“Because newer is not always better” is the motto of OldVersions.com. It is apparent that software vendors deny or disguise access to previous versions of their products. That is exactly why OldVersion.com archive previous releases of popular products, much like what the Internet Archive does with the World Wide Web.

Later versions typically become a resource hog and do not suit computers that are not modern. Winamp, for example, has become a heavy media player — a bloat if you like — which will rarely suit a user who only wishes to listen to music within an instance. That is where the potential of software archives practically lies.

ZDNet Australia writes (on behalf of Secunia) about potential phishing attacks which affect all major browsers.

How does this exploit work?

• A user arrives at a malicious site
• The site re-direct the user to a trusted site while opening a pop-up
• The user gets fooled into entering a password in the pop-up
• While the user believes that the password reaches the trusted site, it actually reaches the malicious one

Pop-up windows, JavaScript and their nasty siblings again take the blame, but if someone is foolish enough to log in via pop-ups, perhaps the flaw lies within the user. Very few sites, if any, will use child windows to request details. It is understandable that many surfers are unaware of that, but they probably ought to stay away from malicious sites to begin with, or at least disable some browser functionality.

ry comparing news feeds from CNN against those from the BBC. I am subscribed to various feeds from both and in CNN no descriptions are bound to the titles. Why even syndicate if the subscriber gets 2-word provocative titles? The BBC is different, possibly because it has no commercial interests. It also opened its news API to the public recently, which was inarguably a wise step.

The ‘greedy feed’ attitude will possibly change due to Google’s embedment of adverts in feeds. This, in turn, is likely to set a precedent and motivate competitors (e.g. Overture) to do likewise. The official Google Factory Tour includes a preview of AdSense in feeds; see the picture at the bottom-right corner of the page.

The BBC published an article about a model which solves the “I’m my own Grandpa” paradox in the context of time travel. The model is based on laws of quantum mechanics.

Researchers speculate that time travel can occur within a kind of feedback loop where backwards movement is possible, but only in a way that is “complementary” to the present.

In other words, you can pop back in time and have a look around, but you cannot do anything that will alter the present you left behind…

Some months ago, an automatic and effective way of obtaining music was described: no need to run any heavy graphical program; no need to select music (only sources of music of the desired genre); no limits on bandwidth or volume.

Taking this further, Dr. Scott Tobkes explains about his method of bringing commericals to a halt.

Something I’ve had fun doing lately is recording live of archived streaming audio from radio stations around the country

There are innumerable subjects and programs. I record it to mp3 or wav, and listen in my car or PC, while fast-forwarding through the commercials. I know that there are aggregators that will make this a seamless process like Ipodder.

I don’t like to call them podcasts. I use this program…

It wasn’t long ago that the Internet Archive was mentioned. This amazing, non-profit resource has been storing snapshots of the Web since 1996. It is now revealed that the entire system is Linux-powered. It can hold over a petabyte (1000,000 gigabytes) in volume and yet remain affordable.

here is a great deal of talk about AJAX recently. It is the new branch of development which makes real-time interaction possible. To take examples from Google, GMaps allow movement around the map without the reloading of a page; Google Suggest fetches possible completions from the server in real-time; GMail is another AJAX-rich Web application. The main advantage of this technology is that it one does not need to refresh entire pages, but just modify little bits whenever required.

There are simple ways of indicating change and increasing usability. The lastest release of the Horde project, for example, has plenty of subtle feedback for interaction. A few instances: the pointer changes to a finger when unfolding menus, “+” changes to a “-” and vice versa; Hovering will result in different background colours to indicate severity.

There are some very nice demos in the Open Source library named Rico. I was impressed at first, but I soon spotted a major drawback. The pages devour signals so mouse gestures, for instance, begin to misbehave. Also, browser compatibility is limited, which makes pages like that a bad choice for practical purposes. Another example of flexible designs shows the great powers of modern browsers.