While Microsoft's Security Essentials has been very well received because of its small footprint and unobtrusive nature, it didn't always rank among the very top when it came to its detection rates. Overall, I'd still say it's one of the best antivirus tools. Now, with version 2.0, Microsoft has improved the detection mechanisms, but of course, it'll take some tests before we can see how effective they are.
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Member since:2006-07-14
I don't understand your argument. I'm saying there is a clear potential for a conflict of interest in having a Microsoft Anti malware program protect a Microsoft operating system. Yes anyone can make mistakes.
There are two potential problems with having the same company
1)If Company A makes mistake 1, they are probably likely to make the same mistake over and over again.
2)Company A may purposefully not protect the system from a class of vulnerabilities that are "ahem" abused for other reasons by their large customers. ( There were some serious security bugs in windows 95 that were preserved in later versions ( through ME) for the purpose of "compatibility".
Company B on the other hand, is likely to still make mistakes, but different ones than Company A. So, hopefully, a small percentage of vulnerabilities will get through Company B and Company A.
Make sense?
Member since:2006-01-02
I don't think your argument makes sense. Microsoft has a vested interest in ensuring that users have the best overall experience using their computers from a performance, reliability, and safety perspective. Windows is, after all, in competition with Linux-based OSes and Mac OS X.
Anti-virus companies definitely don't have the same holistic interests. They are more interested in getting you to buy subscriptions to their products and continue valuing whatever security they provide. Thus they have an interest in being more intrusive (more popups, balloons, icons, etc) and sacrificing performance and reliability for marginally better protection (if it's better at all).
It's not like the AV products are changing the fundamental security model of the OS (and they cannot legitimately do so other than through the limited hooks the OS provides), so they are not 'plugging any holes' in the OS that Microsoft would have missed. At best they are providing a blacklisting service at a relatively high cost.
As far as I know (which is not that far 
), MSE is committed to using only publicly specified interfaces of the Operating System, unlike other AV vendors, so they operate more within the design of the OS, unlike some of the other products.
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move."A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane."MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Member since:
2008-03-10
It doesn't matter who designed it, take the Gawker website password leaks where they didn't properly secure the passwords, 99% of security issues that actually cause damage stem from user error and ignorance of security. Even if it's just classic calling them up and tricking them into giving out there passwords.
Edited 2010-12-18 17:53 UTC