We have seen a lot of sources lately that assure us that a beta of Google Chrome OS has been leaked and can be downloaded. You could actually find such information even on a well trusted site like Gizmodo, but please be aware that it is a fake and has no connection to Google whatsoever. All such links usually sent users to a particular website that was created using Google Sites and had a name like site.google.com, was carefully filled with all the known information on Google Chrome OS but the download that was available had nothing to do with it. In fact at the bottom of the website a careful visitor could find a statement “Chrome OS is not related to Google. Service is provided by SUSE Studio. Seethe license.”. Google has disabled this site as it was violating Google Sites terms of use but be careful – it may not be the last attempt to give some suspicious or even malicious program as a Chrome OS that so many are looking forward to see.
City Council of Los Angeles approved a multimillion-dollar contract proposal to use Google Web services for government e-mail and other Internet services. Many city computer systems will be replaced with the so-called Google-apps. Under this deal Google will provide e-mail, calendar, online chatting and other services to more then 30000 city employees. The main problem with this contract was that Google places documents online rather then on individual computers under the city direct control, so the agreement was only reached when Google agreed to pay a preset penalty in case if a security breach occurs.
A test of this free antivirus form Microsoft showed very good results. Being tested under Windows Xp SP2, Windows Vista and final version of Windows 7, Security Essentials was able to detect all the suggested viruses from the fresh WildList, 98.4% of harmful code peaces and 90.9% of spyware. Lastly it was able to find all the 25 cases of rootkits. However the main drawback of this program is lack of any type of heuristic analisys, so the antivirus will not be able to detect new viruses until theywill be added to the database. Overall, Microsoft Security Essentials showed great results.
A website was added by Microsoft containing a database of software and hardware Windows 7 is known to work fine with. Although the database is not even close to being full at the moment, it does have an option for users to give information on additional software that they tested working under Windows 7, so we expect it to be more reliable in future. You can visit this website through this link.
A 46-year-old Gregory William Fair of Falls Church, Virginia, was sentenced to 41 months in prison for selling counterfeit software using eBay auction system. In addition to this, Fair will have to pay $743,098 in restitution. Fair also forfeited $144,000 seized from a safety deposit box and residence, a Mercedes CL600, a Hummer H2, a BMW 525i and a 1969 Pontiac GTO as all the cars were purchased with funds from this counterfeit software operation as stated by the U.S. Department of Justice . Combined retail value of all the software Fair sold between 2001 and 2007 is more than $1 million. The case is part of the DOJ’s effort to combat pirated software and counterfeit goods sales through commercial Web sites and online auction sites.
At last Windows 7 was officially launched today by Microsoft. Microsoft crew started giving out Windows 7 software as presents immediately after the clock showed twelve at the night club in San Francisco where technology giant’s party was taking place. After the Windows Vista failure Microsoft apparently worked really close with computer manufacturers, users and software developers while crafting Windows 7. It can be understood easily as more then 90% of the computers on Earth run Windows as their OS, so recovery after such failure was necessary for the software empire that has operating systems as its heart. What will turn out of this – we shall see, but prepare for more Windows 7 related news these coming days as all of the software world’s eyes are turned this way.
The official release of Windows 7 is only few hours away, and Microsoft launched the final version of Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor – a very usefull tool to check if your hardware and software are compatible with Windows 7. The program scans your system and indicates whether it is possible to harmlessly upgrade to Windows 7. It is too bad that this tool was released only 2 days before official release of the operating system itself, still – those of you who have preordered Windows 7 or are panning to upgrade to it, check with this tool first if it a wise thing to do.
Lockheed Martin Corp. signed a Military Network Protocol contract for $31 million with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Under this contract Lockheed Martin team will develop new protocol for information transfers with much improved security, dynamic bandwidth allocation and prioritization levels. It is known that to develop the Military Network Protocol Lockheed Martin Corp. teamed up with LGS Innovations, Juniper Networks, Anagran and Microsoft.
Some of the early printscreens of Chrome OS have been leaked, and from this info we can see that it is really basic and lightweight, perfectly suiting netbooks and laptops. Should these news have any influence on Windows 7? We think they do, since PC manufacturers tend to rely more on low-cost OS to keep the prices of budget devices down (many are already using Linux for example). The direct result as we see it is the Windows 7 Starters Edition to counter this possible threat. We will try to monitor the events on this subject and keep you informed.
A new tool has been added to Twitter – a very popular microblogging service. Now users can call attention of staff members to certain profiles by clicking new “Report as spam” button. It is not fully automated so reporting just any profile you don’t like won’t do any good. Even if its not software related, we consider this change to be on the topic of spam protection and thought it might interest you.