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Pidgin is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr networks. Gaim users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer, away messages, and typing notification. It also goes beyond that and provides many u…

Sony warned that hackers stole password, birthday and other data about users of its PlayStation Network that connected PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles to online games, films and more. PlayStation Network and Qriocity streaming music service were turned off April 20 in the wake of an "external intrusion," according to Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold. While the cyber attack was still being investigated, Sony said it believed that PlayStation Network and Qriocity service users' names, addresses, birthdates, passwords, and email addresses were swiped. "While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility," Sony said in …

VLC (VideoLAN) is a multi-platform multimedia player that is driven by open-source development. It can read DVDs, VCDs, MPEG, and DivX files and from a satellite card. It can also read a stream from a network sent by the VideoLAN Server or another source. The stream can be MPEG 2 TS in UDP or HTTP packets unicasted or multicasted on an IPv4 or IPv6 network. Download: VLC media player 1.1.10 | Other Versions Changes: Changes Homepage: VideoLAN View the full article

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is a full-blown anti-malware program that has recently left the labs and can be considered the next step in the detection and removal of malware. Malwarebytes Team put together a host of new technologies that were specially designed to quickly detect, deter and destroy any malware that could reside in your computer. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware monitors every process and actually stops malicious processes before they even start. It uses an impressive technology that is in fact a completely novel way of heuristic scanning and it is the teams response to the increasingly complex malware threats. And, as they did with Malwarebytes' RogueRemover we…

Notepad++ is a free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment. This project, based on the Scintilla edit component, written in C++ with pure win32 api and STL that ensures the higher execution speed and smaller size of the program. Notepad++ supports the following languages: C, C++, Java, C#, XML, HTML, PHP, javascript, RC resource file, makefile, ASCII art file, doxygen, ini file, batch file, ASP, VB/VBS source files, SQL, Objective-C, CSS, Pascal, Perl, Python and Lua. Download: Notepad++ 5.9.2 Homepage: Notepad++ View the full article

foobar2000 is a comprehensive, easy to use audio player for Windows. Featuring full Unicode support, advanced tagging capabilities, customizable hotkeys, ReplayGain to help correct your audio and many more useful utilities to assist your media library. There are multiple ways to configure and customize your user interface. foobar's developer also includes an open component architecture allowing third-party developers to extend functionality of the player. foobar2000 allows you to easily use multiple playlists and utilize features to remove both duplicates and dead items. foobar handles multiple popular audio formats, including: MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis,…

Notepad++ is a free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment. This project, based on the Scintilla edit component, written in C++ with pure win32 api and STL that ensures the higher execution speed and smaller size of the program. Notepad++ supports the following languages: C, C++, Java, C#, XML, HTML, PHP, javascript, RC resource file, makefile, ASCII art file, doxygen, ini file, batch file, ASP, VB/VBS source files, SQL, Objective-C, CSS, Pascal, Perl, Python and Lua. Download: Notepad++ 5.9.1 Homepage: Notepad++ View the full article

Well, it's all over the Internet by now (100,000+ hits in Google) but yet another Comodo subsidiary has been hacked and, once again Comodo has egg all over its face. That's the fourth known instance of a Comodo subsidiary or reseller being hacked this year. You might remember that the hack of the Italian subsidiary/reseller a couple of months ago caused Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple to issue emergency updates revoking the fraudulent SSL certificates that the hacker issued himself, for Google, Mozilla, Skype and Windows Live (actual domains were: mail.google.com, www.google.com, login.yahoo.com, login.skype.com, addons.mozilla.org and login.live.com. This time it's …

Recently Ed Bott released his list of Foistware Hall of Shame programs. It's a bit hard to say what foistware is since there is no official definition for this term. But the basics of it is that it is software installers that also try to install potentially unwanted software onto the users computer. These are things like toolbars, browsers and other things that some users will think they have to install in order to install the application. Sadly this sort of thing has been allowed to go on for a very long time. In fact, it's almost impossible to find quality software that does not want to install some kind of unwanted garbage. I've noticed that avast unfortunately want…

CCleaner - also known as Crap Cleaner - is a disk cleanup utility that goes beyond the scope of the built in Windows Disk Cleanup tool. Featuring the ability to clean up temporary files, browser history and cache, the Recycle Bin, along with Windows applications that you install. There is also a registry cleaner, uninstall helper, startup manager, System Restore manager and disk wiper. You can choose to have your data cleaned with a single pass or range up to the Gutmann 35 pass data cleaning sequence. There's even a cookie manager and free space wiper. One of the great things about CCleaner is that it automates all of these cleanings so you don't have to hunt down these …

A unique feature of Mozilla Firefox and its Gecko-based browser cousins is the Profile Manager, which allows each user to have multiple Firefox profiles (where bookmarks, add-ons, and other user data are stored). This is very useful to developers and testers - they can use separate profiles to try new browser versions or add-ons without risk of corrupting their regular profile. A user can also have different profiles for different purposes - one set of bookmarks and/or add-ons for work and another for personal use, for instance. Many users don't know about it, though - profiles are in a hidden directory by default, and the Profile Manager is also hidden, accessed by …

A unique feature of Mozilla Firefox and its Gecko-based browser cousins is the Profile Manager, which allows each user to have multiple Firefox profiles (where bookmarks, add-ons, and other user data are stored). This is very useful to developers and testers - they can use separate profiles to try new browser versions or add-ons without risk of corrupting their regular profile. A user can also have different profiles for different purposes - one set of bookmarks and/or add-ons for work and another for personal use, for instance. Many users don't know about it, though - profiles are in a hidden directory by default, and the Profile Manager is also hidden, accessed by …

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Some of the useful features include drag and drop support, filename filters, network configuration wizard, powerful site manager, transfer queue, and it even supports resume and transfer of files larger than 4GB. When FileZilla v3 was released a built in updater was introduced. This allowed users to update their FileZilla Client faster and easier. Included are options to check for nightly and beta builds of the FileZilla Client. Download: FileZilla 3.5.0 Homepage: FileZilla on SourceFo…

Following Mozilla's change of direction, to a rapid-release schedule, they have now released the first "official" Beta of Firefox 5. Choose your language and platform here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html There's a version for android mobiles as well. .

While there are many browsers available such as Chrome, Opera, and obviously Firefox and Internet Explorer; to me, few are really worth using. I've used every popular browser and despite them all having their strong points, Firefox has been my primary choice but I'll elaborate my reasons for this. Based on the W3CSchool's Usage Statistics I'm not alone in feeling this way. Internet Explorer 9 is one I use as a fallback browser for when I need to quickly look something up. The fact that there's also the EasyPrivacy Tracking Protection List is a huge plus. It's also great to check any changes I'm making to Lunarsoft to see how they'd look to most visitors. Compatibility …

A year and a half after it's debut on the market Windows 7 has sold more than 350 million licenses. Microsoft has said that Windows 7 is the "fastest selling Operating System in history." Windows 7 had an amazing launch when it debuted in October of 2009. But the momentum has picked up here in 2011. According to analysts, Windows 7 launch sales were 234% higher than Windows Vista. Just short of one year from the initial launch, Windows 7 had already sold more than 175 million licenses. Breaking that down, it took eleven months for the first 175 million licenses to sell and only seven months for the second 175 million. If you were to break that down to a per-day sale th…

YouTube's co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen bought the popular social bookmarking site Delicious from Yahoo, saving the service from being shut down. It's said that this acquisition for the two entrepreneurs is because they are returning to tech under their new venture called AVOS. In 2005 Yahoo acquired Delicious to integrate the service's social aspects into their own web offerings. Yahoo began to struggle from increasing competition and last December went through a mjaor restructuring. Unfortunately this meant that many services would be shut down. Altavista, Yahoo Bookmarks, Yahoo Picks, Yahoo Buzz, MyM, Alltheweb, and MyBlogLog are all set to be, or have alre…

With just a quick look at the Firefox 4 download statistics page it shows that Firefox 4 has been downloaded over 125 million times and that number is still climbing quite rapidly. Within the first 24 hours, Firefox 4 had a total of more than six million downloads. Keep in mind that when Internet Explorer 9 launched a week earlier that there were just 2.35 million downloads according to Betanews. Though in all fairness, IE9 is not available on Windows XP whereas Firefox 4 still works. Based on the download totals so far it will be interesting to see how Firefox does when they release version 5 and have to compete against the other popular browsers out there. Vie…

Rootkits are the ultimate in stealthy malware, burying themselves so deep into your system that they're often very hard to spot. If you're unlucky enough to encounter one then your antivirus package might detect it, but there are no guarantees, and so it may be wise to equip your PC with a second line of defence in Kaspersky's TDSSKiller. As the name suggests, TDSSKiller is designed to target a few, specific threats (TDSS, Sinowal, Whistler, Phanta, Trup, Stoned). These can be very dangerous, though, so having another way to pick them up isn't going to hurt -- and the program can also detect hidden services, forged files, MBR changes and other suspicious signs that co…

Thunderbird is a fast, flexible e-mail client. You can quickly search through your e-mails, worry less about spam thanks to the spam filters, and even customize how you view Thunderbird. Thunderbird works with most Firefox add-ons as well, adding more content to your e-mail client. Thunderbird makes the e-mail experience fun again. Download: Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1.10 | Other Systems and Languages Changes: Release Notes Homepage: Mozilla Thunderbird View the full article

Microsoft warned its Xbox Live users today to be on alert of any potential scammers who want to steal your sensitive personal information. Just recently, the Playstation Network suffered an intrusion by a hacker who stole personal user information such as credit card numbers for nearly 77 million users. As reported, this issue seems to be an isolated issue. According to Microsoft, users who play the Modern Warfare 2 game on Xbox Live may receive potential phishing attempts. "Users may receive potential phishing attempts via title specific messaging while playing Modern Warfare 2. We are aware of the problem and are working to resolve the issue. We apologize for any inc…

Firefox (referred to as Fx) is an open source browser developed by Mozilla. The second most popular browser worldwide, Firefox features a customizable user interface that allows you to enhance it using custom themes and Personas. Personas change the appearance of the user interface without rearranging the elements. Themes however, can completely change the UI ranging from the types of buttons to the color sceme used. Add-ons allow you to customize Firefox to your liking to make a more enjoyable web surfing experience. Some examples of popular add-ons that you can use to customize Firefox are AdBlock Plus, DownThemAll!, TabMixPlus and many more. Firefox has tabbed brows…

Hardware entusiasts have proposed an easy way to make your Radeon HD6950 graphics card perform like a Radeon HD6970 through a software Unlocking process, which could save you some $70. According to an article at the TechPowerUp web site, AMD's new Radeon HD 6950 can be transformed to a Radeon HD 6970, unlocking 128 unified shaders in the process. Both the Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950 are based on AMD's new Cayman core which is their first graphics processor to use a VLIW4 shader configuration. AMD's two Cayman variants, called Cayman Pro and Cayman XT, are based on the exact same GPU silicon. The web site reports that the two SKUs are sharing the same silicon so a…

The 2.5-inch MK6461GSYG drives will be available in capacities ranging from 160GB to 640GB and are not only destined for enterprise notebooks and mini-PCs, but could also end up in copiers, printers, and point-of-sale systems. The inclusion of the latest version of Wipe Technology allows users to have hardware encryption keys invalidated, or all data automatically erased when the drive's power supply is turned off or when connected to an unauthorized system. Self-encrypting drives have done much to help lock down important files, but Toshiba has gone a step further by developing a technology that securely erases data rather than let it fall into unauthorized hands. …

Prices for DRAM and NAND flash memory chips shot up Monday in the wake of Japan's earthquake and tsunami as markets displayed concern over fabrication plant shutdowns, power outages and supply chain shortages. Spot prices for DRAM surged by as much as 7.56% and by as much as 20.48% for NAND flash memory chips, according to DRAMExchange. Japan accounts for 35.7% of the world's NAND flash production and 13.6% of DRAM, according to DRAMExchange's parent company, TrendForce. View the full article