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Monday, August 25, 2008 11:22 PM

My MP3 player demands to administer my system

Thanks to the excellent http://www.woot.com , I upgraded to a new MP3 player - this one, the Sansa e250 from SanDisk , has a little screen and shows video at an almost completely unacceptably small resolution. But I don't mind that, I didn't really...
Posted by Alun Jones | 3 comment(s)
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008 9:53 PM

FTP - Untrustworthy? I Don't Think So!

Lately, as if writers all draw from the same shrinking paddling-pool of ideas, I've noticed a batch of stories about how unsafe, unsecure and untrustworthy is FTP. SC Magazine says so. First it was an article in the print version of SC Magazine ,...
Posted by Alun Jones | 2 comment(s)
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008 9:17 PM

The difference between liking and hating UAC?

Totally unscientifically, I have carried out a poll of people who like UAC (okay, a few security geeks like myself), and those who hate UAC - mostly my wife. Something struck me as both a surprising common factor, and also a rather obvious explanation...
Posted by Alun Jones | 5 comment(s)
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Thursday, April 24, 2008 4:47 PM

UAC - The Emperor's New Clothes

I heard a complaint the other day about UAC - User Account Control - that was new to me. Let's face it, as a Security MVP, I hear a lot of complaints about UAC - not least from my wife, who isn't happy with the idea that she can be logged on as...
Posted by Alun Jones | 6 comment(s)
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Friday, January 11, 2008 9:03 PM

Why you don't run as root

[... or administrator, or whatever] I like Roger Grimes, he's a nice guy, and he generally makes me think about what he has to say. That's a good thing, because otherwise he'd either be part of the same choir as me, or he'd be the sort...
Posted by Alun Jones | 4 comment(s)
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Monday, January 07, 2008 9:22 PM

How broken is the banking system?

My kid and I love watching Top Gear - me, because it's nice to see him interested in a very traditional British TV programme (in the US, you can find it on BBC America), and him, because he just loves cars - particularly high-performance ones. So...
Posted by Alun Jones | 3 comment(s)
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Monday, December 17, 2007 5:38 PM

Removing Apple Mobile Device Support

As mentioned before, I'm not a fan of Appple 's, particularly because they tend to impose crap on me that I'm not interested in having. I've been trying to figure out how to remove iTunes , iPod and Aple Mobile Device Support on and off...
Posted by Alun Jones | 52 comment(s)
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007 6:41 PM

I didn't want iTunes - now I've got iPod, too?

So, in my last post " Can the EU get me QuickTime N? ", I noted that my installation of QuickTime (because I had a .MOV file I want to see) led to Apple Software Update offering me "iTunes + QuickTime 7.5", despite my removing iTunes...
Posted by Alun Jones | 9 comment(s)
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007 5:52 PM

Can the EU get me QuickTime N?

So, a long time ago, in a continent not so far away, the European Union required Microsoft to ship a version of Windows without Media Player , called Windows XP N. Now, here's a follow-up to my previous articles: Programmer Hubris Part 1 - He's...
Posted by Alun Jones | 4 comment(s)
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Monday, October 15, 2007 6:27 PM

How to pass a Disaster Recovery test

Last week I went to a party hosted by MVP, all-round good guy and host of SBSMigration.com , Jeff Middleton . Jeff hails from New Orleans, so while he is well known for "swing migration" techniques that allow you to move your domain from and...
Posted by Alun Jones | 1 comment(s)
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Monday, September 03, 2007 8:51 PM

Why complain about UAC prompts?

Jesper's article in TechNet Magazine on the purpose and future of UAC in Windows Vista and beyond reminded me that there's a whole slew of behaviours more annoying than UAC's prompting (which, as Jesper points out, is only the most visible...
Posted by Alun Jones | 2 comment(s)
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Saturday, July 21, 2007 4:35 PM

Tip of the month: don't get your security advice from Computer Shopper

Obviously, I read Computer Shopper , or I wouldn't have come across this as their " Computer Cures Tip Of The Month ", but here's something that gets my goat every time I see it: "I'd also advise he configure his router to stop...
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Saturday, June 09, 2007 11:24 AM

Can't I trust the Postal Service? Part 3 - the service.

Finally, in this series on the USPS "Hold Mail" service, I'd like to address the service itself. When you request to hold mail, you provide your name and the address of the mailbox whose mail you want to hold. You read the text that says...
Posted by Alun Jones | 1 comment(s)
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Monday, June 04, 2007 12:00 PM

Catch me at Tech-Ed

For those of you who want to catch me at Tech-Ed, if it's only to let me know that real people (rather than spammers) read this blog, you can find me in the yellow section of the Technical Learning Center, in the Security sub-section, at the Solution...
Posted by Alun Jones | 2 comment(s)
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Sunday, May 20, 2007 9:10 PM

Can't I trust the Postal Service? Part 1 - the crypto.

The Security MVPs have a private mailing list on which we gather to share expertise or our interesting findings - the following was raised by an MVP, and very much interested me, on a number of levels: The US Postal Service has a web service (as well...
Posted by Alun Jones | 1 comment(s)
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Monday, May 07, 2007 7:34 PM

Corporate Fund-Raising: Training Users to be Vulnerable

Subtitle: How often do you train your users? On three separate occasions in the last month, I've been stirred from my revery at work by an inbound email that didn't come from my colleagues. This isn't normal - the only emails I get at work...
Posted by Alun Jones | 1 comment(s)
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Thursday, April 26, 2007 9:50 PM

Alternate Data Streams in Windows Vista

Windows NT 3.1 was released ... oh, back in the early to mid '90s. Ever since then, I've been aware that it supported Alternate Data Streams, also known as ADS, or in some technical documents that didn't make it to final review, Alternative...
Posted by Alun Jones | 8 comment(s)
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Saturday, March 24, 2007 9:30 PM

EFS in a domain expires after three years

I enjoyed the research for writing my article on EFS , for the Technet Security Newsletter , but there's always something experience will teach you. Here's an issue I experienced just last week, with EFS. It shouldn't have been a surprise, given what...
Posted by Alun Jones | 3 comment(s)
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007 5:19 PM

WIP: Principles of Secure Software Development

This is a work-in-progress, but I'd like your opinions on it: Principles of Secure Software Development You're not that good - someone will find a hole in your software. Find as many as you can, first. You're still not that good - you didn't find all...
Posted by Alun Jones | 5 comment(s)
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Sunday, February 18, 2007 4:52 PM

Security Bulletins are easier to read in Japanese

It's "Patch Tuesday" again - and you're going to be spending a busy Valentine's day installing all of them. I'm not the first person to cover this - Steve Riley did it way back when, and Susan Bradley reminded us of it , but it's time to raise the point...
Posted by Alun Jones | 1 comment(s)
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