Ford's Sync infotainment platform may not be helping/distracting all that many drivers just yet, but Keyspan isn't ignoring those early adopters out there, with it now introducing what may well be the first accessory for the platform. That distinction, as you might expect, goes to the company's new iPod Sync cable, which'll work with everything from the first generation iPod mini to the recently-released iPod touch. In addition to displaying iPod content on the Sync's screen, the cable will also let you control the iPod from the Sync media system, and it'll even charge the iPod while it's connected (although only when the vehicle is running). You will have to fork over a somewhat hefty $50 for that convenience, however, which Keyspan will gladly take from you right now.
iPod Sync Cable for Ford Sync media system
Microsoft patches nine bugs in Windows, IE, Word
Microsoft Corp. today released six security bulletins that patched nine vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Outlook Express and SharePoint. But for the second time in two months, it yanked an update at the last minute.
Four of the six updates were rated critical, Microsoft's highest threat warning, while the remaining two were judged important, the next-lowest notch in the company's four-step scoring system.
MS07-057, the critical update to IE, should be patched first, said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc. "It's an update for every version of IE and for every supported version of Windows, so its impact is across the board," he said. Of the four vulnerabilities patched by the update, three are related to address-bar-spoofing, the practice of disguising the URL shown by a browser to trick users into thinking they're visiting a safe or legitimate site. Two of those three were publicly disclosed in February and July, the first by Polish researcher Michal Zalewski and Danish researcher Jakob Balle of Secunia, the second by Zalewski alone.
Although Microsoft said today that it had no information to indicate that any of the IE vulnerabilities, the address-spoofing bugs included, had been exploited, Storms said he wasn't so sure. "The address bar spoofs would be perfect for the quintessential phishing campaign," he said. Exploits that leverage the vulnerability, he explained, would mask the URLs of bogus sites with fake addresses of legitimate sites and they could trick even users who pay attention to what's in a browser's address bar when they head to important pages, such as those where they log into online banking accounts.
"Nobody can keep a secret like this for eight months, so one has to assume that the bug [disclosed in February] has been in use for some time," said Storms.
For the most part, however, today's updates were yawners for Tom Cross, a researcher with IBM Internet Security Systems Inc.'s X-Force. "There's nothing here that is a huge, huge concern," said Cross. "They're just not that different from the things security professionals see every day. But that's good news, isn't it?"
Microsoft also patched critical vulnerabilities in the following software products:
- Outlook Express on Windows XP and 2000, and Windows Mail on Vista.
- Microsoft Word 2000 and XP for Windows PCs and Word 2004 on the Mac.
- All supported versions of Windows except Vista
New 9rules Design
Very glad the update of 9rules.com.Cool new interface and some another options , when you get some points (stage) you will get point's medal in your profile , example - i have 100 points 
But if you new at 9rules - it is very difficult to be oriented.
Hacker breaks into eBay server
A malicious hacker broke into an eBay Inc. server on Friday and temporarily suspended the accounts of a "very small" number of members, the company said.
"We were able to block the fraudster quickly before any permanent damage had been done. At no point did the fraudster get any access to financial information or other sensitive information," eBay spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said via e-mail.
EBay has "secured and restored" the affected accounts and is calling the affected users, she said, without specifying how many accounts the hacker accessed and tinkered with.
"The fraudster did this by accessing externally visible servers, not by hacking into the eBay site," Sharpe said.
She didn't immediately reply to follow up questions from IDG News Service seeking clarification on what is an "externally visible" server and how it's different from an eBay site server.
EBay faces attacks to compromise its systems "every day," Sharpe said. "After learning of the recent situation, we quickly reacted to it," she said.
"As we continue to lock down on the traditional ways that bad guys have attempted to exploit our system, it is only natural that they will look for new ways to get in. It is an ongoing battle," she said.
The incident, first reported by e-commerce news site AuctionBytes, happened little over a week after someone used an eBay discussion forum to post confidential information about eBay users.
The previous incident led the e-commerce giant to shut down the forum, one that ironically was devoted to the discussion of security issues.
The perpetrator of that confidential data disclosure posted the names and contact information of 1,200 eBay members on the company's Trust & Safety discussion forum, along with credit card numbers that were later determined to be invalid.
EBay eventually concluded that the attacker obtained the information via a phishing scheme, tricking individual members into disclosing the data.
Friday's hack has quite a few eBay members rattled, judging by a long discussion forum thread about the incident.
In that thread, some affected eBay members report receiving e-mails from a hacker identified as Vladuz saying that he had targeted them for posting forum comments that were critical of him.
Vladuz has in the past reportedly stolen login information that has allowed him to post messages to eBay discussion forums as if he were an eBay employee.
In its article , AuctionBytes said Vladuz has been targeting eBay for about 10 months.
Sharpe didn't immediately reply to the question whether eBay knows who was behind Friday's attack.
Google tools to power virtual worlds
Virtual-worlds platform developer Multiverse Network is set to announce a partnership Tuesday that will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google's online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth.
The idea is simple: Multiverse's technology--which gives game developers tools to design custom virtual worlds--will let those designers pick and choose from most of the millions of 3D models created using Google's 3D software tool SketchUp, and to import pieces of terrain, as defined by entering specific longitude and latitude data, from Google Earth.
If you want to build a virtual world centered on, say, downtown San Francisco, you could use the new technology to create the area itself and populate it with the digital versions of real-world buildings that have been created and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse.
"The goal is to grab things from the 3D Warehouse when looking at things in Google Earth and then make an instant multiverse world," said Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges. "What we've done is provide a more streamlined interface for using (Google's technology) as a virtual-world production tool."
Until now, incorporating this kind of information from Google has mostly been the province of fantasy. For some time, Multiverse has made it possible to upload some SketchUp models into a virtual world created using its platform. But the technology the company plans to announce Tuesday, informally called "Architectural Wonders," brings the concept to much more well-rounded fruition, and answers what some people have been crying out for as obvious and necessary technology integration.
"Google's mission statement is to make all the world's information universally available and useful," said Jerry Paffendorf, co-author of the Metaverse Roadmap and co-founder of a stealth start-up called Wello Horld. "So I would say this (is about) making all the world universally available and useful, and that's why this is so fascinating."
For Paffendorf, one of the most vocal proponents of a 3D massively multiplayer environment based on Google Earth and SketchUp information, Multiverse's innovation is nothing short of groundbreaking.
He said he's particularly excited and hopeful that the Architectural Wonders project will allow virtual-world designers to incorporate not just models and terrain from Google Earth, but also much of the metadata that makes it so powerful: the personal notations and photographs that millions of users have added to it.
Of course, Multiverse's project is not the only one that has sprung up to make use of this data. Google is rumored to be working on a prototype virtual world, a beta test of which may or may not be under way at Arizona State University.
Another project is SceneCaster, a new technology unveiled at last week's Demo conference that allows anyone to make 3D "scenes" incorporating models from the 3D Warehouse that can then be attached to blogs or Facebook pages or even to Flickr.
Both SceneCaster and Multiverse's Architectural Wonders projects will be shown at the Virtual Worlds conference, which starts Wednesday in San Jose, Calif.
But because not much is known about Google's stealth project and since SceneCaster does not appear to be a massively multiplayer experience, Multiverse's Architectural Wonders efforts may well prove to be the first publicly available attempt to bring vast amounts of data and models Google is making freely accessible into a working virtual world.
For now, the technology is in its very early iterations. A demonstration seen exclusively last week by CNET News.com revealed what is still fairly rudimentary technology, featuring a single avatar wandering around a largely barren terrain. However, as the avatar moved, it eventually arrived in an area where it was able to move easily among models of structures like the Empire State Building, the St. Louis arch and Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers.
Multiverse also showed News.com its tool for selecting terrain grabbed from Google Earth. It appears to be a simple design that will make it easy for designers creating virtual worlds using Multiverse's platform to quickly enter geographic data and then to import whatever territory is defined directly into their new 3D environment.
Multiverse's technology has reached the point where it can support as many as 1,000 users per server, meaning any virtual world built using its platform and incorporating the Google Earth and 3D Warehouse models could see hundreds or even thousands of users running around inside it.
And while some might wonder why anyone would want to spend time in a virtual New York when they could be in the real place, Paffendorf, who lives in Brooklyn, has an answer.
"Simply put, if you're not there, you don't have that option," he said. "I would go exploring Brooklyn like that, for sure, to see what I'm missing."
Dell Readies MacBook Pro Rival
Dell is expected to introduce a successor to its high-end ultraportable PC that will sell head to head against Apple's MacBook Pro, according to sources familiar with Dell's plans. The Dell XPS M1530, a successor to the M1330 that shipped in the summer, would have a 15.4-inch display, Intel Core 2 Duo options from 1.5 GHz to 2.6 GHz, and an Nvidia GeForce 8400M or 8600M graphics processor, the technology enthusiast site Engadget reported. The M1330 has a 13.3-inch display, an optional GeForce 8400M processor, and Core 2 Duo options from 1.5 GHz to 2.2 GHz. A Dell spokesperson declined comment, but a source familiar with the PC maker's plans confirmed that the M1530 was in the works, and specs reported on the Web were from "90% to 95% good." The reported Nov. 7 release date, however, was "off," the source said. Dell's XPS notebooks are marketed primarily to gaming enthusiasts. The M1330 and upcoming M1530, however, are meant for a broader audience, particularly people who do a lot of nonprofessional photo and video editing, and watch high-definition video. Pricing for the M1330 starts at $1,399. Pricing for the M1530 have not yet been disclosed. Apple's MacBook Pro is aimed at a similar audience. The notebooks are available with 2.2-GHz or 2.4-GHz Intel(INTC) Core 2 Duo processors, and 15-inch or 17-inch displays. They also come with an Nvidia(NVDA) GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor, and up to 4 Gbytes of memory. The notebooks are an inch thick and weigh 5.4 and 6.8 pounds, respectively. Pricing starts at $1,999. The Dell XPS M1330, which is smaller than the MacBook Pro and comes with an Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, is available with up to 4 Gbytes of memory and weighs slightly less than 4 pounds. The notebook is slightly more than an inch thick. Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks have been selling well in the U.S. consumer market against PCs. Apple's portables accounted for 9.9% of U.S.-based retail notebooks sales in March, according to the NPD Group, a retail analysis firm. Dell, which sells mostly direct but is broadening its retail presence, isn't included in NPD's figures. Notebook shipments are rising a lot faster than desktops and are expected to eventually surpass the latter. Mobile PCs this year are expected to account for nearly 40% of the 264 million PCs expected to ship this year, an 11.2% increase from 2006, according to industry analyst firm iSuppli.
