Tech30 Technology and Trends
Enter your search terms

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Microsoft to Introduce Digital Rights Management in Windows

Don't you feel that you have a tad to much freedom with your Windows operating system? Microsoft does. So what if you paid for a full license? It is still a Microsoft product, and Microsoft should

control what you do with your/their operating system. Sounds like paranoia? Well, it will become reality together with the modular Windows operating system. With this, Microsoft will deliver a core functionality module, or a basic kernel and fee or subscription based add-on modules that will built a complete operating system adding functionality, capabilities, features and support for hardware, peripherals, communication and applications/bundles.

Here is Microsoft's take on Digital Rights Management: “a digital signature may be used to confirm the integrity of an add-on module prior to installation. Certification may be verified to determine if installation of the add-on module is authorized. By withholding certification, a service provider may manage illegal or undesired modifications to a provided computer. Digital rights management may be used to enforce terms of use of the add-on module in keeping with licensing arrangements.

”All the additional features, capabilities, support, applications and hardware will be handled via DRM through a “cryptographic service comprising at least one of digital signature support or digital rights management support.”Microsoft adds: “digital rights management may be used to manage add-on modules. As opposed to the prior art, where the operating system is available in perpetuity, add-on modules may be available for limited periods of time, based on the license terms. It may also be possible to allow only certified or authorized add-on modules to be installed, enabling digital rights management to allow selective purchase by users, fraud control for providers and also to restrict unauthorized operating system extensions from being installed that may support unauthorized hardware and/or software.”

This means that you will no longer be able to install modular Windows modules, hardware and software that are not AUTORIZED by MICROSOFT!!!

Friday, December 15, 2006

Google Launches US Patents Search

Google has launched a new search service, specifically for patents, with a database of over 7 million US patents, dating from 1790.


Google Patent Search, launched in beta this week, will add additional patents in future, using the same technology as Google's existing Book Search. The search allows users to scroll through pages and zoom into text and illustrations. It also has an Advanced Patent Search page, for a faster search by criteria, including patent number, inventor, and filing date. Users may also view images of original patents online.

Doug Banks, Software Engineer posted on the Google Blog, "We've all heard about the Wright brothers, Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell — famous inventors whose creative minds changed the course of history. But there are many more like them, and millions of inventions that have been patented in the U.S. alone — from useful everyday items such as adhesive tape and contact lenses to, er, things useful in specific situations, like a shark protector suit or an amusement device incorporating simulated cheese and mice.

"The Google Patent Search is aimed at inventors, as well as intellectual property firms conducting research on their clients' behalf. However, the search does not include patent applications, international patents or U.S. patents issued since mid-2006. Google is currently working on the patent search, to enable surfers to save and print results, in the near future.Read more here.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

AOL Engine Safest, While Yahoo! is Risky

Web security firm, McAfee Inc. has released a report of its study on five major search engines, based on the extent to which they compromise on their users' online safety. According to an investigation, among the five most popular Internet search sites, AOL emerged as the safest engine, with just 4.4 percent of its search results linking users to risky Web sites. AOL is followed by Google and Ask Now, but Yahoo! and MSN are found to return riskier results.


McAfee SiteAdvisor, which was in charge of the investigation, added red, yellow, or green ratings to sites and search results, representing more than 95 percent of the trafficked Web. Red ratings were assigned to risky sites that fail one or more of McAfee's tests for adware, spyware, viruses, exploits, spam e- mail, excessive pop-ups, green rated sites passed each of these tests and yellow ratings were given to sites which pass McAfee's safety tests but still warrant a user advisory.

McAfee estimates that internet search engine users click through to risky sites more than 268 million times each month. While 8.0% of sponsored results by the five major search engines are rated red or yellow, McAfee found that adult search terms are twice as likely to lead to unsafe results as non-adult search terms.

McAfee also analyzed a number of popular and risky search words, and found that queries containing the word "free" are particularly likely to lead users to unscrupulous sites. Among the Google Zeitgeist search terms analyzed, the most dangerous category is 'Technology, gadgets and gizmos' which includes terms such as 'ipod nano', 'mp3 music downloads', and 'winmx'. Another dangerous Google Zeitgeist category is 'childhood favorites' (6.7% risky results) with keywords such as 'Winnie the Pooh' and 'Tweety'.

This investigation, which is a follow up to the McAfee study on Internet search engines in May 2006, also shows that overall riskiness of search engines declined by 12.0%, while the percentage of red and yellow sites in sponsored ads decreased by almost 6%, since May. While AOL replaces MSN as the safest engine, Yahoo! replaces Ask as the engine with the most risky results. The study was conducted by compiling a list of approximately 2,500 popular keywords derived from lists of common searches from the search engines themselves and other industry sources.

Local Virtual Mobile Mart Launched

Ikon infoservices has launched www.SMS.in that allows users to browse and discover features compatible with their personal handsets for free.





A prepaid account with www.SMS.in, will allow users to download mobile ringtones, games, wallpapers, logos, themes and send text messages of 160+ characters from their computer to any GSM-enabled handset. On registration, users will be allowed three free SMS messages.

According to Kaushal Gandhi, director, www.SMS.in, Indian mobile users are tired of having to ape Western concepts in handset personalization and many people choose not to upgrade their mobiles because the available themes are outdated, boring and incompatible with their mindsets.

"www.SMS.in was launched as an affordable, no-nonsense alternative", said Gandhi. "We have cut out all the hard-sell elements one encounters on Western mobile enhancement websites. Indian consumers are too intelligent to fall for overt advertisement gimmicks — they know what they want, and only need to see the available options. www.SMS.in's website has been styled on the supermarket concept – 'walk' in, browse around, take what appeals the most, pay a very reasonable price for it and get on with your life.

"Gandhi believes that India is at a nascent stage in exploring, what he calls, "this fascinating business genre".

"As the concept pioneers, www.SMS.in will lead the way and introduce new features and products on a war footing. We have tied up with the most innovative mobile program developers to help us maintain the cutting edge. Very shortly, we will be introducing features such as a birthday reminder service, a group SMS facility, a SMS joke database and a unique coupon code to help the customer gets extended value for money," said Gandhi.

Obsidian to Develop Next Gen Alien RPG

A couple of days ago we carried word of the deal that went down between SEGA (America) and Twentieth Century Fox allowing SEGA to develop games based on the Aliens franchise for next generation consoles. Obsidian Entertainment, the talented bunch behind games like NeverWinter Nights 2 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II are in charge of development of an RPG set in this Alien universe.


"We are thrilled to be working with the great production and publishing teams at Sega to deliver the ultimate in-depth Alien experience to gamers worldwide. Building an epic RPG with a license as heralded as the Alien franchise is truly a great honor," said Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment.

Let's hope this turns out better than Neverwinter Nights 2.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Pirates Crack Vista Activation Service


You have to hand it to the ingenuity of 'Pirates' and 'crackers' now days. Everytime a determined software company like Microsoft comes up with a new product and touts that it is uncrackable; they are forced to eat humble pie.
Microsoft who has been proclaiming that pirated copies of Vista would be useless, as a pirated key would render Vista useless can now only watch in horror. In an ingenious move, pirates have figured out a way for you to activate your Windows Vista using a VWware Image (Vmware is an emulations software) of Microsoft's Key Management Service Server (KMS) which allows corporations with 25 or more networked computers to activate Vista installations. This way you can activate, Windows Vista Business and Enterprise.


"The download is a VMware image, and the idea behind it is that you download and install VMware Player (a legal free download), boot the image and use some VBS script (supplied with the activation server download) to have the client Vista machine get its activation from the local server. And that's it -- no communication back to Microsoft."The KMS server that is now doing the torrent rounds, is called Melinda Gates. The initial release of Windows Vista ISO's was named after Bill himself. There is one downside to this hack though. For activation, a valid KMS key itself is required, as the VMware image is valid only for 180 days. Hence, it is just a 6-month vacation after which you will need to find another method to enjoy your Vista or face total lockdown

MSN Travel Revamped For UK Users

MSN UK has revamped its travel portal, to offer exclusive and booking content by online travel agent, Expedia.

MSN Travel for UK users, will now have a wide range of offers, especially for 25-44 year old frequent flyers and a common message board for users to post comments on and a 'guardian travel' feature, to guide travelers on different destinations.

Other features of the redesigned portal include the 'Annual Gold List' of the finest hotels in the world, published by Condé Nast Traveler magazine and online travel guides by Dorling Kindersley. Moreover, the Tripadvisor feature on MSN travel will offer users independent travel opinions.

Dustin Dewhirst, Head of Portal Management MSN UK said, "Our aim is to build MSN Travel into the destination on the web for consumers looking for travel information. We're really excited to be working with leaders in the travel industry like Expedia, Condé Nast Traveler and Rough Guides. The channel will provide a wealth of great opportunities for advertisers to connect their brand with consumers in a highly contextual and engaging environment."

New Search Engine Shows Images, Not Text

A new visual metasearch engine, PageBull.com, offers search results in the form of images instead of text. PageBull compiles screenshots of all the pages which have the search keywords and presents them to the user, while it abandons text altogether. The search engine even highlights the search terms in the screenshots.

The images shown in PageBull shows the search results in a 3 by 4, 2 by 6 or 4 by 3 image grid, depending on the window size of the web browser used. Users can use a drop down menu to customize the image grid, according to their needs. Moreover, users can click on a small info link on the screenshots, which shows the relevant information, related to the page. Also, the + sign on the screenshots will generate a larger image of the relevant page.

PageBull also offers classic text results on demand.

However, PageBull needs a fast broadband Internet connection, with a speed of 1 Mbps or higher (DSL, cable or office network) and JavaScript must be enabled in the users' computer.