New Internet Explorer

[ydoaPs]

3 seconds? holy crap! how do you think that is fast?

[Klaynos]

There are some features in Word that I couldn't find in OpenOffice. For example' date=' Word has tons of clipart that you can add to a letter. They also have lots of templates so you could make a nice business letter if you need one.

 

There is also the recovery feature. If the electricity goes out, Word will probably be able to restore your document the next time you turn on your computer.[/quote']

 

You can get clipart for it, I'm not a fan of it so don't miss it at all. You can download hundreds of resources for OO.o, including templates, see:

 

http://documentation.openoffice.org/thirdparty.html

 

And the restore is basically just an auto save which you can make OO.o do (which I didn't have set up the other day and then closed a document thinking "it'll have autosaved", that was NOT fun )

 

I'm just going to comment isn't this going WAY off topic now?

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13734

 

Might be a better place to continue this...

[Pangloss]

Hey man, don't dis Clippy. Clippy RULZ U. You WISH you could be as cool as Clippy. ;-)

 

Funny thing, I hadn't actually seen Clippy in years, but I was teaching a class on Microsoft Access yesterday and I noticed one of the students had called up Clippy and was messing around with him between lessons -- one of those students you get sometimes who finishes labs ahead of the other students and gets bored (usually they just pull up a web site or something; I just thought it was kinda funny that he pulled up Clippy instead).

[Pangloss]

But the best thing about Clippy is that he lends himself so well to abuse in Photoshop contests.

 

[Klaynos]

*clicks option one repeatedly*

[herme3]

*clicks option one repeatedly*

 

[herme3]

I'm just going to comment isn't this going WAY off topic now?

 

Yeah, I guess we did get off topic. Let's talk about IE7 again! Does anyone know the release date for IE7? Will it be an update for Windows XP, or will we need to wait until Vista is released?

[ydoaPs]

[img']http://www.bluealan.com/clippy.jpg[/img]

/me opens a bag of plastic forks

[Dak]

this is what microsoft have to say.

 

Im gonna have a look-see through the papers, I'll give a summary if you want and if I can understand it (looks in fear at the technology overview)

[Klaynos]

The vista and IE7 release dates are the same, as with all the other interesting features you will be able to install it on XP I belive...

 

||edit

 

I know they never are avaliable :'( heeh

[Dak]

This is a brief summary of the technology overview

 

Iv tried to go into more detail that, for example, news-blogs generally do, but keep it succinct for all of you who dont want to read the 19 page ms release.

 

MS IE7 beta1 is available for testing to anyone who is subscribed to MSDN (whatever that is -- microsoft developer network?)

 

----------

 

compatable with windows vista and windows xp sp2

 

'deep' support for RSS. visual indication that rss is available given in the toolbar, with click-and-read-or-subscribe function. parses the RSS XML into human-readable content. notifies user when RSS is updated.

 

No idea what this RSS gubbins means:

 

In beta 2 and final releases, Internet Explorer 7 will also support a common feed list so that all applications can share the same set of RSS subscriptions. In addition, Windows Vista will have RSS platform functionality with a common store-and-sync engine, making it easy for any application to provide RSS functionality. By removing the need for each application to understand how to subscribe, download and read different user feeds, developers will be able to better focus on creating new experiences for end users rather than on the details of RSS functionality.

 

Inproved CSS support -- as the compliance to standards was central to this thread, i present the exerpt here in its entirety:

 

CSS improvements. CSS is a widely used standard for creating Web pages. Internet Explorer 7 is prioritizing compliance to CSS standards by first implementing the features that developers have said are most important to them. As a result, in Internet Explorer 7 beta 1 Microsoft has addressed some of the major inconsistencies that can cause Web developers problems producing rich, interactive Web pages. The work Microsoft has done includes fixing some positioning and layout issues related to the way Internet Explorer 6 handles <div> tags. (More information about these bugs can be found online at http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/peekaboo.html and http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/guillotine.html[/url']. The final release of Internet Explorer 7 will focus on improving the developer experience by reducing the time needed for developing and testing on different browsers.

 

alpha-channel transparent PNG support

 

tabbed browsing, including most of the inteface settings available in FF and its tabbed browsing extention -- setting to open all links in new tabs; 'open in new tab' in link's context-menu; refresh/close individual tab or all other tabs in tab context menu; open new tab via clicking on empty bit of tab-bar etc.

 

address bar is non-turn-offable, in order to prevend phishing of the form 'this is a link to paypal' which opens www.we'regonnastealyourmoney.com, which looks like PP and has the address bar turned-off so that you cant tell.

 

some lots of advertising for windows anti-spyware.

 

Scripts can only interact/read scripts and window-content from the same domain as the script originated from. prevents gathering info entered into an IE7 window by a seperate domain which is open in another window.

 

protected mode -- when IE7 is run in this mode, it makes IE inable to modify user/system files/settings (exept temporary internet files). to prevent elevation of privelage.

 

more-visual clues to the security of websites (https and ssl?) and info pertaining to the certificate

 

anti-phishing filter, using blacklists, huristical analysis (no info given other than "analyzes sites users want to visit by checking those sites for characteristics common to phishing sites"), and sends url to microsoft to be checked against latest blacklist; warnings are highly visable, and IE7 auto-redirects away from confirmed phishing sites.

 

the anti-phishing is opt-in, although its not clear wether you could opt out of the last bit but not the rest (for those of a 'microsoft is not trustworthy' disposition).

 

One button to delete personal info, assumedly cookies, TIF, history, form autocomplete etc. Apparently also clears the start/run history (?)

 

More secure default settings for add-ons (active-x's, [acr=Browser Helper Objects]BHO[/acr]s, toolbars etc) (huzzah!), and better controls for add-ons, including viewing all addons (including wether they are active), and the ability to enable/diable individual ones.

 

No add-ons mode (run via short-cut): when run in this mode, disables all add-ons; desighned as a 'secure mode' for online banking etc.

 

Toolbar search-box, which can use any search provider the user choses.

 

'shrink contents to fit' when printing screen.

 

Sleeker bit-that-goes-at-the-top (menu bar, address bar, toolbar etc). stop and refresh buttons are both the same, presumably stopping the site if its loading and refreshing it if it isnt loading. small detail, yet cunning, i feel. very cunning... Who are you, and what have you done with microsoft?

 

w3c standards compliance?:

 

Web developers have expressed some frustration with certain peculiarities in the behavior of Internet Explorer 6' date=' especially in the areas of standards support. Application developers also want to take advantage of new capabilities of the Web but have been required to develop everything from the ground up to do so. [...']

 

In Internet Explorer 7 beta 1, the browser architecture has been reengineered to address compatibility and will offer additional support for popular standards.

 

more control over IE7 settings for administrators

 

integration into OS (again)

[herme3]

/me opens a bag of plastic forks

 

Clippy made me post that! I promise!!!!

 

This is a brief summary of the technology overview

 

Iv tried to go into more detail that' date=' for example, news-blogs generally do, but keep it succinct for all of you who dont want to read the 19 page ms release.

 

MS IE7 beta1 is available for testing to anyone who is subscribed to MSDN (whatever that is -- microsoft developer network?)[/quote']

 

Thank you so much for posting all of that information. IE7 sounds like it will be a great browser. I want to join the MSDN, but it is so expensive! One subscription was $2,799!

[Pangloss]

Yeah that really bugs me. I'm a channel partner, a Microsoft Certified Trainer, a reseller action pack subscriber, an MCSE (twice over), and a former TechNet subscriber, and I can't even get a decent price on Visual Studio except via the Academic channel (which I can't use to make a program I can sell), or a decent price on MSDN. Most annoying.

 

They're really stringent about free licensing these days, compared with the way it used to be. I used to go to conventions and come home with stacks of discs and licenses, and even betas, technets and MSDN discs. Those days, alas, are long gone.

[bloodhound]

HAHA, my brother has a MSDN license.

 

Why not just download the damn thing. It's the INTERNETS afterall.

[bloodhound]

That's the default setting. No wonder webmaster stats for opera are so low. And I know couple of peeps that run FF extensions which do just that as well.

[Klaynos]

I know a few people who work for a ms gold partener, they get to play with all kinds of stuff...including ie7, which hasn't impressed them :'( I just hope it's good, for the sake of all the users out there...

[5614]

Alternatively you could stay on IE6 because all the new loopholes being discovered will be in IE7 because it's the new and so we assume will be the most used webbrowser. (This is assuming one doesn't like IE7, although how easy role back would be if you installed 7 and didn't like it I'm not sure)

[Pangloss]

Generally speaking the don't-upgrade approach has not proven to be a very good way to avoid security issues. But I agree that there may be a relatively brief period where it may make more sense to wait a bit and see how things develop. I often recommend this to my business customers, but always with the stipulation that they keep patching and be mindful of the potential disadvantages.

 

One of the things we saw last week was that most of the companies that got slammed by Zotob were companies that were running Windows 2000. It wasn't so much the fact that they were running 2k that got them into trouble, because that virus could also affect XP/2003 (in theory), but the fact that they weren't patching regularly and/or rapidly. I think Zotob was a huge wake-up call for NOCs all over the world.

[5614]

Fair enough, I did read about the Zotob thing, however I read it exploited a hole which was specifically in win2000 and that, whilst in theory it could affect XP/03 it was specifically targetted against 2000 because of a flaw. The fact that they were going for 2000 when it isn't the latest is the point you were getting across, maybe!?

[Pangloss]

Yah, I think if you were running the original version of XP then you'd be vulnerable, but most people run SP1 or SP2 which are protected (but don't quote me on that).

 

But even without the Zotob thing, holding back to a prior version, even if you fully patch it, doesn't guarantee security. Microsoft rarely patches earlier operating systems, and declared recently that it was going to release no more patches for Windows 2000. The 9x and NT products haven't been patched in years. There are many vulnerabilities that exist today that affect those products that have never been patched, and of course many of those are based on IE.

 

But I still think it's a valuable suggestion (that you made). It's not unusual at all for it to make a huge amount of sense to wait a bit when a new product comes out, to let the early adopters shake out all the issues.

 

Just this past week there was a movement amongst .NET developers to try and convince Microsoft to hold up on the product launch of Visual Studio .NET 2005 due to bugs and issues. Microsoft has promised to address the issues, but they're going ahead with the launch anyway.

 

To steal a headline from FARK earlier today, this one doesn't take four stoned kids and a dog in a van to solve.

[Klaynos]

win 2000 is still receiving security patches.

 

The way I read it that the bug was in win 2k, win xp both service packs. But there was a patch released before the worm started spreading (5 days or something) and it specifically targeted win 2k...

 

I'd probably wait about a month for IE7 so they sort out any issues which arise soon after release but then upgrade simply as it's best to have a version they are likely to release security patches for...

[Dak]

RE: zotob, afaict xp sp2 and 2003 are unnafected. All other windows OSs can be infected, but windows 2000 is specifically targeted by the worms. ^1,2.

 

a simple firewall blocking TCP port 445 prevents infection.

 

Alternatively you could stay on IE6 because all the new loopholes being discovered will be in IE7 because it's the new and so we assume will be the most used webbrowser.

 

IE7 is only compatable with XP SP2 and vista... Im not sure on the stats, but i think the majority of people will not be able to get IE7, so it wont become the most used browser for a while.

 

Having said that, any security holes that can be found in the virgin, untapped IE7 will potentially allow a point-of-entry to the new, virgin, untapped windows vista OS, so the amount of people looking for exploits will be huge either way, and i severely doubt that microsoft will release an even half-secure browser on their first attempt.

[Pangloss]

And there's really no reason to have 445 open (it's used for shoving data around the LAN, but nobody in their right mind would open local shares across the Internet). Anybody with ANY kind of firewall is going to be blocking that port automatically. Since Windows XP Service Pack 2 turns the built-in firewall on by default, the problem stops there. I believe that firewall shipped with Service Pack 1, but at that time it was turned off by default.

 

At any rate, details aside, the truly amazing thing about all of this is that CNN, ABC News and other major media outlets had no firewall. Or perhaps they had one, but had left 445 open for some reason, perhaps for some custom app.

 

(I got it! They were running Liberal News Spin Applier 0.9, which connects to the ACLU and Moveon.org through port 445 in order to make appropriate ideological "adjustments" to their stories.) ;-)

[Dak]

^

 

from what I know, zotob is desighned to propogate throughought a network.

 

My guess would be that it is supposed to find one un-firewalled computer, infect it, and then infect all the other computers on that network via port 445 (Win 2k uses that port for "server message block", which i assume is the 'shoving data around the LAN' that you mentioned?). Then, the entire network can shoot-out new zotobs in an attempt to find other un-firewalled PCs of other networks.

 

Personally, the thing that I find funny is that all the zotob worms seem to have been made by different people, being unified only by their exploitation of a secrutiy hole in plug & play.

 

The funny thing being that the different versions of the zotob worm try and erase each-other¹

[herme3]

That's the default setting. No wonder webmaster stats for opera are so low. And I know couple of peeps that run FF extensions which do just that as well.

 

I don't understand why opera would do that. They are advertising their competitor's product.

 

IE7 is only compatable with XP SP2 and vista... Im not sure on the stats' date=' but i think the majority of people will not be able to get IE7, so it wont become the most used browser for a while.[/quote']

 

Why won't the majority of people be able to get IE7? Most new computers come with SP2. The people that don't have SP2 can easily download it from the Windows Update web site.

 

My guess would be that it is supposed to find one un-firewalled computer, infect it, and then infect all the other computers on that network via port 445 (Win 2k uses that port for "server message block", which i assume is the 'shoving data around the LAN' that you mentioned?). Then, the entire network can shoot-out new zotobs in an attempt to find other un-firewalled PCs of other networks.

 

I've setup networks for businesses, and my home. I always have the cable modem directly connected to a router with a firewall. Then all of the computers should be safe. However, I still put a software firewall on all the computers for extra security.