James Carey's Link Blog

"Afternoon, Frank." "Hey howdy, George."

2009-11-13T18:41:55Z

It's about time these two neighbors got to talking to each other. Most Saturday afternoons you'd find them politely waving as they passed at each other by with their push mowers, tending to their neatly manicured tables, charts, and graphs. It just made sense that the grounds would look that much...

web developer survey update – help wanted!

2009-11-09T16:00:52Z

Two weeks ago we announced the launch of the Mozilla Developer Network. We also asked for your help through this short survey for Web developers. The questions were meant to understand who you are, what you’re interested in, and what resources would be most useful to you on MDN. We’re happy to report that we have received over 3,600 responses so far, so thank you!

Here’s a Sneak Peek at the Data:

HTML/CSS/Javascript are the winning combination, PHP is a close 4th. After that, technology choices are quite fragmented.

The most popular tools for development are a collection of Firefox add-ons, including Firebug and Web developer, and… text editors! Each developer has a favorite, from vi or emacs to TextMate or Notepad++.

Either Web developers live mostly in the US and in France, or this is where the most active Mozilla developer outreach is happening. We think it’s the latter, for France we call it the “Paul and Tristan effect”!

What Are We Missing?

Please help us get more responses from around the world so we can understand the needs of Web developers everywhere.

We would also love to get more participants who are working in corporate environments, especially on intranets. And we’d like to hear more from those of you who are working (willingly or not) with proprietary technologies.

How Can You Help?

We’d like to get 5,000 responses before we close the survey, so help us spread the word to other Web developers: tweet about it and send the survey link to your friends!

Once we have enough responses, we’ll publish the results on this blog. You can also follow the latest Mozilla Developer Network updates on Twitter at @mozhacks.

Apple updates Safari to 4.0.4

2009-11-11T22:00:00Z

Filed under: Software, Internet, Software Update, Apple

In just two days after Apple released the Mac OS X 10.6.2 update, there's now an update for Safari. This new version, 4.0.4, improves and fixes performance, stability, and security of Safari including:

Improved JavaScript performance.
Improved Full History Search performance for users with a large number of history items.
Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail.

This update requires Mac OS X 10.6.1 or 10.6.2, Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.5.7, Mac OS X 10.4.11
or Windows 7, Vista, XP and is available through Software Update, or on the Apple Downloads page.

Do you notice any improvements in this update? Leave a comment and let us know!

TUAW Apple updates Safari to 4.0.4 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft's Security Tools Are Good Enough [Opinion]

2009-11-10T18:00:00Z

When it comes to keeping your Windows PC secure, all of the scare tactics and overblown virus stories out there make it hard to feel safe online. The fact of the matter is that you don't need to pay for Windows security.

From time to time we like to go on long, opinionated rants about subjects that bug us. This is one of those times. So let's have a frank and honest discussion about Windows security, and leave the scare tactics and FUD for money-grubbing corporate marketers.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a Great Antivirus Application

The release of Microsoft Security Essentials has changed the landscape of antivirus software. We've finally got a completely free application that protects against viruses, spyware, and other malware—without killing system performance like some of the "suites" tend to do. In my personal experience, it barely slows down the machine and rarely affects my work—and during a deliberate attempt to download some viruses (for testing purposes), it immediately found and blocked them from doing anything.

You don't have to take my word for it, however. Not only did AV-Test.org find that it detects 98% of their enormous malware database, but AV-Comparatives (a widely known anti-malware testing group) found that MSE was one of only three products that did well at both finding and removing malware, including the leftovers. It was also the only free product to grab their "Advanced+" rating—the top honor for an anti-malware solution.

The more tech-oriented readers will probably note that MSE does not do any fancy heuristics to detect viruses that aren't in the database already, which is a feature offered by some paid solutions. In my opinion, this feature is usually unnecessary and a massive system drag if combined with a healthy dose of not installing questionable nonsense.

Stop Whining About "Outbound" Firewalls

Every time I read an article about the built-in Windows Firewall, I see comments complaining that they use Zone Alarm or some other software because they handle "Outbound" connections. Let's put it on the table—the Windows Firewall has plenty of capability for handling outbound connections if you really need that level of paranoia. In fact, if you just look through your start menu you'll find a link for Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. You can head into there and pretty much configure any setting that you can possibly imagine, getting right down to the port level if you want.

The fact of the matter, however, is that outbound firewalls on a desktop PC are Completely Pointless. If the malware has made its way onto your computer, you have already lost the war. Your PC now belongs to whoever is running the botnet, and your outbound firewall isn't going to stop it—after all, the malware can simply add a rule to the firewall to allow access. It's better to focus on keeping malware off your PC in the first place.

Let's not forget that most of us are using a router with a firewall built right into it, and as long as you aren't using easily-cracked WEP encryption, you should be perfectly safe behind your firewall.

User Account Control (UAC) is Not a Security Tool

The single most irritating feature introduced in Windows Vista was those annoying UAC prompts, asking you for permission to do nearly anything on your computer—and the fact is, even if it makes you feel more secure, it's a false sense of security. Malware researchers at SophosLabs found that 8 of 10 malware samples can actually bypass UAC on a system with the default Windows 7 settings.

The fact of the matter is that unless you've pushed the UAC slider all the way to the top, it's not meant to be a security feature. The original intent was to change the way Windows works so that you can more easily run software as a standard user account, instead of running as administrator all the time. So there you have it—if you aren't going to run as a standard user or turn the slider all the way to the top, you may as well disable UAC.

Keep Windows Updated

When it comes to protecting yourself, it's laughable how many people install multiple antivirus applications but don't keep their system updated with the latest operating system patches. Last April, the Conficker worm was exploiting and spreading on millions of PCs through a critical security hole in Windows—one that had been patched the previous October.

If everybody would simply keep their systems patched, we wouldn't have to worry so much about these problems. If the constant rebooting action of Windows Update has you frustrated, you can always temporarily delay Windows Update's forced reboot, or just make it not restart your PC automatically—but you should always have Windows Update running at all times.

Keep Applications Like Acrobat and Flash Updated, or Uninstall Them

Even though we're complaining about people not keeping Windows updated, the fact of the matter is that the most likely cause of drive-by malware infection these days is through your browser plugins. Adobe Flash is notoriously full of security holes, and the latest attacks have been using vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat to infect your PC without installing a thing—just go to the wrong site that redirects you in a hidden frame to a PDF file containing the exploit, and your system can be exploited.

Keeping your applications updated is critically important to protecting your security. Your firewall won't protect you, and an antivirus software is unlikely to help if you're using an old, vulnerable version of Flash in your browser—what you need is a piece of software that scans your PC and makes sure that you are using the latest, patched versions. We've got you covered with the five best software update tools for any OS, but my personal recommendation for Windows is for Secunia PSI.

Stop Downloading Questionable Files

There's a little-known fact that I don't usually tell anybody, but I'm going to share with you today: I haven't used real-time antivirus software on my PC in 10 years, and I've never been infected with a virus. About once a year, I run through an online virus scanner to make sure that my claim still holds true, and it's never happened.

How have I managed that, while being a geek and testing software all the time? There's a couple of simple rules that will protect you:

Use an online scanner like VirusTotal to scan questionable files before installing them.
Don't download and install those questionable files in the first place.
Use some common sense. That pre-release copy of the latest video game you got from a torrent? Yeah, it probably has a virus in it.

So what do you say? Are the built-in tools, combined with Microsoft Security Essentials, good enough for you, or are you going to stick with the full paranoia route? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments.

The How-To Geek thinks a little common sense and system patches goes a long, long way towards a secure system. His geeky articles can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, and Twitter.

Released: Bing Maps UK

2009-11-12T15:53:00Z

If you’re in the UK and go to Bing Maps via Bing.com/maps you will get redirected to Multimap.com…or, at least you would’ve until now. Going to Bing Maps will take you to the new Bing Maps experience in the UK. We’ve introduced a slough a features just for the UK market (and some shared with the US market). Also, for those who still want the Multimap.com experience you can still access it directly via Multimap.com; however, over the next few weeks you will be asked if you’d like try the new Bing Maps experience instead – I’d advise you try it. Once you go Bing, you never go…wait. Never mind. Check out the features.

Redesigned Navigation – An updated navigation bar that matches up with that of Bing Maps US – changing the colors to black and adding a zoom bar instead of just zoom buttons; however, you’ll also notice in the drop down when you hover over the Road (maps link) you’ll see in addition to the Road map options for London Street Map and Ordnance Survey Map, plus thumbnails of each.

Default Search: Location – Since this is Bing MAPS, and based on user feedback we thought it made sense to default search queries to location instead of business. So, put in a location and you’ll be directed accordingly.
Collins Bartholomew Maps – The popular and well know A-to-Z style maps are now available via our friends at Collins Bartholomew. The A-to-Z style maps provide a high level of detail in a very readable format. These are great for getting to know you way around London.

Ordnance Survey Maps – Maps for the outdoorsman (or outdoorswoman)! Our friends at Ordnance Survey provide a broad range over maps including their popular Explorer and Landranger maps for the hiker in you – mountain or urban!

Public Transportation Station Symbology – Symbols representing the different types of public transit are now clearly marked on the map. We no longer have clashing or overlapping symbols – they are just nicely arranged next to each other. You can hover over a station symbol to identify what the station name is. Also, each symbol is clickable to give you information about the station such as name, the lines that cross it and a link to the Transportation for London web site for planning your trip. You can also get directions to/from the station or email a Bing Maps link pointing to the station location to a friend.

Tube Maps – Clicking on one of the stations brings up the Tube Maps for the respective station and the stations it connects to; however, you can turn on all Tube Maps by clicking the respective link in the Welcome Panel.

Nearby Stations – Certain location query types, such as “EC4a 2dy” will result in a pin on the map, as well as a popup providing the closest stations to the respective location and how far away they are. Also including in the results are links to Directions, Saving the pushpin to My Places and Emailing a link to a friend.

What’s Nearby – Also in location results, the Welcome Panel will pop out and provide you with a list of business types that are around the respective area. These will be business categories that reside within the area. Also, notice the link to Explore Wikipedia information right inside of Bing Maps.

Explore User Contributions – If you want to see what other people have contributed (not only to Wikipedia that is now being pulled into Bing Maps), you can explore Collection Items with Photos, 3D Models, MapCruncher Layers and Photosynths (contributed via Photosynth.com). These are available via the Explore option in the Welcome menu.

Walking Directions – This concept is foreign to me since I grew up in LA (and nobody walks in LA, per the Missing Persons), but I can see how Londoners would like walking directions. It’s now available in the Route Planner (and you can use KM too).

London Congestion Charge Warnings – London has a system using cameras to charge you for passing through a sort of toll area. These areas will now be identified within your route instructions on Bing Maps. Don’t want to pay the charge? Use the draggable maps option to drag a route around the area.

Draggable Routes – If you need to change your route you can either enter an additional location in the Route Planner or just grab the route with your mouse cursor and drag it to where you want to go. This will regenerate the route for you.
New Popup Behaviors – Popups are now activated via mouse-click, rather than mouse hover. They also remain raised if you move the mouse away. Close them via the close symbol, clicking on another pushpin, or clicking on the base map.
Embeddable Maps - You can now take a map view right from Bing Maps and embed it into your site. To do this, you’ll want to click the Share button once your map is where you want it to be. You can copy the embed code from there; or, you can click the Customize View link which will take you to the embeddable map customizer (EMC). The EMC allows you to set a map to the map height and width (small, medium, large or custom); the map type (static or draggable); the map styles (road, aerial, aerial w/ labels); and, add links to Bing Maps for Viewing a Larger Map, Getting Directions or seeing Bird’s Eye. Once you’ve set everything the way you want it, click Generate Code and boom! there’s your code. You copy it, then paste it into your web page and you’ll have the map you wanted.

Function Buttons – In addition to changing the navigation atop the maps, we added function buttons at the bottom of the Welcome pane to make it easier to jump to specific features. Each button loads features on Bing Maps. Welcome loads the welcome pane; the car loads the route planner; the star loads My Places, formerly called Collections; the envelop loads the ability to share the map with someone via email, copying a URI or embedding the map into a web page (more on that below); the printer icon is for printing; and, the circle with a line through will load a Tube Map. This is an overlay of the tubes system.

Whoa. I need some water after that workout. Congrats, people of The United Kingdom – you just got yourself one heck of a Bing! map system. If you're not in the UK and want see how good they have it, check out http://www.bing.com/maps/?mkt=en-uk. More to come…also check out the Bing Search Blog for more news about Bing in the UK.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

WordPress 2.8.6 Security Release

2009-11-12T19:17:20Z

2.8.6 fixes two security problems that can be exploited by registered, logged in users who have posting privileges. If you have untrusted authors on your blog, upgrading to 2.8.6 is recommended.

The first problem is an XSS vulnerability in Press This discovered by Benjamin Flesch. The second problem, discovered by Dawid Golunski, is an issue with sanitizing uploaded file names that can be exploited in certain Apache configurations. Thanks to Benjamin and Dawid for finding and reporting these.

Get WordPress 2.8.6.

YouTube going 1080p, already?

2009-11-13T00:37:00Z

Filed under: Internet

A year removed from adding 720p streams to its repertoire, YouTube Director of Product Management Hunter Walk hit the stage at NewTeeVee Live and mentioned, among other things, that over the next few days it will be rolling out 1080p video, including going back and re-encoding all previous videos uploaded at that resolution. While other streaming services have offered 1080p for some time now we weren't exactly expecting YouTube to flip the switch just yet. With an eye towards improving quality for its 10-foot experience and moving beyond just the computer screen, clearly an upgrade was necessary, though Blu-ray or even VUDU quality is probably out of the question (though if the company jumps in the online rental biz all bets are off) the commitment is for your uploaded content to "look as good or better than the source quality." Check the video after the break for more tidbits about what's next for the site, including YouTube XL.

Continue reading YouTube going 1080p, already?

YouTube going 1080p, already? originally appeared on Engadget HD on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boycott, It’s What’s for Dinner

2009-11-12T19:30:47Z

click to enlarge

Source [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Posted in Video Games Tagged: Freakin' Funny

Get Free Wallpaper, Turn Yourself into a Zombie, and Win an Xbox

2009-11-13T02:40:14Z

During the production of a game, a lot of concept art gets drawn up, redrawn, thrown away, cursed at, and, occasionally, even used. There's a mountain of this stuff fluttering around the Valve offices, and while the non-artists among us might not know much (anything) about art, we hope we're not embarrassing our artists by saying it looks pretty kickass. So we grabbed some of it off the nearest pile and made it into desktop wallpaper:

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And we lest we forget our hard-working animators and modelers, Here's some high-res screengrab wallpaper from the game's intro, too:

If you're looking at all these wallpapers and thinking, "These are okay, but they're not as good as the desktop wallpaper I have up now of my own face," have we got news for you. You can plug that picture into GameStop's "Leave Yourself 4 Dead" Online Zombifier and see what you'd look like as a ravenous, kill-crazy zombie. (Admit it, you're curious.)

Lastly, if you haven't already entered our "Dude, Where's My Thumb?" contest, remember that it closes Monday, so get creative this weekend and win a copy of the game or even a new Xbox!

Weekend Deal: Crysis 50% Off!

2009-11-12T18:29:08Z

Crysis and Crysis Warhead are available for 50% off until Monday!

Zune HD 3D games video hands-on

2009-11-11T18:58:00Z

It took us a tick to get our Zune HD loaded up with those new 3D games that were released this morning, but we thought you might want to check out a quick hands-on. That Tegra chip is no joke -- the graphics in PGR: Ferrari Edition are easily on par with the PSP and quite possibly better, with intricate textures, high-quality reflections, and smooth framerates. The other games aren't nearly as intense, but they're just as smooth. Best of all? They're free -- although you will have to look at a Zune ad while they load. Not the worst tradeoff in the world, but we'd love to see what paid app developers could do if Microsoft would open this beast up. Check the video after the break.

Continue reading Zune HD 3D games video hands-on

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Zune HD 3D games video hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Head of BBC HD says 'reducing bit rate has no impact on picture quality'

2009-11-11T17:07:02Z

In an extraordinary interview with Points of View, the head of BBC HD says there's no evidence that reducing the bit rate has a negative impact on picture quality. Sadly, science disagrees

Defending video game terrorism: Modern Warfare 2 is innocent

2009-11-11T18:10:02Z

Defending a game which recreates acts of terrorism may seem like a difficult job, but once you actually play Activision's new game Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it becomes very easy

FEZ BECOMES FEDGE

2009-11-11T20:19:19Z

POLYTRON CHANGES NAME OF UPCOMING GAME FROM FEZ TO FEDGE

For immediate release

Montreal, November 11 2009 – International world leader in “Artificial Entertainment” Polytron Corporation is excited to announce a name change for its upcoming smash sensation, Fez.

Indeed! To better represent the edgy nature and aesthetic the game, and edges of squares and cubes, Polytron is proud to announce the name change from Fez to FEDGE!

We at Polytron Corporation are at the edge of everything, at the edge of other edges, so it only make sense to reflect this edgyness in our product’s name, which is now Fedge.

About Polytron:

Polytron is an edgy game developer.

About Fedge:

Fedge is a game about squares and cubes, which both have edges.

Zynga CEO Admits to Being a Scammer

2009-11-11T01:43:00Z

Zynga, the company behind Facebook games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars, was built on scams and spyware.

First Day Modern Warfare 2 Sales To Top 7 Million?

2009-11-11T22:28:00Z

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (X360)
Sales record shattered in UK, first week sales could push 12 million.

SyncToy 2.1 Available for Download

2009-11-11T19:59:00Z

How many times have you tried to copy a huge number of files only to accidently hit space or escape cancelling the transfer and you don't want to re-start from scratch? Well there's a better way to sync files between directories and drives, SyncToy. You might remember this from the XP PowerToys days, the ease of use makes it a very popular download. Deepa from the Sync team stopped by to show us the latest version, SyncToy 2.1.

You can find out more here, download it here, or give the team feedback here.

Natal for November 2010

2009-11-11T10:29:00Z

Project Natal (X360)
14 games and low price at launch for Microsoft's motion controller.

Survey suggests people may not be happy with a 2Meg service

2009-11-11T14:57:10Z

A survey that looked at whether the speed of broadband at a property would influence their buying decision is very revealing of what the general public expect from broadband in 2009.

Rock Band played with a flute, awesome redefined (video)

2009-11-10T11:32:00Z

Maybe we're just overreacting to a rhythm video game played with real musical skill, but this one's not to be missed. What we have on hand here is a flute, a rather quirky girl, and a microphone-equipped copy of Rock Band, which accepts aural tones as well as button mashes for input. The result of this eclectic combination is a 98% accuracy score, but how she gets there is the truly awesome part. Video's after the break, and be patient -- action doesn't pick up until a minute into it, but once it starts you'll be glued till the end.

[Via Switched]

Continue reading Rock Band played with a flute, awesome redefined (video)

Filed under: Gaming

Rock Band played with a flute, awesome redefined (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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