Mac OSX Snow Leopard:

Exposé Interactivity: The feature that shows all windows together is no longer a simple means for switching among them. It will be possible to drag content from one previewed window to the other. Exposé will also work for individual applications by clicking and holding their icons in the dock. As a workaround for the miniscule preview windows in the dock, these improvements aren’t bad.

Smart Services: Control-clickers will delight in new context-sensitive menus that appear when you perform the Windows-equivalent of a right click. For instance, highlighting and control-clicking text in a Web browser lets you send the text to an e-mail or import it to iTunes as a spoken word track.

Smaller Install: Pony up the $29 to upgrade to Snow Leopard, and you’ll get 7 GB of your hard drive back. That’s not a feature, per se, but it’s certainly an innovation. The last thing we want is an operating system that’s continually gaining weight.

VoiceOver: Though it won’t be used by the majority of Mac owners, VoiceOver is arguably the most expansive addition to OSX. This tool for visually-impaired users essentially turns the trackpad into a screen reader, supporting special gestures to switch between windows and audio feedback when clicking.

Chinese Character Input: Okay, most of us won’t use this feature either, but it’s still pretty cool. After opening an input window, users can draw sketch Chinese characters on their trackpads and then select from a list of possibilities. It’s as good a reason as any to start learning.

Windows 7:

Invisible Windows: The answer, of sorts, to OSX’s Exposé lets users turn all open windows into bare outlines by moving the mouse to the screen’s bottom right corner. From there, shaking a window makes all others minimize, and shaking it again brings them back up. A related window-management feature lets you quickly size windows to half the screen, allowing for side-by-side comparisons.

Jump Lists: It’s no longer necessary to hunt through a folder of recent documents to pick up work where you left off. By right-clicking icons Windows 7′s new dock (a feature cribbed from OSX), users can jump to recent documents or perform common tasks, such as resuming an old playlist in Windows Media Player.

Internet Access to Home Media: Got two computers, or a friend who wants to look at photos from your last get-together? Clicking a button within Windows Media Player opens up photos, videos, and music for streaming to other PCs. No party will ever be safe again from your weird musical tastes.

Touch Friendly: Should the touchscreen craze finally take off, Windows 7 will be ready with a mode that’s tailor made for tablets. Start menu and taskbar icons are larger, and Web browsing can be done with a finger. Multitouch is also supported, with pinch and twist gestures for zooming and rotating.

HomeGroup: Sharing content between networked computers is nothing new, but Windows 7 makes it easier with HomeGroup. The feature lets any new computer joining your home network link up to existing ones, allowing for file transfers. Printers are also shared automatically, so no one has to be kicked off the master computer to print a document

Microsoft made it clear that the beta will be available for a “limited time,” and said it will cap the beta after the first 2.5 million downloads.

IT professionals and developers who subscribe to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) or TechNet services, however, get a jump on the public at large; they can grab the beta right away.

The beta, which Microsoft called “feature complete,” requires a PC with a 1GHz processor, 1GB of memory, 16GB of available hard disk space and support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory, according to Microsoft, which also warned that the recommendations could change for the final version. The beta only supports an upgrade from Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Microsoft declined to get specific about upgrade paths for the final version of Windows 7, or to spell out how many editions it would produce and what it would charge for each. The beta is “roughly equivalent” to the Ultimate version of Vista , it added.

Both 32- and 64-bit versions of the beta will be available for downloading, but only English, German, Japanese, Arabic and Hindi editions will be posted Friday. Other language versions are expected at the product’s launch.

To install the beta, users must have a DVD drive able to burn disk images to a blank disc. The beta, said Microsoft in a follow-up blog it published Wednesday, will be available as an .iso file. It did not spell out the size of the download.

The beta expires on Aug. 1, 2009.

The Windows 7 download will be posted to Microsoft’s site on Friday, Jan. 9.

In a blog post, F-Secure security researchers report that the number of machines infected by the Downadup worm has skyrocketed from roughly 2.4 million to over 8.9 million in the last four days alone.

Downadup is a malicious worm that “uses computer or network resources to make complete copies of itself,” according to F-Secure. And it may also include code or other malware that damages both a computer and network. The worm also goes by the names “Kido” and “Conflicker.” Details on how it operates and how to remove it are here.

Once executed, Downadup disables a number of system services, including Windows Automatic Update, Windows Security Center, Windows Defender, and Windows Error Reporting. The worm then connects to a malicious server, where it downloads additional malware to install on the infected computer. Computerworld provides a more detailed report on Downadup’s potential dangers.

Since Downadup uses random extension names to avoid detection, Windows users should make sure their security software is set to scan all files, rather than checking on specific extensions, F-Secure recommends.

The alarmingly high number of Downadup infections led Microsoft last Tuesday to enable its anti-malware utility, Microsoft Software Removal Tool (MSRT), to detect the worm. So it’s important that Windows users, if they haven’t already, download the latest Microsoft security patch that went out earlier this week.

Many of you must be bugged off with the security alerts in Vista, You can however disable that feature to annoy you.
Here are the steps to be performed to disable UAC on Vista,

1. Click the round blue Windows Start button. Now click Control Panel
2. From the Control Panel, click User Accounts and Family Safety
(or User Accounts if your in classic view)
3. Click the option to Turn User Account Control on or off
4. Uncheck the box next to Use User Account Control (UAC) to help
protect your computer and click OK
5. Restart when prompted

Turn off user Account Control(UAC)

Turn off user Account Control(UAC)

1. Download http://downloads.zend.com/pdt/server-debugger/ZendDebugger-5.2.12-cygwin_nt-i386.zip or check for new version at http://downloads.zend.com/pdt/server-debugger/

2. Locate ZendDebugger.so or ZendDebugger.dll file that is compiled for the
correct version of PHP (4.3.x, 4.4.x, 5.0.x, 5.1.x, 5.2.x) in the
appropriate directory.

Get debugger from folder called “5_2_x_comp” or you may receive some errors about a non-thread   safe debugger if you take it from “5_2_x_nts_comp”

3. Configure php.ini for output buffering when debugging

implicit_flush = On ; Default: Off
output_buffering = Off ; Default: 4096

4. Add the following line to the php.ini file:
Linux and Mac OS X:     zend_extension=/full/path/to/ZendDebugger.so
Windows:                zend_extension_ts=/full/path/to/ZendDebugger.dll
Windows non-tread safe: zend_extension=/full/path/to/ZendDebugger.dll

(*) the windows non-thread safe is used only with Zend Core 2.0

Note:
if you don’t have a Zend section you may add this at the end of the fie.
correct the php path if it is not installed in c:\wamp\www and extension directory.

5. Add the following lines to the php.ini file:
zend_debugger.allow_hosts=<ip_addresses>
zend_debugger.expose_remotely=always

This willl allow connections from local host and from your local network to addresses which start        with 192.168.1.

6. Place dummy.php file in the document root directory.

7. Restart web(Apache/Wamp) server.

8. To activate the debugger please use following query string:
?start_debug=1&debug_port=10000&debug_fastfile=1&debug_host=192.168.1.59%2C127.0.0.1

Note:
above statement assumes that the debugger listens at 192.168.0.2 or 127.0.0.1 on port 10000.

Here are some of the screen shots from my debugger,

Breakpoint in Zend

This is watch window in Zend which will show the values of the variables, you need to add the variable to the watch window to view its values.

Watch Window in Zend

This is the output window that shows the output generated by the code executed till now,

Output Window in Zend

Hope this helps

All you need to install Sharepoint, WSS or MOSS, on Vista is

• You must select the Advanced option during install.
• If you want to run on SQLExpress, manually install it first.  Get it here.
• You have to manually enable IIS7 with the proper options. Web Management Tools and World Wide Web Services. Enable at least the following options in IIS.

Download Vista Helper file from here, and run the setup file WssVista.msi.

Sharepoint on Vista

You will see an UAC prompt select Continue to proceed with the installation.

Once the install has completed you will find the SetupLauncher.exe in the install location you selected. If you didn’t change the default option you will see it under the directory ..\Program Files\WssOnVista\

Sharepoint on Vista

Before starting the setup make sure you have enabled IIS with the following options, Web Management Tools and World Wide Web Services. Enable at least the following options and choose OK.

To set this Go to Control Panel and click Programs. Under Program and Features click Turn Windows features on or off.

Sharepoint on Vista

After completing the above steps it’s time for the interesting part. Locate SetupLauncher.exe and start it. You will once again see an UAC prompt, select Continue.

Sharepoint on Vista

After the SetupLauncher run, select the WSS installation file Sharepoint.exe, or the MOSS installation file, and click OK.  First, the package will be extracted.

Sharepoint on Vista

After the files have been extracted the WSS setup program will be started.

Sharepoint on Vista

The current version only supports the advanced installation option so select that one.

Sit back and relax while SharePoint is being installed, you are running Vista remember

Once installed you can configure your Sharepoint setup.

Sharepoint on Vista

Let the Configuration Wizard do it’s work.

Sharepoint on Vista

The final result is WSS running on Vista, Enjoy!

Sharepoint on Vista

Resource:

Bamboo Solutions

You can find more on their forums. Enjoy!!!

Symantec reports today that it has found a new variant of the virulent worm that will identify antivirus software or security analysis tools running on the infected PC, and attempt to shut down those programs. This is a strong signal that the worm’s mysterious creators haven’t abandoned their creation in the face of worldwide attention, as some in the industry have theorized, but may still have plans to make a buck off their work.

To protect against the Conficker worm, first make sure you’ve installed the patch that closes a targeted hole in the Microsoft Server Service. Next, protect any network shares and administrator accounts with a strong password, as Conficker will try to guess easy ones.

Finally, you can block the worm’s third infection, which hijacks thumb drives and other removeable media, by disabling Autorun on Windows. PC World has a download available that can automate that step for Windows XP users, and Microsoft has posted manual instructions.

This isn’t the first time Russia has dabbled with the idea of widespread open-source software distribution. According to Russia Today, a pilot program is already underway in three Russian regions to replace Microsoft-branded operating systems in Russian schools with Linux alternatives. All Russian schools are expected to make the software switch by 2009, according to Russian leaders.

Expect the national transition to put a large feather in the cap of Linux advocates worldwide. But will it spurn increased U.S. adoption of the open-source OS? The economic crisis might be more fuel for that fire. A “free the penguin” initiative aimed at increasing Linux adoption in U.S. academic institutions signed up more than 3,000 interested schools between September and December of 2008–that’s 20,000 new open-source desktops across 29 separate states.

Early Friday, the Finnish firm revised its estimate of the number of computers that had fallen victim to the worm, and explained how it came to the figure. “The number of Downadup infections [is] skyrocketing,” Toni Koivunen, an F-Secure researcher, said in an entry to the company’s Security Lab blog . “From an estimated 2.4 million infected machines to over 8.9 million during the last four days. That’s just amazing.”

Downadup — which also goes by the name “Conficker” — exploits a bug in the Windows Server service used by Windows 2000 , XP, Vista , Server 2003 and Server 2008. Although Microsoft fixed the flaw with one of its rare “out of cycle” updates in late October, about a third of all PCs have not yet been patched, according to Qualys Inc., another security company. Those PCs are the ones being hijacked by the worm.

Once it’s gotten onto a PC, Downadup generates a list of possible domains, selects one, then uses that URL to reach a malicious server from which it downloads additional malware to install on the hijacked computer. F-Secure, however, has registered some of those domains, and has been able to monitor traffic through those URLs.

By examining logs of connection attempts to the domains, F-Secure discovered several hundred thousand different IP addresses — over 350,000 as of today — as well as a counter embedded in each that spells out the number of additional PCs that the infected machine has compromised.

You can find a solution to this Virus here

“Due to very heavy traffic we’re seeing as a result of interest in the Windows 7 Beta, we are adding some additional infrastructure support to the Microsoft.com properties before we post the public beta,”.