European Aircraft Industry: Airbus confirms software brought down A400M transport plane - by Richard Chirgwin

Airbus has confirmed the crash that stalled its A400M program was caused by engine control software.
However, according to Handelsblatt, the problem wasn't that the software is buggy. Rather, someone in the final assembly process installed the software incorrectly.

Marwan Lahoud, Airbus' chief strategy officer, told the German newspaper that the company already believed there had been no problem with the airframe: “The black boxes attest … that there are no structural defects, but we have a serious quality problem in the final assembly”.

Handelsblatt beats Google's translation with the sentence “Die Software für die Steuerung der Motoren sei bei der Endmontage falsch aufgespielt worden”*, but it seems to El Reg to suggest that the software was configured with incorrect parameters at installation.

The May 9 crash near Seville's San Pablo Airport killed four Airbus Defense and Space personnel when the A400M, designated MSN23, crashed just after takeoff on its first flight.

Airbus had already told A400M operators – Germany, Britain, Turkey and France – to check the planes' Engine Control Unit. The Royal Malaysian Air Force also has an A400M, delivered in March.

Last week, Airbus CEO Tom Enders had complained that the company needed the black box data, which was being withheld by Spanish agencies, to conduct its analysis of the crash.

While the results will be a relief – since a problem with the physical build quality would have been extremely expensive – Airbus will still need to satisfy customers that it can ensure that software installs don't go wrong in future.
Airbus confirms software brought down A400M transport plane • The Register

Internet Advertising: European mobile networks plan to block ads - by Owen Williams

A report from the Financial Times today claims that European mobile networks are preparing to block advertising across the Web.

According to the story, which cites anonymous sources, the carriers have installed software from Israeli ad-blocking firm Shine in their data centers to block advertising in Web pages and apps, but not social networks.

The plan – which would be devastating to companies reliant on advertising – is not limited to a single European network. Its apparent aim is to break Google’s hold on advertising.

The FT report says that “an executive at a European carrier confirmed that it and several of its peers are planning to start blocking adverts this year” and will be available as an “opt-in service” however they are also considering applying the technology across their entire mobile networks.

This isn’t the first time a provider has tried to blanket block ads.

Read more: European mobile networks plan to block ads

Internet Security: How to Detect Computer & Email Monitoring or Spying Software

As an IT Pro, I routinely monitor employees computers and emails. It’s essential in a work environment for administrative purposes as well as for security. Monitoring email, for example, allows you to block attachments that could contain a virus or spyware. The only time I have to connect to a users computer and do work directly on their computer is to fix a problem.

However, if you feel that you are being monitored when you shouldn’t be, there are a few little tricks you can use to determine if you’re right. First off, to monitor someones computer means that they can watch everything that you are doing on your computer in real time. Blocking porn sites, removing attachments or blocking spam before it gets to your inbox, etc is not really monitoring, but more like filtering.

The one BIG problem I want to emphasize before moving on is that if you are in a corporate environment and think  you’re being monitored, you should assume they can see EVERYTHING you do on the computer.

Also, assume that you won’t be able to actually find the software that is recording everything. In corporate environments, the computers are so customized and reconfigured that it’s nearly impossible to detect anything unless you’re a hacker. This article is more geared towards home users who thinks a friend or family member is trying to monitor them.

Read more: How to Detect Computer & Email Monitoring or Spying Software

KompoZer - Easy web authoring - Open Source - Free web page editing

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Easy web authoring - Open Source - Free web page editing

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is based on Gecko, the layout engine inside Mozilla; it's a super-fast, very reliable, standards conformant engine maintained on a daily basis by a wide community of developers. Its remarkable support of XML, CSS and JavaScript offers the best authoring platform on the market. Its architecture based on XUL makes it the most extensible editing tool ever. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

Open Source Windows - Free, Open-Source software for Windows XP and Vista

For free downloads of Open Source software for Windows XP and Vista click on this link

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open-source community. One of our most important activities is as a standards body, maintaining the Open Source Definition for the good of the community. The Open Source Initiative Approved License trademark and program creates a nexus of trust around which developers, users, corporations and governments can organize open-source cooperation.

Get great Open source software programs for your computer. Why pay a fortune if you can get it for free.

Free and open-source software is good for you and for the world. No adware, no spyware, just good software.

EU-Digest: The Free Software Directory

For further details about the Free Software Directory click on this link

The Free Software Directory is a project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They catalog useful free software that runs under free operating systems — particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants. Licenses are verified for each and every program listed in their directory. The FSF provides this directory as a service to the free software community. Please consider donating to the FSF to help support this project.

Computing.co..uk: Firefox use in Europe nears 25 per cent - Iain Thomson

For the complete report from Computing.co.uk click on this link

Firefox use in Europe nears 25 per cent - Iain Thomson

Use of the open source Firefox browser in Europe has grown five per cent in the past 12 months, and is approaching 50 per cent in some countries. French web analyst firm XiTi reported that European use of the browser has risen to 24.1 per cent, up from 19.4 per cent last year. In Finland the rate is over 41 per cent. Overall, eastern Europe is leading Firefox use in the West.

The launch of Firefox 2.0 provided a big boost, according to the analysts, which Microsoft failed to match with Internet Explorer 7.