Computer Tips -Tech Info

Author: Avery

  • Google Base is now available

    Sometime back, there was talk of Google Base, a databas-ish product coming from Google. Let me let a summary from their blog explain it…

    Rather than impose specific schemas and structures on the world, Google Base suggests attributes and item types based on popularity, which you can use to define and attach your own labels and attributes to each data item. Then searchers can find information more quickly and effectively by using these labels and attributes to refine their queries on the experimental version of Google Base search.

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  • Google Analytics stats start to trickle in

    I’ve just logged back in at 1:11 AM EST, 11/16/05 and am seeing the stats from the 14th come in, some from the 15th. It looks like Google Analytics is starting to catch up. I suspect they’ve been working overtime to try and beef up the server resources dedicated to this project, hopefully things will continue to improve. I hope the former paying customers are going to get good treatment here….

  • Google Analytics update

    Well, I mentioned the release of Google Analytics yesterday which really looks promising. At this hour I can still say it looks promising. I had a funny thought after trying several times yesterday to get set up… it was a “good going, you just broke google” kind of thought. It was pretty clear that demand was VERY high for the service (what they’ll be providing for free used to be a fee service.) But it looks like Google has been really caught off-guard by the demand. As I don’t have any data yet, and it appears I’m not the only one.

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  • tightVNC Windows 1.2.9 installer

    Temporary Quick download link for tightvnc-1.2.9 installer for windows. Use the first link to download the copy I’ve mirrored for the moment, or try downloading from www.tightvnc.com if there are any troubles with this.

  • Sony DRM Rootkit — it’s worse

    I did this as updates to an earlier post, but it probably deserves it’s own post now. The morning brought us the news of SERIOUS flaws in the Uninstaller ActiveX control for Sony’s DRM, then came news of ANOTHER flaw, this one a privilige escalation “attacker can take control of PC” vulnerability in the DRM rootkit (XCP) itself. The other bit of news to come has been the extent of the install base of XCP.

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  • Text adventure Games still around

    You are in a small hallway, there are doors to the North and West….

    The Wall Street Journal Online has an article about the continued existence of the text adventure games. You know the genre, before the advent of 3d graphics, role playing games were basically interactive novels of a sort. Read, then type “look north” or something, “open door” “go north”, etc… and be presented with more text.

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  • Lynx web browser vulnerability

    Incidents.org is reporting on an advisory for users of lynx. For those of you that don’t know lynx, it is a text based web browser used in text only terminal environments. I’ve used lynx from time to time to see what websites look like to a text only reader to help design towards better accessibility. Anyway, the three of you using it to browse the web with need to upgrade… (please, it’s a joke…)

    The vulnerability is described at idefense.com. It appears that a new development version of lynx has been released which fixes the problem. (Development version 2.8.6dev.15)

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  • Nokia 770 Internet Tablet (Linux based)

    The Nokia 770 linux based Internet Tablet will have it’s US debut on November 17th. The details on hardware specs on the device are available at linuxdevices.com, and there’s a news forum available at internettablettalk. I highlighted the tablet a few weeks back, but there was no specific date for U.S. release. The device will use a debian based Linux distro called Maemo and will sport around 3 hours battery life with continuous wi-fi usage. The price is ~$359.

  • Sony discs to be recalled

    It looks as though the uninstaller as claimed last night, does have more serious implications than the original rootkit, in Sony’s continuing DRM nightmare. Basically, the uninstaller will allow any web page to run arbitrary code and or remotely control your pc. Which is sort of the holy grail of remote exploits. The ActiveX control called CodeSupport that is required to get the uninstaller is the culprit here. It remains on system after uninstall and is marked safe for scripting.

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  • FTC’s message to Enternet Media has not quite sunk in…

    In spite of the FTC’s raid of Enternet Media and charges against them for various details such as deceptive install practices, unfair installation of code, failure to disclose nature of bundled software and furnishing code to others that interferes with the use of the computer… well, Enternet Media seems to be proliferating their wares just fine… in spite of a temporary restraining order. According to Spyware Confidential there are still downloads of searchmiracle/elitebar as written up here.

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