Goodness, didn't Microsoft just spit in Richard Stallman's eye? The GPL creator's attempts to stop Microsoft from cutting any more of those patent-protection deals like the one it cut with Novell don't quite seem to be working. The last draft of the Microsoft-limiting GPLv3 was barely in circulation when Microsoft announced first thing Monday morning that it had pocketed a five-year deal with the little 80-man Debian commercializer Xandros, the New York outfit that bought Corel's Linux distribution, the code that used to be underneath Linspire (nee Lindows), a company more associated with the desktop than the server. More info

comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for February 2007 and introduced a new suite of metrics based on site 'visits.' The 'visits' metric, defined as the number of times a unique person accesses content within a Web entity with breaks between access of at least 30 minutes, is a way of measuring the frequency with which a person views content, thereby illustrating a key component of user engagement. Included among the new suite of metrics are: total visits, average minutes per visit, average visits per visitor, and average visits per usage day. More info

DigitalPersona, the biometrics authentication folk, has moved its One Touch SDK to Linux so developers can create fingerprint-enabled Linux applications. It figures it would be good for embedded Linux platforms and standalone systems in retail, finance, healthcare and time and attendance applications. The widgetry is initially designated for 2.6 versions of SUSE and Slackware and developers can use C and C++ environments to integrate it into code that will run on PCs, servers, POS terminal or embedded devices. More info

ExtraLabs Software announced the release of Feed Editor 4.76. Designed for the Windows OS, this application enables you to create, edit and publish RSS feeds and podcasts surprisingly fast and easy. Compared to other RSS editors in its category, Feed Editor combines an unprecedented number of features, including a support for various RSS formats, a podcasting support, a WYSIWYG HTML editor, an XML editor, an RSS Feed preview, an FTP upload and publishing, automatic date management, and an ability to convert CSV or HTML to RSS and back and others. More info

It's not the latest sequel to the 'Jason versus Freddie' movie, it's one of the decisions you need to make if you're rolling out a Web 2.0 product. Make the wrong choice, and your project and reputation can suffer. Make the right choice, and you can be a hero. There aren't any easy answers, but I can take you on a tour of the technology and the decisions involved so you can make a better-informed choice. During our tour I promise you won?t be attacked by a man in a hockey mask, so sit back and enjoy the ride. More info

I'm sure that there are times when you visit your favorite bookstore to look at new books on your favorite .NET topics and you cringe at the weighty tomes sitting on the shelves. You open these books and page upon page of continuous print swims before your eyes, but you figure it's important so you plop down your hard-earned money, take the book home, begin to read it in you rocker recliner and fall asleep. More info

A high-level look at the architectures that support OpenLaszlo applications will be given next week (March 20) at AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 East by Adam Wolff, chief software architect of Laszlo Systems. In addition to demonstrations of some high-profile examples on the web today, Wolff will build a fairly complete example application from scratch. He'll also examine the workings of OpenLaszlo 4.0, which allows developers to create DHTML or Flash from a single source code base. More info

It seems that ABC's 20/20 is going to do a piece on Linux file system programmer Hans Reiser and the murder case against him on Friday, November 2 and that that's one of the reasons the opening statements in his trial have been pushed back from Monday October 29 to Monday November 5. Concern about prejudicial information. Other reasons appear to be the number of pre-trial motions and the difficulty the defense has had in getting the reportedly 400-page file on the custody case over Reiser's two little kids out of Juvenile Court. His lawyer finally got it after the murder trial judge intervened. More info

Traditionally DOM or SAX-based enterprise applications have to repeat CPU-intensive XML parsing when accessing the same documents multiple times. VTD-XML 2.0 introduces a simple general-purpose XML index called VTD+XML (http://vtd-xml.sourceforge.net/persistence.html) that eliminates the need for repetitive parsing of those applications. More info

DataDirect announced its DataDirect XML Converters are being used by leading healthcare organizations to comply with the X12 electronic data interchange (EDI) and Health Level Seven (HL7) clinical and administrative data standards in an effort to accelerate application development efforts, enhance operational efficiency, reduce overall costs and improve patient service levels. More info