Software: Mozilla browser gets serious

By | November 24, 2011
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 The open-source web browser Mozilla is back. The newest release, 1.4, wins the approval of eWEEK Labs, which found the new features “remarkable improvements that enhance what was already the best browser option out there”. These include different launch options for startup, new windows and new tabs, changes in popup blocking and image management, bookmark handling an improved HTML editor, a mail client that includes a Bayesian anti-spam filter.
 
Also released the same day as Mozilla 1.4 was Netscape 7.1, based on the Mozilla 1.4 code. Not much difference between them, but eWEEK suggests that “novice users will find it easier to get plug-ins running in Netscape”. Both are free.
 
This is the last version of a browser/email client, eWEEK say. Next time they’ll come in two separate versions.

Software: Spam Bully out of beta

By | November 24, 2011
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 Spam Bully, an email spam filter that integrates into Outlook and Outlook Express, is now out of beta and officially ready to go.
 
 
I haven’t given Spam Bully a test run, but it uses Bayesian Filters, an approach I wrote about a few weeks back, so in theory should work well.
 
From their press release: “Spam Bully’s self-learning email filter uses a probability based mathematical theory developed by 18th century British clergyman Thomas Bayes. Bayes’ theorem is based on the number of times an event has or has not occurred and the likelihood it will occur in the future. Using Bayes’ theories in conjunction with email filtration allows Spam Bully to determine the probability that an email is “spam” based on the words it contains. Spam Bully’s Bayesian filter was created from over 35,000 spam messages, allowing it to intelligently learn which words spammers are likely to use. Spam Bully will adapt itself to a user’s own email preferences and over time continually adjusts to new types of spam.”
 
Spam Bully costs $30.

News: Amazon customers snap up $10 ‘goodies’

By | November 24, 2011
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 From the ‘people will buy anything so long as you don’t tell them what it is and it comes in a box’ department, Wired reports of a new service from Amazon, where customers can buy a Goodie Box of 1 to 5 “goodies” — freebies, basically — from software publishers randomly dropped into a box. Technically it’s free, since the box costs $10 but includes a $10 mail-in rebate. (The buyer pays for shipping, which starts at $4, and one assumes most folk forget to mail the rebate coupon.)
Recent boxes included a Microsoft Money trial CD, a CD wallet from Roxio, a Photoshop Album Starter Edition CD from Adobe and some Post-It cubes from Apple.
 
Needless to say, since the service started in May it’s been so popular they’ve sold out and are waiting to get more stuff. I can well believe something like this is popular. Any time I’ve mentioned I’ve got cupboards full of this kind of stuff, folk send me emails asking me to send it their way. Short answer: no. Bids start at $10.

News: Bloggers free to speak

By | November 24, 2011
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 Bloggers Gain Libel Protection 
 
Wired reports that the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors (folk like me, in other words) can’t be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers.
 
The ruling, the Wired article by Xeni Jardin says, effectively differentiates conventional news media, which can be sued relatively easily for libel, from certain forms of online communication such as moderated e-mail lists. One implication is that DIY publishers like bloggers cannot be sued as easily.
 
My tuppence? It’s good news in the sense that blogs and the like are more like commentaries, and therefore free speech, than publications. But that doesn’t mean they should not strive to be accurate, and differentiate between facts and opinions: Product X does A, B and C; I don’t think it’s any good because of D, E and, er, F. Blogs on specific topics (I’m not talking about daily journals about what your pet tortoise has been up to, unless it happens to be designing a new Bluetooth standard) will only be read if they’re considered to be reliable, if not authoritative.

Update: AlphaSmart to go wireless

By | November 24, 2011
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 The folk at AlphaSmart tell me that yesterday they showed off the next generation version of Dana, the cool word-processing keyboard I reviewed a few weeks ago, at the National Educating Computer Conference in Seattle. (Their website has no details so far.)
 
 
The new model offers built-in Wi-Fi technology (802.11b), allowing Dana users to access email and the Internet wirelessly. AlphaSmart will launch the model before the next school year and hope this will “enhance Dana?s position as a true laptop alternative”. Dana Wireless also offers a better display and additional fonts.