Binary Expressions

I finally did some work with my other web site, “The Kid’s Bookmarks“. The web site seems to be quite a hit for little child and with the parents too. I’ve repaired 3 broken links and the rest verified as valid links. Add 9 new games with a total of 69 games. Removed 1 game. See below for additional changes and possible new features coming to the web site. Please send in your comments or suggestions. This site was made for the kids and parents. So let’s here some feedback!

New Features Coming Soon (possibly)

• Game descriptions for older children and parents.
• Game categories or pages to allow for faster loading site and room for additional games.
• Multiple Web Site Editions - This would allow for separation of games and the site to grow with the children as the get older. This would mean I would break the site up into age ranges. Not sure how this will work at this point.

New Game Additions

• Super-Fishing
• Simon
• Clowns
• Turbo Spirit
• Table Hockey
• Space Invaders
• Astroys
• Busy Burgers
• Luigi’s Revenge Interactive
• Easter Egg Hop

Games Removed

• Barney Online - Seems to be something wrong with it and not much there anymore.

For awhile now Sony BMG, has been under a bright spot light of criticism for protecting their music CDs with an XCP Rootkit. I WARN everyone stay clear of these discs. The protection is a violation of your rights and it physically changes the way your Windows operating system acts, makes the system unstable and opens the door to huge security risks. Not to mention the software goes back to Sony BMG’s site to report what content you are viewing/listening to.

For further details on the XCP Rootkit and how to remove it, use the below resources. I’ll leave this up to the experts. A complete and well explained coverage of this is in the podcast Security Now, episode #12. Listen to the show it’s great and in words anyone can understand.

Source: Security Now - Episode #12 - Sony’s “Rootkit Technology” DRM (copy protection gone bad)
Source: Finally! Full List of CDs Infected with XCP Rootkit
Source: Rootkit
Source: Boycott Sony

SANS has released/updated there Top 20 Vulnerabilities. I would advise everyone to at least glance as this report and try to implement some of the recommendations. This report is quite technical but it’s vital that we start looking out for ourselves and protecting our computers and property. Fight back and stand up for what we work hard for.

For those not familiar, SANS is a world wide trusted institute for computer security, training, certification and research. They know what they are talking about and it’s all backed by facts and examples on how the vulnerabilities are exploited.

Source: SANS Top 20 Vulnerabilities

Security Advisory (September 9, 2005) The Mozilla Foundation is aware of a potentially critical security vulnerability in Mozilla and Firefox browsers’ support for IDN, as reported publicly on September 8. There are currently no known active exploits of this vulnerability although a “proof of concept” has been reported. To protect yourself against this exploit, follow these instructions.

Source: Mozilla Foundation Security Center
Source: What Firefox and Mozilla users should know about the IDN buffer overflow security issue

After selling unopened copies of Windows XP and Office that both the store and Microsoft refused to allow him to return, 21 year-old college student David Zamos was surprised to find out that he’d been sued by Microsoft. Rather than just take it, he fought back, beating Microsoft into submission without so much as hiring a lawyer.

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This is old news by now but I had to comment on this because it just blew me away.

I came across this article talking about the lost of computer systems in the British government. This is obscured amount of missing computer systems. 153 lost last year alone and 23 lost this year. I’m sorry but this is udderly ridiculous. I would be demanding as to why this is happening and what is going to be done about it. There should be no reason for this occurring, period! Maybe I’m out to lunch of internal/external theft within a organization but please there must be something that can be done. It’s great that the numbers has been dramatically reduced however stating that this is “similar in percentage terms to any large organization” and stating that they have policies to encrypt the data so it’s safe. Come on people, encryption can be broken especially for a price. It’s nice they have such a policy but lets get things straight here.

Source: Channel Register
Source: eGov Monitor

This is so amazing I even have a hard time believing this is real. It’s best described by looking at the web site page by page. In brief a guy draws blobs in virtual space within the dimensions of a real life room. A must see/read.

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This is quite shocking news. Microsoft is actually claiming they are going to adopt the XML file format in the up coming Microsoft Office 12 (expected in 2006) applications. Too top it off even further Microsoft is going to be publishing the XML Open Format on a royalty-free basis to the industry. I hope this is going to happen exactly as it’s stated. This is great news for everyone. Finally decent file format that produce a file 75% smaller then Office 2003. Finally interoperability customers have been asking for, for years. This is also great news for other third party developers. Support for Microsoft’s file format should be possible to be very close if not 100%.

Source: The Register - Microsoft adopts XML for Office formats

Hey guys I’m back sorry for not writing any blogs but I’ve been really busy with my new computer and playing Battlefield 1942. I just found out that there is a new Battlefield coming out on June 21, 2005. I got to say from looking at the screen shots its pretty good graphics. Now you have to know that it is not an expansion for Battlefield 1942. Its just a continuation of Battlefield 1942. The name of it is Battlefield 2 and for you people that are not familiar with this computer (only) game. It is a war strategy game set in the WW II. Battlefield 2 is about a hypothetical war in the near future between three powerful factions which are the United States, China, and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition. The armies use modern weapons. The new feature for BF2 are new game play engine, realistic physics and dynamic lighting, material penetration and destructible environments. Server admins can set maps to use 16, 32 or 64 player versions to provide the ideal vehicle-to-player ratio. Custom maps can be made to scale to fit any number of players. Now I bet your thinking what about the vehicles, are there new ones. Well there is 40 new vehicles to choose from. If you want to look at them go to Wikipedia - Battlefield 2. There is also mods, some of them are: Battlefield Advanced, Battlefield Firefighter, Battlefield Apocalypse, Final Front, Flashpoint Balkan, Generals of Battlefield, Kuril Island Conflict and more. If any of you want to find more info on Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 1942 just go to Wikipedia - Battlefield 1942 and Wikipedia - Battlefield 2. I would really recommend it. Its really fun and I myself can’t wait until Battlefield 2 is released.

A rumour has started and appears to originated from Slashdot that Microsoft might buy Red Hat. Who knows if this is a rumour is false or if it’s true. Frankly I hope it’s false. I can see business reasons but it worries me that yet again Microsoft would just push there weight around and squash Red Hat out of existence or even worse attempt to start developing there own Linux distribution. Oh man that is scary. They can’t get things right in there own OS what would happen if they started playing with Linux or Unix. Time will tell whether this is a rumour or a fact.

Source: More Microsoft/Linux by John Klossner Cartoons
Google News It: Microsoft Buy Red Hat

I have great news. Some of the cast of The Screen Savers (prior to G4 take over) are getting together to make a weekly audio broadcast called The Revenge of The Screen Savers. Now the name of the show is a working title due to the fact that G4 still has the rights to name “The Screen Savers”. For now it’s just “The Revenge Of The *COMING SOON*” :-). So far Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose, Patrick Norton, Yoshi and Robert Heron are doing the audio broadcast. Apparently they are using Skype to record the broadcast with each other. Pretty cool if you ask me. I’ve yet to use Skype but I’m setup to try with someone that has an account there. So far I’m not convinced to use it since to me why not use the audio features built into your favorite instant messenger which most people have. Anyways “The Revenge of The *COMING SOON*” already has two episodes released. I highly recommend checking this content out. I’m a big fan of all these guys and always keep up to date on what they are up to. It would be great to meet some of them or even do some tech segments with them.

Official Web Site: The Revenge of The *COMING SOON*

A recent study done by ScanIT (an Internet security consultancy) has shown that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) has been found to be unsafe 98% of the time. This comes to be as no surprise. The lack of support and seriousness of security by Microsoft has lead IE down the path of a useless browser. I’ve fixed endless systems due to the result of IE. I’m not saying other web browser agents are perfect but it’s the approach to security and designing the web browser agent for the user to have control instead of the application having the control. Who knows the accuracy of this report done by ScanIT but this still proves a point how dangerous IE is. Which ever side you are on the study is an interesting read.

News Source: Geek News Central