XplanaZine

Updates on: Russia’s satellite navigation system, Google Reader’s privacy issues, Microsoft’s security blog

Russia successfully launched a rocket on December 25 carrying the last three satellites to complete a navigation system to rival America’s GPS. The military-run GLONASS mapping system works over most of Russia and is expected to cover the globe by the end of 2009, once all its 24 navigational satellites are operating. — Reuters

In its attempts to add social elements to products, is Google pulling a Facebook? Google Reader has allowed people to share items they are interested in with others since 2006 with hyperlinks, clips on blogs and storing them on a public page. Last week, Google tweaked Google Reader so that your shared items are automatically made available to your Google Talk contacts. But, as anyone who uses instant messaging knows, not all of your IM contacts are friends. Many are acquaintances or people you barely know and with whom you may not want to share a reading list. — CNet News

Microsoft has launched a security blog that provides more technical details about the vulnerability research behind the patches and security updates the company releases each month. The Security Vulnerability Research and Defense blog provides in-depth technical information and ways security professionals can protect an organization from vulnerabilities. The blog will be updated the second Tuesday of every month, called “Patch Tuesday,” which is when Microsoft releases security updates for Windows and other software. There also will be debugging techniques and information on how to triage security vulnerabilities, and overviews on some of the challenges the company faces when fixing specific security bugs. — Information Week