Microsoft to Offer Free Virus Protection Software for
Windows
By ScottGilbertsonNovember 19, 2008

Microsoft plans to offer Windows users a new antivirus
package designed to protect the OS from viruses, spyware,
rootkits and trojans. The new software is tentatively code-
named Morro, and will be available for free to Windows XP,
Vista and 7 users sometime in the second half of 2009.
The new software will reportedly use very minimal resources,
which means it should work well with older PCs. If fact,
Microsoft says Morro has been specially designed for older
PCs and low-spec machines popular in developing nations. In
addition to its minimal processor demands, Morro has been
developed to use very little bandwidth,making it ideal for those
without broadband connections.
Morro will replace Microsoft's current, paid service, Windows
Live OneCare, which has been available on a subscription
basis for $50 per year.
While a free, antivirus solution that ships withWindows would
be a boon for the average user, it could also mean trouble for
third-party software solutions. Given that a bundled solution
could raise antitrust concerns -and would no doubt see
competitors likeMcAfee and Grisoft reaching for the lawyers-
Microsoftwill be offeringMorro as a separate download.
Assuming Morro can deliver decent security it should be a
welcome free addition to Windows, but we don't suggest
throwing away your third-party software just yet. Antivirus
software suites will likely continue to hold an edge over Morro
by offering additional handy tools - like passwordmanagers,
identity theft protection and browser-based phishing
protection.
Still, if you've been runningWindowswith no antivirus software
at all,Morrowill no doubt be better than nothing, and it's hard to
arguewith free.

Read text I and answer questions 31 to 36.

TEXT I

Beware the power of the blog

Companies may not like blogs, but if they ignore them
they may be inviting some PR disasters


The number of blogs on the internet is doubling every five
months, according to blog-tracking site Technorati. The total is
now around 20 million, with around 1.3 million posts made each
day. Most are no more interesting than overhearing another
person's telephone call, but there are exceptions that can have a
remarkable impact.



(from http://www.computing.co.uk/itweek/comment/ 2145491/beware-power-blog, retrieved on September 24th, 2008)

          Green is the hot topic these days, and the concept
     is having an impact on the way people think about
     datacenters. Companies around the world are
     announcing ways to save energy and reduce costs by
5   buying new hardware and services. Yet, there is little
     guidance on how you can take action to control energy
     costs. In the past, electricity has been treated as an
     overhead expense, like the cost of space. But with rising
     power costs and issues regarding reliability, supply, and
10  capacity, electricity requires its own specific strategy.
          Projects regarding performance optimization and
     cost reduction are a part of everyday best practices in
     nearly every area of business. So why not treat energy
     cost in the same way?
15      As Information Technologies (IT) pros, many of us
     make decisions about the configuration and setup of
     servers, the specifications on the equipment our
     organizations purchase, and the requirements for
     datacenter upgrades and construction. We even provide
20  early design input during application development. When
     it comes to these projects, we obviously have a golden
     opportunity to be green and influence the energy
     efficiency of any datacenter.
          The first part of any strategy is to know your current
25  energy usage. You need to know where your energy is
     used and by what specific equipment, as well as what
     usage is efficient and what is wasteful in the datacenter.
     Unfortunately, it's rare to find power-consumption
     metering in place that can break down usage to a level
30  where people can see the results of their actions. Most
     organizations typically only see a monthly power bill
     that rolls up consumption into an overall bottom line.
     This offers little incentive for saving energy since
     individuals never see the impact of their decisions, and
35  there is no way for them to prove that their changes
     have actually saved energy.
          One of the first issues people confront when
     considering a green datacenter initiative is whether they
     have executive support. For the purpose of the article, I
40  am going to assume the answer is "not yet." Executive
     support requires a serious commitment that provides
     resources and budget for your initiative. And while there
     is a lot of talk about green datacenters, the reality is
     that there is still often a lack of serious support at the
45  executive level. If you did already have such executive
     support, you would probably be running a green
     datacenter right now.
          Still, even assuming you are not getting the support
     you need, there is a great deal you can do to push your
50  green datacenter initiative forward. So how do you
     determine effective actions to take in achieving your
     goals? Fortunately, energy efficiency is not a new
     concept and there is a lot that IT pros can learn from
     other industries. [.]
55      Anyway, for whichever direction you choose,
     planning an energy efficiency program for your datacenter
     will require collaboration across groups in IT. Until
     recently, the typical approach to planning IT solutions
     has been to ignore power costs early on during the design
60  phase, focusing on the hardware and software being
     purchased, along with the labor and hosting costs of
     the solution. When power is buried in the overhead cost
     of running solutions in a datacenter, energy efficiency
     is a low priority. Exposing the actual power being
65  consumed by solutions is the first critical step in changing
     the behavior of your organization.

By Dave Ohara
TechNet Magazine, October 2007

Good Stuff? - A Consumption Manifesto:
The Top Ten Principles of Good Consumption
Consumption is one of life's great pleasures. Buying
things we desire, traveling to beautiful places, eating
delectable food: icing on the cake of life. But too often the
effects of our blissful consumption make for a sad story.
Giant cars exhaling dangerous exhaust, hog farms pumping
out harmful pollutants, toxic trash pestering poor
neighborhoods - none of this if there weren't something
to sell.
But there's no need to trade pleasure for guilt. With
thoughtfulness and commitment, consumption can be a force
for good. Through buying what we need, produced the way
we want, we can create the world we'd like to live in.
To that end and for the future, a Consumption Manifesto:
Principle One. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This brilliant triad
says it all. Reduce: Avoid buying what you don't need-
and when you do get that dishwasher/lawnmower/toilet,
spend the money up front for an efficient model. Re-use:
Buy used stuff, and wring the last drop of usefulness out of
most everything you own. Recycle: Do it, but know that
it's the last and least effective leg of the triad. (Ultimately,
recycling simply results in the manufacture of more things.)
Principle Two. Stay close to home. Work close to home
to shorten your commute; eat food grown nearby; support
local businesses; join local organizations. All of these will
improve the look, shape, smell, and feel of your community.
Principle Three. Internal combustion engines are polluting,
and their use should be minimized. Period.
Principle Four. Watch what you eat. Whenever possible,
avoid food grown with pesticides, in feedlots, or by
agribusiness. It's an easy way to use your dollars to vote
against the spread of toxins in our bodies, land, and water.
Principle Five. Private industries have very little incentive
to improve their environmental practices. Our consumption
choices must encourage and support good behavior; our
political choices must support government regulation.
Principle Six. Support thoughtful innovations in
manufacturing and production. Hint: Drilling for oil is no
longer an innovation.
Principle Seven. Prioritize. Think hardest when buying
large objects; don't drive yourself mad fretting over the small
ones. It's easy to be distracted by the paper bag puzzle,
but an energy-sucking refrigerator is much more worthy of
your attention. (Small electronics are an exception.)
Principle Eight. Vote. Political engagement enables the
spread of environmentally conscious policies. Without
public action, thoughtful individuals are swimming
upstream.
Principle Nine. Don't feel guilty. It only makes you sad.
Principle Ten. Enjoy what you have-the things that are
yours alone, and the things that belong to none of us. Both
are nice, but the latter are precious. Those things that we
cannot manufacture and should never own-water, air, birds,
trees-are the foundation of life's pleasures. Without them,
we're nothing. With us, there may be nothing left. It's our
choice.
Umbra Fisk, Grist Magazine.
Slightly adapted from: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1470
Access on June 1, 2007.

          Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
     honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
     a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
     eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
 5    folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
     Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
     gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
     meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
     an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
 10    one.
          Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
     the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
     the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
     population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
 15    skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
     creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
     Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
     "Android science."
          Besides the justification for making robots
 20    anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
     environments with architectural features such as stairs,
     Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
     humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
     natural communication. "Appearance is very important
 25    to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
     says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
     media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
     our future is to interact naturally with people."
          Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
 30    aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
     computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
     for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
     Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
     Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
 35    to understand more about ourselves.
          To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
     Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
     cognitive science research can use the robot to study
     human perception, communication and other faculties.
 40    This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
     as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
     collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
     humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
     standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
 45    neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
     to implement processes that support it in the android."
          One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
     his artificial creations on real people. He began research
     four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
 50    casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
     mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
          Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
     people's comfort zones. Because the android's
     appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
 55    differences in motion and responses will make it seem
     strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
     overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
     natural way it moves.
          Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
 60    authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
     thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
     he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
     teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
     Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
 65    Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
     answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006