It's probably not true to say that everybody hates Facebook. But there are many millions (of the hundreds of millions that use the site) that claim to hate Facebook's cavalier approach to privacy and founder Mark Zuckerberg's equally vague approach to the future of our privacy. There are even groups dedicated to encouraging users to leave Facebook (some on Facebook itself, ironically).

Last night we performed an update on Filmaster.com bring one big new feature and many minor bug fixes. The big new one is obviously Facebook Connect integration. In order to make this integration happen we used the Facebook API for Facebook Connect (mostly JavaScript with FbSQL queries).

Mention email and most Windows users immediately think of Outlook. The Outlook email client from Microsoft has become so entrenched in the Windows desktop that most users don't even know there are alternatives. We look at five alternative email clients that run on Windows, and in most cases, other operating systems such as Mac OS X and Linux.

“By the way, can you recommend an open source programme to match Microsoft Outlook?” The request came this morning on my Facebook wall from an old friend named Brian. And since it was recently Brian’s birthday, and he was named Citizen of the Year on Australia Day, I thought he deserved a decent answer.

Microsoft appears to be serious about making Outlook more accessible to open source developers. On May 24, the Redmond, Wash software giant announced two new open source projects designed to complement its recently released technical documentation for Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders (.pst).

"...Like locked cell phones and copy-protected music, Facebook is on the wrong side of the open-network debate. Facebook is a sealed bubble. Facebook users are locked into Facebook, just as iTunes locks music fans to Apple's iPod..."

Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx, is a great desktop operating system for Facebook users. Not only is it faster and more secure than using Windows, it also has features that help integrate Facebook into the desktop experience.

One obstacle some organizations face when trying to migrate from Microsoft Exchange to a free groupware server has been Outlook users who, for whatever reason, are not yet willing to switch to another client. Bynari, Inc. in collaboration with a number of server developers, including the Citadel project [http://www.citadel.org] has developed a new Outlook connector that uses open standard data formats and protocols to store groupware data. Users of legacy environments (i.e. Windows + Outlook) will now be fully interoperable on the same server with users of free software. This could potentially spell the permanent end of Exchange lock-in.

Configure Microsoft Outlook Express with TLS and SMTP_AUTH. This is a common issue that can be overlooked by administrators for users who insist on using Outlook Express. The set up for secure login and sending email is not intuitive.