Diary of a Wolfeman

Graumagus posted about yet another new IE security hole, and some of his readers had the following to say:

yea, but I like IE. And I’m not so found of Mozilla. And since I keep my redundant firewalls, and virus support I really haven’t had any real problem. I know a bunch of puter geeks keep saying they like Mozilla, thus I should blindly like it as well.

Well Dammit, I refuse to change and you can’t make me! :)
Posted by: contagion at January 11, 2005 02:02 PM

I can agree with your not liking the Mozilla browser – it’s almost as bloated as IE. Firefox, on the other hand, is it’s faster, lighter little brother and you really should give it a try for a week before giving up on it. Of special interest may be the tabbed browsing, which allows you to open new pages in the same browser, rather than launching a complete new instance. This saves you alot of RAM overhead vs. IE. For instance, IE in two windows (MSN and Slate) takes up 28. 3 megs of RAM, down to 26.8 when I closed Slate. Firefox, with my blog entry, Grau’s blog, MSN and Slate takes up only 23.3 megs of RAM, and blocked the stupid pop-up window that Slate launched.

Okay, I admit that’s a close comparison, but I’m the kind of guy who bitches about things like that :)

My favorite feature is the ability to open all the pages in a bookmarks folder in tabs at once – mainly so I can cut-n-paste stuff from other sources here while editing my blog on an older laptop in the garage.

I’ll be the very first to admit that I have very, very little in the way of computer acumen. However, when I Googled “Mozilla” for some basic info, the first thing I see in the results is a story dated Jan. 10th “Critical flaw plagues Mozilla”. Not exactly the type of ringing endorsement I want to hear if I’m thinking about changing from what has been (so far, knock on wood), a perfectly good system. I’m always willing to hear other opinions on the subject, though.

Posted by: TDavis at January 11, 2005 05:12 PM

If you had read farther down the article, you would have seen where it said:

“All the latest Mozilla versions are immune”

The exploit is for an older version of Mozilla, and all later versions had already been fixed before the exploit even became known. When was the last time MS published a fix before it had been in circulation for two months?

“… but there also appears to be some dispute as to whether this vulnerability was ever practically exploitable in the first place.”

So they weren’t sure you could actually use this for nasty purposes, and in fact it would only affect the small percentage of people who use this kind of advanced internet lookup. Your average Joe would never have been vulnerable.

The final bit of pertinent info in your decision: at the shop where I work, we charge $70 for a data recovery and $105 to format your disc and re-install Windows, if you have the driver discs. I have done 4 of these in the past week, and all were caused by virus and spyware infections on computers where IE is the only browser. There are three more on the shelf waiting, and we have a 3-5 day backlog.

End rant.

USATODAY reports on how the Bells are fighting the private expansion of fiber-optic communications across the country.

What it boils down to is that the Bells don’t want to foot the bill for fiber to the home unless the FCC says they don’t have to share it with the competition. Meanwhile, the Bells also don’t want anyone else to lay down fiber networks saying it is too much competition and would drive them out of business if consumers had another option.

Basically, they’re taking a page from Bill Gates’ playbook.

When looked at in a certain light, however, these fiber networks are really the Government’s perview. Take the Interstate Highway project: it was funded largely by the Fed to provide a means for moving troops quickly about the country in time of war. By the same token, the internet itself was fuunded by the Fed and private parties as a means of insuring communication in times of war.

We all know how much communication ‘horsepower’ is provided by fiber-optics, and it seems a natural conclusion that the Fed in general, and the Emergency Broadcast System in particular, could be considered to be the ultimate shareholder in these fiber networks. So my stance is that the Fed should mandate the construction of fiber-to-the-home networks within a given time frame, the same way they have mandated the States to maintain the highway system.

I am not unbiased in this opinion though. 56k dial-up sucks. The average 756k of DSL is better, but low. The 3gb I get with cable modem is tolerable, but the upwards of 30gb a fiber network would provide would be gettin’ somewhere, ya know? And I would certainly love to see the prices drop a bit. Japan pays the equivalent of $15 a month for 30gb speeds, where I pay $55 for 3gb.

Something stinks here…

Ogo is a personal messaging device that is capable of e-mail reading, three IM clients (MSN, AIM, Yahoo!) and standard text messaging. It has a nice color screen and a full thunb-sized keyboard for typing, and even a speaker for some reason. The price isn’t too high, and service plans are fairly reasonable.

Reasonable, that is, until you realize that this rather large handheld device is not actually a phone – its just a beefed-up pager.

Now why in the world would I want a device like this? My phone already does text messaging, and if I really feel like it, I can upgrade my phone to something like a Blackberry that handles e-mail and IM clients, or a Treo that is a full-on PDA with all those features as well. A separate device though? My belt is already a bit crowded, thank you.

Y’know, there has been one really persistent comment spammer hitting me for the past few days, and I just don’t know what is more ridiculous: the fact that he continues, even though he has never successfully posted a comment, or the fact that the URL he puts in the comments doesn’t go anywhere. And he’s ostensibly posting for a flower-retailing website.

I mean, if it was cheap Viagra I could understand. But flowers? I think he’s smoking the wrong ones.

It looks like I have been able to save myself some work.

Spam comments that get sent to moderation get deleted, but I still get notified of what they were, so I can adjust the rules as necessary to allow genuine comments. Go ahead and test it if you’d like. I dare ya.

I’ve been getting alot of spam comments for the past couple of days, and deleting them all from the ‘awaiting moderation’ list has become annoying. Over the next few days, I will be trying a few new techniques to determine the best blocks and deleters. For the two or three of you that actually leave worthwhile comments, I hope this won’t make things screwy for you. To prevent screwups, here’s the comments rules:

• 1: You don’t have to agree with me to get your comment posted. I’m a big boy now, and can stand a little honest discussion. Vitriolic, hateful comments, however, will be roasted, and I will invite all my friends to chop your ego to shreds as you so richly deserve. You have been warned.
• 2: Any reference to AOL in either email or URL fields will get your comment promptly deleted – if you aren’t smart enough to get a real ISP, you don’t get to talk to me. Plllbbbt.
• 3: You may post a single link in the text of your comment, provided that the target is on-topic. Multiple links will get you deleted, and multiple comments to post additional links will get you deleted as well. If you really need to tell me about several sites at once, either post about it in your blog with a link to said page here, or email them to me, and I may write a follow-up post with the additional links.
• 4: Blogwars: if you feel I have completely mispoken myself and wish to roast me at length, feel free to do so and leave a link to your article on my comments. I enjoy a lively debate.

There you have it. So, how am I enforcing this? Well, I have installed what the author calls “weapons-grade plutonium in the fight against SPAM”. This handy plugin deletes any comment that gets held for moderation. How do you get moderated? Well, too many links, common spam words in your comment, or anything else that pisses me off gets your comment moderated, and then the plugin deletes it.

So, if your comment never shows up, well, guess what: time to re-think it.

This article discusses what Holo-Dek Gaming is doing for the gamers of New Hampshire.

Holo-Dek is using some existing (albeit high-end) technology to build a better gaming experience. Sure, you’ve played Half-Life at an Internet Cafe or other pay-per-play computer shop, but have you done it on a 13-foot screen?

Using some high-end projectors and Alienware gaming rigs, they are building some very interesting setups, including 180-degree screens and a 20-foot sphere with a flight simulator chair. The best part? They are smart enough to modularize the components to save on build cost and time – the whole system can be shipped by truck to the warehouse of your choice and installed in a minimum of time.

The really best part is so far they’re only charging $5 an hour for play on their 73″ screens. I would absolutely fork over 20 clams for four hour’s time on an Alienware rig with that kind of display factor – but only if they offer Mechwarrior.

Speaking of which, these guys aren’t the first to do something like this as a commercial venture. Virtual World did it first by building ‘pods’ that encase the player in what can only be called a cockpit. Once inside, it really enhanced the game experience, since it made you really feel like you were at the controls of a 60-ton BattleMech. While I never personally got the chance to play before they closed down the Las Vegas operation, I’m told it was great fun.

Looking at the website now though, it looks like they had to fork the game off of the Mechwarrior II code, since they just this year added the Madcat II to the lineup of ‘Mechs.

Bummer – that means they don’t have a Heavy Gauss rifle yet. Nothing says lovin’ like knocking a mech on it’s ass in one shot :)

McAfee warns us about this new MyDoom variant that is making the rounds. From the site:

This W32/Mydoom@MM variant makes use of a zero day attack targeting a Microsoft Internet Explorer IFRAME buffer overflow vulnerability . It is very similar to W32/Mydoom.ag@MM .

The virus spreads by sending email messages to addresses found on the local system, as well as addresses constructed by the virus.
———–
Like other Mydoom variants, this virus harvests email addresses from the local system, creates addresses by combining common names carried within the virus body with harvested domain names, and spams those addresses with email messages. It also avoids addresses containing specific letters or words. Unlike earlier variants, the infectious messages do not contain an attachment, but rather a hyperlink directing people to an infected machine. Following the hyperlink results in an infection occurring on the target victim’s system, if they are running a vulnerable Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser.

Today is a good day to switch to Mozilla Firefox which went to version 1.0 today.

I want one of those has found the ultimate in geek toys: The Room Defender

This marvelous toy fires a stream of soft foam projectiles at anything that trips it’s motion sensors and can be used to gaurd any small area or entryway, with several modes of fire including “warning shot”, “1/4 clip”, “1/2 clip” and “waste ’em” for continous fire. It also comes equiped with a remote control for manual fire, and cool ‘Robocop’ startup and shutdown noises.

Very cool on a toy level, but I’m thinking the control system could probably be adapted to something with som real firepower pretty easily – to hell with the soft foam darts, I’m thinking high-capacity Super Soaker.

“Here, kitty-kitty-kitty…” :)

In continuance of the feline theme started by Kylanath, I offer this:
Allerca | The Hypo-Allergenic Cat

From the Press Release:

The hypoallergenic cats produced by ALLERCA will allow consumers to enjoy the love and companionship of a pet without the cost, inconvenience, risk, and limited effectiveness of current allergy treatments. Clients will take delivery of the first ALLERCA kittens in 2007. The hypoallergenic cat is the first of a planned series of lifestyle pets that ALLERCA will develop over the next few years.

This reminds me of Bean Bag Cats® by Edward Winslow Bryant. The story is written as a series of emails from the R&D Dept. to the Marketing Deptartment, where they discuss the development and marketing of Bean Bag Cats®, a product just like the original model, except without legs. There would of course be a profitable accessory trade, with options such as a velcro strip so you could stick the cat to the arm of the sofa, and of course the Sani-Kat Kits® because there’s no way it could make it to the sandbox.

The story ends with “R&D: So what’s next?”
“MKTG: How do you feel about Modular Dogs®?”