T's Links

Is anyone listening here?

2004-06-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Just checking.

I've moved!

2003-12-19T08:45:00.000-08:00

Don't post Word docs!

2003-12-13T09:04:00.000-08:00

Woody's Office Watch #8.50 has more examples of Word docs posted on the web with information stored in them that probably shouldn't be there. Docs from the Department of Homeland Security, the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, the Chief Security Architect from Dell (!) (some of the links will probably be dead or lead to docs that have had the information talked about removed -- at least I hope so!). Names and ids of the folks who edited them are in there as well as the locations of the files on the users' drive, not to mention complete revision histories!

Be careful. Think about what you're doing. Pay attention.

Opera file overwrite vulerability

2003-12-13T08:14:00.000-08:00

Secunia has released SA10425 which describes a vulnerability in Opera which allows a malicious website to overwrite a file with a simple download operation. The solution? -- upgrade to Opera V7.23.

It's interesting that we see a lot of exploits for non-Microsoft products posted after their solution is available.

On social networking

2003-12-10T08:16:00.000-08:00

This posting to VentureBlog gives some insight into what (at least one) VC is thinking. Some excerpts:

"I frankly think that social networking is close to a zero sum game."

"Relationships are maintained through interaction -- we call, email, have lunch, etc."

"It is conceivable that technology could make us more efficient
and therefore increase our universe of relationships (...) But I
believe that increase is marginal."

In other words the free ride is over. Friendster, LinkedIn, tribe.net and the others need to find some way to provide value or face extinction. This isn't uncommon. First-wave adopters have an advantage of being there (ahem) first but once the "ooo-ahh" has worn off, consumers will turn away unless they have a real reason to stay. It has begun. Within 3 months we'll see the 2nd generation and, hopefully, they'll actually have something to contribute.

Spelling's one of the things that goes ...

2003-12-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

... when you cut back. I'm probably "two" hard on them but the editors at Microsoft apparently didn't check this KB article very carefully. For the "two" busy amongst us, read the CAUSE section carefully.

Online WiFi hotspot locator

2003-12-10T07:32:00.000-08:00

Intel has an online WiFi hotspot finder at http://intel.jiwire.com/index.htm. They say they're verified which is good. Wonder how long it'll last?

Excellent Linux site: LinuxPipeline

2003-12-09T20:36:00.000-08:00

Another item from Scot's December 4, 2003 newsletter. He's launched a new Linux site called LinuxPipeline. News, info on applications and distributions. Bunches of stuff that professional Linux folks can use.

Another set of RSS references

2003-12-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of the December 4, 2003 issue of Scot's Newsletter -- an excellent newsletter that, unfortunately, isn't published in RSS form.

Introduction to RSS - Webreference

What Is RSS? - XML.com

RSS Tutorial for Content Publishers and Webmasters - Mark Nottingham

Lockergnome's RSS Resource

All About RSS - Fagan Finder

RSS Feed Reader / News Aggregators Directory - Hebig.org

Top Aggregators - UserLand

RSS Readers - Weblogs Compendium

Worm infects Windows-based ATMs

2003-12-09T20:07:00.000-08:00

ZDNet reports on this and you've probably already heard about it but it's one of my worst nightmares -- that an ATM gets infected by a worm. Of course, that begs the question of how the worm got to the ATM in the first place? Wouldn't a responsible bank have the ATMs on an isolated network, firewalled separately from everything else?

Oracle (?) warns of SSL vulnerability

2003-12-09T17:52:00.000-08:00

eWeek reports that Oracle has issued a High-Severity SSL vulnerability warning, a follow-up to CERT's Advisory CA-2003-26. Looks like there are no viable workarounds so the only option is to apply Oracle's patches from their MetaLink support website.

Anti-virus: Avast

2003-12-09T11:24:00.000-08:00

A long time ago I used McAfee's anti-virus product ... the retail one. Then a few years back I switched to the online version. Their ads and constant attempts to upsell me finally got to me so when it came time to renew this year, I didn't ... even when they said they'd cut the price in half. I went searching for a replacement, tried a couple and wound up with Avast! It's free for personal use and they post frequent updates. You 've gotta get over the fact that you're retrieving your AV updates from a Czech site, though :)

Patch kernel and rsync!

2003-12-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

Linux users, listen up! The Debian site was compromised a little while back due to an exposure in the kernel. Secunia has issued this security advisory but it's very recent (as in, dated December 2) against kernels older than 2.4.23. Gentoo, SuSE, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware -- as near as I can tell, all of the Linux "vendors" have the problem and are addressing it.

You should also update your rsync package while you're at it.

Another good bargain site

2003-12-07T08:33:00.000-08:00

Saw this in a TechTV newsletter but, for the life of me, I can't find it anymore. Anyway, MoreStuff4Less is in weblog format. It joins eCost and TechBargains on my list of sites to visit for good deals.

Good info on mobile gadgets

2003-12-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

Saw a reference to MobileWhack in Dan Gillmor's December 6, 2003 weblog. Great site for information about mobile phones, organizers, etc. This is a tech-heavy site.

Kewlbox -- more better games

2003-12-05T20:20:00.000-08:00

I mentioned Super Elf Bowling a few entries ago. Yeah, that's fun but the game I keep coming back to is Santa Balls 2 from KewlBox.com. I thought the elf in this game was eerily similar to the elves in the bowling games. Well, apparently these guys are the authors of the original bowling games over at NStorm which, word has, they sold back in '99 and started up KewlBox.com. I gotta try some of the others: Adventure Elf and Spank the Frank to name two.

(Thanks, Dan!)

Plug and go backup/file server

2003-12-05T07:40:00.000-08:00

The San Jose Mercury News yesterday had this opinion column on the new Mirra personal backup server. For $399 you get a file server with an 80G disk that, according to the "review" is incredibly easy to setup. There's an app you must install on your target machines and then click to select the files you want backed up. Mirra backs those files up and constantly monitors them for changes, backing up the changes once you've made them. You can access the files stored there through the installed app and you can make them available over the Internet, again through the app. A good rundown of its features is available on the Mirra site. Langberg's opinion column seems to be more of an "oh boy, someone's finally done it!" rah-rah than a serious review. He doesn't seem to view the need for the app, for instance, as a stumbling block, maybe because Mirra's promised to remove the need for it in the future. I'm also not too sure that sharing the files over the Internet is actually a good selling point. Opening up your firewall and exposing your most valuable files isn't something that should be taken lightly, SSL and authentication notwithstanding.

LangaList recommends a tech headlines site ... 5 months late

2003-12-04T20:01:00.000-08:00

A friend sent me a reference from today's Standard Edition LangaList -- he'd apparently just discovered the Daily Rotation. Well, check out my weblog entry from June 24, 2003 with the title "News, news and more news and updates and news and ..."

I didn't realize I was that far ahead of some folks.

:) :) :) :) :)

LinkedIn's patent

2003-12-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

The San Jose Mercury News had a story today that LinkedIn purchased a patent, 6,175,831 that was filed by six degrees, inc. back in 1997. Unfortunately, the article didn't go into any detail of the patent itself. With the above reference, you can see for yourself.

More free web hosting: freewebs.com

2003-12-04T08:14:00.000-08:00

Just came across freewebs.com today. Looks interesting. I'll have to check it out and report back.

New Cygwin package: c3270

2003-12-04T08:11:00.000-08:00

I've first encountered Cygwin back in 1995. It's now a nearly complete Unix environment that runs on a Windows machine without replacing Windows or dual-booting. You can install a complete X11 server (XFree86), SSH, shells like bash and zsh, telnet ... pretty much whatever you might need. If you need Unix capabilities on a Windows machine it would be worth your time to check it out.

Today I received announcement of a 3270 emulator, suite3270. For those that don't know, 3270s are CRT devices that are often used on mainframes. They typically consist of a keyboard and a monitor -- no mouse. For old mainframe jockeys like myself, 3270s were a godsend, allowing us to break away from punch cards.

SECURITY: Yahoo! IM buffer overflow

2003-12-03T07:34:00.000-08:00

Secunia reports this flaw here. It's another failure that's related to use of an ActiveX component. Secunia's advice: remove the offending DLL.

Bloglines.com -- one more time!

2003-12-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

I spent quite a bit of time over the holiday catching up on news and such. I've got a couple of computers here at home and Bloglines came in so handy that I've gotta plug it again. If you use multiple computers like I do then there's really no better way to stay in touch with your subscriptions. Since Bloglines is a web-based service, all of your subscriptions are maintained on their servers, allowing you to see the latest from any machine that's connected to the Internet.

And for those of you not on the RSS bandwagon yet, c'mon, get with the program! If you visit a site at least once a week, RSS can help. Look for the little orange XML tag or for something labelled "syndication" or "RSS". Grab that link and give it to Bloglines and it'll automatically hit the RSS feed about every 30 minutes looking for updates. When it find one it'll store it away for you to look at. And if your favorite sites don't do RSS, check out NewsIsFree.com and Syndic8.com. Besides that, just about every weblog has an RSS feed and you can find list upon list of those at places like weblogs.com.

NStorm games connect to their site

2003-11-29T10:26:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention this and a friend of mine brought it to my attention. The NStorm games connect back to the mothership (i.e. the NStorm site). Their Privacy Policy discusses this under the Gaming heading and they say that all they do is collect the fact that a specific game is being played. Their "About NStorm" page tells you that they're an "advergaming" company so it makes sense. For what it's worth, I still play their games. YMMV.

Super Elf Bowling!

2003-11-28T08:08:00.000-08:00

NStorm has been one of my favorite gaming sites for a long time. That's saying something cause I'm not much of a gamer ... just occasional visits to the Space Invaders site and NStorm. Anyway, I'm a fan of quite a few of their games such as Elf Bowling. Haven't played it yet but I'm looking forward to it.

List of Northern California high-tech businesses

2003-11-28T07:57:00.000-08:00

Check this out. Looks like their business is listing companies because they've got printed directories as well. And they have them for more than just Northern California, like one for Arkansas, Louisana and Oklahoma, one for Texas and a couple for Southern California.

Quarterly CERT summary is out

2003-11-24T18:52:00.000-08:00

CERT issues quarterly summaries and the one for this quarter is out. Besides some new Windows vulnerabilities and some Win32 viruses, there are exposures in SSL/TLS, Sendmail and OpenSSH.

1&1 Control Panel performance resolved

2003-11-24T09:14:00.000-08:00

OK, I don't know why but a simple change of browser rectified the Control Panel performance issue I wrote about earlier. I now use Firebird and the Control Panel performs quite nicely!

Smart directory assistance and more - Infone

2003-11-24T07:51:00.000-08:00

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post something about it and, wouldn't you know, when I thought of it again, I had to go dig up the info again.

Anyway, Infone is a relatively new service which, for 89 cents, gives you 15 minutes of talk-time to a real person for assistance (time beyond 15 minutes is billed at 5 cents/minute). What kind of assistance? Well, nationwide directory assistance, of course, but there's more. You can upload your address book and have the attendant read you information from it or place a call. You can upload your calendar and get information on your appointments. You can call and get dinner reservations or check on flight status or get driving directions ... y'know, stuff that, if you're like me, you've said "Gee, I wish I could ..."

No monthly fees, no charges of any kind until/unless you use the service.

Oh, by the way, if you have them place a call for you, the clock is running until you hang up.

voiceglo -- phone calls over the Internet

2003-11-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

It's not the same-old, same-old. voiceglo offers phone calls over the Internet for, get this, DIAL-UP as well as broadband users. The information on their site is pretty sparse as to the particulars but it looks like you can use your existing phones if you have a broadband connection, otherwise you have to use one of their free USB phones. Apparently they are a full-fledged telephone service provider as you get an actual phone number (how else would someone call you?). The good news is you get to pick the area code you want. I can't tell what area codes they serve as their area code map won't come up on my machine for some reason.

Prices look good. Since they operate over your existing Internet connection, you'll have to keep a wireline provider.

Gvnadigayisdi

2003-11-21T20:11:00.000-08:00

No, it's not gibberish -- it's Tsalagi for "turkey eating time" (in the page referenced above, look just above item 3). The 2nd letter, "v" is actually pronounced like "uh" and the rest of the letters are pronounced as we do in our version of English.

The definitive Product Activation article

2003-11-20T08:29:00.000-08:00

PC Magazine has a Product Activation FAQ which supposedly takes the mystery out of the process. See for yourself.

PC Anywhere privilege escalation

2003-11-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

Secunia has issued this advisory for a privilege escalation vulnerability in PC Anywhere. No fix yet ... the workaround is to

1) NOT run PC Anywhere as a service -- or --
2) grant only trusted users access to vulnerable systems (yeah, right!)

1 & 1 update

2003-11-16T16:43:00.000-08:00

I activated my account. Seems to be pretty full-featured ... I've got SSH access (without a lot of right, natch) and I can set up FTP users and email users and I can point an existing domain at the site. Everything seems pretty snappy except for the control panel and that is painfully slow.

More when I've had more experience.

Full-service web hosting, free for 3 years

2003-11-15T09:04:00.000-08:00

1 & 1 Internet, Inc. is offering 3 years of premium web hosting for free. With no commitments. And no contracts. You can cancel at any time. Weird, huh? Internet bubble thinking isn't it? I've seen their ads in several places, most recently in PC World. So, I signed up. They say you don't need a credit card, and you don't. They say all they need from you is your mailing address but that's not true -- they also need a phone number they can call to "activate" your account. I haven't been through this stage yet but supposedly they have an automated system call you to verify your phone number (within 30 minutes of your clicking on an "OK to call me now" button) and then call you again to give you your PIN so that you can activate your account. Hmmm....

What do you get for free?

* No banner ads
* No pop-ups
* No sales calls
* No SPAM
* 500MB web space
* 5GB/month traffic
* Backups
* Firewall protection
* SSH access (shell account?)
* Cron jobs
* PHP3 and 4
* MySQL
* 5 FTP accounts
* 50 subdomains
* 50 POP3 email accounts each with a 50MB mailbox
* Free full version of Fusion 7

That's a partial, but fairly complete, list. This will supposedly cost about $30/month after the promotion ends which, I think, is in mid-January, 2004. If you sign up before then you supposedly get the entire 3 years free. Now, no doubt this is intended to lock you in to using their service so you'll continue after the 3 years is up but it seems they're incurring a significant amount of risk. I've looked through their TOS and don't see anything unusual -- they're allowed to shut you down if you're taking excessive resources and you promise not to create code or pages that are intended to take too much resource but that's about it.

No endorsement from me (yet) -- I'm just passing this along. If/when I have some experiences with them, I'll post them.

Good rundown of the November Security Update from Microsoft

2003-11-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

Woody Leonhard's Woody's Windows Watch of Nov. 11, 2003 has a good rundown of this month's updates from Microsoft. He calls attention to the fact that if/when you apply this month's update to IE6 you also need to (re)apply the help patch.

Removing personal info from Word docs

2003-11-13T20:05:00.000-08:00

Woody Leonhard's Woody's Office Watch from Nov. 12, 2003 has a pointer to this MSDN article which describes in detail how to remove personal information from Word 2000 and Word 2002 documents. You can use some of those tips in Word 2003 but let's hope there's an updated version coming out.

Finally, a free Wi-Fi in Silicon Valley!

2003-11-12T20:49:00.000-08:00

At least that's what this story's tagline would lead you to believe. I could swear Palo Alto has free Wi-Fi and I know their library and the main San Jose Public Library has it available, too. Regardless, this is a case of "more is better."

NationMaster -- not just dry facts and figures

2003-11-12T14:23:00.000-08:00

Lockergnome Windows Fanatics reported on NationMaster -- an interesting site that has all sorts of interesting information about countries around the world. It's not just facts and figures but it's graphs and charts and flags and stuff like that. Have I said it's interesting? Really! It is!

ABC (the network) does RSS

2003-11-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

Dave Winer reports on a list of RSS feeds that ABC has.

How to Force a Hardware Abstraction Layer During an Upgrade or New Installation of Windows XP

2003-11-06T08:48:00.000-08:00

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;299340.

How to install NetBEUI in Windows XP

2003-11-06T08:46:00.000-08:00

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;301041.

Mount ISO image like a CD

2003-11-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

The November 4, 2003 issue of WinXPNews talks about this tool from Microsoft will let you mount an ISO image just like it's a real CD. It's only 60K and is unsupported but free.

Hiding your email address in plain sight

2003-11-02T08:09:00.000-08:00

The October 28 issue of Woody's Office Watch has some great tips on obfuscating your email address on web pages and the like. In it, he also gives a link to a web page that lists all 256 characters in URL-encoding form.

So, what does he recommend? Well, yeah, URL-encoding your email address is one good way. Browsers will be able to figure it out but spammers probably won't. He lists more ways, too.

Reading Woody's email lists is probably one of the best time investments I make.

Anisgili svnoyi

2003-10-31T15:36:00.000-08:00

Tsalagi for Halloween (literally, "Scary Night").

Good 802.11g equipment roundup by PC World

2003-10-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

PC World has a good roundup of 802.11g equipment in this article. I've heard the range of stories from almost completely satisfied to true horror stories and this article bears that out.

Making Outlook work harder

2003-10-30T07:47:00.000-08:00

OutlookCode.com is one year old. It's a site that help people share code and ideas for working with and using Outlook.

How many group posters does it take to change a light bulb?

2003-10-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

This was posted on one of the mailing lists I'm a part of. It had me rolling on the floor!

How many group posters does it take to change a light bulb?

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs

53 to flame the spell checkers

41 to correct spelling/grammar flames

6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ... another

6 to condemn those 6 as anal-retentive

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp"

27 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs

14 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's

12 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ

44 to ask what is a "FAQ"

4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"

143 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs"

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again

iTunes for Windows

2003-10-26T08:50:00.000-08:00

I've been using Media Center by J. River since it was in early beta, and Media Jukebox before that -- they've got a free version but I upgraded to the paid version years ago. But back when I had the PowerBook I played around with iTunes and was impressed with its interface and usability. Well, I finally got around to downloading iTunes for Windows but haven't gotten around to actually installing it and figured I'd take a look through Apple's music store and maybe that'd help motivate me. Guess what? -- I can't find a way to browse the iTunes store without installing iTunes! Does that make any sense? Now I'm all huffy about it.

Free wireless at McD's in SF Bay area

2003-10-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

It says they'll give you 2 hours of free wireless time at a participating SF Bay Area McDonald's hot spot restaurant. The catch? You've gotta give 'em an email address. They say they'll email a password to you in 24 hours.

Murphy honored, 50 years later

2003-10-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

A friend sent this to me (yeah, Bud, I call you a friend, and you can't stop me!)

The NewScientist has this article about the Ig Nobel prize for 2003. One of the winners was Edward A. Murphy, the "author" of Murphy's law. Read more of the story behind the law here.

Way OT : dog friendly

2003-10-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

www.dogfriendly.com can help find parks and beaches that allow dogs as well as lodging. For those that can't get by without their pooch.

Update rollup 1 for Windows XP ...

2003-10-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

... is available here. The knowledgebase article contains a link to the complete download (8.96 MB) or you can supposedly get it via Windows Update. It addresses issues detailed in 22 knowledgebase articles.

Yahoo's anti-SPAM email move

2003-10-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

MyWay has this link to a Reuter's article about Yahoo's newest anti-SPAM move. It allows a premium mail subscriber to create a "base name" and up to 500 variations. The user can create a "new" email address and give it out to whomever they like. If SPAM starts to show up, that one account can be shut down. This is similar to services like Mailshell and SpamGourmet and, when coupled with other anti-SPAM measures like Bayesian filters, can provide the most SPAM-free solution. I never give out my true email address except to people I trust -- every other email address is one of my "traps".

The PowerBook's coming back!

2003-10-18T22:28:00.000-07:00

A while ago, quite a while ago, a friend of mine loaned me a PowerBook. I had to return it to him a couple of months ago and I've missed it. Well, it looks like he's gonna be able to loan it to me again! -- can't wait!

Outlook Express tips

2003-10-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

Tom Koch's Inside Outlook Express is a good site for information, tips and downloads that pertain specifically to Outlook Express. Backup tools, registry and file storage information are all there.

PCMag.com's 101 "most useful sites"

2003-10-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

I put that in quotes because, well, as they say: YMMV ("your mileage may vary"). The article has them broken up into classes like Computing-Everyone, Computing-Experts, Shopping and Information. They've also got them all combined into a zip file that you can download and add to your Favorites folder.

Not a lot of surprises here ... i mean their number one shopping site is Amazon.com, but, still, it's nice having them organized in that way.

Google tips : syntax pointers and even search paper catalogs

2003-10-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

PCMag.com has this great article of Google tips. It contains pointers to syntax help on the Google site as well as some things I didn't knew were available like being able to search paper catalogs like, oh, heck, Williams-Sonoma, West Marine and Land's End.

I didn't know Google maintained this list of tools and services before I read the article. Good info.

Recent Yahoo protocol plug-in for Miranda

2003-10-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

Most recent version is here -- dated October 9. Discussion of the state of the plug-in and announcements of new versions is here.

Do-Not-Call list has a web bug

2003-10-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

TechTV reports that the Do-Not-Call list web page, hosted by AT&T, has a web bug on it that could relate the individual signing up on the page to an IP address if the right reports are run. Now, I haven't given this a lot of thought (yet) but it doesn't seem to me like this is much of an exposure, is it? I mean, by virtue of going to the web page, doesn't AT&T already have everything that the web bug will give them? If AT&T is already hosting and managing the FTC's servers and has sufficient access and rights to put the web bug there in the first place, they certainly have access to all the userinformation. And I can understand, having been in the business for a while, that the web bug would allow AT&T to monitor performance. Still, it seems a little odd.

I think this is probably more a matter of insufficient thought being given to an ordinary business practice.

IE's changes in response to ActiveX suit

2003-10-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's recently published some information and sample/test code to show how they intend to respond to the embedded controls suit they lost to Eolas. In particular, MSDN tells developers on this page how to circumvent the prompts that will most likely arise from the changes. It's an interesting read even if you're not a developer.

The Next Big Thing

2003-10-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

Tim Oren's weblog entry yesterday makes a good point about "The Next Big Thing" -- you don't know what it is until after it's already happened. And all those columnists and pundits who pontificate about TNBT are either fooling themselves (and me) or they know they're just blowing smoke.

Error when trying to open a page?

2003-10-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

Apparently the fix for MS03-032 changed the way IE interprets relative URLs when opened by javascript, resulting in "Page not found" errors. According to MSKB 827667 (or this download from the Microsoft Download Center), the new update will address this issue.

How? I dunno, the article is less than clear to me. I s'pose it changes the assumed base of relative URLs back to what it was BEFORE MS03-032. If you're getting errors when you try to open a web page by clicking on a button in a web page (remember, this is a javascript issue, not a link issue, per se) then apply this patch.

Download site for admins : server software

2003-10-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Today's Lockergnome Tech Specialist has a link to serverfiles.com, a website with downloadable software that's more oriented to systems and network admins. Things like software for Microsoft's Exchange, Fax server software and security scanners.

Internet Explorer/Adobe SVG viewer security exposure

2003-10-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

The October 5th issue of Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes reports a security exposure that isn't addressed by Microsoft's recent hotfix for MS03-040 (which is also details in MSKB 828750). To be vulnerable you supposedly must have Adobe's SVG viewer plug-in installed.

Sonoma coast recommendations including The Sea Ranch and St. Orres

2003-10-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Had a lovely time there a few years ago. Nice to see that St. Orres has a website. Anyway, here are a cople of recommendations.

1950s Home Economics

2003-10-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

A friend sent this which is supposedly excerpted from a 1950s high-school textbook on Home Economics, teaching a woman how to prepare for married life:

1. Have dinner ready: Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal - on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him, and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospects of a good meal are part of the warm welcome needed.

2. Prepare yourself: Take 15 minutes to rest so you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work- weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.

3. Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives, gathering up school books, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too.

4. Prepare the children: Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces if they are small, comb their hair, and if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.

5. Minimize the noise: At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of washer, dryer, dishwasher, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. Be happy to see him. Greet him with a warm smile and be glad to see him.

6. Some DON'TS: Don't greet him with problems or complaints. Don't complain if he's late for dinner. Count this as minor compared with what he might have gone through that day.

7. Make him comfortable: Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax and unwind.

8. Listen to him: You may have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.

9. Make the evening his: Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other places of entertainment; instead try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his need to be home and relax.

10. The Goal: Try to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can relax.

The Gubernator!

2003-10-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

Don't remember where I heard it but I think the term's a hoot. Anyway, I've kinda thought that Ah-nold would be a good replacement because he's not cut from the same political mold (mould - :)) as the others and could represent a shift away from the same tired-old politically polarized way of doing things in the nation in general, and California in particular. Looks like I'm not alone.

Bush/Cheney weblog

2003-10-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

I know, I couldn't believe it either. Leo Laporte's reports today that there's a weblog being maintained (presumably by someone other than Bush and Cheney) here. There are even RSS feeds!

MS03-040 : Fixing what ails Internet Explorer?

2003-10-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

Microsoft released two new critical updates for Windows XP/2003.

MS03-040, the October, 2003 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer points to this download site. It's about a 2MB download for 32-bit Windows systems. It appears this is intended to address some of the ActiveX issues that've been plaguing us all in recent weeks/months but it doesn't actually come out and say that's what it does. I'll continue to follow the newsletters and post something here when I've got a definitive answer.

BTW, this update will cause HTML-based help to cease to function until/unless you've installed the newer HTML Help control from MS KB 811630.

They've also released another critical update to Windows Media Player 828026 - Update for Windows Media Player Script Commands. The article lists registry entries that affect how WMP interprets data embedded in the played datastream. The KB article says it applies only to WMP 6.4, 7.1 and 9 but Microsoft's security bulletin says it also applies to WMP8, the version originally shipped with XP. Anyway, the article points to this download site which has about a 3MB download for WMP 9.

Free WiFi hotpots in/around San Jose CA

2003-10-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's San Jose Mercury News had this article that listed free WiFi hotspots in and around the San Jose area including Los Gatos, Campbell, Palo Alto and Santa Cruz. It also has this link to another list.

MIT's OpenCourseWare

2003-10-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, you can "study" at MIT via their OpenCourseWare catalog. (Courtesy of one of the Lockergnome newsletters)

I've added GeoURL

2003-10-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

See the little green GeoURL button over there? Now you can find URLs that are "physically" located near me. I put physically in quotes because ... well, how can you get close to a web site? Heh, you specify a location to GeoURL and they cross-reference you to other sites that have locations near the one you've specified. I'm in San Jose so I used the city's lat./long.

Scotch : hazardous to the world's health?

2003-10-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Due Diligence, this hilarious article in "Scottish News Direct from Scotland" -- Whiskey of Mass Destruction (WMD) at the Bruichladdich distillery on Islay.

SoBig et al overwhelms AOL email infastructure?

2003-10-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

David Hornik, a contributor over at VentureBlog, put up this entry last night. Interesting article. Briefly, he says he was speaking with someone that "is currently in command of a key piece of (the Internet's) infrastructure" who said that the spambots had so overwhelmed AOL's email infrastructure that they issued a call to the "others at the key choke-points around the web" to help them (I assume this means those that control the MAEs and IBXs and such).

All jokes about the AOL email infrastructure aside, if this is true, it could mean a revolution is in the making ... not that it hasn't been building for a long time ... I mean who do you know who ISN'T sick of spam? He says it may be the end of the Web as we know it but I think he may mean "email" as opposed to "Web". Hope he can get some kind of confirmation.

Miranda Yahoo protocol

2003-10-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

So, you may be aware that Yahoo released a protocol update that locked out 3rd party applications like Trillian, GAIM and Miranda. Well, the Trillian folks were the first to come up with a patch (over the weekend, I believe) and they apparently passed it on to the GAIM folks. The patch, or a semblance of it, made it to libyahoo2 which is a standard yahoo protocol library that you can include in your own software. But, the updates are still in alpha state so they aren't prominently displayed on that site.

But I digress. The update rendered all the 3rd party IM clients unusable. Miranda (my current favorite) has an alpha version of the protocol module available. The one I use is myYahoo20030928b.zip. It's been updated recently so the link may no longer work but I haven't had the need to update (it's alpha -- why should I mess with something that works now? -- if/when it's updated again or I have a problem I'll update again). If you need a link to a usable protocol update, let me know and I'll seek out the newest version for you.

SPACE INVADERS!

2003-09-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

Implemented as an ActiveX control but, hey, what the heck. http://www.spaceinvaders.de. And, if you don't wanna play it "online" you can download clones.

Slipstick Exchange center has an RSS feed

2003-09-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

and it's at http://www.slipstick.com/rssnews/rssnews.aspx. They've been around for a LONG time and always have good information about Outlook and Exchange.

WinXP Tweaks

2003-09-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

The 9/29/2003 Lockergnome Windows Daily has a good section on Windows Tweaks. Things like enabling UDMA66 (I didn't know it wasn't enabled, either!), optimizing placement of startup files and a bunch more.

More ActiveX mishaps

2003-09-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Leo Laporte reports in today's Moanday News that the security hole in Internet Explorer that was supposedly fixed back in August wasn't. And some bright folks have come up with ways to exploit the hole to change dial-up settings so that your computer connects to one of those outrageously expensive phone numbers.

Think you're safe because you've got DSL or a cable modem? Think again! It can send you to spammers sites or do just about anything else to your machine without your knowledge.

The recommendation: disable ActiveX until Microsoft fixes the problem (again!).

Firewall winner : Tiny

2003-09-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

I'm just a geek. I like programming a firewall. Even my own software-based firewall. And Tiny's firewall let's me do just that. Like it so much that I bought it ... even with all the free ones out there.

Google Labs : Filter search by location

2003-09-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

Leo Laporte reported in his Tuesday News Items that Google Labs is testing a new Location Search feature. Not bad but there're more chinese restaurants around here than the 11 shown on the results.

Playing through the radio

2003-09-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

Now that I've got a hard-disk MP3 player, one of the things I do is play it in the car. I'm using a casette adapter right now ... plug it in to the line out port and slip it in to the car casette player and I've got my tunes. It's a pain, having that wire hanging out of the deck.

With that in mind, here are some reviews of wireless FM transmitters:

http://www.themindfactory.com/Products/PLL-1_FM/AudiaX/AudiaX_Reviews/audiax_reviews.html - a review by an iPod user.

http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/archive/topic/5566-1.html - at the bottom of the page there's a comment by an iPod user favoring the AudiaX

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/audiax-wireless-fm-linker-review.html - a review of the AudiaX

Doesn't sound like the iRock performs very well. One item I'm interested in is the Arkon SF121. Haven't found a worthwhile review comparing it to others yet but the $20 price is right.

CNet reviews 4 DVD copy programs

2003-09-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

In this article they review Intervideo's DVD Copy, 321 Studio's DVD Copy Plus and their DVD X Copy and Pinnacle's InstantCopy.

The same article has links to other reviews like software DVD players and DVD burning apps.

And the PDF creation winner is ...

2003-09-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

EDocPrinter PDF Pro from ITEKSOFT. Yeah, it came out of the back of the pack to win the crown. Until you buy it, pages 4 and beyond get watermarked.

What was wrong with the others? Well, I thought I could save my Word documents in XML format and have AurigaDoc convert it to PDF but it looks like I was wrong; that AurigaDoc has its own dialect that you use to get the appropriate formatting. And at dial-up speeds, I didn't wanna invest the time in downloading it only to be disappointed.

PDFCreator, well, I couldn't seem to find enough information online to satisfy my curiousity so I just didn't wanna install it.

PDF creation on the cheap

2003-09-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

I've found what look to be two very good PDF creation packages, both Open Source and on SourceForge. AurigaDoc from AurigaLogic and PDFCreator from Sector7g. I'm gonna give both a spin and I'll let you know what I think.,

A VC thinks the RIAA is wrong?

2003-09-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

Tim Oren, a venture capitalist at Pacifica Fund, thinks the RIAA is wrong in their approach to online music. Read his thoughts on the subject

DCOM : are your safe?

2003-09-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

MS03-039 was issued and a "fix" released by Microsoft last week. Steve Gibson (grc.com -- of ShieldsUp, UnPlug-n-Pray, ID Serve and Wizmo fame) asks whether you really need DCOM or not. Go to his DCOMbobulator page, download his utility and disable it! It obviates any attacks through DCOM.

Free IT education on the 'net

2003-09-12T07:38:00.000-07:00

Don't ask me why but Free-ed.net has free education available over the Internet. The courses are a little dated -- for instance they don't have anything on Windows XP or even Windows 2000 but they do have Windows NT education. Their IT course catalog is here.

WiNc didn't work for me

2003-09-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

Don't know if it's because I run the Orinoco Client Manager (but it still didn't work when I killed the Orinoco S/W) or what. Supposedly my card and my access point are both supported. Anyway, it looks like it'd be some good software but I can't evaluate it!

WiNc from PCMag.com

2003-09-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

The new PCMag.com Wireless Center has a free utility called WiNc from Cirond that includes some of the functionality of NetStumbler and can also function as a replacement for WinXP's wireless connection manager. Check out Cirond's supported hardware list before trying out the utility. Also note that you must get it from the PCMag.com site within the next two weeks and not from the Cirond site. After two weeks the program costs $20. I think that means picking it up from PCMag.com will keep it free forever. You can find more about it and download the program here). There are versions for PocketPC 2002 and 2003, too.

The utilities that come with the Orinoco card are pretty good -- it can scan for access but it doesn't record -- and if you don't have an Orinoco, you're SOL.

New Wireless Center on PCMag.com

2003-09-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

Got a note from them yesterday about the launch of their new Wireless Center. It's not exactly Wi-Fi News but it's not a bad site.

Good rundown of MS03-035 through MS03-038

2003-09-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Woody's Office Watch has a good rundown in his September 4th issue. He explains the issues and the implications. If you don't subscribe to his Office and Windows newsletters then you're missing some really good information.

Good introduction to PHP online

2003-09-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

Not much to say about this article other than it's a good, basic intro to PHP.

5 new Microsoft Security bulletins issued

2003-09-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't do anything about these yet. Only one is an OS bug (the first one). 2 are Office specific, 1 is Microsoft Access and one is in Visual Basic. Note that the 2003 version of Office seems to be unaffected. Don't do any patching yet ... let's let them age. I'll let you know when it's time to do something. I would make sure I know who's me any Word documents and make sure the content's important if I'm going to open it. Basically, I'm just going to try to reduce the number of documents
I open that haven't been under my control. I don't think virus scanners will necessarily be able to help us on these.

The end-user bulletins are pretty helpful.

MS03-034 - 824105 - NetBIOS Information Disclosure vulnerability. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.

MS03-035 - 827653 - Flaw in Microsoft Word Could Enable Macros to Run Automatically. Does not seem to affect Office 2003. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.

MS03-036 - 827103 - Buffer Overrun in WordPerfect Converter Could Allow Code Execution. Does not seem to affect Office 2003. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.

MS03-037 - 822715 - Flaw in Visual Basic for Applications Could Allow Arbitrary Code Execution. Does not seem to affect Office 2003. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.

MS03-038 - 827104 - Unchecked buffer in Microsoft Access Snapshot Viewer Could Allow Code Execution. Microsoft Access only. Office 2003 version seems to be unaffected. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.

Secure as the NSA can make it

2003-09-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

Quoted from the Sept. 2 edition of WinXPNews:

Make your XP System as Secure as the NSA's

The National Security Agency has released a set of guidelines for configuring Windows XP Pro securely. These guidelines are used by government agencies to secure their machines, but you can download them and peruse their recommendations. The guidelines apply to Professional Edition only, and primarily to machines that belong to a Windows 2000 domain (although some of the info is also relevant to standalone computers), so this document is most helpful to those who support business networks. The download gets you a 141 page PDF document along with some .inf files that can be used if you're really brave. Even if your computer isn't a domain member, you'll find a lot of helpful background information about how XP security works in this document, but be sure to read it carefully and follow instructions exactly if you decide to make any of the changes recommended:
http://www.winxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=030902SE-NSA_Secure

Miranda : Universal IM client

2003-09-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Don't recall where I heard about this but my new favorite universal IM client (i.e. able to connect to most, if not all, IM services like Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, AIM, etc.) is Miranda. It's another open source effort with forums for support. Its forte is plug-ins. More than just skins, you can download plug-ins to provide what most other clients include in their basic functionality (like user status tooltips). The basic download comes with support for AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber and MSN; if you want support for Yahoo (you guessed it!) you download a plug-in.

Documentation's sparse but it's a good, free client and it's under active development. To get started, download:

* the client -- currently version 0.3.1 at about 600K
* the Yahoo! protocol if you're a Yahoo! user.
* Smiley-Add to add support for familiar, protocol-specific smileys.
* MultiWindow -- trust me, you'll want this.
* Oli's Yahoo Smileys for a good set of smileys that look like the original ones

Eclipse: an Open Source general-purpose IDE

2003-08-31T08:05:00.000-07:00

From their FAQ:

Eclipse is an open source software development project dedicated to providing a robust, full-featured, commercial-quality, industry platform for the development of highly integrated tools.

Little red X's in IE instead of pictures

2003-08-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

Today's Lockergnome Windows Daily pointed me to this article on tek-tips.com describing one possible solution for the problem. Down near the end of the article it tells you what registry keys to delete. I've only checked this out on one of my machines but the ftp and http keys were present and I've deleted them.

"Fix" for MS03-032 w/ ASP.NET and IIS

2003-08-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

This fix (or this one for Windows 2003 Server) for the "ohmygawd" security issue detailed in TechNet article MS03-032 (MSKB 822925) apparently breaks applications that run on an IIS installation that also has ASP.NET 1.0 installed. Fortunately there's a workaround, detailed here which deletes and recreates the ASP.NET account. According to the ASP.NET web page, the problem only affects Windows XP Professional installations.

Couple of NBs:

* the TechNet article listed above contains a lot of extra information about the original flaw and the fix.
* this is a cumulative IE patch so it fixes several other problems and should bring your version of Internet Explorer up-to-date.