Microsoft and Zend Technologies Announce Technical Collaboration to Improve Interoperability of PHP on the Windows Server Platform

Microsoft Corp. and Zend Technologies Inc. today announced a technical collaboration to enhance the experience of running the PHP scripting language on Windows Server® 2003. The parties expect to extend the collaboration to the next version of Windows Server, code-named “Longhorn.” The resulting technology enhancements and ongoing interaction with the PHP community is expected to enable customers to take advantage of the Windows Server platform. The cooperative effort seeks to provide customers with richer functionality and better integration, resulting in improved performance and increased reliability.

The technology engagement between the two companies will include the following:

• Technical improvements for PHP deploying on the Windows Server platform will be submitted under the PHP license to the PHP community for feedback and contribution.

• Microsoft plans to develop and release an Internet Information Services (IIS) add-on component, FastCGI, that will serve as the interface between PHP and the IIS Web server. Microsoft expects that this FastCGI component will be made freely available from Microsoft on http://www.iis.net for users of Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista™ and Windows Server “Longhorn.”

• Zend will establish a Windows testing lab and conduct regular tests and performance improvements to maintain high performance of PHP on the Windows Server platform as PHP evolves.

• Microsoft and Zend will work to help ensure a production-quality PHP runtime environment for IIS 5.1 (Windows XP), IIS 6.0 (Windows Server 2003) and IIS 7.0 (Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn”).

• Zend and Microsoft will actively participate in the PHP community, ensuring open discussion to help developers planning to deploy PHP applications on the Windows Server platform.


“Interoperability continues to be an important requirement for our customers, particularly when it comes to open source applications that run on Windows. This announcement today continues our commitment to making it easier for partners and developers — regardless of the development model they employ — to take advantage of increased reliability of the Microsoft Windows Server platform,” said Bill Hilf, general manager of Technical Platform Strategy at Microsoft. “Zend is a clear leader in the PHP community, and we are excited to be working with it on this joint collaboration effort designed to provide developers using PHP with the best possible experience within a Microsoft environment.”

“With a majority of PHP developers developing on the Windows platform, we saw a great opportunity to work together with Microsoft to improve the overall experience for our joint customers,” said Andi Gutmans, co-founder and chief technology officer at Zend. “Since our preliminary work with Microsoft, we have already seen a better than 100 percent performance gain with some PHP applications on Windows Server 2003.”

Zend and Microsoft will contribute the PHP improvements to the PHP community under the PHP license. Starting in the first quarter of 2007, Zend intends to use the improved technology in its Zend Core product line. A technology preview of the updated Windows version of Zend Core is available today at http://www.zend.com Zend will also use the technology for its Zend Platform product line to enable its customers to support business-critical PHP production environments on the Windows Server platform.

“In February we announced a technical collaboration with Microsoft to enable our customers to optimize their existing Windows infrastructure,” said John Roberts, chairman and chief executive officer of SugarCRM Inc., a leading open source application company employing PHP. “This announcement underscores the demand from open source developers to take advantage of the Windows Sever platform and Microsoft’s commitment to make that happen.”

About Zend

Zend Technologies, Inc., the PHP company, is the leading provider of products and services for developing, deploying and managing business-critical PHP applications. PHP is used by more than twenty-two million Web sites and has quickly become the most popular language for building dynamic Web applications. Deployed at more than 15,000 companies worldwide, the Zend family of products is a comprehensive platform for supporting the entire lifecycle of PHP applications. Zend Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in Cupertino, California. For more information, please visit www.zend.com

Microsoft Releases Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP

Microsoft Corp. today released to the public Microsoft® Windows Media® Player 11 for Windows® XP, a significant milestone for music fans and the digital entertainment experience on Windows. This latest version of Windows Media Player offers consumers a test-drive of the breakthrough capabilities in Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista™, including enhanced search and media management technologies, a visually driven user interface, and optimized support for portable music players.

“Windows Media Player 11 is the first media player to be truly designed with the digital entertainment lover in mind,” said Mike Sievert, corporate vice president of Windows at Microsoft. “The fresh, exciting new look, the ability to find songs and videos in an instant, and the enhanced capabilities for syncing with portable devices are not only exactly what customers have asked us for, they’re also a preview of what’s to come in Windows Vista.”

The Windows Media Player 11 Experience

Windows Media Player 11 features seamless integration with URGE, MTV Networks Co.’s digital music service. URGE builds upon MTV Networks’ renowned music heritage, offering rich, hand-crafted programming, first-rate editorial content, and innovative music discovery features to create a truly immersive entertainment experience. The incredibly fast search capabilities of Windows Media Player 11 provide consumers with instant access to the entire URGE catalog of more than 110,000 artists and 2 million songs.

“MTV Networks’ collaboration with Microsoft on Media Player 11 gives URGE users a fully immersive and integrated music and entertainment experience,” said Michael Bloom, vice president of Digital Music at MTV Networks and general manager of URGE. “Our expertise in music programming and design combined with Microsoft’s technology gives music fans the best way to discover and stay connected with the music and artists they love.”

The search capabilities of Windows Media Player 11 also enable consumers to easily scroll through and access music faster than on any other media player, whether the library contains 50 or 50,000 tracks. The powerful Instant Search in Windows Media Player 11 provides results that instantly narrow with each keystroke, whether the consumer is searching in a personal library or browsing URGE. Innovative drag-and-drop capabilities make building playlists and moving music to portable players easier than ever.

Windows Media Player 11 also provides these key features:

• A visually driven experience using thumbnail and album art, an elegant and simple design, and customization capabilities for more personalized interaction
  
  
• Improved device experience with new shuffle sync and reverse sync options, device exploration using the library view, and intuitive help icons that ensure seamless and intuitive syncing and burning of rights-managed content
  
  
• Highly simplified navigation capabilities, enhanced shortcut options, and dedicated category views for all media types, including music, photos and video
  
  
• Better access to content with deep integration of services that blurs the line between online service and media player experiences
  
  
• Industry-first audio fingerprinting capabilities that recognize and import track information for unidentified or misnamed audio files
  
  
• New formats for ripping and music playback, including Windows Media Audio Professional and WAV Lossless
  

Devices and Content

As the most-used media player in the world, Windows Media Player continues to enjoy healthy support from Microsoft’s industry and consumer electronics partners. More than 200 portable and home networking devices worldwide will seamlessly work with Windows Media Player 11, providing consumers with an end-to-end experience. Furthermore, in addition to URGE, hundreds of online music and video services and radio stations worldwide are designed to work with Windows Media Player 11.

“Consumers are demanding more flexibility and options when it comes to downloading content to their portable media players,” said Andrew Yang, COO of iriver America. “When combined with Windows-based devices such as the iriver clix, Windows Media Player 11 provides the most complete solution for accessing, downloading and managing their digital libraries.”

“Windows Media Player 11 is another significant step forward in bringing consumers a better digital music experience,” said Eric Bone, director of product marketing of audio and video products at SanDisk. “By integrating SanDisk’s line of Sansa MP3 players with the new Windows Media Player, we’re giving consumers the ultimate choice of how they manage and where they get their music.”

Availability

Microsoft encourages all customers of genuine Windows to download Windows Media Player free of charge at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia People currently using earlier versions of Windows Media Player will also be notified of the availability of Windows Media Player 11 through a pop-up alert, and Microsoft encourages customers to click on the alert for access to the download.

New York City To Sink By 2080

New York City has been an area of concern during hurricane season for many years because of the large population and logistics. More than 8 million people live in the city, and it has hundreds of miles of coastline that are vulnerable to hurricane threats. Using computer climate models, scientists at NASA have looked at rising sea levels and hurricane storm surge and will report on them at a science meeting this week.

Cynthia Rosenzweig and Vivien Gornitz are scientists on a team at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Columbia University, New York City, investigating future climate change impacts in the metropolitan area. Gornitz and other NASA scientists have been working with the New York City Department (DEP) of Environmental Protection since 2004, by using computer models to simulate future climates and sea level rise. Recently, computer modeling studies have provided a more detailed picture of sea level rise around New York by the 2050's

Read the details on the NASA site

Professors building digital embryo-research library, database to include info on cloning, stem-cell research

Professor Jane Maienschein has more than 4,000 books in her personal library. Her colleague Manfred Laubichler has more than 8,000 in his.

Now, these two biology and society professors, along with an international team, are building a digital library for everyone's use.

The online database, called the Embryo Project, will make information on controversial issues like stem cell research, cloning and abortion accessible to the public.

Maienschein is the director of ASU's Center for Biology and Society.

Through the Embryo Project, Maienschein, Laubichler and their team hope to enable scholars and voters alike to access information pertaining to embryo research.

Embryology is an important topic in today's society because of its public presence in politics and the ongoing discoveries made by scientists, Maienschein said.

At the same time, she said, the lawyers, judges, scientists and voters who are expected to make decisions about topics like stem cell research and cloning have very little accurate information at their disposal.

"It's really pathetic that the public is asked to vote on things like stem cell initiatives with so little understanding of what they're talking about," Maienschein said.


Read the rest here

Adobe Labs Releases Adobe Digital Editions

Adobe Digital Editions is a completely new way to read and manage eBooks and other digital publications. Digital Editions is built from the ground up as a lightweight, rich Internet application (RIA). Digital Editions works online and offline, and supports both PDF and XHTML-based content.

The Digital Editions download is only 2.5 MB including Adobe Flash Player 9 and takes less than two minutes to install over a broadband connection. With an RIA service model, users always have the latest version of Digital Editions, taking advantage of new features and security enhancements


Get it here

Yahoo! Holding Open Call for Users in First-Ever 'Yahoo! Talent Show'

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced the "Yahoo! Talent Show," an eight-week online video contest dedicated to discovering the hottest original talent on the Internet. Starting today at http://talentshow.yahoo.com , an open call invites users to send in their submissions by uploading video clips of themselves demonstrating their best talents.

"With the launch of this new contest, Yahoo! demonstrates our commitment to continue offering the most original, high-quality video content for our users," said David Katz, Head of Yahoo! Studios. "The internet is such fertile ground to discover fresh talent and unique personalities, and we are excited to give our users a chance to win their own show on Yahoo!"

From skills in filmmaking and animation to stand-up comedy, pet comedy and performance art, Yahoo! wants to see people who have what it takes to get noticed by users and judges to become a "Web Celeb." Submissions start immediately and users can submit as many as fifty different videos that time and creativity allow before the Nov. 27 deadline.

Beginning Nov. 13 through Dec. 4, Yahoo! users can tune-in daily at http://talentshow.yahoo.com or the Yahoo! Entertainment website to watch the host, Mayleen Ramey -- a television personality who's worked on a number of pop culture programs on E! and MTV -- go through a selection of some of the most interesting, funny, and outrageous video submissions. During that time, users are encouraged to watch, comment and vote on the videos to help a panel of judges select five finalists.

Once the five finalists are chosen, they will compete in a series of creative video challenges -- the last of which will be showcased in front of the panel of judges in New York City. Users will be able to watch these challenges on Yahoo! and will make the final vote on who wins the grand prize to star in or produce their own online show on Yahoo!, along with $50,000 in cash. The winning talent's final video will air Dec. 14 exclusively on Yahoo!.

The Yahoo! Talent Show, created in collaboration with Embassy Row, producers of Yahoo!'s hit vlog "THE 9," aims to inspire a new era of great video content on the web, provide a platform to share these videos and give users a voice by allowing them to vote for their favorites. In addition to working with Yahoo! to create original content, Embassy Row, led by producer Michael Davies, has driven an ever-growing slate of innovative and original programming, including such hits as Emmy-Award winning Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in syndication, Wife Swap (with RDF Media) on ABC, Chain Reaction on GSN, and World Series of Pop Culture on VH1.

No purchase is necessary to participate in the Contest. Contest is open to legal U.S. residents, 18 and older. See official rules at http://talentshow.yahoo.com/rules for full details.

Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP Available Now

Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP has been released.

Microsoft Corp. today released to the public Windows® Internet Explorer® 7 for Windows XP, the latest version of the world’s most popular Web browser. Customers can upgrade and browse the Web with confidence knowing that the new browser provides a greater level of security, makes everyday tasks easier, and works well with the Web sites they visit.

“We listened carefully to our customers and are delivering a safer browser that makes the tasks they do every day much easier,” said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft.

Financial institutions and security vendors such as PayPal and VeriSign are lining up to support the newest generation of the browser and encouraging their customers to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.

“Security is a top priority for PayPal, and we encourage our customers using Windows to download and use Internet Explorer 7,” said Michael Barrett, chief information security officer for PayPal Inc. “The new Internet Explorer 7 browser has significant security enhancements, including features that help customers protect their personal information when browsing, communicating and transacting online.”

Safer and Easier

In response to the increase in and changing nature of online security threats, Internet Explorer 7 provides advanced safeguards that help protect against malicious software and phishing attacks. In Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft has helped reduce the exposure to these attacks by fortifying the browser itself and providing better information to users to assist them in making better and safer decisions online.

“Making the consumer experience more secure is paramount to maintaining consumer confidence online,” said Patrick Gauthier, senior vice president at Visa International. “Microsoft’s security improvements in Internet Explorer 7.0 will certainly further this endeavor.”

“As the industry leader in Web site authentication, VeriSign believes that Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 7 browser will help increase user confidence and help make consumers more secure when using the Internet,” said Tim Callan, product marketing director at VeriSign Inc. “VeriSign has always been on the leading front of offering the most current technologies to help secure consumers online, which is a concept that Microsoft brings to life with Internet Explorer 7. We encourage users to move to the new browser.”

Internet Explorer 7 delivers a new look and enhanced capabilities that make everyday tasks — such as searching, browsing multiple sites and printing — simple and fast. To help users do more with the browser, Microsoft is introducing users of Internet Explorer to tabbed browsing. With tabs, users are able to view multiple sites in a single browser window and easily switch from one site to another. In Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft extends tab functionality with a new feature called Quick Tabs, which provides an “at a glance” snapshot of all open tabs on a single screen, enabling easier and faster site selection and navigation.

Increased Compatibility and Manageability
While Internet Explorer 7 includes significant end-user advancements, it was also designed with developers and IT managers in mind. Microsoft engineered Internet Explorer 7 for compatibility with existing Web sites by adhering to some of the most important standards for Web site development. Internet Explorer 7 also features improved manageability for enterprises through the enhanced support of Active Directory® Group Policy, which enables IT managers to easily deploy and centrally manage the browser on each of the desktops in their network.

Microsoft to Provide Customer Support

Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP is now available in English and runs on Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP 64-bit Edition and Windows Server® 2003 Service Pack 1. Internet Explorer 7 will be made available in other Windows-supported languages over the coming weeks.

Microsoft will continue to provide consumers in North America running Internet Explorer 7 with unlimited phone support for installation and download issues at no charge until November 1, 2007. Free phone support is available in English Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. PDT, and on Saturday and Sunday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT by calling (866) 234-6020.

Availability Details

Microsoft encourages all genuine Windows customers who want a safer and easier browsing experience to download Internet Explorer 7 free of charge at http://www.microsoft.com/ie Microsoft will also begin distributing Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates in November 2006. Microsoft encourages customers to install Internet Explorer 7 when notified by Automatic Updates.

From the IE blog: "Today we released Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP. I encourage everyone to download the final version from http://www.microsoft.com/ie.

We listened carefully to feedback from many sources (including this blog) and worked hard to deliver a safer browser that makes everyday tasks easier. When I first posted publicly about IE7, I wrote that we would go further to defend users from phishing and malicious software. The Phishing Filter and the architectural work in IE7 around networking and ActiveX opt-in will help keep users more secure. IE7 also delivers a much easier browsing experience with features like tabbed browsing (especially with QuickTabs), shrink-to-fit printing, an easily customizable search box, and a new design that leaves more screen real estate for the web site you’re viewing. IE7’s CSS improvements are incredibly important for developers as many of you have made quite clear. I also think IE7’s RSS experience and platform are important, powerful, and innovative.
In addition to our release of IE7, Yahoo! has a customized version of the browser available today and over the next few days partners such as Weather.com and USA TODAY will offer their own customized versions. These versions will tailor the user experience with specific toolbars, additional search engines, favorites, and RSS feeds.
I want to thank everyone who provided feedback as we developed and fine-tuned Internet Explorer 7. Over the 20 months since Bill Gates first announced our commitment to deliver IE7, we released five betas and a release candidate to millions of users worldwide. With each release, your feedback helped us make IE7 better. Your contributions, ideas, and direct comments were crucial in helping us prioritize and focus our work. I can’t imagine delivering this product without the tremendous cooperation we enjoyed from so many of you as well as developers and partners.
That said, we’re not done. Even as we put the finishing touches on Windows Vista and release all the remaining language versions of IE7, we have already started work on the next versions of Internet Explorer. We’ll post more here soon about our plans for the product and our plans for listening to you. "

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak Speaks To Radio 4

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak appeared on BBC Radio 4's Midweek show this morning.

He talked frankly about his latest book, 'iWoz', which he is promoting at present.

The show is available to listen to again on the BBC website, in Real Player and Windows Media formats

Great Britain's First Web-Rage Attack

The BBC is reporting what is claimed to be Britain's first "web-rage" attack.
Paul Gibbons, 47, tracked down John Jones using details obtained online after the pair exchanged insults in an internet chatroom, a court heard.

He travelled 70 miles to Mr Jones' home in Clacton, Essex, and beat him up with a pickaxe handle in December 2005.

Gibbons, of Southwark, south London, admitted unlawful wounding and will be sentenced on 7 November.

Read the rest here

Stephen Hawking To Star In The Movie Beyond the Horizon

Stephen Hawking, Britain’s world-renowned physicist, is to switch from theories of multidimensional space to the three dimensions of the Imax cinema by starring in a film that sets out his ideas on the origins and fate of the universe.
The film, Beyond the Horizon, will tackle some of the most daunting theories espoused by Hawking and other cosmologists, from the idea that space has up to 11 dimensions to the cause of the big bang itself.



The project is certain to boost Hawking’s public status. He will take the starring role and narrate a soundtrack explaining cosmological concepts as they are brought to life by advanced computer graphics.

His aim is to popularise science, but for many the appeal could also lie in the ability of an Imax 3D film to make Hawking and his wheelchair appear to come right out of the screen into the audience.

Read the rest here

Apple Announces iPod nano RED Special Edition

Apple® today announced the iPod® nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition. (RED) was created by U2 lead singer, Bono and Bobby Shriver to engage business in the fight against AIDS in Africa by getting the world’s most iconic companies to make uniquely branded products. A portion of the profits from these products goes directly to the Global Fund to fund programs for women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED comes in a beautiful red aluminum enclosure and features 24 hours of battery life, Apple’s innovative Click Wheel and an incredibly thin and light design. Apple will contribute $10 from the sale of each iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED to the Global Fund to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. Apple will also offer a $25 iTunes® (PRODUCT) RED gift card available for purchase at Apple’s retail and online stores next month.

“We’re ecstatic that Apple is giving their customers the choice to buy a red iPod nano and help women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa,” said Bono, co-founder of (RED). “It's wonderful to see this incredible level of commitment from companies that are willing to lend their creativity in the fight against AIDS in Africa, the greatest health crisis in 600 years.”

“Now customers can buy the best music player in the world and do something to help the world at the same time,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re honored to work with Bono, (RED) and this team to contribute to an incredibly important initiative and help change the way people think about AIDS in Africa.”

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established in 2002, with the support of the world’s leaders and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world’s most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need by supporting locally-driven strategies. To date, the Global Fund has committed $5.2 billion (US) to more than 363 programs in 131 countries. For more information about (RED) please visit www.joinred.com

Pricing & Availability
The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is available worldwide in a 4GB model for $199 (US) through Apple’s retail stores and the Apple Store® (www.apple.com ). All iPod nano models include redesigned earbud headphones providing superior comfort, fit and sound quality, and a USB 2.0 cable. The second generation iPod nano features up to 24 hours of battery life and completely skip-free playback.* The iTunes (PRODUCT) RED gift card will be available through Apple’s retail stores and the Apple Store (www.apple.com ) next month for $25 (US).

iPod nano requires a Mac® with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS® X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.

* Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. Music capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; actual capacity varies by content. Photo capacity is based on iPod-viewable photos transferred from iTunes.

Virtual PC 2007 Beta: Free and Available Now

Virtual PC 2007 Beta is now available as a free download from connect.microsoft.com Virtual PC 2007 is optimized to work well for Windows Vista as both the host and guest OS. This version works with both 32-bit Vista and 64-bit Vista as the host operating system as well as Windows XP and has improved performance including support for hardware virtualization technologies from AMD and Intel.

So now you have an easy way to try out Windows Vista, even if you are reluctant to replace the OS on one your existing PCs; or if you have already taken the plunge you can spin up a legacy operating system in a virtual machine on your Windows Vista machine.

Keep in mind that while Virtual PC 2007 is a completely free program Windows is not. You will need to have a license for any Windows OS that you run in a virtual environment. This is not an issue if you are using beta versions of Windows Vista but in a production environment you need a license. If you use virtual machines a lot and you are an enterprise customer you may consider obtaining Windows Vista Enterprise, which also includes rights to run up to 4 additional copies of Windows in a virtual machine using a technology such as Virtual PC for a single license price.

You can learn more about Virtual PC http://www.microsoft.com/virtualpc and Virtual PC Guy's Weblog.

Windows Vista RC2 is now available to technical beta testers

Microsoft is excited to announce the availability of Windows Vista RC2 to Technical Beta Testers, TAP Testers, and MSDN/TechNet subscribers. This new build of Windows Vista offers users a higher level of performance and stability – improving what was established in Windows Vista RC1. We were able to also fix many of your bugs reported from RC1 and implement them for RC2. Thank you to our beta testers for the bugs and feedback you submitted for RC1. The improvement shows as we raised our quality bar even higher!

Platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin has just posted a special announcement letter of RC2 to Microsoft Connect for the Windows Vista Technical Beta Testers. I’d like to reproduce the letter here for all to read:

People asked for it, and here it is, Windows Vista RC2! We wanted you to be the first to get these bits; next week they’ll be available to a broader set of customers via MSDN and TechNet.

All your great feedback has helped us focus on nothing but bug fixes over the past month since RC 1 — each and every day. There are thousands of quality improvements since Windows Vista RC1. You’ll probably notice improvements in performance, application compatibility, as well as fit and finish work. We will continue improving quality until RTM. If you are an ISV, please use this build (certainly at least RC1 or later) to get certified. Visit www.innovateonvista.com for more information on logo certification.

You are integral to this creation and refinement process. We are just around the corner from RTM and shipping this great product to the world. This will be the last build made available prior to RTM, so please keep the feedback coming so we can hit the finish line. Thanks for your help in finishing the job!


I encourage you to download and install Windows Vista RC2. We’re almost finished with Windows Vista – RTM is almost here. Submit as many bugs as you can as we continue to work hard toward shipping.

UPDATE: Windows Vista RC2 is now available to Customer Preview Program participants for a limited time. If you’re in the CPP use these links to access RC2:

Download: Windows Vista RC2 (x86 and x64) English
Download: Windows Vista RC2 (x86 and x64) German
Download: Windows Vista RC2 (x86 and x64) Japanese

Yahoo! Developer Network Launches .NET Developer Center

Yahoo! Developer Network has launched .NET Developer Center.This site is your source for information about using the .NET Framework with Yahoo! Web Services and APIs. Here you'll find:

HOWTO Articles to help you understand our technologies and how you can use them better with .NET.
Download the sample browser, utility libraries and source code.
Other Resources on the web where you can find source code and helpful tools.
Community Resources where you can join our mailing list and discuss the Yahoo! APIs with us and with other .NET developers.

HOWTO Articles
Get comfortable using .NET with Yahoo! Web Services

HOWTO: Make Yahoo! Web Service REST calls with C# and VB.NET
HOWTO: Using Returned XML with C# and VB.NET
HOWTO: Cache API Calls Using C# and VB.NET
HOWTO: Access Yahoo! Web Services Using XAML
HOWTO: Browser-Based Authentication Using C# and VB.NET


Downloads
In this section you'll find the source code for the samples used in the HOWTO articles and ready-to-use Browser-Based Authentication utility libraries for .NET 1.1 and 2.0 along with full source code.

HOWTO article sample browser with source code
Compiled Browser-Based Authentication class for .NET 1.1
Compiled Browser-Based Authentication class for .NET 2.0
Browser-Based Authentication class source code (C#) (VS 2005 solution, but code is compatible with .NET 1.1)
Also, don't forget to check out the Yahoo! Search SDK. It includes both C# and VB.NET samples.

3rd Party Downloads
Here are other downloads provided by our enthusiastic developers. (External links)

Yahoo! Music Jukebox Remote .NET 1.1 wrapper class and source
Yahoo! Music Jukebox plug-in VS 2003 project wizards
Other resources
In this section you'll find links to external sites and articles that may be useful as you work with the .NET Framwork.

Microsoft Developer Network is the ultimate .NET resource site.
The Microsoft .NET Community is a collection of official Microsoft and user submitted .NET samples.
The Microsoft .NET 3.0 Community site is a one stop shop for .NET 3.0 news, samples, forums and blogs.
The Code Project has an extensive library of articles, tutorials and code samples for .NET.
4 Guys From Rolla.com is an excellent source of information on all things ASP.NET.
AspAlliance offers free tutorials, articles, examples and code snippets.

Check it out here

Add RSS Feeds To Revision3

So the brand new and improved Revision3 site has launched, I like the looks of it however the one thing that I don’t like is that there is no RSS feed for the shows. Am I just not seeing it, is it hidden? What am I supposed to do, hit F5 every time I want to check for updated shows? I like the new shows; I have been listening to Diggnation for over a year now but please add RSS feeds. The problem is not with Diggnation I know the schedule for that, but I don’t know the schedule for all the other shows.

Are you listening Kevin?

Raid Explained, Even A Child Will UnderstandThis

No words needed, click on pic for larger version

Steve Wozniak Book iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon Got Published

This book just got published, very exciting indeed

Book Description
The mastermind behind Apple sheds his low profile and steps forward to tell his story for the first time.

Before cell phones that fit in the palm of your hand and slim laptops that fit snugly into briefcases, computers were like strange, alien vending machines. They had cryptic switches, punch cards and pages of encoded output. But in 1975, a young engineering wizard named Steve Wozniak had an idea: What if you combined computer circuitry with a regular typewriter keyboard and a video screen? The result was the first true personal computer, the Apple I, a widely affordable machine that anyone could understand and figure out how to use.

Wozniak's life—before and after Apple—is a "home-brew" mix of brilliant discovery and adventure, as an engineer, a concert promoter, a fifth-grade teacher, a philanthropist, and an irrepressible prankster. From the invention of the first personal computer to the rise of Apple as an industry giant, iWoz presents a no-holds-barred, rollicking, firsthand account of the humanist inventor who ignited the computer revolution. 16 pages of illustrations.

Amazon link is here for those interested