Silly Microsoft....

[mistasparkle*]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/34498.html

This will have about .01% of an impact on how hard the next generation xbox will be hacked.

[danz]

Many mod chips for the current generation of Xbox allow users to copy games to their hard drives and then play them without the original game disc, or simply download copies off the Internet directly onto their console - a new avenue for piracy which has potential to be hugely damaging if it becomes popular.

its a good thing microsoft isnt examaning how users use xbox in japan...all 5 of them....

danz

[enderzero]

Download games and not pay for them!!! Who would do such a thing?

[McNevin]

Have winXP sp2 beta? Enable concurrent session NOW

As posted here, XP sp2 will support conncurrent use of XP remote and via console. (before only 1 windows session was possible on XP; via console OR remote desktop)

If you run XP sp2 beta 1, you can enable it now, the setting taken from win2k3 enables it for winXP sp2! Even Microsoft isn't aware of it.

Limit though is you need to be logged on as different user.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal

Server\Licensing Core

Create a new DWORD entry "EnableConcurrentSessions" and assign a

value of 1 to it. Concurrent Sessions is now enabled.

No need to reboot !

MS response in sp2 beta newsgroup:

I am curious about your report that the Registry Key you mentioned is

allowing you to log on with multiple users concurrently. This registry key

should do nothing.

Could you please confirm that you are able to have two users logged on to

your XP SP2 box at the same time? And further what changes you made to make

this possible?

[McNevin]

Just when I thought the world was getting better...

Microsoft Corp. on Monday capitulated to customer pressure and announced that it would now continue extended support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition and for Windows Millennium Edition (ME) until June 30, 2006.

Microsoft recently said that support for Windows 98 and 98 SE would be phased out this Friday—January 16, while support for Windows Me was due to stop on December 31, 2004.

But on Monday a company spokesman told eWEEK that the decision to extend support for the products was "part of Microsoft's ongoing effort to respond to customers' needs around the world." During this time, Microsoft will continue to offer paid phone support and will continue to review any critical security issues and take appropriate steps.

"Microsoft made this decision to accommodate customers worldwide who are still dependent upon these operating systems and to provide Microsoft more time to communicate its product lifecycle support guidelines in a handful of markets—particularly smaller and emerging markets," he said.

According to officials, Microsoft also wanted to bring Windows 98 SE into compliance with the company's current lifecycle policy for new products, which provides for support for seven years instead of the original four.

[mistasparkle*]

Website row pits B.C. teen against Microsoft
The giant software company is not too pleased with Mike Rowe's Internet domain site

www.mikerowesoft.com

tee hee hee.

[McNevin]

They are now realizing how much bad publicity they are getting, and have stopped trying to recover the domain name.

I walked into work today, and this mike rowe thing was all over cnn.

Wow... wonder how much money he will get? I went to the site, and he was complaining about badwidth issues, because everyone and their uncle was hitting the site. He could claim loss of web site conectivity, which is how he advertises his business. i think mike row is going to be getting a little richer in the near future.

[McNevin]

1 stabbed, 1 arrested in Microsoft co-workers' fight over a woman.

Just after 9:45 p.m. Friday night, Bellevue police received several 911 calls from people inside the Tap House Grill at the Bellevue Galleria Shopping Center, at 550 106th Ave. N.E., said police spokesman Michael Chiu. Callers reported a man had been stabbed, Chiu said.

The stabbing occurred after the two men, both Microsoft employees, fought over a woman, Chiu said. The three were at the restaurant with co-workers, many of whom witnessed the fight and called police.

Full story here.

[enderzero]

I think we all know how wild the Taphouse can get. The Galleria is in a rough part of town.

[McNevin]

A forthcoming update to Internet Explorer will disallow the use of the "@" character in URLs.

When the http protocol was originally designed, the “@†character was intended to denote a username at a particular site, in the style of http://sir.tim.berners-lee@www.w3.org where sir.tim.berners-lee is the username, and www.w3.org is the name of the site.

News Source: Bink.nu

Way to mess with a http standard.

[mistasparkle*]

Yea... great solution to a potential security issue: plow over standards.

join the moz firebird crowd... no need to worry about IE anymore...

[mistasparkle*]

Xbox for $99? Xbox 2 in 2005?

Microsoft's Xbox may be on the verge of a substantial price cut, falling from $179 to $99 by Labor Day, according to P.J. McNealy, an analyst with American Technology Research.

"It is our belief that the price on the consoles in North America could see a stepped drop this year, with both the PS2 and Xbox being cut to $129 between now and the May E3 trade show, with [Microsoft] then cutting the Xbox further to $99 in the late summer," he wrote in a research note released Wednesday.

McNealy also believes Microsoft will launch its next generation console in late 2005 – a year earlier than has been previously rumored. That would put the Xbox 2 on store shelves up to a full year before Sony's PlayStation 3.

price cuts are always good... early console releases aren't always. Sega didn't learn that with Saturn, or Dreamcast...

[McNevin]

Microsoft joining the online music biz...

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/silico ... 471751.htm

[McNevin]

Microsoft plans to offer its own anti-spyware software, Chairman Bill Gates said Friday.

Gates said Microsoft will offer software to detect malicious applications and that the company will keep it up-to-date on an ongoing basis. He did not say when the software would be available or whether Microsoft would charge for it.

Although progress is being made against spam and viruses, Gates said the adware and malware problem is getting worse. "This malware thing is so bad," he said in a speech at the Computer History Museum here. "Now that's the one that has us really needing to jump in." It's also a problem that has affected Gates personally. He said his home PCs have had malware, although he has personally never been affected by a virus.

[McNevin]

IE 7 will be standalone, firefox got em worried!

Reversal: Next IE update divorced from Windows

Reversing a longstanding Microsoft policy, Bill Gates said Tuesday that the company will ship an update to its browser separately from the next version of Windows.

http://news.com.com/RSA+conference+pick ... =nefd.lede

[McNevin]

Lack of updates eh?

Several users have noted that the screenshot is likely fake.

Stil pretty funny!

[Goemon]

I think "Threat Level" there means "Threat to Our World Dominion". I'm surprised it's only orangey-blush right now and not screaming, baboon-ass red.

[McNevin]

To get updates, you must first validate your Windows software. Validation assures that you are using an authentic and fully licensed copy of Windows.

Why not eh?


Validation Failure: Invalid Product Key[0x80080222]

Why did it not validate?
The product key associated with your copy of Windows was never issued by Microsoft.

Doh... Well looks like they keygen doesnt work anymore.

[McNevin]

Say goodbye to VLK...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060627-7143.html

Have you seen the Genuine Advantage Notification? It sits in your system tray and tells you every few minutes that youre a pirate... Funny thing is though, the way it works, it installs like a piece of spyware. Malk sure you tell windows update to hide that update. Also, "Update for Windows XP x64 Edition (KB914784)" will break Daemon Tools, FYI

[enderzero]

The Windows OS is now officially nagware.

[enderzero]

This site might be useful for those trying to thwart these types of things if you are that type of person.