Microsoft has revealed that it has no plans to port the security fixes contained in WinXP SP2 to older versions of windows like Win98/ME and 2000. I suspect that the reason for this, is that Microsoft is increasingly finding that one of its worst competitors is it’s own previous versions of Windows and Office. What better way to convince people to pay $$$ to upgrade, then to tell them they are insecure if they don’t. My suspicion is that this might also result in a few more people considering giving Linux a try.

What does that mean for 30 percent of our visitors that are still using one of those operating systems? Well not too much really, you can get many of the same benefits by using free software available on the net, my suggestions are as follows:

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My long-time opinion has been that kids should not have access to the Internet in places unmonitored by adults, and that parents should be taught what they should be looking out for. To aid in the effort, I created the website ChildSafetyOnline.net that was to be an (un-threatening newbie friendly) website designed to try and teach parents how to protect their offspring from some of the more common dangers. I have not yet had time to continue that task, but I’ll get back to it someday.

Anyway, the reason I am bring this up is this recent article on TheRegister. In short, the statistics reveal that 57% of kids have come in contact with porn while online and that only 16% of parents where aware of it. Also that a third of kids have had “unwanted sexual or nasty comments” thrust upon them, with only 1 in 20 parents being aware of the problem.

The statistics come from a report from the London School of Economics, and while this site is not UK based, you can be sure the same statistics would be applicable to pretty much all western nations.

So parents, if you have a net connected PC in your kids room, you might want to consider moving it to a position where you can see what they are doing, and where they go. Kids are too trusting, and it’s up to you to be their guide, even though they might be far more computer literate then you.

Regards

Franki

This part of the site was originally called “Random Thoughts” but Franki changed it to Random Tidbits. That is fine with me I guess, but I reserve the right to post random thoughts when I want to (of course he has an edit and a delete button — as do I — so I guess we cannot offend each other too bad *grin*) …. anyway on with the thought!

Franki and I often spend time in our chat exchanging links we are reading. Todays list thus far for example has included:
Gate’s Mugshot
Windows Updates Blog Articles
Nuclear Weapons Allegedly Found in Iraq
Franki’s latest on wonderful things … Firefox Extensions … if nothing else (like security gets you off of IE, this should)

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Wall Street Journal RSS Feed Information is available. RSS isn’t just for the little guys any more. First exploding (in my opinion) in blogs and smaller places, the big boys are now coming on board with RSS feeds, further validating the concept has long term viability. This page also is good because it explains in simple terms what to do with an RSS feed.

A security adviser for Infoworld by the name of Wayne Rash, has joined the growing chorus of security people and companies that are recommending people stop using Internet Explorer for their general web browsing.

Wayne has a slightly different take on it. He says that you’ll change to Mozilla because of security, and stay with it because it’s faster and better then Internet Explorer. That’s something I’ve been saying for some time now, but its nice to hear others in the industry coming to the same conclusion.

One thing that has always amazed me, is that if the number of PC’s I have fixed that have been crammed with spyware like Hotbar and other such apps are any indication, people are willing to load nearly any flashy looking app onto their computers, be they trusted apps or not. And yet it requires nearly every security expert on the planet to advise finding an alternative to IE before people start considering it.

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Ok, Hell is a frozen wasteland, and a swarm of pigs just flew past. I’ve just found myself sympathising with Microsoft.

Microsoft and Apple have just been sued for patent infringement by a company called BTG Plc who apparently are classed as an “intellectual-property company” (which if they are like others, means they have no actual business as such, and make their money by patenting vague ideas and then suing companies for $$$.)

The main patent in question is this one, and the summary of it is ” Method and system for distributing updates by presenting directory of software available for user installation that is not already installed on user station “.

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Up until recently, I never really thought that I had very extensive browser needs, but I’ve now loaded most of a dozen Firefox extensions into my browser. The reason is pretty simple, I didn’t know what I was missing till I tried them.

My current four favourites are BugMeNot, User agent switcher, Super Drag&Go and of course Adblock. All of which are available at the official extension site and all are totally free.

I’m not going to get into this in too much detail, you can browse the links if you are that interested, but I’ll do a tiny pitch on each one to give you an idea.

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