Ajit Gaddam: TechNews and Security

Xbox Live has recently hit 6 million users and on this occasion, Microsoft has released some stats. Following is the full press release from Microsoft letting us know of the various stats and numbers

Xbox 360 | Momentum Fact Sheet

• More than 10 million Xbox 360s have hit store shelves since launch in November 2005, and more than 160 high definition games are now available, including Viva Piñata, Gears of War and Crackdown.

• Xbox 360 is available in 37 countries.

• The overall software attach rate for Xbox 360 is 4.6 titles per console in the United States with a record-breaking accessory attach rate of 2.9 units per console.

Xbox LIVE Connectivity & Usage:

• More than 6 million people are now members of Xbox LIVE.

• Following the launch of the Xbox LIVE online gaming network in November 2002, gamers have spent over 2.3 billion hours on the network playing games online with their friends around the world. This is equal to 95 million days of gaming or over 260,000 years. With our top title, Halo 2, which is being played on both the Xbox and Xbox 360, gamers have spent over 710 million hours playing online with over a half a billion games played.

• In fact, online gaming through Xbox LIVE is now a proven form of mainstream entertainment. The 18-34 male audience is comparable in size to the same audience tuning in to see the most popular network TV shows like CSI or The Office.

• Xbox LIVE on Xbox 360 continues to grow as a social community; we are seeing an average of over 2,000,000 text and voice messages sent every day between members on the service.

• The average Xbox LIVE Gold subscriber has 22 friends on their Xbox LIVE friends list.

• To date, Xbox 360 owners have unlocked nearly 300 million Achievements. All of those unlocked Achievements have created a total combined Gamerscore of nearly 7.5 billion.

• Top WW Xbox LIVE Titles on Xbox 360 to date:

1 Halo 2
2 Gears of War
3 Hexic HD
4 Call of Duty 2
5 Ghost Recon 3
6 Call Of Duty 3
7 Oblivion
8 PGR3
9 Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Vegas
10 Perfect Dark Zero

(Based on the number of unique users)

Xbox LIVE Marketplace:

• Consumers have quickly jumped to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace as their one-stop download center. More than 70 percent Xbox LIVE members are downloading content from Marketplace, driving more than 135 million downloads since the launch of Xbox 360.

• Xbox LIVE Marketplace is home to more than 7,000 pieces of individual gaming and entertainment content, downloadable at the click of a button.

• Gamers have also quickly adopted the new Microsoft Points stored value system, with more than 5 Billion points activated on Marketplace to date.

• Online entertainment through Xbox LIVE is not just limited to games. Xbox 360 is the only console offering movie and TV downloads, and the new Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace (available in the US only) is packed with HD content from top partners such as Paramount, MTV Networks and CBS. As a result, nearly 50% of Xbox LIVE members in the U.S. log into Xbox LIVE Marketplace every time they turn on their console.

Xbox LIVE Arcade:

• Xbox LIVE Arcade has been an instant hit on the Xbox 360, with nearly 70% of all connected consoles already downloading and playing Xbox LIVE Arcade titles.

• Xbox LIVE Arcade has now surpassed 25 million downloads from its diverse library of original development and classic titles from the world’s best independent and established developers and publishers.

• Top worldwide Xbox LIVE Arcade titles on Xbox 360 to date (based on total number of full game downloads):
1. Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting
2. Bankshot Billiards 2
3. Marble Blast
4. UNO
5. DOOM

Beginning in 2007, daylight saving time (DST) will be extended in the United States. DST will start on March 11, 2007, which is three weeks earlier than usual, and it will end on November 4, 2007, which is one week later than usual. This results in a new DST period that is four weeks longer than in previous years.

Unless certain updates are applied to your computer, the time zone settings for your computer’s system clock may be incorrect during this four-week period. In particular, you must make sure that both your Windows operating system and your calendar programs are updated.

Microsoft has provided a nice tool which lets you verify if your computer is upto date with Daylight savings time implemented. You need not worry if you have Windows Vista Operating System or if you have Automatic Updates turned on.

To determine which operating system you have, follow these steps for any operating system other than Windows Vista:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
3. Click the General tab. The name of the current version of your Windows software is displayed on this tab.

To verify if you computer has been updated with the correct daylight savings time beginning March 11, follow this link from Microsoft

Microsoft Daylight Savings Time

Microsoft has some charity initiatives going on right now. One of them is using Microsoft Windows Live Search for the purpose of charity. This charity initiative is titled “Searching for a way to help. You have found it.”

There are over nine million refugee children worldwide. The United Nations Refugee Agency aims to help and focus on these children. You can help them learn, help them play. Stability comes from community. Education is the right of every child — UNHCR(United Nations Refugee Agency).

Help raise awareness and funds for refugee youth with just a click! Every time you search from the below link or on the image below, Microsoft will make a donation to ninemillion.org, a UN agency-led campaign providing education programs for the nine million refugee children around the world. This is a very noble initiative on behalf of Microsoft which seems to be following its founder Bill Gates direction who is giving away most of his fortune to charity.

For every search performed from this page between January 17 and March 31, 2007, Microsoft will make a contribution to ninemillion.org, a UN agency-led campaign providing education and sports programs for the nine million refugee youth around the world.. All contributions will benefit ninemillion.org to support educational programs for refugee youth.

On March 2, beta service for most Windows Live OneCare customers will be discontinued. You would need to make alternate arrangements before that date to ensure that you have full protection and PC care.

To continue using Windows Live OneCare service, you can subscribe to it by following these steps:

1. Uninstall the OneCare beta.

• On the Start menu, click Control Panel.
• Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
• Under Currently installed programs, click , Windows Live OneCare and then click Change/Remove.
• In the Uninstall Windows Live OneCare dialog, click Uninstall.
• Follow the directions to uninstall OneCare and restart your computer.

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By default, Windows Vista can be installed, used and run without any license, product key or the need of activation for 30 days grace period, for purpose of trial or evaluation. Although Microsoft initially stressed that users should purchase a license with valid product key before the trial period expires, or else Windows Vista will lock into Reduced Functionality Mode. However, a “rearm” method has long since been discovered to be able to extend, or reset the remaining time for activation to another fresh 30 days, for up to 3 times.

To extend, reset or restart the initial OOB grace period of Windows Vista to another 30 days, use the following steps:

You need to run the command prompt under the Administrative mode. You can either use the step outlined below or just type in cmd in the Start Search Box. Once command prompt is displayed in search results, right click and select Run As “Administrator” and then follow from step # 3 otherwise follow from Step #1 as shown below.

Step # 1: Click on Vista Start button and key in Cmd in Start Search box.

Step # 2: Press on Ctrl-Shift-Enter to open Command Prompt with administrative credentials (equivalent to “Run as Administrator”).

Step # 3: In the Command Prompt, type the following command and press Enter when done: slmgr -rearm or you can use sysprep /generalize

Step # 4: Reboot the computer.

Step # 5: Rearm again when the remaining activation grace period timer counts down to 0 days.

Rearm option resets the computer’s activation timer and reinitializes some activation parameters.

via [neowin.net]

The Xbox Live Halo 3 multiplayer public beta, which is a pre-release version is scheduled for availability in spring 2007 exclusively on Xbox 360. This beta also represents an opportunity for gamers to give information that will help in the development of Halo 3. Through the resulting feedback, Bungie will be able to further refine and hone the end result of the game.

Microsoft earlier this month notified that phase 1 of the Halo 3 beta invites have closed. For those who wish to experience the Man Cannon before millions others, Microsoft today has confirmed in its Gamerscore blog and with IGN that every copy of the initial shipment of Crackdown at retail will include access to the Halo 3 beta and that the “initial shipment” is pretty huge, so there will be enough to go around.

For those Halo 3 fans who are STILL losing sleep over this, you can guarantee entrance into the Halo 3 Beta by purchasing a copy of Crackdown when it launches Feb. 20th.

Another way to get hold the elusive Halo 3 beta invite is through the “Rule of Three” program. From February 1-3, gamers in the US who play three hours of Halo 2 over Xbox Live will qualify for entry. The first 13,333 gamers who have played Halo 2 over Xbox Live during the specified time period and who register at the Halo 3 Web site will be entered into the beta program. Gamers outside of the US should stay tuned for details on the “Rule of Three” program in their regions.

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According to the latest news coming out of Redmond, WA, all signs point towards IE7 being part of a cumulative roll out/update automatically via windows update. Most major corporations either use SUS or Big IP or someother media to roll out their patches/ hot-fixes/ updates etc… but for the rest of you, here is how you disable automatic update of IE7 on your machine/servers.

Now don’t get me wrong about IE7. I am loving it and infact it is my default browser right now after 2 1/2 years of Firefox. The UI is very well thought out and having tabbed browsing definitely helps. Above all, my primary OS is Windows Vista right now and IE7 fits snugly into the overall picture. So if everything is all gravy, why are we disabling automatic update of IE7?

There are considerable changes that could cause many headaches. Most administrators would prefer to decide when IE 7 is deployed on their network.

This is why microsoft has released the IE 7 blocking tool. It can be downloaded from here at Microsoft’s website.

Once you download and extract the package you will see that it is a command line tool. You simply call the script with the computer name and /b

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\7.0

The key name is: DoNotAllowIE70

Setting this to 1 blocks the install, setting to 0 allows the install.