Supergeekblog

Well, by now you should have your fill of Microsoft WGA news from us, but this one is just too ironic to pass up on.

InfoWorld and ZDNet are both reporting that a new worm is making it’s way through the ether that makes itself look like the Microsoft anti-piracy program.

The malware has been classified as a worm and spreads through AOL’s Instant Messenger program, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, a security vendor.

Sophos is calling it W32.Cuebot-K, a new variation in the Cuebot family of malware. The worm has a range of malicious functions. After it’s installed, the worm immediately tries to connect to two Web sites, a sign it may try to download other bad programs on the machine.

Cuebot-K can disable other software, shut off the Windows firewall, download new malicious programs, perform basic DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks, scan local files and spawn a command prompt, Sophos said.

Sounds like a lot of fun.

Technorati Tags: WGA Worm, Windows Genuine Advantage, worm

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On the heels of the uproar over Self-Destructing Windows installs, a lawsuit was filed in US District court(seattle) this week.  The lawsuit calls Microsoft’s WGA a spyware.

The suit by Los Angeles resident Brian Johnson, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle, seeks class-action status for claims that Microsoft didn’t adequately disclose details of the tool when it was delivered to PC users through the company’s Automatic Update system.

Windows Genuine Advantage is designed to check the validity of a computer user’s copy of the operating system. But the tool became a subject of heightened controversy earlier this month, after PC users began noticing that it was making daily contact with Microsoft’s servers without their knowledge, even if their software was valid.

“Microsoft effectively installed the WGA software on consumers’ systems without providing consumers any opportunity to make an informed choice about that software,” the suit alleges.

While the lawsuit should open Microsoft’s eyes a little, I seriously doubt that it will go anywhere.  The behavior of the software is borderline, but doesn’t necessarily cross the line into full-blown spyware/malware.  Microsoft has a bit of an edge in that they released a new version that doesn’t “phone home” anymore and also released instructions for disabling the notifications.

I have to admit that given the opportunity, I would not jump on board the class action.  Would you?

Technorati Tags: microsoft, WGA, Windows Genuine Advantage, Microsoft Windows, Lawsuit, Microsoft WGA

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Fon, the self-claimed “largest WiFi community in the world”, announced that they would begin selling wireless routers to people who signed up with FON for $5.00.

Product Features

• Linksys WRT54GL or Buffalo WHRG54S
• Router WiFi 802.11b/g up to 54 Mbps
• Switch with 4 ports and Internet port
• FON Firmware in +10 languages
• European plug

Not bad.  The switch is normally $25.  Don’t mind the European plug bit, as they appearantly don’t have seperate pages for the US at this point.  There are other catches as well, but certainly nothing that couldn’t be lived with.

Remember that you must register your router and keep it on at all times. This great low price helps us build the FON Community. Therefore, we will apply a $/€ 45 surcharge on all routers that have not been registered within 30 days of having made the purchase. Once you have registered your router, you must keep it running and available for all other FONEROS. We are not making any money off of the sale of these routers. So all we are asking is that you use the router as a FONERO. If you have any problem registering your router or getting it working, one of our support geeks will lend you a hand.

Again, not all that bad.  So, where’s the benefit?  Well, when you sign up as a “FONero” [Their term, not mine] you get a choice.  You can be a Bill or a Linus (guess where they got those names).  A Linus gets nothing for having the open wifi spot, but gets to use any of the FON hot spots worldwide for free.  A Bill on the other hand, does not enjoy the worldwide free usage, but does get a 50/50 split of the $2 a day connection fee for the “aliens” (non-FON users).

Security doesn’t seem to be an issue as anyone connecting to the router hits a login page before getting access to the internet.  This in effect means that only other FON users and paying customers would actually be able to get anywhere.

I’m thinking I might just give it a try!

Technorati Tags: FON, Wireless, WiFi, subsidized routers, router, wifi router

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Ed Bott at ZDNet is reporting that Microsoft will soon make installation of WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) mandatory. Not only will it become a mandatory install, if WGA isn’t installed within 30 days, the install of Windows will cease to operate.

If WGA becomes mandatory, would it mean that Microsoft could prevent Windows from working if it determines – possibly erroneously – that your copy isn’t “genuine”? That’s a chilling possibility, and Microsoft refuses an easy opportunity to deny that that option is in its plans.

Chilling indeed. Maybe it’s not such a bad time for Bill Gates to retire. If MS truly decides to make a “kill switch” out of WGA, it could be the boost for Apple X and Linux that they’ve both been waiting for. I’ve already had a few problems with WGA on my home PC and have seriously considered making the full time switch. Not because I want to, but WGA is annoying at best. I don’t like that it “phones home” either.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, MS, WGA, Windows Genuine Advantage, Apple, Linux, kill switch

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Congrats go out to our friends Ann and Shane! You should all head on over to Ede’s blog to see the pictures of little Connor Michael! He weighed in at 8 pounds 4 ounces and 21 and 1/2 inches long.

Technorati Tags: Connor, baby, its a boy, new arrival, baby boy, ThatEdeGuy, Jamestown

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A big thanks to Steve Rubel for pointing this one out. YouOS is a “wayyyy alpha” web operating system programmed entirely in Javascript. Gizmodo linked it up so I’m unable to even go in to the demo side of things. There is the ability to sign up for a full account, but I’m also sure that they’re getting a bit of a rush at the moment.

From what Steve said and from putzing around on the YouOS site, it would appear that they’ve tried to make the user experience as close to an OS experience as possible. There are plenty of UI plugins so far that include such new standards as Flickr, Gmail, weather, etc… and even wallpapers if you want them.

If you’re into developing in Javascript, the ability is there to develop plugins for YouOS and possibly charge the users that use it. I would expect that most of the simpler ones would be free of charge, but that the more extravagant one could be priced somehow.

The team behind YouOS reads like a who’s who of tech schools. MIT, Stanford and CalTech. There’s plenty of info to be had on from their landing pages, with FAQ’s and such.

5. Why? We set out to answer the following questions:

• Wouldn’t it be sweet if open source development was more like a multiplayer game, complete with rankings and all?
• What are the implications of being able to share windows through a buddy list when we’re working?
• Is it even possible to build an OS that is built on sharing from the ground up? Like Kindergarten?
• What if the OS itself was the community? Discuss.

We’re still searching, and YouOS is the search engine. Well, it’s not a search engine, but you get the analogy, right?

Looks like it could turn into quite the tool. I’m signing up for a full account and will try and update with new information as I can.

Technorati Tags: youos, web operating system, webos, web os, You os

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Appearantly, Windows Genuine Advantage calls home every day.

Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Wednesday that it needs to better inform users that its tool for determining whether a computer is running a pirated copy of Windows also quietly checks in daily with the software maker.

The company said the undisclosed daily check is a safety measure designed to allow the tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage, to quickly shut down in case of a malfunction. For example, if the company suddenly started seeing a rash of reports that Windows copies were pirated, it might want to shut down the program to make sure it wasn’t delivering false results.

Did you catch that?  I’ll repeat it for you.  “Undisclosed.”  That means they didn’t tell us about it at all.  Well, now they have, and they are looking for a better way of telling us that it does that in EULA.  Personally, I think that each and every user of this program should be able to get a tool to remove the WGA immediately.

Of course, they are playing it like it’s a “undisclosed” feature and not a blemish.  Typical jargon for when you get caught with your pants down.  If it checks in, what else does it tell them?

This isn’t exactly good for the big brother image that many people hold of them.

Lauren Weinstein, who is co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility and was one of the first people to notice the daily communications to Microsoft, said he understands and sympathizes with Microsoft’s desire to control piracy. But he said it’s problematic that Microsoft did not disclose all the program’s communications with the company.

Weinstein said he also was surprised that Microsoft decided to release so widely a tool that it says is in a “pilot” mode and might need to be suddenly shut down.

Lauren poses a great question.  Why, if the program needs to be babysat daily, did they push it out to so many people so quickly?  Maybe the greed of making all those pirated copies of Windows pay up was just too much.  At $200 a license, if only 10% of the millions that have it installed are pirated, it could mean Billions in additional revenue.  That’s nothing to cough at.  Of course, it could also mean that Linux might grab a bigger piece of the desktop market as the pirated version users become annoyed by the messages and make the switch to the venerable penguin.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, WGA, Windows Genuine Advantage, Linux, Windows

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For those who do not know what a podcast is - it is basically like an online radio show. One of our Editors, ThatEdeGuy, over at ThatEdeGuy.com was recently interviewed by Scott over at Money Blogger Podcast.

The interview is well done and is quite interesting. I recommend heading over to check it out!

Technorati Tags: ThatEdeGuy, Money Blogger Podcast, Podcast, A Penny Saved, Jamestown

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Engadget is reporting an actual proof of concept for the JackPC.

Quite the little doo-dad.  It’s capable of being powered by power-over-ethernet which might just work out well since it only has 64 MB of flash memory and 128MB of RAM to work with.  Still, it runs Windows CE, Citrix ICA, Windows RDP and even comes with Internet Exploder Explorer 6 pre-installed and ready to run.  And did I mention that it runs a 500Mhz AMD RISC processor?

There’s more power in this little wall jack PC than there was in most computers 7 years ago!  The ChipPC JackPC should be available middle of June and the price estimate is at $392.

Technorati Tags: ChipPC, JackPC, AMD RISC, Socket PC,   Wall PC

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So, you want a widescreen LCD?  You want an affordable monitor that boasts high resolution, flat panel profile and enough screen real estate to spread out all your icons?  Well, look no further than the Dell 2005FPW 20.1″ LCD.

Boasting a 1680 X 1050 resolution, it should display just about anything you want to a reasonable clarity.  This is a mid-range LCD, so we can’t expect too awful much on the resolution end. It’s got 24 bit color and a 4 port USB hub built in.  A 16:9 aspect ratio give it full widescreen capabilities.

Pricing starts at about $370 and can range up to about $500 so be careful where you buy from.  Being especially frugal, one could find a discount somewhere and potentially pick up this CRT replacement for around $300.

Technorati Tags: Dell 2005FPW, 2005FPW, UltraSharp LCD

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