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Apple yesterday released Mac OS X10.0.4, yet another update to Mac OS X. While no DVD support, this update does have a lot of smaller features (as quoted from the Read Me):

USB-Related Enhancements

• PrintCenter compatibility with certain third-party USB inkjet printers has been improved.


• Improves compatibility with many third-party USB devices including: “KVM” switchboxes, certain self-powered USB hubs, certain handheld devices that connect to a USB port, certain ADB-to-USB adapter devices, and third-party USB mouse and keyboard input devices.


• Improves iTunes audio CD burning performance by offering only the most reliable burn speed choice(s).


• Resolves a rare issue in which a USB device may not respond after the computer wakes from sleep.


• Enriches the reliability of USB input devices that connect to a display’s USB port.


• USB modem reliability is improved.


• Addresses issues that may have led to a USB mouse or keyboard input device becoming unresponsive unless it was disconnected and reconnected.


• Resolves an isolated issue in which a Roland/Edirol UA-3 audio device may have not properly enumerated on the USB bus.


• Addresses a potential kernel panic that may have occurred when disconnecting or hot swapping certain third-party USB devices.


• Brings iTunes compatibility to additional third-party USB CD-RW drives, including: Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-R1101 Combo Drive, Que Plextor PX-W1610A, MKE CD-RW CW8571B, Que Lite-On LTR-12101B, Iomega ZipCD 650, and Iomega Predator ZipCD 650.


• Resolves an issue in which simultaneous use of two Shift keys while typing with a USB keyboard may have unexpectedly resulted in lowercase characters.

Classic-Related Enhancements

• Enhances reliability when remotely accessing a shared FileMaker Pro 5.0 document through TCP/IP in the Classic environment.


• Addresses a rare issue in which no response was received when pinging a remote host in the Classic environment.


• Enhances the reliability of the Classic environment after the computer wakes from sleep.


• Addresses an isolated issue in which a key press may have repeated unexpectedly in a Classic application.


• Addresses a potential issue in the Classic environment in which the mouse pointer cursor may have become temporarily transparent.


• Enriches reliability of certain Classic mail applications when used with certain types of mail servers.


• Addresses a potential issue in the Classic environment with products that provide firewall services.


• General improvements allow third-party hardware device drivers to perform better in the Classic environment; future OS X hardware device drivers can be developed to co-exist with Classic device drivers for the same USB device.

Internet- and Networking-Related Enhancements

• Addresses certain issues that may have occurred when copying files using Apple File Protocol (AFP), including: potential kernel panic when copying files, reliability on a VPN connection, and copying a file that has a long Japanese file name.


• The advanced PPPoE option “Send PPP echo packets” now behaves as expected when disabled.


• Addresses a potential issue where Internet Explorer 5.1 may have become temporarily unresponsive when viewing a QuickTime movie.


• A later version of SSH is included.

Other Enhancements

• Improves reliability when a large number of FireWire devices are disconnected and reconnected.


• Enhances reliability when viewing certain types of PICT files.


• Addresses a potential issue in which a copied file’s modification date may be inaccurate.


• Resolves an issue in which the restart button does not appear after the installation of software that requires a restart.


• A Brightness slider bar is now available when used with the Apple Studio Display 17.


• Improves reliability for applications that interact with SCSI devices and SCSI busses.


• Optical media is made available more reliably from certain third-party FireWire and USB devices.


• Enriches the reliability of some display resolution choices provided by certain ATI video cards.


• Resolves a headphone volume and potential sound quality issue involving Power Macintosh G3 computers that use certain A/V personality cards.


• Addresses a potential issue with certain PowerBook computers in which an undesirable sound may be heard while the computer is in sleep mode.


• Enhances PowerBook battery power conservation when in sleep mode.


• Improves responsiveness of application menus that are drawn with OpenGL.


• Addresses a potential issue in which the startup hard disk volume could not be renamed after updating the version of Mac OS X.


• Resolves an isolated issue when using paint frames in an AppleWorks 6.1 presentation document.


• Addresses a rare issue in which an incomplete login window or graphics abnormality appears after waking from a period of sleep that began while a screen saver had been in use.


• Resolves a potential issue when printing from applications localized for German.


• A later version of sudo is included.

As you can see this is more of a maintenance release rather than a feature packed release. I have found it to be more stable, and a little faster, especially classic seems to be much more. You can update by using Software Update.

Just a little information on another security advisory due to a problem with Microsoft Windows. Is it a bug or a “feature”?

CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) yesterday released an advisory on a “Buffer Overflow in IIS Indexing Service DLL” According to the advisory NT with IIS 4.0 or 5.0 systems, Windows 2000 (professional servers, advanced servers, datacenter servers) as well as Windows XP are vulnerable. The problem “allows a remote intruder to run arbitrary code on the victim machine.” As far as impact goes, CERT is quoted as “Anyone who can reach a vulnerable web server can execute arbitrary code in the Local System security context. This results in the intruder gaining complete control of the system. Note that this may be significantly more serious than a simple “web defacement.”


Official Advisory:

---

CERT Advisory CA-2001-13 Buffer Overflow In IIS Indexing Service DLL
Original release date: June 19, 2001
Last revised: –
Source: CERT/CC
A complete revision history is at the end of this file.

Systems Affected
* Systems running Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with IIS 4.0 or IIS 5.0 enabled
* Systems running Microsoft Windows 2000 (Professional, Server, Advanced Server, Datacenter Server)
* Systems running beta versions of Microsoft Windows XP

Overview
A vulnerability exists in the Indexing Services used by Microsoft IIS 4.0 and IIS 5.0 running on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and beta versions of Windows XP. This vulnerability allows a remote intruder to run arbitrary code on the victim machine.
Since specific technical details on how to create an exploit are publicly available for this vulnerability, system administrators should apply fixes or workarounds on affected systems as soon as possible.

I. Description
There is a remotely exploitable buffer overflow in one of the ISAPI extensions installed with most versions of IIS 4.0 and 5.0 (Thespecific Internet/Indexing Service Application Programming Interface
extension is IDQ.DLL). An intruder exploiting this vulnerability may be able to execute arbitrary code in the Local System security context. This essentially can give the attacker complete control of the victim system.
This vulnerability was discovered by eEye Digital Security. Microsoft has released the following bulletin regarding this issue:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-033.asp

Affected versions of Windows include Windows NT 4.0 (installed with IIS 4.0 and Index Server 2.0), Windows 2000 (Server and Professional with IIS 5.0 installed), and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server OEM distributions; however, not all of these instances are vulnerable by default. The beta versions of Windows XP are vulnerable by default.
The only precondition for exploiting this vulnerability is that an IIS server is running with script mappings for Internet Data Administration (.ida) and Internet Data Query (.idq) files. The Indexing Services do not need to be running. As stated by Microsoft in MS01-033:
The buffer overrun occurs before any indexing functionality is requested. As a result, even though idq.dll is a component of Index Server/Indexing Service, the service would not need to be running in order for an attacker to exploit the vulnerability. As long as the script mapping for .idq or .ida files were present, and the attacker were able to establish a web session, he could exploit the vulnerability.
This vulnerability has been assigned the identifier CAN-2001-0500 by the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) group:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CAN-2001-0500

II. Impact
Anyone who can reach a vulnerable web server can execute arbitrary code in the Local System security context. This results in the intruder gaining complete control of the system. Note that this may be significantly more serious than a simple “web defacement.”

III. Solution
Apply a patch from your vendor
Apply patches for vulnerable Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 systems:

For Windows NT 4.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=30833

For Windows 2000 Professional, Server, and Advanced Server:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=30800

These patches supersede the ones previously provided in Microsoft Security Bulletins MS01-025 and MS00-006.

Users of Windows 2000 Datacenter Server software should contact their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for patches. A list of OEM providers may be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/datacenter/howtobuy/purchasing/oems.asp
Workarounds

Users of beta copies of Windows XP should upgrade to a newer version of the software when it becomes available.
All affected versions of IIS/Indexing Services can be protected against exploits of this vulnerability by removing script mappings for for Internet Data Administration (.ida) and Internet Data Query (.idq) files. However, such mappings may be recreated when installing other related software components.

Appendix A. Vendor Information

Microsoft Corporation
The following documents regarding this vulnerability are availablefrom Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-033.asp
References

1. VU#952336: Microsoft Index Server/Indexing Service used by IIS 4.0/5.0 contains unchecked buffer used when encoding double-byte characters CERT/CC, 06/19/2001,
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/952336

2. Additional advice on securing IIS web servers is available from
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/iis5chk.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools.asp
Feedback concerning this document may be directed to Jeffrey S.
Havrilla.

______________________________________________________________________
This document is available from:
http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2001-13.html
______________________________________________________________________

CERT/CC Contact Information
Email: cert@cert.org
Phone: +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline)
Fax: +1 412-268-6989
Postal address:
CERT Coordination Center
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890
U.S.A.

CERT personnel answer the hotline 08:00-17:00 EST (GMT-5) / EDT Monday through Friday; they are on call for emergencies during other hours, on U.S. holidays, and on weekends.
Using encryption

We strongly urge you to encrypt sensitive information sent by email. Our public PGP key is available from
http://www.cert.org/CERT_PGP.key

If you prefer to use DES, please call the CERT hotline for more information.
Getting security information

CERT publications and other security information are available from our web site
http://www.cert.org/

To subscribe to the CERT mailing list for advisories and bulletins, send email to majordomo@cert.org. Please include in the body of your message
subscribe cert-advisory

* “CERT” and “CERT Coordination Center” are registered in the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office.
______________________________________________________________________
NO WARRANTY
Any material furnished by Carnegie Mellon University and the Software Engineering Institute is furnished on an “as is” basis. Carnegie Mellon University makes no warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied as to any matter including, but not limited to, warranty of fitness for a particular purpose or merchantability, exclusivity or results obtained from use of the material. Carnegie Mellon University does not make any warranty of any kind with respect to freedom from patent, trademark, or copyright infringement. _________________________________________________________________
Conditions for use, disclaimers, and sponsorship information
Copyright 2001 Carnegie Mellon University.
r including, but not limited to, warranty of fitness for a particular purpose or merchantability, exclusivity or results obtained from use of the material. Carnegie Mellon University does not make any warranty of any kind with respect to freedom from patent, trademark, or copyright infringement. _________________________________________________________________
Conditions for use, disclaimers, and sponsorship information
Copyright 2001 Carnegie Mellon University.

Mac Savvy ISP Earthlink has announced the availability of fixed IP address DSL for small office and telecommuting applications. According to the press release “The new offering will allow users to use the same IP (Internet Protocol) address every time they use their EarthLink DSL account, allowing them to run a Web server or connect to their company?s VPN (Virtual Private Network) or corporate network.”

“EarthLink’s static IP DSL is currently available for new or existing customers in 17 metropolitan markets and will be expanded to cover over 25 markets in the near future. A full list of markets served is available at http://www.earthlink.net/dsl. The service is available for $15 per month on top of the $49.95 EarthLink DSL service. “

Yesterday Apple Released Developer Tools 10.0.1 via its ADC web site. This new release according to Apple boasts improved support for Java and WebObjects apps. These tools assist in helping developers to create applications for Mac OS X, by making interface design visual along with streamlining the whole development process.

This is a good move for Apple. By providing powerful development tools at no cost, and making them very accessible, Apple is promoting development for Mac OS X. While this won’t necessarily increase the commercial apps for Mac OS X, it will increase the amount of shareware and open source software available for Mac OS X. Once the platform has some software, enough to make some users switch over from Mac OS 9, commercial developers will start producing more Mac OS X applications. This is very likely going to be an important part of migrating the platform to a totally new OS.

One thing that would encourage growth of the Macintosh Platform would be for Apple to create some tutorials to help make learning easier. If apple had some flash or QuickTime streaming movies on how to get started, and published some literature that was not too technical, it would move along even faster. There have been a few tutorials by others on how to use the tools, yet none have truly appealed to new programmers. Apple should make using the tools as easy as possible to promote the development of software.

Download Developer Tools 10.0.1

Whenever the Mozilla Project releases a new revision to their open source browser, the basis of Netscape 6, they call it a “milestone.” This new version is much more than a milestone, it’s revolutionary. It’s really something.

The interface, while a bit different that what I have been used to, is very pleasant. The new skin really made a difference, it’s much simpler, than the old one. The only thing the general public may not like is that it is not “Aqua Like” but it’s still very good. In fact, I would give it a 5 out of 5 for the new skin.

The only problem I have noted after an hour of playing with this release is that it seems to say “resolving host” on the bottom of the window a little to long, almost until the page is fully displayed, but that’s just cosmetic and doesn’t inhibit functionality.

The Java support seems very good, and the JavaScript support seems much more stable, and is almost as fluent as html. The gecko engine also seems to process much faster. Web pages almost flows onto the screen. Most importantly, HTML rendering is more accurate than ever. Now if a page is designed to HTML specs decided by the W3C, it will appear correctly in Netscape, Microsoft can’t say the same.

The built in “search” ability has really gotten better. I am very pleased at how that has evolved. I think with one more release, that feature will be much better than Internet Explorer’s implementation.

The only negative thing I can say is that the load time for starting Mozilla is a little high, and it still has a few “developer things” in it such as a debugging menu.

The Spin
Mozilla would really improve if people would report bugs, especially for the Mac platform. If everyone would download the version with Talkback (a tool that reports bugs with little knowledge required) the Mozilla programmers would really be able to give the Mac community a browser. Mozilla unlike Microsoft doesn’t have the millions to devote to beta testing. They rely on the internet community for that. That means you need to help out. Download it and if you get an error, submit that error. If you can’t get it to load visit http://www.mozilla.org/quality/bug-writing-guidelines.html and tell them what happened. If it crashes during use Talkback collects some info (nothing private, just how much ram, Mac OS version, other applications running at the time, etc) and emails it to the Mozilla crew so that they can analyze it and make a few bug fixes. That is how it improves. So don’t complain in a few months that Internet Explorer is the only reliable browser in town. The Mozilla browser, which is part of Netscape 6 is trying, but they need your help. It doesn’t take much to help.

After a few months of this I am now going to take a controversial stand and rant about how “music lovers” have murdered broadband. So sit back and read about how you have destroyed the economy. Note this article is just an editorial designed to make you think. If you think at the end of this article it proves that you are human, though your morals and ethics can not be determined. It’s how you act that determines that.

Are they really what they say they are?
Mp3’s have long been described by advocates as a “way to preview music before purchase.” Though I would have to admit that is possible, I would most likely say that happens less that 5% of the time. Most users just burn CD’s. I highly doubt that people buy burners, burn CD’s, then buy the real CD. That story is not even believable. Maybe 3 Napster users actually bought a CD after they downloaded a song. And that is a fairly accurate estimate.

The Economy
Mp3’s could very likely be to blame for the downfall of the free ISP’s, which was the start of the economic downfall in the US. Lets take a closer look at this. Those sharing Mp3’s through Napster were looking for cheaper ways to get online, so that they could stay connected and keep their servers running. A solution was to use on the popular free ISP’s. Now all the Napster users were trading GB after GB of Mp3 files. Advertisers who paid for those free ISP then realized that nobody was seeing their ads. Their ads were being shown on computers that were just connected to share Mp3 files, and nobody was actually in front of those computers. So advertisers backed out. Leaving the free ISP’s high and dry. Now the free ISP’s have high bills since Napster servers were using so much bandwidth and there were no advertisers. That could very likely have been a huge factor in the fall of the free ISP’s. The fall of the free ISP’s was the start of the current recession taking place in the US.

ISP Costs
This gets me and most others very mad. I don’t like to pay someone else’s fines, or take someone else’s punishment. Now here is my problem. As a result of the Mp3 phenomenon, many broadband providers have put “caps” on their service to limit usage. A cap limits the download speed that a modem is capable of. Previously I would get 600kb downloads when downloading the backups to MacVillage.net, now I am lucky to break 200kb. All because people were abusing. And many dialup ISP’s have raised rates to deal with the excess bandwidth usage. Remember when market predictions said that every ISP would be under $10 by 2002? Well AOL is raising rates, and so is everyone else.

My Solution
Here is what I would do, if I were a number of people. If I were the artists, I have a very simple solution. I would have a tour, and to get into the concerts, you need to present a copy of the latest CD. No CD, no entry, no exceptions. That would solve a lot of problems. First, the real fans get tickets, and secondly, the tour really can promote the CD.

If I were an ISP, here would be my plan. I would set up filtering software. Access rates are the same as they are now, but you pay by bandwidth for any Mp3 file you download. And if you are found to have more than XXMB of upload (traffic going out of your computer) that would prove that you were operating as a server, you also pay for bandwidth over the monthly charge. And after that, raise the speed caps that are crippling the service for broadband. If I were a dialup, I would leave the prices as they are instead of raising them.


The bottom line
You don’t get anything for free, you pay for them in different ways, and sometimes you make others pay, and they get angry at YOU.

I have to admit it, I like Netscape 6, the same Netscape 6 that many web surfers are saying is not quite what it should be. But I have my reasons, and I think it is time someone stood up against Microsoft and show them what a web browser should be like. Netscape 6 does have a few things that I don’t like, but it shows a lot of promise, and that is something that should not be ignored.

Netscape was bought a while back by AOL, which is now AOL Time Warner. AOL was known for having proprietary “training wheels” type software, which fed users content from a proprietary system which AOL ran. Netscape 6 has just a hint of that, but not too much, in fact it is just right. Netscape 6 features Instant Messaging (which is really rebranding America Online’s Instant messaging.) It also features a channel like feature on the bottom of the Navigator window which links back to the Netscape site. While not nearly as pushy as its AOL counterpart, it provides easy access to popular features on the net. If a user doesn’t want these types of features, they are not in the way, they are just there.

Netscape’s Mail software is also very good. Its excellent compatibility is what I really like. It’s good for all different environments. It’s powerful enough, that it can withstand my 100+ emails a day, but it is simple enough that even a novice can use it with ease. One thing that is really cool is that it has a “Mail Start Page.” This can be disabled, but it’s great for businesses or ISP’s. Like the regular start page, it is configured once and loads when needed, this one loads when the mail portion of Netscape 6 is opened. It displays whatever is in the page. I created my own page containing some info that I would like to have before I check my email (server status, links to my other accounts etc.) Businesses and ISP’s may like this feature so they can post their “Terms of Use” on this page. The mail software is much like a really simple WYSIWYG HTML editor. You can do almost anything. It also operates as a regular text only email program. Netscape’s address book hasn’t really changed to much. The most notable change is that it integrates with Netscape Instant Messanger.

Netscape’s Composer, allows you to create your own web pages. This portion of the software has really improved over 4.x. One thing I really like is that there is no more Java like editors for raw html. It’s now a regular html editor, as well as a WYSIWYG editor. It operates very much like the mail software, so if you know one you know them both for the most part. It makes it very easy to create a web page.

Some other notable features are it’s translation feature, which makes it easier than ever to translate pages to a different language, and it’s themes, which allow you to make Netscape 6 look like anything you want, from a tacky golf design, to the good old fasion Netscape 4 look. Of course Netscape 6 finally has the password manager so that you don’t have to type in the same password a million times, as well as a very easy to use, though a little slow ftp browser, but it’s still outdoes Internet Explorer.

The most important thing of all is it’s Gecko engine which processes all html. It’s fabulous. It’s fast and efficient. It doesn’t have nearly as many problems as IE 5, which has been making web developers mad since it’s release. If a page worked in any other browser, most likely it will appear with no problems in Netscape 6. There are a few issues, but they have already been fixed in Mozilla, Netscape 6’s close cousin, and will most likely appear in the next release of Netscape 6.

Overall I have to give the browser a 4 out of 5 rating. The only thing I don’t like about it is a few lingering bugs (most are cosmetic) and the a little extra loading time than IE 5, though I would say that Netscape processes a page faster than IE 5 any day. If Netscape could fix these few bugs, this would be something to really scare Microsoft.

Most Mac OS X users, at least at this point are also connected to the Internet. After all, it’s one of the greatest operating systems to go online with. Mac OS X comes with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer “Preview”. Many including myself have found this Internet Explorer, like all others to be very embarrassing. There is a pretty good alternative though.

First let me say why I really don’t like Internet Explorer, and most importantly why I don’t like this beta, which I think has set an all time low for Microsoft. This “beta” is not able to perform some basic tasks. It’s unable to correctly process some basic HTML, it can’t do tables well, and as a result pages come up very odd. Another reason why I don’t like it is because the interface just stinks. You can’t customize it nearly as much as you should be able to. Another thing I don’t like is how it tries to take over your computer. I want it to browse the web, not rule my life. Lastly, it just crashes way too much. I want to work, not debug.

Now here comes the answer to my problems OmniWeb, by Omni Development Inc. Wow, what a browser! At version 4.0 and it’s always being updated. Every release fixes bugs, some small, and some big. It’s still more stable than Internet Explorer, but it gets better every time, and new features, mostly small ones are always being implemented. Another thing I like about it is it’s excellent rendering ability. It renders pages just like they should be done. Even if the pages aren’t coded very well. It’s always readable and it’s quick. Much faster than Internet Explorer. It’s what Netscape Communicator was before Netscape was bought by AOL. It’s very easy to use, and very customizable. The interface is also very clean and easy to use. One thing I must mention is that the JavaScript and Java implementations are sometimes not quite up to standards, it’s always improving. Every release fixes a few bugs and gives it a few more features. It’s OS X appearance is very fluent and blends in with other OS X apps, while it doesn’t take over your computer. If you are using another browser it’s not a big deal switching over. It’s not a problem at all. You get used to it in just a few minutes.

Conclusion

Pro
Great interface, good fast reliable rendering, frequent updates.

Con
JavaScript and Java can be a bit of a pain, but it is improving with each update

Overall
4 out of 5

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