tim ferro
ramblings of a code monkey, fanboy, and uber-geek

“ZoneAlarm has launched a public beta of a new security tool that basically puts your web browser into a sandbox. Visit sites you know are unsafe, check your bank statements on a computer that you know is infected with viruses and spyware.” - Source

More coverage at http://www.net-security.org/

“This product, according to Fox, gathers together all nine seasons, the film, and the Mythology Threads featurettes off the Mythology collections. The nine seasons are thankfully in the original release format, with all special features included. The feature film appears to have the same contents as the current DVD release as well. As for the featurettes, they appear on a disc of their own.

For a box set this big (61 discs), it’s priced fairly reasonably as opposed to the 9-season collection that can be found elsewhere on Amazon. However, Fox needs to make sure this is the last time they re-dip the series; maybe they should release it on Blu-Ray to make the HD fanboys happy.

Be warned: if you bought the initial season-by-season releases (not the slimpaks) and the movie separately, there’s nothing new here. The featurettes on the last disc are also nothing new, as they appeared on the pointless Mythology arc sets that were released on DVD a while back. However, for anyone new to the series or anyone who’s been hesitating to buy the series on DVD, this is a great pickup for its price.” - Source

Amazon.com is now selling DRM Free MP3s on their site for 89-99 cents a piece. This should be a nice counter balance to iTunes.

“Firefox 3 alpha 8 has officially been released and is now available for download. The last alpha release coincided with Gecko 1.9 freeze, and this release coincides with front-end feature freeze. There are no additional features planned for inclusion beyond this point. Much of the work leading up to milestone 9—scheduled for release in October—will involve resolving bugs and finishing the new interface elements.” - Source

“A serious vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox has been addressed in release 2.0.0.7 which is now posted to the Firefox web site. The exploit involved an issue in QuickTime that could reportedly lead to a full compromise of the browser and possibly the underlying operating system. The official Mozilla security blog described the issue as follows:

“If Firefox is the default browser when a user plays a malicious media file handled by QuickTime, an attacker can use a vulnerability in QuickTime to compromise Firefox or the local machine. This can happen while browsing or by opening a malicious media file directly in QuickTime. So far this is only reproducible on Windows.”

The vulnerability was originally discovered by Petko D. Petkov, who also reported on two other QuickTime vulnerabilities last year.” - Source

The trailer is awesome!

“GNOME 2.20 has been officially released. There are a number of enhancements and improvements to things such as power management, Evince (the GNOME document view), Totem (the video player), and note-taking application Tomboy. There are also some changes to GNOME’s configuration utilities with an eye towards streamlining them. The timing is impeccable, too: ‘This release coincides with the tenth anniversary of GNOME’s existence. The project has evolved considerably since its earliest incarnation and has become a global phenomenon. Used as the default environment in popular Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora, GNOME is widely used by Linux desktop users and is supported by a growing community of companies and independent developers. GNOME 2.20 will be included in the next major releases of many mainstream Linux distributions, including Ubuntu 7.10, which is scheduled for release next month. Users who wish to try it now can use the latest Ubuntu 7.10 live CD images, or the latest build of Foresight Linux. You can also check out the release notes.” - Source

“Microsoft has released Service Pack 3 for Office 2003. If you haven’t upgraded to Office 2007, there may be a few bug fixes and features in here for you. But beware, the update also shuts off a handful of features.” - Source

“Available for download now, OpenOffice.org 2.3 incorporates an extensive array of new features and enhancements to all its core components, and protects users from newly discovered security vulnerabilities. It is a major release and all users should download it.

Plus: It is only with 2.3 that users can make full use of our growing extensions library.” - Source

” Google’s long-rumored and eagerly anticipated PowerPoint clone has finally shipped.

What it does have or do

• Importing PowerPoint files
• Exporting HTML file
• 15 built-in themes
• Text formatting
• Basic image manipulation functionality (adding, resizing)
• Versioning
• Collaboration
• Online presentation sharing”

- Source