Here are some interesting links from today:

• Windows 7 Build 7000 First Look
  The last few days have been spent tinkering with the latest build of Windows 7. With a build number of 7000, this is meant to be the public release version that is due to be given out early January 2009 as Beta 1. This gives a good indication of the progress that Microsoft is making with the development of their next-gen operating system.
• Uproar in Australia Over Plan to Block Web Sites
  A proposed Internet filter dubbed the ”Great Aussie Firewall” is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government — mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.

Here are some interesting links from today:

• Firefox Tops Business Security Risk List
  The list this year expanded to include 12 applications, up from 10 last year, due to the increase in vulnerabilities and the popularity of applications such as Skype and Yahoo! Assistant that are often used by employees within an enterprise.

  Five of the top 12 applications with known vulnerabilities include:

  - Mozilla Firefox, versions 2.x and 3.x
  - Adobe Acrobat, versions 8.1.2 and 8.1.1
  - Microsoft Windows Live (MSN) Messenger, versions 4.7 and 5.1
  - Apple iTunes, versions 3.2 and 3.1.2
  - Skype, version 3.5.0.248

• YouTube Finally Embraces HD
  YouTube has just launched a new portion of its site dedicated to HD content, allowing users to easily browse through what is now the largest archive of high definition content on the web. The move has been a long time coming – in the last few weeks the site has been gradually building up to a large scale HD launch with the introduction of a 16:9 video player and the ability to watch HD on selected videos, but until this point it has been difficult to separate the HD content from videos encoded at YouTube’s normal resolution.

Here are some interesting links from the past couple days:

• Mumbai Terrorists Watch World React With Horror Using BlackBerrys
  The terrorists in Mumbai might have committed inhuman acts, but in at least one way, they are just like you and me. When authorities cut the cable feeds to the hotels where the terrorists held over 200 hostages, they relied on another piece technology to monitor the police response and the world's reaction to the attacks: BlackBerrys. Commandos were not only surprised to find the devices in the terrorists' rucksacks, but that they used the internet to look beyond local Indian media for information, watching the global reaction in real-time as well.
• Windows Live Rolls Out Changes, Boosts SkyDrive/Photo Storage to 25 GB
  The new home page shows both your email and an activity stream of what your contacts are doing across the Web. It’s more FriendFeed than Facebook, with a little MyYahoo thrown in. You can also customize it to show the local weather, your calendar, and news headlines. A handful of recent your photos are displayed at the top, along with a search box and links to other Live services (Profile, People, Mail, Photos, Events, Spaces, Groups, SkyDrive, and even MSN). Hopefully, Google is watching and will increase Picasa Web Albums to something a bit more useful than it's current 1GB.

Here’s some info on the new Chrysler “wanna be geek” package:

• Chrysler’s Web Edition vehicle package
  At the San Francisco Auto Show this week, the automaker is set to showcase a "Web Edition" package, which would theoretically be available as a dealer-installed option for most Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge vehicles. The bundle would include an Autonet Mobile router (branded as Uconnect Web), a Dell Mini 9, 8GB iPod touch, Sony PSP and an Eye-Fi WiFi SD card; couple that with one year of internet service and you've got everything that makes up the $1,999 asking price.
• Chrysler unveils ‘Web Edition’ cars
  It's not so much a car but an option package comprising a bunch of tech toys all tied to the Net by an Autonet Mobile router branded as Chrysler uConnect Web. The gear includes a Dell Mini 9 Netbook, an 8GB iPod Touch, a Sony PSP, and a digital camera with an Eye-Fi Wi-Fi SD card. All in, $1,999 including a year of service.

• Microsoft to Offer Free Anti-malware Software with Windows
  It's specifically designed to require few computing and connection resources to work with older machines and limited bandwidth in an effort to protect new users on inexpensive computers around the world. The company has also announced plans to end the Windows Live OneCare paid subscription security service.
• Yang Steps Down As Yahoo CEO, Search For Successor Begins
  This was an unavoidable event, and in our opinion Yang took too long to step down. In May it was clear that Yang’s heart was no longer in it, and he reconfirmed that last month at the Web 2.0 Summit. Under his watch the company has lost tens of billions of dollars in market cap and thousands of former Yahoo employees (and hundreds of execs) are now gone.

• Google phone to cost $179, debut Oct. 22
  The first phone that harnesses Google Inc.’s ambition to make the Internet easy to use on the go was revealed Tuesday, and it looks a lot like an iPhone. T-Mobile USA showed off the G1, a phone that, like Apple Inc.’s iPhone, has a large touch screen. But it also packs a trackball, a slide-out keyboard and easy access to Google’s e-mail and mapping programs.
• On the Palin e-mail hacker trail
  Keeping you up to date on the privacy invasion that the privacy absolutists don’t want to talk about, here’s the latest on the Sarah Palin e-mail hacker case – A grand jury in Chattanooga could hear testimony this week into the break-in:
• Verizon Offers Contract-Free Wireless Service
  Have a fear of commitment but want to reap the benefits of the Verizon Network anyway? Take comfort, Verizon announced today that beginning immediately wireless customers can sign up for month-to-month service, without a contract.  The new Month-to-Month agreement will allow consumers to purchase new handsets at full-retail price (or use their own CDMA devices) without the commitment of a one- or two-year contract. Additionally they can terminate their agreement at the end of any month without paying an Early Termination Fee.

The lastest Firefox news:

• Web apps faster with Firefox 3.1
  Firefox 3.1 will run many Web-based applications such as Gmail faster through incorporation of a feature called TraceMonkey that dramatically speeds up programs written in JavaScript, Mozilla said Friday. JavaScript has been very broadly used to add pizzazz or flexibility to Web pages over the years, but in recent years, it’s also become the plumbing for many rich Internet applications. However, because JavaScript has been hobbled by pokey performance, Web-based applications often struggled to work as responsively as “native” software running directly on PCs
• Useful Firefox 3 Configuration Tweaks
  Firefox keeps its advanced settings in a giant configuration file in your Firefox directory, and even offers an advanced interface to edit that file in the browser itself. To make these changes, type about:config in Firefox’s address bar. You’ll get a half-joking, half-serious message about voiding Firefox’s warranty if you change any settings. Press the “I’ll be careful. I promise!” button (because you will be) and you’ll be on your way.
• How to Skip the Installation Delay for Firefox Extensions
  As you may know, Firefox tries to protect you from malicious attacks by setting up a delay before allowing you to install a new extension. But if you’re confident in your browsing habits and you want to avoid the wait, just enter about:config in your address bar, then paste security.dialog_enable_delay into the filter box. Double-click that preference and change the value to 0.

• How I became a soldier in the Georgia-Russia cyberwar.
  After making sure that I wasn’t downloading a virus, I installed DoSHTTP and started playing around with it. Along with offering customizable options to advanced users, there was also a nice option for beginners like me. After entering a URL, I could initiate an attack by clicking something that said “Start Flood.” A flood did follow—war at the touch of a button.
• Dropped calls plague iPhone 3G, and not just in U.S.
  If you’re having problems with dropped calls on your new 3G Apple iPhone, you’re not alone.
  From New York to Stockholm, 3G iPhone owners are complaining loudly about connection failures – sometimes repeatedly – during calls. The problem typically occurs when the device attempts to move from 3G to another network.

• Behind NBC’s Olympics Website
  Four years ago there was just a few dozen hours of video up on the site. Thousands of machines are needed to encode and serve the video and the site. Interesting conversation, hope you enjoy a little look behind one of the people who worked behind the scenes for months on this site.
• 6 Reasons Today’s Olympic Swimmers are Breaking so many World Records
  For some reason every swim event in this Olympics is a record smasher. And it isn’t just Michael Phelps who’s seconds ahead of that daunting green world record line. Curious what’s making this year’s athletes so much faster? Here are 6 possible answers.
• Moving Beyond Passwords For Security
  The solution urged by the experts is to abandon passwords — and to move to a fundamentally different model, one in which humans play little or no part in logging on. Instead, machines have a cryptographically encoded conversation to establish both partie

• Security pros completely bypass Vista’s now “useless” security
  About all those fancy security measures Microsoft put into Windows Vista… well, they’re now pretty much useless, according to security experts from IBM and VMware presenting a new attack methodology at this week’s Black Hat security conference.
• Reporters booted from conference for hacking
  With thousands of hackers milling around the Black Hat convention here, and widespread snooping on the public Wi-Fi network, one place was supposed to be off limits: the press room.
• Moving Beyond Passwords For Security
  The solution urged by the experts is to abandon passwords — and to move to a fundamentally different model, one in which humans play little or no part in logging on. Instead, machines have a cryptographically encoded conversation to establish both partie