Archive for May, 2006
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
Google has launched its first mashup–a map-based Web site with information about earth-friendly locations in five of the U.S.’s top travel destinations.
The site, at maps.google.com/green, features information on and video tours of spots in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York and Orlando, Fla., as well as tips for “traveling green” during the summer using Google Maps.
“This is important to us,” Luanne Calvert, creative director at Google, said Tuesday. “One of the big objectives for Google as a corporation is to promote environmental protection,” she said.
Read more: CNET News.com
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Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
Legal action kick-started
A hugely popular seller of music downloads is illegal, according to the music industry, and prosecutions are underway. AllofMP3.com, a Moscow-based service that undercuts iTunes by enormous margins, was accused today of paying nothing to artists.
The website, run by MediaServices Inc, has long protested its innocence. Yet the prices are remarkable: a British shopper can download an album from iTunes Music Store for ?Ǭ£9.79; or typically about ?Ǭ£0.75 from AllofMP3, which prices its downloads by file size. And the choice is enormous. All those Beatles albums that Apple is not allowed to sell can be found at AllofMP3.com for under a pound.
According to MediaServices, everything is licensed by the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS) and the Rightholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively (FAIR). MediaServices says that it pays licence fees “subject to the Law of the Russian Federation”. It adds that it is not responsible for the actions of foreign users.
Full story: The Register
Posted in News | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
But technology is unlikely to enter the mainstream for some years
Low cost printed electronics have the potential to transform the RFID industry, industry experts have predicted.
ABI Research said that the impact of this manufacturing technology will not be significant for some years to come, contrary to some expectations.
“Printed electronics (antennas, transistors and batteries) could eventually change the dynamics of the RFID industry,” said ABI Research industry analyst Sara Shah.
“Applied directly to materials such as corrugated cardboard, they would allow manufacturers and distributors to create their own ’smart packaging’ and bypass the whole RFID tag production chain.”
Full article: vnunet.com
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Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
WinBITS is a Windows-GUI for the “Background Intelligent Transfer Service” (BITS) integrated in Windows XP / 2000.
WinBITS ist Freeware.
Download: WinBITS 1.0 RC
Posted in Betas | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
The developers of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution plan to make a new landmark version of the software widely available this week.
Ubuntu’s public schedule for releasing the software lists 1 June as the date for the new version, code-named “Dapper Drake”, to be made public. The milestone release will be officially supported by the project for a longer period than previous versions, and will be billed as suitable for enterprise use.
Dapper Drake will be supported for three years for the desktop version and five years for servers, compared to 18 months for the current 5.10 “Breezy Badger” version.
The code release will come after the development process was extended by six weeks in order to improve the reliability of the software. Normally Ubuntu pushes out an official version every six months.
More: ZDNet Australia
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Monday, May 29th, 2006
Okopipi is the successor to Blue Security’s Blue Frog project. This project aims to become a distributed replacement of anti-spam software Blue Frog, which does not depend on a centralized server. It will be based on a P2P network (the “frognet”). On failure to connect it could still opt out given e-mail addresses. The project is currently in the design phase.
Okopipi works by submitting opt-outs to the merchant sites associated with spam. The network creates opt-out scripts on the behalf of all members that reported the spam. Okopipi will also act as a proxy, submitting the opt-outs for each user.
It is important to understand that Okopipi is NOT a Denial of Service (DOS) network. The network is designed to specifically PREVENT overloading merchant servers. It’s purpose is simply to empower users to complain about the spam that they receive.
Okopipi will be a free open source project. Users should never have pay to use this service, although donations will be appreciated.
Read more: Okopipi.org
Posted in AntiSpam | No Comments »
Monday, May 29th, 2006
Microsoft is investigating an e-mail that appears to be a security warning from the software heavyweight which patches a vulnerability in the “WinLogon Service”.
The e-mail has a spoofed “from” field so it looks like it has been sent from patch@microsoft.com, in reality it is most likely being mass spammed from an army of bots — PCs that have been compromised and are under the control of a cybercriminal group.
A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet Australia on Monday morning that the vulnerability does not exist and users should ignore the e-mail.
Full story: ZDNet Australia
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Monday, May 29th, 2006
Post Office is a small and simple mail server for Windows. Handles all incoming and outgoing mail for your local network as well as fetching mail from external accounts. Includes a small web server which can be used to provide your company web page or intranet.
Download: Post Office 1.21
Posted in eMail | No Comments »
Monday, May 29th, 2006
Inbox is a powerful multi function tool for managing your POP3 email before it reaches your email client application. It can fetch your email from multiple email accounts, collate mail from several accounts into a single account, perform point and shoot filtering directly on the mail server as well as on collected mail, filter your various email accounts before your normal email program connects, act as a proxy fetching mail only when your normal email program requires it or act as a filter proxy filtering your email accounts before your email client collects mail. There are tools to peek at mail directly on the mail server and in your Outlook message store, auto respond to email while you’re away, redirect mail to one or more addresses, attach many accounts to a single email address, set up a simple mailing list.
Download: Inbox 1.42
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Sunday, May 28th, 2006
With the release of Windows Vista Beta 2, I want to announce that we will be naming the version of IE7 in Windows Vista ?¢‚Ǩ?ìInternet Explorer 7+?¢‚Ǩ¬ù. While all versions of IE7 are built from the same code base, there are some important differences in IE7+, most significantly the addition of Windows Vista-only features like Protected Mode, Parental Controls, and improved Network Diagnostics. These features take advantage of big changes in Windows Vista and weren?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t practical to bring downlevel. The IE7+ naming gives us an easy way to refer to this version. (?¢‚Ǩ?ìThe version of IE7 in Vista?¢‚Ǩ¬ù doesn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t roll off the tongue as easily?¢‚Ǩ¬¶)
These differences shouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t affect most web developers, but if you need to know specifically, you can refer to the OS field of the User-Agent string. As Eric noted previously, the User-Agent strings will have the info you need:
IE7+ running on Windows Vista: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)
IE7 running on Windows XP: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)
Read more: IEBlog
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Sunday, May 28th, 2006
Maintenance is a simple Automator Action fused with AppleScript aimed at keeping your Mac running healthy.
Features include:
- Repair Permissions
- Verify Preferences
- Update Prebindings
- Periodic Clean-up
- Clean Cache
- Update Locate, Whatis, LaunchServices Databases
Download: Maintenance 3.6 Mac OS X
Posted in Mac OS X | No Comments »
Sunday, May 28th, 2006
GuildFTPd FTP Server features plug-in and network support, as well as special support for IRC.
If you require the ‘wininet.dll’ file, please download it here.
Download: GuildFTPd 0.999.14 | Screenshots
Posted in Web/internet | No Comments »
Sunday, May 28th, 2006
Version 3.0.166 update for 32-bit Windows LiveUpdate files.
?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ Improvements in Product Integration Support
?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ Improvements in Network Bandwidth Utilization
?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ Logging & Diagnostics Enhancements
?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ Usability Improvements
This version of the LiveUpdate Client does not support the LiveUpdate Administrator server.
Please continue to use the Version 1.5.4.15 of the LiveUpdate Administration Utility if LiveUpdate Administrator Support is required.
The 3.0 release contains integrated Enterprise management features that are compatible with the Symantec Enterprise Security Architecture (SESA) v2.x.
Download: Symantec LiveUpdate 3.0.166
Posted in Antivirus | No Comments »
Saturday, May 27th, 2006
Firefox has an intuitive interface and blocks viruses, spyware, and popup ads. It delivers Web pages faster than ever. And it’s easy to install and import your favorites. Packed with useful features like tabbed browsing, Live Bookmarks, and an integrated Search bar, Firefox will change the way you experience the Web, for the better.
New features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include:
- Built in Anti-Phishing protection.
- Search suggestions now appear with search history in the search box for Google and Yahoo!
- Support for client-side session and persistent storage.
- Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
- Search plugin manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
- Better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
- New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
- Inline spell checking in text boxes
- Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
- New combined and improved Add-Ons manager for extensions and themes
- Extended search plugin format
- Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
- Support for SVG text using svg:textPath
Download: Firefox 2.0 Bon Echo Alpha 3 Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Posted in Firefox | No Comments »
Saturday, May 27th, 2006
Yahoo and eBay are gunning for Google, whether they’ll admit to it or not.
The two companies unveiled a partnership Thursday morning in the United States that could bring more advertising revenue to Yahoo, whose market share losses to Google brought angry words from shareholders at the portal giant’s annual stockholder meeting later in the day.
eBay approached Yahoo to discuss working together more closely on advertising, said Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel. But the multiyear partnership centered on advertising, e-commerce and search will benefit both companies, he told ZDNet Australia sister site CNET News.com following the shareholder meeting.
“The deal offers great opportunities for both companies to share great assets with each other,” Semel said. “It’s all about creating more value and a better experience for users as well as for advertisers.”
Neither Yahoo executives nor shareholders mentioned the deal at the meeting, but several shareholders complained that Yahoo hasn’t done enough to compete.
“It seems like you’re being outsmarted by a couple of Stanford dropouts at Google,” Edward Abramczyk said in addressing Yahoo’s management.
“Google’s business has boomed. We lost billions of dollars in revenue to Google and others,” said another shareholder.
Semel reminded shareholders that although search advertising is the leading way to make money, Yahoo is ahead of its rivals in providing services, such as e-mail, instant messaging, news and music, which people spend more time using.
“We think the Internet is still in the very early days,” he said. “We have a leadership position in a number of the most heavily used things on the Internet.”
As previously reported, under the deal with eBay, Yahoo will become the exclusive third-party provider of all graphical ads on eBay and will also provide new text ads on some search results pages. Yahoo search and site links will be integrated into a co-branded version of the eBay toolbar.
Full story: ZDNet.com.au
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Saturday, May 27th, 2006
SEATTLE–Microsoft is readying two tools to help hardware makers create more stable and secure Windows drivers, which should help reduce the number of crashes.
The tools, PreFast for Drivers and Static Driver Verifier, are source code analysis tools that find common flaws in driver source code, so they can be fixed. Second beta versions were released at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here this week, alongside new trials of Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn.”
“We’re hoping that reliability and robustness for drivers will improve,” Jon Hagen, a Microsoft developer who works on the Static Driver Verifier, said in an interview at WinHEC. “There is a need because of the complexity of writing kernel drivers…We’re doing this to avoid blue screens.”
Windows requires driver software to run hardware that is built-in or connected to a PC. A buggy driver can cause a lot of trouble. In particular, errors in the kernel mode drivers, which run hardware such as network interface cards and hard disk drives, can cause fatal crashes that result in the famous “blue screen of death.”
Kernel mode drivers operate at a low level in Windows. There are also user-mode drivers, which run printers, graphics, USB devices and other hardware. Crashes in those drivers can typically be overcome without rebooting, according to Microsoft. Drivers are developed by Microsoft as well as by hardware makers, which make up the WinHEC audience.
Full article: CNET News.com
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Friday, May 26th, 2006
Google and Dell have agreed to a first in a series of deals to preinstall Web and desktop search software on the PC maker’s computers, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Thursday.
Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference in Las Vegas, Schmidt discussed details of a long-rumored deal between the No. 1 search engine and the No. 1 PC maker, which is a strike against Google rival Microsoft. Under the deal, millions of Dell PCs will be loaded with the Google toolbar for Web and PC search, along with a co-branded home page, before they’re shipped to consumers.
Financial details were not disclosed, but Schmidt said the companies will share revenue from search-advertising fees.
“The real reason we do this is for users,” Schmidt said. People “turn the Dell machine on, and everything is integrated right there. (This deal) is a turnkey solution for search.”
A Dell representative said that the deal will not hamper consumer choice on the Dell desktop, however. “Our motivation is to deliver customers tools that enable them to search and organize information quickly and easily, right out of the box…Dell customers will have the option of choosing Microsoft as their default if they prefer.”
The deal covers Dell PCs sold to consumers and certain corporations.
Full story: ZDNet News
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Friday, May 26th, 2006
Your favourite applications and programs with one mouse-click.
With XPMan you get a free and small Quickstart-Toolbar without limitations.
When you start XPMan you will see a small XPMan-button on the right edge on screen or where you want.
By one click on the XPMan-button a popup will open. Now you can fill the window per Drag&Drop with all your files and programs. If you want you can sort it in tabs for faster access. XPMan requires no installation and works with low-system resources.
Program-Features:
small, fast, resources carefully
free and unrestricted creation of tabs
shift from Icons in other tabs
Add programs, files, URLs by Darg&Drop
no special requirements of your hardware
no installation necessarily
optically responding intuitive operation
Color freely alterable (Skins)
XPMan is available in several languages
Update-function
compatibly with Windows 2000 / XP / NT4 / 98 / ME
and much more besides…
Download: XPMan 1.5.0.18 | Screenshots
Posted in Utilities | No Comments »
Friday, May 26th, 2006
EfreeSoft Boss Key allow you to hide active program window immediatlly using a hot key!You can hide the browser windows,folder windows,applications windows,all your desktop icons and taskbar when your boss or anyone else you don’t want to see your screens comes in.It’s speed is brought to maximum to allow you react as quickly as possible to any threat that appears. You won’t feel even a slight difference in the performance of your home or office computer after installing it.With a cool and user-friendly interface makes it easy for anyone to use EfreeSoft Boss Key. Everybody should have such program for personal privacy.
Licence Type:Freeware
Operating Systems Support:Win98,WinME,Windows2000,Windows XP
Download: EfreeSoft Boss Key 3.30
Posted in Utilities | No Comments »
