WTVN Radio • Columbus, Ohio • Sunday morning from 8 until 9
Who's in the corner?
|
|
WTVN Radio • Columbus, Ohio • Sunday morning from 8 until 9 |
|
| Home
• Previous
page Who's in the corner? |
|
|
| |
| Sunday, February 9, 2003 |
Random thought:
|
 |
|
Opera problems announced, fixedLast week, I told you about the new version of Opera and how well it works. I've heard from several people who tried it and liked it. I'm still testing Opera as my primary browser on one computer and I've been quite happy with it. But ... Early last week, GreyMagic of Israel reported 5 security flaws in Opera, 3 of them "critical". Before the end of the week, Opera had released a new version (7.01) that resolved all 5. GreyMagic says that, as released, Opera 7's security model was highly vulnerable. There were errors in the default cross-domain security model that could allow outsiders full access to your computer. Needless to say, if you're using Opera, you'll want to download the revised version. Any browser with JavaScript support should attempt to prevent documents from one domain from gaining access documents in other domains. Opera 7 allowed JavaScript running in window in one domain to execute functions in a window that's in a different domain. It would be possible for others to read any file or directory on your system and read any e-mail sent or received with Opera's e-mail program, M2. Security flaw number 2, according to GreyMagic, affects Opera's JavaScript console. The console uses 3 HTML files, one of which lists all the logic used by the console. This includes unhandled errors. A logic error in the console file would allow a cracker to send commands to the user's system. The third flaw involves a failure to encode characters in URL strings. This could give cracker's access to directories and -- even if they don't know the names of any directories on the user's computer, Opera provides access to its own installation directory via "localhost". The first 3 flaws are the most serious, but even the less serious problems can make your private information available to a hostile website. GreyMagic says Opera 7 exposes the "next" and "previous" methods, which give a hacker access to specific URLs. As released, Opera 7 would allow any website to review any error messages the user has encountered, and these can include specific URLs. In other words, a website operator who wanted to know where you'd been could easily discover that information. Opera responded quickly and correctly to the report from GreyMagic, first acknowledging the flaws and then releasing a patch that fixed all of the flaws. The time between the initial report and the release of the patch: just 5 days. A standing ovation for Opera, please! You'll find the update at Opera's website. Video, audio, and photos merge on your PCYour next computer will probably have some sort of "superdrive" -- a device that will read and write both CDs and DVDs. You'll see more software for producing audio and video, for combining photos into slide shows, and for burning CDs and DVDs that you can send to others -- maybe even others who don't have the latest hardware. Adaptec has a line of products called VideOh! that allow amateur video producers to go where it's been difficult to go until now. The VideOh products make it possible to convert analog video (the kind you created when you made VHS, Beta, 8mm, or Hi8 recordings) to digital, edit it in your computer, combine it with digital video (the kind you new digital video camera produces), and then put the new edited video on a DVD or video CD. That sounds like a tall order, and it is. It's not exactly perfect, yet, either. After installing the evaluation unit, I discovered that I couldn't see any video. The system was accepting video and recording it onto the hard drive, but I couldn't see it in the preview window. With the help of Adaptec's support folks, I found that the problem was video resolution. My screen was set to 1280x1024 (the preferred resolution for the LCD monitor I use). Changing the resolution to 1024x768 took care of the problem. Overall, though, VideOh lives up to is promises -- "convert, create, and share."
The main drawback continues to be a compatibility problem: Not all DVD players will play all DVDs. The manufacturers are working to resolve that problem. VideOh comes in 3 versions -- one that you install in your computer and two that are external. Both of the external devices connect to the computer via USB -- one is for the new USB 2.0 specification and can handle much higher resolution video and the other runs under USB 1.1 (called by manufacturers -- deceptively, as far as I'm concerned -- "USB Full Speed"). I point that out here not because Adaptec is trying to fool anyone because they're not. Adaptec specifies USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 -- but some manufacturers will tell you that you have "USB Full Speed" and you'll think you have the new version. I spoke with VideOh product marketing manager Darrell Hill ... For more information about VideOh, see Adaptec's website. Two (or more) must-have products from RoboMagicEvery now and then a shareware product comes along that is so useful and so reasonably priced that deciding whether to spend the money for it takes all of about 15 seconds. RoboMagic (formerly known as LocutusWare) has a good track record for programs like that. An application I bought several years is called "WetSocks". And, no, it's not a computer program that monitors your feet and lets you know when your socks are wet. The "sock" part of the name is short for "socket", the means by which your computer communicates with the Internet. What WetSocks does is monitor up to 10 cities (just one in the shareware version) so that you'll know what the temperature is, what weather alerts have been issued for the city, and the full text forecast). The information is available for hundreds of cities around the world. WetSocks has been running on my computer for many years. Because I've had some problems with website host companies in the past few weeks, I wanted to find a way to monitor performance on a regular basis. RoboMagic came through for me with Site/C. The shareware version will monitor any one website at whatever interval you wish and keep track of when it's working and when it's not. When there's a problem, Site/C logs it and can send an e-mail or buzz a pager. The registered version can handle any number of websites. After trying it for a few minutes, I decided to buy it. Not so fast, bub!Before buying Site/C, I thought I'd check out AutoReply, a program that watches your e-mail inbox and can send automatic replies. This is something I use for clients and I'd bought a rather expensive program that was hard to use. I found AutoReply (at 1/10th the price of the other program) to be easy to use. While AutoReply doesn't do everything the high-priced program does, it does more than enough -- and that includes tracking addresses so that the person who writes to you 10 times a day won't receive 10 autoresponse messages. RoboMagic has several other products that you might find useful, too. To find out more, see RoboMagic's website. Nerdly NewsPlaying with your phoneNokia says that Eidos, Activision, and THQ plan to develop games for Nokia's hand-held video game player as it tries to increase revenue by taking market share from Nintendo. When the games work on Nokia's standalone unit, they'll also work on Nokia's phones because the "N-Gage" player -- scheduled to hit stores late this year -- will also be as a mobile phone. Sega and Taito have previously said they would cooperate with Nokia, so mobile phone users will have yet another distraction to deal with. The games by established developers, but Nokia is starting from zero in a market already owned by the NintendoGame Boy Advance. Nokia says the new phones will allow users to play alone or to play competitively with other users who are within about 30 feet because the games will be Bluetooth enabled, too. Beware the blog!Seems like everybody has a blog. Not me. Not yet, anyway. A "blog" (short for "Web log"), is an online diary or journal. The blogger posts comments and opinions. Some allow others to post replies. Some of them are useful. Many are not, but they're important now so Tripod is getting in on the act. Terra Lycos has announced the launch of Tripod Blog Builder that allows Tripod's members to publish their own blogs. Located at, http://blog.tripod.lycos.com/, Blog Builder adds to Tripod's portfolio of technology tools. Lycos says the application is designed to be easy to use so that a user can set up a blog in just a few minutes. Tripod provides consumers with tools to create an online journal or Web site at prices ranging from $5 to $20 per month. Let us know what you think about this program! Write to: |
|
|
Privacy Guarantee:I HATE SPAM and will not sell, rent, loan, auction, trade, or do anything else with your e-mail address. Period.
|
As if you didn't already get enough weather on the radio! Annoying legal disclaimer [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
||
