Download IE 9.0.2 for Windows 7 SP1 and Earlier – Patch Critical Vulnerabilities

Internet Explorer 9 has been pushed first to version 9.0.1 a couple of months ago, and now to v9.0.2 by two update packages released by Microsoft. 

IE 9.0.2 is currently available through Windows Update as the August 2011 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer, and IE 9.0.1 was also served automatically to users through WU as the June 2011 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer. 

Essentially, IE 9.0.2, as v9.0.1 before it, is nothing more than the result of the integration of a range of patches designed to fix security vulnerabilities affecting the browser. The version change reflects the fact that a number of security holes have been plugged. 

No less than seven security vulnerabilities have been resolved by the patches packed inside the August 2011 Cumulative Security Update for IE. 

“This security update resolves five vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer that were disclosed in coordination with Microsoft and two publicly disclosed vulnerabilities,” revealed Tyson Storey, Program Manager, Internet Explorer. 

“The most severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user visits a malicious, specially crafted Web page using IE. Users who run without administrative rights are more secure in general and should be less impacted than other users (…).

Microsoft has slapped a severity rating of Critical for the August 2011 Cumulative Security Update for IE6, IE7, IE8, and IE9. 

Obviously, only customers running Windows 7 SP1, Windows 7 RTM and Windows Vista SP2, as well as their server equivalents, will be able to update to IE 9.0.2. 

Customers running Internet Explorer 9 on top of Windows 7 need to know that only two of the vulnerabilities affecting their flavor of the browser are rated Critical, namely XSLT Memory Corruption Vulnerability - CVE-2011-1963, and Style Object Memory Corruption Vulnerability - CVE-2011-1964. 

Another two vulnerabilities are rated Important and the remaining two just Moderate, with one of the IE security holes not affecting IE9 at all. 

The Redmond company has labeled the August 2011 Cumulative Security Update for IE6, IE7, IE8, and IE9 as a priority in terms of deployment, and Microsoft advices customers to deploy the patches as soon as possible. 

At the time of this article, no attacks targeting the IE vulnerabilities patched in August 2011 had been detected. Nonetheless, now that the patches are out there’s always an increase in risk associated with attackers reverse engineering the security updates and producing working exploits that can be used in attacks. 

Internet Explorer Platform Preview 2 10.0.1008.16421 is available for download here.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows 7 and Windows 7 SP1 is available for download below:

IE 9 for Windows 7 / 2008 R2 x86

IE 9 for Windows 7 / 2008 R2 x64

IE 9 for Windows Vista / 2008 x86

IE 9 for Windows Vista / 2008 x64

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9 in Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition (KB2559049)

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9 in Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB2559049)

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9 in Windows 7 x64 Edition (KB2559049)

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9 in Windows Vista x64 Edition (KB2559049)

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9 in Windows Server 2008 (KB2559049)

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9 in Windows 7 (KB2559049)

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9 in Windows Vista (KB2559049)

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Nearly-Universal Cure for Viral Infections Developed

For many decades, doctors have been using antibiotics to kill off infecting bacteria. However, the field of medicine has been lacking a similarly-effective tool for fighting viral infections. Now, MIT experts propose a new type of drug that does just that. 

Viral agents are responsible for triggering a host of unpleasant and potentially-lethal medical conditions, such as for example influenza, the common cold, hemorrhagic fevers, Ebola and even certain forms of cancer. 

Fighting these viruses is proving to be extremely difficult, and doctors have been complaining about the fact that they don't have access to any potent drugs capable of fighting back for many years. 

Now, investigators at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory say they managed to synthesize a new drug that has a nearly-universal effect on cells in the human body that have been infected. The compound is literally able to identify only diseased cells, and give them to order to shut down.

The most remarkable thing about this drug is that it works selectively, in the sense that it doesn't do significant damage to healthy tissue around the infected cells. Details of the study appear in the July 27 issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLoS One.

During early experiments conducted at MIT, researchers found the drug to be effective against an array of no less than 15 selected viruses, including rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, H1N1 influenza, a stomach virus, a polio virus, dengue fever and several other types of hemorrhagic fever.

“In theory, it should work against all viruses,” Lincoln Laboratory’s Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group senior staff scientist Todd Rider explains. He was the expert who invented the new technology.

Rider says that the approach functions in a fairly straightforward manner – the drug is designed to track down the chemical signature of a very specific type of ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is only produced in cells that have been infected by viral agents. 

Because this chemical is not produce in any healthy tissue, there is no risk of the compound affecting healthy cells in the body. What this means is that – once the technology is perfected – it could have very few or no side-effects.

Infectious agents such as the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) could also be counteracted using the new, broad-spectrum approach, Rider explains. He conducted the work with MIT experts Scott Wick, Christina Zook, Tara Boettcher, Jennifer Pancoast and Benjamin Zusman.

The work was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the New England Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Previous funding was secured from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

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Intel Confirms Ivy Bridge CPUs Will Feature Enhanced Quick Video Capabilities

Intel has just confirmed that its next-generation Ivy Bridge processors will feature an enhanced version of the Quick Sync technology introduced with its current second generation Core chips, which, among other features, will enable on-the-fly encoding for HD video conferencing.

Intel will talk about these new capabilities in a technical session entitled “Media innovations in the Intel microarchitecture codenamed Ivy Bridge,” that will be held during the 2011 Fall IDF.

“In this session, you will hear about the media innovations (feature, performance and quality) in the new Intel Microarchitecture Codename Ivy Bridge. These innovations continue to improve the user experience on client PC platforms and enable exciting new applications. 

“You will also hear from Intel and Microsoft experts on the details on how to build end to end high definition video conferencing solutions that will be brought to main stream by the Intel Quick Sync Video technology in Ivy Bridge,” reads the session's descriptions as posted on the Intel IDF website.

Ivy Bridge is the code name used for the 22nm die shrink of the current Sandy Bridge chips and features basically the same architecture, but with a few minor tweaks and improvements.

This includes a new on-die GPU that will come with full DirectX 11 support as well as with 30% more EUs than Sandy Bridge, in order to offer improved performance.

In addition, the processor cores have also received some minor tweaks as their AVX performance was slightly increased and Intel has updated the integrated PCI Express controller to the 3.0 standard.

The move will benefit multi-GPU systems as well as users who use high-performance PCI Express SSDs and other such devices that require high data bandwidth.

The rest of the changes brought with Ivy Bridge come from the new 7-series Panther Point chipsets, which pack native USB 3.0 support.

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Gigabyte Prepares LGA 2011 Motherboard with 8 DIMM Slots

Even though there is still quite some time left until Intel officially releases the X79 chipset for Sandy Bridge-E processors, a new picture of an upcoming Gigabyte LGA 2011 motherboard featuring eight DIMM sockets has recently hit the Web.

This is most certainly not going to be Gigabyte's most advanced board based on the X79 chipset, but it gives us a pretty good idea on what we can expect from future LGA 2011 workstation motherboards.

The first thing that one notices when taking a look at the GA-6PXSV is the fact that the board comes equipped with no less than eight DIMM memory sockets, which enable up to 64GB of system memory to be installed in a quad-channel configuration.

Right to the left of these, Gigabyte has placed the board's expansion slots, which include a pair of PCI Express x16 slots, one PCIe x8 slot, one PCI Express x4 slot as well as a legacy 32-bit PCI slot. Both the x8 and x4 PCIe slots are open ended.

Storage is provided by no less than six 6Gbps SATA ports, driven by the X79 PCH, and the GA-6PXSV also features two SAS 6Gbps ports placed right near the board's left margin.

Other features include USB 3.0 connectivity, support for the enterprise version of Intel's Rapid Storage Technology (IRST), and a six-phase CPU PWM with DrMOS MOSFET transistors. 

On the back of the GA-6PXSV, outside of the regular connectors, users will also find a pair of KVM network ports.

Intel's Sandy Bridge-E processors are expected to debut in the forth quarter of 2011 and the initial CPU batch will include three chips, two featuring a six-core design and a quad-core model. The Gigabyte GA-6PXSV is also expected to debut in Q4 2011. (via XtremeSystems)

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Doro PDF Writer 1.64

A software application that helps you create PDF files

Doro PDF Writer lets you create a colored PDF file from any windows program. The Setup contains all what you need for creating pdf files. After installation you have an additional printer called 'Doro PDF Writer'. You can encrypt the pdf with 128-bit password protection. Further, 'copy and paste' and printing can be prevented. This printer is working under Windows 7 [32 and 64 Bit] / Vista [32 and 64 Bit] / 2003 Server [incl. Terminal Services / Citrix XenApp with multiple concurrent users] [32 and 64 Bit] / XP [32 and 64 Bit] / 2000 / NT4 and Windows ME / 98SE / 98 / 95.


After installation you can also start the 'Doro.exe' executable directly to convert .ps [PhostScript] files into .pdf files.
See Doro.ini in the install directory for automation. You can specify all settings and set auto-printing. These settings can also be setup in the registry at HKCU\Software\CompSoft\Doro\Ini.
Please note that the real work is done by 'GhostScript'. Which will be also installed during setup.
To prevent that small non-standard fonts are printed as bitmaps, reduce the 'Threshold to switch between downloading bitmap or outline fonts' at Control Panel | Printers | Doro PDF Writer | Properties | Fonts | Send Fonts As... in some Windows versions.
For Windows 95A, you must install 'Windows Sockets 2.0'. You can download this from Microsoft. [Q182108]

How to use:

Simply start Microsoft Word.

Write your document, also colored pictures can be included.

Select on the print dialog the printer labeled 'Doro PDF Writer' and press 'OK'.

On the Doro window which appears after that, you can specify some additional options.

Press 'Create'.

Now you have a colored pdf file.

Requirements:

 · For Windows 95A, you must install Windows Sockets 2.0

What's New in This Release:

 · 'Recent Items' is now working

Download here

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Windows 8 Centric Event Will Not Be Preceded by Pre-Sessions

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8-centric event scheduled approximately a month from now will not start with the usual dose of pre-sessions that participants at the Redmond company’s conferences must already be familiar with. 

Whether it was the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) or TechEd, or a number of additional Microsoft events, pre-sessions were generally a rule, and for the few past months it appeared that BUILD was going to be no exception. 

Announced in June 2011, the BUILD Windows is applauded by Microsoft as the first place to get deep insight into the next major iteration of Windows. 

Until earlier this week, the Redmond company had put pre-sessions on the list for BUILD attendants that were looking to warm up for the event. Pre-sessions were planned for September 12. 

Now it looks like Microsoft is just going to jump right into BUILD, since the pre-sessions have been canceled, as revealed by Mary-Jo Foley. 

“In order to better focus on all the new content that will be covered at BUILD, we decided to optimize for the four main days of the event, which will include an enormous number of speakers and sessions. Registration is open on Monday but there will not be any formal sessions for attendees that day. We’re communicating the change now so people have the option to change their travel arrangements,” reads the official statement from the software giant on the matter. 

This means that while BUILD participants will get to register on September 12, 2011, the first day of the conference will be September 13. 

Of course, with pre-session now canceled, the BUILD keynote will also become the opening moment for the event. The keynote is scheduled for September 13, between 9:00am - 11:00am. 

Personally, I don’t think that scrapping the pre-sessions will have any impact on the Windows 8 BUILD event. What about you?

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