Rumor has it mini projectors will soon show up in HP notebooks

Digitimes cites Monty Wong, vice president and manager of personal computing systems group at HP Taiwan, who says the company has plans to launch both tablets and notebooks PCs with integrated mini projectors.

Miniature projectors placed prominently at CES in 2009 and in 2010 and it seems HP has finally figured out a way to market them to consumers. HP is said to be considering placing the projector on top of the notebook screen, where the webcam is normally located. While integrating a mini projector into a notebook might seem like the perfect way to sneak them into consumer's homes, Wong said the company first plans to launch several stand-alone mini-projector products as an introduction to the notebook-integrated designs.

According to Digitimes, the projector notebooks will be produced mainly by Quanta Computer.

17-year-old Windows Flaw Affects All Since NT

Windows Virtual DOS Machine bug from 17 years ago affects Windows 7 users today.

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We often hear of Windows security bugs that plague a recent version of the operating system that many are still using today, but rarely do we hear of a bug that reaches all the way back – 17 years – to Windows NT.

Tavis Ormandy, a security researcher at Google, discovered a security flaw in the Virtual DOS Machine that can allow a nefarious user to inject code into the kernal and possibly install malware.

Given that all modern versions of Windows still feature the Virtual DOS Machine, this is a vulnerability that still exists today.

Ormandy wrote:

"All 32bit x86 versions of Windows NT released since 27-Jul-1993 are believed to be affected, including but not limited to the following actively supported versions:

    - Windows 2000

    - Windows XP

    - Windows Server 2003

    - Windows Vista

    - Windows Server 2008

    - Windows 7"

Microsoft has yet to respond to the flaw, and until it does with a patch, Ormandy recommends the following as a way to mitigate the hole:

"Temporarily disabling the MSDOS and WOWEXEC subsystems will prevent the attack from functioning, as without a process with VdmAllowed, it is not possible to access NtVdmControl() (without SeTcbPrivilege, of course).

"The policy template "Windows Components\Application Compatibility\Prevent  access to 16-bit applications" may be used within the group policy editor to prevent unprivileged users from executing 16-bit applications. I'm informed this is an officially supported machine configuration."

Hacking The Unsecure GSM Network

Do you believe your phone line is secure? Do you believe that no one is listening in on your calls? Do you think that your phone’s data, all of your contacts, messages, and photos are safe and that your internet browsing is secure? If you do, may be you should think again.  Sometimes its ridiculous how the most common and important technology in our daily-life is vulnerable to kinds of attacks that could bring nightmares. Still, no one is aware, no one is doing anything. Such is the Case of Today’s GSM-The most popular Cellphone Technology.
The BIG Impact:
Today, there are billions of people using GSM phone technology. So, cracking GSM encryption has BIG concerns underneath.
What’s at stake if GSM-encrypted traffic is no longer secure?

• Loss of Privacy over Voice Calls – Any damn GSM call can be intercepted. This means everything.
• Jamming calls – Today, Jammer’s do exist but new kind of jamming technology can be introduced that can take down communications in larger areas.
• Financial institutions that use text messages as authentication tokens would be in trouble.
• Business – Almost all Business end-customers will be impacted, the potential loss to the business could touch billions.
• PDA and Smart-phone IP Traffic – Users that surf web, use internet over their phones for Business EMail will no longer be secure.

Cell phone usage is evolving at an astonishing rate. We are no longer relying on our cell phones for the sole purpose of making calls, but also to send emails, to access the internet, and to store a variety of data, making our cell phones a repository of personal and business information. Unfortunately, the more dependent we become on personal electronics, the more complex they become, and the more susceptible they become to security defects.
People regularly trading in confidential information, such as Government officials and executives, would be the most likely eavesdropping targets but virtually anyone with enough skills and determination could harness the research for nefarious means, security experts warn.
A group of German scientists claim to have cracked the security code that protects around 80 per cent of the world’s mobiles phones. Karsten Nohl, working with others online and around the world, created a code book showing how to get past the GSM encryption used to keep conversations on more than 3 billion mobile phones safe from prying ears.
Nohl said the purpose was to push companies to improve security. Even with Nohl’s exploit, expensive and sophisticated radio equipment placed close to the target is required to pull the calls off the air.
He shared his exploits with participants at a Berlin hackers conference this week.

Intel Q4 Numbers, Net Income Up 875 Percent

Despite a few minor antitrust-related hiccups along the way, Intel did well last quarter. Really well. The chip giant this week released its fourth quarter results for 2009, announcing an 875 percent jump in net revenue from the same period last year.

Intel posted revenue of $10.6 billion, up $2.3 billion and 28 percent year-over-year. Operating income was $1.5 billion, up $958 million and 62 percent year-over-year. All this amounted to a net income of $2.3 billion, an 875 percent or $2 billion increase year-over-year.

That $2.3 billion from Q4 actually accounted for a large chunk of Intel's overall net income for 2009. The company posted a 2009 net income of $4.4 billion.

Kingston Coming With 30 GB 'Boot' SSD for $80

Boot faster!

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Massive (or at least decently sized) SSDs are still priced too far into the stratosphere to be practical replacements for traditional magnetic storage-based hard disk drives – but the performance advantages of SSDs are just far to compelling to ignore.

SSD makers are now hoping to attack that angle by offering more affordably priced solutions that can sit in a happy middle ground, but proposing small SSDs that are large enough to function as boot drives that hold the operating system and system files.

Kingston will ship next month the SSDNow V Series 30GB Boot Drive which will be promotionally priced at $79.99 after rebates (U.S. only). Performance is rated up to 180MB/sec. read, 50MB/sec. write. The SSD will offer Windows 7 TRIM support, which helps the SSD maintain high performance through the life of the drive.

"In our quest to bring SSDs into mainstream use, we're aiming to deliver a lower price point while boosting performance. The new SSDNow V Series 30GB Boot Drive accomplishes those goals," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston. "Desktop users can extend the life cycle of their systems with this drive and IT managers in the enterprise space like it as there is less data for them to backup to the network. In addition, we will also release a 30GB SSD twin-pack for prosumers and enthusiasts who want to take performance to the next level."

Last week, Intel's 40GB X25-V drive for $130 finally arrived at retail, giving those who need a fast boot drive a solution available today.

Even though capacity may be limited, RunCore demonstrated at CES that even the most modest of computers can be given new life and become usable again with an SSD upgrade.