Any new edition of Ehtyar's Tech News Weekly has hit the newsstands:

• 1. DRAM Study Turns Assumptions About Errors Upside Down
• 2. EU, Microsoft Agree On Browser Ballot, Testing to Start Soon
• 3. Australian ISP in Court for Not Disconnecting Users
• 4. New Malware Re-Writes Online Bank Statements to Cover Fraud
• 5. It's Official: Software is Owned, Not Licensed
• 6. More Transparency Coming to Blog Reviews Under New FTC Rules
• 7. Feds Net 100 Phishers in Biggest Cybercrime Case Ever
• 8. Botnet-hosting Subscribers Soon to Get Warnings from Comcast
• 9. Microsoft Mulling 128-bit Versions of Windows 8, Windows 9
• 10. Wesley Crusher Must Die

I extensively use a few applications from google: mail, reader, calendar. From the beginning I was put off by their design but had gotten used to it.

Then I heard about Google Redesigned which was different and therefore better then the default look. It is quite a solid extension, with only a few very minor kinks.

But then lifehacker mentioned helvetireader, helvetimail, or helvetical (I forgot which of those 3), and I became very much intrigued.

These are scripts for either greasemonkey or stylish; I chose the greasemonkey variant because I already had greasemonkey installed.

What these do is to dramatically reduce the visual noise on the applications' websites. I copied (copying is not stealing) screenshots from each project's website. Behold the beauty of Helvetica!

Between Google Redesigned (GR) and Helveti*, I am currently strongly in favor of Helvetica. However, GR integration is smoother: the new style is active "before" the google application is loaded, while the greasemonkey scripts seem to wait until the browser finished loading to then activate their style.

Both GR and Helveti* are much more visually appealing than google's default look.

presenting a new launchpad for Nirsoft tools - NirLauncher, more news here. note: the launchpad can also be configured to include other programs as well. i wonder if anyone has tried this yet?

• http://blog.nirsoft....ailable-to-download/

Long time readers of DonationCoder.com know that two DC members created a web comic strip a little over a year ago, called Head in the Clouds.

It's a real delight, and it's great fun to see more and more DC people create and share new stuff.

Tim has begun a little competition at the comic website where he is accepting storyline ideas for the strip, and he will try to draw+write some of them, and give away a Head in the Clouds mug or tshirt or something.

So let's all head over and give him some ideas!

http://www.head-in-t...05/competition-time/

Competition! Do you have an idea for a Head in the Clouds strip? It can be as specific or as nebulous as you like. Maybe you have already thought of a complete strip and would simply like to have it drawn up, or perhaps there’s a scene or situation you’d like to see Twiggles and Cobbe placed in.

Send in your ideas and over the next few weeks I’ll pick out some winners, and hopefully draw them well enough to bring your ideas to life.

Winners will receive their strip on a T-shirt or mug or something similar: I’ll see what can be arranged…

Excellent news:

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday [10/5/09] took steps to make product information and online reviews more accurate for consumers, regulating blogging for the first time and mandating that testimonials reflect typical results.

The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.

http://www.nytimes.c...oggers-FTC.html?_r=1

The latest edition of Tech News Weekly is now up.  Table of Contents:

• 1. Bank Snafu Gmail Missive Never Opened
• 2. Next-gen Trojan Rewrites Bank Statements
• 3. Holographic Storage, Phase-change Memory Coming Soon
• 4. Irate Android Devs Aim to Replace Google's Proprietary Bits
• 5. ICANN Cuts Cord to US Government, Gets Broader Oversight
• 6. $388 Million Patent Verdict Against Microsoft Overturned
• 7. @fakeaccount You Got Served! Quit the Fake Tweets!
• 8. Apple Tries to Patent Method to Lock Down Your Mobile Device
• 9. Terminator 2 Mega Tribute