There's a new trojan worm(a self replicating malware program; think computer virus) called Stuxnet. It infects all versions of Windows back to Windows NT and 2000 and possibly earlier versions as well. It also affects Windows Server, so many of the websites you visit may be leaking your personal information and/or unknowingly infecting your computer just by visiting the website.
It hides itself on usb sticks inserted into infected systems, the simple act of viewing files on an infected usb stick infects your computer. It's also been discovered that it can infect your computer from website favicons in web browsers, email, office documents, cds, via webdav, ftp, etc.. So anywhere on a Windows system where you see any kind of shortcut icon, the act of viewing that icon will infect your computer - assuming the shortcut is malicious. The bug is in the heart of Windows; the function where Windows parses a shortcut icon to display it to you, will instead install the worm if parsing a malicious icon.
The worm once installed contacts home(the hackers) and can be used by the hackers to run any code on your computer they want. They can steal your passwords and see everything you type or is displayed on the screen, they can transmit files, they can erase your whole system or crash your drive. anything. They have total control of the system.
It's already been found infecting Siemens industrial systems and it could easily target core network infrastructure like your ISPs. There are reports that 9000+ newly infected systems are being discovered every day and that the number is skyrocketing. It is currently undetectable by anti-virus software. The exploit has been demonstrated and published for over a week now, so aside from Stuxnet there could be tens of thousands of other related worms and viruses taking advantage of the same security hole.
Microsoft is unlikely to fix this until the second Tuesday of August, and it's very unlikely they'll fix it in unsupported versions of Windows like 2000 or NT - which constitute millions of computers especially in the corporate world where proprietary information leaks can seriously affect the stock market and national defence. For regular users it means identity theft, system crashes, all your computer activity being monitored and broadcast, your email or Facebook account being used to send the virus to your friends, family, and colleagues, and more.
Microsoft has released a dirty patch to deactivate the vulnerable part of Windows until there's an actual fix, but it's believed not to be effective at preventing the spread of the worm, AND because the vulnerability exists in such an integral part of Windows it seriously affects your ability to use Windows. To paraphrase Steve Gibson, Windows uses shortcuts as the "glue" to link things together in the OS, even within some dialogues and other places you don't realize, so running the supposedly ineffective Microsoft patch leaves you looking at a lot of white squares and unable to perform certain tasks.
Microsoft recently gave the source code for Windows 7 to the Russian Federal Secret Service. For non-techies it's like handing over the blueprints to the world's bank vaults.
Apparently it just extends a deal they already had where they handed over the source code for XP, 2000, and Server 2000. Anyone in the security community knows that Windows is rife with bugs and flaws that cause huge security risks. Things like keyloggers, viruses, and other malware are routinely downloaded without the user knowing, and often without them even doing anything due to these bugs and Microsoft's blasé approach to patching them. Often waiting years to patch a known vulnerability that's actively being exploited in the wild.
While Windows 7 is far more secure in general terms than previous versions, it - like most software - still suffers from new vulnerabilities being discovered and in the tens of millions of lines of code that's not unreasonable. Exploits are bound to be found and most vendors patch them as soon as possible after discovery.
What is completely unreasonable is to consider such publicly viewable, proprietarily authored code at all secure. Microsoft is known for creating highly exploitable products, and now also for not protecting their source code at all. The Russian Secret Service is only one of a large enough list of governments and agencies that have the source code.
Why did Microsoft do it? To increase sales of Windows and Office products. Why do the government agencies want it? Because sending spies to another country is dangerous, public, and bad for PR. It's also impractical when you can just spy on other governments and millions of citizens anywhere around the world who use Windows and Office products.
If you use Windows and connect it to the internet, you're asking to be spied on and monitored regardless of the anti-malware software you run because the underlying OS is completely insecure. You should have an encrypted thumb drive with some flavour of Linux which you boot up to do your banking, emailing, or anything else important. Or just don't use Windows at all.
In Illustrator CS4 it was really easy to make Flex Skins. You just go to File -> Scripts -> Flex Skins -> Create Flex 3 Skin, choose the components you want to skin - optionally give it a style class name, style it, use the same menu to export for Flex, use the Flex Builder skin import feature which creates or adds to your CSS file and blah blah blah. If you want me to do a tutorial on that just comment and ask.
In Illustrator CS5 they've updated the way registration points work. Flex 3(halo) skins require that the registration points be in the top left of the symbol. Illustrator CS5 defaults to a center registration point, so when you open your CS4 Illustrator skin file in CS5, it updates the registration point mechanism and defaults all your registration points to the center. Don't hulk-smash your computer just yet.
Another key difference with CS5 is while you get finer registration point control, it takes more work to move the registration point after the symbol is created. Say you've opened your CS4 created Flex 3 skin in CS5 and your registration points have been centered. There are a bunch of ways to edit the symbol. You could double click on the the symbol instance, or the symbol in the symbol pane, or click Edit Symbol at the top. Once editing the symbol, you'd need to drag your symbol around - make sure you get all the layers - positioning it rather than the registration point and don't forget to move the 9-slice guides. This process get's messy fast, it's time consuming, and it'll be hard to get the registration point and guides exactly where you want/need them. It's aggravating that there isn't a faster way to do it, and that in converting the file to work with CS5 it doesn't keep the registration point locations. So if you know a better faster way let me know. Until then here's the fastest way I've found to move all your registration points back to the top left.
First Save as your skin file, you can use the same filename but will get a dialog to save it as a CS5 compatible file
Click on the symbol instance, ie: the Up skin for a button, make sure you've got it selected on the artboard
Click on the Symbol Options button in the Symbol pane
Copy the name to the clipboard (ctrl/option + c)
Click Cancel
Click the Break Link button in the Symbol pane
Make sure the correct symbol is still selected in the Symbol pane, the selection may have jumped to the top left symbol in the list
Click on the Delete Symbol button in the Symbol pane
Delete the symbol, if it tells you there are other instances then take special care and double check that the correct symbol is selected; due to the nature of a flex 3 skin there should only be one instance of each symbol. It's not impossible to have multiple instances, but you would know if you created them.
Click on the New Symbol button in the Symbol pane
Paste the name you have in the clipboard (ctrl/option + v)
Select the top left corner for the registration point
Tick the box for Enable Guides for 9-Slice Scaling
Click Ok, and repeat for every other symbol
Now you can save, backup with DropBox, export as a Flex 3 skin, and finally it's time...
Hulk-SMASH!!! SMASH! this really should have been automated in the import mechanism.. right?
Feel free to skip to the How-To below to find out how to boycott Facebook.
Help get the word out to the millions of people who don't know about Facebook's gross misconduct on Twitter using hashtag #BoycottFacebook on Digg http://digg.com/d31QbvX on Facebook using this short link http://bit.ly/bsmODu
One of the more horrifying of activities Facebook has begun engaging in recently is spying on everyone across the internet. If you're reading this you've likely seen the hundreds of bloggers, news outlets, consumer watchdog groups, or just talked to a techie in your family or social circle who's outraged - especially recently - at Facebook. If not here's a brief and simple overview that barely skims the surface of why Facebook is evil and why you should boycott the site: 15 Good Reasons to Ditch Facebook: For Dummies.
The problem we're facing here is that any site can connect to Facebook by embedding a small chunk of code on their site. The code can and does access your private data on Facebook, but it also let's Facebook see what you're doing on the random 3rd party site. No warnings, approvals, or notifications necessary; and regardless of what you set your privacy policies to. There are lots of reasons why a site might do this, and lots of reasons why they may not be upfront about doing this. Plenty of people have complained over the last few days of random sites they visit adding apps to their Facebook profile, and posting on their wall without consent and with total disregard for their privacy settings. Every day tons of new sites and desktop applications add this functionality tracking and making public more and more of your activity on the internet without your consent or knowledge.
Everyone's being watched. If you're a member of Facebook then they know who you are based on your Facebook activity and profile information. If you put fake information on Facebook, Facebook will easily figure out who you are when you visit your real bank, your real account at some other social network, or whatever sites decide to add this malicious Facebook code in the future. And if you don't have a Facebook account at all then they're still tracking you by ip address, which they can easily associate with your accounts on other 3rd party sites.
There's no telling how far Facebook will exploit this as more and more sites add it, but Facebook's Founder as publicly declared a war on privacy several times now, and claimed to be changing social norms. He believes he can tell us how much of our lives he can own, invade, and monitor; and that he doesn't have to tell us what or who he shares that information with. Nor does he believe your consent holds any value.
It's not just that your activity is being monitored, it's that it's being monitored by Facebook - a malicious evil company which cons ignorant people into handing over their very identity permanently with no way out.
How-To boycott Facebook:
note:These instructions are 100% reversible, but before you begin you should delete everything off your Facebook account, change any relationship descriptions to nonsense. Fill your account with dummy information or info about why you're boycotting Facebook. Message all your Facebook "friends" asking them to untag you from any pictures they have up, and then log out for the last time.
It's very simple if you connect to the internet through a router. I'll attempt to give as much detail as possible, if you get stuck or don't use a router feel free to comment and ask for help.
Open your Browser(Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Internet Explorer)
You should now be looking at the login page for your router(The thing in between your computer and modem).
Type in the administrative username and password - the default username is usually admin, and the default password is usually left blank.
If that doesn't work you'll need to find the user manual or use Google to search for the make and model of your router to find the default username and password.
Once you're logged into your router look through the menus for an area called website filter or website block list or something to that effect. On my router it's located in Advanced -> Website Filter
Add the following entry: facebook.com
That's it. Make sure you save your settings, and once saved try going to Facebook.com in a new tab or window.
You should notice that Facebook will never load. Your browser will just keep waiting for a response from Facebook until it times out, but your router won't send or receive anything from Facebook anymore. It's like if you tried to call Facebook on the phone but the operator has been told never to connect a call between you and Facebook.
If you go to Digg.com you'll notice that while the site loads all the content you'd expect, it never finishes loading. This is because it's trying to connect to Facebook without your permission. You can try clicking the blue "Login with Facebook" button at the top, and you'll notice a small login window pops up with a bunch of other things spinning indefinitely. These are all occasions when Digg.com would normally be exchanging information with and loading Facebook.com - effectively letting Facebook recognize you and snoop on your Digg activity, and letting Digg access all your private information on Facebook.
Congratulations, you've safely and effectively boycotted Facebook. You can be comfortable in knowledge that no device that connects to the internet through your router will be able to reach Facebook, and Facebook will not be able to reach you.
Now that you're free help spread the word using the links at the top of this post.
I wanted to try a series that simplifies the news - cuts through big articles with boring facts and interviews and shit and just tells you what the story is about. Simple.
Supreme court of Canada says journalists shouldn't be able to fully protect anonymous sources. Saying it's not in the constitution.
The United Kingdom (ie: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern ireland) had a general election. It resulted in a minority government. Now they're fiff-faffing.
iPad available in Canada starting May 28. During Google's IO event May 19-20 Adobe will demonstrate a Google phone running Flash 10.1 and Adobe AIR. This will spur the completion of the bevy of competing tablets and mobile devices. Notion Ink's Adam tablet, and Hp's speculated WebOS tablet will be fierce competitors. Notion Ink plans to start shipping by the end of July.
They dug up some neanderthal bones from 30,000 - 40,000 years ago, and sequenced their DNA. It was difficult. They're saying based on similarities between their DNA and ours'(humans) there was a lot of interspecies fucking going on. Which technically means neanderthals and humans were not separate species - if they were able to produce offspring together.
Beyond Petroleum(BP) - the petroleum company - lowered a heavy metal box over their pressurized leaking oil hole in the Gulf of Mexico today. They hope it will work to stop the torrential leakage and not destroy the entire eastern coastline of North America. They're saying that if they knew oil - the thing gasoline and propane comes from - could catch on fire, they would have had a backup plan to prevent such a catastrophic disaster.
Germany decided to help the Greeks with their economy melt down with 110 billion euros. Other larger members of the European Union(EU) have helped, and other Countries are thinking about it too.
The United States and United Nations trying to coax peace in the Middle East asked Israel - the only known country there to have them - to disarm and disable some of their nuclear weapons. Israel doesn't want to do that until there's peace in the area.
One of the volcanoes in Iceland responsible for the huge ash cloud over Europe emitted more ash yesterday.
6 days ago Maoists in Nepal went on strike because they're unhappy with the government, this made everyone else angry so thousands of protesters gathered to demand an end to the strike and compromise between the Maoists and the government. After the protesters became violent, the government injured some people firing bullets in the air and tear gas at the crowd.
Political parties in Burma are having differences and splitting up. This is all much more difficult under their strict election laws. Some say participating in the election at all is undemocratic in the military run country.
Turkey may revise their constitution from being secular to Islamic based. The bill to do so has been approved but may still be blocked before coming into affect.
Microsoft's security patches secretly attempt to fix more than they tell people, which can cause problems and complete system failures.
Google Goggles - an app that let's you photograph something with your phone and find out more about that thing - has added translation. So aside from taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower and getting Wikipedia or whatever, you can photograph a chalk menu outside a bistro in Milan and have it translated into the language of your choice.
There's a new update for Google's web browser Chrome which makes it the fastest browser for looking at web sites. It's half a second faster than the latest Firefox, four hundreds of a second faster than the latest Opera and Safari. Internet Explorer is still painfully slow, so much that it's not even benchmarked anymore.
The first non-latin domain names are live now. You can now register website names using Arabic, Japanese, and other non-latin characters.
Yahoo tries ad campaign to compete with Google as a search/home page, speculatively wastes $85 million proving how incompetent they are.
For some unknown reason - which could likely be attributed to my own stupidity if one were to look into it, .AIR files were associated with the Windows version of Firefox inside a Parallels VM I have set up on my Mac. So trying to install an AIR application, or letting an AIR application auto update itself resulted in launching Parallels.
I figured I'd post this cause the location of the AIR Application Installer that you would want to be associated with .AIR files eluded me.
So to fix it just right click on the .AIR file. Choose "Get Info". In the Info window expand the "Open with:" arrow, and make sure "Adobe AIR Application Installer" is selected. If it isn't choose "Other..." in the dropdown list and navigate to Applications->Utilities->Adobe AIR Application Installer, select it and tick the box that says "Always Open With" before clicking "Add". Then back in the Info window click the "Change All..." button to apply it to all .AIR files.
I'm currently migrating Ear-Drum.org Desktop to flex 4. Using an embedded font for the main navigation buttons; which are used to switch between states. When you're in a specific state the nav button for that state switches to a "selected button" skin which is just a copy of the regular skin with a few colours changed. The reason for doing that instead of just disabling each nav button in its given state is so they stay interactive, and are used when in the state to refresh/reload the state.
This worked fine but now in it's spark implementation when moving between random states the button label if it contains a single space will occasionally jump around - providing you've rolled over the button before changing state. It would take a boring while to explain it in more detail so I just recorded the behaviour. Best watched in full screen.
The fourth iPhone OS is going to be announced tomorrow at 1pm(EST). The updates should propagate to iTouches and iPads as well. Things expected and hoped for include multitasking for 3rd party apps, wireless syncing, unified inbox, better maps, and some other shit.
The question is why Apple is making so many announcements, when they usually have very few meticulously planned expansive ones.
Adobe CS5 is launching in 4 days, watch the countdown here [http://cs5launch.adobe.com/]. During Adobe's announcement they will let us know not only about a huge leap in performance and features of the tools everyone uses (ie: Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) but also tools to export apps built with Flash(formerly Flex) Builder to the Apple app store. Currently you can build an app in Flash Builder and deploy the same code on the web, and on the desktop with AIR. Very soon, hopefully in 4 days Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 will be released allowing the additional output of your same code to most smart phones and portable devices as well, and very low level socket support and advanced text support, among many other features and less resource consumption making it a truly compelling option for serious apps deployed across all screens.
Once Adobe announces this everyone is going to be making iPhone, iTouch, and iPad apps in Flash Builder so they can develop once deploy everywhere. Apple deliberately blocks Flash on iDevices because they want people to learn Objective-C (the language for making iPhone apps). If you spend money learning Objective-C and clients want to jump on the iPad and spend money hiring developers who already know the language then you're only able to target iDevices, and now with the screen size and performance of the iPad you then have to rewrite and rerelease a version of your app specifically targeting the iPad. Objective-C is a really shit language, and solely dependent on Apple products[apparently not according to Nick's comment - better take his word for it].
So Apple is racing to get each thing out as soon as they're ready to beat the launch of Adobe CS5 so as many clients and developers lock into Objective-C as possible. Apple lost millions of users because they refuse to support Flash which even though the web is now slowly moving to support the limited and unofficial HTML5 video spec along with IE and other niche technologies for compatibility's sake, Apple purposefully restricted their mobile devices from 70+% of the video on the web and the vast majority of interactive content to the end of being anti-competitive. They upset clients, lost more, and tarnished their company image for years. Now CS5 is coming out and it'll make their anti-competitiveness irrelevant and pointless. So Apple needs to squeeze out products and features and create lots of buzz and chatter to try lock in as many people as possible and I guess attempt to overshadow the CS5 announcement so nobody notices.
With it's release less than 24 hours away and projected sales in the millions it's impossible not to reflect on what it all means. You can say a lot about the Ipad; it has no Flash, no camera, bare device support and an awful name, but one thing you can't talk shit about is the depth of its potential and very likely impact. Here's a more reasonable take on some of the hype and myth surrounding the device.
No Flash - Why and What does it mean?
There is only one reason why Flash is not allowed on apple mobile devices. Market share. The iPhone and the soon to materialize iPad are "extra" devices. That is, they're not meant to be purchased by people who don't already have a computer. You need a computer to update their software, sync them, etc.. On the internet there are a lot of problems with browsers being incompatible with each other. You probably know about rendering issues and speed problems. Flash is the only ubiquitous web platform. It's cross platform and runs the same code identically across all kinds of devices and operating systems from smart phones to desktops to navigation and embedded systems, running every flavour of linux, windows, mac, etc.. The also soon to be released update Flash 10.1 will increase performance, both speed, cpu usage, memory, and more across all these devices; specifically taking in mind mobile. Flash powers more than 75% of the video on the web, 70% of the games, most of the portfolios, and most of the cool graphs, apps, and more, and is installed on more than 99.99% of all devices on the internet.
Apple wants a piece of that. They want their video codecs and their technologies to prosper. Flash is lightyears ahead of html and the only real way to build robust advanced web applications. HTML 5 adds some cool features but the spec is still incomplete and stuck in a deadlock. Building an HTML 5 application is very expensive and time consuming as every browser that supports HTML5 implements it very differently, and most browsers - or rather most internet users, do not, and will not have even a smidgen of HTML5 support for at least 2 years(read: Internet Explorer).
Aside from video codecs, Apple also knows that allowing Flash to exist on the iPhone/iPad would mean people could easily create web apps that work everywhere without paying Apple or filling up their app store. If Flash was allowed on the iDevices no one would pay hundreds of dollars to get into the app store, no one would pay thousands of dollars to train their developers to learn how to program in Objective-C simply to target a single device from a single company. And absolutely no one would put all that effort and money into building that app, knowing that there will be inevitable unpredictable delays, rejections, and removals from said app store for often no reason at all.
There are a ton of idiots proclaiming Apple doesn't allow Flash on their mobile devices because "Apple supports and open web". This quite simply isn't true. If HTML ever got advanced enough they would disallow HTML based web apps on their devices as well, in fact Apple is a major player in the HTML5 codec debate preventing the HTML5 spec from being finalized, so they've already started applying the brakes to HTML and openness. Adobe on the other hand keeps opening up their technologies and leading the open screen project, while open sourcing Flex, and releasing their formerly proprietary SWF format and AMF protocol. Apple has - and is notorious for creating, one of the most closed environments known to man. If they were a government the UN would have to intervene and if they had a monopoly they'd be in deep shit with the FTC for their anti-competitiveness. Does this mean the end of Flash? Absolutely not. In fact Adobe is about to announce that using the same tools and the same code you can easily convert Flash content and applications to iPhone/iPad applications with the click of a button, and if it's not too complex to Canvas based HTML5 code as well. Flash will remain the ubiquitous "code once run everywhere" platform. And quite frankly even in some parallel dimension where that wasn't true, ECMAScript is ECMAScript and Flash developers feel just as at home(although grossly underpowered) with Javascript as they do Actionscript.
What you will see change, although more so due to Adobe's Creative Suite 5 launch--which makes the process easier, than the iPad launch which will only slightly increases demand for it, is video services like YouTube, Daily Motion, and others who can afford to convert and maintain several formats of every video uploaded will begin creating several HTML5 versions of their players. So if you browse on most computers you'll see the Flash version, rich with Flash 10.1's many new features, but if you browse on an intentionally crippled device like the iPad it'll automatically be switched out for the compatible and feature stripped HTML5 version that works with your browser. Some huge sites that use Flash will also create alternative sites that are Flash-less, but at the same time those sites will have custom Adobe AIR apps built with Flex, and custom iPhone and Android apps built natively for those devices as well. Essentially more versions of the same product, just like how today there needs to be a separate stripped down version of websites for each version of Internet Explorer, which is also intentionally anti-competitive and incompatible with other browsers or web standards.
Adoption and Impact
The reason Apple can be so bold with Flash is because the iPad is an incredible revolutionary device. Most people struggle with computers to do anything. The desktop, laptop, and netbook paradigms are confusing and actually dealing with anything is an impossible feat to ask for the majority of users. There are a lot of people who should wait a few months for the bevy of tablets about to storm the market who have Flash, grant access to the full web and a full interface, set or ports, webcam, etc. But even I wish my grandparents would get one, because it's simple to use and understand. If someone can teach you to use a microwave, someone can teach you to use an iPad. This just isn't true for more traditional keyboard and mouse based devices - despite my sincerest efforts, most people just don't get it. It's too complex and too unnatural. If you don't have to get an iPad right now but you want one eventually, you might be wise to wait for the 2nd or 3rd version, which will no doubt have a forward facing webcam, be faster, and cooler as Apple tries to stay competitive with what is sure to be a lot of competition.
The point is that while it's not going to pull away a huge amount of market share in your website analytics, it will be a significant amount, and it will create a lot of change. Not just the iPad, but the wide array of tablets about to hit the market. The form factor will be significant, and all the big names will have alternative sites and apps to cater to not just touch screens, but no-flash environments, and small screens.
Before I quote the email I'd just like to add my own heart felt sentiments: Please die Internet Explorer 6. Please die now. You're very old, insecure, and stupid. Please die fast but painfully for putting the world through extended support and allowing yourself to exist for what? almost 10 years now?!
Dear Google Apps admin,
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.
Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.
Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.
In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.
