Ah, the security vulnerability that was used in the Google attack. It's been around the internet about a million times now, and even governments have started advising people to move away from Internet Explorer. As is usually the case, however, the internet has really blown the vulnerability out of proportion. I'll get right to it: if your machine and/or network has been compromised via this vulnerability, then you most likely had it coming. No sympathy for you.
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Member since:2006-01-14
How is it naive to expect Microsoft to support a product they are still selling? Microsoft made the choice for IE 7 and IE 8 to not be backwards compatible with IE 6. And while the CIO's may have made poor choices, Microsoft are the ones who control the technology. I am not saying that the companies involved aren't also to blame, but Microsoft deserves most of the criticism here. They aren't even fully disclosing the dangers of the bug from what I can see.
Member since:2007-09-06
In the case of the browser, MS made the right choice to stop supporing old IE6 only crap. I don't agree with much MS does but moving the browser towards a secure and standards compliant program should be recognized.
The problem is squarely on the people who developed an IE6 only application without thinking "gee.. the browser is an easy program to change between versions and brands; I think I'll make my code only work with one specific brand/version."
The secondary layer of responsibility is on the buying authority that though "yeah, this looks good.. let's buy this expensive and hard to replace information product that only works wit one brand/version of browser even though that's an easily changed bit of software that will have new versions in the future"
It's bad enough that user's saved data from Office applications pretty much dictates the use of that same or newer Office version to continue accessing it. To willfully accept that condition from your application interfaces is madness. You put it on a server so it's easy to manage and update, so everybody can access it and so that the client side OS becomes less relevant. The only one of those that doesn't fail is "so everybody can access it" though that also includes people outside the organization too now.
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2006-02-26
The naivete here is absolutely astonishing.
These companies were not compelled through legal mandate or threat of violence to build internal and external infrastructure on non-standard extensions to a proprietary piece of software. I have no sympathy for the technically incompetent CIOs who made development or purchasing decisions that led to dependence on obsolete and insecure technologies. They made the choice and now they suffer the consequences.
The mistake is in assuming that any large, well connected, and heavily financed organization such as Microsoft would ever hold your interests above their own. That goes for Apple, Red Hat, the FSF and many others. They all have agendas whether they be financial, social, or politically motivated, and they exist solely to further their own causes. As managers, developers, or users, our responsibility is to recognize this and to make the best decisions possible to serve our own interests or the interests of those we advise.
Does Microsoft deserve some criticism for its role in this mess? Sure. But the ultimate responsibility falls on those who chose to employ their solutions without any roadmap for the future.