The Technology newsbucket: Microsoft's big numbers, turn Flash into HTML5, safe from sheep and more

Alchemy. Photo by fdecomite on Flickr. Some rights reserved

A quick burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

Adobe demos Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool >> John Nack on Adobe
"Pre-Adobe, I made my living building rich, Flash-intensive sites for Gucci, Coca-Cola, Nike, and other big brands. Doing that job today, I'd be in a jam: How could I create rich experiences that run on desktops (where Flash is the obvious, consistent (cross-browser/-platform) choice) and on iOS devices where Flash isn't allowed?"

Demystifying KB976902, a.k.a. Microsoft's "Blackhole" Update >> Krebs on Security
"I have verified with Microsoft that this update is designed to smooth the way for the deployment of future updates on Windows 7 systems... The confusion appears to stem from a timing mistake by the folks at Microsoft, but this incident illustrates the hysteria that can ensue when the world's largest software company fails — for whatever reason — to be fully transparent with a user base that has come to expect detailed advisories with every patch."

Home Office does u-turn on Internet Explorer 6 - Will this become a domino effect? | TechEye
"A Home Office representative confirmed to TechEye today that it will upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, although the department gave no indication when the move will happen." Never dealt with Sir Humphrey, TechEye?

Microsoft Investor Relations Press Releases >> Microsoft
For July-Sep: "# Office 2010 is off to a fast start with revenue growing over 15% in its first full quarter in market. # Microsoft continues to see a healthy and sustaining business PC refresh cycle. # Xbox 360 consoles grew 38%, outselling every competing console in the U.S. for each of the past four months. # For yet another quarter, Bing continued to grow market share, while achieving major milestones in implementing Microsoft's partnership with Yahoo."
Not mentioned: online services lost more money ($560m) than it took in revenue ($527m).

Telling the Story of Friendships >> Facebook blog
"Today I'm excited to be launching Friendship Pages. They contain the public Wall posts and comments between two friends, photos in which both are tagged, Events they RSVP'd for together and more. You'll be able to see a friendship page if you are friends with one of the people and have permission to view both people's profiles."
This is either brilliant or creepy or both.

HTTPS Everywhere | Electronic Frontier Foundation
"HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It encrypts your communications with a number of major websites." Useful if you suspect there might be people around using Firesheep - another Firefox extension.

Koobface Worm Targets Java on Mac OS X >> Krebs on Security
"It is not surprising that attackers would begin leveraging Java to attack Mac users with threats that have traditionally only menaced Windows users. My research shows that Java is now the leading vector of attacks against Windows systems, findings that recently were buttressed by oodles of attack data released by Microsoft."

MacBook Air more profitable than other Apple laptops, says analyst >> Macworld UK
"The [new] MacBook Air sports margins between 28% and 37%, said Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co., who estimated the new notebooks' bill of materials (BOM). That's significantly above the approximately 20% margin for Apple's entire notebook line."

Boonana Trojan Horse warning and removal instructions >> SecureMac
"When a user clicks the infected link, the trojan initially runs as a Java applet, which downloads other files to the computer, including an installer, which launches automatically."
Java considered harmful. (Or possibly: internet considered harmful.)

Rethinking Wikipedia contributions rates >> eaves.ca
"One things about open source projects is that they rarely die. Indeed, there are lots of open source projects out there that are the walking zombies. A small, dedicated community struggles to keep a code base intact and functioning that is much too large for it to manage. My sense is that peer production/open source projects can collapse (would MySpace count as an example?) but the rarely collapse and die."

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