All About Web Innovations

Apple patches keep coming: Mac OS, Safari beta fixed

Faye — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:31:58 +0000

Apple kept its rush of year-end security patches coming Monday, issuing a flurry of fixes for its Mac OS X operating system and the test version of its Safari browser.

Monday’s patches included a whopping 31 updates for the Apple operating system. The Mac OS X patches fix components ranging from the Address Book and iChat software to under-the-covers operating system components such as ColorSync, the IO Storage Family, and the Perl, Python and Ruby programming languages.

Most of these flaws theoretically could be exploited by attackers to run unauthorized software on the Mac, although some of them had other security implications, such as allowing an attacker to gain access to sensitive information or download files to the computer without authorization.

These updates are for the Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 operating systems, known as Tiger and Leopard, respectively.

Apple also released a minor update to its Safari 3 beta code, which runs on Windows as well as Mac OS X, fixing a cross-site scripting security problem that affects Windows users.

The patches come just days after Apple released a major update to its QuickTime media player and a Java security fix for the Mac OS X 10.4 operating system, code-named Tiger. The QuickTime flaw was particularly serious, as it had been exploited by online criminals since early December.

With hackers and security researchers now paying more attention to Apple’s products, the company’s security team has been working overtime on bug fixes this year. Monday’s patches were Apple’s 35th and 36th security updates this year. In 2006, the company released just 22 sets of patches for its products.

By�Robert McMillan,�IDG News Service

Source: � networkworld.com

Style Sheets vs. Frames as Web Extensions

Faye — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:25:10 +0000

In considering how to extend the Web with new technologies, it is instructive to compare Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) with frames. CSS is an elegantly designed extension, whereas�frames suck, as I have said many times.CSS is�backward compatible�to the extent that viewing a style-enhanced site with an older browser causes no problems at all. Of course, the user doesn’t see the stylistic enhancements made possible by CSS (e.g., multiple fonts and indented margins), but the text of the page will be readable and will be presented in a reasonable default style (of course, the extent to which you deem the default presentation reasonable depends on your assessment of the quality of typography in mainstream browsers: admittedly rather poor). In contrast, a page designed with frames is useless for a user with an old browser.CSS is�orthogonal to other features�in Web browsing. When multiple style sheets become supported in future releases of the mainstream browsers, users might want to learn the command to switch between styles, but they won’t have to. Even if users do learn this new command, it will not interfere with or change their understanding of earlier commands and operations. In contrast, frames destroy bookmarks, change the meaning of established commands like “print” and “view source”, and in general make a mess of the user’s prior understanding of the Web.CSS�builds on the philosophy of the Web: cross-platform design and simple-to-understand codes that are precisely documented in public specifications. In contrast, frames are hard to learn for authors, poorly documented, and have no chance of working on anything except desktop computers with relatively large screens (try fitting frames on a Pilot palmtop and you will see what I mean).Read more in�http://www.useit.com/alertbox/styles_vs_frames.html��

Web Site Optimization – Event or Process

Faye — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:16:05 +0000

Without doubt, the most frequent question my Web site customers ask is; can you make our Web site appear on the first page of the search results?� You can spend hours developing excellent site content; however, if no one can find it there is little marketing value.� Of course, all marketing literature and advertising will list the Web site address but this will reach an extremely small segment of the potential Internet audience.�

When I speak of search engine performance, I am referring to how a site does on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Forget all the spam messages that promise to submit your site to 300 plus search engines. If you do well on these three, you will capture over 85% of the market and do well on most other small engines. Many smaller search companies actually purchase their search content from Google or Yahoo.�

It is no longer necessary to submit your site to the search engines as long as it is linked from another site that is currently listed on Google and Yahoo. Most of the companies promising to do �mass� site submissions using automated software are frowned upon by the �big three� search engines. The spiders will find your site by following links from other listed sites. This is where a link from an Internet service directory such as IHR.com or InfertilitySpecialist.com can be valuable (more about links later). The only directory I specifically submit to is DMOZ.org which is a �human reviewed�

directory that is used by others such as AOL. One way to learn if your site has been added is to type your URL (domain name) into the search engines and see if it appears.

Continue reading from�webinnovations.org

by: �Stan Colquitt. He has specialized in fertility Web sites for the last nine years.� He has demonstrated competence in gaining superior rankings for his customers and personally composes the site text for most of his physician customers.� He holds the Web Master Certification from CIW and he has also attained the Microsoft Certified Professional Certification. Stan has his bachelor�s degree in biology and worked as a manager for Serono Laboratories for six years. He and his wife, Coty, were also fertility patients.�

�

Internet Drama

Faye — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:35:15 +0000

Since it was formally announced that Google is now the largest ad company in the world, Microsoft seems to be really insecure after falling behind and it has started the soap opera of the Internet giants.Ever since the year started, there have been talks between Microsoft and Yahoo (more of an effort from Microsoft) to have an agreement to acquire the search engine in exchange for an estimate of 45 billion US Dollars.Yahoo seems to be calm in this arrangement, but has tricks up its sleeve. Yahoo in turn, to fend off Microsoft’s offer, is currently listening to the offer of AOL, Microsoft’s arch-nemesis, but if you get to look at AOL’s relationship with other giants, Google seems to own 5% of the Time Warner-owned company.Watch out for the next episode as to what will happen next to our favorite Internet characters.http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/02/11/yahoo.turns.to.aol/

Rock Band’s business model

Faye — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:10:16 +0000

This just in, the game, Rock Band, which opened its online music store recently has just sold around 6 million songs. A gold mine indeed since music sales have plummeted over the past months.Rock Band is a game where you place your shoes on a member of a band, let’s say a lead guitarist, or a drummer, and emulate it as if you are the one playing the song. And it has made artists or bands become known to new listeners because not only do gamers listen to the song, they interact with it by knowing how the bass goes, or drum beats.Bands like Paramore has been widely know due to the open of the online music store and with a dollar or two to download it, it is a very good deal.It’s like Rock Band and iTunes rolled into on, and consumers can listen to a preview before they settle in buying the music.I say it’s a nice business model.

Is it dead or what?

Faye — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:55:38 +0000

It was declared from a reliable source of the Apple Insider last year that the production of the Mac Mini or any other developments for this device will be put to a halt. But three months after that news break, it was announced by the Cupertino company that they will be releasing drop-ins of the product with an Intel Core2 Duo as its processor. The news (or rumor) site says that it is just an add in and no engineering was required for the added processor.But in a recent post last March 21 says that:

Among the improvements destined for the new lineup are 45-nanometer Core 2 Duo mobile chips starting at 2.1GHz with 3MB of shared L2 cache, an 800MHz front-side bus (up from 667MHz), and a step up to the same Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics processor employed by the existing line of 13-inch consumer MacBooks.

With this news, it seems that all system in terms of engineering and production will be put in full steam.From: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/03/21/rumor-new-mac-mini-in-development

Bluetooth

spikyemrys — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:57:53 +0000

Generally, most people have confused Bluetooth as being able to directly provide Internet access to computers once attached. This may have been due to them being confused by Bluetooth’s current capabilities. To clear things up, this article is here to define briefly what Bluetooth is and how exactly it provides internet access.

Bluetooth, generally speaking, works on the same principle as WiFi. Both use unregistered spread spectrum technology. Bluetooth is a device for connecting different devices, eg. mobile phones and computers, handsets and phones, etc., wirelessly. It is meant as a step up from the infrared technology that connected devices before. Bluetooth is more than capable than infrared in its capabilities such as being able to connect devices at greater distances and higher speeds.

History of WiFi

spikyemrys — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:49:47 +0000

The complexity of WiFi is usually too difficult for the average person to understand. To break it down, WiFi is an internet connection that uses two types of radio technology: a single carrier and a multi-carrier. The single carrier type of radio technology, direct sequence spread spectrum radio technology, was the reason behind unlicensed spread spectrum whose regulations enabled the development of WiFi as well as other wireless technology such as cordless telephones, Bluetooth, etc.The father of WiFi title has been awarded to Netherland invention, WaveLAN. Invented during 1991 by the NCR Corporation which later was renamed Lucent & Agere Systems, it held the chair of IEEE 802.11 for 10 years.

Web 2.0 – Taking the power of the few to the masses

Avatar — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:10:45 +0000

The advent of Web 2.0 has become one of the most thrilling developments in the evolutionary history of the internet. The power of the big business was liberated and brought into the hands of the users who now demand more from the web. From total satisfaction to sharing personal thought, the web has evolved so much that it is by no means any similar to the initial design and concept.
Having video blogs and blogs that earn money for that fact is making people realize that the web is more that just someplace to get mp3’s from and that they could now take the web with them all over the place. Ultra-mobile PC’s, laptops, PDA’s and even your lowly 3G mobile phone can now keep you in touch with the internet all the time.
Web development has evolved into an art with advertising now responsible for most profits of search engines and more traditional businesses. From your local hardware tot he furniture shop, they all have in one form or the other a web based ad system that gives them a bit more exposure.
But there is a dark side in all the developments that we have seen over these few years, privacy and identity theft have risen to such high levels that major law enforcement agencies have been forced to create specific offices just to deal with them. The many problems with information (classified and personal) being either lost or stolen have also risen so much that the UK and US government have had to redefine the way information is handled and transported to and from secure facilities. One of the biggest weak points that has continued to plague the privacy issue is that we humans are still the ones responsible for the loss or leakage of such information. Lost data CD’s, complacent behavior that makes us lenient in our handling of information is still one of the most vulnerable points in any IT system.

The world and the internet has truly evolved into something wonderful that allows people from across the world to get hold of information when and where ever they want it. Let us just hope that we, the creators of all this technology does not get obsolete as many of the technologies that have gone before us have faded into history.

The Smart Internet – Coming soon to a computer near you!

Avatar — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:57:28 +0000

The internet has invaded our lives and established itself as a daily necessity. Most people have access to the internet either through the home, work or even during play and it has allowed us to gather information like never before. One problem, the internet has grown so much that making sense of all the available information is truly mind-boggling. Do a simple search on a web browser and you get hundreds if not thousands of pages from which only a handful are truly useful for your particular application. The internet used to work with a program called a spider that goes through each and every web page indexing and storing all the information onto a database. That database has indeces as to what they are more likely to be relevant to a search that they are presented accordingly. Newer search engines have evolved into a sort of artificial intelligence that not only matches the words in your search but the manner and way the words co-relate to each other meaning it understands what you mean, or at least it tries to. The problem is that the total amount of information that is stored and added onto the millions of web servers are enormous and trying to handle all of them while dealing with information that is already there is quite next to impossible. Time may come when you get answers that you need as you mean them but for now, we still have to deal with a lot of garbage that finds it’s way though the search engine to your desktop leaving you to sort and determine their true value.