Oracle Fixes Java After Months of Silence, But You Might As Well Keep It Turned Off

Oracle  released a new version of Java, plugging security holes so severe that experts recommended that Internet users disable the plugin immediately. The fix is available for download here for users and here for developers. “Due to the high severity of these vulnerabilities, Oracle recommends that customers apply this Security Alert as soon as possible,” the company wrote in a blog post.

But that urgency stands in contrast to how Oracle seemed to handle the problem. For four days after security researchers publicly reported that hackers were exploiting flaws in the Java web browser plug-in to gain access to people’s computers, the company was silent. I called at least five representatives and emailed the company’s main PR address, and heard in response not a peep.

Ah, but talk is cheap, and the four-day turnaround for the fix suggests that at least Oracle was quick in its actions, right? Well, maybe. But yesterday afternoon, IDG News Service’s Lucian Constantin reported that Polish security researcher Adam Gowdiak had actually notified the Redwood Shores-based company of the problem way back in April. Gowdiak told IDG that an Oracle status report dated Aug. 23 indicated the company was planning to fix the vulnerabilities in its regularly scheduled October update. Its previous update, in June, fixed only three of 29 issues that Gowdiak said he had reported. (A post from Softpedia has additional technical details, for those fluent in computer programming.)

And Alex Lanstein of the security firm FireEye, which publicly reported the Java attacks on Sunday, told me in an email that they had been going on much longer than that.

So for all those who followed my advice and disabled Java, is it now time to turn it back on? Unless you need it, probably not, experts say. Lanstein’s take: “We never recommend users run unnecessary software, so if there isn't a current need for Java, we'd recommend keeping it disabled until it is needed, and of course, patched to the most recent version.” And Sophos’ Chet Wisniewski: “Less programs, less vulnerabilities. If you don't really need it, don't enable/install it.”

Note: I mentioned this in my first post, but it is confusing enough that it bears repeating: Java is not related to Javascript. Disabling Javascript will do nothing to protect you from these attacks, and will probably impair your ability to view a bunch of websites that you use on a regular basis. Java applets, on the other hand, have become relatively scarce on the Web over time.

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Android 4.1, Jelly Bean

Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, is the fastest and smoothest version of Android yet. Jelly Bean improves on the simplicity and beauty of Android 4.0, and introduces a new Google search experience on Android.

• Everything in Jelly Bean feels fast, fluid, and smooth. Moving between home screens and switching between apps is effortless, like turning pages in a book.
• Jelly Bean features improved performance throughout the system, including faster orientation changes, faster responses when switching between recent apps, and smoother and more consistent rendering across the system through vsync and triple buffering.
• Jelly Bean has more reactive and uniform touch responses, and makes your device even more responsive by boosting your device's CPU instantly when you touch the screen, and turns it down when you don't need it to improve battery life.

• What's new in Jelly Bean

   Accessibility

  • With Jelly Bean, blind users can use 'Gesture Mode' to reliably navigate the UI using touch and swipe gestures in combination with speech output.
  • With the new accessibility focus feature, you can move a cursor between controls to maintain a target for the next action or a source for the next navigation event. You can double tap anywhere to launch the current item with accessibility focus.
  • Text traversal in accessibility now gives you more control – choose to move between pages, paragraphs, lines, words or characters.
  • TalkBack, a screenreader for Android, now supports gestures to trigger actions, to navigate applications, and traverse text.
  • Get full support for braille accessibility services (download BrailleBack on Google Play).

  Android Beam

  • With Android Beam, you can now easily share your photos and videos.
  • Instantly pair your phone or tablet to Bluetooth® devices like headsets or speakers that support the Simple Secure Pairing standard by just tapping them together.

  Audio Accessories

  • Support for USB audio docks, shipping later this year.

   Browser and WebView

  • Browser has improved performance, CPU and memory efficiency. With better performance for animations and HTML5 canvases and an updated JavaScript Engine (V8), pages load faster and feel smoother.
  • Browser now has better HTML5 video support, and has a new user experience. Just touch the video to play and pause, and smoothly transition into and out of fullscreen mode.
  • Browser now supports the updated HTML5 Media Capture specification on input elements.
  • WebView now supports vertical text, including Ruby Text and other vertical text glyphs.

   Calendar

  • Calendar is more buttery. Content fades in, animations are sprinkled throughout, and swiping/paging between days is smoother.
  • Calendar will now display event colors if you've given your event a color on your PC.
  • The 'Today' button on the action bar now shows the current day. When viewing an event's details, you can now email all the guests with a single tap.
  • Notifications for upcoming events now display more of the event description to let you quickly see relevant details without having to open the app.
  • Notifications for upcoming events now let you email all the guests without opening the app, and you can choose a quick response such as "Be there in 10 minutes" or type your own.
  • A new option in Calendar settings lets you create your own default quick responses for emailing guests.
  • You can now snooze an upcoming event reminder right from the notification.
  • Calendar has a new 7" tablet layout that is optimized for the form factor.
  • When viewing Calendar in portrait orientation on tablets, you can hide or expand controls to give you complete control over how you view your Calendar space.
  • Calendar will now remember whether you've chosen to hide or expand controls so you have a consistent experience viewing Calendar whenever you open it.

   Camera and Gallery

  • You can now swipe from the camera viewfinder to quickly review photos you've taken without having to leave the camera app. You can swipe back to the camera viewfinder to start snapping photos again.
  • When viewing photos in Gallery, you can pinch to zoom out to enter "filmstrip mode" and rapidly review photos. When viewing photos in filmstrip mode, you can swipe up or down to delete an individual photo. You can also undo the delete with a single tap.
  • When taking a photo, a new animation sweeps your photo off the screen. There is now a new paging animation when swiping between photos.
  • Camera features a new animation for switching between the front-facing and back cameras.
  • When focusing on an object in Camera, a new animation gives you visual feedback on your focus state.
  • Gallery features a new animation when selecting a photo from within the album view and back.

  Data Usage

  • You can now dismiss a data usage warning without changing the data threshold set for warning notifications.
  • Disable background data usage on certain Wi-Fi SSIDs by designating them as mobile hotspots.
  • Android now automatically detects when one Jelly Bean device is tethered to another's Wi-Fi hotspot, and intelligently enables or disables background data usage on the SSID.

  Face Unlock

  • Face Unlock is now faster and more accurate, and startup is smoother with a new animation.
  • You can improve face matching accuracy by calibrating your face in different conditions and with different accessories (e.g. hat, glasses).
  • Face Unlock can now optionally require a 'blink' to verify that a live person is unlocking the device rather than a photo.

  Internationalization

  • Jelly Bean adds support for bidirectional text and more input languages to make the platform accessible to more people around the world.
  • There is improved support for Arabic and Hebrew, including a new Arabic font, in the platform.
  • You can now enter text in one of 18 new input languages, including Persian, Hindi and Thai. Additional Indic languages Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam are now supported by the platform.
  • Emoji from Unicode 6.0 will now render when received or viewed.
  • If the system language is set to Japanese, Japanese specific versions of glyphs will now be properly rendered.

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25 Years Later, Microsoft Unveils A Revamped Corporate Logo

Microsoft has a new look. The company just took the wraps off its new corporate branding. Replacing its previous logo is a staunch, four-pane colored window very reminiscent of the grid layout scheme found in Microsoft’s latest products. Microsoft is also spelled in a simple, bond font — mostly likely Segoe.
The new grid clearly reflects Microsoft’s latest design language started first with the Zune and later adapted by the Xbox 360, Windows Phone and most recently, Windows 8. It’s clean, simple, and also like Windows 8, most people will probably hate it.
The symbol in the new logo should look familiar. It’s likely the merger of the Microsoft Store logo with Window 8′s.
The outgoing logo was 25 years old. This new version, Microsoft’s fifth corporate logo in 37 years, is the first to incorporate a symbol alongside Microsoft’s name. Previous editions simply spelled out Microsoft. As noted by the The Seattle Times, this latest version includes a subtle nod to the original 1975-1979 logo by connecting the F and the T.
Microsoft is attempting to turn the page on its past and move forward into a new chapter. Windows 8 features a radically different design philosophy from previous editions. The Surface tablet shows the company is ready to bust free from the software world. The Xbox 360 is leading the charge against the cable operators. It can be argued that even Windows Phone is something totally new. It’s a timely change for Microsoft’s corporate identity. The new logo more better represents the modern day Microsoft.

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3D NIF File Format Library and Tools

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 NifTools aims to enable users to create and edit 3D models stored in the NetImmerse File Format, which is used in many popular games based on the NetImmerse/Gamebryo game engine such as Morrowind, DAoC, Freedom Force, Civ4, Oblivion, Fallout 3, ..



for software download click here

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