Category Archives: Software

I finally broke down an installed SP2 on my laptop, a bright blue Dell 300m. SP2 had been running fine on my desk top for a while, and also trouble-free on my wife's desktop, plus the laptop maker's web site endorsed it, plus all the tech columns I read (notably Ed Bott) endorsed it, so I figured, it's time.

The results are mixed. The laptop seems a little slower, especially on boot up. And one other change I made at the same time is not working out at all well. Having read all this tech advice about XP, I saw that there was a strong consensus that I shouldn't ordinarily be logged in as an 'administrator' but should be operating as a 'limited' account to prevent anything untoward taking over my PC.

Well, OK, I'm a very obedient guy when it comes to computer security (unlike most of the rest of my life), so I create a 'root' account, make it an administrator and change my usual account to 'limited' status. But now when I try to turn off the computer, both Explorer and the 'Power Meter' hang. This doesn't seem to happen when I am running solely as 'root'. All I can say is….harrumph.

Update: The indefatigable Ed Bott notes that I've run into a known Win XP problem with the 'limited' permissions identity. HARRUMPH again: they release a major service pack supposedly aimed at fixing security holes and they can't fix something like this which is a known bug — one with security implications — regarding the relationship between the MS OS and the MS Explorer programs? Come on guys!

Try this experiment: Click on the simple test created by greymagic.com. If a calculator pops up, you have a problem: your computer is configured to allow web sites to run programs on your machine … without using Active X, which is usually the culprit for such security holes.

If the calculator didn't pop up, you can congratulate yourself, you're probably running Unix, a Mac, using Firefox, or all at once. If you're just using Firefox on a windows machine, you might want to open up IE and try it again, just to be safe.

If you want to understand the problem a bit better there's a sort of explanation at DSO Exploit – Executing programs without Scripting or ActiveX.

If you are (justifiably) nervous about running a self-described exploit on your machine, and thus don't want to click the link above, you can download and run Spybot, which will tell you if you have the vulnerability (and check for many others as well).

How do you fix the problem? That's a little complicated as it may require you edit your registry settings (I'm unclear if Spybot actually fixes the problem or not). Instructions on doing this can be found at the link to DSO Exploit – Executing programs without Scripting or ActiveX.

Firefox 1.0 is out. The web server is slashdotted, but you can download it via the firefox ftp server. It would probably be sensible to wait a few days until all the themes and plugins get updated. I'm finding that the servers for those are either non-responsive or underpopulated—and stuff from earlier versions doesn't work.

Note also that you have to uninstall any previous versions of firefox before installing this one, but that in my case at least doing the uninstall didn't delete my profile or bookmarks. And I followed instructions and installed the new version in a different directory from the old one.

My blogreader is a server-side program called Feed on Feeds which makes up in power (a lot) what it lacks in elegance (there isn't much). The other day up popped an announcement of version 0.1.4, and I was planning to upgrade from 0.1.3. But now comes an announcement of version 0.1.5 with what Steve Munutillo, the programmer, says is has a feature that I suppose got left out of 0.1.4: “it works”. You should forget that 0.1.4 ever happened, and use 0.1.5..

Maybe I'll put off the upgrade a couple more days.

In an earlier post I explained how Intuit was trying to force customers happily using earlier versions of their Quicken software to buy new updated copies by destroying the ability of users of older Quicken versions to download financial statements from banks and credit cards in the most useful format, web connect (which I've since learned Intuit refers to as OFX). I also noted that a much less-useful format, QIF files, remained available.

Well, looks like Intuit is closing even that loophole: starting with Quicken 2005, users will no longer have the option of importing QIF files for Checking, Savings, Brokerage and 401(k) accounts — the kind that have the most activity and thus most need online updating.

As a result, when Intuit decides to obsolete customers' ability to download their bank statements, as it just did to me, the entire user base will either have to go to manual entry or buy a new copy of the Quicken program.

That's forced obsolescence with a vengeance.

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