Upgrading from Windows Sever 2003

Upgrading from Windows Server 2003 to 2008 got tricky, so I thought I should share some points to have in mind when upgrading

1) You cannot upgrade an x86 version (processor architecture) to an x64 version (processor architecture)
2) If you have an x86 version of Windows Server 2003, you'll only be able to upgrade it to an x86 version of Windows Server 2008
3) You can upgrade to an equivalent edition if the processor architecture is the same 
4) You can upgrade from Standard edition to Enterprise edition as long as the processor architecture is the same
5) You can upgrade to Datacenter edition only if the previous operating system is running Datacenter edition and the processor architecture is the same
6) You cannot upgrade Windows Server 2003 to any Server Core Installation option of Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
7) You can upgrade from a Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008 to a Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008 R2 so long as the processor architecture is x64
8) To Upgrade from Windows server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 requires that at least Service Pack 1 is installed on the Windows Server 2003 host
9) For Itanium-Based System: Although Itanium is a 64-bit architecture, it's not the same as the x64 architecture. Hence, you cannot upgrade from or to an Itanium version of Windows Server 2008 R2 unless your existing version of Windows is the Itanium edition of Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008

Frozen Android phones give up data secrets

This is an interesting one - Freezing an Android phone can help reveal its confidential contents, German security researchers have found.

A team of researchers froze phones for an hour as a way to get around the encryption system that protects the data on a phone by scrambling it.

Google introduced the data scrambling system with the version of Android known as Ice Cream Sandwich.

The attack allowed the researchers to get at contact lists, browsing histories and photos.

Android's data scrambling system was good for end users but a "nightmare" for law enforcement and forensics workers, the team at Erlangen's Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) wrote in a blogpost about their work.

To get around this, researchers Tilo Muller, Michael Spreitzenbarth and Felix Freiling from FAU put Android phones in a freezer for an hour until the device had cooled to below -10C.

The trio discovered that quickly connecting and disconnecting the battery of a frozen phone forced the handset into a vulnerable mode. This loophole let them start it up with some custom-built software rather than its on-board Android operating system. The researchers dubbed their custom code Frost - Forensic Recovery of Scrambled Telephones.

The Frost software helped them copy data on a phone that could then be analysed on a separate computer.

A chilled phone also helped their hacking project. Data fades from memory much more slowly when chips are cold which allowed them to grab the encryption keys and speed up unscrambling the contents of a phone.

PhD student Tilo Muller told the BBC that the attack generally gave them access to data that had been put in memory as users browsed websites, sent messages or shared pictures.

The researchers tested their attack against a Samsung Galaxy Nexus handset as it was one of the first to use Android's disk encryption system. However, they said, other phones were just as likely to be vulnerable to the attack. The team are planning further tests on other Android handsets.

While the "cold boot" attack had been tried on desktop PCs and laptops, Mr Muller said the trio were the first to try it on phones.

"We thought it would work because smartphones are really small PCs," he said. "but we were quite excited that the trick with the freezer worked so well."

The German research group is now working on defences against the attack that ensures encryption keys are never put in vulnerable memory chips. Instead they are only used in the memory directly attached to a phone's processor.

Web based 'brain' For Robots Goes Live

Robots confused about what they encounter in the world of humans can now get help online.

European scientists have turned on the first part of a web-based database of information to help them cope.

The online "brain" is Called Rapyuta, it describes objects robots have met and can also carry out complicated computation on behalf of a robot.

Rapyuta's creators hope it will make robots cheaper as they will not need all their processing power on-board.

The Rapyuta database is part of the European Robo Earth project that began in 2011 with the hope of standardizing the way robots perceive the human world.

Instead of every robot building up its own idiosyncratic catalogue of how to deal with the objects and situations it encounters, Rapyuta would be the place they ask for help when confronted with a novel situation, place or thing.

In addition, the web-based service is able to do complicated computation on behalf of a robot - for example if it needs to work out how to navigate a room, fold an item of clothing or understand human speech.

The system could be particularly useful for drones, self-driving cars or other mobile robots who have to do a lot of number crunching just to get round, said Mohanarajah Gajamohan, technical head of the project at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.