Windows Server Update Service will include an automatic upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.

Microsoft warns of IE7 automatic update
IT managers given guidelines to stick with IE6
Microsoft is reminding IT managers that the scheduled 12 February rollout of Windows Server Update Service will include an automatic upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.

Companies wishing to remain with IE6 have been offered guidelines explaining how to prevent the automated update taking effect.

If the update service is configured automatically to approve Update Rollups, IE7 will be downloaded and installed to workers' PCs when the release becomes available.

IT administrators will need to disable the auto-approval rule before the deadline to prevent the download.

Microsoft claimed that the move was prompted by security concerns.

Many companies will choose to remain with IE6 as some web-based applications experience issues running with IE7.

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Microsoft fixes 11 flaws in latest update
Microsoft has plugged 11 security vulnerabilities as part of release.

Five of the vulnerabilities carry a severity rating of 'critical', five are labelled 'important' and one is labelled 'moderate'.

The 'critical' vulnerabilities affect Excel 2000, Windows Server 2000 and versions 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 of the .Net framework. An attacker could use each vulnerability to remotely execute malicious code on a target system.

A remote code execution vulnerability was also found in Office Publisher 2007. An attacker could use a specially crafted '.pub' file to take control of the target system with the privileges of the current user.

The vulnerability is classified as 'important' rather than 'critical' because the attacker would have to convince the user to manually launch the malicious file.

None of the 'critical' vulnerabilities affects Windows Vista, but the 'moderate' vulnerability lies within the firewall security software in the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista.

If exploited, an attacker could access the network interface and view sensitive user information.

Oliver Friedrichs, director of emerging technologies at Symantec Security Response, warned that, while the firewall vulnerability is not severe, it is still significant.

The flaw indicates that Vista's new networking components, or network stack, are not bullet-proof.

"A network stack can take decades of heavy scrutiny in order to become battle hardened," Friedrichs said in an emailed statement.

"As an operating system's first line of defence, its quality is directly related to its ability to withstand attack."

Users can download the monthly update through Windows Update or from Microsoft's TechNet website.

Microsoft bundles its patches in security bulletins, each covering one application or software component. July's security update contained six bulletins.

the world's smallest trophy, created by Cornell nanotechnology specialists

Physicists Create World's Tiniest Trophy, To Be Awarded On Super Bowl Sunday

While the world's biggest football game is under way, someone will be awarded the world's smallest trophy, created by Cornell nanotechnology specialists.

The "Nano Bowl" contest, sponsored by PhysicsCentral -- an educational arm of the American Physical Society -- challenges entrants to create short videos explaining some aspect of the physics of football. The winner, to be announced on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, will receive a trophy made at the Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF). The trophy is built around a silicon chip on which, like Russian nesting dolls, football fields nest inside one another, the largest about 12 millimeters long and the smallest only 2 microns (millionths of a meter) long. The winner also will receive $1,000 in normal-sized cash, and the video will be featured on the Physics Central Web site.

The chip was designed and fabricated by Philip Waggoner and Benjamin Cipriany, Cornell applied and engineering physics graduate students working in the lab of Harold Craighead, the Charles W. Lake Jr. Professor of Engineering -- the same lab that created the famous nanoguitar. Waggoner and Cipriany were helped by Rob Ilic, a research associate at CNF.

Under an ordinary microscope, the surface of the fingernail-sized chip displays an image of a football field and the words "Physics Central Nano Bowl Champion 2008." In the center of the field, on part of a stylized football helmet, is a tiny rectangle 120 microns long. An electron microscope would reveal that this is another football field, and in its center is yet another, only 2.4 microns long. The smallest image is drawn in lines only 59 nanometers (billionths of a meter) wide, something that can only be done with the electron-beam lithography capability of CNF.

The usual process for making chips, called photolithography, can't make features smaller than the wavelength of light. Electron-beam lithography uses a tightly focused beam of electrons guided by a computer to erode away parts of a protective coating on a silicon surface, after which the exposed areas are etched away.

"I thought of nested fields because it's pointless to give someone a trophy they can't see unless they have an electron microscope in their garage," Waggoner said.

When not making nanotrophies, Waggoner is developing nanoscale sensors to identify proteins for such medical testing as detecting the PSA protein marker for prostate cancer; and Cipriany builds nanofluidic channels narrow enough to make DNA molecules line up in single file to be counted and identified.

To enter the contest, upload an original video about the physics of football to YouTube with the tag "nanobowl" by Jan. 15. The Society of Physics Students and the American Association of Physics Teachers are promoting the contest with the hope that students will be inspired to create videos, and maybe learn some physics in the process.