Exploit code has surfaced on the Web for some of the 21 issues fixed by Microsoft in its Tuesday update. But Microsoft said that so far it was unaware of any new attacks attempting to use the available code.

At least two of the flaws disclosed had not been made public before the Patch Tuesday announcement, and security firms found the code publicly available on Wednesday. Microsoft noted that this is why it does not detail information about its security updates before they are released.

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Google says that it plans to buy the "Googleplex," its 978,000 square feet campus located in Mountain View, Calif. Valued at $319 million, the land grab includes the search giant's existing headquarters, which it had previously rented, and nearby buildings once belonging to the now bankrupt Silicon Graphics. Google's purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

The company said the expansion was necessary in order to accommodate its growing work force. Google's staff has doubled in size in the last year, and the company says it continues to take on new projects that will require it to expand further. Google has put $10 million into escrow for the property and expects the transaction to close June 30, pending approval of the SGI deal by the bankruptcy court.

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Amazon took baby steps into the realm of online groceries, offering only non-perishable goods and free shipping to anywhere in the United States. The company offers a total of about 10,000 items, and features such as a shopping list, product recommendations and savings opportunities for bulk buys.

Perishable goods are not offered through the service, as Amazon said it would not be able to ship those items for free. The company gave no possible time frame as to when -- and if -- it would offer those products.

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Microsoft senior vice president Bob Muglia opened up TechEd 2006 in Boston Sunday evening by proclaiming that Windows Vista was the most secure operating system in the industry. But a bold statement can only go so far, and much of this week's conference has been spent reinforcing that point.

From the network perimeter to deep inside the Windows client, the significance of security has permeated into every facet of technology. Norman Mailer said that 20th century man's default status was anxiety. We have barely dipped our toes into the 21st, and our default status has already been elevated to outright fear.

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Confirming rumors first reported in March, AOL relaunched Netscape.com on Thursday as a user driven news site much like the popular Digg.com. Headed by Jason Calcanis, the new Netscape aims to build on social networking concepts first brought to bear by both Digg and Del.icio.us.

For the next two weeks, access to the beta site will be made available through a link from the current Netscape.com portal. Starting July 1, the beta site will replace it, an AOL spokesperson told BetaNews. While the site may look a lot like Digg, the company is quick to point out its differences.

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Information technology conferences are traditionally dry affairs, devoid of the pizzazz that exudes from shows like E3. But a group within Microsoft is attempting to change that by delivering an inside look at TechEd 2006 through the use of video.

TechEd is a week-long conference held by Microsoft for IT pros and developers, which is filled with technology sessions, hands on labs and an expo floor occupied by the Redmond company and its partners. In order to add some color and faces to the product announcements, Microsoft has designed Virtual TechEd to complement the event.

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eBay unveiled several new methods of communication for U.S. users of its auction service at the eBay Live Conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. Among them is a plan to integrate the Skype VoIP service into its auctions, along with a new blog, wiki, and alerts service.

An option to add a "Skype Me" button will be available beginning June 19 in 14 categories across the service. Users in those categories would gain the extra option in the "Ask a seller a question" section of the auction. Through Skype, either voice or text chat would be possible.

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AOL on Wednesday released a public beta of AIM Pro, the company's instant messaging client tailored for businesses. The software is based upon the AIM Triton platform and integrates online meetings and live demonstrations with desktop sharing using technology from WebEx.

AIM Pro has a streamlined interface that's more appropriate for corporate environments. The Pro version will become the recommended client for business users, while Triton remains consumer oriented. AOL hopes to ride the growing wave of instant messaging among business users.

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Picasa, Google's free desktop photo management software, now has a new Web Albums photo sharing service available in beta. Similar to Flickr, Photobucket, and the like, it allows the user to upload photos from their desktop and conveniently share them via email or URLs.

Following its design mantra, Google wants to keep the Web Albums interface simple and clutter-free. Photos are presented in captioned thumbnail galleries and can be zoomed or viewed as a slideshow. Images are pre-fetched to allow for quick load times, and the site currently has no ads. Picasa Web Albums come with 250MB of free storage, with a paid storage upgrade option.

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Microsoft made a greater commitment to making its products work better with those on differing platforms by creating the Interoperability Customer Executive Council on Wednesday. The group will be tasked with finding areas for improvement among Microsoft products, as well as the software industry in general.

Customers have been asking for more interoperability as IT environments become more heterogeneous, Microsoft said. As part of the Redmond company's Trustworthy Computing Initiative, products are designed to provide interoperability from the start.

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The U.S. International Trade Commission voted earlier this week to investigate Apple Computer and its iPod music player, affirming a complaint filed by Creative in May. While not a decision in the matter, it is the first step in deciding the merits of the case.

Creative alleges that Apple violated section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which forbids the importation into and sale of products in the United States that infringe on another's patents. The company has asked the ITC to bar Apple from importing its players into the country.

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News Corp. said Tuesday that it plans to call for bids from search giants Microsoft, Yahoo and Google to provide Internet search functionality and search-based advertising on the popular social networking site. The move continues an effort by the media conglomerate to look for ways to recoup some of the $580 million investment it made in the service when it bought MySpace last year.

For News Corp., the potential customer base of the site and its moneymaking potential are huge, as MySpace has some 85 million members worldwide. But compared with other sites, MySpace is far behind in ad sales. With a better partner, the company believes it would be able to improve its revenues from MySpace over time.

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Starting June 20, Microsoft customers will be able to sign up for a new e-mail address from the company under the @live.com and @windowslive.com domain names. The address will be associated with Windows Live ID, formerly known as Passport, and will work with any MSN or Windows Live service.

The new e-mail account will not include current contacts, but Microsoft is working on a migration tool that will allow users to import them from Hotmail and MSN. "If you are excited about the new domains names then definitely sign up and let your contacts know about your new address. This is a great opportunity to make get the account name you have always wanted," says the Windows Live Mail team.

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Sony Pictures said Tuesday that the first Blu-ray movies would be released on June 20, coinciding with the release of the first Blu-ray DVD player from Samsung, and a Sony VAIO Blu-ray PC. Seven titles are slated to launch that day, including "50 First Dates," "The Fifth Element," "Hitch" and the "House of Flying Daggers." The studio plans to release additional titles in the coming weeks.

Sony is locked in a fierce battle for supremacy in the race to next-generation DVD. Toshiba has already beaten Blu-ray to the punch with the release of its first HD DVD player and movies back in April, but Blu-ray supporters point to the potential breadth of content to be available on the platform. No sales figures have been released for HD DVD players, but only 10,000 players were shipped at launch, according to Toshiba.

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Blockbuster shot back at Netflix on Tuesday, filing a antitrust counterclaim in federal court saying that the online movie rental service's lawsuit is based on unenforceable patents. The company also says that Netflix is attempting to monopolize the online rental business.

With 1.3 million subscribers as of the first quarter of 2006, Blockbuster Online is much smaller than Netflix, which has close to five million members. The brick and mortar movie retailer has made online rentals a key part of its future business, as in-store revenue is expected to fall by as much as a quarter through the end of the decade.

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