By Dale Vile
21st November 2008 15:54 GMT

If you listen to a lot of the vendors, server virtualisation is now pretty mainstream, and the impression you get is that it’s just a case of getting on with it - if you haven’t done so already. But how realistic is this?

This is unlikely that the technology is that mature when you consider that less than 10 per cent of the world’s servers are virtualised, according to the usual number crunchers. Whether or not this is strictly accurate, it’s probably that while some organisations have gone to town virtualising everything in sight, many others have yet to move in this direction or are still at the start of their virtualisation journey.

Whatever camp you fall into, we want to hear your thoughts, both on the progress you have made and some of the practicalities you have encountered or anticipate along the way. So if the ‘V’ word is one that has entered your world in recent months and years, and you have a few minutes, please take a crack our mini-poll below. We'll get the findings back to you in a few days.

By Sylvie Barak
21 November 2008, 11:22 AM

ACCORDING TO A regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microsoft wants to get itself some senior unsecured debt securities so it can issue debt at any time. In an interview with Bloomberg, investment boffin Brad Lutz, a Veep at Declaration Management and Research LLC, reckoned a bond offering from the Vole would be in high demand thanks to a top credit rating from Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service.

The fact that the Vole operates outside of the currently cursed financial sector helps, said Lutz, noting “non-financials have generally received a warm reception by the investment-grade capital markets”. Volish CFO Chris Liddell had planned on the move since his firm’s offer to buy out Yahoo, which Mighty-Soft had planned to pay for partly through debt. But since the Micro-hoo deal is no longer on the table (or at least, that’s what Steve Ballmer would have us believe), it seems curious the Vole is still pushing ahead on the bond issue.

Whispers and speculation are already flying out of the rumour mill. Perhaps Microsoft really will make another pass at Yahoo, perhaps the Redmond Giant will turn its attention to Salesforce.com, or some other weak and vulnerable prey. It could also be the case that the firm is simply trying to take advantage of a debt market starved of investments and possibly even buy back truck loads of its own currently undervalued stock. No doubt we’ll find out soon enough.

By Andrew Nusca
Nov 21, 2008 9:54 AM PST

The day has come, the time is near, and RIM’s BlackBerry Storm has arrived in a store near you. So what kind of reception are we looking at here — a mile-long frenzy like that for the Apple iPhone 3G, or the collective sigh for the T-Mobile G1?

Somewhere in the middle, it seems. I took a stroll around a couple of New York’s hot spots to see what kind of turnout the first touchscreen BlackBerry would receive at local Verizon Wireless stores. Here’s what I saw: First Stop: Upper East Side, 73rd St. and 3rd Ave.

This neighborhood is known for being home to New York’s blue-blood establishment, but that didn’t stop the nation’s second-richest ZIP code from standing politely in line for the Storm at 10:30 a.m. The line was moving at a pretty good clip, but it kept its length pretty consistent.

by David Meyer
November 21, 2008 7:29 AM PST

Google has adopted OAuth, an open Web authentication standard for controlling privacy, for its widget platform, Google Gadgets. If a user has personal information stored on one Web site, OAuth provides a mechanism for him or her to authorize that Web site to share the data with another Web site or widget.

It also makes it possible to do this without the first site having to reveal the user's identity to the second site. Google announced in June that it was to adopt OAuth for sharing data through its Google Data application programming interface. The company on Tuesday said it will now also use OAuth for Google Gadgets, which are interactive mini applications for the desktop that show, for example, personalized news feeds or localized weather reports.

"We also previously announced that third-party developers can build their own iGoogle gadgets that access the OAuth-enabled APIs for Google applications such as Calendar, Picasa, and Docs," Eric Sachs, Google's senior product manager for security, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. "In fact, since both the gadget platform and OAuth technology are open standards, we are working to help other companies who run services similar to iGoogle to enhance them with support for these standards."

Sachs added that the new OAuth-enabled gadgets being created for iGoogle would also work on those other sites, including many of the gadgets that Google offers for its own applications. "This provides a platform for some interesting mashups," he wrote. "It would allow a mutual fund, for example, to provide an iGoogle gadget to their customers that would run on iGoogle, and show the user the value of his or her mutual fund, but without giving Google any unique information about the user, such as a Social Security number or account number," Sachs wrote.

By Ryan Paul
November 21, 2008 - 09:53AM CT

Virtualization is a practical way of making the most of underutilized computing resources in data centers, but virtualizing an entire general purpose operating system needlessly consumes a lot of memory and other resources. To address this problem, developers have created tools that generate "Just Enough Operating System" (JeOS) software appliances—lightweight platform images that contain barely enough operating system components and software to serve specific functions.

One of the early leaders in this area is rPath, a North Carolina firm that was launched in 2005 by prominent former Red Hat engineers. The company created a web-based appliance construction tool called rBuilder that can be used to make specialized JeOS images. It leverages rPath's advanced package management system—called Conary—which supports file-based dependency resolution and a variety of other compelling features.

The rBuilder tool allows you to select specific packages from rPath's repository that you want to include in your operating system image. Then, rBuilder will automatically pull in the required dependencies needed to run the software. You can also import your own software by uploading a DEB/RPM package or a compressed zip/tar archive. After you create a JeOS recipe, you can instruct it to generate a self-contained image in a wide variety of formats, including installable or live ISO images, raw disk images, VMware images, and even Amazon EC2 images.

The rBuilder tools were originally to operate with rPath's own flavor of Linux, but the developers have steadily been adding support for additional distributions. This year, rBuilder has gained support for Ubuntu and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The latest addition is CentOS, a free distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. These additions—and the large number of supported output formats—give rBuilder an edge over some competing services that have recently launched.

3D Mail Effects is an email notification tool that uses realistic 3D effects that appear floating on your desktop for notification. In addition it also offers the traditional notifications like flashing keyboard LEDs, sounds and more. The program allows to preview & delete emails without having to load your email program, unlimited number of POP3 accounts (each individually configurable with their own alarms, timers, etc.), hides nicely in the tray (blinks with new mail), completely skinnable and also features web mail support.

No longer being developed. In order to use the software, you will need to use the following registration code:

D491-A002-8BC6-A5AD-913D-092E-0428-9C42

Author: Fluid Studios
Date: 2008-11-21
Size: 1.66 MB
License: Freeware
Requires: Win All

VueScan is a new scanning utility that works with most high-quality flatbed and film scanners to produce scans that have excellent color fidelity and color balance. It is easy to install, changes nothing on your system, installs nothing in your operating system and all other scanner software will continue to function. If you purchase VueScan now, you can produce better-looking images that are vivid and true to life. Enhance images with powerful features. Save time by editing one image while the next image is being scanned.

There are two Editions of VueScan - Standard and Professional - but only one file to download. VueScan operates as a trial version when you first download it. After you purchase and enter a serial number, the Standard Edition or Professional Edition features are enabled and the dollar-sign watermark is disabled.

Author: Hamrick Software
Date: 2008-11-21
Size: 4.49 MB
License: Shareware $39.95
Requires: Win 2K/03/XP/Vista

Publisher's Description:

Web Album Copier allows you to quickly grab all images from a photo album. If available thumbnails are presented so the user can select what images are downloaded.

Released: November 14, 2008
Publisher: Biro Solutions Inc.
License: Freeware
OS Support: Windows 2003/2008/Vista/XP
Requirements: .NET Framework 2.0

Publisher's Description:

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. It has one box for everything: Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages. Will give you thumbnails of your top sites; Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab.

Released: November 20, 2008
Publisher: Google
License: Open Source
OS Support: Windows Vista/XP

Publisher's Description:

Process Lasso improves system performance, responsiveness, and stability during high loads through dynamic adjustments to process priority classes. It can also automatically terminate undesired processes, apply default priorities and CPU affinities to processes, limit the number of instances a process can have, and log all processes. It is not a task manager replacement, but does have task manager like capabilities to compliment its primary functions.

Process Lasso has the following other editions available: Process Lasso (x64).

Latest Changes:

* Fix.GUI/Core: Fixed issue where the core engine, when running as a service, was being inappropriately terminated by the GUI upon user logoff

Released: November 19, 2008
Publisher: Bitsum Technologies
License: Freeware
OS Support: Windows 2000/2003/2008/Vista/XP
Uninstaller?: Yes
Skin Support?: No; Supports XP Themes

by Ryan Naraine
November 20th, 2008 @ 10:34 am

Under sustained attack from what is described as a rapidly spreading network worm, the U.S. army has banned the use of USB sticks, CDs, flash media cards, and all other removable data storage devices, according to internal e-mail messages seen by Wired’s Noah Shachtman.

According to the article, service members have been ordered to “cease usage of all USB storage media until the USB devices are properly scanned and determined to be free of malware.” Eventually, some government-approved drives will be allowed back under certain “mission-critical,” but unclassified, circumstances. “Personally owned or non-authorized devices” are “prohibited” from here on out, according to the e-mails.

The USB device ban was handed down by the commander of U.S. Strategic Command and includes everything from external hard drives to “floppy disks. It takes effect immediately. To make sure troops and military civilians are observing the suspension, government security teams “will be conducting daily scans and running custom scripts on NIPRNET and SIPRNET to ensure the commercial malware has not been introduced,” an e-mail says. “Any discovery of malware will result in the opening of a security incident report and will be referred to the appropriate security officer for action.”

The threat from malware that spreads via removable media has been on a steady rise with some estimates showing a 10 percent increase in detections this year.

by Dancho Danchev
November 17th, 2008 @ 4:01 pm

The popular British anti-fraud site Bobbear.co.uk is currently under a DDoS attack (distributed denial of service attack) , originally launched last Wednesday, and is continuing to hit the site with 3/4 million hits daily from hundreds of thousands of malware infected hosts mostly based in Asia and Eastern Europe, according to the site’s owner.

Targeted DDoS attacks against anti-fraud and volunteer cybercrime fighting communities clearly indicate the impact these communities have on the revenue stream of scammers, and with Bobbear attracting such a high profile underground attention, the site is indeed doing a very good job. Anyway, who’s behind this attack?

Let’s track down a well known DDoS for hire provider currently operating 10 Black Energy DDoS botnets, and take an exclusive peek at his switchboard indicating that 4 of his botnets are currently set to attack Bobbear.co.uk only, proving that the attack may have well been outsourced.

With cybercriminals so overconfident in their abilities to remain unnoticed so that they’re using a well known botnet command and control server historically used to manage Zeus banker malware campaigns, it’s fairly easy to connects the dots.....

By Ryan Paul
November 18, 2008 - 01:03AM CT

Adobe has announced plans to port Flash Player 10 and the AIR runtime to the ARM architecture so that the software can be used on phones and other devices. The announcement is significant because it demonstrates that Adobe intends to close the gap between desktop and mobile Flash capabilities and make Flash technology a more competitive choice for platform-neutral mobile development.

Platform fragmentation is one of the most significant challenges faced today by mobile application developers. Programmers who want to target a broad selection of popular handsets and mobile hardware products are forced to port their applications to many different platforms—a task that is arduous and costly. Flash and AIR offer one potential solution by providing cross-platform runtime environments that are available on a wide range of devices.

In theory, this allows developers to write their code once and allows users to run it on desktops, on smartphones, or in a web browser. Adobe's mobile strategy previously focused on Flash Lite, a slimmed down version of Flash that isn't compatible with the latest desktop version. Flash Lite 3, the most recent version of Flash Lite, is loosely compatible with Flash 8 and has some other limitations.

The dichotomy between Flash and Flash Lite has created some fragmentation within Adobe's own ecosystem and has degraded some of the portability advantages of using Flash as an application platform. Moving forward with a full port of Flash Player 10 that is optimized for ARM will begin to end that dichotomy and will eventually lead to a fully unified Flash Player across both the desktop and mobile spaces.

by Ryan Naraine
November 12th, 2008 @ 7:40 pm

Mozilla has released a new version of its flagship Firefox browser to fix a total of 11 vulnerabilities that expose users to code execution, information stealing or denial-of-service attacks. Four of the 11 flaws covered with the new Firefox 3.0.4 are rated “critical” because of the risk of code execution attacks via specially rigged Web pages.

The four critical vulnerabilities are:
* MFSA 2008-55 Crash and remote code execution in nsFrameManager. A vulnerability in part of Mozilla’s DOM constructing code can be exploited by modifying certain properties of a file input element before it has finished initializing. When the blur method of the modified input element is called, uninitialized memory is accessed by the browser, resulting in a crash. This crash may be used by an attacker to run arbitrary code on a victim’s computer.

* MFSA 2008-54 Buffer overflow in http-index-format parser. This is a flaw in the way Mozilla parses the http-index-format MIME type. By sending a specially crafted 200 header line in the HTTP index response, an attacker can cause the browser to crash and run arbitrary code on the victim’s computer.

* MFSA 2008-53 XSS and JavaScript privilege escalation via session restore. The browser’s session restore feature can be used to violate the same-origin policy and run JavaScript in the context of another site. Any otherwise unexploitable crash can be used to force the user into the session restore state. This vulnerability could also be used by an attacker to run arbitrary JavaScript with chrome privileges.......

By John Leyden
11th November 2008 12:36 GMT

Some users of AVG were left with unusable Windows systems after the popular AVG security scanner software slapped a Trojan warning on a core Windows component. AVG tagged user32.dll as a banking Trojan following a signature update issued on Sunday, advising users to delete the "harmful file".

Users following this advice would be left with systems that either failed to boot or went into a continuous reboot cycle, according to dispatches from those hit by the glitch. Users of both AVG 7.5 and 8 (free and full fat editions) were hit by the snafu. AVG has admitted the problem and responded by posting advice on how to recover affected systems (via its support forum item 1574 - here).

The company has also updated its virus definition files to purge the false alarm detection from its virus signature database. False alarms by anti-virus scanners have affected just about every security vendor at one time or another. The issue causes more inconvenience when Windows files are flagged as potentially malicious, as in this case with AVG, so its no surprise to find that AVG's support forums are filling up with complaints.

This is not the first such false positive AVG has had to fix. Its software wrongly identified CheckPoint’s Zone Alarm as a Trojan less than a month ago, raising questions about the quality control regime for virus definition updates released by the Czech-based firm, best known for the popularity of the cut-down version it offers to consumers at no cost.

By Ryan Paul
October 22, 2008 - 01:23PM CT

Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon has released Denied by Reign, his much-anticipated (at least in open source circles—and my basement) metal album, under a creative commons license. The album is part of his solo project, called Severed Fifth, which he intends to use as a springboard for testing music economics and promoting awareness of open content distribution models.

The metal album, which consists of eight tracks, is available for free in OGG and MP3 formats from the Severed Fifth web site. The tracks can be downloaded individually or together in a compressed archive and are also being distributed via BitTorrent. For his project, Bacon selected the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (CCSA) license, which will enable users to share and modify the content as long as they properly attribute it and make derivatives available under the same license.

Open sesame - Music enthusiasts are growing impatient with problematic copy-protection schemes and DRM server shenanigans. As copyright law becomes increasingly draconian and the content industry pushes for even more ludicrous constraints on fair use to the extreme detriment of honest consumers, the calls for reform are becoming louder. Open licensing and unconventional business models could create new opportunities for the music industry and open the business up to some creativity.

The CCSA license empowers users by giving them the ability to repurpose content and build new things using the material. This transforms music into an inclusive and participatory medium—a shared community space instead of a walled garden. It also facilitates unencumbered experimentation by making it possible to adapt the music for use in a variety of other practical and artistic contexts.

By John Timmer
September 05, 2008 - 05:10AM CT

The RIAA's campaign against filesharers follows a standard procedure: find a computer offering files for download, get a court to force the ISP or organization that provided the computer's IP address to reveal the computer's owner, and then sue the owner.

The group has contracted with MediaSentry to do the work of identifying the infringing computers, but that company's methods have been called into question in a number of states that have licensing requirements for private investigators that include the computer-based snooping required to gather the data.

Michigan was one such state and, if there was any doubt about the licensing issue there, it's gone now: the state passed a law that specifically calls for computer forensics groups to be licensed. To an extent, the law is somewhat redundant. Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Growth is responsible for licensing private investigators and, in February, it determined that the company was acting as an unlicensed private investigator.

The Department recommended that the anonymous state resident that filed the complaint contact his local prosecutor if he/she wanted to press the matter. Despite this ominous warning flag, the RIAA's lawsuits in the state have continued apace. But, if MediaSentry felt it could successfully challenge the Department of Labor's decision if called on it, its chances of doing so dropped precipitously.

THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL has axed an episode of its popular show Mythbusters which revealed how easy it was to stuff up Radio Frequency Indentification (RFID) technology after a call from the nice people who make the gear.

The show's co-host Adam Savage claimed that he set out to do an episode on the vulnerabilities of RFID but encountered some very powerful resistance.

A conference call was arranged between co-host Tory Belleci and Texas Instruments to talk about the RFID vulnerabilities. Texas Instruments showed up with the chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else.

Apparently the combined legal might made it really clear to the folks at Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about RFID hacks.

The Inquirer

Saturday, August 09, 2008

CHICAGO — Bernie Mac, an Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor and comedian, died suddenly Saturday at age 50 of complications from pneumonia. The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005.

He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publicist said was not related to the disease. "Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital," his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. She said no other details were available and asked that his family's privacy be respected.

Mac worked his way to Hollywood success from an impoverished upbringing on Chicago's South Side. Recently, Mac's brand of comedy caught him flack when he was heckled during a surprise appearance at a July fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate and fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama. Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine, Mac joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language.

The performance earned him a rebuke from Obama's campaign. But despite controversy or difficulties, in his words, Mac was always a performer. "Wherever I am, I have to play," he said in 2002. "I have to put on a good show." Mac started his comedy career at age 8, with a standup performance at a church dinner. In 1977, at age 20, he took that act to comedy clubs in Chicago.

August 10, 2008 @ 3:31 CST

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless "Theme From Shaft" won Academy and Grammy awards, has been found dead at home. He was 65. The Shelby County Sheriff's Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill on Sunday. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis.

The cause of death was not immediately known. In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco, for what became known as urban-contemporary music and for romantic crooners like Barry White. And he was rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."

November 20, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey was conscious and alert early Friday -- and took a get-well call from President Bush -- just hours after he collapsed during a speech to a black-tie dinner.

White House press secretary Dana Perino sent out word to reporters that Bush telephoned his attorney general just before 7 a.m. EST Friday and said that Mukasey "sounded well and is getting excellent care." The 67-year-old retired federal judge, whom Bush brought in last year to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, was rushed to George Washington University Hospital late Thursday after he paused during his speech, started to slur his words and then collapsed.

Three or four men in suits rushed on stage and caught him at the lectern. It was not clear when the nation's chief law enforcer would be released from George Washington University Hospital, where he was admitted overnight for observation after briefly losing consciousness at the dinner. Justice Department spokesman Gina Talamona would not comment when asked if Mukasey suffered a stroke. She had no information about his medical history.

Mukasey opened his speech on terrorism with a wry remark about expecting the mood at the conservative Federalist Society dinner to be "somber or sober." He slumped over the podium about 15 minutes later after slurring his words and could be seen swaying and shaking slightly. Three or four men in suits rushed on stage and caught him at the lectern. "Oh, no, no!" people in the audience cried out as Mukasey fell. "Oh, my God!"

November 17, 2008

Could former President Bill Clinton's charitable affairs cost Hillary Clinton the secretary of state job in Barack Obama's administration? That's what insiders are wondering after reports that the former president's financial and foreign entanglements could hurt the New York senator in her bid for a Cabinet post.

Politico.com reported Monday that Democrats "are becoming exasperated" by Bill Clinton's response to requests for information about his finances. "The sense among the no-drama Obama world is: This is well on its way to winning best Oscar for drama," an unnamed Democrat told Politico.com. Of worry, Politico.com said, is whether Clinton's charity would create a conflict of interest with foreign governments.

The New York Times reported Sunday that lawyers from the Obama camp were looking into the former president's dealings with foreign governments and pharmaceutical companies. "I think certainly she's been vetted, he's been vetted; but let's remember it's her who's up for this appointment, not Bill Clinton," Brad Blakeman, a former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush, told FOX News. "I think they cleaned a lot up before she decided to run for president.

"Certainly his activities going forward, if she is the secretary of state, would be curtailed, but I can't see any reason why Hillary Clinton would not be nominated by this president and certainly confirmed by a Democratic Senate," Blakeman said. Bill Clinton, addressing a symposium at the National Bank of Kuwait on Sunday, spoke about the possibility of having his wife in the new administration.

November 13, 2008

The Senate Banking Committee grilled top bank executives Thursday as credit markets remain frozen and worries mount they are misusing bailout money. Lawmakers urged the executives, all from banks who have received money from the $700 billion bailout, to start lending more to consumers and businesses.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the committee chairman, told the executives Congress wants to see more progress in foreclosure mitigation, lending and in curbing excessive compensation. Dodd also said banks need to step up assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure and loosen up credit markets. The financial sector is slated to receive at least $250 billion per the package passed last month to help bolster balance sheets and resume lending. Officials from Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Goldman Sachs (GS), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), testified on Capitol Hill.

Dodd, who stressed that transparency in the industry is crucial, expressed concern banks are hoarding the money and using it for internal gain. Sen. Charles Schumer, D.-N.Y., said that he would take action in conjunction with other lawmakers to ensure banks ramp up consumer lending moving forward. Executives from the four financial institutions vowed they wouldn't use the money to pay their executives and employees.

Gregory Palm, general counsel at Goldman Sachs, said that compensation would be down “significantly” this year throughout the firm, especially at senior levels. Both Democrats and Republicans have been critical of the way the Treasury Department implemented the bailout. Democrats are pushing for banks to lend more, while Republicans are seeking more transparency from the Treasury.

By Cade Metz
5th November 2008 19:28 GMT

Michael Crichton - the author, filmmaker, and television producer best known for his 1990 novel Jurassic Park - is dead at the age of sixty-six. According to a statement released by his family, Crichton was privately battling cancer.

"While the world knew him as a great story teller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us - and entertained us all while doing so - his wife Sherri, daughter Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father, and generous friend who inspired each of us to strive to see the wonders of our world through new eyes," the statement read. "He did this with a wry sense of humor that those who were privileged to know him personally will never forget."

Crichton's books - including The Andromeda Strain, Disclosure, Congo, and Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World - sold more than a 150 million copies worldwide, and several were adapted into high-profile Hollywood films. Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park - made in 1993 from a screenplay co-written by Crichton - is still among the top fifteen highest grossing films of all-time.

Born in Chicago, Michael Crichton attended Harvard Medical School, where he penned The Andromeda Strain, his first best seller, which was later adapted for the screen by Robert Wise. Crichton would go on to direct six films of his own, including Westworld, Coma, and The Great Train Robbery, and produce four others. He was also the creator and executive producer of the long-running American TV drama ER, for which he won an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writer's Guild of America Award.

November 05, 2008

After clinching an historic victory, President-elect Barack Obama wakes up Wednesday morning to the task of uniting a divided country and laying the groundwork for an ambitious presidential agenda. Obama will inherit on Jan. 20 the worst financial crisis in 70 years, as well as the task of winning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Within minutes of taking the stage in Chicago Tuesday night to acknowledge becoming the first black president of the United States, Obama cautioned voters of the tough road ahead. "Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there," Obama said in Grant Park.

And to those who did not back his candidacy, Obama said, "I will be your president, too," and noted the need to "heal the divides that have held back our progress." With his victory, Obama, the Hawaiian-born son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, is poised to turn the page on Republican policies of the last eight years, as well as some racial barriers that have stood for generations.

The 47-year-old Democratic junior senator from Illinois swept to a landslide victory over his Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, building an Electoral College majority of at least 349 votes. "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer," Obama told the massive crowd of cheering supporters in Grant Park Tuesday night.