Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.
Microsoft chose not to use the regular Flash plugin in Internet Explorer 10, deciding instead to integrate the player into the IE10 code. As a result, any time the Flash player is updated, Microsoft must make corresponding changes to IE10. Hence the delay in producing the patch for IE10. Google now does the same thing with their Chrome browser, but they tend to make the required changes much more quickly.
Ars Technica has a useful post showing how to remove the useless software (crapware) that comes pre-installed on Windows 8 computers. The specific software of course varies between PC manufacturers, but the general idea is the same in all cases: most, if not all, of the software added by PC builders can be safely removed.
The approach used in this article is to reinstall Windows 8 from scratch, which is certainly an effective way to get rid of crapware. However, simply disabling and uninstalling said crapware is usually sufficient.
A new exploit, targeted at users of older versions of Internet Explorer, recently surfaced. IE 9 and 10 are not vulnerable to this exploit.
Microsoft is working on a patch, but until it’s available, anyone using Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8 should exercise extreme caution when browsing the web, or – better yet – switch to a different browser such as Firefox, Opera or Chrome.
Unfortunately for anyone still using Windows XP, including a large number of corporate users, recent versions of IE (9 and 10) don’t run on that version of Windows. XP users are strongly encouraged to stop using Internet Explorer.
Brian Boyko’s 20+ minute animated video is an entertaining – albeit painful – look at the new Microsoft operating system. Spoiler: he hated it. Boyko originally intended to spend several days working with Windows 8, and produce his review on a Windows 8 computer, but he gave up in frustration and made this video instead. The video is worth watching; although some of what he says is admittedly personal opinion, he delves into the science of user interfaces and explains why in some respects, Windows 8 is worse than DOS.
This month’s Ouch! newsletter (PDF) from SANS lists the steps necessary for users to secure their computers. If you’re doing everything on this list, pat yourself on the back. If not, it’s time to take action.
The latest version of Google’s web browser has a few minor fixes, including one for a bug that caused the browser to crash in certain situations. Several security issues are also addressed in this version.
Rants and musings on topics of interest. Sometimes about Windows, Linux, security and cool software.
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