Adobe is set to release the newest version of its popular software suite, Adobe Creative Suite CS5, on Monday April 12, 2010. There is an online launch event that you can register for. I haven't done a lot of research on CS5, but there are some really cool sneak peek videos showing new features like Puppet Warp and Content-Aware Fill.

If you are interested in some good information regarding CS5, check out http://cs5.org/.

• Zend Framework
• CakePHP
• CodeIgniter
• Symfony
• Horde Application Framework
• eZ Components

Do you use a different framework from those listed above? Leave a comment about it and I'll get it added to the list.

For those of you that are as hooked on phpMyAdmin as I am, you will be happy to know that there is a new version available. phpMyAdmin 3.1.0 includes a number of improvements and fixes.

The list of improvements includes security updates, language updates, export fixes, and general patches. The release notes highlight a few specific improvements: "this version has a new setup mechanism and supports BLOBstreaming and the Swekey hardware authentication" (release notes).

You can view the release notes for full details concerning the new release and download the new version from sourceforge.

As many of you know Adobe launched it's CS4 product on September 23^rd. To help with the release of the product Adobe held a CS4 launch broadcast that is available from the AdobeTV website. If you missed the broadcast, you can still check out the hour long video to get some of the information surrounding the new release.

This release includes updates to well known products like Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, and Acrobat, but there are also updates to some products incuded that you may not know about like Soundbooth and OnLocation. You can get CS4 in six different versions:

• Design Premium - $1,799
• Design Standard - $1,399
• Web Premium - $1,699
• Web Premium - $999
• Production Premium - $1,699
• Master Collection - $2,499

Each version includes different combinations of applications. If you would like more information about CS4 or the products included within each version, check out the CS4 website.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Prices have been published and are not being increased since the last version of SQL Server (2005). The prices are listed below with the different versions available.

I have listed the notable features below and there are quite a few. There are major improvements as well as minor fixes listed. There is a nice article about what's new in SQL Server 2008 on TechNet. The improvements and new features are within three main categories, trusted, productive, and intelligent.

Notable New Features

• New Date and Time data types
  • DATE
  • TIME
  • DATETIMEOFFSET
  • DATETIME2
• Grouping sets
  • An extension to the GROUP BY clause that lets you specify what to compute as an aggregate.
• MERGE SQL Statement
  • Transaction SQL statement that can be used to synchronize two tables based on their differences.
• Integrated Full Text Search
  • Full Text Searches allow you to compare values in a field based on words or phrases. This is similar to the LIKE comparisons, only comparing words or phrases instead of characters.
• Data Compression
  • Allows for more efficient storage and less storage. It also improves performance on I/O functions, such as data warehousing.
• Transparent Data Encryption
  • This feature will encrypt the database files automatically allowing for better security. This reduces the risk of data being discovered, even if the database files are obtained by an unauthorized user.

Technologies

• Analysis Services
• Data Mining
• High Availability—Always On
• Integration Services
• Manageability
• Performance and Scalability
• Programmability
• Reporting Services
• Security
• Spatial Data

Available Editions

• SQL Server 2008 Enterprise ($24,999)
• SQL Server 2008 Standard ($5,999)
• SQL Server 2008 Workgroup ($3,899)
• SQL Server 2008 Web ($15/proc/month)
• SQL Server 2008 Developer ($50)
• SQL Server 2008 Express (N/A)
• SQL Server Compact 3.5 (N/A)

For more detailed information, you can check out the white papers, or if you are looking to try it out, you can download an evaluation copy.

Additional Resources

• SQL Server 2008 Website
• SQL Server 2008 TechCenter
• SQL Server 2008 Developer Center

Starting yesterday, Aug 2, WordPress.com now offers support 24-7. Previously, support was available during the day from 9am - 4pm PDT, and then 24 hours a day 5 days a week, but that has just changed. They recognized the need for fast support at any time and have expanded to meet this need. "The time has come for help without delay. We hereby announce 24-7 support on WordPress.com" (WordPress.com Blog). They will try to get back to you within 24 hours, if not sooner, and are working hard to provide quality support in an efficient manner.

I'm pretty excited to here this news. I don't host my blog through WordPress.com, although I do use WordPress. However, I think this is a great step that they have taken to reach out and provide extra support needed by their users. Hosting your blog on WordPress.com is free, with a few upgrades available at a cost, and yet they still upped their support level to 24-7. I think that is pretty impressive and says a good deal about their business practices. Kudos to you, wordpress.com!

phpMyAdmin 2.11.8.1 was released yesterday. The main reason for the updated release is to patch bugs and security issues. There were some XSS problems reported by Aung Khant from the YGN Ethical Hacker Group. The two main fixes are both XSS related, one having to do with frames and the other has to do with a lack of HTML escaping. You can read more about these by visiting the site which contains the news release about these bug/security fixes from phpMyAdmin. These vulnerabilities were considered very serious and have now been patched with this new release. Be sure to upgrade your copy to 2.11.8.1. You can download the new release from SourceForge.

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