Posted on 01/05/2006 12:45:10 PM PST by Gomez
update Microsoft plans to release a fix for a serious security vulnerability in Windows on Thursday, several days before the patch's scheduled delivery.
The company is breaking with its monthly patch cycle because it completed testing of the security update earlier than it anticipated, it said in a note on its Web site. "In addition, Microsoft is releasing the update early in response to strong customer sentiment that the release should be made available as soon as possible," the company said.
The security update, originally scheduled for Tuesday, fixes a vulnerability in the way Windows renders Windows Meta File images. The bug was discovered last week and is increasingly being used in what Microsoft calls "malicious and criminal attacks on computer users."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
Do you REALLY think...no, wait. Let me stop there. I know the answer to that one. What other American companies that employ tens of thousands do you hate? GM? Wal-Mart?
"Upon rereading, it looks like only 2000, 2003, and XP"
no, the actual code that has the problem is from the early 90s and is in every version of windows since. At the moment only 2000, xp, 2003 are supported and MS has basically told the rest to upgrade.
I really liked ZA back when I still was using windows. Kinda wish there were something similar in the Unix world. I wouldn't be entirely suprised if there were, but I wouldn't feel real comfortable with it unless it were written by a kernel and network demigod.
Do you alwo have a hardware firewall? Software firewalls can be great, but for intrusion prevention, a hardware firewall is hard to beat.
All excellent ideas. If you're a fairly experienced windows users, taken together the above will serve you fairly well. For the casual mom and pop user though, having to set up all that stuff just to be fairly safe on the internet can be pretty intimidating, (if they have any idea that any of it is necessary at all). Personally, I think windows is far too hard to manage safely for the novice.
MACs are a great alternative, and not really much more expensive than a nicely loaded PC. I'd recommend Linux as well for many people who don't want to have to deal with all the above that you outlined. (Except patching of course, which is common to any complex OS like those mentioned). Like you, I could easily keep an MS-Windows based computer fairly safe on the internet, but, frankly the MS-Windows interface doesn't really suit the way I use a computer very well. I'd die without multiple desktops :-)
HAND!
The above is only partially true. The worst thing about this particular defect is that sites you generally trust like FreeRepublic could easily become vectors for attack. All some jerk from 
DU would have had to do is sign up for an account, and post a link to an infected image to a busy thread, and a bunch of folks would have been nailed by it. This was not a low risk threat.
I'm not a techie but I have computers laying around with 95, 98/SE, ME, and XP. Anyone who can't see the difference and improvement in them is blind. All the persons I know who have XP have very few problems with it in general. In short for most persons unless you do a lot of graphics designs etc a MAC is not needed. Yes I even used MS WEB-TV at one point. Use it for a few nights and even 98/SE will be a welcomed site.
I'm not against another company giving MS a run for their money but look at the technology miracle we are using and here we are griping because of a few bugs? No one can build an unexploitable computer or design such an operating system. If someone wants in it bad enough they will find a way. With increasing popularity Linux and other systems will also begin to see hackers looking for weakness in their systems. But virus writers look to infect as many as possible which is the main reason Microsoft is hit the most often.
With any thing you can make the more gadgets you add to it the more problems can happen. I don't use even a third of what XP can do program wise. But I wouldn't have to sit for hours on end learning coding either. If any other system looks better for your needs go for it. But in reality MS in itself is not bad for all it offers.
That smart I am not! LOL!
Thank God my computers don't directly run on natural gas. LOL!
Except the software I am talking about is not your average office stuff.
Indeed. However, most of the stuff I run, I am not privy to the source code. Also, all of my linux/unix machines are running multiprocessors.
That was an absolute must.
Universal LibrariesMac OS X provides a robust set of optimized libraries, making it easy to port your existing UNIX code. For example, a standard, multithreaded C library (libc) includes support for such capabilities as reentrant variants of standard functions, facilitating the porting of thread-aware applications to Mac OS X. For applications that require non-Roman character sets, Mac OS X supports wide character datatypes (wchar_t and others). Tiger also supports UNIX/Linux portability APIs, including System V semaphores, so porting applications from versions of UNIX such as Linux and Solaris presents no problem. Tiger enhances the stellar cross-platform API support in Panther by adding powerful new Open Source libraries for XML transformations (libxslt) and data persistence (SQLite), as well as support for common UNIX services such as System V message queues.
In addition, OS X is already completely compatible with thousands of UNIX applications through the X Window System
Easy to Port X11 ApplicationsX11 for Mac OS X offers a complete X Window System implementation for running X11-based applications on Mac OS X. Based on the de facto-standard for X11, the open source XFree86 project, X11 for Mac OS X is compatible, fast and fully integrated with Mac OS X. It includes the full XFree86 4.4 distribution including a window server, libraries and basic utilities such as xterm.
With the complete suite of the standard X11 display server software, client libraries and developer toolkits, X11 for Mac OS X makes it even simpler to port Linux and Unix applications to the Mac. X11 for Mac OS X gives you a complete, rootless X11R6.6 implementation, as well as display server and client libraries — plus headers in the SDK. X11 for Mac OS X supports ssh tunnelling for secure display sharing. You can download all the common toolkits from OpenDarwin.org. Plus, Tiger inludes native support for popular toolkits such as Tcl/TK and W+widgets.
You can also find information on porting UNIX apps to the Mac at Porting Command Line UNIX tools to Mac OSX
If he doesn't want to compile the UNIX himself, he can also find OS X Applications for professional Astronomers including Scisoft, Starlink, ds9, WCSTools, fv, ESO-MIDAS, SM, WIP, MIIPS, IRAF, Spitzer Software, Figaro, AIPS, AIPS++, Karma, MIriad, GILDAS, Aipsview, Jobserve, GIPSY (Gronigen Image Processing System), CIAO, XMM SAS, HEASOFT, DRAMA, SPICE, and MICA (Astronomical Almanac).
Another source of professional Mac OS X software (UNIX) is Mac OS X for Astrophysicists which has links to even more professional level Astronomy and astrophisics software for UNIX which has been compiled for OS X. Open Source Astronomy for OS X is a source for over 81 professional grade astronomical and astrophysics UNIX applications already compiled for Mac OS X such as:
MacORSA is an interactive tool for scientific grade Celestial Mechanics computations. Asteroids, comets, Solar, and extra-Solar planetary systems can be accurately reproduced, simulated, and analyzed. Features: - accurate numerical algorithms - use of JPL ephemeris files for accurate planets positions - Qt-based graphical user interface - advanced 2D plotting tool and 3D OpenGL viewer - import asteroids and comets from all the known databases (MPC, JPL, Lowell, AstDyS, and NEODyS) - integrated download tool to update databases - stand alone numerical library liborsa - save and restore session from a single file.
If I'm "smoking", Bush, you're mainlining...
That's a good argument. If what you are using is pure text output, it may run "as is" on Mac's UNIX.
Also, all of my linux/unix machines are running multiprocessors.
SO? Check out Virginia Tech's Terascale SystemX.
This is an Apple XServer Cluster of 2200 processors that turns in 12.27 teraflops (peak ~20 tf). When it was built in 2004 it was the third fastest supercomputer in the world but cost less than 10% (about $5 million) of the cost of the other supercomputers in the top 10. It is now ranked number 20 in the world. It was built by students at Virginia Tech.
Another Apple supercomputer Xserve cluster is fi COLSA's fteenth ranked Mach5 3072 processor speed demon that produces ~16.2 Teraflops (peak 25 tf) which is used to model hypersonic flight for the US Army.
“A single person using a hand-held calculator — without pausing to eat or sleep — would need more than two million years to calculate what the Apple supercluster [MACH5] can calculate in a single second.”
Now if you just want one desk top, Check out PC Magazine's review of Apple's PowerMac G5 Quad (Two dual core 2.5 GHz G5 processors). PC Magazine just called it the World's fastest desktop computer in the review.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
thanks for the info - ping
ping
I am not saying Macs are bad machines. Far from it. Just the software I run is not available for Macs. My PCs run well and why fix what is not broke?
In the future, well who knows what will be available. The Cell looks promising for a multi-processor supercomputer. :-)
I've got 3 Windows PCs at home. 2 run Mozilla, one IE. The IE box was the only one that wasn't hit by this threat. Hooda thunkit.
The best thing I've found for that is a USB key.
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