Well, first let me thank everyone for their support and start by saying I did pass the exam 70-680 Windows 7, Configuring. I did want to take this chance to discuss my experience with the MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Support Technician 7. I had previously written about Exam 70-680 Windows 7 Configuring now available.
To begin with, keep in mind that this exam is intended to be a "full" Windows client software exam, and not just an upgrade from Vista or XP. Therefore, there is the normal collection of questions that you would expect covering items like sharing permissions, installing printers, etc. and I would say that roughly 70% of the questions on my exam could be researched and answered using study materials for the Windows Vista, Configuring exam 70-620.
As far as Windows 7 specific content; If my test is any indication, you want to be very familiar with Internet Explorer 8. There were 4 (out of 45) questions dealing with new IE8 security features. For that I recommend working with IE8 and clicking the help on each feature so that you know you have a strong understanding of what each setting does.
I had 5 questions dealing with migration and 2 questions dealing with using the User State Migration Tool. However, none of my migration questions involved the new DISM tool. They focused on use of Imagex and Windows PE. That doesn't mean that DISM wont be involved on each test but it should tell you that migration will probably be addressed on just about every exam. A lot of the new features questions were more about concepts than specific files paths. For example, in one question would you make a new applocker rule or use the defaults to solve the situation stated. But I did have one very precise question regarding configuring Branch Cache using a command prompt command. I still don't know where I would have gone to research the answer to that one. But that type of question is to be expected. Just like the one asking how you view the automatically assigned IPv6 address on a client without using ipconfig. I did know the answer to that but of course the solution takes about 6 more steps than just using MCTS: Windows 7, Configuration.
So overall, I would say to anyone looking to take this exam, grab the Sybex or similar book for the exam 70-620 (Vista) and study it well before navigating through the various web sources and white papers regarding Windows 7 if you are new to IT certifications for MS. If you are already experienced with client software like Windows XP, you are probably best served by taking a class like the 6291 "Upgrading your IT skills from Win xp to Win 7 Beta". We actually offer that class at Springhouse and the content is based on the Beta release but still relevant to the RTM version. Of course that course will most likely be re-named with the Beta tag removed in the near future.
Based on what I have seen so far from our interaction with the free Microsoft practice tests, there is a LOT of interest in fast, early adoption of Windows 7 and if you're an IT pro looking to increase your marketability, Win7 certification could be a real nice addition to your resume.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Microsoft Sends Invites for Feb. 10 Internet Explorer 9 Event
Microsoft on Friday sent out invites to a February 10 Internet Explorer 9 event that WinRumors says will likely include the unveiling of the IE9 release candidate.
"Members from the Internet Explorer team (and some special guests) will be visiting San Francisco in two weeks to share some important news. I know it's an extremely busy news week already, but we're hoping you can join us," according to the invite.
WinRumors says an escrow build of IE9 appeared online Friday, and screenshots suggest that Microsoft will add a location privacy feature in the updated browser.
Earlier this month, Microsoft revealed that the IE9 beta had been downloaded over 20 million times. The beta, which launched on September 15, accounted for 4.6 percent of all Internet traffic worldwide, according to year-end numbers from Net Applications. Separate numbers from Adobe's Omniture SiteCatalyst site-traffic monitoring software put the overall Internet average of IE9 beta usage at an even 0.5 percent for December.
PCMag will be at the February 10 event, so stay tuned for more details.
"Members from the Internet Explorer team (and some special guests) will be visiting San Francisco in two weeks to share some important news. I know it's an extremely busy news week already, but we're hoping you can join us," according to the invite.
WinRumors says an escrow build of IE9 appeared online Friday, and screenshots suggest that Microsoft will add a location privacy feature in the updated browser.
Earlier this month, Microsoft revealed that the IE9 beta had been downloaded over 20 million times. The beta, which launched on September 15, accounted for 4.6 percent of all Internet traffic worldwide, according to year-end numbers from Net Applications. Separate numbers from Adobe's Omniture SiteCatalyst site-traffic monitoring software put the overall Internet average of IE9 beta usage at an even 0.5 percent for December.
PCMag will be at the February 10 event, so stay tuned for more details.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Apple Patches QuickTime for Windows
Apple has issued QuickTime version 7.6.7 for Windows to fix a vulnerability in that product. The Mac version of QuickTime is not affected.
The vulnerability is a stack overflow in QuickTime's error logging. As a result, viewing a malicious movie file can lead to unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.
Earlier this week, Apple also issued a fix for the PDF hold that allowed the "Jailbreakme" Web-based jailbreak.
The vulnerability is a stack overflow in QuickTime's error logging. As a result, viewing a malicious movie file can lead to unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.
Earlier this week, Apple also issued a fix for the PDF hold that allowed the "Jailbreakme" Web-based jailbreak.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Hands On with Windows Phone 7 Series
BARCELONA – Microsoft on Monday launched its Windows Phone 7 Series, the most radical change that Microsoft smartphones have ever seen. WP7 – there's no "Windows Mobile" any more – uses a bold array of tiles and pivoting panels to let users easily access their personal information, Zune music and Xbox Live gamer card.
WP7 phones will come from Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba, Microsoft said at the Mobile World Conference here. Carriers will include all of the U.S.'s Big Four – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon – as well as Deutsche Telekom, Orange, SFR, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telstra, and Vodafone.
"Windows Mobile is dead," said Aaron Woodman, director of the Mobile Communications Business for Microsoft's Consumer Experiences Product Management team.
But it's a long road before WP7 hits shelves. The first phones will appear for the 2010 holiday season, Woodman said.
A brand new interface
WP7 looks like nothing you've ever seen before from Microsoft. All the ancillary gewgaws – the Start Menu, the soft keys, the home screen as you know it – are gone. The main WP7 user interface is a bold array of five "live tiles," boxes containing text and photos: Internet Explorer, Phone, Text, People, Pictures and Multimedia (Zune). Alerts appear within the tiles themselves – if you have unanswered calls, the number appears within the phone tile. Your most recent pictures fade into the Pictures tile, and so on. If you click on the Multimedia tile, your phone turns into a Zune, but it isn't a "Zune phone." Zune is just one app.
"It's content, not chrome. We really used the idea of fierce reduction" in the interface, said Albert Shum, the lead interface designer.
Scroll down to find more big, live tiles: Calendar, Exchange, Windows Live, Me and Xbox Live. Scroll right to find the list of all apps on your phone.
The same interface theme of big, bold words, large square pictures and sliding tiles appears in individual apps. Search Bing and you can "pivot" between modes for local and business search using large words across the top. Head into your contacts list, and you slide between large tiles representing your favorite people and a scrolling list of your contacts with their social-networking updates.
The new Web browser is based on Internet Explorer, and includes pinch-to-zoom and automatic column reformatting. It doesn't have Adobe Flash, and Flash probably won't be available at launch, Woodman said. An "Office Hub" will provide full Microsoft Office support, Woodman said.
Partners such as HTC will no longer be able to "re-skin" phones with their own user interfaces. Instead, their energies should be drawn to "hubs," or tiles in the standard Microsoft interface that could then expand into app-like experiences, Woodman said.
Microsoft is also throwing out ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center. You'll now sync with a new version of the Zune software. And yes, that means no Mac support for now.
Hands-on and hardware
I received a few minutes with a Windows Phone 7 Series prototype today, and the software looked beautiful but felt very, very early. Tiles responded sluggishly. When I scrolled down a contact list, it scrolled into a great black abyss that only filled with contacts after a few seconds. That wasn't what Microsoft showed in its demo, of course – and remember, this software is ten months from launch.
On the other hand, if it actually performs properly, WP7 has the intangibles that Microsoft phones have lacked for years. It's fun to explore. The interface makes sense. It's easy to find the things you need. Nothing is buried. It uses the power of a mobile computer to put important information at the fore – possibly even more immediately than the iPhone.
Microsoft stayed coy about the hardware requirements, saying that more would come out at the MIX developer conference in mid-March. But it's pretty obvious that old Windows Mobile software won't run on this phone, as the user interfaces have zero in common. Microsoft also said Qualcomm would supply chipsets for the first set of WP7 phones, while specifically neglecting to mention Nvidia.
All WP7 phones will have five hardware buttons: back, home, search, camera, and power. The prototype I saw had a capacitive touch screen, both front and rear facing camera, and no QWERTY keyboard. Microsoft said that the company will allow OEMs to design their own slide-out QWERTY keyboards – though BlackBerry-like candybar-style phones with keyboards are a no-go.
"The phones will be owned by OEMs, and you'll see different form factors and choices," Woodman said.
Microsoft also left multitasking a mystery, saying only that "music will play in the background." Once again, there are more details to come at MIX.
Windows Phone 7 is pretty amazing. But it still has ten months before launch – and we're going to see a bunch of competing upgrades between now and then. With iPhone 4, Symbian^3 and who-knows-what from Google appearing this summer and fall, the question isn't whether WP7 is amazing for February 2010. It's whether it will still be amazing in December.
WP7 phones will come from Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba, Microsoft said at the Mobile World Conference here. Carriers will include all of the U.S.'s Big Four – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon – as well as Deutsche Telekom, Orange, SFR, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telstra, and Vodafone.
"Windows Mobile is dead," said Aaron Woodman, director of the Mobile Communications Business for Microsoft's Consumer Experiences Product Management team.
But it's a long road before WP7 hits shelves. The first phones will appear for the 2010 holiday season, Woodman said.
A brand new interface
WP7 looks like nothing you've ever seen before from Microsoft. All the ancillary gewgaws – the Start Menu, the soft keys, the home screen as you know it – are gone. The main WP7 user interface is a bold array of five "live tiles," boxes containing text and photos: Internet Explorer, Phone, Text, People, Pictures and Multimedia (Zune). Alerts appear within the tiles themselves – if you have unanswered calls, the number appears within the phone tile. Your most recent pictures fade into the Pictures tile, and so on. If you click on the Multimedia tile, your phone turns into a Zune, but it isn't a "Zune phone." Zune is just one app.
"It's content, not chrome. We really used the idea of fierce reduction" in the interface, said Albert Shum, the lead interface designer.
Scroll down to find more big, live tiles: Calendar, Exchange, Windows Live, Me and Xbox Live. Scroll right to find the list of all apps on your phone.
The same interface theme of big, bold words, large square pictures and sliding tiles appears in individual apps. Search Bing and you can "pivot" between modes for local and business search using large words across the top. Head into your contacts list, and you slide between large tiles representing your favorite people and a scrolling list of your contacts with their social-networking updates.
The new Web browser is based on Internet Explorer, and includes pinch-to-zoom and automatic column reformatting. It doesn't have Adobe Flash, and Flash probably won't be available at launch, Woodman said. An "Office Hub" will provide full Microsoft Office support, Woodman said.
Partners such as HTC will no longer be able to "re-skin" phones with their own user interfaces. Instead, their energies should be drawn to "hubs," or tiles in the standard Microsoft interface that could then expand into app-like experiences, Woodman said.
Microsoft is also throwing out ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center. You'll now sync with a new version of the Zune software. And yes, that means no Mac support for now.
Hands-on and hardware
I received a few minutes with a Windows Phone 7 Series prototype today, and the software looked beautiful but felt very, very early. Tiles responded sluggishly. When I scrolled down a contact list, it scrolled into a great black abyss that only filled with contacts after a few seconds. That wasn't what Microsoft showed in its demo, of course – and remember, this software is ten months from launch.
On the other hand, if it actually performs properly, WP7 has the intangibles that Microsoft phones have lacked for years. It's fun to explore. The interface makes sense. It's easy to find the things you need. Nothing is buried. It uses the power of a mobile computer to put important information at the fore – possibly even more immediately than the iPhone.
Microsoft stayed coy about the hardware requirements, saying that more would come out at the MIX developer conference in mid-March. But it's pretty obvious that old Windows Mobile software won't run on this phone, as the user interfaces have zero in common. Microsoft also said Qualcomm would supply chipsets for the first set of WP7 phones, while specifically neglecting to mention Nvidia.
All WP7 phones will have five hardware buttons: back, home, search, camera, and power. The prototype I saw had a capacitive touch screen, both front and rear facing camera, and no QWERTY keyboard. Microsoft said that the company will allow OEMs to design their own slide-out QWERTY keyboards – though BlackBerry-like candybar-style phones with keyboards are a no-go.
"The phones will be owned by OEMs, and you'll see different form factors and choices," Woodman said.
Microsoft also left multitasking a mystery, saying only that "music will play in the background." Once again, there are more details to come at MIX.
Windows Phone 7 is pretty amazing. But it still has ten months before launch – and we're going to see a bunch of competing upgrades between now and then. With iPhone 4, Symbian^3 and who-knows-what from Google appearing this summer and fall, the question isn't whether WP7 is amazing for February 2010. It's whether it will still be amazing in December.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Microsoft Unloads Massive Patch to Users
Microsoft released a record fourteen security bulletins on Tuesday, eight of them with a maximum rating of Critical. In total, Microsoft fixed a record-tying total of thirty-four vulnerabilities.
One of the updates addresses a vulnerability report that was released by third parties several days ago. Another addresses a vulnerability disclosed long ago.
The eight critical updates include:
* MS10-049: Vulnerabilities in SChannel could allow Remote Code Execution—Two vulnerabilities are fixed in this update, one of them rather old and famous. CVE-2009-3555, the TLS/SSL Renegotiation Vulnerability was first disclosed late last year. This is a spoofing attack which could allow an attacker to insert traffic into a TLS session. The other bug is in SChannel, in the client validation of certificate requests. On Windows XP and Server 2003 a malicious web site could cause remote code execution in the client.
* MS10-051: Vulnerability in Microsoft XML Core Services Could Allow Remote Code Execution— Version 3.0 of Microsoft XML Core Services 3.0 (the current version is 6.0) is vulnerable to a memory corruption error which could lead to remote code execution on all versions of Windows, but is only rated Critical on client versions.
* MS10-052: Vulnerability in Microsoft MPEG Layer-3 Codecs Could Allow Remote Code Execution—The DirectShow MP3 filter on Windows XP and Server 2003 could allow remote code execution through a malicious audio file.
* MS10-053: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer—6 vulnerabilities are fixed in this update to IE. All versions on all platforms have at least one critical vulnerability fixed in this update.
* MS10-054: Vulnerabilities in SMB Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution—This update fixes 3 vulnerability, the first of which (CVE-2010-2550) is much more severe and interesting than the others, which only allow denial of service. CVE-2010-2550 allows remote code execution through unauthenticated network attack on Windows XP, Server 2003, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. On Vista and Windows Server 2008 it only allows elevation of privilege. Firewalls would normally block SMB packets, certainly unsolicited ones, from the outside, but an infected system inside the network might be able to attack peers. In Vista and Windows 7, if the network profile is set to "Public" the system is not affected. Microsoft does state that only inconsistent exploit code is likely, and that "Exploitation is more likely to result in a denial of service rather than code execution."
* MS10-055: Vulnerability in Cinepak Codec Could Allow Remote Code Execution—The Cinepak codec on client versions of Windows has a remote code execution vulnerability in the decompression of some files.
* MS10-056: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution—4 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word affect all versions, including viewers, except for Office 2010. Strangely, only Word 2007 is rated Critical.
* MS10-060: Vulnerabilities in the Microsoft .NET Common Language Runtime and in Microsoft Silverlight Could Allow Remote Code Execution—Vulnerabilities in Silverlight have been rare. This update includes one which affects some versions of Silverlight and another which affects both Silverlight and some versions of.NET..
6 of the updates have a maximum rating of Important:
* MS10-047: Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege—Three vulnerabilities could result in a denial of service on the most recent versions of Windows or an elevation of privilege on most earlier ones.
* MS10-048: Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Elevation of Privilege—4 Privilege elevation vulnerabilities and one DOS in Win32K affect all versions of Windows. This appears to cover the same vulnerability disclosed a few days ago.
* MS10-050: Vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker Could Allow Remote Code Execution—Windows Movie Maker in Windows XP and Windows Vista is vulnerable to a remote code execution bug through specially-crafted project files. Windows Live Movie Maker is unaffected.
* MS10-057: Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution—Several versions of Excel, including XP, 2003, Mac 2004, 2008, and the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac are vulnerable to a memory corruption vulnerability with remote code execution through specially-crafted Excel files. Works 9, Excel 2007 and more recent products are not affected.
* MS10-058: Vulnerabilities in TCP/IP Could Allow Elevation of Privilege—Two elevation of privilege bugs affect Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and R2.
* MS10-059: Vulnerabilities in the Tracing Feature for Services Could Allow Elevation of Privilege—Two elevation of privilege bugs affect Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and R2. For reasons undisclosed, one is rated more severe than the other.
Several of the usual non-security fixes were also released, including the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, Junk Mail Filter for Windows Mail and Compatibility List View for Internet Explorer. This is the malware being added to the MSRT:
One of the updates addresses a vulnerability report that was released by third parties several days ago. Another addresses a vulnerability disclosed long ago.
The eight critical updates include:
* MS10-049: Vulnerabilities in SChannel could allow Remote Code Execution—Two vulnerabilities are fixed in this update, one of them rather old and famous. CVE-2009-3555, the TLS/SSL Renegotiation Vulnerability was first disclosed late last year. This is a spoofing attack which could allow an attacker to insert traffic into a TLS session. The other bug is in SChannel, in the client validation of certificate requests. On Windows XP and Server 2003 a malicious web site could cause remote code execution in the client.
* MS10-051: Vulnerability in Microsoft XML Core Services Could Allow Remote Code Execution— Version 3.0 of Microsoft XML Core Services 3.0 (the current version is 6.0) is vulnerable to a memory corruption error which could lead to remote code execution on all versions of Windows, but is only rated Critical on client versions.
* MS10-052: Vulnerability in Microsoft MPEG Layer-3 Codecs Could Allow Remote Code Execution—The DirectShow MP3 filter on Windows XP and Server 2003 could allow remote code execution through a malicious audio file.
* MS10-053: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer—6 vulnerabilities are fixed in this update to IE. All versions on all platforms have at least one critical vulnerability fixed in this update.
* MS10-054: Vulnerabilities in SMB Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution—This update fixes 3 vulnerability, the first of which (CVE-2010-2550) is much more severe and interesting than the others, which only allow denial of service. CVE-2010-2550 allows remote code execution through unauthenticated network attack on Windows XP, Server 2003, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. On Vista and Windows Server 2008 it only allows elevation of privilege. Firewalls would normally block SMB packets, certainly unsolicited ones, from the outside, but an infected system inside the network might be able to attack peers. In Vista and Windows 7, if the network profile is set to "Public" the system is not affected. Microsoft does state that only inconsistent exploit code is likely, and that "Exploitation is more likely to result in a denial of service rather than code execution."
* MS10-055: Vulnerability in Cinepak Codec Could Allow Remote Code Execution—The Cinepak codec on client versions of Windows has a remote code execution vulnerability in the decompression of some files.
* MS10-056: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution—4 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word affect all versions, including viewers, except for Office 2010. Strangely, only Word 2007 is rated Critical.
* MS10-060: Vulnerabilities in the Microsoft .NET Common Language Runtime and in Microsoft Silverlight Could Allow Remote Code Execution—Vulnerabilities in Silverlight have been rare. This update includes one which affects some versions of Silverlight and another which affects both Silverlight and some versions of.NET..
6 of the updates have a maximum rating of Important:
* MS10-047: Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege—Three vulnerabilities could result in a denial of service on the most recent versions of Windows or an elevation of privilege on most earlier ones.
* MS10-048: Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Elevation of Privilege—4 Privilege elevation vulnerabilities and one DOS in Win32K affect all versions of Windows. This appears to cover the same vulnerability disclosed a few days ago.
* MS10-050: Vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker Could Allow Remote Code Execution—Windows Movie Maker in Windows XP and Windows Vista is vulnerable to a remote code execution bug through specially-crafted project files. Windows Live Movie Maker is unaffected.
* MS10-057: Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution—Several versions of Excel, including XP, 2003, Mac 2004, 2008, and the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac are vulnerable to a memory corruption vulnerability with remote code execution through specially-crafted Excel files. Works 9, Excel 2007 and more recent products are not affected.
* MS10-058: Vulnerabilities in TCP/IP Could Allow Elevation of Privilege—Two elevation of privilege bugs affect Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and R2.
* MS10-059: Vulnerabilities in the Tracing Feature for Services Could Allow Elevation of Privilege—Two elevation of privilege bugs affect Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and R2. For reasons undisclosed, one is rated more severe than the other.
Several of the usual non-security fixes were also released, including the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, Junk Mail Filter for Windows Mail and Compatibility List View for Internet Explorer. This is the malware being added to the MSRT:
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Microsoft Offers Free NGO Licenses Amidst Russian Raids
Microsoft on Monday said it would fundamentally alter the way it provides software licenses to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) after a newspaper article accused Russian authorities of raiding the offices of anti-government organizations under the auspices of Microsoft piracy crackdowns.
Microsoft pledged to create a new, unilateral software license for NGOs that will ensure they all have free, legal copies of the company's products.
"We must accept responsibility and assume accountability for our anti-piracy work, including the good and the bad," Brad Smith, senior vice president and Microsoft general counsel, wrote in a blog post.
Smith's post came after The New York Times published an article on Sunday that said Russian authorities were raiding the offices of organizations participating in anti-government activity. Baikal Environmental Wave, for example, was organizing protests against government plans to re-open a paper factory that had polluted a nearby lake. Police officers recently stormed the group's office and seized their computers, but said they were there to search for pirated Microsoft software.
The Times said Microsoft backed the police activity in an effort to crack down on piracy.
"Whatever the circumstances of the particular cases The New York Times described, we want to be clear that we unequivocally abhor any attempt to leverage intellectual property rights to stifle political advocacy or pursue improper personal gain," Smith wrote Monday. "We are moving swiftly to seek to remove any incentive or ability to engage in such behavior."
Microsoft was already examining this issue with the help of human rights advocates, Smith said, but is now accelerating those efforts in light of the Times article. Microsoft plans to retain an international law firm that has not been involved in the company's anti-piracy work to conduct an investigation and advise Microsoft on the steps it should take, according to Smith.
That investigation will take some time, however, so effectively immediately, Microsoft will create this new unilateral software license for NGOs, he said.
For years, Microsoft has donated software to NGOs, which they can use free of charge. Each NGO is entitled to six Microsoft software titles for use on up to 50 PCs, and they can obtain 300 new licenses every other year. Many NGOs, however, are unaware of the program or that donated software can be ordered through a Microsoft re-seller, Smith wrote.
"We'll make this new, non-transferable license applicable to NGOs in a number of countries, including in Russia," Smith said. "We will also make it available to appropriate journalists' organizations in order to include small newspapers and independent media. Because it's automatic, they won't need to take any steps to benefit from its terms."
These NGO licenses will be valid until 2012, by which time Microsoft hopes that participants will be made aware of its standard program and move over to that.
"Now our information will fully exonerate any qualifying NGO, by showing that it has a valid license to our software," Smith said.
To help NGOs through a potential legal minefield, Microsoft also said it will create a new NGO Legal Assistance Program, which will help NGOs present their case to authorities. Microsoft also said it will make its new policies available to the relevant Russian authorities, and make Microsoft contact information available to NGOs.
The company also pledged to crack down on people pretending to be Microsoft officials in order to extort money from those running illegal software. This includes a Web-based list of Microsoft's authorized counsel, which people can check against those claiming to be Microsoft staff.
"We aim to reduce the piracy and counterfeiting of software … [b]ut none of this should create a pretext for the inappropriate pursuit of NGOs, newspapers, or other participants in civil society," Smith concluded. "And we certainly don't want to contribute to any such effort, even inadvertently."
Microsoft pledged to create a new, unilateral software license for NGOs that will ensure they all have free, legal copies of the company's products.
"We must accept responsibility and assume accountability for our anti-piracy work, including the good and the bad," Brad Smith, senior vice president and Microsoft general counsel, wrote in a blog post.
Smith's post came after The New York Times published an article on Sunday that said Russian authorities were raiding the offices of organizations participating in anti-government activity. Baikal Environmental Wave, for example, was organizing protests against government plans to re-open a paper factory that had polluted a nearby lake. Police officers recently stormed the group's office and seized their computers, but said they were there to search for pirated Microsoft software.
The Times said Microsoft backed the police activity in an effort to crack down on piracy.
"Whatever the circumstances of the particular cases The New York Times described, we want to be clear that we unequivocally abhor any attempt to leverage intellectual property rights to stifle political advocacy or pursue improper personal gain," Smith wrote Monday. "We are moving swiftly to seek to remove any incentive or ability to engage in such behavior."
Microsoft was already examining this issue with the help of human rights advocates, Smith said, but is now accelerating those efforts in light of the Times article. Microsoft plans to retain an international law firm that has not been involved in the company's anti-piracy work to conduct an investigation and advise Microsoft on the steps it should take, according to Smith.
That investigation will take some time, however, so effectively immediately, Microsoft will create this new unilateral software license for NGOs, he said.
For years, Microsoft has donated software to NGOs, which they can use free of charge. Each NGO is entitled to six Microsoft software titles for use on up to 50 PCs, and they can obtain 300 new licenses every other year. Many NGOs, however, are unaware of the program or that donated software can be ordered through a Microsoft re-seller, Smith wrote.
"We'll make this new, non-transferable license applicable to NGOs in a number of countries, including in Russia," Smith said. "We will also make it available to appropriate journalists' organizations in order to include small newspapers and independent media. Because it's automatic, they won't need to take any steps to benefit from its terms."
These NGO licenses will be valid until 2012, by which time Microsoft hopes that participants will be made aware of its standard program and move over to that.
"Now our information will fully exonerate any qualifying NGO, by showing that it has a valid license to our software," Smith said.
To help NGOs through a potential legal minefield, Microsoft also said it will create a new NGO Legal Assistance Program, which will help NGOs present their case to authorities. Microsoft also said it will make its new policies available to the relevant Russian authorities, and make Microsoft contact information available to NGOs.
The company also pledged to crack down on people pretending to be Microsoft officials in order to extort money from those running illegal software. This includes a Web-based list of Microsoft's authorized counsel, which people can check against those claiming to be Microsoft staff.
"We aim to reduce the piracy and counterfeiting of software … [b]ut none of this should create a pretext for the inappropriate pursuit of NGOs, newspapers, or other participants in civil society," Smith concluded. "And we certainly don't want to contribute to any such effort, even inadvertently."
Saturday, January 22, 2011
SXSW: Digg.com Teases Ambitious New Version
AUSTIN, Texas - Digg.com's annual "shindiggs" have become something of an institution at SXSW Interactive here, but this year, Digg CEO Jay Adelson tried to slip a genuine product announcement into the evening's festivities.
Adelson took the stage at Stubbs BBQ and announced Digg's bold new vision for the future in front of hundreds of attendees. The details were hard to make out over the crowd noise, but it seems like Digg is going to deliver more personal feeds, allow every key term to be a Digg category, and let users vote up stories without directly logging into the service.
Adelson said the new Digg is "five years in the making" and the project certainly seems ambitious enough. This new model could allow Digg to rate millions of articles every day, creating a a traffic-shaping tool similar to Google's vaunted Page Rank, but determined by users instead of an algorithm. At the same time, Digg is going broad. Adelson also said Digg would be reinstating the leader-board for top users.
Adelson didn't say when the new site would be live, but if you go to new.digg.com, you can sign up for the alpha.
Adelson took the stage at Stubbs BBQ and announced Digg's bold new vision for the future in front of hundreds of attendees. The details were hard to make out over the crowd noise, but it seems like Digg is going to deliver more personal feeds, allow every key term to be a Digg category, and let users vote up stories without directly logging into the service.
Adelson said the new Digg is "five years in the making" and the project certainly seems ambitious enough. This new model could allow Digg to rate millions of articles every day, creating a a traffic-shaping tool similar to Google's vaunted Page Rank, but determined by users instead of an algorithm. At the same time, Digg is going broad. Adelson also said Digg would be reinstating the leader-board for top users.
Adelson didn't say when the new site would be live, but if you go to new.digg.com, you can sign up for the alpha.
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