Implemented as an ActiveX control but, hey, what the heck. http://www.spaceinvaders.de. And, if you don't wanna play it "online" you can download clones.
and it's at http://www.slipstick.com/rssnews/rssnews.aspx. They've been around for a LONG time and always have good information about Outlook and Exchange.
The 9/29/2003 Lockergnome Windows Daily has a good section on Windows Tweaks. Things like enabling UDMA66 (I didn't know it wasn't enabled, either!), optimizing placement of startup files and a bunch more.
Leo Laporte reports in today's Moanday News that the security hole in Internet Explorer that was supposedly fixed back in August wasn't. And some bright folks have come up with ways to exploit the hole to change dial-up settings so that your computer connects to one of those outrageously expensive phone numbers.
Think you're safe because you've got DSL or a cable modem? Think again! It can send you to spammers sites or do just about anything else to your machine without your knowledge.
The recommendation: disable ActiveX until Microsoft fixes the problem (again!).
I'm just a geek. I like programming a firewall. Even my own software-based firewall. And Tiny's firewall let's me do just that. Like it so much that I bought it ... even with all the free ones out there.
Leo Laporte reported in his Tuesday News Items that Google Labs is testing a new Location Search feature. Not bad but there're more chinese restaurants around here than the 11 shown on the results.
Now that I've got a hard-disk MP3 player, one of the things I do is play it in the car. I'm using a casette adapter right now ... plug it in to the line out port and slip it in to the car casette player and I've got my tunes. It's a pain, having that wire hanging out of the deck.
With that in mind, here are some reviews of wireless FM transmitters:
http://www.themindfactory.com/Products/PLL-1_FM/AudiaX/AudiaX_Reviews/audiax_reviews.html - a review by an iPod user.
http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/archive/topic/5566-1.html - at the bottom of the page there's a comment by an iPod user favoring the AudiaX
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/audiax-wireless-fm-linker-review.html - a review of the AudiaX
Doesn't sound like the iRock performs very well. One item I'm interested in is the Arkon SF121. Haven't found a worthwhile review comparing it to others yet but the $20 price is right.
In this article they review Intervideo's DVD Copy, 321 Studio's DVD Copy Plus and their DVD X Copy and Pinnacle's InstantCopy.
The same article has links to other reviews like software DVD players and DVD burning apps.
EDocPrinter PDF Pro from ITEKSOFT. Yeah, it came out of the back of the pack to win the crown. Until you buy it, pages 4 and beyond get watermarked.
What was wrong with the others? Well, I thought I could save my Word documents in XML format and have AurigaDoc convert it to PDF but it looks like I was wrong; that AurigaDoc has its own dialect that you use to get the appropriate formatting. And at dial-up speeds, I didn't wanna invest the time in downloading it only to be disappointed.
PDFCreator, well, I couldn't seem to find enough information online to satisfy my curiousity so I just didn't wanna install it.
I've found what look to be two very good PDF creation packages, both Open Source and on SourceForge. AurigaDoc from AurigaLogic and PDFCreator from Sector7g. I'm gonna give both a spin and I'll let you know what I think.,
Tim Oren, a venture capitalist at Pacifica Fund, thinks the RIAA is wrong in their approach to online music. Read his thoughts on the subject
MS03-039 was issued and a "fix" released by Microsoft last week. Steve Gibson (grc.com -- of ShieldsUp, UnPlug-n-Pray, ID Serve and Wizmo fame) asks whether you really need DCOM or not. Go to his DCOMbobulator page, download his utility and disable it! It obviates any attacks through DCOM.
Don't ask me why but Free-ed.net has free education available over the Internet. The courses are a little dated -- for instance they don't have anything on Windows XP or even Windows 2000 but they do have Windows NT education. Their IT course catalog is here.
Don't know if it's because I run the Orinoco Client Manager (but it still didn't work when I killed the Orinoco S/W) or what. Supposedly my card and my access point are both supported. Anyway, it looks like it'd be some good software but I can't evaluate it!
The new PCMag.com Wireless Center has a free utility called WiNc from Cirond that includes some of the functionality of NetStumbler and can also function as a replacement for WinXP's wireless connection manager. Check out Cirond's supported hardware list before trying out the utility. Also note that you must get it from the PCMag.com site within the next two weeks and not from the Cirond site. After two weeks the program costs $20. I think that means picking it up from PCMag.com will keep it free forever. You can find more about it and download the program here). There are versions for PocketPC 2002 and 2003, too.
The utilities that come with the Orinoco card are pretty good -- it can scan for access but it doesn't record -- and if you don't have an Orinoco, you're SOL.
Got a note from them yesterday about the launch of their new Wireless Center. It's not exactly Wi-Fi News but it's not a bad site.
Woody's Office Watch has a good rundown in his September 4th issue. He explains the issues and the implications. If you don't subscribe to his Office and Windows newsletters then you're missing some really good information.
Not much to say about this article other than it's a good, basic intro to PHP.
I wouldn't do anything about these yet. Only one is an OS bug (the first one). 2 are Office specific, 1 is Microsoft Access and one is in Visual Basic. Note that the 2003 version of Office seems to be unaffected. Don't do any patching yet ... let's let them age. I'll let you know when it's time to do something. I would make sure I know who's me any Word documents and make sure the content's important if I'm going to open it. Basically, I'm just going to try to reduce the number of documents
I open that haven't been under my control. I don't think virus scanners will necessarily be able to help us on these.
The end-user bulletins are pretty helpful.
MS03-034 - 824105 - NetBIOS Information Disclosure vulnerability. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.
MS03-035 - 827653 - Flaw in Microsoft Word Could Enable Macros to Run Automatically. Does not seem to affect Office 2003. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.
MS03-036 - 827103 - Buffer Overrun in WordPerfect Converter Could Allow Code Execution. Does not seem to affect Office 2003. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.
MS03-037 - 822715 - Flaw in Visual Basic for Applications Could Allow Arbitrary Code Execution. Does not seem to affect Office 2003. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.
MS03-038 - 827104 - Unchecked buffer in Microsoft Access Snapshot Viewer Could Allow Code Execution. Microsoft Access only. Office 2003 version seems to be unaffected. Technical security bulletin. End-user technical bulletin.
Quoted from the Sept. 2 edition of WinXPNews:
Make your XP System as Secure as the NSA's
The National Security Agency has released a set of guidelines for configuring Windows XP Pro securely. These guidelines are used by government agencies to secure their machines, but you can download them and peruse their recommendations. The guidelines apply to Professional Edition only, and primarily to machines that belong to a Windows 2000 domain (although some of the info is also relevant to standalone computers), so this document is most helpful to those who support business networks. The download gets you a 141 page PDF document along with some .inf files that can be used if you're really brave. Even if your computer isn't a domain member, you'll find a lot of helpful background information about how XP security works in this document, but be sure to read it carefully and follow instructions exactly if you decide to make any of the changes recommended:
http://www.winxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=030902SE-NSA_Secure
Don't recall where I heard about this but my new favorite universal IM client (i.e. able to connect to most, if not all, IM services like Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, AIM, etc.) is Miranda. It's another open source effort with forums for support. Its forte is plug-ins. More than just skins, you can download plug-ins to provide what most other clients include in their basic functionality (like user status tooltips). The basic download comes with support for AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber and MSN; if you want support for Yahoo (you guessed it!) you download a plug-in.
Documentation's sparse but it's a good, free client and it's under active development. To get started, download:
* the client -- currently version 0.3.1 at about 600K
* the Yahoo! protocol if you're a Yahoo! user.
* Smiley-Add to add support for familiar, protocol-specific smileys.
* MultiWindow -- trust me, you'll want this.
* Oli's Yahoo Smileys for a good set of smileys that look like the original ones