An interesting screenshot was found on the internet today. The screenshot depicting a concept art of Windows Longhorn running with an application called “Windows LIVE” - live “blogging” under Longhorn, a new feature that might be included in future OS releases.

If you look at the bottom of the current window running, you’ll notice two things - “Live” and “Space”. A few days ago, Microsoft CodeName Wave was announced to the general public, a concept of integrating MSN, Hotmail, MOOL (Microsoft Office Outlook Live) and additional features. Wave, might be called “Live” in the near future. The word “Space” confirms that MSN Space, the newly released service offered for free, will indeed become part of the Microsoft “Live” or Wave service. Another interesting that should be pointed out, “Activate your free trial now”.

Screenshot (Source)

This might mean that Microsoft MSN Spaces or MSN “Live” might become a premium service and that a trial feature will be included.The concept was done probably in the first quarter of this year, just before the WinHEC conference. Remember this is just a concept and it doesn’t reflect on the final release of the service or product. However, expect these services to be smoothly ran on Windows Longhorn, in 2006.

Source: Tech Connect

Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division at Microsoft Corp is due to make an announcement regarding a new MSN Service (Microsoft Outlook Service) tomorrow.

MOOL (Microsoft Office Outlook Live) is a replacement for the heavily criticised MSN Outlook Connector. Just like Outlook Connector the add-in aims to synchronise data between MSN Hotmail and Microsoft Outlook, but the idea is to extend the capabilities of such synchronisation. Users of MOOL should be able to sync mail/calendar entries/contacts/notes/tasks with MSN Hotmail.

Although the service is due to Beta tomorrow it’s expected the service will be widely available in the first quarter of 2005.

Along with the MOOL announcement, Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi is due to announce the availability of the MSN Toolbar Suite beta tomorrow.

Source: Neowin.net

Hriders.com gives unlimited free 1 Terabyte (1000 GB) email account that includes 500 Megabyte attachments.

In a statement on Hriders.com web site they explain why they decided to give such a large disk space for free, 1000 times more than Google’s Gmail.

We have been asked why we would do such a thing. The answer is simple to help people store large amounts of information in a safe and secure environment.

If you have a free membership with Hriders.com then you will receive a free 1 Terabyte 500 Megabyte attachment email account. You will be able to store over 40 million emails, videos, games, mp3s, or pictures.

A Canadian man was sentenced to seven years in a U.S. prison this week after admitting he led a sophisticated satellite TV piracy ring that produced and sold thousands of hacked smart cards in the U.S. and Canada.

Martin Mullen, 50, was also ordered to pay DirecTV and its smart card provider NDS Ltd. $24 million in restitution. Mullen pled guilty in a federal court in Tampa, Florida last September to conspiracy to violate anti-piracy laws, and to entering the U.S. illegally after being deported on an unrelated matter years earlier.

According to court records, Mullen was an expert at cracking security on the smart cards DirecTV issues to subscribers to authorize access to television programming. In normal operation, a subscriber inserts the card into a slot in the DirectTV set top box, and a satellite signal from the company tells the receiver which channels, if any, the subscriber is allowed to watch, based on the unique identification number coded into each card.

In his plea agreement with prosecutors, Mullen stipulated to heading a network of over 100 distributors throughout North America that sold thousands of hacked cards granting free access to all of DirecTV’s channels.

By some estimates, piracy was costing DirecTV $1.2 billion a year when, in April, the company finished a wholesale swap-out of 17 million older access cards and shut down its legacy data stream, effectively slamming the door on signal pirates. Since then, a slow resignation has begun to settle over the pirate community, which has been unable to crack the company’s fourth generation smart card, called the “P4.”

Source: Security Focus