Apple plugs Java hole

Apple released new versions of QuickTime this week to plug a hole in both the Mac and the Windows operating systems, says Half Life Source.

The bug was discovered last month during the Hack-a-Mac challenge. The new version, QuickTime 7.1.6, patches the vulnerability that was used by Dino Dai Zovi last month to break into a MacBook Pro during the CanSecWest security conference.

The vulnerability was in QuickTime's use of Java code and could be used to run malicious code on a user's computer by running a Java-enabled browser at a malicious Web site.

Sun Microsystems used the recent JavaOne conference to position the 13-year-old Java platform as a foundation for next-generation technologies, states Computerworld.

The company reiterated intentions first expressed at last year's JavaOne to catapult Java more into the rich Internet application space via its JavaFX technology. To follow up its words with actions, Sun rolled out a host of improvements, including video codec technology for the base Java platform, and promoted a planned cloud services platform called Project Hydrazine.

Sun also remained atop its open source soapbox, calling itself the world's largest open source software company.

A group of computer science students from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, were the recipients of an award given out by James Gosling, the father of Java, to innovative software developers, says Inquirer.net.

The Filipino team who developed the Expert Poisoning System was among many teams worldwide that received the prestigious award.