St. Petersburg Web Design Blog

Archive for March, 2007

Not only did Microsoft’s new security software for their new operating system – “Vista” score last in all categories (only catching 91% of todays well know viruses and only noticing 79% of intrusion attempts), in the latest round of test, but it also “quarantines” all E-mails and Contacts in it’s own Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail software. By mistaking all e-mails and contacts in the address book as viruses, it isolates them making them not accessible by the computer.

Needless to say this has users on Vista irked. “This is the most unacceptable act Microsoft has ever committed,” groused one user on a forum. “I run a small business and I am screwed. I have no way to respond to e-mails because I made the mistake of trusting Microsoft… and all of my e-mails and contacts are gone.”

Microsoft finally confirmed the problem via e-mail Friday, and said it will update the Windows Live OneCare engine to fix the problem as part of its monthly patch release cycle.(Editors note – They didn’t say this month).

No press release, nothing on their web site no e-mail to Vista users (I guess there’s no point because they can’t use their e-mail), just an e-mail to the security researchers.

The fact that this hasn’t been reported in the IT press or the regular press demonstrates just how much influence their advertising dollars have.

Microsoft also offered the following step-by-step fix to recover lost e-mail in the meantime:

– Close Outlook or Outlook Express

– Click change OneCare settings in the main OneCare user interface

– Click on the viruses and spyware tab

– Click on the quarantine button and then select the pst or dbx file and then click on restore.

To ensure that the problem does not continue until the next update, Microsoft said users should also do the following:

– Click change OneCare setting in the main user interface

– Click viruses and spyware tab

– Click on the exclusions button

– Click on the add folder button

– Navigate to the specific folder that contains the.dbx or.pst file to be excluded.

– Click OK.

Also noteable from the tests performed by AV-Comparatives was that the top names in the computer security business, McAffee and Nortons anti-virus scored poorly too (not in the top three in any category, and more costly than all.

Hmmmm, Here’s cool trick to impress the Geezers with down at the local Pub!

Microsoftsnew operating system, Vista is, according to Microsoft, supposed to be all about security. Most of in the computer business know that Microsoft has the worst record on security of any major software vendor. But Vista was supposed to be more secure, it’s the first operating system they’ve designed since announcing that they finally take treats like viruses and trojan horses seriously. Of course they still call spyware “Value-adding software” and they still use “Active-X” in their browser to enable web developers to interact directly with your computer unbeknownst to you through Internet Explorer.

But Windows Vista did something they thought was going to assure computer users that Microsoft was on top of security this time. They locked down parts of the operating system. Of course w/ large American corporations like Microsoft, nothing is as it appears. The move to lock down the operating system wasn’t about protecting your computer from access by others. The only benefit of locking down the OS was to prevent anti-virus and anti-spyware software makers from being able to work on Windows Vista.

Hmmmmm, why would Microsoft (a software company, remember), do that?

The policy was a secret, but only to those in Microsoft. The treat of lawsuits didn’t help the anti-virus, firewall and ant-spyware software makers from going public. A few of them are rich enough to defend themselves against Microsoftlawyers issued press releases saying that Microsoft had locked them out and if Microsoft didn’t let them in the only anti-virus or firewall Vista users could have would be the infamously poor performing “Windows ‘Firewall’ and the only anti-virus they could use would be “Microsoft Windows Live OneCare”

After responding to the negative press by trying to say that by doing this it’ll make Windows safer (Windows safer by not allowing security software to work!?), it quickly became obvious that this press tacticwouldn’t work, they have to actually do something. So they opened up parts of the operating system allowing security software to be installed (although not with ease).

Now they the “Microsoft Windows Live OneCare” now were planning on sticking us all with has finally had it’s second and likely last performancetest. The first test it failed miserably was the Virus Bulletin VB100 certification tests.

The last test is the big one the industry goes by, it’s called: Av-Comparatives. Security researcher Andreas Clementi conducted in-depth testing of 17 anti-virus scanners,subjecting them to no less than 497,608 items of malware during the process. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a test to be dismissed as insignificant. It is the real deal, which is why the results are so devastating for Microsoft. Of those17 products, including entries from all the major vendors in the marketplace, Windows Live OneCare came last. Worse yet, it came last by quite some margin.

Indeed, only it and the little known Dr Web scanner failed to reach an overall detection rating of 90% and whereas Dr Web only just failed, with 89.27%, OneCare managed a really very poor 82.4%. Compare this with G-DATA AVK leading the test on 99.45%, F-Secure 97.91%, Kaspersky 87.89% and even arch-rivals Symantec Norton AV with 96.83%.

So bad was the OneCare result, in fact, that it didnt actually make the cut for inclusion in the evaluation process so is unlikely to even appear in the next set of tests in August. To reach the lowest grade of certification, standard, a product needs to hit 85%. Then again, perhaps for Microsoft it will be a relief if it doesnt as no news will be good news for a change.

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Some of you out there didn’t even know that my wife is having a baby in a couple weeks. The wife just came back from the doctor and she says her and the Doctor feel the baby (Nicholas), is going to come a week earlier than expected.

Wait . . .

That would mean the Baby will be here in a week??? !!!

I’ve got to get away from the computer and finish putting together the new baby furniture! Oh ya, we’ve already chosen a name: “Nicholas Bryce Smith.” I’ll wait till his birth announcement post to tell what each word in his name means.

Wish me luck and ask me for a cigar!

As I always say about closing the office for anything “Dream Designs by Texx Smith is open 24/7/360 – 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, 360 days a year. Sure we take a couple a days off every year for Christmas, birth/death in family, but we always remained committed to being there when we’re needed. So feel free to call or e-mail anytime, client or potential client.

Shannon herself is doing great. She wants the whole birth thing to hurry up and be done with. Of course most 8-1/2 month pregnant women probably feel that way. She’s a little nervous about what the delivery will be like. She been watching the 24 hour childbirth channel on cable TV on her days off (I still can’t get her to stop working!), actually a collection of channels, who knew there would so many women giving birth on TV!
We took some glamour/maternity photos of her on Ft. Desoto Beach the other day. Here some shots of the best ones.