Mozilla has recently extended its search agreement with the Search Giant, Google that was going to be expired after 2 months. The deal has renewed for the second time after its first renewal in 2006.

Mozilla- Google shares a three 3 years deal, according to which Google pays $57 million to Mozilla for setting Google as the default search engine on Firefox. The wholesome amount is subjected to be 85% of the Mozilla’s total revenue. The agreement was first expired in 2006, but was extended to 2008 and now it will last till 2011.

The company has number of credits on its head that reveals that it’s a company with some big and interesting ambitions. They are focusing on technology , production and innovations to improve their performance. Launching of Snowl, Ubiquity, browser concept series , Thunderbird and enabling video embedding via Firefox3.0 are some of its key examples.

Mozilla is a non-profit organization that uses the deal money to support bandwidth and hardware infrastructure, to pay workers and to give grants. Using this fund for so many needs, gives an impact that Mozilla is entirely dependent on the Search giant for its exemplary work and functionality. But the company claims that it is solely working as an independent entity and its whole activities, projects and products are a part of an open process that is not related to Google in any way.

We talk to Google about the parts of the product that offer Google services (i.e., the Firefox Start Page) and the services they provide, like anti-phishing. Otherwise Google does not have any special relationship to Mozilla project activities. We do not vet our initiatives with Google.

The company also said that Google is not the only reliable solution and it could go for other potential partners and can use their reserved earnings when such type of deal get strangles.

We may continue to work with Google which has so far provided a good fit with what our users find useful in the product. If for some reason that doesn’t make sense then we could look at other potential partners. We have significant retained earnings, which allows us a good degree of flexibility.

Mozilla is carving new ways to use its financial resources and to cater the needs of Internet niche. The further extension in the three years deal has added stability in their income and it shows that they are genuinely working to maintain flexibility. 

We’ve just renewed our agreement with Google for an additional three years. This agreement now ends in November of 2011 rather than November of 2008, so we have stability in income. We’re also learning more all the time about how to use Mozilla’s financial resources to help contributors through infrastructure, new programs, and new types of support from employees.

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Related Articles at Startup Meme:

How to remove Total Secure 2009 (Uninstall Instructions)

Posted by Grinler on Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:22:31 EDT · Views: 76

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What this programs does:

Total Secure 2009 is a new rogue anti-spyware program that displays false results that cannot be removed unless you first purchase the program. This program is advertised through the use of misleading web sites that pretend to be an online antimalware program scanning your computer for malware. When the site is done with the fake web scan it will state that your computer is infected and that should download and install Total Secure 2009. If you decide to download and install the program, it will be set to run automatically when your computer starts. Once running, it will scan your computer and display false results as a scare tactic to have you purchase the software.

This guide will walk you through uninstalling Total Secure 2009 and any related malware that may be installed with it.

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• SmitFraudFix

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [TotalSecure2009] C:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009\scan.exe

Guide Updates:

08/29/08 - Initial guide creation.

Choose the removal method you would like to use:

• Automated Removal using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• Automated Removal using SmitFraudFix

Automated Removal Instructions for Total Secure 2009 using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:

1. Print out these instructions as we will need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
   
   
2. Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
   
   Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Download Link
   
   


3. Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
   
   
4. Double-click on the icon on your desktop named Download_mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
   
   
5. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button.
   
   
6. MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main program as shown below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform quick scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Total Secure 2009 related files.
   
   
8. MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the TotalSecure2009 removal process.
   
   
10. You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
    
    
11. A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine.
    
    
12. When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.
    
    
13. You can now exit the MBAM program.
    

Your computer should now be free of the TotalSecure2009 program. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:

Preparation Guide For Use Before Posting A Hijackthis Log

Automated Removal Instructions for Total Secure 2009 using SmitFraudFix:

1. Print out these instructions as we will need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
   
   
2. Download SmitfraudFix.exe from here and save it to your desktop:
   
   SmitFraudFix.exe
   
   Confirm that the file SmitfraudFix.exe now resides on your desktop, but do not double-click on the icon as of yet. We will use it in later steps. The icon will look like the one below:
   
   
   
   


3. Next, please reboot your computer into Safe Mode by doing the following:
   
   
   1. Restart your computer
      
      
   2. After hearing your computer beep once during startup, but before the Windows icon appears, press F8.
      
      
   3. Instead of Windows loading as normal, a menu should appear
      
      
   4. Select the first option, to run Windows in Safe Mode.
      
      
   5. When you are at the logon prompt, log in as the same user that you had performed the previous steps as.
      
      
4. When your computer has started in safe mode, and you see the desktop, close all open Windows.
   
   
5. Now, double-click on the SmitFraudfix icon that should be residing on your desktop.The icon will look like the one below:
   
   
   
   
6. When the tool first starts you will see a credits screen. Simply press any key on your keyboard to get to the next screen.
   
   
7. You will now see a menu as shown in the image below. Press the number 2 on your keyboard and the press the enter key to choose the option Clean (safe mode recommended).
   
   
   
   


8. The program will start cleaning your computer and go through a series of cleanup processes. When it is done, it will automatically start the Disk Cleanup program as shown by the image below.
   
   
   
   
   
   This program will remove all Temp, Temporary Internet Files, and other files that may be leftover files from this infection. This process can take up to a few hours depending on your computer, so please be patient. When it is complete, it will close automatically and you will should continue with step 11.
   
   
9. When Disk Cleanup is finished, you will be presented with an option asking Do you want to clean the registry ? (y/n). At this screen you should press the Y button on your keyboard and then press the enter key.
   



10. When this last routine is finished, you will be presented with a red screen stating Computer will reboot now. Close all applications. You should now press the spacebar on your computer. A counter will appear stating that the computer will reboot in 15 seconds. Do not cancel this countdown and allow your computer to reboot.
    
11. Once the computer has rebooted, you will be presented with a Notepad screen containing a log of all the files removed from your computer. Examine this log, and when you are done, close the Notepad screen.
    

Your computer should now be free of the Total Secure 2009 infection.

If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:

Preparation Guide For Use Before Posting A Hijackthis Log

Associated Total Secure 2009 Files:

c:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009
c:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009\scan.exe
c:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009\totalsecure.s1
c:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009\totalsecure.s2
c:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009\totalsecure.s3
c:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009\totalsecure.s4
c:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009\totalsecure.s5
c:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009\totalsecure.s6
c:\Program Files\TotalSecure2009\uninstall.exe
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Total Secure 2009.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Total Secure 2009.lnk

Associated Total Secure 2009 Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TotalSecure2009
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Total Secure 2009
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "TotalSecure2009"

Richard Clayton, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., says he found evidence that the more common the first letter in your email address is, the more spam you get: in other words, alice@company.com typically gets a higher volume of spam than quincy@company.com, or zach@company.com. He says that’s simply because there are more combinations of names that begin with “A” than with “Q” or “Z.”

Over an eight-week period, Clayton studied around 8.9 million emails at a U.K. ISP and found that the email addresses that began with “A” received 35 percent spam in their inboxes, while “Z’s” got about 20 percent — after sorting out real emails versus invalid ones that had likely been generated by a spamming tool. Clayton says it’s likely that spammers using dictionary attacks could be the cause of this disproportionate distribution of spam.

Clayton acknowledges that his study didn’t end up proving what he had hoped it would – that alphabetic order was an indicator of how much spam you got. He says it’s likely that since dictionary attacks are not commonly occurring in real-time, the phony email addresses he saw possibly had been stored in spammer databases for some time.

Matt Sergeant, senior anti-spam technologist for MessageLabs, says a dictionary-type spam attack that ekes out as many email addresses it can by letter is the mark of an old-school spammer, not a sophisticated one. “You don’t have this pattern with the more malcious spammer. Botnets distribute and split up lists of email addresses and distribute them among the entire botnet simultaneously,” for instance, Sergeant says.

MessageLabs has seen a similar pattern with spam in domain names, he says. “Domain names that start with ‘A’ get more spam than domain names that start with ‘Z,’” he says.

Source:
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=162585

Tech executives interviewed by Yen list the same batch of reasons as alwsys that they're sticking with their current software: reliability, security, missing features.

But that doesn't mean that Google Apps aren't doing their job. While it would be nice for Google's enterprise division to someday contribute even a fraction of the revenue and profit that its search business generates, that's not the point today. Right now, it's all about bit-by-bit disruption. As SAI's Henry Blodget wrote last December:

Disruptive technologies do not destroy existing market leaders overnight. They do not get adopted by the entire market at the same time. They do not initially seem to be "better" products (in fact, in the early going, they are often distinctly "worse.") They are not initially a viable option for mainstream users. They do not win head-to-head feature tests. Initially, they do not even seem to be a threat.

Then the Disruptor improves its products, adding more features while keeping the convenience and low cost. Now the product appeals to more mainstream users, who adopt it not because it's "better" but because it's simpler and cheaper. Seeing this, the Incumbent continues adding ever more features and functionality to its core product to try to maintain its value proposition for higher end customers. And so on. Eventually, the Incumbent's product overshoots the needs of the mass market, the Disruptor grabs the mainstream customers, and, lo and behold, the technology has been "disrupted."

In this case, the near-term goal for Google Apps isn't necessarily to win every 300,000-seat contract in a year, but to disrupt Microsoft (MSFT) user-by-user, habit-by-habit, over many years. If a handful of users start using free Google Spreadsheets instead of Excel -- even for just small projects -- that's exactly the kind of progress Google (GOOG) is looking for. And no one expects that to take 18 months.

See Also:
Microsoft in Denial: Google Threat is Classic Disruption
No One's Paying For Google Apps, But That's Okay
Google, Amazon Lead Disruptive Cloud Computing Wave, Microsoft Again Behind Curve

This isn’t an argument for any open-source / open-license nonsense, just that Apple ought to effectively “shelve” OS-X as a product folks paid for, and make OS-X upgrades akin to firmware updates, completely proprietary to the machine.

By offering customers free upgrades to OS-X (presumably your initial copy came free with your purchase of an Apple computer), Apple would completely eliminate the “consumer harm” predicate of the anti-trust suit as one can’t be a “consumer” of a product you didn’t buy.

The revenue hit would be trivial as OS-X isn’t a profit center for the company, and the increase in customer loyalty and positive experience would likely offset any losses. Also as an additional carrot for Windows switchers it might prove to be an irresistible temptation.  I can see the ads now:

Get the world’s best operating system with free upgrades for life with the purchase of an Apple computer.

That’s all for now, back to labor and delivery…

This isn’t an argument for any open-source / open-license nonsense, just that Apple ought to effectively “shelve” OS-X as a product folks paid for, and make OS-X upgrades akin to firmware updates, completely proprietary to the machine.

By offering customers free upgrades to OS-X (presumably your initial copy came free with your purchase of an Apple computer), Apple would completely eliminate the “consumer harm” predicate of the anti-trust suit as one can’t be a “consumer” of a product you didn’t buy.

The revenue hit would be trivial as OS-X isn’t a profit center for the company, and the increase in customer loyalty and positive experience would likely offset any losses. Also as an additional carrot for Windows switchers it might prove to be an irresistible temptation.  I can see the ads now:

Get the world’s best operating system with free upgrades for life with the purchase of an Apple computer.

That’s all for now, back to labor and delivery…

Is nothing sacred anymore? Is there no length to which spammers won’t go? They’ve taken over our e-mails and social networks, and now they want to take the old school nerd’s most sacred delight: ASCII art?

CNET reports that it’s true. In yet another way to circumvent spam filters, spammers have started using ASCII-style messages - and it works. It’s not an entirely new practice, but according to Internet security firm FaceTime there’s been an upsurge in this particular type of spam in the last week, which means we’ll all start seeing a lot more of it real soon.

I haven’t yet received any such abominations in my inbox, but I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before I start seeing VIAGRA and CIALIS (on a side note, I know what Viagra does, but I’ve never bothered to check what Cialis does. Don’t tell me; I’d rather not know) in nice, big, fat ASCII letters.

I don’t know why, but I somehow thought that even spammers hold some things sacred; I guess I was wrong. Once you step over to the dark side, anything goes.

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