Thursday, August 19, 2004

KDE 3.3 Officially Released KDE 3.3 Officially Released Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 19, @03:19PM from the get-yout-gui-on dept. scorp1us was one of several to note that KDE 3.3 has been released. You can also read the infopage and the requirements. Commence downloading. Features a new spell checking library, a new theme manager, and much more. [Slashdot:] 7:42:27 PM    comment []  trackback []

Federal appeals court says file-sharing software legal. The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that file-sharing software programs are legal and that peer-to-peer software developers cannot be held contributorily or vicariously liable for their user's copyright infringements, as long as they had no direct ability to block the illegal activity. Read the court's opinion [PDF]. CNET News has more.[JURIST's Paper Chase] 7:38:27 PM    comment []  trackback []

Beta: Atom support for news aggregator in Manila and Radio UserLand. We've got a new feature for testing: Atom support for the news aggregator in Manila and Radio UserLand. Before a general release, we would like to invite anyone interested in testing the changes. You can find the instructions and post any feedback here: Radio UserLand (radio-dev) or Manila (manila-dev). [UserLand Product News] The other flava of newsfeeds gets support from Userland. 7:36:05 PM    comment []  trackback []

Attack Pierces Fully Patched XP Machines. The new version of Download.Ject, which installs a back door on compromised PCs, can hit fully patched Windows XP machines, but not ones already running SP2. [eWEEK Technology News] 7:33:34 PM    comment []  trackback []

Microsoft Issues First Patch for Its XP SP2 Patch. A number of VPN users have run into problems with Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). eWEEK Security Topic Center Editor Larry Seltzer notes that Microsoft already has issued a hot-fix for the problem. Meanwhile, Seltzer debunks Heise Security claims of a security hole in the new file-attachment security feature of SP2. [Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley] No comment... 1:56:46 PM    comment []  trackback []

Fitts' Law. Taking a page from the book of HCI specialists, mezzoblue v5 makes liberal use of large link target areas for the sake of easier use. [Dave Shea's mezzoblue] Something to keep in mind while I'm tinkering with interfaces:-) 1:55:01 PM    comment []  trackback []

Patch Windows safely with Knoppix. The latest SANS numbers show that the average "survival time" for an unpatched Windows XP machine before presumably being attacked and compromised by a worm is around 20 minutes. SANS has released a guide called Windows XP: Surviving the First Day that provides you with steps to try to safely get a new XP install patched before the worms get to you. I think it's even safer to use Knoppix to download the patches you need, then apply them completely unplugged from the network. Here's how. [O'Reilly Weblogs] Good idea.  This may also work with CALIoppix, but I'm not sure that write access to NTFS is available, yet. 10:28:14 AM    comment []  trackback []

Mozilla Releases Mozilla Sunbird 0.2 Mozilla Releases Mozilla Sunbird 0.2 Posted by simoniker on Wednesday August 18, @07:01PM from the flutter-by dept. Gentu writes "Along with the new Mozilla-Japan initiative and the release of Mozilla 1.8a3 today, the Mozilla team released the first 'official' beta release of Mozilla Sunbird, version 0.2, a stand-alone calendaring application (similar to Apple's iCal). There are two flavors of this project, one that works as a ~700 KB plugin to Firefox/Thunderbird/Mozilla (titled Mozilla Calendar) and the ~8 MB stand-alone calendaring application, Mozilla Sunbird (rate the apps over at GnomeFiles.org). These builds are the first to feature a new default theme, a new logo and the customizable toolbar functionality. Note that Sunbird is still an experimental technology preview that contain bugs, but it is pretty stable."  [Slashdot:] 10:22:47 AM    comment []  trackback []

Create bibliographies from FURL. This is realy neat. Will Richardson mentions that Furl now allows users to export their bookmarks into MLA, APA, Chicago, and CBE bibliographies. This quote is taken from Mike Giles' weblog (he's the guy behind FURL): "The export page just got updated to include two new features. First, you can now export items from a specific topic (in any of the available formats). And second, you can now export items in various bibliographic citation formats (MLA, APA, Chicago, and CBE). The citations only contain the data that we collect (i.e. title, view date, URL), but we will increase the amount of meta-data (i.e. author, publication, etc.) in the near future." Impressive, and useful for librarians who want to create bibliographies on the fly with their bookmarks. Go Furl Racer go!! [Library Stuff] 10:16:57 AM    comment []  trackback []

In the Classroom, Web Blogs Are the New Bulletin Boards. Classroom blogs are becoming increasingly popular with teachers as a forum for expression for students with almost any subject. By By JEFFREY SELINGO. [The New York Times > Technology] 10:15:58 AM    comment []  trackback []