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We are happy to announce that the beta release of Microsoft® Office Live Communications Server 2005 is now available on Beta Place!

Live Communications Server 2005 is a next generation enterprise instant messaging and presence awareness server. Live Communications Server is a key part of the Microsoft real-time collaboration platform and supports the Microsoft vision of seamlessly connecting people, information and business processes in real-time to increase productivity and enable better decisions faster.

Live Communications Server 2005 builds on the foundation of the current version, Live Communications Server 2003, which provides a standards-based enterprise IM solution and an extensible real-time collaboration platform. Foundation elements include presence, encrypted IM, Microsoft Office System integration and standards-based architecture.

News source: Beta Place

Disappointing week for Firefox

The creator of the current Firefox default theme has posted that the Firefox devs will stop using his theme in favor of something more "uniform" and "free" across all supported platforms...meaning that they want to keep Firefox from looking too much like IE6 and also to create a "brand identity" that people will "recognize" across all platforms for Firefox and Thunderbird.

The change will occur this week, and will be the default for 0.9. I really hate this. Qute looks so great right now and I really wish they had pursued a better design. I'm sure you guys will agree that other themes will definitely have to be used once this monstrosity comes out in wide release the 12-14th. I am happy to report that Arvid will keep Qute alive for Firefox and will make it available as a theme for download.

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Firefox 0.9 Expected Release Date Announced

Firefox has been through numerous tests of the 0.9 branch in the last month and its finally coming close to squashing the last of the bugs, which is very exciting. I have been following the branch builds for a long time and Ben Goodger, the firefox developer who was interviewed by you guys(neowin) last month, has announced that the stable 0.9 release will be widely avalible by branch build dates 20040612 or 20040614

I think Mr. Magoo is working on the introduction to 0.9 article as we speak, right Tom?

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Netgear WG602 backdoor

The webinterface which is reachable from both interfaces (LAN/WLAN) contains an undocumented administrative account which cannot be disabled.

Any user logging in with the username "super" and the password "5777364" is in complete control of the device.

This vulnerability can be exploited by any person which is able to reach the webinterface of the device with a webbrowser.

Yikes!

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Startup Sells USB 2.0 Graphics Cards

A Japanese company is selling graphics adapters intended for USB 2.0 bus. While the unusual devices will hardly be interesting for gamers, the new product from Telegnosis may bring some flexibility to customers who need dual-display configurations on their personal computers that do not support it natively or to service companies.

Telegnosis’ USB 2.0 VGA adapter allows to display 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 resolutions with 8/16/32-bit color depth. The device will not be suitable for gamers as it does not sport Direct3D, however, the target market for the product seems to be business-oriented customers who need some additional capabilities from their notebooks or desktops.

It is not clear which graphics processor is used in Telegnosis’ device. Keeping in mind the small size of the adapter, it is likely that the USB 2.0 VGA is powered by a mobile graphics processor with embedded memory.

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British Telecom to mass-filter child porn websites

British internet service provider British Telecom has gone out of its way to block all child porn websites floating around the internet, in a crackdown against online abuse. This is the first attempt at mass internet censorship to be seen in the West, according to the Observer newspaper.

Most thought that the move would be at the limits of available technology and overly expensive, the report said, but BT chairman Christopher Bland folded to pressure put on him by children charity groups.

The operation, dubbed as Cleanfeed, will be up and running by the end of this month, according to The Observer. Demon Internet, Energis and Thus – all popular ISPs – are planning on introducing similar schemes.

If a BT user attempts to hop onto one of the banned sites, they'll receive an error message as if the page doesn't exist. BT will be registering the amount of access attempts but apparently won't record details of those accessing the sites.

Children's charity NCH's internet adviser, John Carr, is the one behind the whole scheme. He wrote to Home Office Minister Paul Goggins last July, insisting paedophilic web pages have action taken against them.

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