May 2010 archive

Internet Explorer 9 Preview – Second Release

JavaScript Benchmarks

Microsoft quietly released its second update to the Internet Explorer 9 Preview. I gave an overview of the first release here if you want to get up to speed on how the original preview performed. From a look and feel perspective, it looks very much the same. All of the usual toolbars and menus are …

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Road Trip – Keep Track of Car Maintenance and Costs

Road Trip (Expense Tracker)

If you are like me and have a vehicle under novated lease, you need to keep track of your running costs so you can make the appropriate claims but also to help you keep track of your distance travelled which will affect your FBT liability. Otherwise, you might like to keep track of how much …

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PDF Readers – Turn Off JavaScript

Unknown to many, PDF documents are becoming a popular vector for security exploitation. Just like MS Word documents were popular once upon a time for similar reasons with  unprotected macros, PDF documents are gradually becoming more of a concern. So what is the main cause of this issue? JavaScript inside PDF documents is the culprit. …

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iPad Pricing Released – MyUS Being Dishonest

Apple Order (iPad Dock)

SMH broke a story early this morning about Apple releasing the iPad pricing for Australia last night as well as confirming the official launch date as being the 28th of May, less than a month after the US release. So was I close? I wasn’t too far off at all (around about 5% over). The …

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100th Blog – Roll the Highlights Reel!

Today marks the 100th post on my blog and of course, no significant celebration of a milestone would not be complete without looking over some of highlights since the beginning. I’ve written some informative pieces looking at ways to improve the accessibility and reliability of the technology that we use in our everyday lives. In …

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SUPER – A Great Audio & Video Conversion Utility

SUPER (Main Screen)

Have you ever been caught in a situation where you need to have an audio or video file in a specific file? It could be one of those “just in case” things as you never know when you might need it. Anyway, I was caught in a situation this week where the CIO wanted to …

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Why is DNSSEC Important?

Yesterday, I touched on DNSSEC and the potential impact it could have on Internet connections where consumer grade hardware was involved. So what was the big deal? In the past, there have been issues with “DNS spoofing” where an attacker tricks a computer into going to an IP address other than that associated with a …

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Are You Ready for DNSSEC?

With time getting away from me this evening due to a huge deluge of work that needs my attention, I will simply leave you with something to consider for the next 24 hours. Something called DNSSEC (DNS Security) will come online on 5th May which will authenticate DNS responses with digital certificates. Unfortunately, this has …

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Product Recalls – Worthwhile or Inconvenient?

A little while back, Dyson issued a safety notice regarding its DC05 Motorhead vacuum cleaner. In a nutshell, electrical contacts in the vacuum hose could be exposed as a result of cracking or detachment on the handle. As a sign of good will, Dyson offered customers two choices: Receive a replacement part free of charge, …

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MS Courier & HP Slate – iPad Killers Being Killed Off Themselves

Over the course of this week, there have been some shock announcements regarding potential competitors to the Apple iPad, specifically the Microsoft Courier and the HP Slate. On Thursday, Gizmodo reported that Microsoft had summarily pulled the Courier out of the incubator and tossed it in the bin. Certainly, in my opinion, the Courier looked …

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