Last week, Internet services provider America Online inadvertently released a massive amount of search data to unauthorized third parties.  This breach of security and privacy has left many people upset and feeling a little uneasy towards AOL, who has claimed it won't happen again.  Well, simply saying "Sorry, won't do it anymore" doesn't seem to cut it for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization focused on freedom, privacy and security issues on the Internet.  They've...

U.S. State Department officials yesterday said that RFID equipped passports will soon begin appearing in the hands of globe-trotting Americans.  The Colorado Passport Agency will be the first passport issuing authority in the country to produce the new documents, but the rest of the agencies nation-wide are expected to ramp up production soon. The passports have come under heavy fire from security and privacy experts over supposed vulnerabilities in the new chips that would allow for eas...

Famed WindowBlinds skinner "Essorant" brings you another exciting set of WindowBlinds skins. This set of five premium WindowBlinds 5-based Visual Styles will give your desktop a smart and polished look and feel. The set includes Khado, Gyre, Caracal, Raven and Jent as well as 5 matching wallpapers. Three brand new premium skins! Caracal Gyre Khado* Two updated images from the "Finesse" skin pack, updated to WindowBlinds v5 &nb...

It seems that the article last week was fairly well received, so now we're back with week two!  It was a pretty lean week so it'll be a bit shorter this time around.  Hopefully as the end of summer creeps up on everyone, skinners will settle in and start making and submitting more content for us to pour over. Now, on to this week's picks... Corky_O (Wizop) A Rainlendar skin, Logika2006_RL by neophil78 "For those who like a well rounded theme experience, t...

Microsoft marches on with it's seemingly endless stream of products bundled under the "Windows Live" brand.  Today, they released their latest tool, a blogging application called Windows Live Writer.  Like Stardock's own BlogNavigator , Live Writer is aimed at being a single application in which you can write a blog, and then automatically publish it to any number of public blog sites such as Windows Live Spaces, LiveJournal , Blogger , WordPress etc.  The tool integrates wit...

Oh come Monday, it'll be alright... come Monday I'll be... serving up another poll!  Last week I tossed out the question of what version of Microsoft Windows you were currently running.  This one wasn't even close.  We received 400 responses exactly to this poll in the week it ran, and all but two of you are running a version of Windows XP, with more of you running Pro than Home Edition.  Just to satisfy your curiosity, here's the exact breakdown: What version of Mic...

It's Friday!  Huzzah!  To celebrate the end of the week, here's a bit of a recap for you as to what's been happening in the world of skinning since Sunday.  This is just a quick run-down of stats, stories and major happenings just in case you missed anything. Submissions Ever wonder how many submissions get added to the library every week?  Here are the numbers for a few of our more popular categories: BootSkins: 18 CursorXP: 8 DesktopX Widgets: 3 ...

Microsoft in recent years has taken a lot of heat from the IT industry over it's perceived lack of serious efforts to make Windows a more secure platform.  Well, in part to answer those critics, and in an attempt to further branch out into the security software market, Microsoft is rolling out a technology called PatchGuard, a piece of code that protects core parts of the Windows against attacks. However, this being Microsoft, it turns out that this new feature does more to hinder secu...

You may know GoDaddy as a cheap place to get a domain name or two, what you may not know is that they have recently branched out into a completely new market; podcast hosting.  Now, for starting at just $5/month, you can get a podcast hosting account that gives you 1GB of storage and 100GB of monthly bandwidth (or roughly 3,600 1 hour show downloads per month).  These plans include automatic publication of RSS feeds and notifications to major podcast directories such as iTunes and Yaho...

Twenty five years ago tomorrow, IBM introduced the IBM 5150 , the first of the modern era personal computers, a machine that would spark the countless changes in the computing world and send us hurtling towards the world we live in today.  While not the first attempt to build an end-user accessible machine, the Apple II was already on the market and selling very well, the IBM PC had the power and prestige of IBM behind it, at the time the absolute king of the business computing market....

It seems that Apple is just getting under everyone's skin with this week's WWDC keynote speech by Jobs and crew.  You've already read Brad's views on the speech as they relate to Windows Vista.  He made mention of Rob McLaws views on the whole ordeal too.  And no good OS X vs. Windows debate is complete without Paul Thurrott of WinSuperSite.com chiming in too with his thoughts . In general, where others are purely blasting Apple for its attitude and OS features, Thurrott takes...

Google has filed a change in it's report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stating that it's 2006 spending growth will out-pace it's expected revenue growth as it works to grow infrastructure and provide increased compensation to its employees.  This is perhaps the first financial stumble for Google since it's stellar IPO.  It says this makes future profitability much harder to predict. As of this writing, Google (GOOG) shares are at $375.91, down $1.03 (0.27%) for the ...

With the launch of the new Stardock website, Object Desktop 2007 and Windows Vista just around the corner, the time has come to kick it up a notch, so to speak, here on WinCustomize, the premier online community for all things UI customization.  A lot of work is going on behind the scenes right now for WinCustomize.com.  You've already seen the new forums, and the increase of activity here on the front news page, but we have even more great stuff in store for you...

How's this for a critical security update?  Turns out that the MS06-040 patch, released Tuesday, is of such a critical nature that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is urging users, in an official notice , to apply the patch as quickly as possible. From the press release: "Windows Operating Systems users are encouraged to avoid delay in applying this security patch.  Attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems routinely occur within 24 hours of the release...

BetaNews is reporting that the University of California and Google today struck a deal to add all public domain books in the University's collection to Google's ever-growing book-scanning project.  This expansion, pulling in books from over 100 libraries in the state-wide University system, is the largest Google has seen yet. The Google Book Search project is perhaps one of the most controversial of all of the search and advertising company's various projects, drawing criticism and...