http://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/05/25/tests-find-vistas-uac-nails-rootkits

Of 30 rootkits thrown at XP anti-malware scanners, none of the seven AV suites found all 30, a similar story to the six web-based scanners assessed. Only four of the 14 specialized anti-rootkit tools managed a perfect score. For Vista, only six rootkits could run on the OS, but the testers had to turn off UAC to get even this far. Vista's UAC itself spotted everything thrown in front of it.

In a period of where Vista has received criticism, Microsoft's programmers can at least point to evidence that UAC is efficient at stopping infections from happening automatically.

Are you running Vista with UAC turned off - well turn it back on :-)

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http://search.live.com/cashback

I'm a big fan of Ebates (www.ebates.com) for getting cash back offers for online purchases (received the big fat check a couple of days ago). Now a new player is in the field, Live Search - Cashback. On the first glance it seems the cash back percentage is more. Signed up right away :-)

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“We don’t add stuff on, we build it in” – Take that apple :-)

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Awesome :-) Go ISRO!

http://www.hindustantimes.com/AudioVideo/AudioVideoPage.aspx?ID=c790b3b3-d99d-4fc7-b456-c9e019e1f917

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Came to know from http://www.vasanth.in/2008/03/21/LiveTrafficInformationForIndianCities.aspx

Real time traffic for Chennai and also other major cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi. Don't know how accurate is the data, but nevertheless it is a cool start :-)

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see if you can pass

good one :-)

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Foldable "transformerish" flash-light + submachine gun! Looks cool on one side, but on the other it is scary to think how easy it is to smuggle them in your back pack to secured areas :-o

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http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/default.mspx

My initial impressions...comparing side by side with IE7

• Opening an instance of IE8 is much faster than IE7 :-)
• Rendering of pages is faster, feels much better :-)
• Some sites does not render properly, but thanks to the IE7 emulate mode, but no thanks because to switch to IE7 mode, need to close all browser instances :-(
• Get to see the smiley on the ACID 2 test page :-)
• Couldn't get the web slice thing working for facebook :-(

It feels good for beta 1, hope it gets much better!

Update: Got the facebook webslice working by following the tip here - Activities and WebSlices in Internet Explorer 8

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Nice job!

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We sure know how to laugh at ourselves :-)

 
Life At Microsoft - The Truth Revealed

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A funny video about what would Bill Gates do on his last day at work. Sure Bill can laugh at himself :-)

[as shown on CES 2008 keynote - 12th and final one for Bill Gates]

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Boy dies in India school shooting

A schoolboy has been shot dead by a fellow student at a school in India's Madhya Pradesh state, police say...

He used his father's locally made crude gun in the assault, police said...

What's the reason for these? Too much introduction to violence?

[source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7171014.stm]

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What do I do when I have some time to kill and I've access to a computer?

I play Word Shoot: Spell Fast or Die!

Very addictive game, set it to hard and try to stay alive :-) Good exercise to increase your typing speed.

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Why?

Man texting while driving when he hit Taunton teen with SUV, prosecutor says - this is why!

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I've been a windows mobile user for about 3 years now and been always eager to learn new tricks. I found a neat article by Mike Calligaro over at the Windows Mobile Team blog which explains very useful tips. I'm a Windows Mobile Standard fan and the following helps interacting with the phone a lot...

Easy access to numbers.   In both T9 and ABC mode, you can usually get a number by pressing and holding the button.  For instance, the 2 button can be a, b, c, or 2.  Press it once and you'll get a letter.  Press and hold it and you'll get the number.  This is a lot faster than switching to 123 mode if you just need to type a few numbers.

Lock the keypad.  On smartphones that have a separate power button, pressing and holding the End key (the red button) locks the keypad.  Some smartphones don't have a separate power button.  On them, the press and hold of the End key is usually power off.  In that case, there's often some other key that you can press and hold for lock.

Quicklist.  On smartphones that have a separate power button, pressing the power button quickly (not press and hold) brings up the "quicklist."  The quicklist lets you do things like toggle flight mode and set profiles.  Press and hold the power button shuts the phone off.  On devices without a separate power button, one of the other keys will bring up the quicklist (often press and hold Home).

Getting symbols.  If you're typing in T9 or ABC mode, there are two ways to type things like period, comma, etc.  You can get a table of them by pressing and holding the # key.  Or you can get to many of the more common ones with the 1 key. 

Speed dial apps.  You can assign phone numbers to speed dial keys.  Go into the contact, select the phone number you want to put on a speed dial, and then choose Menu->Add To Speed Dial.  But you can also assign applications to speed dial keys.  From the home screen, hit Start, select the application you want, and then choose Menu->Add To Speed Dial.  Once you have a number or application on speed dial, you can go to the home screen and press and hold that number to call or run it.  For instance, if you assigned my ToggleBTh button to speed dial slot 2, you can turn Bluetooth on and off by just pressing and holding 2 from the home screen.

Speed dial voicemail.  On most phones, speed dial slot 1 is voicemail.  So you can dial your voicemail by going to the home screen and pressing and holding 1.

the first two (Easy access to numbers and Lock the keypad) are very useful and important to me as "I can't live without them" important. There are some Windows Mobile Professional (Pocket PC, touch screen) device tips in the article. Especially "What happened to my backlight" and "Make the SIP stop coming up" will be helpful. The article also lists important tips common to both standard and professional versions...

Put the call on hold.  While in a call, press Send (the green button).  That will put the call on hold.  Do it again to start the call back up.

Switch to/from speakerphone.  While in a call, press and hold Send (the green button) to switch to speakerphone.  Press and hold it again to switch back.

Oh and before I finish do you know there are a bunch shortcuts in Outlook mobile, next time when you're looking at your Outlook mobile try press and hold the '0' key :-)

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[source: http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2006/03/27/562162.aspx]

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

Cool video of head tracking software using the Wii remote and sensor bars. I think this technology can greatly increase the virtual world feeling in a FPS game :-)

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http://ambilight.msn.com/movies/default.aspx?section=moviesHD&wa=wsignin1.0

I always wondered how the Philips Ambilight aids to watching a movie. If you're unsure hit the link above and experience it right inside your browser. At first it was odd as my concentration is drawn towards the changing lights on the sides, but after sometime it seems quite good. I think it's time to go and see one in real ;-)

Another cool info is that the site is in developed using Silverlight :-)

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http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/12/nbc-officially-announces-knight-rider-new-k-i-t-t-unveiled/

Yes, the NBC announced officially that Knight Rider will be aired as a two-hour movie on February 17th! The most important question is also answered, Ford Mustang GT500KR is taking the role of KIIT

I remember seeing this series re-run when I was a kid back in those school days, looking forward to the new show.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09left-handturn.html

From the above link...

Last year, according to Heather Robinson, a U.P.S. spokeswoman, the software helped the company shave 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, which has resulted in savings of roughly three million gallons of gas and has reduced CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons.

Wow...that's pretty huge savings!

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