The original designer of the internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) is in the UK to discuss industry responses to security flaws recently uncovered in its handling of internet protocol (IP) addresses.

The DNS vulnerability, first proven by researcher Dan Kamsinky in July 2008, highlighted how criminals can potentially redirect unsuspecting victims to fake websites, even when they type in a genuine web address.

The flaw has since been exploited to poison the servers that translate domain names into internet protocol (IP) addresses, giving malware another attack vector to infect user PCs with malicious code or intercept and edit email.

But Dr Paul Mockapetris - who is now chairman and chief scientist at IP address infrastructure software developer, Nominum - told IT PRO work to tackle the flaw was reaching well beyond the scope of patching the flaw itself.

InfoWorld’s Randall Kennedy examines Windows 7 from the kernel up, subjecting the ‘pre-beta’ to a battery of benchmarks to find any signs that the OS will be faster, more responsive, and less resource-intensive than the bloated Vista, as Microsoft suggests. Identical thread counts at the kernel level suggest to Kennedy that Windows 7 is a ‘minor point-type of release, as opposed to a major update or rewrite.’ Memory footprint for the kernel proved eerily similar to that of Vista as well. ‘In fact, as I worked my way through the process lists of the two operating systems, I was struck by the extent of the similarities,’ Kennedy writes, before discussing the results of a nine-way workload test scenario he performed on Windows 7 — the same scenario that showed Vista was 40 percent slower than Windows XP. ‘In a nutshell, Windows 7 M3 is a virtual twin of Vista when it comes to performance,’ Kennedy concludes. ‘In other words, Microsoft’s follow-up to its most unpopular OS release since Windows Me threatens to deliver zero measurable performance benefits while introducing new and potentially crippling compatibility issues.

An update for the AVG virus scanner released yesterday contained an incorrect virus signature, which led it to think user32.dll contained the Trojan Horses PSW.Banker4.APSA or Generic9TBN. AVG then recommended deleting this file; this causes the affected systems to either stop booting or go into a continuous reboot cycle. So far, the problem only appears to affect Windows XP, but there is no guarantee that other versions of Windows don’t have the same issue.

Both AVG 7.5 and AVG 8.0 were affected by the update; a revised signature database has just been published that corrects this issue. People that have removed the user32.dll can either boot from their original Windows CD and choose the repair option, or use another CD to boot from and restore the file from C:WindowsSystem32dllcache.

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? Yes: on iTunes, Hulu and YouTube.

After almost four decades on Public Broadcasting Service-affiliated television stations, the popular children’s program “Sesame Street” is moving to the Internet.

Fans of Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie and the Count will be able to see episodes and clips of the show in three ways, according to a statement released by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit group once known as the Children’s Television Workshop and that started Sesame Street.

On Apple Inc’s iTunes store, people can download full episodes from season 35 and onward for $1.99.

Google Inc’s YouTube will start a Sesame Street channel with more than 100 clips from the show. Many people already have loaded clips from the show on their own, including Monsterpiece Theater installments like “Me, Claudius” and the episode in which the adult characters explain to Big Bird the death of the beloved Mr. Hooper.

Hulu, an online video venture between News Corp and General Electric Co’s NBC, will feature 100 Sesame Street segments and 30 other segments featuring celebrity actor guests such as Julia Roberts and Laurence Fishburne.

In its latest move to increase Internet search traffic, Microsoft Corp. has turned to an old rival, Sun Microsystems Inc., for marketing help.

Under the terms of a deal being announced Monday, Sun will promote a Microsoft toolbar for the Internet Explorer browser to U.S.-based Web surfers as they download Sun’s Java software - which is required to view some Web sites. The toolbar has a built-in box for queries to Microsoft’s Live Search and buttons that give people access to MSN content.

“We need to provide more volume to our advertisers,” said Angus Norton, a senior director in Microsoft’s Live Search group. Microsoft ranks a distant third in the Web search market behind Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.

Sun and Microsoft have competed bitterly on several fronts. In particular, Sun was one of the most prominent antagonists in Microsoft’s long antitrust battles. In 2004, Sun reaped nearly $2 billion in a patent and antitrust settlement payout from Microsoft.

Sun and Microsoft did not disclose the financial details or the length of their new deal. It comes as Sun is struggling mightily, having posted a $1.7 billion loss in its most recent quarter.