Archive for January, 2006
More on Winamp
Go here for an upgrade. PC world has a story on a new release
A new version of the Winamp player was released on Monday afternoon, one day after hackers posted exploit code on the milw0rm.com Web site that could be used to run unauthorized software on computers running Winamp 5.12 with Windows XP.
“Extremely Critical” Exploit Hits Winamp
I don’t use it but Winamp is popular and I pass this along. Desktop Pipeline reports
The popular Winamp music player suffers from a zero-day vulnerability that attackers are already exploiting, a security company warns. A patch is not available.
One possible temporary procedure that they mention
Secunia recommended that users turn to alternate player programs, but [...]
Updated government search facility
From its inception the search facility at FirstGov has been a very useful tool for finding the myriad of pages that the government has on the Internet. It has now been revised and Search Engine Watch describes the new search page
FirstGov’s new, sparse search page is just the tip of the iceberg for a number [...]
Alternative to QuickTime player
When I commented on Apple’s making a security update to the QuickTime player hard to get, I neglected to give a link to an alternative player. Jack Teems at Neat Net Tricks has an entry in his latest newsletter that reminds me that you can download a alternate player at free-codecs.com. Here is [...]
New security features in Windows Vista
I don’t know how far Windows Vista will go toward addressing the security problems discussed in the previous blog. Vista is still being developed and exactly what is in it when it is released remains to be seen. In the meantime, here is a report on the present state of its security features by Roger [...]
Cybercrime is too easy
Here’s some more evidence (as if it were needed) to support my contention that we need a whole new way of addressing the Internet security problem. Robert Vamosi has an article giving the sorry story of how easy it was for a young man to carry out a career of cybercrime. One thing [...]
Firefox extensions
As I have mentioned before, one of the attractive features of the Firefox browser is that it can be customized in many ways with what are known as extensions. There are hundreds of extensions, some good, some not so good. Here’s some help in finding the good ones. Internet Week has an article Firefox Essentials: [...]
Paradigm shift in anti-virus and spyware protection?
The present way that is used to protect computers against malware such as viruses, worms, Trojans, and spyware is basically reactive. It depends on a local database of information about known malware in order to recognize and disarm the invaders. Some attempt is made at using so-called “heuristic” techniques to recognize new malware that is [...]
End of support for Windows 98/Me
If you use Windows 98/Me you should note this announcement from Microsoft:
On June 30, 2006, assisted support will end for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me) operating systems and their related components.
After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide any incident support options or security updates. Online support [...]
Windows XP in your pocket
I have been writing off and on about the usefulness of thumb drives (or pen drives or flash drives or USB drives or whatever you want to call them) but there’e more. The price has come down to the point where there is no excuse not to have one (or several). It has even become [...]
Easy way for the average PC user to back up files
Backing up important data and files is something that everybody knows they should do but somehow a lot of people never get around to it. One reason may be that it is not a very interesting way to spend your time but then neither is brushing your teeth.
Another reason backups do not get [...]