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The much awaited Beta 2 for Firefox 3 has been released and is available for download.

New features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include:

* Protection from cross-site JSON data leaks, tighter restrictions on site-specific content using effective TLD service, better presentation of website identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, version checking for insecure plugins.

*Improved ease of use through: better password management, easier add-on installation, new download manager with resumable downloading, full page zoom, animated tab strip, and better integration with Windows Vista, Mac OS X and Linux.

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Popularity: 31% [?]

The list below shows the oldest domain names registered.

Some interesting Observations

1. The first website registered was Symbolics.com on 15th March 1985. Symbolics was the producer of special-purpose computer systems for running and developing state-of-the-art object-oriented programs in Lisp

2. The first defence company registered on the Internet was Nothrop Grumman

3. First R & D site was sri.com or Stanford Research Institute

4. Rosetta.com was registered in 1987. God.com was registered 1994.

5. SEX.com was not registered until 18th October 1995

6. sco.com was registered in 1987 whereas unix.com was not registered until 1993

Rank    Create date           Domain name
1.            15-Mar-1985          SYMBOLICS.COM
2.           24-Apr-1985           BBN.COM
3.           24-May-1985          THINK.COM
4.           11-Jul-1985             MCC.COM
5.           30-Sep-1985           DEC.COM
6.           07-Nov-1985          NORTHROP.COM
7.           09-Jan-1986           XEROX.COM
8.           17-Jan-1986           SRI.COM
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Popularity: 19% [?]

Intel, the world’s leading chipmaker has partnered with design firm Ziba to create the World’s thinnest Laptop ever. While this Razr of Laptops sure looks thin, this Laptop is packed with enough features to make it the #1 object of desire for every geek out there.

Some Features of the World’s Thinnest Notebook

1. Laptop Size:

Since we are talking thin, let’s talk about size first. Ziba and Intel managed to make this laptop just o.7″ thick. Think about it.  The width of a Razr is 0.54″ thick. How did Intel manage this? Well for starters they removed the standard hard drive and replaced it with flash memory. Flash memory is way faster than a hard disk drive. I run Windows Vista off my 4GB flash drive and my performance is 33% better than running Vista of a hard drive. Your applications would run faster. Another side benefit of flash memory. Your Laptop consumes less power. Intel is reporting that this new Laptop can run upto 14 hours on a Battery. That is almost equivalent to my iPod battery life ! Oh and the Laptop weights just 2.25 pounds

2. Laptop Features:

a. Laptop Screen: Unlike traditional Laptop screens which are boxed in, which looks encased in, photo frame like, this Laptop’s screen extends to the very edges and looks like a high end plasma TV screen. The screen contains light sensors which adjusts the screen brightness automatically and also has an in-built video camera

b. Keyboard: Normally, a keyboard is nothing to brag about, but this is different. The Laptop is completely smooth except for slight grooves between keys. The keys are marked with a futuristic red font and they glow in the dark

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Popularity: 15% [?]

According to TechCrunch, Google is all set to buyout the leading RSS management company Feedburner for around $100 Million all cash deal. Feedburner was founded in 2003 and this buyout represents the increased usage of RSS to read blogs by most of us. Feedburner currently boasts of 422,717 publishers who in turn burned about 721,074 feeds

While some people prefer the community feeling via the comments and the interaction provided by Blogs by visiting the site, some others prefer the comforts of keeping themselves updated through their RSS readers.

Most Bloggers depend on Ads for revenue and RSS effectively eliminates any ads from being shown. Google recognizes this and this deal represents their desire to move in monetizing the RSS feeds via their AdSense or recently acquired DoubleClick.

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Popularity: 12% [?]

The pre-release versions of Microsoft Windows Vista, Vista Beta 1, Vista Beta 2, Windows Vista RC1 and Windows Vista RC2 are set to expire on May 31, 2007. If you are running one of the above mentioned pre-release versions of Windows Vista ( Beta 1, Beta 2, RC1 or RC2), you might have seen notifications like the image below reminding you about the upcoming expiratation since May 18, 2007 reminding you to “Backup Important data from Windows Now and then install any edition of Windows Vista”

After the expiry date of May 31, 2007, you can still use your pre-release version of Windows Vista and log in for a max of 2 hour sessions to retrieve data. After this 2 hours of usage, your PC will automatically reboot without giving you any opportunity to save your data. Microsoft tells us that these 2 hour sessions would be available for a limited time only, how long they don’t tell us.

If you liked Windows Vista and want to install the final version of Windows Vista from any of the pre-release version of Windows Vista, Micrsoft is providing you with some good upgrade options but if you are thinking of putting of upgrading to Windows Vista to a later date, you might as well take out your Windows XP CD and start backing up your existing data before May 31.

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Popularity: 17% [?]