arfore.com » Internet

Posted by arf in : Web Development, Internet , add a comment

Many programmers love to put in easter eggs in their code. But one of the world’s largest websites has taken it a step further and added an easter egg to their website.

If you go to the Yahoo! website and click on the exclamation point in the Yahoo! logo, then you will be greeted with the yodeling Yahoo! sound file.  The sound file is actually a Macromedia Adobe shockwave flash file.  If you want the flash, you can grab it here.
Have you run across any interesting website easter eggs?

The times they are a-changin’ April 26, 2006

Posted by arf in : WordPress, Web Development, Internet , add a comment

As Bob Dylan said…

Well, if any of you come here often you will have noticed that the look of the site has changed.  I am now using the Regulus theme by Ben Gillbanks.

The reason for this is that I am now running the Widget plugin and needed a new theme that supported widgets.

For more on WordPress Widgets, browse on by the Automattic WordPress Widget page.

In the next couple of weeks I am going to be working on a widget or two.  I’ll post more on that soon.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling….oh wait February 21, 2006

Posted by arf in : Mac OS X, Internet , 1 comment so far

Yes, Virignia there is an Internet and according to the Chicken Littles of the security world it is falling down around your ears.

The problem appears to be that just like all of the pundits on Capitol Hill, who want the industry to take all of the blame for what young, impressionable children are watching on TV or playing on their Xbox, the computer security experts of the world want the industry to take the blame for all of the security problems that exist on computers.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the problems can and should be fixed by the developers.  There are some problems and holes that just can’t be anticipated by even the most astute user.

What I don’t agree with is that so many people are tending to view security through obfuscation as true security.  Take the current issue of Safari on Mac OS X.  According to an article at the SANS Internet Storm Center the root of the problem is that Safari has a default setting that allows the browser to have “safe” files opened automatically upon a successful download.

Now when this is checked someone can setup a file that masquerades as something else but is really an executable file, a veritable virus-in-graphics-clothing as it were.

The real solution of course is to change the default setting on the browser.  Of course this simple solution isn’t good enough for some people and they are suggesting that you move the Terminal.app program from it’s default location to somewhere else.  As if moving you door knob on your house from the standard middle-left to the bottom-right would keep a thief from picking the lock.

Face it folks, the time has come when, just like parents who have kids, that the users of the Internet need to stand forth and take responsibility for what they browse to, download, or e-mail on the Internet.

Buck up, Chicken Little, maybe people will wake up one day.  And yes, Virginia, it is possible to surf the Internet and not pickup spyware or viruses.