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Good News: Microsoft not changing IE.
Good news indeed. The proposed changes to Internet Explorer to force the dialog of doom every time rich content is required have been indefinitely shelved by Microsoft. Read MoreGeneral
Audacity 1.20 released.
Audacity is an open-source, free sound editor for Windows, Linux or Mac OSX.Great for manipulating sound effects for Flash movies etc if you don't have access to expensive sound-editing suites for full-time, professional use. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3 files, and more. Use it to edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo), mix tracks together, or apply effects to your recordings. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customizable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications. Built-in effects include Echo, Change Tempo, and Noise Removal. Read More General
Search Engine Wars
Yahoo! announces that it will mine the "deep web", estimated at 550 bllion documents usually only accessible through a site's own proprietory search - things like academic databases, phone directories and the like. Google currently indexes 4.2 billion pages, but is currently undergoing criticism that since the "Florida update" in which many sites found their ranking plummeted, their results are full of spam. Certainly, for non-power users, results are becoming less useful. Typing in the name of a hotel that you want to stay at (maybe you want a streetmap or a phone number) results in endless pages of hotel booking services before you actually find what you're looking for. Similar google grumbles abound. I love Google for its speed, clean interface, and the way it kicked other Search Engines into raising their efficiency, but I the Yahoo! initiative is to be welcomed for introducing some competition, which has been lacking in the last couple of years.
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Microsoft tries to contain Windows source code leak
Microsoft is taking steps to stop its leaked Windows source code spreading widely on the internet, using the messaging systems in file-swapping networks to alert people sharing the code that what they are doing is illegal reports the BBC Read MoreGeneral
Windows Source Code leaked on net
Neowin has the scoop. The security ramifications of this are massive.
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Googlehackers find secret information
"Googlehackers" find secret information. A shock-horror report claims that Google is somehow complicit in the fact that search-savvy users have unconvered a military document listing suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members, people's medical records, bank account numbers, students' grades, and the docking locations of 804 U.S. Navy ships, submarines and destroyers. It's more the fault of web masters incorrectly posting sensitive data, like this government subcontractor who posted the names, birthdays and daily whereabouts of hundreds of New York children. In reality, the amount of sensitive information carelessly left around is amazing. Try the random personal picture finder, or a search on resume.doc, expenses.xls, or similarly titled documents on Kazaa. No use in blaming Google if you post inappropriate pictures of yourself on the web, or leave your bank accound details in Kazaa's shared directory.
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New Microsoft Critical Patch
11 February. Critical flaw; MS recommends installing immediately as it could allow a remote user to take control of your machine. Deja vue.
Bruce
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Two new MyDoom viruses prowl
Two new MyDoom virus variants are doing the rounds, but seem only to be interested in computers already affected by the last round of MyDoom infections, reports Windows and .NET magazine. Unlike MyDoom.A and MyDoom.B, the new attacks don't spread via email attachment but rather prowl the Internet looking for MyDoom-compromised computers that haven't yet been inoculated. One starts a denial of service attack against Microsoft; the other removes MyDoom and ominously waits for further instructions.
Bruce
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