TurkmenPost

Malware makers are starting to take advantage of the number of users searching for cracks for the pirated copies of Vista floating around.

A new download has started circulating around the crack boards called "Windows Vista All Versions Activation 21.11.06". It purports to be an activation crack for any version of Vista.

However, the file is actually a trojan-carrier which will install Trojan-PSW.Win32.LdPinch.aze onto your PC.

BitTorrent users who posted reviews of the crack said that a number of antivirus programs detected the malware, though Norton AntiVirus and NOD32 did not.

In an interview about the Windows Vista installation process, and the ease with which administrators can pre-install software into a Vista install DVD, Microsoft Australia’s John Pritchard warned that pirated copies of Vista could easily come with malware preinstalled.

"I would certainly recommend when people are looking at any content they make sure they have the approved and hologrammed DVDs to make sure they’re dealing with the genuine product, to get away from not knowing where the source comes from. If they have control of the unattended installation and built it themselves then hopefully they know what they are putting on it."

via apcmag.

LISBON (AFP) - Oscar-winning US actress Gwyneth Paltrow feels dinner talk is far more interesting in her adopted homeland Britain than back in her native country.

"I love the English lifestyle, it’s not as capitalistic as America. People don’t talk about work and money, they talk about interesting things at dinner," she told "NS", the weekend magazine supplement of daily Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias on Saturday.

"I like living here because I don’t fit into the bad side of American psychology. The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans," the 34-year-old added.

Paltrow, who won a best actress Oscar for 1998’s "Shakespeare in Love," lives in London with British band Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin whom she wed in 2003.

She said having US pop star Madonna, 48, who married British film director Guy Ritchie six years ago, nearby was another advantage to living in London.

"She’s like an older sister. Everything I have gone through, she went through ten times worse and ten times longer. She gives me good advice about how to say no and take care of myself," said Paltrow.

LOS ANGELES — Paris Hilton won’t joke about her peeps. The hotel heiress canceled an appearance at next week’s Billboard Music Awards because she didn’t like the jokes written for her, according to a spokesman.

"It is my understanding that some satirical references ridiculed some of her peers," her spokesman, Elliot Mintz, said in a statement. "Paris did not want to say anything that could appear hurtful or embarassing about people she knows."

Mintz said Hilton received a script Friday that contained material she found "objectionable." Representatives for Hilton and the awards show could not come to an agreement about the script’s content so she decided to scrap the appearance, he said.

A call to Billboard was not returned early Saturday.

The Billboard Awards will be handed out Monday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The show is scheduled to air live on Fox.

© 2006 The Associated Press

A German film, The Lives of Others, about a secret policeman in the former East Germany, has won best film at the European Film Awards in Warsaw, Poland.

It beat the Spanish film Volver by Pedro Almodovar - which still took five awards, including best director and best actress for Penelope Cruz.

It is the first time the ceremony was held in an eastern European country.

Filmmaker Roman Polanski returned to his homeland to receive a lifetime achievement award.

The Lives of Others is a drama about how East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, destroyed the lives of ordinary people.

Director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck told the audience it meant a lot to win the award in Poland, "since my father was born in this country".

Another director returning to his roots was Roman Polanski.

The Oscar-winning director said it was a moving experience for him to return to Poland.

He dedicated the award to Penelope Cruz and her co-stars, actresses who he said represented "the incredible women that surrounded me when I was a child".

via BBC.