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This is the main blog for Mike McBride Online, where you can keep track of everything I'm in to in one place.
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| Friday, September 13, 2002
More IE Service pack issues Found another potential problem with the installation of Internet Explorer 6 SP1. Apparently it adds and automatically checks a checkbox on your Tools/Options/Security tab that tells OE to "Not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus." Nice idea, but the "potential virus" attachments I just tested it with, a plain text file, a .jpg file, a zip and a .pdf that are all obviously not virus-infected, I had no access to them until I unchecked the box. Word and Excel files, on the other hand, went through just fine. (Insert your own anti-MS crack here. *L*) I think that feature is a bit much. How are people supposed to share photos? (A very common practice!) Although, you have to give them some credit for giving you a simple check-box to turn it off. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 2:56 PM | 0 comments | 
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Bizarre stuff So I installed SP1 for Internet Explorer 6 yesterday and immediately had some problems with it. I don't know how, or why, but immediately after restarting I opened up IE and what sounded like a mangled .wav file played for about 30 seconds, then stopped. But no other sounds will play because the sound device is in use. The .wav got quiet but never really stopped tying up the resource. I tried reinstalling the SoundMax drivers to no avail. I was already having a problem with IE not responding when I tried to shutdown, even though I had closed all the IE windows, so I think once the new Dell arrives and I get everything moved over, I'll just re-image this machine back to a default configuration and start over before passing it along to anyone else. I also have a user who sends out a file as an attachment, only instead of the file being attached, he gets an earlier version of the same file as his attachment. I've emptied his Temp folder, and am going to delete all old email attachments that have the old, before revisions, file on them and see if maybe it's just a matter of a ghost temp file running over the actual attachment. Any other ideas that I may be missing? It's going to be one of those days, I can tell already. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 9:37 AM | 0 comments |
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Thursday, September 12, 2002
Intel's new chips Courtesy of John Robb comes this article about Intel putting in some security measures in their new chips, due next year. John's response: "Intel to include copy protection functionality in new chips. I personally won't ever buy a chip with type of stuff on it. Unless there is an alternative, my aggressive upgrade cycle has ended (I usually buy the high-end chips and pay a premium). I hope other people feel the same way. The same goes for Microsoft's Palladium." Now I normally like John's blog, but is this an overreaction or what? What does the article say John? Let's take a look: Paul Otellini, Intel’s president and chief operating officer, said the company doesn’t plan to offer any copy protection as part of LaGrande. But he acknowledged that the technology could be a foundation for other companies to do so, possibly working with Microsoft. So Intel doesn't plan on adding it, but certainly if some hardware manufacturers wanted to add it to a pre-built system, they could. But they don't have to, there's a choice! Also: Similarly with LaGrande, Mr. Otellini stressed that users can switch on or off the security features. He added that the company has had talks with Hollywood firms about the technology and antipiracy techniques, a field sometimes called DRM, for digital rights management. “We have this philosophy on content, that Hollywood ought to protect it at its source,” Mr. Otellini said. Again, Intel is going to build it with users having the ability to turn it off. That's a good thing. It gives the users choices, always a plus. Now with the users ability to turn it off, it's useless to Hollywood, so they will have to go find hardware OEM's willing to disable that ability of users. Will they find some? Yeah probably, but will they find others who won't, or will you have the ability to go to Intel, buy the chip as it is originally and build your own system? Yes! Again with the choices! I don't see where jumping all over Intel for introducing something that gives consumers options is called for. Believe it or not, there are plenty of reasons to buy a machine with anti-copying built-in to it and have it be unable to be turned off by users. Sounds pretty ideal for a workplace environment, doesn't it? Never worry about your users making illegal software copies, or burning cd's on company time, or even being able to get a virus, or crappy software that damages the system? Have it built that way by default, instead of having to spend time making configuration changes and then hoping users don't know how to hack them anyway. Sounds pretty nice to most IT folks, I bet. I think it'll be awhile before we can say for sure whether this chip is a good thing or a bad thing for consumers. No sense in jumping on the judgement train before all the facts are out. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 3:43 PM | 0 comments |
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Morning News As a followup to that article I told you about previously. It now seems that the Greek Court has thrown out the anti-gaming law. More follow up on Trillian Pro from Absoblogginlutely. I agree, a free trial period would be a pretty big plus. I've determined to wait and see how other people's experiences go before I pay the $25 for it. If there was a free trial period, I'd jump at it right now, but I need to make sure it works before I go there. I suppose you all already know about Windows XP Service Pack 1 and the Internet Explorer 6 SP1, right? If you don't know about them, where have you been? :) I need to do some testing on IE6SP1 before we roll it out here. I suppose when my new Dell comes in with XP, I'll have to install SP1 on that before I start working on it. Would be embarrassing for me to be the one person in the office having security problems. *L* Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 9:12 AM | 0 comments |
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Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Thank you! Given the date, and also considering my promise to not make myself part of the remembrances, I still feel the need to say something. No, not about Sept. 11, or anything like that, because those thoughts are private, and personal. But to take a moment, as we all should this day, to appreciate all the people that I truly care about. Angela will get to hear about how much I love her and how wonderful this first year of marriage has been later, in person, but I also wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you. The people who read the drivel I have to say, the people who contribute to this site, the bloggers who inspire me, educate me, or just entertain me. You all contribute to making the things I do here worthwhile, and for that I have to say that you are all truly appreciated on this day, and every day! I wish you all the best! Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 9:01 AM | 0 comments |
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Trillian Pro Trillian has released Pro version 1.0. For a paltry $25 you get Trillian, but you also get added plugin capabilities, like an RSS aggregator, a POP3 mail-checker, a Winamp playlist builder, Stock checker, weather, etc. All of this right in your IM environment. It sounds pretty neat, I may just have to fork out the $25 and give it a spin. By the way, they also released version 0.74 of the free Trillian program, which will apparently still be around and be free. That's awesome! Later: Erik has more about the Pro plugins. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 8:50 AM | 0 comments |
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Tuesday, September 10, 2002
News items Couple of quick links to interesting things: Online Blog has the explanation for what's been going on with Daypop. Turns out the owner is in Italy and is unable to fix it from there! Dan Bricklin presents us with The Recording Industry is Trying to Kill the Goose That Lays the Golden Egg. Good stuff about the real reasons for the decline in CD sales and a bunch of other stuff with the record companies. (link lifted from Steven Vore) Meanwhile, Doc has links to all the latest on the RIAA suits against P2P networks, as he usually does! Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 10:02 AM | 0 comments |
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The day The only reference I plan to make to Sept. 11 on my sites. And this one only to explain why you won't see any others..:) Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 8:32 AM | 0 comments |
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Monday, September 09, 2002
Traveling Fred Langa has an interesting article on traveling with laptops and other assorted electronic devices. There's some good points about airport security and how some people are using the increased airport security to try and get you separated from your laptop so they can walk off with it from the checkpoints. Or you could, like me, just drive if you're wanting to take the laptop. :) Speaking of which, the weekend of Sept. 21-22 is our one year Wedding Anniversary. Angela and I are taking a quick flight to Chicago (Leave Saturday morning, return Sunday night.) to see the city and meet an old friend of hers who is living there now. I'm not taking the laptop for that adventure. It's all about celebrating our anniversary, not updating the site! I'm sure there will be pictures when we return though! Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 12:34 PM | 0 comments |
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