Mozilla is hoping to set a Guinness World Record for the most number of downloads of an application in a day, on the release of its Firefox 3 Web browser.

There is currently no official Guinness World Record for the total number of downloads of an application in a day. During the first 24 hours of Firefox 3′s release, Mozilla is aiming for over 1.6 million downloads and hoping for five million, according to a Mozilla spokesperson.

The final release date for Firefox 3 has not yet been fixed. However, depending on how well Firefox 3 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) is received, the final version of Firefox 3 should be out in mid-June, according to the spokesperson. Firefox 3 RC2 is expected in the first week of June, the spokesperson added.

Mozilla is encouraging its community of over 175 million users to sign up on the Spread Firefox marketing site to receive Firefox 3 on the day of its release, to host download parties, and to put Firefox badges on websites and blogs.

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) had “fixes and improvements to platform features, to improve security, Web compatibility and stability”, according to Mozilla.

Adobe Systems, the maker of Photoshop and Acrobat software, started public trials of its next-generation design software on Tuesday.

The company released beta versions of its Dreamworks Web site creation software, Fireworks graphics program and Soundbooth audio editing program on its Adobe Labs site.

The beta software is available for free download.

Adobe has yet to start public trials of the CS4 versions of other programs in the CS4 suite, which includes Photoshop and Illustrator.

Adobe declined to comment on when it will release CS4, saying that doing so could hurt CS3 sales because customers would hold off on purchases so that they can get the latest features from CS4.

If you’re a Firefox user and fed up with adverts on websites, you can now replace them with tasteful art.

A new add-in for Firefox removes the advertising found on a page and replaces it with curated art.

Addart will work with the Adblockplus. While Adblockplus replaces each advert with a less annoying blank space, Addart will connect to an online database of artworks and dump them in the space.

The picture database will be updated every two weeks and include the work of contemporary artists.

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1, a preview release of Mozilla’s next generation Firefox browser, is out for download. Although this is a public preview of the new Firefox code, it is aimed at developers and early adopters.

You can download it in 45 languages from here. See What’s New in Firefox 3 for more details.

Mozilla has stopped distributing a language pack for Firefox after discovering it had been infected by malicious code for over two months.

Although Mozilla’s Vietnamese language pack for Firefox has been compromised by the malware, labelled HTML.Xorer, since February, the problem was only discovered earlier this week, according to Mozilla.

The malware left those downloading the language pack open to unwanted ads.

Mozilla does not know how many computers have been affected by the corrupted file, however, since November 2007 there have been 16,677 downloads of the language pack, according to Window Snyder a Mozilla security blogger .

Mozilla usually completes a virus scan of software it makes publicly available, however its scanners failed to detect the virus, according to Snyder.

Mozilla recommends disabling the Vietnamese language pack using the add-ons dialog on the Tools menu.

Australians will be one of the first to receive the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium software as a subscription service.

According to Mark Cokes, marketing manager A/NZ at Adobe, the service enables businesses that may not have the budget to purchase the entire suite to utilise Adobe software on a subscription basis. He commented that this provides opportunities for resellers to approach a new range of customers.

“This service is ideal for those who don’t want to shell out the full price of the product suite, particularly small businesses, project workers and training companies,” he said.

From May 1 resellers will stock Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium Subscription Edition, which will cost customers $129 per month for a 12-month contract. Australia will be the first and currently only country that has been offered the subscription service, claimed Cokes. The suite will also be available for AU$199 month-to-month.

“So far it’s been received well, we’re receiving a major shipment next week so we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

CCleaner is a freeware system optimisation and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. The best part though is that is fast and contains absolutely NO Spyware or Adware!

CCleaner cleans the following:

• Internet Explorer – Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.
• Firefox – Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history.
• Opera – Temporary files, URL history, cookies.
• Windows – Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.
• Registry cleaner – Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more… also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.
• Third-party applications – Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more…

Screenshots

More Information

You can find our more information about CCleaner by visiting www.ccleaner.com.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the pending general availability of MySQL 5.1, a new version of the world’s most popular open source database, designed to improve performance and simplify management of large database applications. A near-final release candidate of the GPL software is available for download now at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/.

The announcement was made this morning at the sixth annual MySQL Conference and Expo . With nearly 2,000 attendees, it is the world’s largest community event for open source database developers, users, DBAs, vendors and corporate IT managers.

“If our users initially choose MySQL because of its low cost, they continue to use MySQL for its high performance, scalability and broad platform support,” said Marten Mickos, SVP, Database Group, Sun Microsystems. “MySQL 5.1 continues this tradition by performing up to 15 percent faster than previous versions in our own internal tests – making it a compelling solution for demanding Web-based enterprise applications.”

Read more…

As part of Mozilla Corporation’s ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 2.0.0.14 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux for free download from http://getfirefox.com.

We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. If you already have Firefox 2.x, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

For a list of changes and more information, please review the Firefox 2.0.0.14 Release Notes.

If you are still running Firefox 1.5.0.x, you are highly encouraged to upgrade to the Firefox 2 series as Mozilla ceased supporting Firefox 1.5.0.x in May 2007. Simply choose “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu to begin the upgrade process.

You have a router, you want to know what it does all day long? Then MRTG is for you. It will monitor SNMP network devices and draw pretty pictures showing how much traffic has passed through each interface.

Routers are only the beginning. MRTG is being used to graph all sorts of network devices as well as everything else from weather data to vending machines.

MRTG is written in perl and works on Unix/Linux as well as Windows and even Netware systems. MRTG is free software licensed under the Gnu GPL.

Download

MRTG is free software. Just download it and follow the install instructions for Unix/Linux or Windows or NetWare to get get started.

Advanced IP Scanner is a fast, robust and easy-to-use LAN scanner for Windows. It easily lets you have various types of information about local network computers in a few seconds! It gives you one-click access to many useful functions – remote shutdown and wake up, Radmin integration and more! Powered with multithread scan technology, this program can scan hundreds computers per second, allowing you to scan ‘C’ or even ‘B’ class network even from your modem connection.

Features

Fast and Stable multi-threaded IP Scanning – You can scan hundreds of IP addresses simultaneously and with great speed – on Pentium-based machines Advanced IP Scanner scans class “B” and “C” networks in a few seconds! You can configure Advanced IP Scanner to scan in many priority levels, set number of maximum threads and so on.

Remote PC Shutdown – This shuts down any remote machine with NT or Win2k operating system. You can use your default access rights or specify login and password to shutdown.

Wake-On-LAN – You can wake any machine remotely, if “Wake-on-LAN” feature is supported by your network card.

Group Operations – Any feature of Advanced IP Scanner can be used with any number of selected computers. For example, you can remotely shut down a complete computer class with a few clicks.

Lists of computers Saving and Loading – This enables you to perform operations with a specific list of computers. No problems – just save a list of machines you need and Advanced IP Scanner will load it at start up automatically.

Radmin 2.2 Integration – This enables you to connect via Radmin (if it’s installed) to remote computers with just one click.

More more information, screenshots, or to download Advanced IP Scanner, visit http://www.radmin.com/products/utilities/ipscanner.php.

GPU-Z is a lightweight utility designed and developed by techPowerUp! to give you all information about your video card and GPU.

Main Features

• Support NVIDIA and ATI cards
• Displays adapter, GPU and display information
• Displays overclock, default clocks and 3D clocks (if available)
• Validation of results
• No installation required
• Support for Windows 2000 / XP / Vista (both 32 and 64 bit versions are supported)

To download GPU-Z, click here!

Microsoft is set to begin a pilot of a new Genuine Advantage anti-piracy mechanism for Office that will add a “nag-like” feature, akin to what is now part of Windows Vista, to Office.

Office already currently includes an Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) validation mechanism (for Office XP and Office 2007), but Microsoft doesn’t do a whole lot to “punish” those it deems to be running non-Genuine versions of Office. However, as part of a new OGA notifications pilot program — which Microsoft is launching in Chile, Italy, Spain and Turkey, according to an April 8 announcement buried in a Q&A on Microsoft’s Web site — Microsoft is set to turn up the unpleasantness a notch.

I asked Microsoft to explain what will happen in the new pilot. According to Cori Hartje, Director Genuine Software Initiative:

“Today, in current OGA validation process, there is no visual & persistent representation within the experience of being a non-genuine Office user. The outcome for being non-genuine today is that the user does not gain access to Office templates and other downloads. In the pilot the non-genuine copy of Office will also have an icon on the toolbar or ribbon indicating that it is non-genuine.

Read more…

Have you ever wanted to remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger and more from your Windows installation?  Have you ever wanted to include Service Packs and/or other Windows updates in your installation?  How about the integration of device drivers or even the creation of an unattended installation?  If the answer is ‘yes’ to any or all these questions, then nLite is the tool for you, and I can’t recommend it more highly!

nLite is a tool for pre-installation Windows configuration and component removal at your choice. Optional bootable image ready for burning on media or testing in virtual machines.

With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install does not include, or even contain on media, the unwanted components.

Features

• Service Pack Integration
• Component Removal
• Unattended Setup
• Driver Integration *
• Hotfixes Integration **
• Tweaks
• Services Configuration
• Patches ***
• Bootable ISO creation

* – Textmode (CD Boot) and normal PnP
** – hotfixes with white icons, *KB*.exe, including update packs
and Internet Explorer 7
*** – supports generic SFC, Uxtheme, TcpIp and Usb Polling patching.

nLite supports Windows 2000, XP x86/x64 and 2003 x86/x64 in all languages.

If you would like to know more about nLite, or to download the software, visit the nLite website at http://www.nliteos.com

No, you don’t have to pay a cent for nLite.  Infact, nLite is completely free!  That said, I’m sure they would appreciate a donation.

Nagios is a host and service monitor designed to inform you of network problems before your clients, end-users or managers do. It has been designed to run under the Linux operating system, but works fine under most *NIX variants as well. The monitoring daemon runs intermittent checks on hosts and services you specify using external “plugins” which return status information to Nagios. When problems are encountered, the daemon can send notifications out to administrative contacts in a variety of different ways (email, instant message, SMS, etc.). Current status information, historical logs, and reports can all be accessed via a web browser.

Read more…