bug

Weather Channel Desktop gets better maps

When it comes to your weather-knowing needs, The Weather Channel Desktop 6, which moved out of beta this past week, contains a wealth of meteorological and atmospheric information that goes far beyond three-day forecasts. Of course, it does that, too. The app can predict weather for as short a period as the next 12 hours or as extended a span as the next 12 days. There's a storm watch and pollen count for your physical well-being and reports on cloud behavior over local golf courses, lakes, and amusement parks to help plan your day.

The Weather Channel Desktop also … Read more

Bug Labs sold out until May

Bug Labs is on to something.

We certainly thought so when we gave the Bug Labs platform a Best of CES award in the Emerging Technologies category. It turns out the "Lego of gadgets" had broad enough appeal to sell out of its first manufacturing run. Visitors to the Bug Labs online store are now greeted with a promise that the company will begin to fulfill orders "by the end of May." Fortunately, the lauded early adopter pricing remains in effect.

In an interview with Silicon Alley Insider, Bug Labs founder Peter Semmelhack noted that many … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 690: Your stupidity saves dogs

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Happily ever after for Comcast, BitTorrent? http://www.news.com/newsblog/8301-10784_3-9904448-7.html?tag=nefd.lede

Safari 3.1 for Windows violates its EULA, vulnerable to hacks http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/08/03/27/129236.shtml

YouTube to provide more viewership information http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gWUpmd32wRBFgmwTZO5S1sCRYEZgD8VLRIMO1

Will plug-in hybrids crash the grid? Duke Energy says no. http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9904484-54.html?tag=nefd.blgs

Adobe opens shop on Web-based Photoshop Express http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9903446-7.html?tag=nefd.top

Apple settles the amazing multicolor lawsuit http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9903602-37.html

iPO Reports - … Read more

Bugs force Adobe to pull Lightroom update

Adobe has pulled from its Web site an update to Photoshop Lightroom after discovering the new version can cause at least three errors.

In a posting on its Web site, Adobe says that users should not move to version 1.4 and those who have are advised to go back to the older version.

"Those Lightroom users who have installed Lightroom 1.4 should uninstall the update and install Lightroom 1.3.1 until a further update can be provided," Adobe said. Among the errors are a time stamp bug as well as an error in the way … Read more

Bug yourself with fancy phone notes

Sure, the iPhone and all those whiz-bang Nokia crowd-pleasers have users in their thrall, but that doesn't mean you should feel bad with the something else you've got. While searching for cool software for a Palm Treo 650, I discovered a productivity oldie that has yet to crumble into the dust of antiquity.

For Palm, and Windows Mobile 5 and 2003, BugMe Notepad is a handy, feature-rich note-taking app that comes with a companion for annotating screenshots pretty much how you like. For some, that means typing text in various colors. For others, importing a photo and scrawling … Read more

New computer, old software

New computers come with old software, a situation that, considering the recent slew of critical bug fixes, can be quite dangerous.

To illustrate just how old some of the software is, consider a new Windows XP machine that I got yesterday. The computer, a ThinkCentre A61 tower, was ordered from Lenovo on January 6, 2008. It was delivered to someone on January 16th, exactly who I'll never know. As I wrote about last month, UPS lost my computer. But that's another story.

I've got my new computer routine down pat at this point. First, I run a … Read more

Bug fixes! Patches! Updates! Come and get it

Bug is a dirty word in the software world. After all, it means "mistake" and no one wants to admit they made a mistake. Instead of calling the fix for a mistake by its rightful name, a bug fix, software companies refer to "patches" or "updates". Soft words. Happy words.

The bug itself is called a "hole" or a "vulnerability". Initially, bugs were called "issues" but eventually people caught on. Did you happen to notice that Mitt Romney recently "suspended" his campaign (a soft word), as … Read more

Google Translate bug mixes up Heath Ledger, Tom Cruise

UPDATE: Google representatives informed CNET News.com on Thursday that this "internal issue with Google Translate" has been fixed.

Gawker has unearthed a rather odd bug in the Google Translate software: its English-to-Spanish translator converts the name of the actor Heath Ledger, who died tragically on Tuesday, to the name of another actor--Tom Cruise. So if you enter in "I will miss Heath Ledger," Google Translate will come back with "Voy a perder Tom Cruise."

This looks like a simple bug in the system, perhaps the work of a bored Googler somewhere in the … Read more

IE6 crashes in Windows XP: fixing the fix

Yet again, a bug fix created a new problem. This time it occurred with Internet Explorer 6 and 7 on Windows XP and Vista.

The problem is that Internet Explorer crashes after viewing a web page. Not all web pages though, I was able to successfully view about half of those I tested with IE6. One site that crashes it pretty quickly is Microsoft's own msn.com (they offered it as an example).

It wasn't hard to find information online about this problem which was introduced in the December 11th round of bug fixes to Windows.

According to Computerworld, … Read more

Some HP laptops exposed to criminal hacking

On Tuesday, a security researcher disclosed to Bugtraq, a public newsgroup, details of remote execution attacks on some models of Hewlett-Packard laptops. According to the researcher, who is using the name "porkythepig," flaws in HPInfoDLL.dll, one of the ActiveX controls used within the HP Info Center, could allow remote attackers to target the laptop and also execute registry changes on the compromised machine.

As of Wednesday, HP has not offered a response.

The scenario within the disclosure suggests that an attacker could lure a victim to a specially created Web site. When viewing the Web site in … Read more