Windows

We use IBM’s Lotus Sametime as our IM client at work. And i like to be signed in all the time even on my Arch machine at home. Pidgin does support sametime protocol, but through an external library called meanwhile. Although most popular distributions have meanwhile in their main repos, Arch does not. It has the meanwhile library in AUR. And due to this, the pidgin in Arch has meanwhile support disabled. But even so, the latest stable meanwhile library (1.0.2) has a nasty bug which does not report the correct online status of buddies. Most online buddies are shown as being offline. The problem has been fixed in the SVN version, but unfortunately ALL distributions carry the buggy version of meanwhile. It took me around 5-6 months to get to the root cause of this bug, and yes, i have managed to fix it in Arch. I’m providing here a compiled version of the fixed meanwhile library (64 bit). I’m also providing a complete tutorial on how to compile pidgin with meanwhile support on Arch. ...

Taken from The Linux and OpenSource blog: If you’re buying a new computer in the near future, it may be a good idea to avoid systems with Phoenix bios on them. There’s recent proof that their 2003 contract with Microsoft has born fruit in their latest bios versions which now prevent you from installing any OS other than Vista. Not only is this a really, really bad move by Phoenix, but it’s also another strike against Microsoft as it seems to be trying to become uber monopolistic in the PC market again simply by locking out anyone and everyone they can. Thank goodness the open bios project is in full swing. We may need them in the near future. ...

Windows Vista will be the last big Windows operating system. Further more, Microsoft is losing its grip on the desktop to business solutions built on SaaS, open source and virtualization. These are the conclusions put forward by analysts from Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs’ perspective on Windows Vista is not singular. In fact, the view that Vista is the last client operating system from Microsoft has been perpetuating itself even before the product hit the shelves. In fact, back in 2006, Gartner analysts have also put forward the possibility that Windows Vista would be the last of its kind. ...

Microsoft has managed to put itself in an uncomfortable position after serving malicious code to Windows Live Messenger users via ads embedded in the instant messaging client. According to the Redmond Company, actions were taken swiftly in order to remove an advertisement banner featured for several days in the IM program that pointed to a “security” solution delivering anything but security. “We have learned that Microsoft was notified of malware that was being served through ads placed in Windows Live Messenger banners. As a result of this notification Microsoft immediately investigated the reports and removed the offending ads, as this is a violation of Microsoft’s ad serving policy. Microsoft can confirm that the ads are no longer being served by any Microsoft system,” said Whitney Burk, a company PR manager. ...

Windows Vista is on the shelves! Available for the general public, not only for enterprises, everyone can upgrade the current Windows XP or buy the brand new OS from Microsoft. Due to different reasons like high hardware requirements, software incompatibility or the price, some people cannot afford to do the migration, at least not in the near future. Of course there are also the conservative users who attached themselves too much to the XP that now they hesitate to make the move believing in its endurance. ...

Kaspersky regards the Kernel Patch Protection introduced in 64-bit Windows Vista as a joke. Alisa Shevchenko, Virus analyst, Kaspersky Lab, claims that PatchGuard can “hardly be viewed as providing serious protection against rootkits.” In this context, Kaspersky has revealed that the Windows Vista kernel, for 64-bit platforms only, is just “allegedly” immune to modifications. “It is, by its very nature, vulnerable, as is demonstrated by the existence of documented methods for disabling protection. The major vulnerability within PatchGuard is architectural: the code which ensures protection is executed at the same level as code which it is both designed to protect, and to protect against. This protection has the same rights as a potential attacker, and can be evaded or disabled. Ways in which PatchGuard can be exploited or disabled are already known,” explained Shevchenko. ...

With Windowsultimate.com, a website dedicated to Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft is offering a life experience outside the box. “Welcome to the new website for Windows Vista Ultimate. This is a space where we, the people who make Windows Vista Ultimate and Ultimate Extras, can talk to you about what we’re doing”, reads Microsoft’s welcoming message. The Redmond Company informed that it plans to introduce a high frequency rate of updates to the website and therefore has made available an RSS feed that would enable users to stay up to date with Windowsultimate.com. ...

$50,000 for a Windows Vista zero-day exploit. The 0-day exploits have not been released in the wild but are, instead, made an integer part of the underground Internet commerce. The Proof of Concept code for an exploit affecting Microsoft’s latest operating system can cost as much as $50.000. As far, neither the exploit nor the PoC for Windows Vista have been submitted to an independent evaluation process. In this context, the authenticity of the Windows Vista 0-day exploit has not been confirmed from any sources aside from its creators. Microsoft has, as yet, failed to issue an official comment. ...

Building on feedback from the 29 million downloads of VLC media player 0.8.5, we bring you version 0.8.6 with many bugfixes, as well as a couple of new features we think you will truly enjoy. Most prominent are probably Windows Media Video 9 and Flash Video. Other important changes are improved H.264 decoding, better Windows Unicode support, a Fullscreen controller and Apple Remote support for Mac OS X. Have a look here for the full list of changes. ...

The most luxurious hotel in the world was the stage where Microsoft launches Windows Vista, the Office 2007 System and Exchange Server 2007. The three Microsoft products were released with both English and Arabic language support. “Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system are among Microsoft’s most significant product innovations, representing years of research and development,” said Mr. Ali Faramawy, Vice President Microsoft Europe, Middle East & Africa and Regional Vice President, Microsoft Middle East & Africa. “These products will help businesses overcome the challenges of our increasingly information-saturated world, enhancing the way people collaborate, communicate, protect and manage content, and find, use and share information.” ...