Beware of Photo Copiers!
I know that this sounds crazy, but modern copiers and printers have hard drives that store everything that you either copy or print. This is a bonus if you find yourself with some document that is deleted from your hard drive and the only available copy is left on the printer. But this is bad when your company decides to replace its copier/printer, and your private documents are now available to whomever gets the old machine.YouTube has a good video explaining this problem...
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| Image Courtesy of Sweet Clip Art |
Beware of Java!
Photo copiers are not the only thing you need to watch out for these days. Over four months ago, a security firm in Poland identified a serious security bug in Java. Oracle released a patch to this bug yesterday, but security experts recommend that users simply disable Java in their web browsers. Even the Department of Homeland Security recommends that users disable Java in their browsers - a rare statement from them.To disable Java in Chrome:
- Enter "chrome://plugins" in the box at the top of a tab where the URL goes.
- Search the page for a Java plug-in. Click on the associated "Disable" check box.
To disable Java in Firefox:
- Click on the Firefox button.
- Click on "Add-Ons".
- Go to the Plug-ins tab.
- Find the Java plug-in and click disable.
To disable Java on Internet Explorer:
- Get Chrome or Firefox - the only bigger security hole on your system than Java is Internet Explorer.
You can click here to test whether or not you have Java disabled on your system. This is something in the middle of the page - if it doesn't render, Java is disable.
No Plans for a Death Star...
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?You can read the original petition here and the response here.
But They Do Have Beer.
Last year, President Obama got a brewing kit and started making beer at the White House. Someone found out, and asked the President to release his recipes. The White House responded with a cute story about how the President began brewing, which kinds of beer he makes, and three different recipes. They also note that this is the very first time ever that a person has created alcohol at the White House.You can read the response and get the recipes at "Ale to the Chief - White House Beer Recipe".
I hope you're starting to feel better now! I was just talking about the flu at the LEGO Club today (yeah, my family organizes a LEGO club for homeschooled kids), and remarking that despite all the talk of major flu outbreaks on NPR, i don't know anyone in my town that has it which is really weird.
ReplyDeleteAnd I had just finished sending out emails to people about the Java problem! I disabled it on my Mac, but thank you for the instructions for the other browsers that we use at home!
I love that bit of news about the Death Star petition! It's great to see that there's still humor out there in the big, bad world. ;)
And the beer thing...heard that on my favorite radio program, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!
Get well soon...but it's just as well you're not posting as much because we are once again put on bandwidth curfew by our internet provider (seems like we're put on that for half a month every month...*&^%) and I can't pull up blogs at home to read.