BestBuys US .com: 5/6/07

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Patches

It's an all 'critical' Patch Tuesday
Ryan Naraine: Microsoft has just released seven advisories--all rated "critical"--with patches for at least 18 vulnerabilities affecting Windows, Office and Internet Explorer.
Mac hack challenge sparks another debate

Sun’s JavaFX = Microsoft's Silverlight?
JavaOne: Is Sun's newly unveiled JavaFX really a Microsoft Silverlight killer? Details are sketchy but at least it gives Sun a chance to put its platform back on track.
Ed Burnette: JavaFX takes center stage at JavaOne
Sun tries again with consumer-flavored Java
Ryan Stewart: Sun enters the Rich Internet Application world with JavaFX
All Java resources

Gates makes case for Microsoft's ad business
While acknowledging stiff competition for online advertising, Microsoft is in the ad game for the long haul, he tells conference.
EU cautioned on any Microsoft break-up

Software 2007: Innovation on the upswing
Dan Farber: Software 2007 isn't about companies, but innovation in processes, business models and delivery systems--plus SaaS, open ource, SOA, Enterprise 2.0 and hybrid models.

What the TJX data breach will really cost you
So what will retailer TJX really have to fork over failing to secure a wireless network and letting 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers leak out? Estimates range up to $1 billion. Here's what I found out.
George Ou: Details on TJX's WiFi failure

Monday, May 07, 2007

Russian Teacher Fined for Software Piracy

Court fines a Russian headmaster half his monthly wage when studnts use illicit copies of Microsoft Windows and Office.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian headmaster said on Monday a court has fined him half his monthly wage for using pirated copies of Microsoft software at his school in a case President Vladimir Putin has called "utter nonsense."

Prosecutors said Alexander Ponosov had violated Microsoft's property rights by allowing pupils to use 12 computers with unlicensed copies of Microsoft Windows and Office software.

Ponosov, a headmaster in a remote school in the Perm region of the Ural mountains, said he did not know the computers had fake licenses when they were delivered by a sub-contractor.

Russia has been urged to crack down on the widespread availability of cheap pirated software, films and music as it prepares to enter the World Trade Organisation.

Illegal copies of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system are on sale for about $6 at Moscow markets.

Russian state television has portrayed Alexander Ponosov as a hero in a David-and-Goliath battle against the legal system and international corporations.

"Today the court brought in a guilty verdict - they ordered me to pay a fine of 5,000 roubles ($194.4)," Ponosov told Reuters by telephone from the Perm region.

"I consider myself not guilty and I will file an appeal," he said, adding that he had not paid the fine. He said he earned about 10,000 roubles a month.

Putin has described the case as "utter nonsense" and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev even asked Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to intercede on the teacher's behalf.

In February a local court threw out the case because it considered the losses to Microsoft to be insignificant but Ponosov appealed as he said he had not been found innocent. Prosecutors also appealed and the case was sent back to court.

The court found Ponosov had brought losses of 266,000 roubles on Microsoft, RIA news agency said, citing the judge.

Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, said it was the Russian authorities who started the proceedings.

"Our interest is not in prosecuting schools or teachers, it is in helping students develop the technology skills they need in the 21st century," the company said in a statement.

"Mr. Ponosov's case was initiated by Russian authorities under Russian law. Microsoft neither initiated nor has any plans to bring any action against Mr. Ponosov," Microsoft said.

Ponosov said he was being made an example of.

"Someone is defending corporate interests, someone is interested in not finding me innocent as they think that if I am found innocent then others will think they can get away with breaching intellectual property rights," Ponosov said.

The Top 25 Web Hoaxes and Pranks

These online spoofs and shams have made the rounds on Web sites and through e-mail. Perhaps you even believed one or two of them yourself.

Whether they take the form of a comic image of a giant cat or a desperate plea from a sick child, chain e-mail messages and Internet frauds are elements of the online landscape that we've all encountered. No topic is off limits: a medical warning, a promise of free money, or a believably (or shoddily) Photoshopped image. But at the end of the day, they're just elaborate hoaxes or clever pranks--and we've collected 25 of the most infamous ones ever to have graced the Internet or our inboxes.

Though some of these deceptions originated years ago, the originals--and dozens of variants--continue to make the rounds. If you keep a patient vigil over your e-mail, you too may eventually spot a message urging you to FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!! And if you haven't had enough when you finish reading this article, take a hoax test at the Museum of Hoaxes, and then hop over to Snopes, the premier myth-dispelling site for coverage of zillions of other falsifications.

Next page: Hoaxes 1 Through 5