Friends Reunited message board shut down

The hugely popular Friends Reunited Web site has been forced to shut down its message board after teaching unions complained about the abuse of teachers by their ex-pupils. According to a report in Sunday's Observer newspaper, the unions objected to allegations of child abuse and other forms of misconduct being made against teachers and former teachers on the site. This morning the site was offline for a while and when it reappeared the message board feature had been removed. ...more

Microsoft urges November security patch action

Microsoft is urging its customers to install its November security fixes, after discovering exploit code aimed at attacking the vulnerabilities patched. Released just days ago, many businesses and consumers should have already installed the latest round of security bulletins, but Microsoft does not want to take any chances and has issued an advisory detailing the new threat. It says that although there is public proof of concept code targeting the vulnerability, there is no evidence as yet that this is being used in any form of attack. ...more

MusicNet undergoes Windows Media conversion

RealNetworks-backed MusicNet's catalogue is to be converted to Windows Media. Currently offered through AOL's online service, the format change could well be the first fruit of AOL and Microsoft chumming up, dropping the former's antitrust suit, and agreeing a seven-year, royalty-free licence to use Microsoft's entire Windows Media 9 Series digital media platform. Microsoft's cross-town rival RealNetworks is a majority shareholder and technology partner in MusicNet, which recently completed an additional round of funding from the company's original group of shareholders including RealNetworks, Bertelsmann, EMI and Warner Music Group. ...more

ATI ships long awaited X1000 range

Graphics chip manufacturer ATI has finally released its long-awaited new family of Radeon X1000 video cards. The new range features the new 3D 'R520' technology and is expected to compete head to head with arch rival Nvidia's GeForce 7800 series. ATI has launched three models in the range that aims to appeal to entry level through to the most hard-bitten gamer. ...more

W3C updates XML PKI spec

The Internet standards body W3C (World Wide Web consortium) has released a new XML specification as an official W3C Recommendation. The XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) 2.0 brings PKI (public key infrastructure) technology into the realm of Web services (PKI is the framework within which digital certificates can be exchanged). ...more