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Knowledge Base Article #833786 provides critical information for being safe when browsing.

This applies to the following users: Internet Explorer 6.0, 5.5, and 5.01 running on Windows 98 SE, WinME, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

The summary?
In Internet Explorer, a malicious user can make a link to a deceptive (spoofed) web site that displays the address (URL) to a legitimate website in the status bar, address bar and title bar.

So instead of fixing this issue, what is the Micrsoft solution?

Don’t click on links…. instead, do the following:

1. Right-click the link, and then click Copy Shortcut.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. Type notepad, and then click OK.
4. On the Edit menu in Notepad, click Paste.

So instead of just clicking on a link, you have to click 6 times, open up an additional program and verify that a URL looks right and then click back into your browser and click on the link. Ease of use at its best.

According to this article on eWeek … Bill Gates claims Microsoft is working on the “solution” to spam and in two years, spam will be solved.

hmm.. yah… right.

So what does he propose?

First thought was to create a human challenge that the sender has to solve a puzzle that they can only handle .. huh? Exactly what type of puzzle would this be? Yikes. I can see it now .. I have sent out over 50 emails a day … so I have to solve a puzzle for each one? heh.. sure.

Ok .. so he says that might not work .. so how about a computational puzzle that would require your system to crunch some numbers to validate itself? hmm.. interesting. I can just see my mail servers coming to a halt when they have to do serious computations on each and every email that they send out. no thanks. Not to mention that the majority of the Internet is run on *nix machines .. makes it kinda tough for Microsoft to mandate such a move.. don’tcha think?

Ok .. so Gates goes on to say those ideas were a bit umm.. unrealistic. The solution? money-money-money! People set a level of monetary risk and apparently the receiver can dictate how much they are going to charge someone .. umm.. err.. uhh..

I’ve been thinking about this for a while.. so lets see .. I hijack a mail server and start sending out tons of spam to millions of individuals. Precisely how are they going to bill me? I don’t understand. Do you bill the company that is portrayed in the advertisement? How do you know it was sent from them? Who is going to mandate how the payments occur? snail mail? direct deposit? microsoft?

It blows my mind that Gates says “In the long run, the monetary (method) will be dominant” — I dunno.. perhaps after I get more details, I might fully understand this and perhaps it will make sense (doubtful) — Seems rather umm.. ludicrous to me.

I do like this quote in the article:

“He conceded, however, that his prognostications have not always been on the mark. Notable misjudgments include the rising popularity of open-source software, epitomized by Linux, and the success of the Google search engine.”

“They kicked our butts,” he said, while promising a better next-generation Internet search engine from Microsoft, due as early as next year.

Gates goes on to claim that “Microsoft was more open today about its source code .. partly due to the rise of Linux and antitrust actions in the US and Europe” —- HELLO!??! partly? hehah.. I’d still like to see this source code that they are “more open today about” — seems like only major corporations and governments with NDA’s and huge restrictions are allowed to see select pieces of the code.

Oh PS — if this charge-to-email thing gets going .. I’ll be charging $3-$5 per email minimum .. so save those dollars now. heh.

Well it happened .. Mike Rowe, 17-year-old who registered the domain “mikerowesoft.com” and ran a web design business using that URL has conceeded the domain to Microsoft. Microsoft claimed that due to the site —sounding– like microsoft.com (not spelled like or other) that Mike Rowe was simply domain squatting and as a result, had to give up the domain.

In an article on Yahoo, Mike agreed to give up his web site in exchange for “perks” from Microsoft. These included covering cost to switch over to a new site, training for certification on Microsoft’s products, subscription to Microsoft’s developer program web site, Xbox video game console with games and an invitation to visit Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquarters for an annual technology fair.

I thought it would be interesting to see this case go on for a while .. see if a corporation can legally go after phonetically similar domain name. If Mike Rowe just kept quite about “it being cool to have a domain that sounded like Microsoft..” then I think he could have easily had a lot more leverage in settlement terms. Oh well. Guess the lesson here is if you receive something from a lawyer .. have your lawyer respond and keep your mouth shut.

c|net News.com posted an article that discusses Amazon.com’s move to Linux.

A few notable quotes from the article..

“Amazon began to use Linux in 2000 … in 2001 .. the company noted in a SEC filing that moving to Linux had cut costs $17 million..”

“holiday season 2003 .. Amazon’s computers supported a peak demand of 1 million packages shipped in a day and 20 million inventory updates processed in a single day..”

“..the company has nine worldwide distribution centers with a total of 4.2 million square feet.. Everything that happens in them is driven by Linux..”

The article mentions that Amazon’s linux systems are also the basis for e-commerce at Toys’R'Us, Target, Borders Group, Nordstrom, The Gap, CDNow and the NBA…

Sounds pretty cool if you ask me.

Coming up shortly will be the 20th anniversary of the original Macintosh. Siliconvalley.com has posted an article that was originally published in the Mercury News, January 1984.

So 20 years … lets compare what you could get for your money then .. and what you can get for your money now. Original Mac price adjusted to 2004 figures using this inflation calculator.

Item	1984 Mac	2004 Mac
Price	$4418	$4473
Memory	128K (512k max)	1,024,000K (8,196,000K max)
Drives	400k 3.5″ floppy disk	2×250,000,000k hard disks
Processor	68000 8mhz	G5 2×2000mhz
Display	9″ CRT Monochrome	17″ Flat Panel True Color w/3d acceleration
Data Path	16-bit	64-bit
Notable Features	First Macintosh, no modem, no cdrom, no hard drive, no ethernet, no expansion bays, no vram, no ram slots, no level 2 cache, no floating point processor, no 3d acclerator chip.. all in one design ..	1000Base-T ethernet, SuperDrive, 56k modem, wireless, serial ATA, yada yada yada.. (you know ..)

So there you go .. proof that if you save your money, atleast in the computer industry, you’ll most likely be able to get something better 20 years down the road..