Microsoft is going to release abot 20 editions of Windows 7, fun to select the right one!

Guess which one will be most spread around the world ?

Boing Boing

Just found interesting ActionScript flash source

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BOSTON (Reuters) – “w00t”, an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year on Tuesday by the publisher of a leading U.S. dictionary.

It’s like saying “yay”, the dictionary said.

“It could be after a triumph or for no reason at all,” Merriam-Webster said.

Visitors to Merriam-Webster’s Web site were invited to vote for one of 20 words and phrases culled from the most frequently looked-up words on the site and submitted by readers.

Runner-up was “facebook” as a new verb meaning to add someone to a list of friends on the Web site Facebook.com or to search for people on the social networking site.

Merriam-Webster President John Morse said “w00t” reflected the growing use of numeric keyboards to type words.

“People look for self-evident numeral-letter substitutions: 0 for O; 3 for E; 7 for T; and 4 for A,” he said. “This is simply a different and more efficient way of representing the alphabetical character.”

One Web site, www.thinkgeek.com, already sells T-shirts with the word “w00t” printed on the front.

“w00t belongs to gamers the world over. It seems to have been derived from the obsolete ‘whoot’ which essentially is another way to say ‘hoot’ which itself is a shout or derisive laugh,” Think Geek said on its Web site.

“But others maintain that w00t is the sound several players make while jumping like bunnies in Quake III,” it added, referring to a popular video game.

Online gamers often replace numbers and symbols with letters to form what Merriam-Webster calls an “esoteric computer hacker language” known as “l33t speak.” This translates into “leet”, which is short for “elite”.

A separate survey of words used in the media and on the Internet by California-based Global Language Monitor produced a different set of winners on Tuesday. “Hybrid” took top honours as word of the year with “climate change” the top phrase.

Global Language Monitor, which uses an algorithm to track words and phrases in the media and on the Internet, said “hybrid” had broad connotations of “all things green from biodiesel to wearing clothes made of soy to global warming”.

Runner-up was “surge,” based on the “surge” of 30,000 extra U.S. troops deployed to Iraq since mid-June, followed by the word “Bluetooth,” a technology used to connect electronic devices via radio waves.

“The English language is becoming more and more a globalised language every year,” said Global Language Monitor president Paul Payack, noting that this year’s list included words also culled from India, Singapore, China and Australia.

Source: Yahoo! News

Cable TV giant and Internet service provider Comcast Corp. has been accused of blocking — or at least throttling — traffic from subscribers trying to share files through the popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer network.

What’s BitTorrent? BitTorrent is a networking protocol that lets users who download client software share (transmit and receive) files from other users. These shared files can be any type of file, but BitTorrent is well known for sharing MP3 music files, software applications, movies and other videos. Many of these files are copyrighted. BitTorrent is somewhat similar to the old Napster network that was used by millions of users to share MP3 files, but it doesn’t use central servers. Instead, users download metadata files (torrents) related to the file they wish to get. Then the client software sends out a request to “trackers,” which are computers that coordinate the transfer of the file — typically in many different parts from among many peers.

So, if many of these files are being shared illegally, what’s the big deal about blocking — or throttling — the traffic? BitTorrent Inc., founded by the creator of the protocol, emphasizes that BitTorrent can be used for legally sharing files that aren’t copyrighted and even offers the protocol/software as a legitimate service for businesses. Many others in the Internet community also use the technology for legitimate purposes. For example, Blizzard uses the BitTorrent protocol to distribute updates and patches to its popular World of Warcraft game.

Then why is Comcast (reportedly) hindering this traffic? There are no exact numbers available, but some have claimed BitTorrent traffic comprises a significant portion of total Internet traffic. Comcast has limited bandwidth available for its millions of customers and has reportedly cut off service for some users who used more than their share of bandwidth. The company has admitted it restricts users who consume too much bandwidth (not specifically BitTorrent traffic) to ensure all of its customers receive adequate service, although it won’t officially say what the limit is.

What is Comcast’s reply? The company says it doesn’t block peer-to-peer traffic, but it does practice “reasonable network management” to ensure quality service for all it subscribers.

What does the other side say? Claims of Comcast interference with BitTorrent traffic have been circulating for many months, at least, but the issue came to the forefront recently when the Associated Press published results of its own investigation into the issue. The AP concluded that Comcast was hindering BitTorrent traffic.

I don’t use BitTorrent, so why should I care? The dispute points to a larger issue called Net neutrality. This is a contentious dispute about the kinds of controls that Internet service providers can put on their networks. Those advocating for the principle of Net neutrality generally want to keep providers from regulating what kind of traffic or level of traffic is allowed. They also don’t want providers to be able to charge different rates for different levels of service — so consumers or companies would have to pay more to be guaranteed certain minimum levels of download/upload speed, for example. Those opposing Net neutrality generally maintain that some kind of control is necessary to promote improvements in equipment and services and guarantee minimum levels of performance. Others believe providers have the right to manage traffic on their network, but argue that — especially in the Comcast case — they should be more upfront about what they’re doing.

What else is going on? Besides BitTorrent traffic, Comcast has been accused of blocking or throttling Lotus Notes traffic (Note: after publication of this article, a Comcast spokesman told Computerworld that the Notes situation was a “bug” that has been corrected). Also, complaints about Comcast interfering with BitTorrent traffic have been filed with the FCC by online video distributor Vuze and the group Public Knowledge and other members of the Open Internet Coalition.

Where are things going from here? Comcast was recently sued by a California man for interfering in file sharing. At the time of this writing, Comcast hadn’t officially commented on the suit. If the litigation proceeds, it could reveal details about exactly what Comcast is doing and eventually result in legislation or an FCC ruling to settle the legality of the practice.

Source: Computerworld

Yahoo, which already owns one of the most successful financial sites on the Web, is putting the final touches on a new online program for technology investors that is scheduled to begin next month.

To be called TechTicker, the Web program will report exclusively on technology stocks, offering daily streaming-video segments and blog posts, as well as some live coverage of breaking news, said Brian Nelson, a spokesman for Yahoo.

The initiative is another example of Yahoo moving aggressively into content, something that sets it apart from Google, its main competitor. As high-speed Internet access becomes more prevalent, Web producers predict that video will play a greater role in consumers’ online habits.

Yahoo has not finished lining up the program’s online staff, but among those under consideration are Henry Blodget, the editor in chief of Silicon Alley Insider (who was barred from the securities industry for the misdeeds he committed as a research analyst); Sarah Lacy, a BusinessWeek columnist; and Paul Kedrosky, a CNBC analyst. None of these people could be reached for comment.

TechTicker is Yahoo’s second foray into streaming-video finance. In 2000, the company introduced FinanceVision, an online version of a round-the-clock cable business channel. The effort met with little success, and was shut down two years later.

Its latest venture, which will feature periodic video segments and all-day blogs, Yahoo will face tough competition from television news programs: in addition to the cable news business networks CNBC and Bloomberg Television, it will be up against the new Fox Business Network.

Mike McGuire, a media analyst with Gartner Inc., said he thought it would be difficult for TechTicker to distinguish itself.

“If they can get an audience aggregated around the site, it can provide an off-ramp to other Yahoo properties,” Mr. McGuire said. “But we have a ton of stuff that’s available on TV and any number of blogs and Web sites that provide close to real-time accounts, so this will be a real challenge for Yahoo.”

Mr. Nelson said, “Yahoo Finance already maintains the Internet’s largest finance audience. When we think of developing new products, we’re focused on serving that audience.”

Source: NY Times

December 06, 2007 (InfoWorld) — While Asynchronous JavaScript and XML may have issues with security and performance, Zimbra Inc. still sees AJAX as the best way to deliver experiences on the Web and has based its open-source Web 2.0 platform on 200,000 lines of JavaScript, a company executive said Monday.

At the Web Builder 2.0 conference in Las Vegas, Zimbra’s president and chief technology officer, Scott Dietzen, emphasized a variety of AJAX and Web 2.0 technologies for developers and users, including the extension of AJAX to offline usage.

Despite AJAX’s problems, Dietzen said he favors it over other technologies such as Flash when it comes to the Web.

“There’s no other way to deliver a richly interactive experience on the Web,” said Dietzen, who was once CTO at BEA Systems Inc. “If you want the Web look and feel and the ability to mash up all sorts of other Web technologies, I think AJAX is the best fit.”

Zimbra, which was acquired by Yahoo Inc. earlier this year for $350 million, is a provider of collaboration and messaging software.

Dietzen did cite AJAX security issues such as cross-site scripting attacks, in which user data can get interpreted in the browser, creating a breach. Also noted as a security concern was use of source code in the browser.

“The goal for rich Internet applications at least ought to be to deliver the same level of security that we’ve delivered for Web applications, because to deliver less undermines user confidence in various ways,” he said. This is a goal that is close to being achieved, Dietzen said.

Blocking execution of user JavaScript inside of an application is important for combating server-side scripting attacks, according to Dietzen. Obfuscation and minimization technologies to remove white space can be used as security measures, he said. On the positive side, there is no caching of user data on the desktop with AJAX. Dietzen also advised that sensitive code not be put in a browser.

Browsers, meanwhile, also present challenges. They render the same HTML differently and were not designed for the load presented by AJAX; browsers have memory leaks and performance gaps, Dietzen said. But browsers are getting better, Dietzen said.

“Safari 3 is dramatically better,” he said.

And Zimbra has found that Internet Explorer 7 executes JavaScript two to four times better than Internet Explorer 6 does, he noted.

Tool kits also have been a problem, but that situation, too, has been getting better. Tool kits now are available from organizations such as the Eclipse Foundation, Adobe Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. “I’m happy to say no more Zimbra developers are using text editors or vi to craft their JavaScript,” said Dietzen.

Offline AJAX usage is a “hot topic,” Dietzen said. Zimbra now can be used offline, he said.

“The answer for occasionally connected apps is to provide a cache on the client side that allows the application to interact locally with a data set, and then synchronize over the network when the network is available,” said Dietzen.

Offline AJAX systems can be developed by using a set of caching APIs in JavaScript that enable this. These are accessible via offerings such as Google Gears and the Dojo offline tool kit.

Also, developers can program a client in something other than JavaScript, using technologies such Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime). Developers build full programs on the client integrated with the browser, like what Microsoft is doing with its Silverlight platform.

But Zimbra used another approach. “What we did at Zimbra is we actually took Zimbra server code, which was written in Java, and we created a microserver that runs on my local client,” said Dietzen.

Dietzen mentioned the AJAX technique of AJAX Linking and Embedding (ALE), in which one document can be embedded inside another. This expands content-sharing.

He also cited a technique called “lazy loading,” which cuts down loading time for Web pages. With lazy loading, the page loads but other parts of the application, such as calendaring, are loaded only as needed.

Dietzen noted that Zimbra’s platform enables use of mashups — quickly assembled task-based applications deriving data from other, larger systems. Mashups get Dietzen’s vote as the killer app for Web 2.0.

Source: Computerworld

In Series is a plugin that lets you write series of posts in WordPress, without having to deal with the hassle of manually writing up tables of contents or “next” and “previous” links in each post. It adds a new set of controls to the post editing screen, allowing you to add the post to a series (new or existing), re-order the post within a series it’s already in, or remove the post from a series entirely. In Series uses this information to automatically render all sorts of things — navigational <link> tags, tables of contents, previous- and next-in-series links, and more. The plugin also adds a new “Series” configuration sub-tab (under the “Options” tab in the admin pages), providing a highly-flexible mechanism for controlling how In Series renders content within your posts.

In Series requires WordPress 1.5.2 or later, including WordPress 2.3. There may be PHP or MySQL requirements as well — In Series is tested with PHP 5.2.4, and MySQL 5.0.44. It should work with PHP 4.3.0 and MySQL 4;

Download (3.0.6)

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Note, these apps are free — not all of them are open source.

• OpenOffice – not quite as advanced as Microsoft Office and doesn’t have SharePoint integration, but if that doesn’t matter then look no further (check out Novell’s version too)
• Mozilla Firefox – just as secure as IE7 but insanely customisable. The best browsing experience available
• Mozilla Thunderbird – outstanding customisable email (make sure you install Lightning as well)
• Evolution – yes, it’s been ported to Windows, and is an excellent corporate groupware product
• Mozilla SunBird – if you prefer a separate application for calendaring, this is the one for you
• Pidgin – chat on every network through one lightweight open-source program, with none of the banner ads and hoop-jumping the official clients put you through.
• Media Player Classic – lightweight media player with lots of useful addins (like DVD playback)
• The GIMP – still one of the best image editing packages out there
• K-Lite Mega Codec Pack – play any media file available (includes Media Player Classic)
• VLC Media Player – cross-platform media player and streaming server
• MediaCoder – can convert pretty much anything to anything and back again
• Winamp – still the best music player, in my opinion
• RSSOwl – if you prefer a separate app to manage newsfeed/RSS/XML/Atom subscriptions, this is the one
• Juice – any podcast, any format
• AVG Anti-Virus – still kicking goals. Lightweight, stable and offers great realtime protection
• AVG Anti-Spyware – manual updates required for the free version, but still very good
• Ad-Aware Free – despite the push towards licensing, the free version is still great
• Spybot – still free, still powerful
• Azureus – a powerful and very advanced Java-based torrent client
• PrimoPDF – convert pretty much anything to PDF

Source APC Magazine