Oracle has more flaws than SQL Server

Microsoft Corp may be taking the most heat among software vendors for security problems, but it's not always the one with the worst record.

A comparison of vulnerabilities in Microsoft's SQL Server database with Oracle Corp.'s relational database management products by Next Generation Security Software Ltd. (NGSS) shows that the latter vendor's products to have far more vulnerabilities than do products from Microsoft.

Between December 2000 and November 2006, external researchers discovered 233 vulnerabilities in Oracle's products compared with 59 in Microsoft's SQL Server technology, according to NGSS, which has worked for Microsoft in the past to make its software products more secure. The study looked at vulnerabilities that were reported and fixed in SQL Server 7, 2000 and 2005 and Oracle's database Versions 8, 9 and 10g.

The results show that the reputation that Microsoft SQL Server had back in 2002 for relatively poor security is no longer deserved, said David Litchfield, founder of Surrey, England-based NGSS. And neither is the beating that Microsoft has gotten for security issues, he said.

"I think it's time people got past this, especially security researchers," Litchfield said. "We should be about closing holes and improving a vendor's outlook on security and -- largely -- that battle has been won with Microsoft," he said. The results show that Microsoft's software development life-cycle processes appear to be working, he said.

"There are other battles needing to be fought and won -- Oracle being one of them," Litchfield said.

In an e-mailed comment, an Oracle spokeswoman said the number of reported vulnerabilities in a product alone is not a measure of the overall security of that software.

"Products vary significantly in terms of richness of features and capabilities as well as number of versions and supported platforms," she said. "Measuring security is a very complex process, and customers must take a number of factors into consideration -- including use-case scenarios, default configurations as well as vulnerability remediation and disclosure policies and practices."

Basing a product's security just on the number of vulnerabilities discovered and fixed may not be the best approach, said Pete Lindstrom, an analyst at Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group. "Oracle apparently won an ugly contest," he said. But "there's got to be other criteria other than known vulnerabilities" for measuring software security, Lindstrom said.

Until then, Lindstrom said, "the jury should still be out on what's more or less secure."

The NGSS report comes at a time when security researchers, irked by what they consider to be Oracle's glacial pace of fixing bugs, are increasingly turning their attention to its products. In October, the company announced fixes for over 100 flaws as part of its scheduled quarterly security updates. Many of the flaws were reported to the company by outside researchers.

Just this week, Argeniss Information Security in Buenos Aires announced plans to disclose one zero-day bug every day for a week in December.

In a note posted on the company's site, founder Cesar Cerrudo said the idea is to highlight the current state of Oracle software security. "We want to demonstrate that Oracle isn't getting any better at securing its products" and continues to take a very long time to address bugs, the note said. "We could do the Year of Oracle Database Bugs, but we think a week is enough to show how flawed Oracle software is," the note read.

Source : computerworld.com

Digital Camera Vs. Film - Pros And Cons

Consumers have been pretty receptive to the lower priced “point and shoot” models , but there are still some holdouts.

Great strides have been made in digital technology over the past few years, but more sophisticated digital cameras have only recently come down in price enough to attract the “serious amateur” market. In the past, the price of high-end digital camera equipment was more suited to the professional who could turn that investment into an income source.

Even traditional film buffs are slowly coming around to the benefits of digital photography. Among the holdouts, the chief problem seems to be confusion. There are so many choices, with a broad range of options, and just as many price ranges.

It’s cheaper not to make a decision, than to make a mistake.

They get lost in the terminology, and have reservations about the quality of digital photos and about the reliability of the digital cameras. With the whirlwind of innovation flooding our lives everyday, it’s become really difficult to keep up.

Technology advances, prices come down, and a deal today may be obsolete tomorrow. At least that’s what worries many potential digital camera owners.

So let’s look at five of the most common questions about digital camera photography to shed some light on the matter, for those who are hesitant about this new technology, or who have dismissed it as a mere fad.

1. Do digital cameras produce quality photos?

Digital photos can be displayed at very high resolutions, and could easily surpass conventional photographs, but many have seen poorer quality images. Early color printers could be used to print color photos from digital cameras, but the quality just wasn’t there. Blurry images on low-grade computer monitors or on the small LCD screens of the cameras themselves, do nothing to increase your confidence.

But view the high resolution images available from today’s digital cameras on a capable monitor or after being printed on one of the newer photo quality printers (using photo quality paper) and you’ll see the crystal clear quality of what is available today.

2. How durable are digital camera photos?

Digital camera photos are not stored on film. They’re stored on electronic memory devices that actually require much less care than negative film.

As long as reasonable care is taken of the particular storage device, there shouldn’t be any problems with protecting images caught on a digital camera, and you can easily make copies of the digital image files on your computer or even burn them to a CD - an option that isn’t available with film.

3. Are digital camera photos more expensive to process?

Not anymore. First, you can eliminate any poor images before printing and only pay for those that you print. With “easy share” technology and photo quality printers now available, it is both affordable and convenient to print digital camera photos.

You can even do the task yourself, in the comfort of your own home - without buying expensive development chemicals that are required for film processing! Or, you can send your images electronically to a professional processor, and receive professionally produced photos back in the mail in just a few days.

4. Can I get different effects with a digital camera?

That depends on the digital camera. High end models have built-in features that allow different kinds of effects. But even if your digital camera doesn’t have these advanced features, you can always manipulate the photographs on your desktop computer, using any image editing software.

5. Are zooming features comparable?

Here digital cameras actually have a distinct advantage over film cameras. While cheaper digital cameras may only have digital zoom (which is really just a form of in-camera enlargement that results in a lower resolution original image), high end models are available with both digital and optical zooming.

When shopping for your digital camera, give priority to the optical zoom capability and buy the highest power optical zoom that fits within your budget. Digital zoom is a nice extra, but the effects can easily be replicated during the “processing” of the image on your computer, prior to printing the images.

Firefox 2.0 beware of password fishing

"Today, Mozilla made public bug #360493, which exposes Firefox's Password Manager on many public sites. The flaw derives from Firefox's willingness to supply the username and password stored on one page on a domain to another page on a domain. For example, username/password input tags on a Myspace user's site will be unhelpfully propagated with the visitor's Myspace.com credentials. It was first discovered in the wild by Netcraft on Oct. 27. As this proof-of-concept illustrates, because the username/password fields need not be visible on the page, your password can be stolen in an almost completely transparent fashion. Stopgap solutions include avoiding using Password Manager and the Master Password Timeout Firefox extension, which will at least cause a prompt before the fields are filled. However, in the original case detailed in the bug report, the phish mimicked the login.myspace.com site almost perfectly, causing many users to believe they needed to log in. A description of this new type of attack, dubbed the Reverse Cross-Site Request (RCSR) vulnerability, is available from the bug's original author."

Newman Plum Multimedia Player

Newman will soon launch the "plume" will be 320.26 million color QVGA 240 × 2.4-inch high definition screen. AVI/ASF/WMV/MP4/MTV/3GP/MOV/MPG/DAT/VOB support a variety of video formats. Rate H.264 broadcast over other functions include text to read, browse photos, records management, current prices and more information has not been published.

Turning Microsoft Zune into a PDA

Microsoft's Zune was supposed to be the latest in a long line of would-be "iPod killers", however, like such stellar previous attempts like the Dell DJ, it hasn't been met with much enthusiasm. A column runs down the criticisms leveled at the Zune (poor hardware, poor usability, compatibility problems -- in other words, pretty much everything), and says that to make the Zune more desirable, Microsoft needs to make it "more like Windows". That conjures up all sorts of possibilities in the mind, but the writer somehow takes that to mean making the Zune more open to customization and modification, as opposed to "Apple's strict gadget lockdown". He says Microsoft should create a development environment for the Zune, giving out free developer tools and fostering the creation of new applications and uses for the Zune. Which sounds pretty much exactly like... the development environment Microsoft's created around Windows Mobile PDAs, and last time we checked, that ecosystem wasn't exactly helping Pocket PCs destroy the iPod. While it's inevitable that convergence will see music and other media playback features rolled into devices like mobile phones, standalone devices will continue to thrive until converged devices can offer a comparable user experience to players such as the iPod -- and that's where Zune falls down. And never mind that Microsoft's willingess to accede to record labels and favor their interests over those of users means the iPod's probably safe for a while yet. Microsoft's corporate culture makes it hard pressed to come up with something that can compete favorably against the iPod. Perhaps instead of trying to create an iPod killer of its own, its time would be better spent improving its software so that a hipper and more nimble company could build one instead.

Sony Playstation 3

Sony must be pleased with the responses so far as reports come in of people camping in long lines and even fighting for places in line for their chance to buy a PS3.

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has to be pleased with the early reports of the response to the impending release of the Playstation 3. People are camping in long lines at Toys "R" Us and Best Buy in order to be the first on their block to own the high-end computer entertainment system.

In some cases, fighting has even broken out for a place in the line. In West Bend WI, a 19-year-old man was taken to an area hospital after getting hurt while waiting to buy a Sony Playstation 3 video game system to go on sale at midnight. Sheriff's officials in Palmdale, CA say deputies shut down a Super Wal-Mart in Palmdale after a crowd of shoppers camped out for a chance to buy PlayStation 3 got rowdy.

Sony officials have even tried to minimize the problems by announcing that the PS3 would be in short supply and that quantities would be very limited all over the country but that seems to only have made things worse in some areas. Sony will be shipping only 1 million units at launch with only 400,000 of those earmarked for North America.

Some interesting facts about Google

1.Google started in January, 1996 as a research project at Stanford University, by Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 years old and 23 years old respectively.

2.The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn’t know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. In fact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.

3.Google is a mathematical term 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasne.

4.Gmail was used internally for nearly 2 ears prior to launch to the public. They discovered there was approximately 6 types of email users, and Gmail has been designed to accommodate these 6.

5. It consisted of over 450,000 servers, racked up in clusters located in data centers around the world.

6.The Google search engine receives about a billion search requests per day.

7.Google's index of web pages is the largest in the world, comprising of eight billions(2005) of web pages. Google searches this immense collection of web pages often in less than half a second.

8.Google has a tradition of creating April Fool's Day jokes - such as Google MentalPlex, which allegedly featured the use of mental power to search the web. Some thought the announcement of Gmail in 2004 around April Fool's Day was a joke.

9.Google receives daily search requests from all over the world, including Antarctica.

10.Users can restrict their searches for content in 35 non-English languages. To date, no requests have been received from beyond the earth's orbit, but Google has a Klingon interface just in case.

11.Google has a world-class staff of 9,378 full-time employees known as Googlers. The company headquarters is called the Googleplex located at Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway.

12.Google translates billions of HTML web pages into a display format for WAP and i-mode phones and wireless handheld devices.

13."I feel lucky" is nearly never used. It was a comfort button which actually takes to the first web page returned by the search results.

14.Google use the unique 20%/5% rules. That is ,if at least 20% of people use a feature, then it will be included. At least 5% of people need to use a particular search preference before it will make it into the 'Advanced Preferences'.

15.Employees in Google are encouraged to use 20% of their time working on their own projects. That's why we have GMail,Google News and Orkut now.

16.Google Groups comprises more than 845 million Usenet messages, which is the world's largest collection of messages or the equivalent of more than a terabyte of human conversation.

17.The basis of Google's search technology is called PageRank™, and assigns an "importance" value to each page on the web and gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that's not why it's called PageRank. It's actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page.

18.Googlers are multifaceted. One operations manager, who keeps the Google network in good health is a former neurosurgeon. One software engineer is a former rocket scientist. And the company's chef formerly prepared meals for members of The Grateful Dead and funkmeister George Clinton.

19. Google’s Orkut is very popular in Brazil and India. It was the brainchild of a Google engineer who was given free reign to run with it.

20.In a 2006 report of the world's richest people, Forbes reported that Sergey Brin was #26 with a net worth of $12.9 billion, and Larry Page was #27 with a net worth of $12.8 billion

Ethernet at 100 GBPS

How fast can data travel over Ethernet? If you answered 10 Gigabit per second, then you would be off by about 90 gigabits per second. Infinera1, a San Jose, Calif.-based start-up, along with University of California, Santa Cruz, Internet2 and Level32 Communications, today demonstrated a3 100 gigabit/second Ethernet connection that could carry data over a 4000 kilometer fiber network. The trial took place at the Super Computing Show in Tampa, Florida.

The experimental system was set up between Tampa, Florida and Houston, Texas, and back again. A 100 GbE signal was spliced into ten 10 Gb/s streams using an Infinera-proposed specification for 100GbE across multiple links. The splicing of the signal is based on a packet-reordering algorithm developed at the University of California at Santa Cruz. This algorithm preserves packet order even as individual flows are striped across multiple wavelengths.

A single Xilinx FPGA implements this packet numbering scheme and electrically transmits all ten signals to ten of Finisar’s 10 Gb/s XFP optical transceivers which in turn convert the signals to optics. These signals are then transmitted to an Infinera DTN DWDM system.

These packets which have a special sequence numbering are then reassembled by the receiver. In short, Infinera has bonded 10 parallel 10 Gb/s channels into one logical flow while maintaining packet ordering at the receiver. (Services that combine multiple wavelengths to offer a single service are referred to as super-lambda services.)

The trial shows that seriously high speed services can be offered over existing 10 Gb/s transport networks. “Gigabit Ethernet will be a critical technology to accommodate bandwidth growth, and this demonstration shows that we have the capability to implement this as a super-lambda service over today’s networks,” said Infinera co-founder and CTO Drew Perkins.

It was about 14 months ago we wrote about the 10 GB/s network4 that connected the University of California, San Diego and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center over a dedicated optical path. We chatted with Perkins earlier today and he said that the trial today shows that you can build scalable systems that can achieve higher speeds. “The way bandwidth demand is growing right now, we need 100 Gb/second now,” he says. “The network is going to keep growing.”

The IEEE has set up a Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG) group and is looking for specifications for higher speed Ethernet. The 10 GbE took about five years to become a standard, but the working group might have to hurry this time around. Proliferation of higher speed consumer connections, and emergence of video over IP will make 100 GbE a must have for most carriers. While the 100 GbE technology is unlikely to show up in your neighborhood anytime soon, the trial is an important step in addressing the ever growing demand for bandwidth. The technologies like the one demonstrated by infinera and its partners will first show up in long haul networks. The largest IP backbones are currently using multiple 10 Gb/s links between core sites.

The online video explosion is going to tax the current fiber and network infrastructure, and will fill up the networks rather quickly, officials at Level 3 explained, when we met with them last week at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.


Source : GIGAOM.COM

Sun offers Java to open source

Computer giant Sun Microsystems says it will offer programming language Java to the open source community.

Java is used in more than 3.8 billion mobile phones, computers and other devices around the world.

The decision to release the code under an open licence means the world can now use, develop and share Java for free.

The same type of licence also covers the distribution of the core, or kernel, of the open source operating system Linux.

'More capability'

Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of software, said the company hoped to turn more developers into Java programmers.

"The open sourcing of this really means more: more richness of offerings, more capability, more applications that consumers will get to use," Mr Green said.

"The platform itself will become a place for innovation."

Open source software has become a major force in the digital world - with the majority of web servers globally using Apache, an open source operating system, many businesses using Linux on their machines and a growing library of open source projects available free to use.

All the Java source code is expected to be released by March 2007, Mr Green said.

The decision covers all Java technology, including software that runs on handheld devices, personal computers and servers.

Analysts have said the decision would likely extend the life of Java, which was released more than a decade ago, and boost business for the company.

"Sun profits from the Java ecosystem thriving," Michael Cote, an analyst with RedMonk told the Associated Press.

"Whether it's their hardware sales or their service sales, by open-sourcing Java they're hoping to ensure its longer life and ensure it's what the community wants it to be."

Source : BBC News

Sony's wireless headphones using body as transmission channel

Tired of the dangling headphone wires from your iPod or Walkman? Wires? Who need wires anymore? Sony says that we will be able to do without them soon. Instead we will use our own bodies to wirelessly transmit audio signal from the music player to the headphones.

At least that’s what their patent application for “Human body communication system and communication device” promises. Apparently Sony has been conducting research in this field and now has some results worth announcing. And it works like this:

Every human body has properties as a conductor and properties as a dielectric. Both of them can be used for data transmission. But the conductor properties are not really suitable for data transmission use - just try running even a a weak electric current through your body and you’ll know why. And a stronger version of this process is used in the electric chairs…

So the conductors are out. That leaves us with dielectric properties and electrostatic field generated by human body. And here Sony got some interesting results. Just like in any modern audio system they took analog audio signal, converted it into a digital signal of particular frequency, amplified it and used quasi-electrostatic field of human body to data-transmit the signal as a potential difference from a transmission electrode in the player device.

It turns out that the reception electrode installed in the vicinity of the human body (e.g. in the headphones) is able to read this change of potential. Add additional signal amplifier, demodulation and conversion of digital signal into audio output and Voila. You’ve got a sound in a headphone speaker.

There were problems with interference from external electromagnetic fields, loss of signal, insufficient bandwith in particular frequencies. But Sony researchers found that in a 500 kHz -3 MHz frequency bands have sufficient bandwith to transmit 48-kbps audio signal in ATRAC3plus format used in most Sony players today.

So, goodbye headphone wires, soon we will be using our bodies instead.

Source : Unwired View

Creative Zen Vision

Here is one more iPod killer after microsoft's zune, it sports a sleek and spacious 30GB model.

Select from an extensive line of accessories that make ZEN Vision the perfect companion - Wired and InfraRed remote controls, docking station, extended-life battery pack, chic leather case, LCD screen protector, and even a car adaptor kit.

Features list includes

Tens of thousands of photos View precious memories - tens of thousands of them - in 262,144 vivid colors and 640 x 480 resolution. Complete with a thumbnail gallery, ZEN Vision makes it easy to scroll through your entire photo collection.

An amazing 15,000 songs Perfect for taking with you on the road or around the house. And your music will sound as good as it looks, with the 8 preset EQ settings and 97dB signal-to-noise ratio ZEN Vision provides.

Movie and Photo Slideshows Connect the ZEN Vision to a projector or TV with the included AV cable, and delight friends with big screen movie magic.

Integrated Plug&View™ Compact Flash Slot Transferring pictures from your camera to ZEN Vision has never been easier. Simply slot in your camera's Compact Flash (CF) memory card, and let ZEN Vision do the rest. The optional Compact Flash card adaptor lets you use other popular memory card formats, such as SD, MMC, Memory Stick and more, with ZEN Vision.

SharpPix™ 3.7” high-resolution LCD screen 640 x 480 (VGA) resolution on a large, transflective screen. And up to 262,144 colors in your videos. What all this means is you see crisp, clear detail in every movie or photo, even under bright lighting.

Lightweight magnesium casing The elegant magnesium metallic casing protects your memories with pure sophistication. Now available in magnesium black and pearl white.

Rechargeable Li-ion battery Get more playback time with the included removable and rechargeable battery. Enjoy up to 13 hours of music5, or 4.5 hours of movies6. The optional extended-life battery pack lets you double playback time, which means you'll be entertained virtually forever.

FM radio If 15,000 songs aren't enough, listen to more with the integrated FM radio. 32 station presets let you switch stations whenever the mood strikes.

Personal Organizer Store and view all the information that's important to you - daily tasks, contact lists and even a calendar - that you sync with Microsoft Outlook, or edit with Creative Media Explorer.

Voice recorder Meetings, lectures, even voice memos to yourself - record them all with the integrated voice recorder, which stores hundreds of hours worth of recordings.

Microsoft Zune

Rumored to be potential iPod killer, Microsoft's Personal Media Player (PMP) will be available this holiday season in United States is named as Zune.

The Zune features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a bright, 3-inch screen that allows users to not only show off music, pictures and video, but also to customize the experience with personal pictures or themes to truly make the device their own. Zune comes in three colors: black, brown and white. It's a 30 GB device.

Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing lets consumers spontaneously share full-length sample tracks of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures with friends between Zune devices. Listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times over three days. If you like a song you hear and want to buy it, you can flag it right on your device and easily purchase it from the Zune Marketplace. The Zune Marketplace music service and a foundation for an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music.

Zune makes it easy to find music you love — whether it’s songs in your existing library or new music from the Zune Marketplace. Easily import your existing music, pictures and videos in many popular formats and browse millions of songs on Zune Marketplace, where you can choose to purchase tracks individually or to buy a Zune Pass subscription to download as many songs as you want for a flat fee.

To get started with great music and videos out of the box, every Zune device is preloaded with content from record labels such as DTS, EMI Music’s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records, and V2/Artemis Records.

Windows Vista launch dates

Wait is over, finally the much awaited Windows Vista launch dates are announced. Microsoft will launch Windows Vista for business customers on November, 30th and for consumers on January, 30th.

But if you can't wait for a new computer, be sure to ask your retailer about the Express Upgrade to Windows Vista, being offered by participating PC manufacturers. When you buy a qualifying Windows Vista Capable PC between October 26, 2006 and March 15, 2007, you may be eligible for an Express Upgrade to Windows Vista.

This offer is available for Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, or Windows XP Professional systems.