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Firefox 2.0.0.4

Posted by multippt

Firefox has just undergone an update. This update basically has some small changes.

The changes are as followed:
-Security fixes
-Increased Windows Vista support
-New languages

This update was made available 2 days ago (can be accessed via “Check for updates”).

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A bad day for spammers means a good day for everyone

Posted by multippt

One of the world’s top 10 spammers have be arrested a few days ago on Wednesday.

Robert Alan Soloway is about to face 35 charges related to suspected fraudulent Internet activities. Soloway, the owner of Newport Internet Marketing, was indicted by a federal grand jury on the 23rd of May, 2007, for 10 counts of mail fraud, 5 counts of aggravated identity theft, and 13 counts of money laundering.

Dubbed as the “Spam King”, Soloway is in no way one of your daily spammers, as he is responsible for circulating millions of spam messages in the form of Emails online. Soloway is also accused of managing false websites posing as legitimate “broadcast Email services” with “permission-based opt-in Email addresses”, which have largely deceived many businesses into spending their money for tools that turn out to be spam tools. Soloway has also been accused of creating more than 2000 proxy computers or “zoombies” (computers that are hijacked by hackers without the user’s knowledge) used to send spam Emails.

With the arrest of Soloway, spam can be expected to decline a little, and users with nearly flooded mailboxes filled with Email spam can breath a sign of relieve. However, spam is not yet eliminated, simply because it can’t be eliminated easily with other spammers around.

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Media rights technology sues Microsoft, Apple and others for not fully enforcing DRM

Posted by multippt

While Microsoft and Apple (and other companies) has started measures to enforce DRM (Digital Rights Management) in their products, the Media Rights Technology (MRT) is attempting to sue them, for not using enough DRM.

Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, and Real develop media player softwares, and even gadgets. These software can be used to play digital music streams and files. However, when one uses them for streaming (e.g. Radio stations and Podcasts), such streams are not protected by any DRM encryption, and hence, anyone with a stream ripper can rip off segments of the stream. MRT claims that these companies should have used one such DRM technology, called the “X1 SeCure Recording Control”. Guess who’s the maker of that technology? That’s right, it’s MRT.

So in other words, they are suing those companies for not using their products. How “sweet”…

The subject of DRM has been a rather rough topic, with half of the people agreeing or are against it. While DRM is designed to be protecting the rights of music artists, it is killing the right of the users using digital music. DRM basically enables the user to play the copy of the protected music, on a specific device. So, what happens if the user wants to listen it on something else, like an MP3 player? That’s right, they need to buy the song for that particular device. Imagine buying at least 2 copies of your legally owned music. In addition, it is difficult to recover lost DRM files (or backup DRM-protected files for future use). It is received a significant amount of criticism, especially amongst hard-core music listeners.

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PSP official firmware 3.30 Decrypted

Posted by multippt

Team C+D has just come out with a decrypter that dumps and decrypts the official PSP firmware, 3.30.

This decrypter opens new doors to the creation of a possible downgrader for the 3.30 official firmware, as well as custom firmware and all sorts of stuff.

Via QJ

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Microsoft’s antivirus deletes users’ e-mails

Posted by signup

Microsoft has admitted that its Live OneCare security suite has been accidentally deleting some users’ Outlook and Outlook Express e-mails.

According to postings on Microsoft’s OneCare forum, erasures have been caused when the antivirus programme finds a virus in an e-mail attachment. Instead of then quarantining that single e-mail, users have reported that entire .pst or .dbx files - the personal folder where non-Exchange Server users’ messages and other details are kept - have been quarantined or, in some cases, even deleted.

One user commented on the forum: “Is there a chance to recover it? If not, OneCare will have done more damage than any virus in my 30 years of active computing.”. Forum postings indicate, however, that recovery is possible in some cases, where the .pst or .dbx file is still available in OneCare’s quarantine facility.

Stephen Boots, a forum administrator, commented that he was “very unhappy about this problem as it was reported over a year ago and fixed in the 1.0 release”, adding: “It never appeared throughout the beta, but suddenly appeared when 1.5 was released”.

In a statement reported on Computerworld, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that the company was “working to address an issue where the antimalware engine for OneCare is erroneously quarantining Outlook .pst files or Outlook Express .dbx files, when the .pst file or .dbx file contains an infected attachment”. The spokesperson added that a fix would be included in the next OneCare update, which is due on 13 March.

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Wordpress 2.11 - Hacked install

Posted by multippt

Users using Wordpress version 2.11 downloaded within the past 4 days are in danger of having their installations hacked. It appears that a hacker who managed to hack into one of Wordpress’s servers managed to modify the code in Wordpress 2.11 to allow the execution of remote PHP (very insecure). 

Wordpress 2.12 have been released, and is not very much different from the original version of wordpress 2.11. Users using Wordpress 2.11 are advised to upgrade to the latest version.

Via Wordpress

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Custom firmare - 1.53 - Ah… the old days

Posted by multippt

There was a time, where Dark_Alex and Booster was making firmware after firmware modifications (way faster than Sony), and their creations were pieces of art. While there are now many options for the homebrew community, there is now another option, this time for 1.50 loyalists.

Eiffel56 have released a custom firmware, 1.53 (no it isn’t made by Dark_Alex, so don’t think it came from him). The features in this firmware are:
-Recovery Menu**
-Boot Menu**
-Integrated uxMB
-Ability to run 1.0 EBOOTS*
-Ability to hide corrupted data icons*
-Ability to start ISO/DAX files**
-Ability to load custom firmware plugins tailored for Dark_Alex’s custom firmwares**
-Autoboot EBOOTs at startup**
-Never turn off the backlight in XMB***

*The EBOOTs can actually be modified in a way to achieve the same effect on a 1.50 based PSP (like 1.50 and other Dark_Alex custom firmwares).
**This feature can be found in most Dark_Alex custom firmwares
***All firmwares have this feature under “Power Saving” in “Settings”…

Via QJ.net