Here’s what’s up in the tech world of late. Lots of interesting stuff. Good and not so good.
Wal-Mart is taking orders for the new Gameboy. Apparently the Nintendo DS will cost $200 and arrives November 30.
There’s another significant security flaw in Windows that could allow a worm to be hidden inside a JPEG image. The bug is in GDI+ so any application written in Visual Studio or using the .net framework is vulnerable. Microsoft rates this as a critical vulnerability because a hacker could use it to infect your computer without any action on your part. The company has released a fix for Windows via Windows Update, but you’ll have to update Office and other applications individually. In addition there’s a scanner available that will pinpoint other vulnerable applications.
And, another reason to run Windows Update: the new sdbot or spybot worm uses the same flaws as Sasser and MSBlast to sneak a password stealing program on your computer without user intervention. Updated systems and those behind firewalls are not vulnerable.
And this is really comforting I can tell you: A former credit card help desk employee has plead guilty to selling 30,000 credit card numbers, causing $2.7 million in losses. He faces 14 years in prison and a one million dollar fine.
The British Consumers’ Association is complaining to the government that Apple’s iTunes Music Store is a ripoff. It costs UK customers about 11 pence more to buy songs than their European cousins (79p vs 120 Euro cents). Apple says blame the British music industry. I blame society.
Slashdot notes that Firefox is gaining on Internet Explorer. According to the latest info, only 57% of their users are using IE.Less than 2 years ago, IE had a 95% lock on the market. Where is my favorite browser of choice, Safari? 11.5%. Not bad considering Firefox works on both Mac and Windows. So that means that 11.5% of the visitors are using a Mac and not only that, a Mac running OSX. Cool.
Lastly, the high tech sector lost 403,300 jobs in the past three years, and according to researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago the market remains bleak. Neat. Glad I don’t work in the tech sector. Oh, wait. . . . Crap.
Later.
