Lunch Notes 7-13-2004

[Balandar]

4 New "Extremely Critical" IE Vulnerabilities

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday July 13, @11:45AM

from the are-you-ready-for-fun-and-excitement dept.

TopherTG writes "Buckle your seat belts folks. On what is looking to be the next Black Tuesday, with rumors of 9 new Windows security patches being released, Secunia is reporting on 4 new vulnerabilities in IE that allow for arbitrary code execution and placing content over other windows. Combined with the new Windows patches, it is likely more Download.Ject and Sasser like viruses will be emerging in the coming months."

http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/13/1531...&tid=172&tid=95

The New York Times On Earth's Magnetic Flip-Flop

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 13, @07:53AM

from the all-topsy-all-turvy dept.

TolkiEinstein writes "The New York Times reports that, relatively speaking, compasses may soon point South. It's long been known that Earth flips magnetically every half-million years or so, and, with the north pole's magnetic field at about 10-15 percent [less than] its strength of 150 years ago, many geologists feel a flip is coming up. Computer simulations also suggest that the current state of the magnetic field is indicative of an upcoming flip. Though it would take hundreds of years to complete, the impact on life may be significant but not catastrophic, including phenomena such as power-outages, satellite malfunctions and disruptions in the rhythmic functions of some animals such as loggerhead turtles. The EU plans to launch a trio of satellites in 2009 to assume polar orbits & monitor the field." (Cross your fingers for some nice solar wind.) Update: 07/13 17:02 GMT by T: Note: the summary here originally misstated the Times' article; the field 's strength has decreased 10-15 percent, rather than to 10-15 percent.

http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/07/...1.shtml?tid=134

Network Solutions Overhauls Whois Results

Posted by timothy on Monday July 12, @09:56PM

from the now-it-needs-orkut-style-linking dept.

Robert Accettura writes "Network Solutions has updated its whois interface, giving it an interesting new twist. On top of regular info provided, it shows data that appears to be from Alexa, including a screenshot of the homepage (though not terribly recent), as well as looks up your IP, and displays lots of information on it. It even shows the server type, if it supports SSL, DMOZ, Yahoo listing, traffic ranking, and lock status. This comes right after they announced rapid DNS updates. Perhaps they are trying to win over the geeks before they turn on sitefinder?"

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/1...&tid=126&tid=95

Microsoft Delays Windows XP Service Pack 2

Posted by simoniker on Monday July 12, @05:02PM

from the gone-til-august dept.

Rinisari writes "DesignTechnica, among some others , explains that Microsoft has once again delayed its release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, though only until August. Microsoft has declined to comment on the reason for the delay. Windows Update v5, however, is online and operational (and works with Service Pack 1!), although not officially so. I know many smaller education institutions are chomping at the bit with the looming release, as they are worried about compatibility with some of the new features in Service Pack 2."

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/1...tid=190&tid=201