Steve’s Stuff

Setting security for the Internet Zone to High in Internet Explorer pretty much renders it completely useless, the internet equivalent of a brick.

Nonetheless, these are the instructions I distributed to our staff:

More websites are exploiting the latest Internet Explorer vulnerability. Even when there’s a patch for this one, there will be something else. If you use IE, you should set your browser to be paranoid.

Here’s the quick and easy way to secure your browser. (Be sure to do this on your home computers, too.)

• TOOLS -> INTERNET OPTIONS
• Click on the SECURITY tab
• With Internet selected, click on Custom
• Choose HIGH and click RESET
• Click on Trusted Sites
• Click the SITES button
• Enter the CCIM webmail site, https://xxxx.xxxxx.com
• Click ADD, then OK, then OK.

The last piece is because you can’t use Outlook Web Access without a LOT of active scripting.

Internet Explorer

Brian Krebs notes on Washingtonpost.com that there are 200 sites exploiting the createTextRange IE flaw. Microsoft recommends avoiding untrusted sites, but Krebs says you can’t trust that advice. Crackers have broken into normally trusted sites and installed traps that, through the flaw, install spyware and bots.

Essentially, you cannot trust ANY site when using Internet Explorer.

Krebs goes on to say

“Rather than download a “beta” (read: potentially unstable) version of IE or wait around for Microsoft to issue a fix, a far better idea would be to ditch IE altogether (or only use it only when absolutely necessary). I use Mozilla’s Firefox for everyday browsing, but your mileage may vary. There are other options, of course, such as Opera and Netscape, to name a couple.

What amazes me is how many Windows users seem to blindly equate Internet Explorer with access to the Internet — in much the same way that many America Online users are unsure whether they can use someone else’s browser once they’ve signed on to their account. Even after you tell people that they may have just been whacked with a virus due to a flaw in IE, they still use it.”

The Internet Storm Center is, again, on top of the situation.

Internet Explorer

Forget Google Office. This guy is going after Microsoft Office and already has a Word clone up on the web.

Michael Robertson writes:

What if there was alternative for Microsoft Word that would install and open in 6 seconds, read and write Microsoft Word .doc files and run on Macintosh, Microsoft Windows or Linux computers? And oh yeah, it was FREE so consumers didn’t have to pay $499 for Microsoft Office. I’m excited to announce that day is here.

Ajax

Yet another IE vulnerability has hit the streets.

Read the update at the Internet Storm Center.

Microsoft says

Our initial investigation has revealed that if you turn off Active Scripting, that will prevent the attack as this requires script. Customers who use supported versions of Outlook or Outlook Express aren’t at risk from the email vector since script doesn’t render in mail (being read in the restricted sites zone).

Switch to another browser. Get Firefox. Get Opera.

Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer

The Register puts a finger through the bubble in this article, quoting [Dr.] Eric Schmidt:
“Office is not the business we’re in,” Schmidt told journalists in New York.

Google Office

What could someone do with your cellphone? How much of your life is on there?

David Pogue’s New York Times blog has a link to a website that documents how to scrub your cellphone before you sell it, trade it in, or give it away.

Cellphone

In this article, Only in a bubble is Google’s web WP an Office-killer, The Register pours cold water on the millenenial fever of Google Office:

Technically illiterate, and pumped up on junk science and pious New Age aphorisms - such s “collective intelligence” - today’s “Web 2.0″ kids promise to leave a legacy of disappointment.

Google Office

Phillip Lenssen has posted a screenshot of reference to Google Calendar on the Google Links page in Gmail. The screenshots are here.

Can Google Calc be far behind?

Google, Google Office

Google announced today that it acquired Writely, a “collaborative” word processor that sits in a web browser.

I’m on the waiting list. [Fingers tapping...]

This guy is a bit snarky about the whole thing, asking why it wasn’t developed in-house. I suspect there’s a whole set of startups who are coding as fast as they can with the goal of selling out to Google. Why shouldn’t Google take advantage of that? Of course, his point is what are those guys already at Google doing?

Writely, Google Office

Until I put up this blog, I had no idea what blogspam was. Now, I get 15-20 “comments” posted each week to items on this blog. Usually, they’re a list porn sites or sites for erectile disfunction. (I guess you use the latter if the former doesn’t help.)

Thanks to the good people at Akismet, I don’t have to do much about it. But this is yet one more thing that pollutes the e-world.