RemoveWAT or Chew-WGA “Bypass Activate” Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Forever

RemoveWAT or Chew-WGA “Bypass Activate” Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Forever (Loader Alternative to Remove & Disable Activation Technologies).
Despite already has perfect and reliable Windows 7 activation crack based on royalty-OEM mechanism, hackers have managed to come out with a new activation crack method as an alternative to BIOS loader and OEM BIOS mod, which effectively bypass the activation requirement of the installed Windows 7 system, by removing and disabling Windows Activation Technologies (WAT).

The hack works to “activate” Windows 7 by bypassing activation altogether, and thus does not require any product key. Previously in Windows Vista, the attempt to permenantly bypass Windows Vista activation by stopping activation grace period countdown timer has been unsuccessful and foiled by Microsoft with anti-crack update.

In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, hackers attempt to block access of Windows Activation Technologies, comprising of SPP (Software Protection Platform) and SLC (Software Licensing Client), which manages and handles licensing and activation matters on the operating system to the core components or files which are required for its operation. By blocking, preventing, removing and disabling access to or loading of the activation and licensing related system files, SLUI will fail to start, causing activation been circumvented and Windows does not need to be activated anymore, for forever and permanently.

For example, the commands that been used to restrict access to Windows Activation Technologies (WAT) system files are:

takeown /F %WINDIR%\System32\sppcomapi.dll
icacls %WINDIR%\System32\sppcomapi.dll /deny *S-1-1-0:F


Where sppcomapi.dll is the library which controls most of the SPP functions, so nullifying this DLL disables all activation and licensing related functions. And as the activation functionality is disabled completely, the activation grace period (for free evaluation) does not matter anymore, although it may still continue to counting down to 0 days.

The crack is possible probably due to leniency allowed on the part of Microsoft on activation mechanism to avoid getting too many false-positive or complaint on activation error. However, by disabling and turning off the activation component of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, after the free trial evaluation activation free period of 30 days is expired, nag screen to notify and remind user to run genuine Windows and activate Windows 7 may appear from balloon tip at notification system tray, or when launching to run NotePad, WordPad, Calculator or even when opening Control Panel. Besides, there may be desktop watermark of this copy of Windows is not genuine appearing at four corners of the screen, and system cannot pass WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) validation which requires prior to install non-critical updates from Windows Update and some certain programs in Windows 7, such as Microsoft Security Essentials.

Thus, various hackers have came up with tools or utilities which deals with all “side-effects” that follow after activation scheme in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 is disabled and removed, so that Windows OS will continue to operate as it should (no automatic log off or shutdown), no nagging pop-up messages, no use genuine Windows or activate Windows now notification dialog box, and most importantly, pass WGA validation and permanently no product key required to activate the system.

Currently, two leading Windows 7 non-loader crack is RemoveWAT and Chew-WGA. Both tools initially start with different approach, but have since used rather similar crack method, as bugs are discovered and fixed. Another crack tool, Win7X Genuine Updates (Win7XGU) does not fully automate the process by requiring users to perform several steps to get genuine status, further signifies how difficult for hackers to tamper with Windows licensing system.

RemoveWAT



RemoveWAT, developed by Hazar and nononsence is a Windows 7 crack that completely removes Windows Activation Technologies from the system so that users can validate the illegal pirated copies of Windows 7 as genuine status (some reported as “Tampered Binary” in MGADiag due to patching), forever and permanently. RemoveWAT supports both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) and all editions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

RemoveWAT, which has been refreshed to RemoveWAT v1.9, also stops sppsvc service and patches DLL files such as slwga.dll, sppcomapi.dll and systemcpl.dll, where the last one removes the whole Windows activation section from the Control Panel’s System Properties. RemoveWAT also support silent install with /s switch, and can be integrated to Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 installation DVD.

Chew-WGA



Chew-WGA is a similar Windows 7 crack which is designed to test the security resistance of various software protections built into Windows 6.1.x operating systems. It works by restraining certain components of the software protection platform. Other than restricting access to sppcomapi.dll file, Chew-WGA also patches many SPP related files.

Chew-WGA, which currently updated to Chew-WGA v0.9, will make the system to return activated status, and Windows is activated message is displayed in Control Panel’s System Properties.

As crack based on removal of activation component involves patching, changes and modification to many system files, it’s likely to be easily detected and nullified by Microsoft, especially in next WGA update or Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. In fact, Software Protection Platform (SPP) has been effectively to counter unauthorized edit of system files, which may result in features or functionality of Windows been deactivated, reduced, disabled or removed, causing various error message when user wants to perform certain action. Thus, the cracks should never be executed on a system intended for continual use, and should only be used to extend the evaluation period to avoid reinstallation. In fact, to use Windows operating system any longer than 30 days, users should purchase a license.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purpose only.

Former Miss California Carrie Prejean made 7 other sex tapes, dozens of nude pics - report

It looks like Carrie Prejean spoke too soon when she called her recent sex tape the "biggest mistake" of her life.

Either the seven other sex tapes that have just surfaced aren't actually salacious, or else the former Miss California has a little more to atone for.

RadarOnline.com has just learned that the dethroned beauty queen has no less than eight sex tapes and 30 naked photos to her name. As in her previous sex tape, she performs solo on each video.

Some of the new sexy photographs that have been unearthed Prejean allegedly took herself, of own reflection in a mirror, alternately topless and completely naked.

Prejean created a national controversy earlier this year when she spoke out against gay marriage during the Miss USA pageant. Her stance put her at odds with the pageant committee, which she later sued for libel, claiming she had been discriminated against for her religious views.

Prejean settled out of court on November 3 after her first sex tape surfaced. On Wednesday she threatened to walk off Larry King Live when the host questioned her about the deal.

Perhaps she can chalk up the moment as another error to add to her growing list.

Google Chrome OS: A Nice Place to Visit, But?

Google's new OS, rumored to be released next week, could turn operating systems inside-out. But will it?

Google's Chrome operating system could mark a turning point in computing, but many questions remain. Today's rumor is the OS will be released to developers next week, answering some questions but probably raising even more. Google had previously promised Chrome OS, in some form, before the end of this year.

Chrome OS strikes me as being just enough Linux to allow an underpowered computer to run Chrome browser and connect to cloud-based applications. How exciting can that really be?

On a netbook, Chrome OS may be enough to provide mobile functionality. On a desktop, Chrome OS may turn a PC into a glorified terminal, relying on the Internet for nearly everything the user does.

There are many questions about Chrome OS, some of which may be answered when Google releases whatever it decides to make available to make good its promise to release the OS, in some form, before the end of this year.

Among those questions:
* Just how limited will Chrome OS be? What will and won't it do?
* Will it natively run third-party applications on the hardware where it resides? Or just to connect to applications in the Internet cloud?
* Will cloud apps need to be written specifically for Chrome?
* Will Chrome create a standard for the look-and-feel for cloud application?
* Might Chrome only run applications that Google hosts?
* Will Chrome require--or even use--a hard drive? Might Chrome OS netbooks have a small silicon drive and nothing else?
* When Google promises an end to security hassles, such a viruses, malware, or updates, what trade-offs are required?

Google has previously said Chrome is intended to be lightweight and get users connected to cloud applications quickly. The company seems to believe that cloud apps will become pervasive and will not require a very powerful machine to run them.

Thus, Google is creating a very lightweight browser (Chrome) to run atop what amounts to an embedded operating system (Chrome OS) running on netbooks (to be released next year).

I also expect the OS to include Gears, Google's technology for offline access to its cloud-based applications.

What will Chrome do beyond that? Maybe nothing. If Google really believes its cloud rhetoric and is really serious that Chrome OS will be virus-free, maybe the new OS won't run applications, just the browser and Gears?

Add a robust security mechanism, to make certain the cloud-based applications and Web sites haven't been tampered with, and Chrome could be a more secure operating system than we're used to. If only by keeping the computer from doing anything besides interacting with Web sites and web-based applications.

I find that idea strangely attractive, though it will certainly result in devices with limited functionality, just like today's netbooks. However, performance may actually be better since netbooks could be freed from laboring to run Windows and heavy Windows applications.

Google Chrome OS introduces a new computing model and may even change how we think about operating systems. Its importance hinges upon how widely and quickly cloud applications take center stage, what trade-offs customers are willing to make, and most importantly, what Chrome OS actually turns out to be.

Taylor Swift's Success: Too Much, Too Soon?

Taylor Swift became the youngest winner of country music's top award Wednesday night – but is the 19-year-old getting too many accolades too soon?

Not according to Faith Hill, who Swift has often cited as one of her longtime idols. "I think she worked her tail off the last couple [of years] and she deserves to win," Hill told PEOPLE Thursday of Swift's entertainer of the year award.

Added husband Tim McGraw, "I've been doing this a long time and she's got a better head on her shoulders than I do, so I don't know how anybody could complain about that."

But some have questioned Swift's rapid rise. Before Wednesday's CMAs, Wynonna Judd told USA Today that the teen's nomination for the prestigious award could be "too much of a good thing too soon." (Swift beat out country heavyweights Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney and George Strait.)

Judd later apologized to Swift in a note on her Web site, calling her "a beautiful, hard working young woman that deserves the success she has had."

But fellow country veteran Randy Travis also wondered if the award wasn't premature. "As a writer, she is a phenomenal talent," Travis told PEOPLE. "When you look at the body of work that she has written at the age when she came into this business, it's remarkable. It really is. But do I think that entertainer of the year might have been a little early? In my opinion, yes, for whatever that's worth."

Swift, who was 14 when she signed her first publishing deal, addressed the question after her historic win, telling reporters, "I feel like it's been fast but it's also been a growth curve. I've watched the CMA Awards for as long as I can remember, and I got to come to my first one when I was 15. I know what it means to win a CMA Award. So I look at it from both ways."

Microsoft admits its GPL violation; will reissue Windows 7 tool under open-source license

Microsoft said Friday that its inquiry confirms that a tool aimed to make it easier to load Windows 7 on a Netbook does in fact contain open-source code.

"After looking at the code in question, we are now able to confirm this was indeed the case, although it was not intentional on our part," Microsoft's Peter Galli said in a blog posting. "While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process. We have furthermore conducted a review of other code provided through the Microsoft Store and this was the only incident of this sort we could find.

As a result, Microsoft said it will make available next week the source code for the tool as well as the binaries under the terms of the General Public License (GPL v2). Microsoft will also make the tool again available to customers at the Microsoft store.

Microsoft had pulled the software utility down earlier this week after blogger Rafael Rivera noted in a posting that the tool appeared to use code from the open source ImageMaster project. (Of note, that project is now no longer available on CodePlex, where it had been posted).

Though somewhat arcane, the Windows USB/DVD Tool was Microsoft's answer to a tough problem--upgrading the operating system on Netbooks and other PCs without an optical drive.

Microsoft had been exploring for months different ways to handle the issue, eventually settling on this software program, released last month, which lets users take a downloadable copy of the operating system and create a bootable drive.

Releasing software under an open-source license is not entirely new to Microsoft, although Microsoft typically doesn't do so under the GPL, which it sees as one of the more restrictive of the open-source licenses.

The software maker did release a few Linux drivers under GPLv2, although it may have had its hand forced there as well. Some have suggested the drivers contained GPL code, meaning that they necessarily would have had to be released back under the same GPL license.

Twilight Director Rewrites Robsten History?

Everyone knows by now that Catherine Hardwicke is crackers. She's got a mouth like Megan Fox, but we still love her, right?

She's always kept it interesting when we've spoken with her, and she certainly didn't disappoint in her recent interview with Time.

Cath says nothing went down between Rob and Kristen during Twilight, but confirms they're giving it a shot now.

Hmmm, you sure about that time line, babe?

Hardwicke dishes:

"After I cast him, I told Rob, don't even think about having a romance with [Kristen]...She's under 18. You will be arrested."

Interesting. What legal guru is whispering in Catherine's ear? She continues telling Time she doesn't think anything went down on her watch.

"I didn't have a camera in the hotel room, I cannot say...but in terms of what Kristen told me directly, it didn't happen on the first movie. Nothing crossed the line while on the first film. I think it took a long time for Kristen to realize, OK, I've got to give this a go and really try to be with this person."

This isn't the first time C.H. has outted Robsten as Robsten. Over the summer she spilled how she'd seen Rob and Kristen's fascination with each other from the first time they were getting it on for Rob's audition.

Catherine also told us she totally approves that Rob and Kristen are a real-life couple now.

So what gives on the hush-hushing of what went down during the first film? Maybe Hardwicke doesn't really know. Hell, we don't even really know specifics, but well-placed sources that were on set of Twilight told us "something" was going on between R and K during filming.

The whole underage thing is a huge factor in why no one would want to blab about that. Also, Kristen was in a relaysh at the time, so no one wants to think of Rob as a homewrecker. But at the end of the day, we can tell you Robsten were developing during this whole friggin' first movie.

Rental car romps? Secret hotel room love confessions? Or just intense intellectual conversation? Maybe we'll never really know, but we can say Twilight was where Robsten started heating up.

So for you 25 percent who said Rob and Kristen's hand-holding pics weren't proof enough they were dating, does Hardwicke's most recent interview convince you at all?

Google Chrome OS Launching Next Week?

Google's much-anticipated operating system, Chrome OS, will be available for download next week, or so goes the latest buzz on the Internet. The latest talk about Google's operating system is courtesy of TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, who says this information comes from a "reliable source." This is the second rumor saying an early release of Chrome OS was imminent.

Last month, various sources in China were claiming devices running preview builds of the OS would be available for purchase as early as November. It also follows a string of premature reports of sightings of the OS in the wild that all turned out to be incorrect reports.

While Arrington's rumor may sound exciting, it's actually not that surprising considering Google's past statements. But if you're hoping to have Chrome OS running on your laptop before Thanksgiving you might be disappointed.

The Rumor

An early version of Google Chrome OS will be publicly available next week, according to Arrington. He also says this rumor falls in line with previous plans to release an early version of Chrome OS this fall.

Arrington also believes the early build of Chrome OS will lack support for hardware drivers, which have yet to be built. From the sounds of it, Arrington is talking about driver support for basic hardware components like network and graphics cards as opposed to peripheral equipment like printers and scanners. "A robust set of functioning drivers is extremely important to Chrome OS's success," Arrington said. "People will want to download this to whatever computer they use and have it just work."

Without driver support the OS will be essentially useless. So Arrington's best guess is that Chrome OS will only be ready to work on a small number of computers at launch, such as the Asus Eee PC and possibly some of Google's Chrome OS partners like Acer, Toshiba, and Hewlett-Packard.

Will We Really Get a Glimpse of Chrome OS Next Week?

When Google announced its new OS last fall the company said they would open source the code for Chrome OS "later this year." That would fall in line with Arrington's rumor, but Google also said that netbooks running Chrome OS wouldn't be available for consumers until the second half of 2010.

So what's likely to happen next week is that Google will make good on its promise and release the Chrome OS source code to developers. But that doesn't necessarily mean the average person will be able to download these files and get the OS up and running. Source code is just a collection of text files meant for software developers to tinker with.

As I understand it, to get the source code to work as a computer program, you need a compiler that brings all the source code together and turns it into something your computer can actually boot up.

So if Google is only releasing source code and not actual builds of the Chrome OS, getting it to work will probably be out of reach for most users. To give you an idea of how technical building from source code can be, check out Google's page detailing how to build your own version of Chrome for Mac. Good thing Google has already released a developer build that you can just download and install the easy way.

But who knows? Maybe Google will release a Chrome OS build that anyone can download and test. I sure hope so, but somehow I doubt it.

First Look: Shakira's Video for 'Give It Up To Me'

In a new video for her single "Give It Up to Me," Latin songstress Shakira trades her signature hip-shaking for a hip-hop vibe. Applying Jamaican dancehall footwork, traditional Thai dancing and a technique called “stepping,” which mixes the footsteps and handclaps of African American fraternity and sorority culture, the "She Wolf" singer turns up the heat again.

She's even called on hip-hop honcho Timbaland to produce the song and rapper Lil Wayne to make a guest appearance.


NASA spacecraft confirms water ice deposits on moon

Making a bigger splash than expected, the crash of an empty rocket stage in a permanently shadowed crater near the moon's south pole last month kicked up a surprising amount of water ice and vapor, confirming the presence of a potentially valuable resource for future space travelers.


"I'm here today to tell you that indeed, yes, we found water," said Anthony Colaprete, the project scientist and principal investigator for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. "And we didn't find just a little bit, we found a significant amount."

Holding up water jugs to make the point, he said "if you remember, a month ago we were talking about teaspoons going into glasses over football fields. Well, now I can say today that in the 20- to 30-meter (65- to 100-foot-wide) crater LCROSS made, we found maybe about a dozen of these two-gallon buckets worth of water."

And more than water. Data from the LCROSS instruments show signs of other compounds that may shed light on the moon's evolution.

"It's a whole lot more beyond the water," Colaprete said. "That's the exciting part in my mind, it's not only about the water now. There's actually a lot more here that we're going to be talking about in the months ahead, looking at the LCROSS data."

Said Greg Delory, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley: "This is not your father's moon. Rather than a dead and unchanging world, it could in fact be a very dynamic and interesting one that could tell us unique things about the Earth-moon system and the early solar system."

Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, said the discovery holds promise for future exploration. Using solar energy, future astronauts could, in theory, break down recovered ice and in effect live off the land.

"Water can be used for the kind of things we think about every day, drinking water if we have extended crews on the surface," he said. "You can break it down and have breathable air for crews to breathe. But also, if you have significant quantities of this stuff, water really is the constituents of one of the most potent rocket fuels: oxygen and hydrogen."

Whether the water ice detected by LCROSS might be accessible to future astronauts remains to be seen. But scientists were elated with the initial findings.

The $79 million LCROSS mission was launched June 18 as a companion payload to NASA's $504 million Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. Working in a 31-mile-high orbit, LRO is designed to create a high-resolution map of the moon's surface to help identify sites for future manned missions.

It also is measuring the solar and cosmic radiation that future lunar explorers will face and mapping out the surface topology, mineralogy, and chemical composition of Earth's nearest neighbor. One year will be spent scouting future landing sites followed by three years of purely scientific observations.

While LRO was launched directly to the moon by an Atlas 5 rocket, LCROSS and the booster's empty Centaur upper stage were sent into a looping four-month orbit back around the Earth.

The spacecraft aimed itself and the attached Centaur stage back at the moon, targeting a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole. Data from previous spacecraft indicated the presence of hydrogen in the polar regions, possibly associated with water ice just below the surface.

LCROSS mission managers initially selected a target crater known as Cabeus A, but after additional analysis of topographic data, the target was switched to nearby Cabeus, a crater measuring some 62 miles across and about two-and-a-half miles deep.

LCROSS successfully separated from the Centaur stage the night before impact, rotated 180 degrees to aim its instruments forward and then followed its doomed companion to the surface, trailing it by about four minutes.

The Centaur is believed to have hit the moon within about 650 feet of the planned target, blasting out a crater 65 feet to 100 feet across. Colaprete showed photographs from LCROSS Friday that clearly showed the plume of debris kicked up by the crash. Another photo showed the crater itself. LCROSS flew through the ejecta cloud, collecting data all the while, before crashing a short distance away.

The Centaur impact was not particularly impressive to the untrained eye--a pinpoint flash of light in the inky darkness of the crater's shadowed terrain--and many observers, expecting a more dramatic show as indicated in NASA animations, were disappointed.

But Colaprete said Friday the impact more than lived up to scientific expectations. Spectroscopic data from two instruments aboard LCROSS clearly showed the presence of water ice, along with a variety of other materials, in the ejecta plume.

"We can constrain right now how much water we think is in the field of view of our instrument," he said. "Based on these measurements, there is more than 100 kilograms in the field of view of our instrument. What does that mean, a hundred kilograms? That's the dozen or so two-gallon buckets I described.

"But what we need to do next is take all the information, the amount of ejecta, the size of the crater, how this all changed over time and actually reconstruct the entire event, understand how it all fits back into the ground along with all the other things we've seen in the ejecta plume to really understand this whole thing."

Delory said more analysis will be needed to figure out where the water ice originated.

"One possible source of the water is from comets," he said. "If that's true, and the lunar polar regions really are repositories for this material, they are a literal treasure trove of information in terms of the composition of comets, which are themselves indicative of early solar system conditions. That would be of extreme interest to many planetary scientists."

Another possibility, he said, is that the water ice is the result of chemical reactions that start with the solar wind, "which is basically an ionized gas streaming from the sun composed mainly of hydrogen."

"It impacts the lunar surface, undergoes chemistry, eventually these molecules hop around the moon and end up concentrated around the poles," he said. "Studying those deposits would tell us something about solar history, also about the history of chemical reactions occurring on the surface of the moon. Two completely different theories, we don't know which one is right yet."

Other sources are also possible, he said, including deposits from molecular clouds the solar system may have passed through earlier in its evolution as well as subtle chemical processes on the moon itself.

Hikaru Utada to Tour U.S., U.K. in January, February

The official website of singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada has confirmed on Friday that she is holding a concert tour in at least eight cities in the United States and the United Kingdom in January and February. The "In The Flesh 2010" tour will visit the following locations:

Date City
January 15 Honolulu, HI
January 21 Seattle, WA
January 24 San Francisco, CA
January 30 Las Vegas, NV
February 2 Chicago, IL
February 5 Boston, MA
February 8 New York, NY
February 12 London, UK

Most of the venues begin selling tickets this weekend. Utada made appearances in Hollywood, New York, and Miami this past March to promote her new English album, This Is The One. She planned another meet-and-greet tour in May, but had to cancel or delay her appearances due to "an acute case of left relapsing peritonsillitis."

Utada is an internationally known, bestselling pop artist born in New York City and raised in Japan and the United States. Her debut album, 1999's First Love, is still Japan's bestselling album ever with about 8 million copies sold. Bandai Visual used Utada's "Kiss & Cry" and "This is Love" songs for the Freedom anime project. Utada also sang the theme songs for the Casshern live-action movie remake and the Hana Yori Dango 2 live-action television adaptation.

More recently, she provided a 2007 remix of her 2000 cover of Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)" for the trailer to Evangelion:1.0 You are (Not) Alone (Evangelion Shin Gekijōban: Jo), as well as her "Beautiful World" song for the anime film itself. She also contributed the "Beautiful World -PLANiTb Acoustica Mix-" for the second film, Evangelion:2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (Evangelion Shin Gekijōban: Ha). In addition to her singing career, she played the heroine Pinoko in the 2001-2002 Black Jack net anime series.

Stephenie Meyer Reveals 'New Moon' Secret On Oprah

'I introduced the Volturi earlier than expected,' author tells the talk-show host.

Fans of Stephanie Meyer were pleasantly surprised when the author appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Friday (November 13) and revealed a secret about the second book in the series, "New Moon."

"I'm pretty open about my writing, but there was a different ending to 'New Moon.' Originally it was much quieter [and] in Bella's head," she revealed, adding that it was at the suggestion of her mom, Candy Morgan, that she changed the ending. "I introduced the Volturi earlier than expected and that whole scene at the end is there [because my mom thought it would be better that way]."

Meyer continued that the idea for "Twilight" came to her in a dream. Chapter 13 of "Twilight" is that dream, and from there she became obsessed with the story of a hot vampire falling in love with a teenage mortal girl. "I woke up. In the dream it was two people in a circular meadow and one of them was a sparkly boy and one was just a girl who was human and normal and the boy was a vampire, which was bizarre," she explained.

"It was a passion and frenzy when I started writing," she said, adding that she hadn't been familiar with vampire literature before writing the saga.

Since the first movie went into production, the franchise has become a hit and made Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart pop-culture royalty. And, yes, Meyer said that Pattinson is just as dreamy in person as he is in the film.

Answering Oprah's question about the actor's scent, Meyer said, "He smells great," adding, "Rob is hilarious. He is the funniest person. He's not at all like the Edward character. He's so different. He just doesn't look like anyone else, in a good way. He's very striking looking."

Dolly Parton endorses IE 8 Web Slices

Here's a topic I never thought I'd write about: Dolly Parton, the famed country singer, has endorsed Internet Explorer 8 and its Web Slices feature on YouTube.

During a minute-long video, Parton says she "wouldn't know a gigabyte from a snake bite. But the folks over at Microsoft sure know their computers." She goes on to say Microsoft checked out her "new" Web site and "turned us on to a little thing they call Web Slices."

According to a Microsoft representative, the software giant showed Parton's Web team "the new features in IE 8 and Silverlight, and they liked it so much, they wanted to implement it on their site."

Parton's site now features a three-tab Web Slice that includes her video diary, news on her career, and the option to buy some of her music. The Microsoft representative said in an e-mail that the software company "wasn't involved in the production or scripting" of Parton's Internet Explorer 8 endorsement.



Web Slices, which is available only in IE 8, enables users to keep up with sites they check often, such as ones for Web mail or weather reports. According to Microsoft, "if a Web Slice is available on a page, a green Web Slices icon will appear in the Command Bar." Users can simply click on that icon to subscribe to that page's Web Slice. Once complete, that Web Slice will be displayed in the user's Favorites Bar to make it easier to keep track of those sites the user often visits.

But the very fact that Parton (a portion of whose site is now available as a Web Slice, by the way), would endorse Internet Explorer 8 is a bit surprising. As she points out in the video, she "didn't even know there [were IE versions] 1 through 7."

Regardless, Parton seems to have found her stride. After all, like the singer says, maybe Internet Explorer 8 really is "just like your own little slice of heaven."

Rihanna Director Didn't Want 'Russian Roulette' Video To Be 'Too Obvious'

Anthony Mandler says clip had to be a metaphor, as opposed to a direct comment on Chris Brown assault.

The video for Rihanna's "Russian Roulette" is just as eerie as the song itself. In a preview that aired on German TV and stills that appeared on the fan site RihannaDaily.com, the singer is seen drowning, being shot at and imprisoned. Of course, there are scenes of her sitting at a table with a man seeing who can win the deadly game.

Director Anthony Mandler — who also helmed the singer's "Wait Your Turn" clip — said the video is the perfect embodiment of the haunting ballad.

"I think that with this song and the meaning of this song and how loaded it all is, no pun intended, how much imagery and perhaps symbolism that is loaded in this song, the only way to do it was to do something that was visually challenging," he told MTV News about the video, which premieres Friday (November 13) on "20/20."

Mandler thought of the video as a metaphor for Rihanna's very public life in the gossip pages, as opposed to a direct comment on her February assault by then-boyfriend Chris Brown.

"I think you can't effect change unless you're willing to take a risk," he said. "You can't get people to pay attention and understand unless you're willing to push the limit and try new things. The song, this situation, everything is so frontloaded with so much gossip and so much media coverage and so many emotions and stories that if you don't try to do something that is poetic and layered in symbolism, then you're either running from the truth or you're being too obvious with it."

So, instead of literally telling the story of lovers in a dangerous game, Rihanna and Mandler decided to make that the subplot. "I think our objective was to run down our lane with it and to step out of the drama and the gossip," he said. "To get deeper and be more symbolic."

Hottests won’t buy the album without Jaebeom

The dearly missed boys of 2PM are finally back with their new album, 1:59. However, as the title of the album suggests, 2PM failed to be complete as a seven member group with their former leader, Jaebeom still out of sight. Although the return of the boys would normally excite Hottests like no other, it seems like not all of them are happy about the group's "incomplete" comeback. Seven copies of the following poster were posted on the walls near the Seoul City Hall Station around 7 PM on the November 12.

"2PM, We Won't Buy Unless There's 7!!! -2PM Fans"

"We will dispose the posters ourselves at 10 PM, so please do not take them down."

This poster was a clear declaration that the Hottests will now engage in another boycott by not purchasing 2PM's new album.

1-in-4 now use Firefox to surf the Web

Mozilla also updates Firefox 3.6 Beta, just two weeks after first preview

One in every four people on the Internet are now using Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser, a Web metrics company said this week.

Firefox reached the 25% milestone on Sunday, said Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of California-based Net Applications, which measures browser usage by tracking the machines that visit the 40,000 sites it monitors for clients.

"We always thought that Firefox would be in a great position to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer if it made 10%," Vizzaccaro said today. "Now one in four people globally are browsing the Internet with Firefox."

Mozilla passed the 10% market share mark in March 2006, said Vizzaccaro.

The move past 25% wasn't a surprise. Last month, for example, Net Applications estimated Firefox's share as slightly over 24%.

Mozilla also touted the milestone. Mitchell Baker, the former CEO of Mozilla Corp. and the current chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, mentioned the 1-in-4 figure in a post to her personal blog earlier this week when she trumpeted Firefox's fifth-year anniversary.

Mozilla released Firefox 1.0 on Nov. 9, 2004.

Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's community coordinator, echoed Vizzaccaro's take on the significance of Firefox's climb. "Before we launched Firefox 1.0, the people on the team, the eight or 10 of us, said that if we could get to 5%, we would stay alive and stay meaningful. If you don't get to 5%, you don't have a seat at the table."

As Firefox surpassed that share, Mozilla upped its goals, Dotzler continued. "When we got to 10% globally, closer to 20% in Europe, we knew that then we have enough of a platform, not just a strong seat at the table but a strong seat, that when we sat down at standards bodies, we were on an equal footing with IE. We had some authority that our large user base gave us," he said.

As Firefox's share grew, Mozilla's ambitions did, too. "When we reached 20%, we became the favored browser for anyone who understood what a browser was," Dotzler said.

For the week of Nov. 1 through Nov. 7, Firefox accounted for 25.1% of all browsers, said Vizzaccaro. Internet Explorer (IE), meanwhile, led all rivals with 63.3%, while Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome and Opera Software's Opera followed, in that order, with 4.4%, 3.9% and 2.3%, respectively.

But while Firefox may have the second spot locked up for now, it faces increased competition from Chrome. Last month, for instance, Chrome's market share gains outpaced Firefox's increase for the fourth time in the last year. If Chrome sustains its average growth rate of the last three months, it will reach a 5% share in March 2010, six months ahead of Google's announced goal of September 2010. Google's next objective after that is to make 10% sometime in 2011.

Also this week, Mozilla updated the beta of Firefox 3.6 to version 2, quickly following the Oct. 30 launch of Beta 1.

According to notes posted Wednesday on the Mozilla site, about a quarter-million people are running Firefox 3.6's preview. Mozilla has tentatively set the launch of 3.6's release candidate for Nov. 26, which is the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., and is shooting for a final build before the end of the year.

Firefox can be downloaded from Mozilla's sites in versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Leona Lewis turns down £1million offer to pose for Playboy

Leona Lewis has been offered an astonishing £1 million to pose nude by US men’s magazine Playboy.

The singer, who is bidding for her fourth No1 on Sunday with latest release Happy, formally received the seven-figure contract offer earlier this week.


Last night, a close friend revealed: 'Playboy think Leona would make a real statement for them as a magazine, and show they remain relevant in the modern world.

'They are prepared to pay through the nose to sign up Leona.

Ms Lewis - who sang at the Children In Need concert at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday evening - rose to fame in 2007 when she won the X Factor.

Bizarrely, last month, X Factor judge Dannii Minogue told how she had decided to pose for a Playboy front cover shoot 14 years ago.

She admitted she had decided to strip to pay off crippling debts – but she insisted she had no regrets over her decision.

At the time, Ms Minogue owed more than £150,000 but she was too proud to turn to her older sister Kylie for help.

Ms Minogue made her confession in an interview with Piers Morgan for his ITV chat-show.

She admitted: 'I don't regret it, but I feel relieved that people know why I did it - it's a huge weight off my shoulders.

'It was actually fun and I did feel liberated. I looked at the pictures and thought, "I look all right!"

'My girlfriends went out to buy it and told me I looked beautiful. It then felt like a celebration of me.'

The magazine is now 56 years old but still sells more than 2.5 million copies in the US alone.

Other celebrities to have stripped off for the magazine in the past include actresses Denise Richards, Drew Barrymore and Kim Basinger plus singer LaToya Jackson.

But last night, it seemed Leona would not be the latest celebrity to decide the financial lure from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner was just too much.

A friend added: 'There is no way Leona will strip however much they offer. For starters, she is just far too shy.'

Last night, a spokesperson for Ms Lewis said: 'We have no comment on this.'

Deadline of 12th Nov up! No response from DBSK's 3 members

Dong Bang Shin Ki trio Hero JaeJoong, Micky YooChun and Xiah JunSu did not respond to the deadline which SM Entertainment gave them on 2nd November.

SM Entertainment revealed on 12th November, “Until 6pm, they did not give us an answer.”

And about what will happen after this since the 3 have not given an answer, the SM representative said that they are not in the position to say anything yet. But they will be coming up with an official stand again.

During a press conference held on 2nd November, SM Entertainment gave the trio a deadline till 12th November to respond if they have plans for album release as part of Dong Bang Shin Ki early next year.

But the 3 have not given an answer by the deadline. And when asked if it will lead to disbanding of the group, the representative said, “It has not been mentioned to us yet the steps which will follow from here.”

It seems that this fight between the trio and the company will last longer than we have expected it to be.

$1.25 billion later, can AMD take business from Intel?

Now comes the hard part for Advanced Micro Devices. It has to compete with Intel on the merits of its products.

After settling with Intel and walking away with $1.25 billion, how competitive is AMD's silicon? Some experts weigh in.

Two analysts that follow Intel and AMD said separately that AMD won't be competitive until 2011--at the earliest.

"The only chance for reaching any kind of parity is in 2011. They don't have anything on the roadmap until then," said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Northeast Securities. In the interim, AMD will get by with about one-fifth of the processor market, according to Kumar. But whether AMD can expand its market share beyond this and be profitable--like Intel--isn't clear. "Intel can leave 20 percent of the unit volume for AMD but (AMD) will have to come up with a business model where it can return to profitability based on this."

AMD may have a chance to expand into more profitable segments if it executes well in 2011, according to another analyst. "AMD believes it's on the cusp of another cycle where they will have strong product offerings compared with Intel. I think this happens in 2011," said Nathan Brookwood, the principal at Insight64. "The products are innovative and have tremendous potential," Brookwood said, referring to the particulars of new chip technologies that AMD disclosed at its analyst day on Wednesday.

But these are big ifs. AMD must close a yawning gap with Intel that's not going to get any smaller because of the legal settlement. "Technically, Intel now has a definitive advantage, which may widen," said Roger Kay, president of market researcher Endpoint Technologies. Kay believes that AMD will have trouble keeping up with the feverish pace, referred to as "cadence," that Intel sets as it moves to each successive generation of chip manufacturing technologies--which, in turn, allows Intel to quickly introduce performance and power efficiency improvements in its processors. "AMD tends to be six months to a year behind Intel," Kay said, citing a statement made by AMD CEO Dirk Meyer at the company's analyst meeting on Wednesday. AMD may begin to close the gap more in the future "but there's no telling whether that will happen," Kay said.

And if it doesn't happen, AMD becomes little more than a foil to keep Intel honest. "This settlement is actually proving the very point that Intel wants to keep AMD alive and able to compete at least in some small subset of the market, otherwise Intel will be faced with regulatory issues that they would rather avoid," said Avi Cohen, managing partner at Avian Securities.

AMD's best technology play to avoid this fate is "Fusion," Kay said, referring to a technology that combines the two key processors inside a PC: the main CPU processor and the graphics processor, or GPU. Fusion, however, isn't slated to come to market until 2011, according to the road map that AMD disclosed on Wednesday.

And what about today? Dan Ackerman, a senior editor at CNET Reviews and someone who regularly reviews AMD- and Intel-based laptops, makes an important point about the challenges AMD faces in the here and now: Intel-based laptops not only dominate the high end of the market but the low end, too. "Intel CPUs are found in almost all of the high-end systems (such as Core i7 laptops), and the low-end systems (Atom-powered Netbooks)," he said.

Ackerman said that AMD will be hard pressed to beat Intel head to head. "AMD has some room in to maneuver in the middle of the market--laptops from $600 to $900--but unless they can offer better performance for the same price, or a significant price discount to consumers, it'll be hard for the company to gain additional market share."

Rich Brown, a senior editor for desktops at CNET Reviews echoes Ackerman's sentiment: AMD competes by offering lower prices than Intel, not better performance. "From a tech standpoint, AMD's...desktop chips haven't been competitive since Intel launched Core 2 Duo. Instead, AMD has had to compete on price," Brown said.

The best action plan for AMD is to keep executing on key technologies and hope this eventually translates to market share gains. "AMD is rapidly developing a reputation for timely execution of marquee products/platforms," said Doug Freeman of Broadpoint AmTech in a research note. "AMD revealed that its newer platforms...are on track for [the first half of 2010]," he said, referring AMD's high-end server chip lines.

Newly Glam Kristen Stewart Puts on a Side Show in Spain



Something has happened to Kristen Stewart on her trip around Europe to hype 'New Moon.' The grungy gurrrl look (jeans, punk rock shirts, more jeans) is gone and has been replaced by a skin-showing and daring fashionista. From Paris to London to Madrid, the actress is breaking out a new designer look. Last night, she took a chance, and we're not quite sure how to feel about it.

At a 'Moon' fans event in Madrid on Thursday, Stewart donned a layered top and skirt, showing a bit of front-and-side cleavage and what appears to be her underwear through the sheer panels.


'Bodyguards' Make Their Debut

"Bodyguards and Assassins" , an all-star film about a group of bodyguards protecting Sun Yat-Sen from assassins in 1905 Hong Kong, premiered Thursday on the 143rd anniversary of the birth of the foremost pioneer of China's revolution.

Lead cast members, including Leon Lai, Donnie Yen and Fan Bingbing, joined director Teddy Chen and producers Peter Chan and Huang Jianxin at the ceremony in Nanjing in eastern China's Jiangsu Province.

On the same day, the stars visited Sun Yat-Sen's mausoleum in the city to pay respect to the revolutionary figure.

The actor who portrays Sun Yat-Sen in the film has not yet been disclosed, but director Chen says he will very much resemble Sun with the help of Hollywood makeup artists.

The film's star-studded cast also includes Nicholas Tse, Eric Tsang, Hu Jun and Li Yuchun. Chinese basketball star Mengke Bateer also has a role.


The movie's release date is set for December 18.

Dell Mini 3i officially set for imminent launch in Brazil and China



It would appear those leaked and unintentional early peeks at Dell's first foray into smartphones did not happen in Brazil and China by accident. Hans Erickson of Dell Latin America has announced the decision to "give priority" to those two countries, who will be first to experience the Mini 3i's Android glory, with China receiving devices "in the coming days" and Brazil getting 'em later this year. Interestingly, China Mobile will be making do without 3G, while Brazil's Claro will be offering a 3G-enabled handset. Dell remains mum on pricing and the rest of the spec, though all the information so far indicates that Brazilians will be able to buy the same WiFi-packing FCC-certified 3iX handset that's heading to the US. Either way, we've got another heavyweight's presence in the smartphone market, and we'll be even happier once we know what Dell's value-add will be.

Update: Official Dell press release is out making it clear that this is just the "initial" smartphone from Dell.

BoA the producer

2010 will mark the 10th year that BoA has been in the music scene, and this time around, she will be trying her hand at producing.

According to a source from SM Entertainment, BoA contributed to the production of the music for her 7th Japanese album, which will be released on January 13, 2010. This will be the first time BoA will be involved in producing the album since her debut in 2000.

BoA also plans to include songs she composed herself in the next album along with her current Japanese single “Bump Bump!” and her soon-to-be-released single, “White Wishes.”

BoA, who released a self-titled album “BoA” in the American market earlier this year, has been keeping herself busy in Japan promoting her latest single and preparing for her upcoming concert, 'BoA The Live 2009 Xmas.' The concert will be held on December 4~5 at the Tokyo International Forum Hall.

In regards to BoA’s potential comeback to the Korean music scene in 2010, the source stated: “No plans have been finalized as of yet.”

Office 2010 public beta leaks to Internet

Beta that Microsoft plans to unveil next week hits BitTorrent

Office 2010's public beta has leaked to the Web, days ahead of its anticipated roll-out next week, searches of file-sharing sites showed today.

The 32- and 64-bit versions of the Office 2010 Beta have appeared on several peer-to-peer BitTorrent tracking sites, including Mininova.org, with the first one posted there on Tuesday. As of noon ET, the 32-bit version showed about 300 "seeders" -- the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the torrent file -- and about 150 "leechers," or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. Approximately 2,800 copies of the 646MB file had been downloaded.

Office 2010's 64-bit edition -- the upcoming suite is the first that Microsoft will produce a version specific for 64-bit versions of Windows -- boasted 150 seeders but fewer than 50 leechers. More than 1,400 copies of the 710MB file had been downloaded by mid-day.

According to Neowin.net, the Office 2010 build is tagged as 14.0.4514.1009, and requires an activation key.

Users commenting on Mininova.org confirmed that the leaked beta installs and works, although many complained that they needed a product key to activate the suite so it could be used for longer than 30 days. Several others, however, offered up workarounds to sidestep activation.

When Microsoft launched the public beta of Windows 7, and then the follow-up release candidate, it provided limited-time product activation keys to users. Presumably, the company will repeat that practice with the Office 2010 beta.

Previews of Office 2010 have leaked before official availability twice already this year. In May, a week after Microsoft announced that it would issue the Technical Preview in the summer, an early edition showed up on BitTorrent. The same thing happened in July, when the Technical Preview went public hours before Microsoft revealed the invite-only test program at its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC).

Earlier this week, Microsoft shut down Technical Preview downloads, and told testers to expect news of the public beta next week. Microsoft will kick off its annual Professional Developers Conference (PDC) next Monday in Los Angeles, and is expected to use that forum to unveil the public beta.

Last year, Microsoft released an alpha build of Windows 7 to PDC attendees.

Microsoft has also been dropping broad hints of an impending Office 2010 public beta on its Twitter feed. "MS Office team has some exiting news to tell at PDC. This is a must attend event. Stay tuned!" Microsoft tweeted Tuesday morning.

It's unclear whether Microsoft will cap the number of Office 2010 downloads, a move that would duplicate the clumsy process last January when it launched Windows 7's public beta, or whether it will simply limit time the beta is available, which is what it did with Windows 7 release candidate.

Microsoft has, however, promised to distribute millions of copies of the Office 2010 public beta.

Edison Chen's comeback. New song included in DJ Tommy's new album. Song preview available

Edison Chen will be making a comeback into the industry. After filming the Hollywood film, he would be recording a new song [Asking the world how much love there is] and will be included in DJ Tommy's new album. This would be Edison's first music work piece ever since the nude photos scandal. On the 21st of this month, he would be promoting in Taiwan.

Apologize to his parents from the lyrics

There were sayings that Edison wrote the lyrics for the news song [Asking the world how much love there is]. Part of the lyrics were "Sorry mum, sorry dad, I've thought of listening to you, I knew I lied a lot, I did not change and I am headstrong, I've stole your notes (money) and party every night...." In the lyrics, Edison also mention that he would stick to his principles. He will not budge and he wants to follow his way and also he was police to the paparazzi. It is pretty obvious that from the lyrics we could see that Edison is trying to apologized to his parents through the lyrics.

During the recent interview with DJ Tommy, he revealed that the new song has finish recording before the nude scandal. He also said that the lyrics of this song has nothing to do with that issue (nude photos scandal). It is not what we've been thinking. Initial plan was to get a female singer to collaborate in the chorus parts. However, this idea has been deemed old-fashion. Hence, they went to collaborate with children instead. The outcome is indeed more interesting.

In the mean time, there are rumors that Edison would be having a comeback stage concert. However, his assistant strongly denied this and said that DJ Tommy's album includes a USB doll. Edison is helping on in designing that and support.

T-Mobile launching BlackBerry Bold 9700 on November 16 for $199.99



Anyone looking for the hottest T-Mobile-powered BlackBerry experience that money can buy need only wait a few dozen hours now, because the carrier has just revealed that it'll be launching the latest rendition of the Bold -- the 9700 -- on Monday, November 16 for $200 on contract. Your hard-earned cash reels in T-Mobile's very first 3G BlackBerry underpinned by a 3.2 megapixel camera and 480 x 360 display, beating AT&T's launch by a solid six days. Enjoy, folks.

Out With a Bang: Ashlee and Colin Shoot "Crazy Naked" Sex Scene Before Leaving Melrose

Looks like the Parents Television Council is going to have more ammo.


We're hearing there's going to be a "crazy naked" sex scene on Melrose Place before the two recently ousted players go on their merry way: Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Colin Egglesfield.

How racy is it? "It involves us both wearing half-loin cloths that they had to tape to us," Colin himself tells us. "There are very few clothes involved in the near future."

And if your name is Bronx you probably shouldn't hear this part, but Colin says of Ashlee/Violet: "She's up for anything."

Saucy!

Not that we're complaining, but what's behind all of this nakedness, and why is the main suspect in a major murder mystery shacking up with the resident Melrose wack job? We have more scoop...

A source close to the show tells us that Colin and Ashlee actually have not one but two supersteamy sex scenes in the next few episodes, where the troubled twosome are almost completely au naturel. (They leave the show around episode 13.)

Does this mean Violet will end up with her demented version of happily ever after with Auggie? Don't count on it. Colin says some very bad things are a-brewin' in his final eps:"Things get pretty violent and kind of crazy. Auggie ends up hitting the bottle and falls off the deep end a little bit." Colin adds that the drinking was to be a more developed storyline, but because of his early exit it will be cut short.

Hey, if we can't have Colin on Melrose Place forever, at least we're getting a nearly-nakie image to remember him by. And just think what it'll do for his reel.

HP's 11.6-inch Pavilion DM1 gets unboxed on video



HP's Pavilion DM1 has been floating around for a few weeks now in various corners of the globe, but now it seems as if the CULV-based machine is splashing down in at least a few lairs. Sporting an 11.6-inch display, a built-in 3G SIM card slot and Windows 7, this thing looks an awful lot like the Mini 311 (and for good reason). Granted, we're still waiting for it to ship here in North America, but if you're too impatient to just wait things out, an unboxing video is posted up just past the break for your enjoyment.

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