After finding a few last-minute problems with Vista Service Pack 1 and XP Service Pack 3, Microsoft delayed deployment on both of them. Now they're both back and ready for download, either manually or through Windows Update.

Hold on there, pilgrim! There's no hurry. Urgent updates such as security patches are delivered as soon as they're available. The additional patches in service packs deal with problems that are not security issues. The Vista file copy performance problem, for example, has been fixed by Vista SP1, along with dozens of other issues. The XP SP3 fix list is similarly impressive. Yet there's no need to jump right on to installing these service packs unless they fix a problem you urgently need to solve.

Don't fool yourself, there can be problems caused by service packs. Every new service pack release can be guaranteed to be chased by a news story about users whose systems have been brought low by it. But heck, XP SP3 is a minor update when compared with the incompatibilities of XP SP2; up to 10% of systems had issues with that one. But when all was said and done, XP SP2 was the best thing that ever happened to Windows.

These latest updates were delayed at the last minute when an incompatibility was discovered in Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System. Imagine updating your operating system and finding that your store management system wouldn't work properly -- yeah, bummer. Microsoft was quick to isolate the issue and create a patch.

Just in case you do take the jump soon and have a problem with Vista SP1, my fellow InformationWeek blogger Serdar Yegulalp has put together a detailed guide for getting out of trouble.

If you're anxious to get the jump on XP SP3, even if it's just for testing purposes, Microsoft has both an ISO image and a network installation package.

Really, though, don't bust a gut trying to deploy these immediately. If you don't want to be the pioneer on these service packs, wait for a month and keep an eye on the tech news sites. If the buzz is generally positive, go for it.

Over the past three days, Yahoo has been exposing visitors to banner ads that try to trick them into installing malware, and there's no indication anyone at the company is even aware of the problem.

According to Microsoft MVP Sandi Hardmeier's "Spyware Sucks" blog, the ads are displayed across a wide swath of the web portal's sprawling empire, including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Groups and Yahoo Astrology. Hardmeier first sounded the alarm on Saturday, and yet on Monday, Yahoo continued to run the rogue ads, she reported. El Reg emailed three different Yahoo PR reps but never did get a response.

"I wonder how many hits Yahoo gets per day, and how many people are being exposed to fraudware, while these advertisements are allowed to remain online," Hardmeier wrote.

The ads pitch women's deodorant, but behind the scenes, they contact servers that have been used by previous rogue ads targeting high-traffic websites. Typically, the ads produce a pop up that looks strikingly similar to official Windows dialog pop-ups that urge the end user to download software to fix problems. Expedia, Rhapsody, MySpace, Excite, Blick, and CNN.com have all served up similar malicious ads in the past.

Attackers who shoe horn their banners onto reputable sites usually take advantage of the highly decentralized way that online advertisements are sold. It's not unusual for there to be a succession of affiliates, making it possible for an attacker to pose as an authorized agent of a name-brand product or service. In this case, Yahoo has gotten hoodwinked into running ads that point to adtds2.promoplexer.com, which has been implicated in previous rogue banner attacks.

Remember, folks, that the NoScript extension for Firefox is your friend here. Even if you've whitelisted Yahoo, it will block Adobe Flash being sent from the attacker's website. Nice to know someone's looking out for you. ®

Russian malware developers have been adding copyright rules to the programs they sell illegally on the Internet


April 29, 2008

Some malware developers have taken to copyrighting their work, according to Symantec. The security company highlighted in its blog that Russian malware developers have been adding copyright rules to the programs they sell illegally on the Internet.


In the terms and conditions of Zeus -- a malware program Symantec investigated -- the copyright states purchasers must not freely distribute the software once they've bought it. The licence also gives the malware writer the right to charge for any update to the product in the future as well as demanding the code is not reverse engineered.

The malware developers also highlighted in the terms and conditions that if the copyright is broken the code for the malware will be passed onto antivirus companies.

"Despite the clear licensing agreement and the associated warnings, this package still ended up being traded freely in underground forums shortly after it was released," says Liam Ouch author of the blog.

"It just goes to show you just can't trust anyone in the underground these days," he adds.

What Edubuntu can teach your kids

Edubuntu is a customized version of Ubuntu aimed at children in educational environments. According to the distributions homepage, Edubuntu is "Linux for Young Human Beings." That works out well for me, since I have three of those in my house. I homeschool my children and use Edubuntu on a couple of our computers. My boys love having an operating system that was designed with them in mind, and I appreciate the way its applications encompass the total learning process.

Edubuntu is based on the Ubuntu Linux operating system and geared for a wide age-range of children from youngsters just learning to read all the way through teenagers getting ready to enter college. It comes bundled with the KDE Edutainment Suite and dozens of other applications and tools to enhance learning in virtually every school subject -- math, reading, art, computer science, language arts, and more. Edubuntu's default interface is GNOME, but KDE is also available. While Edubuntu used extensively in classrooms across the globe, it is easy to install on a laptop or desktop computer for home use.

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Formula One motor racing is no longer about famous car marques, its about precise science and using technology to shave another fraction of a second off a lap time, and Linux is playing a pivotal role in helping the race teams achieve this.

As a technical sport motor racing demands of its participants a close understanding of the technologies that can help them. F1 motor racing is probably second only to the aerospace industry in the application of aerodynamic simulation and wind tunnel technology. It is a testament to the rapid advance of Linux in high performance computing that most teams in Formula 1 have been using Linux systems in their aerodynamic and engine workshops for a number of years.

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gOS Rocket-beta was based on the Ubuntu 7.10 distribution. It uses the Enlightenment 17 window manager instead of the usual GNOME or KDE desktops, to create a desktop that has similar usability to Mac OS X. This is possible because of the flexibility of Enlightenment. Enlightenment acts both as an X window manager, and as a desktop environment. Therefore Rocket works on systems as low end as a 350 MHz Pentium II with 196 MB of RAM.[3] But a typical gOS system would use as a minimum a 1 GHz Pentium III with 256 MB RAM.

http://www.thinkgos.com/