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In this Issue:

• Featured Site - Organise Your Money
• No PayPal mandate at new Trading Post auction site
• Gallery: 10 most annoying programs on the Internet
• Browser faceoff: IE vs Firefox vs Opera vs Safari
• XP on your desktop till 2010, if it's cheap
• Windows users: Patch now or turn off Bluetooth
• Technical Issue - McAfee Software
• Quotes of the day

Featured Site  

Organise Your Money - Organiseyourmoney.com

Welcome to Organiseyourmoney.com. Can't control your spending? Like to save for that house deposit? Want to spend LESS than you earn?

Then the organiseyourmoney.com Budget Kit will help you get there... and believe it or not, it's FUN, EASY and CHEAP!

How many times have you told yourself that you’ll sort your budget out tomorrow? Well you’ve found organiseyourmoney.com and tomorrow is right now!

We want you to think about how you have been feeling about your current financial state. If the answer is clammy, shocked, or you look like this guy each time you check out that Visa statement? Then you really need to get organised. We see you nodding!

Okay, so you’re here, we’re here... let’s get intimate (about your finance that is).

Budgeting involves organising how much money you earn and spend over a period of time. When you create a budget, you are creating a plan for spending and saving money.

Understanding, that is not hard, sticking to a budget is.

Visit the Organise Your Money website...

No PayPal mandate at new Trading Post auction site  

Sensis announced today that its classifieds publication, Trading Post, has launched an online auction service for Australian users. And, unlike eBay's PayPal mandate, the service will offer a number of payment methods.

Sensis — Telstra's advertising and publishing arm — unveiled the auction service today, with CEO Bruce Akhurst claiming that users are "up in arms" over the decision by eBay to employ PayPal exclusively for payments, and quoted a recent Newspoll which found that 95 per cent of respondents said it was important to have a choice of payment methods when buying online.

Akhurst told ZDNet.com.au a number of payment methods will be available to users of the auction site, including pay on delivery, cheque and money order payments, Paymate and PayPal.

"eBay is no longer prepared to endorse payment methods that result in a higher chance of a dispute," said Alistair MacGibbon, director of trust and safety for eBay.

"It will be interesting to see if Sensis will be offering any type of consumer protection, considering that security is a major concern for Australian internet shoppers," he said. ZDNetAustralia May 2008. more >>>

Gallery: 10 most annoying programs on the Internet  

The Internet has brought us many joys. It's rewritten the rules of business and pleasure.

And pain. For it allows what may have seemed like bright ideas at the time ('let's use it to make sure our customers have the latest software', for example) to turn into a stinking pit of misery — usually, but by no means always, after marketing gets its fangs in.

Here are just ten of the guilty parties who try to do the impossible: to make us hate the internet and wish it had never been invented — and who very nearly succeed. This gallery was written by Rupert Goodwins.

Browser faceoff: IE vs Firefox vs Opera vs Safari  

Web 2.0, with its complex sites and rich Ajax applications, is an increasingly demanding platform for a browser. In this review feature, we look at how the leading browsers measure up.

When Tim Berners-Lee presented his employer CERN with the first browser, World Wide Web, to facilitate information flow between the different departments in the European nuclear research centre in Geneva, he little suspected that it would cause a revolution in the information age. Today, the browser is probably the most widely used computer application.

However, the tasks performed by a web browser have changed significantly. As well as displaying text and images, the modern browser needs to accommodate technologies such as JavaScript, DOM and XML in Ajax-based programs. Even if you're not familiar with Ajax, you'll probably have used it via Google Maps, Google Mail or AjaxWrite; sites such as Flickr and Last.fm also make intense use of this technology. Ajax has even taken root in the business environment: for example, 24SevenOffice is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that runs in a web browser. The advantage of this Web 2.0 technology is platform independence: you don't need a specific operating system or processor to run Ajax applications — just a compatible browser. ZDNet Australia May 2008. more >>>

XP on your desktop till 2010, if it's cheap  

Microsoft has announced that manufacturers will be able to sell Windows on "nettops" — or low-cost desktops — in another move that looks set to keep XP alive for several years yet.

At the Computex trade fair in Taiwan this week, Microsoft said that after offering Windows for netbooks — or ultra-low-cost PCs intended for students and first-time PC customers in emerging markets — it will also offer the operating system on "nettops" until June 2010.

The company would not further specify which version of Windows will be used on nettops, but it has been widely reported that the move represents an extension of the lifespan of XP, which had been scheduled for execution later this year for mainstream PCs. ZDNet Australia June 2008. more >>>

Windows users: Patch now or turn off Bluetooth  

Microsoft's June Patch Tuesday release included a critical fix affecting all Windows Vista and XP systems, which could allow attackers to wirelessly steal confidential information from laptops by exploiting a flaw in the Bluetooth stack.

The Bluetooth stack flaw, detailed in Microsoft bulletin CVE-2008-1453 and rated 'critical', could allow an attacker to take complete control of an affected system, install programs, alter data or create new accounts with full user rights.

The MS08-030 patch modifies the way that the Bluetooth stack handles a large number of service description requests.

Microsoft recommends applying the patch immediately and security experts advise users to turn off Bluetooth features until the patch has been applied.

Matthew Aburn, director of security consultancy Halcyon, said the flaw was particularly dangerous because hardware manufacturers usually set the factory default for Bluetooth as 'active'.

"Hardware-wise, most ship with Bluetooth on by default. I'd definitely recommended that if you're not using Bluetooth, you should turn it off," Aburn told ZDNet.com.au. ZDNet Australia June 2008. more >>>

Technical Issue - McAfee Software   

It has been brought to my attention that there is an issue with a Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Browser Add-on which is installed during the installation of McAafee Anti-Virus & Security software. This Add-on is called McAfee Phishing Filter. When installed and actived it causes major problems with Website JavaScript controls, in fact it makes some JavaScript inactive. The problem manifests itself with many JavaScript controlled image galleries and rollover effects, it also prevents access to the ATO Business Portal (a problem if you are trying to pay your GST and avoid a late fine.)

If you have McAfee installed and want to remedy this problem follow these steps:

1. Open your Microsoft Internet Explorer Browser.
2. Select Tools => Manage Add-ons => Enable or Disable Add-ons...
3. This will produce a dialog called Manage Add-ons; scroll down to find the Name "McAfee Phishing Filter"; click on this entry and then select the Disable radio button at the bottom of this dialog.
4. Click the OK button and your done.

Happy browsing...

Quotes of the Day  

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

Do not condemn the judgement of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong. Dandemis

At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us. George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

Brought to you by The Quotations Page

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