March 18
FireFox Community Beta Program
If you downloaded and installed pre-release versions of Firefox 2, you became part of this Firefox Community beta program and were automatically updated to the Firefox 2 final release. The same program is continuing…
“To ensure continued improvement in the quality of Firefox 2, we are now applying the same program to our security and stability release process for Firefox 2. Starting within the next 24 hours, everyone who participated in the beta process will be offered a pre-release version of the next security and stability update.”
The final release of Firefox 2.0.0.3 will take place shortly after complete wide testing through this program. To exclude yourself from the beta program, simply download and install the latest stable production release of Firefox.
To identify if you are part of the beta program, in the Firefox location bar type: about:config. In the Filter field, enter: app.update.channel and press enter. If you see the value app.update.channel set to “beta” you are enrolled in the beta program.
March 17
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has terminated the Registration Accreditation Agreement (RAA) of Domain registrar Registerfly.com.
Effective immediately ICANN has terminated RegisterFly’s right to use the ICANN Accredited Registrar logo on its website.
Between now and 31 March RegisterFly is required to unlock and provide all necessary Authinfo codes to allow domain name transfers to occur. Any and all registrants wishing to transfer away from RegisterFly during this period should be allowed to do so efficiently and expeditiously.
“Terminating accreditation is the strongest measure ICANN is able to take against RegisterFly under its powers,” Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN said today.
“ICANN has been frustrated and distressed by recent management confusion inside RegisterFly,” Dr. Twomey, President said. “I completely understand the greater frustration and enormous difficulty that this has created for registrants.”
March 14
Computer Shutdown Day
Can you switch off your computer for one full day? Be a part of one of the biggest global experiments to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day. The Shutdown day is on March 24, 2007.
Shutdown your computer on Shutdown day and see if you can survive for 24 hours without your computer.
I do not believe that I can meet the challenge, but I shall try my hardest. I have a big report that I need to work on so maybe there will be a problem lol.
But if you want to take part in a worldwide event, this is a way to do just that!
March 13
MicroSoft HD Photo
Microsoft has announced HD Photo, a new file format for digital photography that offers higher image quality, greater preservation of data, and advanced features for current digital imaging applications.
“HD Photo offers compression with up to twice the efficiency of JPEG, with fewer damaging artifacts, resulting in higher-quality images that are one-half the file size. In addition, HD Photo offers increased image fidelity, preserving the entire original image content and enabling higher-quality exposure and color adjustments in the image. This new format offers the ability to decode only the information needed for any resolution or region, or the option to manipulate the image as compressed data.”
So how to increase the adoption of this new image format? Microsoft has released a set of HD Photo plugins for Adobe Photoshop software, which enable users to both read and write HD Photo files from within Adobe Photoshop software, and include support for high dynamic range pixel formats.
The HD Photo Device Porting Kit allows manufacturers to add HD Photo support in devices and to other platforms. HD Photo is natively supported in Windows Vista by a Windows Imaging Component (WIC) codec, and can be similarly supported in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 through a free WIC download. HD Photo is also included in Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0.
All these downloads are available at the Microsoft Download Centre. JPEG is a very popular image format, and reading about the much advanced features of HD Photo, it may be a matter of time that this format gains popularity…