There are a trio of interesting tidbits from the free software world, a pair from the Register, that prove that you sometimes do indeed get what you paid for.  To start with the worst bit of news, there is a buffer and integer overflow vulnerability in Shockwave that affects both Mac and Windows versions.  Adobe has come up with a patch, but not one you are going to see a lot of people installing.  In order to patch you will first have to uninstall your current version, then reboot and finally do a fresh install of the new version.  The Register does not think this will be terribly popular.

They also mention a new version of the popular antivirus software, avast Free 5.0.  Even if you are a fan of other antivirus products, this new version may interest you.  It uses the same detection engine as its paid-for sibling and now includes optimization for multicore CPUs, something other antivirus programs have been lagging behind in. 

The last bit of news comes via DailyTech, involving the popular free web browser.  Even though Mozilla hasn’t bothered to get it onto their front page, FireFox 3.6 has arrived.  Their link leads to the US version, so you may have to finesse the URL a bit if you don’t spell funny.

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk