Out of Band IE patch coming

Microsoft just announced that it’s moving up its traditional Black Tuesday Internet Explorer patch. Today, March 30, you can expect another giant patch from MS, this one plugging the IE “peer factory” hole I talked about earlier this month.

If you use Windows 7 and IE 8, you’re safe. Everybody else is vulnerable*.

As usual, I advise that you avoid installing the patch and wait for the wails of pain to subside. Besides, you aren’t using Internet Explorer anyway, are you?

The Black Tuesday patches for March – one for Windows Movie Maker and one for Excel – don’t appear to be too problematic, but I haven’t seen any reports of systems cracked via the March holes. Thus, we remain at MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

[UPDATE: *Permit me to elucidate. If you're using IE 8, you're safe from the "peer factory" hole. That's the big hole that prompted MS to release this IE patch early. MS10-018, like most IE security patches is a massive piece of, uh, work. It includes the "peer factory" fix, but it also includes many other, less urgent patches. Some day you will want to apply MS10-018/KB 980182, even if you have IE 8. But that day isn't today, in my opinion. Use any browser other than Internet Explorer, and wait for the wailing to subside.]

Google Chrome 4.1 has been released to “stable” channel

Google has released their Chrome Web Browser version 4.1 on their web site.

UPDATE: See these latest blogs on the recent builds of Google Chrome 4.1 here:
http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2010/03/stable-update-disable-translate.html
http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2010/03/stable-update-fix-extension-install.html
http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2010/03/stable-channel-update.html

Mozilla releases Firefox 3.6.2

Mozilla has recently released Firefox 3.6.2, the first security release of the Firefox 3.6 series.

See the release notes of Firefox 3.6.2 here:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6.2/releasenotes/

Google’s burning Chinese bridges

Five days ago, I reported that Google was (finally!) getting some cojones dealing with China.

Now, I’m very, very happy to say that the Googlies have stopped dancing with the devil. They’re re-directing the google.cn address – that’s the Google address used inside China – to google.com.hk. That’s the Hong Kong version of the Google search engine.

You can see for yourself. Go ahead and type google.cn into your favorite web browser.

At this point, the Chinese government authorities are not blocking access to google.com.hk. So folks inside China who thought they were going to the censored google.cn are being automatically routed to an uncensored version of Google, in various Chinese languages.

The New York Times has a good overview.

UPDATE: Looks like the PRC authorities have started filtering search results from the Hong Kong site. Washington Post article here. This is getting more interesting by the minute.

BitDefender clobbers PCs

If you bought and paid for BitDefender, the antivirus product from Softwin in Romania, and you run any 64-bit version of Windows, you may have woken up to a dead computer.

Congratulations.

Official instructions for getting your machine back are on the BitDefender site.

But of course you use Microsoft Security Essentials, and you don’t need to worry about it. Don’t need to worry about paying for it, either.

“Omar was pretty good with computers…”

Good enough to disable 100 cars, remotely, after losing his job at a Texas auto distributorship.

Fascinating story at Wired.

“We initially dismissed it as mechanical failure,” says Texas Auto Center manager Martin Garcia. “We started having a rash of up to a hundred customers at one time complaining. Some customers complained of the horns going off in the middle of the night. The only option they had was to remove the battery.”

The dealership used a system called Webtech Plus as an alternative to repossessing vehicles that haven’t been paid for. Operated by Cleveland-based Pay Technologies, the system lets car dealers install a small black box under vehicle dashboards that responds to commands issued through a central website, and relayed over a wireless pager network. The dealer can disable a car’s ignition system, or trigger the horn to begin honking, as a reminder that a payment is due.

Ain’t technology wunnerful?

Happy Birthday, .com!

.com turned 25 years old on March 15. Bet you didn’t know that.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the first .com domain name, symbolics.com, was registered on March 15, 1985, by a Massachusetts computer firm that I’ve never heard of. It was followed by a veritable who’s who of the computer industry back then:

BBN.com – April 24, 1985

Think.com – May 24, 1985

MCC.com – July 11, 1985

DEC.com – Sept. 30, 1985

Northrop.com – Nov. 7, 1985

Xerox.com – Jan. 9, 1986

SRI.com – Jan. 17, 1986

HP.com – March 3, 1986

Bellcore.com – March 5, 1986

Happy birthday, .com!

Is Google getting cojones in China?

News from MSNBC that Google is finally showing some previously-blocked pictures in response to searches on Google.cn.

A week ago, the Financial Times reported that Google wass “99.9% certain” to close down its censored Chinese search engine.  Now, it appears as if the engine is still chugging along, with some of the old censorship gone.

It’s refreshing to see pictures of the “tank man” at Tiananmen Square, and a tiny trickle of information about Tibet, coming from the censored version of Google.

In response, Google’s stock took a hit, but it’s coming back. Good on ya, Google.