As reported by CNET News.com, Microsoft has released a list of programs which will not function with the upcoming, and long anticipated, service pack 1 for Vista. The list is mainly made up of security and antivirus products, but there are a few everyday apps that will surprise many. After all the headeaches with the Vista launch, Microsoft doesn’t need another flop with they’re “fix”. Read more about incompatible SP1 applications here.

Following a California court ruling, wikileaks.org’s domain registrar, Dynadot, was ordered to stop resolving the wikileaks domain name to the wikileaks.org website. Wikileaks was designed as an anonymous way whistle-blowers could post government and corporate documents without fear of retribution. Not unexpectedly, this didn’t go over well in the corporate world. The case that brought wikileaks down was brought by a Swiss banking group, Julius Baer,  after they discovered hundreds of internal documents detailing its offshore activities were posted on the site. Allegedly, these documents showed that the group was involved in money laundering and tax evasion. Wikileaks claims the order was unconstitutional and a form of censorship. You can read more about the wikileaks.org case here.

Technorati Tags: social network,steven spielberg,paranormal

According to techcrunch.com, Steven Spielberg is involved in building a new social network which will focus on the paranormal. According to insiders, the site will let users research and share ghostly and extraterrestrial stories. Expect a video component as well. Is this a good idea in the already crowded social media space? Normally we would say no, but perhaps Spielberg’s name is the ‘X’ factor that will draw visitors. Still, we doubt a crush of visitors will crash the servers when the site goes live.

Sometimes there are legitimate reasons you want to keep your surfing private which don’t involve nefarious activities or pornography. Maybe you’re shopping online while at your favorite coffee shop while surrounded by twenty-something cyberpunks’ with Linux laptops. Or perhaps you work with government or corporate information that must remain secure when transmitted over the Internet. Whatever the reason, you have a few choices. You can do a Google search for free anonymous proxies which are often ad supported and run outside the US. Personally, I find this solution sketchy. You’re trusting the web site to actually use strong encryption and not to snoop your network traffic themselves. Another option is to pay for an anonymous proxy service, such as the popular anonymizer.com. Anonymizer is a great service but it can cost over $100 per year. If you don’t want to pay for anonymous surfing your best bet is TOR (The Onion Router network). TOR is an open source project that connects you to free anonymous proxy servers through an encrypted connection. TOR is a respected and trusted source which won’t cost you a penny. Unfortunately, TOR isn’t the easiest software to configure and setup initially. But if running TOR sounds interesting, check out this article on lifehacker.com that links to an easy to follow video showing how to install and use TOR.

Only a few weeks after it was announced they were giving up on Yahoo! 360, it’s reported Yahoo! is launching “MyM”, a new, self-described “social messaging” service. Currently in private beta, MyM is a web based portal for accessing multiple instant messaging and social media sites in one place. Valleywag.com is reporting that Yahoo! insiders are saying that MyM is far from ready and many are concerned that the sites Yahoo! wants to access through the service will block MyM since Yahoo! is a social media competitor. Is Yahoo! grasping at straws and stretching themselves too far? Come on Microsoft, buy Yahoo! and end the pain.

According to a new study by Industry Canada, Internet users who download music over peer-to-peer networks buy more CDs than they would otherwise. For years, opponents to the tactics record companies have employed in combating illegal music downloading have argued there is little correlation between the rise of P2P networks and the general sales decline the music industry has experienced over the past decade. Publisher trade groups have strongly rejected any attempt to attack they’re contention that music downloads take money out of copyright holders pockets. Will this latest study cause them to yield any from the litigious and political stance they’ve taken? Unlikely. Michael Geist covers the P2P study fully here.

 The Associated Press looks at ways new technology helps more digital books make they’re way online.