Yahoo! mail goes to infinity and beyond

For its 10th anniversary, Yahoo Mail is upping the ante to maintain its position as the leading free e-mail service in the world. It's bet: infinity.

"We will begin offering everyone unlimited e-mail storage starting in May 2007," said John Kremer, VP of Yahoo Mail, in a blog post on Tuesday.
When it launched in 1997, Yahoo Mail offered users 4 Mbytes of storage. Then came the information explosion. In 2004, storage capacity was raised to 100 Mbytes. A year later, it was 1 Gbyte.

Google's Gmail currently offers 2.8 Gbytes of storage to its users, an amount that has been creeping upward since the service debuted with 1 Gbyte. Google watchers speculate that some sort of competitive answer to Yahoo's announcement may come on April 1st, the third anniversary of Gmail.

Windows Live Mail offers 2 Gbytes of storage. MSN Hotmail offers 1 Gbyte for its free plan.

Yahoo Mail has long been the most popular free e-mail service worldwide. In February, it received some 243.4 million visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix. Microsoft's MSN Hotmail and Windows Live came in a close second, with 233.3 million visitors the same month. Google's Gmail remains a distant third, having served 62.4 million visitors last month.

However, of the three leading free e-mail services, Yahoo Mail has been growing the slowest. Between February 2006 and February 2007, worldwide traffic at Yahoo Mail grew 9%. Hotmail/Windows Live Mail grew 13% and Gmail grew 68% during the same period, according to comScore.

Unlimited storage, if unanswered by Microsoft and Google, may help Yahoo maintain its lead in the market.
"We hope we're setting a precedent for the future," said Kremer. "Someday, can you imagine a hard drive that you can never fill? Never having to empty your photo card on your camera to get space back? Enough storage to fit the world's music, and then some, on your iPod? Sounds like a future without limits."

See details at:

http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/03/27/yahoo-mail-goes-to-infinity-and-beyond/

One more thing:

When I discovered this thing, I found a new cool link:

http://yodel.yahoo.com

A cool blog hosted on Yahoo! for Yahoo! by Yahoo! (Using WordPress)

Now add more power to your blogging by yodelling on Yahooooooooo!!!.

Regards,

Richie [the new Yodeller ;) ]

New QuickTime exploits MySpace, steals passwords!!!

A Trojan horse exploiting a flaw in Apple Inc.'s QuickTime that was patched two weeks ago is infecting MySpace.com users' computers, collecting confidential information, including passwords, several security companies said today.

The attack is reminiscent of one late last year that plagued MySpace users and forced the popular social networking site to shut down hundreds of profiles.

Like that December exploit, today's leverages the QuickTime "HREF" function, which allows movies to contain URLs or JavaScript that load Web pages into a browser. Rather than issue a fix to all QuickTime users then, however, Apple took the unusual step of letting MySpace itself link to the blocking code. In other words, only MySpace users were protected.

"This function is not strictly a bug or a vulnerability, but it is something that can be misused," said Ivan MacIntlel, research director at Trend Micro Inc.

An Apple spokesman today said that the company patched QuickTime against the flaw in its March 5 security update. New versions for both Mac OS X and Windows were released that day.

But apparently not every QuickTime user has updated to the patched Version 7.1.5; the most recent exploit again uses HREF to embed malicious JavaScript in a QuickTime movie posted on a MySpace page. When a user clicks to play the movie, the JavaScript Trojan horse -- which is hosted on an external site -- grabs personal information of the MySpace user.

Helsinki-based security vendor F-Secure Corp. ticked off the pieces the Trojan horse steals: MySpace username, FriendID, MySpace Display Name and other user passwords. The data is uploaded to a server at the domain Profileawareness.com, which is a members-only forum that "provides working methods of tracking exactly who visited your MySpace profile."

Although MacIntlel could not confirm that the QuickTime update of March 5 would stymie the new attack -- his research teams are still investigating -- he said that it is often true that people don't upgrade vulnerable software. "It's common that people aren't updating right away," he said.

Even, MySpace representatives did not return a call for comment.

What's next by Microsoft?

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is going to launch its Live online service, which has attracted 6 million Xbox 360 console gamers, will be open in May to PC gamers who use its new Windows Vista operating system.

The move comes nearly a year after Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said the company's vision was for "anywhere" gaming that would link video game consoles, cell phones and computers, and is a key step toward reaching that goal.

The PC version of Live will debut on May 8 with the launch of the Windows Vista version of "Halo 2," Microsoft's popular alien shooter game.

In June, Microsoft Game Studios will release "Shadowrun," the first game where Live will support competition between players on the Xbox 360 and PCs.

Live members will need just one account, whether they play on the Xbox 360, the PC, or both machines.

Microsoft offers two Live subscription levels. Silver membership is free and the Gold level, which includes cross-platform play and other multiplayer features, costs about $50 per year.

Microsoft's online gaming service has been a key selling point for its Xbox 360 video game console, which was released in November 2005 and competes with Sony Corp.'s (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii for top billing in the $30 billion global video game market.

Feeling Bored ?? Check out this cool site

After a long time I found some spare time to spend on internet but I was really feeling bored, so I started searching sites which can make you feel good and finally I found I-am-bored.com. At first look I was not impressed with its brightened appearance but soon I realized my mistake. This site is full of contents. It redirects visitors to top rated interesting stuff sites when you feel bored. I tell you what this site contains:

Games, Funny, Entertainment, Quizes , Weird , Tech, Lifestyle, Arts and Literature, News and Politics, Science and Sports

With viewing filters of:

Latest, Popular, Most bookmarked, Most emailed, Top rated, My favorites, and Random.

So you wanna have fun? Just click on this link:

http://www.i-am-bored.com/

Automate everything with AutoHotkey.

Hi all,

Since this is my first post, I donno how to post an attractive blog but I am trying to make it so. If you have any suggestions, feel free to post tips-n-tricks. Now let's come to the business.

What is an AutoHotkey?

Though it is somewhat related to scripting language but, if handled with care its pretty rocking.

AutoHotkey is a free open-source keyboard, joystick and mouse remapper utility for Windows. With it, you can:

1. Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder.

2. Create hotkeys for keyboard, joystick, and mouse. Virtually any key, button, or combination can become a hotkey.

3. Expand abbreviations as you type them. For example, typing "btw" can automatically produce "by the way".

4. Create custom data-entry forms, user interfaces, and menu bars.

5. Remap keys and buttons on your keyboard, joystick, and mouse.

6. Respond to signals from hand-held remote controls via the WinLIRC client script.

7. Run existing AutoIt v2 scripts and enhance them with new capabilities.

8. Convert any script into an EXE file that can be run on computers that don't have AutoHotkey installed.

AutoHotkey unleashes the full potential of your keyboard, joystick, and mouse. For example, in addition to the typical Control, Alt, and Shift modifiers, you can use the Windows key and the Capslock key as modifiers. In fact, you can make any key or mouse button act as a modifier. For these and other capabilities, see:

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/HotkeyFeatures.htm

To download AutoHotkey:

http://www.autohotkey.com/download/

Learn how to create AutoHotkey scripts:

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Tutorial.htm

Regards,

Rishi