This week there was a news story about IE and IIS, Microsoft’s web browser and web server respectively. It turns out there is an unpatched bug in both programs that, when exploited in concert, provide a rather nifty way for an attacker to retrieve pretty much anything from you computer without you knowing a thing.
What would happen is that the server would be exploited in such a way that IE would be tricked into installing a program from a different site entirely. Normally you would be shown a dialog box that warns you and allows you to prevent the installation. However, the attacker also takes advantage of an IE bug that allows them to bypass this security measure. This in effect allows them to install any software they wish onto your computer without you knowing or even visiting a site you wouldn’t normally visit.
Can people please stop saying “I could care less” when they in fact — judging by the context the phrase appears in — mean “I couldn’t care less”? What drives these people to such a crazy I’m saying this, but I really mean pretty much the opposite phrase?
“Who cares about that?! I could care less that oranges are smaller than grapefruits!” Well, it would seem you care: apparently you could care less than you do, so by implication you have some level of caring on the relative sizes of pieces of fruit!
Java seems to get more powerful the more you use it. Doing research into possible methods to solve problems I’ve come across over the past few days, I’ve discovered the power that a well-designed, object-orientated language can give you.
Take reflection, for example. This is the process of looking at already compiled Java classes to determine methods & interfaces supported, fields and other information about a class. I had never really delved into this before, but you can learn just about anything you want to know about a class via this reflection technique at runtime. I am using it mainly in a plugin architecture to determine which classes are plugins via querying the interfaces that they support. It seems far cleaner and more reliable than some of the methods I’ve used before to try work out which files are valid plugins.
It has been pointed out to me that the content of late on this site has been a little off-the-wall. It has, but that is one of the small prerogatives that I have as sole owner, writer and proprietor of this site. So, for one post at least, back to our normal technological showings.
Vi has something of a reputation as a program you either love or hate. Given the people I have spoken to, this reputation has been gained via the simple exponent of being true. People either think Vi — that’s vee-eye pronunciation-watchers, though I am guilty of using a single syllable version — people either think Vi is the best editor since sliced bread or that it is an esoteric piece of coding that only the most crazy among us could enjoy using.
Who would have thought; maybe the optimist is correct. She just came around out of the blue. For a cup of tea. At 3am. Ouch, and I was sleeping like a baby.
It would seem that Her mother didn’t tell Her that I had called until today (and so she did not have my number). She has been staying in Wells (a small town a little way a way) with her dad. Which would explain things. In addition She says She will call this evening (given it is now 3:41am), so we shall see what transpires.