Windows users are being urged to install Microsoft’s February security update which contains 12 patches for 20 vulnerabilities
Half of the patches in the update have been rated as critical; criminals exploiting these could take over a PC.
Loopholes in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer and Microsoft’s Malware Protection Engine are closed by the updates in the patch. Versions of these programs used on Windows 2000 and XP could have these loopholes.
Some of the loopholes, particularly those in Word, have been actively exploited by malicious hackers for several weeks.
None of the patches affected Vista – the newest version of the Windows operating system which was released on 30 January.
Webcams Used in Isreal
Israel has installed Internet cameras near an archaeological excavation close to a Jerusalem shrine that had sparked Muslim protests
Designed to show the work does not harm the holy site.
Streaming video of several angles of the dig site can be seen
Israel’s Antiquities Authority’s Web site (http://www.antiquities.org.il)
The dig is meant to clear the way for the construction of a walkway to the complex known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount.
Officials say the archaeological work is likely to take at least eight months to complete.
Trends and the Internet
The Internet has evolved and that has implications on what is worth learning
Tim O’Rielly called the “new” Internet Web 2.0 in 2004
Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users.
Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.
Web 2.0 applications take advantage of the collective input of users
Enabling technologies
Enabling programming technology is Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) which permit the reloading of only part of the page
Formatting standards for delivered content
Caacading syle sheets for formatting CSS
Semantically valid XHTML markup
Syndication and aggregation of data in RSS/Atom
Extensive use of folksonomies (in the form of tags or tagclouds
Use of wiki software either completely or partiall (where partial use may
Weblog publishing
Mashups for combining datasets or applications
Some examples of websites
http://www.wikepedia.org
Blogs (http://www.blogger.com/)
Videos (http://www.youtube.com/
Tagged Blogs (http://technorati.com/)
Tagged Links (http://del.ico.us)
Tagged Photos (http://www.flickr.com)
Tagged Events (http://upcoming.org)
Social Networks (www.facebook.com and www.myspace.com)
Google (Gmail, Calendar, Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Maps)
Syndication of content and Podcasts
This has even impacted politics (Howard Dean was the first to capitalize on it)
Enabling Technology for Integrated Circuits
Intel, IBM Overhaul Material for Next-Generation Microprocessor
Both companies modify transistor materials to make smaller, faster, more energy-efficient processors.
Historically, the performance of microprocessors has doubled every two years, following a trend known as Moore’s Law.
Performance has increased thanks to chip fabrication technology that has let transistors shrink with each generation.
Currently, most computer and server microprocessors are made using what is known as a 65-nanometer process.
The next generation of transistors will be made smaller using a 45-nanometer process.
One of the material changes will be in an important transistor component called the gate dielectric.
IBM and Intel found that a material called high-k produces the same benefits of silicon dioxide, but it can do so in a thicker layer.
The material is based on the element hafnium,
In order to make the gate compatible with the new gate dielectric, Intel and IBM replaced polysilicon gate with a metal gate.
Intel says that its new gate dielectric and metal gate allow transistors to be driven with 20 percent more current than before, which translates into a 20 percent increase in performance, says Mark Bohr, Intel senior fellow. "We think this is an important breakthrough that will really extend Moore’s Law."