EBay's Chinese site to become JV ... Mozilla patches vulnerabilities

HIGHLIGHTS
News: EBay to replace Chinese auction site with JV
News: Ericsson to buy Redback for $2.1 billion
News: Apple to get a month of security bugs
News: Mozilla fixes bugs with first update to Firefox 2.0
Windows Tip: Deploying printers using Group Policy
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: YouTube Amateur


NEWS UPDATES

EBay to replace Chinese auction site with JV
EBay Inc. confirmed Wednesday that it will replace its China auction site with a new joint-venture site run by partner Tom Online Inc. in 2007.

Ericsson to buy Redback for $2.1 billion
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson has agreed to acquire Redback Networks Inc., a maker of carrier edge routers, for $2.1 billion.

Apple to get a month of security bugs
Apple Computer Inc. will soon be a member of the "month of bugs" club. On Jan. 1, two security researchers will begin publishing details of a flood of security vulnerabilities in Apple's products. Their plan is to disclose one bug per day for the entire month, they said Tuesday.

Mozilla fixes bugs with first update to Firefox 2.0
Mozilla Corp. has released the first update for the Firefox 2.0 browser to fix eight security vulnerabilities. According to the company, release 2.0.0.1 of Firefox fixes flaws in memory corruption as well as the way the browser executes RSS, Javascript and CSS code, among other vulnerabilities.

Sony pays $1.5M to settle Texas, CA rootkit suits
Sony BMG Music Entertainment will pay $1.5 million in penalties to settle lawsuits with California and Texas over its controversial use of copy protection software.

Dell taps chair of board audit committee for CFO post
Dell Tuesday named Donald Carty as vice chairman and chief financial officer (CFO), replacing James Schneider, who had previously announced plans to leave for the position of executive chairman of the board of Frontier Bancshares Inc.

Intel to launch Core 2 Quad in January
Intel Corp. plans to launch the third model of its four-core processor in January, continuing its efforts to stay ahead of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) on the next-generation processor family.

Citrix buys application provisioning company Ardence
Citrix Systems Inc. agreed to buy Ardence Inc., the developer of real-time provisioning technology, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will extend Citrix's application delivery offering to include real-time, on demand provisioning of desktops, server images and service oriented architecture objects.


WINDOWS TIP

Deploying printers using Group Policy
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

Windows Vista includes Group Policy software by default, which means Windows Vista clients don't need any preparation before deploying printers to them. But you must make sure your Active Directory schema is upgraded to "R2" level before you can deploy printer connections to Vista machines using Group Policy.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
EBay's Chinese site to become JV ... Mozilla patches vulnerabilities ... Ericsson buys Redback for $2.1B


ITWHIRLED

YouTube Amateur
How do you play the drums and the piano if you don't actually, you know, know how to play the drums and piano? You videotape everything one note and drumbeat at a time and then splice it all together, of course. Bonus: Strange-looking Norwegian man in tights.