Having heard of Adobe Flash’s would-be competitor earlier this month, I finally went over to the Silverlight Gallery to see how it significantly differs with Flash. A plug-in is needed to view Silverlight movies so I first downloaded the Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 beta plug-in and installed it. It’s a good thing that the developers included support for Firefox and Safari browsers in their beta release, though support for Opera would be much more appreciated.

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A new version of the Opera browser has just been released. Listed below are the changes from the previous version:

• New shortcut ‘ya’ for searching with Yahoo! Answers.
• The onunload event is no longer fired if a new URL is entered manually via the address bar or bookmarks.
• Fixed a bug where User JavaScript on HTTPS would keep prompting to be allowed to run on a page.
• Fixed a crash caused by long object descendant property chains in JavaScript.
• Fixed a buffer overflow with malformed torrents, as reported by iDefense.
• Stability fix for torrents.
• Fixed support for the WMP for Firefox plug-in.
• Corrected plug-in paths.
• PAC (Proxy Auto-Config) setting is now read from system.

Opera 9.21 is avalaible for download at the Opera Download page.

Opera is a cross-platform web browser and Internet suite which handles common internet-related tasks including visiting web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting online and displaying Widgets. -Wikipedia

This must have made your day if it was true. But don’t fret, CNET TV has made a video of Adobe CS3’s FREE alternatives. You might be quite disappointed right now, but hey it’s FREE. It might not be the real Adobe CS3 but for a cost of $0, it’s more than a bargain. You won’t even waste a significant portion of your time testing out these free alternatives.

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A CNN report tells of Vietnam’s government signing an agreement with Microsoft requiring all of its government offices to use licensed software. Software piracy rate in Vietnam is one of the world’s highest at 90%, according to the BSA. The CNN report further stated:

Local information technology developers said Ballmer visit will be another boost to the country’s IT industry following Gates’ visit and Intel Corp.’s kicking off construction a US$1 billion semiconductor plant in southern Vietnam last month.
About 15 million of Vietnam’s 84 million people have subscribed to the Internet since the service became available 10 years ago.
"The whole world sees Vietnam as a new destination for information technology," said Truong Gia Binh, President and CEO of FPT Corp., Vietnam’s leading IT company. "This trend will continue after the visit."

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BBC reports that more than one-third of business software used by companies around the world is pirated. According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a well known proponent of anti-piracy campaigns, 35% of the programs used by companies are unlicensed. The BSA added that this figure remained unchanged since 2003. The BBC report gave a rundown of the piracy rates around the world:

• Asia - 55%
• Central Europe - 68%
• Latin America - 66%
• Middle East/Africa - 60%
• North America - 22%
• Western Europe - 36%

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A CNN report tells of Microsoft wanting royalties from distributors and users of free software like Linux. Microsoft claims that free software violated 235 of its patents. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s senior vice president and general counsel enumerates the violations of free software:

• Linux kernel - 42 Microsoft patents violated
• Linux GUI - 65 Microsoft patents violated
• Open Office suite - 45 Microsoft patents violated
• E-mail programs - 15 Microsoft patents violated
• Other FOSS programs - 68 Microsoft patents violated

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I thought of updating my Windows XP operating system today. What a surprise! 6 updates for Microsoft Office 2007. This is actually the first batch of updates for Office 2007. Washington Post reports 13 other updates that Microsoft released today. It has been about a couple of months since updates of this volume came out. Well, expect more in the coming months.

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