"With the latest releases of Opera, Google Chrome and Firefox continuing to push the boundaries of the web, the once-dominant Internet Explorer is looking less and less relevant every day. But we should expect Microsoft to go on the offensive at its upcoming MIX 2010 developer conference in Las Vegas, where, it has been speculated, the company will demonstrate the first beta builds of Internet Explorer 9 and possibly offer a preview release of the browser to developers. Several clues point to the possibility that the next version of IE will include broad support for HTML5 elements, vector graphics and emerging CSS standards. If Microsoft plays its cards right in Vegas, IE 9 could be the release that helps IE get its groove back in the web browser game."

This is interesting: an 85 USD smartbook running Windows CE. "Inside the little guy packs a 624MHz Marvell PXA303 processor, 2GB of flash storage and runs Windows CE which all should be good enough for some light Web browsing and e-mail writing. There was actually a YouTube shortcut on the desktop, but the NBPC722 wasn't connected to try it out. Apparently this inexpensive laptop should be making its way stateside this spring."

Today's "the day after". The day after Apple started a patent war with HTC and Google. Today, we have statements from both HTC and Google, and a number of other people have weighed in as well as to the possible ramifications of Apple's lawsuit.

"This month's edition of KDE SC is a bugfix and translation update to KDE SC 4.4. KDE SC 4.4.1 is a recommended upgrade for everyone running KDE SC 4.4.0 or earlier versions. As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. Users around the world will appreciate that KDE SC 4.4.1 multi-language support is more complete. KDE SC 4 is already translated into more than 50 languages, with more to come."

In a statement released today, Apple announced it is suing HTC, claiming the Taiwanese phone maker infringed upon 20 of Cupertino's patents related to the iPhone. After Nokia and Apple suing one another a number of times over the past couple of months, this is the next high-profile patent lawsuit in the mobile phones business. Engadget has the filings, and it seems that Apple wants to avoid angering Microsoft, but has no qualms about taking on Google. Update: Engadget analyses every single patent in the claim.

Over the past couple of months, I've been getting a number of emails asking me about SkyOS' status. Since I didn't know anything beyond what's on the SkyOS website, and because, well, I have no affiliation with SkyOS, I couldn't really reply to these emails. However, after yet another email sent to me late last week, I decided to simply... Email Robert Szeleney, the man behind the project.

"A lot of commercial software comes with H.264 encoders and decoders, and some computers arrive with this software preinstalled. This leads a lot of people to believe that they can legally view and create H.264 videos for whatever purpose they like. Unfortunately for them, it ain't so."

"Mozilla, faced with new competitive pressures, has begun work on three separate, significant changes to Firefox. First is a new JavaScript engine that - with a transfusion from the project behind Apple's Safari - should run Web-based programs at least 30 percent faster. Second is a new graphics engine for Windows that will take advantage of hardware acceleration for graphics and text. And third is a programming tool to help bring to fruition a new system for Firefox add-ons."

Well, this is a welcome surprise for those of us waiting for Ubuntu 10.04, the Lucid Lynx. Several users are reporting that their iPod Touches and iPhones (including the 3GS) work in alpha 3 - without tweaking, without jailbreaking, without patching - with Nautilus and Rythmbox.

Ah, Nautilus, GNOME's default file manager. It's been with us for a long time now, and it has certainly been at the centre of a number of controversies. Do we go with a spatial or a navigational Nautilus? Should we replace the location bar with a breadcrumb bar? And now, it's time to move on. Recently, it has become apparent to many that Nautilus could use a make-over.

"DSL.sk did a test of the 'ballot' screen at www.browserchoice.eu, used in Microsoft Windows 7 to prompt the user to install a browser. It was a Microsoft concession to the EU, to provide a randomized ballot screen for users to select a browser. However, the DSL.sk test suggested that the ordering of the browsers was far from random. Maybe there was cogent technical analysis of this issue posted someplace, but if there was, I could not find it. So I'm providing my own analysis here, a little statistics and a little algorithms 101. I'll tell you what went wrong, and how Microsoft can fix it. In the end it is a rookie mistake in the code, but it is an interesting mistake that we can learn from, so I'll examine it in some depth."

Evidence has just submitted to LKML a new version of the SCHED_DEADLINE real-time CPU scheduler for the Linux kernel. The project is basically a new scheduling policy (implemented inside its own scheduling class) aiming at introducing deadline scheduling for Linux tasks, and it is being developed by Evidence in the context of the EU-Funded project ACTORS. This version takes into account comments come from Linux kernel developers, and it also introduces a first drafted implementation of deadline inheritance.

Kroc, Thom and David devote a show to the discussion of monopolies. What defines a monopoly, what has it to do with morals, and what positive and negative effects monopolies have on the market. Microsoft and Google are mentioned throughout as we try to place the current position Google finds itself in in context with the massive change in the technology world since Microsoft was king of the hill.

I just have to make mention of this. ACube, the company behind the sam440ep PowerPC motherboard, has finally made available the backplates for sam motherboards. As mentioned in my review, they shipped the sams without backplates, which over time kind of became a running joke in the Amiga world. Sam440 owners can now contact their dealers, or ACube directly, for a free backplate.