To accomplish the Windows Genuine Advantage validation removal mission, all you have to do is the following - extract the files into a new empty folder, and then run installer.bat. Don’t ask me what files and where can you get them, since I am sure Microsoft doesn’t like this at all, so I won’t give you any link to such a thing.

Just remember that Windows Genuine Advantage Validation 1.8.31.9 has just been cracked, and its authors claim this is “100% working on Windows Update, Microsoft Download Center and Microsoft Update.”

As a last thing, it seems this last victory of crackers vs. Microsoft is “A tribute to ETH0, creator of base version crack.” Now, I have no idea who is “ETH0,” if he’s dead, or - even worse - if he got married, but all I can say is “RIP, ETH0, RIP, Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Validation 1.8.31.9.”

So…what about you? What do you think about the WGA tool and its use? Last, but most important of all, what do you think about Windows Genuine Advantage validation removal? Feel free to share your opinions with us, we won’t tell Microsoft anything!

Starting with a personalized logo on the official homepage in 1998 and continuing with releasing feature after feature until the new Chrome web browser launched earlier this year, Google gathered more than 1 trillion indexed web pages, becoming the largest search engine in the world.

Happy birthday, Google! Ten years and counting…

If you want to download the Google Android SDK, you should keep in mind that we’re talking about a ~90MB download, available for Windows XP or Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later (x86 only), as well as Linux (tested on Linux Ubuntu Dapper Drake).

Obviously, this is only the beginning, since Morrill concluded:”So what’s next for us? Well, we’ll keep working on the SDK, as I said. But we’re also working hard with our partners in the Open Handset Alliance on the open-source release, with the aim of making the code available in the fourth quarter. The second Android Developer Challenge is also on the horizon—watch this space for more details. We’re also already working on the future of the Android platform, and on more devices. We’ve updated the Developer Roadmap, and we’ll keep updating it as more information becomes available.”

Although some say that Android mobiles can’t match the iPhone 3G, I must add a tiny word: “yet,” they can’t match it yet, but I am sure the day of the Android will come sooner than most would expect it!

Now, if we leave all the above aside, hearing Steve Ballmer shout or seeing him dance can compensate the blue screens some people get in certain situations, <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->just as it happened when Bill Gates got creamed by a pie!

First interesting report is coming from ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley: “Last time CEO Steve Ballmer offered a tentative timeframe as to when he might retire from Microsoft, he put the date at ten years or so from now (around the time his youngest goes to college).”

Well, ten years wouldn’t be that much, but the funny twist is that Foley also said that, “According to scuttlebutt from Microsoft’s annual employee meeting, which was held in Seattle on September 18, Ballmer told attendees that he is going to stay on at Microsoft until Microsoft’s search share exceeds Google’s.”

Considering that Google’s shares are going up, and Microsoft is slowly going downhill, Steve Ballmer may need to stay around for more than just 10 years, but it’s not the time that really matters. He really needs to find a winning strategy for Microsoft, because things are not looking that great, as we speak…

Love him or hate him, it seems Steve Ballmer is here to stay. Maybe he really loves the company, but what would you do, if you were in his place? Just one quick overview of “my strategy as Ballmer,” and I’ll be off - instantly stop the silly advertising campaign for Vista, push as much money as possible into the next-gen OS, and try to listen to my customers more. I really think that offering support for Windows XP once again would benefit more than keeping to push Vista around, but that’s just my opinion, so let me hear yours!

According to the official press release, the expectations McAfee has from this deal worth about $465 million are the following:

- With Secure Computing, McAfee expects to become one of the largest network security players, delivering the industry’s most complete network security solution to businesses of all sizes, extending the success of its total protection<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right-> strategy through best of breed technology suites
- Secure Computing TrustedSource technology will extend McAfee’s “in-the-cloud” security as a service offering
- With Secure Computing, McAfee expects to be able to deliver the complete content and data lifecycle management at the network, spanning detection, filtering, encryption, blocking, archiving, reporting and compliance
- Secure Computing has more than 22,000 customers in 106 countries that will be able to rely upon McAfee as a single source for complete security portfolio—spanning endpoint, network, data and risk and compliance

Since I mentioned the antivirus/data security market as a whole in the beginning, here’s some data for your reference - last year, McAfee’s revenue totalled $1.3 billion, with network security sales of about $500 million per year. Not bad at all, not bad at all!

These are only the latest updates, but it’s also worth mentioning that, last year, McAfee acquired Israeli data protection company Onigma for $20 million, as well as the encryption and access control vendor SafeBoot, for $350 million.

If I would be in their place, I would simply admit the mistake that’s Vista, and put as much money as possible into developing the next Windows version, maybe I’ll get it right. Anyway, since I am not in the position to change anything in the <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->way Microsoft is considering to go on, I will let it be and move to the next part - the “Life Without Walls” campaign.

So, like it or not, Microsoft’s advertising crusade goes on, and - hopefully - this time, everything will have a meaning. According to the Redmond giant, the new ads will aim at “tearing down the walls,” whatever that means. Even more, they say the new ads will “celebrate the diversity and passion of consumers around the world who use Windows to stay in touch with the people, information and ideas that they care about.”

Well, at least the “Life Without Walls” image gallery at Microsoft.com looks interesting, but I have no idea about the ads to come, especially since a “Real PC” series is also scheduled, containing ads to fight directly Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign.

For now, this is it. If the new ads prove to be as meaningless as the previous ones, be sure we won’t talk about them!

I used this program on the Linux platform, as well as on Windows and Mac OS X, and I must tell you VLC rocks, <-125x125 Button - right->especially if you’re a Mac user, but I am not here to tell you about this program’s features. If you really want that, you can check the Free DVD Player Downloads article, where I talked about VLC and a few others for a while.

Now…let’s get to the very simple subject today - last version of VLC I had installed on my computer was 0.8.6i. Until now, each update worked fine, only that…this time, something went wrong. All my settings remained the same, but most movies are not playing anymore. This also happened to other people I know, so VLC 0.9.2, the last version, may have some issues. What kind of issues, that’s not something for me to say, I only noticed their effect.

So…did you happen to update VLC to 0.9.2? If you did, everything works fine? If you’re new to VLC, that’s even better - get the program from the VLC official page and let us know how does it work for you. Currently, there are almost 840,000 downloads of this version complete and counting…someone must know more than we do, so please come and enlighten us!

…but since everyone seems to throw Schmedley into the same pot with the likes of NetVibes, Pageflakes, iGoogle or Protopage, I had to mention that. Now, why should I consider Schmedley more than just a start page? Good question, and some may laugh at my answer, but who wouldn’t laugh now when looking back at Windows 1.0(and NO, I am not talking about the ad featuring Steve Ballmer)??

While I consider Mac OS X a bit too much for my eye candy taste, that’s exactly what I like about Schmedley - it has a Mac-like dock, and I think even my mother could use it without getting a headache. In the end, that’s where we should arrive one day - <-336×280 Large Rectangle - right->using a computer should be as easy like using a hammer, but without any painful outcomes, of course!

Why should you set Schmedley as your start page? The answer is very simple - take this, take Google Chrome, and that’s it - you can forget about the rest of the computer! YouTube, Google, RSS feeds, sticky notes, Amazon search, and the chance to create new tabs to populate with…whatever you like, but if I have to choose between widgets on my desktop and on my virtual desktop, I always choose the later. Don’t ask why, you’ll find out one day for yourselves…

I won’t get much into this, since you can take advantage of the Schmedley private Beta invitations we got from Dustin(thank you very much!) just for you, and try this online gem for yourselves.

Anyway, I won’t put an end to this here, because there are some things I’d like to see added, and here’s what goes through my mind here - a bookmarks manager and a way of exchanging data with your browser, as well as opening files from your hard drive(for example, using Schmedley to open a text file and place it on your virtual desktop as a sticky note), and - I think this can be solved pretty easy, a widget for file uploads, just like the one leading to Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.

For now, we’re still talking about a Beta version, so various problems could appear, but that’s the whole beauty of it (depends, I tested some early betas before, and each time it was a challenging experience, especially when I tried to reproduce crashes and other, less important issues, but some people may consider this a waste of time, of course). Just consider yourselves warned, and remember - by taking part in this private Beta, you’re no lab rats, you’re explorers!

Join me and the others in this amazing trip, and be sure we’ll get back to Schmedley pretty soon, but now I would like to tell you a secret, and then ask you something. If you like Schmedley and you hate submitting bugs or asking for features, let’s make this like a face-to-face development process - write what you want below, share with us your impressions, and if you have some questions, add them to your comment, too, and I’ll be sure to pass them over to Dustin, so he can answer. Your questions and mine will go together as a nice interview to publish in the coming week, so don’t be shy…be a Schmedller!

“Google isn’t entitled with God-given right to become #1 in every region it operates in, just because it’s Google. It’s actually more about the Korean Web industry than about Google. I think the Korean web industry needs a player that can, as a balancing force, provide more options to the users and help create a more open Web.”

Hmm…seems he’s got a good point there. Just as it happens in other areas where Google doesn’t have total domination, Korean users are locked into using Web portals, so they don’t get to explore more sites that sell Google ads. Anyway, I guess best deal for Google would be to lead them all to its online services, especially since its Chrome browser starts to have (a very slim and sexy) shape.

Due to regulatory pressure, Google decided to change its data retention policy, now reducing the period before anonymizing IP addresses. <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->According to them, IP adresses are now made anonymus after 9 months, instead of 18 months, as it was the deal so far. So…how is this affecting the end user sitting in front of the computer in his living room, after all?

Basically, we’re talking about increased security of your personal data, but I wouldn’t go that far in claiming that your search tasks will become anonymous, because they won’t. “Google’s search business is offered to the public for free, and is thus inherently superior from a privacy perspective to paid services because it does not require users’ real names, billing addresses, credit card numbers or mandatory tax and accounting records. To support this free service, Google primarily relies on being able to serve relevant advertising to its users,” wrote Google in a letter to the Article 29 working group.

At last, Google said they are still working on the anonymization algorithm to use, since this is more about making IP addresses “disappear,” rather than having to erase additional details.

“We have focused on IP addresses, because we recognize that users cannot control IP addresses in logs. On the other hand, users can control their cookies. When a user clears cookies, s/he will effectively break any link between the cleared cookie and our raw IP logs once those logs hit the 9-month anonymization point. Moreover, we are continuing to focus on ways to help users exert better controls over their cookies.”

As long as everything works fine for me as a Google user, I couldn’t care less about who’s messing with my searches. After all, I don’t have anything to hide, and I am sure Google doesn’t need to check what I am doing. The problems may appear if third parties get information from Google, but I didn’t hear about such a thing, so far.