Author: Dr. Bill

Yes, I had just posted an entry that Firefox 16 had been released, now it has been re-released due to a security hole!

Mozilla re-releases Firefox 16 after patching critical bugs

“Mozilla re-released Firefox 16 today after pulling the browser from distribution Wednesday when one of its developers found a critical bug that could be used by attackers to hijack machines.

At around 2:30 p.m. ET, Mozilla turned on its upgrade servers and started pushing Firefox 16.0.1 to users who had earlier downloaded the flawed browser, or who were still running version 15 and earlier. About 30 minutes later, the open-source developer restored the patched program to its primary and secondary download pages.

Yesterday, Mozilla yanked Firefox 16 from its download websites and stopped serving it to existing users as an upgrade. The withdrawal was prompted by the discovery of a vulnerability, which the company then said ‘could allow a malicious site to potentially determine which websites users have visited and have access to the URL or URL parameters.’

On Wednesday, Mozilla promised to ship an emergency update — it calls them “chemspills” in a nod to security toxicity — today.

Mozilla has now provided more information about the bug, which it rated as critical.

‘Mozilla security researcher ‘moz_bug_r_a4′ reported a regression where security wrappers are unwrapped without doing a security check in defaultValue(),’ an accompanying advisory noted. ‘This can allow for improper access to the Location object. In versions 15 and earlier of affected products, there was also the potential for arbitrary code execution.’

The patch also addressed the issue reported by U.K.-based researcher Gareth Heyes early Wednesday that allowed access to user information, including Twitter usernames, through Firefox 16.

Firefox 16.0.1 fixed four flaws altogether, including two bugs that had caused a large number of crashes on users’ systems.

Although Mozilla has had to quickly re-release Firefox before — in December 2011 it pulled Firefox 9 a day after that edition’s release — this was the first time the firm pulled Firefox from distribution because of a vulnerability.

According to Web metrics company Net Applications, Firefox accounted for 20% of all browsers used worldwide last month, enough to keep Mozilla in second place — behind only Microsoft and its Internet Explorer — in the race for browser share.”

That is “Release to Manufacturing” to the layman. In other words, the code is now locked and approved and they will start producing it as a product for sale. Of course, I will be staying with LibreOffice, but still, in is news.

Office Reaches RTM!

“Moments ago, the Office engineering team signed off on the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build. This milestone means the coding and testing phase of the project is complete and we are now focused on releasing the new Office via multiple distribution channels to our consumer and business customers.

This is the most ambitious release of Office we’ve ever done. It spans the full family of Office applications, servers and cloud services. The new Office has a fresh, touch friendly design that works beautifully on Windows 8 and unlocks modern scenarios in social, reading, note-taking, meetings and communications. We are proud to achieve this milestone and are eager to deliver this exciting release to our customers.

General availability is planned for the first quarter of 2013. Starting October 19, customers purchasing Office 2010 from local retailers or resellers will receive the new Office for free upon availability. Customers will also see a preview version of the new Office on Windows RT devices, beginning with the Windows 8 launch on October 26.

Additionally, we have a number of programs that provide business customers with early access so they can begin testing, piloting and adopting Office within their organizations:

We will begin rolling out new capabilities to Office 365 Enterprise customers in our next service update, starting in November through general availability.

Volume Licensing customers with Software Assurance will be able to download the Office 2013 applications as well as other Office products including SharePoint 2013, Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 through the Volume Licensing Service Center by mid-November. These products will be available on the Volume Licensing price list on December 1.

IT professionals and developers will be able to download the final version via their TechNet or MSDN subscriptions by mid-November.
Please stay tuned for more specifics on general availability dates and other Office launch news. In the meantime, if you’d like to give the pre-release version a try, you can visit office.com/preview.

Thank you to the millions of people who have been testing early releases of the new Office. We are grateful for your support. Your invaluable feedback has helped us make the new Office the best Office ever.

Kirk Koenigsbauer
Corporate Vice President
Microsoft Office Division”

Firefox 16 is out, and it has some neat features for web developers.

Firefox 16 Offers New Tools for Web Developers

Mozilla has released Firefox 16, which gives web developers several cool new tools for building and debugging websites.

Current Firefox users will get the update the next time Firefox restarts. If you’d like to take Firefox 16 for a spin you can grab it from the Mozilla downloads page.

This release is short on new features for the ordinary users, but Firefox 16 does show web developers some love with the new Developer Toolbar and its ‘command line’ tool.

The Developer Toolbar is really just a faster, easier way to get to the common web developer tools like the Inspector and Console. To use the new toolbar just hit the keyboard shortcut Shift-F2 and the Developer Toolbar will appear as a thin, dark gray strip along the bottom of the page.

The real star of the Developer Toolbar is the new command line tool, which you’ll find on the left side of the toolbar where there’s now a shell-style prompt. Mozilla refers to this as a ‘Graphical Command Line Interface,’ an oxymoron that actually makes sense when you see it in action.

Yep… Microsoft may be removing the useful parts of Windows, but Open Source can put them back! Check out ClassicShell, an Open Source (and therefore FREE!) project that restores our beloved features to Windows 8!

ClassicShell

“Classic Start Menu is a clone of the original start menu, which you can find in all versions of Windows from 95 to Vista. It has a variety of advanced features:

• Drag and drop to let you organize your applications
• Options to show Favorites, expand Control Panel, etc.
• Shows recently used documents. The number of documents to display is customizable
• Translated in 35 languages, including Right-to-left support for Arabic and Hebrew
• Does not disable the original start menu in Windows. You can access it by Shift+Click on the start button
• Right-click on an item in the menu to delete, rename, sort, or perform other tasks
• The search box helps you find your programs without getting in the way of your keyboard shortcuts
• Available for 32 and 64-bit operating systems
• Has support for skins, including additional 3rd party skins
• Fully customizable in both looks and functionality
• Support for Microsoft’s Active Accessibility
• Converts the “All Programs” button in the Windows menu into a cascading menu (Vista and Windows 7)
• Implements a customizable Start button (Windows 7 and 8)
• And last but not least – it’s FREE!”

like a hug HR 1 2 from Melissa Chow on Vimeo.

This is just wrong on so many levels! Check out the article!

Facebook-connected vest hugs you when you get a ‘Like’

What if every time a Facebook friend liked one of your Facebook posts, that friend appeared out of nowhere, wrapped her arms around you, and gave you a big hug of appreciation? That would be pretty sweet.

Since that’s not likely to happen in reality, you’ll have to settle for the Like-A-Hug vest from Melissa Chow, Andy Payne, and Phil Seaton at the MIT Media Lab.

When a friend likes your photo, video, or status update, the vest inflates. Send a hug back to your buddy by squeezing and deflating the vest.

Wearing the vest out in public might cause alarm when you start to inflate like Violet Beauregard from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.’ I expect it feels less like a boa constrictor and more like a gentle squeeze, though. If you’re claustrophobic, then you might want to pass on this invention.

To some, the vest could be that missing link between the online world and an offline reality where physical contact has been diminished. To others, it might seem like Facebook is getting a little too frisky with invading the real world.

The future is almost here! You too, can become a real asteroid miner!

Planetary Resources Now Hiring ‘Asteroid Miner’ Interns

“Planetary Resources, the would-be asteroid mining company backed by notable billionaires including James Cameron and Google’s co-founders, has posted its first official internship opening for ‘asteroid miners’ the company wrote in an email to its supporters and subscribers on Monday.

As Chris Lewicki, the company’s “president and chief asteroid miner,” wrote in the email:

Do you want to be an Asteroid Miner?

Well, here’s your chance!

We’re looking for passionate college students for
paid coop positions to help us mine asteroids
this spring and summer…

If you love space and want to contribute directly to
the development of the next generation of space
exploration technologies, we want to hear from you
(or from anyone you know that you think would be
interested).

The actual internship listing, posted on the Planetary Resources website is for positions that would be located in Bellevue, WA and would extend from January 2013 through August. The description calls for ‘qualified and enthusiastic candidates for paid cooperative education positions to assist in the development of new systems and technologies for the commercial robotic exploration of near Earth asteroids.’ Planetary Resources has also signed a launch deal with Virgin Galactic and contemplated launching a Kickstarter campaign to back its first fleet of asteroid-observing orbital space telescopes, due to launch by 2014. Actual asteroid mining is still years away, but Planetary Resources is aiming to commence operations by the end of the decade.”

There’s a nasty virus on the loose, in the wild, and YOU need to be on the alert! If you get infected, it will hit you with a screen like the one shown below:

From Sophos: “Ransomware is malicious software that locks you out of your computer or your data, and demands money to let you back in.

One “brand” of ransomware, widely known as Reveton, has been very widely circulated in recent months.

Reveton pretends to be a warning from your country’s national police service, locks you out of your PC, and threatens criminal proceedings within 48 hours – usually for unspecified copyright offences.

Of course, you can bypass the prosecution if you pay a ‘fine’ to the cybercriminals. The amount they extort is typically about $200.

If you run across this sort of malware, it’s tempting just to wear the cost and hope that the crooks live up to their promise of giving your PC back.

We recommend that you don’t do that, so here’s a short video to advise you, and your friends and family, on what to do instead:”

“Remember: an up-to-date and active anti-virus, combined with prompt software patching to close known holes, makes things much harder for the Bad Guys.

So give yourself the best chance of safety by taking security seriously!”

The FREE Sophos Bootable Anti-Virus bootable CD mentioned in the video is available at the link below:

Sophos Bootable Anti-Virus (SBAV)

Full instructions are available at the link above as well. As they say: “Don’t Panic!” (Good advice from Hitchhiker’s as well!)

Another great tool, that I use regularly, is Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware, also available FREE from the link below:

Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware