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Starting next month, Microsoft will be sharing the technical details of new vulnerabilities to give software developers a catch to update affected products before the public announcement. Also in October, Microsoft will start providing each bulletin with an Exploitability Index to help system administrators prioritize the patches.

Among the critical patches, two affect Windows Media Player, one affects Windows, while the other affects
Microsoft Office. All could enable remote code execution if exploited.

On Thursday, Microsoft announced four security bulletins for Tuesday. The announcement is intended as a heads-up for IT departments before Patch Tuesday. All four are considered critical, the most serious ranking offered by the software giant.

That means utilities would have to be onboard with a standardized system that allows household appliances to communicate with their grids.

The appliances are equipped with a “Smart Meter” that communicates with the local power utility, and then times itself to run during off-peak periods. Consumers are still given a choice to override the program if they want to use a particular appliance during peak hours.

Currently, GE refrigerators’ automatic defrost modes are prompted by factors like door openings. But, the company says, it could build refrigerators that delay that cycle until a local electrical grid signals it’s a good off-peak time to suck down more electricity.

GE estimates that there are currently about 3,000 utilities in the U.S. Many of them are considering their energy storage options, and some are considering moving to a tiered-pricing system to encourage off-peak electricity usage. Appliances that help consumers avoid peak hours could help them save money, according to GE.

The program seeks to address the nationwide problem of peak energy demand, in which electrical grids are overburdened by a consumer surge in use. It’s a problem power utilities are concerned about given the rise in electric plug-in vehicles.

Well, apparently, there is, and it could help ease the stress on local energy grids during peak hours, according to GE Consumer & Industrial.

Did you know there’s some leeway on when a refrigerator must run its automatic defrost cycle?

GE is testing a whole range of what it calls “Energy Management-Enabled Appliances” with the Louisville Gas and Electric Co. in Louisville, Ky., the company announced Wednesday. It includes ranges, washers and dryers, dishwashers, and microwaves.

Refrigerators are not the only appliances that could be programmed to wait for convenient times to run.

But there’s a catch. In order for the appliances to work, the electrical grid they operate on must communicate with the machine’s “Smart Meter.”

I was impressed with his drive to succeed. Before he was homeless, Nelson sold 35 pairs of speakers through word of mouth and on eBay. When compared to those of Polk, KEF, Klipsch, and others, the Zealth speakers, which sell for less than $1,000 per pair, have come out on top.

(Credit:
Zealth Audio)

Nelson, whose company is called Zealth Audio Loudspeakers, is currently looking for investors so he can start full-scale production.

The U.S. Navy veteran’s personal life, however, took a turn for the worse. He is currently living in a shelter in California.

In other words, there’s a right and left channel in each Zealth Audio speaker cabinet. He started working on the stereo from one speaker concept in 1989, then spent years of hard work refining the design.

Nelson says he first started building speakers when he was a kid in high school, tinkering with drivers and building cabinets. With a few investors lined up, and prospects looking good, he was planning on exhibiting his inventiveness at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last year.

Kevin Nelson may be homeless, but his story isn’t so different from countless other speaker designers I’ve met. Aspiring speaker designers never had it easy, but nowadays it’s a lot tougher to break into the business.

Interested parties can contact Kevin Nelson via e-mail at zealthaudio@email.com.

Kevin Nelson, speaker designer

Nelson isn’t opposed to using two speakers, and he feels the sound is even better with two. He says, “When the speakers are set up just right, and you’re sitting in the zone, the two speakers disappear.”

Nelson never wanted to build just another speaker. No, his Zealth speaker produces stereo sound from a single box. Nelson devised special “Crossfire Imaging” crossover networks to produce stereo sound from a single speaker (the crossover is the part of the speaker that routes treble frequencies to the tweeter, bass to the woofer, etc.).

You can use two, but each speaker can produce stereo sound!

(Credit:
Zealth Audio)

The latest version of the free, solid Internet privacy application CCleaner is one app to oblige. In late December, it added Chrome to its list of supported browsers, along with Internet Explorer, Mozilla/Firefox,
Safari, and Opera.

(Credit:
CNET)

The latest CCleaner update now clears Internet data from Chrome.

CCleaner actually reaches deeper in Chrome than in Opera and Safari, dumping the download history and saved form information in addition to cookies, Internet history, and Internet cache. Of course, Internet history has become more virtue than vice as a searching time-saver, and any of the cleaning options may be easily skipped from the scan.

We’re glad to see the well-regarded CCleaner taking Chrome on board at this relatively early stage, and we hope other developers soon follow suit.

At first they tried Google’s Chrome browser out of curiosity. Now, the growing ranks of those who have switched to Chrome (or vacillate, like CNET’s own Stephen Shankland) will be looking for browser support services and add-ons to complete the transition.

Hulu, the free video streaming service backed by NBC Universal and Fox, announced that it’s celebrating its first birthday Wednesday, and along with that celebration, it released some internal survey results to give users an update on where the service stands today.

Much of the data Hulu provided comes from a survey it commissioned from July 2008 to August 2008, as well as an online study in October 2008 that features results from 2,500 adults over the age of 18.

There’s no debating that Hulu is enjoying success. But with competitors like Fancast offering the same basic service and targeting the same audience, we can’t forget that Hulu isn’t alone in its desire to be the de facto leader in professional video content.

Citing Nielsen VideoCensus figures, Hulu claims it streamed 142 million videos last month and was the sixth-most popular video site on the Web. Hulu also said that 98 percent of its users would recommend the service to friends and almost 80 percent of survey respondents who used Hulu in the last 30 days rated it as “Excellent” or “Very Good.”

Advertising is a key component in the future success of Hulu, and so far, the site has performed relatively well. Its internal figures show that advertiser brand awareness jumped by 1.2 percent after advertising on Hulu and brand favorability rose 8.9 percent after advertisements were placed on the site. Most importantly, Hulu claims that 93 percent of survey respondents said the site offers the “right amount of ads” in exchange for free videos.

Since its inception, Hulu’s content providers have grown substantially. At launch, the site had 40 providers, but today, it boasts more than 110 networks, like Comedy Central, the Sundance Channel, and PBS. The site also features 1,000 show titles today, which is up from 90 on its launch day. Movie titles have also grown from 10 to almost 400.

Aside from self-serving figures, Hulu did provide an important finding that provides some real insight into exactly what makes Hulu (and probably other video services like YouTube and MySpaceTV) popular. According to its study, users value Hulu because the videos are free, available anytime, and the quality of programming is high. And it’s that formula, the company explains, that makes the site successful.

“I do think this bill is part and parcel of broader patent reform, which I do hope we’re able to move this session,” Schiff said. “Broad patent reform has a great number of challenges associated with it, since when you change the patent system in one way or another, you create advantages for some industries and concerns for others.”

There are many opposing viewpoints on the issue of patent reform, but at least one thing can be agreed upon: patent law is complicated.

Comprehensive patent reform will likely have to take a multifaceted approach, including reform of patent office procedures and the litigation process. A bill introduced this week, however, takes a focused approach to patent reform by aiming to make the subject less confusing for judges.

This bill, though “is an across-the-board winner,” he said. “It doesn’t affect different patent holders in different ways.”

“It’s not something we want to micro-manage,” he said.

The legislation passed in the House of Representatives both in 2006 and 2007, but Schiff and Issa are more confident it will become law this year because Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) has introduced matching legislation in the Senate. Specter is the ranking Republican in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over patent issues. Committee Chair Patrick Leahy has yet to come out in support of the legislation, but he has said patent reform is a priority for him.

The legislation could be particularly important for small companies that cannot afford lengthy trials.

At least six district courts, chosen from the 15 that saw the most patent and plant variety protection cases in the previous year, would have to join the pilot program. The courts chosen must house at least 10 judges, so that the courts are not perceived as specialized patent courts. Patent cases would still be randomly assigned to district courts, to avoid “court shopping,” but the judges who receive a patent case would have the option of handing it over to a judge enrolled in the pilot program.

“In order for a start-up to have a decent profit margin, they need intellectual property,” he said, adding that bringing U.S. patent law in line with other countries’ laws may not benefit U.S. companies.

Schiff said, however, he would like to see some patent reforms that harmonize U.S. laws with other systems around the world, such as granting patents to the applicant who first files for it, rather than the applicant who first invented the entity in question. He also said he’d like to see the patent review process become more efficient and would like to modify the inequitable defense doctrine, a controversial rule that allows federal judges to void a patent if the holder deceived the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to receive it.

“For small entities, it really is a situation that delayed justice is no justice.” –Ron Riley, president of the Professional Inventors Alliance

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) reintroduced legislation this week that would start a 10-year pilot program to educate district judges on patent issues. Judges from courts that meet certain criteria would be able to opt into the program, which would provide funds for them to pursue educational opportunities such as patent seminars. The participating courts would also be assigned a clerk with expertise in patent law or the technical issues associated with patent cases. The bill authorizes $5 million a year to carry out the program.

While Riley said educating judges would be a positive step for small businesses, he expressed concern over other potential patent reforms like limiting monetary damages awarded in infringement lawsuits.

“For small entities, it really is a situation that delayed justice is no justice,” said Ron Riley, president of the Professional Inventors Alliance.

By cultivating more expertise on the bench, the congressmen are hoping to move cases along more quickly, thereby reducing the cost of litigation. The types of educational development the judges in the program could pursue would be left up to the judiciary, Schiff said.

“The combination of interactivity and music speaks to people of all ages today,” he said. “Connecting actual players online in real and virtual worlds via eJamming technology underscores the MTV Networks Music Group’s commitment to bringing our fans cutting-edge experiences.”

Neither company would say when MTVN will start rolling out eJamming’s technology, but the service is growing quickly. According to its internal figures, the Audiio software has 18,000 beta testers in 158 countries.

Jeff Yapp, MTV executive vice president of program enterprises, said in a statement that MTVN’s decision to work with eJamming was rooted in the company’s desire to become a quasi social network for musicians.

The decision to use eJamming’s collaboration tool makes sense. MTVN caters to people who care about music, and with the help of eJamming’s Audiio, it can help them form a band, learn to play an instrument, or join an existing group. More important from a business standpoint, MTVN can use eJamming’s technology to keep those musicians on MTV sites.

eJamming, a service that provides musicians with collaboration technology to help them form bands or work on songs together, said Tuesday it has formed a partnership with the MTV Networks Music Group.

The licensing agreement will allow the MTV Networks Music Group to use eJamming Audiio software for any future projects. According to MTVN, the software could be used in virtual worlds and new music sites.

I described my search for a solution to a recurring wireless-network problem in a post from last July. Microsoft’s Help and Support site offers help with XP wireless-connection glitches
and Vista wireless woes.

Step 8: Customize your desktop.
I like an iconless desktop, but that doesn’t keep me from having easy access to the items I place on my desktop. I’d rather choose them from a Desktop menu that pops out of the taskbar. To clear the icons from the desktop, right-click anywhere on it, choose View, and deselect Show Desktop Icons.

(Credit:
Delicious)

Step 6: Download and install your bookmarks from Delicious.
Last October, I described how to upload your bookmarks to the Delicious bookmark site. To export your bookmarks from Delicious, click Settings in the top-right corner of the Delicious site, choose Export/Backup Bookmarks in the Bookmarks section, and click Export.

Step 7: Clear out the trialware.
There are plenty of utilities that will help you remove the trialware versions of programs that your PC vendor likely loaded onto your hard drive. I use Piriform’s free CCleaner for this and other system-maintenance chores. CCleaner makes it easy to uninstall the adware and other programs your system can do without.

Now right-click the taskbar, uncheck Lock the Taskbar, and choose Toolbars > Desktop. Drag the Desktop toolbar to the right–toward the notification area (aka the system tray)–until only the word “Desktop” and the double chevron are showing. To reach one of your desktop items, click the double chevron and select it from the menu that pops up.

Once you have the .csv file saved locally, open Outlook, click File > Import and Export > Import from another program or file > Next > Comma Separated Values (Windows) > Next. Browse to and select the .csv file, click Next, choose Contacts in the folder tree, click Next again, choose the appropriate fields for the data (if necessary), and click Finish. Your contacts may require a little cleanup, but the process beats relying on Outlook for your contacts backup (in my humble opinion).

Step 5: Install security software.
Personally, I prefer the convenience and relative simplicity of an all-in-one security suite. However, lots of PC users want to avoid the heavy-handedness of security suites from such big-name vendors as Symantec and McAfee. Choosing best-of-breed antivirus, antispyware, and software-firewall programs gives you more control over your security settings. However, using multiple security utilities increases the chances of a conflicts with Windows.

Step 3: Download
Firefox.
It’s ironic that the one and only time I’m likely to open Internet Explorer is to download Mozilla’s Firefox browser. (Actually, I need to use IE to restore my online data backups; see Step 11 below.) Then I used Firefox to download the Opera and Google Chrome browsers as well. You never know when you’re going to need another browser, and they don’t cost anything.

Step 1: Establish a network connection.
My computer is pretty useless without an Internet link. (Well, less useless than it was before Google Gears arrived; more on that in Step 12 below.) I discovered this fact last fall when I was networkless in the wilds of southeastern Maine. Getting on my home’s wireless network was a breeze using Vista’s Network and Sharing Center. Click “Connect to a network” in the left pane, choose your network, click Connect, enter your network’s password, and click Connect again.

People tend to have strong opinions about their security software. The fact is, a security configuration that works great on one person’s PC will crash and burn someone else’s system. You have to experiment to find the right security-software strategy for your machine and tastes.

I’ve got the process down to 12 steps:

Four hours. That’s how long it took me to prepare my new notebook computer for the workaday world. And that includes restoring all my data files and e-mail.

Step 2: Update Windows.
No matter how recently the machine’s version of Windows was installed, there’s probably an important security patch–perhaps several–waiting for it on the Microsoft Update site. To download and install it, click Start > All Programs > Windows Update. The Microsoft service will determine whether your system is missing any critical updates.

Step 9: Install and update Office (optional).
This is the step I would like to skip, but for now, my work requires that I have Office on my system. Installing Office 2007 from disc is one of the most time-consuming of the 12 steps, in part because you have to install Service Pack 1 via Microsoft Update after the disc installation completes. One of these days….

My next stop is the Web Museum, where I choose my desktop wallpaper. Once you find a painting you like (and that generally matches your desktop dimensions), right-click it and choose Set as Desktop Background (in Firefox). Click Stretch to ensure that the picture will fill your screen. Just be sure you don’t violate any copyrights for the artwork you select.

Step 11: Download your online data backup.
I use the IDrive online-backup service, which does a good job of backing up my data in the background. To restore a backup, log into your account on the IDrive site (using Internet Explorer–the service doesn’t support Firefox, unfortunately), choose Folder Restore, and follow the prompts.

Click Tools in the left pane, choose Uninstall, select the programs you want to remove one at a time, and click Run Uninstaller on the right side of the program window. You can also use CCleaner to pare down the list of apps that start automatically with Windows, among other useful tools in the program.

Step 12: Download Google Gears.
I waited a long time for Google’s offline component to support Gmail, which finally arrived early last month. The service also lets you work with your Google Docs & Spreadsheets and other Web services without an Internet connection. I’m happy to report that I haven’t yet needed offline access to my Gmail account or other online services, but I know it’s only a matter of time. With Gears in place, I’ll be ready for my next network failure. Well, sort of.

Step 4: Download NoScript.
Giorgio Maone’s NoScript script-blocking plug-in (donationware) is the one-and-only Firefox add-on I consider mandatory. The program lets you block scripts on a site-by-site and source-by-source basis.

To add the bookmarks to Firefox, click Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import and Backup > Import HTML. In the Import HTML wizard, choose From an HTML File, click Next, browse to and select the file you just exported from Delicious, and click Open. Your bookmarks should be back where they belong.

Export your Delicious bookmarks to your new PC via the site's Export options.

Step 10: Download your Outlook mail.
I have my ISP e-mail account set to save all messages on the server, so once I create the new account in Outlook, all my mail downloads automatically. Likewise, I use the Flexadex online contact manager, which I described in a post last month. Flexadex lets you export your contacts as a .csv file that you can import to Outlook.

But now, the News Corp.-owned MySpace has added a handful of independent music partners, both labels and distribution companies, to bring more of the indies to its catalog. As of Thursday, Nettwerk, INgrooves, Iris Distribution, RoyaltyShare, and Wind-up Entertainment have joined MySpace Music, adding “several hundred thousand” songs.

“These important new partnerships will allow the MySpace Music community to access even more of their favorite independent music while enabling monetization opportunities for the newly licensed artists,” said MySpace Music President Courtney Holt, who was hired from MTV Networks to head the streaming music service. “We are thrilled to have our new partners on board and will continue our aggressive content acquisition efforts.”

When MySpace launched its MySpace Music service, a joint venture with all the major record labels, in September, it was subject to a persistent criticism: that independent music, the original backbone of the social network’s success, had been put on the back burner in favor of the hits.

To be fair, MySpace Music has had a partnership from the start with Sony ATV, which gave it access to other indie distributors like The Orchard and Fontana.