MSN messenger 7.0 (beta)

Microsoft has decided to suspend the test release of MSN messenger 7 beta version citing some security concerns over one of its features. Just last week Microsoft released its new MSN beta messenger 7.0 for testing & user feedback. The security problem seems to be with the 'wink' feature, which allows the users to exchange flash based sound animations. This feature might enable potential hackers to send their own animation winks to users and cause a security threat. Microsoft has decided to postpone the release by a week, where the messenger will be tested without the 'wink' feature. But it has decided to club the wink feature in the final release, after cementing the hole in it.

There have been reports of leakage of the beta version in the web, though Microsoft still maintains that they had given access to the messenger for a small group for testing before the release. Still it is unclear as to how many people have downloaded the vulnerable messenger, which is reported to have moved quickly among users in the world.

According to reports the wink feature was aimed at 18 - 24 age group, where Microsoft is believed to have hired college graduates for the development of the feature. The group call themselves 'Three degrees'. They have been associated with Microsoft's development team from the year 2001.

The MSN messenger is the most popular chat client after Yahoo messenger and boasts of 135 million users per month, worldwide. Microsoft is making plans to release the final version by the first quarter of 2005.

I'm the Best

Former World Cup striker Romario said that he considers himself to be Brazil's most important player since 1970 at a media conference on Thursday. Romario is now playing for first division Fluminense. Romario, now 38, announced that he would reunite Brazil's 1994 World Cup winning team for a match in Los Angeles on November 10 to mark his international farewell. Although he has never officially announced his international retirement, Romario has not been picked by his country since captaining the side which lost 1-0 to Uruguay in a World Cup qualifier three years ago. Romario scored five goals in the 1994 tournament.
Romario, who has not played much first team football this year. But he said that he still had no intention of retiring, although he admitted it was now almost impossible to reach his target of scoring 1,000 goals in his career. At present his score stands at 908. Critics claim that his scores include youth team games and other non-official matches. Romario had played for PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona and Valencia as a striker.

Duncan Mackenzie's website

Duncan Mackenzie

I came across Duncan Mackenzie’s site while exploring MSDN. Really liked his Coding4Fun column. Duncan Mackenzie is the Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Content Strategist for MSDN during the day, and a dedicated coder late at night.
Cheers!

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

Microsoft this week previewed its upcoming Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, which will ship next year. The company says the tool will help software developers in small to mid-size organizations migrate from Visual Basic to the .NET architecture. Standard Edition provides professional developers working in small organizations a tool that maintains the simplicity of the Visual Studio Express products," Austinson noted. Express is designed for amateur and beginning developers. The Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 Refresh is the same as the previous beta release, but now includes a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Visual Studio 2005 Team System. While betas receive a much higher level of testing and feature work, CTPs are intended to expose developers to the latest working build.
Here is the system requirement:
Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Processor Recommended: 2.6 GHz Pentium IV, Athlon, or Opteron processor Operating System Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server can be installed on any of the following systems: Microsoft Windows® 2003 Server™ Enterprise Edition Microsoft Windows® 2003 Server™ Standard Edition RAM Recommended:Application Tier: 1 GB Database Tier: 1 GB Hard Disk Application Tier: 20 GB of available space Database Tier:
20 GB of available space DVD Drive Required (for installation using DVD) Display Minimum: 800 x 600 256 colors Recommended:
1024 x 768 High Color — 16-bit Mouse Microsoft mouse or compatible pointing device

Knowledge.ppt - The Economic Times

Knowledge.ppt - The Economic Times
About your XP installation XPerience!

Resource hungry Lognhorn

Microsoft recommends that the "average" Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today.

Compare this to your current configuration now. See how the OS and the applications becoming resource hungry day by day. I started working on a 8MB Ram machine. Now minimum RAM required for any average machine is 512MB. Wonder how our configuration would look 5 yrs down the line!

Congrats Schumi!

Michael Schumacher won his seventh world title when he finished second in the Belgian Grand Prix. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen won the race. German Schumacher failed to win for only the second time this season but his eight-point haul secured the title with four races left after team-mate and sole challenger Rubens Barrichello, who finished third. Michael Schumacher dedicated his seventh world title to the entire Ferrari team. Schumacher first joined Ferrari in 1996, having already won the title in 1994 and 1995 with Benetton, but was forced to wait until 2000 for another drivers' title. And then he kept on wining and wining... 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004...

Longhorn!

At last Microsoft Corp has declared that they will ship the next version of Windows in late 2006. It is the first time that the world's largest software maker has committed to a launch target for the ambitious upgrade to Windows, code-named Longhorn, since shipping Windows XP in 2001. A server version is slated for 2007. In order to meet that timeframe, they are finding it necessary to scale back on some of the new features promised. One such casualty is WinFS, the database-driven file system set to debut with Longhorn. Plans now are for increased search functionality without WinFS. This new file system called WinFS, aimed at making it easier for users to find information stored on hard drives, will be shipped later, with a test, or beta version, of WinFS being shipped with Longhorn in 2006.

The ability to find and organize data on a personal computer is becoming increasingly important as people are able to amass more digital information. Right now, finding pictures, e-mails and a Microsoft Word document, all related to the same topic is time-consuming and cumbersome. "WinFS" is the active storage subsystem in "Longhorn" that is used for searching, organizing, and sharing data. "WinFS" maintains a store of items and their properties, and provides a system service in "Longhorn" to retrieve information when it's needed. Because "WinFS" allows organization and retrieval of items based on properties (such as author or title), users can find things more quickly. Users can also organize, relate, and act on their documents, music, photos, e-mail, calendar information, and other types of items more efficiently.

Microsoft says 'Longhorn' will provide important advances in performance, security and reliability, and will help accelerate the creation of exciting new applications by developers across the industry.

Longhorn also will include new technology for enabling better visual presentation, such as three-dimensional rendering. And it will include ways to communicate more easily with other systems, such as Web-based applications or mobile devices.

India @ Olympic

Anju Bobby George, we are still proud of you. You had a flying start in the long jump final with a leap of 6.83m, which is a whopping 9 cm more than your national mark.

Anju, ranked sixth in the world, did her best to become the first Indian medallist in athletics.

You have proved Indians too can compete with the best athletes in the world. Better luck next time Anju.

Now the good news ...

Women’s 4x400m relay squad of Rajwinder Kaur, K M Beenamol, Chitra K Soman and national one-lap record holder Manjit Kaur dipped under the Indian mark to storm into the final by finishing third in their semi-final heat.
All the best to the 4x400m relay team!

The Indian hockey team capped their disappointing run in the competition with a win to finish seventh.

rediff.com: Onam, the Festival of Harvest

rediff.com: Onam, the Festival of Harvest
Happy Onam!

Wanna install Windows XP SP2? Read this.

The "highly critical" vulnerability affects Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, and 6 on fully patched PCs running either Windows XP SP1 or the newer SP2! Another flaw in Internet Explorer has been uncovered by Danish security firm Secunia, which said that the gaffe left all PC users open to attack, even those who had updated Windows XP with the massive Service Pack 2 upgrade. Microsoft has already issued a fix for SP2 that addresses problems some VPN users have encountered.

As long as we carry on regular Windows Update, and have a firewall installed, and our machines have a good virus protection enabled, then there is no rush to get SP2 installed. Issues with SP2 are being reported daily and the problems are being addressed quickly. We should wait a couple of months before installing SP2 as Microsoft is also working on various issues reported by the users.

How Malleswari fooled the country - The Times of India

How Malleswari fooled the country - The Times of India

What a shocking news! Is this what we expect from out top players? This really turned out to be a cruel joke on the country.

Proposed undergraduate entrance exam to qualify for IAS, IFS, IPS

Manmohan Singh government has proposed a new entrance exam system to admit students at the undergraduate level to qualify for IAS, IFS, IPS and allied services. By reducing the eligibility criteria to the Class XII level, the plan is to hold the all-India entrance exam for central civil services on the pattern of the National Defence Academy, medical and law colleges and IITs. But passing the entrance will not guarantee a job. Students who pass the entrance would join a national academy for a five-year course. At the end of three years, those who complete the course would get a graduate degree. But only 90 per cent would be given service allotments on the basis of their performance; the remaining 10 per cent at the bottom of the merit list would have to quit.

This process certainly would bring professionalism in governance, but are the students ready to take such a risk where after completing 3 years of education they might not get a job?