Head-Tracking Pointer is an application that, using an inexpensive camera, lets users control a mouse pointer by aiming their face around the screen. It works with virtually any camera that can be connected to a computer, and without the user wearing anything. This solution provides computer access for those unable to use traditional pointing devices due to temporary or permanent physical impairment.

Microsoft officials have admitted one of their biggest challenges in continuing to grow the company's Windows business is the impression among some of its installed base that older Windows versions are good enough. The users of Windows 95, which turns ten years old on Wednesday, are a case in point. Elsewhere, here is a story about the launch of Windows 95 exactly 10 years ago.

Here is a review of E17. "On the whole, I am very happy with the new Enlightenment. On their homepage, the Enlightenment team states "We believe your desktop should not be an eyesore. It should be functional AND beautiful." They are doing well on both fronts." Screenshots included.

Intel, happy with its success launching the Centrino brand, on Wednesday introduced a new brand called VIIV for entertainment PCs. One feature of VIIV will be automatic transcoding--ensuring that audio or video encoded in one format can be translated into one the user's computer can actually handle without user intervention. Another feature will be instant shutdown and start-up that will work as fast as it does in consumer electronic devices such as DVD players.

Version 0.57 of Visopsys is now available for download. This is a bugfix and maintenance release. There are various GUI touch-ups, the Disk Manager (a.k.a. Partition Logic) now updates disk geometry information in FAT partitions after disk copy operations, the window 'list' component has been reimplemented, and a number of kernel improvements have been back-ported from the 0.6 development branch. As always, the ISO image is an installable live demo. Downloads here, changelog here, and Freshmeat announcement here.

Google has launched an instant-messaging (IM) program that allows text chat and computer-to-computer voice connections, a move that highlights the search giant's increasing competition with Yahoo, Microsoft and America Online. You can download Google Talk here. Google also makes it very clear that you do not need Google Talk to use their service, and they provide detailed instructions on using other IM clients to connect to Google Talk. Update: Micheal Robertson announces partnership with Google to promote the use of open standards in VoIP/IM.

"Welcome to the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit for Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 1. This edition provides documentation, samples, header files, libraries, and tools designed to help you develop applications and libraries that target Windows Vista Beta 1."

OpenOffice.org receives most of the attention among FOSS office suites, but users shouldn't forget that free software includes at least two other word processors: AbiWord, and KWord, part of the KOffice suite. From their inception, both have been playing catch-up with OpenOffice.org's Writer. But now, after several years of development, AbiWord and KWord are both reaching early maturity. How do Writer, AbiWord, and KWord compare?

Matthias Scheler of the NetBSD Release Engineering team announced an update to the prospective timeframes for upcoming NetBSD releases. NetBSD 3.0 is planned for October 2005; NetBSD 2.1 for the middle of September 2005. These dates are of course subject to change.

Vector programming doesn't stop with PowerPC. Learn how to do SIMD vector programming for MacOS X for Intel. This page provides an overview of the hardware and programming interfaces involved, and provides detailed translation help information for leveraging your investment in AltiVec forward to the SSE world.

Start-up XenSource has succeeded in booting Microsoft Windows on top of Xen software, an important milestone in its effort to commercialize the virtual machine.

Japan's Miracle Linux Corp., China's Red Flag Software Co. and Haansoft Inc. of South Korea are teaming up to release Asianux 2.0, a Linux distribution meant to compete with Microsoft Windows in their home regions.

It's been two months since Steve Jobs announced that Apple Computer was going with Intel processors, and in that time, Apple's transition toolkit has made its way into the hands of the Macintosh cognoscenti. And in that time, it's become clear that this transition will likely be the easiest of all those yet experienced by Apple developers.

The last few years have seen the introduction of the concept of "extensions" in most popular web browsers. While Mozilla natively supports extensions, Opera and Safari come feature-packed and can be easily hacked via config files, and a market has cropped up around the IE engine which supports adding new functionality to your browser. In the interest of sharing a good thing, which are your favorite browser extensions?