Conficker phoned home last week and updated itself. Researchers think the new variant, Conficker.C, is set to trigger on April 1, 2009.

Microsoft released a patch for Windows 2000 and Server 2003 and 2008. While the patch may be good for companies with their own proxy servers, those who depend on outside servers may not want to apply this "fix".

In this helpful article by project management guru Michelle LaBrosse, she’ll help you with your negotiation skills and help you use email to further your goals. A common myth is to see negotiation as the purview of people in pinstripes. Instead, negotiation is for every one who wants to be more successful in life.

Read this OutlookPower article.

France’s Gendarmerie Nationale, the country’s national police force, decided to switch to Ubuntu instead of Vista citing not only the cost of licenses, but training.

While continuing to deny any necessity for a second beta release, Microsoft has been busy stuffing new, un-beta-tested, features into Windows 7 Release Candidate 1.

Microsoft is trying to make up lost ground with Internet Explorer. Version 8 is offering several new features, hoping to woo back users. This article includes short videos showing IE8 in action.

Some might see this as letting the wolf guard the sheep, but the US Department of Homeland Security has appointed Philip Reitinger as deputy undersecretary of National Protections Program Directorate, which seems to be a fancy way of saying "secure the infrastructure".

Infinity Cafe has launched "lightness", a minimalist writing program with far fewer features than a standard word-processor. And, you get a free goat with every purchase.

The Koobface worm first surfaced on social websites last year. It’s back again, but slightly different, and Microsoft has set their MSRT (Malicious Software Removal Tool) on the hunt.

Microsoft is boasting, as unbiased, it’s own tests to claim Internet Explorer 8 is faster than Firefox 3.05 and Google’s Chrome 1.0.