Google adds a new referral program to AdSense. Referrals is a feature of AdSense that allows website publishers to increase their revenue while increasing their users’ awareness of products and services offered by Google. By adding a referral button to a site, publishers can direct users to products like AdSense and Firefox with Google Toolbar. When a referral connects a user to AdSense or Firefox, Google pays the publisher.

Google referral a program allows you to choose from 11 ads that refers to AdSense program or to Firefox browser.

A vulnerability was reported in F-Prot Antivirus. A remote user can send malicious content that will bypass the scanning engine.

The F-prot scanning engine does not properly decompress ZIP files that have a version header value greater then 15. As a result, content within the affected ZIP files will not be scanned and will be determined to be free of malicious content.

Source: securitytracker.com

Microsoft and the British Library have come together to make 100,000 of the institution’s titles available online. The deal covers some 25 million pages which will be made available as part of Microsoft’s book search service, next year.

This is the software giant’s second foray into digital archiving: it is already working with the Open Content Alliance to make 150,000 titles available online, and the BBC reports that the company is already planning to extend its work with the British Library.

Source: The Register

A 20-year-old man was arrested Thursday on charges of infecting almost 400,000 computers operated by the U.S. military and others with viruses that helped launched electronic attacks and send spam e-mails.

James Ancheta of Downey allegedly spread malicious computer code as a way to assemble “armies of computers” under his control, said Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Aquilina.

He then sold access to infected computers, known as “botnets,” to hackers and spammers as well as downloaded adware programs onto them to profit from the placements.

Prosecutors say his programs were powerful enough to infect computers operated by the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake and the Defense Information Systems Agency, part of the Defense Department.

Source: AP

Online family trees in Sweden may be illegal, according to the Swedish Board of Data Inspection (DI). The DI last week sent a letter to the Federation of Swedish Genealogical Societies, demanding certain data be removed from their web site immediately.

The website contains several forum sections headed ‘Crime and punishment’ and ‘Ethnic groups’, which refer to Jewish, Romany and Sami ancestors. The DI says that other than state authorities it is prohibited to exchange information about individuals relating to crime and punishment, even in a closed forum. And if the data being shared refer to the race or ethnic origin of a person in the 18th century, all living descendants in Sweden must give their consent before any information is made public.

Source: The Register

Today Santa Cruz Networks launched a Festoon update enabling Google Talk users to see who they are talking to. Continuing its popular video plug-in for Skype with more than 2.75 million downloads, Festoon allows Google Talk users to talk to and see each other, share applications, and engage in immersive video experiences. Whether one-to-one or in large groups of up to 200, face-to-face communication.

Festoon is available at http://www.festooninc.com for no charge thanks to sponsors. Festoon works on any Windows 2000/XP PC with a 800 Mhz processor or greater running Google Talk.

If you play “Project Gotham Racing 3″ on an Xbox 360 after the console hits stores later this month, Microsoft invites you to use tunes straight off your iPod as an alternative to the game’s sound track.

Officially, the company says the new console can stream music from just about any MP3 player. But during a preview of the next-generation console in San Francisco last month, Microsoft execs talked up the interoperability between iPods and the Xbox 360.

“When you plug your iPod in,” Xbox digital-entertainment executive producer Jeff Henshaw told CNET News.com, “the Xbox 360 automatically detects that it’s there. You can browse by artist or album or genre or by custom playlist.”

However, because of the iPod’s digital-rights-management software, the Xbox 360 cannot stream songs purchased from Apple’s iTunes Music Store, Henshaw said.

There’s a reason for that: Microsoft built its iPod connection without the support of the folks at Apple.

Source: News.com