Microsoft is expected to release to the Web Silverlight 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering richer user experiences on the Web.

In addition, the Redmond, Wash., software maker has announced that it will work with Novell to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, an effort dubbed "Moonlight" that is based on the project started on mono-project.com.

The delivery of Silverlight 1.0, along with several user examples and a new partner program, is big news for the Microsoft technology, but that news is overshadowed by the company’s sanction of the Moonlight project.

Sperry Software announced their newest add-in, Safeguard Send for Outlook. This add-in utility for Outlook 2000 or better (including Outlook 2007) prevents people from making critical mistakes when going to send email. It operates by checking outgoing email for several conditions including if you are sending an email outside the company, exceeding a specified number of recipients in a single email, the email contains certain keywords and three other conditions. If any violations of these conditions occur, then a prompt is displayed that allows the send operation to be canceled and a chance to edit the message is given.

In addition, Send Individually 2.0 has been released. This is an improvement to the original Send Individually add-in released last year. This add-in utility for Outlook 2000 or better sends newsletters, press releases, or other announcements to many recipients, one at a time (which helps to increase delivery rates to customer’s inboxes). Version 2.0 has better reporting capabilities and now has the option to delete the emails after the send operation to help keep the Sent Items folder tidy.

Messageware announced that their AttachView enterprise software solution has received a significant enhancement. The premiere add-on solution for OWA that keeps confidential files off shared computers; AttachView 8.5 includes support for Microsoft Word’s Track Changes, used widely in organizations to collaborate on documents.

Jeffrey Snover, the creator of PowerShell and a Windows Partner Architect at Microsoft, spoke with SearchWinIT.com recently about the scripting language’s potential to save time and cut tasks, new third-party tools that use PowerShell and some features that IT shops can expect in the next version, PowerShell 2.0.

The Microsoft Office team and HGTV interior designer Vern Yip presented Microsoft Home Office Makeover grand prize winner Crile Carvey with a $25,000 home office redesign. Carvey, a software application and design business owner in Wheatland, Wyo., sought to bring order to his chaotic home office to increase his productivity and efficiency. The Microsoft Home Office team updated Carvey’s office, providing him with new tools for improved productivity, and adding furnishings and special designer touches that make the room appear larger and more inviting. Carvey won the latest in technology and home decor that will help improve his ability to create state-of-the-art production pieces.

A network of infected zombie computers has been roped into acting as vectors in a new distributed attack that’s targeting eBay accounts.

The attack, which is trying to wrestle personal financial data out of eBay accounts by brute force, has been going on for at least a week, officials at Aladdin Knowledge Systems told eWEEK. The security firm discovered the new botnet Sept. 3.

Microsoft admitted that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of the Office Open XML document format’s approval as an ISO standard.

Microsoft said the offer, when discovered, was quickly retracted and that its Sweden managers voluntarily notified the SIS, the national standards body.

GFI has released a new whitepaper that explores attachment spam and describes how spammers have changed their spamming tactics over the years, and explains how the common PDF file format has been adopted to send image spam.

Extralabs Software has released Feed Editor, a software tool designed to create, edit and publish RSS feeds. Now, with Feed Editor, Web masters have the ability to create new RSS feeds from scratch, or modify and enhance existing RSS feeds.

Feed Editor makes RSS feed creation easy. The Feed Editor wizard walks new users through the RSS feed setup process, delivering ease of use and conformance to specifications. Feed Editor automatically repairs improperly formatted feeds, guaranteeing that all feeds used with Feed Editor, conform to the RSS specification. Feed Editor can be used to create and maintain an unlimited number of RSS feeds, enabling users to flawlessly maintain and distribute multiple content streams.

The fallout from the data breach at Monster.com is growing wider, as the company has confirmed that the company’s databases have been targeted by hackers before.

Monster copped to a large security breach Aug. 22, but is now admitting that the data leakage has been going on for longer and could involve more customers than originally announced.