Microsoft has patched a flaw in its Xbox 360 Web site that researchers say could have opened the door to a phishing attack.

Security company Finjan Software said that it notified the software maker of the issue last week and that Microsoft patched its site within 12 hours. The flaw was what is known as a cross-site scripting vulnerability, which could have been exploited by hackers to gather credit card data and other personal information from people looking to get more information about the new game console.

Source: News.com

US Patent & Trademark Office recently issued a patent to Iomega Corp. for its work with nano-technology and optical data storage. New technology, called Articulated Optical - DVD will allow 40-100 times more data (upto 850 Gb) to be stored on a DVD with data transfer rates 5-30 times faster than today’s DVDs, and at similarly low costs.

Source: Slashdot

Having braved the open source faithful at LinuxWorld, Microsoft is turning its attention to Java, with plans for a formal presence at JavaOne next month.

Microsoft’s appearance at Sun Microsystems’ annual Java jamboree in San Francisco will be the first since the companies settled their differences and agreed to work on interoperability between products and technologies last year.

This time around, Microsoft is forking over $20,000 in sponsorship for a 15ft by 15ft show-floor booth, with plans for a joint keynote with Sun on interoperability between Java and .NET that is followed by a series of breakout sessions.

Source: The Register

Spymac Network, Inc., the world’s largest community of Mac users, today announced a new affiliate partnership with Skype Technologies S.A., the Global Internet Telephony Company(TM). Spymac will make it easy to find and connect with Skype for Mac OS X users around the globe through its upcoming Web Operating System v4, which the company today announced will be released on August 31, 2005.

“Spymac is thrilled to harness the power of Skype’s free telephony by integrating it directly into our diverse community of Mac users,” said Kevin April, CTO. “Our members are spread throughout more than 130 countries, and soon they will be able talk, instant message, transfer files, even hold conference calls free of charge. Truly, Skype for Mac OS X should be in every Mac user’s dock, and this new relationship is a huge step towards that goal.”

Skype, with its approximately 40 million users, released Skype for Mac OS X in August of last year. The company’s mission is to provide a simple, feature-rich, reliable and friendly communications tool that just works.

Google released Google Desktop Search in new languages.
The new supported languages are: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Japanese and Korean.

Peer-to-peer developer Bram Cohen earned himself a place in Internet history with the creation of the BitTorrent file-swapping program.

But his open-source software, now one of the most widely used means of legally and illegally downloading files such as movies or software, has barely helped him earn a living.

Now the programmer is aiming to turn his donation-supported work into a steadier business, with a San Francisco-area start-up devoted to BitTorrent products. The first product, to be released in the next few days, will be an advertising-supported search engine that scours the Web for links to BitTorrent files.

Source: News.com