End of the road for IBM OS/2

IBM is ceasing sales of the formerly dominant operating system after almost two decades, eWeek reports.

IBM officially announced that OS/2 Warp V4 and OS/2 Warp Server, the last two members of IBM`s OS/2 family, would be withdrawn from the marketplace as of 23 December 2005.

Standard customer support ends for both operating systems on 31 December 2006, while support will be made available beyond 2006 for those customers willing to pay for either its service extension or total content ownership plans.

For OS/2 users and fans, the news should not come as a surprise as IBM said in 2000 at the WarpTech conference that the end of life for OS/2 would be in 2006.

Mozilla`s SpeadFirefox.com community marketing site became an unwitting spam platform after "unknown remote attackers" hit it, the site`s managers said.

Internetnews reports that the exploit did not affect any other Mozilla sites or software and was limited only to SpreadFirefox.com.

"We don`t have any evidence that the attackers obtained personal information about site users, and we believe they accessed the machine to use it to send spam," an e-mail sent from the SpreadFirefox.com site stated.

"However, it is possible that the attackers acquired information that site users provided to the site."

Macromedia`s technology agenda is focused on boosting Web-based video experiences, company officials said during the Flashforward2005 conference, reports Macworld.

Executives provided glimpses of upcoming technologies such as Maelstrom, the code name for the planned Flash Player 8 release; 8ball, which is the next version of the Flash authoring tool; and Flash Cast, the content delivery technology for mobile phones.

"Video is a huge new trend for the Flash Player," said Kevin Lynch, Macromedia executive VP.

Although video support has been available since Flash 6, wide adoption is starting right now, said Lynch.

Company officials would not comment on specific release dates for the planned technologies.

Computers donated by the developed world are both fuelling and feeding an appetite for computers in Africa where a new machine could cost more than a year`s wages, reports the BBC.

The Masai Mara from Kenya are famous the world over for their exuberant dancing, but now you are as likely to find them sitting in front of a PC monitor.

Computer Aid International is giving old PCs new life and providing this equipment, which is simply too expensive for most school budgets, to the developing nations.

"We get donations of literally hundreds of computers at a time from universities, large corporations, right the way to individual donations of a single machine that someone`s brought from their home," said Tony Roberts, head of Computer Aid International.