Outlook Express dice addio ad Hotmail

A partire dal prossimo 30 Giugno non sarà più possibile accedere alla casella di posta elettronica Hotmail servendosi di Outlook Express. Lo comunica con una e-mail il "Windows Live Mail Team" di Microsoft invitando gli utenti dello storico client di posta, integrato anche in Windows XP, a sostituirlo con il più recente Windows Live Mail.

Microsoft manda in pensione il protocollo DAV ("Distributed Authoring and Versioning"), sinora impiegato per l'integrazione Outlook Express-Hotmail, sostituendolo con il protocollo proprietario "DeltaSynch" che si occupa, tra l'altro, di rilevare le modifiche sul server di posta permettendo al client di scaricare solo i dati che sono variati.

Da Redmond viene suggerito, agli utenti di Outlook 2003 e 2007, di scaricare Microsoft Office Outlook Connector per potersi connettere alle proprie caselle di posta Hotmail.

http://www.ilsoftware.it/news.asp?ID=4381

New Intel(R) Centrino(R) Atom™

New Intel® Centrino® Atom™ Processor Technology Ushers in 'Best Internet Experience in Your Pocket'

With 45nm High-K Transistor Formula as Centerpiece, Execs at Shanghai Intel Developer Forum Outline 'Milliwatts to Petaflops' Hi-Tech Plans

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, Shanghai, April 2, 2008 – Intel Corporation today introduced five new Intel® Atom™ processors and Intel Centrino® Atom™ processor technology for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and embedded computing solutions.

The technology package includes the Intel® Atom™ processor (formerly codenamed "Silverthorne") plus a single-chip with integrated graphics called the Intel® System Controller Hub that enables PC-like capabilities, an uncompromised Internet experience and long battery life in smaller devices that can fit in your pocket. Manufacturers around the world are planning to ship Intel-based MIDs beginning this summer.

MIDs are truly mobile devices that enable the best Internet experience in pocketable devices. MIDs will allow consumers to communicate, entertain, access information and be productive on-the-go, and are expected to represent a new class of next-generation, Internet-based portable video players, navigation devices, converged tablets and other consumer products.

Formerly codenamed "Menlow," Intel Centrino Atom processor technology includes the company's first-ever Intel Atom processor (formerly "Silverthorne"). The processor – Intel's smallest and the world's fastest chip under 3 watts – has a thermal design power range¹ of 0.65 to 2.4 watts* (versus 35 watts for today's typical laptop), average power range² of 160-220 milliwatts (mW) and idle power range³ of 80-100mW.

These dramatic low-power levels are achieved as a result of several major processor design power management techniques such as Intel Deep Power Down Technology (C6), CMOS mode, and Split I/O power supply. When combined with Intel's unique and reinvented 45nm high-k metal gate transistor formula, the chips are very energy efficient and smaller in size, and enable longer battery life and sleek designs.

"Today is a historic day for Intel and the high-tech industry as we deliver our first-ever Intel Atom processor and surround it with a great package of technology," said Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Ultra Mobility Group. "Mix in the incredible innovation coming from our fellow device makers and software vendors, and we will change the way consumers will come to know and access the World Wide Web. These forthcoming MIDs, and some incredible longer-term plans our customers are sharing with us, will show how small devices can deliver a big Internet experience."

http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080401comp.htm

Sandbox (computer security)

Sandbox (computer security)
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    This article is about the computer security mechanism. For the Wikipedia feature, where newcomers can experiment with editing, see Wikipedia:Sandbox.

    For the software testing practice, see sandbox (software development).

In computer security, a sandbox is a security mechanism for safely running programs. It is often used to execute untested code, or untrusted programs from unverified third-parties, suppliers and untrusted users.

The sandbox typically provides a tightly-controlled set of resources for guest programs to run in, such as scratch space on disk and memory. Network access, the ability to inspect the host system or read from input devices are usually disallowed or heavily restricted. In this sense, sandboxes are a specific example of virtualization.

Some examples of sandboxes are:

    * Applets are self-contained programs that run in a virtual machine or scripting language interpreter that does the sandboxing. In application streaming schemes, the applet is downloaded onto a remote client and may begin executing before it arrives in its entirety. Applets are common in web browsers, which use the mechanism to safely execute untrusted code embedded in web pages. Three common applet implementations—Adobe Flash, Java applets and Silverlight—provide (at minimum) a rectangular window with which to interact with the user and some persistent storage (at the user's permission).
    * A jail is a set of resource limits imposed on programs by the operating system kernel. It can include I/O bandwidth caps, disk quotas, network access restrictions and a restricted filesystem namespace. Jails are most commonly used in virtual hosting.
    * Virtual machines emulate a complete host computer, on which a conventional operating system may boot and run as on actual hardware. The guest operating system is sandboxed in the sense that it does not run natively on the host and can only access host resources through the emulator.
    * Capability systems can be thought of as a fine-grained sandboxing mechanism, in which programs are given opaque tokens when spawned and have the ability to do specific things based on what tokens they hold. Most capability systems are implemented as a kernel layer. The SELinux and Apparmor security frameworks are two such implementations for Linux.


Eight Security Sandboxes Reviewed and Rated
http://www.techsupportalert.com/security_virtualization.htm

Share your screen and/or access a PC remotely with Mikogo

Share your screen and/or access a PC remotely with Mikogo

Author: Samer

Description: Mikogo is a free, browser-based screen sharing and remote computer access platform for Windows. It allows you to create virtual meetings/webinars where any of the participant's screens can be shared, to define which applications can or cannot be accessed remotely, and to instantly share files with participants, all without the need to configure firewalls, ports, and routers etc.

Say you want to demonstrate to your friend in another town how you perform a certain trick with Photoshop, or say you want to send your mother in a different time zone a really good freeware antispyware program and install for her on the spot. Mikogo will allow you to do all of the above.

I work in a company here in Seattle that's been merged with another one on the east coast, and a few days ago I had to give a presentation "virtually" to a group of my colleagues back east. A conference call was arranged for the audio part, but what was needed was a platform whereby I could share my screen with multiple PCs on the other side of the continent. This being the business world, we used an expensive proprietary software, but I nonetheless started researching easy ways this could be done for free and found and tested Mikogo.

Once you download and install this program, you will have to create an account and log in. What's really cool is that if screen sharing/broadcasting is all you need you audience on the other side would not need to create accounts or install software (they do, however, need to download and run a single no-install executable). Moreover, all interaction happens through the browser and there are no firewalls or routers to configure, no IP addresses to investigate and ports to open or close. Here are more notes on this program:

• How to share your screen: once you launch your Mikogo account and log in, right click on the Mikogo icon in the system tray and select "Start meeting". You will be provided with a meeting ID (a kind of password) that others could use to view your screen. Once you have your meeting up and running, you can easily switch presenter to view another user's screen rather than them seeing yours (subject to their acceptance, of course). Meeting limited to 10 participants.
• How others can view your screen: all your audience members need to do is go to the Mikogo website and click on "join meeting" which will download a small executable (approx 680K) that they can run and enter the meeting ID into. This will instantly open a browser window with your own shared screen displayed in it. They can also switch to broadcasting their screen or controlling another desktop without the need for any further download. Once the meeting is over, they can simply delete the executable and the config file that it creates (in the same directory in-which it is placed).
  
• Remote access: allows you to asume control of the remote computer's keyboard and mouse. What's worth mentioning here is that Mikogo maintains a list of programs that you can check/uncheck to enable remote access. Performance is a is a little bit sluggish, which is typical for browser based remote access I think (e.g. Yuuguu's performance was about the same). I would be interested in a comparing remote access performance for freeware VPN solutions; if you know about this or if you use a remote access platform whose performance you like please let us know in the comments.
• Security: according to the devleopers "every bit of information that is transmitted between Mikogo users during a meeting is encrypted via a 256-Bit AES end-to-end encryption". And as mentioned above a user needa a meeting ID to be able to join a meeting, and if you start a meeing you can at any point decide to "lock" it in order to prevent anyone from entering after that point.
• File sharing: offers a very handy file sharing option which is surprisingly fast.
• Portability: you can run Mikogo from a USB. See this page.
• Memory use: a mere 10 megs or so in the background.
• Privacy policy: the connection between computers is relayed through the Mikogo servers, which means that in theory Mikogo has access to what you broadcast. I did not find any privacy policy in the Mikogo site, but in truth I am not worried about it.

The verdict: although there exists a number of free VPN solutions, the reasons I like this one are (a) avoids the need to configure firewalls, routers, ports, etc, because it is entirely browser based, (b) avoids the need for others to install software and create accounts to see your screen remotely, and (c) works very well and does what it sets out to do. I might also mention that I am grateful that Mikogo does not include an IM client or, say, internet based teleconferencing, which would have made it unnecessarily bloated. If you want these get Pidgin for a fantastic freeware global IM client and LoudTalks for teleconferencing over VOIP.

source: http://www.freewaregenius.com/2008/04/05/share-your-screen-andor-access-a-pc-remotely-with-mikogo/

Mojopac - Virtualize your Desktop Workspace

Create a virtual Windows PC on a mobile device with MojoPac

Author: Samer

Description: "MojoPac Freedom" is the free edition of the MojoPac desktop virtualization software. It allows you to install a Windows XP environment on a portable hard drive, Ipod, or other device that, when plugged into any PC, behaves as a self-contained Windows XP environment that can have the programs that you need installed and the desktop customizations that you are used to.

Picture this: you're off to a 7-day visit to your in-laws over Christmas, during which time you would like to do some overdue graphic design work with GIMPshop, create a few blog postings using your favorite blog-publishing program, and perhaps put in a few hours of gameplay with that latest MMORG that you're into. More importantly, you also need to be checking your email locally for work with Outlook as well as have all of your archived emails for reference just in case. Oh, and you'd also like to be able to move music and video in and out of your Iphone (i.e. you need Itunes installed as well).

For a scenario as described above it seems obvious to take a laptop, as it's just not practical for you to be installing all this software on your in-law's computer. However, there is in fact another option: use MojoPac to create a virtual PC set-up with all the programs and data that you need stored on a USB drive or even on your Ipod, and then simply plug that device into any computer to instantly get all of your programs along with an entire virtual PC environment on demand.

One of the nicest things about this software is the ease of setting it up. You have to create an account at the MojoPac site, which involves picking a username and password and submitting a working email, but you can actually do that from the installation process itself. The process takes a mere few minutes at the end of which your new mobile-device borne virtual PC will up and running (see installation section below).

My experience with MojoPac: I tested this software by installing it first on a 2-Gig USB stick as then on a 12-GIG partition on a portable USB drive. Here are my notes on this program:

• Compatibility: not all software can be installed with the MojoPac environment (a list of supported programs can be found here). While I was able to install MS Office 2003, Itunes, and a number of other games and programs just fine, many other freeware titles that I attempted would not install. Moreover, some that did install would simply not function properly. If a program you need is not working post it in the support forums and it may be supported in future versions.
• Reliability: I tested my MojoPac-enabled device with some 8 different computers. For five of these it worked just fine, for two it displayed an error message and required a reboot to work, and on one PC it would not work at all no matter how hard I tried. Something to keep in mind in case you absolutely positively must have your programs working for that important presentation.
• Performance: will depend mostly on the speed of data transfer of your USB device. The MojoPac site states that the virtualization process itself does not tax performance to any notable degree, and they stress that you can play the latest graphically intensive games at full performance. That said, your MojoPac PC will very likely be slower than the host PC unless you have a really fast USB device that you are running it on.
• Installation: you do not need to have Windows XP or any Windows CDs around; MojoPac will install everything that it needs on its own (which is one of the coolest things about this program). Currently MojoPac only works on Windows XP, but a Vista version will be available shortly. Its possible to install MojoPac on a directory on the host computer instead of a device, but I haven't tried this myself.
• Size on disk: the Windows XP installation that MojoPac put on my device is approx 200 megs (128 megs minimum required, 2 Gig minimum recommended). The portable device will have the typical Win XP folder structure (Windows, Program Files, Documents and Settings, etc.)
• Switching back and forth: between the host PC environment and the MojoPac PC can be done at the press of a button via a docked MojoPac bar on the top of your screen or from the MojoPac icon in the system tray. There are times when your activity within the MojoPac PC is interrupted by security software running in the host environment (firewalls or antispyware/antivirus). In most cases MojoPac will notify you of the windows which pop up in the host, but not always. If your MojoPac PC seems stuck and you don't know why, try flipping over to the host PC and see if something's up.
• Accessing other drives/devices: the MojoPac PC will simply not access hard drives connected to the host PC, although it will access other hardware (e.g. CD drive, mouse, keyboard, etc). From the settings it is possible to allow it to access the host PC drivers, which games and other programs need to function. To copy data back and forth between the host and MojoPac PC's you will need to switch to the host PC and transfer data to the MojoPac device. Strangely (but happily) the host and MojoPac PC's share the clipboard.
• Technical support: although in theory you do not get technical support with the free edition, you can still send them error reports, create technical support tickets, and (hopefully) get the issues resolved.

source: http://www.freewaregenius.com/2008/01/31/create-a-virtual-windows-pc-on-a-mobile-device-with-mojopac/

Saves the icon layout according to current user and screen resolution

Welcome to desksave.de

In Windows, when screen resolution changes, the order of the desktop icons very often gets mixed up. With DeskSave it is quite easy to recover a previously saved icon layout either manually or automatically. Software developers are given the opportunity to test their applications in different screen resolutions without disarranging the desktop icons.

Features of DeskSave 8.0:

• Saves the icon layout according to current user and screen resolution
• Restoring works properly, even if 'Auto Arrange' or 'Align to Grid' (Windows XP/Vista) is activated
• Accepts command line parameters
• Auto restore after resolution change, program start or resume from standby/hibernation
• Starts with Windows, if desired
• Saves icon layouts to files
• Undo after restoration
• Provides backups of current and saved layouts
• Optional portable mode, leaves no traces on the system
• Supports multiple displays
• Supports English and German language
• Optional shell extension for the desktop, thereby easy access to functions without background process
• Very small size (DeskSave.exe: 78 kB, Shell extension: 79 kB)
• No setup routine, just unpack the archive and DeskSave is ready
• Easy deletion of all saved primary layouts, backups settings, DeskSave is completely removable
• Supports Windows 98, 2000, XP and Vista (32 bit)

http://www.desksave.de/index.php?lang=en

Cancellarsi dalle newsletters di LIBERO

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La newsletter di Libero è un servizio gratuito che permette di poter poter essere aggiornati su argomenti di proprio interesse. Iscrivendoti a quella per te significativa riceverai una e-mail (con frequenza variabile da settimanale a quotidiana) con l'aggiornamento e l'approfondimento che cercavi. Consultando l'archivio on line delle varie sezioni tematiche potrai invece consultare tutto quello che fino ad oggi ti sei perso, oppure ritrovare la notizia, il link o il documento che avevi letto e che non ritrovi più nel tuo computer. Il contenuto delle mail è curato dallo staff di Libero, che si avvale anche della collaborazione di soggetti leader nella produzione di contenuti nelle varie aree tematiche.

Come posso revocare la mia adesione?

Il servizio è rescindibile in ogni momento, senza alcuna spesa.

Basta tornare nella home page delle newsletter di Libero e semplicemente selezionare "cancellati" sotto ciò che non vuoi più ricevere.

http://newsletter.libero.it/login/

Remove WGA

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/RemoveWGA.shtml

RemoveWGA description
A small utility that enables you to remove the Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications toolRemoveWGA will enable you to easily remove the Microsoft "Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications" tool, which is calling home and connect to MS servers every time you boot. Futures updates of this notification tool will (officialy) setup the connection rate to once every two weeks.

Once the WGA Notification tool has checked your OS and has confirmed you had a legit copy, there is no decent point or reason to check it again and again every boot.

Moreover, connecting to Microsoft brings security issue for corporate networks, and privacy issues for everyone. It is also unclear which information are transmitted (Microsoft published an official answer, but an individual study brought some questions).

All
    of that, along the fact that Microsoft used deceptive ways to make you install this tool (it was told you it was an urgent security update, whereas it is a new installation giving you no extra security) makes me calling this tool a spyware.

Also, Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is different than Windows Genuine Advantage Validation. RemoveWGA only removes the notification part, phoning home, and does not touch the Validation part.
  
Here are some key features of "RemoveWGA":

· Tell you if the WGA notification tool is active on your system
· Allows you to remove the WGA notification tool from your system
· Accept the "-silent" command line parameter to silently check if the WGA notification tool is active on your system, and popup only if it is found (usefull for checking automatically at startup for instance)

Note: Some antivirus and antispyware programs flag RemoveWGA as being infected/malware, although the application is perfectly safe and does not pose a threat to your system. This is called a 'false positive'. The term false positive is used when antivirus software wrongly classifies an innocuous ( inoffensive ) file as a virus. The incorrect detection may be due to heuristics or to an incorrect virus signature in a database. [Similar problems can occur with antitrojan or antispyware software.]