  The recent update of the strange spectral function and the moments of the
invariant mass distribution by the OPAL collaboration from hadronic tau decay
data are employed to determine |V_us| as well as m_s. Our result,
|V_us|=0.2208\pm0.0034, is competitive to the standard extraction of |V_us|
from K_e3 decays and to the new proposals to determine it. Furthermore, the
error associated to our determination of |V_us| can be reduced in the future
since it is dominated by the experimental uncertainty that will be eventually
much improved by the B-factories hadronic tau data. Another improvement that
can be performed is the simultaneous fit of both |V_us| and m_s to a set of
moments of the hadronic tau decays invariant mass distribution, which will
provide even a more accurate determination of both parameters.
