Archive for April, 2002

Dave Winer: The real cost of XML tags

Friday, April 19th, 2002

Sean McGrath speaks to the dark side of XML tagging in this cogent article. He’s right. When the people who are making the dogfood don’t have to eat it, there’s bound to be trouble. For example: “In XML land, not only are the equivalent of “global variables” created with wild abandon, but their creators often see fit to invoice based on the number they create for you. An unfortunate schism exists in XML software development between the team that develops the schema and the team processing the XML that conforms to the schema. Too often, these are not the same teams.”

Virginia Tech Police Seize and Search a Professor’s Computer in Vandalism Case

Tuesday, April 9th, 2002

Chronicle of Higher Ed: Virginia Tech Police Seize and Search a Professor’s Computer in Vandalism Case

Cracks in the Firewall

Tuesday, April 9th, 2002

Cracks in the Firewall. Business Week Apr 8 2002 11:58PM ET [Moreover - Computer security news]

Internet Explorer SuperCookies bypass P3P and cookie controls

Monday, April 8th, 2002

Richard Smith via NTBugTraq: Internet Explorer SuperCookies bypass P3P and cookie controls

There is a significant privacy problem with Internet Explorer because of a design flaw in the Windows Media Player (WMP). Using simple Javascript code on a Web page, a Web site can grab the unique ID number of the Windows Media Player belonging to a Web site visitor. This ID number can then be used just like a cookie by Web sites to track a user’s travels around the Web.

However this ID number becomes a SuperCookie because it can be used by Web sites to bypass all of the new privacy and P3P protections that Microsoft has added to Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). IE6 ships today with all Windows XP systems. SuperCookies also work in all previous versions of Internet Explorer with all older versions of Windows.

CEO of Brilliant Defends Sneaky Installation

Friday, April 5th, 2002

Slashdot | CEO of Brilliant Defends Sneaky Installation Practices. [Privacy Digest]

CEO of Brilliant Defends Sneaky Installation Practices

Thursday, April 4th, 2002

CEO of Brilliant Defends Sneaky Installation Practices [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

Stealth P2P network hides inside Kazaa

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2002

cnet news.com: Stealth P2P network hides inside Kazaa “A California company has quietly attached its software to millions of downloads of the popular Kazaa file-trading program and plans to remotely “turn on” people’s PCs, welding them into a new network of its own.”

McAfee punts proactive virus protection

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2002

McAfee punts proactive virus protection. ThreatScan [The Register]

Sun raises curtain (a little) on Solaris 9

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2002

Sun raises curtain (a little) on Solaris 9. New default thread library (for better multiprocessor scaling). Remote Jump Start. In 12-18 months, a Jump Start management scheme dubbed iChange. [The Register]