Thursday, June 03, 2004

Tests to uproot Windows passwords begin - News - ZDNet Tests to uproot Windows passwords begin - News - ZDNet - "Microsoft and RSA Security on Wednesday started beta testing a product designed to phase out the use of traditional passwords and replace them with automatically generated passwords from a SecurID token. SecurID is one of the most popular two-factor authentication systems and is already used by many large enterprises. The token is about the size of a matchbox and generates a new six-digit code every minute. " 2:56:59 PM    comment []  trackback []

Rebecca Norlander - Demo of XPSP2. Rebecca Norlander gives us a thorough demo of Windows XP Service Pack 2. Takes about 10 minutes. There's a lot in SP2, and this will get you up to date. New wireless features. Tons of security updates and enhancements. And more. Watch the Video [Watched threads for: The Channel 9 Team] Good video demo of some of the new features included in SP2.  Kind of looks more like a version update to me. 2:45:18 PM    comment []  trackback []

Mono Beta 2 Released Mono Beta 2 Released Posted by michael on Thursday June 03, @12:25PM from the copycat dept. A little birdy writes "Less than a month after Beta 1 was released, Mono Beta 2 has been released. See the Release Notes, or go directly to the download page. It includes a C# compiler, an implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure and two stacks of APIs: a Unix, Linux, GNOME, Mono stack for APIs that takes the most advantage of your Unix server and desktop and a set of APIs compatible with the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 that provides support for ASP.NET (web services and web forms), ADO.NET and many other components." And in a related story: darthcamaro writes "The drive to develop a FOSS implementation of Microsoft's .NET framework by DotGNU and Novell's Mono project is being painted as a contest between the Free and Open Source communities in an article on internetnews.com. The article details the running argument between DotGNU's Norbert Bello and Mono's Miguel de Icaza on the issues of commercial involvement, software patents and all the 'religious' stuff that the Free software community holds against the open source community." [Slashdot] 1:16:05 PM    comment []  trackback []

Later today OJR will report that the Wall Street Journal is publishing RSS feeds. I'll point to the article as soon as it's public. [Scripting News] Good news, but one wonders how they will reconcile feeds with their online subscription?  While it would be worthwhile to get a headline feed, nothing on the site is available for free.  Feeds would be of real use only to subscribers. 1:14:07 PM    comment []  trackback []

BottomFeeder 3.5. A viewer for RSS feeds. [freshmeat.net] 1:04:38 PM    comment []  trackback []

In the Virtual Stacks, Pirated Books Find Eager Thumbs. Despite the cumbersome process necessary to digitize a book, the unauthorized sharing of literary works is proliferating. By Sandeep Junnarkar. [New York Times: Technology] It ain't just the latest Britney being ripped! 11:25:16 AM    comment []  trackback []

A Former Microsoftie Forecasts Microsoft Doom A Former Microsoftie Forecasts Microsoft Doom Posted by michael on Thursday June 03, @09:13AM from the watch-out-for-cacodemon-bob dept. Chris Holland writes "Jeff Reifman, a columnist for Seattle Weekly, has written a toe-curling editorial analysis of Microsoft's past and current missed opportunities, contrasted with its financial success, while covering in fair depth some of the most serious threats to their business model. Beyond the many choice quotes, I've found this article to be a very interesting read from somebody who has not only been on the inside, but also significantly developed his professional career thru Microsoft solutions." [Slashdot] 11:14:16 AM    comment []  trackback []

FCKitext FCKitext ver 1.1 released (FCKitext (FCKeditor-iText)). Total project downloads to date: 44 Project description: This project is powered by FCKeditor and iText library. This promotes iText to new WYSIWYG editor level. FCKeditor is now not only HTML editor but also PDF editor [Download] [Release Notes] By vungoctan@users.sourceforge.net (Tan Vu Ngoc). [SourceForge.net: Project File Releases (Site-wide)] Interesting project.  Takes my fav WYSIWYG browser editor and redirects its output from HTML to PDF, thereby creating a browser-based PDF creator and editor.  Sweet!  Still a young project, but worth keeping and eye on. 9:07:37 AM    comment []  trackback []

Ars Technica review: USB 2.0 Hi-speed Flash drives. Ars Technica takes a look at 8 different USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Flash drives. Are they commodity products, or are there enough differences to make shopping around worthwhile? [Ars Technica] 9:02:50 AM    comment []  trackback []