Pure Java™, Pure Evil™ Popups

Yet another good reason why everyone should install Firefox and use it. It is by far the better web browser, novice internet users just use IE because most of them think it IS the Internet and not just another (bad) piece of software. If you are one of them then take yourself to www.mozilla.com and start using a DECENT web browser. Oh yeah and don't try and tell me "well I use a Mac and Safari is the best" because you are WRONG. Firefox is on the Mac as well! When you've got firefox install the following plugins: FasterFox, FoxMarks, NoScript and if you're a developer FireBug.

Imagine you’re a web advertiser.
Imagine you can open a popup window from a web page defeating any popup blocker.
Imagine this popup can invade the whole desktop, full screen.
Imagine this popup has no title bar, no menus, no toolbar, no location bar, no border and no buttons. No mean to close it.
Imagine user can’t move or minimize this popup. It will go away only when the browser is killed or your show is done…

Now imagine you’re a phisher.
Imagine you can use this almighty popup to draw anything you want. A fake browser or — why not? — a whole fake desktop to collect user’s data.

Impossible wet dreams of clueless evildoers?
No, it’s just 100% Pure Java™ Reality.

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Vista = Disappointment

The first release of a Microsoft OS is ALWAYS crap, that's why people are waiting for the first service release. MS doesn't spend much on bug testing and lets us do it through trial and error. They don't call it a BETA because no-one would buy the damn thing!! The picture below is great too!

New numbers from web metrics firm Net Applications shows that Windows Vista’s rate of adoption is even worse than earlier believed. In fact Vista is still to reach a 5% market share, and June was the first month in Vista’s history to surpass the good old Windows 2000.

According to Net Applications’s report Windows Vista had a market share of just 4.52% at the end of June compared to only 0.18% in January, so it has been a growth. But if almost everyone is complaining about Vista, why are still people switching to Vista? Well the answer is simple, people are buying new PC’s and in most cases that PC comes pre-loaded with Windows Vista.

In an interview with Financial Times Deutschland, Acer president Gianfranco Lanci said:

The whole industry is disappointed with Windows Vista.

Despite the long wait between Windows XP and Vista, the latest operating system still lacks maturity. Stability is certainly a problem.

Users are voting with their feet, Lanci said, so that the Vista launch has had the smallest impact on PC sales of any version of Windows in the history of PC manufacturing. He added the situation didn't look likely to change in the next six months. And that a lot of people are still asking for XP to be loaded on their machines.

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How NSA access was built into Windows

A careless mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been secretly built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every version of the Windows operating system now in use, except early releases of Windows 95 (and its predecessors). The discovery comes close on the heels of the revelations earlier this year that another US software giant, Lotus, had built an NSA "help information"
trapdoor into its Notes system, and that security functions on other software systems had been deliberately crippled.

The first discovery of the new NSA access system was made two years ago by British researcher Dr Nicko van Someren. But it was only a few weeks ago when a second researcher rediscovered the access system. With it, he found the evidence linking it to NSA.

Computer security specialists have been aware for two years that unusual features are contained inside a standard Windows software "driver" used for security and encryption functions. The driver, called ADVAPI.DLL, enables and controls a range of security functions. If you use Windows, you will find it in the C:\Windows\system directory of your computer.

ADVAPI.DLL works closely with Microsoft Internet Explorer, but will only run crypographic functions that the US governments allows Microsoft to export. That information is bad enough news, from a European point of view. Now, it turns out that ADVAPI will run special programmes inserted and controlled by NSA. As yet, no-one knows what these programmes are, or what they do.

Dr Nicko van Someren reported at last year's Crypto 98 conference that he had disassembled the ADVADPI driver. He found it contained two different keys. One was used by Microsoft to control the cryptographic functions enabled in Windows, in compliance with US export regulations. But the reason for building in a second key, or who owned it, remained a mystery.

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