hookle sky: May 18, 2007

Coca-Cola and Apple are partnering to give away 2 billion (yes, that's with a "b") iTunes music downloads between May and August. Coca-Cola will pick up most of the bill for all of the tracks users download.
Coke is also giving some iPods and tickets to over 100 concerts. The performances from those concerts will also be recorded and made available at the iTunes store.
The promotion will be available in 17 European countries, and will be launched at the Cannes Film festival. In order to win, you'll have to pick up a a Coke, so if you can stomach a few hundred bottles, this might be a quick way to get a sugar rush and a larger music collection all in one fell swoop.

Good morning everyone, I am pleased to announce that the IE Cumulative Security Update for May 2007 is now available via Windows Update. Alternatively, you can receive this and all other Microsoft updates via the new Microsoft Update. I encourage you to upgrade to Microsoft Update if you haven’t already to ensure that you receive the latest updates for all Microsoft products.
This update addresses 6 remote code execution vulnerabilities. For detailed information on the contents of this update, please see the following documentation:
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-027
Microsoft Knowledge Base article 931768
This update is rated “Critical” for IE 5.01, IE 6 Service Pack 1 on Windows 2000, IE 6 for Windows XP, and IE 7 on Windows XP and Windows Vista. For Windows 2003 Server with IE6 or IE7, this update is rated “Moderate” due to Enhanced Server Configuration.
As a reminder, IE security updates are cumulative and contain all previously released updates for each version of Internet Explorer.
I encourage everybody to download this security update and other non-IE security updates via Windows Update or Microsoft Update. Windows users are also strongly encouraged to configure their systems for automatic updates to keep their systems current with the latest updates from Microsoft.
Geoffrey Silva
Program Manager
Internet Explorer Security
via

Remember when you could call up a customer service number, and talk to an actual customer service representative instead of one of those horrible annoying automated trees? No? Oh, well. Um. They used to exist, just believe that. Anyway, for years we've been subjected to these painful traps and there was almost nothing we could do. But now we finally have a tool to help navigate these godless telephony mazes. And the shining knight that has ridden to our rescue? Why, Bringo, of course. That's right, and you have no idea just how difficult it is to avoid a cheesy 'was his name-o' joke. Consider yourself lucky.
Terrible name aside, the service this site offers is incredible. It lets you bypass these automated phone trees altogether. You simply enter your phone number, and they navigate the tree until they find an actual human being to speak to, and then send you a call. It's surprisingly convenient. And most importantly, it allows you to pull this annoying little trick. Set your voicemail up so that it sounds like you're having a conversation. You know those people, they have a voicemail message that starts with "Hello?" and everytime you call you swear it was them answering? Do that, but stretch it out as long as possible. Tell them how they can help you, and what you want to do. Then enter your number into the bringer site about 9 times an hour. That'll teach 'em. Or just use it for it's designed purpose. Either way, great little tool.via

Yesterday's post on navigating Google search results via keyboard shortcuts was a big hit, and now there's a Firefox search plugin available for quick access to it.
To add what I call "Google by keyboard" to Firefox's search box, save this file to the searchplugins directory inside your Firefox directory. On Windows, that path is C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins. On the Mac, go with ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/profiles/yourprofilenamehere/searchplugins/. Then restart Firefox to see your new plugin in the search box dropdown list.
Remember, to key up to the Firefox search box, use Ctrl+K (Cmd + K for Mac users), and switch engines in the list using Ctrl+Up or Down arrows. Special thanks to davosian for posting the search plugin code. See also our very own Lifehacker site search plugin for Firefox. —Gina Trapani.via

First things first: If you haven’t upgraded to Picasa 2.7, now would probably be a good time to do that. It’s been available for a couple of weeks, and there are major improvements, in particular speed improvements.
Once you have that done, go checkout Picasa’s new flash slideshow feature. A handful of startups have offered a slide-show presentation that could be embedded into sites and blogs, but Picasa has never offered it as a built-in feature.
The slideshow is created from your Picasa Web Albums, and you can easily embed the slideshow presentation into your blog or any other website. They even offer you a few customization options like size. You can select whether you want the presentation to be small (144 pixels) or extra extra large (800 pixels), and a few options in-between.
Another choice that they give you is whether or not you’d like to have the caption for each of the photos displayed. The slide-show feature only takes a few clicks, and it’s easy to use. Now if they could just add an option to loop the slideshow so it doesn’t just end, I think people will be absolutely satisfied with it.via

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