CHRISdotTODD

I ran across a site, StopBadware.org , led by Harvard Law School and Oxford University, with sponsorship from Google, Sun, and Lenovo, that is trying "to become a focal point for developing collaborative, community-minded approaches to stopping badware." StopBadware.org "...shares information with the public in the form of reports, including in-depth and short form reports. The in-depth reports highlight particularly prominent or particularly bad applications, and shorter quick reports describe websites that host or distribute badware." StopBadware.org has a complete set of guidelines on what constitutes badware. Software and/or websites can be categorized as either badware or caution . From the guidelines, an application is badware in one of two cases: If the application acts deceptively or irreversibly. If the application engages in potentially objectionable behavior without: First, prominently disclosing to the user that it will engage in such behavio

In speaking with an old friend today, I was reminded of how unsafe it can be to use an unprotected wireless connection, or even worse, an Internet cafe' PC. So when I got home, I researched some of the services and solutions that I have read and heard about. First of all, you should always take caution when using an open network. This includes both wireless and wired (such as a hotel). The best way to do this is by setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) before doing anything else. If you are a business person, you may already have that capability through your company. If so, check with your IT department to find out what happens when you connect to non-work addresses. Typically it will skip the VPN and go directly to the site, saving company bandwidth, but putting you at risk. Note that there may be a way to change this setting. Assuming you cannot get protected through your company network (or you do not want to), there are a couple other options. One option is to set up a VP

As reported by IntelliAdmin.com and ComputerWorld , another security hole has been found in a Microsoft product -- this time it is Windows Media Player Versions 9 and 10. Specifically, the problem is with media files that have the .asx extension. By default when you click on this file type, Windows Media Player will launch -- a compromised file would allow hackers to gain control of your PC. IntelliAdmin.com recommends that you remove the association for Windows Media Player to play .asx files. Microsoft recommend that you upgrade to Windows Media Player 11 . Microsoft says Windows Media Player 11 will work on all versions of Windows XP that have Service Pack 2. I did find one mention of possible problems if you have Windows XP Media Center 2005. If you are looking for a fix to versions 9 or 10, it does not look like Microsoft will have something by this Tuesday, the monthly patch release from Microsoft. So just as I indicated you will likely need to wait for January's patch re

I found an old trick in Excel the other day... if you highlight cells, the sum will appear in the status bar below. This works whether the cells are horizontal, vertical, or in a block. You can also select cells to sum from various parts of your spreadsheet by holding the Ctrl key down as you select each.

As reported by eWeek and ZDNet , there is a new problem with Word that could allow attackers to take control of your PC. Since there is no fix available yet, you should avoid opening any unknown Word files. I would expect that Microsoft would release a fix as soon as possible, but if they stick to their patch-Tuesday schedule, this may come to late to make the December release, forcing users to wait until January.

I have been working with an Excel file for about 18 months -- each month I link to a monthly Excel data file. This gives me data in one file that I can use to trend many different segments. I am not sure when, but this file had ballooned to over 3 MBs. Finally this month when I tried to upload it to our intranet, I received a file size limit exceeded message. I searched and searched, and could not find any thing that would compress or clean up the file. Finally I went to Google and found a solution. The credit goes to OzGrid Business Applications . Here is a link to the entire article , and below is what I had done to reduce the file size. The first thing of course is to make a backup... just in case I then performed the following on each worksheet (only 2 in my case): Select a cell and press F5 Click the Special... button Click the Blanks radio button Click OK Select Edit | Clear | All Manually go to the last row in the worksheet (do not use Edit menu shortcut) Select the entire r

There is an excellent article posted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that describes how poorly implemented security is not better security. Trusted Computing: Promise and Risk by Seth Schoen reminds me a lot of DRM. The direction of two organizations, Microsoft Next-Generation Secure Computing Base or NGSCB and Trusted Computing Platform Alliance or TCPA, want to put restrictions in place that could force you to use certain software by certain manufacturers. Of the fours security areas: (1) memory curtaining; (2) secure input and output; (3) sealed storage; and (4) remote attestation, remote attestation could be a problem. Developers could force you to use certain software in order to use their system. The author recommends adding an owner override to prevent problems. Read the article yourself to learn more.

Yahoo! reported on the 24th that Sony has another recall -- this time it is their Cyber-shot camera . "The liquid crystal display screens of eight camera models might not display images correctly, images could be distorted or cameras might not take photos at all." This affects cameras sold over 16 months from September 2003 to January 2005. Apparently this is not the first camera recall for Sony. Compared to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq over the last three months , things do not look good for Sony. I do not expect the PS3 to help them much either.

I found two sites that look at the inside of a Wii game machine from Nintendo. Popular Science has 16 photos while informit.com has a complete tear down with instructions. Both are very good, but informit.com gives you much more information including a nine minute video . In addition, CNN posted an AP article on how the motion controls for the Wii and PS3 work. I also found a link to some handiwork where someone figured out how to get to the Wii Shop store.

I had tried the free Google Desktop at work, twice, and each time uninstalled it. First because I could not search my network drives. (I like to use network drives to share files with my colleagues, and to make sure they are backed up.) Later I had decided to try again, and then discovered the possible security issues. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Google now has addressed the security concerns and they have released an update that will index networked drives. I have been running this now for about two weeks, and it generally has performed well. The Google Desktop Search is based on keywords, so it does not always give you the most relevant results. I also had some troubles with PowerPoint running very slow while editing. (I turn the search off when I am working in PowerPoint.) With those caveats, it seems to be a good solution. A nice, new feature is that if you hit your CTRL button twice, a search dialog appears in the center of your screen. Of course Google Desktop will