Windows Locked files in Jetty Maven Plugin

If you are developing Java webapps using maven on Windows and using jetty:run to deploy, you have surely come across the problem when you cannot save html, js or vm files. JSPs work fine because they are compiled and deployed. Its surely irritating when that happens.

Jetty has documentation to explain the problem. Many web searches will point to this document. The problem is basically with the NIO connector that jetty uses. Others have suggested that using the old BIO connector is easy way to solve this. The problem is that the Jetty documentation solution requires using a hardcoded location for the new webdefaults.xml. We don’t want to make changes to the source of our project, just because we are on Windows.

My suggested solution is to just edit the maven jetty plugin to not use the FileMappedBuffer. Edit the webdefault.xml that is found in the jar file and that’s all. Browse to your maven repo location. e.g. for 6.1.26 of the plugin go here – USERHOME\.m2\repository\org\mortbay\jetty\jetty\6.1.26\jetty-6.1.26.jar . Open the jar file and find the file at org/mortbay/jetty/webapp/webdefault.xml , and edit the file:

<init-param>
  <param-name>useFileMappedBuffer</param-name>
  <param-value>false</param-value> <!—change from true to false -->
</init-param>

Save the file and replace the jar with this file. Now whenever you run jetty:run, it will use this file and you will not find windows locking the files when jetty deploys it

0-day already out to exploit yesterday’s IE bugs

If it wasn’t already known to Microsoft, I can confirm first hand that today I downloaded and played with available 0-day to exploit Internet Explorer bugs in the wild. Microsoft has just released the patches to fix these exploits, but I was surprised to see that the exploits are available free for the world to use.

The exploits basically allows remote code execution from a website once visited through Internet Explorer. Once such a malicious page is visited, the hacker is able to take control of the machine and perform administrative operations, including but not limited to adding backdoors, steal information or make hacked computers act as bot to mass attack servers.

I will not disclose where the code is available to play with, but it is surely a warning for all Windows users to update their installation with the patches released yesterday. It is not just about your information, but your computers could be used to launch other attacks,

Details of the patches can be found here and here. Microsoft releases security patches on Tuesdays, but critical patches should be released asap!!

Microsoft coming back to ARM

ARM, the processor manufacturer that powers 90% of the mobile phones, digital media and music players, hand-held game consoles, calculators and computer peripherals such as hard drives and routers is a super-power these days and Microsoft realizes this more than ever. That’s the reason why there is talk that Microsoft is going back to release a OS for the ARM processors.

Back in the old days of Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft has a release of Windows that ran on the ARM architecture, but due to pressure from Intel and the growing market of IBM-compatible PCs Microsoft stopped release OS running on ARM. Thus, Microsoft only released Windows for x86 architecture (…and sometimes for Itanium). Microsoft has had WindowsCE running on ARM, but it is not the Windows that is popularized. The latest buzz means that Windows 8, the next version of Windows will be able to run on ARM processors

The reason why this news is interesting is because Windows Mobile 7 was just released and is a different architecture than the desktop Windows. If this means anything, then it shows Microsoft’s idea that a common platform can be moved across different sizes of devices, similar to what Apple has been doing with the iPhoneOS, iPadOS, iPod Touch and OSX. The idea is that the OS can be stripped off services and run on smaller devices. Today as more and more devices became part of our lives, we want to have similar experiences on all these devices… probably through different interfaces, but want the way data is looked at through a common way. Especially as developers, it is frustrating that the same applications cannot be ported easily across processors and platforms. The web is definitely the future of data, but rich client applications are important for the experience and the browser is still not everything that the devices/PCs can do.

Hoping that we can move towards converging platforms… especially easy ways to port client applications across platforms

Installing Windows 7 from USB

I wouldn’t believe it is so simple… Just download the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool from Microsoft. Have the Windows 7 ISO file on your computer and a USB Pen drive with more than 3.5GB.

The tool will format the USB stick and then just cope over all the required files from the iso. Then you insert the USB stick, boot from it and go through the installation screens… Installs in 30min and you are done!! Didn’t expect it to be this smooth…

Windows Vista SP2 to be Delayed by a Month

As everyone including Ubuntu’s king Mark Shuttleworth are eagerly waiting for Windows 7,   comes news that Microsoft has delayed the released of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista by a month. Microsoft now states that Vista SP2 will be available only in the second-half of 2009.

Microsoft was supposed to deliver its first release candidate to beta testers in February, but now has plans to release it in March. This Release Candidate (RC) is now being referred to as “escrow build” (also means frozen and only bug fixes will be done). Showstopper bugs are supposed to be only fixed and regression is to be avoided. Microsoft has in the past indicated that SP2 is very much an optional install to the OEMs and it wants OEMs to instead move to Windows 7 directly, when its released.

Windows 7 is running pretty much on schedule and we expect it release by early next-year. The RTM for Windows 7 may be out from the Microsoft stable even by the end of this year.

By the way for those wondering what changes SP2 will be bringing to Windows Vista, following are some of the known changes in SP2:

• Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved search
• Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack, the latest Bluetooth spec
• Blu-Ray support to write discs directly for explorer
• Windows Connect Now (WCN) for simpler WiFi configuration
• Content Protection in Windows Media Center

Also on the blocks with Vista SP2 is Windows Server 2008 SP2 which was released with the label SP1. Hoping to see another Windows 7 beta before the Vista SP2 then!!??

Microsoft to bring IE8 through automatic updates

Microsoft will be bringing some respite to web developers, but some anger and controversy from Google, Apple and Mozilla Foundation by releasing Internet   Explorer 8 through automatic updates.  IE8 has been under development for quite sometime now and Microsoft have released some betas which have shown promising behavior towards web standards.

The reason why I say some respite to web developers because IE8 has been showing healthy improvement in web standards compliance compared to earlier version of IE. Automatic updates allows Microsoft to put important and critical updates to PCs, if users have opted to turn them on. This would mean that lots of Windows computers will be updated to IE8 and web developers will be able to avoid some of the quirks that were until now required for Internet Explorer.

But just like Google, Apple and Mozilla were angry during the previous automatic update of Internet Explorer 7, this time also there will be some noise from these companies. Google now has Chrome in the market and will be more fiercely revolting to this update from Microsoft. But with all the other browsers claiming to be so much better than Internet explorer, they still hold less than 30% of the browser market. Thus, if we look at the reality of the internet, developers still have to majorly develop web applications for Internet Explorer and any improvement in Internet Explorer is surely great news for everyone.

Blog About Windows Vista to Win Vista

Do you have a blog that primarily focuses on Windows Vista?? Do you write tips and tricks to improve Vista?? Do you love Vista and talk about its feature and usefulness on your blog?? Then here is an opportunity for you to win some prizes for your blog. WinVistaClub.com, in association with Windows Vista Magazine, is organizing a contest to recognize some of the best Windows Vista Blogs and Websites.

The Winner of the WinVistaClub Best Windows Vista Blog Contest 2008 will also get a Windows Vista Ultimate 32/64 bit DVD Box Pack, a Free 1 year license of ESET Smart Security Suite, a License of Magic Utilities, a License of MagicTweak, a one year subscription to the Windows Vista Magazine and a link for 3 months on the WinVistaClub HomePage.

You can find all the information about the contest here. I really haven’t come across many places on the blogosphere where people have talked good about Windows Vista. Obviously there are blogs that mention some tips and others from Vista developers who talk about new features and improvements, but there aren’t many good blogs that continuously blog about Vista. With all the rant about Vista over the interweb, that contest must be an interesting little idea to promote Vista.

DirectX 11 Coming This Month

Whatever ATI thought as an advantage, when shipping DirectX 10.1 in 48xx generation of graphic cards will be short-lived. Microsoft will be announcing DirectX 11 in about 2 weeks at Gamefest 2008. The Gamefest conference will be held on 22nd-23rd of July, 2008 in Seattle where Microsoft plans to officially launch DirectX 11.

DirectX 11 has lots of new features and is a much more important update to DirectX than 10.1. NVidia has announced that it will skip DirectX 10.1 and will directly ship its next generation with DirectX 11 support. DirectX 11 brings Shader Model 5.0 (SM5), which has been closely developed with GPU manufacturers. NVidia has been having the SM5 profile in the Nvidia SDK for sometime now, but didn’t have any new functionality. Probably the Microsoft announcement is what Nvidia has been waiting for. Also another eagerly awaited feature in DirectX 11 is Tessellation/Displacement, which means that converting displacement map to object mesh is lot more faster and less intensive. There are also hopes that something for general purpose GPU computing (GPGPU) may be added in the DirectX11 API, but nothing is yet known. Multithreading Rendering and Compute Shaders are definitely there in the DirectX 11 API.

DirectX11 should also be a major programming step for game developers because DirectX 11 will be the base for the next-generation XBox console that Microsoft promised to release sometime next year. A lot research has been put into DirectX 11 and next-gen XBox already, and we can expect some release date for Microsoft’s next-gen console during Gamefest 2008.

Windows Beats Linux/OSX at Handwriting

Lately I’ve been trying to code an application which requires some form of natural handwriting recognition. Natural Handwriting is basically the way you write on your Tablet/Pocket PC/Palm/Mobile, either using a stylus on your touch-screen or on the desktop using mouse. And after looking at different options available for handwriting recognition, Windows beats every other operating system including Linux and Mac OSX hands down!!

For the last month or so I’ve tried every possible handwriting recognition software and API out there. Paid, free and open-source API or Programs for Windows, Linux and OSX. Out of all the ones I tried, only one seemed to be perfectly working and easy to develop upon and its from Microsoft. Microsoft has this ultra-amazing API called InkAnalysis, but obviously and sadly for me, works only on Windows. And sad because the application for which I’m developing this handwriting recognition module is a popular open-source kids software and mainly targeted towards Linux distros.

InkAnalysis is a powerful API that performs 2 complementary activities of handwriting recognition and layout classification. InkAnalysis API has very good Interfaces for detecting the layout of any  given document and based on the understanding of the layout it performs handwriting recognition. Even without training it amazingly detects a wide variety of handwriting that even I had a hard time reading as a professor when checking my students’ answer sheets. The API was earlier only available as part of the Windows Vista SDK, but Microsoft has also released the API through the Tablet PC Platform SDK. This means applications that use InkAnalysis API can be run on not only Windows Vista but also Windows XP SP2, SP3 and the future... And the best showcase of the accuracy and strength of the API is through the built-in Windows Vista app called Tablet PC Input (check below screenshot)

 

During the trials of all the different APIs and programs, I had high expectations of finding something from Apple that “just works”. With the iPhone they seemed to me like the “touch” geniuses and handwriting would definitely be in touch category. But alas! OSX InkWell isn’t good enough. It makes too many mistakes and correcting them doesn’t work very well. Training or no training it had hard time recognizing natural cursive handwriting. Even the API was pretty complex to use and the didn’t have enough explanation.

Finally I came back to where I started... Looking for a API that would work with Linux, preferably was open-source licensed. I tried a few and none were close to useable. HRE from Sun was archiac and complex, Tomoe is for Japanese and Chinese script only, LipiTK from HP Labs doesn’t work like advertised and support won’t reply back to emails. Google’s revived Tesseract is only a OCR-engine, good for typed text and not handwriting. OCRopus is also work-in-progress and not working at the moment. With all my hopes down on the project, I finally reached CellWriter. CellWriter seems to be a good working handwriting recognition, but doesn’t work as modestly as InkWell or perfectly as InkAnalysis. CellWriter uses a cell-based, single-character recognizer. It requires training without which it can’t understand much, but once trained is pretty accurate at character recognition. But I tried applying it to multiple cells and it doesn’t quite work. May be a good character recognizer, but not handwriting recognition.

I thus concluded Microsoft is way ahead of the competition on handwriting recognition. Handwritten input system is useful for a lot of people and developers from the open-source community have yet to realize this fact. After all the Vista rant is popular on the web, someone should have seen its good side!!

Vista UAC Better At Rootkits Than AV

Vista has been the favorite punchbag of the blogosphere, but I have to say that I think some of the features that are part of Vista are really interesting and useful. UAC is one of those useful features of Vista that's been brought in from the Unix world of superuser/sudo. PCWorld reports that Vista's UAC (User-Access Protection) does a better job at detecting rootkits than antivirus products. I do not completely agree with their comparison of UAC vs Antivirus products, but it does highlight a very important point.

Windows Vista's UAC shows a dialog box every time something important is being changed in the system. It tries to warn the user about some system settings are being changed. But like most other good things, it has a side-effect. Vista's UAC screen comes up on the screen too many times and feels like its a nag-screen. But in reality, after some initial days, the Vista UAC screen doesn't come up often and Vista learns what operations are allowed by the user as non-malicious. So, UAC is a good feature...right?? Yes, it is, but then patience is a virtue rarely found in computer users. Instead, most people I know turn off UAC as soon as its Vista is installed.

On the other hand antivirus products sit on the system and observe files and downloads. They compare the files with virus signatures that are downloaded regularly off the internet. Whenever some file or behavior matches to that of a virus signature, the antivirus product shows a red flag! But rootkits are a lot more difficult to inspect, especially after your system has been infected with one. PCWorld reports:

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.  The results for Vista products were harder to assess because 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.Only three of the 17 AV tools for Vista managed to both detect and successfully remove them, F-Secure Anti-Virus 2008, Panda Security Antivirus 2008, and Norton Antivirus 2008.

Rootkits look so similar to Operating System files, that most antivirus can't accurately detect them and its even harder to remove them considering that some incorrect detection may make the system instable. Rootkits are also not specifically only a threat to Windows, but are across every major operating system. Although with UAC, Vista gets the same ideology of protection that Linux or other UNIXs get. The only major problem with it is that the user has to be vigilent enough to realize the rootkit is being installed on the system and stop that operation from happening.

Thus, it is important to note that UAC does provide good security, but its upon the user to understand what is happening in the system. Another lesson is to realize that antiviruses cannot save you from everything. You have an intellect...use it!!

Microsoft's Seven Deadly Sins in Windows

I've seen a lot of Deadly Sins post from around the blogosphere and I've also seen the rants on Windows Vista. Both the stories somehow clicked and formed a connection in my head. There are a lot of other software/company that commits the sins, but we already have the eternal bash toy called Windows/Microsoft. So I take my cue at Windows and convey my anger on the BSOD, I just saw on my desktop!!

Introduction

For those who don't know much about "sin", its an act/feeling which is understood to degrade the human soul and distances oneself for serenity. Every culture/religion has a few norms and refer to these sins slightly differently. Thus, every developer/user may realize my views either as sin or as virtue. The following sins do not follow any specific order:

Lust (Latin: Luxuria; Hindu: Kaam)

Lust is when we work a lot to improve superficiality of software and that's good enough to lure a lot of people. Irrespective of how much hardware that lust requires, we are drawn towards good looks. Microsoft did just that and Windows Vista had DirectX 9 hardware as a requirement to view Aero. It got a lot of criticism for increased hardware requirement and more usage of RAM. In fact, Microsoft has to fight "Windows Vista Capable" and "Windows Vista Premium Ready" at the courts and even within its own walls!! All due to lust!!

Envy (Latin: Invadia; Hindu: Matsar ==> Jealousy)

If you know how Microsoft came up with the GUI, then probably you'll know something about it being related to Apple. When Bill Gates and friends, they saw the Mac's GUI, they got envious and jealous that the Mac looked better than Windows. It had better usability, better window management, better shortcuts... It was so good, MS copied and even named the damn things Windows 2.0... Windows 1.0 sucked at doing windowing and Microsoft only learned the game, when they really worked out their own ideas in Windows 3.0. They gave away the envy and got back to work!!

Wrath (Latin: Ira Hindu: Krodh)

Microsoft got very angry when it saw another company taking over the web. The other company was called Netscape and its browser was becoming more popular than Internet Explorer (IE). Netscape regularly criticized IE for its issues and Microsoft couldn't bear that it was being bullied by the underdog. Microsoft showered its wrath on the browsers, and bundled IE with Windows 95 OSR. The browser got stuck so much with Windows that Microsoft had a few legal lawsuits and Netscape dies with time. Even if someone thinks Microsoft wasn't to be blamed for Netscape's death, a sticker of a monopolist got stuck on Microsoft only because it got angry in the browsers war!! Now its always at a risk of trying to bundle something into the system

Greed (Latin: Avaritia Hindu: Lobh)

Microsoft could have easily sold Windows 2000 with some simple basic changes for home users. But it got greedy and continued to milk the 9x core. And they released something known as Windows Me. It was called by many other ugly names, but probably you can associated many other cardinal sins to this release.Primary it was a marketing reason why this version of Windows was released and its been a black spot in Microsoft's reputation forever. Greed never pays off!!

Sloth (Latin: Acedia Hindu: Moh ==> Attachment)

Microsoft's sloth with Windows XP was so much that it believed it has done the best it could and didn't want to do anymore than what is required. Thus, Microsoft was completely lost about what to do in next release. Even if they thought, they were thinking too many things. Even sending someone to the moon would have been cheaper than building Windows Vista that came after 5 yrs of XP. Sloth brought the downfall and people are so much attached to XP that Vista doesn't mean much to consumers.

Pride (Latin: Superbia)

With Windows XP's success of selling lots of copies quickly, Microsoft got proud of its success. Celebrating for too long and basking in the proud glory of Windows XP proved costly to the development of Vista.

Gluttony (Latin: gula)

Microsoft is currently working on Windows Seven (also Windows 7 or se7en). Gluttony is one sin I believe Microsoft could be doing with this version. Gluttony is the act of over-indulgence. Microsoft already released too many versions of Windows Vista. Windows 7 could just show the gluttony with Microsoft releasing even more versions. The "componentized" architecture could just be for selling different components of the OS at different prices. Although Microsoft promises Windows 7 to be leaner and consume less resources, it could very well be the basic version. Microsoft could be gluttonous by selling different versions at different times as well... Still there is time before Windows 7 will have a feature freeze and then we will really come to know what's inside Windows 7.

Conclusion

With this post I wanted to highlight some of the mistakes Microsoft has made with earlier versions of Windows. Hopefully none of these cardinal sins are repeated in Windows 7 or else the other alternative OS are really catching up and Windows may not have enough time to get back!!

I believe that its stupid to fanatically claim something to be the truth... So I may have completely misunderstood these sins or versions of Windows. But I just now remembered that the opposite of sin is faith, not virtue!!

Bill Gates Creates Hype For Windows 7

Not that I'm against Windows or Bill Gates, but then the recent speech from Bill Gates really feels more like marketing than anything else. Bill Gates has been recently traveling to different countries around the world, and is trying to make governments to use Windows. Bill Gates has also been offering software as a medium for change in society to developing countries for free.

At the Windows Digital Lifestyle Consortium in Tokyo last week, Gates talked a few times about Windows 7. Gates said that Microsoft will be shipping Windows 7 sometime in 2010 and highlighted the fact that it will use less power and have lesser memory requirement. Now both these claims are not very believable looking at Microsoft's track record. Vista really blew it off with the system requirements and we all know how much minimum RAM and graphics are required for the promised Windows Vista.

Windows 7 is supposed to be based on Windows Vista and the current builds of Windows 7 don't seem to be much different than Windows Vista. How Microsoft plans to make Windows 7 more energy efficient wasn't mentioned by Gates. He also promised that Microsoft will be shipping a new version of Windows every 3 years. Wasn't it Bill Gates who said IE would ship every 9-12 months... IE8 hasn't been released, even though IE7 was released way back in Nov 2006.

So, it seems Bill Gates is on a marketing spree for Windows these days. Philanthropy is something the guy's really good at, marketing should be left to someone else...

Download Windows XP SP3 Next Week

Actually you can download XP SP3 today with some leaks online. Searching on a Bittorrent site, will show that Windows XP SP3 5503 is available for download  and this is the build which seems to be the RTM for Service Pack 3 for XP.

After Vista SP1's release, all the people who don't want to leave XP were eagerly waiting for XP SP3. There were a few RC (Release Candidate) released before this one and hence everyone was anticipating a final release (RTM) sometime soon. Microsoft hasn't confirmed that the SP3 build 5503 is the RTM one and maintains the fact that it will be released in the first half of 2008.

And yes, it is the first half of 2008. Just like Vista SP1, this version could well be the RTM. During Vista SP1, Microsoft had released a build about 2 weeks old and given it to a lot of people. After testing when this build (specifically 1840 for Vista), it seemed to be stable enough and Microsoft called this the RTM build. Same could be the thing for XP SP3 and 5503 can be the RTM build, but don't take my word for it... Try it yourself and check back when the actual RTM is out!!

List of Programs That Don't Work With Vista SP1

Microsoft has done a lot of work with Vista SP1, so much so that a lot of security programs don't work properly with SP1 although they used to work with Vista RTM. Kernel changes and some networking tweaks are basically the reasons why these programs aren't working. The list may not be completely exhaustive, but Microsoft's Support Center lists these programs.

Programs that are blocked from starting after you install Windows Vista SP1

• BitDefender AV or Internet Security 10
• Fujitsu Shock Sensor 2.1.0.0
• Jiangmin KV Antivirus 2008 or v10
• Zone Alarm Security Suite 7.1.078

Programs that do not run after you install Windows Vista SP1

• Iron Speed Designer 5.0.1
• Xheo Licensing 3.1
• Free Allegiance 2.1

Programs that have a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1

• NYT Reader v1
• Rising Personal Firewall 2007
• Novell ZCM Agent 10.01

There may be other programs that Microsoft has not identified and still have problems with Vista SP1. A few programs may also not display the incompatibility dialogs, but may contain potential issues with Vista SP1. If you are using any of the above products and have problems then, Microsoft's list with explanation and solutions can be found here.

Sony Ericsson to Ship Windows Mobile

Sony Ericsson which has been touting the UIQ to be the future of mobile interfaces and has been shipping it with its phones, will now be shipping phones with Windows Mobile. Sony Ericsson yesterday announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that it will ship its first Windows Mobile based device,the XPERIA X1.

The XPERIA X1 is a feature-rich PDA/Smartphone with a touch-screen interface. It has a resolution of 800x480 which is amazing because its the same resolution which 7" display UMPCs like EEPC or HCL X showcase. It also weighs just 145g. There is 400MB memory and has data standards like GPRS, EDGE, HSPA and HSUPA. It has a 3.2megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, FM Radio, aGPS. Another useful feature is the QWERTY keyboard that can slide from the bottom of the phone.

Other than Windows Mobile, another difference that Sony Ericsson has done to this device is that it requires the MicroSD card for external memory unlike Sony's MS or M2 card. So with the XPERIA X1, Sony does want to change a lot of things. The iPhone has been very popular and successful in the PDA/Smartphone market and if you look at the demo video below, you'll see some excellent UI.

The press release from Sony Ericsson is here:

Windows Server 2008 WDK Released

Today, Microsoft released the RTM of the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) to developers and beta testers and is available for download on the Microsoft Connect website. The Windows Server 2008 RTM WDK is used to create drivers for Server 2008 as well as earlier operating systems like Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista. Microsoft advises everyone that this is the supported platform for the development and release of all production drivers.

WDK was earlier known as Windows Driver Development Kit (DDK). With the release of Windows Vista last year, Windows Driver Foundation (WDF), Installable File System Kit (IFS) were added and a separate Windows Logo Kit (WLK) was also created for signing the drivers.

A few highlights in this release are:

KMDF 1.7:

• A new wait/wake policy for parent drivers
• New samples
• New Tools

UMDF 1.7:

• Now supports Windows Server 2003 along with Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows XP
• New debugger extensions
• New and updated samples

WDF 1.7:

• WDF 1.7 is native on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1
• WDF 1.7 is completely backward compatible with WDF versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.5

WDTF:

• SDEL has been added to WDTF to make querying simpler and easier

SDV:

• SDV supports KMDF drivers in addition to WDM drivers and parallelization over rules. Now, rules will be verified in parallel.

PFD:

• PFD is enhanced with driver-specific annotations that make it an even more powerful tool.

DSF:

• USB Power Management and now more robust and stable

Docs:

• New look of the WDK documentation for Server 2008/Vista SP1
• new docs for Viridian and Kernel Transaction Manager
• Subset Filtering (allows you to search by technology subset such as Audio)
• Requirements Block information for all new topics
• Kernel Reference technical scrub and TOC restructuring

After I downloaded, the new documentation felt simpler for navigation and allows easier understanding of the process of creating drivers. This release will be useful for all the hardware vendors who will be creating the next version of the drivers using this RTM release. I'm currently trying to find some mention on creating friendlier drivers supporting virtualization for Microsoft's new Hyper-V, but its surely not in the bold-print and would be useful if someone can point it out to me!!

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RTM Leaked

As Microsoft is working on the latest update for Windows Vista, also known as Service Pack 1 or SP1, news has it that it has been leaked on to the internet. Vista SP1 is supposed to be released in Feb and it seems just the right time for Microsoft to label the latest builds as RTM or Release to Manufacturing.

Microsoft is just about to release it to the partners and may be someone from the developers was naughty to release it. Or may it was someone from the partners. Anyway, the leak is some kind of a standalone executable and has the build 6001.18000.080126-2040. Another leak has it as 080118_1840, but its a pretty early timestamp (18-01-2008) which suggests that its a fake. These builds are probably escrow and candidate for the final RTM.

Anyway if you want a quick peek, get your hands dirty!! But I would still recommend a little more patience so that you don't screw your machine just a few days before the official leak (...I mean release)

Apple Wants OSX Genuine Advantage

According to this patent filing, we can see that Apple wants something similar to Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) that is part of Windows. The patent was filed by Apple on Dec 13, 2007 and has the subject, "RUN-TIME CODE INJECTION TO PERFORM CHECKS". Apple wants to have code injection into any running application and make checks if the application is valid or not and if it has necessary rights to run on the specific hardware or software platform. Thus, this is a DRM thing that Apple wants to add to OSX.  

DRM or Digital Rights Management is one way to govern data/applications and has been "talk of the town" for media files and content. If memory serves me right, Steve Jobs was last seen complaining against DRM to audio companies, but somehow he thinks that adding DRM to the OS is a good thing. Yes, it can be used for good things, when users are given the rights to manage the applications or data. But looking at the abstract, "an authorizing entity (e.g., an application owner or platform manufacturer)", it doesn't seem like the owner of the computer has much of the rights.

Vista has special checks of DRM as part of WGA and Microsoft uses it to check the validity of Windows users. WGA hasn't been able to prove the genuineness of the applications running maliciously on Windows and is only a waste of CPU cycles. Also it checks for genuine copy of Windows, but has been flagging some legal copies as pirated copies for sometime now.

Apple may or may not bring those ill-effects by implementing DRM in a different way, but in its very nature DRM is a hindrance to freedom. May be some people will claim DRM to be the price for freedom, but in my humble opinion, its only a way in which powerful people can show their might. Let's hope Apple doesn't bring it to OSX anytime soon!!

Sell Your Privacy, Get Vista Free

Update: Microsoft has just put the lid on the program saying that the program is full... This makes me wonder how many people want Vista/Office!!... Or is it just saving the privacy scare??

Some wise man once said, "No pain...No Gain". How about the pain of losing your privacy and gaining a free copy of Windows Vista ?? Yes, your privacy is worth only $350 in the market according to Microsoft. That's what Kevin from notebookreviews says is the offer from Microsoft.

You can go to the link: http://wfp.microsoft.com and signup for the Windows Feedback Program:

You can use this website to sign up for one or both parts of the program, but note the following restrictions:

• Participation is currently limited to US residents of 18 years and older.
• You are the owner of the computer you use for this program.
• The automated feedback program is offered to Windows Vista and Windows XP customers only.
• The survey feedback program applies to all versions of Windows.
• Microsoft, comScore, and MarketTools employees are not eligible to participate.

 

The Windows Feedback Program will monitor the different things that you do and will report back to Microsoft about the stuff you do. In all goodness, Microsoft says that they will use your computer to monitor your behavior and that feedback will be useful to improve the software experience. Its kind-of spyware, but you agree to it before installing and get gifts for it in return. There will also be a periodic survey that you will be asked to do and the results of those will be used by I guess a few people in the market. comScore is going to be involved in this and we all know that they seem to do some user tracking and website data analysis for the paycheck.

You have to decide is your privacy worth selling... and if it is... is it worth of what, Microsoft's giving you??

In another story, theInq reports that Microsoft also filed 52 lawsuits in 22 countries against software companies who have sold pirated copies of Windows. Is there a relationship between the two ??

Vista SP1 RC1 Available For Download

The Release Candidate (RC1) for Windows Vista's Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been released to beta testers today. The build for the SP1 is 6001.17042 and can be downloaded from Connect. I found an email from Microsoft about the release and is available to download, after you click on the invitation link.

A lot of people have been waiting for Service Pack 1 (SP1) for the adoption of Vista. For a lot of people service pack 1 means a lot since they feel Vista is not very stable and feature-rich at the moment. I personally think Vista is pretty stable and Windows Update has been doing a pretty good job. Vista SP1 does not bring any major feature like SP2 did for XP. Instead, SP1 is more about the fixing the compatibility issues and improving performance.

According to Microsoft, it has been released to "15,000 pre-selected testers". But it's not yet known when they are going to release the public version of SP1. All signs were towards a Dec, 2007 release, but now it seems it'll be only in Jan, 2008 that we are going to see the release. Also other tricks on Windows Update to get Vista SP1 as mentioned here, aren't the real SP1, since quite a lot of changes have occurred after that!!