Microsoft's Windows Vista

Windows Vista is the next version of Windows for clients and servers. With the client version expected in 2006 for businesses and 2007 for consumers and the server version in 2007, Vista adds numerous features, including improved security and advanced multimedia capabilities. Vista also includes Trustworthy Computing (Palladium) and greater support for digital rights management. PCs running Vista require more memory than Windows XP. At least 1GB is recommended, with 2GB being a safer bet.

Security and safety features of Windows Vista
There are a number of security and safety settings of Windows Vista. Internally, Microsoft adopted a "Security Development Lifecycle" with the underlying ethos of, "Secure by design, secure by default, secure in deployment". New code for Windows Vista was developed with the SDL methodology, and all existing code was reviewed and refactored to improve security. A number of specific improvements have been made:

• Windows Resource Protection prevents "potentially damaging system configuration changes", by preventing change to system files and settings by any process other than Windows Installer. Also changes to registry by unauthorized software are blocked.

• Protected-Mode IE: Internet Explorer runs in a separate, low-privilege process, protecting the user from malicious content and security vulnerabilities, even in ActiveX controls.

• Windows Firewall has been upgraded to support outbound packet filtering and full IPv6 support. A new MMC-based interface has been introduced which offers much more advanced control over the firewall.

• Session 0 Isolation: Previous versions of Windows ran System services in the same login session as the locally logged-in user (Session 0). In Windows Vista, Session 0 is now reserved for these services, and all interactive logins are done in other sessions. This is intended to help mitigate a class of exploits of the Windows message-passing system, known as Shatter attacks.

• BitLocker Drive Encryption. Formerly known as "Secure Startup", this software utilizes a Trusted Platform Module to improve PC security. It ensures that the PC running Windows Vista starts in a known-good state, and it also protects data from unauthorized access through full volume encryption. Data on the volume is encrypted with a Full Volume Encryption Key (FVEK), which is further encrypted with a Volume Master Key (VMK) and stored on the disk itself.

• Windows Vista can use Smart Cards or Smart Card/Password combo for user authentication.

• Windows Vista can use smart cards to store Encrypting File System (EFS) keys. This makes sure that encrypted files are accessible only as long as the smart card is physically available.

Drawbacks of Windows Vista:
• If you install Windows Vista and any other operating system on a computer, you must install Windows Vista on a separate partition. Installing Windows Vista on a separate partition ensures that it will not overwrite files used by the other operating system.

• The drawback is that Windows Vista comes with two OpenType Khmer fonts, Daunpenh and Moolboran. Those fonts have small characters, which makes it hard to view Khmer text. This problem can be fixed by installing Khmer OS fonts. After Khmer OS fonts are installed, Khmer text will display nicely on Firefox.

• Another problem would be the Keyboard layout. Khmer Keyboard layout on Windows Vista (layout attached) is not the same as Keyboard Driver from KhmerOS.info, which I think many people are used to.

Find and Use Information
The success of a business depends on the success of its people. Making your employees more productive and facilitating communication is the main reason you invest in Information Technology. Yet, with most tools today, it is difficult for employees to quickly find the information they need and leverage information technology to its full potential. Windows Vista is designed as a People-Ready solution so they can easily find and use information.

• The fast, integrated desktop search in Windows Vista helps make it easier for users to find the information they need, even if it is on a shared drive or other network resource. Windows Vista Desktop Search is integrated throughout the operating system in the start menu, control panel, and their document folders making it easy to find the information they are looking for. Users can also tag a file with "metadata" to indicate that it belongs to a certain project or other category, making it easier to search, filter and organize their files.

• Once the user has entered the search information, Windows Vista helps make it easier to identify the right data by displaying high-resolution thumbnails of the content. Users can dynamically adjust the size of these thumbnails to make them large enough for users to know whether they've found the right document without opening it. The user can then store the search results in a "search folder" to be recalled for later use.

• Windows Vista helps make users more productive managing online information as well. With tabbed browsing in Internet Explorer 7, users can visually scroll to the right page. Web page printing is also improved so you can capture all of the information, without cutting off part of the page.

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Top 5 Gadgets of 2006

Nintendo DS Lite
Even as heavy metal gaming consoles like the Xbox and the PS3 begin to smother our sense and sensibilities, the sleek and diminutive Nintendo's DS Lite stands out and stands tall. With its handheld portability, WiFi-enabled gameplay, touch screen interface, a wide array of games, Game Boy Advance backward compatibility, dual screens, and in-built microphone, the NDS is surely the coolest gaming doodad ever to ensconce in your pocket. And what with an Opera web browser in the offing, you will be whistling Dixie in cyber space soon as well with this one.

Logitech Wireless DJ Music System
This amazing little thingie allows you to stream (and control) the digital music squatting in your PC to your stereo, sitting virtually anywhere your house. MP3s, WMAs, iTunes, Internet radio waves, podcasts jabber-whatever. Its "longrange remote" abilities let you browse through your PC's entire music medley on its backlit LCD screen -- even see what is playing, or lined up for the ear drums. And no, it does not require a network snaking across your home to twiddle with the play, shuffle, volume or mute buttons on this one.

Creative's Zen Vision: M
With all ears and eyeballs trained solely on the iPod, it is but natural for most of us to play possum to the Zen Vision: M. But hark this, here is a very able MP3/video playing competitor to the Apple's zing thing. Cos the 2.5 inch screens plays almost any type of video to throw at it, it makes great sound, shows excellent video, squeezes out more life than the iPod from its juice pack, plus features an FM tuner. PDA functions, voice recording, big screen entertainment with a video out connection-yeah, it does all that too.

Nokia N95
It is very tough not to be intimidated by Nokia's current flagship. A unique two-way slide form factor, 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss optic, auto-focus cam, DVD-like quality video, WLAN, 3D stereo sound, 4GB hard drive of internal storage, TV out, 60 MB of RAM, a microSD card slot for expansion. The acronyn alphabet soup support includes: HSDPA, 3.5G, 3.6Mbps download speeds, UMTS, GPRS, DGE, SIP, GPS... Obviously there is Bluetooth, infrared, USB connectivity. Total KO. No adjectives required.

Sony PlayStation 3
The ultimate next-gen gadget for hi-def gaming. It plays Blu-ray movies alongwith standard DVDs, does WiFi, figures a 60GB hard drive, has a PSP-like user-friendly interface, no external power supply, HDTV support, built-in memory card readers, is backward-compatible with PS2 and PS1 games, online play is free, Bluetooth support for wireless controllers and accessories is acomin'. At almost Rs 50,000 you may need to break quite few piggy banks to own this. But look at it as just collateral damage.

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