* Posts by Gareth Williams

5 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Oct 2008

Critical Windows vulnerability under attack, Microsoft warns

Gareth Williams
Paris Hilton

Re: @ Chris Matchett

I wouldn't say that Microsoft fixed this vulnerability in newer and current OSes (according to Microsoft, XP is still a current OS so your argument is flawed from the beginning!) - they simply didn't include the affected component in versions of DirectX released with Win2K8 and Vista. That doesn't mean however that they fixed it... capiche?

Additionally, I'd disagree with the implication you're making that this vulnerability isn't serious because it affects systems that are at least 7 years old now. That means that, as well as the operating system, the vulnerability has been around for a long time too. It hasn't been disclosed until now - possibly because any cases of it being exploited weren't public until now- but we'll never know when Microsoft were made aware of it. Maybe they only became aware of it very recently... maybe they knew flippin' ages ago but decided it wasn't in their interest to disclose it. Who knows? We never will.

The "security by obscurity" model that Microsoft continues to adhere to means that these vulnerabilities can remain hidden from the user base for potentially years. However, that's not to say that the Bad Guys aren't aware of such vulnerabilities and secretly using them.

One of the great things about open sourced software is that it opens it up to be scrutinised by a million pairs of eyes... sure some bad people may look through the code to try and find flaws, but they do that with Windows, OS X, etc... in any case. I'd rather have millions of the Good Guys actively looking for and fixing bugs rather than expecting Microsoft or Apple to pick these things up once the code is already written and out there (which they weren't able to do before it got released so what makes them more likely to do so afterwards?).

ps - anyone else getting very bored of the tedious OS flame wars that are becoming too commonplace at El Reg? This ain't Slashdot.... I thought we were all IT professionals.

Paris.... cause she's not adverse to opening herself up for scrutiny by millions of pairs of IT geeks' eyes either.

Street View forced to reshoot Japan

Gareth Williams
Coat

Re: One rule for me one rule for you

Not sure about Ms Smith's homes, but I was able to find one of John Maples' alleged houses easily enough.....

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=spearmint+rhino+london

Mine's the one with the pockets stuffed full of fake receipts.

Windows 7 and the Linux lesson

Gareth Williams
Unhappy

Please make it stop.

I can't take it any more. Too many idiots spouting misinformation and general bullshit, like the AC on Mon 27th April @ 09:23.

Is Windows better than Linux? Is OS X better than Windows? Is Linux better than OS X? Frankly, my dear, I don't give a shit. I use whatever suits me (in my case it's Windows for gaming, OS X on my Mac Mini media centre, Linux for pretty much everything else). Each OS has its advantages and disadvantages - decide which is best for you and use that. Don't worry about what other people should be using.

I thought El Reg was frequented by those who understand technology. Too many of the comments to this article make me think that the average age of the authors isn't in double figures (and neither is their IQ).

Let's stop the 'my dad is bigger than your dad' school playground pettiness and get on with much more important things instead. Such as which celeb is gonna get their Crackberry hacked next, etc...

Father of Playmobil dies at 79

Gareth Williams
IT Angle

RIP Herr Playmobil

Never heard of the bloke, although of course I played with Playmobil as a kid. RIP anyway.

Shame I don't have this guy listed on my Dead Pool. Could've earned a few sneaky points on this one.

Oh, and what's the IT Angle, exactly?

Without typo-squatters, how far would Google fall?

Gareth Williams
Unhappy

I'm starting to feel sorry for Google

Why the hatred for Google these days? Is it because Microsoft are doing such a good job of shooting themselves in the foot (crappy Vista uptake, their Mojave trickery, those dodgy TV adverts, etc...) that it's no longer fun to attack them?

Unlike Microsoft, however, Google are shafting me but are also offering something useful in return and at least they don't expect me to pay, in monetary terms, for the privilege of being shat on from a great height.

Hell, if this hate campaign keeps up I'm gonna start to actually feel sorry for Google.