VideoLan (VLC) 0.8.6e

VideoLAN is an excellent multimedia player with it's own plugins for playing different formats, so it doesn't need any codecs to be installed. It works great for previewing partially downloaded files too as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Changelog:
This is a bugfix release. VLC media player 0.8.6d and earlier versions suffer from security vulnerabilities in the Web interface, Subtitle demuxer, Real RTSP demuxer, SDL_image library and MP4 demuxer.
Technical details are available in our advisories: SA-0801 and SA-0802.
The usual collection of assorted changes and improvements can be found here.
This release fully supports Mac OS X 10.3.9 once again.
We strongly recommend all users to update to this new version.

VideoLan.org

Apple Firmware 1.1.4 (Update) - iPod Touch and iPhone

Apple has released iPhone software version 1.1.4. The 162.1MB patch is available for download and installation through iTunes.

Apple isn't making a big deal about the release, beyond letting users know it "includes bug fixes and supersedes all previous versions." Some reports claim the update improves the reliability of Bluetooth, SMS and Mail on the iPhone, and that it boosts signal strength on mobile networks, but these haven't yet been confirmed.

However, Apple has been expected to ship its iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) this month, enabling a new industry creating third party applications for the iPod touch and the iPhone to emerge. While reports have recently circulated claiming the release of the iPhone SDK may be delayed, it's also likely that the iPhone 1.1.4 updates contains functionality to support the installation of new applications.

MacWorld.co.uk

Notepad++ 4.8

Notepad++ v4.8 fixed bugs and features added since v4.7.5:

• Enhance Shortcut Mapper - all the commands (including plugins commands) can be assigned to a shortcut, even for the unmapped ones.
• Upgrade Scintilla from v1.73 to v1.75
• Add multi-line and vertical capacity for tab bar.
• Add launch "as notepad" style feature (detection of asNotepad.xml, then launch notepad++ with -multiInst -nosession -notabbar options).
• Add detection mouse wheel on the different view feature : User can scroll edit view when mouse on it, it's not necessary to set edit view as current view to scroll it.
• Add clicking middle mouse button click to set current view feature : make clicked edit view be focused, but the cursor position does not change.
• Add mouse wheel horizontal scroll feature (vista only).
• Add mouse browsing (forward/back for switching to next/previous document) feature.
• Make orange indicator on the top of tab lighter when the view loss the focus.
• Add new look and feel of Docking container.
• Fix word-completion crash bug while the word to complete exceeds 256 characters.
• Fix full screen mode bug : can not switch applications by using Alt+TAB in full screen mode.
• Fix Preference crash bug.
• Add the utf8->ansi / ansi->utf8 conversion feature.
• Add Go to offset feature (in Go To Line dialog).
• Fix folding bugs while deleting the begin/end folding keywords.
• Fix position restored bug : Wrap position is restored correctly while switching back document.
• Fix locking current directory behaviour : Restore Notepad++ directory as working directory with no open files.
• Enhance the auto-completion feature : user can define the number of characters to trigger auto-completion popup window.
• Change the horizontal scroll behaviour from dynamic one to static one.
• Fix the bug that cannot save file(s) if application closed while minimized.

Download Notepad++ 4.8

Miranda IM v0.8.0 Test Build #10 Now Available

Build 10 contains, from one side, a lot of stabilization fixes for the core & Jabber, from another side, a brand new multiaccount IRC protocol dll, reworked in many places from the very beginning.

It works pretty stable though, and is recommended for wide usage.

Also build #10 contains:
- some fixes in MSN protocol;
- changes in tabSRMM plugin.

UPDATE: in the reuploaded build the following issues are fixed:
- crash in Jabber proto when registering a transport;
- an issue with the password saving in IRC;
- an issue with displaying hidden protos (Weather, Metacontacts) in the status bar.

Miranda Development

DivX Announces to Shut Down Stage6.com

DivX, Inc., a digital media company, today announced that the Company will cease operation of its Stage6.com video service on February 28, 2008.

Following an exploration of strategic options that began in July 2007, the Company has decided to cease operation of the site and focus its resources on the Company’s core DivX technology licensing business while also continuing to power the distribution of DivX video content on third-party sites.

“Our core business is to work with a wide variety of partners to give consumers a high-quality digital video experience on any device or platform,” said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. “By no longer expending resources on Stage6, we sharpen our focus on creating a global standard for digital video while building a business that maximizes shareholder value. We will provide more information related the Stage6.com shutdown on our fourth quarter earnings call, scheduled for March 11, 2008.”

Videos on Stage6.com will be available for viewing and download through February 28, 2008. The Company will work with certain content publishers to migrate content to alternative web distribution platforms.

stage6.com

Fujitsu Shows 500GB Laptop Drive

Laptop computer storage is racing fast towards the 500G-byte level with Fujitsu becoming the third hard-disk drive maker to announce a drive at that capacity.

Fujitsu is accomplishing this capacity by combining three disk platters -- the magnetically-coated disks on which data is stored -- each with a 170G-byte capacity inside the drive. Hitachi, the first company to announce a 500G-byte drive, and Samsung Electronics are also using three platter designs. The third platter increases the thickness of the drive to 12.5 millimeters versus most other laptop drives, which have just two platters and are 9.5 millimeters thick.

PcWorld.com

Will XP SP3 Slow Vista`s Adoption?

Analysts say that the more secure, stable and reliable Windows XP is, the less reason businesses have to upgrade to Vista in a hurry. The upcoming release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 will further slow the rate of business adoption of Windows Vista by extending the life of the older operating system, some analysts say.

Microsoft quietly released Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 to the masses Feb. 19. But the company finds itself in a Catch-22, given its need to provide comprehensive security to protect its large installed base of business customers still running XP while, at the same time, encouraging those customers to upgrade to the new Vista operating system. But the more secure, stable and reliable XP is, the less reason they have to upgrade in a hurry.

eweek.com

News: Pirate Bay to buy country 'seaLand'

Notorious file-sharing site The Pirate Bay is planning to buy its own country and turn it into a copyright-free piracy paradise.

Currently based in Sweden, The Pirate Bay uses BitTorrent technology to let visitors share videos, games, software and music - mostly without each work's copyright holder's permission.

This week it launched Buy Sealand, a campaign to buy the former World War 2 gun platform now known as the Principality of Sealand, located six miles from the UK coast.

The island is reportedly for sale after its infrastructure was badly damaged by fire in summer 2006.

The Pirate Bay plans to fund the £100 million sale through donations from users who will automatically become citizens of the principality.

"It should be a great place for everybody, with high-speed Internets [sic] access, no copyright laws and VIP accounts to The Pirate Bay," the group said in a statement on the buysealand.com website.

If the bid for Sealand fails, The Pirate Bay plans to look elsewhere. "We will try to buy another small island somwhere [sic] and claim it as our own country," it stated.

Reviews: Starbox - rating stars for prototype

Starbox allows you to easily create all kinds of rating boxes using just one PNG image. The library is build on top of the Prototype javascript framework. For some extra effects you can add Scriptaculous as well. Check the demos below to see what Starbox is all about and read on for more information on how to customize your own Starboxes.

Features:

• Rerating allows you to adjust your previous rating.
• You can easily save your rating with Ajax using the build in callback.
• Improvements to the CSS model, allowing you to style the Starbox based on status (hover, rated and locked).
• Better seperation of Javascript, CSS and images.
• A ghosting bar that tracks your average.
• Custom event 'starbox:rated' is fired when your rate.
• Batched building of Starboxes based on cached overlay images.

starBox

Reviews: LockCrypt 1.18

LockCrypt is a free account management program written in Java. It uses high strength AES encryption to encrypt your data, so only you can access it. 1.18 adds different views and a menu option to reset all settings (incase you forget the password).

Changes in LockCrypt 1.18

• Added wizard which loads on first run to configure database and passwords.
• Added different views: Large icons, Small icons, List or Tiles.
• Added Split Pane to main window to allow resizing.(Thanks Mercury52)
• Added created and last modified fields for accounts (Thanks Mercury52)
• Added menu option to clear all preferences.
• Changed: Scrolling behaviour when showing a group.

LockCrypt Mobile, a J2ME version is also available. It allows you to carry your account database with you on any Java enabled mobile device.

LockCrypt.com

Live Messenger 8.5 update no longer supported on XP x64

From the Inside Windows Live Messenger Team Blog: Back in November we shipped the final version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 along with several other Windows Live applications and services. A lot of you have already upgraded, and for that we thank you and hope you’re enjoying it as much as we enjoyed building it. Starting soon, we’re going to make it easier for those of you who haven’t upgraded yet to get onto our latest and greatest.

This will happen in two phases. First, everyone running Windows XP or Windows Vista will get a prompt encouraging you to upgrade. When you accept the upgrade, the new unified installer will launch and start upgrading Messenger. While it’s installing, you’ll have the option to download and install other Windows Live applications. You don’t have to take any of them, but we think you’ll like them and hope you’ll give them a try.

It will take a couple of weeks for us to get this upgrade out to all users, so if you don’t get it right away don’t worry, it’s coming. If you don’t want to wait, you can go to http://get.live.com/messenger/overview to download and install Messenger 8.5 right now.

After everyone’s gotten the optional upgrade, those of you still running a beta version of Messenger 8.5 will receive a required upgrade to the final version. When this phase kicks in you’ll be blocked from logging in until you complete the upgrade. The final version is even better and more stable than the beta versions, we want you to have the best experience possible! A special note for those of you running Messenger 8.5 Beta on Windows XP 64-bit or Windows 2003 Server: the final version of Messenger 8.5 will not install or run on your OS. We don’t want you to get stuck out in the cold so you will not receive the mandatory upgrade to the final version. However, these operating systems won’t be supported by future Messenger versions. You may stay on your current beta version, or to get to a more stable final version we recommend that you uninstall Messenger 8.5 and go back to Messenger 8.1.

MySpace working on music service

MySpace Music is the name News Corp. executives are tentatively using for a proposed music service that they are pitching to record executives, two sources told CNET News.com.

The news that News Corp., MySpace's parent company, has approached the four top music labels was first reported over the weekend by the blog PaidContent. Here are a few new details on what News Corp. is running past the music companies.

News Corp. has tested the record industry's interest in a site that would offer music in several different ways, including ad-supported downloads and streaming to PCs, according to a source with knowledge of the talks. This may be why PaidContent reported that News Corp. was proposing an ad-supported download service while the blog Silicon Alley Insider said the company was backing a streaming service.

News.com

Bugged by Virus??

So lately you suffered a computer crash and a headache of course due to a virus intrusion or a spyware. So people ask me what are the ways to avoid that. Here are some of the basic steps that everyone should follow to prevent such an intrusion.

1) Install a reputed antivirus software.

2) Upgrade your Internet Explorer to version 7

3) Use Firfox browser for increased security.

4) Regularly install windows update and keep it on.

5) Run liveupdate on your antivirus and put it on automatic update mode.

Read the complete article here: TechJunkies

(Sam is a Certified Ethical Hacker who blogs at TechJunkies)

Reviews: Modalbox - javascript modal dialog/popup library

ModalBox is a JavaScript technique for creating modern (Web 2.0-style) modal dialogs or even wizards (sequences of dialogs) without using conventional popups and page reloads. It’s inspired by Mac OS X modal dialogs. And yes, it may also be useful for showing larger versions of images.

ModalBox is built with pure JavaScript and is based on Sam Stephenson’s excellent Prototype JavaScript Framework, script.aculo.us and valid XHTML/CSS. ModalBox uses AJAX to load content.

more @ wildBit.com

Reviews: Perian - swiss army knife for QuickTime

Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats.

Perian enables QuickTime application support for additional Media Types:

• AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats
• MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio
• AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
• Subtitle support for SSA and SRT

perian.org

News: Linux kernel bugs discovered

Security researchers have uncovered "critical" security flaws in a version of the Linux kernel used by a large number of popular distributions. The three bugs allow unauthorized users to read or write to kernel memory locations or to access certain resources in certain servers, according to a SecurityFocus advisory.

They could be exploited by malicious, local users to cause denial of service attacks, disclose potentially sensitive information, or gain "root" privileges, according to security experts. The bug affects all versions of the Linux kernel up to version 2.6.24.1, which contains a patch. Distributions such as Ubuntu, Turbolinux, SuSE, Red Hat, Mandriva, Debian and others are affected. The problems are within three functions in the system call fs/splice.c, according to an advisory from Secunia.

Reviews: Partimage - linux partion image maker

Partimage is a Linux utility which saves partitions having a supported filesystem to an image file. Most Linux and Windows filesystems are supported. The image file can be compressed with the gzip / bzip2 programs to save disk space, and they can be splitted into multiple files to be copied on CDs / DVDs, ... Partitions can also be saved across the network since version 0.6.0 using the partimage network support, or using Samba / NFS. If you don't want to install Partimage, you can download and burn SystemRescueCd. It's a livecd that allows to use Partimage immediately even if your computer has no operating system installed (useful to restore an image), and it allows to save an image on a DVD on the fly.Partimage will only copy data from the used portions of the partition. For speed and efficiency, free blocks are not written to the image file. This is unlike the 'dd' command, which also copies empty blocks. Partimage also works for large, very full partitions. For example, a full 1 GB partition can be compressed with gzip down to 400MB.

More @ partimage.org

Reviews: untangle - Open Source Network Gateway

Untangle is the free & open source alternative to Sonicwall. In addition to the basics (Firewall, VPN, IPS & routing), Untangle makes it easier to block spam, spyware, viruses, phishing, porn, gambling, MySpace, Facebook, IM, peer-2-peer & much, much more.

• "Best Security Solution" - LinuxWorld 2007

• Runs at the gateway... No clients to install!

• Easy to use: Intuitive GUI, logging, reporting & automatic signature updates

• Installs on standard Intel/AMD hardware

Lively forums & a great Wiki

More @ untangle.com

Reviews: Tomato Firmware

Tomato is free open source Linux-based firmware for several Broadcom-based Wi-Fi routers, including the Linksys WRT54G. The major emphasis of Tomato is on stability, speed and efficiency. It is maintained by Jonathan Zarate, who also developed HyperWRT +tofu; The official website is located here.

Tomato is notable for its web-based user interface that includes several types of bandwidth usage charts, advanced QoS access restriction features , raised connection limits which enables P2P networking, and support for 125 High Speed Mode (marketed by Linksys as "SpeedBooster").

More @ en.wikibooks.org

What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running?

You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering why on earth there are nearly a dozen processes running with the name svchost.exe. You can't kill them, and you don't remember starting them… so what are they?

So What Is It?

According to Microsoft: "svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries". Could we have that in english please?

Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files. From a programming perspective this makes more sense for reusability… but the problem is that you can't launch a .dll file directly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running executable (.exe). Thus the svchost.exe process was born.

Why Are There So Many svchost.exes Running?

If you've ever taken a look at the Services section in control panel you might notice that there are a Lot of services required by Windows. If every single service ran under a single svchost.exe instance, a failure in one might bring down all of Windows… so they are separated out.

Those services are organized into logical groups, and then a single svchost.exe instance is created for each group. For instance, one svchost.exe instance runs the 3 services related to the firewall. Another svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user interface, and so on.

So What Can I Do About It?

You can trim down unneeded services by disabling or stopping the services that don't absolutely need to be running. Additionally, if you are noticing very heavy CPU usage on a single svchost.exe instance you can restart the services running under that instance.

The biggest problem is identifying what services are being run on a particular svchost.exe instance…

More @ howToGeek.com

Reviews: Alienware Android Cell Phone

Google and Dell are on the point of launching a new mobile phone to run on the Android operating system, probably at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona that’s going on at the moment. Dell have tried to enter the mobile phone market once before but their range of PDAs was a complete flop.

Dell have also recently acquired Alienware, the trendiest tech company in the world, an expert in Video, Gaming, and Audio, and a company crying out for a mobile phone.

So here are the first pictures of the Alienware mobile phone!

• Classic Alienware eye catching design
• Large screen with high resolution
• Superb video gaming capability
• Fantastic Audio
• Built on the Google Android platform

More @ Dialaphone

Reviews: Kexi Project - Open source data management

Kexi is a Free/Libre and Open-Source integrated data management application, a long awaited Open Source competitor for products like Microsoft Access. Kexi can be used for creating database schemas, inserting data, performing queries, and processing data. Forms can be created to provide a custom interface to your data. All database objects - tables, queries and forms - are stored in the relational database, making it easy to share data and design.

• Full visual designers for tables, queries and forms. Queries can be also designed in dedicated SQL view.
• Running queries, support for parametrized queries.
• Data entry and sorting.
• Support for "Object" data allowing to store images of many types.
• Designing and displaying relational data using combo boxes (lookup columns).
• Simple printounts for table and query data with robust print preview.
• Advanced CSV data import and export from files. Copying to clipboard and pasting from clipboard is also available, thus the data can be easily transferred to applications like spreadsheets or word processors.
• User Mode, allowing to switch off all commands related to editing project's design (since 1.1.2)
• "Find" window for searching thought table and form's contents with rich set of options (since 1.1.3)
• Support for simple database templates (since 1.1.3)

Supported Database Engines

• SQLite - file based (version 2.8 and 3.2) - the default built-in databse format allowing to store al lthe data and design in a single file that can be easily e-mailed or published in the Internet; requires no maintenance and installation.
• MySQL servers.
• PostgreSQL servers.

Data/Project Migration Tools

• MySQL, PostgreSQL migration assistant allowing to reuse existing databases.
• Microsoft Access migration assistant for database tables, being a unique solution.
• An assistant allowing to export Kexi file-based database to a MySQL or PostgreSQL server.

Scripting and Macros

• Python and Ruby programming languages are supported (beta stage, JavaScript support is in development; scripting is not yet available on Windows)
• Macros similar to these in MS Access (usable, currently in further development, not yet available on Windows)

Used Technologies

• Kexi uses the KDE and KOffice features for better user's experience. You can run it on most other destops (e.g. GNOME or XFCE) as well - Kexi will just use KDE's facilities in the background.
• While the application is available on many operating systems, it does not contain Java or .NET code (only C++) and it is optimized for speed and ease of use.

Extensions

• APIs for developing custom widgets, data providers and data importing/exporting. C++ language can be used as well as Python and Ruby scripting.

Kexi-Project.org

Reviews: Compiz - OpenGL based window manager

What is Compiz?

Compiz is a compositing window manager that uses 3D graphics acceleration via OpenGL. It provides various new graphical effects and features on any desktop environment, including Gnome and KDE.

• Window management has never looked so enticing: Through OpenGL accelerated compositing, Compiz provides tons of new visual effects. It's also flexible enough so you could easily add more through a plugin system.

• Compiz is compatible: Any X Window System based desktop environment, including (but not limited to) Gnome and KDE, is supported.
  

• Easily extendible through plugins.
• A growing, friendly community of users.
• Increases productivity and enjoyment.
• Impress your family and friends.
• Compiz is actively developed.

Documentation

• Documentation Central
• Building from source

compiz.org

Java - Javascript interaction

Many of us using javascript in daily coding.I am a java developer and using ajax with applet also.And i need to call applet methods from javascript.

Actually i knew this while i was facing a strange problem (ofcourse it was strange for me becasue i was not aware of this!). The applet used is compiled in JRE 1.4.0.And whenever anyone having JRE version newer than 1.4.0 tried accessing that applet, the call from javascript to applet method gives error "Object doesn't support this property". So i was very much tired of compiling applet with different versions of Jre but no luck.

So once i found the <param> tags for <Object> element which is now used for applet in HTML code.And then i used these tags for java and javascript interaction.

we will look at what parameters we should use the applet and object tags to 'switch on' the java-js communications.

According to the java 5 documentation, if you use the APPLET tag, you do not need any special parameters to allow a javascript to call the applet's method. On the other hand if you use the OBJECT tag you need to use the scriptable parameter. Things use to be slightly different in the older versions.

For an applet to call javascript methods, all you need to do is add the mayscript parameter

so the tags are

<object classid="clsid:8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93"
width= "290" height= "290" style="border-width:0;" id="rup" name="rup"
codebase="http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/autodl/
jinstall-1_4_1-windows-i586.cab#version=1,4,1">
<param name="archive" value="jsapplet.jar">
<param name="code" value="com.raditha.articles.JSHelloWorld">
<param name="mayscript" value="yes">
<param name="scriptable" value="true">
<param name="name" value="jssapplet">
</object>

The object tag can actually cause the most recent version of the java plug in to be downloaded if the user does not have it installed or if the version present is older than the minimum requirement (in this case 1.4.1). If you want to be able to do the same for Netscape Navigator the object tag has to change slightly:

<object classid="clsid:8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93"
width= "290" height= "290" style="border-width:0;" id="rup" name="rup"
codebase="http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/autodl/
jinstall-1_4_1-windows-i586.cab#version=1,4,1">
<param name="archive" value="jsapplet.jar">
<param name="code" value="com.raditha.articles.JSHelloWorld">
<param name="mayscript" value="yes">
<param name="scriptable" value="true">
<param name="name" value="jsapplet">
</object>

Calling applet method from javascript is simple. You just need to do document.getElementById("appletid").methodName();
But calling javascript from Applet is somewhat tricky.

In order to call javascripts we need to get hold of a JSObject. But first things first, we need to import the netscape.javascript.JSObject into our class.

public void init()
{
jsObj= JSObject.getWindow(this);
}

All that remains to do is to add the JButton to our applet. Then we add an ActionListener to the JButton, and it's actionPerformed method calls the javascript.

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if(jsObj != null )
try {
jsObj.call("updatePage", new String[] {txt.getText()});
}
catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}

thats it! it will call the method from jsObj.

hope this helps someone like me for first time.Enjoy!

Microsoft is using Linux !

It’s unofficial: Microsoft bets business on Linux

The next time Bill Gates sends an e-mail through Microsoft’s shiny new Wireless LAN it will be passed through a behind-the-scenes Linux-based network appliance.

Earlier this year Microsoft and Aruba Networks jointly announced the two companies will work to replace Microsoft’s existing Cisco wireless network with Aruba’s centrally-managed infrastructure, which eliminates the need for individual changes on the access points.

Aruba Networks was selected to provide the networking equipment for what is considered to be one of the world’s largest next-generation wireless LANs, serving more than 25,000 simultaneous users a day in some 60 countries. According to an Aruba press statement, Microsoft’s new WLAN will be deployed in 277 buildings covering more than 17 million square feet using Aruba mobility controllers, mobility software and some 5000 wireless access points.

What the press statement didn’t mention is that Aruba mobility controllers run the Linux operating system which Microsoft has aggressively targeted as being inferior to Windows as part of its “Get the Facts” marketing campaign.

Mark Robards, Aruba Network’s Asia-Pacific vice president, said the company’s mobility controller switches provide integrated security, including a firewall, VPN, and hardware encryption, and they are “all Linux-based”.

It means that Microsoft finally is towards using Linux !

The only question is - when will they admit their use of Linux and other open source softwares?

year 2038 problem: Y2K38 Bug has started...!

On January 19, 2038, UNIX-based programs and UNIX-like operating systems will run out of time. To be more precise, at 3:14:07 GMT, UNIX will be exactly 1 billion seconds old. Many see this as a milestone, but from a technical point of view, this can mean disaster for computer programs and systems around the world.

UNIX keeps track of time in a 4-byte integer that represents the number of seconds after January 1, 1970 12:00:00.

For example, a time of 60 represents the date January 1, 1970 12:01:00. A 4-byte integer has a maximum value of 2,146,483,547. This time (known as maximum time) corresponds exactly to January 19, 2038 3:14:07. This explains why UNIX programs in large, were pretty much unaffected by the Y2K bug - since it kept track of time in units of seconds. However, its own version of Y2K will occur a second past the maximum time.

At exactly January 19, 2038 3:14:08 (one second past the maximum UNIX time), one of two things can happen to programs that keep track of time with this format. It will either crash and stop functioning altogether, or it will rollback time to the beginning of UNIX time: the first minute of 1970.

What this means for computer programs and systems that haven't been fixed depends on the program itself. The consequences can be similar those predicted with the Y2K bug.

Many pieces of software that involve future dates (i.e. Calendars, Investment calculators etc.) are already experiencing problems with the 2038 bug, being unable to involve any dates past 2038.

Also, some calculations that involve averaging dates have begun to fail as well. For example, if an algorithm adds two dates together and then divides by 2 to find the middle date, it would fail.

y2k38.info

DDR3 Goes Beyond The 2GHz Barrier

Currently, memory speeds are going higher and higher with each day, and while it isn't such a big thing to see DDR2 memory rated somewhere around 1000MHz, most DDR3 modules produced so far were rated as "DDR3-1333", and sometimes "DDR3-1625" or "DDR3-1800"(of course, nothing stopped various producers coming up with their own speed ratings, less common). I said "so far" because, one of these days, Team Group released a new product that broke the 2GHz barrier!

Team Group's memory modules rated DDR3-2133 are a part of their older Team Xtreem series, and they are currently providing the highest bandwidth available in memory modules that can be found on the market. Apart from the 2133-rated ones, Team Group also offers DDR3-1700 and DDR3-1600 modules.
All these DDR3 memories available under the Team Xtreem flag use custom heat spreaders to keep them cooler, increase reliability, and overclocking possibilities, as well as to make them more attractive to our eyes. For now, probably not many of us would consider buying 2GHz DDR3 memory, because the performance of this kind of memory doesn't fully justify its price yet, but it's good to know where we stand and where we're headed...

Firefox: Tips with Middle Mouse Button

For those who don’t know, the middle mouse can become quite useful too, if one know how to use it properly.

In this post, I will show you 6 tips to supercharge your Mozilla Firefox with the middle mouse button , thus making your web browsing experience better than before.

1- Click on a link with the middle mouse button to quickly open a link in a new tab. No more right click -> “Open Link in new tab”!

2- Press the Control (Ctrl) button and scroll the mouse wheel backward to increase Firefox’s font size. Scroll it forward to decrease the font size.

3- Press the Shift button and scroll the mouse wheel forward to move a page forward and scroll backwards to go the previous page.

Below are Mozilla Firefox’s about:config hack to modify hidden preferences (mouse related). Check out here on how to modify about:config.

4- Change the value of middlemouse.paste to true. This will let you paste a clipboard content to any text field with the middle mouse button.

5- Change the value of middlemouse.scrollbarPosition to true and restart your Firefox. The next time you click on a scrollbar location with the middle mouse button, Firefox will center the screen to that position.

6- Change the value of mousewheel.withaltkey.action to 1. This will enable you to scroll document by one page while pressing the Alt button.

post your tips and hints for other things you found for it. Enjoy!

Hack: Yahoo! CAPTCHA Cracked!

It has been suggested before that it would be a matter of time, but now it seems official: The Yahoo! CAPTCHA is no-more. A team of Russian hackers have found a way to read the CAPTCHA with 35% accuracy. Let there be no mistake: the CAPTCHA that Yahoo! deploys is believed one of the most difficult CAPTCHA's to crack. It utilizes bended alpha numeric characters and other features you might expect from a strong CAPTCHA, and still it's easy to solve by humans. I think this is a great leap in character recognition and the death punch to the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. I have weak faith in CAPTCHA's these days, since there will always be a way to compute something that requires human interaction. Whether it be image CAPTCHA's, audible ones or simply Javascript based CAPTCHA's.

The Russian hackers had this to say about the Yahoo! CAPTCHA:

"The CAPTCHA has a vulnerability we'll discuss later. It's not necessary to achieve high degree of accuracy when designing automated recognition software. The accuracy of 15% is enough when attacker is able to run 100.000 tries per day, taking into the consideration the price of not automated recognition – one cent per one CAPTCHA." - which seems a plausible conclusion.

0x000000.com

Firefox: is this the shreak's cute cat version?

Its very funny. It is the Shreak's cute cat version i think. :)

The Internet's undearSea world!

The image says it all.I don't need to speak. Click the image to see it in full size.

Review: Digsby IM, multi-protocol IM client

Digsby is a newly launched multi-protocol instant messaging client.It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac. It works across AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, Jabber and ICQ networks. It supports GMail, Yahoo Mail, Windows Live Mail, AOL, POP-based and IMAP-based mail services.

Digsby is one of the hottest apps currently available, and is currently invite-only. It works seamlessly across all the above-mentioned networks, and is more than just an IM client. Its ‘extra features’ include mail notifications, in-line email replies (without you touching the mail interface), and integration with social networking sites (MySpace and Facebook) to show messages, friend requests, invitations etc. In-line email replies mean that, when you are alerted of a new mail, you can immedeately reply to it from within Digsby.

Digsby has several extra features like:

1. Mail and social networking integration.
2. Inline email repying.

As you can see, inline email replying is quite new, and has some convenience factor going for it.

More @ techzilo.com

Test (Sample) Data Generators...

Sample / test data is an effective way to test web projects & applications. Other than meaningless data, real names, addresses, zip codes can make the whole testing stage easier.

WebResourcesDepot have collected some nice free test data generators which you may find useful:

GenerateData

GenerateData is a free, open source script written in JavaScript, PHP and MySQL that lets you quickly generate large volumes of custom data in a variety of formats for use in testing software, populating databases.

Some features:

• (JS-enabled) browser-friendly.
• Many data types available: names, phone numbers, email addresses, cities, states, provinces, counties, dates, street addresses, number ranges, alphanumeric strings, lorem ipsum text and more.
• Option to generate data in XML, Excel, HTML, CSV or SQL.
• Country specific data (state / province / county) for Canada, US, Netherlands and UK.

DBMonster

DBMonster is a tool that generates random test data and inserts it into SQL database.

CSV Data Generator

This is a Ruby based free test data generator.

Datagenerator

Datagenerator is a library and GUI for generating rule based test data for various

databases like Mysql, Firebird, Interbase, MSSQL, Oracle, SQLite and PostgreSQL.

dgMaster

Data generator tool which supports many data types (primitive data types,but also names,addresses,post codes,etc.) and generates data in various formats (text,xml,db).It provides a GUI and is extensible by means of plugging-in new data-generator classes.

Spawner Data Generator

Spawner is a generator of sample/test data for databases. It can be configured to output delimited text or SQL insert statements. It can also insert directly into a MySQL 5.x database. Includes many field types, most of which are configurable.

Test Dictionary

A Java interface that quickly returns random proper names, terms and connectors. Useful for populating realistic test data.

Fresh Trash Generator

This is a Java utility package for generate random test data.

webResourcesDepot.com

How to increase your internet connection speed?

If you have Windows XP, try this. Everyone that has tried it says it works, tell us if it works too. You should be logged as Administrator (not even accounts with administrator privileges).

1. Start - Run - type gpedit.msc.
2. Expand the Local Computer Policy / Administrative Templates / Network Branch.
3. Highlight the QoS Packet Scheduler in left panel.
4. In right panel double click the Limit reservable bandwidth setting.
5. On setting tab check the Enabled item.
6. Where it says Bandwidth limit % change it to read 0.

The problem is, XP seems to want to reserve 20% of the bandwidth for itself. Even with QoS disabled, even when this item is disabled. So why not use it to your advantage.

wiresmash.com

Panasonic - Class 6 SDHC 32GB memory cards

Think you already have enough memory on your camera’s memory card? Think again! With memory cards getting larger in size and faster in speed, even if yours was bought not very long before, it will likely go out of date as this SDHC card giant gets released.

Panasonic’s latest Class 6 SDHC card will allow? a maximum transfer rate of 20MB/s. This 32GB monster has enough storage capacity to store up to four hours of 1920 x 1080i compressed AVCHD video!

With such great features, the price is quite hefty too: $699, which is about 356 pounds!

coolest-gadgets

wiki definitions : Unusual software bug

Unusual software bugs are a class of software bugs that are considered exceptionally difficult to understand and repair. There are several kinds, mostly named after scientists who discovered counterintuitive things.

• 1 Heisenbugs
• 2 Bohrbug
• 3 Mandelbugs
• 4 Schroedinbugs
• 5 Stotle
• 6 Phase of the moon bugs
• 7 Statistical bugs

More @ wikiPedia

Apple will Step Into The Gaming World Again?

One of the things people forgot or simply didn't heard about is Apple's Pippin, selected in May 2006 as one of PC World's "25 Worst Tech Products of all Time". To make a longer story short, it's enough to say that the Pippin was a small step made by Apple between 1995 and 1997 into the multimedia platforms world, trying to create a cheap computer aimed especially at playing CD-based titles, but not limited to that. Unfortunately, that step ended up with a broken leg, but now Apple may have the courage (and enough resources, to make things right this time, I guess) to try their luck again, by extending their trademark into the gaming realm...

The story is simple - Apple filed for a trademark extension on the 5th of February, and while there's no examining attorney assigned to it yet, it's interesting to think about why Apple seeks to cover "Toys, games and playthings, namely, hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games." with their notorious name.

Read full @ BindApple.com

Firefox 3 - Beta 3

Firefox 3, Beta 3 has just been released. Over 350 memory leaks have been fixed and reductions have been made in the memory footprint. The shortlist of new features and changes in this milestone include:

• Improved security
• Improved ease of use
• Richer personalization
• Improved platform features
• Performance improvements

Beta software is not intended to be used by the general public but if you want to live dangerously then it is available for download.

Firefox 3 - Beta 3