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PATH: BS | Business | Corporations | Microsoft

Microsoft Hotmail Taken Over By Spammers Posted by Pile (24359 views) [E-Mail link]	[Spam]
At first I thought this was an anomaly, but after weeks of this activity happening over and over, it cannot be ignored: Microsoft's Hotmail servers seem to have been taken over by spammers and are now pumping out large quantities of spam.
READ MORE \| 23 comments since 2011-11-18 13:20:35 \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft Is Secretly Updating PCs Without Permission Posted by Pile (11221 views) [E-Mail link]
Even if you have Windows Updates turned off, people are discovering that their operating system is still contacting Microsoft and downloading and installing software on the system behind your back. And nobody really knows what's going on...
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When does 77.1 * 850 not equal 65,535? Posted by LaoTzu (11172 views) [E-Mail link]
When you're using Microsoft Excel. It seems recently, a flaw has been found in Microsoft Office Excel, in which certain calculations don't produce the right answers. Open up Excel and put the value '=77.1*850' into A1, and I'm sure you will be surprised to find Microsoft doesn't seem to think the correct answer is 65535. In Excel, it shows up as 100,000.
READ MORE \| 1 comment since 2008-08-18 15:54:03 \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft Quietly Offers Vista-To-XP Downgrade Posted by Pile (11614 views) [E-Mail link]
You know your latest operating system is a real dog when you're forced by your customers to give them an option to use the previous version. Microsoft has reportedly begun offering a downgrade option to PC makers who want to allow their customers to have the option of using XP over the pre-installed Vista software.
READ MORE \| 1 comment since 2008-08-17 19:21:33 \| Comment on this Article

Windows Vista Slows Down When You Play Music Posted by Pile (13650 views) [E-Mail link]
It's no secret many users have complained that Vista is slower than XP but now users are reporting an unusual "feature" of Microsoft's new Vista version of Windows: apparently when you play music on your computer, your Internet/network performance is severely degraded!
READ MORE \| 6 comments since 2008-08-19 09:09:12 \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft Dares Hacker Community To Expose Vista Posted by Pile (10652 views) [E-Mail link]
After suffering embarrassing security exploits over the past several years, Microsoft Corp. is trying a new tactic: inviting some of the world's best-known computer experts to try to poke holes in Vista, the next generation of its Windows operating system. I'm not sure this means much, considering Microsoft has already issued several security patches to vista over the last six months, and it's still probably a year or more away from release. Chances are it'll take the hacker community about six seconds to divulge vulnerabilities. Our guess here at BSAlert is that Microsoft is asking the tech community at large to help it solve it's own security problems.
READ MORE \| 1 comment since 2008-08-19 02:22:31 \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft To Spend Small Fortune To Appear Small Posted by Pile (9226 views) [E-Mail link]
Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software maker, will spend $120 million a year on an advertising campaign to fight its image as "a huge American company." What size would you consider a company that employs 63,000 and whose CEO is the richest human on the planet? In a related story, I will be spending no money to fight my image of being small. Although I won't stoop so low as to not suggest you people patronize the advertisers here so I can buy a pack of gum.
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"Bug" Turns Out To Be Back Door Found In All Versions of Windows Posted by Pile (9240 views) [E-Mail link]
Renown computer programmer and hacker, Steve Gibson has been analyzing the latest vulnerability for the Windows operating systems and has discovered that what appears to be a "bug" may actually be a secret back-door that someone at Microsoft built into all versions of Windows (for possibly more than a decade) that circumvents almost all known security and antivirus systems. Of course, now that the secret back door is public, it's being called a bug, but Gibson explains this is not the case, and it blows the lid off of the Pandora's Box on Microsoft operating systems, security and privacy.
READ MORE \| 3 comments since 2006-01-23 01:57:42 \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft Shuts Down Chinese Freedom Fighters Posted by Pile (10221 views) [E-Mail link]
On New Years Eve, MSN Spaces took down the popular blog written by Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti. This site was critical of the Chinese communist government and in not wanting to upset Microsoft's delicate business contracts with China, Microsoft took it upon itself to shut down anti-communist blogs on its MSN service, even though the Chinese government itself wasn't censoring these blogs. Nice job Microsoft. Don't let any of that "freedom talk" get in the way of making some money.
READ MORE \| 1 comment since 2008-08-17 17:40:00 \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft Bug Up For Auction on EBay Posted by Pile (9694 views) [E-Mail link]
In an amusing jab at Microsoft and their lackluster ability to promptly identify and fix vulnerabilities in their software, an IT guy has placed up for auction on eBay "One 0-day Microsoft Excel Vulnerability". Interestingly enough, eBay had the auction pulled, meanwhile they let several other auctions run where people misled others by selling an empty XBox360 carton.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft Enlists Outside Aid for New IE7 Browser Posted by Pile (9836 views) [E-Mail link]
Microsoft has enlisted some outside help for one of the most anticipated new features of its updated web browser: the ability to alert people that they may be about to enter a fraudulent website. It was announced today that Microsoft has retained the services of anti-fraud expert, LARRY ODOGWU of the Nigerian National Petroleum and Computer Security Corporation.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft's Newest OS: Microsoft Debacle(tm) Posted by Pile (9068 views) [E-Mail link]
At first, the next generation of Microsoft's new operating system was going to be called "Longhorn." What? That didn't make sense; didn't sound very high tech either. Has Bill been doing too much line dancing or what? Then they announced the new name would be "Vista" -- ahh a breath of fresh air perhaps? But apparently the boys in Redmond, in an effort to name their new, advanced OS, didn't notice there was another company in their same home town in the computer business for five years named "Vista." As a result, may I humbly suggest to Microsoft that you name your new OS: Microsoft Debacle™. It would really cover all the bases if you think about it.
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Microsoft Patents Emoticons Posted by Pile (10145 views) [E-Mail link]
"Methods and devices for creating and transferring custom emoticons allow a user to adopt an arbitrary image as an emoticon, which can then be represented by a character sequence in real-time communication." So does this mean if I type : ) and have it display I've violated their patent? Hey Microsoft, how about this emoticon: !
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft Bans "Democracy" Posted by Pile (8893 views) [E-Mail link]
As a poignant symbol of the priority of liberty in the world of capitalism, Microsoft's new Chinese internet portal has banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing's political censors.
READ MORE \| 2 comments since 2005-06-19 02:22:13 \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft DNS Exploit Hits IE Users All Over Posted by Pile (9886 views) [E-Mail link]
While most of the Internet is using Unix-based DNS servers to handle hostname resolution, some companies and ISPs using Windows servers have been hit with a nasty attack that redirects .com addresses to special web sites that look for users running Internet Explorer and loads their systems with spyware and other malicious programs. Reason # 34,987,343 why you should be using Firefox and stay away from ISPs who are foolish enough to be running Microsoft servers for stuff like DNS.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft Settles Infringement Case and "Loses" E-Mail Evidence Posted by Pile (10709 views) [E-Mail link]
Microsoft has agreed to pay Burst.com $60M in a settlement over Burst's claim that Microsoft entered into an agreement to learn about Burst's technology, cut them loose, then built the technology into their own media player, in defience of Burst's 37 patents. To add further irony, Microsoft failed to produce subpoena'd e-mail correspondence relevant to the case claiming the information was erased from all workstations, servers and backup files. Yea right.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Why In The World Do People Put Up With Windows? Posted by Pile (9169 views) [E-Mail link]	[Faulty Products]
SFGate columnist, Mark Morford relays a number of personal horror stories over Microsoft Windows' never-ending array of bugs and vulnerabilities and ponders why consumers put up with this when there are better alternatives.
READ MORE

Microsoft's AntiSpyware Tool Removes Internet Explorer Posted by Pile (8997 views) [E-Mail link]	[Humor]
Many Microsoft Windows users who downloaded the recently released AntiSpyware program from Microsoft, or had it installed through an automatic Windows update, woke up to a surprise. Unintentionally, the heuristics of the software detected Internet Explorer as spyware, and removed the program from their systems.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Bill Gates Poses for Teen Beat, NOT Posted by Pile (9645 views) [E-Mail link]	[Vanity]
We got snookered by this one too... In the Too-weird-to-be-fake category comes the republishing of some pictures in "1983" where young programmer, Bill Gates supposedly posed for Teen Beat magazine. In reality, this is a promo shot in 1985 taken to coincide with the release of Windows 1.0.
READ MORE \| 1 comment since 2005-01-20 14:45:59 \| Comment on this Article

Another Microsoft vulnerability: cursors and icon files Posted by Pile (9014 views) [E-Mail link]
CERT writes, "Microsoft Windows contains multiple vulnerabilities in the way that it handles cursor and icon files. A remote attacker could execute arbitrary code or cause a denial-of-service condition." In other words, yet more vulnerabilities in core Widnows routines which make IE and other systems vulnerable to exploitation by visiting web sites which load these files. Be especially wary now of the favicon.ico files which most web sites load which give you those cute little icons next to the web address in your browser.. they can cause your computer to be compromised.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Internet Explorer exploits released into the wild - no fix yet Posted by Pile (7973 views) [E-Mail link]
I have to assume most are not foolish enough to still be running Internet Explorer as their browser when there are more secure alternatives, but just in case, be prepared to have your computer compromised as there are more vulnerabilities that even fully-patched Windows XP-SP2 can't stop.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Gates' products crash and burn during CES keynote presentation Posted by Pile (10893 views) [E-Mail link]	[Faulty Products]
While promoting what he calls the "digital lifestyle," Bill Gates showed how vulnerable all consumers - even the world's richest man - are to hardware and software bugs as he stumbled through a number of embarassing moments when his products crashed and burned during a keynote presentation at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show.
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Microsoft finally abandons their goofy passport scheme Posted by Pile (8340 views) [E-Mail link]
Remember Passport? This was one of the many "world changing" schemes Microsoft wanted to push. In this case, the big mega-corporation suggested that you, the gullible consumer, entrust all your personal information, credit cards, passwords, etc., to Microsoft, accessible with a single password. For some strange reason, nobody other than a small number of stupid/coerced corporations and vendors actually embraced this wholly boneheaded idea. Then of course, the whole scheme was cracked and shown to be insecure. And now, for some strange reason, Microsoft is giving up on foisting this crazy idea on users. When a company can't keep their own products secure, it's a bad idea to promote equally incomplete personal privacy schemes. This idea apparently didn't even get past the red states!
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Bofra worm spreading - even via well known sites Posted by Pile (8386 views) [E-Mail link]
Reason # 34,871,190 to switch to Firefox. Yet another worm is spreading across the net and your computer can be infected by merely clicking on an otherwise innocuous link. This affects anyone running Windows and using Internet Explorer without SP2 installed. This new virus attaches your computer to various IRC channels and allows the public to have completely control of it remotely. Bad stuff.
READ MORE \| 2 comments since 2004-11-24 23:26:58 \| Comment on this Article

Microsoft patents "isnot" operator Posted by RantMaster (8039 views) [E-Mail link]
In the ever-increasing area of ridiculously wide-sweeping and stupid intellectual property claims, Microsoft has managed to get a patent for the "isnot" operator in the BASIC computer language.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

As many as 10 vulnerabilities found in Windows SP2 Posted by Pile (8743 views) [E-Mail link]
I know you're not going to believe this, but a San Jose software firm has identified as many as 10 new serious security flaws in Microsoft's new major security update to Windows XP. Since Microsoft doesn't have any patches yet, their official position on the issue is one of skepticism that the vulnerabilities are legit.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Surprise! Another major IE flaw Posted by RantMaster (8669 views) [E-Mail link]
There's a new variant of the MyDoom virus that exploits yet another flaw in the latest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. By now, nobody in their right mind should be using IE, but if you still have some bonehead friend or employers stupid enough to use IE, you should get them to upgrade to Firefox. In another touch of irony, The Computer Emergency Response Team of Carnagie Mellon University issued an after-the-fact advisory claiming, "Due to the dynamic nature of the heap, it is usually difficult for attackers to execute arbitrary code using this type of vulnerability." Unfortunately this arrived hours after I saw my first successful variant of the exploit originating from a PC at the University of Kansas. CERT seems to be more docile and corporate-friendly in the wake of these issues.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

The safest way to run Windows is on a Mac! Posted by Psychocktail (7983 views) [E-Mail link]	[Technology]
Using Windows is no fun at the best of times, but the never ending plagues of viruses, worms and spyware, are so bad that it may be that the best thing to do is junk that PC and move to the Mac. Using Virtual PC, you don't even have to run Mac OS X! According to Microsoft, the safest way to run Windows is under emulation on a Mac.
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Longhorn Bullshit! Or is that Billshit? Posted by Psychocktail (9103 views) [E-Mail link]
Don't have a cow! Some real bullshit about a Longhorn that's not a bull!
READ MORE \| No comments \| Comment on this Article

Mozilla Gains on IE Posted by notthefirsttime (8220 views) [E-Mail link]
Study shows Microsoft has lost a percentage of market share to open source browser
READ MORE \| 2 comments since 2004-07-10 16:11:26 \| Comment on this Article

30 Articles displayed.

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