Website of the Week #7

Security Report:

Most PCs run outdated, "hacker-friendly" software. Below is Secunia's PC vulnerability study:

Number of insecure programs per PC/user

0 insecure programs: 1.91% of PCs

1-5 insecure programs: 30.27% of PCs

6-10 insecure programs: 25.07% of PCs

11+ insecure programs: 45.76% of PCs

See which category you fall into by trying out my tool of the week (below)

Tool of the week:

Secunia's online software inspector:

http://tinyurl.com/66fqn5

About Secunia's OSI and PSI tools...

Secunia has an extensive database holding tens of thousands of application signatures which will look for application version vulnerabilities and advises you on which ones that you need to upgrade. Read the "feature overview" bullets on their website for additional details.

How it works...

The tool scans most of the executables (.exe) and dynamic-linked libraries (.dll) on your hard drive. But most importantly, it looks for applications with known security flaws and tell you which ones that you need to upgrade. It also has an open connection to the MS Windows Update database. Since it's more of a version management system, it won't scan applications that don't have any vulnerabilities/problems. If you download the PSI version, it will show up in your startup menu - but the online scanner (OSI) works just as effectively for me.

Firefox News:Mozilla launched Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, now with a 'Private Browsing' feature that matches the similar features being used within both the Safari and Chrome web browsers. Mozilla Corp. is saying there will be a 3rd beta coming down the road to test out some additional functionality. I don't recommend using the beta version just yet, (v3.0.4 is the most current), but if you want to give it a test run you can download it at: http://tinyurl.com/6crtcy

Did you know?

Current Browser market share:

Internet Explorer (71.11%)

Mozilla Firefox (20.06%)

Safari (6.62%)

Opera (0.75%)

Google Chrome (0.74%)

Netscape (0.46%)

Other (0.24%)

Microsoft News:

Microsoft will be managing 3 Operating Systems in 2009. Yes, they are still attempting to phase out XP. Over the past month and a half XP's market share has dropped 1.8%, while Vista just broke the 20% mark. On top of all this, Microsoft will be working on getting Windows 7 ready for release as well as releasing IE8. This should prove to be a pivotal year for Microsoft, especially since the Windows OS has dropped below a 90% market share for the first time in twenty years.

General News:

Amazon's Kindle Reader is sold out for the holiday's. Sorry, you'll have to put yourself on a waiting list to get it sometime after Dec. 24th. But hang on...listings are still available via 3rd parties on Amazon...if your desperate.

Find the Kindle on Amazon.com http://tinyurl.com/5k5ezh

Video game of the week: (Are you serious!?)

If you ever wondered what it would like to be the President of the United States? Give this game a try starting on Jan. 20th, 2009.

http://tinyurl.com/678lzj

Pictures of the week:

Photos

And finally the...Website of the week! (Yes, it's a tool...but at least it's on a website!!!)

I might put this to good use some day...

VeoProject:

VeoProject review: http://tinyurl.com/6dm3cn

VeoProject website: http://tinyurl.com/65dlo2