December 30, 2008 by Stone
For some reason, when I think of vulnerable programs, Internet Exploder comes in near the top for me. That is why it surprises me that Bit9 called Firefox the most vulnerable Windows program in their top 12 list.
I suppose there are reasons for the false sense of security. See, back when I used Internet Explorer, I got so used to popup ads showing up (even when I had no IE windows opened), that I probably got a little too relieved when I heard about FireFox, and the pop-up attacks just sort of stopped. I may have taken the quick, easy access to Private data (Cookie) removal for granted too. It’s an impulse, something shiny and new (like tabbed browsing), just felt like it must have been better in the areas we don’t see so easily.
Ok, that may have been a bit sarcastic. The article goes on to state that in 2008, Mozilla patched FireFox 10 times. What this means to me, is that Mozilla is on the ball here. Vulnerability happens, because hackers are not an idle group. Of course they will try new things, and have new methods of trying to disrupt people’s lives! The author of that article managed to forget this point: The browser was patched. Often. When was the last time IE was patched to fix it’s vulnerabilities?
Category: Article, MusingsTags: Explorer, FireFox, IE, Internet Exploder, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, patch, patched, popup, Tab, Tabbed, Tabs, Vulnerable | Comments (0)
December 28, 2008 by Stone
According to this article, the beta of Windows 7 has ben leaked to the press quite early. This is good, since this means that Bill Gates was pretty accurate when he said back in April that Windows 7 would be out sometime in the coming year. So far, most of the reviews online seem to be good. Of course, they are also calling it innovatve, which I disagree with. The article at the top of this post describes a feature called ‘Aero Snap’, which sounds like it would be familiar to anyone who has ever used Ubuntu. Of course, this has been a recent trend of Microsoft, having utilized a dock very similar to the one on a Mac in the initial releases of Vista.
So, I suppose only time will tell. Personally, I’m still having some trouble adjusting to Vista, so we will have to see if I want to make another switch anytime soon.
Category: ArticleTags: Bill Gates, IE 8, Ubuntu, Vista, WIndows 7 | Comments (0)
December 17, 2008 by Stone
Well, tomorrow is a really big day for me, so I’m going to keep today’s post short.
Have a look at this article about a new type of magazine ad which allows the user to use their webcam to display an interactive (well, freely rotational) 3D model
I wonder how much extra effort a user would go to in order to actually see an advertisement effectively. I guess this also depends on the product. A fully viewable 3D model of a female movie star might generate more attention than an ordinary like a roll of paper-towels. A car _definitely_ fits the bill of things I would pay to see in 3D.
Category: Article, WidgetTags: 3D, ad, advert, advertisement, cool, cool ad, magazine | Comments (0)
December 15, 2008 by Stone
The Article
I’d like to discuss Spore, which struck a sour note with me on it’s DRM policy, which was luckily removed before they launched. Treating a customer as a criminal (guilty until proven innocent), is not right in any industry. The larger point the article makes though, is that they promised their users a certain level of detail. They got their mouths watering for it. So many people were looking foreword to it, and then, they took us users for a ride, and took a good chunk of change (game sold for about $40 at release), and did not deliver. Sad.
I think that people who do the marketing (or developing) in any industry in which their product may gain a fan base, need to be held responsible for delivering it. Yeah, not everything works out exactly as planned, but this isn’t an excuse for missing a large amount of the content that had gotten your fans worked up. Another few months of development would have been tolerable (plenty of games take development time beyond their initial scope), but in other industries, not delivering on a promised expectation would be career-suicide. It should be the same here.
Category: ArticleTags: design, games | Comments (0)
December 10, 2008 by Stone
Well, this is the first blog post in what I hope will become a good long tradition of blog posts. This blog is going to be the central place for people who want to know what I find out, and who want to find out what I know. I may place random musings here as I think of them, or maybe links to interesting articles or widgets I come across. In fact, I could put anything here, so come one, come all, and read the Blog of Stone, at DesignedByStone!
Category: MusingsComments (0)