With the advancements in technology available today, you can make contact with just about any place you'd like within a few seconds, thanks to the border-crossing and barrier-smashing power of the Internet. If it's Mars you're trying to reach, though, your best chance is more likely to come on the end of a probe than a DSL line. That may well change, however, as scientists at NASA have just completed testing new technology aimed — quite literally — at blasting the Internet out of this world.

Just a month after the release of Adobe's Flash Player 10 — with, for the first time, full Linux support out of the box — Adobe is back with another surprise: a 64-bit Flash Player — exclusively for Linux.

It's been six months since Mozilla's Firefox 3 leapt onto the scene. In that time, the browser required a tuneup only three times — until Wednesday, when patches for a swath of vulnerabilities upped the count to four.

Just months after losing 10% of its workforce in a mass layoff, and mere days since it came to light that employees were being asked to take unpaid leave to avoid additional cuts, Dell is now facing another loss: Kevin Kettler, the company's Chief Technology Officer, is cashing in his chips and going home.

Mozilla's Firefox browser is unquestionably one of the most popular web browsers on the market — topping 20% at times while the browser-to-beat continues to slide — and certainly so among Open Source users. The release of Firefox 3 in June was a major milestone for Mozilla, but still, nearly six months later, there are those who have eschewed the new for the comfortable, homey, well-worn-in welcomeness of Firefox 2. That will be changing soon, though, as funeral arrangements for the second-era Fox are in full-tilt at Mozilla HQ, and the service is fast approaching.