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Testing VFP and WinXPSP2RC2

By on June 29, 2004 in Home Page

Taking my own advice, I installed XP on a test machine, so that I could test Windows XP Service Pack Two Release Candidate Two.

Not a screamer, an PII-266 HP Omnibook that was Laura’s previous
laptop. The CD turned out to be flaky, so ended up XCOPY32’ing the CD
to disk (it had a Win98SE install on it) and installing from there,
successfully albeit slowly. Where do you want to go today?
Windows Update, of course. A clean install of XP has forty-nine, yes,
49, “Critical Updates and Service Packs” to download. SP1’s a mere 54.5
Mb, so I am glad Comcast’s download cap has been lifted to 3
Mbps. That’s plugging away now, since it must be installed
separately from everything else. Then I can go back and review the
other “Critical Updates” and see what else I’ll need to do.

On the bright side, Microsoft is updating their product — remember
Ashton-Tate that left an entire community hanging for a year and a half
with a dBASE IV that didn’t work before shipping 1.1. On the other
hand, it looks like Microsoft shipped swiss cheese. I read recently,
though I can’t recall where, that someone tried doing this install with
his machine jacked directly into the Internet, but before he could
install all the patches, the machine was compromised. I can believe
that. This one’s been installing for six hours…

UPDATE: After the WIndows XP SP1, install, Windows Update now
claims there are only 18 “Critical Updates and Service Packs” left to
go. I’m going to go straight for XP SP2 RC2 (try saying that three
times fast) and see how many are left after that.

More news as it happens…

InfoWorld: XP update could cause support chaos

By on June 29, 2004 in Home Page

Batten down the hatches, those of you, like me, who support clients out
in the field. Windows Update could be bringing you some surprises, in
the form of tech support headaches. If you haven’t beta tested it
already, you might want to get ahead of your customers, who’ll be
beta-testing it soon…

Windows XP update could cause support chaos.
The major changes to Windows XP brought by Service Pack 2 (SP2) are
bound to cause support headaches. Analysts, users, PC makers and
Microsoft Corp. all expect a spike in help desk calls. [InfoWorld: Top News]

Bush invokes Hitler

By on June 27, 2004 in Home Page

It’s traditional in most of the newsgroups and forums go on until one
wingnut accuses the other of acting like Hitler. At that point, the
fight has degenerated to silliness and is ignore by anyone with common
sense. The anti-Bush campaign saw Hitler in a proposed ad and wisely
nixed it. If only the President’s campaign had the same sense of
decency.

Dan Gillmor’s eJournal blogs No Shred of Decency:

  • NY Times: Hitler Reappears in ’04 Campaign, This Time in Bush Ad. President
    Bush’s campaign Web site is featuring an advertisement casting Senator
    John Kerry and his allies as a “coalition of the wild-eyed,” blending
    clips of former Vice President Al Gore, former Gov. Howard Dean of
    Vermont and the filmmaker Michael Moore shouting about Mr. Bush.
    Interspersed twice are images of a shouting Hitler, drawn from a Web
    spot that MoveOn.org, the Internet advocacy group that runs anti-Bush
    advertisements, briefly posted months ago in a contest for
    advertisements about the president.

    • Dan goes on to write: “The clip of Hitler came from an ad submitted to MoveOn.org’s “Bush in 30 Seconds” contest — an ad that MoveOn disavowed as soon as it was noticed and, quite properly, attacked for its inflammatory nature.

    But the Bush campaign has no trouble using the same images
    (wmv video) to slander political opponents and critics of its radical
    policies. Just when you imagine they couldn’t sink any lower in their
    tactics, the Bush people find a way.
    If this slimy ad were to be aired on television — on the airwaves Bush
    and so many others are so eager to censor to stop “indecency” —
    campaign laws would require him to personally endorse it. He doesn’t
    have to personally vouch for this garbage when it’s on the Web. Maybe
    that’s why it’s online.”

    InfoWorld: Experts agree on method, not scope of IIS attacks

    By on June 27, 2004 in Home Page

    Tomalak’s Realm links to InfoWorld: Experts agree on method, not scope of IIS attacks.
    “We don’t have significant reports of Web sites compromised or of
    people sending us examples of the new Trojans,” he said. “I’d rate this
    a low risk if you’re patched and a medium risk if you’re not.” Still,
    other security companies reported widespread infections.

    Three exploits took place at once: the IIS 5.0 servers had an SSL flaw
    (patched in MS04-011) that allowed them to be infected. The Windows PCs
    had two flaws: an MHTML handling problem in Outlook Express and IE
    (also patched, in MS04-013) and a cross-site scripting exploit
    identified last week that remains unpatched.

    If you must use IE (for example, I can’t get to the Microsoft KnowledgeBase without it), make sure to do the following:

    1. Set your IE security level to high (Tools, Options, Security:
      Select ‘High’ from the drop-down and then ‘Reset’ – you’ll want to note
      your previous settings and record them somewhere in case you’re having
      problems browsing), and
    2. Make sure your virus scanners up to date. Even though I had
      upgraded to NAV 2004 on Friday and updated to the most recent files
      then, I download two updates this morning (Sunday) with 1.2Mb+ of new
      stuff in them.

    NYT: Drug makers bribe docs to write prescriptions

    By on June 27, 2004 in Home Page

    New York Times: NYT HomePage reports As Doctors Write Prescriptions, Drug Company Writes a Check.
    “An investigation has shed light on the system of financial lures that
    drug companies use to persuade doctors to favor their products.” 
    By Gardiner Harris.

    In many ways, the investigations are a response to the evolution of the
    pharmaceutical business, which has grown in the last quarter-century
    from a small group of companies peddling a few antibiotics and
    antianxiety remedies to a $400 billion bemoth that is among the most
    profitable industries on earth… Offering
    treatments for almost any affliction and facing competition in which
    each percentage point of market share can represent tens of millions of
    dollars, most drug makers now spend twice as much marketing medicines
    as they do researching them.

    This sounds like a market out of control. The arangements between
    the manufacturers and distributors (doctors) leave the patient worried
    about getting an informed an impartial decision, while the patients are
    left ignorant of the economics of the arrangement, both between
    manufacturer and doctor, and in what their insurance ends up paying.
    This is capitalism with a fatal flaw: deals go on in the back room that
    the players aren’t aware of. When the system is made transparent,
    products can compete far more fairly.

    One fix for IE?

    By on June 26, 2004 in Home Page

    Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley reports Another Good Reason to Download XP SP2 RC2.
    “Microsoft says folks running the recently delivered release candidate
    2 of Windows XP Service Pack 2 aren’t vulnerable to the new “Download
    Ject” attack that’s romping across the Web.” 

    So, instead of getting a patch for IE, you can download a *beta* version of a service pack Woody Leonhard calls a “seriously risky patch job” or you can choose to use another browser that’s not affected. Hmmm…

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