Since this story is well known to everyone, I'll cut it down to only a few sentences, because I don't want to keep you waiting the good news. The idea is that, despite the fact that Microsoft said Windows XP will be discontinued this summer, and probably they won't consider the petition to save it and go on with the initial plan, they will also keep Windows XP alive until 2010! How is that possible? Well, I'm not talking about technical support...


Here's the story - while Windows XP Home and Professional will stop being sold by retailers on June 30, and system builders won't be able to use it anymore since 31st of January, 2009, Windows XP Starter Edition, the less known scaled-down version of Microsoft's operating system, built especially for emerging markets and old computers, will remain on the market until the end of June, 2010!

At last, the interesting part is that users that got Vista Business or Ultimate at retail or through enterprise agreements with Microsoft have indefinite downgrade (or upgrade, depends how we look at it) rights to XP as part of their license agreements. Interesting, don't you think? To get Vista, just so you can install Windows XP in the years to come, if things go wrong with Microsoft latest OS...

The Internet is crawling with viruses, Trojans, Worms, and others of their kind, so the fact that some computers got attacked is nothing out of ordinary. The problem appears when we are talking about servers of a supermarket chain, and the attack lead to a massive data breach...


Hannaford Bros. Co. is the supermarket chain I mentioned, and according to them, unauthorized software that ended up on their servers somehow (they don't know "how", yet) lead to a data breach, compromising up to 4.2 million credit and debit cards!

According to Hannaford, the data theft occured between the 7th of December and the 10th of March, as shoppers swiped their cards at checkout line machines, and while the data was sent to banks for approving the payments, that information also ended up somewhere else. Where, that's what I would also like to know...

Ehem...Photoshop online? Yeah, although it's only a Beta, despite the fact it arrived later than expected, the "online Photoshop" version looks and feels great, and I am sure a lot of people will appreciate it. The only thing I hope is to see a free version available also after the Beta stage finishes. Anyway, let's talk a little about Adobe Photoshop Express Beta, shall we?


Photoshop Express is...is...amazing! No, I am not paid by Adobe, and I am not an Adobe fan boy either, but I said it before, and I say it again - the future of software is online! Of course it's only a matter of time, and standalone applications won't cease to exist anytime soon, but we have social networking sites, we have online office suites, so why not online graphics applications?


Photoshop Express was built using the Flash technology, and requires Adobe Flash 9 to run. As you can see above, its interface is well done, much easier to use than Adobe Photoshop, and with a whole lot less options, obviously.

I know - this is not something new, since Photobucket and Picassa already have their own image editing features, but let's not forget that Photoshop Express is only in Beta stage, and Adobe has the power to push it much further than any other company. Just as a side note, it is very nice to know that Adobe has Flash in its portofolio, so they are not using a platform from other company, and this may only bring benefits in the future.

At last, you should go on and create your account here, because I won't tell you about those 2GB of space for your images or the editing features included - it would be a pity to spoil all the fun of discovering them yourselves!

...one more thing - don't worry if you're not located in the United States! When I signed up, I was a bit worried when I saw that this service is currently available for US residents only, but I completed my registration, verified my email address, and now I enjoy a basic Photoshop experience in my browser!