Brandon Dimmel

Those still loyal to America Online are aware that the service has had a topsy-turvy history. The once dominant dial-up choice of Americans has struggled as of late with vulnerabilities to its Instant Messenger application, holes that security ... experts have collectively referred to as a "major vulnerability". Last Wednesday, analysts at Core Security Technologies revealed that a bug could unleash a series of attacks on an AOL Instant Messenger user, with the most serious side effect being a remote hijack by a hacker. If said hacker were to worm his or her way into the system, Core Security ... (view more)

Hours before I personally rushed off to get Halo 3 from the local Best Buy (it was on my lunch hour), I posted a report asking just how important Halo 3 was for everyone's tech superpower, Microsoft. Although speculation was enough that day, this ... morning it's finally becoming clear exactly how critical the closing saga is for Redmond. In just a day, Halo 3 smashed sales records by racking up $170 million dollars (USD) in sales, trumping the previous record as set by Spider-Man 3's debut (incidentally enough, Best Buy gave me and many first-day buyers a free copy of the Spider-Man 3 game). ... (view more)

Although most people have been singing Microsoft's praises for the release of much-beloved Halo 3, computer junkies are still hankering for some good 'ol PC love. Not to be overshadowed by the final trilogy in the Halo universe, Microsoft has ... announced a few juicy details on operating system news, the juiciest being beta testing for Vista Service Pack 1. The Redmond-based company recently announced it had released the beta version of the very first Service Pack for Windows Vista to some 12,000 testers. That's a week or two late, considering in August it stated plans to begin testing within a ... (view more)

Last week we reported on the release of a new legal downloading page called "SpiralFrog.com," which boasts free downloading but disallows users from uploading material to an iPod. Since it's not much of a competitor for iTunes (although it will ... surely take a few customers away), Amazon has a more deadly new weapon in its arsenal. Already firmly established as the world's largest online compact disc retailer, it's really not much of a leap for Amazon to take on Apple in this sphere. Although iTunes certainly retains great name recognition when it comes to online music sales, Amazon's recently ... (view more)

Well, it probably shouldn't be any surprise. Given the long-reported threats associated with MySpace, it comes as no shock that investigators are now looking into the exploitation of Facebook by predators. News of the growing problem comes from the ... New York Attorney General's office, which recently used agents posing as underage users to test how treacherous the social-networking waters really are. According to the investigators, these fake teens or tweens were repeatedly solicited by adult Facebook users looking to obtain explicit images and videos of younger fans of the site. Most ... (view more)

Realistically, it's no big surprise. Considered by just about everyone in the video game industry to be Microsoft's 'bread and butter,' Halo 3 is indeed a glorious success according to the majority of critics. The final saga in Master Chief's quest ... kicked off yesterday, and it sounds like just about everyone is loving every last minute of it. So, yes, it's no big surprise that the game is good, but to many it might be a shock that it's being considered great. That's because its predecessor, Halo 2, disappointed many gamers with its recurring graphical bugs and cliff hanger ending. Granted, ... (view more)

Just about everyone is out to get Microsoft. That's the problem with being a virtual hegemonic state; like the U.S., everyone wants a piece of the pie and it often means taking it by force. So, just what are the primary threats to Microsoft? When it ... comes to its the company's Office "turf", the competitors are now lining up, and neither the products nor their makers are slouches by any means. In the following week, three tech titans announced plans to bring down the god of business software, Microsoft and its Office. Yahoo, Google, and even IBM have plans to develop competing software with ... (view more)

This morning, millions of people will line up and wait for a disc. Not a fancy iPhone, not a big 'ol PlayStation 3 or wee-Wii, but a disc. This morning, Halo 3 launches. According to some, it means more for Microsoft than just a few bucks. For those ... who only dabble in gaming, Halo 3 is the last installation in a franchise that has spanned the entire console life of Microsoft. First released in the fall of 2001 for the original Xbox, it took little time for critics and gamers alike to realize that this one was special. No, it didn't revolutionize gaming, in fact, it uses the standard First ... (view more)

The most "hip and trendy" music download site is combining with the one retail environment that may just as well define "hip and trendy". Yeah, that's right, Apple's megapopular iTunes music service has teamed up with overpriced java distributor ... Starbucks, promising free songs to customers waiting for a caffeine fix. According to reports, Starbucks intends to dole out some 50 million free tunes in its domestic coffee shops to promote iTunes' upgrade to wireless service, set to debut in select markets soon. What's the deal? For the month between October 2 and November 7, Starbucks ... (view more)

A recent decision by the EU damned Microsoft's antitrust business practice of bundling Windows Media Player (WMP) with its operating systems. You might be ready to scream "damn!" or any other curse word if you're one of the unlucky victims of a ... recent vulnerability in WMP. According to one British security research company, hackers can exploit Internet Explorer, even if it isn't the default web browser, by acting upon a gaping hole in Media Player. (Source: channelinsider.com ) Penetration tester Petko Petkov, who recently showed how vulnerable Apple's QuickTime can be, has now said that ... (view more)