Microsoft has lost a lawsuit over a XML patent and is in a rush to fix it.

The lawsuit was over how word handles .xml files.

Microsoft says that it will patch Office 2007 by January 11th, 2010 to keep it on the shelf.

Office 2010 is immune to this because it does not contain the code that infringes on the patent.

“It’s getting closer and closer to check-writing time for Steve Ballmer, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just upheld a decision that would see Microsoft Word and Office banned from sale starting January 11. If you’ll recall, Microsoft lost a patent infringement suit against XML specialists i4i back in May when it was found that Word’s handling of .xml, .docx, and .docm files infringed upon i4i’s patented XML handling algorithms, but the injunction against further Word sales was put on hold pending the results of this appeal.” -Engadget

The palm pre is now only $0 at WirelessWave.

It is $0 after a 3 year bell contract, which is the catch.

While it is nice to see a smart phone hit $0 here in Canada the question is who cares?

I don’t because I would rather get a Blackberry Storm from Telus (which is $300+3 yr).

The Pre could be competitive for the holiday season, if people go out and buy one.

So good luck Wireless Wave.

The Palm Pre

My guess was right.

WordPress 2.9 is now out.

The coolest new stuff from a user point of view is:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

So update your wordpress installations! You can do it by going to Tools –> Upgrade, or downloading it from wordpress.org.

Introducing WordPress 2.9 Carmen

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