A while ago, Microsoft stopped updating IE for Mac, freezing it at version 5. But according to this Microsoft webpage, all support will cease December 31, 2005, and any official distribution with cease January 31, 2006. Also, the webpage suggests ‘that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple’s Safari.’

Source: Slashdot

Digital video recording pioneer ReplayTV plans to announce on Monday it will start selling software to allow personal computers to tune in and record live television next year in a deal with Hauppauge Digital’s Hauppauge Computer Works.

Hauppauge’s WinTV-PVR tuner-encoder card, which lets PCs tune in and record live television, will be sold with ReplayTV software starting next year in North America.

A company spokeswoman said ReplayTV will complete its transformation from a hardware manufacturer to a DVR software and services provider with the sale of all remaining 5500 Series DVR models, probably by the end of 2005.

Source: Reuters

White Wolf Publishing Inc., a company responsible for some of the most popular role-playing game brands, has shut down operations after international hackers exploited a software flaw and stole user data that included user names, e-mail addresses and encrypted passwords.

Following the breach, the company, based in Stone Mountain, Ga., said the hackers attempted to extort money by threatening to post the potentially sensitive user data on the Internet.

“We have no intention of paying this money, and are in contact with the FBI in an attempt to bring these criminals to justice,” White Wolf said in a notice posted online.

“As far as we can ascertain, they were unable to access any credit card data (nor have they claimed they did). However, it is possible for the encrypted passwords they accessed to be decrypted given enough time,” the company said.

White Wolf recommended that users and fans that may have used the same user name and password for other Internet services change those passwords immediately.

Source: eWeek

That rarest of all things in the acrimonious disputes between copyright holders and technology developers emerged Thursday: an apology.

Last week, music publishers Warner/Chappell Music sent a threatening letter to independent Austrian programmer Walter Ritter, complaining about a free piece of software he’d developed that scoured Web sites for song lyrics and imported them into Apple Computer’s iTunes software.

Ritter immediately pulled his software, called PearLyrics, offline. But after an outcry on the Web, Richard Blackstone, Warner/Chapell’s chief executive officer, called the programmer, apologizing for the letter and offering the chance to work together.

Source: News.com

If you ever tried to troubleshoot TCP/IP problems on Windows, you probably know the handy Netstat utility, which lists which applications is listening on which TCP or UDP port.

Service pack 2 introduced a new option to Netstat. The new -b parameter Displays the executable involved in creating each connection or listening port. In some cases well-known executables host multiple independent components, and in these cases the sequence of components involved in creating the connection or listening port is displayed.

Armed with this handy information you can use the Tasklist /SVC to display the list of service in each process, and cross reference the file name and the PID obtained from the Netstat –b to identify which services are currently using what ports.

A Dutch consumer media company is hoping it can tap the power of the VIC 20, the PET and the Commodore 64 to launch a new wave of products, including a home media center device and a portable GPS unit and media player.

Yeahronimo Media Ventures, which has offices in Los Angeles and Baarn, the Netherlands, acquired the rights to the Commodore name late last year in a deal worth just over $32.7 million. Earlier this year, it took on Commodore as its own corporate moniker. The rebranded company already has some products available on its Web site, but hopes to make a bigger splash at the Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

Source: News.com

Microsoft is expected to enter the new year facing a number of hurdles–but the chief one will be to position Windows Vista as an enterprise product.

Analyst firm Directions on Microsoft, which last week published its list of Microsoft’s top 10 challenges for 2006, cited the marketing of Windows Vista as its top concern.

“Windows Vista could offer large organizations improvements in software development, security, reliability, systems management and user interface,” according to the report. “However, public demonstrations have been full of cool graphics effects and consumer features that probably turn off more IT staff than they attract.”

Source: TechRepublic

Symantec was granted US patent number 6 971 019 for histogram-based malicious code detection technology that accelerates the detection of complex threats and security risks, including viruses, worms, Trojan horses, blended threats, spyware and adware.

Histogram-based malicious code detection is a fundamental anti-virus technology employed throughout Symantec’s portfolio of anti-virus solutions at the desktop, server and gateway, to protect both consumers and enterprises.

Source: malwarehelp.org