This isn't exactly breaking news, but there's a very nasty bug in Windows 2000, XP and 2003 that has just recently been revealed being called the "WMF vulnerability." The bug has to do with a vulnerable function in GDI32.DLL library that can allow a malicious hacker/web site to install a virus/spyware on your computer.
What makes this bug extremely dangerous is any program that views images (such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc) is vulnerable.
Microsoft is claiming that there will not be an "official" patch for this bug until next week. However, this thing is nasty enough that everyone running Windows 2000, XP or 2003 should take some kind of action now.
Jim Rutherford over at Digital Media Minute blogged about a next generation JavaScript console which is a Firefox v1.5 extension called Console².
This extension adds a lot of necessary functions to the Firefox JavaScript Console window (which is renamed "Error Console") such as: sorting errors, filtering errors by type (CSS, JS, XML) and you can even search over the errors.
One tip, the "Clear" button isn't on the toolbar by default. To add it you'll need to right-click the toolbar and choose "Customize". Not sure why they didn't add the "Clear" button by default—seems like a button that's absolutely necessary. I know it's a button I use pretty much any time I have the JavaScript console open.
The Viamatic foXpose plug-in is an extension for Firefox v1.5 that will show all your open tabs in single window with thumbnail previews of the window.I've seen this blogged about a lot recently, but finally tried it out based upon an IM from Cameron Childress.
I was worried that the plug-in would be too CPU intensive, but it does really seem to negatively affect my performance in Firefox. Plus, it's really slick being able to see thumbnails of all my open tabs.
You can activate foXpose by either pressing [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[X] or by clicking the pane icon in the lower-right hand corner of the window.
John Dowdell posted about a possible buffer overflow bug in Firefox v1.5.
I'm not sure why you wouldn't cap the document.title object at 256 or 1024 characters. There's really no reason why you should be able to dump that many chars into that property anyway.
So, if you find Firefox v1.5 is crashing everytime you start the application, try deleting your history.dat. Actually, I'd recommend renaming it to history.bak that way you don't lose everything if it doesn't fix the problem.
I often find myself needing to open up a command line on a specific directory. Since Windows Explorer is almost always open on my machine while I'm developing, it makes perfect since that I'd want to use Windows Explorer to open up a command line prompt in a specific directory via the context menu. How can you do this you ask? You edit the registry.
This is not a new tip. It's been around since Windows 95. There's even been a Microsoft PowerToy that does this for every version of Windows, but essentially all it does is create some registry entries for you. I prefer manually editing the registry, as I then have complete control over how I want the listing to appear.
I caught this on Blogzilla. If you have Firefox v1.5, this is very cool. The <canvas> tag looks pretty slick, but since only Firefox supports it, I can't see much use for it right now.
New in Firefox 1.5 is support of the <canvas> tag, which is a new HTML element that can be used to draw graphics using JavaScript. It's not SVG, even though it overlaps functionality with SVG.
Rafael Robayna has created a simple painter demo. A little more detailed is the first-person shooter demonstration.
While both are a little slow and not so smooth, it's still cool to see something like this is possible.
More on <canvas> tag:
Mozilla Developer entry for Canvas
Mozilla Wiki entry for Canvas
I was just recently tipped off about a pretty cool replacement for the Windows Quicklaunch bar called True Launch Bar v3.2. Overall, it seems to be a really good enhancement to Windows XP. The only thing I've found that I dislike is that I haven't found a good way to apply configuaration changes across different toolbars (you have the ability to customize each toolbar to behave differently--which is great, but often I want to make the same change across multiple toolbars.) I'm sure there's probably a way to do this and I just haven't figured it out.
I've always used multiple toolbars, I usually have the default "Quick Launch" toolbar and then a couple others for Remote Desktop Connections, VPNs Connections and Games. The nice thing about the True Launch Bar is you can configure a bunch of different virtual folders on a toolbar to really customize how Windows XP works. They even have "plug-ins" which are active items that run in a toolbar.
So, I've broken my taskbar into 3 different toolbars. The "Quick Launch" bar, a "Virtual Folders" bar and a "Plug-ins" bar. The Quick Launch bar shows the default items in the Quick Launch bar. I use these for the applications I use every single day that I want one-click access to. The "Virtual Folders" bar consist of icon shortcuts that pop-up a folder of shortcuts (which can contain subfolders.) Basically think of this as a bunch of specialized "All Program" folders. My "Plug-ins" bar currently has two plugins in it—the Battery Life and Wireless Signal plug-ins. These give me live feedback on my battery status and my WiFi connectivity.
Firefox v1.5 is being released today. The website still says RC3 is the latest build, but you should see an official announcement later today (probably between 6pm-9pm EST.)
I ran across this application a few weeks ago and have been using it since. It's a pretty slick replacement for the old Windows ALT/TAB application switcher. It has a lot more features and includes thumbnail previews of your windows. This works a lot better than the Windows XP Power Toy. Plus, you can configured it to minimize applications to the systray instead of the taskbar—which is useful for applications like Thunderbird which don't do that natively (although I use an application called ThunderTray for doing that w/Thunderbird.)
Oh yeah, it's totally free! For more information, click the link below:
Looking for help building Regular Expressions? The Regex Coach looks like a very promising tool for doing just that. The program is designed to specifically mimic the Perl RegEx Engine, but it should be helpful for other languages as well (like Java, Python, PHP, etc) that use Perl-like syntax. I came across this useful looking tool in a message that came across CF-Talk recently.
For all of you running Firefox, you really should upgrade your version immediately. The Washington Post has reported a severe security hole that can allow a malicious hacker to take control of your PC.
Upgrade to Firefox v1.07 now by downloading it from the Firefox Product page.
Came across this pretty cool little product called BlackDog. It's basic a 400Mhz PowerPC Processor with Debian-based Linux in a plug-n-play USB box. Could be very useful portable development server. Check it out.
BlackDog offers open source developers an exciting new platform for mobilizing software applications. BlackDog represents a new breed of device that redefines what a 'computer' is. It can be programmed to carry your applications, data, web sites, desktop look and feel, with you, wherever you may go.
Develop applications and deploy them on BlackDog then launch and automatically project them onto a Windows PC. Design an interface, spin and run a web site, run a video game.
Program It — Port It — Plug It — Pull It, throw it in your pocket and do what you will with it — With BlackDog you 'can' take it with you!
Apparently the world is coming to an end on Sept 29th—or at least that will be the beginning of the end. My favorite quote is problem:
Some humans will be saved, and Johnson says many are already being abducted to other planets to be used as super computers.
It's great that we as human have such great intellect and capacity for learning, but I would think that civilization that has the ability to travel through solar systems, wouldn't need humans for their knowledge. Granted, we use only a small portion of our brains, but I'm thinking they wouldn't need us for brains (maybe our good looks though.) Dr. Johnson has a theory on how humans will be used as super computers.
I was watching a re-run of The Screen Savers today and they had a guest on who showed off a browser toolbar addon called SpoofStick.
The idea behind this toolbar is that it will resolve the actual website you're on and display the name of the server. Some of you may be thinking: "Why is this useful? When I go to a site I know what site I'm on." Or do you?
One of the most commonly used techniques by hackers attempting to gather person information about users (such as your credit card number or PayPal account,) is to send an e-mail address that looks official which provides a link to "update your personal information." These messages often look legit and the websites they take you too often look they way you'd expect them to—however, they're not actually the official website; it's a copy of the site on a hacker controlled server.
Some news is just stranger than fiction. Take this article about a penis pumping/masturbating judge. I guess that's why they were those long flowing robes. Seriously though, can this actually be true? I can't imagine anyone thinking they could get away with this, but then again, I've heard a lot of stranger stories.