Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it’s not your computer anymore
Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it’s not your computer anymore
Law #3: If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it’s not your computer anymore
Law #4: If you allow a bad guy to upload programs to your website, it’s not your website any more
Law #5: Weak passwords trump strong security
Law #6: A computer is only as secure as the administrator is trustworthy
Law #7: Encrypted data is only as secure as the decryption key
Law #8: An out of date virus scanner is only marginally better than no virus scanner at all
Law #9: Absolute anonymity isn’t practical, in real life or on the Web
Law #10: Technology is not a panacea
Source: 10 Immutable Laws of Security
The recent release of the MSN Toolbar Suite has led me to uninstall both Lookout and Google’s Toolbar. Check out the Channel 9 videos on the MSN Toolbar Suite to see why.
The MSN Search Team has just released a new beta for the MSN Toolbar Suite
Some of the features as listed on the website include:
– Find anything on your computer
– Find email messages
– Fill out forms online
– Block Pop-up ads
Now what’s kind of baffling is that even though all of the above features are provided for free, one would expect or hope that this would have come standard as part of the actual operating system. Nevertheless, if a tool can help with information retrieval then I’m all game.
If you’d like to try out the Google Suggest functionality that’s being discussed on the blogosphere follow the link listed below:
I assisted a client today who was experiencing very sluggish system performance on her Dell Inspiron 1150 after installing Windows XP SP2. After a quick Google/ Dell Forum search it appears that there are multiple people experiencing the same problem. Below are the steps I took to resolve the problem:
– Upgraded BIOS from A04 to A06 by running the BIOS update provided on the Dell Support Site
– Ran Dell’s QuickSet utility to configure the Power Settings for the laptop to be ‘always on’.
– Checked Windows Power Settings to confirm that the power scheme selected was set to something other than Portable/ Laptop
– Reset BIOS settings by pressing Alt + F
Some other recommendations:
– Roll back the processor driver that restores the processor.sys driver over the intelppm.sys installed by XP SP2.
If you’re going to rebuild a company’s customer service reputation and customer experience, good foundations to start building on include transparency, accountability and brutal, yet humbling honesty. Kudos to the Comcast team for starting down this path.
We’re holding ourselves accountable and we are working hard to make real improvements across the board. While it will take us some time, we can and will do better than this.
Source: A Public Apology to Conal O’Rourke.
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Leo Widrich, from Buffer, on Bad Customer Service Support
While at a conference recently, a vendor was using a Twitter activated vending machine from Innovative Vending Solutions.
Each Twitter-activated vending machine incorporates a touch-screen interface to display the instructions to the consumer. The consumer is prompted to “tweet” a specific #hashtag to a dedicated @handle from their mobile device. Once the consumer tweets the @ and #, a product is immediately dispensed from the machine. Apparently, the machine utilizes a unique hashtag that is specific to the machine, so you have to be standing directly in front of the machine in order to utilize this functionality.