I’d compare Yoomba to Skype, but without the registration part. I also also like to call it the Trillian, or the meebo of Internet voice calling.

Wouldn’t it be great if you can chat with your friends even if the network that their account belongs to is different from yours? Wouldn’t it be convenient to have a centralized communication platform where you can talk (or chat) with your friends from various e-mail networks such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL and Hotmail? For example, if you have a Yahoo! account and your friend only has a Google Account, how will you be able to communicate in real time? Chatting through e-mail will most likely be inconvenient. Thank goodness there’s Yoomba! Yoomba acts as a mediator between several e-mail networks so you can use your e-mail account to chat or make calls with your contacts. You simply have to type in an e-mal address in the Yoomba contacts field and you’re one step away to chatting or talking with that person. It’s that easy. No registration needed! I suggest you try it out.

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It’s the second Tuesday of the month once more. This means that it’s Microsoft Patch Tuesday. So fire up Windows Update and begin updating your flawed Windows system. 3 Critical updates, 2 Important updates, and 1 Moderate.

Full details can be found at the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for July 2007 page.

In less than 2 weeks, Microsoft signed another Linux deal. This time, it’s with Linux desktop distributor Linspire Inc. In the report by BusinessWeek, Microsoft will license instant messaging and digital media technology to Linspire. Because of this, Linspire users will be able to voice-chat with Windows Live Messenger buddies, watch Windows Media video and audio files on open-source media players, and view and create documents using familiar typefaces. Linspire also agreed to set its default Web search engine to MSN Live Search.

Listed below are the other terms of the deal, according to the report:

• Linspire will work with Microsoft on technology to translate between two different types of documents: Microsoft-developed OpenXML format and the Open Document Format.
• Protect Linspire users against legal action by Microsoft, which claims open-source software violates more than 200 of its patents.

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Windows users should pull up Windows Update today. Microsoft just released 6 patches for the 15 vulnerabilities found in a variety of Windows programs such as Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Vista.

BBC News also gave a tip that the second Tuesday of every month is the date on which Microsoft typically issues security patches for its software programs.

Good news for Web designers and Web developers! Apple has announced the availability of its Web browser, Safari in Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.

Safari 3 for Windows XP and Windows Vista is in its public beta stages.

Reasons why you’ll love Safari:

1. Blazing Performance
2. Elegant User Interface
3. Easy Bookmarks
4. Pop-up Blocking
5. Inline Find
6. Tabbed Browsing
7. SnapBack
8. Forms AutoFill
9. Built-in RSS
10. Resizable Text Fields
11. Private Browsing
12. Security

Visit the Safari home page for more details.

Download the beta version from the Safari download page (around 8 MB).

Secunia reported 2 security advisories yesterday regarding vulnerable components (DLL) in the Yahoo! Messenger instant messaging program. Secunia rated these vulnerabilities as extremely critical. In response, Yahoo! has released an emergency patch today.

Description

1. A boundary error within the Yahoo! Webcam Upload (ywcupl.dll) ActiveX control can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow by assigning an overly long string to the “Server” property and then calling the “Send()” method.
2. A boundary error within the Yahoo! Webcam Viewer (ywcvwr.dll) ActiveX control can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow by assigning an overly long string to the “Server” property and then calling the “Receive()” method.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerabilities allows execution of arbitrary code.

The vulnerabilities are confirmed in version 8.1.0.249. Other versions may also be affected.

Solution

Update to the latest version.

Current Version: 8.1.0.401
Yahoo! Messenger Download Page

Last year it was Novell. Now it’s Linux desktop and server provider, Xandros. In relation to the previous article entitled, Microsoft Wants FOSS Users to Pay Royalties, Microsoft has once again signed a deal with Xandros in which the terms were similar to that of the Novell deal, according to Yahoo! News. Furthermore, Microsoft said in a statement:

"These covenants… will provide customers with confidence that the Xandros technologies they use and deploy in their environments are compliant with Microsoft’s intellectual property."

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