Windows Me customers should read this Security Bulletin From Technet. An End User Bulletin which attempts to explain this in Plain English is also available.
The Microsoft Knowledge Base Article on MS03-006 also goes into more verbose detail.
I am not sure when Google created Googlism, but I had fun today checking out what Google had to say about "Kayode".
A follow-up to USA Today's Article on 'Erased' Hard Drives.
A recent edition of Windows XP: The Official Magazine had a feature on Data Recovery Software. I will summarise:
R-Undelete offers a demo that recovers files which are 64kb or less.
There is an evaluation version of Data Advisor from Ontrack. Data Advisor is a Disk-Diagnostic Software which is self-booting in case you are unable to boot your system due to data loss.
Convar offers PC Inspector as Freeware - at least that's how I interpreted the site because it was in German - unless FREEWARE in German actually means something else in English.
All these sites also offer a way to permanently remove data from your hard drive - at a cost. But there are free options:
I have long been a user of Eraser created by Sami Tolvanen which is free but appears not to have been updated since May 2002 (Version 5.3).
Just found out that the latest version of Eraser (Version 5.6 at time of writing) is being offered by www.heidi.ie - The copyright notice at the bottom of the page was a giveaway.
Did I mention that Eraser removes sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times? Check it out yourself.
I don't use the Outlook Preview Pane myself for security reasons but for those who use it, may I suggest NoHTML from BaxBex Software?
The usual caveats from NTBugTraq apply.
Outlook 2002 users may also wish to consult the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: "OL2002: Users Can Read Nonsecure Email as Plain Text".
Outlook Express 6 users are able to read HTML Mail as Plain Text: Tools > Options > Read > "Read all messages in plain text". This works on Windows XP PCs, other users of Outlook Express 6 may wish to apply Service Pack 1 in order to see the option.
Needing a quick refresher in constructing Excel VBA IF...THEN...ELSE Statements for a task at work, I turned to Google for some examples.
I ended up with one more link for my Excel Page; Beyond Technology (which provided the examples and inspiration I needed to complete the task).
I have added Beyond Technology to my Excel Page.
In case anyone has noticed that I have not updated my Internet Explorer page for a while, the reason is quite simple.
I switched browsers about two months ago.
These days, I surf with Mozilla, Phoenix and Opera with an old version of Netscape 4 which is handy for testing out my website.
If the idea of grabbing the latest version of Netscape fills you with dread, there is a streamlined version available from Silly Dog and a compact version from Holger Metzger.
The Internet Explorer Page should be updated this weekend
I have updated my Windows XP Page with the latest patches, MS03-004 and MS03-005.
Using Windows Grep, I was able to find some STOP Errors I missed the first time around.
Updates have been made to the following sections:
I found this Collection of Stupid Computer Tricks in one of my favorite Newsgroups today.
My favorite is the one with the Motherboard.
USA Today:"Imagine this chilling scenario: You buy a new PC and donate the old one to charity, knowing you've protected your privacy by deleting all your old files - or better yet, reformatting the hard drive and wiping it clean.
"Yet you later discover you're a victim of identity theft: Your Social Security number, driver's license ID, credit card account information and tax records all were retrieved from the old hard drive.
"Far-fetched? Not really, Simson Garfinkel says. The privacy expert and MIT grad student recently bought 158 old hard drives on eBay as an experiment with fellow student Abhi Shelat to see how much data was recoverable. Their findings: More than 5,000 credit card numbers, financial and medical records, personal e-mail and pornography were easily obtainable on the drives..."
Wired: "A significant security flaw was discovered in Microsoft software this week, but this time Microsoft isn't to blame. Well, not completely.
"The most recent security problem uncovered in a Microsoft product is a genuine threat, security experts say, but it isn't a problem particular to the Windows XP operating system.
"The producers of Brian's Buzz on Windows newsletter discovered that booting an XP system off a Windows 2000 CD allows the user to start the Windows 2000 Recovery Console, a troubleshooting program. Once Recovery is active, the computer's uninvited guest has complete access to the contents of the computer without ever having to enter a password."
The idea behind this section was to create a page logging changes to my Website.
Instead, I have ended up with what may be loosely called a Weblog; I assure you, it was not intentional!