The diminutive feature set, in line with our expectations of Google, is welcome. However, as with IE7, I find it hard to orient myself in a browser without a menu bar. At the end of the day, as Google put it itself, it's just another WebKit-based browser.

The under-the-hood improvements are similar to what Symbian did with platsec, its platform security model - the rationalising of a process as a unit of security, so that any code that is not part of the code browser runs in its own process, with a policed IPC mechanism to share information between processes.

The lapsed website of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit has been snapped up by an opportunistic German marketeer.

Up until recently nhtcu.org redirected to the official website of Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). SOCA was created in April 2006 with the merger of the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU).

The art of burying invisible malware deep inside a Linux machine is about to go mainstream, thanks to a new open-source rootkit released Thursday by Immunity Inc., a firm that supplies tools for penetration testers.

When implemented, Immunity's DR, or Debug Register, makes backdoors and other types of malware extremely difficult to detect or eradicate. It's notable because it cloaks itself by burrowing deep inside a server's processor and availing itself of debugging mechanisms available in Intel's chip architecture. The rootkit, in other words, mimics a kernel debugger.

Dell has finally entered the competitive ultraportable netbook market with the Inspiron Mini 9 notebook.

The new Dell Mini will be shipped with Ubuntu Linux, although users will be able to pay a bit extra for a Windows XP version.

The Mini 9 netbook sports an 8.9-inch screen with a decent 1024x600 pixel resolution.

The carefully crafted ecosystem of tech companies built around Microsoft's Windows operating system is showing signs of strain. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), a longtime Microsoft ally, has quietly assembled a group of engineers to develop software that would make Windows Vista easier to use, or bypass some of its more onerous features. A Skunk Works of engineers at the company is even angling to replace Windows with an HP-assembled operating system, sources say.

It was five years ago Monday the Recording Industry Association of America began its massive litigation campaign that now includes more than 30,000 lawsuits targeting alleged copyright scofflaws on peer-to-peer networks.

The targets include the elderly, students, children and even the dead. No one in the U.S. who uses Kazaa, Limewire or other file sharing networks is immune from the RIAA's investigators, and fines under the Copyright Act go up to $150,000 per purloined music track.

1885: Sylvanus F. Bowser delivers the first gasoline pump. It improves safety, but can't guarantee low prices.

The automobile was yet to be invented, and gasoline was a byproduct of refining kerosene for stoves and lamps. Some of that equipment could use gasoline, but it wasn't much in demand.

You bought fuel in a general, hardware or grocery store. You had to bring your own gallon (or whatever) can, and the storekeeper would ladle the flammable fluid from a barrel. Wasteful. Messy. Dangerous.

You know it's hard up here for a blimp. Or so says Stephane Rousson, a 39-year-old Frenchman who's hoping to cross the English Channel in a homemade, pedal-powered airship.

As a child, he was captivated by the Gossamer Albatross, the first entirely human-powered craft to fly the turbulent stretch from England to France. Hoping to repeat that 1979 feat, Rousson acquired Zeppy, a crank-driven zeppelin.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A British woman plans to make a parachute jump over Mount Everest hoping to become the first woman ever to skydive over the world's highest peak, organizers said Sunday.

Holly Budge, 29, plans to throw herself out from 465 feet above Everest, hurtling past it, before landing in a mountain meadow at 12,350 feet.

She plans to attempt her dive in October after taking off from an airstrip in Syangboche in the Khumbhu region of northeast Nepal, home to Mount Everest, the world's highest peak at 8,850 meters (29,035 feet).

well, i have been using google chrome for almost 2 days now, and it seems to be a fairly stable browser, so far - i havnt used it for extensive work yet. i have only had one crash :). there is cool feature that if one tab freezes you can still use the others.

of course this browser is still quite shiny and new so there are a few issues with it. i think it could kick internet explorer in quite nicely.

you can download it here www.google.com/chrome.

i will post some screenshots up sometime when i have a moment.