Usang, IE6 Wajib Disingkirkan

BEIJING - Bagi Anda yang masih menggunakan browser milik Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) sebaiknya segera menggantinya dengan browser versi terbaru.

Situs teknologi, Mashable mengungkapkan bahwa IE6 mesti dimasukkan ke dalam tumpukan sampah karena sudah usang.

Mashable, situs yang dikunjungi lebih dari lima juta pembaca setiap bulan menyatakan, keluarnya Hyper Text Mark-up Language 5 (HTML5) akan membuat banyak pemakai IE6 mungkin menghadapi kenyataan sulit untuk mengakses sejumlah situs. HTML5 merupakan bahasa program yang akan menyediakan fungsi yang lebih besar.

Situs-situs besar seperti Digg, Facebook dan YouTube akan mengakhiri dukungan mereka untuk IE6 dan menyarankan pemakai beralih ke browser lainnya. Dengan makin banyaknya perusahaan mencabut dukungan buat IE6, banyak pengguna akan kesulitan.

Saat ini, sekira 15 hingga 25 persen pemakai Internet diperkirakan berselancar di internet dengan menggunakan IE6. Digg, situs internet untuk berbagi konten dari Internet, menyatakan bahwa lebih dari 70 persen mereka yang menggunakan IE6 dipaksa melakukannya oleh perusahaan mereka.

"IE6 cukup baik untuk digunakan pada 2001. Tapi karena aplikasi situs terus berkembang dan tumbuh sehingga browser yang ruwet akan memerlukan banyak waktu dan energi, ini harus disingkirkan."

Dia menyarankan agar pengguna segera beralih ke browser yang jauh lebih unggul seperti Firefox, Safari, Opera dan Chrome, serta Internet Explorer 8. (Choi)

Sumber : Okezone.com

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Firefox Hits 1 Billion Downloads

Mozilla's Firefox Web browser has just hit a new milestone, reaching its 1 billionth user download. The big event happened Thursday night, according to the company's official download counter.

To be clear, that's 1 billion total downloads since Firefox's 2004 debut -- an atypical type of statistic to flaunt. Still, if you look at the more standard measures of success, Firefox is showing impressive growth, while the long-time industry giant continues to slide.

Firefox and the Browser Market

Measuring the first 30 days of July, Firefox holds an average of 30.5 percent of the global browser market, according to data from Web metrics firm StatCounter. Internet Explorer, on the other hand, sits at 60.12 percent. Safari and Chrome are tied at just over 3 percent, and Opera trails behind at 2.65 percent.

Where those numbers become more significant is in a year-to-year comparison: For the same time period in 2008, Firefox held 26.07 percent of the global browser market, while IE held 68.64 percent. Safari had 3.31 percent, Opera had 1.77 percent, and Chrome -- well, Chrome was still just an improper noun back then.

Putting that into perspective, Firefox has grown its userbase by 17 percent, comparing its July '08 and July '09 numbers. IE, in the same comparison, has lost 12.4 percent of its users worldwide. Even the recent release of Internet Explorer 8 did little to help win over new fans for the once untouchable heavyweight.

Firefox and the Future

So what happens from here? The one certainty is that the browser market is in a state of flux. Even the smaller alternative browsers are slowly reshaping the playing field: In July of 2008, the alternatives made up only about 5 percent of the market. By July of 2009, with the addition of Chrome, they collectively have 8.67 percent of all worldwide users -- a growth of 70.6 percent from the previous year.

In the big picture, IE maintains an advantage with its default preinstalled placement on Windows computers, as well as with its frequent adoption within the corporate world. The former factor, however, is starting to fade: Microsoft is for the first time shipping versions of Windows without IE preinstalled, thanks to the European Commission case surrounding anti-competition laws. That's a significant change.

As for the latter factor -- corporate browser usage -- that may be Firefox's toughest hurdle to overcome. Numerous analyses over the years have identified the enterprise realm as Mozilla's Achilles' heel. Though the company is taking steps to try to encourage corporate use of its product, many question whether the browser is ready for widespread business adoption.

However it is or isn't being used, what's remained constant with Firefox has been its ongoing growth alongside IE's nonstop drop. From a statistical standpoint, that trend certainly seems to suggest the great browser race is far from finished; the tides, it appears, have plenty more shifting ahead. (Choi)

Sumber : yahoo.com

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Apple warns iPhones vulnerable

LAS VEGAS - Apple Inc has released an iPhone software patch to fix a critical software bug uncovered by two independent researchers that make the devices susceptible to secret attacks by hackers.

Apple said on Friday that customers need to download the patch onto their computer using iTunes, then install it on their iPhone by connecting the device to the computer.

While Apple has issued the patch, the flaw remains a problem until millions of iPhone users upgrade their software. In the meantime, criminal hackers may try to exploit the flaw to commit cybercrimes.

News of the flaw surfaced on Thursday when researchers Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner discussed the vulnerability at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, one of the world's most prominent security conventions. They found the bug while looking for vulnerabilities in the SMS communications system, which mobile devices use to send and receive text messages along with software upgrades.

"There's a real urgency for people to update their iPhones because of this wave of publicity. The race is on between those fixing the vulnerability and attackers seeking to exploit the issue," said Joris Evers, a spokesman for No. 2 security software maker McAfee Inc.

Miller and Mulliner showed the audience at Black Hat how to break into iPhones by sending computer code via the phone's SMS system. They said that the phone's users cannot detect that it is receiving the malicious code.

They warned Apple of the flaw on July 18. The two said they decided to go public with their discovery in a bid to warn iPhone users of the potential risk and also pressure Apple to come up with a quick fix.

About 4,000 security professionals were in attendance at Black Hat, including some who are really hackers. While experts ferret out software flaws to fix them and protect users, hackers use the same information to devise pranks or commit crimes.

It is not illegal to disclose ways to hack into computer systems, though it is against the law to use it to break into them.

Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones in its most recent quarter. The smartphone is its most important growth driver.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple rose 0.6 percent to $163.75 on Nasdaq late Friday afternoon. (Choi)

Sumber : yahoo.com

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Microsoft Shifts Plan, Ties IE to Windows 7

Microsoft is canceling its plan to offer versions of Windows without the Internet Explorer browser in Europe, a move that was supposed to ease antitrust concerns.

The decision to scrap the browserless version of its operating system, dubbed Windows 7 E, was in response to statements made by the European Commission and feedback from manufacturers, according to Dave Heiner, Microsoft's vice president and deputy general counsel, in a blog statement titled "Windows 7 and Browser Choice in Europe" and posted late Friday.

However, Microsoft still has plans in place to offer a "ballot screen" designed to let Windows 7 users install a competing Web browser and disable Internet Explorer.

Ongoing Antitrust Negotiations

Microsoft cooked up both plans in response to antitrust concerns raised in January by the European Commission, the European Union's executive and regulatory branch. The Commission said that Microsoft is distorting competition by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, which dominates the PC market.

On June 11, Microsoft's Heiner outlined a Microsoft plan to offer versions of Windows without Explorer.

However, the Commission did not look favorably on the idea for a browserless Windows. "Consumers should be offered a choice of browser, not that Windows should be supplied without a browser at all," the Commission said in a statement.

In a concession to the Commission's concerns, Microsoft then on June 24 announced it would offer the ballot screen plan.

The Commission said it welcomed the plan and would, "investigate its practical effectiveness in terms of ensuring genuine consumer choice."

However, even though the initial Commission reaction to the ballot screen was favorable, Microsoft said it would also continue with the Windows 7 E plan until the Commission made a final decision.

It took a week for Microsoft to change its mind. Concerns from manufacturers and business partners were key, Heiner said in his statement.

"Several worried about the complexity of changing the version of Windows that we ship in Europe if our ballot screen proposal is ultimately accepted by the Commission and we stop selling Windows 7 E," Heiner said.

"Computer manufacturers and our partners also warned that introducing Windows 7 E, only to later replace it with a version of Windows 7 that includes IE, could confuse consumers about what version of Windows to buy with their PCs," Heiner added.

So Microsoft will on October 22 ship the same versions of Windows 7 to Europe -- with the addition of the ballot screen -- that it will in other parts of the world.

Just the Latest Battle

The antitrust tussle over Explorer mirrors Microsoft's antitrust battle in Europe in 2004. The Commission at that time fined the company €497 million ($794 million), ruling that tying Media Player into Windows was anticompetitive and illegal. The Commission also made Microsoft offer a second version of Windows with the player stripped out. However, the remedy was ultimately deemed useless by many users and industry insiders because the version of Windows without the player was offered at the same price as the one equipped with Media Player -- and registered few if any sales.

The case is also similar to the one that focused on Explorer in the U.S., launched in the late 1990s. That case evolved into a broader federal antitrust suit in which Microsoft was charged and found guilty of illegally quashing competition in order to extend its operating system monopoly. (Choi)

Sumber : yahoo.com

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Yahoo comes full circle with retreat from search

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. invested billions of dollars in its Internet search engine during the past six years before realizing it made more sense to entrust the job to an outsider — hearkening back to a conclusion the company's co-founders reached shortly after they started their Web directory in the mid-1990s.

The latest shift in direction will put rival Microsoft Corp. in control of the search results and the ads that appear alongside search results on Yahoo's highly trafficked Web site, assuming the proposed partnership is approved by antitrust regulators in the United States and Europe.

The 10-year deal announced Wednesday blows up a search expansion undertaken under Yahoo's former chief executive, Terry Semel, who resigned under shareholder pressure two years ago. The repudiation of Semel's strategy returns Yahoo to a philosophy embraced by co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo in the company's early days.

Within two years of starting what was originally known as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," Yang and Filo concluded Yahoo wouldn't be able to index all the new sites proliferating on the Internet without more automation and sophistication.

Rather than spend its own money on expensive upgrades, Yahoo hired AltaVista to supplement its search engine and then later turned to Inktomi. Those decisions freed up more cash for Yahoo to spend on compelling content and developing other services that established its Web site as the biggest draw on the Internet.

As indexing the Web grew even more complicated in 2000, Yahoo sought the expertise of an ambitious young startup called Google.

In a move that the company later regretted, Yahoo promoted the Google brand next to its search box to show where it got its results. The exposure on one of the Web's most popular pages drove millions of people to Google's search engine, which quickly supplanted Yahoo as the go-to place to find stuff on the Web.

After Google came up with a way to make big money from text ads placed alongside search results, Semel wanted a bigger piece of the action.

Beginning in 2002, Yahoo spent more than $2 billion buying other search engines, including the remnants of AltaVista and Inktomi. Later, Yahoo invested heavily in search improvements that included a much-delayed advertising system called Panama.

Although it helped boost Yahoo's profits early on, the search expansion never panned out the way Semel envisioned. Google widened its lead in search as Yahoo's U.S. share shriveled from about one-third of the market in 2004 to about one-fifth of the market today. To make matters worse, socializing hubs like Facebook and MySpace supplanted Yahoo as the hot spots to hang out on the Web.

"They just lost their way," said technology analyst Rob Enderle. "This (Microsoft deal) will let them rediscover what they once were — a place where a lot of people liked to spend a lot of their time online."

While he was Yahoo's CEO last year, Yang tried to lessen Yahoo's financial commitment to search by forming an advertising partnership with Google. Under that plan — which is narrower than what Yahoo now wants to do with Microsoft — Google would have served up some of the ads that ran alongside search results on Yahoo. U.S. antitrust regulators threatened to sue to block the arrangement, scaring Google off.

Yang didn't seem to want any part of Microsoft. In May 2008, he and the rest of Yahoo's board rebuffed a Microsoft offer to pay Yahoo $1 billion in cash and buy $8 billion worth of stock in return for a search partnership.

Now, Yahoo will get no cash upfront, and instead will get a big share of the ad revenue generated by Microsoft's search engine when it handles queries on Yahoo's site. (Microsoft will also keep running its search engine at its usual locations, such as msn.com, bing.com and on the "toolbars" it lets people download to their Web browsers.)

Carol Bartz, Yahoo's chief executive for the past six months, quickly realized that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company needed to get back to its roots. Since her arrival, Bartz has been de-emphasizing Yahoo's need to run its own search engine.

"It really hard to tell whether (Bartz) just thinks Yahoo isn't that strong in search or whether she thinks she needs to jettison search to save the company," said Danny Sullivan, editor of the online newsletter SearchEngineLand.

This much is certain: Microsoft has been stalking Yahoo for years because it wants to boost its meager U.S. market share of 8 percent to narrow the gap separating it from Google, which commands a 65 percent share. Because Yahoo handles about 20 percent of search requests, the Microsoft-Yahoo combination would have about 28 percent share, assuming no big shifts in usage between now and when the project is fully running — which could take two years.

"We found a partner willing and excited to put a lot of technology behind search," Bartz said in an interview Wednesday. "So our customers are still going to get the same search experience or better search experience because of the investment that Microsoft is willing to make."

Microsoft is no stranger to the concept of farming out search, having done that itself earlier this decade, when it relied on Yahoo's technology.

Another prominent Web site, AOL, has used Google for search results and advertising for years. Having the extra money to spend on other products and services hasn't proven that effective for AOL, which has been faring so badly for so long that its corporate parent, Time Warner Inc., is cutting the subsidiary loose this year.

Since breaking away from its first partnership with Yahoo, Microsoft has been continually honing its search expertise and even hired away one of Yahoo's top engineers, Qi Lu, to further the cause.

This time, Yahoo won't feature its partner's brand in the prime space located next to its search box. Bing's name instead will only appear at the bottom of the search results page. (Choi)

Sumber : yahoo.com

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Hackers expose weakness in visiting trusted sites

LAS VEGAS - A powerful new type of Internet attack works like a telephone tap, except operates between computers and Web sites they trust.

Hackers at the Black Hat and DefCon security conferences have revealed a serious flaw in the way Web browsers weed out untrustworthy sites and block anybody from seeing them. If a criminal infiltrates a network, he can set up a secret eavesdropping post and capture credit card numbers, passwords and other sensitive data flowing between computers on that network and sites their browsers have deemed safe.

In an even more nefarious plot, an attacker could hijack the auto-update feature on a victim's computer, and trick it into automatically installing malware pulled in from a hacker's Web site. The computer would think it's an update coming from the software manufacturer.

The attack was demonstrated by three hackers. Independent security researcher Moxie Marlinspike presented alone, while Dan Kaminsky, with Seattle-based security consultancy IOActive Inc., and security and privacy researcher Len Sassaman presented together.

They reached essentially the same conclusion: There are major problems in the way browsers interact with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, which is a common technology used on banking, e-commerce and other sites handling sensitive data.

Browser makers and the companies that sell SSL certificates are working on a fix.

Microsoft Corp., whose Internet Explorer browser is the world's most popular, said it was investigating the issue. Mozilla Corp., which makes the No. 2 Firefox browser, said most of the problems being addressed were fixed in the latest version of its browser, and that the rest will be fixed in an update coming this week.

VeriSign Inc., one of the biggest SSL certificate companies, maintains that its certificates aren't vulnerable.

Tim Callan, a product marketing executive in VeriSign's SSL business unit, added that the "tap" won't work against so-called Extended Validation SSL certificates, which cost more and involve a deeper inspection of a company's application for a certificate.

The attack falls into a class of hacks known as "man-in-the-middle," in which a criminal plants himself between a victim's computer and a legitimate Web site and steals data as it moves back and forth.

Jeff Moss, founder of the Black Hat and Defcon conferences who this summer was appointed to the Homeland Security Department's advisory council, said the fact a hacker has to actually break into a victim's network for the attack to work can limit its usefulness.

"That's the nice mitigating thing," he said.

But he warned that "for targeted attacks it's absolutely deadly. This is the way you can get everything. If you can get in the middle, you can get everything. It's a big, giant wake-up call for the industry."

SSL certificates are a critical technology in assigning trust on the Web.

Sites buy them to encrypt traffic and assure visitors it's OK to enter confidential information. Companies that sell SSL certificates verify that someone trying to buy a certificate actually owns the site that certificate will be attached to.

The presence of an SSL certificate on a site is designated by a padlock in the address bar. But many people don't pay attention to whether a padlock is present or not.

Browsers do care, though, which is why this week's talks were significant.

Browsers are programmed to block sites that don't have a valid SSL certificate, or have a certificate displaying a Web address that doesn't match the address a Web surfer was trying to reach (which can indicate someone has hijacked a person's Internet session). If the sites aren't blocked, users are warned about potential danger, and have the option to click through.

The problems outlined by researchers center on a quirk in the way browsers read SSL certificates.

Many SSL certificate companies will allow people to attach a programming symbol called a "null character" into the Web address onto the certificates they receive. Web browsers generally ignore that symbol. They stop reading at that symbol when they're checking the Web address on a certificate.

The trick in the latest type of attack is that all a criminal would need to do is put the name of a legitimate Web site before that character, and the browser will believe that the site it's visiting — which is under the criminal's control — is legitimate.

The criminal could then forward the traffic onto the legitimate site and spy on everything the victim does on that site. It's a complicated attack, but it highlights a significant weakness in the very technology widely used to assure people it's safe to navigate sensitive sites.

Jon Miller, an SSL expert and director of Accuvant Labs, said he expects significant attacks against corporations using this technique in the coming months. Criminals who run "phishing" scams, in which people are tricked into visiting phony sites, will also likely latch on.

"What kind of makes this earth-shattering is these aren't the most sophisticated attacks in the world," he said. "This is going to become a huge problem."

There are signs it's already starting.

VeriSign's Callan said within hours of the talks, his company got a number of applications for SSL certificates featuring null characters, but they were denied. (Choi)

Sumber : yahoo.com

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Berbekal Regenerasi, Robot Bandung Jadi Juara Nasional

Bandung - Satu lagi tim robotik dari Kota Bandung berbicara di ajang robotik nasional. Yah, tim robotik SMP dan SMA Trimulia Bandung meraih prestasi yang cukup memuaskan di ajang Indonesia ICT Award 2009 (INAICTA 2009) kategori robot, 28-29 Juli 2009 silam. Padahal awalnya hanya untuk meregenerasi tim robotiknya.

Dalam acara tahunan ini, tim robotik SMA Trimulia meraih juara pertama dan kedua, sementara tim robotik SMP Trimulia meraih juara kedua dan ketiga dalam kompetisi robotik kategori Maze Solving.

"Dua robot dari tim robotik SMA Trimulia, mencetak skor mutlak. Terpaut cukup jauh dari posisi ketiga. Kita kirimkan 5 tim dari SMA dan 4 tim dari SMP. Tapi untuk SMA, 3 tim itu benar-benar baru. Kita sedang siapkan regenerasi."

Chris, demikian dia akrab dipanggil, juga menambahkan bahwa kontes kali ini lebih rumit dan lebih menantang. Pasalnya jika dibandingkan dengan kontes Galelobot yang digelar ITB beberapa waktu lalu, arena pertandingan baru dibuka semenit sebelum lomba dimulai.

"Mirip dengen Galelobotnya ITB, tapi lebih ruwet. Kalau di Galelobot track sudah dibuka 2 bulan sebelumnya, di sini semenit sebelumnya. Kita diberi waktu 3 jam untuk memecahkan masalahnya. Ini prestasi yang membanggakan karena dalam 2 tahun terakhir selalu didominasi SMA N 28 Jakarta. Tapi rupanya tahun ini tahun orang bandung," kata pria yang juga menjabat sebagai Managing Director Next System.

Dari pencatatan waktu yang dilakukan oleh tim dari Next System di arena pertandingan, dua robot tim robotik SMA Trimulia mencapai finish dengan waktu 17 detik dan 19 detik, sementara peringkat ketiga mencapai finish dengan waktu terbaik 26 detik.

Pada awalnya Chris tidak menyangka tim binaanya akan menyabet juara. Karena dari awal hanya ingin melakukan regenerasi. "Ini bisa menjadi motivasi bagi anak-anak Bandung untuk bisa lebih maju lagi," kata pria berkaca mata ini.

Juara pertama Eric Christiandi, Steven dan Sutrisno. Ketiganya adalah siswa kelas XII SMA Trimulya. Sedangkan tim juara kedua adalah Samuel Christian, Ricky Disastra dan Rangga Nehemia. Ketiganya siswa kelas X SMA Trimulya.

Maze Solving merupakan salah satu kompetisi robotik yang memiliki tingkat tantangan yang cukup tinggi. Selain sisi teknis, peserta pun harus memiliki rencana strategis dan langkah implementasi terbaik untuk mencapai finish.

Dalam Maze Solving, robot harus bergerak menelusuri garis (line following) dan harus mampu menyelesaikan kombinasi garis serupa maze, yang bentuknya beragam. Mulai dari persimpangan dengan sudut bervariasi, tikungan, kurva, dan yang lainnya.

INAICTA 2009 merupakan event teknologi informasi dan komunikasi tahunan yang digelar oleh Departemen Komunikasi dan Informasi. INAICTA 2009 merupakan penyelenggaraan yang ketiga kali, sementara robotik baru dipertandingkan mulai INAICTA 2008. (Choi)

Sumber : Detikinet.com

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Apple Tambal Celah SMS iPhone

Jakarta - Dua peneliti keamanan membuktikan bahwa Apple iPhone bisa dibajak hanya dengan pesan singkat alias SMS. Apple pun merilis tambalan untuk celah itu.

Celah itu ditambal lewat update iPhone OS 3.0.1. Semua pengguna iPhone bisa mendapatkannya via iTunes.

Menutup celah yang dilaporkan oleh peneliti keamanan Chris Miller dan Collin Mulliner. Celah yang dimaksud berada pada sistem dasar telepon bernama CoreTelephony.

Dalam konferensi Black Hat, para peneliti memaparkan hasil temuannya kepada publik. Informasi yang dipaparkan konon bisa digunakan untuk membuat virus atau program jahat yang mampu membajak Apple iPhone.

"Kurang dari 24 jam setelah demonstrasi itu, kami telah merilis update software gratis yang menutup kelemahan yang ada," sebut juru bicara Apple, Neumayr, kepada ArsTechnica.

ArsTechnica mengungkapkan, update ini berukuran 230.1 MB. Meski ukurannya besar, update ini tidak mencakup metode untuk menghalangi jailbreak atau unlock pada iPhone. (Choi)

Sumber : Detikinet.com

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