PC World, with a site powered by Windows (ASP implies so), have published a Preview of Longhorn’s latest beta alpha version. Their key line is as follows:

The newest versions of the next Windows add graphics sizzle and more search features but lack visible productivity enhancements.

Also in this review:

Over the last several years, Microsoft has touted Longhorn’s trio of significant innovations: a graphics engine dubbed Avalon; a technology called Indigo that enables programs on different computers or devices to communicate; and an indexed, searchable data storage layer called WinFS. But when faced with a self-imposed release deadline of late 2006, Microsoft decided last year to pull WinFS out of Longhorn, promising to release that component as an add-on at a later date.

Related item: Longhorn: A Trainwreck?

According to the BBC, Open Source begins to have its impact on schools in Britain.

In open source software (OSS), the underlying computer code is freely available so users can alter it and publish new versions, to benefit the community.

Leslie Fletcher, chair of governors at Parrs Wood High School in south Manchester and campaigns manager for the UK’s Unix and Open Systems User Group, offers a personal perspective on how schools can benefit.

Manchester made this courageous step, which came to my attention via the Manchester Linux Users Group. There was another recent and much more widespread initiative in Michigan.

t was only a few months ago that my colleague’s forum got hijacked and vandalised, never to come back on-line again. Over the weekend, my host came under a denial of service (DoS) attack because of outdated, non-secure installations of phpBB (not worthy linking to), which proved to be far from reliable. Several sites including mine were suspended for hours in order to avoid another such attack, which brought the server down and crippled it for 40 minutes. I was possibly among the culprits as my phpBB installation was not patched up properly.

WordPress 1.5 likewise. Security flaws are continuously discovered and about 4 fixes have been released in the past few months. If you install software, make sure it is secure, patched up and avoid installing it whenever unnecessary. More installations lead to more maintenance and potential loopholes.
 

Audra Ang, an Associated Press writer, reports about a Beijing clinic that treats online addicts.

All the children here have left school because they are playing games or in chat rooms everyday,” says the clinic’s director, Dr. Tao Ran. “They are suffering from depression, nervousness, fear and unwillingness to interact with others, panic and agitation. They also have sleep disorders, the shakes and numbness in their hands.

The descriptions sound a little freaky, but I have known people whose entire life was dependent on their computer.

Hmmm… 5 AM… time for lunch…

SS Zen Garden is a site illustrating the power of design using cascading style sheets (CSS). It accepts submissions from professional designers and allows visitors of the site to browse, participate, and appreciate a variety of different styles. Navigation among the styles and heavy page loads are rather slow, so why not use the following screenshot gallery of styles from CSS Zen Garden?

Judging by the official Firefox Roadmap, the release of Firefox 1.1 is near.

Quoting the site:

We are planning for a Firefox 2.0, but will divide the planned work over (at this point) three major Milestones, 1.1 (July 2005), 1.5 (unscheduled) and 2.0 (unscheduled). All major development work will be done on the Mozilla trunk, and these releases will coincide with Gecko version revs.

If you have free time in your hands, you can use Burning Edge to keep track of the Firefox changelog.

I caught the following photos on Dvorak Uncensored. It is still unknown where these toilet facilities come from exactly.

On the left: view from outside
On the right: inside-out view

Rather then making sarcastic remarks, let your imagination lead you to problems with such ‘innovation’. Innovations are said to be truly dead; the above is an evidence.