Ms windows 8 due 'for the vacations,' but will biz bite?

Ms decreased some suggestions these days that the commercial launch of Ms windows 8 could come earlier rather that later, but experts are concerned that it's not very company friendly.

Announcing the Ms windows 8 Release Review, Windows Steven Sinofsky had written these days in the Developing Ms windows 8 weblog that one more edition is, at the very least, on track.

"If the reviews and telemetry on Ms windows 8 and Ms windows RT match our objectives, then we will enter one more stages of the RTM (release to manufacturing) procedure in about 2 months," Sinofsky had written. (Windows RT represents the edition that operates on ARM snacks. Ms windows 8 operates on Apple and AMD processor snacks.)

He ongoing. "If we are successful in that, then we are monitoring to our distributed goal of having PCs with Ms windows 8 and Ms windows RT available for the vacations."

That's the best part about it. On the other hand, companies may not find the update to be fulfilling, say experts.

"Virtually all of the significant new features in Ms windows 8 -- the new Ms windows Playback, the Community environment with its full-screen programs, and the all-new designer APIs that drive it all -- are produced completely from the cellular community and Windows encounters building Ms windows Phone for smartphones on the market," had written John Thurrott at SuperSite for Ms windows.

Thurrott ongoing. "It's become significantly clear that Ms doesn't actually expect companies to update to this new system in any significant way."

Thurrott went on to say that it's a "a measured risk" that allows Ms to focus on the individual market, which it threats losing to Apple and, somewhat, Operating system.

Another report these days mentioned business designers that are flummoxed by Ms windows 8.

"I like Community on a product, though I don't see how on a company level it's going to perform for business company programs. It's a little too simple. It's too adorable," a company user told RedmondMag.com.

Microsoft, of course, believes Ms windows 8 is great for company and published a individual weblog to address company users these days.

"It provides what modern employees wants, providing new opportunities in cellular efficiency, end-to-end security, virtualization and management enhancements, and the company pills you've been awaiting," had written Windows Erwin Visser.

And here are more best parts from Sinofsky's weblog these days on the Ms windows 8 Release Review.

We have a lot of technical engineers modifying a very little bit of value. We often say that delivery a significant item means "slowing everything down." Right now we're being very planned with every change we make and guaranteeing our quality is higher than ever as we advance towards RTM. The item is last when it is packed on new PCs or generally available for purchase.

RTM itself is a service stage, rather than a instant. We keep throw out Ms windows 8 in over 100 different dialects and we are planning last items for different markets all over the community. As that procedure indicates, we are done modifying the value and are formally "servicing" Ms windows 8.

Once we have joined the RTM stage, our associates will start making their last pictures and developing PCs, and software and components distributors will ready their Ms windows 8 support and new items. We will also start to produce store bins for delivery all over the community. We works with our business customers as well, as we ensure option the volume certificate tools and items.

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Oracle is designed to oust IBM in company hardware

"Our biggest competitor is IBM," Ellison said on Wednesday, during an on-stage chat with Kara Swisher at the prestigious All Things Digital conference hosted by the Rupert Murdoch-owned technology news website.

"IBM was number one in databases. Now we are number one," he said.

"And they were number one in middleware (programs that help different elements of a computer system communicate), now it's us; they were number one in high-end servers, and we will be number one in the high-end servers."

Oracle's high-end offerings, such as Exadata and Exalogic, are well placed to "beat" IBM pSeries systems, according to Ellison.

However, he said that California-based Oracle was not a competitor to IBM in services, which has been a priority for the century-old New York-based technology pioneer.

The servers are a relatively new business for Oracle, which was founded in 1977 and specializes in business software and databases.

People crowd the IBM exhibition at the CeBIT IT fair in Hanover, central Germany, in March. Oracle boss Larry Ellison said on Wednesday that he is out to dethrone IBM in the realm of business network hardware, including high-end computer servers.

Ellison has been head of engineering at the company since it was founded. Oracle got into the hardware business when it bought server-maker Sun Microsystems in 2010.

According to figures released Wednesday by IDC, Oracle is currently ranked fourth in worldwide server market revenue, with its share declining to 6.1%, behind Hewlett-Packard (29.3%), IBM ( 27.3%) and Dell (15.6%).

But Ellison said tracking market share was misleading, since Oracle was sacrificing sales of entry-level systems to focus on more profitable high-end gear with fat profit margins.

"Our margins are probably higher in the server industry," Ellison said.

He explained that Oracle was emulating the model set by Apple in the consumer electronics market by providing fully integrated systems designed to be simple for users.

"We found that data centers were unnecessarily complex", Ellison said.

That led to the decision to bring together hard disks, data storage, networks, and rich databases, because "if we do all we can do it is much more reliable, much lower cost."

"This is the Apple model," he said, before paying tribute to the iPad, iPhone, iPod and Macintosh computer maker's legendary co-founder and boss Steve Jobs, who died last year.

Mr. Ellison also announced that on June 6 all Oracle software will be accessible online in the Internet "cloud" and that he will mark the occasion with his first "tweet" on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

All Oracle applications have been "rewritten" to be offered online, which he said had given the company a wide edge over its biggest competitor in software, Germany-based SAP.

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To Beat Bots, the objective of the White House

The White House has teamed up with several companies and industry groups to launch an initiative aimed at countering botnets.

Members of the Industry Botnet Group will share information, educate users and promote innovation with the aim of mitigating threats. Members have agreed to report on attacks and the measures they've used to combat them.

"The issue of botnets is larger than any one industry or country. This is why partnership is so important," says the Obama Administration’s cybersecurity coordinator, Howard Schmidt.

"The principles the IBG is announcing today draw on expertise from the widest range of players with leadership coming from the across the private sector, and partnering with the government on items like education, consumer privacy and law enforcement."

The number of machines infected by a botnet at any one time is notoriously difficult to establish. But Michael DeCesare, co-president at security vendor McAfee, puts the figure at around five million for the US alone - about ten percent of the computers in the country.

"No one entity can combat these security challenges alone," says Liesyl Franz, vice president for cybersecurity policy at TechAmerica, speaking on behalf of the IBG.

"Individually we can take measures to defend ourselves, and together we can do even more to protect the ecosystem."

Members of the IBG include BITS/The Financial Services Roundtable, the Business Software Alliance, Online Trust Alliance, Software Information Industry Association, National Cable & Telecommunications Association, National Cyber Security Alliance, Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, StopBadware, TechAmerica, the United States Internet Service Provider

Association and the United States Telecom Association.

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DNA Controlled By Nano-machines to Appearance Words

Researchers have recently developed a technique to build complex nano-structures out of short synthetic strands of DNA.

Referred to as single-stranded tiles (SST), the short strands of DNA are interlocking building blocks similar to Legos®. They can be programmed to arrange themselves in very precisely designed shapes, such as numbers, letters, and shapes.

The researchers hope that further developing this technology will allow the creation of new nano-scales devices, that could perform functions such as precise deliveries of drugs to specific organs or disease sites.

DNA is known as the keeper of genetic information. In the new field of nano-technology it’s being explored as a material for making tiny, self-assembling structures. These structures could then be used for a wide-range of different applications.

Previous to this new research, most was done by using a single long strand of biological DNA as a backbone with smaller strands binding to it, to create different shapes.

The new technique focuses on the smaller strands, each SST is a single, short, strand of DNA that can interlock with other SST’s. If there are no complementary matches then the blocks do not connect. This allows a collection of tiles to arrange itself into specific predetermined shapes.

To demonstrate the method the researchers created over 100 different shapes including; letters, numbers, fonts, and Chinese characters. The technique uses hundreds of different tiles for a single structure of 100 nano-meters.

The researchers think that this technique could have important applications in medicine, such s in drug delivery systems. Their advantages being high biocompatibility, their flexibility and range of possible programming, and their robustness.

“Use of DNA nanotechnology to create programmable nanodevices is an important focus at the Wyss Institute, because we believe so strongly in its potential to produce a paradigm-shifting approach to development of new diagnostics and therapeutics,” said Wyss Founding Director, Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D.

The research was supported by the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.

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New samsung Universe Observe LTE vs Samsung Android Razr Maxx: Will Samsung's Mobile phone Defeat The Motorola's Best Bet?

The Samsung Galaxy Note LTE was released in January and comes with the trademark large screen that allows users to view more with less scrolling and transitions. It also features the S Pen stylus, which integrates with the device's native apps to offer a richer and more interactive experience.

The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is a feature-packed smartphone that offers a powerful battery as well as high-speed 4G LTE compatibility.

Samsung's Galaxy Note LTE features a gigantic 5.3in Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels at 285 pixel per inch (ppi). It includes the TouchWiz User Interface. The Droid Razr Maxx comes with a 4.3in Super AMOLED Advanced capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 960x540 pixels at 256 pixels per inch (ppi). It includes Corning Gorilla Glass which protects the screen from damages, as does the Galaxy Note LTE.

Processor

The Galaxy Note LTE is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon chipset with a dual-core 1.5 GHz Scorpion processor. Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx is powered by a 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core CPU and TI OMAP 4430 chipset. Both the Galaxy Note LTE and the Droid Razr Maxx sport 1GB of RAM.

Camera

Both the Galaxy Note LTE and the Droid Razr Maxx boast an eight megapixel rear-facing camera with auto-focus and LED flash. The sporting features are geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection and image stabilisation. Both smartphones allow users to record video of 1080p.

The Galaxy Note LTE features a two megapixel front-facing camera, whereas the Droid Razr Maxx includes a front-facing camera of 1.3 megapixels.

Operating System

Both smartphones run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which is upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

Storage

Both the Galaxy Note LTE and the Droid Razr Maxx have 16GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot with additional memory space of 32GB.

Connectivity

The Galaxy Note LTE features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi hotspot. It offers support to Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and EDR.

The Droid Razr Maxx comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot. It supports Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, LE + EDR technology.

Battery

The Samsung smartphone packs a Li-Ion 2500mAh standard battery that allows for talk time of up to 10 hours and stand by time of up to 252 hours.

In comparison, the Droid Razr Maxx comes with Li-Ion 3300mAh standard battery that provides for talk time of up to 21 hours 30 minutes. It allows for stand by time of up to 380 hours.

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Fire malware a new age internet spy tool

Internet defenders on Wednesday were tearing into freshly exposed Flame malware (malicious software) that could be adapted to spread to critical infrastructures in countries around the world.

While the components and tactics of Flame were considered old school, the gigantic virus's interchangeable software modules and targeted nature were evidence that malware is a potent weapon in the Internet era.

"We are seeing much more specific types of malware and attacks," said McAfee Labs director of security research David Marcus.

"When you talk about a situation where the attacker knows the victim and tailors the malware for the environment it jumps out," he said. "That speaks to good reconnaissance and an attacker who knows what they are doing."

Gathering intelligence on targets and then crafting viruses to exploit specific networks as well as the habits of people using them is "certainly in vogue" and is an attack style heralded by the Stuxnet malware, Marcus said.

Stuxnet, which was detected in July 2010, targeted computer control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens and commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other critical infrastructure.

Most Stuxnet infections were discovered in Iran, giving rise to speculation it was intended to sabotage nuclear facilities there, especially the Russian-built atomic power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.

Suspicion fell on Israel and the United States, which have accused Iran of seeking to develop a weapons capability under the cover of a civilian nuclear drive. Tehran denies the charges.

"Stuxnet and Duqu belonged to a single chain of attacks, which raised cyberwar-related concerns worldwide," said Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Kaspersky Lab, which uncovered Flame.

"The Flame malware looks to be another phase in this war, and it's important to understand that such cyber weapons can easily be used against any country."

Flame malware was larger than Stuxnet and protected by multiple layers of encryption.

It appears to have been "in the wild" for two years or longer and prime targets so far have been energy facilities in the Middle East.

High concentrations of compromised computers were found in the Palestinian West Bank, Hungary, Iran, and Lebanon. Additional infections have been reported in Austria, Russia, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.

File photo shows Kaspersky Lab employees in Moscow. Kaspersky Lab, one of the world's biggest producers of anti-virus software, said its experts discovered a new computer virus with unprecedented destructive potential that chiefly targets Iran and could be used as a "cyberweapon" by the West and Israel.

Compromised computers included many being used from home connections, according to security researchers who were looking into whether reports of infections in some places resulted from workers using laptops while traveling.

While Stuxnet was crafted to do real-world damage to machinery, Flame was designed to suck information from computer networks and relay what it learned back to those controlling the virus.

Flame can record keystrokes, capture screen images, and eavesdrop using microphones built into computers.

In an intriguing twist, the malware can also use Bluetooth capabilities in machines to connect with smartphones or tablets, mining contact lists or other information, according to security researchers.

"There is lot of intelligence gathering and espionage-like behavior from the malware," Marcus said. "You can turn that to target any industry you want.

"It looks like the infection spread is specific to Middle East, but malware is indiscriminate in a lot of things so it can jump," he continued.

Marcus advised companies to not only keep network software up to date but to ratchet up security settings because threats such as Flame are carefully crafted to "fly under the radar."

For example, Flame reportedly sneaked back out to the Internet by activating a seemingly innocuous Internet Explorer online browsing session.

Geographically targeted cyber espionage and even modular components in viruses have been around for years, Rik Ferguson of security firm Trend Micro said in his blog at countermeasures.trendmicro.eu.

Flame stands out for being a malware behemoth of nearly 20 megabytes and for its use of Bluetooth capabilities, according to Ferguson, who branded the malware a tool, not a weapon.

"You can't get around the fact that the thing is gigantic," Marcus said. "Someone went to a lot of trouble to really confound researchers. We are going to be ripping this sucker apart for a long time to figure everything it was doing."

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