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Ted's Radio Weblog
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Monday, May 30, 2005 |
Slashdot posts No IE7 For 2k, Now In Extended Service. Yankovic writes "Looks like MS will not support IE7 on Windows 2000. 'It should be no surprise that we do not plan on releasing IE7 for Windows 2000... [S]ome of the security work in IE7 relies on operating system functionality in XPSP2 that is non-trivial to port back to Windows 2000.' While security fixes will still be available until 2010, I guess that means the only browsers with tabs for W2k will be Opera and Firefox." All the details about an MS product's fall into senility available at the lifecycle page.
I think this is great news! Perhaps the IE7 security flaws won't affect the many users of non-WinXP platforms, estimated to be around 200 million PC users. Microsoft's continual shedding of responsibility for the software it has put out there has to come to an end.
10:19:02 AM 
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Friday, May 20, 2005 |
 Tracey Donvito reviews Hentzenwerke's "The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org"
The small publishing company Hentzenwerke focuses their books on two areas: the migration from Windows to Linux, and OpenOffice.org. They have already published three books on OOo, and are becoming the go-to publisher for OOo information.
Congratulations to author Benjamin Horst, editor Solveig Haugland and publisher Whil Hentzen!
8:59:56 AM
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Thursday, May 19, 2005 |
MacMerc notes the update to Tiger, OS X 10.4.1. I think it is remarkable to see a version-point-one within a few weeks of the software shipping, but it looks like they've got some good bug fixes not caught in the beta process.
MacMerc says "Sayeth Software Update.... The 10.4.1 Update delivers overall improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users. It includes improvements for:
- file sharing using AFP and SMB/CIFS network file services
- using DHCP in wireless networks
- user login when accessing LDAP and Active Directory servers
- core graphics including updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- synchronization with .Mac
- Address Book, iCal, Font Book, Mail, and Preview applications
- Dashboard widgets: Address Book, Flight Tracker, Phone Book, and World Clock
- creating and burning disk images using Disk Utility
- compatibility with third party applications and devices
For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website.
Grab the update via Software Update or download it here. "
4:04:50 PM
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Wednesday, May 18, 2005 |
From the macosxhints Pick Of The Week department: Taboo - Prevent tab closing stupidity in Safari. "The macosxhints Rating:[Score: 10 out of 10], Developer: Obsessive Compulsive Development, Price: Free
"A simple PotW this week, as it really only does one thing. Taboo is a plug-in for Safari that warns you if you hit the red..." more.
I cannot tell you how many times I have screamed "No!" as I mean to close a tab or another document and inadvertently closed a dozen precious tabs in Safari. This is a must-have!
4:31:55 PM
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Sunday, May 15, 2005 |
Slashdot posting: Several Critical MSIE Flaws Uncovered. An anonymous reader writes "Several flaws have been uncovered by security firm eEye in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The flaws allow remote compromise of computers running Windows Operating Systems and affect IE, Outlook and possibly other MS software. With the next MS Windows security bulletin release scheduled for June 14, 2005 news sources are reporting that in comparison with the Mozilla Foundation's prompt fix for the recently reported Mozilla 1.0.3 vulnerabilities MS appear to be leaving a large window for the possible malicious exploitation of these flaws."
Of course, if Microsoft can come up with a patch, successfully test it against the many configurations it supports, and feels the threat of the exploit actually appear in the wild, I would expect them to release it. With Mozilla having delivered several quick turn-arounds on security patches, Microsoft has their work cut out for it: a quick response is required, but an admission of insecurity, and a huge liability if it fails (imagine a patch the brings down a large number of machines). If the release is not quickly forthcoming, Microsoft has an opportunity to downplay the threat, especially if it is more theoretical than something actually found in the wild. Playing the numbers game, if the release can beat out the exploit, Microsoft gets to claim they are taking care of their customers their best One Microsoft Way. But... if the exploit hits the street... if the exploit is nasty enough... another mess like Melissa or SQL Slammer will cost their customers millions of dollars of clean-up. Their customers have spent these millions before, and they will likely spend them again. But Microsoft plays a very dangerous game in dealing with security as a PR management process rather than a security issue to be dealt with out delay. Looking forward to learning more details on this problem, and watching Microsoft's response.
11:06:29 PM
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Thursday, May 12, 2005 |
A Slashdot post notes Firefox Updated to 1.0.4. Exstatica writes "Firefox has been updated to 1.0.4 and they have fixed a few critical security holes, all javascript vulnerabilities. The Mozilla Foundation announced these vulnerabilities May 7th. 'There are currently no known active exploits of these vulnerabilities although a proof of concept has been reported." You don't have to upgrade, but it's recommended.'" We've reported on these vulnerabilities previously."
1:39:34 PM
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005 |
Getting a new roof this week, and a new chimney. Our wound-up little dogs are not pleased. Needless to say, neither are Laura nor I. It's pandemonium this week. Hope to blog more once I've regained my sanity.
10:28:26 PM
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Sunday, May 8, 2005 |
A Slashdot blogger notes that Sveasoft releases Alchemy 1.0, an updated firmware image for the LinkSys WRT54G family of wireless routers. There's been a lot of controversy with Sveasoft charging a subscription fee for access to the beta development forums for the software, which is a mixture of Linux software, modifications by LinkSys, and original development by SveaSoft. There have been a lot of charges on both sides of theft, DMCA violations, copyright and license infringement. It's disappointing seeing so much controversy surrounding such a great project.
12:02:00 PM
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News.com points to a British study that claims that dumping Microsoft software can save schools money.
11:56:22 AM
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Saturday, May 7, 2005 |
I was shopping for some printing services, and started on the Staples web site. It redirected me to their partner, "Mark The World." I clicked on the product I was interested in, and was greeted with the message:
The web browser you are using is incompatible
We are sorry for the inconvenience. Our site currently supports only Internet Explorer version 4.0 and 5.0. This is due to the advanced features used in the real-time designer.
We are working to support Netscape in the very near future. If you do not have Internet Explorer, it may be downloaded for free at Microsoft's website here.
How incredibly ignorant! My web browser is not incompatible. Mark the World's web site is incompatible with industry standard browsers. What a terrible way to treat a potential customer! Kicking out customers running Safari, FireFox, Camino, Konqueror, Opera or Nautilus because Mark The World choose to go with the least secure web browser is such poor customer service. Blame the customer. Get a clue, MTW. It's about choice. At the least, they should gracefully offer alternative services for those who prefer not to use their recommendation of browsers. I'll take my business elsewhere.
11:42:10 AM
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CNet reports "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that the Federal Communications Commission did not have the authority to prohibit the manufacture of computer and video hardware that doesn't have copy protection technology known as the "broadcast flag."
Great news. Now just keep an eye on the legislature to make sure they don't re-implement this infringement on our rights to record for private use, time-shift or space-shift our consumption of the media. Next, seat belts that won't unlock during commercials!
8:24:57 AM
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Friday, May 6, 2005 |
The Greater New Hampshire Linux Group manned a booth today at the Hosstraders Hamfest and swap meet. A number of local Linux luminaries were there, evangelizing Linux, talking up the local Linux User Groups, and demonstrating a variety of different Linux distributions, including several with Ham Radio specific software.
3:56:02 PM
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Thursday, May 5, 2005 |
Shame on Apple for shipping their Spotlight desktop search engine with support for MS Office, but no support for searching OpenOffice.org documents. Oo.o documents are ZIPped-up sets of XML documents, and should be a piece of cake to fix.
The Open Source community to the rescue again, with NeoLight, an early beta product now, but planned to be included in future versions of Oo.o, which will add the search capabilities into Spotlight.
With the Oo.o 2.0 document format forming the basis for the OASIS document format I mentioned yesterday, let's hope we see a pickup in the support for this format around the office automation software industry.
9:24:07 AM
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OSNews points to an article GPL Under "Price Fixing" Legal Attack. "The suit claims that the "Free Software Foundation has entered into contracts and otherwise conspired and agreed with individual software authors and commercial distributors of commodity software products such as Red Hat Inc. and Novell Inc. to artificially fix the prices charged for computer software programs through the promotion and use of an adhesion contract that was created, used and promoted since at least the year 1991 by the Free Software Foundation"
Groklaw responds with a pretty clear interpretation that this is nonsense.
9:17:31 AM
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Wednesday, May 4, 2005 |
Slashdot posts "An anonymous reader writes "The OASIS Group announces that the third Committee Draft [PDF] of the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 Specification has been approved as an OASIS Standard. The submission of the approved standard can be found at here. The OpenDocument format is intended to provide an open alternative to proprietary document formats including the popular DOC, XLS, and PPT formats used by Microsoft Office. Organizations and individuals that store their data in an open format avoid being locked in to a single software vendor, leaving them free to switch software if their current vendor goes out of business or changes their software or licensing terms to something less favorable."
That's great news! I was recently cleaning up some loose ends on my web site, and noticed that the oldest of my whitepapers at http://www.tedroche.com/papers.html were exported from MS Office 95 (I think) with the awful HTML that's hostile to most browsers. I went to open up the original documents in OpenOffice.org and found they could not be read. Just as predicted in "The Long Now," I have data locked up in a proprietary format I cannot read. I'm sure I can find a machine around here somewhere with the correct translators (and if I don't, in this case, it's no great loss) but it's disturbing to see bits on disks turned from information into random noise.
2:43:00 PM
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Still delighted with all of the new toys that Tiger has brought to my iMac. However, I've had a chance to run more of the apps I have installed and have run into a couple of glitches: Fugu, a free SCP client I mentioned here needed an upgrade to run under Tiger. Note that Apple seems to keep a pretty tight rein on their beta sites with NDAs until the product has actually shipped. NetNewsWire 1.0.8's preference page seems to be broken, but I haven't chased that one down yet, and think it's time I ought to get on the 2.0 beta, anyway. And Radio Userland is reporting that my web backup is failing to back up my May posts, for some reason. Also pursuing that with the Radio staff. Whether or not these are Tiger related or messed up because I "fixed file permissions" or because we had a thunderstorm two days ago is still to be determined. Still, no major glitches - mail, Safari and NeoOffice/J are rocking along. More as I figure it out...
12:25:26 PM
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Tuesday, May 3, 2005 |
Computerworld News reports Apple delivers 2.0GHz iMac G5, cuts top model's price. "Continuing a recent string of announcements, Apple today updated its iMac G5 computer line, bumping up the processor speed in the mid-range and top-end models to 2.0GHz and adding AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless networking to all three versions."
In addition to getting faster G5 processors, the iMac now includes an ATI Radeon 9600 video card that features 128MB video memory -- twice the video RAM available before -- a new 8X SuperDrive that provides double-layer burn support, built-in Gigabit Ethernet and 512MB of RAM across the line.
Oof. Those are rockin' machines.
2:40:34 PM
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Monday, May 2, 2005 |
I read Scripting News for a while before I knew what a blog was, nor that there was an entire software field that had blossomed around the idea of journals and RSS. I read it because I enjoyed Dave's opinions and insight, and I still do. Happy 50th, Dave. What's the plan for the next half-century?
3:57:14 PM
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Slashdot posts "Firefox 1.1 Plans Native SVG Support. Spy Hunter writes "The Scalable Vector Graphics format has yet to take off on the web, perhaps due to a small installed base of SVG-enabled browsers. That could soon change as the latest Firefox 1.1 nightly builds have started coming with native SVG support compiled in and enabled by default. If this feature makes into the Firefox 1.1 release (which is not certain, but likely, as the developers want it to happen) it will increase the number of web users who have an SVG renderer installed. But perhaps more interesting than that is the possibility of mixing SVG graphic elements directly into the markup of regular XHTML pages, freeing vector graphics from the small rectangle of a browser plugin and opening up a host of exciting new possibilities for web developers. This is enabled by the integration of SVG directly into the Gecko rendering engine, instead of as a browser plugin. With such a useful web developer feature available only in Firefox, could we soon start seeing websites asking their users to download Firefox to get the best browsing experience?"
Exciting news! I've always been a fan of using graphs for presenting information, and SVG has a lot of nice features. Lauren Clarke has a presentation on using SVG with Visual FoxPro here
10:03:42 AM
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Sunday, May 1, 2005 |
After interminable cleanups, file permission checking and backups (and a backup of the Tiger DVD), I installed Tiger over Panther with no problems in about an hour today. Slick! Tiger has some pretty neat new tools in the Spotlight desktop search engine and the Dashboard desktop widgets. Looking forward to learning more.
8:19:12 PM
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The Doc Searls Weblog posts Flattening out. "Getting Flat, Part 2 completes my long essay for Linux Journal on Tom Friedman's The World is Flat. (Here's Part 1. .... Most of what I write in Part 2 isn't about Tom Friedman. It's about the boat anchor we call the bell curve, and why continuing to shape kids with it is The West's worst handicap in a flattened world... In case you haven't noticed, my life has been one long fight against the bell curve. I recount some of that in the piece as well."
What starts out as a review (and many links to a pan) of a "new paradigm of the month" book turns into a touching, intensely personal and insightful complaint against the prejudices of the bell curve. Well worth reading and contemplating.
10:06:25 AM
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