Wed 03 Dec 2008, 10:53 pm by Belahzur

Release notes:
http://java.sun.com/javase/6/webnotes/6u11.html

-18- bug fixes...
"This release contains fixes for one or more security vulnerabilities. For more information, please see Sun Alerts 244986, 244987, 244988, 244989, 244990, 244991, 244992, 245246, 246266, 246286, 246346, 246366, and 246387..."

Java version test:
http://javatester.org/version.html

Comments: 0

Wed 03 Dec 2008, 1:49 pm by Doctor Inferno

Hopes to convince laggards to upgrade before Firefox 2.0 loses support

(Computerworld) Mozilla Corp. said today that it will take another stab this week at convincing users running older versions of its Firefox browser to update to Version 3.0.

On Thursday, Mozilla plans to offer Firefox 3.0.4, the most-up-to-date edition, to users of Firefox 2.0.0.18, the latest version of the company's 2006 browser. It will be the second so-called major update presented to users since Mozilla launched Firefox 3.0 in June.

The first offer was in late August; it was accepted by more than 50% of the people using the older Firefox 2.0 at the time, Mozilla said.

Currently, three-fourths of Mozilla users are running Firefox 3.0, according to data released yesterday by Web metrics firm Net Applications Inc. During November, Firefox 2.0 accounted for 4.8% of all browsers used, while the newer Firefox 3.0 held a 15.6% market share.

Mozilla will repeat the original offer, which let users choose between accepting the update, postponi...

Comments: 0

Wed 03 Dec 2008, 1:48 pm by Doctor Inferno

Both Windows and Internet Explorer are losing market share.

The first of every month (like hourly stats? click here) brings Market Share NetApplication data which kinda/sorta gives us an idea of how different platforms and browsers are doing against one another. I say kinda because the data is based on visits to a group of websites, not any other sort of hard data.

Now that isn't some guy checking his blog's Google Analytics stats. It is a group of large websites that see 160 million viewers a month. Significant but not the be all and end all. The true value is in watching trends month over month.

This month was a bad one for Microsoft.

First, in the browser arena, Internet Explorer, which has been the dominant browser since 2004 when NetApplications started tracking data (over 91% in Q4 2004) is now set to go below the 70% of the market share. Who is taking up these viewers? By and large, it is Firefox who has just surpassed 20% marketshare for the first time. In 2004, it had 3.6%. Apple's Safari (6.8%) and newcomer Google ...

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Tue 02 Dec 2008, 11:58 am by Doctor Inferno

(Computerworld) If the definition of a personal supercomputer is that it is inexpensive, can sit on a desk and is at least within shouting distance of the Top500 systems list, new machines equipped with Nvidia Corp.'s Tesla graphics processor are among the first in that category.

At the SC08 conference in Austin last month, Nvidia and a group of systems vendors announced the release of Tesla-based desktop supercomputers. Nvidia's reference design includes four of the graphics chips, each with 240 cores. With a quad-core central processor, such a system would deliver almost 4 teraflops of performance and cost less than $9,995, Nvidia said. Dell Inc. is among the vendors building systems that incorporate Tesla chips. "This really is the supercomputer on your desk," CEO Michael Dell told conference attendees.

The development of such offerings has advanced, in part, because of the billions of dollars being spent to create systems for gamers.


More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&a...

Comments: 1

Wed 03 Dec 2008, 11:34 am by techy

Here is what you have to do;

PDC attendees got the Windows 7 pre-beta build, and Microsoft told them that a public beta would be available in early 2009. But you don't want to wait until then, right? You want Beta 1, right now. Well, I can't give you that, but I can tell you how you can get your hands on a physical copy of the Windows 7 Beta 1 DVD. You'll need $100 and a desire to visit one of the upcoming episodes of the MSDN Developer Conference (MDC). Here are the dates and locations you can register for:

* 12/9/08 - Houston, TX
* 12/11/08 - Orlando, FL
* 12/16/08 - Atlanta, GA
* 1/13/09 - Chicago, IL
* 1/13/09 - Minneapolis, MN
* 1/16/09 - Washington, DC
* 1/20/09 - New York, NY
* 1/22/09 - Boston, MA
* 1/22/09 - Detroit, MI
* 1/26/09 - Dallas, TX
* 2/19/09 - San Francisco, CA

All attendees will be getting a copy, though it's not clear whether Microsoft will be mailing them out or giving them in person (rumor has it that th...

Comments: 0

Wed 03 Dec 2008, 11:13 am by techy

Microsoft released


Windows Vista SP2 Beta is available for download for Technet and MSDN subscribers today and will be available for public download on Dec 4th. SP2 supports new types of hardware and emerging standards that will grow in importance in the coming months and years. Vista SP2 also improves the administration experience and eases certain management and support challenges. Windows Vista SP2 builds on the solid foundation laid by Windows Vista SP1.

Features inside Vista SP2;

Emerging Hardware Support

* SP2 contains Blue tooth 2.1 feature pack supporting the most recent specification for Blue tooth technology
* Ability to record data on Blu-Ray media,
* Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration to Windows Vista SP2,
* exFAT file system now supports UTC timestamps, which enables correct file synchronization across time zones.
* SP2 provides support for new form factors, such as ICCD/CCID.
* New form factor support –example USB form factor as ...

Comments: 0

Tue 02 Dec 2008, 11:59 am by Doctor Inferno

Posts biggest one-month drop in the past two years; Mac OS X gains ground

(Computerworld) Microsoft Corp.'s Windows OS last month took its biggest market share dive in the past two years, erasing gains made in two of the past three months and sending the operating system's share under 90% for the first time, an Internet measurement company reported today.

In November, 89.6% of users who connected to the Web sites that Net Applications Inc. monitors did so from systems powered by Windows, a drop of 0.84 of a percentage point from October. The decrease was the largest slip by Windows in the past two years and easily bested other recent down months, including May 2008 and December 2007, when Windows lost 0.51 and 0.63 percentage points, respectively.

Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, meanwhile, posted its biggest gain in the same two-year period, growing by 0.66 percentage point to end the month at 8.9%. November was the third month running that Apple's operating system remained above 8%.


More: http://www.computerworld.com/acti...

Comments: 2

Tue 02 Dec 2008, 12:00 pm by Doctor Inferno

(Techworld.com) A new analysis of botnets has come up with a possible reason for their prodigious ability to infect PCs: Many antivirus programs are near to useless in blocking the binaries used to spread them.

According to FireEye chief scientist Stuart Staniford, detection rates are so poor that, on average, only around 40% of security software can detect binaries during the period of greatest infectivity and danger, namely the first few days after a particular variant starts being used by botnet builders.

In a detailed blog, he describes how he uploaded a sample of 217 binaries culled from FireEye appliances in customer premises between September and November to the independent VirusTotal test Web site. This runs 36 antivirus programs -- a representative sample of the security programs used by businesses and individuals -- giving researchers access to data on getting statistics on how many malware binaries have already been uploaded to the site by other researchers, when they were uploaded and how many were detected by each program.

...

Comments: 0

Tue 02 Dec 2008, 11:58 am by Doctor Inferno

Rising unemployment also bodes ill for IE, says Net Applications

(Computerworld) The market share of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer dropped under the 70% mark last month for the first time since Web metrics vendor Net Applications Inc. started keeping tabs on browsers, the company said today.

IE slipped to a 69.8% share, down from October's 71.3% and off 7.6 percentage points in the past year.

Rival browsers from Mozilla Corp., Apple Inc. and Google Inc., meanwhile, cashed in on IE's slide and posted gains for the month, according to Net Applications' data, which is culled from visitors to the thousands of Web sites the company monitors for clients.

Mozilla's Firefox, which briefly popped above the 20% share bar during October, solidified that surge in November to end the month at 20.8%, an increase of 0.8 percentage points, the largest one-month increase since March 2007.

Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome also gained in October, with Safari accounting for 7.1% of users -- up 0.6 percentage points -- w...

Comments: 0

Mon 01 Dec 2008, 10:27 pm by Doctor Inferno

Universities, state officials push to broaden corporate access to high-performance systems


(Computerworld) President-elect Barack Obama will soon outline an economic stimulus plan that likely will include billions of dollars for infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges and new schools. Obama is also hearing calls for new funding to improve the information infrastructure and the virtual highways it runs on and to broaden access to high-performance computing (HPC) systems.

Thus far, the use of supercomputers to increase the industrial might of the U.S. has amounted to little more than an asterisk from a financial standpoint in both the federal budget and the economy as a whole. Market research firm IDC estimates that the public and private sectors spent a combined total of just over $10 billion on HPC systems last year.

To provide some perspective, consider this: Since September, the U.S. government has spent $150 billion to keep insurer American International Group Inc. afloat. Meanwhile, HPC resources are inaccessib...

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