Yahoo screws up again -- Can't Post anything

Well, nice job, Yahoo folks! I just wasted over an hour trying to post a new entry to my Yahoo blog, only to find out that every time I try to post anything, all I get is an Error 999 and my entry is wiped out. Can't save drafts either. I use Firefox 4.0 on an older Windows XP SP3 laptop. Anyway, I can get in here, so all is well in my little corner of the blogosphere.

Don't get me started about Firefox version upgrades! Every time they have one, I end up recreating entire Profiles for Limited User Accounts in Windows XP SP3. There has got to be a bug in there somewhere! And to add insult to injury, FEBE doesn't work for backup or restoration under Firefox 4. (I know I can back up the Profile Folders in their entirety, but when I restored these Folders, I got Firefox interface rendering issues which could not be resolved.) None of the short url lengtheners works in FF4 either, as yet. And they wrecked the rendering of Favicons in the Bookmarks drop-down list. If you were a Conspiracy Theorist, you'd think they did some of these things on purpose, to enhance advertising revenues. In any event, Mozilla's newest offering is definitely not ready for public consumption under Windows XP at this time.

I haven't posted here in a long time because no major events gave me material which could not be reduced to Comments or entries in the Windows Secrets Lounge (www.windowssecrets.com, then proceed to the Lounge tab, and get a feee account there to participate).

I have gotten a new Toshiba Satellite laptop with a pre-Sandy Bridge Core-i5 processor and NVidia graphics. That Windows 7 home Premium 64-bit laptop runs circles around this old WinBook laptop, even after a complete driver overhaul. (Long story, beginning with a Microsoft Update which tried to mess with the System kernel -- Windows XP Pro 32-bit OEM Windows on a manufacturer branded motherboard. Stop me if you've heard this one before.) Anyway, I am well outfitted for some time into the future. Windows 7 SP1 is out, so driver and BIOS updates will be in order for the Toshiba in the near future.

Just briefly, the WinBook issue is a rather rare one in Windows XP SP3 patching, but it does occur on some older laptops. OEM Windows System Files and older drivers can make patching risky (as in Blue Screen of Death or total loss of video), so Microsoft is right not to let some of its patches change these files. But to reoffer the patch endlessly without any pop-up or other notification about the reason for the failure, and to offer only the advice to update your Intel Graphics Drivers, is an insult and an outrage. In other words, pretty much standard stuff from MS Updates tech support for home users.

The solution (from Microsoft Social Answers) comes in two parts. First, go to the Intel web site and run the Intel Javascript applet which analyzes your system and finds the latest available Intel drivers for your Intel chipset. I got six updates, four of which related directly to the Microsoft issue. While I use DriverMax for driver backup archives and restorations if anything goes wrong, I cannot recommend using their driver updating service based on my recent experience. They offered wrong drivers for all of the Intel hardware in my WinBook. The Mouse was Microsoft, but they offered a Logitech Mouseware PS/2 driver instead of an Intellipoint USB Optical Driver. And so on. I only accepted the DriverMax offering for the FaxModem, and reluctantly, as no one else has a driver for this old on-board device. And I never use it anyway. I also updated my USB Interface Drivers.

With up to date drivers, I still got the patch reoffered. Microsoft Social gave the answer -- the patch installs only if the installer does not detect OEM Windows. I had the same problem once or twice in the past, and now I know why this happens. This time, the Stand-Alone version of the installer can be run in Windows Safe Mode, with a switch for "overwrite OEM" files. Again, I said this before -- it is risky to overwrite OEM Windows System Files with MS generic versions. But I did it, and the patch is no longer being reoffered, and Belarc Advisor and Secunia PSI-2 both say the patch is not missing. So I guess this worked.

I did have to uninstall and reinstall MSE and Comodo security products, but that is relatively straightforward. And leave Comodo in Safe Computer Mode for awhile until things calm down a bit. Smart Defrag found an unreadable file, so I had to wait an hour while CheckDisk /-r slogged away. And it did find one -- just one -- orphaned file fragment which it repaired. This wipes out all System Restore points, which I wish I had known before making my system backup. So I finished defragmenting and made an Acronis Backup of the new configuration. And that's where this old laptop stands now.

Now let's see whether this blog will post this entry. Betcha it will -- and it did, flawlessly. Just like I expect from a Google App. Take that, Yahoo!

More Details On Worldnet Closing

AT&T Worldnet Service will no longer be available as of March 15, 2010, and will be replaced by AT&T Dial Internet service.

What do I Need to Do?

If you wish to maintain your Internet account with AT&T — and keep your email, email IDs, and settings — you will need to move your AT&T Worldnet account to AT&T Dial Internet service prior to that date. Your account will NOT be automatically moved to the new service.

IMPORTANT! If you fail to move your account by March 15, it will be terminated and all information for your AT&T Internet account — including your email, email IDs, features, and settings — will be lost and will be un-recoverable.

Monthly Plan Fee: Your new AT&T Dial Internet service will provide you with unlimited Internet access for $15.95 per month.

Personal Web Pages: AT&T will no longer support AT&T Worldnet Service Personal Web Pages (PWP) as of March 15, 2010.

Also note that the new AT&T Dial Internet Service Software (required for dialup access) no longer will support Windows versions before Windows XP (I assume, SP2). Dialup phone numbers will also change. You must install the new software before removing the existing software.

Web Hosting Services exist, including Google, if you get a Google Blogger Account (free).

See your Worldnet e-mail announcement for further details and important instructions and links.

Details about AT&T Worldnet Ending Services

Yep, the dialup service is ending in May, 2010 or sooner. All existing dialup customers are being offered DSL services, but we get to retain all of our accounts, including e-mail identities and Personal Web Pages. Everything will go over to AT&T Yahoo DSL Services. If you call as an existing DSL customer, you may qualify for a reduced rate when adding your Worldnet accounts to your existing AT&T Yahoo DSL accounts. There may even be a no-charge option if you already have the DSL service. E-mail addresses will in most cases be preserved, along with vanity Web Site URLs.

Most dialup customers got or will get an e-mail giving few details, but the AT&T corporate blogs do provide enough detail to piece the story together. Billing for Worldnet Dialup Services is in most cases going to cease in January, 2010. After this time, we are officially in transition.

Worldnet Ending -- Still no details

<<---- There's an App for that!

As of the last time I checked my Worldnet (AT&T's dialup Internet Service) e-mail (which was earlier this week) there were no details available. But from what I have gathered, AT&T is going to discontinue its diaup internet services sometime in 2010. Hasn't happened yet, but I will post as soon as more details come out. I have used Worldnet practically since its beginnings, but I must admit that I never access this service via dialup modem anymore. So as far as I'm concerned, there's plenty of time to get all of my contacts switched over to my new Google G-Mail account. The days of dialup in the USA are numbered, as more and more remote locations get Cable, DSL, 3G, 4G and Fiber Optic Internet Services. AT&T does DSL and FIOS (Fiber Optic), so I'm guessing their dwindling revenues finally forced the demise of Worldnet. It was a great service, but now it's going away. Along with vinyl records and 8 Track Cassette Tapes. Sorry, folks, but them's the breaks!

Worldnet Ending -- Moving to G-Mail

Well, I finally did it -- I got a g-mail account. This was forced by the impending demise of AT&T 's Worldnet dialup Internet Service. It's hard to believe that when I first started with e-mail, dialup was all anybody had. This was back in the days of Windows 98 SE, and I was still doing my finances with DOS 6 programs (VP Planner). My printer back then was a dot-matrix Epson FX-85. And I got through the accounting in about one-third of the time it now takes to update things in OpenOffice.org Calc. Excel was also faster to use. (This was in MS Office 95.) I still have files which are linked to MS Access for Office 95. And OpenOffice.org can still open, read, and modify them. No floppies though -- Flash Drives and my two Western Digital external USB-2 hard drives have taken the fun out of floppy disks. And there are also CDs and DVDs, which I only use to burn Rescue and Linux OS disks anymore. We are living in an increasingly virtualized world, and The Cloud may soon be the only place I store my archives. Except for System Backups -- those are usually needed the most when I would not be able to access the Internet.

New Windows XP Security Updates

I have been trying Sophos Anti-Rootkit. This scanner is similar to F-Secure Rootkit Eliminator, except that it finds more hidden files and advises whether what it finds is malicious. Still not an installed program, and a very spartan interface. But both get the job done, although in my case, there's no job to do. Threatfire, Avast and Comodo with Defense+, plus using Firefox with its NoScript add-on, all seem to do the job of blocking rootkits (and nearly everything else) before they ever get to my hard drive. That is much preferable to removing the nasty things after they set up housekeeping in Windows XP.

Malwarebytes (free version) is now my second-opinion scanner. Super Antispyware's updater started failing with the MS09-035 ATL Patch, and so far, the SAS software engineers are just sitting there scratching their ***(heads)**. (Fill in your own substitute word.) The good news is that Windows Vista and Windows 7 are not affected by the SAS Updater bug. I still like SAS Free as a second-line scanner, but it no longer works on my Windows XP Pro laptop. Malwarebytes Free does work on my computer, so that's what I am using, for the time being. Just about everybody has reviewed MBAM, so it has passed the sniff test in terms of effectiveness.

Also note: Windows 64-bit versions and all versions of Windows 7 do not have any known in the wild rootkit attacks. So if you have one of those versions, all this rootkit stuff need not concern you. Still, what harm can it do to run Sophos AR once in awhile. After all, it is not an active program.

As always, I am solely responsible for the content of this blog. Facts as represented here about products and services are my own observations, based on my experience on my laptop. Your mileage can vary. I have no financial interest in any of the statements made here. When in doubt, do your own research, as I often provide links to reliable resources. I am not compensated, financially nor in any other way, for posting items in this blog.

-- LittleWolf -- Wed., Aug. 12, 2009 -- 12:00 Noon, CDT (USA) --

Edited Sun., Dec. 6, 2009, 2:48 PM CST (USA) by LittleWolf .

MS Active X and ATL Security Flaws

What's going on here is that Microsoft messed up very badly. But it was a small typo which did the dirty deed. As related in several stories at http://www.infoworld.com/news (Infoworld News) there is a problem with a stray "&" in the code inside of the MS Visual Studio Active Template Library (ATL) which is at the heart of many MS Active X controls. This flaw does not only affect Internet Explorer. It affects a wide variety of Microsoft products and services, as well as many third-party applications and services which use Active X. Active X is used not only on Web pages, but also on the Windows Desktop of the local computer in some applications. In short, nearly all Windows users, except those who are running the RTM Windows 7 (NOT the Beta or pre-release versions -- these versions ARE vulnerable) are vulnerable to this security hole.


The solution is listed in recent postings at http://www.windowssecrets.com/ (Windows Secrets Newsletter, special edition, July 30, 2009, by Susan Bradley) and http://www.askwoody.com/ (Woody Leonhard's Windows Patch Watch web site). They both strongly urge all Windows users to patch everything which MS Updates is currently offering. No exceptions this time. Some third-party applications will break, and I will post if I notice anything really bad in my own Windows XP SP3 configuration. (I use a lot of freeware and free security programs.) But the problem with this security flaw is so severe that it is worth having to find new applications, rather than put up with the risks of not patching. So say the real gurus, and who am I to disagree?

As always, I am solely responsible for the content of this blog. Interested readers should go directly to the sources I have referenced, using either my links or Google results for the sites to which I link in my blog entries. Woody Leonhard's MS-Defcon system is used without permission, and should not be copied by other bloggers.





-- LittleWolf -- Thursday, July 30, 2009 -- 5:15 PM CDT (USA) --

Edited Sun., Dec. 6, 2009, 2:50 PM CST by LittleWolf .