The open-source Firefox browser updated for the second time in a week because of code changes that have unintentionally stopped some third-party extensions from functioning correctly.

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Smearing, also known as ghosting, is a problem in thin liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions because the tiny pixels that create the image take time to switch on and off. The problem, widely recognized as the main drawback of LCD TVs, is apparent in fast moving objects such as tennis balls, but even slower moving images get fuzzy around the edges.

Engineers at flat panel producers such as Samsung Electronics and LG.Philips LCD have tried to make faster pixels, but the improvements have not been sufficient to get rid of smearing.

But Philips, at a research event at its main lab in Eindhoven, showed a flat TV that takes the idea of a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) by switching the fluorescent backlight on and off at a rapid pace. It plans to launch a flat TV based on that principle in the first quarter of 2006, said Jeroen Menschaar, a Philips product manager who presented the technology.

While the pixels adjust their color, the backlight is off, and it will only switch on when the image is ready — three times brighter than in a normal LCD TV to compensate for the dark period — before going dark again. “The TV will be introduced at the top segment of Philips Consumer Electronics products,” Menschaar said.

Source: Washington Post

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – July 19, 2005 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), developer of the award-winning search engine, today announced that it will open a product research and development center in China, and has hired respected computer scientist and industry pioneer, Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, to lead the operation and serve as President of the company’s growing Chinese operations.

The Google China R&D center will open in the third quarter of 2005. China, with its thriving economy and excellent universities, is home to many outstanding computer scientists and engineers. By establishing an R&D center in China, Google is making a strong commitment to attracting and developing Chinese talent, as well as partnering with local universities and institutes. The selection of Dr. Kai-Fu Lee to lead this important operation underscores Google’s commitment to building a successful Chinese product research and development center and to expanding its international business operations.

Source: Google

Visa USA has dumped a card processing firm blamed for a security breach affecting anything up to 40m credit card numbers from MasterCard, Visa and other card issuers. Payment processor CardSystems Solutions admitted it wasn’t supposed to hold the compromised data, so it comes as no great surprise that Visa USA has stopped allowing it to process transactions on its behalf.

Source: The Register

Internet service providers face mounting pressure to keep their networks free of pests–not only for the benefit of their customers, but also for the good of the Internet in general.

In the next few months, ISPs in the United States will begin receiving reports on the zombies, or PCs open to control by hackers, that lurk on their networks. The data will be sent out by the Federal Trade Commission, which said in May that zombies have become such a serious problem that more industry action is required.

Given the growth of zombie-fed threats such as phishing, ISPs can no longer afford to leave the task of securing users’ PCs to the consumers themselves, critics say. But taking more responsibility to protect Internet traffic would mean monitoring activity on their networks more closely–a move that has implications for customer privacy and for their bottom line.

Source: ZDNet

Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates said Monday that there is a shortage of qualified computer science engineers for hire in the U.S., a problem that is reflective of the decline of interest in this course of study in this country.

Speaking at the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit on Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington, Gates said that while his company finds many suitable engineering candidates for employment in India and China, it has a harder time recruiting qualified individuals in the U.S

Source: infoworld.com

The Microsoft Security Response Center late Saturday released a security advisory to offer pre-patch workarounds for a denial-of-service flaw in Windows XP Service Pack 2.

The company’s advisory follows the public disclosure of the vulnerability in Remote Desktop Services, a feature that allows XP users to remotely control computers from another office, from home or while traveling.

Source: eWeek