Software giant Microsoft has admitted that it talks to the computers of punters signed up for its Genuine Advantage programme every day.

Windows XP apparently calls Vole central on a daily basis for no reason which is remotely useful to the user.

A spokesVole told the Associated Press that the reason it does this is in case the software malfunctions and started delivering false results.

Windows Genuine Advantage program boss David Lazar said that the software calling home was just a safety switch and no one needed to worry about it.

He said that the company would tweak the program soon so that it only phones up Microsoft every two weeks.

As many experts had already announced, Windows Vista will require much from the PCs where it will be installed when it comes to resources. For minimum functionality, Windows Vista will need an 800 MHz processor, at least 512 MB of RAM, a 20GB HDD and at least 15GB free, as well as a SVGA- and DirectX 9- compliant video card.

However, the users who want to be thrilled by the Aero interface experience – presented as one of Windows Vista's biggest innovations – will have to own a PC with a processor of at least 1 GHz, 1GB or RAM memory, a video card with 128MB, a HDD of at least 40GB and an internal or external DVD-ROM.

After their promised OS set a new record for the most postponed Windows in the history of the company different release dates were also set for companies and for regular users, now Microsoft comes up with system requirements which aren't even met by more than half of the computers in a company's labs.

And, as experience taught us with the last Windows version, the offiical system requirements are really minimum, so those who'll want to run other software applications as well aside from Windows Vista will need to add even more RAM, processing power or a better video card.

The wait for Microsoft's delayed Windows Vista could be even longer than expected, according to a research report issued this week.

In March, Microsoft announced that widespread distribution of Windows Vista would be delayed until early 2007. Now, research firm Gartner Group has reported that the operating system might not be fully available until at least the second quarter of next year.

"Microsoft's track record is clear," the firm says. "It consistently misses target dates for major operating system releases. We don't expect broad availability of Windows Vista until at least 2Q07 (second quarter of 2007), which is nine to 12 months after Beta 2."

Starting with last week's release, 5.9.5.6, the program will remove CD DRM infections and corporate malware disguised as copy protection.

Since the virus scanning companies apparently had their silence bought by the media mafia, someone had to stand up and be counted, and it looks like Slysoft is that someone.

Basically, any of the root-kitting malware from Sony, and the newer root-kitting-ish Macrovision CDS-300 system software will be removed for you. Corporate evil removed, happy users can play the CDs like any old red book audio, it just works.

"Users thinking of pirating the next version of Windows may have a surprise in store: no Aero for you. The upcoming Microsoft OS will run a check to ensure the copy was legally purchased. If it comes up short, the shiniest part of the OS will not be available." From the article: "At first an optional program, the piracy check eventually became mandatory for many types of Windows XP downloads, but was not required to run any aspect of the operating system itself. Microsoft has identified reducing piracy as a key way for the company to grow its sales of Windows, which is already used on more than 90 percent of personal computers. But it's not just pirates who will be blocked from Windows' fanciest graphics. The Aero display also won't be available to those who buy Windows Vista Basic, the low-end consumer version of the operating system."

According to CDR Info, it seems that Suncomm and Starforce, two DRM offerings, don't get along. Violently. I could say that it is a surprise, but it really isn't, I am just surprised that it took this long. DRM works on the principle of undocumented hacks to the system that actively punish lawful users. Now that they are fighting, it appears that no one is willing to step up and talk about it.

If you have a game with the Starforce DRM infection, and the misfortune of supporting the RIAA by purchasing music with Suncomm infections, guess what, you can't use them on the same machine!

If you ask ask any of the companies involved, as is so clearly pointed out by Suncomm, they will tell you it isn't their problem. So, you are screwed, and no one will help you unbreak your computer, because that is illegal.

PC World's Techlog has a short piece talking about the upcoming emergence of 'Windows Vista Capable' PCs." From the article: "The Vista Capable designation doesn't promise that a PC will provide a great Vista experience, or even that it'll support all Vista features or features...just that it'll be able to run Windows Vista Home Basic in some not-very-well-defined-but-apparently-adequate way. At the moment, there are still new PCs on store shelves that don't meet the Vista Capable guidelines--for instance, low-end systems still sport 256MB of RAM in some cases. Wonder if that means that that A) we'll see some cheap systems that still have XP even after Vista ships; or B) the specs on even the cheapest machines will be beefed up; or C) we'll see machines that have Vista preloaded but which don't qualify as Vista capable?

Microsoft appears to be in a state of panic, ordering 60 per cent of its new operating system to be re-written amidst a major shake-up of its troubled Windows division.

The news follows another delay with reports of a staff revolt over the way that management has handled the development of the operating system.

According to a Volish denizen speaking to smarthouse.com, orders have come down from on high to rewrite more than 60 per cent of the consumer version of Vista in a bid to get it ready for the 2007 CES show in Las Vegas.

At the centre of the problem appears to be the Media Centre code which will not be optional. Apparently they cannot get it to work properly in its current format and will have to make a lot of changes to the code to jack it in.

Despite all the problems DRM has been causing lately, it seems like companies involved in copy protection just keep trying to create more dangerous copy protections.

Now, Futuremark has uncovered a very dangerous anti-piracy system Starforce is now using. This copy protection system installs a driver that runs at the highest level of access on the system, which gives it low level access to the PCs hardware and any drivers and processes. This driver runs regardless of whether the game runs; keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity such as attempting to copy a protected disc. If something suspicious is detected, it forces the PC to make an immediate reboot, regardless of any other applications running and whether or not the user has any unsaved work.

To make matters worse, this copy protection interferes with DPM readings from software that is designed to allow the playback of copied game discs, which means that any game backups that rely on this Data Protection Manager will no longer play with the Starforce protection driver in place. Finally, as the Starforce protection has been found to interfere with certain device drivers, some drivers will run in legacy PIO mode instead of DMA, which not only slows down the PC by hogging CPU resources, but also slows down the data transfer to the affected hardware.

However, for those who get affected or lose several hours of unsaved work due to an unexpected reboot, chances are that they are not going to get any compensation or sympathy from Starforce or the game publishers using the copy protection.

A group under the guidance of Andrew Tanenbaum at the Amsterdam Free University made the world's RFID "malware" publicly available. "We hope to convince the experts that the problem is serious and better be dealt with," the Dutch researchers say.

As RFID chips only have a limited memory capacity, it was widely assumed they could not become infected with a virus, but researchers discovered that if certain vulnerabilities exist in RFID software a RFID tag can be (intentionally) infected with a virus, which could infect the backend database used by the RFID software. From there it can easily spread to other RFID tags, researchers explained today at the Annual IEEE Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications in Pisa, Italy.

One possible target could be airports. From May 2006, RFID tags at Las Vegas Airport will be attached to suitcases to speed up the baggage handling process. If someone attaches an infected RFID tag to these cases, the entire system could be disrupted, researchers warn.