Sean Michael Kerner

Microsoft launched the latest version of its MSN Messenger client, version 7.0, which boasts a long list of new features including full screen video calls, VoIP and shared search functionality. Microsoft also updated its MSN Spaces blogging service, which it claims is one of the fastest growing blogging communities on the planet. The new MSN […]

The IMlogic Threat Center has reported a sharp increase in attacks affecting a popular means of communication, and it says the increase won’t abate anytime soon. In its Q1 2005 IM Security Threat Report, IMlogic found a 271 percent year-over-year increase in new threats on IM and P2P networks and applications, with 78 unique blended […]

A new version of the ObjectRelationalBridge (OJB) project that operates under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) was officially released today. The OJB is a subproject of the Apache DB project, whose mandate is to create and maintain commercial-quality, open source-licensed database solutions based on ASF-licensed software. According to the ASF’s OJB Web […]

In 2005, research firm IDC expects that 3 million Americans will subscribe to residential VoIP services. By 2009, the number of subscribers is forecast to balloon to 27 million. IDC notes that even though the VoIP market is already crowded with next-generation carriers like Vonage, as well as traditional carriers like AT&T, cable vendors will […]

Russian security researcher going by the alias Azafran has discovered a flaw in Mozilla Suite and Firefox Web browsers that could potentially put users at risk from the disclosure of arbitrary heap memory. The JavaScript Lambda Replace Heap Memory Disclosure Vulnerability exists in how the ‘replace()’ function handles lambda expressions. An attacker could exploit the […]

Yahoo today expanded its FareChase travel search engine to include search for hotels. The hotel component of FareChase searches multiple online travel agencies and hotel sites to provide results to users. They can then refine their searches by various cities (i.e. location, amenities, and price) and also look through maps and user reviews and ratings. […]

IBM announced an enhanced product information management software bundle this week that integrates product, commerce and portal functionality to help companies get to market quicker. Some of the underlying technology behind WebSphere Product Center was acquired last year by IBM when it bought middleware vendor Trigo. IBM WebSphere Product Center version 5.2, which is comprised […]

E-mail security vendors agreed to disagree on the outlook for the security appliance market while collectively taking aim at Microsoft’s looming entry into the anti-virus space. During a research call hosted by the Radicati Group this week, representatives from McAfee, Postini, IronPort and Mirapoint, as well as Radicati analysts, bantered the pros and cons of […]

The Gentoo Linux “meta distribution” has released its first snapshot release of the year, version 2005.0. Gentoo considers itself to be a “meta distribution,” which means it allows users to pull packages that will provide a customized distribution. The Gentoo Portage system has a tree of over 6,000 packages that are used to build a […]

The Autopackage framework hit version 1.0 over the weekend, raising hopes that it may eventually change the Linux binary packaging landscape. So far however, no major Linux distribution has adopted the multi-distribution packaging framework. With this release, the target is actually developers, rather than distributions, project officials said. Applications for Linux are traditionally installed by […]

Windows is to Linux as Shared is to Open, right? If you’re Jason Matusow, the director of Microsoft’s Shared Source initiative, it’s much more than complicated that. And becoming even more so. In April of 2004, Microsoft’s “change from within” began when it released the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset to SourceForge, the largest repository […]

Research firm IDC said on Friday that the year’s PC shipments wouldn’t meet expectations. According to the IDC March Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker report, PC shipments in 2005 will grow by 9.7 percent, and the market won’t see the 10.1 percent growth that had been previously forecast. The new 2005 forecast marks a sharp decline […]