Twin Pines Technologies

What were you doing on August 24th, 1995? Well, that was the day that Microsoft launched Windows 95. Yep, the beginning of the modern Graphical User Interface. I still remember using Windows 3.1 before that!

In 15 years, Microsoft has released 8 different desktop Operating Systems, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows ME (Yuck!), Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. There were also several other versions of Windows for mobile devices such as CE, Windows Mobile (several versions), etc.

Looking at where our desktop computers were in 1995 compared to today is amazing! I remember running Windows 95 on an Intel 486 at 100 MHz with 8 MB of RAM and a 1.2 GB Hard Drive. Now, a basic computer comes with a dual-core 2.7 GHz (2,700 MHz times Two) and at least a Gigabyte of RAM (1024 MB). To put that into a bit of perspective, the Apollo Flight Guidance Computer had 2 processors running at 2.048 MHz!

That’s all for a trip down memory lane today.

Microsoft released an “out-of-band” patch for a critical vulnerability in links. This vulnrability involved lnk files and shortcuts and could allow an attacker to take control of your computer.

Normally, Microsoft releases all Windows Updates on the second Tuesday of each month. This vulnerability is critical enough to warrant a release outside of the normal schedule.

Here is a link to the Microsoft bulletin.

I highly recommend that everybody run Windows Updates immediately to ensure that you get this update installed.

Frontier internet service is down nationwide. I have called in to support and was told there is no ETA yet for the repair.

I just came across an interesting read about the now infamous bad capacitor problems that plagued Dell, HP, and other manufacturers through 2005. Here’s the link. What is interesting is how hard Dell worked to hide the problem from customers and in some cases actually used the motherboard failures to try to upsell higher end hardware to customers.

I see several older desktops a month that are affected by these bad capacitors. Most of them are either Dell or eMachines. However, I have seen other brands have the same problem. I believe the difference is in how fast each individual brand was to replace faulty motherboards vs trying to hide the problem. Additionally, Dell replaced faulty boards with new boards that had the same faulty capacitors.

Are you running Internet Explorer 8? If you have Windows Updates turned on, chances are yes.  Well, I have a fun treat for you. Web Slices!

IE8 has the capability to add “Web Slices” to its interface. When you install a Web Slice, it creates a link on your favorites bar that you can click on and see specific updates from a website without going there. Facebook is a perfect example. Here’s a sample image showing what the webslice can do:

Picture of the facebook webslice

Where can you get webslices? Some websites will have the green webslice logo on them (similar idea to the RSS feed logo, but green instead), however, the easiest place is http://www.ieaddons.com/en/webslices/

I recently came across a Microsoft Lab project that looks very interesting. Photosynth allows you to stitch together photos for a panorama or a 3D image then share it on the web.

To see some really cool action, select the link to view Photosynths on Bing maps, then click to zoom in. It is really amazing how the two interfaces were merged together.

Yes, there is a new form of threat out in the wild. Tab Napping! Sounds sinister…and it is.

Basically, there is a new class of malware that targets users that use multiple tabs. It monitors your browser tabs for activity and will hijack whichever one that you are not using. The hijack will try to replace the real site with a fake version. Usually, this happes with bank websites and the average user just suspects that the bank automatically logged them out for inactivity.

There are some steps you can take to protect yourself:

Reference Link here.

PC Magazine (link) is reporting a new zero day vulnerability with Flash 10.0.045.2 and the current version of Adobe Reader for both PCs and MACs. Unfortunately, the only version of Adobe Flash that is not vulnerable is the 10.1 Release Candidate. Acrobat Reader 9.x is also vulnerable to this same zero-day attack. Adobe reports that the 8.x line of Adobe reader is safe from this risk…however, there are other risks that the 8.x version are open to.

This puts IT Professionals in a bit of a bind. We always try to ensure all systems are updated to the latest current release in order to provide protection. Release Candidates are not fully tested yet, so there may be some issues that can cause performance problems.

If you would like to try to safeguard your computer, please review the directions in the PC Mag link provided above. But, be aware that those same steps may need to be reversed when an update becomes available.

The safest way to protect yourself is to ensure that your anti-virus, anti-spyware, and your firewall is up to date and running properly.