BeautyandBoost.com
4:59pm
Music
‘micro$oft’ Archives
Facebook to kill IE6 support for Chat on IE9 beta day
I am torn between my hate of IE6 as a web developer and my hate for Facebook as a human. Facebook has announced that it will soon end Internet Explorer 6 support for Facebook Chat. The kill date is September 15—the same day Microsoft plans to release the first IE9 beta. Today's announcement comes just a week after Microsoft launched a beta [...]
W7 Theme for Ubuntu brings Windows 7′s familiar GUI to Linux
W7 is a tool that changes your Linux GUI to a more familiar Windows interface. Linux has a highly configurable GUI, but if you long for the more well-known Windows interface, this script will do a remarkably good job of making Ubuntu look like Windows 7. You can download either a GNOME and KDE version, as well as one of a few Firefox themes [...]
Microsoft gutted a new privacy control system from Internet Explorer 8 at the behest of the advertising industry and its own marketing executives
Microsoft gutted a new privacy control system from Internet Explorer 8 at the behest of the advertising industry and its own marketing executives. When he heard of the ideas, Mr. Brian McAndrews, the executive involved with Microsoft's Internet advertising business, was angry, according to several people familiar with the matter. Mr. [...]
UK Officials: Dump Microsoft and Use Linux to Save Money
Although they say this every year or so, it never happens. It's just so they can get Microsoft to give them a nice fat discount when they need to upgrade. You could say that it's a cost-cutting measure in itself. "In terms of spending less, what about migrating the whole of government (the NHS, education etc.) from Microsoft products to Linux [...]
E3 2010: the 4 things you need to know about Microsoft’s press conference
Microsoft were the first to bat at this year's E3 videogame expo, before its official Tuesday opening (following Nintendo and Sony's own presentations), with both the bacchanalia of Sunday night's Cirque du Soleil-headlined event to reveal the final form of its motion-control system now known as Kinect, and with this morning's press conference to [...]
Google to employees: “Mac or Linux… but no more Windows”
We first heard rumors of this policy change a couple of months ago, but now it's made the papers: the Financial Times is reporting that Google is phasing out the use of Windows internally, as employees are migrated to either Linux or Mac OS X on machine turnovers or new hires. The policy change was precipitated in large part by the security breach [...]
Microsoft kills upshirt scene in Kin ad
WTF is Microsoft thinking with these stupid Kin phones? Are they aware of Apple and Google? After pressure from some people who found it creepy and thought it encouraged sexting, Microsoft intends to re-edit an ad for its new, socially networked cell phone, Kin. The ad, which some might consider about as dangerous as an ice cream cone in [...]
Windows users need to security-patch every five days
Running Windows and have at apps from least 22 vendors installed? Be prepared to install a security update every five days, or live in danger of losing control over your OS, bank details, webcam, and contents of your fridge (the median number of apps on users' PCs in this study is 66). Of course, the study comes from a company that makes a tool [...]
Windows hole discovered after 17 years… Affects 3.1 through to Windows 7
Just to clarify, that's Windows NT 3.1, not the old 16-bit Windows 3.1. I was wondering how the hell you could have a privilege escalation bug on an OS with only one level of privilege. The problem is caused by flaws in the Virtual DOS Machine (VDM) introduced in 1993 to support 16-bit applications (real mode applications for 8086). VDM is based [...]
Microsoft plays with Photoshop some more
Looks like the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Tech Support Club Band.
Windows 7 “GodMode”
Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden "GodMode" feature that lets users access all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder. To enter "GodMode," one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the [...]
Chinese pirates launch Ubuntu that looks exactly like Windows XP
From the Chinese pirate masters of the non-sea-faring variety comes... Ylmf OS! Not happy with pirating Windows XP itself, these creative Chinese have gone one step further and hacked Ubuntu to look exactly like Windows XP. Why have they moved to Ubuntu? Because their previous release, a pirate version of Windows XP itself, is being cracked down [...]
Microsoft loses appeal of XML patent
Microsoft has lost an appeal in a patent case that will force it to alter Microsoft Word to avoid an injunction on sales of the product. Microsoft lost a patent case involving a company called I4i in May, after a jury ruled that Microsoft infringed one of i4i's patents with a custom XML feature found in Word. In August an injunction was placed [...]
Murdoch-Microsoft deal in the works
Microsoft is ready to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to remove its news content from Google, according to the Financial Times. Microsoft has also approached other "big online publishers" with similar deals. "One website publisher approached by Microsoft said that the plan 'puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us [...]
Microsoft orders removal of blog about Bing cashback flaw
Attorneys for Microsoft, on Friday, sent a letter to Samir Meghani, co-founder of price-comparison search engine Bountii.com, demanding that he remove a blog post containing information about generating fake Bing cashback payments. Bing cashback is a search marketing program that provides online shoppers with cash rebate credit for purchases [...]
ISO Downloads and Fixes for Windows 7 Student Download
A friend of mine, and many commenters here and elsewhere, had issues receiving, downloading, or simply executing the $30 "student" Windows 7 upgrade. Microsoft has admitted some issues, and now offers tools for getting your upgrade done. Assuming you've picked up your license from a valid .edu address, you can burn the ISO image below to disk [...]
Shady Microsoft Plugin Pokes “Critical” Hole In Firefox Security
Microsoft has acknowledged that they slipped the .NET Framework Assistant plugin into Firefox via Windows Update this past February, and that it has poked a "critical" hole in the browser's security (effectively bringing Firefox down to IE's level). Microsoft has deemed the hole to be a "critical" security threat, as it gives webmasters the [...]
