…And THIS, is why you should ALWAYS finish your thoughts!
November 20, 2009 
So a guy named David was listening to the teacher about foods in Japan. The teacher said “on Monday, students, please bring shitake mushrooms so we can sample them.”
David is very organized, so he keeps a to-do list. He wrote in his to-do list “Bring shitake mushrooms on Monday,” but before he could finish the word “shitake,” his friend called him over: “I need your help, NOW.” Quickly, David put down his pencil and went to his friend’s desk.
The teacher walks by to see what the students are doing. On David’s to-do list, the teacher sees: “Bring shit.”
“DAVID!” screams the teacher. David looks at the teacher, all surprised. The teacher accuses David of writing cuss words and threatening the good of the order, and gives him after-school detention. Now, since this teacher is harsh, she leaves no room for arguments.
…and THIS, is why you should ALWAYS finish your thoughts!
Quick Look: DOES Windows 7 copy Mac?
November 15, 2009 
Yesterday, I went to Best Buy to test out Windows 7. Before, I had seen a release candidate of it, and it looked pretty cool. But when I saw it again, it looked so much more fresh.
Just by the look of it, I can’t really judge whether they made Windows 7 less power-hungry. It still looks like it consumes just as much processor power as Vista.
Start Bar
The Start Bar has gotten mondo bigger, and that takes up screen real-estate, although it’s hideable. No longer does the Start button stick out, and that’s a good thing. The shortcuts in the Start Bar have also gotten mondo bigger, but there is one cool thing: when you scroll over the icons, there is a spotlight on the position of your cursor. Opening that application no longer produces window strips like in XP and Vista. On a Mac, there are no window strips. On Windows 7, you see that the button is layered according to the number of windows of that application that are open. Scrolling over the application icon gives you a quick preview of what windows are open.
When you open an application that is not in the shortcuts, it appears in the shortcuts so long as it opens. Same in Snow Leopard.
The verdict: Windows 7’s start bar is uncannily similar to Mac OS’s Dock. However, it is NOT an exact copy.
Effects
Snow Leopard’s Dock is reflective. That means that it acts like a mirror, reflecting whatever window you have open. On Windows 7, the windows are translucent like fogged glass, so you can see through them somewhat.
Verdict: Transparency and reflection are NOT the same. Transparency has been around since Vista.
Features
One of the new things I’ve seen with Windows 7 is the Snipping Tool. With this, you launch the program and drag your cursor over the area of the screen you would like to screenshot. Macs have had this (at least) since 10.4. I am on a Mac, and to do a partial screenshot, I press F2 and drag my cursor.
Windows 7 has also updated the Magnifier application. It now has a “lens” that zooms over a part of the screen, and a full-screen zoom. Macs have full-screen zoom, just by holding Control+Mouse Wheel.
Verdict: What Mac builds-in directly to their operating system as a feature, Windows builds in as programs. Snipping Tool is suspicious, but Magnifier has been around for years.
Final verdict
According to Microsoft partner group manager Simon Aldous: “‘What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics.’” That directly says that Windows tried to borrow from Mac. However, Brandon LeBlanc notes that “‘Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7.’”
Aldous assumes that Microsoft tried to create a Mac-like feel. I believe that that statement is true. Even though Aldous was not involved in the design of Windows 7, many consumers have noted similarities between Windows and Mac.
Even with this being said, the two are NOT the same. Windows borrows from Mac OS and tweaks it to fit into their own OS. There are still some features that Windows has that Mac hasn’t, like window previews and (IMPORTANT) Microsoft Paint. Also worth noting is that Mac just introduced 64-bit support. That wasn’t copied from Windows. It was a necessity. Although Windows is trying to sneak in Mac-OS-like features, Windows is still Windows. Mac OS is still Mac OS.
Reblog: Security firm chokes sprawling botnet
November 14, 2009 
This post first appeared on the Register under the title “Security firm chokes sprawling botnet.” It was written by Dan Goodin, and has been edited by Deathgleaner for use on this blog.
A botnet that was once responsible for an estimated third of the world’s spam has been knocked out of commission thanks to researchers from security firm FireEye.
After carefully analyzing the machinations of the massive botnet, alternately known as Mega-D and Ozdok, the FireEye employees last week launched a coordinated blitz on dozens of its command and control channels. The channels were used to send new spamming instructions to the legions of zombie machines that make up the network.
Almost immediately, the spam stopped, according to M86 Security blog. Last year, the email security firm estimated the botnet was the leading source of spam until some of its servers were disabled.
The body blow is good news to ISPs that are forced to choke on the torrent of spam sent out by the pesky botnet. But because many email servers already deployed blacklists that filtered emails sent from IP addresses known to be used by Ozdok, end users may not notice much of a change, said Jamie Tomasello, an abuse operations manager at antispam firm Cloudmark.
The takedown effort is significant because it shows that a relatively small company can defeat a for-profit network that took extraordinary measures to ensure it remained operational. Not only did Ozdok reserve a long list of domain names as command and control channels, it also used hard-coded DNS servers. When all else failed, its software was able to dynamically generate new domain names on the fly.
With head chopped off of Ozdok, more than 264,000 IP addresses were found reporting to sinkholes under FireEye’s control, an indication of the massive number of zombies believed to have belonged to the botnet. FireEye researchers plan to work with the ISPs to identify the owners of the orphaned bots so their owners can clean up the mess.
FireEye researchers said the key to dismantling the giant ring was a coordinated effort that worked in multiple directions all at once so that bot herders didn’t have a chance to counteract. “As it turns out, no matter how many fallback mechanisms are in place, if they aren’t all implemented properly, the botnet is vulnerable,” they wrote. ®
