The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has released an important update to all supported versions of the PostgreSQL database system, which includes minor versions 9.3.3, 9.2.7, 9.1.12, 9.0.16, and 8.4.20. This update contains fixes for multiple security issues, as well as several fixes for replication and data integrity issues. All users are urged to update their installations at the earliest opportunity, especially those using binary replication or running a high-security application.

Security Fixes

This update fixes CVE-2014-0060, in which PostgreSQL did not properly enforce the WITH ADMIN OPTION permission for ROLE management. Before this fix, any member of a ROLE was able to grant others access to the same ROLE regardless if the member was given the WITH ADMIN OPTION permission. It also fixes multiple privilege escalation issues, including: CVE-2014-0061, CVE-2014-0062, CVE-2014-0063, CVE-2014-0064, CVE-2014-0065, and CVE-2014-0066. More information on these issues can be found on our security page and the security issue detail wiki page.

With this release, we are also alerting users to a known security hole that allows other users on the same machine to gain access to an operating system account while it is doing "make check": CVE-2014-0067. "Make check" is normally part of building PostgreSQL from source code. As it is not possible to fix this issue without causing significant issues to our testing infrastructure, a patch will be released separately and publicly. Until then, users are strongly advised not to run "make check" on machines where untrusted users have accounts.

Replication and Data Integrity Fixes

This update also fixes some issues which affect binary replication and row locking, and can cause recoverable data corruption in some cases. There are several fixes to index page locking issue during replication which can cause indexes on the replica to be corrupted. There is a fix to a transaction freezing bug in version 9.3 which could cause databases which cycled through transaction ID wraparound several times to have old row versions reappear. We have also fixed three bugs which could cause new standbys to fail to start up. Finally, this update fixes an issue which could break foreign keys, although the keys themselves will still need to be fixed manually after applying the update.

In version 9.3, these fixes result in the addition of several new server configuration settings to control multixact freezing. Importantly, standby servers must be updated to 9.3.3 or later before the replication master is updated, or replication will be broken.

Other Improvements

In addition to the above, the following issues are fixed in this release:

• Fix WAL logging of visibility map change
• Make sure that GIN indexes log all insertions
• Get pause_at_recovery_target to pause at correct time
• Ensure walreceiver sends hot-standby feedback messages on time
• Prevent timeout interrupts from taking control away from mainline code
• Eliminate several race conditions
• Fix some broken HINTs in error messages
• Prevent server lockup on SSL connection loss
• Fix two Unicode handling issues
• Prevent crash on certain subselect syntax
• Prevent crash on select from zero column table
• Fix two bugs with LATERAL
• Fix issue with UNION ALL, partitioning, and updates
• Ensure that ANALYZE understands domains over ranges
• Eliminate permissions check when using default tablespace
• Fix memory leakage in JSON functions
• Allow extensions with event triggers
• Distinguish numbers correctly in JSON output
• Fix permissions for pg_start_backup() and pg_stop_backup()
• Accept SHIFT_JIS as locale name
• Fix .* expansion for SQL function variables
• Prevent infinite loop on some COPY connection failures
• Several fixes for client issues on Windows
• Enable building PostgreSQL with Visual Studio 2013
• Update time zone files for recent changes

There are also fixes to all of the following optional modules (extensions): ECPG, dblink, ISN, pgbench, pg_stat_statements and postgres_fdw. Additional changes and details of some of the above issues can be found in the Release Notes.

As with other minor releases, users are not required to dump and reload their database or use pg_upgrade in order to apply this update release; you may simply shut down PostgreSQL and update its binaries. Users who have skipped multiple update releases may need to perform additional post-update steps; see the Release Notes for details.

Links: * Download * Release Notes * Security Page * Security Issue Detail Page.

REDMOND, W ash. — Feb . 19, 2014 — Microsoft Corp. announced Wednesday the global availability of OneDrive, its free, personal cloud storage service. Formerly known as SkyDrive, OneDrive gives people one place to store important photos, videos and documents that is accessible on the devices they use every day. The new OneDrive offers a host of new features, including improved video sharing and newly updated apps for Windows Phone, iOS, Android and Xbox. To celebrate the launch of OneDrive, Microsoft is giving the first 100,000 customers who access their OneDrive account after the launch an additional 100 GB of complimentary storage for one year (customers will receive a notice if they are among the lucky 100,000). Customers can monitor https://twitter.com/OneDrive for the announcement of the start time for this promotion.

According to a recent Microsoft-commissioned online study,** at least 77 percent of cloud-familiar consumers have content stored on a device that is not backed up elsewhere, and 69 percent would rather lose the device itself than the content that’s stored on it. With OneDrive, people don’t have to make that choice. OneDrive offers 7 GB of free storage — the equivalent of more than 7,000 photos — so it’s easy to make sure photos, videos and documents are always accessible.

“When someone picks up their phone, tablet or any other device, they just want all of their favorite photos and the documents they need at their fingertips — they don’t want to have to hunt for them,” said Chris Jones, corporate vice president, OS Services, Microsoft. “That’s the lens we are taking with OneDrive. We’re building it right into all of the latest Microsoft devices and services — from Xbox to Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 to Office — but we’re also making sure it’s available on the Web and across all other platforms including iOS and Android, so your photos, videos and files are all available anytime you need them.”

New features that accompany the availability of OneDrive include automatic camera backup for Android — making it easier than ever for customers to get their photos from their Android phone to their other devices — and video transcoding — making videos as easy to store, view and share as photos.

OneDrive is free for customers up to the first 7 GB of storage; customers also have the option to purchase storage in 50GB, 100GB and 200GB increments. Current customers will be able to use their existing SkyDrive credentials to access their files in OneDrive. In addition, current customers who refer friends can receive up to 5 GB of free storage (in 500MB increments) for each friend who accepts an invitation to OneDrive. Customers can also receive 3 GB of free storage by utilizing the camera backup feature. More information on OneDrive can be found at http://www.onedrive.com.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* Source: Online survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of Microsoft, Jan. 29–31, 2014, among 1,151 U.S. adults age 18 or older.

** Source: Online survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Microsoft, Dec. 19–31, 2013, among 801 adults age 18 and older who have previously heard of cloud storage.

The information contained in this press release relates to a pre-release software product that may be substantially modified before its first commercial release. Accordingly, the information may not accurately describe or reflect the software product when it is first commercially released. The press release is provided for informational purposes only, and Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the press release or the information contained in it.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

ABIDJAN , Ivory Coast — Feb . 18 , 2014 — On Tuesday, Microsoft Corp. introduced the first four youth members to the 4Afrika Advisory Council to ensure the critical voices of Africa’s large youth demographic are heard. The Microsoft 4Afrika Advisory Council, announced last October, is an external board of advisers tasked with guiding strategic investments undertaken by the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative. Microsoft 4Afrika was launched one year ago to facilitate Microsoft’s active engagement in Africa’s economic development. The four youth ambassadors will represent the issues facing Africa’s rural and urban youth, including unemployment, education and access to technology.

“The information and communications technology (ICT) field is not only redefining how we conduct our major businesses on the continent, it is increasingly improving the efficiency of critical support services, such as education, health, and disaster mitigation and management. The young demographic is playing a big role in integrating new solutions to these services, and this has helped create new industries and employment opportunities,” said H.E. Benjamin Mkapa, chairman, Microsoft 4Afrika Advisory Council. “The Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative will be critical in defining a framework that other global and indigenous organizations in the ICT space can adopt to leverage this emerging space and promote economic development in Africa. We are excited about the induction of the new 4Afrika Advisory Council youth members because it helps the initiative stay true to the spirit of youth, enterprise and innovation.”

These are the 4Afrika Advisory Council youth members:

• Akaliza Keza Gara (Rwanda). An entrepreneur and founder of multimedia company Shaking Sun, Gara is a mentor at open technology hub kLab in Kigali and a member of Girls in ICT Rwanda. Gara is currently setting up an animation studio to create cartoons and films for African children.
  

• Chude Jideonwo (Nigeria). An award-winning journalist, media entrepreneur and youth development expert, Jideonwo is co-founder and managing partner of RED, an innovative media company that owns the Future Awards Africa, the continent’s premier youth event. Jideonwo also founded Enough Is Enough Nigeria, one of Nigeria’s foremost civic groups, and has been awarded several accolades, including being selected by the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper.
  

• Tayeb Sbihi (Morocco). A Moroccan entrepreneur, Sbihi has a bachelor of science, a master of science and an MBA, and he has 10 years of professional experience in multinational companies specializing in new technologies. With a wide knowledge of the telecoms market, he founded his first company, B2N Consulting, offering a wide range of telecom services and solutions to Morocco and Africa.
  

• Olivia Mukam (Cameroon). A social activist and entrepreneur, Mukam was a student when she helped solve the problem of waterborne diseases in West Cameroon by giving 5,000 villagers access to clean water. She then founded the NGO Harambe to engage Cameroonian youth to be national problem solvers. Thousands of youth were trained with business skills, and the for-profit business that Mukam co-founded, Solutioneurs SARL (LLC), taps into the Harambe database of skills to deliver affordable solutions to small businesses in Cameroon, Nigeria, the U.K and the U.S.
  

“I’m very excited to be joining the council as a youth leader,” Sbihi said. “I look forward to meeting the rest of the members and exchanging ideas. We all come from different fields and countries, which helps create richness. Our skills complement each other, and we bring different insights, be it technological, political, environmental or social. We represent a good mix, and we’ll work together to do something good.”

The youth members were selected from a pool of notable candidates from existing African youth leadership groups, including U.S. President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative, the African Leadership Network, the African Leadership Initiative, the Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship Program and the World Economic Forum’s Forum of Young Global Leaders. The council will meet in person twice annually and will also hold regionally focused meetings throughout the year.

“Africa has a relatively young population. This can be either a curse or a blessing. The aim of our 4Afrika Initiative is to unleash the potential of Africa’s youth. Our ambassadors will guide us as we strive to achieve this goal,” said Mteto Nyati, vice chair, Microsoft 4Afrika Advisory Council.

The Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative is designed to help Africa improve its global competitiveness and, in just under a year, has successfully launched programs across the continent. Those programs will help the initiative reach its 2016 goal of placing tens of millions of smart devices in the hands of African youth, bring 1 million African small and medium-sized enterprises online, upskill 100,000 members of Africa’s workforce, and help 100,000 recent graduates develop skills for employability. As well, Microsoft will help place 75 percent of those graduates in jobs.

Microsoft is also committed to empowering youth across Africa through the 4Afrika Youth Program. Its promise is to provide millions of educated and empowered African youth with relevant skills, jobs, devices and services so they can obtain internships, scholarships and more. More information on 4Afrika’s work with Africa’s youth can be found at http://www.youth4afrika.com.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 18, 2014 — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) on Tuesday unveiled a comprehensive set of new Microsoft Dynamics CRM capabilities to help organizations match their customers to the right products and services, engage with them in the right way at the right time, and nurture their relationships. The new release is expected in the second quarter of 2014.

Delivering on its promise of rapid innovation, the release adds new functionality to help marketers be smarter, enabling them to efficiently drive and manage their marketing campaigns; help businesses engage with and care for customers in a personalized manner on virtually any device, anywhere; and enhance capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 to help businesses sell more effectively. Breaking from typical industry practice, the update also brings social listening capabilities to every sales, service and marketing professional within an organization to empower more employees with deeper insights.

“Businesses want solutions that give them market insights and the ability to deliver amazing customer experiences,” said Bob Stutz, corporate vice president, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “The new Microsoft Dynamics CRM update democratizes social listening, adds new marketing capabilities for more impact and enables businesses to deliver outstanding customer service. With this new release, we are essentially changing the CRM game.”

Smarter marketing

Chief marketing officers (CMOs) want a marketing solution that helps them plan and execute great marketing campaigns, gives them insights into the impact of their marketing activities, and provides them with the ability to optimize marketing mix to deliver the most impact to their business.

Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (formerly MarketingPilot) delivers these capabilities by adding marketing automation functionality to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, delivering insights that will help marketers be smarter and more effectively engage with their customers. The new release builds on its marketing planning core and adds new features that include a visual campaign designer that allows marketers to design powerful marketing campaigns more intuitively and easier than ever. This enables CMOs to reach their customers more effectively across multiple channels. It also gives them new lead management and scoring capabilities, scalable email marketing that can deliver millions of messages per day, and deep marketing analytics so they can measure and improve the return on their marketing investments. These new capabilities will be offered in 35 markets in 10 languages.

Personalized customer care

Customer care, an organization’s ability to support, engage and respond to the needs of customers, is an increasingly strategic part of any business. Successful organizations understand and have insight into customer needs across every channel, including the Web, social and mobile, to deliver the best customer care possible.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM enhances core case management capabilities and introduces a new Unified Service Desk, a powerful application designed for call centers that allows agents to handle multiple interactions simultaneously, increasing efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and displaying scripts to help agents provide a more personalized and effective service.

Alongside the capabilities gained in the recent acquisition of Parature, which closed Jan. 31, Microsoft Dynamics CRM now offers customers choice in deploying customer service capabilities ranging from self-service via support portals, Facebook and Twitter to Web chat and video capabilities, all leveraging a shared knowledge base to ensure the right answer can be delivered consistently on the right channel at the right time.

This new customer care solution ensures that all organizations can effectively handle interactions in the way each customer prefers and quickly respond to that person’s needs, resulting in a smooth and more personalized experience for the customer each and every time.

Social for everyone

The secret to any great relationship starts with the ability to listen. To help sales, marketing and customer care professionals listen, gain insights and more effectively engage with customers across social channels, Microsoft has unveiled Microsoft Social Listening. This new service adds the capabilities for people to analyze and act on market intelligence from social conversations, including measuring sentiment across a wide array of social channels. It also allows users to track product, brand, competitor and campaigns globally and in real time to gain true understanding of their customers and their business across the social Web.

Breaking from industry norms, Microsoft believes that social capabilities are core to customer relationship management, so they should not be limited to an elite few at high costs. Enabling every employee within an organization, Microsoft Social Listening will be offered as part of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online professional licenses at no additional charge; on-premises customers can get Microsoft Social Listening for an incremental cost.

More information about this upcoming release is detailed in a blog post by Bob Stutz, at https://community.dynamics.com/crm/b/crmconnection/default.aspx. Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers and prospects can learn more about Microsoft Dynamics CRM at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-vision.aspx. In addition, they can follow and engage with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM community @MSDynamicsCRM at http://www.twitter.com/msdynamicscrm.

About Microsoft Dynamics

At the heart of every successful business are the people who make things happen. Microsoft Dynamics designs modern business solutions that empower individuals with intuitive tools that allow them to do their best work. Our proactive, easy-to-use business applications adapt to the way people and systems work, enabling businesses to rapidly deploy and be forward-looking in an ever-changing world.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

Fueling a Massive Leap Forward for Gamers, New Graphics Architecture Boasts 2x Performance Increase With 50 Percent Reduction in Power Consumption

SANTA CLARA, CA - NVIDIA today introduced the first GPUs based on its new Maxwell™ graphics architecture, which deliver amazing gaming performance in extremely power-efficient designs.

REDMOND, Wash., and SAN FRANCISCO — Feb. 17 , 201 4   — Microsoft Corp. and DocuSign on Monday announced a long-term strategic partnership to make DocuSign’s industry-leading eSignature apps widely available from within Microsoft Office 365. DocuSign’s eSignature apps for Office 365, available in the Office Store in early March, will provide customers with the ability to submit and sign documents without leaving Microsoft applications, allowing them to quickly, seamlessly and confidently transact their business.

“Leading partners like DocuSign are building apps on the Office platform to help our customers get more value directly from their most highly used applications,” said John Case, vice president of Marketing, Microsoft Office. “This partnership with DocuSign helps our customers keep transactions digital and manage eSignatures seamlessly from within Office 365, where they already communicate, collaborate and create.”

DocuSign’s new solutions, built on the Office 365 platform, will include integration within Outlook, Word, SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server 2013. Customers can expect the following:

• Easy administration and use. Office 365 and SharePoint administrators will be able to add DocuSign Apps for all users directly from their administration consoles.
  

• Single sign-on. DocuSign has adopted Windows Azure Active Directory to provide single sign-on capabilities with Office 365 credentials, providing a seamless path to manage accounts.
  

• Secured storage. DocuSigned documents are automatically stored in Microsoft OneDrive for Business for full control.
  

• Office Store availability. Individuals can use self-service to access the apps and Word templates directly from the Office Store.
  

• Continued innovation. DocuSign and Microsoft will continue to collaborate to bring new innovations to customers on the Office 365 platform.
  

“We’re excited about the momentum behind Office 365 and customers making the transition from their traditional Office applications to all-new scenarios enabled by cloud services,” said Keith Krach, chairman and CEO, DocuSign. “We believe Office 365 customers of all sizes will appreciate the seamless availability of DocuSign integrated into the applications they use every day. The combination of Microsoft and DocuSign further helps organizations keep business digital, and leverages the power of the cloud to help them focus on business results.”

“MetLife has already made the move to the cloud with both Office 365 and DocuSign,” said Marty Lippert, executive vice president of Global Technology and Operations, MetLife. “This deeper partnership between Microsoft and DocuSign will bring the best of the cloud together as a single solution to help our company be more productive with improved security and control as we drive to become a more digital enterprise. This partnership will help us deliver better service for our customers and make us more productive.”

DocuSign will demonstrate the new DocuSign Apps at Microsoft’s SharePoint 2014 Conference, March 3–6, in Las Vegas, and at DocuSign MOMENTUM, March 4–6, in San Francisco. Microsoft is a longtime DocuSign customer, using DocuSign in over 100 use cases around the world.

Companies interested in learning more about DocuSign’s Digital Transaction Management apps for Microsoft Office 365 may visit http://www.docusign.com/microsoftapps or http://www.office.com/store.

About DocuSign Inc.

DocuSign ®, The Global Standard for eSignature®, is the leader in eSignature transaction management. Global enterprises, business departments, individual professionals, and consumers are standardizing on DocuSign, with more than 60,000 new users joining the DocuSign Global Network every day. Today, that network includes users in 188 countries. DocuSign is used to accelerate transaction times to increase speed to results, reduce costs, and delight customers across nearly every industry — from financial services, insurance, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, communications, property management and consumer goods, to higher education and others. For more information, visit www.docusign.com or call 877.720.2040. Visit the DocuSign blog at www.docusign.com/blog and follow DocuSign on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb.  14, 2014 — Microsoft Corp. and Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) on Friday announced an agreement to work together on video ad experiences across Microsoft’s portfolio of digital advertising assets. The agreement provides SMG and its clients unprecedented access across the video opportunities afforded by Microsoft properties such as Xbox, Skype and Ads in Apps on Windows 8, as well as MSN and the Microsoft Video Ad Network, to deliver seamless innovative experiences that marketers can execute, buy and measure as they do with linear TV media. When combined, Microsoft’s video portfolio network reaches more than 78 percent of the U.S. Internet audience.

According to executives of both companies, the agreement aligns with Microsoft’s “one video” vision and SMG’s vision for delivering integrated video ad experiences across multiple screens. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Through our suite of devices and services, we can deliver a true cross-screen, premium video advertising experience at-scale that will unlock new opportunities to truly enhance brand connections with consumers,” said Stephen Kim, vice president for Global Agencies for Microsoft Advertising. ”We see this agreement as being the proverbial ‘key’ that will unlock opportunities for SMG’s clients who want to extend and complement their broadcast ads with unique experiences across more of our screens than ever before. It is also validation of the power Microsoft’s digital screen assets can bring to marketers.”

“People consume video across all kinds of screens all times of the day, so it’s essential we create solutions for advertisers to help find people wherever they may be and determine how to scale creative ads across devices,” said Ritu Trivedi, managing director, Digital Marketplace at MediaVest. “This agreement will help us deliver on this need by leveraging the scale and breadth Microsoft can offer.”

SMG represents 20 of the top 100 advertisers in the United States. SMG clients will have access to premium video inventory across all Microsoft platforms, and they will be given an early look at unique video capabilities on Microsoft platforms.

Microsoft and SMG will work with established third-party measurement companies to help drive future measurement across video experiences in multiple screen environments. In addition, the agreement will allow SMG access to exclusive consumer insights through Microsoft’s Research and Insights team.

About Starcom MediaVest Group
Starcom MediaVest Group is the Human Experience Company. We believe experiences matter. They enhance lives and build brands. We bring brand experiences to life through SMG's three global award winning agency brands: MediaVest, Starcom and Spark. Ranked the number one global media network in billings in the world by RECMA, SMG (www.smvgroup.com) encompasses an integrated network of human experience strategists, investment specialists, content creators and digital & technology experts. With over 7,800 employees in 110 offices worldwide, SMG partners with the world's leading companies including The Coca-Cola Company, Kraft Foods, P&G, Samsung, Walmart, among others. In 2013, SMG was named Festival of Media Global Network of the Year. SMG is part of Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40], one of the world’s leading communications groups.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

New Release Adds OpenACC 2.0 Features for NVIDIA and AMD GPU Accelerators, Delivers Multi-core x64 Performance Gains

SANTA CLARA, CA - PGI, a leading suite of high-performance parallelizing compilers and development tools, now features support for the latest version of the OpenACC programming standard on accelerator platforms.