TECHOpinion.NET

Thanks to the concerted efforts of Martin Pitt, Sebastien Bacher and several others, notify-osd and several related components landed in Jaunty last week. Thanks very much to all involved! And thanks to David Barth, Mirco Muller and Ted Gould who lead the development of notify-osd and the related messaging indicator.

WashingtonTimes: The Washington Times has always focused on content. After careful review, we determined that the best way to have the top tools to produce and publish that content is to release the source code of our in-house tools and encourage collaboration. The source code is released under the permissive Apache License, version 2.0. The initial tools released are: django-projectmgr, django-supertagging and django-massmedia django-clickpass.

We all know about KDE, GNOME and XFCE - the most popular desktop environments for X. However some users may not be aware that there is yet another desktop environment available for X. This is the LXDE - Light Weight Desktop Environment. Screenshots can be found here.

C|Net: Those of us with too much bandwidth and too little life (yours truly included) are wondering just why Microsoft chose to make a snow leopard the backdrop photo on Live Search on Thursday. Even though Microsoft puts a new picture on the site each day, surely it hasn't exhausted all the images that are not references to competitor's products. TECHOpinion.NET: To clear confusion, if you haven't clicked on the link, you should. The story is about a photo of a real life snow leopard on Microsoft's Live Search.

NetworkWorld.com: It may sound like heresy to say it, but it's possible to worry a little too much about security in cloud computing environments, speakers at IDC's Cloud Computing Forum said on Wednesday. Security is the No. 1 concern cited by IT managers when they think about cloud deployments, followed by performance, availability, and the ability to integrate cloud services with in-house IT, according to IDC's research.

According to this PCWorld article, scientists from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Massachusetts Amherst made a breakthrough that could fit the contents of 250 DVDs on a coin-sized surface. This would be awesome for HD content. Apparently, they've discovered a way to make certain kinds of molecules line up in perfect arrays over relatively large areas.

A new version of the Arch Linux (not to be confused with Ark Linux) distribution has been released. You can find the official announcement here and you can download it from here. This release brings you the following changes:

InfoWorld.com: Apple's first bug update of the year patches 48 vulnerabilities in its OS, including a Safari bug that Apple had information about for more than seven months. Apple issued multiple updates for Mac OS X and Java that patched 55 bugs, including one for its Safari Web browser that prompted a security researcher to blast the company for a half-hearted approach to security.

C|Net.com: For years, Microsoft has insisted that open-source vendors acknowledge that its patent portfolio is a precursor to interoperability discussions. Monday, Microsoft shed that charade and announced an interoperability alliance with Red Hat for virtualization.

Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer along with key mobile partners, HTC, LG and Orange, unveiled new Windows® phones featuring new user-friendly software and services. The next generation of Windows® phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and feature a new user interface and a richer browsing experience. In addition, Windows® phones will feature two new services: My Phone, to sync text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web; and Windows® Marketplace for Mobile, a new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications and can be accessed from both the phone and the Web.

There is a nice walkthrough with plenty of pictures and a video on Engadget.com of Windows Mobile 6.5 and a Touch Diamond 2 cellphone. The new Windows Mobile 6.5 looks preetty good and stylish. Check it out!

Microsoft Recite is a search technology for your voice that runs on Windows Mobile* devices. With Microsoft Recite, you can use your voice to easily store, search and retrieve the things you want to remember, where and when you need them. Microsoft Recite is available as a free technology preview beginning February 16, 2009. Microsoft Recite can be used on devices running Windows Mobile version 6.0 or higher.

ExtremeTech.com: Opera Software said Thursday that it would launch an "Opera Turbo" technology at the Mobile World Conference next week, speeding up the Web browsing experience while cutting the amount of data users need to download onto their smart phones. Opera Turbo is a server-side optimization tool that apparently will require a dedicated Opera server, according to a diagram the company provided in a white paper.

Software developer "Chris Latko" seems to have completed an unofficial version of Chrome for Mac OS X. On his web site he notes: Since Mike Pinkerton published some screenshots of Chromium running on OS X, there seems to be a little uproar in the Mac community about when we will see the final version. I decided to investigate a tad and built my own version for OS X. My version, rev 9780, seems to do a bit better than Mike’s because clicking on links work. This seems far from complete though, so if you enjoy lots of unexpected quits, this app is for you. The Mac OS X program files are available for download on his web site.