Windows 8 Consumer Preview-Direct Link

Windows 8 is the codename for the upcoming new operating system of Microsoft Windows that follows Windows 7. It features a new Metro-style interface that was designed for touchscreen, mouse, keyboard, and pen input. It also adds support for the ARM processor architecture in addition to the previously supported x86 microprocessors from Intel and AMD. Its server counterpart is codenamed Windows Server 8. The Windows 8 is designed to be the first Windows client to support systems on a chip (SoC) architectures, including ARM, and since it will be pre-installed on a range of next generation devices, it will also feature Metro, a NUI + GUI interface on the surface combined with a new application platform under-the-hood designed to enable the creation of immersive experiences.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview it is Windows reimagined and reinvented from a solid core of Windows 7 speed and reliability. It’s an all-new touch interface. It’s a new Windows for new devices. And it’s your chance to be one of the first to try it out.

What’s new in Windows 8 Consumer Preview:
• Swipe, slide, and zoom. Touch a full-powered PC. It’s fast and it’s fluid. Take natural, direct, hands-on control.
• Apps, front and center. Apps in Windows 8 work together to get things done faster. Get them from the Windows Store.
• Your Windows, everywhere. Windows 8 can connect you to your files, photos, people, and settings, wherever you sign in.
• Wall-to-wall web. Internet Explorer 10 Consumer Preview brings you immersive web browsing on screens big and small.
• The familiar, made better. Still devoted to your mouse and keyboard? Windows 8 makes the tried-and-true feel brand new.


Download Windows 8 Preview English, 32-bit (x86)


Download Windows 8 Preview English, 64-bit (x64)

Downloads for All Languages and Countries

$60000 for Exploiting Google Chrome, Hackers at Pwnium work...

Google has offered prizes, totalling $1 million, to those who successfully hack the Google Chrome browser at the Pwn2Own hacker contest taking place next week i.e 7 March 2012. Chrome is the only browser in the contest's six year history to not be exploited like at all. 

Therefore Google will hand out prizes of $60,000, $40,000, and $20,000 for contestants able to remotely commandeer a fully-patched browser running on Windows 7. Finding a "Full Chrome Exploit," obtaining user account persistence using only bugs in the browser itself will net the $60k prize. Using webkits, flash, or a driver-based exploit can only earn the lesser amounts.

Prizes will be awarded on a first-come-first-serve basis, until the entire $1 million has been claimed. “While we’re proud of Chrome’s leading track record in past competitions, the fact is that not receiving exploits means that it’s harder to learn and improve,” said Chris Evans and Justin Schuh, members of the Google Chrome security team. 

“To maximize our chances of receiving exploits this year, we’ve upped the ante. We will directly sponsor up to $1 million worth of rewards.”  Pwn2Own isn’t the only time researchers can be paid for digging up security flaws in Chrome. Like other companies including Mozilla and Facebook, Google offers “bug bounties” to researchers, and its flaw-buying program has given out more than $300,000 in payments over the last two years.

Skype brings voice and video calling to Windows Phone users around the globe

Many of you have been waiting for this. And today we are excited to announce our new Skype for Windows Phone Beta app. This now makes Skype available on almost all of the leading mobile smartphone operating systems. The gold version of the app will be available in April.

Starting today, download the beta version directly from your Windows Phone or at the Marketplace from your computer to test drive Skype for Windows Phone and share your feedback with us.

Skype for Windows Phone Beta* supports the most important Skype features you've come to know and love. And you will be especially thrilled by the clean and simple Skype experience that the Metro user interface delivers on your Windows Phone. It has never before been so easy to connect with the people you care about most.

Check out this video to see how the app works.

With Skype for Windows Phone Beta you can make free audio and video calls** to your Skype contacts over 3G and 4G or WiFi***, make affordable calls to landlines and mobiles using Skype Credit, create and hold one-to-one and group chats, and update your profile and account information, among others features.

This is only the beginning for Skype for Windows Phone...it's just going to get better and better. We see incredible potential to include Skype capabilities in Windows Phone in order to enable a great experience for you.

You can download the beta version of the Skype for Windows Phone app for free**** by clicking here directly from your Windows Phone, or simply scanning the QR code below. You will need to have a smartphone running Windows Phone 7.5. You can check what version of Windows Phone your phone is running at Settings > About.

We have already tested and certified the following devices for the best performance of Skype for Windows Phone:

• Nokia Lumia 710
• Nokia Lumia 800
• HTC Titan
• HTC Radar
• Samsung Focus S
• Samsung Focus Flash

We love hearing your thoughts and questions, so please feel free to visit our Skype Support Network or tweet your Skype for Windows Phone questions to @Skype. Also, you can join us on Twitter by following the #SkypeMWC hashtag where we will be sharing Windows Phone tips throughout the week.

*The beta version of the Skype for Windows Phone app will have English language support only.
**The device must be equipped with at least one camera to utilize video calling.
*** Users can place calls with their Windows Phone over a cellular data connection or WiFi network. Additional data charges may apply. To get the best quality video calling, Skype recommends a strong WiFi connection. Skype-to-Skype calling on Windows Phone is compatible with Skype for Windows 4.2 and above, Skype for Mac OS X 2.8 and above, Skype for Linux, Skype for iOS 3.0 and above, Skype for Android 2.0 and above, and Skype running on TVs.
**** The Skype for Windows Phone Beta app is free. If you use your mobile data connection to download the Skype app, operator charges may apply, so we recommend an unlimited data plan.

WinZip Pro v16.0.9715 Final

WinZip® is the most trusted way to work with compressed files. No other compression utility is as easy-to-use or offers the comprehensive and productivity-enhancing approach that has made WinZip the gold standard for file-compression tools. With the new WinZip 12, you can quickly and securely zip and unzip files to conserve storage space, speed up e-mail transmission, and reduce download times. State-of-the-art file compression, strong AES encryption, compatibility with more compression formats, and new intuitive photo compression, make WinZip 12 the complete compression and archiving solution. Building on the favorite features of a worldwide base of several million users, WinZip 12 adds new features for image compression and management, support for new compression methods, improved compression performance, support for additional archive formats, and more. Users can work faster, smarter, and safer.

WinZip 16.0 introduces:
* powerful 64-bit zip engine upgrade for maximum zipping speed
* seamless integration with WinZip’s breakthrough file delivery web service, ZipSend.
* the ability to send very large Zip files (up to 2GB) using ZipSend
* instant access to WinZip’s NEW Facebook app, ZipShare
* the ability to zip and post any type of file (up to 20MB) to Facebook using ZipShare
* the ability to zip and write files to Blu-ray Disc directly from the WinZip window
* the ability to convert other major compression file formats to Zip format
* extended preview functionality for other major compression file formats
* the ability to scan and diagnose PC performance issues using WinZip’s built-in System Scanner tool

84th Annual Academy Awards Winners

Best Picture:                    Winner: The Artist (Thomas Langmann, Producer)

Actor in a Leading Role:    Winner: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)

Actress in a Leading Role: Winner: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)

Directing:                            Winner: The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)   

Toolwiz Time Freeze 1.6.0.0

Toolwiz Time Freeze is an effective Instant system restores software to keep your system safe and protect your computer from unwanted changes.It can also protect your files and folders from changes and provide password protection.It makes virtualization very easy to use. It clones your system, creating fully working copies that you can use normally (or abnormally) without risking your "real" system.It puts the actual system under protection and creates a virtual environment for system partition, on which you run applications and surf the internet. It provides higher-level security to computer protection, and greatly improves the efficiency of virtual system.

Toolwiz Time Freeze has a simple interface for starting and stopping its main features as well as adding files to the File Protection feature (Time Freeze warns not to include Windows system files). There's a small, optional "toolbar" that merely displays the program's status on the desktop, but it's helpful if you switch between modes a lot. Most of the time, the program's system tray icon handles all the action.

How Is It Different?

Protects your files and folders from unwanted changes and provides password protection

Keeps system safe from threats of virus, spyware, worm, Trojan, etc.

Enter and Exit virtual system with a single click, no need to reboot computer

Easy system restore and recovery to remove unwanted changes

Adding files to the File Protection feature

New protection mode greatly improves efficiency of virtual system 

FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices has caused a “sea change” inside the U.S. Justice Department, according to FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann.

Mr. Weissmann, speaking at a University of San Francisco conference called “Big Brother in the 21st Century” on Friday, said that the court ruling prompted the FBI to turn off about 3,000 GPS tracking devices that were in use.

These devices were often stuck underneath cars to track the movements of the car owners. In U.S. v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that using a device to track a car owner without a search warrant violated the law.

After the ruling, the FBI had a problem collecting the devices that it had turned off, Mr. Weissmann said. In some cases, he said, the FBI sought court orders to obtain permission to turn the devices on briefly – only in order to locate and retrieve them.

Mr. Weissmann said that the FBI is now working to develop new guidelines for the use of GPS devices. He said the agency is also working on guidelines to cover the broader implications of the court decision beyond GPS devices.

For instance, he said, agency is now “wrestling” with the legality of whether agents can lift up the lid of a trash can without committing trespass. The majority opinion in U.S. v. Jones held that the agents had trespassed when placing the GPS device on a car without warrant.

He said the agency is also considering the implications of the concurring justices – whose arguments were largely based on the idea that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the totality of their movements, even if those movements are in public.

“From a law enforcement perspective, even though its not technically holding, we have to anticipate how it’s going to go down the road,” Mr. Weissmann said.

ConfigServer Firewall 5.47 for Linux has been released

A Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall, Login/Intrusion Detection and Security application for Linux servers.

Supported and Tested Operating Systems

RedHat v7.3, v8.0, v9.0 *openSUSE v10, v11

RedHat Enterprise v3, v4, v5, v6 (32/64 bit) *Debian v3.1, v4, v5, v6

CentOS v3, v4, v5, v6 (32/64 bit) *Ubuntu v6.06 LTS, v8.10, v9.10, v10.04 LTS, v10.10

Fedora Core v1 to v14(32/64 bit) *Mandriva 2009, 2010

*Gentoo *Slackware v12.2

CouldLinux (based on CentOS/RHEL) 

(* may require custom regex patterns for some functions)

Supported and Tested Virtual Servers

**Virtuozzo **OpenVZ

VMware UML

Xen MS Virtual Server

VirtualBox 

(** requires correct iptables configuration on host server)

This suite of scripts provides:

Straight-forward SPI iptables firewall script

Daemon process that checks for login authentication failures for:

Courier imap, Dovecot, uw-imap, Kerio

openSSH

cPanel, WHM, Webmail (cPanel servers only)

Pure-ftpd, vsftpd, Proftpd

Password protected web pages (htpasswd)

Mod_security failures (v1 and v2)

Suhosin failures

Exim SMTP AUTH

Custom login failures with separate log file and regular expression matching

POP3/IMAP login tracking to enforce logins per hour

SSH login notification

SU login notification

Excessive connection blocking

UI Integration for cPanel, DirectAdmin and Webmin

Easy upgrade between versions from within cPanel/WHM, DirectAdmin or Webmin

Easy upgrade between versions from shell

Pre-configured to work on a cPanel server with all the standard cPanel ports open

Pre-configured to work on a DirectAdmin server with all the standard DirectAdmin ports open

Auto-configures the SSH port if it's non-standard on installation

Block traffic on unused server IP addresses - helps reduce the risk to your server

Alert when end-user scripts sending excessive emails per hour - for identifying spamming scripts

Suspicious process reporting - reports potential exploits running on the server

Excessive user processes reporting

Excessive user process usage reporting and optional termination

Suspicious file reporting - reports potential exploit files in /tmp and similar directories

Directory and file watching - reports if a watched directory or a file changes

Block traffic on the DShield Block List and the Spamhaus DROP List

BOGON packet protection

Pre-configured settings for Low, Medium or High firewall security (cPanel servers only)

Works with multiple ethernet devices

Server Security Check - Performs a basic security and settings check on the server (via cPanel/DirectAdmin/Webmin UI)

Allow Dynamic DNS IP addresses - always allow your IP address even if it changes whenever you connect to the internet

Alert sent if server load average remains high for a specified length of time

mod_security log reporting (if installed)

Email relay tracking - tracks all email sent through the server and issues alerts for excessive usage (cPanel servers only)

IDS (Intrusion Detection System) - the last line of detection alerts you to changes to system and application binaries

SYN Flood protection

Ping of death protection

Port Scan tracking and blocking

Permanent and Temporary (with TTL) IP blocking

Exploit checks

Account modification tracking - sends alerts if an account entry is modified, e.g. if the password is changed or the login shell

Shared syslog aware

Messenger Service - Allows you to redirect connection requests from blocked IP addresses to preconfigured text and html pages to inform the visitor that they have been blocked in the firewall. This can be particularly useful for those with a large user base and help process support requests more efficiently

Country Code blocking - Allows you to deny or allow access by ISO Country Code

Port Flooding Detection - Per IP, per Port connection flooding detection and mitigation to help block DOS attacks

DirectAdmin UI integration

Updated Webmin UI integration

WHM root access notification (cPanel servers only)

New in v5: lfd Clustering - allows IP address blocks to be automatically propagated around a group of servers running lfd. It allows allows cluster-wide allows, removals and configuration changes

New in v5: Quick start csf - deferred startup by lfd for servers with large block and/or allow lists

New in v5: Distributed Login Failure Attack detection

New in v5: Temporary IP allows (with TTL)

New in v5: IPv6 Support with ip6tables

...lots more!

The reason we have developed this suite is that we have found over the years of providing server services that many of the tools available for the task are either over-complex, not user friendly, or simply aren't as effective as they could be.

New in Version 5.47:

- Improvements to non-core perl module loading

- Improvements to PT_LOAD Apache Status retrieval and messages

- Regex modifications to cater for Dovecot v2.1+

- On cPanel servers, block additional ports that exim uses in the WHM > Service Manager for RT_*_BLOCK

After 7 Days Coming Back Soon

Mozilla Firefox 10.0.2 for Android

Get the official Firefox Web browser.

The Mozilla Firefox Web browser brings the best of desktop browsing to Android, now optimized for the way you browse on tablets. Best of all, it puts the Firefox you know and love at your fingertips. It’s fast, easy to use and customizable, with the latest security and privacy features to help you stay safe online.

Have any input for us? Share it at http://mzl.la/FXinput. We love to hear it so we can keep making browsing better for you.

Firefox Web Browser Features:

-Awesome Screen


Browse your favorite sites with minimal or no typing.

-Sync


Access your browser history, bookmarks, passwords and open tabs from any device.

-Add-ons

Customize your browser quickly and easily.

-Speed


Get to the Web and find what you’re looking for fast.

-Tabs


Enjoy the convenience of tabbed browsing on the go.

-Personas


Dress up your browser the way you like it.

*Sharing


Use apps like Google, Twitter and Facebook to keep your friends in the loop.

-Location-Aware Browsing

Get better, more relevant information when on the go.

-Bookmarking

Swipe to the left and bookmark any site with one touch.

For a complete list of features, check out http://mozilla.org/mobile/features/.

Have questions or need help? Visit http://support.mozilla.org/mobile.

The Firefox browser works on most Android devices. See if it works on yours: http://www.mozilla.org/mobile/platforms/

Want to know more about the permissions Firefox requests? http://mzl.la/FirefoxPermissions

ABOUT MOZILLA

Mozilla is a proudly non-profit organization dedicated to keeping the power of the Web in people's hands. We're a global community of users, contributors and developers working to innovate on your behalf. When you use Firefox, you become a part of that community, helping us build a brighter future for the Web. Learn more at mozilla.org.

What's in this version:

-Improved Sync set-up

-Bug fixes

-More: www.mozilla.org/mobile/10.0/releasenotes