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European lobbyist group pushes for Microsoft's browser ballot to go worldwide
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| ECIS, a lbbyist group with many Microsoft
| adversaries as members, is calling on
| regulators worldwide to follow the European
| Commission (EC) in requiring Microsoft to
| offer a browser ballot that calls out non-
| Internet-Explorer alternatives available to
| PC users.
|
| Starting March 1, Microsoft began pushing
| out to European Union users an EC-stipulated
| browser ballot, which makes it plain to
| consumers that even though Internet Explorer
| (IE) comes preloaded on Windows PCs, there
| are other browsers available. Microsoft
| agreed to provide the browser ballot to EU
| consumers running IE as their default
| browser on XP, Vista and Windows 7 as part
| of a settlement deal with the EC in an
| antitrust case brought against Microsoft by
| browser maker Opera Software.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=5448
Group wants Microsoft's browser ballot to go global
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9164400/Group_wants_Microsoft_s_browser_ballot_to_go_global
Who needs IE? Nobody.
Microsoft warns of zero-day hole for older Windows
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| Microsoft warned of a new hole on Monday
| that could be exploited by attackers to take
| control of older Windows systems running
| Internet Explorer and for which proof-of-
| concept exploit code has been released
| publicly.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10461853-245.html
Microsoft updates on an IE vulnerability
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| According to the firm the problem relates to Windows 2000 and Windows XP by default, and to a lesser extent, Windows 2003 Server. It added that its internal investigations revealed that Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista were not affected. Regardless
of this, it appears that if there is a risk to systems it is users that cannot stop themselves from pressing a button.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1594337/microsoft-updates-ie-vulnerability
Recent:
Doing the Microsoft Shuffle: Algorithm Fail in Browser Ballot
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| The story first hit in last week on the
| Slovakian tech site DSL.sk. Since I am not
| linguistically equipped to follow the
| Slovakian tech scene, I didnât hear about the
| story until it was brought up in English on
| TechCrunch. The gist of these reports is
| this: DSL.sk did a test of the âballotâ
| screen at www.browserchoice.eu, used in
| Microsoft Windows 7 to prompt the user to
| install a browser. It was a Microsoft
| concession to the EU, to provide a randomized
| ballot screen for users to select a browser.
| However, the DSL.sk test suggested that the
| ordering of the browsers was far from random.
|
| But this wasnât a simple case of Internet
| Explorer showing up more in the first
| position. The non-randomness was pronounced,
| but more complicated. For example, Chrome
| was more likely to show up in one of the
| first 3 positions. And Internet Explorer
| showed up 50% of the time in the last
| position. This has lead to various theories,
| made on the likely mistaken theory that this
| is an intentional non-randomness. Does
| Microsoft have secret research showing that
| the 5th position is actually chosen more
| often? Is the Internet Explorer random
| number generator not random? There were also
| comments asserting that the tests proved
| nothing, and the results were just chance,
| and others saying that the results are
| expected to be non-random because computers
| can only make pseudo-random numbers, not
| genuinely random numbers.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2010/02/microsoft-random-browser-ballot.html
How Random Is Microsoftâs Random Browser Choice Screen In Europe?
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| More than once out of every four hits, the
| page would show Google Chrome on the far
| left, and Internet Explorer would only make
| it to the first spot in 13,8% of page loads
| (scoring well below all four other
| browsers). In fact, in over 50% of all page
| hits, Internet Explorer would come out to
| the far right spot of the five browser
| choices shown on the screen.
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http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/22/microsoft-ballot-screen/
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