Archive for 2008

I’ve been following Coders Junto for a while now, mainly because the author is my cousin Paul. He’s recently started coding for the iPhone and has some apps in the App Store too. If you’re looking for some code examples, or you just wanna say hi, head on over and tell him I sent ya.

I don’t care what they call it, whatever Microsoft does their search will probably still suck.

According to the latest global search engine results from tracking firm Net Applications, as of Wednesday, Google Search had 81.1 percent of the worldwide search market. Meanwhile, Yahoo had 10.5 percent, and Microsoft’s Live Search and MSN Search combined pulled up a lame third with 4.6 percent.

Much as Microsoft has tried over the years, nothing has seemed to move its market share numbers upward.

So far, Microsoft is not saying what its plans are for Kumo.

Unless they buy Yahoo that is. Then they’ll just be second fiddle to Google forever instead of third string.

So this explains why Firefox updated itself when I booted up the MacBook yesterday.

Mozilla has issued eight patches for its Firefox Web browser, three of which fix problems classified as critical.

The patches come after security experts have recommended using a browser other than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 and older versions of IE due to a dangerous vulnerability. Microsoft is due to release an emergency patch for that problem Wednesday.

For those of you who want to connect your blog to your Facebook account, here you go.

Blogging just got more social: Facebook has launched its Connect Plugin Directory in addition to its Connect program. If you’re a blogger, that means you can let your visitors comment on your site using their Facebook credentials. If you’re a reader, once you comment using your Facebook details, you can have the comment automatically published on your Facebook newsfeed.

They have plugins available for both WordPress and MovableType users.

Say what? I finally get a MacBook, and what does Apple do for me? They introduce the BSOD?

Apple’s latest update to its Leopard operating system, OS X 10.5.6, appears to be creating more problems than it’s fixing on users’ Macs.

A day after the software was released via Apple’s download service, users flooded the company’s online support forum with hundreds of complaints about the upgrade. Most centered around OS freezes and so-called “Blue Screens of Death.”

I am really, really, hoping this is a random occurence. I do not like Blue Screens of Death, that’s why I am now using a Mac in the first place.

I haven’t used my Yahoo Mail account in so long, but then again, I might use it, if Yahoo would get off their high horse and let me back into my ’slobokan’ email address I had since day one, that I can no longer access.

Yahoo unveiled a new toolbar on Monday that will give Web users access to their e-mail as they surf the Web, the latest step in its strategy to make its products more open to users and third parties.

…

The Yahoo toolbar available later this week will allow users access to a selected group of programs from the toolbar without leaving the page they are on.

For example, users get notifications of new e-mails on the toolbar and can open them. The Internet company also showed off a newly styled in-box, which combines social networking functions and also allows users access to third party programs.

No toolbar in the world is going to help me get my email address back, and I refuse to send them a photo id and such when I never used one to obtain the email address in the first place.

I’m not overly fond of using password managers within the browser anyway, but if I was, I would think twice about using either of the ones included with Chrome or Safari.

Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari browsers could do a better job of protecting passwords, according to a security researcher who released a study of browser password managers Friday.

“Safari and Chrome are essentially tied for the worst password manager built into a major Web browser,” said Robert Chapin, president of Chapin Information Services, in his report, which looked at the types of security checks browsers used to make sure that they were sending username and password information to legitimate Web sites instead of clever hackers.

Since I got my MacBook, I have been using a nifty application called 1Password, which Vinny was nice enough to point my direction. It handles all of my password management and it isn’t exposed from the browser itself.

I have so many passwords on so many different services, it’s nice to have a place to keep them all.

Has there ever been a day without an “unpatched bug” in Internet Explorer?

The unpatched bug in Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that hackers are now exploiting also exists in older versions of the browser, including the still-widely-used IE6, Microsoft Corp. said late yesterday.

Today, a Danish security researcher added that Microsoft’s original countermeasure advice was insufficient and recommended that users take one of the new steps the company spelled out.

It’s pretty sad when you have to patch the unpatch so the bug won’t bug you. If the powers that be at Microsoft were suffering from cerebral palsy or some other ailment, they would never have hope of finding a cure because they would knock themselves out curing themselves of shingles instead.

When we moved into our home five years ago, there wasn’t much around. Since then, several more houses have been built in our neighborhood, and our little town got a McDonald’s and a big name grocery store.

The area we live in is relatively quiet, so imagine our surprise when one of the homes in our area was broken into, and another had their car stolen. It sure made a few of us wary of “traffic” in the neighborhood, and a few of us purchased ADT home security systems to keep an eye on our belongings.

My neighbor had his installed the day he closed on his house, and it’s a good thing he did because that night someone tried to break in and take his washing machine. Who steals washing machines anyway? He was fortunate because he had the home surveillance system installed too and the authorities were able to identify the culprit.

A couple weeks later someone tried to get in through another neighbors back door. We have been fortunate, but I’m sure the signs in the yard, and having a home surveillance and security system have really paid off.

Isn’t this a normal occurrence in the world of Windows?

Despite a record-breaking Patch Tuesday this week-28 patches across 8 reported vulnerabilities in one swipe-Microsoft managed to miss a couple. This has resulted in a zero-day exploit, originating from China, of Internet Explorer 7 on supported editions of Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, and Windows Server 2008.

I imagine, with 28 patches, the staff got a little confused as to what was and what wasn’t included in the update. Now we know why they call them vulnerabilities.