TCP/IP not secure in Windows 2000 and XP

As usual, when it comes to computing, we go forward and not backward...

Over the past week I have disposed of many electronic devices because...they are old. They worked, but no longer in "supported" scenarios: with current operating systems, with current connections (parallel printer/serial ports), etcetera.

And now, I read that "Vulnerabilities in Windows TCP/IP Could Allow Remote Code Execution". Per Microsoft: "An update for Windows XP will not be made available...Microsoft has decided not to patch Windows 2000 for the TCP/IP vulnerability..."

I am not surprised, and expect this attitude...until I remember that netbooks are being released with Windows XP as the operating system! And I had been seriously considering getting one...

For other computers, in regards to their hardware and software, it's time to evaluate whether Windows Vista (or 7) will be compatible. (As well as some version of Linux...)

software incompatible with Snow Leopard

Apple has posted information about software that is incompatible with Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Lepopard.

Snow Leopard will prevent some software from opening. And during the installation of Snow Leopard, software could be disabled and moved to a folder for storage (it will be located at the root level of the hard drive, named Incompatible Software).

Software that may not work with Snow Leopard include:
Parallels Desktop, version 2.5 and earlier
McAfee VirusScan (version 8.6)
Norton Antivirus (version 11.0)
AT&T Laptop Connect Card

As we have previously suggested, before you make a major change to the configuration of a computer system...be sure you are prepared for the "worst case scenario".

ANSI versus Unicode

After our radio show, we received a call from Rudy. He wanted to know about ANSI...

The American National Standards Institute is an organization that promotes standards. One of them was the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) character set (letters, numbers, and symbols) that computers use. One major draw back to ASCII was you could only have 256 different characters.

Unicode allows for up to 65,536 different characters. In the past, Unicode was not compatible with all operating systems. If you are using a current operating system, I expect you should not be concerned about choosing Unicode.

Windows Hardware Compatibility Lists

Use Internet Explorer to view the site...

"The Windows...Hardware Compatibility List is a comprehensive list of logo'd products – both Devices and Systems - that are compatible with Windows..."