Running the program installs not a new MSN Messenger beta, but rather a virus that sends download links to a computer user’s MSN Messenger buddies. The virus falsely labels the link as “MSN Messenger 8 Working BETA.”

“It also connects your machine to a botnet server,” F-Secure warned, meaning that a person’s computer can be controlled remotely to attack other machines or send spam.

Malicious software that uses instant messenger programs is growing more common. A November study by Akonix Systems identified 62 examples.

And Microsoft’s instant-messenger infrastructure is the most popular conduit for attack, IMlogic said in an October study.

Source: ZDNet News

Word is out that Wordpress 2.0 is released and people are in the look out for new themes.

K2 the next dominating wordpress theme, is going to be released for Wordpress 2.0 .

K2 Beta One r133 for WordPress 2.0 has been released and ready for download.

Watch out for the final release of K2.

A measure to legalize P2P file sharing has passed through France’s lower house amidst a storm of protest from the country’s film, music, and audiovisual industries. If the measure passes through the government’s upper house, France would become the first nation to legalize P2P file sharing during a time in which most Western nations are attempting to reduce its widespread use.

Introduced as a pair of amendments to a bill aimed at toughening the country’s digital copyright laws, the vote passed by 30-28 at around midnight Wednesday night, with a vast majority of the National Assembly’s 577 members absent. The amendments recommend that internet users pay an $8.50 a month royalty fee for unlimited P2P downloading for private use.

France’s top artists and entertainers fervently oppose the bill, threatening to “march to the National Assembly if need be” to stop the bill from becoming a law, according to a spokesperson for audiovisual production union USPA.

Source: Reuters

Windows Vista will improve search functionality on a PC by letting users tag files with metadata, but those tags could cause unwanted and embarrassing information disclosure, Gartner analysts have warned.

Search and organization capabilities are among the primary features of Windows Vista, the successor to Windows XP due out late in 2006. While building those features, Microsoft is not paying enough attention to managing the descriptive information, or metadata, that users can add to files to make it easier to find and organize data on a PC, according to Gartner.

“This opens up the possibility of the inadvertent disclosure of this metadata to other users inside and outside of your organization,” Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald wrote in a research note published on Thursday.

Source: C|Net News

The second beta release of Internet Explorer 7 will have support for URLs written in different languages, widely seen as critical for making the Internet more international, according to a Microsoft Corp. developer. IE 7 will use APIs (application programming interfaces) to convert domain names to punycode, wrote Vishu Gupta, an IE developer.

Punycode is an ASCII translation of Unicode domain names, the format allowed by the DNS.

IE 6 does not support punycode, and some Web sites work around it by linking to punycoded URLs, Gupta wrote. In IE 7, the Unicode domain names will be converted to punycode just before the domain name is resolved and sent to the proxy. Users can turn off the IDN (international domain name) function in the control panel under a new control, called “international”.IE 7 would then function the same as IE 6, Gupta wrote.

With the latest version, Windows Media Player will be the next dominant way to deliver downloadable content to television sets, personal computers and handheld devices. The software giant next month will roll out a new version of the media player which executives say will change the experience of watching Internet-delivered video.

Already, MTV Networks has announced it will roll out its own music download service on this new version of Microsoft’s player, competing with Apple Computer Inc.s iTunes and Real Networks Inc.s Rhapsody.

But that’s just the tip of what Microsoft says will be a growing mountain of content geared for its player. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 5, founder and chairman Bill Gates will not just tout MTVs new service, known as Urge, but is likely to announce agreements with other content providers as well.

A group of malicious hackers is using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer software to push copies of movies and Disney cartoons onto infected machines. A group of hackers in the Middle East is believed to be responsible for the BitTorrent infections, which were observed on a network of computers infected by a recent instant message worm.

It is the first known instance of the popular P2P software being used by hackers for malicious purposes, according to researchers at FaceTime Communications Inc., an IM security company. BitTorrent is a popular, free, open-source file sharing software program that allows users to share files on a distributed network of computers.

Source: eWeek