Archive for January, 2006
The sure way to seduce PC users
Well, it seems that a sure way to get people to click on your malware package is to promise lots of sex. Greed is another way but sex is still the number one sucker bait. ZDNet describes the latest outbreak, the “Kama Sutra” worm.
Contribution from a reader on Microsoft Office XP component Ctfmon.exe
A reader, Steve Hobberstad, has sent me a contribution describing his problems with a Microsoft Office XP component Ctfmon.exe. According to Microsoft
Ctfmon.exe is the file that is responsible for controlling the Alternative User Input technologies. It starts the Language Bar component (in the Systray) and remains running in the background even after you quit [...]
Alternate browsers
I often write about Internet Explorer and Firefox but there are other browsers, too. About 95% of sytems use either IE or Firefox but there are other browsers worth considering, Internet Week has an article Browsers: Beyond IE And Firefox. Here’s an excerpt
We looked at a few of the less-known–or, in the case of Netscape, [...]
Is there any privacy on the Internet?
I have always been very leery of what Google, Yahoo, etc. were going to do with the enormous amount of information that they collect on all of us. I have tried to give as little information as possible when I use the Web. For example, I will not use the Google Desktop search and I [...]
QuickTime joins RealPlayer on my list
One annoying feature of the various video clips on the Web is that they are not all in the same format. Although most can be played with Windows Media Player, some require RealPlayer or yet another piece of software, QuickTime. I mentioned earlier that RealPlayer had a lot of annoying practices and suggested an alternative. [...]
Control JavaScript in Firefox
As discussed in the previous entry, one thing that I think makes Firefox safer is that security holes are patched much faster than they are for Internet Explorer. Another factor that adds to safety in Firefox is that it is easily configured with extensions to provide additional safeguards. Many extensions exist and are easy to [...]
The safety of Internet Explorer vs. Firefox revisited
“Internet Explorer Sucks.” The foregoing is a quote from the latest Crypto-Gram Newsletter by the well-known security expert Bruce Schneier. In it, he points out a study done last August by researchers at a security firm in Belgium called Scanit. Unlike the phony “test” done by George Ou (discussed here earlier) that got [...]
How to check if you have highspeed USB
If you have a computer that is a few years old. you may have the old slow version of USB (USB1). You can check if you have the much faster USB2 by looking in the Windows Device Manager. Details for the procedure in Windows XP are given at this site. If you still have Windows [...]
Alternative to RealPlayer
Certain programs are on my list of the most annoying. RealPlayer has been on the list for a long time. It puts stuff all over your computer and makes it hard to get rid of things like its entry in the Notification area (or System Tray, as it used to be called). Nonetheless, I [...]
Check if you are protected against WMF problem
As previously reported Windows had a severe security problem involving an obscure file format called WMF. Microsoft issued a patch to fix the problem but maybe you missed it. Steve Gibson has written a little program to test if you are protected. Read more about it in a column by Steve Bass.
Avoiding physical problems caused by computer use
It’s important to make sure that using a computer doesn’t cause physical strain. Back and wrist problems are not uncommon, not to mention eye strain. There is nothing at the site that commonsense wouldn’t tell you but it doesn’t hurt to look at Microsoft’s 10 healthy computing tips. Another reference to look at is from [...]