Contribute 2 Released

On Wednesday Macromedia announced Contribute 2, which Macromedia says is "the easiest way for individuals and teams to update and manage content on existing websites." With an expected release date sometime in August, the new version will be priced at $99, and upgrades will be available for a limited time for US$9.99. The product now runs on Mac OS X.

Contribute 2.0 is the first of Macromedia's products to ship with Product Activation, a technology used to deter users from sharing their serial numbers with friends and coworkers, or from installing a single-user licensed version of a Macromedia product on more than two machines. A CNET News.com article notes that Microsoft used the technology with Windows XP, and Intuit used it for TurboTax. Problems with buggy installations and other user complaints, however, led to Intuit's announcement that they will not use Product Activation in future versions of TurboTax.

Windows Flaw Revealed

Microsoft Windows users are being warned about a critical flaw in Windows. According to an article at CNET News.com, the flaw affects all versions of Windows except Windows ME.

According to a group of Polish hackers and independent security consultants--who discovered the flaw and worked with Microsoft to fix it--"...this vulnerability poses an enormous threat, and appropriate patches provided by Microsoft should be immediately applied."

Mobile Blogging Hits The Street

Though most Blogs are updated by their authors primarily from their home and/or place of work, a new trend is taking off, accoding to an article by Howard Reingold: Mobile Blogging.
[Using a satellite phone and laptop, I blogged from the road during the 2003 Mississippi Challenge.]