Rui CarmoToday's a holiday here, so there's plenty of time to catch up on the news. There's also some mighty fine weather outside that deserves mention (and an EVA later on).
- Version 2.70 of the PlayStation Portable firmware is out, sporting Flash 6.0 and a few other enhancements like AAC support (via Ricardo, via mail). I've already upgraded mine (it's an European version), and the fact that you have to enable the Flash player by going online via System Settings feels somewhere in between a licensing kludge and an upgradeable module - time will tell which is right (since Flash 6 is outdated as hell), but for now it's fun to see the site header working there. Update: Well, there go any notions of watching re-enactments by bunnies on it. I can only play the older Angry Alien files... Oh, and the browser now says it's "NetFront, licensed by Access Co., Ltd." on the help screen.
- Scott McNealy stepped sideways from being Sun's CEO to becoming its chairman. His replacement is Jonathan Schwartz, who has been doing quite a bit of globetrotting lately (via techdirt). Me, I wonder how they will stay relevant - Sun has been on a slow but steady downhill slide ever since the IT world figured out that even enterprise-class hardware can be gotten for cheap, and their software business isn't holding up that well either. On a personal note, I've been using their stuff for long enough to remember the "downgrade to Solaris" spoofs when it replaced SunOS, and I haven't felt truly excited about anything they did since then - except Java/MIDP and the SunRay.
- jwz has published XScreenSaver 5.00b4, which is starting to shape up pretty nicely.
- There's a new Nokia/770/Maemo update available (via blogbeebee, via Michael, via IM). I can't say I'm the least bit excited - after the last time I tinkered with a production device, I thought it was too limited hardware-wise to be of much use.
- Bruce Schneier picks up Paul Thurrott's piece on Vista's idiotic pseudo-security dialog boxes - both are must reads.