beforeyoukillyourcomputer.com

Adobe Systems Inc. today rolled out a beta version of its Adobe Flash Player 10 (formerly called Astro) browser plug-in, which adds features to help designers and developers create special effects and cinematic Web experiences.

The new offering adds support for custom filters and effects created using Adobe’s Pixel Bender tool kit, Adobe said. The Pixel Bender technology is used in the company’s After Effects CS3 tool, which creates motion graphics and visual effects for film and broadcast.

“We’re doing things that really change the game of what’s possible on the Internet,” said Tom Barclay, senior product marketing manager for Flash Player. “The community now has the ability to upgrade the capabilities of the player and create new types of effects and cinematic experiences that are not available with any other browser plug-in.”

The beta version of the player also includes native 3-D transformation and animation capabilities, an extensible rich-text layout, and graphics processing unit hardware acceleration, he added.

The new support for 3-D is “really 3-D for the rest of us,” Barclay noted. “It allows people to take what they know in the 2-D world and transform it into 3-D. It’s native so the performance is very fast, and it will not result in larger file sizes.”

New bit-rate streaming for video links between the Flash Player and intended future releases of Adobe’s Flash Media Server will automatically adjust video quality as bandwidth changes without having to rebuffer, the company said. “This will provide a seamless playback experience with no starting or stopping of video waiting for the stream to catch up,” Barclay said.

Well, it’s been talked about anecdotaly in web forums for a while now that the new service pack for XP brought with it an unexpected performance boost.

The researchers found that a PC loaded with Microsoft’s XP SP3 completed the OfficeBench test suite in less than 50 seconds. A similarly configured system running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 took more than 50 seconds to complete the test suite — which measures how quickly a computer can perform common tasks in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

“Since SP3 was supposed to be mostly a bug-fix/patch consolidation release … the unexpected speed boost comes as a nice bonus,” the researchers wrote.

They added that XP SP3’s slick performance may lead some computer users to forgo Windows Vista. Exo.performance.network found that with the new service pack, XP is now two times faster than the newer Microsoft OS.

The tests were conducted late last year on a prerelease build of XP SP3. So it’s possible the final version is even faster.

It’s not all four-star reviews for the service pack, however…

Full Story

The Wii Fit, which comes complete with its own special balance board, is one of the new fitness computer games from the Nintendo stable, which already includes virtual games such as tennis, boxing and bowling…

Sophie, a publicist, shows me the new hardware for Wii Fit at her office in Soho. On the floor in front of a giant TV is a pressure-sensitive balance board about the size of weighing scales. In fact, what the new Wii does is to weigh you straight away. Along with your height and age, the computer then works out your body mass index. Mine is 29.36, somewhere between Medically Obese and About To Drop Dead. “It’s not 100 per cent accurate,” Sophie says, tactfully. “Muscle weighs more than fat.” “Thanks,” I say. “I can see why you’re in PR.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3pfQdADxEs

Next, after some rudimentary balance exercises in which I am revealed to be fundamentally lopsided, the machine computes my “Wii age”. It is 65 (my actual age is 43). “Oh dear,” says Sophie. I have to choose a “Mii”, an icon to represent myself on screen. I go for a perky little chap with a side part and pot belly. He introduces himself. In Japanese. The English language version is not available yet, but if its success over there is anything to go by – more than a million copies of the game sold in just over a month – this game won’t be sitting on shop shelves for long.

I select an on-screen tutor, wondering if it’s morally or legally OK to lust after a computer-generated fitness instructor. She greets me with what I take to be a provocative pose. “She’s saying, ‘Hello, you fat bastard’,” the photographer says.

By now, everyone has heard horror stories about invasions of privacy, cyber-bullying, photos taken out of context, embarrassing videos posted online and the mob mentality of some commenters.

Let’s take just one example: in 2002, a Canadian boy filmed himself swinging a golf ball retriever as if he were a Jedi knight. For a while, the tape lay forgotten. Then some of his friends saw it, and without his permission, placed it online.

Within two weeks, the video had been posted in many places and viewed millions of times. Spin-off videos were produced, adding soundtracks and extra graphics. People who encountered the video of the Star Wars Kid online happily forwarded it to friends – without considering the ethical implications.

Full Story (Times Online)

FileZilla is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.

Features
Among others, the features of FileZilla include the following:

* Easy to use
* Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
* Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, OSX and more
* Available in many languages
* Supports resume and transfer of large files >4GB
* Powerful Site Manager and transfer queue
* Drag & drop support
* Configurable Speed limits
* Filename filters
* Network configuration wizard

Download FileZilla Client 3.0.9.3

The BYKYC forums are now open and ready for your questions, comments, and discussions. Register and have a good time. We will do our best to answer your questions in a timely manner. As the community grows we hope that we’ll all be helping each other when we need the help. You can either click the button, below, or click the red “Visit The Forums” button that will remain in the sidebar.

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

This is mostly a servicing release to fix a few important bugs.

* New: Enabled integration with Window Clippings, which is a high quality screen capture utility by Kenny Kerr.
* Fixed: Fixed a crash with the Open/Save dialogs if the Documents or Pictures directories were either inaccessible or if the user did not have certain file system permissions.
* Changed / Fixed: The hotkey for Adjustments -> Levels is now Ctrl+Shift+L instead of Ctrl+Alt+L. This was preventing certain characters, such as the Polish ‘ł’, from being typed.

Download Paint.NET 3.31

Full Roadmap and Change Log
Paint.NET 3.31 Documentation
Paint.NET Plugins

I was introduced to TeamViewer earlier this week by one of my IT buddies. TeamViewer is handy remote software and unique in the fact that it uses port 80 (same port as internet). This assists greatly in successful connections with someone with a hardware or softwall firewall.

From the TeamViewer website:
TeamViewer is the fast, simple and friendly solution for remote access over the Internet - all applications in one single, very affordable module:

Remote control of computers over the Internet
Instantly take control over a computer anywhere on the Internet, even through firewalls. No installation required, just use it fast and secure.

Training, sales and teamwork
TeamViewer can also be used to present your desktop to a partner on the Internet. Show and share your software, PowerPoint presentations etc.

File transfer, chat and more
Share your files, chat, switch the direction during a teamwork session, and a lot more is included in TeamViewer

Download TeamViewer 3.5.4356

Thunderbird 2 features many new enhancements to help you better manage your unruly inbox, and stay informed. Thunderbird 2 scales to the most sophisticated organizational needs while making it easy to find what you need.

Mozilla has bolstered Thunderbird’s acclaimed security and privacy measures to ensure that your communications and identity remain safe. It’s like having your own security guard online.

Thunderbird allows you to customize your email to suit your specific needs whether it’s how you search and find messages or listening to music right out of your inbox.

Fixed in Thunderbird 2.0.0.14
MFSA 2008-15 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.1.13)
MFSA 2008-14 JavaScript privilege escalation and arbitrary code execution

Download Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.14

Xfire is a free tool that automatically keeps track of when and where gamers are playing PC games online and lets their friends join them easily. It works regardless of game type, server browser, or gaming service that a player is using. Xfire eliminates the hassles of running multiple programs like IRC, instant messengers, or in-game friends lists to keep track of when and where a gamer’s friends are playing. It supports the best and the latest online PC games including server- and non-server-based First Person Shooters, Real Time Strategy, and Role Playing Games.

Changes:
# Improved the in-game overlay when capturing a video to include video duration and file size.
# Added capability to detect some 64-bit games.
# Improved voice chat performance on certain sound cards.
# Fixed a problem that caused many video uploads to return an unknown error.
# Fixed many small problems with video conversion and uploading.
# Added Cool/Lame ratings to the video player on the web site. View top-rated videos on the Xfire home page.
# The video tab automatically refreshes if you modify the video directory from another program.
# New games supported:

Rohan Online, Warriors Orochi, Alien Arena 2008 , Ninja Reflex: Steamworks Edition, Lunia, Uplink, Slayers Online, Second Sight, Imperium Romanum, Yu-Gi-Oh! Online: Duel Evolution, Assassin’s Creed, Terra: Battle for the Outlands, Darkstar One, OpenTTD, NosTale, Jagged Alliance 2 Gold, American McGee’s Alice, Skulltag, Saga, Trackmania Nations Forever, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2, The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff, Kung Fu Panda Demo

Download Xfire 1.91 Build 31460