[MikesWhatsNews] MWN #554

["Mike" <mikebike@xxxxxxxxx>]

MikesWhatsNews, 19, 09, 2002
in today's issue #554
Mozilla & Netscape-based browsers expose people's Web surfing data
Scout's Game
What is ActiveX
iCopy
XPdite
Fast Boot
Tina's FrontPage Tips
CCC   Spychaser
        Short Cut to Maximize
____________________________________________________________
NOTE: Any time you see the "  ++ ",  it means there is more 
          of the article, or story, on the linked site. Mike
____________________________________________________________

Mozilla-based browsers expose people's Web surfing data 
http://www.pcflank.com/news170902.htm
Netscape and other Web browsers based on the Mozilla development project
contain a flaw that exposes people's Web surfing data, according to a
security alert posted on Bugtraq mailing list. 

The flaw reveals the URL of the page a user is viewing to the Web server of
the site last visited. This allows a Web server to track where people go
next after they leave the site, regardless of whether the URL is entered
manually or via a bookmark. 

Reportedly the bug is present in Mozilla 0.9x, 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.1 and 1.2
alpha. It also appears in browsers based on Mozilla's technology, including
Netscape 6.x and 7; Galeon 1.2.x and Chimera 0.5. 

The problem lies with a component called "onunload," Sven Neuhaus a
researcher who discovered the bug, said. 

To fix the hole manually users should switch off JavaScript. In addition to
disabling JavaScript, users can avoid the bug by creating a file "user.js"
in the profile folder (the one with the pref.js file) and put the following
line in the file: user_pref("capability.policy.default.Window.onunload",
"noAccess"); This stops the "onunload" handler from being activated. 

Mozilla.org, the open source browser project initiated by Netscape
Communications (now part of AOL Time Warner) to encourage volunteer interest
in its browser technology. 
++
____________________________________________________________

Scout's Game V1.02
http://rockxware.dse.nl/scout/index.htm
Scout's Game is an easy to learn card game which can be played 
against the computer or against 2-4 players all over the world!
real ICQ support 
chat while playing 
++
___________________________________________________________

What is ActiveX by Ron Allen
ActiveX is a lot of things, but maybe the easiest way to explain it is like
this. When you run a program, you may see things like command buttons,
check boxes, text boxes, and so on. These are all called "controls", or
more fully "ActiveX Controls". This is mostly a programmer thing that users
don't have to worry about; your programs do what you want them to do
(hopefully), and that is enough for most folks. The problem is that
Microsoft, in it's infinite wisdom (and equally infinite desire to wiggle
itself into every facet of your computing life), added the ability for web
sites to use ActiveX controls on web pages. On the theoretical plus side,
this adds much of the richness of Windows programs more or less directly to
web pages (not incidentally blurring the line between OS, applications, and
the web). On the minus side... well, let me explain a little more here. One
of the big attractions to ActiveX controls are that they are easily
modified and combined to perform specific functions. One example that just
leaps to mind is a tree control with check boxes. You may have seen this in
some programs, where a directory list is displayed and each folder and/or
file has a check box next to it so you can select them. This style of
control is used a lot in backup programs. What most folks don't know (and
couldn't care less about) is that this control is a hybrid, it's really a
combination of the standard tree view control and the standard checkbox
control. Someone programmed to meld the two together, which ActiveX makes
comparatively very easy to do. The same flexibility allows programmers to
add additional "properties" to existing controls, which is another way of
saying that programmers can add additional abilities. That's really a Good
Thing as far as it goes, but now consider this ability applied to web
pages. An unscrupulous or uninformed programmer could, accidentally or on
purpose, add a feature to a control that is subject to exploitation via the
web. There have even been some cases of existing standard controls being
implemented on the web with gaping security holes simply because the people
using them didn't fully understand the ramifications of using the control
in that way. Microsoft has added to the problem by shipping some controls
with security holes open by default, no or poor documentation, and so on.

HTH,

Ron
____________________________________________________________

There is a complete archive of past MikesWhatsNews newsletters 
available to members on the Yahoo page, it is searchable by word or
issue #. Here is the address direct to the messages;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MikesWhatsNews/messages
and; http://www.freelists.org/archives/mikeswhatsnews/
____________________________________________________________

iCopy ~ free
http://www.idev.ch/icopy/index.htm
Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
iCopy allows you to combine your printer and scanner into a photo copier
using a small and fast program. 
All TWAIN-compatible scanners on your computer can be acquired with one
click, as can all your printers. 
Scan/Print is just one simple operation.

Features
Works with all TWAIN compatible scanners. 
Copies in Color/Gray/Black&White 
Choose how many copies you want 
Paper size may be selected 
Scan quality may be selected 
Print size may be selected 
++
____________________________________________________________

XPdite free
http://grc.com/xpdite/xpdite.htm
Quickly and easily replace the dangerous Windows XP file
that facilitates malicious deletion of entire file directories.

Without XPdite, or XP's Service Pack 1, clicking on a simple, but
malicious, URL can delete the entire contents of your directories. 
This FREE 30 kbyte "XPdite" utility protects your Windows 
XP system until you are able to install Service Pack 1. 
 
 Developed by Steve Gibson with much help from the
terrific community of people in the GRC newsgroups 
++
____________________________________________________________

Fast Boot / Fast Resume Design
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/platform/performance/fastboot/
Customer research shows a frequently requested feature that users want from
their PCs is fast system startup, whether from cold boot or when resuming
from standby or hibernation. The Windows development team at Microsoft has
taken bold steps in making fast startup PCs a reality with the Microsoft®
Windows® XP operating system. 

The design goals for Windows XP on a typical consumer PC are: 

Boot to a useable state in a total of 30 seconds 
Resume from Hibernate (S4) in a total of 20 seconds 
Resume from Standby (S3) in a total of 5 seconds 

Boot and resume times are measured from the time the power switch is pressed
to being able to start a program from a desktop shortcut. 
++
____________________________________________________________

Tina's FrontPage Tips, by Tina Clarke

"Is there any horizontal top menu WITHOUT
browser compatibility problems, or without
compatibility problems from browsers 3.0
(included)?"

Jonathan Lerner had the solution.

Using a JavaScript-driven menu in Front Page
http://www.lehrercommunications.com/menu/bartest.htm

AccessFP ~ FrontPage Resource Centre
Site ~  http://www.accessfp.net/
Ezine & Forums ~ http://anyfrontpage.com/  FREE FP E-Books
Journal ~ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AccessFPJournal
____________________________________________________________

Christies Computer Corner thanks to Christy;
<1stPicksoftware-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe>

Spychaser
http://camtech2000.net/Pages/SpyChaser.html
Freeware
Win95/98/ME/NT/2K

Ever downloaded a 'Free' program only to find out it was Spyware?
 (Banner Advertiser Supported)  Or even worse, many will hide the
Spyware functions and not tell you.  At the time of this release
there were 762 known Spyware programs and Spy Chaser lists them
and lets you enter a program name to see if it's on this
list. 
~~~~~~~

Shortcut to Maximize
If you press the Ctrl button while you click the Maximize button
in the upper-right corner of a folder or Explorer window, the
window expands to full screen and the Taskbar disappears. When
you have opened a window in full-screen mode, pressing Ctrl+Esc
or the Windows key still displays the Start menu.

To return the window to previous state look for icons at the
upper right in the black square (may not be clearly visible) to
either minimize (underscore), restore (double squares) or close
it completely (the X).

Was this forwarded to you ?
Get your own subscription here:
<1stpickPCtips-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe>
____________________________________________________________



Antivirus software is a good choice to scan your system for possible viruses, 
however no virus scanner is 100% effective as manufactures cannot keep up with 
the rapid change of viruses that happens daily.
Be sure to update yours regularly.
http://www.hackfix.org/software/antivirus.html
______________________________________________________________________
Please feel free, to offer constructive criticism, as that will help me keep it 
interesting.
I also welcome any submissions about new products, web pages, or articles of 
interest.

All submissions posted in MWN will be given proper credit.
"MikesWhatsNews" believes in giving credit where credit is due but at imes 
deadlines and information that is very important to readers we accidentally 
misspost an item.
~*~*~*~*
If you believe something to be miscredited, or you know the author of one of 
the articles which we have posted as 'unknown', please do let us know so we can 
correct the information where applicable.

Many times in a article you may see a click here for more information, or to go 
to a link, these often will not work, as the original information, was taken 
from a page with HTML links. This is when you will want to go to the webpage 
indicated in the article, ++ ,for 'the rest of the story'
***MfM*** indicates that I am adding my own information to a particular    
article.

Mike ~It's a good day if I learned something new.
You can read a sample of my newsletter on my web page 
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/
My virus pages ~ http://virusinfo.hackfix.org 
mytech@xxxxxxxxxxx
~*~*~*~*~
Was this forwarded to you? Want to subscribe? Send an email
to mikeswhatsnews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe.

For a complete list of email commands for our list send an email 
to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with a subject line of "info mikeswhatsnews" without 
the quotes.

If you wish to unsubscribe from our list send an email to 
mikeswhatsnews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=unsubscribe

To contact the list moderators send an email to 
mikeswhatsnews-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
~*~*~*~*~

Other related posts:

[MikesWhatsNews] MWN #554