September 2006 – TheOS.IN

Intel Quad-Core QX6700 Performance

ExtremeTech has published Performance for Intel’s newest quad core processor, the Core 2 Extreme Quad E6700. After running through the gauntlet of 3DMark and content creation tests, among others, the quad core CPU boasts impressive performance results, particularly in video and 3D tests. According to the article, video creators and 3D animation artists should probably start saving up.

From the article:
You can think of the QX6700 Quad as a pair of Core 2 E6700 dies built into one CPU package. The clock frequency and front-side-bus speed are the same. Both dies each have 4MB of L2 cache. The L2 cache is shared between the two cores on the same die, but not shared across dies. This really is very much a repeat of the original Intel Smithfield CPU, which paired two Pentium 4 dies into a single package and dubbed it a dual-core CPU.

CPU architects, marketers, and users can argue whether or not Kentsfield is a “true” quad core, but from the perspective of motherboards and software, it’s a quad-core CPU. You can even install Windows XP Home Edition, which only “sees” a single CPU socket, on a system with a QX6700, though that would be something of a waste.

Security: Getting System Privileges on Windows XP

This is extremely dangerous Exploit.

Using simple command line tools on a machine running Windows XP we will obtain system level privileges, and run the entire explorer process (Desktop), and all processes that run from it have system privileges. The system run level is higher than administrator, and has full control of the operating system and itâ€™s kernel. On many machines this can be exploited even with the guest account. At the time Iâ€™m publishing this, I have been unable to find any other mention of people running an entire desktop as system, although I have seen some articles regarding the SYSTEM command prompt.

A quick fix

A way to prevent this from happening at all, would be to make the task scheduler service run under a unprivileged account. You can do this by opening the services control panel (Start > Run > services.msc), and right clicking â€œTask Schedulerâ€ and going to the Log On tab. Change it to â€œThis Accountâ€ and enter the account information you want it to use (has to be an existing account) then restart the service. This may break some programs that use the Task Scheduler and depend on it for SYSTEM access; you have been warned. Otherwise, simple disable the Task Scheduler service.

How to Windows 2003 Server start or stop services

This is quite easy. In order to start or stop a service in Windows 2003:
=> Click on Start
=> Select Admin Tools
=> Select Services

Now you can view the service names, description, status etc.

Task: To start or stop service

=> Select service name
=> Right click on a service name
=> Select Properties.
=> Now select Start or stop per your requirements.

Task: Make sure service start on Window server boot

To start a service when windows server boots, select service name and set type to automatic.

The Windows Event viewer error logs always contain more information about why service failed to start.

Saving Your Laptop after from Water, coffee, and soda (spill)

Water, coffee, tea and soda are among your laptop’s worst enemies. Just a little bit of such a liquid on your laptop keyboard can damage or destroy your machine or cause you to lose data.

The best way to prevent damage from a mix of liquid and electronics is to keep them as far apart as possible. Keep your laptop far away from cups of coffee, glasses of water, and cans of soda. But in read life it is not possible.

Yahoo tech has some info – an emergency recovery from a spill

Would like to work at Google India? Just participate in competition

There is absolutely no prerequisite, except, you win a writing competition to work at Google India.

If you have a clear, concise style and can use words to inform and persuade consumers, Google would like to hear from you. Google is looking for exceptional individuals to join the Google team in India, and organising a contest the Google Wordmasters Challenge to find and reward India’s best writers.

The contest will be judged by a panel of respected professional writers.

And hurry. The contest is open only to the first 300 participants, so the sooner you enter, the better. The deadline for entries is 25th September 2006.

More info @ Google website

Security: Hack Mac OS X With Installer Packages

MacGeekery has a short but insightful piece with examples on how to use a malformed Installer package (.pkg) on Mac OS X to ‘insert user accounts with administrator rights and change root-owned system configuration or binary files without prompting the vast majority of Mac OS X users for a password of any kind.

From the article: By creating a malicious package and setting the authorization level to AdminAuthorization in the package, an attacker can modify root-owned files, execute commands as root, or install setuid-root programs without alerting the user that such actions are taking place. The problem is compounded when you consider that over 90% of Mac OSi X users run as the administrator user because it’s what the default user created by the system is.

(via Slashdot)

Windows XP or 2003: Howto Add Copy To and Move To to Windows Explorer

For some reason, Microsoft decided not to activate the Copy To and Move To menu items in Windows XP Explorer as they did for Send To. This Microsoft Windows Registry hack adds Copy To and Move To to the right-click context menu of Windows Explorer.

Adding Copy To and Move To functionality to the Windows Explorer right-click menu starts with the finding the key in the Windows Registry file.

How color-blind people see your User Interface (UI)

Color vision deficiency (color-blind), in humans is the inability to perceive differences between some or all colors that other people can distinguish.

It is most often of genetic nature, but may also occur because of eye, nerve, or brain damage, or due to exposure to certain chemicals. (see wikipedia article for more info)

According to the medical studies, eight to ten percent of male population suffers from some kind of color blindness (figure for female population is much lower). What does it mean to the average Swing developer? Well, if you rely too much on color differences, you may be not conveying the information as well as you thought. Now you can run your application in debug UI mode and have a live preview of your UI as viewed by the color-blind population

(Via osnews)

Dell Dimension E521 AMD based desktop computer system

Great news, finally Dell started to roll out new AMD based system.

Dell today announced four new desktop computers with choices of sizes, processors and graphics that help make it easier for customers to personalize PCs for specific needs ranging from entertainment to office applications.

Check out Dimension E521-specific: AMD SempronTM , AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor options; six USB ports, and three slots (one x16 PCIe, one x1 PCIe and one PCI)

Dimension C521 are available worldwide starting tomorrow with one-year limited warranty2 and service support, priced at $719, $329 and $359 respectively.

More info @ Dell website…