I had a rough day at work today but not nearly as rough as someone else had it. I think the only people who had a worse day are mortgage lenders.

Hackers knocked Comcast.net offline late Wednesday night, preventing customers from getting to their Comcast Web mail and account records on the company’s Internet portal.

The criminals somehow got their hands on passwords used to alter domain-name registration information with Comcast’s registrar, Network Solutions, said Susan Wade, a Network Solutions spokeswoman.

How in the hell does the password for their DNS fall into the hands of hackers? Ouch. Don’t the Comcast employees know that you never, ever give anyone your password information? Well, I bet they know now.

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With all the excitement about Windows XP Service Pack 3 errors, Yahoo news, and just goofing around on the computer, I forgot to mention that FeedDemon 2.7 was released.

Of course, Nick makes the whole upgrade process so easy it’s no wonder I forgot I had done it.

Just a note, FeedDemon works great on XP pre and post Service Pack 3. Although, it doesn’t work very well with my wine rack. I wonder when that interface will be developed?

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I’m glad I am not the only one having this trouble. Part of my job includes monitoring and maintaining several servers which are located around the country. I have most of them using LogMeIn for access to the machines, but some locations are using Windows Home Server.

The latest service pack for Windows XP continues to cause problems for users. According to an online user forum, the latest glitch in Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) causes problems with the remote desktop access feature of Windows Home Server.

On the We Got Served U.K.-based Windows user forum, Windows XP users running Windows Home Server, Microsoft’s home storage and local networking server, report that SP3 is cutting off their access to the server from their PCs. The remote desktop access feature would ask users to add their home server’s Web site address in order to access it even after they already had, users reported.

I have been using the company laptop, which has not been updated to SP3 yet, to monitor those servers on a daily basis. Oh Microsoft, why is making a quality product (or update to a quality product) so difficult for you? Please fix it before I show up at your door with a handful of ostrich feathers, intent of tickling you until you fix it.

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My work laptop started acting up two days ago. I haven’t installed anything new, the laptop hasn’t moved, nothing is different. Well, except for the way the laptop is operating.

Six reboots in six minutes. Can your Mac do that? You just got to love toys.

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Last Friday, Mozilla released the first release candidate for the Firefox 3 browser. I have been using Firefox3 since beta 2 I think it was. Things were shaky at first, but things have been getting better, slowly but surely.

Mozilla Corporation on Friday released Firefox 3 RC1, more or less the final form of this iteration of the popular open-source Web browser. RC stands for Release Candidate and represents a stage in which the browser’s features are complete and the code is stable enough for public testing. Barring any serious bugs, RC1 will become the official release version of Firefox 3, which is planned for June.

Firefox 3 offers significantly improved speed and memory usage.

Mozilla VP of engineering Mike Schroepfer claims that Firefox 3 is 9.3x faster than Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and 2.7x faster than Firefox 2 in terms of JavaScript performance. In terms of Gmail message load time, he claims Firefox 3 is 6.8x faster than IE7 and 3.8x faster than Firefox 2. And he says Firefox 3 beats Apple’s Safari, which is also faster than Firefox 2.

The one “hitch” with using beta or release candidate versions is that some extensions do not yet work with the browser software. I usually fix this by modifying the extensions myself, but there are some that I don’t even want to try and mess with. Thnk goodness I am only missing two extensions. I can live with that until the extension authors release an updated version.

I can harldy wait for the full release of FF3. I am almost as excited as I was the first time I got a microfiber mop.

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I knew we hadn’t heard the last of the whole Microsoft/Yahoo deal. I still think that Yahoo will be part of the Microsoft family a whole lot sooner than later.

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) said on Sunday it has reached out to Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) about an alternative deal that would not involve a full acquisition, in a move that could save the web pioneer from fighting a proxy battle with financier Carl Icahn.

Microsoft said it was not proposing to make a new bid to buy all of Yahoo “but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative” depending on discussions with Yahoo, shareholders of Yahoo or Microsoft, or other third parties.

I have been known to be wrong before, but I don’t think so this time. Of course, I know a great source for cheap flights, so if I am wrong, I can still get out of Dodge if I have too.

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Egads, not another vulnerability in Internet Explorer. Say it isn’t so.

One week after hiding Internet Explorer attack code on his Web site, security researcher Aviv Raff has posted details on how to launch the attack.

The bug lies in the “Print Table of Links” feature, which lets IE users print out a Web page along with a list of all the links on the page tacked onto the end. Raff discovered that if an attacker added special scripting code to a Web page, he could then run unauthorized software on the PCs of IE users who printed using this feature.

The flaw affects IE 7 and IE 8, Raff said. Security vendor Secunia said that the bug also affects IE 6.

They have classified this one as “less critical” believing that because of the many steps involved people won’t be as vulnerable. The thing is, people are like sheep. They will do exactly what they are told sometimes. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone reading this post has already clicked the link and is halfway toward running the malicious code.

I imagine that more people get in trouble with Internet Explorer than they do watching women in sexy shoes dance in front of them.

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You might want to take a moment out of your day today and grab a copy of PC Mover. It’s free, today only.

To celebrate its 25th birthday, the good folks at Laplink are offering PC Mover for free, for today and today only.

Valued at $50, PC Mover is one of the most useful utilities
I’ve encountered in recent years. PC Mover is file transfer software unlike any you’ve likely seen before. It doesn’t just move your data files and your program settings from one computer to another, it moves all your applications, too, which means no reinstalling Office, transferring your email software, or even reloading Photoshop. You can move from XP to XP, Vista to Vista, or even XP to Vista. In fact, it supports operating systems all the way back to Windows 95.

I thought you might like to know. The only thing more important than getting something for free is making sure you have your medical jewelry on when you leave the house.

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I had no idea that CBS was even contemplating the purchase of CNET. Color me shocked.

Media and entertainment company CBS Corp. is buying CNet Networks Inc., an online news and information provider, for $1.8 billion in cash in its latest bid to expand its reach on the Internet, the companies announced Thursday.

The price of $11.50 per share represents a massive premium of 45 percent over CNet’s closing stock price on Wednesday, and appears to get CNet out of a nasty battle with one of its largest shareholders, which had been agitating for a shakeup at the company after its stock slumped.

…

CBS’s CEO Leslie Moonves told reporters on a conference call that acquiring access to CNet’s large online audience in order to distribute media content from CBS was “a large part” of CBS’ motivation in going after the San Francisco-based online company.

“Our idea is to have our content wherever, whenever you can get it, and adding CNet just makes that happen faster,” Moonves said.

Overall, I think this is an excellent move by CBS, but I am a bit skeptical about how it will all pan out. There is some content on CNET that I rely on, daily, that would make my life more difficult if it was eliminated. It’s kind of like having the wrong bathroom lighting. The wrong lighting changes everything. I hope CBS takes this ball and runs with it and makes CNET an even better resource than it has been for years.

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Just think… If Plaxo has your contact information you will soon be available on every Comcast cable box from New York to California. Woot!

Comcast Corp. is buying contact management company Plaxo Inc. and plans to incorporate into all its offerings features intended to help people synchronize their address books and connect socially online.

The Philadelphia-based cable company said social networking and other services will be added to its Comcast.net, Fancast.com and Fandango.com Web sites. Cable subscribers eventually will also be able to access the services through their set-top boxes and other devices.

Because cable viewers need to be able to access their contacts while watching the latest movie releases. Puh-leaze. When will I be able to watch a movie while I am browsing items at different furniture stores?

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