Until now nobody could have an Gmail e-mail address unless he/she got an invitation from another Gmail user. From today anybody can have a @gmail account. After a period of nearly three years, you can apply for an e-mail address without invitation. Since the introduction of Gmail in April 2004 the web mail service became one of the biggest rivals of Microsoft Hotmail. The big advantage of Gmail was the 1Gb of storage space they had over other providers. Now the storage space has increased to 2814,522021 MB and is still increasing every second.

For now the service still has the beta tag, and if they will get rid of that in a short time isn't known for now. It's also possible that Google has to deliver it's Gmail in Europe under another name because of the law suit filled by Daniel Giersch, owner of the company G-mail. German and British users will have a @googlemail.com account instead of a @gmail.com account, and there is a chance that the whole Europe will suffer this fate.

View: Make your own account
Source: MSFN via Tweakers

The disappearance of a renowned computer scientist has sparked a massive online manhunt, with thousands of volunteers poring over satellite images in search of clues.

James Gray, 63, a Microsoft researcher and winner of the prestigious Turing Award, failed to return home from a sailing trip on Sunday, January 28.

He left from San Francisco Bay aboard a 40-foot sailing boat, and had intended to scatter his mother's ashes at the nearby Farallon Islands.

Several days of intensive searching by the US Coast Guard and private planes revealed no sign of Dr Gray or his boat, so desperate friends and colleagues turned to the internet for help.

On Friday, engineers from NASA, online retailer Amazon and technology companies such as Google and Microsoft organised a satellite and high-altitude aircraft to photograph the area where he was believed to be located.

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Microsoft has sent out e-mails regarding the closing of the Window Live Messenger 8.1 Beta that began September 7, 2006. The e-mail states that 3,009 beta testers submitted 1010 bugs and 456 suggestions as well as 6000 posts in the newsgroup. The final build number and final release date are currently unknown. There will be no prizes given out at the end of the beta because of budget limitations for this specific program. Although there are plans for another beta, it is unclear if "it will be a minor release (such as an 8.x ) or a major release (such as a 9.0)" and no date is available either. The plan is to invite current testers to the next managed beta. The beta newsgroup will be available for a couple of more weeks while the public newsgroup microsoft.public.windows.live.messenger will remain the primary location for discussing Windows Live Messenger.

Download: Windows Live Messenger 8.1.0178
View: Windows Live Messenger Home Page
Source: Neowin

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. That removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's fast! (normally taking less that a second to run) and Free.

Download: CCleaner 1.37.456 Standard (2,622KB) | Basic (607KB - No Toolbar) | Slim (450KB - English Only, No Toolbar)
View: Changelog | Screenshots | CCleaner Homepage

Microsoft urges users to download and install the fix if they notice the browser mysteriously slowing down while surfing. Microsoft released a non-security update for Internet Explorer 7 two weeks before the next patch day, and urged Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 users to download and install the fix if they notice the  browser mysteriously slowing down while surfing.

Earlier this week, the Redmond, Wash. developer pushed several updates to Windows Vista users, the new operating system that launched to consumers on Tuesday, including one to fix performance problems with IE 7's anti-fraud filter. The update has also been posted for IE 7 on Windows XP and Server 2003.

"Some users [have experienced high] CPU usage when they are navigating a page that contains multiple frames or when multiple frames are navigated simultaneously," said Steve Reynolds, an IE 7 program manager, on the group's blog. "This occurs when the phishing filter evaluates the page for each navigation, resulting in multiple simultaneous evaluations for the same page." The XP and Server 2003 IE 7 anti-phishing filter fix will be included in the Feb. 13 updates, but users can download the patch manually from the company's support site.

Source: InformationWeek

If you choose to purchase an upgrade version of Windows Vista to upgrade XP, you will no longer be able to use that version of XP. Either on another system, or as a dual-boot option. The key will be invalidated, preventing activation.

From Vista's EULA found here (PDF):

13. UPGRADES. To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligiblefor the upgrade. Upon upgrade, this agreement takes the place of the agreement for the software you upgraded from. After you upgrade, you may no longer use the software you upgraded from.

Source: TomCoyote

Microsoft has made the first batch of updates for Vista available via the built-in Windows Update client. If you don't see the 22 updates, manually "Check for updates".

Here's the breakdown:

• 5 Updates for both 32bit and 64bit flavours of Vista (KB930857), (KB928089), (KB929427), (KB931573) & (KB929735)
• 15 Language Packs (Chinese Hong Kong, Chine Simplified, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish)
• 2 Ultimate Extras (BitLocker and EFS enhancements & Hold Em Poker Game)

Source: Neowin

The Melburnians will know what I’m talking about when I say that Connex needs to pick up their act. In the mX today (local Melbourne paper, now coming to Sydney), the following article was on the front page.

Please answer the poll, and also post a comment about what you think of Connex.

!++3++!
Furious commuters already frustrated by the cancellation of 37 daily rail services will soon face even greater chaos thanks to Connex’s plan to wipe a further 50 services. As passengers lashed out at worsening chaos, Connex chairman Bob Annells said he had no idea when they would get relief from the cancellations, which are costing the operator fines of $500,000 a day.
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Unlike with the Windows XP Upgrade CD, with Windows Vista users are forced to have a valid install of Windows XP Home or Professional on their machines before upgrading with a Vista Upgrade DVD. This typically isn't a big deal for the majority of users on the first install of Vista; but think about the necessary steps if you already have Vista installed or no operating system on the computer:

1. Install a genuine copy of Windows XP Home/Professional
2. Activate Windows XP through Microsoft
3. Upgrade to Windows Vista from within Windows XP

Either shell out the extra cash for the full version or be prepared for the extended process of installing XP, and then Vista. Of course there is always the OEM road, but remember that such a copy is limited to the computer it is first activated on.

Source: DailyTech via Neowin

Nero 7 Lite Micro is a special build of Nero 7 Lite, including just Nero Burning Rom with basic Audio/VideoCD support (English).

You can enter license data during Setup, or use the default key to evaluate Nero for 30 days.

If you need these software grab the official Nero installer here.

Nero 7 Lite is a full functional Burning Software Suite including:
- Nero Burning Rom
- Nero Express
- Nero CoverDesigner
- Nero WaveEditor
- Nero Toolkit

also included in Nero 7 Lite:
- MauSau Audio Plugins
- Complete Nero Help

Changes in v7.7.5.1:
- Upgraded Nero to Nero 7.7.5.1
- Removed NeroAPI, NeroNet due to Unicode changes
- Added new smaller Nero Help to Micro build

Download: Nero 7 Lite v7.7.5.1
View: Discussion Forum
View: Nero Lite Home Page