ROM-DOS

"the original plan . . ." ~ is, Microsoft will be able to continue developing, selling, and profiting from severely flawed operating systems (OSs) and will be able to create additional profits by selling "security" patches for those operating systems. This duality of purpose reeks of conflict of interest. Microsoft will have a financial incentive to build flaws into future OSs so as to boost sales of Windows OneCare!

". . .Knock on the door & ask for a tour.The worst they can say is no." I was thinking the same thing ~ lol, after talking to that QWest tech super yesterday and getting absolutly nowhere with him (I'm not sure if he was in IOWA, too) but he made it sound like even HE couldn't pull up the actual feet/distance for me. I'm sure they must be running something big out of there. If you look at that map of Lacey again, the first quarter of Brooks Park facing College St. is actually the switching station! It had four big (4'x4') vent in/out-takes on the one side of the building I drove by. . . .With all the telcom's and Gov buildings here, this must be the big one. [maybe, I could install some kind of remote wireless thingy in there ~ if they let me in, . . .think I should take my spy-cam with me? ~ lol]

MS forums suck, for trying to find info on how and why's ~ lol . . .anyway, I knew it was on my hard drive ~ somewhere! (if anyone knows where Windows Update hides their downloaded temp files, let me know . . . I found it once, but I can't remember where?) so, when I went to "Turn Off Computer" it was there waiting for me to Turn Off Computer, it installed this time. . .so, maybe it's true, after a couple of complete shut downs ~ it'll work! . . .I hate Microsoft ~ lol ~ last month they had a critcal patch to fix their update problems ~ BS

Patched Windows Bug Will Be Danger For Months Although Microsoft patched a major bug, the underlying vulnerability may haunt Windows users for the next six to eight months. By Gregg Keizer TechWeb News Jan 6, 2006 03:00 PM Although Microsoft pushed out a patch early to fix a major bug and even recommended that enterprises deploy it immediately, the underlying vulnerability will continue to haunt Windows users for the next six to eight months, a security professional said Friday. Thursday, Microsoft released an out-of-cycle patch for the 10-day-old Windows Metafile flaw, admitting it did so to placate customers who were demanding an early fix. "When I spoke to a number of customers and asked if the current situation warranted an out of band release of the update, they said yes," wrote Mike Nash, vice president for security business, on the Microsoft Security Research Center (MSRC) blog late Thursday. Nash went on to recommend that enterprises roll out the fix as soon as they're able. "You should deploy the update as soon as is feasible. Put it through your testing process and get it deployed. If it were my decision, I would move up [your] schedule. That is what we are doing in our IT operation here at Microsoft," he wrote. "Absolutely that's the right advice," seconded Mike Murray, director of research at vulnerability management vendor nCircle. "The sooner you get everyone patched the better you are. The current exploits don't include an automated worm, but for threats that require some user interaction, this is as bad as it gets." Exploits leveraging the WMF vulnerability now number in the hundreds, security firms allege, with thousands of Web sites -- some of them legitimate, but hacked to silently deploy malicious code -- seeding these exploits. "We viewed this an incredibly serious threat from the beginning," said Murray. "It's been actively exploited in the wild. This is the kind of blended threat people will use for months for phishing attacks and to collect bots." Murray estimated that it will take six to eight months for enterprises to fully deploy the WMF vulnerability patch, a time during which attackers will continue to compromise computers. "This is definitely going to lave long legs," Murray said. One of the things that rankled many critics in the security community prior to the patch release was how Microsoft dismissed the danger of the vulnerability. On Wednesday, for instance, Debbie Fry Wilson, a director at the MSRC, claimed that her group was proactively looking for, and shutting down, malicious Web sites serving exploits. More importantly, she took issue with the call to danger some security groups were issuing. "Frankly, our analysis is different from the inflammatory headlines we're seeing on some [security] newsgroups," Fry Wilson said Wednesday. "All they're doing is adding fuel to the fire. It's definitely a serious issue, but it isn't something that's spreading and it's not affecting large-scale customers." That same day, Kevin Kean, another MSRC director, called the WMF problem a "contained event." Both noted that the WMF vulnerability required some user interaction to compromise a computer, which could mean as little as visiting a malicious Web site or as much as launching a file attachment. Even a day later, when the Redmond, Wash.-based developer released its out-of-cycle patch, the company kept up the drumbeat. "Microsoft

Ok, I went to MS Update for the new Security Patch ( KB912919) It downloaded, but didn't install. I went to some of the MSDN Forums to find out what's going on and it seems like others are having this same problem. It appears it is updating the gdi32.dll file and some people are thinkin' it might take several re-starts (boot ups) to get it to install right. I have a KB912919 (hidden system) file in my Windows $hf_mig$ folder, but it's empty! I know KB912919 is on my hard drive, but where does Windows Update hold the temp files? If anyone can help me find a way to find and install this, let me know. ~ Thanks. [and, yes I did several trys to Update and Install, with the same result ~ unsuccessful] [and my search results aren't showing anything either]

. . .should I go get a DSL modem and see if I can 'resonance' jump to it ~ lol

Provider Distance = 5179 feet LACYWA01 ~ lol . . .like I said, I must be sitting right on top of them!

How many critical security flaws does it take to get a monolithic software company to respond quickly? One, if the customers are noisy enough. ~ lol . . .go get your update; Security Update for Windows XP (KB912919) Date last published: 1/5/2006 Typical download size: 196 KB

Spammer lands $11 billion fine Small town ISP wins huge payout By Nick Farrell: Thursday 05 January 2006, 10:30 A SMALL ISP in the town of Clinton, Iowa, has just won one of the largest payouts ever extracted from a spammer. The firm, CIS Internet Services, won $11.2 billion from James McCalla, from Florida, who was found to have sent millions of unsolicited e-mails advertising mortgage and debt consolidation services through the ISP's network. A lawsuit claimed that McCalla sent more than 280 million illegal spam e-mail messages. Frims advertised in the spam had already been ordered to cough up a billion dollars in damages. Prosecutors argued that under state law in effect at the time, CIS was entitled to $10 per illegal e-mail. The Iowa court was told the defendants "falsely and illegally" represented that their e-mails originated from the CIS domain The e-mails used the cis.net as a return address to disguise the source of the e-mails to avoid complaints. CIS acknowledged that it is unlikely to see any of the judgement money but said that it was time that spammers learnt that their actions would result in an economic death penalty.

dang, is my positronic hafnium tractile quantic coefficient inductor stabilizer resonance phase lock loopper modded cell chip wireless Dial-Up adapter cross- -forum phasing, again! ~

funny thing was ~ when I asked the rep where she was, she said IOWA ~ lol . . .believe me, I tried every approach to get them to give me some distance. QWest bought out US WEST or something like that a few years back. US WEST's office was a few miles up the road, next to the cemetary ~ now it's part of it ~ lol . . .the dslreports link gives me an address, which is a few blocks away ~ I'll go look for the address and see what it 'really' is ~ lol

cholla ~ I called my telco ~ QWest ~ and after over 25 minutes of listening to ". . .your time is valuable to us, thank you for holding. . ." and one customer service rep and one supervisor later, ~ all they would tell me is that I'm really close ~ I qualify for a 7MB DSL line ~ their highest ~ (16,000 ft. is the max distance to get a 256KB DSL connection.) . . .So, I must be sitting right on top of it! I live in Lacey, WA., a barb town of the state capital ~ I know there are alot of telecom companies around me, but when it comes to any QWest offices ~ the nearest is in Seattle ~ 70 some miles away! They won't tell me how many feet away I am. . . I might just check out switching to that DSL connect w/ QWest, after I do all the up-grades I want to do to my system, first.

good one ~ richcornucopia ~ lol The senior partner of an law firm died and was at the gate to Heaven. St. Peter was listing his sins: 1. Overcharging clients 2. Milking trusts and estates 3. Harrassing his secretary and staff 4. Making secret profits on property deals 5. Stabbing other partners in the back etc etc St Peter asks the lawyer if he has anything to say. His plea in mitigation is empassioned. He admits his transgressions but says " I've been charitable to the poor." St. Peter checks his book - "Yes", he says, "You once gave $2 to a beggar; and here you gave a 50 cents to a homeless man. After a Win in Court, you tipped a waiter an extra $5." "That's right" says the beaming lawyer. St Peter turns to the Angel on his right and says "All things considered...give him his $7.50 back and tell him to go to hell".

Murphy

Birthday Cards from Lawyers; (long winded, but legal) "By this convenance, the petitioner seeks the furtherance of the state of general amity that has preceded the issuance of this instrument, with the intent thereby of avoiding the diminuation of said relationship; not withstanding the aforementioned, it shall be specifically understood that the party of the first part (herein referred to as the sender) desires to fulfil, to the best of sender

"Come on admit it how many of us would like to be that farmer??" . . .fortunately or unfortunately, I know how assault charges work, even in Texas!

There's a nice piece about what really might be the real threat going on here; ~ lol SECURITY FIX Patch and P®ay? By Brian Krebs on Computer Security "But now I am left wondering what other sorts of protections Microsoft could be giving its OneCare customers against this threat that it is not also providing to the public. Well, what does Microsoft have to say about it? From their OneCare description page: "Windows OneCare provides continuous feature updates to subscribers, providing you with the latest technologies to help protect you from emerging threats. If you're worried about a new virus or other threat, you can check for updates yourself with a single click." Fair enough. So we're talking about antivirus and anti-spyware updates, right? Well, maybe, but not so fast. I spotted this teaser over at -- where else -- the "Microsoft Windows OneCare Blog": "While the exploit was quickly understood, and Windows OneCare sent updates out within hours of the vulnerability being found in Windows, this kind of issue is a reminder that real-time protection is critical. Windows OneCare is much more than just antivirus software of course, but this example shows why this kind of protection is critical to our overall mission of taking care of your PC." "Windows OneCare is much more than just antivirus software"? In what way? Security Fix would like to know. Did Microsoft silently provide OneCare users the registry hack that it recommended Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 customers manually apply as an interim (albeit only moderately effective) fix for this larger problem -- which by the way technically is not a security flaw but a feature of Windows going back to the creation of the operating system? . . . In the end, I find myself scratching my head and identifying with the sentiments of the last reader to comment on the Microsoft OneCare Blog, someone who simply signed their name "antioed." "While I think it is great you are developing this software I think parts of it are long overdue in Windows and I have to admit I am a little disgruntled about aspects of how Microsoft has handled security in Windows thus far. While this software gives added security capabilities for antivirus and spyware beyond the scope of what should be included with the OS I do not see why someone who has paid for an OS license should not be able to get the same level of realtime protection for plugging up and monitoring vulnerabilities until patches can be applied. Advanced security features should be included with the OS and I was quite pleased with the security improvements in [service Pack 2]. The antivirus and spyware are not Microsoft's fault and therefore fair game for charging a fee ... are there any plans to integrate realtime vulnerability monitoring and protection capabilities in the Security Center constructs built into XP SP2? If Microsoft cannot get a patch out they should at least be able to plug and monitor the hole easily, automatically and in real-time ... free. It's not the user's fault." _____________________________________________________________________________ I'm afraid I'm starting to think a little like Teresa Binstock when she posteded; "Via "Windows OneCare", Microsoft will be able to continue developing, selling, and profiting from severely flawed operating systems (OSs) and will be able to create additional profits by selling "security" patches for those operating systems. This duality of purpose reeks of conflict of interest. Microsoft will have a financial incentive to build flaws into future OSs so as to boost sales of Windows OneCare"

Hey D.U.K.E ~ this might seem like the craziest question, yet, but do you think it's possible I might be piggybacking a dedicated line, like some kind of resonance phase lock loop, allowing me to jump lines somewhere? . . .'cause I swear ~ my speeds look alot like that might be what's going on, sometimes! ~ Strange, I know ~ but...? [i know this might be a little off topic, but it's our forum ~ so who's gonna mess with us?] lol

Longhorn's won it! ~ gg

It's Ok, Fallow ~ I found a way around microwave interferience ~ :::.. Download Stats ..::: Connection is:: 243 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB) Download Speed is:: 30 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (server2) Test Time:: Wed Jan 4 19:23:11 PST 2006 Bottom Line:: 4X faster than 56K 1MB download in 34.13 sec Diagnosis: May need help : running at only 31.68 % of your hosts average (csc.com) Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-RU6BEK7QA . . .actually, I found a way to help it boost my signal! ~ lol

Microsoft inadvertently leaks WMF patch By Joris Evers Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: January 4, 2006, 1:36 PM PST An early version of a security fix for a Windows flaw that is being used as a conduit for cyberattacks was prematurely posted online by a Microsoft employee. The fix was briefly posted on a security community Web site, Debby Fry Wilson, a director in Microsoft's Security Response Center, said on Wednesday. Copies of the file have since been posted online elsewhere, but Microsoft recommends that customers wait for the final version in its monthly security release on Jan. 10, she said. "It really was an inadvertent thing that happened," Fry Wilson said. "We have the security update on a fast track...(and) somebody accidentally posted a prerelease version on a community site. It has been taken down, and we don't recommend customers use it--it is not the version that we will be releasing on Tuesday." The fix is designed to repair a flaw in the way Windows renders Windows Meta File images. The bug was discovered last week and is being exploited in attacks that compromise a vulnerable PC if the user visits a Web site with a malicious image file. Security experts have urged Microsoft to rush the patch because of the onslaught of attacks. More than a million PCs have already been compromised, according to Andreas Marx, an antivirus software specialist at the University of Magdeburg in Germany. There are thousands of malicious Web sites, as well as Trojan horses and at least one instant messaging worm, that use the WMF flaw as a conduit, other experts have said. Microsoft said it hasn't seen many attacks on its customers. The company plans to issue the final version of its fix on Tuesday, its next official patch release day, Fry Wilson said. "We have to weigh putting out a partially tested update against the severity of the attack," she said. "If customers are being attacked in large numbers, then we will go ahead and put out the update as we have it, so that customers can be protected, even though it might break things." A patch may turn out to have side effects, even if it has undergone full testing. Microsoft has had problems in the past, most recently with an Internet Explorer update in December. Microsoft's fix appears to be nearly done, said Steve Gibson, the president of Gibson Research in Laguna Hills, Calif. "It works great," said Gibson, who downloaded the file and tested it. It even works with a patch developed by European programmer Ilfak Guilfanov, he said. After examining the software, Gibson believes Microsoft could push out the fix before Patch Tuesday. "They obviously already have it packaged and ready to go," he said. However, there are reasons for Microsoft to hold off. "Major corporate users very much dislike randomly timed patch releases, since it is deeply disruptive of everything else that's going on," he added. Copyright

FallowEarth ~ what's going on? Am I losing one of my com uplinks or what? . . .or should I make sure no one is using their microwave within, let's say ~ 500 yards of my super secret attenuator array? :::.. Download Stats ..::: Connection is:: 133 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 579 kB) Download Speed is:: 16 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (server2) Test Time:: Wed Jan 4 12:33:44 PST 2006 Bottom Line:: 2X faster than 56K 1MB download in 64 sec Diagnosis: Awesome! 20% + : 62.2 % faster than the average for host (nocharge.com) Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-MJ8NYC0BU

15! php ~ could you list which ones you've got running on your tweaked (gaming drive). lol ~ I've got it down to 26! (on my tweaked gaming drive) and I thought that was good. [but I haven't totally eliminated all the Windows candy features, either ~ lol]

:::.. Download Stats ..::: Connection is:: 133 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 579 kB) Download Speed is:: 16 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (server2) Test Time:: Wed Jan 4 12:33:44 PST 2006 Bottom Line:: 2X faster than 56K 1MB download in 64 sec Diagnosis: Awesome! 20% + : 62.2 % faster than the average for host (nocharge.com) Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-MJ8NYC0BU boywonder ~ [did you try the IRQ Priorty tweak?] right click My Computer > Properties > under Hardware Tab open Device Manager > click on View and Resourses by type click on Interrupt request (IRQ) find which IRQ## is assigned to your modem goto Start > Run type regedit and goto the PriorityControl branch of