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Ubuntu 9.04, codenamed Jaunty Jackalope, has reached the beta testing stage. The beta release, which was made available for download last week, provides users with an opportunity to get an early look at the features that will be included in the new version of the popular Linux distribution.
Ubuntu 9.04 includes GNOME 2.26, the latest version of the open source GNOME desktop environment. We did some hands-on testing with the new GNOME release when it arrived earlier this month. GNOME typically represents a large chunk of the user-visible improvements in new Ubuntu releases, but there isn't really anything particularly exciting for Ubuntu users in GNOME 2.26.
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The Mac's ease of use is often cited as a reason for the platform's popularity in small businesses and home offices. Apple is now offering a new seminar for those businesses not familiar with the platform but looking to use Macs for their computing needs. Titled "Your business on a Mac. A better bottom line," the seminars are being held around the US starting this week.
The three and a half hour-long seminar is intended to for business owners considering Macs, as well as existing Mac users hoping to use a Mac in an existing Windows environment. It covers the basics of Mac OS X, connecting to existing networks—including Windows-based workgroups, basic networking and file sharing, and using iWork and iLife for business purposes.
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After various problems, the replacement for Microsoft Expression Media 2 Service Pack 2 has finally arrived. The build number is 2.0.2096.0 but it will be a while before this version of SP2 trickles out via Microsoft Update and the Mac AutoUpdate. Thankfully, the new SP2 is also available on the Microsoft Download Center for Windows (3.5 MB) and Mac (62.5 MB). If you are on the original SP2, you will need to roll back to SP1. If that doesn't work, you will have to uninstall and install SP1, and then patch with SP2. The replacement service pack fixes the following issues in the original:
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A year and 5 months after releasing iWork '08, Apple finally updated its productivity suite to version '09. Keynote 5.0, Pages 4.0, and Numbers 2.0 all sport some refinements, but this time around iWork isn't joined by a new family member. Apple touts an enhanced template chooser and more ways to share for all three applications. Apart from that, Pages gains a full screen view, dynamic outlines, mail merge with Numbers, and MathType and Endnote for including mathematical equations and bibliographies. For Numbers, it's easy formulas, formula list view, table categories, and advanced charts. Keynote gains magic move, more transitions, chart animations, and Keynote remote. Finally, there is iwork.com.
In this review, I'll be looking primarily at what's new in this latest version vs. iWork '08. So if you're unfamiliar with iWork, please read our Work '08 review first for background information that isn't replicated here. And although Microsoft Office is popular among Mac users, this review compares iWork mainly against its former self. Hopefully by the end of the review you'll know whether you should upgrade to iWork '09.
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The developers behind the GNOME project announced the official release of version 2.26 on Tuesday. It includes several useful enhancements, new programs, and improved configuration utilities.
GNOME is an open source desktop environment for the Linux platform. It provides a cohesive desktop user interface and an assortment of applications and utilities for messaging, multimedia, web browsing, and a variety of other tasks. In addition to applications and user interface components, it also offers a collection of application development frameworks that have made it the nexus of a much broader software ecosystem.
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I wrote a few weeks ago about changes Microsoft has made to Windows 7's User Account Control (UAC) that make the component less secure than it was in Vista. Though the company has responded by saying it will change some of the problem behaviors, yet more problems have emerged that indicate that a real fix will be harder than first expected. But more than that, the flaws call into question the entire purpose of the Windows UAC feature, at least in its commonplace "Admin Approval" mode.
The decisions Microsoft has made not only make Windows 7's Admin Approval mode less secure than Vista's, they also undermine the entire purpose of the UAC system. Redmond maintains that UAC's foremost objective is to ensure programmers update their programs to behave properly when users have limited access rights. But the way that the Windows 7 UAC "improvements" have been made completely exempts Microsoft's developers from having to do that work themselves. With Windows 7, it's one rule for Redmond, another one for everyone else.
The combination of significant security flaws and the inconsistent, "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude towards UAC should give Microsoft pause for thought. There's no point in retaining Admin Approval mode as it currently stands, and it should be scrapped completely.
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Plucky Meraki, a San Francisco mesh networking startup, is stepping up to play with the big boys with the introduction of its $1,499 MR58 WiFi router. Designed for outdoor use, the MR58 has three separate 802.11n radios each of which can be used for front-end networks or backhaul, while meshing with nearby networks. Both omnidirectional and directional antennas can be separately used with each radio.
Comparable products from competitors list for $5,000 (street, over $3,000) not including back-end management hardware, and lack the 802.11n support for distance and throughput.
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Unlike many, I'm a big fan of Vista's User Account Control. Truth is, I don't get a lot of prompts asking me to elevate, and those that I do get are legitimate. Sure, the implementation isn't perfect; there are some scenarios that cause a rapid proliferation of prompts that are a little annoying (such as creating a folder in a protected location in Vista RTM), and there are even a few places where it forces elevation unnecessarily, but on the whole I think it's a good feature.
The basic purpose of UAC is to annoy you when your software needs Admin privileges. The reason for this is simple: a lot of Windows software demands Admin privileges not because it needs to be privileged for everything it does, but rather because it was the quickest, easiest way for the developer to do some minor task. For example, games with the PunkBuster anti-cheat system used to demand Administrator privileges so that PunkBuster could update itself and monitor certain system activity. This was bad design because it meant that the game was then running with Administrator privileges the whole time—so if an exploit for the game's network code was developed, for example, that exploit would be able to do whatever it liked.
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