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It may not have been a virus

Get this. I got a voice message today regarding my laptop, “Your laptop needs a new motherboard, which will cost $500 (CAD) plus tax (15%).” I haven’t called them back; so I don’t know if that is in addition to the $100 labour charge (probably is). In total, that would be $690 CAD.

As I said in a previous blog post, F-Prot detected a few files in my Java Plugin cache. I assume those files were sanitized. Nevertheless I cleared the Java cache, rebooted, and my computer worked fine for the remainder of that night. The service person took one look at Limewire, and suspected that was where I got a virus. I hadn’t used Limewire for a couple of weeks prior.

Here’s the wake up call. In addition to mainly using the family computer for now, I took out my old laptop. It’s an IBM Thinkpad 385XD. The screen is as faded and red as can be, but the rest of the hardware still works very well. In fact, there’s a clear difference in the quality of the product, as opposed to my current laptop, which I got from MDG. Maybe I was spoiled with a Thinkpad; but I get the feeling my MDG was just a crap product, and I had just gotten used to it. I work my PCs pretty hard; and I’m willing to bet that I simply over-worked my MDG laptop.

As such, I think I’m probably going to get a new computer, rather than paying $600+ dollars for a new motherboard. I’ll probably go for a Dell PC. The IBM Canada warehouse is actually about 20 minutes from where I live, so I’m also going to check that out.

Well, it looks like my ‘online time’ will be low for a while longer.

2005 06 25 Chris Ilias Personal Comments Off Permalink

Update on my virus

This computer virus I got looks to be more than a software problem. It also looks like I’m not going to be able to retrieve my info. I’m not going to get my laptop back for at least a week. Till then, my ‘online time’ will be much less.

2005 06 20 Chris Ilias Personal Comments Off Permalink

I got a virus

Well, it a appears I got a computer virus.
I don’t exactly know how. F-Prot detected a few files in my Java Plugin cache last night, but the service person took one look at Limewire, and suspected that.

So, my laptop is out gone to be serviced for the next while, with no guarantee I’ll have my data, when I get it back. The ironic part is that I recently bought an external hard drive, and moved a lot of info I had on CDs to it. Not much in the way of important info, with the exception of Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird profile backups from May 26th. I did manage to transfer most of my current Thunderbird profile before the computer froze. I then couldn’t get that far again. The important info is on a partitioned drive, so hopefully it will not need have to be deleted.

Having said that, don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me in a while. I’m posting this via the family computer, and trying to salvage what I can from the external hard drive. It’s also a good time to go to a bar.

2005 06 16 Chris Ilias Personal Comments Off Permalink

Google says to bottom-post

Google Groups Help: What’s good ‘netiquette’ when posting to Usenet?

When you click “Reply” under “show options” to follow up an existing article, Google Groups includes the full article in quotes, with the cursor at the top of the article. Tempting though it is to just start typing your message, please STOP and do two things first. Look at the quoted text and remove parts that are irrelevant. Then, go to the BOTTOM of the article and start typing there. Doing this makes it much easier for your readers to get through your post.

2005 06 11 Chris Ilias Personal Comments Off Permalink

Digitally signing newsgroup posts

I recently did some testing of SMIME signed newsgroup messages. First, I guess I should state how I achieved it in Mozilla Thunderbird (also works in Mozilla Application Suite, and Netscape 7):
First, set up one of your mail accounts to have a certificate for digital signing. Close Mozilla Thunderbird, and open your prefs.js file. The mail identity in which you added a certificate should have a couple of pref lines pertaining to digital signing. For instance, if it were id1, it would be:
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.sign_mail", false);
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.signing_cert_name", "certificate name here");

Copy and paste those lines to the id that pertains to your news account, and edit the id number on the pasted lines. So, if your news account is id6, you should have both:
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.sign_mail", false);
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.signing_cert_name", "certificate name here");

and
user_pref("mail.identity.id6.sign_mail", false);
user_pref("mail.identity.id6.signing_cert_name", "certificate name here");

(Note that if you want your messages to be automatically be signed, you can change the value of mail.identity.id6.sign_mail to true.)

Save and close the prefs.js, and start Thunderbird. Open a newsgroup, and click on “Write.” If you want to sign the message, you can go to Options -> Security -> Digitally Sign This Message.

Okay, now that we know how to do it, what happens when it’s done?

Size
The first message I tested contained a body of one word: “test”. That message was 4KB. I got a certificate with lower encryption. The first was 2048bit, the second was 1024. The same test message with a 1024 bit key was 1KB less in size (3KB). Note that if you’re using the Face header, that will also add another KB to your message, so all in all, you could have a one word newsgroup post, that is 5KB in size.

Usenet
I did a few tests in netscape.public.test to see if the messages would propagate, and how Google will take and display them. Google didn’t take them. As a matter of fact, neither did Giganews. I had to use news.mozilla.org to post them. Unsigned replies to those tests showed up on both Google and Giganews, so I did some digging. The signed messages were sent with the content-type header:
Content-Type: multipart/signed; protocol=”application/x-pkcs7-signature”; micalg=sha1; boundary=”————ms090800060705060603050107″
Both Google and Giganews filter out messages with binary attachments in text groups. Google and Giganews are treating the signature as a binary attachment. To verify this, I tried to post a signed message to giganews.test.binary, and it worked. If you want to sign your newsgroup messages, expect them to be treated as binary attachments.

Display
Okay, the digital signatures are treated as binary attachments. How are other news clients going to display the message. What I have on my system is Thunderbird, Netscape7, Mozilla 1.7.8, Netscape Communicator 4.8, Opera 7.54, Outlook Express 6, and Xnews5.04. All, except Opera and Xnews, recognized the signature as such, and had special display for it (key, etc). Opera and Xnews just considered it an attachment and used the generic attachment display method.

Conclusion
If you’re posting on usenet, don’t bother. If you’re posting on a private server, make sure there’s a clear reason to digitally sign your messages, that is worth the extra 2KB, and take note of the software others are using.

2005 06 09 Chris Ilias Mozilla
Mozilla Suite
Netscape
SeaMonkey
Thunderbird Comments (1) Permalink

I’m Darth Vader

You scored as Darth Vader.

Darth Vader
69%
Anakin Skywalker
67%
R2-D2
64%
Mace Windu
58%
C-3PO
56%
General Grievous
56%
Chewbacca
53%
Yoda
53%
Emperor Palpatine
50%
Clone Trooper
44%
Padme Amidala
42%
Obi Wan Kenobi
36%

Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
2005 06 03 Chris Ilias Personal Comments Off Permalink

Deer Park logo is better


The Mozilla Foundation has released the first alpha release of what will become Firefox 1.1. To prevent confusion of Firefox 1.0.x users, they have gone to great lengths to make sure only developers and testers download it. Among them are calling the release by its codename (Deer Park), changing the product name for the developer release, and even changing the icon. Instead of the Firefox “humping a globe“, it’s just a globe. Kind of apropos, seeing as it isn’t a finished product.

Very soon after installing Deer Park builds, I found that I prefer the Deer Park logo.
Here are some comparison shots:

Firefox 1.0.x Deer Park

I prefer the Deer Park logo because:

- it is more simple. That image is easier to remember, and easier to redraw.

- I can’t think of a better symbol for a web browser than a globe. A always loved how the old Netscape throbber inspired my imagination about what could be done with the product and the technology. The Firefox icon contains more fox than globe.

The Mozilla Foundation has an animal theme going, which is good for identity and association of all Mozilla products, but the Firefox icon doesn’t really communicate what the product does.
I prefer the globe.

2005 06 01 Chris Ilias Firefox
Mozilla Comments (3) Permalink

Netscape 8 is now secure…at least when using gecko

Back when the Beta version of Netscape 8 was released to the public, I stated in a previous blog entry, that:

The plugin used to access Internet Explorer’s rendering engine opens Netscape 8 to the same security vulnerabilities Internet Explorer has, regardless of what rendering engine is being used.

To further explain this, there is a file in the plugins folder called npTrident.dll. The name of Internet Explorer’s rendering engine is Trident. If you enter about:plugins in Netscape 8 you’ll see that the trident plugin is enabled for the MIME types text/HTML, text/plain, text/xml and application/xml. Any website that detects you are using Netscape 8, could use an <embed> to feed you an Internet Explorer exploit, even if you’re surfing in the Firefox mode.

Well apparently this vulnerability has been fixed in the final release of Netscape 8.0. (currently at 8.0.1)
For more info see http://www.stonie.co.uk/nsbvuln.html

2005 05 24 Chris Ilias Netscape Comments (1) Permalink

Closing threads on secnews

There has been some recent confusion about threads in the secnews.netscape.com newsgroups being closed. I just want to make things clear for everyone.

What is this all about?
There has been too much off-topic discussion taking place on the secnews.netscape.com user support newsgroups. While camaraderie is encouraged, the utility of the user support venue is first priority. Too much off-topic discussion makes reading the group much less efficient. Those looking for technical support, may have to weed through a lot of off-topic discussion to find an answer to their problem. In some cases, an answer may not be there, because the problem may have been lost in the discussion. Those of us offering to help people with their technical problems become less efficient at solving problems, and less quick to get to the technical questions.

After being asked to stay away from off-topic discussion, most replies were in defense of such practise. Most users showed an unwillingness to adhere the request; so something more had to be done.

What is considered to be off-topic discussion?
secnews.netscape.com has newsgroups set up for user support. Each support group is dedicated to a specific product. If the discussion is not about the product the group is for, then it is off-topic.

What is the purpose of closing threads?
Closing threads is a way cutting down on off-topic discussion. This way, people will not have to compose messages with an uncertainty that the message will be deleted.

What is the criteria for a thread to be closed?
I make it a rule not to close threads in which the technical discussion is still ongoing, or the original posted problem has not been solved. Other than that, there must be an ongoing off-topic discussion. The closing of threads has absolutely nothing to do with who the original poster is, or who is engaging in the off-topic discussion. Thread closures are based on message content, not the authors.

If the above rule is exploited or abused at all, I may start partially closing threads, removing only the discussion that is off-topic.

As a general rule, if you want to discuss something that is off-topic, try to move the to an appropriate forum. Jay Garcia has set up a general discussion venue for secnews off-topic posters here.

Why are your “CLOSED THREAD” notices in reply to the original post, rather than the latest post in the thread?
I don’t want to give the latest poster the impression that the thread closure is his/her fault alone.

Why are you (Chris Ilias) the only one closing threads?
Closing threads is my responsibility alone. The rest of the Mozilla Champions have put their trust in me to choose which threads get closed, and to do the removing of messages. This is a responsibility that I asked for.

The posting guidelines say “The “Original Poster” has control of the thread”; so why is it that you can close them?
You control your threads to a certain degree. Ultimately, it is AOL’s server, and the Champions have the authority to delete posts. In the case of using AOL’s Netscape user support news server as your personal chatroom: you abuse, you lose.

Added on May 25th:

Why don’t you create a newsgroup for off-topic discussion?
We don’t have the power to create newsgroups on secnews. Even if we did, I’m not sure we would create a newsgroup for off-topic discussion (Still iffy on the issue). I mentioned the possibility of an OT newsgroup on the new Mozilla server to Gervase Markham, who replied with “OT discussion should happen somewhere where it’s on-topic. Otherwise in mozilla.general.” Yet web-based user support almost always have an OT forum. (After Dark, Lounge, General Discussion) The community is kept together, and able to discuss whatever they want. This is why Jay created a general discussion venue. I suggest you use it.

Part of why I participate on secnews, is because I’m able to talk off-topic. Either let it go, or I’m going to participate somewhere else.
This ultimatum makes me laugh. Most of the people saying it have been participating on secnews for years, yet there was never this amount of off-topic discussion, until just a couple of months ago. Why the change? Why is it, all of a sudden, so imperative? It’s not a question of ‘allow OT or disallow it’. It’s simply a case of volume. Having said that, if that amount of OT discussion is so important to you, take your OT and leave. There’s no shortage of people willing to help; and more will come due the increased efficiency.

Isn’t this censorship?
Why yes it is. Every privately owned user support venue is moderated.

Why don’t you post this URL on secnews?
To keep discussion out of the way of user support. I’ll add this URL to all of my “CLOSED THREAD” notices from now on.

2005 05 24 Chris Ilias Mozilla Comments (23) Permalink

Your browser is NOT outdated

Today Netscape 8 was released; so I went to Netscape.com to download it. I was automatically redirected to a detour page, with this message [click on image for the full page]:

I’m using Firefox 1.0.4. Netscape 8 is based on Firefox 1.0.3.
Folks, if you get this message, don’t believe it. It’s a lie. The only browser detection script being used is one that checks to see if you are already using Netscape 8.

As a matter of fact, if you’re using Netscape 8, your browser is outdated.

2005 05 19 Chris Ilias Firefox
Mozilla
Mozilla Suite
Netscape
SeaMonkey Comments (1) Permalink