The 12-minute Windows Heist: "An anonymous reader writes 'Sophos has come up with some pretty interesting research: apparently, there's a 50 percent chance unprotected Windows PCs will be compromised within 12 minutes of going online. Sophos came to that conclusion based on research covering the last six months of virus activity. The company said authors of malware such as spam, viruses, phishing scams and spyware have increased both the volume and sophistication of their assaults, releasing almost 8,000 new viruses in the first half of 2005 and increasingly teaming up in joint ventures to make money. The new-virus figure is up 59 percent on the same period last year.'"

Browser Market Share: "

Almost every Sunday I grab the weeks ongoing logfiles and update my browser market share readout. I find it interesting and maybe others will too, so this entry is now the charts permanent home. Ill update it most weeks, probably. [Updated: 2005/06/26. Hey, hows this: suppose I did browser market shares only for people who come here as the result of a search. Intuition says that that would be a number much closer to the mainstream. Ill run some numbers and lets see.]...

AMD Moaning and groaning, or the Big Bad Intel has been naughty? News: AMD files broad antitrust suit against Intel: "Semiconductor maker AMD has filed an antitrust suit against rival Intel, just as Apple has announced plans to switch its computers to an Intel-based architecture."

IE7 to Support RSS: "

It seems that Microsoft is trying to catch up by integrating RSS features into IE7 that are already available in Safari and Firefox. A beta version of IE7 is to be released later this summer, and an article at PC Mag shows the new RSS features that are to be added in IE7 and Longhorn. Today, Microsoft announced that it will introduce new technologies designed to promote the use of Really Simple Syndication, or RSS,

New worm lures users with 'breaking news': "

Internet users alarmed over news of Michael Jackson's death or dark conspiracies behind the demise of Pope John Paul II should perhaps just be worried that they received another new e-mail worm.Researchers at security firm Sophos warned Tuesday of the spread of the Kedebe-F e-mail worm, which carries a variety of subject headers and messages touting breaking news. However, users who click on the attached file could have their security software and firewall disabled, according to Sophos.

Possible messages include 'someone sent me this document which is stolen from a secret government body ... about John Paul's death.' Other messages try to entice recipients into opening the attached file by claiming Michael Jackson has died, Osama bin Laden has been captured by U.S. soldiers or the MyDoom e-mail worm author has been arrested by Microsoft, Sophos said.

Using supposed 'breaking news' to persuade users to open a message and click on an attachment is a long -favored method among virus writers, according to Sophos Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley.

'This is a fairly common trick. It doesn't take Albert Einstein to think this one up,' Cluley said.

Although the worm is currently slow-spreading Cluley flagged it as an example of the kinds of social-engineered threats that users should watch out for.

The worm spreads via e-mail or P-to-P (peer-to-peer) file sharing networks. It appears to be targeted at both news hounds and geeks, with mentions of the MyDoom worm, Cluley said. Also, it spreads on P-to-P networks by copying itself to the directory for sharing information on the server, purporting to be source code for the Sasser worm.

At last! Podcasters can REALLY iPodCast with the new version of iTunes!

iTunes 4.9 released: "

Apple today announced it is taking Podcasting mainstream by building everything users need to discover, subscribe, manage and listen to Podcasts right into iTunes 4.9, the latest version of its award winning digital music software and online music store. iTunes users can now easily subscribe to over 3,000 free Podcasts and have each new episode automatically delivered over the Internet to their computer and iPod.

News: Microsoft updates Virtual PC with Tiger fixes: "Microsoft has released its promised fixes for Virtual PC to work with Tiger."

Virtual PC 7.0.2 provides fixes for Virtual Switch, Zero Configuration Printing and the Dock Start menu when running on Tiger, according to Microsoft. The update works with Virtual PC 7.0 and 7.0.1. System requirements call for G3/700MHz or faster, Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later, 512MB RAM, 70MB hard disk space.

AMD speeds up single-core gaming chip: "

While dual-core processors have received the most attention this year, sometimes a single-core processor is the right tool for the job, according to AMD.The Sunnyvale, Calif., company is expected to release its fastest single-core processor on Monday with the launch of the Athlon 64 FX-57, a high-end chip targeted at gamers. The chip runs at 2.8GHz, a 200MHz increase in clock speed over the FX-55, which AMD will continue to sell for now, said Jonathan Seckler, product marketing manager for the Athlon 64 product line.

Both AMD and Intel sell high-end desktop processors that are very expensive and very powerful. AMD uses the Athlon 64 FX label for these chips, while Intel brands them the Pentium Extreme Edition. Neither company sells very many of these chips compared to sales of their mainstream desktop processors, but some users, such as gamers, are willing to pay whatever it takes to get the highest level of performance.

Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod: "No more tangles, snags or kinks: Now music lovers can free themselves from the cords tethering them to their iPod and receive high quality sound -- wireless headphones for the iPod(R) have arrived. Logitech a leading provider of cordless peripherals..."

WiTT Down But Not Out: "

I’ve been moving the TWiT web site - twit.tv or thisWEEKinTECH.com - to a new dedicated server. The idea was to put it on its own machine so it wouldn’t slow down leoville.com or leoville.tv (they’re on a shared server right now). leovilletownsquare.com has its own server.

The sites transferred over ok yesterday but something seems to be wrong today, and Vizaweb hasn’t been exactly responsive to my ‘emergency’ requests. Not sure what’s going on over there, but I’m looking for new hosting as quickly as possible and I hope we’ll have the site back up soon. Meanwhile watch this site for updates.

Sorry about this guys.

UPDATE: I’ve talked with Vizaweb and there’s not much we can do about it. It’s not a bandwidth issue - it’s an i/o issue. With 30 people per second hitting the site it’s just like a big DOS attack - except it’s real requests. You can help by using your podcasting client to get the latest TWiT episodes instead of trying to get them by hand. We’re going to find a host that specializes in this kind of traffic. Meanwhile the servers my other sites are running on are more than adequate, so I’ll keep them at Vizaweb. It’s just that TWiT is so much bigger than all the rest. The price of success I guess!

"

IBM ruffles workers by expanding India staff: "Leaked internal document shows big growth in Indian workforce due to 'shifting investment. With The New York Times reporting Friday on IBM's plans to significantly expand its staff in India while cutting jobs elsewhere, the company once again found itself balanced at the delicate intersection of global business realities and U.S. politics.'"

Sony denies seeking PSP customer data: "Company says it's targeting 'gray market' sellers rather than consumers to squelch unauthorized sales in the U.K.
I have no idea if this is true or not. But Sony never does anything without a motive, or do they?
Published reports out of Britain suggest that Sony is using the knowledge to confiscate any unauthorized product being shipped to consumers before the official launch date of Sept. 1.

CodeWeavers CrossOver To Support Intel-Based Macs: "mprindle writes 'Code Weavers produces software for Linux based machines that allows Windows software packages to run seamlessly. Code Weavers has announced that it will port it software to the new Mac's that will be running on Intel Processors. From the article at MacWorld'By installing CrossOver Office on Intel-based Macs, many Windows-only applications, including Windows-based games, utilities and business applications, will operate seamlessly and reliably,' No mention of expected performance in the article."

WebObjects 5.3 Update for Mac OS X Server 10.4 posted: "Apple has posted WebObjects 5.3 Update for Mac OS X Server 10.4 to its Web site today..."

(Via MacMinute.)