Users of the Windows operating system (you know who you are) need to check for new updates due to the recent release of a swathe of patches required to close a new round of security holes found in various Windows products like Internet Explorer.

Seven of the new patches are to close security holes classed as “Critical”. Which means that if you don’t patch, and someone nasty writes a compromise, you might find yourself having had your credit card number stolen, or your computer used to send SPAM or used as part of a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack.

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Novell have announced that they plan to use their patent portfolio to protect any of their open source software.

In real terms, that means that popular applications like Evolution, as well as many apps integral with SUSE will be protected from patent claims. In short, if you think you have a patent claim against these apps, then you better make sure you are not using anything for which Novell might have a patent.

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In something of a blow to the recording industries efforts to line their pockets more from the talent of artists, the US supreme court has thrown out an appeal by the RIAA to force Verizon Internet Services to hand over the details of users engaged in file sharing.

The recording industry has been waging a campaign to force the Internet digital music industry to abide by the same rules and regulations as their real world counterparts, something that anyone with an IQ over their shoe size would realise will never work. They need to grow with the times. The days of their rampant fleecing of everyone involved in their industry is over. Most of their tasks (like distribution and packaging) are being replaced by the Internet, which requires no physical distribution as such and no packaging. So their use in the modern industry will not be what it once was and they need to find new ways to “cash in”.

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In a recent article on News.com I noticed two things of interest to me.

First is the fact that while the makers of shells that provide extra functionality to Internet Explorer do not currently make one for Gecko (Firefox and Mozilla’s rendering engine), they have considered doing so. The reason most haven’t is because it would be hard to provide any functionality that Firefox and/or Mozilla doesn’t already have that they could charge for.

Second is this quote from Stilesoft, one of the companies providing extensions to Internet Explorer:

“I’m really impressed with Firefox, to be honest with you,” said Stiles. “For four or five years it was easy to laugh it off, thinking they wouldn’t get anywhere. But now they’ve got a really great product.”

So even the guys that make their money competing against Firefox admit that they are up against “a really great product”.
Get your copy of firefox now. Firefox, the best browser on the Internet.

Regards

Franki

Buyers and sellers making use of Paypal might have some difficulties collecting payment at the moment. Apparently Paypal did a code upgrade last Thursday and forgot to cross some T’s and dot some I’s.

There have been a ton of complaints on the paypal forums, which you can see for yourself here.

Regards

Franki

Way cool photographs of the Earth from above. Spend a few minutes looking around this site. I really liked some of the photos. The site is done in three languages … and instead of picking one, you see everything in all three. That made for some interesting comparisons of language that are usually bypassed when you specify your language of choice. I think someone stuying language may benefit from comparing the language.

According to a HollandSentinel.com article, a new bill would crack down on voyerism. I suspect it would also make a lot of my home movies illegal. There must be a better way?