Google launches 'sidewiki'

On Wednesday, the big G lauched a new web annotation took for IE and Firefox ( and here I use Safari... I guess their love affair with APPLE is over) that allows people to make comments about a website. Here is the article:http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Google-Wends-Its-Way-Into-Web-Annotation-With-Sidewiki-68207.html. However, as the author notes, some people are finding a negative to this. For all of us who are bloggers, we can no longer moderate comments. Also, since comments, and their lively disscusion is what brings traffic to a website, this may have a limiting effect on popularity. Although I think Google is a very smart decision maker, I am not sure this will turn out to be such a smart decision in the long run. Will have to wait to see.

Microsoft suing Companies who hide malware in ads

In a Microsoft blog post, MS announced 5 lawsuits against companies practicing 'malvertising'. So what's that? It's when companies purposely add malicious code hidden in advertising. Nasty stuff. A few reccommendations they list to avoid malvertsing include having up to date anti virus, firewalls and anti-malware tools. And don't let a website 'scan' your computer for software programs you don't know.

So here is my question. How does one sue a company if it is in, say, Iran, or Russa, or China? Are their internet laws the same as ours? Do we even have laws against this type of happening? Are there common international laws? Perhaps there should be.

Here is the blog post by Microsoft:

http://microsoftontheissues.com/cs/blogs/mscorp/archive/2009/09/17/bad-ad-going-after-the-malvertising-threat.aspx

wordpress new security

Have just upgraded to Wordpress's new version which is supposed to fix the worm problem..... we'll see.

When I looked at users listed in the user list, compared to the users listed in the wp_users file, I had an extra admin person listed. So he is gone now, and so is the extra code written there as well. Yippee!!! I have been dewormed.... I hope.

No more MAC addresses for Comcast opt out??

Here's the article. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/no-more-mac-address-comcast-streamlines-dns-helper-opt-out.ars

Seems like this is appropiate for what we are talking about... but what is this article talking about?Thought you all might enjoy it.

New Secure File Transfer system just launched

Thought this was timely, so I thought I would throw it out to everyone

Stonebranch just launched new software.

http://www.scmagazineuk.com/Stonebranch-introduces-secure-file-transfer-solution/article/148276/

The Worm that Got Me

For the last several months I have been dealing with a 'problem' within my wordpress blog. Dave,the good friend that he is, found some of the issues involved, and I have been limping along ever since.Interesting to note that my ISP couldn't even find a part of the problem at all. Now Wordpress is acknowledging that a worm has not been playing nice with Wordpress.

Matt Mullenweg( wordpress creator), says:

"Right now there is a worm making its way around old, unpatched versions of WordPress. This particular worm, like many before it, is clever: it registers a user, uses a security bug (fixed earlier in the year) to allow evaluated code to be executed through the permalink structure, makes itself an admin, then uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at users page, attempts to clean up after itself, then goes quiet so you never notice while it inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts."

Here is the full article:http://www.podcastingnews.com/2009/09/05/the-wordpress-fix-wordpress-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about/

I happen to agree with many who have commented that this 'fix' in not really a fix at all.

When Wordpress was started, it was just about the only good game in town. Now I see other programs giving it a run for it's money. Although I really like Wordpress, and think it has a lot to offer( great support, plugins, and just plain ole great people), Wordpress needs to up it's security and really make it harder for hackers to hack, or it may just lose it's "King of the Hill" status.