gapingvoid: the sex & cash theory is interesting. The guy explains the natural tension in life between what we want to do and what we have to do. Some get lucky and find the blend. I think retirement may allow the sex to overtake the cash, but by then so many people are tired, cynical and unable or unwilling to take the risks … someday will that be me? Let’s hope not. Feel free to donate to the htmlfixit cause maybe that will improve our blend 🙂

The latest from News.com has it that Microsoft will only be keeping Internet Explorer bug fixed and secure if it is running in Windows XPSP2.

What that means for the other 200 million Windows users, is that you can give Microsoft cash to upgrade Windows, or you can install Firefox and get a better more secure browser for free. Tough choice isn’t it? I’m already running Service pack 2 on my XP machine and I’m still using Firefox, simply because it is a better web browser.

Considering that many companies have only recently upgraded to Windows 2000, it is unlikely that they will be ready to upgrade to XP just to keep as secure as Microsoft can make it. (which if history is any indication is not particularly much.) So this may well be a good opportunity for Firefox to get it’s foot in the door of the corporate world.

Read the full story on news.com here.

Regards

Franki

It has been long known that it is always a bad idea to actually use the “opt out” links in the bottom of SPAM emails. Doing so will result in even more SPAM because they now know that the e-mail address is real and working. But recently a new reason not to use the opt out link has appeared.

TheRegister reports that one site is using a JavaScript bug in Internet Explorer to trigger the download and execution of a Trojan horse worm that totally compromises your Windows PC. They can then use you to send the next batch of SPAM, or steal your bank details, or use you as part of an online attack (Zombie).

This new problem only affects Windows users, Mac and Linux are as usual, not affected. Also not affected are users of Firefox or Opera web browsers.

There are lessons to be learned here.:
1. Don’t use Windows.
2. If you must use Windows, don’t use Internet Explorer.
3. If you must Windows and Internet Explorer, don’t click on opt out links, view web pages, or connect to the Internet.
4. Never click anything that arrives in a SPAM.

Regards

Franki

The New York Times has a very interesting story here .

Apparently the lads at Google have poached employee’s from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team, Sun’s JAVA team, and then hosted the Mozilla Developer Day on the Google campus. They are aware that Microsoft has turned its attention on search technology, so in response, they appear to be looking into returning the favour. Since Mozilla is open source and the code is available to all, it may well be that the “Google browser” might be a modified version of Firefox or the Full Mozilla suite.

Or it could all just be hype and Google are just grabbing anyone smart that they can get their hands on. Only time will tell. I suppose a Google browser would be cool, but I’m pretty happy with Firefox now, so I’m not sure I’d swap.

Regards

Franki

The battle has started between those interested in software innovation and those interested in lining their pockets to the detriment of everything else. The battlefield is the patenting of non specific ideas.

To give you an idea of the problem, say for example I had patented the idea of burning a flammable substance and using the resultant released energy to “do stuff”. Do you have any idea how many people would have to pay me money? Even if I had never actually researched the process, or created a product, anyone using energy derived from fire for heat, cooking, power generation or to power a car would owe me cash.

That is what’s happening today in the software industry. Big companies are patenting the building blocks of applications and using them to build or ensure market share dominance. It needs to stop.

To that end, the guys at the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) have filed a brief to the US court of appeals to have ambiguous patents declared invalid. If a patent isn’t totally explicit about an “idea” then it should not be valid.

The other question is the validity of software patents at all. Is it acceptable to allow someone to patent double clicking a mouse button? or an online to-do list? Well guess what? Microsoft already have both of those “ideas” wrapped up. Here is another way of looking at it, nobody in their right mind would try to patent selling stuff, but if you do it online, there is a risk you will be sued for patent infringement because online shopping has been the target of a patent or two as well.

Read about the first salvo in this war at TheRegister.

Microsoft has revealed plans to have windows update check the licenses of your Microsoft software.
Ostensibly it’s to allow people to double check that their software is legit, but who knows where it will really end.

The question is, if an employee runs windows update, and Microsoft finds out that there are a couple of other systems in the building with the same serial number, would that make it likely that the company would get a visit from a Microsoft audit team? I suspect it might, and that’s a bit of a worry because it may just be because they used a disk image to install and didn’t change the serials. Not every road leads to pirates, but try telling Microsoft that.

Microsoft has a deplorable security record, they should definitely not be doing anything to discourage people from using their service, but then again, when have they ever failed to put their foot in their mouth in the past?

I suppose we should be happy about this new development, the more people Microsoft annoy, the more will go looking for alternatives and end up running Linux, and that’s always a good thing. Read more at TheInquirer.

Regards

Franki

Firefox has broken all of the previous Mozilla download records. The preview release of version 1.0 has hit the 1 million mark in under 100 hours since its release.
That is 6 days earlier then they were aiming for. So now they are going for 2 million.

Help them out and get Firefox, the best browser on the Internet.

Regards

Franki