I forgot what version I have installed before, so how to make sure what is the version? One way is to check out the Add/Remove Program, it will be listed there.

Somehow, there exist no .Net Framework in my list, hence, I go check out using regedit (to open regedit, go to run and type in regedit), and browse for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\

Then you will see whatever .Net Framework version is installed in your PC.

Virus Bulletin, the independent security certification body, said 17 of 37 anti-virus products tested failed to reach the VB100 certification standard. McAfee VirusScan, Trend Micro Internet Security and Sophos Anti-Virus overlooked threats known to be in circulation. Other vendors whose products failed to make the grade included Alwil, BitDefender, Norman, PC Tools, and VirusBuster.

Some of the ignored threats - largely polymorphic file infectors - have been in circulation for months. "It is disappointing to see so many products tripping up over threats that are not even new - computer users should be getting a better service from their anti-virus vendors than this," Virus Bulletin technical consultant John Hawes said.

Products from Symantec, Microsoft (which has problems in the past in previous VB100 tests), AVG, and Kaspersky Lab all passed.

Virus Bulletin’s VB100 tests pit each anti-virus product against a set of viruses from the WildList, a publicly available up-to-date list of viruses known to be circulating. To earn VB100 certification, products must be able to detect all the viruses contained in the WildList test set without generating false alarms when scanning a set of clean files.

ps: I’ve checked with the web site, the anti-virus(Avira Antivir) that I’m using had also passed the test, what a relief…

In Japan, Microsoft combines Windows Vista Home Premium with Windows Live OneCare in one eye-popping hot pink box.

The pink might be influent by the Hello Kitty(a famous comic character in Japan) and the background of sakura flowers which resemble Japan.

It’s cool to see how Microsoft thinks of new and creative ways to sell their products.

Besides, a simple message below its search box said, "We’ve turned the lights out. Now it’s your turn - Earth Hour"

However, Google won’t stay black after the earth hour, the reason they gave was, "As to why we don’t do this permanently — it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display," says Google.

Earth Hour

For the third day, the challenge was made much easier, but the prize halved. They opened up the scope beyond just default installed applications on those laptops; any popular 3rd party application (as deemed "popular" by the judges) can be installed on the laptops for a prize of $5,000 upon a successful compromise.

The ability to add some hackable software did for the Vista notebook after 7 hours, "after it was installed with the latest version of Adobe Flash". The Ubuntu machine survived unhacked.

Winners of Pwn to Own contest:

Above pictured is Charlie Miller whose team won the MacBook Air and $10,000 on day two of the contest.

Above pictured is winner Shane Macaulay on the right showing off the spoils of victory with his friend Alexander Sotirov on the left. They are the one who exploit the vulnerability of Adobe on Vista.

ps: vista + adobe = hacked?

No one was able to execute code on any of the systems on Wednesday, the first day of the contest, when hacks were limited to over-the-network techniques on the operating systems themselves. But on the second day, the rules changed to allow attacks delivered by tricking someone to visit a maliciously crafted Web site, or open an e-mail. Hackers were also allowed to target "default installed client-side applications," such as browsers.

The team had attack code already set up on a Web site, and was able to gain access to the MacBook Air and retrieve a file after judges were "tricked" into visiting the site. This undisclosed Safari vulnerability will be able to take control of the MacBook Air. However, this vulnerability will be disclosed to the vendor, Apple.

So far, in this competition, no one had gained control of the Vista and Ubuntu machines.

ps: so this proved that, Mac is still more vulnerable than Vista or Ubuntu. Maybe it’s because of they are too concentrate on their interface designs rather than their security. But hey, I like their nice interfaces!

The program’s creators told Reuters on Thursday that the privately-held company’s trial version of Firefox 3 browser is ready for the masses to use after months of development.

Until now, the company has discouraged average Internet users from moving on from Firefox 2, which was launched in October 2006.

"In many ways it (Firefox 3) is much more stable than anything else out there," Mozilla Corp Vice President of Engineering Mike Schroepfer said in an interview.

Additions boost security and allow users to run Web sites when they are not connected to the Internet. Mozilla also says Firefox 3 uses less computer memory than Firefox 2.

The company hope to release the final version of Firefox 3 by the end of June.

Download Firefox 3 beta 4

Firefox release notes

Download Latest Firefox 3 beta 5 (not official yet)

Get the SP1 download here (32-bit x86) or here (64-bit) If you’re updating just one computer it’s better to use Windows Update. Sizes are 434MB for the x86 version, 760MB (or so) for the 64-bit one.

This SP1 fixes a lot of bugs.

Here is the link to the video of demonstration:

http://www.news.com/Luxims-plasma-lightbulb/1606-2_3-6234653.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news

Here is the link to the explanation of how the bulb works:

http://www.lifi.com/itworks.html

Parallel programming for multicore processors is the biggest challenge computer science has faced in more than 50 years. But that’s not stopping Intel from increasing the number of cores into your laptop.

According to trade-media reports, Intel is readying a new breed of quad-core mobile processors

for release this fall, marking what could be the first concerted effort by the chip giant to aim its high-end multicore processors at the general mobile market.

Just don’t expect quad-core laptops to become an industry standard anytime soon. As DigiTimes notes, these chips won’t come cheap, and will also suck down significantly more power than today’s mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo processors — a big no-no in the mobile space.

"I can imagine a small niche [of adopters] on the notebook side, but I still think it’s going to be three to four years before [quad-core laptops] become mainstream," says Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates.

"If you look at where the market is going, we have notebooks sales surpassing desktops on a worldwide scale in 2009," says O’Donnell. "Notebooks are clearly the platform of the future; hence all the movement by Intel and others into the mobile space recently."

Intel and Microsoft are expected to announce a partnership on Tuesday with the University of California-Berkeley and other universities. The venture will see both companies funding new research into parallel programming techniques.

ps: Yea, it’ll be nice if the laptop’s processor can run fast so that we won’t have to rely on those huge desktops to run those big programs smoothly. However, this technology may need at least several years to be stable. The main concerns are the heat generation and the power consumption. Let’s hope that it won’t be too hot and either the battery is powerful enough for the processor or the processor is power saving.