Stan's List

Single of the Week

Now, we generally try to turn the spotlight over to new artists for our Single of the Week, but we’re feeling the spirit of the season this month. Check back here each week to get a “free” holiday track from an establish artist. Here, Sufjan Stevens (indie rocker with a penchant for baroque tunes and midwestern history) provides his very own That Was the Worst Christmas Ever.

Discovery Download

Formed in 1968 by six Choral Scholars from King’s Colllege, Cambridge, the King’s Singers are known around the world for their fresh interpretations of everything from pop to plainchant. Their Christmas album highlights seasonal favorites from all around the world, all arranged for their trademark line-up of six male voices. Check out our “free” holiday Discovery Download, which is the King’s Singers’ version of Franz Xaviar Gruber’s 1818 Christmas classic, Stille Nacht (Silent Night).

Get all of this week’s “free” iTunes Store downloads

Microsoft today released an Office 2004 11.3.2 Update along with Office v. X Update (2006-12-19), addressing a serious security problem. A Microsoft PR spokesperson notes:

The new download is for both Office X and 2004 and contains all of the stability improvements that were ready to go live, and removes the not-yet-ready-for-prime-time code that was accidentally released last week. Use AutoUpdate or direct download

Apple has posted Security Update 2006-008 (in both Universal and PowerPC packages) for updating Mac OS X 10.4.8 to address the following problem:

QuickTime for Java, Quartz Composer (MySpace vulnerability)

CVE-2006-5681

Available for: Mac OS X v10.4.8, Mac OS X Server v10.4.8

Impact: Visiting a malicious web site may lead to information disclosure

Description: Java applets may use QuickTime for Java to obtain the images rendered on screen by embedded QuickTime objects and upload them to the originating web site. When this facility is used in conjunction with Quartz Composer, it becomes possible to capture images that may contain local information.
This update addresses the issue by disallowing Quartz Composer compositions in unsigned Java applets. Quartz Composer compositions continue to function locally. Applications and signed Java applets that utilize QuickTime and QuickTime for Java are unaffected. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4. It also does not affect the Windows platform. Credit to Geoff Beier for reporting this issue.