Not just annoying nor intrustive. Consider Malicious E-Cards – An Analysis of Spam In perhaps the most useful post I have ever seen on Slashdot, here’s a link the Microsoft KnowledgeBase article that lets you force email to be viewed as text ONLY: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307594. Bear in mind this might cause some problems. Make sure you document the changes you make and how to undo them, especially of the Windows Registry.
Tag Archives | Microsoft
Windows Source Code Leaked?
With all of Microsoft’s initiatives to “share” their source code under restrictive licenses with companies, universities and countries, it was inevitable that it would leak out. A key difference between closed and open source: with open source, having the source code available is a security feature. With closed source, it’s a security liability. Since code leaks are inevitable, which would you prefer? Windows Source Code Leaks Online. Microsoft scrambles to find out how its prized code made its way onto the Internet. Experts say malicious hackers — and Microsoft competitors — could have a field day. [Wired News]
Microsoft Security Bulletins
Microsoft issued four today, and you should evaluate them carefully to ensure your systems are secure:
- MS04-004: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer(832894)
- MS04-005: Vulnerability in Virtual PC for Mac could lead to privilege elevation (835150)
- MS04-006: Vulnerability in the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) Could Allow Code Execution (830352)
- MS04-007: ASN .1 Vulnerability Could Allow Code Execution (828028)
Code Execution means that someone else can run code on your machine, perhaps taking it over. Serious stuff. It’s the seventh week of the year. Trustworthy computing continues.
UPDATE:Wired News picks up on the story here: Microsoft: Oops! We Did It Again. “Six months after researchers warned Microsoft about critical security flaws in Windows, the software company alerts users to the problem and offers a patch on its website. One researcher calls the delay ‘just totally unacceptable.'” and the New York Times: Technology page features it:Microsoft Warns Software Users of ‘Critical’ Flaw. “Users of Microsofts operating system software have to patch their systems again, or their computers will be vulnerable to attacks.” NYT story by John Schwartz.
Microsoft: MSN and Server/Tools in the red in 2Q
From Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley: Ouch. Two Formerly Profitable MSFT Divisions See Red. F”or its second quarter in fiscal 2004, not only was Microsoft’s MSN business unit back in the red, but its Server and Tools division was, as well.”
Slashdot reviews ‘MySQL: Building User Interfaces’
Slashdot features a book review of MySQL: Building User Interfaces“If you are a Windows programmer looking to create or move your stand-alone database applications away from Microsoft-specific tools such as Visual Basic, Visual C++, Access or SQL Server, MySQL: Building User Interfaces is written just for you.”
Mary Jo lambasts yet another Microsoft ‘study’
Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley reports Microsoft Funds More ‘Facts’. “Microsoft is touting a new “independent” study aimed at helping users make fact-based choices between operating systems. This time, the study was performed by Jupiter Research and commissioned by Microsoft.”
Yet another suspicious “study,” although the devil’s in the details more than the farcical “a mainframe costs more than a bunch of server” study. In this case, there is no “study” really, but a survey of the opinions of people (presumably IS Managers) about what they know about interoperability. That’s surely not the same as evaluating what sort of interoperability is out there. I’ve automated OpenOffice.org from VFP, and you can do so from Perl, Python, Java or C++. I run my SourceSafe files from a Samba share on a Linux box. I can read and write MySQL tables (on any platform) via ODBC or JDBC or Perl libraries or other interfaces. Now, that’s interoperable!
The Register: Going cold turkey with Windows, well, thinking about it, maybe
The problem with linking to anything from The Register is that their reliability and impartiality is up there with the pulp tabloids you see in the supermarket with badly pasted up pictures of the president shaking hands with an alien. Unfortunately, to me, it’s kind of like roadkill – you want to look away, but at the same time you’re fascinated. In this story, Small firms fighting Microsoft addiction. “Going cold turkey with Windows,” The Reg seems to be pulling material from this Yankee Group press release, entitled “Microsoft Dominance Keeps Small Businesses Awake at Night, Says the Yankee Group” – a document Yankee Group released to promote their upcoming SMB Forum, I suspect. Quite a bit of hyperbole in both documents, but the idea that a large percentage of Microsoft shops are concerned and looking elsewhere is a good thing, I think. Competition and interoperability are necessary for a healthy computing environment.
Garrett’s got a new job!
Congratulations to Garrett Fitzgerald who blogs… Stop the world, I want to get off…. “My head is still spinning a bit. On Tuesday, a local employer was referred to me. I interviewed with him on Wednesday, and started work Thursday.
MailMovers is a local mailing house. During my interview, I found that the mail industry, to a large extent, runs on FoxPro data. This has put me in an interesting position. For years, I have have been writing code that would be used by other people. Some of this was when I worked with software houses such as MicroKnowledge (in Bangor) and UNICOM (in Providence), and some of it was writing snippets for customers when I worked in Microsoft’s Product Support Services. For the first time, I’m using VFP as a tool, rather than a programming enviroment. And I’m loving it. :-)” Best of luck, Garrett!
Yet More IE Confusion
Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley says “It’s getting tougher and tougher to figure out exactly what Microsoft is doing with Internet Explorer (IE)” in Yet More IE Confusion.
Best Viewed Without Internet Explorer, Part II…
Hysterical! Slashdot reports Microsoft Advises to Type in URLs Rather than Click The KnowledgeBase article says, in part:
The most effective step that you can take to help protect yourself from malicious hyperlinks is not to click them. Rather, type the URL of your intended destination in the address bar yourself. By manually typing the URL in the address bar, you can verify the information that Internet Explorer uses to access the destination Web site. To do so, type the URL in the Address bar, and then press ENTER.