Screwed by Design

I’ve noticed quite a few Google searches come in looking for things like ‘firefox errors myspace’ and other keywords lately that aren’t necessarily pointed at useful information. So here’s a little recap with some additional information.

Firefox crashes or hangs on Myspace
(keyphrase: running myspace in firefox, firefox randomly closes)
If Firefox crashes/hangs on Myspace or any other site, most of the time it’s simply due to poor code or an incomatible plugin on the page. But there are a few things you can do to remedy the problem:

• Upgrade to Firefox 1.5. A lot of changes have been made since the 1.0.x branch to make Firefox more stable when encountering poor code.
• Report the problem. If Firefox still crashes after installing 1.5 and you want to lend us a hand, just follow these steps:
  1. Make sure Talkback is installed
  2. Reproduce the crash and copy down the Talkback ID
  3. Report the problem to Bugzilla providing the Talkback ID and as much information as possible.

Details about the Internet Explorer 0-day Exploit
(keyphrase: internet explorer exploit)
Like the last entry, there’s still no patch available. Disabling JavaScript will effectively block this exploit, but will severely limit your browsing experience. Using a different browser is a great way to maintain functionality while keeping safe.

Firefox 1.5 Build Identifier
(keyphrase: build identifier firefox 1.5)
Firefox 1.5 and 1.5RC3 are the same build. So if you’re running RC3, there’s no need to upgrade.
These are 1.5’s user agent strings:

Windows

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

Mac OS X

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

Linux

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

Second network card: $4.95
30 minutes spent figuring out how to send additional traffic over said NIC: $0
ourTunes: $0
‘Borrowing’ roommate’s network jack to create a theoretical total throughput of 200mbps: $0

Achieving nirvana on a level never before thought possible: Priceless

An exploit for all versions of Internet Explorer was discovered in the wild yesterday. The original exploit discovered and reported to Microsoft in May would only hang IE, but this new discovery allows an attacker to execute any program on your computer. Using a weakness in the way IE handles the JavaScript window() function, an attacker could for example open the command prompt with a command to delete the contents of your My Documents directory. The possibilities are almost endless to what this could be used for. No patch has been issued by Microsoft at this time, but running as a limited account under XP will reduce the ability of this to make drastic system-wide changes.

There is also another solution which works just as well

Even though this week is only going to last until Wednesday it’s already looking like it’s going to drag on forever. So far, since last Thursday I’ve:
- Taken 4 exams
- Written a 3 page research proposal
- Done two 10K erg tests (~35min. all out - ouch :P)
- Had practice twice a day, everyday except Sunday

And before Wednesday ends, I’ve got this to look forward to:
- Two more exams
- Four more practices
- Write the first draft of a 10 page research paper
- Pack all my crap

Thursday can’t come too soon

It’s now winter in Madison. It hasn’t stopped snowing since last night. There’s about an inch on the ground now (it rained before snowing, so most of it melted) and three inches have fallen. And it’s COLD! It’s only 18 degrees right now
Oh and my bike lock is frozen shut - hot water just freezes on contact

…they’re calling for accumulating snow before Thanksiving.

Prior to the Badger-Iowa game Saturday, there was a chili cook-off with tons of free food held in the field house. Because the event was free, the school decided to use the various sports teams as sources of “volunteers” for the event. For most other sports, the event truly was voluntary - but our coach had promised that we’d get free tickets to the game. Needless to say, everyone signed up. But earlier this week, we found that we’d be unable to get the tickets due to a new NCAA rule this year :p So to make sure everyone would show, our coach made the event mandatory… (continued)
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Well the trip to Michigan ended up being pretty unproductive
We left from the boathouse Friday around 4pm and drove about an hour to Janesville for some food. We stopped at an all-you-can eat place and completely destroyed the place within an hour. After that we drove for another 4 hours or so through Chicago and around the base of Lake Michigan stopping in Benton Harbor for the night. In the morning we went to a McDonalds that was across from the parking lot from us. The employees basically freaked out once we (60 people) had packed in and were standing in line - it took over 40 minutes to complete all of our orders. It took about 3 hours of driving after breakfast to get to Wyandotte and once we got there, we unloaded the trailer, rigged the boats and went out and practiced for about an hour…
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It’s 62 degrees now, which means it’s t-shirt weather! It’s a great change from the mid-40’s and tomorrow is supposed to be almost 70! It’s a shame I still feel like crap, but the nice weather makes it a little easier to bear. School is going alright for now, although I now have to make up an exam because I slept through my alarm this morning XP

I found out today that we’ll be leaving for Michigan at 3:30pm on Friday and that since I’ve got a clean driving record, my coach wants me to drive a van. Of course doing this requires that I fill out a few forms and have them notarized - of course the only notary that’s close by is only open between 11am and 2pm Mon - Thur… which means I get no lunch tomorrow because that’s the only time I have free.
And yes I realize I’ve made 3 entries in the past 24 hours, I’m trying to see how well the feed aggregator handles it.