Modern PC News for the Week Ending January 20, 2004

Commodore.ca | The Worlds Largest and Most Interesting Web Site

I have used this amazing site several times without realizing what it is.   www.archive.org takes snapshots of the web and stores them in perpetuity.  Currently they hold more than 30 BILLION WEB PAGES.  Virtually all commercial sites and any well written not-for-profit site, since 1996 is available for viewing. 

Want to see the unbelievably simple IBM web site from October 25th 1996, click HERE.  Or you can view the complex Novel Web site from October of 1996 by clicking HERE.  You can even see the mighty Commodore.ca site from March of 2002, HERE.

What is most amazing about the site, is that is has archived not only complete text of a web site but also the full formatting, graphics, and even downloadable files.  Interested in Internet Explorer 4.01, just click HERE.  Simply amazing!

"...The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) public nonprofit that was founded to build an ‘Internet library,’ with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in the Presidio of San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to build more well-rounded collections...."

If you want to pony up a few bucks to keep this fantastic service free, click HERE.

AFP.com | Sony Develops Super-Capacity 40 Hour MD Format

...the capacity will be about 40 hours, or 30 times the current level of 80 minutes.

Commodore.ca | Is Your Internet Explorer Generating Scripting Errors Since You Installed Office 2003?

This was driving me nuts.  Even after reinstalling IE6 SP1, and running the Windows XP System File Checker, I still had these annoying script errors popping up on dozens of web pages.  "...This behavior may occur after you install Office 2003, if the Web Debugging feature was selected for installation. If you select Web Debugging during the Office 2003 installation, the Disable script debugging check box in Internet Explorer is cleared.  Click HERE for all the details

FeedRoom.com | USB Memory Dongle with Built in MP3 Player

This video shows several new USB memory sticks with interesting features.  Click HERE to see the video.

I also stumbled on SMC's new SMCWUSB32 USB 802.11B Wireless NIC / 32MB Flash Drive combo... very near stuff.

TechWeb.com | Microsoft Gives Away Free SBS Licenses To Atone For Earlier Bug

...Sources say the Redmond, Wash. software giant will announce that it will give five free client access licenses (CALs) to Windows Small Business Server 2003 customers to make up for a bug in the server and its Windows SharePoint Services that derailed many installations this fall.

The five free CALs, valued at roughly $500, will be available to existing customers and new purchasers of the standard and premium editions of the server software from January 5, 2004 though February 5, 2004, sources said...

SiliconValley.com | Largest DVD Producer to Roll Out Game Console To Compete with MS
By Dean Takahashi, Mercury News

The personal computer has been losing ground to video game consoles for years. But an alliance of several companies hopes to reverse that trend by creating a computer that can play PC games on a television as conveniently as a console.

BetaNews.com | Court: ISPs Not Required to Comply With RIAA
By David Worthington

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down a lower court's ruling requiring Internet providers to comply with copyright subpoenas served on behalf of the recording industry.

As a result, the Recording Industry Association of America's anti-piracy campaign waged against individuals downloading music now faces a major setback. Privacy advocates hail the decision as a blow against the RIAA's controversial solution to stem piracy...

Commodore.ca | How to Download the Full Internet Explorer 6

As you may know, IE 5 and above do not offer a full DOWNLOAD option.  Instead you can download only a small installer program that will offer Windows 2000 and XP users only an 'install now' functionality. Previously, you could run that installer from a Window 98 or ME machine and in the ADVANCED OPTIONS, you could choose to download and keep the files, but who has a Win9x machine around any more? 

If you need to keep a copy (i.e. you are a network admin planning to push it out across your LAN, or you are a tech and want to keep it on a CD) you should follow the process below:

1. Download ie6setup.exe from the HERE and save it to C:\.

2. From a command prompt type C:\ie6setup.exe /c:"ie6wzd.exe /d /s:""#E"""

3. Have a nice day.

Commodore.ca | How to Get Cheap Microsoft Software Legally

If you work in the IT business, your company will likely make you eligible for either:

1. The Canadian Not For Resale Products which covers everything from Halo PC, to MS Internet Keyboards, to Visual Basic .NET, at al-la-carte prices, or;

2. The Microsoft Action Pack which includes all of the Microsoft Operating Systems, Exchange, Office 2003 Pro, Visio 2003 and more for about CDN $500.

Reuters.com | Microsoft Unveils New Version of Office for Mac

...Microsoft, which dominates the PC industry with its Windows operating system software but also develops applications for the Macintosh, unveiled Office 2004 for Mac at MacWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.

...The Professional version of Office 2004 for Mac, which is marketed toward businesses, will also include Virtual PC for Mac Version 7, the latest version of the software that allows users to run Windows and Windows programs on a Macintosh...

WebProNews.com | Where does Google Get its 'Snippet' Description From?

When it comes to describing your site, Google assembles what is known as a snippet description to display in their search results... Currently Google is pulling the snippet from any one or combination of the following areas:

1. META description tag (although Google doesn't use contents to determine relevancy).
2. First ALT text found on the page.
3. First text found on the page (which may be a heading tag, body text, etc.).
4. Additional heading tags on the page.
5. Additional body text found on the page.
6. Additional ALT text on the page.
7. Navigation bar on the left-hand side of the page (which is rarely a relevant description of a site!).
8. Copyright information at the bottom of the page.
9. Wherever the keyword phrase is found.

One thing that's very important to note is that the snippet is determined by the search term. In other words, if you search for your company's name, you'll get a different description than what you would get if you search for a keyword phrase that is relevant for your site. Generally, Google appears to be pulling the description from areas of the page that surround the usage of that particular keyword phrase. The obvious question is, Is it the first usage of the keyword phrase? Usually, but not always.

Since most people aren't going to be searching for the name of your business, don't try to change your Google snippet description based on a search for your company name. Instead, search for the most important keyword phrase for each important page of your site, and then make changes accordingly.

NetworkComputing.com | The Survivor's Guide to 2004: Security

A spate of new security products promises to ward off every evil from spam to worms. But even while the IT security field has mushroomed, most of the products are either evolutionary, adding new features, or existing concepts under a new guise...

...You won't find the answers by poring over vendors' marketing materials...  Bottom line, you have to find the right combination of products that will give you protection both inside and outside your network, from the host to the desktop to the perimeter. And you need a sound patching strategy that you can implement and maintain effectively. Above all, your security plan must never get in the way of the business.

...The coupling of multiple agents, such as firewall, antivirus, VPN, host IDS and host-vulnerability assessment products, may lead you to believe that integrated suites are necessary. In many cases, they're not. Yes, the desktop firewall has to let the VPN client function properly, and the HIDS has to see activity on the host without interruption by the firewall. But these are implementation issues for the most part, because the firewall, VPN and HIDS, for example, are all trying to monitor or shim the IP stack.

...Be wary of products that claim to do it all. Standalone products tend to be more robust and thorough than general-purpose multifunction appliances... ...only 11 percent of respondents said they standardize on a single vendor for security; the rest use best of breed.

Prevention Starts With the Host  ...HIP (host intrusion prevention) products, such as Cisco Security Agent, Network Associates Entercept and Computer Associates eTrust Access Control, go beyond firewall technologies by controlling access to system resources by applications or users.

Embrace the Desktop Firewall ...if that's where the data is, shouldn't that be where the protection is concentrated? ...To be effective, a desktop firewall must keep intruders out and restrict the network access of the calling application and any loaded modules. An ACL (access-control list), for example can prevent all programs from listening on TCP Port 25, thus disabling one popular method for spreading e-mail-borne worms.

Reactive at the Perimeter ...antivirus, content-inspection, intrusion-detection and intrusion-prevention remedies all employ reactive technologies: Unless a signature for the threat exists, they won't detect the problem. Organizations that rely solely on blocking unwelcome traffic at the perimeter are bound to lose.  Still, the perimeter is the first point of attack, so you must have a strategy here, too.

...As attacks become data-driven and protocols such as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and XML-RPC (Extensible Markup Language Remote Procedure Call) become prevalent, the traditional perimeter devices are hard-pressed to keep up.

...Network intrusion-prevention offerings are hot right now, but don't believe the hype. These perimeter products are only as good and as current as the signatures that drive them. They require even more care and feeding than intrusion-detection systems, as you have to figure out which attacks to block and how.

Patches & Policies ...Regardless of which products you install, it's critical to address software problems by applying patches and service packs.

...Policy management goes hand in hand with patch management.  ...If you're running an all-Windows environment and simply need to enforce a common desktop policy, use the Group Policy Object.

Securing Remote Access ...VPN technologies such as IPsec (IP security) and PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) secure remote access. PPTP is used because it's simple to configure, but IPSec is more secure. Unfortunately, both technologies have serious deployment limitations. Neither one provides standardized NAT-T (network address translation traversal), and IPsec offers no remote IP address management without proprietary modifications by vendors.'