Steve Jobs published a short essay named " Thoughts on Music" criticizing concepts of DRM protection for media files. You can access it here: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/ It is interesting to see this sudden change because previously Apple always tried to use various types of protection to restrict iPod and Apple users. I think that more people will be interested in purchasing music online if the idea takes off and other manufacturers and media companies drop DRM techniques they use.
Digitimes.com reports a drop in AMD CPU prices: AMD has published across-the-board price cuts for its Opteron range of high-end and server processors in all of its 1-way, 2-way and 8-way lines. Additionally, it has released several new high-end models, as well as high-efficiency (HE) variants of its Opteron 1000 series CPUs. Stating at the top of the scale, the price of the AMD Opteron 8220 SE has been slashed from US$2,149 to US$1,514, a 30% reduction, and a new model, the 8220, has been added to the series at the same cost. Other 8000 series models have also fallen in price by between 20% and 30%. In the high-efficiency range, the Opteron 8128 HE has been added at a cost of US$1,340. In the 800 series, the Dual-Core Opteron 890 has been added at US$1,514, and the lowest-end 865 has been removed. All models in the series have moved down a step in price equivalent to those of the previous list. This trend continues in the single-core variants in the range, with the Opteron 850 falling to US$523, and the high-efficiency variants. The model 848 HE has also been removed. The 2000- and 200-series sees similar additions with the introduction of the Opteron 2200 at US$698, 2218 HE at US$611, and Dual-Core AMD Opteron 290 at US$698. Both standard and HE variants of the model 246 are no longer listed. The Opteron 1220 at US$545 has been introduced to the 1000 series, as well as five HE versions of the other models in the range. In related news AMD added the Athlon 64 X2 3600+ to its range of dual-core CPUs for desktops with a PIB (processor in a box) price of US$138. AMD Opteron pricing Jan 22 and Feb 7, 2007 1000 Models Jan 22 Price US$ Feb 7 Price US$ AMD Opteron 1220 SE 611 545 AMD Opteron 1220 N/A 545 AMD Opteron 1218 435 318 AMD Opteron 1216 325 263 AMD Opteron 1214 259 231 AMD Opteron 1212 201 186 AMD Opteron 1210 164 149 AMD Opteron 1218 HE N/A 432 AMD Opteron 1216 HE N/A 291 AMD
Melissa (myria) found an interesting issue with Skype: http://www.pagetable.com/?p=27. She claims that the application reads BIOS on the start up. This certainly looks suspicious and It would be interesting to see whether Skype developers address this claim.
R-Studio reached version 3.6 Build 123523 R-Studio is a family of powerful and cost-effective undelete and data recovery software. Empowered by the new unique data recovery technologies, it is the most comprehensive data recovery solution for recovery files from FAT12/16/32, NTFS, NTFS5 (created or updated by Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista), Ext2FS/Ext3FS (LINUX file systems) and UFS1/UFS2 (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD file systems) partitions. It functions on local and network disks, even if such partitions are formatted, damaged or deleted. Flexible parameter settings give you absolute control over data recovery. New Features New additional file recovery algorithm. Now R-Studio not only analyses file systems metadata but also searches for files of known types ( see list of known file types ) using typical features of their structures that allows the user:- to increase quality of file recovery when the file system is not damaged;- to recover files that are not recognized in file system metadata and not found during a disk scanning procedure;- to recover files from devices with unknown file systems including HD, CD, DVD, floppy disk, Compact Flash Card, USB drive, ZIP drive, Memory Sticks and other removable media. New file systems support. In addition to FAT/NTFS/ExtFS2/ExtFS3, R-Studio 3.6 supports UFS1 and UFS2 file systems that are used in FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD operating systems. R-Studio Emergency version*. R-Studio Emergency version was developed and added to R-Studio packages at no extra cost. R-Studio Emergency version is run from a compact disk or floppy disks set when it is necessary to recover data on a computer, on which Windows cannot start up because its system files are corrupted or deleted.* R-Studio Emergency version is a part of R-Studio software package. When you buy R-Studio single license you may run R-Studio Emergency or/and install R-Studio version on one and the same PC only and you may not transfer the licensed software to another. File previ
Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, has detected that Email-Worm.Win32.Zhelatin.o is spreading rapidly. The worm spreads as an attachment to email messages. The worm, which was detected by Kaspersky Lab virus analysts, is the latest modification in the Zhelatin family. Just like many other email worms, it uses social engineering, with message topics and subjects being designed to attract users' attention and cause them to open the attachment. When the attachment is opened, the worm copies itself to the hard disk; it will be automatically launched when the victim machine is rebooted. The worm also harvests email addresses from the victim machine, and sends copies of itself to these addresses. As part of its malicious payload, the worm also disables firewall and antivirus services on the infected computer. It uses rootkit technology in order to mask the worm's presence in the system. Zhelatin.o also infects executable files (.exe) and files with the .scr extension which it finds in the system by copying its code to these files. It should be noted that the Proactive Detection Module in Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 and Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0 blocks the virus without using signatures. Nevertheless, detection and disinfection routines for this malicious program have been added to Kaspersky Anti-Virus antivirus databases. Due to this epidemic, users are recommended to update their antivirus databases, and not to open attachments to email messages which come from unknown users. A detailed description of Zhelatin.o is available on Viruslist.com.