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Tag: Microsoft (page 4 of 5)

Ankit Fadia – Who??

Ack:- Maruti Borker

This was written by Mr.Srinivasan ..(Oneof the membes oF NAG) .

Here is the Post :-
Yesterday (23-04-2006)I attended a seminar by a so-called “Hacking Guru” Ankit Fadia, at DAVV, Indore (MP) auditorium. I just want to share my feelings with you. The Seminar was a complete failure, though it was attended by about well over 100 people, but was a complete disaster. The very first thing by which I was offended badly was using the sacred word “Hacking” to demonstrate something we, the hackers, call cracking.The seminar topic was “Ethical Hacking”, now I want to ask Mr Fadia, what is unethical about hacking ?

Hacking is very positive word and there in no need to put “Ethical” before it. By the way his seminar topic should be “Ethical Cracking”.If you really want to become a hacker, please read an article by a real hacker, Eric Steven Raymond (ESR). The man who changed the history by writing a paper “Cathedral and Bazaar”. please read the article here :http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

The people who can not differentiate between hacking and cracking,should read an article by the GOD of hackers Richad M Stallman (RMS),the man who started GNU movement all by himself. The gcc (compiler), gdb (debugger), emacs (editor) are some of the most popular softwares in the world written by him. Please read the article here :http://www.outpost9.com/reference/jargon/jargon_69.html

The things Fadia demonstrated were ancient techniques used by crackers to break into some one’s machine. Now a days even 10 year olds can download these tools from Internet to control others’ machines. Can we call them hackers ?? If he calls it hacking, I doubt if he understands the term even “Cracking”, leave hacking altogether. This childish behavior is called script kiddie.

IP spoofing, SQL Injection, password cracking softwares, Trojan horse programs, these are the tools of cyber criminals. So I wonder what is the significance of the term “Ethical” here ??In the entire session I kept waiting for some program or utility,written by himself. But I don’t thing he had something like this to share with audience. The entire session was demonstration of third party utilities, and the saddest thing was no mention of the name of any author of any utility. He didn’t care to give some credits to the utility developers. What a shame !!!

Mr Fadia, I real hacker always respect the creativity of others, and before using their work proper credits are given, this is the hacker’s attitude. It’s not like that, you download something from Internet, use it and forget the person, who made it. That’s pretty mean.Second most annoying thing was that he calls himself a “hacker” and was using a Windows XP operating system ???? I have been in to computers for the past 10 years and I never come across any real hacker who uses Windows. I met Brian(Apache creator), Andy Cleen, Alon cox, Rusty (all networking gods), RMS (the GOD himself) but all of them were using some or other form of Unix or Linux.

Come on, MR Fadia, Windows is the worst OS in the world, full of security holes, so what is the point to break into a Windows machine ???? What do you want to prove ???? He only once mentioned Linux, just to tell how you can use it’s live CD to boot a Windows machine and cracke the password. Actually, before attending the seminar, I Googled a lot about Fadia and just want to share my findings with you.

Vulnerabilities patches by Fadia = 0 (He may know how to break in, but doesn’t know how to fix up)
Bugtraq id’s by Fadia = 0
Hacking / Security tool by fadia = 0 (He simply Goolge and download the tools from Internet, that’s not cracking. Actual cracker is the programmer, but Fadia never ever gives due credits. Now that’s not hacking, that’s stealing)
Any open source software by Fadia = 0 (He is afraid of suggesting Linux to people, ‘coz it’s secure)
Any Linux or Windows software security patch = 0
Any recommendation or recognition by Real Hacker Community = 0 (They laugh at him. He is just a kid)
Software / Cryptography patents by Fadia = 0
Algorithms by Fadia = 0
Any official citation by FBI/CIA/CBI for Fadia = 0 (They don’t even bother about any explanation)
Any confirmation of his self-claims = 0 (Nobody,expect him knows, if they are real)
Any confirmation of him decrypting Osama’s message = 0 (Hahahahahahahaha)
Any original technical tutorial or book by Fadia = 0 (He simply copy the things and never he never ever gives due credits to the original authors.)
Any originality in his tutes or books = 0 (Hahahahahahaha)
Skill level of Fadia = Only God knows !!!

Tried to read a few books by him, but to my wonder some part of his books are nothing but simple “copy and paste” material from well known sites for Windows registry editing. Please visit www.winguides.com and compare the material with his first book. Oh God ! this is the clear violation of intellectual property rights of the website. Please inform the webmaster. I have done it already. I was astonished by the course he came to promote here, “Ethical hacker certified by Ankit Fadia” ! He sill is child in hacking field, and he is giving the certificates for hacking ????? And worst thing, Reliance web world is promoting it. What a shame !!! Have all gone mad ? Can’t they see? Unfortunately, question and answer round was cut from the seminar, that’s also because of Fadia arrived there one hour late. Well, that’s India’s celebrity style statement. Otherwise, I would have asked all these questions to him there only.

Anyways, I went to him at the end of the seminar, and asked if Windows is so vulnerable, can he suggest audience to use Linux rather than Windows. And the reply came was straight “NO”. What a shame ??? I understood the reason, why he said no. The reason is same why Mic*ft does not patch up it’s OS. Plain economics. If you make system secure with Linux who is going to ask for people like Fadia, so called “security expert” ???

want to make an appeal to all of you, please make all of your friends aware of these facts. Let one should not get undeserved advantage. I also want to appeal news papers, please do not make a hero out of nothing. Stop polluting the honest media by prejudiced reports. And at the end I want to tell Mr Fadia, that I don’t have any personal problem with you or your achievements, but please behave properly in hacking community. We hackers are very positive people we never ever try to harm anybody, until he comes to our or our philosophy’s way. Please stop calling your self a hacker, if does not understand the hacker culture.And for god sake, stop behaving like a child, now you are in college, so GROW UP !!!

Microsoft pushes back Office 2007 release

Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it will delay the release of its Office 2007 business productivity software, citing a desire to implement improvements from customer feedback received during testing.

The world’s biggest software maker said it will now aim for a launch of Office 2007 to business customers by the end of 2006 rather than an earlier target of October.

Microsoft also said it would delay the general availability of the Office upgrade to early 2007 from its previous January target.

In March, the company pushed back the consumer launch of the 2007 Microsoft Office package, which includes the Word processor, Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation software to January to coincide with the debut of its Windows Vista operating system.

Office, Vista changed in wake of Adobe threat

Microsoft is making changes to the next versions of both Office and Windows as part of an effort to head off a legal challenge from Adobe Systems.

Microsoft said earlier Friday that it expects an antitrust suit from Adobe after months of negotiations in which the companies failed to reach an accord.

The software maker is unilaterally making changes to both Office 2007 and Windows Vista in an effort to assuage some of Adobe’s concerns. More important, the move is an attempt to lower the chances that an injunction could stop Microsoft from shipping those products.

“We don’t want anything to stand in the way of customers getting their hands on the product,” Microsoft Vice President Chris Capossela told CNET News.com in a telephone interview on Friday. “We certainly are trying to be a good partner here.”

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Vista’s firewall dissected

Longtime readers know that I feel passionately about having a personal firewall on a desktop PC, especially a home PC. A fair number of malware programs can be stopped at the Internet gateway, before they get to your desktop, creating an in-depth defense. Recognizing this, Microsoft changed the default setting for its Windows Firewall in Windows XP SP2 from Disable to Enable. But the Windows XP SP2 firewall blocks only inbound connections–useful, yes, but this also means that if you have spyware living on your PC, it’ll still be able to phone home as an outbound connection. Thus, I recommend that everyone using Windows XP SP2 also use trusted third-party firewalls from CheckPoint (makers of ZoneAlarm) or security vendors, such as Trend Micro.

With Vista, Microsoft says it’s finally including “bidirectional filtering as well as integrating IPSec protocols.” Microsoft also assures me that in Windows Vista all inbound connections will be blocked by default, whereas all outbound connections will be allowed by default, other than by exception. What does that mean? Well, it’s less than you might think.

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Google denies browser plans

Reuters -Thursday, June 01, 2006 00:32 IST

Google Inc has no plans to build a Web browser software to compete with rival Microsoft Corp, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday.

At a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Schmidt dismissed speculation that the company aimed to tie together its Web search and other services to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the world’s dominant Web browser.

“It looks like people have some good browsers choices already,� Schmidt said.

“We would not build a browser for the fun of building a browser,� he said.

Google encourages its customers to use a variety of alternatives to Internet Explorer, particularly the open-source Firefox browser.

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Slide Show of Microsoft Word 2007

Microsoft Word 2007 beta 2
Word 2007 introduces new formatting choices and dynamic feature galleries that make it easier to integrate images and tables into text documents.

Microsoft Excel 2007 beta 2
The beta 2 preview of Microsoft Excel 2007 reveals the app’s new approach to visualizing, analyzing, and protecting your spreadsheet data.

PowerPoint 2007 beta 2
This slide show app is bringing more tools to the surface for polishing presentations with templates, information graphics, and animation.

Outlook 2007 beta 2
Microsoft Outlook 2007 beta 2 puts more e-mail and search functions at your fingertips, while integrating tasks and calendars and adding color labels

Microsoft’s FlexGo software eyes emerging markets

SEATTLE: Chip makers and PC firms aim to increase PC usage in the developing world with a new flexible payment program to lower the initial costs of buying a computer, the companies said on Sunday.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, said it is leading a group of technology companies in offering the first-ever “pay-as-you-go” computers in Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and China over the next several months.

Using Microsoft’s FlexGo software technology, a customer can buy a computer loaded with the Windows operating system then purchase prepaid cards or pay a monthly subscription fee at a cost similar to using a computer at a local Internet cafe, Microsoft said.

When the usage time ticks down, a customer can go online or to a local retailer to buy more minutes.

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Schmidt’s Google Goes To Authorities About MSN

Google, led by Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, seems to be feeling the heat already from the impending update of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the Web browser which is used by 85% of the world’s PCs and which is set to be released with Windows Vista later this year as an updated version 7.

IE 7, it appears, could put a dent in Google’s lucrative grip on the search market thanks to a slim white search box located in the browser’s top right hand corner. Google’s concern is that the integrated search tool points users towards Microsoft’s MSN search engine, leaving them less likely to stumble across Google’s all-important ads.

The complaint has initially prompted some to chortle at what looks to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black–Google happens to have its own search tool integrated into Microsoft’s rival web browsers Firefox and Opera. But Google is deadly serious. A spokesman for the search giant, Steve Langdon, said that the company had approached the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission about the issue, though no formal complaint had been filed.

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Pro-Firefox Group Launches Mission To Destroy IE

Despite the vaunted rhetoric, the Firefox Four might be waging an uphill battle. A recent Forrester report on Web browsers found that Internet Explorer still dominates — by far. AOL follows IE in a distant second place, with Firefox, Opera, Safari, and other alternative browsers scrapping for what is left.

Styling themselves as political activists, a Massachusetts group has launched a concerted effort to inveigle Internet Explorer users to switch to the Firefox Web browser. The focal point of the movement is a site called ExplorerDestroyer.com.

In addition to talking up the strengths of Firefox, the site highlights a new Google AdSense program that offers $1 to online publishers for every referred netizen who downloads Firefox.

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Oracle CEO says may launch own Linux version

Oracle Corp. is considering launching its own Linux operating system and has looked at buying one of the main suppliers of open-source technology, Chief Executive Larry Ellison told a newspaper on Monday.

Such a move by the world’s top supplier of database management software into open source operating systems and applications would propel Oracle into sectors of the software industry where it has never directly competed.

It would also step up competition with rivals ranging from . Microsoft Corp to IBM to Red Hat and dozens of up and coming open-source start-ups, analysts said.

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