The latest stable release of WordPress (Version 2.6) is available in two formats from the links to your right. If you have no idea what to do with this download, we recommend signing up with one of our web hosting partners that offers a one click install of WordPress or getting a free account on WordPress.com. (link)

Google on Tuesday plans to unveil an online 3D social arena called Lively, the Internet giant’s take on Second Life. But Google wants it to be part of your first life.

Second Life requires users to download and install a separate “client” software package that taps into the online world. Lively also requires a download and installation–Windows only for now–but then people can use Internet Explorer or Firefox to enter the virtual world.

“It’s integrated with the Internet. It’s not an alternate destination,” said Niniane Wang, Google’s engineering manager for the project. “Our intention is to add to your existing life.”

Integration with the ordinary Internet takes several forms. For one thing, you can pipe in content hosted elsewhere on the Internet, including photos or videos. For another, you can embed your Lively area into your blog or, using widgets Google has written, on Facebook Web pages now and MySpace pages later. And you can e-mail your friends a normal Web address to get them to join.

With Lively, you can set up you own online spaces–rooms, grassy meadows, desert islands, or, in the demo version I tried, simulated Silicon Valley office parks. You can change the clothing or form of your avatar (that’s your online incarnation, for those of you who missed the Second Life hype). And of course you can chat, do backflips, shake hands, and give high-fives. (link)

Mathew Firsht, 38, is seeking damages from Grant Raphael at the High Court, claiming that the profile contained personal details “for all to see”, including false information about his sexual orientation and political views.

He claims that last June Mr Raphael, 36, a freelance cameraman, set up the profile and a group to cause him distress called “Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?”

Lorna Skinner, his counsel, told the court that the profile gave details about Mr Firsht’s whereabouts, activities, birthday and relationship status, and suggested falsely that he was homosexual. (link)

The first widget we build is embedded below, and is basically your whole blog in a condensed format, showing the links to your latest 20 articles in a custom, branded, linked and optimized format. In the first short video we show you how to build this widget, which we then embed it to a Facebook profile.

The second widget we build is a custom news feed using Google News. This widget adds value to your website by providing your visitors targeted, niche-specific news without leaving your site. This type of widget can also drive traffic to your website, because you can brand it with your own logo and link, and add it to a public gallery where others can access and embed it to their own website. We embed this widget in a private website which runs off WordPress. (link)

The intuitive answer, an opinion shared by some prominent bloggers, is that once a commenter comments, they submit the comment with the knowledge they’ve lost control of that comment forever. Of course, there’s more than one way to look at it, but there is also more than one platform (or publishing model) to consider, and at least a couple of legal aspects to explore.

A newspaper or magazine editor, for example, elects to publish response letters from readers. Not all responses are published, and thanks to some legal language, letter-writers are often informed they lose, to some extent, ownership of those letters.

In a sense, blog comments are similar. A blogger can elect not to publish a comment at all, or she can edit or delete a comment for various reasons. But there are stark differences, too. Most of the time, there is no written agreement about comments as there is with submitted letters. Another difference: Once a print publication publishes, the content can’t be unpublished. Along some (strong) lines of logic, though this hasn’t been fully tested in the legal system, this sense of permanency subjects print publishers to greater liability than digital publishers. (link)

News Corp’s MySpace plans a global redesign next week in an attempt to widen its demographics and boost user engagement on the site, the social networking site said on Friday.

In what it said would be the largest scale relaunch of a website of its size, MySpace will change its home page, navigation, profile editing, search, and MySpaceTV player facilities. Other changes will come during the summer.

“This is more than a face-lift; we’re changing the way people interact with the site and with brands,” MySpace said, adding that a major advertiser was signed for the U.S. MySpace home page on the first day of the relaunch.

The main phase of the relaunch is set for June 18. (link)

Some readers of celebrity blogger Dawn Yang have found themselves hundreds of dollars poorer because of an ad posted on her website.

The ad for designerluxurybrands.com appeared in Dawn’s blog in mid-May and it turned out to be a scam.

The professional-looking website claimed to sell designer merchandise by brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci at up to 70 per cent off.

Thinking the website was legitimate, some of her readers ordered bags, wallets and other branded goods and transferred money in the last three weeks to a Singapore bank account as instructed. (link)

A man arrested for killing seven people in a knife rampage on a crowded Tokyo shopping street posted dozens of warning messages on the Internet in the hours leading up to the attack, Japanese media reported on Monday.

Japanese police arrested a 25-year-old blood-spattered man at the scene for driving a truck into a crowd of Sunday shoppers in Akihabara, Tokyo’s biggest electronics shopping district, and then walking down the street stabbing people at random.

Passers by prayed and dropped flowers on Monday at the scene of the attack, as a bewildered Japan tried to make sense of the latest in a series of random acts of violence. (link)

Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan’s private MySpace photos are all over the Internet now, thanks to a glitch in the bad APIs.

While the not-so-publicity-shy stars probably won’t mind, and none of the photos are all that racy (except for the one of a fully dressed, provocatively posed Hilton in a tanning booth), there’s a lesson for us all in this social network privacy flap du jour.

“Anything you upload to a public Web site is not private; it’s public. Even if you think it is password protected,” says Jeremiah Grossman, chief technology officer at White Hat Security, a Web application security company. “That’s the bottom line.”

The photos began making the rounds on Tuesday after computer technician Byron Ngo released them publicly, and gave Valleywag detailed instructions for his hack. Valleywag also has the photos here.

The problem has been fixed so don’t bother trying to replicate it. But the breach resurrects the debate over whether the notion of privacy is outdated in a world where you party too much at an event and the next morning an embarrassing photo is up on your friend’s Facebook page. (link)

A US-based blogger who allegedly accused a Singapore judge of “prostituting herself” was released on bail Thursday and had his passport confiscated.

A judge ordered Gopalan Nair, a former Singapore lawyer who is now a US citizen, to be released on 5,000 dollars bail (3,676 US) after more than four days in custody.

A prosecutor told the court there was no need for him to be detained while further investigations were carried out.

Nair, 58, who declined comment to reporters, is due back in court for another hearing next Thursday. (link)