Police: Newark man sold pirated games

Operating out of a Newark home cluttered with DVD burners, computer towers and piles of blank discs, Derek Ramirez was like countless other high-tech thieves pirating computer game software, authorities say.

But, those authorities say, Ramirez was a thief with a difference. He would not only sell customers pirated DVDs for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game. For $60, he would modify an Xbox console so it would not reject counterfeit software, they said.

Investigators estimate Ramirez, who advertised on the Internet, had thousands of customers before the Essex County Prosecutor's Office raided his home and arrested him yesterday.

"He was one of our higher profile targets in the area," said Robert Hunter, manager of intellectual property enforcement for the Entertainment Software Association, whose investigators keyed in on Ramirez.

Ramirez, 24, was arrested in the three-story home on Mount Prospect Avenue he shared with his mother and other family members. He was charged with violating New Jersey's anti-piracy act, a third-degree offense that can carry up to five years in prison.

click here for more info

Adobe (Acrobat) Reader 8.0 released!

Adobe has redesigned the Acrobat Reader interface and added several other new features. If you haven't switched to, or don't like Foxit Reader, then you're gonna want this!
(Ignore the "Coming soon" part and click download).

read more | digg story

Star Trek New Voyages episodes free for download

Using a completely fan-built recreation of the original series’ bridge and other sets, a small group of amateur actors and actresses, assisted by various professionals who worked in special effects, writing, costumes and set design on various Star Trek incarnations, are picking up where Kirk, Spock, Scotty and the crew left off.

Where would we as a society of nerds be without Star Trek? In a better place? I doubt it. With the perceived failure of Enterprise, some long-time fans of the original Star Trek have decided to keep the Star Trek universe alive. Using a completely fan-built recreation of the original series’ bridge and other sets, a small group of amateur actors and actresses, assisted by various professionals who worked in special effects, writing, costumes and set design on various Star Trek incarnations, are picking up where Kirk, Spock, Scotty and the crew left off. With a goal of making 22 non-profit episodes (a full season), the current episodes are free to download and watch. Professional productions they aren’t, but you can see these fans are putting their hearts into the series and trying to make their mark on the great history of Star Trek.


www.startreknewvoyages.com

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PWNED! Couple pays $1,600 for a can of pasta sauce @ Best Buy

The couple paid about $1,600 for a camcorder at a Best Buy store in the St. Louis suburb of Ellisville last week. They said when they opened the box, they found something they hadn't pictured: a jar of Classico pasta sauce where the camera should have been.

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Windows Chief Says Vista Won't Need Antivirus

During a telephone conference with reporters yesterday, outgoing Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin told a reporter that the system's new lockdown features are so capable and thorough that he was comfortable with his own seven-year-old son using Windows Vista without antivirus software installed.

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Black Friday ads

Christmas shopping season starts the day after Thanksgiving. Its known as "Black Friday". Here a link to store ads for that day. Click Here

Here's another site bfads.net

Don't Want to Get Sued by the RIAA? Just Disable Wi-Fi Security!

Tammie Marson of Palm Desert, California responded to a lawsuit from the RIAA by stating that her wireless router was not secure, and that therefore the file sharing seen on her network could have been from any passerby. The defense worked, and the RIAA dropped the case.

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Hacker To License iPod Code

Just months after Apple Computer was found guilty of breaking Norwegian law with its iTunes downloading service, a native of the nippy European country has just returned the favor.

John Lech Johansen, a 22-year-old hacker known to those of his ilk as "DVD Jon," claims to have cracked the code that Apple uses to tie iTunes files exclusively to iPod players.

He has typically posted license-circumventing codes on the Internet free of charge, having most infamously release a software system that scrambled DVD licensing codes when he was 15. Seven years later, it seems the young techie has caught the capitalist

source - forbes - for more info click here

Is 'Bully' fun to play? Like, for real

Though not perfect, new game gets high marks for depth, concept.

Anyone who thinks video games are teaching our children how to be vicious, cruel and perhaps even violent has forgotten just how vicious, cruel and perhaps even violent children can be all on their very own.

Especially brutal are those tween years — 12 to 16 — that time when kids are beginning to flex their growing mental and physical muscles and often do so with no real sense of how they're affecting the people around them. Yes, if memory serves, teens don't need a game to show them how to act like a school of piranhas on the hunt for blood. It just comes naturally.

source msnbc.com for full review

AMD Planning Combined Processor-Graphics Chip

The combined processors are aimed at laptops, desktops, workstations, servers, and consumer electronics devices geared for emerging markets.

Aiming to leapfrog archrival Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices will deliver a wide range of merged x86 CPUs with on-board graphics accelerators starting in late 2008.

AMD announced its so-called Fusion program Wednesday (Oct. 25) upon the formal completion of its $5.4 billion acquisition of graphics and chip set designer ATI Technologies Inc. The merged company will ship versions of the combined processors for laptops, desktops, workstations, servers and consumer electronics devices geared for emerging markets.

for more info click here

Upbeat Investors Seek Microsoft Assurances

The bottom line is that Microsoft must ship Vista as now scheduled, or risk drops in its stock price, now trading near a two-year high.

Microsoft Corp. investors want to hear the company say this week that much-delayed upgrades to its Windows operating system and Office software suite will pay rich dividends soon.

for more info click here

source - Reuters

The Five Best BitTorrent Clients

Got an itch to ride the file sharing wave? Just choose your chariot. Here's our roundup of the five best bets for BitTorrent bliss.

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The City of Chicago goes Linux, saves over 85%!

The City of Chicago's announced successful migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux for essential government programs including the vehicle registration system online job applications restaurant inspections ethics training and more. The City of Chicago migrated to Red Hat in order to reduce costs and improve support performance and scalability.

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AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 Free Edition Finally Released

Grisoft a few weeks ago released AVG 7.5 but I refrained from posting about it because they did not update the free version at that point. They finally upgraded the free version to AVG 7.5 which is great for people looking for a free anti-virus solution.

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Get potentially ANY TV Channel On The Internet free | Copyright Nightmare?

A new controversial player has appeared on the internet and could be the TV studio's biggest enemy since Bittorrent. This new player allows you to watch any TV channel in the world on your PC.

Channels include CBS, ESPN, NBA TV, ABC, NBC, FOX DIsney and more including sports channels.

This already impressive lineup of channels is available from any internet enabled Windows PC in the world and could potentially expand to include many more channels.

click here for more info

How many seconds old are you? - What was the day of your conception?

What was the moon like on your birthday? What egyptian month was it? And your life path number? What about your birthstone? What was the population then? How much do you really know about YOUR special day?

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Microsoft quietly lifts lid off Vista RC2

Microsoft quietly made Windows Vista Release Candidate 2 available for download late last Friday to technical beta testers and MSDN/TechNet subscribers.
The new build of Windows Vista offers a higher level of performance and stability as well as fixing many of the bugs in RC1, according to the Windows Vista team blog.
Windows chief Jim Allchin posted a special announcement which read: "People asked for it and here it is, Windows Vista RC2.
"There are thousands of quality improvements since RC1. You'll probably notice improvements in performance, application compatibility, as well as fit and finish work."
The new test build (5744) has a number of improvements and updates on previous builds, and has been through daily testing processes to refine quality and performance, Microsoft said.
The company warned that this build may not have the same level of support or servicing via Windows Update as RC1, and that users may not be able to upgrade from this build to the final version of Windows Vista.
"We are just around the corner from release to manufacturing [RTM] and shipping this great product to the world. This will be the last build prior to RTM, so please keep the feedback coming so we can hit the finish line," said Allchin.
The RC2 release will be available for a limited time only from Microsoft's Windows Vista Download site.

Clement James, vnunet.com

Hackers Claim Zero-Day Flaw in Firefox

The open-source Firefox Web browser is critically flawed in the way it handles JavaScript, two hackers said Saturday afternoon.

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Unlocking the Mysteries of 'Svchost.exe'

Svchost.exe can, and usually does, run several instances of itself at any given time, each instance running several associated services. How do you find out what these "services" are?

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Watch more than 200 channels on your PC - Nothing to install.

ChooseAndWatch is a free TV portal where you can watch only the best online TV channels. Now with bigger screen and more channels than ever.

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A Cast By Any Other Name...

Submitted by Leo Laporte on Sat, 2006-09-23

According to Wired News's Listening Post blog, Apple has sent a cease and desist letter to Podcast Ready claiming that the terms "Podcast Ready" and "myPodder" infringe on Apple's trademarks, and that they cause confusion among consumers.

If Apple is claiming that the term "Podcast Ready" infringes their iPod trademark, then they're claiming ownership of the word podcast. Needless to say this could precipitate a crisis in the *cast community.

Truth is, I've never liked the word podcast. It causes confusion. In the past couple of days two people have told me that they can't listen to my shows because they "don't own an iPod." I have to explain constantly that podcasts can be listened to on computers, phones, MP3 players, and CDs, as well as iPods, but because of the name the confusion persists. And now Apple is threatening people who use the word.

I think it's time for a change. I'll address this in my keynote at *cast Expo next week, but I'd like to know what you think. Can't we come up with a better word for what we do?
I propose the word "netcast." It's a little clearer that these are broadcasts over the Internet. It's catchy and even kind of a pun.

I know that "podcast" is in the dictionary now, and that Apple likely has little hope of claiming it, but who wants to fight it? Especially when it's not such a hot name anyway. Of course the term is relatively well known, but we are in the very early days of the medium. Changing it now will be a lot easier than changing it in a few years.

I realize that changing the term unilaterally may make me seem like a kook. And I haven't done a thorough trademark search on netcast, so it may be even more encumbered than podcast (although CBS is using it and I think they have a few lawyers). I do think it's time to take a stand. Apple didn't invent podcasts. Podcasts don't require an iPod. iTunes isn't the only way to subscribe to podcasts. Maybe a name change will help people understand that.

What do you think? Leave a comment here.

New Windows VML exploit that affect people browsing the web

Be aware of websites that uses "iframes". "Iframes" are little HTML frames within a page that actually are another page embedded within the page. The web attacker kit which is installed on the web site's server figures out what browser you're using and then targets a specific exploit to that version of the browser. So no matter how up-to-date your machine is with the latest patches you could still get hit.

Running a firewall will not protect you because the VML (vector markup language) exploit looks like a normal legitimate internet request. The firewall will think the browser is downloading something new.

Sunbelt software was first to find the exploit, and they looked at the code that's implementing this buffer overflow. There's the actual exploit code, and then theirs the actual VGX DLL that has the bug in it.

It's not known how many websites actually use this kit. Eric Sites the VP of Research & Development of Sunbelt "says over a thousand sites". iDefense thinks the exploit been out there for about a week. Mr. Sites also says it was downloading 50 pieces of malware and tons of adware and keyloggers.

Microsoft hasn't released a patch for it as for now. The next patch cycle is in October. Disabling javascript won't help. But you can unregister the vgx.dll, the DLL that has the bug in it that these guys are using to exploit your system. Thats until a patch is released. The other solution is using a different browser like firefox or opera.

listen to Security Now with Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson for more info

Amazon.com lists Vista prices and ship date

You can preorder Microsoft Vista online; software to ship on January 30, 2007 according to retailer. Amazon.com lists prices for the three consumer versions of Windows Vista - home basic, premium and ultimate.


link to pcworld article click here

Microsoft 90 Day Target Will Be Missed

According to an article by British business paper the Financial Times, Microsoft has admitted that it will not reach its 90 day target for the Xbox 360 of 2.75 to 3 million consoles shipped.

Analysts suggest that only 1.3 million units have been shipped worldwide by the end of 2005, with shortages expected to continue everywhere but Japan in January and beyond. As suggested at CES last week, the company is now focusing on a target of 4.5 million to 5.5 million consoles by the end of the fiscal year in June.

The company has primarily blamed manufacturing problems for the missed target, having recently announced that a third manufacturing plant will be brought online to meet demand. "Nothing's perfect - you've got a complex piece of hardware that includes 1,700 different parts. Every now and again the line will slow down because something's happened and there'll be a component that didn't make it that morning,” commented corporate vice president Peter Moore.

Although the Japanese launch has certainly been disappointing, the missed target does seem to be one solely of supply at the moment with demand for the new console extremely strong in the West and particularly in the U.S. The real concern for Microsoft will be the shortened amount of time the supply problems give for the Xbox 360 to create a significant lead in user base before the launch of the PlayStation 3.

Peter Moore has previously spoken of plans to sell 10 million consoles within the first twelve to sixteen months of the Xbox 360's launch, a target that is now more dependent on Xbox 360 stock and the launch date of Sony’s console than any other issues.

The Xbox 360 And Japanese Nationalism

Check out this interesting article about the XBOX 360 in Japan. By Vinnk

There has been a lot of coverage recently about the failure of the Japanese Xbox 360. And those reports are very true. It is one of the weakest system launches in Japanese history, only topped perhaps by the Japanese launch of the Atari Jaguar. In my town there is only 1 game store that carries the 360. They were given 12 launch units by Microsoft and at the end of launch day they had sold only 1, and that was to one of the employees.

These articles are, of course, making the rounds of gaming sites. The comments I read on these sites often make me sick to my stomach. People are saying that the Xbox is not selling because the Japanese people are Xenophobic and will never buy foreign electronics. I have even read a few comments that say and I quote “Those Japs would never buy an American game system because they are still bitter about Hiroshima”.

Ok, first of all, those “Japs” are friends of mine. And I resent the slur. This isn’t even the worst comment I have heard on this issue. But the others are too vulgar or racist for me to repeat here. Why is there all this hate? Because the Japanese are not forking over thousands of yen blindly, that makes them xenophobic? I guess so. And now I will tell you what else these bitter, nationalistic Japanese are buying.

link to the full article