Acer launches Aspire Netbook
Acer Australia has recently launched the Aspire One, its first 8.9″ Netbook. Powered by the latest Intel Atom processor, Aspire One is an internet device designed to make online activities fast, simple and convenient.
Aspire One features an 8.9″ CrystalBrite LED backlit display (resolution of 1024×600 pixels), CrystalEye webcam and 802.11b/g WiFi built-in as standard for access to available wireless networks.
Aspire One will be available with Linpus Linux Lite or Windows XP Home, and comes with 512MB or 1GB of memory respectively. There are two alternatives for data storage: a NAND flash module of 8GB or an 80GB internal HDD. In addition the Aspire One reads 5 different types of memory card.
The bundled OneMail application integrates up to five email accounts into one central inbox. Similarly, users can have multiple instant messenger accounts via a single point of access.
Available in a range of colours, the Aspire One has a RRP of $599AUD (linux version).
- Linux version weighs less than 1kg
- Windows XP version weighs 1.1kg
- Up to 3 hours battery life with standard 3-cell battery
- Up to 7 hours battery life with optional 6-cell battery
Blackberry security flaw
Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry, has warned businesses to disable the function which allows a BlackBerry to read PDF files, after a security flaw was found in the software.
A “high” severity flaw affecting how BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) opens PDF files may be used to compromise a network. RIM disclosed the flaw last week but is yet to issue a patch, stating that no timeframe for a fix was available.
Until then, customers asre advised to disable the BlackBerry Attachment Service, which allows BES to process PDF attachments for users to view on their BlackBerry devices. The flaw relates to how the service processes PDF files, which can be exploited via a maliciously crafted PDF.
Vulnerable systems include BES software version 4.1 Service Pack 3 (4.1.3) through to 4.1 Service Pack 5 (4.1.5). RIM has given the advisory a “high” severity rating.
“If a BlackBerry smartphone user on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server opens and views the specially crafted PDF file attachment on the BlackBerry smartphone, the arbitrary code execution could compromise the computer,” RIM states on its advisory.
According to Sense of Security’s principal consultant, Jason Edelstein, this means that corporate networks are at risk due to the flaw. Most organisations place the BES within key networks, such as email servers, giving it privileged access to other computers on that network.
“Most organisations put the BES on an internal server on the network, which actually is a conduit between the internal server and RIM’s servers based in Canada,” he said.
“If someone loses their device and it’s not locked in some way, you could browse internally to that company’s Web-based resources,” he said.
“The way the end user can determine if they are vulnerable is to try to open the browser on the BlackBerry and attempt to access your intranet resources — if it comes up on the BlackBerry and you know it’s not published on the internet, that should raise alarm bells.”
Blackberry/RIM Knowledgebase article
CUDOS for Aussie Chip team
Australian research scientists have made a radical breakthrough that could dramatically increase the speed of the optical networks at the core of the internet.
The Sydney University based Centre for Ultra-high bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) team, led by Ben Eggleton, has created a switch embedded in a silicon chip. The chip uses scratches on a glass surface to direct optical traffic at speeds of up to 640 gigabits per second.
Traditionally, switching network traffic means converting it from light into electrical signals and then back again. However, with the massive speeds now used in backbone networks, such an approach is becoming a bottleneck. The new switch opens up the prospect of multi terabit-per-second speeds.
Eggleton says “The switch chip essentially uses one beam of light to control another. The scratches create a photonic circuit that does the job traditionally done by electronics”. The circuit will guide data in much the same way as trains are guided from one track to another.
Just as potentially impressive as the operating speed is the simplicity and potential cheapness of the design. This should eventually allow it to be incorporated into a wide variety of equipment.
The CUDOS team has worked with other researchers at the Australian National University and the Technical University of Denmark on the project. A proof of concept chip is currently under evaluation in Europe.
Find CUDOS here
Google-YouTube-Viacom decision
The ongoing Google/YouTube-Viacom litigation has now officially spilled over to users with a court order requiring Google to turn over massive amounts of user data to Viacom.
That data includes every YouTube username, the associated IP address and the videos that user has watched on YouTube. Google will also be required to hand over copies of every video removed from Youtube for any reason. Stanton dismissed Google’s argument that the order will violate user privacy, saying such privacy concerns are merely “speculative.”
Meanwhile, the judge denied Viacom’s request that Google turn over YouTube’s source code.
It seems that far more data is in danger of being transferred than is required to satisfy Viacom’s core stated concern, which is to understand the popularity of copyright infringing vs. non-infringing material. Viacom has asked for much more than that, opening up the possibility of their taking legal action to sue individual users (or at least use the threat of a lawsuit) who have watched ‘copyrighted’ material on YouTube.
Telstra billing fix delayed
Telstra has failed to meet Sol Rujillo’s June 30 deadline for completing the migration of 5 million users to a new billing system, despite its claiming less than four months ago that the multi-million-dollar overhaul would be complete on time.
Mr Trujillo told analysts at Telstra’s half-yearly results in late February that the migration was “on plan” and that he would reveal whether the telco had “hit” its goal of completing the migration by the end of the 2007-08 financial year during full-year results in August.
However, a Telstra representative confirmed yesterday that progress was “satisfactory”, but that the migration of customers was still ongoing, despite the deadline.
The failure to meet the deadline is likely to see Telstra forced to continue pumping funds into running the legacy system as well as the new platform.
Telstra has not revealed any details of how many customers have already been migrated to the new billing platform.
Searchable Flash Content
Internet users will now have an easier time finding sites that rely heavily on the popular Flash video format.
Adobe Systems, owner of Flash, has released a customised version of the Flash Player software that will allow Google (and other search engines) to see certain elements of Web pages embedded with Flash content in the same way a human would.
Search Engines currently have a difficult time “seeing” non-text formats such as Flash, which can lead to sites that make heavy use of the technology being ‘penalised’ in terms of their indexing.
Adobe’s new tool will help crawlers navigate dynamic Flash pages more easily. Google’s crawlers, for instance, will be able to click buttons along the way and remember the information for the index.
Google is already using the new tool and Yahoo plans to soon. Adobe also plans to extend support to other search engines.
Microsoft officially ends sales of XP
Microsoft is proceeding with plans to stop selling the Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer as from June 30th.
Once major manufacturers such as Dell and HP have cleared their stocks of machines loaded with XP, then new machines will only be issued with Vista, and anyone wishing to revert to XP will have to buy Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and then legally “downgrade” to XP.
Smaller PC makers will be allowed to buys XP for resale through til January 2009. Cut down versions of XP will also remain available for use on machines such as the Asus Eee PC.
The decision comes despite vociferous protests from large numbers of people unhappy with Vista and amid calls for XP to be kept on-line until the release of the next Windows version 7, pencilled in for sometime in 2009.
Last week, Microsoft said it would provide full technical support for Windows XP through 2009, and limited support through 2014.
Firefox 3 Final Officially Released
The long awaited Firefox 3 has now been officially released in its final stage.
You can download Firefox 3 from here.
Release Notes can be found here.
By downloading Firefox 3 within the next 24 hours, you will also be helping the Mozilla team set a new world record for the most downloaded piece of software in one day/24 hour period.
Live at Mozilla HQ:
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IBM Supercomputer Dual Boots Windows and Linux
IBM has built the biggest ever dual-boot Windows/Linux HPC system for a consortium of Swedish research groups and universities.
The record-chasing firm will apparently unveil its 5,376 Intel Xeon quad-core processor blade system later on today. Computer World claims the system is able to reach an impressive 46 sustained teraflops on a beta version of Windows HPC Server 2008, with each chip apparently running at 2.5GHz and using 50 watts.
What makes the achievement particularly noteworthy is the fact that it is a relative rarity for an HPC system to be built on Windows rather than exclusively on Linux, which makes up around 85 percent of all HPC systems in the world.
Microsoft has long been interested in catching up with its rivals in the HPC field, and mow it looks like it might finally be making inroads.
The mega computer, which sits in the Umea University, about 680km north of Stockholm, is amongst the top 50 most powerful machines currently in existence.
AMD FireStream 9250 Breaks the 1 Teraflop Barrier
At the International Supercomputing Conference, AMD today introduced its next-generation stream processor, the AMD FireStream 9250, specifically designed to accelerate critical algorithms in high-performance computing (HPC), mainstream and consumer applications. Leveraging the GPU design expertise of AMD’s Graphics Product Group, AMD FireStream 9250 breaks the one teraflop barrier for single precision performance. It occupies a single PCI slot, for unmatched density and with power consumption of less than 150 watts, the AMD FireStream 9250 delivers an unprecedented rate of performance per watt efficiency with up to eight gigaflops per watt.
Customers can leverage AMD’s latest FireStream offering to run critical workloads such as financial analysis or seismic processing dramatically faster than with CPU alone, helping them to address more complex problems and achieve faster results. For example, developers are reporting up to a 55x performance increase on financial analysis codes as compared to processing on the CPU alone, which supports their efforts to make better and faster decisions. Additionally, the use of flexible GPU technology rather than custom accelerators assists those creating application-specific systems to enhance and maintain their solutions easily.
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Professional Gamer Offers Lessons
Teens constantly getting fragged by opponents with faster reflexes and better tactics can now sign up for a summer camp to improve their skills at Unreal Tournament 3.
The two-week ‘Camp Fatal1ty’ course is open to students aged 13-17 and costs US$3,499, with US$300 extra for optional weekend stays.
It will be held at Stanford University, UCLA and Villanova University and has been set up in collaboration with professional gamer Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel and the iD Gaming Academy.
As well as testing out new skills in tournament play against fellow classmates, the teens will learn to create machinima and build highlight video reels of their best in-game moves and shots.
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LG Claims World’s ‘Greenest’ Screen
LG has launched a 22in widescreen LCD screen which it claims is the world’s most energy efficient monitor.
The Flatron W2252TE boasts a power draw of just 22W, around 45 per cent lower than the average 40W of similarly sized monitors.
“With the ever increasing time spent by consumers on computers these days, there is a need for products that are more energy efficient,” said Fiona Landsberg, marketing manager for LG.
“We are committed to expanding our ‘green’ monitor portfolio with products that either equal or better the energy saving provided by the W2252TE.”
The screen offers a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, 170-degree viewing angle, 250 cd brightness and a 2ms response time.
The W2252TE is expected to hit the shelves in August, but pricing details are yet not available.
Firefox 3 Available on 17th of June - Tomorrow!
Mozilla has announced that Firefox 3 will be available for download on 17th of June.
Following two release candidates on the PC and three on the Mac, the latest iteration of the open source browser has been declared ready for general consumption.
“After more than 34 months of active development, and with the contributions of thousands, we are proud to announce that we are ready,” wrote Mike Beltzner on the Mozilla community blog.
Mozilla is pitching the launch as Download Day 2008 in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest number of downloads in 24 hours.
So far over a million users around the world have pledged to download the new browser on 17 June.
Open-AudIT - Complete Network Auditing Application
Open-AudIT is an application to tell you exactly what is on your network, how it is configured and when it changes. Open-AudIT will run on Windows and Linux systems. Essentially, Open-AudIT is a database of information, that can be queried via a web interface. Data about the network is inserted via a Bash Script (Linux) or VBScript (Windows). The entire application is written in php, bash and vbscript. These are all ’scripting’ languages - no compiling with viewable source. Making changes and customisations is both quick and easy.
Windows PCs can be queried for hardware, software, operating system settings, security settings, IIS settings, services, users & groups and much more. Linux systems can be queried for a similar amount of information. Network devices (printers, switches, routers, etc) can have data recorded such as IP-Address, MAC Address, open ports, serial number, etc, etc. Output is available in PDF, CSV and webpages. There are export options for Dia and Inkscape.
Open-AudIT can be configured to scan your network and devices automatically. A daily scan is recommended for systems, with network scans every couple of hours. That way, you can be assured of being notified of something changes (day to day) on a PC, or even sooner, if something “new” appears on your network.
For more information about Open-AuIT, please visit http://www.open-audit.org.
Fault-Tolerant Servers Unveiled by NEC
NEC has unveiled a portfolio of fault-tolerant servers, the Express5800/320Fd-MR mid-range server and the Express5800/320Fd-LR entry-level server.
The firm said that the products offer improved processing power and maintainability and are designed to simplify server consolidation by supporting virtual operating systems for the first time.
NEC’s fault-tolerant servers feature dual modular hardware redundancy. The main hardware components, including CPU and memory, are replicated to run in ‘lockstep’ in which the two redundant modules process the same instructions at the same time.
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