It's PDF Patching Day

It's PDF Patching Day

Get the patches while they are hot:

Update Foxit Reader if you have it already.

Update Adobe Reader if you still have it.

APSB09-03 - Security Updates available for Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9

Summary:

A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader

9 and Acrobat 9 and earlier versions. This vulnerability would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

There are reports that this issue is being exploited.

Adobe recommends users of Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9 update to Adobe Reader 9.1 and Acrobat 9.1. Adobe is planning to make available updates for Adobe Reader 7 and 8, and Acrobat 7 and 8, by March 18. In addition, Adobe plans to make available Adobe Reader 9.1 for Unix by March 25.

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 Beta as a Free Download

Microsoft's excitable CEO Steve Ballmer showed off Windows 7 the slick, fast, user-friendly successor to the much-maligned Windows Vista and said it will be available as a public beta on Friday.

Unveiled by an intense Ballmer during his keynote address on the eve of CES 2009, Windows 7 will offer better performance on underpowered machines such as netbooks, support for multitouch interfaces, and simplified home networking.

Ballmer said that this would be the "best version of Windows ever" and pointed out features that implicitly acknowledged the problems with Windows Vista.

"We are putting in all the right ingredients simplicity, reliability and speed and working hard to get it right and to get it ready," said Ballmer.

Read more at Wired

Good afternoon and it's hot here :)

Good afternoon everyone. The temp is getting up there in south east Kansas where we live. Right now it' s 97 degrees with a heat index of 102 outside. I went out to Wal-Mart last night to buy a new fan. We have central air condition in our house but when the temps get this high it's still hot in here so we use fans to help us feel cooler. Our fan that we used in our living room stopped working two days ago so I bought a new one. :) I was doing some stuff outside earlier today and got so hot I thought I was going to pass out so I gave up for the day and decided to just stay in and try to stay cool.

I was able to work on my computers a little and got Synergy working again. It stopped working after Vicki's friend Sheila left after her visit a few weeks ago. It took me a while to figure out what happened. When Sheila came to visit I made her a login on my computer so she could use it, when I did that it changed my computers IP address. LOL I finally when into the router and looked at the active IP table and saw right away what happened. I then went into Synergy and changed my IP address to the new correct one and re-booted and now everything works great. If you don't know what Synergy is it is software that allows you to use one mouse and keyboard with two or more computers at the same time. I have a Linux and a Windows computer on my desk that I use at the same time and it would be a pain to have to use two different keyboards and mice to access them.

I talked to my daughter in the Navy, Cindy a few days ago. Cindy made it to Everett Washington ok and has been working on the base and living in the barracks while waiting to go to her ship the USS Abe Lincoln. Cindy is an FC CIWS tech in the Navy and she just graduated CIWS C-School in San Diego earlier this month. Cindy is a little mad at me because I refuse to put a picture of her new tattoo on my blog. I as a parent find it inappropriate (sp) for this forum. I told her that if she would send me pictures of herself in clothes or even better in uniform I would love to post them. By the way her tattoo is on her chest so you can see what I mean when I say that I am not going to post that. I don't even want to see it myself again. Cindy has a right to do what she wants with her own body but I don't have to share the photos with the world.... God Bless you Cindy and I sure wish you would send me some things that I could post here.. I do love you. Dad

I have talked to my son in the Navy, John several times. His ship the USS Doyle is back in port in Mayport Florida. John said that they had a good cruse and completed all their qualifications. John is going to buy a cell phone charger tomorrow if he gets a chance. His old charger was take from his rack ( bed on the ship ) while he was sleeping. Right now he has to use Skype for phone calls. His ship goes out again in a few weeks and will be gone for a month. I know the exact days but I won't post them here. John is doing well and has his PT test today ( they have to do them every few months ) . He was worried that he might not pass because he is so sore all over from working. I think he will do just fine.

That's about all for now. I hope everyone has a great day.

RealPlayer Security Vulnerability and Fix reported

There's a RealPlayer vulnerability and fix reported. RealNetworks has issued a fix for a vulnerability, identified here by Symantec, that affects the import method of an Active X control.

Read the rest here at the Real Website.

CD burning for free...

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.

Key Features

* burn all kinds of discs

* audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks

* burn and create ISO files

* data verification after burning process

* create bootable discs

* multi-language interface

* bin/nrg → ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!

* Operating Systems: Windows 2000 / XP / 2003 Server / Vista

Download now!

480+ Open Source Applications

I have mentioned some Open Source software applications in the past week or so and today I came across this list ( OPEN SOURCE GOD: 480+ Open Source Applications ). It list over 480 open source ( free ) software applications. Go take look before you decide to buy that next piece of software.

Link

Download Old Versions of Software Applications

If the newest version of your freeware application doesn't seem to work, OldApps.com might just do the trick. OldApps.com archives many previous releases of popular programs for such emergencies. The site is very much like the previously mentioned OldVersion, but it appears to include a slightly larger number of applications. This is Definitely a handy resource to have bookmarked.

www.oldapps.com

IBM offers Free software tools for creating and sharing documents, spreadsheets and presentations

A week after IBM announced that it would join the OpenOffice.org developer community, the company has launched its own standalone office application suite. Like OpenOffice.org, IBM Lotus Symphony includes a word processor, spreadsheet application, and presentation software. That shouldn't be surprising, as the software was developed using technology from the open source OpenOffice.org.

Lotus Symphony, which is currently in beta is available as a free download. This strikes yet another blow to Microsoft Office's dominance on the office space. Not only are Excel, Word, and PowerPoint facing competition from downloadable programs like OpenOffice.org and Lotus Symphony, but there's increasing pressure from online software like Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Zoho.

Download Lotus Symphony here.

The 40 coolest free applications around

If you know me at all you know that I love Free stuff. So when I ran across this list I thought "I have to share this". Here is a good list of 40 free applications for your computer. Go take a look and if you have any other ideas that are not on that list share them with me. I would love to here about them.

The 40 coolest free applications around

CCleaner 2.0 beta can be run from a USB thumb drive

My son and I have been using CCleaner to clear off temporary files, cookies, and unused registry settings for a few years now. The program is updated often and the updates are usually incremental.

Now it looks like the folks behind CCleaner have pushed out a beta of version 2.0, with some exciting new features:

* CCleaner can be run from a USB thumb drive
* Take it with you when visiting your parents for the holidays.
* Faster analyzing and cleaning
* Select files, folders, and registry keys to ignore
* Rebuilt in C++ to support 64-bit compatibility and Windows Vista compatibility
* Redesigned GUI

The fact that you can now carry CCleaner with you on a USB drive is a nig step forward. The file takes up almost no space at all, making CCleaner a great addition to your portable toolkit.

This is beta software, so not everything works as well as it could but CCleaner should have that fixed soon. Best of all CCleaner is free and the software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or Viruses....

You can download the Beta here.

Google Pack Adds StarOffice to it's lineup

Google Pack added StarOffice to it's lineup. Google Pack, the collection of applications recommended by Google, includes a new software, StarOffice, an office suite developed by Sun. In 2000 Sun released StarOffice's source code, which became the foundation of OpenOffice.org, an open source project sponsored by Sun.

StarOffice 8 is a full-featured office suite that contains a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, applications for presentations, databases, math formulas and drawing. It has support for most Microsoft Office formats (except for the formats introduced in Office 2007), but it can also export documents as PDF out of the box. The software normally costs $70, but it's available for free in Google Pack. It's worth noting that StarOffice has a huge installer ( more than 140 MB ), so you should download it only if you have a fast Internet connection.

OldVersion.com Old versions of software

There is a great website I have not posted about and I thought it was about time I did. It's called OldVersion.com. Sometimes upgrading to a newer software version can be a good thing. Other times, your computer may not be compatible with the new version, the new version is bloated, or all the good options are no longer available. OldVersion.com has been supplying the online community with old versions of various programs since 2001. The service is utilized by thousands of users every day and has been featured in newspapers and magazines as well as on radio and television.

Go ahead and check it out.

Alternative user interface

My Desktop This Morning

I finally found a good replacement for WindowBlinds. It's called SharpE. SharpE is an alternative user interface for use with any modern Windows operating system (Windows 2K/XP/2K3). It replaces the Windows shell. (A shell is a program that interfaces directly with the user on one side and with underlying operating system functions on the other side.)

http://www.sharpe-shell.org/news.php

Open source equlivant to WindowBlinds?

I am trying to find a good open source equlivant to WindowBlinds, if you know of any let me know. Here you can see my current desktop. John