Rootkits, Smarties and strategic marketing make up the news this week. David Kidd rounds it up.
As if recording studios need another reason to get on the bad side of consumers, Sony distributed certain music CDs with cloaking software to hide its DRM technology. Unfortunately, Sony didn’t tell anyone.
But now the ‘rootkit’, which refers to a collection of tools that enable hackers to gain unauthorised access and mask its activities, has now evolved into an indispensable tool for hackers everywhere. World of Warcraft miscreants have reportedly used it to hide their cheating ways from Blizzard, and now we’re seeing reports of a trojan that exploits Sony’s rootkit to prevent detection.
I could take a swipe at DRM or recording studios over this, but I’m happy enough knowing that Sony will go down in history as the company responsible for seeing the word ‘rootkit’ enter the common vernacular.
Internal communications from Bill Gates have somehow managed to fall on the desks of every news outlet on the planet. The leaked email was sent to key staff at Microsoft, where Gates spoke of the threat of web services.
'This coming "services wave" will be very disruptive. We have competitors who will seize on these approaches and challenge us - still, the opportunity for us to lead is very clear,' he writes.
A memo attached by Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s CTO, also points out missed opportunities in search, document formats, and VoIP, referring to Google, Adobe and Skype as the standout competitors.
In a nutshell, the company would dearly like to reassure customers and shareholders that although it missed the boat on some very significant technologies, it is now on track to throw its weight into web services. The strategic marketing department must have worked overtime on the leak.
Many times over the years I’ve asked Dell when it would start offering AMD chips as an option. The company touted the line that it didn’t see much demand for AMD, and when that demand increased, so the company would carry AMD chips. True to its word, Dell is offering AMD chips in the US for the first time, which not coincidentally occurred just as AMD outsold Intel for the first time in the US.
Blu-ray has gained some more support, coaxing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to the fold. MGM joins Paramount and recent convert, Warner Brothers, to side with the Sony-led format. With the content makers firmly siding with Blu-ray, the HD-DVD crew will be spitting out blank discs. If HD-DVD doesn’t find a home in data storage or PC-based applications, it’ll go the way of the Smartie.
Finally, the 10th Annual Webby Awards has announced its top Ten Web Moments That Changed the World. Among them, you’ll find the closure of Napster (2001), the Drudge Report’s breaking of the Monica Lewinsky scandal (1998), and the web-based research effort that sped up the detection of SARS (2003). More info here: www.webbyawards.com/press/webby_top_10.php
David Kidd PC Authority Editor
Issue: 133 | February, 2012