Out-Of-The-Box Windows 7 Install Is Vulnerable To 8 out of 10 Viruses

Gizmodo:

“The folks at SophosLabs didn’t believe claims that Windows 7 and its User Account Controls were any more secure than previous versions of the OS, so they tested a clean install. Result? A reminder that you should always use protection.

The way the test was conducted is that ten viruses were introduced into a clean install of Windows 7 with the UAC settings on system defaults. While only one virus was blocked, two technically did not function properly for whatever reason. Still, this doesn’t leave much hope for those who decide to skip automatic patching, firewalls and anti-virus applications. Let’s do the whole “Safer Computing” thing, shall we?” [Sophos]

The Today Show Helps Microsoft Launch Windows 7 On a MacBook Pro

Gizmodo:

“Good thing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn’t turn around during his spot on The Today Show. Clearly, someone at NBC either really loves Macs or can’t tell the difference between a MacBook and a PC.

On the other hand, Maybe Ballmer noticed and didn’t care. In the spot he discusses hardware diversity and this sort of proves his point. After all, you can run Windows 7 on a Mac. It’s an amusing gaffe, but beyond that, the clip is interesting because it touches on Windows 7, the image battle between Apple and Microsoft and the issue of CEO pay all inside five minutes.” [Crunchgear]“

Japan Welcomes Windows 7 with Seven Layer Whopper Burger

Gizmodo:

“Even compared to its wacky Windows 7 parties, Microsoft’s promo with Burger King Japan is pretty out there. The Windows 7 Whopper costs ¥777 ($8.50), and is 5-inches tall. I’ll try to avoid any bloated jokes. D’oh, too late.” [Electronista]

Windows 7 Recovery Discs Gets Your System Out of Tight Spots

Lifehacker:

“Windows 7: If you run into a boot-up error with Windows 7 and don’t have a recovery disc handy, you’re usually in for some manic fiddling, or you’re just out of luck. NeoSmart’s recovery discs, however, can set things right.

Download NeoSmart’s recovery discs for 32- and 64-bit systems, burn them to CD, and pop them into any system that claims it’s unable to find the files needed to boot or is otherwise corrupted. These discs contain the same system recovery tools as a full Windows 7 disc, which are also given out by nice PC makers—and sold as an expensive accessory by skimpy Windows pre-installers.

Boot your system from NeoSmart’s CD, and you’ll get a stripped-down Windows system with a window offering startup file repair, Restore Point returns, recovery from a whole-cloth image, memory testing, and a command prompt for those dire moments when only frantically Google-d terminal instructions can save you.

These Windows 7 System Recovery Discs are a free download via BitTorrent from NeoSmart; hit the CyberNet link to grab a copy from MediaFire.”

Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs [NeoSmart via CyberNet]

Omnibar Extension Collapses Firefox’s Address and Search Boxes into One

Lifehacker:

“Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): The Omnibar extension makes Firefox’s awesomebar act like Google Chrome’s omnibar, collapsing the address bar and search into one single text box.

We’ve mentioned Omnibar in passing in a couple of posts, namely our guide to turning Firefox into a Google Chrome clone and our post detailing how to use the Firefox 4.0 theme, but it’s a useful extension whether or not you’re trying to make Firefox look like another browser. You can still switch your default search engines, you can still use keyword bookmarking (my favorite Firefox feature), and the extension features special shortcuts for searching non-default engines (try your query with @y, for example, to search Yahoo).

Omnibar is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.“

Omnibar [Firefox Add-ons]

L4D2: Scavenger Mode

RPS:

“Valve have sent word of a fourth game mode to be included in Left 4 Dead 2, called Scavenger Mode. It’s like this: “Scavenge mode challenges players to compete in round-based games of up to 8 players (Survivors vs. Infected). The Survivors must battle both the Infected and the clock as they collect gas cans to refuel a generator located in each map. Every can the Survivors pour into the generator scores their team a point and adds time to the clock.” Needless to say, the infected have to stop them. Just as interesting, perhaps, is the confirmation of previously discussed Ai Director 2.0, who will have “the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players’ performance.”

Video below.”
(…)
Read the rest of L4D2: Scavenger Mode

How to Build Your Very Own Badass Windows Home Server

Gizmodo:

“Jason lurves Windows Home Server—it does automated backups over your network, streams movies, music and photos and is a general-purpose fileshare. If you don’t wanna hand HP $400, Maximum PC’s got a build-to-stream guide to rolling your own.

And, even if you’d rather buy a pre-made box—built-in Time Machine support for Macs is a good reason to go with HP’s, for instance—they’ve got some essential add-ins and performance tweaks to get the most out of your Home Server.” [Maximum PC]

2K Games Gives BioShock 2 Street Date

1UP:

“2K Games has finally taken the wraps off of the new BioShock 2 release date. The company announced today that the game has been set for a worldwide release on February 9, 2010. The announcement was pretty sparse, since the rest of the press release details the two separate stories in single and multiplayer modes, and doesn’t cover anything we haven’t heard before. The game was initially pushed back to 2010 to “perform better in the marketplace,” which we take to mean 2K wanted to avoid Modern Warfare 2. But the extra time is also letting them put on a bit more polish, and the game should be better for it. “

Half-Life 2 Audio Replaced by modder’s voice

This is hylarious…

RPS:

“So the internet has a new greatest thing. Earth’s best human, Trase, has created a Half-Life 2 mod where he replaces nearly all the game’s sounds with his own voice. And yes, it’s just as good as that sounds. Every weapon, vehicle, explosion, and enemy sound is now the vocal stylings of this lunatic modder. See below. Please, see below.

He’s nailed the shotgun. It’s spot on. Many sounds are. Others are just hilariously silly. Sadly he stopped short of dubbing over the character and NPC voices, for the remarkable reason that, “it would sound dumb.” Um…

It’s properly awesome, and you can get the mod from here. I’d love it if he’d also replaced the Combine’s squealy-beep noise, but then I want everything and I’m not prepared to pay. So, watch this. Then express amazement. Thanks to radomaj for the awesome tip.”

iTunes 9 Improves Syncing, Network Sharing, More

Lifehacker:

“Windows/Mac OS X: The biggest software announcement at today’s Apple event comes in the form of iTunes 9, the newest release of the popular desktop media player.

It’s a solid update containing a few features that we’d be really excited about if only they were just a little bit better (see Home Sharing, for example).

Worthwhile/notable features in the new release include:

• Home Sharing: You can now copy songs across authorized computers on your home network with the new Home Sharing feature. (You can even select a view to show only items that aren’t already in your library.) It’s nice to see iTunes add this feature, but it’s still a far cry from the full-on library sharing that we’ve been dying to see for years on home networks (and that we’ve done our best to accomplish on our own). You know, one library you can play, add to, and edit from any computer on your home network.

• Improved Syncing: When you’re syncing to your devices, iTunes 9 offers more fine-grained control for syncing music by genre or artist, straight from the Music tab of the sync dialog. It also boasts better syncing of Photos (using iPhoto’s Events and People identification) and Movies.
• 
  Better App Management: If you’re syncing apps to your device through iTunes, iTunes 9 adds the ability to organize your synced apps on your iPhone pages from your desktop. Photo via Gizmodo.
• 
  iTunes LP: Apple has introduced their new music format called iTunes LP. The new format intends to take digital music to a new world of multimedia integration, including videos, liner notes, credits, and more. Think of it sort of like the music version of DVDs with special features.
• 
  iTunes Extras: Well, if iTunes LP is sort of like a DVD with special features, iTunes Extras is exactly like it. Now when you buy a movie from the iTunes store, you also get some special features, including cast interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, photo galleries, etc.
• Genius Mixes: Using the Genius feature introduced in iTunes 8.1, Genius mixes plays songs from your library that it thinks go well together. This doesn’t seem like much of a tweak on what’s already there, though I will say that Genius recommendations have improved a lot since the feature was first launched.
• Ringtones: iTunes 9 now sells 30,000 ringtones for $1.29—though we’d suggest saving yourself the cash and just making your own (in Windows; in OS X).

iTunes 9 is a free download for Windows and Mac. It’s not available just yet from Apple’s servers… Update: iTunes 9 is now available.”

iTunes 9 [Apple]