IBM developerWorks: Discover
PHP's new features and syntax improvements and see how they will take
this already-popular scripting language to the next level. Learn how
Unicode support, Web 2.0 features, and other changes make PHP V6 more
robust, as well as more international.

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The PHP development team started the month of May with the release of PHP 5.2.6. With over 120 bug fixes, this release is mainly focused on stability. There are however several security enhancements in PHP 5.2.6:

• Fixed possible stack buffer overflow in the FastCGI SAPI identified by Andrei Nigmatulin.
• Fixed integer overflow in printf() identified by Maksymilian Aciemowicz.
• Fixed security issue detailed in CVE-2008-0599 identified by Ryan Permeh.
• Fixed a safe_mode bypass in cURL identified by Maksymilian Arciemowicz.
• Properly address incomplete multibyte chars inside escapeshellcmd() identified by Stefan Esser.
• Upgraded bundled PCRE to version 7.6

References: Release Announcement, PHP 5.2.6 ChangeLog, PHP.net Download page

ComputerWorld: Industry analysts and a professional developer examine the state of
Microsoft's 'Flash killer' multimedia development technology as it
enters its second year and discuss what it will take for it to succeed.

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Telerik, a leading vendor of developer tools and components for .NET, is happy to present Sitefinity CMS v3.2 – a flexible, hassle-free development platform for the construction and management of websites, intranets, and community portals. Sitefinity v3.2 is the succeeding milestone in Telerik’s quest for a feature-rich web development tool with unrivaled usability and compatibility.

“There are many CMS platforms on the market that offer rich functionality for both end user and developers. The comprehensive web development tools, however, always come at the expense of usability. When selecting a CMS, customers usually are up against the trade off “complete vs. user-friendly” platform. We spotted that business opportunity and have been continuously working on providing a comprehensive development platform that does not sacrifice the freedom of both web developers and end-users, yet offers simplicity and ease-of-use” says Vassil Terziev, Telerik CEO. “Sitefinity v3.2 represents a final touch to offering complete content publishing functionality that comes with intuitive user experience”.

"I was looking at some library Web sites recently when I spied one with a badge stating that the page was created for viewing in Netscape. Once a geeky emblem of honor, the badge today is simply a relic of days gone by."

Complete Story at School Library Journal

"Most of the engineers and developers I know are fond of using web frameworks and would switch to using one when they have the option. But, for many developers it's not as simple as just choosing one and developing with it. They have to get leadership to buy into a different system from the one they are already using. So, let's look at web frameworks from 4 of the big decision points for managers. "

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Last October, Packt Publishing sent me one of their latest books on the Plone CMS, Professional Plone Development. This is a book I had been saving for review until I had a chance to install and use Plone myself. Plone is one of those CMS that I've really wanted to learn more about by installing it on the server myself. Unfortunately, too many things on my "I want" list have had to compete with my "I need" list and I never got around to installing Plone. With no Plone on the server, I unfortunately never got around to reviewing the Plone book written by Martin Aspeli either.

This book is aimed at "developers who want to build content-centric web applications leveraging Plone’s proven user interface and flexible infrastructure". Given the fact that I haven't installed Plone myself, I can't honestly give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the book. However, what I can do is talk a little about the book and let you decide for yourself if this book is worthy of your hard earned money.