In case your head has been stuck in the sand recently, you probably have heard of the news of an exploit found inside of Quicktime for both Windows and Mac. The author of the exploit(who found and executed it during a contest) originally released details that the exploit was for the Safari browser in Mac, but in an interview acknowledged that he was aware of the true nature of the exploit and kept that information secret(for whatever reason) until another independent company publicly released the information.

That is interesting, but it gets more interesting after that. In an interview with Gregg Keitzer, Din Dai Zovi(the author of the exploit) makes a very interesting statement. Below is one of the questions and Din’s response to the question.

From your research on both platforms, is there a winner between Mac OS X 10.4 and Vista on security?
I have found the code quality, at least in terms of security, to be much better overall in Vista than Mac OS X 10.4. It is obvious from observing affected components in security patches that Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) has resulted in fewer vulnerabilities in newly-written code. I hope that more software vendors follow their lead in developing proactive software security development methodologies.

Wait! Doesn’t this go against every traditional thought out there. Isn’t it supposed to be the fact that Macs are the most secure thing in the world and they are impervious to attacks? I guess some people just don’t think that anymore. Im actually glad that the smug Mac people have gotten a little taste of reality. It won’t be long before their fantasy world comes crashing down. Thank you Din Dai Zovi.
If you wish to read the article, click here

Categories: Humor, Technology
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Quick hobeling of code with some clean-up has led to release of 1.0 of Randomized Desktop. The file can be downloaded from here. Just unzip and run the exe file to install the program. The code for the program can be downloaded from here. This will be a continual work and customization. Currently what is on the board is to recursivly search through all folders underneath the parent directoy which is choosen.

This will work on Windows XP and Windows Vista without any modification. It does require .NET framework 2.0 and will check for those dependencies before installing, and if it needs them, will download them from Microsoft’s site before trying to install the program.

I can almost guarantee that it will be a little buggy at first. What program is 100% perfect 1.0? Would be in a perfect world, but alas its not. Here are the supported features:

1. Select a directory(multiple even) to display pics from
2. Customize the time between desktop changes
3. Remove directories of pictures that are no longer in use
4. Manually advance the picture
5. Pause the timer

So. Any other things that should be added? (note, I will be cleaning up the source as I get time to do so. Its a little ugly right now, but it does work)

Categories: Programs, Technology
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In honor of a Mr. Mark Tjapkes getting married this summer, this puzzle is from a few years ago. Try to figure out who the three are in here…….of course, if you know me, and Mark, you just need to remember who the third stud in the middle is.

Categories: Puzzle
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My next cell phone(that I am planning on getting) is not a cell phone for everyone. I first laid my eyes on this beautiful item in the current publication of Popular Science. The title of a smarter smart phone really caught me. Why? Because part of me loves smart phones, part of me hates smart phones. And part of me is intrigued by smart phones, but those phones are often troublesome and not worth the effort, and kinda buggy(especially Microsoft based ones). So what makes this one different that will make geeks truly love it? The biggest draw of this is the base phone stoack of the system. Its no longer proprietary…….its just a distro of Linux. Linux! Gotta love open source software. The software is being created so that is should be able to run on multiple phone models. The phone(at first) will only be available online, but soon they will expand out to other areas. Gotta love that. The best part of it all. I can slide a sim card into the system, and there it goes. The entire system is now on the phone network, activated, and open to whatever I want to do. (Currently only AT&T(cingular) and T-mobil use SIM cards—so those are the carriers that it can work on) So you got Linux. Ability to customize the software as you will, and just a generally open phone. Sure it is going to be rough for a while, an potentially have some issues as it starts out….but…..I know(or yet—believe) that this will be a sweet project once its complete. I most surely will get myself once of these a month or two after it comes out. To read a little about this, visit their website at OpenMoko.org and become enlightened to the open source phone revolution.

Categories: Technology, Thoughts
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Yes that item. The one that shows pics. Thats to show who has visited the blog recently. Just as an FYI: I am not in control of the pictures it has on there. Just an FYI

Categories: General
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For now, Microsoft Testing is complete. I am done with testing for a while. No more certifications for a while. That will be nice. Let my brain rest up a bit. Achieved the MCP, MCDST and MCTS certifications now. Yeah. My mother must be proud. At least my brain won’t be going crazy for the next few weeks. That is, of course, until I start my new round of certifications. It will be interesting to see what Bryan has in store for me. Oh well. I best get going. I gots to take care of some things.

Categories: General
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So….
There are some videos that you come across that are like “what”? They are interesting, hold your attention, somewhat funny in that morbid sense, and are a little weird. Whoever made them took time to make them and make them well. I am a little on the concerned side that people make videos like this………..but should I be more concerned that I am putting them online for people to watch?


And here is the second one showing a bird…..


Ah Gaim. My favorite program to use for chatting. Of course, it is no longer called gaim anymore. It is now called Pidgin. (you can read about that here) and the official version 2.0 will be released soon(explained in the postings) and the program will go out of beta. Ah gotta hate AOL (and their patent or whatever of the word AIM) and their inability to play nice with others. This is another reason why I think I might move more and more away from my aim account that I have and choose something that is a little less evil for the time being. Little less being Google—they are slowly moving up the evil ladder.

Speaking of Evil. Microsoft released a patch last week to counter the flaw in its animated cursor. Well, turns out the dll files they released breaks other applications. Bad bad Microsoft. They have released a new version of the patch, so if you have been affected, search microsoft for the updated patch to help correct the problems.

Categories: Front Page Videos, General, Technology, Thoughts
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Here is a puzzle for you to figure out, thanks to Gallery and its plugins.

Categories: Puzzle
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Jib Jib worked with Weird Al to do a music video. Its actually pretty funny. Go ahead, enjoy it.

Categories: Front Page Videos
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This is a sign Cornerstone should employee. Maybe we can get rid of the geese that way?

Categories: General
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I found this site through the use of stumbleupon. Its called GodTube(YouTube for Christians) and this video that is on there. I don’t know. Its….interesting?

Categories: Front Page Videos
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