Today, here in the United States, we celebrate July 4th, otherwise known as Independence Day. We often don’t take the time to think of what that means, but instead live what it means. When we go off to fireworks or picnics or time with friends, we’re living that celebration. The historical reason is to celebrate independence from England, but, here in 2004, that celebration is an anachronism. Other than bad food and the somewhat disagreeable Tony Blaire, we really have nothing against our Brit friends. But what we are celebrating is our way of life, corruption, cronyism, traffic, polution, and all. As I hoist my virtual glass of bottled water to all our friends out there, here’s a fervent wish that we continue to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States for many, many more years. — DG

In an online eavesdropping case that one expert says puts all of our electronic communications in jeopardy, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that it was acceptable for a firm that offered email service to surreptitiously track its subscribers’ messages.

A security flaw that had been fixed in older versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer has reappeared in the latest version of the browser software. Security company Secunia issued a bulletin warning of the flaw in versions 5.01, 5.5 and 6.0 of Internet Explorer. The problem had been fixed six years ago, when it appeared in versions 3.0 and 4.0 of the IE browser.

A Washington appeals court has upheld a ruling that found an Oregon man had violated the state’s antispam law. A three-judge panel voted unanimously on Monday to reject an appeal by defendant Jason Heckel, who claimed his mass emailing practices did not violate Washington state law. In 2002, a judge found Heckel in violation of the state’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act and imposed an injunction and fine as penalties.

Microsoft’s rivals want to enhance plug-ins to match capabilities available in Internet Explorer through Microsoft’s ActiveX technology. The Mozilla Foundation, Opera Software and Apple Computer, all browser makers, said on Wednesday that they have teamed up with plug-in vendors Sun Microsystems, Adobe Systems and Macromedia to revise the way plug-ins run in non-Microsoft browsers.

Network Associates announced that it will now operate under the name McAfee and refocus its efforts on computer security. With the name change, the company returns to its roots; McAfee Associates, named for its founder John McAfee, merged with Network General to form Network Associates in 1997.

Simplistix Plus, a networking and computer software training company, has launched a consumer-friendly web site on some of the most commonly occurring web viruses, worms and trojans. The ten year old organization is providing this site as a public service to its clients and others who are often frustrated with computer system problems and don’t know where to turn for assistance.

GFI has announced the release of GFI MailEssentials for Exchange/SMTP 10. This new version of GFI’s popular server-based anti-spam solution allows network users to blacklist or whitelist senders via public folders, and enables administrators to tune the Bayesian filter more easily.

During a visit to Japan, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company will spend about $6.9 million on research and development next year, an 8% increase over the current R&D budget. Ballmer said speech recognition and digital media will be key areas of focus.

Sun chairman and CEO Scott McNealy openly criticized the security of Microsoft’s products, IBM’s insistence that Sun open source Java, and Red Hat’s refusal to participate in Java.