Category: Computers, Science & Technology

Not that surprising. But, they are both good browsers, and I never thought I would say that about IE, ever! But, M$ has done a lot to clean up the IE badness!

Firefox 4 leads IE9 in downloads and usage

“Firefox 4, which launched last week, has attracted considerable interest among technology enthusiasts. The browser was downloaded 7.1 million times during the first day of availability alone. It passed 15 million downloads within the first 48 hours and is currently nearing 40 million total downloads.

By comparison, Microsoft’s recently-launched Internet Explorer 9 only netted 2.5 million downloads during its first 24 hours. Firefox 4 is also outpacing Internet Explorer 9 in actual usage, according to statistics provided by StatCounter and Net Applications. They show that Firefox 4 usage represents between 4 and 5 percent of the total browser market whereas Internet Explorer 9 is hovering between 1 and 2 percent.

It’s worth noting that neither browser has been rolled out to regular end users via the standard update channels yet—the statistics are based entirely on voluntary downloads by early adopters. Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler attributes the early popularity of Firefox 4 to strong grassroots support from the browser’s vocal community of independent advocates.

Firefox’s cross-platform footprint and backwards compatibility with Windows XP—which isn’t supported by IE9—may also have played a role in boosting Firefox’s momentum out of the starting gate.”

According to Microsoft, “Google stinks, Chrome stinks, Chrome OS WILL stink!” Yeah, right! All you are showing is that you fear the Google! But, Microsoft does appear to be taking HTML5 and the new IE 10 development very seriously!

Microsoft debuts IE10, announces PDC 2011 dates

“The wait is over. Microsoft’s MIX11 conference kicked off today in Las Vegas, with Dean Hachamovitch’s opening keynote. Hachamovitch is a Microsoft corporate vice president and the man with a plan when it comes to Internet Explorer.

During MIX10, Hachamovitch debuted the IE9 platform, which got its official release last month. Today, along with Windows divisional president Steven Sinofksy, he debuted IE10 platform. ‘We’re about three weeks into development of IE10,’ Hachamovitch said. Hachamovitch’s clothing foreshadowed what was coming, about half-way through the keynote. He wore a T-Shirt with ‘Ten,’ where the Internet Explorer logo replaced the ‘e.’ In another surprise move, Hachamovitch announced that an IE10 preview is available now at the Internet Explorer Test Drive website.”

Here’s a link, for the adventurous: Internet Explorer Test Drive

“The IE10 demo compared to Chrome, too. Considering Firefox has considerably more usage share than Chrome, the Google whacking says something about which is the greater competitor from Microsoft’s perspective. Google launched Chrome 1.0 in December 2008. Version 11 already is beta testing. Meanwhile Microsoft revved two IE versions, which will soon be confronted not just with a Google browser but Chrome OS.”

Cisco bought Flip just two years ago for $590 million dollars, but it is leaving the consumer market, never it’s strong suit, and focusing on it’s real strengths. They plan to keep the “Flipshare” web site open a little longer, but it is not clear how long, or whether they will sell the Flip company, or simply close it down.

Shame. It was a pretty neat product. Also, Cisco will be laying off 550 people. Ouch!

Is that like “Happy kitties are happy?” Anyway, I watched Geekbeat Live on YouTube Live today. And, today is the first day the live feed for YouTube is up.

YouTube is going LIVE

“With over 2 billion views a day, it’s easy to think about YouTube as a place to watch videos recorded in the past. But you’ve told us you want more – and that includes events taking place right now. In response, we’ve live streamed a number of popular concerts, sporting events, and interviews, but primarily on a one-off basis.

Today we’re announcing the initial roll out of YouTube Live, which will integrate live streaming capabilities and discovery tools directly into the YouTube platform for the first time. This begins with a new YouTube Live browse page (www.youtube.com/live), where you can always find the most compelling live events happening on YouTube and add events to your calendar. Subscribe to your favorite YouTube live-streaming partners to be notified of upcoming live streams on your customized homepage.

Today, we’ll also start gradually rolling out our live streaming beta platform, which will allow certain YouTube partners with accounts in good standing to stream live content on YouTube. The goal is to provide thousands of partners with the capability to live stream from their channels in the months ahead. In order to ensure a great live stream viewing experience, we’ll roll this offering out incrementally over time.”

Lot’s o’ fixes! Critical security updates, pretty much what we have come to expect with Windows! 17 separate patches for 64 security issues… ouch!

Microsoft Preparing ‘Ugly’ Security Patch on Tuesday

“Windows security experts had been expecting a large April security update after last month’s thin offering, and Microsoft’s advance notice appears to meet those expectations — and then some.

Microsoft announced today that it plans to roll out 17 patches on Tuesday in its monthly security update, with nine fixes deemed “critical” and eight considered ‘important.’ Remote code execution (RCE) attack risks dominate April’s slate, as 15 of the 17 security bulletins address those considerations. Two security bulletins point to information disclosure and elevation-of-privilege threats.

‘No matter how you look at it, it’s ugly,’ said Paul Henry, forensic and security analyst at Lumension. ‘We’re well into a new year and things have not improved. In fact, they’ve gotten worse.’

The first critical security bulletin appears to be the long-awaited cumulative fix for Internet Explorer. It will address every supported Windows operating system and covers IE 6, 7 and 8 browsers.

The remaining eight critical security bulletins are all Windows OS-level fixes with RCE exploit risks. Critical security bulletin No. 6 also includes a fix for Microsoft Office.”

Now, if only people will pay attention! You will be able to override the warning and do something stupid anyway, but it will hopefully help!

Google Chrome Security Feature Targets Drive-by Downloads

“Google’s Chrome is getting a feature to help prevent people from accepting malware via downloads offered on Websites. The tool borrows from Google’s Safe Browsing API.

Google’s security team has launched a new feature for the Chrome Web browser that protects users from Websites that exist to shuttle malware to users’ computers.

If users try to download what Chrome suspects is a malicious Microsoft Windows executable file, they will see a warning notifying them that the file appears to be malicious and asking them if they want to complete the download.

Google, which shows the warning graphic here, calls these malware payloads ‘drive-by downloads.’

The move comes just days after email marketing power Epsilon said that attackers had stolen customer data belonging to several of its clients, including Target. Epsilon said thieves might use the information to launch a phishing campaign to trick users out of more sensitive personal data.

For now, Google is test-driving its anti-drive-by download feature for a subset of users who subscribe to the Chrome development release channel.

The goal is to make this feature available to all users in the next stable release of Google Chrome, which would be Version 11. This browser version is still in the developer channel.”

We all need to be aware of download hazards, and pay closer attention to warnings that we already get. Don’t just click “OK” and approve of downloads! Don’t hit the stupid animated monkey! Don’t open email attachments! Don’t forward the email that says, “Forward this or it will be bad luck!” OK, short and to the point, don’t be stupid! (OK, nothing personal, I am just frustrated by all the PCs I have had to rebuild for friends that were “tech-aware-impaired!”)

Who would’ve thunk it!? A “Commodore 64” that is really a modern Ubuntu-based PC! And, coming soon, the VIC-20! Flashback to the past!

Commodore 64 Goes on Sale. Amiga, VIC-20 Coming Soon

“Just before Christmas, Commodore teased us with an Intel Atom based Commodore 64 — a regular all-in-one Ubuntu PC in the shape of the classic C64 home computer, which could also boot into a game-playing C64 emulation mode. Now, finally, you can buy one, and you’ll soon be able to get the C64’s little brother, the VIC-20, in the shape of the VIC Pro and VIC Slim.

The C64x can be had in five confusing configurations. The Barebones model is nothing more than the case and keyboard with a card-reader and costs $250. The cheapest working version is the C64x Basic at almost $600, and to get luxuries such as Wi-Fi and a DVD drive you’ll need to cough up $700. If you’re in for that much, then you may as well jump all the way and spend $900 on the Ultimate edition, which puts in a 1TB hard drive, a Blu-ray drive and 4GB RAM.

If you think that’s expensive, you’re dead right. Add on the price of an expensive dinner for two and you could buy a MacBook Air.

It’s a cute gimmick, to be sure, and one that would surely sell well if it didn’t cost so much. As it is, there must be a very limited set of customers willing to drop big money on a novelty Ubuntu box.”

Are we on the path to having “replacement eyes?” It would seem so! Wow!

Scientists grow ’embryonic eye’ in test tube

“Researchers were amazed when stem cells in a test tube spontaneously organised themselves into a complex structure that resembles the developing embryonic eye.

The surprising development could lead eventually to whole retinas being cultured and then transplanted, restoring sight in the blind and visually impaired.

The team from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan, first cultivated embryonic stem cells in a test tube and then added proteins to trigger them into developing.

They hoped that they would form a recognisable organ but were still stunned when over 10 days they clustered together and began to grow the “optical cup” of a retina. Tests showed that the cells were functioning normally and were capable of communicating with each other.”

Yay! And I was there, on the Internet (no, no World Wide Web at that time) in tyeh Usenet newsgroups when Linus Torvalds posted his description of a Unix-like OS that he was creating! And, I have been involved with Linux ever since! Very cool!

Linux Kicks Off 20th Anniversary Celebrations

“The Linux Foundation on Wednesday kicked off its 20th anniversary celebrations with a video tribute to the story behind the open-source operating system (below) and the promise of more commemorative goings-on for the rest of 2011. ‘Today Linux is literally everywhere: in your phone, at your ATM, in your TV, on your desktop, at the movies, in your car,’ wrote Amanda McPherson on a Linux.com blog post announcing the celebrations.

The foundation marks the summer of 1991 as the time when ‘Linus Torvalds made a bold decision to share his operating system with the world.’ Torvalds soon licensed that first Linux OS under the General Public License and, according to McPherson, ‘Nothing in computing has been the same since.’

The Linux Foundation will commemorate the 20th anniversary of Linux at the Aug.17-19 LinuxCon in Vancouver, where the winner of the annual Linux Foundation Video Contest will be announced, and at LinuxCon Japan and other events.”

But is it a good deal?

Dish’s Blockbuster buy: A box office bomb?

“Dish Network has won the auction to acquire nearly all of the assets of bankrupt national video store chain Blockbuster Inc., the satellite television company announced on Wednesday.

Dish Network expects to pay a mere $228 million in cash to acquire Blockbuster’s 1,700 retail store locations, its brand and trademarks, and its alternative video delivery methods, such as its DVD-by-mail business, retail kiosk, and streaming video on demand services. The deal will close in the second quarter of this year.

Blockbuster has been in steep decline for the last five years as the physical video rental trade lost profitability. By 2009, the company had filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which warned ‘we may not have the adequate liquidity to fund our operations as a result of not meeting our projected financial results.’

A little more than a year after serious financial restructuring, shares were consistently valued at less than a dollar, and the company’s stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.”