Microsoft issues patches for vulnerabilities in its software at the rate of about one a week - the 40 weeks of 2003 have seen exactly the same number of advisories though some weeks have been more "patchy" than others - but the advisories are so jargon -heavy that few non-technical users can understand them.

This is the reasoning behind patchdayreview, a site set up by Interscape Technologies, says its president and chief software architect, Robert McLaws.

"I'm a technical guy and even I have a hard time understanding them sometimes. Another thing that really frustrates me is the fact that you have to click through at least 4 different pages to get to the patch that you need to install. It's really ridiculous," McLaws writes in his introduction.

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