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Microsoft has announced the hardware requirements for it’s new operating system Windows Vista set to be released on Jan 2007. They’ve launched the Get Ready web site to help users choose the right hardware. The requirement are divided into 2 categories. The first one is a "Vista Capable" that fulfills the minimum requirement to run Windows Vista. The second is "Premium Ready" which can enjoy the high end features like Windows Aero graphics.

This is the Official Windows Vista hardware requirements:

A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:

• A modern processor (at least 800MHz).

• 512 MB of system memory.

• A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.

• 1 GB of system memory.

• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero.

• 128 MB of graphics memory.

• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.

• DVD-ROM Drive.

• Audio output capability.

• Internet access capability.

You can download the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor Beta, to find out if your current PC is ready for Vista.

Apple has released a software called Boot Camp to allow Intel Mac users to let dual boot between Windows XP and Mac OSX. The software is in public beta and doesn’t come with official support but I think this is a very clever, bold and timely action taken by Apple. Now it will become irresistible for users like me to buy Intel Mac.

More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today.

The Boot Camp helps to burn a CD with drivers for Windows which includes:
- graphics
- networking
- audio
- AirPort wireless
- Bluetooth
- the Eject key (on Apple keyboards)
- brightness control for built-in displays

I’ll definitely try this as soon as I get the replaced macbook pro. You can download Boot Camp and the Installation & Setup Guide before starting your own installation.

It’s very difficult to stay safe online today without understanding the security jargons.

Phishing is one of the most popular techniques used by criminals to fool the users (even quite experienced ones) in giving in their personal information.

Phishing - Fraudulent emails and pop-ups designed to fool you into revealing personal information, such as passwords, credit card details, and account numbers, for criminal gain.

Some of the latest phishing attacks in News:

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Samba 4 Technology Preview 2 is released today. Technology Preview 1 was released on January. Samba is an open source software that allows Unix/Linux system to serve as a file and print server in Windows network. The main feature in Samba 4 is the support for Active Directory logon protocols used in Windows 2000 and above.

The release notes emphasizes that this is a Technology preview to allow users, managers and developers to see how they’ve progressed and to invite feedback and support. They warn that this should not be run on production servers and is not secure.

Samba 4 Technology Preview includes basic Access Control List (ACL) protection on the main user database, but due to time constraints, none on the registry at this stage. We also do not currently have ACLs on the SWAT web-based management tool. This means that Samba 4 Technology Preview is not secure.

I regularly check OnMac.net to see if there’re any updates on video driver for MacBook Pro but from yesterday the site is down. Today morning when I came back to office the site is still not responding. I Googled and found from this blog that there’s some problem with the Apache.

Well, it looks like something has gone wrong again. The server that we’re hosted on is up and running but apache is not. The site went down around 6:00 pm CST 2006-03-22. I’ve only now 8:00 am CST 2006-03-23 been able to get a hold of the guy who can make things happen. I tried to get it fixed last night but was unable. Sorry for the downtime! We’re going to be back up asap.

Update: Good news! The site is up and seems they’d some configuration issue.

We have been experiencing downtime on the main server due to a configuration error. I have alerted the host and created a redirect to this page. When the site is back up, you should be able to go there by clicking the forum, wiki etc… Sorry for the inconvenience - the site should be up shortly

A serious flaw has been found in Sendmail that could allow an attacker to take control of the SMTP server running vulnerable version of the software. A remote attacker could send malicious data at certain time intervals, which can corrupt arbitrary stack memory and gain control of the Server.

This security hole affects all Linux and Unix versions of Sendmail 8 up to version 8.13.5. Microsoft Windows versions of Sendmail are not affected. Sendmail has released a new verion 8.13.6 to fix this problem and also patches for earlier versions are available at their FTP site.

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Windows Vista that was supposed to hit the market on Dec 2006 is delayed to Jan 2007. A Microsoft press release says:

Microsoft Corp. today confirmed that Windows Vista, the next generation of the Windows client operating system, is on target to go into broad consumer beta to approximately 2 million users in the second quarter of 2006. Microsoft is on track to complete the product this year, with business availability in November 2006 and broad consumer availability in January 2007.

The blogosphere is buzzing with what it means for Apple and PC makers.

After installing Windows XP in MacBook Pro and having received tons of comments and emails from the readers I’m just wondering what’s next? For users, for Apple and for Microsoft. Being able to dual or even tri-boot intel Macs (actually any single hardware) would be a bliss. Imagine having seamlessly, legally and with full support booting a single machine with OSX, Windows and Linux. I don’t think normal home users would be excited about this for now but this would be a nirvana for majority of geeks. For Windows users (like me), they can easily see and try for themselves what’s it that makes the Mac users so religious about their OS. And if they can find this X factor that hooks the Mac users then this might even trigger a mass migration from windows to Macs.
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I was awestruck by the increase of traffic in my blog after posting WinXP and OSX dual boot in MacBook Pro. I did expect some extra traffic, but didn’t have a clue that it would be this huge. It’s great to see the influx of new readers. So, here are some data and thoughts on traffic spike.

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Finally I’ve succeeded in installing Windows XP in MacBook Pro. Now it can dual boot between Windows XP and MacOS X. There’re few issues with windows xp but being able to boot smoothly between these 2 OSes are really amazing. I’ve followed this HOWTO where more and more information is being added every few hours. I think most of the minor problems will be solved soon. If you want to install it for your self or want more information this wiki is the best place to go. Here I’m posting the photos of major installation sequence and some problems I encountered.

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