Microsoft is not mailing you about downloading Internet Explorer 7

A malware spam began showing up last week, claiming to be from “email hidden; JavaScript is required,” and with the subject line “Internet Explorer 7.” It’s dangerous, so be careful.

I’ve received hundreds of these messages so far, all the same — but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t variations floating around. The message body contains:

Download the latest version!

About this mailing:

You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers. Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the “Unsubscribe” link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers’ content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice.

2008 Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy

Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052

Needless to say, these messages aren’t from Microsoft. The “download the latest version” link tries to install a file called “video.avi.exe” on your machine, which is a malicious Trojan that’s extremely hard to remove.

Don’t fall for this one.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment only proves that Windows Vista demos well

Like many commentators, I’m unimpressed with Microsoft’s so-called “Mojave Experiment.” This marketing campaign from Redmond wants to change perceptions of Windows Vista, by getting people to admit that it’s not as bad as they previously thought after viewing hand-crafted demos of its coolest features.

As the “Mojave Experiment” Web site says,

Welcome to the “Mojave Experiment.” What do people think of Windows Vista when they don’t know it’s Windows Vista? We disguised Windows Vista as codename “Mojave,” the “next Microsoft OS,” so regular people who’ve never used Windows Vista could see what it can do — and decide for themselves. Now decide for yourself.

The site plays video clips of people watching demos of Windows Vista. After seeing them, they enthuse, ‘gosh, I always thought that Windows Vista was buggy, but wow, look at all the cool stuff it can do. I gotta get me some of that.’

The “Mojave Experiment” proves absolutely nothing. The problems with Windows Vista have never been with its cool capabilities. Windows Vista is beautiful, and has many exciting features and functions.

The issues with Windows Vista — and they’re real — have to do with application and hardware compatibility, with the upgrade process, with hardware specs, with reliability and with security. None of those concerns were addressed by the “Mojave Experiment” stunt’s demos.

Many people who buy Windows Vista installed on a new PC are, for the most part, happy with it. My son is one of them: We bought him a buffed-up Dell to play PC games with. It came with Windows Vista, and he’s happy as can be, and hasn’t had a single problem. We also have several PCs at our company running Windows Vista, and they’ve been just as reliable as the Windows XP machines.

Many people who try to migrate from Windows XP to Windows Vista on a relatively modern computer are also happy. However, others making the move have bad experiences, sometimes with the migration itself, and at other times with hardware or software compatibility.

Is Windows Vista as bad as its most virulent critics say? No. Windows Vista is, all things being equal, an improvement over Windows XP… on a machine designed to run Windows Vista. If someone is planning to buy a new PC, he/she can buy a machine that’s preloaded with Windows Vista and will almost certainly be delighted.

None of this changes that Windows Vista has earned a bad reputation. Microsoft’s “Mojave Experiment” is unlikely to change that, based on cherry-picked comments by people watching carefully crafted demonstration videos. Microsoft, is this the best you can do?

Update 8/12: There was a great post from Slate’s Farhad Manjoo on this last week.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

Don’t fall for "CNN Alerts: My Custom Alert" malware spam

Malware spam emails claiming to be from CNN started showing up on Monday, Aug. 4. They are dangerous.

With a subject line, “CNN Alerts: My Custom Alert” or “CNN.com Daily Top 10,” these legitimate-appearing emails had message bodies with messages like, “Coup demonstration in Mauritania” or “Detroit mayor ordered jailed after bond violation.”

Most of the links in the spam email go back to CNN… except for the one that says “FULL STORY.” That’s the baddie. If you click the link, it takes you to a real-looking Web page that pops up a box asking you to install the latest version of the a video player (see picture) in order to see the news report.

If you agree to install the file, congratulations, you’ve just installed some malware. If you decline, the pop-up comes back asking over and over again, until you either install the malware or force-quit your browser.

Since the initial appearance, I’ve received hundreds of these messages, with increasing sophistication. Be advised, don’t be fooled. Don’t click it, don’t install it.

CNN acknowledged this spam on its “Behind the Scenes” blog on Friday, Aug. 8. That’s good. However, the bland warning doesn’t go far enough by telling viewers that the email isn’t just annoying spam, but that the link tries to install malware. CNN also doesn’t tell you what to do if you’ve been suckered. Here’s the message:

Fraudulent spam about CNN

Earlier this week, a spam message purporting to be from CNN began circulating the Internet. We decided to blog about this to alert those of you who hadn’t yet received it to be on the lookout for it; and also to assure those of you who did receive it that the message was NOT, in fact, from CNN.

As you may know, spammers often disguise or forge the source of their e-mail to give recipients the impression that the message derived from another system, especially one tied to a recognizable brand. In this instance, the spammer chose to use the CNN brand.

The message, claiming to contain CNN’s Top 10 news stories and videos of the day, is fraudulent and did not originate from CNN. If you have received it, we suggest that you delete it from your mailbox. Further, we recommend you delete any e-mail message from your mailbox that you believe may be illegitimate.

Thanks to all of you out there who alerted us to the existence of this spam purporting to be from CNN.

Posted by: CNN Public Relations

Update 8/13: Now I’m seeing the same type of messages coming through labeled from MSNBC.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

Don’t fall for "CNN Alerts: My Custom Alert" malware spam

Bogus, and malicious, emails claiming to be from CNN started showing up on Monday, Aug. 4. With a subject line, “CNN Alerts: My Custom Alert” or “CNN.com Daily Top 10,” these fairly legitimate-appearing emails had message bodies with messages like, “Coup demonstration in Mauritania.”

Most of the links in the email go back to CNN, except for the one that says “FULL STORY.” That’s the baddie. If you click the link, it takes you to a real-looking Web site (one I checked had the URL “cabinob.net/cnnheadlines.html” that claims that you need to install the latest version of the Flash video player — but it has a link to a fake version of Flash with embedded malware.

If you decline, it keeps asking over and over again, until you either install it or force-quit your browser.

Since the initial appearance, I’ve received hundreds of these messages, with increasing sophistication. Be advised, don’t be fooled. Don’t click it, don’t install it.

CNN has taken the unusual step of acknowledging this spam on its “Behind the Scenes” blog on Friday, Aug. 8. However, the message doesn’t go far enough by warning viewers that the software isn’t just spam, but that it installs malware:

http://behindthescenes.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/08/fraudulent-spam-about-cnncom/

Earlier this week, a spam message purporting to be from CNN began circulating the Internet. We decided to blog about this to alert those of you who hadn’t yet received it to be on the lookout for it; and also to assure those of you who did receive it that the message was NOT, in fact, from CNN.

As you may know, spammers often disguise or forge the source of their e-mail to give recipients the impression that the message derived from another system, especially one tied to a recognizable brand. In this instance, the spammer chose to use the CNN brand.

The message, claiming to contain CNN’s Top 10 news stories and videos of the day, is fraudulent and did not originate from CNN. If you have received it, we suggest that you delete it from your mailbox. Further, we recommend you delete any e-mail message from your mailbox that you believe may be illegitimate.

Thanks to all of you out there who alerted us to the existence of this spam purporting to be from CNN.

Posted by: CNN Public Relations

http://behindthescenes.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/08/fraudulent-spam-about-cnncom/

The adventures of Calvin and Jobs

What happens when a precocious six-year-old teams up with a lovable toy CEO? It’s not Calvin and Hobbes, but Calvin and Jobs.

The parody apparently ran across two pages in Mad Magazine, but it’s all over the Internet. Here’s one place where you can find them, or you can just search for “Calvin and Jobs.”

Page 1 • Page 2

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

Millbrae or Millbrea: Caltrans must be from Southern California

The San Francisco suburb is called Millbrae, not Millbrea. It’s not like the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

Yet twice in two years, Caltrans has misspelled the town’s name on a major highway sign.

The first instance was in May or June 2007, when Caltrans was adding exit numbers to Interstate 280. They replaced the Millbrae Ave. exit sign with one that said Millbrea Ave. We saw that sign the day it went up. It was corrected a few weeks later.

Now the same error has appeared on U.S. 101, the other major highway on the Peninsula, with its Millbrae Ave. exit sign. Yup, it’s become Millbrea Ave. too.

The story about it in the S.F. Chronicle (source of the photo) gives a little history of the name:

For the record, Millbrae is named after Darius Ogden Mills, the wealthy Scottish American who once owned the land where the city is located. According to the Chamber of Commerce, Millbrae is a contraction of Mills’ name and the Scottish word “brae,” which means rolling hills. “Brea,” on the other hand, is Spanish for tar. Transposing two letters changes the word completely.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

A struggling AMD cancels its 2008 Global Vision Conference

I received word this afternoon that Advanced Micro Devices canceled its biennial Global Vision Conference, which was set for this October in Dana Point, Calif.

The 2006 AMD Global Vision Conference, held in Los Angeles, was incredibly rewarding. It provided a too-rare opportunity to clear my head, meet new people, and think big-picture thoughts about the future of technology.

At the Sept. 2006 event, I talked to some outstanding people, including cycling legend Lance Armstrong, geneticist James Watson, and MIT Media Lab guru Nicholas Negroponte, and got to hang out with futurist (and fellow ham-radio operator) Paul Saffo.

The most inspirational talk was by Col. Geoffrey Ling, MD (pictured), who described new DARPA medical technologies for treating battlefield wounds and helping severely injured soldiers return to a normal life.

The 2008 conference has been highlighted on my calendar all year, and I was treating it as the focus of my own personal “think week.”

The program was packed with speakers like Craig Mundie, chief research officer at Microsoft, Rob Manning, the flight systems chief engineer for the Mars Pathfinder mission, and Neil Turok, the chair of mathematical physics at Cambridge University. I planned to swap notes with Jim Kelly, managing editor at Time Inc., and David Kirkpatrick, senior editor, Internet and Technology, at Fortune magazine.

Alas, it’s not to be. Here’s the bad news, sent by an AMD executive:

Dear Alan,

I regret to report that AMD has made the decision not to hold the AMD Global Vision Conference until further notice. Thank you for taking the time to make GVC work on your calendar. My colleagues and I appreciate your energy and enthusiasm around the conference. We are truly disappointed that we will not see you in Dana Point this October.

However, this is the right decision for AMD at this time. AMD management is focusing all resources and energy on a number of key initiatives critical to the company’s success. An event of this magnitude requires a tremendous amount of energy from our executives and partners. Consequently, we are going to reconsider holding GVC when AMD executives can give it the attention it demands.

On behalf of my colleagues at AMD, I thank you again for your support and understanding.

Big bummer.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

It’s 08:08:08 on 08/08/08


August 8, 2008, 8:08:08 AM.

I would be remiss in not acknowledging the beautiful symmetry.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

Maybe there really is a Rockwell Automation Retro Encabulator

Rockwell Automation wants you to go to their Automation Fair 2008, Nov. 18-20 in Nashville.

You may be familiar with the popular Rockwell Automation Retro Encabulator. The video’s been floating around the Internet for a long time; I blogged about in March 2007.

I didn’t realize that there really was a company called Rockwell Automation. I knew about Rockwell International, of course. My bad: Rockwell Automation is its spin-off in the industrial controls business. It’s a publicly traded, $5 billion company with 20,000 employees, based in Milwaukee. Whoops.

Here’s what you can do at the Rockwell Automation Fair, according to media info the company sent me today:

The Automation Fair event, hosted by Rockwell Automation, is regarded by customers, media and analysts as a premier industry event. The 2008 event is an exclusive opportunity to hear about the latest success stories and new manufacturing solutions from Rockwell Automation and its partners.

This three-day event is full of information you can use to develop the manufacturing and automation stories that are valuable for your readers. You’ll benefit from the countless opportunities to gather unique industry stories straight from some of the industry’s most experienced and knowledgeable professionals. Engage with leaders who are defining manufacturing’s best practices, and explore the latest technology and service offerings from Rockwell Automation.

Manufacturing Perspectives, a full-day media forum dedicated to convergence, will kick off the Automation Fair event on Tuesday, November 18, at the Gaylord Opryland Complex. As a member of the media, you’ll interact with the representatives of global companies that are implementing the future’s industry-leading innovations today.

The Automation Fair event exhibition, held on Wednesday, November 19 and Thursday, November 20 at Gaylord Opryland Complex, provides an opportunity to meet individually with Rockwell Automation professionals, partners and customers to learn more about the latest developments in advanced automation products, integrated control and information architecture, and value-add services and solutions.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

From a pile of components to Ubuntu Linux in 25 minutes

When my teenager learned that I was heading to LinuxWorld this week, he said, “I’d like to try Linux.” Good for him; he’s already bilingual, with a MacBook for schoolwork and a buffed-up Dell desktop for gaming. Why not Linux too?

I promised to snag him the latest copy of a friendly distro at LinuxWorld. The Canonical booth helped me deliver, as I picked up Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS Desktop Edition and a bunch of stickers. Perfect.

Next step: Find a computer. We found a dusty Sun Ultra 20 workstation sitting in the garage. I bought it at JavaOne 2005 to use with Solaris, but in 2007, the AMD Opteron-based minitower was relegated to Legacy Land. (At this moment, Sun is running a quote from me about that Ultra 20 on their Web site, saying, “A Sun workstation, with Unix, development tools, and support for less than I spend each month at Starbucks? It was silly. It was cool. It was irresistible. I just had to have one.”)

More scurrying around the garage unearthed a flat-screen monitor, a keyboard, a mouse and a power strip. My son now had a pile of components and an Ubuntu disc. The time on the kitchen clock: 10:30am.

At 10:55am, he called me over to watch him playing Tetris on the machine. He wasn’t running off the CD; he had blown away the Solaris installation (I told him that he could), put Linux onto the hard drive and was fully up and running. And this is a kid who’s never used Linux before.

Kudos to my son for being so darned clever, but the real credit goes to Ubuntu and Canonical for making Linux so easy to install and use.

I can’t help but point out that it took less than 25 minutes to do a full install of the operating system. It may have been significantly less, since I don’t know how long it took to get the hardware set up.

Contrast that with Mac OS X or Windows. It takes more than 25 minutes to do a full clean install of Mac OS X. It takes a significant multiple of 25 minutes to do a clean install of Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Linux has shown that it doesn’t have to take ages to sniff out the hardware, copy the files and build the configuration. Hear that, Apple? Hear that, Microsoft?

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

SPTechCon: The new SharePoint conference from BZ Media

I’m very excited to announce BZ Media’s newest event, SPTechCon: The SharePoint Technology Conference. It’ll be held here in the Bay Area next January. Here’s the official press release, which hits tomorrow. You’re reading it here first!

The Call for Speakers for SPTechCon is open through August 15.

SPTechCon, the SharePoint Technology Conference, Serves IT Pros, Business Managers and Developers

New technical conference offers classes, workshops for enterprises seeking to maximize the benefits of using Microsoft Office SharePoint Products and Technologies

Huntington, N.Y., August 8, 2008 — BZ Media LLC today announced SPTechCon™: The SharePoint Technology Conference, an exciting new event for IT professionals, business leaders and software developers whose organizations use Microsoft Office SharePoint Products and Technologies.

SPTechCon will be held January 27-29, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport. The three-day conference will offer dozens of technical classes and workshops for IT professionals, systems administration managers, line-of-business managers, business analysts and software developers.

BZ Media is the publisher of Systems Management News, the authoritative source for IT professionals and systems administrators, and SD Times, the newspaper of record for software development managers. BZ Media also produces the Software Test & Performance Conference and FutureTest events.

The first day at SPTechCon is filled with intensive half-day workshops, while the next two days contain several keynote addresses and dozens of concurrent classes. All classes are focused on maximizing the benefits of using Office SharePoint Server 2007, which is a Microsoft technology that provides a single, integrated platform where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members, find organizational resources, search for experts and corporate information, manage content and workflow, and leverage business insight to make better-informed decisions.

Many classes at SPTechCon also cover complementary Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Windows Server, the Microsoft Office System, and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. The conference, expected to attract more than 500 paid attendees, will have a trade-show floor where exhibitors and sponsors can demonstrate compelling third-party applications, add-ons, plug-ins, tools and services built for Office SharePoint Products and Technologies.

Ted Bahr, President of BZ Media, said, “SharePoint is the platform of the future. Increasingly, enterprises are finding that SharePoint goes beyond solving their internal collaborative challenges. Companies are expanding how they use SharePoint, integrating it into their public-facing Web sites, and their Service-Oriented Architecture. We’ve heard from the readers of Systems Management News and SD Times that they use SharePoint, and they need technical training on how to use it more effectively and extend it throughout their organizations. We’re proud to offer SPTechCon to serve this pressing educational need.”

Tom Rizzo, Director of SharePoint at Microsoft, said, “The phenomenal uptake of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is transforming organizations of all sizes, all industries and all geographies. Business leaders are envisioning new uses of SharePoint, and IT professionals and developers are gearing up to implement new applications as well as integrate SharePoint to other enterprise software. This is creating significant demand for training and education. We’re delighted BZ Media is introducing this new SharePoint technical conference.”

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

Guinea Pig athletes take over the Olympics!

There are some wonderful action shots of athletic guinea pigs training for Beijing in the Daily Mail.

Our family’s three cavies (Cookie, Bella and Jenny) have never expressed any interest in these types of competitive sports. They prefer to work as a team, especially in the Lettuce & Carrot Speed Eating Competition. (“Go for the Gold!”)

When we place our piggies in the hallway for the 5-meter dash, they just sit there. Maybe it’s because we don’t play the Olympic theme song during training or competitions. We’ll have to try that next time.

The pictures are from the Guinea Pig Games 2009 wall calendar from Icarus Publishing. You can’t buy it from Icarus, but you can order the calendar from PopArtUK for £9.99.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

Midori is not Singularity

Since SD Times published its story about Midori, a number of pundits have suggested that Midori might be a rehash of Microsoft’s Singularity project. (One person with that view is CNet’s Ina Fried, but others have written that as well.)

When doing our due diligence on the Midori technical documents, that was one of the first things we considered. We brought Windows internal expert Larry O’Brien (pictured) into the loop to help us evaluate the documents’ authenticity and significance, and as he writes in his blog,

Substantively, what I can say is that the documents were quite technical and were quite provocative — they weren’t a retrospective on Singularity that we conflated into a discussion of a future OS.

Another perspective comes from InfoWorld’s Randall Kennedy, who in “Is Windows Midori doomed to failure,” implies that Microsoft intentionally leaked a trial balloon. I don’t think so, not in this case. Rather, I agree with the BBC’s assessment.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

Microsoft’s Midori to sandbox applications for increased security

The third installment of David Worthington’s exclusive series about the internals of Midori — a new operating system from Microsoft — has been published on SDTimes.com. It is widely believed that Midori will replace the current Windows, though Microsoft is non-committal at this point.

The article, “Microsoft’s Midori to sandbox apps for increased security,” begins,

August 5, 2008 — Security is a watchword for Midori, the operating system that Microsoft is incubating in hopes of freeing itself from its legacy Windows software architecture.

SD Times has viewed internal Microsoft documents that detail Midori’s security proposition. The highlights include memory safety and type safety, and a least-privileged mode. As well, hardware support may enable a secure boot mechanism and a remote chain of trust on top of secure booting.

You can read the first two parts of the Midori story:

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick