Windows Vista Team blog
by Nick white April 20, 2007

Nick White, over at the Windows Vista Team blog, is warning anyone who is still running a pre-release version of Windows Vista to purchase a retail copy of Vista or switch back to their prior operating system before May 31 2007!

He says all versions of Windows Vista beta 2 and release candidates 1 & 2 will expire on May 31, after which, all users will have "small windows of two-hour sessions" to retrieve data. Each two hour session will end with a automatic reboot without the chance to save any data, resulting in the loss of any stored data. These two hour sessions will last until August 28, 2007 - after which your data will vanish!

Users still running these versions of Vista will start to get warning messages on May 18.
 

Microsoft has decided to pull the plug on the Windows XP operating system.

You will no longer be able to purchase any version of the Windows XP "software" after January 31 2008. This covers all editions offered sale in the retail or OEM versions. Basically, it will be pulled from the shelves at your favorite hardware, software or office supply store!

This will only leave the computer builders who subscribe to the Microsoft System Builder License (MSBL) and use the OPK (OEM Pre-Installation Kit) to install. These builders will get access to Windows XP software untill Jan 31 2009. While Jan 09 may seem like a long way off, your actually running out of time sooner than you think.

Most major brands stopped designing Windows XP machines late last year. The XP machines you see for sale in the stores are components that are sub-par to anything being manufactured this year and beyond. Windows Vista has created a shift towards newer, more advanced technologies that today's Windows XP components will choke on, so these machines are worth much less than you may realize - if your thinking of upgrading to Vista later. By the years end, it will be nearly impossible to find a big-box Windows XP machine. You will, however, find some custom builders (Mica Machine, etc.) that can make you one under the MSBL, but not that many.

So, I would reccomend deciding now on what your operating system prefences are going to be for your next machine now and acting on it ASAP! IF you think you may want to use XP beyond your current machine, pick up an extra copy or two of XP Pro or Media edition and store them in a safe place for later use. Then, you can buy ANY Windows Vista machine down the road and do a dual-boot install with Windows XP and enjoy Windows Vista & Windows XP at the same time. With Microsoft support lasting through 2010, you have many happy years left to enjoy Windows XP!

You can keep tabs on the Product Lifecycle of Microsoft's products at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx

XP

With a quiet March behind us, April has been full of exploits & alerts. Microsoft released 4 critical updates, the virus & malware scanners have been updating signatures more frequently, and McAfee's Avert Labs has released their semi-annual Sage journal - suggesting that cyber-crime and the methods & technologies used to attack us all would be expanded in new ways in 2007.

"It's still a very distributed network, most of these people never meet face-to-face, they use secret chat rooms and bulletin boards and other very distributed systems of communication that make it difficult to say how many people are involved and even harder to take them out," said Dave Marcus, security research manager with Avert Labs. "In a lot of ways, the criminals are doing a better job of communicating than the security industry itself; we tend to operate in our own groups, whereas these people are sharing code and algorithms and doing so on an increasingly frequent basis."

I totally agree...malware is getting more advanced, and the good guys still need to find ways to interact in a more positive manner. And let's not forget the role all web surfers and computer owners have in this equation. If machines were properly configured and updated, along with incorporating security software to lockdown their systems, we would see a B-I-G drop in malware.

Although, I would think that the bad guys would jump-code in some other way, and so, the security wheel would keep on turning and turning and turning and turning...

Which brings me to the main reason to use premium security software - constant, state-of-the-art protection! When you install the correct combination of security tools, the bad guys will forget about your system.

I just hope everyone in web-land is paying attention!!! Install Premium security software and Lockdown your machines...TODAY...before a botnet takes ownership of yours!

Famous Quote:
Computer Security is a Constant Wheel that needs Constant Maintenance. -micaman

SONY, PLEASE READ THIS AND LEARN HOW TO ACT!




Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store
DRM-Free Songs from EMI Available on iTunes for $1.29 in May

CUPERTINO, California—April 2, 2007—Apple® today announced that EMI Music’s entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.

“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”

Agency Seeks Development of Tools to Thwart Identity Theft

On April 23 and 24, 2007, the Federal Trade Commission will host a public workshop, “Proof Positive: New Directions in ID Authentication,” to explore methods to reduce identity theft through enhanced authentication. The workshop will facilitate a discussion among public- sector, private-sector, and consumer representatives, and will focus on technological and policy requirements for developing better authentication processes, including the incorporation of privacy standards and consideration of consumer usability issues.

The agency is seeking public comments in planning the agenda for the workshop, and is inviting parties interested in participating as panelists to notify the agency. The agency invites comments on ways to improve authentication processes to reduce identity theft, including, but not limited to, comments on the following:

How can individuals prove their identities when establishing them in the first place?
What are some current or emerging authentication technologies or methods – for example biometrics, public key infrastructure, and knowledge-based authentication – and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
To what extent do these technologies meet consumer needs, such as ease of use, and to what extent do they raise privacy concerns?
Requests to participate as panelists must be received by March 9, 2007. Requests may be submitted electronically at idmworkshop@ftc.gov; or by mail to the Office of the Secretary, Room H-135 (Annex N) 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

Comments also may be submitted by mail or on the Internet at https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-idmworkshop. Comments must be received by March 23, 2007.

Copies of the Federal Register Notice are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,600 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Claudia Bourne Farrell,
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2181

STAFF CONTACT:

Naomi Lefkovitz,
Bureau of Consumer Protection
202-326-2252

(FTC File No. P07 5402)

(http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/02/authentication.htm)