Patches Galore
This month's
Patch
Tuesday was a doozy. Even software designed to protect has to be patched,
such as the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine which helps drive no fewer than
nine separate Microsoft security tools!
It would be easy to make a wisecrack about this state of affairs, but at this
point it would be a cheap shot -- since Microsoft's coders are working their
fingers to the bone on security.
And those eager to fault Redmond should keep in mind that anti-virus vendor
Trend Micro
just reported a nearly identical problem with its virus scanner.
Those anxious to see some fixes to Word's various problems got their wish as
there are four Word-specific fixes, and one for an Excel zero-day exploit.
If You Thought Y2K Was Bad, Get a Load of March 11,
2007!
Daylight-saving time is a few weeks early this year, and this change in schedule
could be trouble
for some of our computers!
According to Microsoft, some programs that rely heavily on date and time stamps,
such as punch clock systems and calendars and schedulers, could have problems.
For Windows XP clients, as long as you're on XP2, you should be fine.
Microsoft has all the deets here.
Microsoft to Developers: Let's Get Small
Tired of all these fat clients like XP, Vista and Office 2007? With Microsoft's
new .NET
Micro Framework, developers can use Visual Studio to build embedded apps
for devices as small as a wrist watch.
Programs can tap into the MSN
Direct wireless data service, which is already powering Windows-based wrist
watches revered by true Windows geeks!
Doug's Mailbag: A Pop-Up Pickle
Yesterday,
I mentioned that a slew of Vonage ads have been managing to sneak past my (otherwise
effective) Firefox pop-up blocker. But I may have to hold off on that boycott
I was planning:
I'm a generally happy Vonage customer (have been since Oct. 15, 2004,
actually) and I'm looking at the Vonage home page right now in Firefox 2.0.0.1.
The thing that may be missing from your Firefox setup is a couple of extensions
(NoScript and Adblock). I'm not seeing any pop-ups, -unders or -arounds. I
don't know of anything else that might be different between your setup and
my own, but there's obviously something not the same. I've also just checked,
and Vonage.com is NOT one of the sites permitted to open pop-up windows.
While I will admit that Vonage has had a couple of hiccups regarding
voice quality, I'm completely satisfied with the quality I'm getting and have
gotten for months now. I wonder what's different with your broadband and mine
(Comcast high-speed Internet)?
-Dennis
FYI, I've been on Vonage for a few years and have never had a problem
with the VoIP quality. It's really a pretty solid solution. Of course, over
cable I occasionally have the issue of my cable provider going down but that's
not often enough to worry about.
-Rob
Any thoughts? Comment below or drop me a line at [email protected].
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.