Author: Dr. Bill

Is that good? It is all “tile-based” and colorful, but will it be usable?

Sinofsky shows off Windows 8 at D9

“Microsoft gave an early demonstration of the new look and capability of the next generation of Windows today at the D9 conference.

President of Windows Steven Sinofsky also gave an early preview even before he took the stage in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., to his conference hosts at the All Things D blog. For now it’s called Windows 8, but Sinofsky says that’s just a code name.

‘We tried with Windows 8 to re-imagine how you work with a PC,’ Sinofsky said on stage during an interview with D9 host Walt Mossberg.

The first noticeable change is the start menu (pictured above), which has been drastically altered to look a lot more like Windows Phone 7. As for other changes, the system requirements for Windows 8 won’t be more than what’s required for a PC to run Windows 7. It will run on Intel, AMD processors, and ARM chips, something we learned earlier this year. The development platform is based on HTML5 and JavaScript. Any applications created for a touch (tablet) interface can also work with a mouse and keyboard. There’s also an option for a split virtual keyboard for typing on a tablet.

He says it will work on laptops, desktops, and tablets, and that everything that worked with Windows 7 will work with the next-generation OS as well. When using existing desktop applications, the interface goes to a very Windows 7-like desktop.

To log in to Windows 8 requires just a swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Applications will be launched from a series of tiles. Included in the the start-up menu tiles is a direct link to a Microsoft Store, which suggests Microsoft will have its own version of an online application store, similar to the Mac App Store.”

It seems that they finally got it back up!

Sony restores all PlayStation Network services

“Sony has completed its restoration of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity music service after a data breach forced a shutdown in April.

Most notable is the return of the PlayStation Store, where players can download demos, videos and other content as well as purchase games.

The official PlayStation blog has a very long list of content that has recently been added. Publisher Bethesda Softworks has also confirmed the second piece of DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, titled “Honest Hearts” is now available for PS3.

The PlayStation Store went down with the rest of PSN on April 20, when Sony took down the services to battle a massive data breach exposing users’ personal information.

Last month, Sony launched an initial restoration of PSN, which brought back user access to accounts and online gameplay.

However, prepare to wait a while to gain access to the PlayStation Store. Destructoid reports users may see error messages as Sony deals with the surge of traffic to the store.”

Huh? Well, I know most of the readers of the Dr. Bill Blog are probably NOT Internet Explorer users, but there IS a “Zero-Day” hack that can hijack cookies if you DO use IE!

Zero-Day “Cookiejacking” Hack Affects All IE Browsers, But Is It Serious?

“A sophisticated new hack has emerged as a zero-day exploit for all versions of Internet Explorer. Dubbed ‘cookiejacking,’ it is a way for hackers to take control of users browser identities and thus be able to impersonate them on Facebook, Twitter or any encrypted bank or retail site.

A play off the now familiar ‘clickjacking’ term, cookiejacking happens when a hacker gets a user to drag and drop an item on a website enabled for the hack. It was discovered by Italian security researcher Rosario Valotta, who presented his findings it at two European security conferences earlier this year before publishing them on his blog. Given the nature of the attack and specificity of the attack, is this something that Internet Explorer users really need to worry about?

Essentially, cookiejacking is enabled when a malicious website gets a users to load a cookie from an Internet zone to a personal zone (one that has access to your cookies).

Valotta told Reuters that he published the game he used to demonstrate cookiejacking on Facebook and was able to get 80 cookies on his server from his 150 Facebook friends.

Microsoft told ComputerWorld that it does not see the attack as serious, given the specific requirements of the hack. Yet, with things such as Facebook games and applications, (think, ‘put the ball in the hoop to win a prize’), cookiejacking could become a very real threat when implemented into the wild of the Web.”

Ouch! A login issue for Skype user’s… it has been a hard week for Skype!

Skype Scrambles to Fix Login Glitch

“Skype issued an update for Skype for Windows to fix a login glitch that locked out some users yesterday, and it promised a new Mac version for today.

Skype’s Peter Parkes reported yesterday in a blog post that a ‘small number’ of users, mostly people using Skype for Windows, were experiencing trouble logging into Skype. Apparently, the problem was caused by a specific xml file, ‘shared.xml.’ To fix the problem manually, Parkes provided instructions for users on Windows (7, XP, and Vista), Mac OS X, and Linux machines, which consisted of quitting the app and deleting the file.

In a later post, Parkes said that the company understands that the manual instructions were ‘fairly technical’ and was working to create updates to fix the problems automatically. Subsequently, a new version of Skype for Windows is now available for download, and Parkes promised an update for Mac today, while Linux users should still follow the manual instructions.

Those using Skype on their mobile phones or TV should not have been affected by the corruption. While this glitch only affected a ‘small percentage of users,’ it brings to mind the system-wide failure Skype experienced last December that paralyzed service for the voice- and video-chatting service worldwide. Skype was able to identify and fix the problem just in time to get the service online for the Christmas holiday, but the outage raised questions about the VoIP service’s reliability.”

It happened to me just yesterday! I logged into my laptop, and, “Yikes!” My profile was “gone!” No desktop shortcuts I had created, no documents in “Documents,” etc. Man! Severe bummer! Of course, the files were still there, I found them in C:\Users\ but I was no longer “pointing” to it in my profile. But, I found an easy fix, so if it happens to you, do this:

• You must have administrative privileges to do this. Run REGEDIT
• Navigate to:
  “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”
• You should find your profile key, with another named identically except for a “.bak” extension
• Delete the “normally named” key
• Rename the “.bak” named key to remove the “.bak” extension
• Restart your machine

If you do not have administrative privileges, you will need to fist sign on with a user ID that does. Viola! It is fixed! Why did it happen in the first place? Well, it IS windows, Dewd!

Another Cloud Service has issues, and this one was cross-platform as well!

Skype hit by global service crash

“Skype has moved quickly to fix problems that hit users around the world.

Many people started to report that they had problems making calls via the net-based phone system earlier today.

The problem did not seem confined to one group, with users on machines running Windows, OS X and Linux all reporting trouble.

Skype issued advice about how to get its service going, while it worked on a permanent fix.

Messages about problems getting Skype to start up began to be posted on social networking sites such as Twitter soon after it sent out a software update.

The update made it impossible for many people to sign in and make calls.

Skype posted an update about the outage to its blog, saying a ‘small number’ of people have had problems and detailing how to get the service running again.

Skype said the problem predominantly affected Windows users, but it also posted advice for OS X and Linux users. All the solutions revolved around the deletion of a file called shared.xml.’

It also said it had identified the problem and would issue a fix ‘in the next few hours.’

The large number of people turning to the Skype.com website for advice and information also briefly knocked that offline.”

That’s a lot of YouTube viewing!

Thanks, YouTube community, for two BIG gifts on our sixth birthday!

“In May 2005, the YouTube founders launched YouTube.com, providing people with a platform to broadcast themselves to the world. Six years on, the world is watching and we wanted to say thank you to the YouTube community for a couple of amazing birthday presents.

First, your video. Back in November we challenged you to up the volume of videos you uploaded to the site. And boy, did you take the bait. Today, more than 48 hours (two days worth) of video are uploaded to the site every minute, a 37% increase over the last six months and 100% over last year. From videos documenting a baby’s first steps in San Francisco, Calif., to a protest in Syria, to a commencement speech at Yale University, we’re continually impressed and inspired by the quality and breadth (in addition to quantity) of videos that you upload to the site every day. On our end, we’re constantly evolving to provide the best video sharing and viewing experience for you from faster processing of uploads to longer video lengths to the launch of self-service live stream capabilities to partners.”