Microsoft on Tuesday announced a royalty-free licensing program so that outside developers can apply the Office 2007 interface to their own applications.

The license, which can be applied to applications on any platform, Linux and Mac OS X included, gives developers the right to duplicate Office 2007’s new interface elements, including the top-of-the-window Ribbon, the Mini Toolbar, and galleries. The license is perpetual, and no fees will be charged, Microsoft promised.

Source: InformationWeek

MySQL, the supplier of the open source database with the same name, this week started shipping a new enterprise version of its MySQL Server 5.0 database that eases the workload of database administrators. The new version comes with an expert advisory service built in, as well as monitoring information and problem-identifying alerts offered on a dashboard.

The dashboard system has operational intelligence built into it that can detect trouble signs in a database’s operation. It can also be customized by administrators with up to 65 rules for monitoring monitoring running systems, says Zack Urlocker, MySQL executive VP for products.

Source: InformationWeek

AMD has been accused of patent infringement for the second time in less than a month. Having found itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit from intellectual property holder Opti earlier this month, AMD was this week threatened by MicroUnity Systems Engineering.

MicroUnity claims a whole heap of AMD CPUs, new and old, which support 3DNow! and provide compatibilty with Intel’s SSE technology infringe upon a dozen of its patents. The lawsuit filed with the US District Court for Eastern Texas even lists AMD processors that have yet to come to market.

Source: Reg Hardware

Mozilla’s Firefox 2 and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 are vulnerable to a flaw that could allow attackers to steal passwords.

Dubbed a reverse cross-site request, or RCSR, vulnerability by its discoverer, Robert Chapin, the flaw lets hackers compromise users’ passwords and usernames by presenting them with a fake login form. Firefox Password Manager will automatically enter any saved passwords and usernames into the form.

The data is then automatically sent to an attacker’s computer without the user’s knowledge, according to the Chapin Information Services site.

An exploit for this flaw has already been seen on social-networking site MySpace.com, and it could affect anyone using a blog or forum that allows user-generated HTML code to be added, according to Chapin.

“Users of both Firefox and Internet Explorer need to be aware that their information can be stolen in this way when visiting blog and forum Web sites at trusted addresses,” Chapin said.

Source: News.com

The PC manufacturer is in France this week showing off a prototype of a laptop that folds down into the size and shape of a CD case. Whether or not the company moves forward to develop and market the purse-sized laptop largely will depend on the reaction it receives at the International Industrial Design Fair, according to Sean Nemoto, a spokesman for Fujitsu.

The prototype, called the Ultra Mobile PC, is the size of a CD case when it’s folded up. Then the user flips open an 8-inch display screen, just like he or she would on a normal laptop. But at this stage, the keyboard still is hidden. The user then flips open the keyboard, lifting it from left to right to open it up. When it’s open, the keyboard will be about 16 inches wide, said Nemoto, who added that designers have been working on this for about a year.

Source: InformationWeek