Lunarsoft

I gave up on Internet Explorer way back at IE7. As a user interface developer, the CSS and JavaScript workarounds created way too much unnecessary work. So I turned my attention to the next best thing at that time, which was Firefox. It was the most standards-compliant browser on the market at that time. Its plugins (e.g., FireBug) made my work easier and much more enjoyable. So as I spent more time with it as a developer guess what happened? I also became a regular user.

The IE9 Release Candidate, which Microsoft posted today, may change all that again. IE9 is the first Microsoft browser in years that has me excited about UI development. Finally, I can see a future void of the many CSS hacks necessary to get a page to play nice with IE. There are five features in this release candidate I am excited about as a UI developer.

Agnitum has released version 7.1 of its flagship product, Outpost Security Suite FREE. It's a maintenance upgrade for the most part, with under-the-hood bug fixes and minor tweaks, but there are some notable exceptions.

Top of the list is the inclusion of a second anti-malware engine. The suite now includes one antivirus engine, and a second focused on spyware, adware and trojans. The company claimed in a blog post that this offers "double the protection" and "more targeted security for Windows users"; there are no related controls or options exposed in the interface, though, so you can continue to use Outpost Security Suite as you always have.

Microsoft has informed close partners that SP1 has hit the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone. MSDN and TechNet customers will receive the bits on February 16, followed by a general web release (RTW) on February 22. According to sources close to the matter, Microsoft sent out internal announcements to mark the RTM of Windows 7 SP1 in January. Russian site Wzor confirmed the RTM too and has leaked several versions of Windows 7 SP1 for various languages.

Microsoft has yet to announce the RTM milestone publicly. WinRumors previously asked Microsoft officials multiple times to confirm whether Microsoft had reached the RTM milestone for Windows 7 SP1 but company officials would only reply in January with "Microsoft has not released SP1 to OEMs at this time." As always, we&'d advise against installing leaked bits on production machines but at this time we're confident build 7601.17514.101119-1850 is the final RTM. Copies of Microsoft's Windows 7 SP1 RTM update leaked last month to file sharing websites. Microsoft is expected to announce the official RTM shortly, including the MSDN/RTW dates.

Firefox's official roadmap has been updated, and boy are there some interesting changes afoot. Most notably, Firefox 7 will ship in 2011. The second biggy, and the main focus of Firefox development in 2011, is to make sure there is no more than 50ms between any user interaction and feedback from the browser.

As far as feature sets go, this is what the roadmap looks like: Firefox 5 will absorb the Account Manager and F1 Simple Sharing add-ons to become built-in features. It looks like Windows 7 64-bit will be officially supported with FF5, too.

The last IPv4 addresses have been allocated, highlighting the need for companies and organizations to move to a new system amid the ever increasing number of net-connected devices. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) made the announcement at an event in Miami on Thursday.

Each of the five regional Internet registries has been allocated a single block of around 16 million addresses. While true exhaustion would be hard to gauge -- a small number of IP addresses will be held for several years for the transition -- the rate at which the different registrars will burn through their allocations will likely vary.

APNIC, the registrar in the Asia-Pacific region, will likely run out first in the next few months. ARIN (North America's registrar) and RIPE NCC (controlling Europe, Middle Eastern, and Russian IP needs) are in a better position, likely being able to make it through the year on their current allocation.

Aurora is a brand new Indie game brought to you by E. McNeill. Aurora is an abstract, essentialized, and simplified real-time strategy game. With just one unit to command you must make your moves intelligently, rather than through fast reflexes.

Aurora features a slow, floating feel and gorgeous minimalistic graphics. The entire world pulses to the rhythm of ambient music, and the player's actions evoke sounds that smoothly coalesce into melody. This game is meant to provide a relaxing, cerebral experience. Every action has its reaction, and every option has its costs. Aurora is a game in which your choices matter.

If you enjoyed games like Osmos then you'll also enjoy Aurora. A game to enjoy, a game that will make you think.

The game requires two prerequisites to be installed: the .NET 4 framework and the XNA 4 Redistributable. There is also a WINE compatible version that can work on Macbooks too. Gamers rejoice!

For a very limited time (the next 24 hours) Aurora is being released for FREE. That's right, free! After the 24 hour time period has expired the game will cost $5.00. So go pick up a free copy now, and then buy a license to help support the developer and encourage his and other Indie game developers efforts. Who knows, maybe we'll see Aurora in the Humble Indie Bundle 3.

Trailer: Aurora on YouTube
Link: Aurora (Secure: Buy now)

Today Sigma Designs announced(pdf) that they are working to bring XBMC to their popular line of system-on-a-chip models (their new SMP8670 in particular). For those not familiar with Sigma, they are a major player in the set-top box market and their SOCs are the heart of many products from Popcorn Hour and WDTV, as well as countless other consumer media devices

We believe this could lead to many interesting things for XBMC. Not only do we benefit from the source code from their port, but any company interested in developing hardware for XBMC now has another fine choice. Judging by the amount of times we’ve heard the question "does XBMC work on Sigma hardware?", there is a great amount of interest.