W. P. Carey MBA - Executive Program - Arizona State University

Windows 2000 and NT code leaked to internet

If you're working from one of these platforms, you may want to monitor the MS site for security updates (one security upgrade made available last week was rated "critical"). The BBC reports this news:

The company [Microsoft] could not immediately pinpoint the source of leak, and has contacted law enforcement authorities.

It is thought to comprise parts of the source code for Windows 2000 and Windows NT.

[Microsoft spokesman] Mr Pilla said there was no indication the code leak was a result of a breach of Microsoft's corporate network.

There was no known immediate impact to Microsoft customers, he said.

One concern is that it is hackers interested in gaining access to (or just creating problems for) Microsoft and its customers. A more worrisome concern for Microsoft, however, is that it isn't vandalism but surveillance work:

the other threat to Microsoft is the fact that such access could provide a competitive edge to its rivals, who would gain a much better understanding of the inner workings of Microsoft's technology.

Blog power

Which weblogs are being visited the most? Here is a "zoomable" graph showing something like popularity based on the number of inbound links to a site. You might be surprised on which sites are attracting the most attention (or not).

How India became the capital of the computing revolution

This is a story about the global economy. It's about two countries and one profession - and how weirdly upside down the future has begun to look from opposite sides of the globe. It's about code and the people who write it. But it's also about free markets, new politics, and ancient wisdom -

The latest issue of Wired has devoted its cover story to the changing face of the "silicon age" and the movement of systems, code development and tech jobs to India. Remember the old Silicon Valley mantra "hey, change is a good thing." You hardly hear it there anymore.

Defeating spam filters

What do these words have in common?

"formic", "brouhaha", "granitic" and "occlusive".

The answer is that they are words that spammers add to their spam messages to "fool" the new Bayesian spam filters that are catching in the neighborhood of 99% of spam once they are trained.

Since spam rarely includes such terms as "granitic," the hope of the spammers is that its presence will out-weight the spaminess of the rest of the message, according to one of the world's experts on spam and spam filters.

Good news first: these words don't work, so the messages will still be filtered.

The bad news: there are words that do work, though you would likely never guess what they are:

"Berkshire", "Marriott", "wireless", "touch" and "comment"

I wasn't totally surprised at the list since I recently received spam with Marriott in the From line.

The process to identify which words work is laborious and they can be protected against once known -- one more bit of good news.

To MSFT: "No Bugs This Month?"

Shortly after Microsoft announces that there will no patches or hotfixes for the month of December, a group of security professionals from Danish has discovered a bug in the popular Internet Explorer browser. According to ZDNN, the bug could "let hackers to display false web address on a fake site". The group who discovered the bug even put out a web site to demonstrate the exploit.

Microsoft currently has not issue a patch to fix this vulnerability. To reduce your risk, ZDNN recommends that people not to follow links from non-trusted sources.

ZDNN: IE Bug lets fake sites look real

Holiday Gift Idea #124: Implantable RFID

If you are having a hard time shopping for someone who seems to have everything, here's something that will surely surprise him or her - an implantable RFID chip! Applied Digital Solutions (ADS), the company who makes the miniture RFID tag or VeriChip, is having a special promotion urging people to get "chipped". According to the company's offical website, the first 100,000 people will received $50 off for their "chipping" procedure. ZDNN: Chip implant gets cash under your skin ADS: VeriChip Pre-Registration

MSoogle?!

With $40+ billion in cash setting in their war chest, what else would Microsoft do with its money if it is not handing out dividends? How about buying the most popular search engine on the Internet! The New York Times said today that Microsoft is looking into partnering or perhaps even taking-over Google.

The news came in an interesting time as sources back in July of this year indicated that MSN, Microsoft’s Internet division, has been quietly working on its own search technology. Therefore, today’s announcement could signal either one of the followings:

1. Microsoft is hitting a brick wall developing its own search engine. With Google’s plans to go IPO early next year, Microsoft is getting desperate to get a piece of the search engine action before Google becomes “unstoppable.”

2. Microsoft is on track with its own search engine. Rather than only rolling it out on MSN, it also wants to secure additional channel to distribute the technology. Google is the perfect candidate.

All in all, this is THE THING to watch for the weeks to come.

MSNBC: Microsoft sought deal with Google

ZDNN: Microsoft drops LookSmart search tool

"You want Wi-Fi with that?"

You will soon be able to surf the web and answer your email while having your favorite BigMac. Fast-food giant McDonald's is currently evaluating Wi-Fi hotspots in four major U.S. cities. The trial is expected to end within the first quarter of 2004.

ZDNN: McDonald's orders shakeout for hot-spot providers