01Apr 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Meltdown Patch Opened Bigger Security Hole on Windows 7

Microsoft Development, Software Events
Meltdown Patch Opened Bigger Security Hole on Windows 7 Microsoft's Meltdown patch has opened an even bigger security hole on Windows 7, allowing any user-level application to read content from the operating system's kernel, and even write data to kernel memory. Swedish IT security expert Ulf Frisk made the discovery earlier this month while working on PCILeech, a device he created a few years back for carrying out Direct Memory Access (DMA) attacks and dumping protected OS memory. Frisk says that Microsoft's Meltdown patch (for CVE-2017-5754) —released in the January 2018 Patch Tuesday— accidentally flipped a bit that controls the access permission for kernel memory. Frisk explains: In short - the User/Supervisor permission bit was set to User in the PML4 self-referencing entry. This made the page tables available to user mode…
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21Mar 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

LinkedIn users can now request job referrals from their connections

Microsoft Development, Software Events
LinkedIn users can now request job referrals from their connections LinkedIn has a new feature looking for referrals that could help job-seekers get a head start in their job search.  Users are connected to someone who works at a company with a job opening listed on LinkedIn, they can now ask that person for a referral.  LinkedIn is making it easy to find those jobs where you might have an in. Now on the desktop site, you can filter your job search by those that are "in your network" and at the top of those job listings, you'll see an "Ask for a referral" button. Click it and LinkedIn will display all of the people you're connected to that work at that company. You can then select which one you'd…
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20Mar 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Windows 10’s Spring Creators Update will be available in April

Microsoft Development, Software Events
Windows 10’s Spring Creators Update will be available in April Microsoft is planning to release its next Windows 10 update in April. The software giant hasn’t officially revealed its name, but the company is planning to label it the Spring Creators Update. Microsoft has, however, revealed the Spring Creators Update will be released in April. In an update to a blog post today, Microsoft provides a Windows 10 overview that includes the April release date, and plans to support the OS version until October 2019. Microsoft is now planning to finalize Windows 10 Spring Creators Update by the end of next week, and the company typically ships it to consumers a few weeks later. Windows 10 Spring Creators Update will include new features like Timeline, HDR support, improved DPI support, and Fluent Design changes to…
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19Mar 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft’s multi-language approach is paying off

Microsoft Development
Microsoft's multi-language approach is paying off RedMonk's latest programming language popularity report says Microsoft's multi-language approach is paying off, giving the company the "most to crow about" among all vendors. The report, published this week but reflecting January 2018 data, shows several Microsoft-backed languages high up in the ranking. Here's the list of the top 20 languages, judged by the number of StackOverflow tags and number of GitHub projects: JavaScript Java Python PHP C# C++ CSS Ruby C Swift Objective-C Shell R TypeScript Scala Go PowerShell Perl Haskell Lua Noting that PowerShell gained one position, R two and TypeScript three, RedMonk weighed in on the popularity of Microsoft's programming languages. "Of all of the vendors represented on this list, Microsoft has by a fair margin the most to crow about," RedMonk…
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15Mar 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Windows 10 introducing Windows ML, a new AI platform in next update

Microsoft Development
Windows 10 introducing Windows ML, a new AI platform in next update Microsoft is planning to include more artificial intelligence capabilities inside Windows 10 in the next update. The software giant is unveiling a new AI platform, Windows ML, for developers today, that will be available in the next major Windows 10 update available this spring. Microsoft’s new platform will enable all developers that create apps on Windows 10 to leverage existing pre-trained machine learning models in apps. Windows ML will enable developers to create more powerful apps for consumers running Windows 10. Developers will be able to import existing learning models from different AI platforms and run them locally on PCs and devices running Windows 10, speeding up real-time analysis of local data like images or video, or even improving…
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