IBGerm

A pub owner in the U.K. has been fined £8,000 (about $13,183) because someone unlawfully downloaded copyrighted material over its open Wi-Fi hotspot, according to the managing director of hotspot provider The Cloud. 

Graham Cove told CNET sister site ZDNet UK on Friday he believes the case to be the first of its kind in the U.K. However, he would not identify the pub concerned, because its owner–a pub that is a client of The Cloud’s–had not yet given their permission for the case to be publicized.

Cove would say only that the fine had been levied in a civil case, brought about by a rights holder, "sometime this summer." The Cloud’s pubco clients include Fullers, Greene King, Marsdens, Scottish & Newcastle, Mitchell & Butlers, and Punch Taverns.

The law surrounding open Wi-Fi networks and the liability of those running them is a grey area…

I’ve been using INTERNET EXPLORER 8 for awhile now. I’ve found a very annoying feature MICROSOFT has decided to embedded into its Internet Explorer browser. The uses of accelerators as they call it. Everything I highlighted, I received this stupid blue arrow icon. I went to the Internet Explorer tools and disabled all the “accelerators ”, but still have this stupid blue arrow. I’ve found the fix… 

Open the Control Panel -> Click on the Internet Options icon -> Click on the Advanced tab. (See screenshot below)

To Turn Off Display Accelerator Button on Selection -Uncheck the Display Accelerator button on selection box, then click on OK. (See screenshot below step 3)

*****Update***** It appears I may have a slight mis-step on this…..

its not control panel.. its.. tools (at the top of the internet explorer page)then internet options then advanced–then uncheck display Accelerator. (thank you for the fix)…. I hope this helps.

IDG News Service – Social networking sites MySpace and Facebook have apparently fixed coding errors that could have allowed an attacker access to all of their users’ data and photos.

The simple coding errors are alarming considering the extent to which social networks have gone to reassure their users that their data will be safe. The problem involved the way the sites handle requests for data from other domains, known as the "cross-domain policy."

Sites such as MySpace and Facebook typically block other domains from requesting and receiving data for privacy reasons, except for their own vetted  subdomains.

Facebook disallowed access from other applications on its main domain, but a developer in the Netherlands, Yvo Schaap, found that Facebook would allow data to be given out from one of its subdomains. 

Since the subdomain also hosted all of Facebook’s data, it would be possible to steal data by luring a victim to a URL with a Flash application rigged to grab the data if the victim had their auto-login enabled, which most people do, according to Schaap’s blog.

A "more invasive and hidden exploit could harvest all the user’s personal photos, data and messages to a central server without any trace, and there is no reason why this wouldn’t be happening already with both Facebook and MySpace data," Schaap wrote on his blog.

He also found the problem on MySpace, which allowed a domain called "farm.sproutbuilder.com" to access data. A Flash application could be uploaded to that site, which would then be allowed access to the data if a victim visited a malicious URL.

MySpace disagreed with the severity of the error, saying it would have only exposed information that was already public. The problem was with the sproutbuilder domain, and it has since been fixed, a spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement.

"No public MySpace data was exposed and the vulnerability was never exploited," the statement read.

A look at Facebook’s latest crossdomain.xml file shows that the bug appears to have been fixed. MySpace also appears to have taken "farm.sproutbuilder.com" out of its cross-domain list.

In an e-mailed statement, Facebook said it "worked with the researcher who identified this issue to fix it. We have not received any reports that it was ever exploited."

Sales of Windows 7, the newest offering in the Microsoft line, are 234% higher in the same period in their release than Windows Vista was. Profitability for the product, however, is only 82 percent higher.    

Microsoft has been pushing Windows 7 Home, with its lowest price point, as the successor to Vista, considered by many to be less than successful. Microsoft’s goal is to have Windows 7 do what Vista failed to do: replace its aging Windows XP.

Linux is brilliant at serving files.All you need is a relatively low-powered PC, a decent amount of storage and somewhere safe to hide it.

1. Install the software

We’ve chosen to use Ubuntu Server Edition for two reasons. First, it’s the same distribution that most people know and love, only optimized for use on a server. Second, you still have access to exactly the same packages and repositories as you do with with the desktop version, which makes installing and using software easy.

Put the disc into the machine you want to use as the server and select your language followed by ‘Install Ubuntu Server’. Unlike the desktop version, there’s no graphical installer. Instead you’ll need to choose your configuration settings from the pages of options that appear throughout the installer.

Don’t let this put you off; there aren’t any questions that can’t easily be answered, and the installation is effectively no different from a standard desktop installation.

The first question asks you again for the language, the second for your location and the third for your keyboard layout. After a brief pause, you’ll be asked for a hostname. You might want to change this to something like ‘mediaserver’, rather than the default ‘ubuntu’ to avoid confusion with any other Ubuntu installations you may have running on the same network.

2. Partition the disk

The next installation step is disk configuration. This is a much more important consideration for a media server than it is for a standard desktop installation, because of the sheer volume of files that you’ll be storing on it.

The most convenient solution is to use an old disk of around 10GB (or less) for the Linux installation and a high capacity drive for your media content. You can then select ‘Guided – Use Entire Disk’ on the installation page, then select the disk to install to and give Ubuntu complete control over how it creates the installation. Your media storage disk can be configured later.

PARTITION YOUR DRIVE: If you create a separate root partition, you’ll be able to update your system without worrying about your files

The second-best option is to create two partitions on a single drive, using the smaller partition for the root file system and the other partition for your data. This way, you can update the root partition if you need to, or easily back up your data partition without infecting it with system files.

After skipping through the partition section you’ll be asked for your real name, username and password. You should give this a little more thought than with the desktop, as it’s likely that your server will be on all the time and accessible from the internet, so a secure username/password combination is vital.

Press Continue to skip the HTTP proxy installation, and choose to install security updates automatically when asked. Finally, don’t select any of the default server packages unless you want to enable SSH for remote administration, then click on Continue to install the system.

3. Configure MediaTomb

We’re now only a couple of steps away from completion. When your machine restarts after installing all the main packages, you need to log in and type sudo apt-get install mediatomb into a terminal. This will grab the media-streaming software and install it on your system.

All you need to now is type mediatomb to run the server. Watch the output, because you should see something like the following:

2009-07-16 15:20:52 INFO: MediaTomb Web UI can be reached by following this link: 2009-07-16 15:20:52 INFO: http://192.168.1.89:49152/

This is the port and the IP address for the server, and you should now be able to point a web browser on the same network at this address and use the simple user interface to add the files and folders that contain your various bits of media.

After a few moments, the media should appear on any UPnP streaming client, such as those on a Playstation 3 and XBox 360.

You should note that the new Windows 7 taskbar allows you to dock items to the taskbar, combining the features of both the normal taskbar as well as the Quick Launch. For more on this, be sure to read through our coverage of the Windows 7 beta if you haven’t already.

The above screenshot is the Windows 7 taskbar after changing back to XP/Vista mode, and adding the quick launch bar back. Looks just like Vista doesn’t it?

Adding the Quick Launch Bar Back to Windows 7

To add the toolbar back, you’ll want to right-click on an open area of the taskbar, and choose Toolbars \ New Toolbar from the menu. You should probably also unlock the taskbar at this point.

Now’s the slightly tricky part… you’ll want to paste the following path into the location bar:

%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Make sure that the location bar shows the full path, like the next screenshot, before you choose the “Select Folder” button.

You’ll immediately notice the Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar, but it’s all the way over on the right, so you’ll want to click on the dotted lines and then drag the toolbar all the way to the left (which is slightly tricky sometimes). Note that you’ll need to right-click and unlock the taskbar before you can move the toolbar.

There we go, it’s over on the left… but now you’ll want to adjust the regular taskbar toolbar to be closer to the left, so use the dotted lines to drag it over as well.

The normal Quick Launch that we’re used to doesn’t have text, so right-click on the dotted lines and uncheck “Show Text” as well as “Show Title” from the menu.

Once you’re sure it’s the way you want it, you should check the “Lock the taskbar” again.

And there you are, the quick launch bar has returned and there’s virtually no way anybody would know this is Windows 7.

Microsoft detailed the minimum system requirements for Windows 7. According to PC World, the requirements are:

• 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit) 
• 1GB of main memory 
• 16GB of available disk space
• Support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)
• A DVD-R/W drive

It is funny, these are basically the same specs for Vista.

Partition Your Hard Drive

Before you go installing Windows 7, the first thing you need to do is create a new partition on your hard drive to hold the new installation of Windows. Partitioning your hard drive will vary depending on whether you’re running XP or Vista—namely because Vista has a partition tool baked in, XP does not.

Partition Your Hard Drive in XP

To partition your hard drive in Windows XP, you’ll need to download some sort of third-party partitioning software. There are a lot of options available, but I prefer to stick with the previously mentioned GParted live CD, a free, open source boot CD that can handle all kinds of partitioning duties.

To use it, just download the GParted Live CD, burn it to a CD, then reboot your computer (booting from the disc). You’ll boot right into the partitioning tool. HowtoForge’s previous guide to modifying partitions with GParted is a great place to start, but it’s a fairly basic procedure:

1. Resize your current OS drive to free up enough space for a Windows 7 partition (the minimum system requirements ask for 16GB).
2. Create a new partition from the newly freed space.
3. Apply your changes.

Partition Your Hard Drive in Vista

The folks at Redmond were kind enough to include a disk partitioning tool in Vista if you know where to look. So go to Control Panel -> System and Maintenance (skip this one if you’re in Classic view) -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. Once you launch the Computer Management tool, click on Disk Management under the Storage heading in the sidebar. It’s partitioning time.

In a nutshell, you’ll need to shrink your current OS partition to free up at least 16GB of disk space (per the Windows 7 minimum system requirements), then create a "New Simple Volume" from the free space.

 Install Windows 7

Insert your Windows 7 disc and reboot your computer (you’ll need to have enabled booting from your DVD drive in your system BIOS, but most PCs will have this enabled by default).

Once the DVD boots up it’s a simple matter of following along with the fairly simple installation wizard. When you’re choosing installation type, be sure to select Custom (advanced) and choose the partition you set up above. (Be careful here. Choosing the wrong partition could mean wiping your other Windows installation altogether, so make sure you pick the new partition you just created.)

After you select the partition, go grab yourself a drink and let the installer do its work. Windows will run through some installation bits, restart a few times in the process. Eventually you’ll be prompted to set up your account, enter your license key, and set up Windows. Keep your eyes open for fun new Windows 7 features, like your new homegroup (and the accompanying password). When it’s finished, you’re up and rolling with your new Windows 7 installation.

DONE!!

See other post on how to change the boot loader menu.

Yes, you can.

Yesterday, I installed Windows 7 Pro on my 5 year old Dell M70 laptop. It currently had only Windows Xp pro. I at first had to change and create a partition on my hard drive to install Windows 7 I gave it at least 20 gigs of free space. I used a Live Linux  Cd called GParted ( I will link to that later). So now, I set up  XP/ Windows 7 dualboot. The Windows 7 installer set the  default boot choice to  Windows 7 and renamed the XP as “Previous version of Windows”, also a timeout of 30sec set.

If you try to modify the boot options the old-fashioned with boot.ini file, you get the following warnings:

    !!Warning: Boot.ini is use d on Windows XP and earlier operating systems!! 
    !!Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options!!

If you examine, Windows 7 doesn’t have NTFS write permissions on XP system partition, even though it creates a "boot sector" inside it, cause it is the first one in line on the system disk, which is shared half on half by both systems.

So I booted into Windows 7, and run the following commands: 

• By default Vista/Windows 7 open command prompt in user mode, so we need to change the permission. To do so, just execute this command:
  Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > (right-click & "Run as administrator") Command prompt
• bcdedit /set {legacy} Description "Windows XP Pro" (Changes the text description of the "Legacy" OS line in the boot menu. he quotation marks must be included in the command)
• bcdedit /default {legacy} ( Sets the legacy (Windows XP) OS as {default} boot item)
• Running bcdedit /? (shows all commands one is able to use)

Also, if you go into the system properties (right click my computer,properties, Advanced System Settings, Click the advanced tab, under start up and Recovery, setting,) You can change the Default as well as the time to display it.

Ok, maybe it is just me, but I find this truly stupid.

I use a well known AV software on three of my home computers. The other two run a well known free home version. I pay yearly for the well known paid AV software. Every year I get a notice to upgrade.update and pay for the next year. Mind you I have three computers and like the good techie that I am, I must have a license for each of them and not pay for one and place it on all of them. Right?? I get this notice and click the “one click update.” Sounds easy right? Well, If I do it via the web, I get a price of 39.99 for the next years service. This will only be good for one computer. Or, I can update to the next product bracket which  gives me options that I do not want nor will ever use, but I get a three user license all for 49.99. Oh course that is not what I even paid for it in the beginning. I don’t understand why I can buy a boxed copy of this from a big box store or even Amazon for a lot cheaper (a lot), then I can via this companies stupid upgrade site. Can somebody explain this to me?? So, I just got my purchased copy and re-paced in the new three person license copy on all my computers again…