Yahoo Inc. has launched an online video tool that promotes the San Francisco International Film Festival by letting people mix snippets of film entries to create their own movies.

The video re-mixer was developed by Yahoo Research, Berkeley, Calif., in partnership with the San Francisco Film Society and San Francisco State University Institute for Next Generation Internet.

Source: InformationWeek

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales used strikingly graphic language Thursday to focus attention on online child pornography and said Internet services companies are not doing enough to combat the problem.

“It is graphic, but if we do not talk candidly, then it is easy for people to turn away and worry about other matters,” Gonzales said in a speech at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.

Acknowledging that his descriptions could make people uncomfortable, Gonzales said he wanted to make sure people knew what was going on.

Source: AP

eBay is reportedly in talks with both Yahoo and Microsoft on how they can work together to counter the threat from Google.

According to an article in Friday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal, the San Jose, California-based online auction giant began separate talks late last year with both companies on how they could cooperate with one another to fend off competitive threats from the search engine company.

Source: redherring

By now everybody know about Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage program that validate the authenticity of your windows installation.

Since its pilot in 09/2004 and the official launch in 7/2005, WGA produced 151M successful validations world wide and 35M installations failed to validate which is approximately 19% of WGA installations, according to Microsoft.

Windows Genuine Advantage currently supports 29 languages.

Microsoft is stepping up the effort to enforce users to buy a legal copy of Windows XP, before the anticipated launch of the next generation of the Windows operating system, Windows Vista, due in January 2007.

Related: Why Microsoft Introduced WGA Now

After applying the patch from security bulletin MS06-016, dozens of users say their Outlook Express E-mail client’s address book disappeared and form-style messages couldn’t be sent.

A Microsoft spokesman acknowledged that the company was looking into the problem, but wouldn’t go into specifics.

“Microsoft is investigating reports that some customers who deployed security update MS06-016 may be experiencing issues with certain functions in Outlook Express,” he said. “Upon completion of the investigation Microsoft will provide customer guidance as necessary.”

Source: InformationWeek

Apple today announced an expansion of its successful recycling program, offering free computer take-back and recycling with the purchase of a new Macintosh system beginning in June. US customers who buy a new Mac through the Apple Store or Apple’s retail stores will receive free shipping and environmentally friendly disposal of their old computer as part of the Apple Recycling program.

Equipment received by the program in the US is recycled domestically and no hazardous material is shipped overseas. Earlier this week, Apple was named a “Forward Green Leader,” one of the top ten environmentally progressive companies recognized by the Sierra Club and its investment advisor, Forward Management.

Apple also announced that the fifth generation iPod, iPod nano and iPod shuffle are 100 percent compliant with the upcoming restrictions of hazardous substances (RoHS) in California and Europe, which are recognized as the new global standard for environmental regulation.

Attack code that takes advantage of a flaw in Oracle’s database software has been released on the Web, raising the urgency to patch.

The exploit code was published Wednesday, only a day after Oracle released its quarterly Critical Patch Update, security provider Symantec said in an alert to users of its DeepSight intelligence service.

Source: News.com

Tom Ferris from security-protocols has reported some potential vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service) and potentially compromise a user’s system.

The vulnerabilities exists in the way Mac OS X and the Safari browser handles zip and images files. Visiting a web site with a crafted malformed image (bmp, tiff, gif) file can potentially compromise a user’s system.

The vulnerabilities have been reported in version 10.4.6. Other versions may also be affected. Security web site Secunia rated these vulnerabilities as Highly critical and recommends not to visit untrusted web sites, and not to open ZIP archives or images originating from untrusted sources.

Google is changing the name of its local search and mapping site to Google Maps from Google Local. The search giant merged the two sites last year under the name Google Local. But the company decided to rename it Google Maps to avoid confusion because so many people were still referring to it by that name, said John Hanke, director of Local, Earth and Maps at Google.

Source: News.com

Panasonic this week said it will ship an internal Blu-ray Disc writer in June, but like the similarly spec’d models announced by IO Data, the LF-MB121JD isn’t going to going to come cheap.

The Panasonic unit will read BD, DVD and CD media, and be capable of writing BD-R, BD-RE, DVD±R/RW (single- and dual-layer), DVD-RAM and CD-R/RW discs too. The drive can cope with 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray media, but while it will undoubtedly read DVD-ROM discs, you won’t be able to play BD movies unless you have suitable software, Panasonic warned.

Source: The Register

Several Apple resellers are marketing Intel-based Mac desktops and portables with Windows XP pre-installed, but Apple Computer Inc. reiterated that it has no intention of following their lead.

The resellers, which include a small Utah-based company and a major California computer online warehouse, are bundling
Windows XP with standard
Macintosh models, and pre-installing the Microsoft operating system using the Boot Camp dual-boot application that Apple released earlier this month.

ExperCom is touting a $2,029 MacBook Pro with Windows XP Home pre-loaded; the price is just $35 above the Apple price for the portable. Meanwhile, ClubMac.com, MacMall.com, and OnSale.com — all three part of Torrance, Calif.-based PC Mall — list MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini machines with XP Home or XP Professional installed. Windows XP Home bumps up the usual price of the computer by $100, while XP Professional costs an additional $150.

Source: TechWeb

A 25-year-old man has been charged with hacking into the University of Southern California’s computer system and accessing information about student applicants.

A criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday charges Eric McCarty of San Diego with transmitting a code or command to intentionally damage the school’s Internet student application system, federal authorities said.

He could face up to 10 years in prison.

Source: AP