Peng’s links for Wednesday, 28 May

[Updated 12:00 pm with a followup to Giorgio's link about the Flash 9 vulnerability. - Peng]

• Tom Dryer/Planet Ubuntu: How to Lock Down GNOME. Sometimes you need to set up a computer for someone who has a tendency to delete things that they shouldn’t, like the window list, or for use in a public setting where you don’t want people changing things. There’s a graphical tool that helps you lock down your settings so they can’t be easily changed or deleted, and Tom shows you how to install and use it..
• Madhava/Planet Mozilla: Download Manager in Firefox 3. The Download Manager has gotten quite an update in Firefox 3. Madhava posted a very nice article explaining all of the changes and what they mean to you.
• Alex Faaborg/Planet Mozilla: Firefox 3 Themes. Alex has put a ton of time into the new default themes for Firefox 3, and while not everyone loves the new theme (especially the new keyhole navigation) it’s generally accepted that integrating the themes with the host platform (operating system) is a good idea. In case you’re not already running the Release Candidate for Firefox 3, and even if you are and wonder what some of the new visual indicators mean,  Alex gives a great preview of what all of the changes are, and what some of them mean.
• Giorgio/Planet Mozilla: Unpatched Flash Vulnerability Widely Exploited in the Wild. There’s a new vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player 9 (formerly the Macromedia Flash Player). Giorgio explains what’s going on and why you may want to use the FlashBlock extension for Firefox or disable your Flash 9 plugin in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. This vulnerability is being exploited out on the web so if you run Adobe Flash 9 you definitely need to take notice. It could be interesting to note that the vulnerability doesn’t seem to affect the new beta of Flash 10, so there’s another reason you may want to give it a spin. UPDATED 2:00 pm: Poor Giorgio. He posted an update to his alert about the Flash vulnerability he started getting popups all over the place stating that AVG had found a threat. Of course the threat wasn’t really a virus, but it still had to be dealt with.
• Michael Kaply/Planet Mozilla: The Browser With No Name. Sorry, this isn’t a take on the old America tune, but a problem when people want to put out a variation of Mozilla Firefox while making enough changes that make them unable to legally be allowed to use the Firefox name.
• Tommy Lasorda: Singing the 7th Inning Stretch at Wrigley Field. The Dodgers are visiting Wrigley Field this week and Tommy got to sing for the 7th inning stretch yesterday. He was kind enough to share a picture of it on his blog.
• LA Times Breaking News: Hollywood studios, AFTRA agree on contract. One of the two actors unions (the other is the Screen Actors Guild) has probably avoided an actor’s strike this summer, although the deal still has to be presented to the national AFTRA board and ratified by their membership. Hopefully SAG will be able to get a new contract as well. An actor’s strike so soon after the writer’s strike wouldn’t do anyone any favors. Including the movie and television viewers.

Adorable Feline Pic of the Day

This is a tough call today. I found three absolutely adorable feline pics and I simply couldn’t decide which one to use.  I ended up calling a two-way tie. The first has a cute tie-in to Tommy’s pic.

That one may just be cuter than Michigan J. Frog. But the second one comes from Cute Overload with the title Danger Will Robinson!!!

Please don’t move your nose too suddenly, puppy! And of course the other Cheezburger pic I was considering is almost too cute to pass up, but I didn’t want to bore those of you who don’t like lolcats with a third picture. Plus it could have increased your load time a bit too much for my taste.

I think I made the right call posting the two of them. What do you guys think?