Been lots of updates that I've missed posting about. Been busy with that real world thing. Should be busy soon with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard coming out in the next few months. List of important updates that you should have:
Patch Tuesday is here. From the Microsoft Security Bulletin, there are six security updates. There are two for the Windows operating system, one for the Microsoft Office system, one for the Windows Internet Explorer browser, one for Microsoft ISA Server, and one for Microsoft Virtual PC.
Looks like Imageshack left the backdoor of their server open. All images hosted by them are showing the hacked image, but the wording seems to indicate that no pictures were deleted.
The Google Chrome blog announced just recently that they are planing an operating system. Initially geared for netbooks, but I'm sure there's more in plan. I'm guessing they wpn't target full blown computers for awhile, but this is probably an extension of Android that Google aready has for the cell phone market.
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieveGoogle Empire marches on.
Been awhile since Windows had a zero day exploit that would allow the bad guys to take over your computer just by visiting a web site. Got one now. All you need to do is to visit a web site that has been set up to use this vulnerability with Internet Explorer and boom, they got you. Apparently, a flaw in Microsoft directShow( MSVIDCTL.DLL ) lets them do it. It does need to be IE 6 or 7 with Windows XP or Windows 2003. Yay! Vista and presumably Windows 7 aren't affected.
Another day, another rogue. This time it's named Barracuda Antivirus. I guess they wanted to ride the coattails of the real Barracuda firewall products. As usual, the fake Barracuda Antivirus will pop fake warnings and try to goad you into buying it.
This rogue ‘Barracuda Antivirus’ program is in no way affiliated with Barracuda Networks and is just one of a string of recent examples of hackers attempting to spread malicious programs using an established and trusted Internet security brand,” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks.
I don't use iPhoto too much, but it has it uses. There's a nice 103 MB update for it that fixes the issue from the iPhoto 8.03 update that caused iPhoto to crash. You could work around it by holding the Option key and then choosing your library, but what fun was that. I didn't have that problem, but this should help those that did.
Probably not a secret to most, but the latest version of Firefox is out. A big update, since the version went from 3.0 to 3.5. Most of the changes are underneath, so they aren't readily apparent. I've run it for a few hours and haven't had any issues. Tried doing just about everything you can with a browser and it all went well.
Speed is one thing that Firefox 3.5 is touted as having over the older version. It seems like everyone is touting their new, even faster browser. I do notice that Firefox doesn't compare itself to other browsers like Safari and IE but the earlier 3.0 and 2 versions. Safari is still faster for me going loading new pages, but clicking back to ones in your history, it's still Firefox.
One thing you'll see that is new is the private browsing feature. Safari has had it for quite awhile. Google Chrome launched with it and spread awareness, even getting the nickname "porn mode". Nothing groundbreaking, but handy to have. You can always just clear your private data manually.
Firefox 3.5 does have one thing that no other browser has. It supports some video types natively, without the need for a plug-in or 3rd party add-on. However, it's only the open source Ogg file types. Most things people watch online aren't using this. you can see a demo of a video that also showcases the new features. If web developers make more use of Ogg files, then this could be good. My guess is that it won't mean much until more file types are supported. Wikipedia might be an exception.
Missing is a top sites feature, like Safari and Opera have. You can get it with add-ons for Firefox, but this is becoming a standard feature of these days. I didn't think it was a big deal when Opera had it and then when Safari 4 added it. Once i started using it, it was like tabbed browsing. How did I get by without it before?
Other features include geolocation, the ability to drag tabs to be their own window, and adding a window as a new tab in a different browser window.
Of course there is security. there's a whole list of features listed at the Mozilla Firefox security page. Private browsing and Forget This Site are the new ones listed. Many of the others, like antimalware and antiphising are listed as improved. I haven't tested those two filters, but they are likely to be weak as they have been in all browsers.
You can download Firefox 3.5 at www.getfirefox.com now. The internal updater for Firefox 3.0 doesn't offer it, as of yet.
Saw an alert today about AVProtection2009. Like all rogue antispyware programs, it warns users about threats on their computer, which are usually false. It runs a somewhat real looking scan. After the scan, the program will offer to remove the threats if you purchase it.
SecretService is the latest rouge antispyware product acording to S!
ri. Away from home, so check out his page for more info.
http://siri-urz.blogspot.com/2009/06/secret-service-rogue.html
Well, here we go. First update and it's an Apple router one.
One thing I run into often, is how to know if that program that is
saying it can fix your spyware and malware woes is actually any good.
As many have found out, even programs that remove malware can be
malware themselves. The infamous SpyAxe (which started me blogging)
was the first mainstream one. That was 2006. Since then, there have
been many, many that have followed. They usually get onto your system
by tricking you into installing a video codec to watch something.
There's even been some for the Mac. It can be quite confusing figuring
out what is a legit antispyware program and what is a rogue.
Sunbelt has a good piece on how to find out. I'll link to the blog
post since the it's a pdf file. http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/beginners-guide-is-that-real-anti.html
Since using OS X, it's been no fun to to mess with all the updates for Windows. You don't have to deal with 90% or more of the garbage that affects Windows. This isn't to say Windows is no good. I still use it, but nowhere near as much as I used to. Also add the time it takes to filter out all the spam comments that try to get through when comments are enabled, it became tiresome to update this blog.
