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| | The Evil Empire - November 2002 Archive
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Friday, November 29, 2002
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Steve Gillmor makes an interesting case why Microsoft's new note-taking application OneNote might become the center of the office software universe. Although I like many of the ideas behind the project, I have two problems: - I am not going to sink my data into a Microsoft only data store.... [vowe dot net]
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Microsoft has confirmed that the next version of its Office software will run on only the latest versions of its Windows operating system, Windows XP and Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3. "They're doing it because they can get away with it," Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio told NewsFactor. "This is vintage Microsoft." [osOpinion]
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Thursday, November 28, 2002
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Known as Winevar, the computer worm arrives in e-mail as an attachment that infects PCs when opened and displays a dialog box saying, "What a foolish thing you have done!" [CNET News.com]
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Wednesday, November 27, 2002
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A NEW E-MAIL worm is circulating that has the potential to severely damage machines that it infects, potentially deleting all the files on a computer's hard drive while mocking the machine's owner, according to advisories released by a number of antivirus software makers. [InfoWorld: Top News]
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Tuesday, November 26, 2002
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Rafe Colburn: "It's stupid to talk about Microsoft's innovation without talking about the innovation stifled by Microsoft." [Scripting News]
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Citing security flaws that lead to ads and spys on Microsoft infested computers the BBC in this article recomends avoiding Internet Explorer." --- Ain't it the truth? Mostly its about adware & spyware and other wretched bits of software that make the internet suck a little more each day. [Privacy Digest]
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Friday, November 22, 2002
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Microsoft's Internet Explorer has another gaping security hole, this time because of an ActiveX control with some bad code. Will the patch even stick?
[ ... ]
There's a new hole in the slab of security Swiss cheese otherwise known as Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. Once again, the hole can be exploited when users visit a malicious website or open HTML mail. And once again the hole allows an attacker to take complete remote control over another computer. But this latest hole, which also affects Microsoft's IIS Web server software, has an interesting new twist: Even if Microsoft's patch is applied to close the hole, an attacker can easily unpatch the patch. [Privacy Digest]
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The Justice Department and the software giant on Thursday picked members of a technical committee that will enforce an antitrust settlement. [CNET News.com]
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Thursday, November 21, 2002
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Acknowledging yet another major security flaw in its flagship product, Microsoft has issued a patch for a "critical" vulnerability in most older versions of Windows. The company also released a patch for several IE flaws -- but a vulnerability that allows hackers to erase a computer's hard drive through a Web page has not yet been addressed. [osOpinion]
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The software king has big plans for making the world of mobile phones safe for Windows. Can phone makers, and a little Norwegian company called Opera, stop the onslaught? [Salon.com]
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OASIS is a nonprofit consortium backed by top technology companies, and the purpose of this organization is to set open standards for desktop and business software. They've just announced a working group that will create an XML-based document format standard for openoffice.org. And even though Microsoft is a member of Oasis, they aren't going to be taking part in this group. It's a logical move on Bill's part, considering that standardized XML docs are sure to weaken the hold that Microsoft's proprietary .doc format has on business software. [Slashdot]
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"IE 6's patented technology limits the number of humorous images you can view, thus enabling a duller, more MS-like experience."
Two readers this week have mentioned that the images in this blog section are not showing up for them. These two readers, I might add, are highly adept Web developers. Others, on the same OS [Windows - of course] using the same browser, IE 6, are not having that problem.
I check my site using Mozilla 1.0, Netscape 7.0 and IE 5.1 [all Mac] and everything is smackin'. [davezilla.com]
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Just one day after raising the threshold beyond which it considers security vulnerabilities "critical", Microsoft Corp released a security advisory saying there is a "critical" hole in its browsers and web servers that could cause serious problems, even if it is patched.
There is an unchecked buffer in Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) prior to version 2.7, the company said. MDAC is a "ubiquitous" technology used in Internet Explorer and the IIS web server. The buffer can be overrun with a malformed HTTP request, allowing arbitrary code to be executed on the target machine. [The Register]
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Microsoft has warned of a "critical" security flaw in older versions of its popular Windows operating system. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]
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Wednesday, November 20, 2002
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A software bug in a common component of Microsoft Web servers and Internet Explorer could leave millions of servers and home PCs open to attack. [CNET News.com]
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A server glitch makes internal Microsoft documents, including a massive database of customer names and addresses, accessible online. By Brian McWilliams. [Wired News]
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The Good News: Microsoft Corp will be making fewer warnings of "critical" security vulnerabilities in its products from now on, Kevin Murphy writes.
The Bad News: This is because Microsoft has changed the way it advises users and administrators of vulnerabilities, raising the threshold to require a "critical" advisory. [The Register]
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Friday, November 15, 2002
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Microsoft has hired Thomas Richey a Director of Federal Homeland Security. Richey will help establish Microsoft "as a strategic partner to the government" in the development of homeland security strategy, says Microsoft, in rather more muted tones than those of the original job ad, which made practically no bones about the job being to lobby determinedly for the use of Microsoft products in homeland security infrastructure. To quote some of our previous piece:
The job also involves 'helping' the Office of Homeland Security decide what it is that it's going to ask companies like Microsoft for, before it officially asks. [The Register]
Dave Winer: "Read this essay by William Safire for a clue why the DOJ settled with Microsoft on such favorable (to Microsoft) terms." [Scripting News]
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We do hate to rain on a high-profile corporate love-fest, but we have to point out that in addition to the much trumpeted $100 million Billg has donated to India's fight against HIV, he's funding the Microsoft jihad against Linux to the far more impressive tune of $421 million. That means that Linux is more than four times worse than AIDS to Billg and his happy Redmond family. God forbid any of them should learn the bitter truth the hard way and start talking sense. [The Register]
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Bill Gates' cruise of India is working, reports an Associated Press eye-witness. Gates has been "handing out so many freebies to India's federal and state governments in the last three days that talk of open-source software [has] started annoying government officials." [The Register]
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Microsoft has revealed how much money it is losing on its Xbox game console as it launches its online gaming service in the US. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]
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With the Microsoft antitrust settlement more or less settled, open-source advocates worry the company may renew its assault on free software by filing patent lawsuits. By Robert McMillan. [Wired News]
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Wednesday, November 13, 2002
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John Robb's summary of this article: "Microsoft to pour $400m into India to stop the growth of alternative, low cost software." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
CNET reports that the software giant plans to spend $400 million over the next three years to boost its presence in India, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates revealed Tuesday.
The planned investments will be in several areas including education, partnerships and localization, the company said in a statement.
"Today, India is of strategic importance to our business and will continue to be so, as its developer and skill base continues to grow," said Gates, who was visiting India for the third time.
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Heise online reports that a combination of security leaks in Microsoft Internet Explorer can allow malicious websites to format a user's harddisk while he is browsing the site. The security leaks themselves each seem harmless, but taken combined they pose a serious security threat. Somebody has written an exploit that uses these leaks to format a user's hard drive.
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Tuesday, November 12, 2002
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The software giant teams up with Samsung to develop a design for low-cost handhelds, a market dominated by rival Palm. [CNET News.com]
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The professional engineers' association in Canada is dismayed that Microsoft Certified System Engineers (MCSEs) are calling themselves "engineers". Microsoft agreed to discourage the use of the term among MCSEs last year, but changed its mind in the summer.
The decision has angered the CCPE (Canadian Council of Professional Engineers), which is rallying holders of a P.Eng qualification to rally against the bogus boffins. In Canada only licensed professionals can call themselves engineers, who must be P.Engs, a trade qualification administered by the regional territories. Non-P.Engs attempting to pass themselves off as engineers have even been fined. [The Register]
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Monday, November 11, 2002
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Because the Microsoft case keeps key portions of Windows closed and proprietary, system meltdowns are bound to increase. Commentary by Lauren Weinstein. [Wired News]
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Friday, November 8, 2002
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Microsoft Corp. is responding to a report published last week by London-based security intelligence firm mi2g Ltd. that claimed the Apple Macintosh operating system and certain varieties of Unix are less vulnerable to attack than the popular Windows and Linux operating systems.
The report, a summary of which was released to the public by mi2g, attributed 44 percent of the software vulnerabilities announced in the first 10 months of 2002 to Microsoft's Windows operating system and 19 percent to the open source Linux OS. By comparison, the company attributed only 1.9 percent to Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh OS. [MacCentral]
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The market position of software giant Microsoft appears unassailable despite court moves to water down its monopoly, writes Victor Keegan. [Guardian Unlimited]
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Thursday, November 7, 2002
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"Trusted computing" may secure PCs, but it also threatens to turn people's computers into spies.
At the USENIX Security Conference held here recently, Microsoft developers touted the company's upcoming Palladium architecture as technology that would enhance privacy, stymie piracy and increase a corporation's control over its computers. Others, however, see a more nefarious role for the security software.Instead of just keeping hackers out, critics say programs like Palladium could also block computer users from certain data. For example, the technology could be used as a policing mechanism that bars people from material stored on their own computers if they have not met licensing and other requirements. [Privacy Digest]
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BT (the UK's dominant telco) has teamed up with Microsoft (the world's dominant software company) in a bid, no doubt, to dominate the UK's broadband sector. Obviously, they don't say that in a statement released today. Instead they say the alliance is part of a strategic collaboration to bring "dynamic broadband applications" to home and business users. [The Register]
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Tuesday, November 5, 2002
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Now that pesky antitrust action is out of the way, it's back to business as usual at Microsoft. The kind and gentle convicted monopolist is now seeking a Developer Evangelist who can: "Demolish competition by knowing everything they do and thwarting their every move in the relevant spaces." [The Register]
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Nokia is all for open standards as long as that doesn't include offering handsets running on Microsoft software, a company executive said here Monday at the Mobile Internet Conference.
"Openness is the only way forward," said Niklas Savander, vice president and general manager of mobile software at Nokia. "We are totally committed to delivering products based on open standards."
But asked whether the company's interpretation of openness went so far as to allow its handsets to run software from Microsoft, Savander had a quick and short answer: "No." [InfoWorld: Top News]
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Microsoft may struggle to achieve the dominance in next technology markets that it has enjoyed in the last decade. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]
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Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's antitrust ruling may have gutted many pending private lawsuits against Microsoft, but cases in California and Europe still pose a danger. [CNET News.com]
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Monday, November 4, 2002
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Scott Rosenberg: "My column talks about how the judge's decision, while seemingly "in the public interest" point by point, fails to reflect the public interest as a whole.
"Farhad pulled together a diverse and contradictory set of reactions to the decision." [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment]
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John Robb: "NYT. A US judge approved the politically motivated MS-DOJ settlement.
"This proves one thing. As a society, we are still in denial about corporate abuses of power. Law, like any other system is prone to distortion by the views of the people that apply it.
"However, this decision is the end result of the previous decision to settle the case. The debacle of the DOJ/MS settlement, given the copious evidence to demonstrate abuse, shows that this adminstration (a nice way of saying BUSH) is in favor of business as usual. Unfortunately that means corporate greed and malfeasance is here to stay. Given our present economic circumstance, another round of scandal is likely to plunge us into a Japanese scenario. That is a situation where a country is so unable to reform itself that it continues to select stagnation rather than face the pain that will result in growth. It is a country were the general good is overcome by the needs of a select few." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
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Mike James: "The Microsoft antitrust case decision is out:
"I remember foreseeing this outcome as an inevitable consequence of Dubya becoming president. I'd like to be appalled, but as I see it, it's just business-as-usual for this U.S. administration.
"On the one hand, this decision is bad news for all of us; for starters, it gives tacit approval that corporate criminal behavior pays.
"OTOH, it's hard for me to give a damn as I've long since left everything Microsoft behind. Nonuse of Microsoft products is such a done deal in my life that after years and years of fighting this crap, I'm finally able to just let this new load of it go." [Tread lightly on the things of earth]
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The software giant hopes to use its recent antitrust victory as a starting point for resolving legal troubles in Europe. [CNET News.com]
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A federal judge's ruling on Friday could mean the five-year battle between Microsoft and government regulators has finally run its course. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
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Microsoft is still faced with possible sanctions in Europe despite Friday's victory in a US anti-trust case. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]
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A US judge endorses most of an antitrust settlement deal between computer giant Microsoft and the US Justice Department. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]
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Friday, November 1, 2002
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The European Commission has awarded UK-based consultancy netproject a €250,000 contract to study the issues of migrating government computers in member states to a Linux / Open Source environment. netproject has been hired by the Commission to draw up guidelines on a move to open source technologies and to help define EU IT strategy on desktop computing. ... Microsoft's recently introduced licensing changes have added weight to this concern but Bleasdale said an even bigger issue was the rate of change that Microsoft is imposing on customers, and many are struggling to deal with it. This calls for a major rethink in computing architecture, such as West Yorkshire Police have embraced. [The Register]
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Lock up your network, no secondary boot devices, stay away from the Net, no mad admins, etc... [The Register]
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As we know all too well, the Windows and Macintosh builds of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5 are based on different rendering engines and therefore react differently to the same HTML or CSS. This means that web developers have to test their pages in both browsers[~]they can't assume that a page that works in one will work in the other.
In general, the Mac version of Explorer is more strict in its standards compliance and supports more of the standards, while the Windows version supports more Microsoft proprietary styles and JScript methods. And the Mac version is way ahead in terms of CSS support. For example, it supports position: fixed, something the Windows browser still hasn't been able to implement.
The Mac build of IE, like most browsers, has some bugs and idiosyncrasies that can trip up unaware developers. This article describes three types of problems you're likely to see. [via Industrial Technology & Witchcraft]
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The software giant releases advisories that warn of flaws in its Web software, its VPN software and in default settings of Windows 2000. [CNET News.com]
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