IBM, Zend Team-up on PHP Development

InfoWorld: IBM, Zend lift PHP in development deal: February 25, 2005: By Ed Scannell : APPLICATION_DEVELOPMENT : APPLICATIONS : NETWORKING : WEB_SERVICES
Hoping to spur its open source development strategies, IBM (Profile, Products, Articles) has announced a deal with Zend Technologies (Profile, Products, Articles) to create what it believes is the first integrated programming solution using the Web-based PHP language. IBM also committed to delivering at least 30 existing software projects to open source developers.

The agreement with Zend calls for the integration of two open source technologies, namely IBM’s Cloudscape database and Zend’s PHP development environment. The combined technologies will create Zend Core for IBM, which will serve as an “out-of-the-box” PHP development and production environment that allows corporate users to develop, deploy, and manage open source applications.

Firefox Goes to 1.0.1 With Security Update

Firefox Gets Major Security Makeover
The Mozilla Foundation last Thursday rolled out a major security update to fix several known cross-site scripting and domain-spoofing vulnerabilities in the upstart Firefox browser.

The nonprofit foundation said the new Firefox 1.0.1 was rushed out to provide a temporary fix for the IDN (International Domain Name) bug that was first flagged earlier this month.

Gibson Digital Guitar – A packet of MaGIC powder

Gibson Digital Guitar – A packet of MaGIC powder
The digital pickup is built right in, and it sends a digital signal to a breakout box (called BoB) which converts to analog. Makes sense.

Then some lights started to go on. You can output a single analog signal made up of all six strings. Or, you can output two groups of three strings (hi-lo split). Or, you can output each string individually. Anyone with six guitar amps will be trying out some wild spacial effects that would put a sixties stereo guitar to shame.

All made possible by the open source spec MaGIC that is intended to handle lots of audio and control data in real-time using plain old cat-5. I hope this cathes on.

MSFT to Unveil IM, VidConf Tools

InfoWorld: Microsoft to unveil new IM, video conferencing tools: February 24, 2005: By : APPLICATION_DEVELOPMENT : APPLICATIONS
Company Chairman Bill Gates will attend a live event in San Francisco, along with Anoop Gupta, Microsoft’s vice president of RTC, according to a Microsoft representative in the U.K.

The executives will lay out their strategy for the division and show off new technologies, the representative said. Simultaneous launches will take place in London and other cities, with Gates and Gupta broadcast over a live link, possibly demonstrating Microsoft’s new video conferencing tool, the representative suggested.