Just like the Navy told us, they shot that nasty satellite out of the sky with the kind of laser-like precision they’ve been claiming they’re capable of for years. At right around 10:30 this evening, expensive missiles were fired from the deck of the USS Lake Erie, traveling into space at an excess of 5,000mph, which then slammed into the Alien / zombie-juice / Russian controlled satellite (which itself was traveling at 17,000mph). Right now details are still sketchy on just how much damage was done to the object, but word on the street (aka, from the Navy) is that just about any hit to the satellite would put it out of our misery, due to the speed and trajectory at which it’s traveling. The story is still developing, so if any of the zombie spore does manage to reach Earth and spark an undead holocaust, we’ll be the first to let you know.

CNN Report says US NAVY fired the missle to shoot down the falling satellite.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/20/satellite.shootdown/index.html

Virus writers are creating malware that is specially designed to infect users in a specific country

The program is nasty. It deletes pictures and movies from your hard drive and then it teases you: “Even though Mr. Kaneko was found guilty, you are still using Winny. I really hate such people,” taunts an animated woman on your screen.

Welcome to the age of localized malware.

Over the past two years virus writers have increasingly targeted their malicious programs to users in different regions of the globe, creating programs that are specially designed to infect users in countries like Japan, Brazil, China or Germany.

Take the taunting Trojan, which goes after users of the Winny file-sharing program. (Winny creator Isamu Kaneko was convicted of abetting copyright violations in late 2006) Winny is file-sharing software that is incredibly popular in Japan, but virtually unknown outside of the region. Still, it’s been the target of several malware programs, according to Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager for McAfee Avert Labs. “Japan has some really unique factors that we just don’t see anywhere else,” he said. “There are a couple of malware writers in Japan who don’t like people who illegally share content.”

Previously, attackers would write programs that would affect the largest possible number of users, but that’s no longer necessarily the case, Marcus said. “What we’ve noticed over the last couple of years is that a growing amount of malware is localized.”

McAfee believes that there are a few reasons behind this shift. For one thing, writers no longer want the worldwide attention and law enforcement action that was garnered by outbreaks such as Sasser and Netsky.

And with users becoming more wary, hackers have to be crafty with their attacks — creating more targeted malware that victims are unlikely to have seen before. Another factor is that criminals are increasingly targeting their attacks to regions that have weak cybercrime enforcement, McAfee believes.

Regional attacks also cater to regional tastes. Online banking is widely used in Brazil, so much of the malware there tries to steal banking usernames and passwords. In China, online gaming is so popular that Chinese World of Warcraft password stealers are now the second-largest class of malware tracked by McAfee, Marcus said.

These regional attacks are part of an explosion of viruses and Trojan programs that is making life more difficult for people companies like McAfee that track and intercept the malware. In 2006, the company identified 53,537 unique pieces of malware according to data set to be published Thursday in Sage, McAfee’s semi-annual magazine devoted to security issues.

Last year that number jumped 246 percent to 131,862, and it could double again this year. By the end of 2008, McAfee expects to be identifying about 750 pieces of malware per day.

In what was described as the largest hacking scam in Canadian history, Quebec provincial police raided several homes across Quebec on Wednesday and arrested 16 people between the ages of 17 and 26.

The hacking network may have profited by as much as $45 million through the use of phishing sites set up on compromised computers. The majority of computers attacked by the network were in Poland and Brazil, but some PCs in Manitoba and the United States were also hacked, he said. Several government computers were also compromised, but investigators will not say in which country.

WalkBlue.com

Yesterday I came across a very new unique type of website. They call itself A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE. WalkBlue.com is a little different from all the other music websites. They are providing music in wma and mp3 format. You can simply search any kind of song in any language. Music from all around the world is available and is freely available to download. You can either listen to the tracks online or you can even download them.

Site: www.WalkBlue.com

Bill Gates believes Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo is “very fair” and has urged the company to re-think its rejection of the $44 billion deal.

Microsoft’s offer for Yahoo represented a 62% premium on the company’s value at the time of the bid, but Yahoo rejected the offer claiming it undervalued the company.

Gates says that Microsoft is not currently negotiating a further offer with Yahoo, although many analysts believe that the company would agree to a

slightly higher bid. However, Gates suggests that Microsoft was ready to invest heavily in web search, even if it failed to complete the takeover.

“We can afford to make big investments in the engineering and marketing that needs to get done. We will do that with or without Yahoo,” says Gates, who still remains the largest shareholder in Microsoft.

“But we also see that we’d get there faster if the great engineering work that Yahoo has done and the great engineers there were part of the common effort.”

Some analysts have suggested that Yahoo could face legal action from its shareholders for delaying a deal, or accepting a less competitive offer from another company.

“Doing some alternative deal is almost sure to be of less value to shareholders,” says Clayton Moran, an analyst with the Stanford Group in Houston. “You would see all sorts of lawsuits - and they would be lawsuits with merit.”

The format war ends with victory for Blu-ray, as Toshiba confirms speculation that it’s dropping HD DVD.

The decision by Toshiba to axe the format it pioneered was widely expected, after several high profile movie studios and content creators including Warner Bros dropped HD DVD support in favour of Blu-ray, while several retailers also walked away from selling HD DVD content, including Wal-mart and Netflix in the US and several retailers in the UK including Woolworths.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called “next-generation format war” and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” says Toshiba’s chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida in a statement.

“While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped.”

Nishida did not make any comment about the financial implications of Toshiba’s withdrawal of HD DVD, though the company is expected to report a significant financial loss in relation to unsold products and components, potential compensation to suppliers and partners, and the general write down of the value of its HD DVD operation on its balance sheet.

Implications
The company will now wind down shipments of HD DVD drives and associated components, with the intention of stopping supply altogether by the end of next month.

Retailers and PC builders are now expecting a sharp rise in sales of Blu-ray players and drives, with several of the major computing brands including Apple already a Blu-ray supporter, expected to add Blu-ray drives as an option for workstations and laptops.

Author: Chris Green

Microsoft’s controversial bid to have its Open XML format fast-tracked as an ISO standard has turned into a riot, according to a leading analyst.

Speaking at a Microsoft-hosted event, analyst David Mitchell revealed he used to lecture police on riot control, before eventually becoming the senior vice president of IT research at Ovum. “I thought I would never come back to talking about riot control until I got into the Open XML debate,” he claimed.

Mitchell said that people involved in riots fell into two camps: “decent orderly protestors and nutters”, and claims that both are participating in the OOXML process. “There are a number of comments that are decent technical debate,” he said. “There’s also a fair amount of radical activists who are protesting just to cause disruption.”

“I feel like getting hold of people and saying ‘get a life’,” he adds. “It’s only a document format. It’s just got too silly.”

Mitchell claims that opponents of OOXML have resorted to intimidation. “People have been trying to track down what hotels people have been staying at for the BRMs [Ballot Resolution Meetings]. Many voting decisions are not taken until the day. If you’ve had no sleep on the night before a vote [because of noisy protests], you might change your voting behaviour,” he said.

Conspiracy theory
The Ovum analyst also claimed that opponents are making a mountain out of a molehill over minor flaws in the standard. “Just because Microsoft makes mistakes it doesn’t mean it’s up to something,” he argued. “People build specifications, people build software, people make mistakes.

“Microsoft is not perfect. If some of the things said about Microsoft were true, Microsoft would have to be an awfully lot better organised than it is.”

Mitchell also attacked the ‘no’ voters who can’t justify their actions. “If people vote no or yes you would really like to know why. I have spoken to some people who’ve voted no and asked them why and they said ‘because we don’t like it’. If people are representing their country they should be able to more clearly defend what their national technological position is.”

“This a relatively simple process - it’s got way out of hand” he added.
Fanning the flames
Mitchell finally offered his hosts some advice, cautioning them to “chill out” when the criticism reaches fever pitch. “The more you fan the flames the more it gets worse. If you get upset personally and react to it, it gets worse.”

Sadly it appears Microsoft hasn’t taken the analyst’s advice. Included in its gargantuan press pack for the event is an eight-page document entitled “Open XML and ODF Adoption: Separating Fact From Fiction” which contrasts the so-called “FUD” from Microsoft’s opponents with Microsoft’s “facts”.

The third page of the document claims that “Microsoft has never opposed [rival format] ODF before governments, ISO, or elsewhere.” Page seven then lists the positions of various US states on document formats, which includes headlines such as “Oregon: ODF is too expensive to implement” and “Texas: ODF implementation costs too high and credibility too low.”
Author: Barry Collins

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp plans to invest heavily in Web search to compete against Google Inc, even if it fails to acquire Yahoo Inc, the company’s chairman Bill Gates said on Monday.

Gates, who called Microsoft’s offer for Yahoo “very fair,” said Google is the only company with “critical mass” in Web search. Microsoft needs a bigger piece of the market to create a more competitive and profitable Web search business.

“We can afford to make big investments in the engineering and marketing that needs to get done. We will do that with or without Yahoo,” said Gates in an interview with Reuters.

“But we also see that we’d get there faster if the great engineering work that Yahoo has done and the great engineers there were part of the common effort,” said Gates, who is Microsoft’s biggest shareholder.

The two companies are at a stand-off in Microsoft’s $41.7 billion unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo. Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $31 a share in cash and stock, a bid which Yahoo’s board rejected, saying it undervalued the company.

Microsoft countered by saying its offer was “full and fair,” but did not say what it planned to do next. Analysts expect Microsoft to sweeten its bid, possibly to $35 a share, to clinch a deal.

“There is nothing new in terms of the process. We’ve sent our letter and we’ve reinforced that we consider that it’s a very fair offer,” said Gates, who remains the public face of Microsoft, even though he plans to switch to a part-time role at the company in June to focus on his philanthropic work.

Microsoft’s stock has fallen 13 percent since its offer for Yahoo, reducing Microsoft’s offer price to $29. Yahoo shares closed at $29.66 on the Nasdaq on Friday, indicating that investors expect Microsoft to raise its bid.

(Reporting by Daisuke Wakabayashi; Editing by Valerie Lee)

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He further announced that he would now buy at $20.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50!

However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers.

Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected.

I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell it to him for $50.”

The villagers squeezed up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!!!

I came across an interesting website where a Photoshop designer made some interesting pictures of Google and Yahoo! So i wanted to share it with you all guys!