Microsoft has posted a new warning about an exploit that affects its Internet Explorer browser. The zero-day vulnerability, which is already being exploited in the wild, allows for malicious users to install malware on a vulnerable machine.
According to CRN.com, the vulnerable “systems include Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7. However, Microsoft said that so far, Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 are not affected.”
The exploit occurs when there is an invalid pointer reference. This reference could allow for malicious users to install and launch malware when the object reference is deleted. Microsoft said that the current attacks appear to be targeted but they are currently working towards a fix.
For any user that is still using a legacy version of Internet Explorer, this is one more compelling reason to upgrade your version to IE 8. By upgrading to IE 8, you are removing one more potential exploit that could allow malware to be installed on your machine.
The ingredients for life as we know it have been found in the Orion Nebula.
By finely separating the spectrum of incoming light, astronomers are able to detect the chemical fingerprints of molecules like water and methanol. The spectrograph that their work produces can be seen in the image above. The peaks represent the presence of the molecule indicated.
The new data was collected by the Herschel Telescope, launched into space last year by the European Space Agency. Herschel’s HiFi instrument uses a new technique to do more-sensitive spectroscopy. It will enable scientists to better understand the chemistry of space.
The Orion Nebula is located about 1,300 light-years away. No very active star-forming region is closer to Earth. M42, as the nebula is also known, is 24 light-years across.
A 101-year-old woman in China has baffled doctors after growing a huge goat-like horn on her forehead.
Zhang Ruifang claims the growth first appeared only last year and has since expanded to be more than 6cm long. Now her family in Linlou, Henan province, are concerned about a second mark on the other side of her forehead.
“[At first] we didn’t pay too much attention to it,” said Mrs Zhang’s youngest son Zhang Guozheng. ”Now something is also growing on the right side of her forehead — it’s quite possible that it’s another horn.”
Today, Ars Technica makes known that Microsoft has finally begun rolling it out to users. The roll out will gradually make its way to 100 million US customers over the next few weeks. Microsoft is calling it the “most significant homepage redesign in over a decade.” The redesign features a new butterfly logo as well as 30 updates based on loads of customer feedback.
Among the new features are:
TrendWatch - highlights of the day’s top Twitter trends
Hyper-local Tweets – shows you tweets based on your location
My Cities - lets you save up to three cities to keep up with
MSN Local - enables the display of relevant local information
Hotmail - see your inbox on the MSN homepage
As a whole, the new site boasts tighter social networking integration. Facebook, Twitter, and Windows Live “What’s New” are all part of the new experience. Microsoft says that testers of the new site were very happy with the social network additions and they have received very positive feedback.
If you aren’t seeing the new design yet, you can still preview it here. The site explains the changes and shows off the new visual experience. There’s even a video of The Office’s Brian Baumgartner showing off the new site. As you’d expect, he’s awesome.
Sony’s PlayStation 3 games console will outsell the Nintendo Wii by 2013, at least according to industry analyst David Mercer of StrategyAnalytics who wrote a short preview of the upcoming “Global Video Game Market Forecast” publication on his blog.
In his blog post, the analyst wrote that there will be an estimated 76 million Wiis used worldwide by the end of 2010. However, he went on to say that there are signs “that the Wii has peaked in terms of console sales, and its installed base will begin to decline after 2011.”
Meanwhile, Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 will continue to grow, so that the PS3 will become the largest platform globally by 2013. In terms of cumulative lifetime sales we expect the PS3 to hit 127 million units, compared to 103 million Wiis.”
Mercer goes on to explain their forecast scenario and how there are uncertainties surrounding both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 due to the introduction of motion controllers to both systems, as well as Sony’s plans to add support for 3D to all PlayStation 3s.
He finished the post with some basic statistics about the year for console sales. After a 6% decline in the sales last year, he says that they “are predicting global console sales of 47.5 million, a 9% decline”.
“The Wii will account for most of that decline: sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360 are predicted to increase.”
Valve has been playing various games with the Internet community over the last couple of weeks. The ending to their popular puzzle game Portal was changed, hinting at a sequel, and the company began sending out teasers based on famous Apple ads that have appeared over the years. A couple of days ago, Valve did indeed announce that Portal 2 would be coming later in the year, but there were still puzzles to be solved. The latest issue of GameInformer has revealed a ton of info about the successor to Portal, including the fact that it’ll be coming to the Mac.
The aforementioned teaser images, included below, gave strong hints that Valve’s game distribution platform, Steam, would be coming to the Mac. This tied in with several discoveries within the platform’s files, showing various Mac-themed images, leading a large amount of people to believe that it was all but certain that we’d see Steam for OS X soon. As one of the teaser images showed a turret from the game Portal, it seemed obvious that the puzzle game would be included – but what about a sequel? Valve had been issuing clues to a Portal sequel and that it would be coming to Mac along with the other usual platforms, so it seemed very much within the realm of possibility. GameInformer managed to grab the first information on Portal 2 directly from Valve, and within the copy of the issue was a list of the release platforms for the game, confirming the rumors: PC, Xbox 360, and Mac.
Indeed, if Steam really does become a native application, it would give Apple’s OS X operating system a fairly hefty boost in the gaming region; currently, those who wish to game on OS X create a Boot Camp partition and run Windows from there, though this may soon be coming to an end. Valve is a large company which develops many high-profile titles, so if this takes off, it might signal a change in the way people perceive the Mac when it comes to gaming.
Apple added to the iPad hype on Sunday as it unveiled a new TV commercial during the Oscars awards.
The commercial demonstrates most of what we have already seen and know about the iPad. It finishes by signing the advert off with “April 3″, the date of the U.S. launch for the iPad.
The iPad will be available on April 3 for the WiFi only version and a month later for the WiFi and 3G version. Pricing of the devices will be:
Create a simple shortcut to gain access to the “Master Control Panel” in Windows Vista & Windows 7, allowing you to tweak hundreds of different settings.Are you one of those people who likes to get their hands dirty and tweak every single possible setting? If you’re running Windows Vista or the newer (and much better) Windows 7, you’re in luck.With a simple shortcut, you can access Windows Vista/7’s Master Control Panel, giving you access to a plethora of tweaks, all in a nice, user-friendly graphical interface (instead of editing the Registry).
To access the Master Control Panel, create a shortcut (right-click on the desktop) with the following: explorer.exe shell:::{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
This works on both 32-bit & 64-bit versions of Windows Vista & 7.
“You know about the four basic tastes: sweetness, sourness, bitterness and saltiness. Even if that list doesn’t roll off of your tongue, you can certainly imagine how each of these tastes flavors your mouth.
Well, it turns out there is fifth taste, called Umami. Umami was first isolated by Japanese chemists Kikunae Ikeda in 1908, yet only recently has the concept of umami made it out of Asia.
The chances are that you are already a big fan of umami but just don’t know it yet. That’s what happened to Carolyn Cope, who now runs a blog called Umami Girl.
‘I’d always known that I liked foods that were a little funky — certain aged cheeses, cured meats, mushrooms, anchovies,’ Cope told Asylum. ‘Shortly after college I got really into sushi. Like, really into it. Just when I was starting to seriously wonder whether my favorite sushi rolls were laced with some illicit, addictive substance, I learned about umami, the taste that literally stimulates the brain’s pleasure centers.’”
We get a lot of questions about how Facebook makes its money, so here are our best estimates.
We’ve heard from a couple reliable sources that when it was looking for its latest funding, Facebook told investors 2009 revenues would reach $550 million.
If that’s true, Facebook is growing quicker than even people inside to the company thought. Only a couple months ago, a source close to the company told us 2009 revenues would be closer to $400 million. But let’s take the $550 million figure and break that one down.
Earlier this week, we spoke to several sources who each have some insight into Facebook’s financials (none of them know precisely). Taking the sources’ input together, we’d estimate the company’s expected 2009 revenue this way:
$125 million from brand ads
$150 million from Facebook’s ad deal with Microsoft
Microsoft has posted a new warning about an exploit that affects its Internet Explorer browser. The zero-day vulnerability, which is already being exploited in the wild, allows for malicious users to install malware on a vulnerable machine.
“You know about the four basic tastes: sweetness, sourness, bitterness and saltiness. Even if that list doesn’t roll off of your tongue, you can certainly imagine how each of these tastes flavors your mouth.
We get a lot of questions about how Facebook makes its money, so here are our best estimates.