Alexander’s Blog

Thanks to Microsoft, they have not raised their certification prices for a long time, until now. Effective July 1, 2011, the retail price of Microsoft Certifications will increase worldwide, except for India where the increase will be in effect on August 1, 2011.

Although some of the prices for Microsoft Certification exams for students and academic institutions will increase, according to Microsoft, the discount will remain significant. This is because Microsoft wants to help students become more employable for entry jobs in the IT industry. IT Academy members, high school, college, or university students enrolled in a degree or diploma program will continue to receive a discount off the retail price of select Microsoft Certification exams.

When Federal Trade Commission (FTC) came out with the Do Not Call list idea, everyone loved it. Okay, may be not everyone. I am sure the telemarketers didn’t like the fact that they can’t pick up the phone and start calling anyone they want. But I bet they like it when they themselves don’t receive these uninvited calls. The Do Not Call list is by far one of the most popular successes FTC ever had. Now FTC wants voluntary ‘Do Not Track’ for the Web. The details are posted on the FTC site in this 122-page PDF file. The document was posted on December 1, 2010 and is essentially a Do Not Call list for online behavioral advertising.

Just three days ago on January 24, 2011, Mozilla and Google announced their browser Do Not Track features. You can read more about their approach here. There are pros and cons to the way different companies will implement their features. For example, adding a Do Not Track HTTP header in the browser like Mozilla’s plan for the Firefox browser seems to have an advantage in the sense that even if the user clears the browser cache, the opt-out setting will remain in place. If the feature is implemented as opt-out cookies or an opt-out registry, the results will be different and the setting may be lost. Once the dust settles we will know exactly how different browsers will end up implementing this feature. Frankly, at this point it’s too early and as some wise guy/gal once said, the proof is going to be in the pudding.

Microsoft has already announced in the first week of December that it would add a new Tracking Protection feature to Internet Explorer (IE) 9. This feature is expected to show up in IE9′s release candidate (RC) version sometime in Q1 2011. This is good news because according to some reports Microsoft removed similar features from IE8 because of the pressure from online advertisers.

According to netmarket.com, here is the latest operating system market share breakdown. If it weren’t for Mac’s 5% market share, Windows (91.09%) would pretty much be the only OS used around the world. With all the press Linux gets, it’s practically non-existent at 0.86% and has almost the same market share as Android (0.27%)…..less than 1%. Keep in mind, Android is used on mobile devices and is not a desktop OS.

Out of the Windows operating systems, Windows XP is still the most widely used OS. However, Windows 7 is moving up pretty quickly and have already moved ahead of Windows Vista.

Windows XP = 60.03%

Windows 7 = 17.10%

Windows Vista = 13.35%

Mac OS X 10.6 = 2.72%

Mac OS X 10.5 = 1.67%

Java ME = 0.95%

Other = 4.02%

There are things that you should do if you are an IT administrator and there are things that you shouldn’t do. Here’s an example of things that you should never do…….and for obvious reasons.

“A former senior database administrator for GEXA Energy in Houston was sentenced today to 12 months in prison for hacking into his former employer’s computer network.

Steven Jinwoo Kim, 40, of Houston pleaded guilty in November to one count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and recklessly causing damage. Kim was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore in the Southern District of Texas. Kim was also ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to GEXA Energy and to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

According to court documents, on Feb. 5, 2008, GEXA Energy terminated Kim from his position as a senior database administrator and revoked all of his administrative rights and access to the GEXA Energy computer network.”

Read the rest of the story here on how he used his home PC to mess up the database of about 150,000 GEXA Energy customers and copied personal information of customers to his computer causing the company $100,000 worth of loss.

Here’s something in the news lately that is rather interesting. According to this blog on ZDNet, Microsoft is turning over all Windows 7 and server source code to Russia’s new KGB.

“Microsoft has always carefully protected the source code to its operating systems. In fact, a key distinction between the various Windows variants and open source OSs like Linux and BSD is that Linux and BSD are open source.”

“That’s why a little piece of news covered by ZDNet UK’s Tom Espiner is so astonishing.

According to Espiner, Microsoft has turned over all its source code for Windows 7, along with its source for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server to Russia’s Federal’naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii. The FSB is present-day Russia’s successor to the infamous Soviet-era KGB.”

“From a security perspective, this is an astonishing act. The agency that took over from the KGB and which has been just recently proven to be conducting long-term spying operations against the United States now has access to Windows source code — while at the same time, most American IT operations don’t.

Not only does this give the Russians the opportunity to find gaps in Windows security — it gives them the opportunity to do so while most American companies and organizations don’t have the same opportunity to find the same gaps and plug them.”

“If Microsoft’s going to give source code to Russia, it should release it to the public. Open source certainly hasn’t harmed Linux’ success and doing so would at least put American IT operators on a level playing field with the Russian secret service.”

I haven’t seen Microsoft’s response to this so far and will let Microsoft explain what exactly is and isn’t shared but I do know that Microsoft has a Product Source Program for the benefit of governments, enterprises, OEMs, developers, faculty & students, system integrators, and Microsoft MVPs like me.

The MVP Source Licensing Program (MVPSLP) is a no-cost program that licenses Microsoft Windows source code to qualified Microsoft MVPs. The program gives MVPs the opportunity to differentiate themselves professionally as Windows platform experts through access to Windows source code. Similarly, there are free programs for enterprises and governments. The Government Security Program (GSP) provides national governments with information to help them evaluate the security of Microsoft products.

I don’t think we should panic over this because Microsoft is run by Americans who love this country. It’s hard for me to believe that they would pass on any information to the Russians, or to any other government for that matter, that could impact our security. Not to mention the fact that all export of such information is subject to the U.S. export approval and over 90% of Shared Source offerings are available for download by anyone. According to Microsoft:

“The Product Source Programs, licenses selected Microsoft product source code to qualifying customers, partners, and governments. Access to source is granted only to those who are eligible and who qualifying under the terms of each program.”

Again, I haven’t seen Microsoft’s response to this but I seriously doubt that Microsoft will release every single bit of Windows code to anyone outside Microsoft…..and definitely not to the new Russian KGB (called FSB). If Microsoft does, they would join the Open Source community and as far as I know Microsoft has no intention of doing that.