FRANKFURT/BOSTON: The German government urged the public on Tuesday to temporarily stop using Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer following discovery of yet-to-be repaired bug in the web browser that the software maker said makes PCs vulnerable to attack by hackers.
The security flaw, which affects hundreds of millions of Internet Explorer browser users around the globe, publicly surfaced over the weekend.
Microsoft had said on Monday that attackers can exploit the bug to infect the PC of somebody who visits a malicious website and then take control of the victim’s computer.
The German government’s Federal Office for Information Security, or BSI, said that it was aware was aware of targeted attacks and that all that was needed was to lure web surfers to a website where hackers had planted malicious software that exploited the bug in Internet Explorer to infect their PCs.
“A fast spreading of the code has to be feared,” the German government said in its statement.
BSI advised all users of Internet Explorer to use an alternative browser until the manufacturer has released a security update.
Officials with Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment on the move by the German government.
The company late on Monday urged customers to install a piece of security software as an interim measure, buying it time to fix the bug and release a new, more secure version of Internet Explorer.
Microsoft did not say how long that will take, but several security researchers said they expect the update within a week.
The free security tool, which is known as the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit, or EMET, is available through an advisory on Microsoft’s website.
The EMET software must be downloaded, installed and then manually configured to protect computers from the newly discovered threat, according to the posting from Microsoft. The company also advised customers to adjust several Windows security settings to thwart potential attackers, but cautioned that doing so might impact the PC’s usability.
Some security experts had said it would be too cumbersome for many PC users to implement the measures suggested by Microsoft. Instead they advised Windows users to temporarily switch from Internet Explorer to rival browsers such as Google Inc’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox or Opera Software ASA’s Opera.
Internet Explorer was the world’s second-most widely used browser last month, with about 33 per cent market share, according to StatCounter. It was close behind Chrome, which had 34 per cent of the market.
World’s first ‘tax’ on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7
The Australian online retailer Kogan.com has introduced the world’s first “tax” on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) browser.
Customers who use IE7 will have to pay an extra surcharge on online purchases made through the firm’s site.
Chief executive Ruslan Kogan told the BBC he wanted to recoup the time and costs involved in “rendering the website into a antique browser”.
The charge is set to 6.8% — 0.1% for every month since the IE7 launch.
Every month the surcharge will rise by 0.1%.
Too much effort
According to Mr Kogan the idea was born when the company started working on a site relaunch.
Mr Kogan said that even though only 3% of his customers used the old version of the browser, his IT team had become pre-occupied with making adaptations to make pages display properly on IE 7.
“I was constantly on the line to my web team. The amount of work and effort involved in making our website look normal on IE7 equalled the combined time of designing for Chrome, Safari and Firefox.“
Mr Kogan said it was unlikely that anyone would actually pay the charges. His goal is to encourage users to download a more up-to-date version of Internet Explorer or a different browser.
Mr Kogan told the BBC his customers were very happy and he had received a lot of praise for his efforts.
“Love your IE7 tax. I hope it becomes effective” was one of the messages posted to Kogan on Twitter.
IE7 was launched in 2006, but since then Microsoft has released two major updates to the software.
The launch of Internet Explorer 10 is due in the autumn.
What Should You Charge? 4 Methods to Avoid
Selling a product is so much easier. You have a fixed cost at which you buy (called wholesale), so you figure out how much profit you’d like, and mark it up according. There’s even the MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) to make your life easier. But everyone who decides to sell their services will agonize over this question: “How much should I charge?”
There are many ways to answer that question. Let’s look at four to avoid.
Formula-Based Pricing
Many of us used a formula to answer that question:
- How much do I want to make a year?
- How many hours a week do I want to work?
So if it’s your dream to make $60,000 a year, working only 20 hours a week (including a two-week vacation), you do this:
$60,000 / 50 weeks / 20 hours = $60/hour
Next, determine the time it takes you to create a “basic” website (for me, that was a 5–10 page custom-designed static site, no programming). If that takes 35 hours, your pricing would start at $2,100. Or you could simply charge by the hour and the client pays what he pays.
Sounds great, except for one problem. Clients don’t care about your formulas.
Pricing your product is actually simple, as long as you consider it from the buyer’s point of view. How much it costs you to make something is irrelevant. They don’t care …
Your formula has no bearing on what a client is or isn’t willing to pay. How would you justify $60 an hour if the client thinks that’s too expensive? Telling him you’re worth that because you want to make $60k a year working 20 hours a week isn’t going to convince him to hire you. Neither is telling the client “how long” it will take.
Esteem-Based Pricing
The second method to avoid is basing your price structure on what you “deserve” to make. I’ve read books that claim we’re not charging what we’re worth because of low self-esteem. If we improve our self-esteem, we’ll charge what we’re worth, what we deserve—and our clients will gladly pay it. Pardon me if I’m not quite convinced.
Your clients don’t care if you think you “deserve” $60 an hour because you have a computer science degree, 15 years of programming experience, hundreds of hours of formal web training, $10,000 worth of hardware and software, and a $50,000 student loan to repay, or because some self-help guru told you that you do. Clients buy for their own reasons, not yours.
Comparison-Based Pricing
Comparison-based pricing is when you set your prices based on what you think is too expensive. It usually happens after you arrive at some semblance of a price, but then you start thinking, “I don’t know, $1,000 is a lot of money; maybe I should charge $900 …” You might think $1,000 is a lot of money, but what are you comparing that to? Your car payment? Your rent? Your monthly income? I once suffered from this malady, but the first time a client paid three times above what I considered “a lot of money,” I was cured.
Competitive-Based Pricing
Researching the competition is generally considered valuable when starting a business. But I found that to be a tall order in the web industry. First of all, who’s your competition? ABC Interactive Agency, or the teenager with a cracked copy of Dreamweaver? Sure, you can scour the web or post a newbie “How much should I charge?” question on SitePoint’s forum, but most of us keep that pretty close to the vest. And the prices I havefound are all over the map. Even fellow web designers can’t agree. Although I did look at others’ prices when I first started out, it wasn’t a determining factor when setting my own.
So what should you base your pricing on? The answer lies in why people buy. Even established companies don’t always know why their customers are their customers. Remember, people buy for their reasons, not yours. If you don’t know what those reasons are, you’ll have a difficult time determining what to charge.
10 Web Predictions for 2012
Welcome to 2012! The web has reached its third decade and it’s changing more rapidly than ever. I’m no Nostradamus but, unlike him, I’m prepared to make ten prophecies without resorting to ambiguous language or tenuous explanations. I do not claim to have mystical predictive powers but you’re welcome to gaze at my crystal ball … the mists are clearing …
1. Chrome Will Overtake Internet Explorer
If current growth rates continue, Chrome will become the world’s most popular browser by the middle of 2012 and end IE’s 13-year reign. There will be much rejoicing followed by a sickly hangover when everyone realizes just how powerful Google has become.
2. But IE10 Will be Better Than You Expect
In response to Google’s dominance, Microsoft will release IE10 during the spring. It’ll be a wonderful browser with a slick interface, amazing speed and excellent W3C standards support. It’ll receive glowing reviews and everyone will humbly acknowledge the fine job Microsoft is doing.
We’ll subsequently return to our default browsers once we realize two-thirds of the world can’t install IE10.
3. Windows 8 and Windows Phone May Surprise You Too
Painful experiences of Windows Vista will be a distant memory by the time Windows 8 appears in the fall. It’ll be applauded by businesses, home users, gamers and developers alike. It’ll sell well even though the western economies are in meltdown. Web developers will also be able to leverage their skills and write native Windows applications using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
Similarly, devices running Windows Phone will become a viable alternative. Not everyone wants the geek of Android, the Apple-knows-what’s-best-for-you chic of the iPhone, or the best-for-business BS of Blackberry.
4. Tablets and Mobiles Will Begin to Influence Web Design
Everyone will be taking tablets in 2012. The Apple iPad and Kindle Fire are increasingly popular and, within a few months, tablets will be de rigueur for anyone attending a high-powered business meeting. They won’t be used or required, but they’ll make you look cool and important. Thousands of CEOs will consider tablets to be the future of IT and insist that all company web sites and applications are compatible. On their device. In portrait mode. At 480×800.
Perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration, but web designers will almost certainly need to consider small screen devices. Mobiles currently account for 8% of all web access and it’s rising rapidly.
5. Responsive Design Will Go Mainstream
With the exception of a few major companies, media queries have mostly been used for technical websites and demonstrations. That will change in 2012 and everyone will want their site to work on desktops, tablets and smartphones.
My only reservation: is the industry ready for responsive layouts? I’ve worked with many graphic artists over the years but very few could make the psychological leap beyond fixed-width design. Fluid layouts have been with us since day one but the majority of the web remains steadfastly rigid. If you only have time to learn one skill in 2012, make sure it’s CSS3 media queries.
6. Many Mobile App Developers Will Switch to HTML5
The mobile market has become increasingly fragmented with differing versions of iOS, Android, Symbian, Blackberry OS, webOS, bada, Windows Phone, etc. Many companies make a good living producing apps for a single platform but it’s increasingly difficult to support multiple devices.
The sophistication of mobile browsers and APIs make HTML5 web apps an attractive cross-device proposition. It’s still possible to take advantage of app store advertising, distribution and monetization by creating small native wrappers which link to your online application.
7. Advertisers Will Discover HTML5
If you consider web advertising to be ugly and intrusive now, think how bad it’ll be when advertisers adopt HTML5! The advantages (for them) include:
- Adverts can adapt to different devices and screen sizes using media queries and similar technologies.
- File sizes can be reduced so advertisements appear faster.
- An advert can interact with any part of the page — not just its own box.
- HTML5 adverts will be more difficult to block.
HTML5 development tools may not be as sophisticated, but the supremacy of Flash advertising is beginning to wane.
8. But Flash Will Survive. Just.
Despite a rapidly-expanding market, Adobe has abandoned Flash on mobile devices. But the technology is far from dead. The main reason: HTML5 and its development tools are relatively new whereas designers have been using Flash for more than 15 years.
I won’t pretend that the future is rosy for Flash, Silverlight or any other plugin technology. They evolved to overcome the inherent omissions and slow progress of web standards, but HTML5 is catching up and legacy browsers will become less of an issue…
9. IE6 and IE7 Will Finally Die
In January 2012, the worldwide market share for IE6 was 1.8% and IE7 was 4.0% — and they’re dropping fast. In many cases, the development cost for supporting those browsers cannot be justified.
However, 5.8% of the market is a lot of people and they remain the default browsers for many large organizations and government departments. The web is device agnostic; there may be few economic reasons to test legacy browsers, but active prejudice against specific sectors of the community is a different matter.
Ideally, websites should remain operational in IE6, IE7 or any other web browser. The design need not be pixel-perfect — it can be downright ugly. It does not necessarily require all the graphics, effects, animation or media. You may even choose to disable all CSS and JavaScript. But there’s no reason why your content should not be available to all.
10. Average Page Sizes Will Reach 1MB
I hope this doesn’t come true but, if current trends continue, the average total weight for a single web page — including all CSS, JavaScript and media files — will be 1MB by the end of 2012. It’s ridiculous since HTML5 and CSS3 reduce the need for images and JavaScript. That won’t stop it happening, though.
If your pages are becoming bloated, do everyone a favor with a 2012 detox. Make it your New Year resolution. Who am I trying to fool? We’ll be stuffing our pages with tasty treats by February.
Do you agree with my mystic predictions? Have you experienced premonitions of what’s to come in 2012? Happy New Year!
Internet Explorer 6 usage in the US dips below one percent, Microsoft celebrates with a t-shirt
It looks like the web browser that wouldn’t die is finally on its last legs. While it’s not quite dead yet (especially when you consider the worldwide usage figures), use of Internet Explorer 6 in the United States has now officially dropped below one percent for the first time, which is apparently good enough for Microsoft to do a bit of celebrating. It’s now sending out shirts like the one above to select folks, who can now wear their disdain for the out-of-date browser. Those interested can find the latest worldwide numbers at the source links below.
IE to Start Automatic Upgrades across Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7
Everyone benefits from an up-to-date browser.
Today we are sharing our plan to automatically upgrade Windows customers to the latest version of Internet Explorer available for their PC. This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward. We will start in January for customers in Australia and Brazil who have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update. Similar to our release of IE9 earlier this year, we will take a measured approach, scaling up over time.
As always, when upgrading from one version of Internet Explorer to the next through Windows Update, the user’s home page, search provider, and default browser remains unchanged.
Good for Consumers, Developers and Enterprises
The Web overall is better – and safer – when more people run the most up-to-date browser. Our goal is to make sure that Windows customers have the most up-to-date and safest browsing experience possible, with the best protections against malicious software such as malware.
For consumers, the safety benefits are one of the key reasons that the industry has been moving towards automatic updates as the norm. This is increasingly important since the biggest online threat these days is socially engineered malware, which typically targets outdated software like Web browsers. The latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, which is based on data from over 600 million systems in over 100 countries, is good reading to give you a sense of risks that stem from outdated software.
We want to make updating to the best protection possible as fast and simple as we can for Windows customers. IE is how millions of Windows customers connect to the Web, so keeping that part of Windows updated at all times is critical to keeping them safe online. With automatic updates enabled through Windows Update, customers can receive IE9 and future versions of Internet Explorer seamlessly without any “update fatigue” issues.
Wider deployment of the most up-to-date browser benefits the Web in other ways as well. Developers and online businesses can rely on better browsers to deliver richer and more capable Web experiences. We built IE9 with a focus on modern web standards and interoperability so that developers could spend less time coding for specific browsers and spend more time building the next big thing on the Web. More of the Web running an HTML5 capable browser, vs. something built ten years ago, is a great thing for developers and the businesses they support.
Respecting Customer Choice and Control
While the benefits of upgrading are numerous, we recognize that some organizations and individuals may want to opt-out and set their own upgrade pace. One of the things we’re committed to as we move to auto updates is striking the right balance for consumers and enterprises – getting consumers the most up-to-date version of their browser while allowing enterprises to update their browsers on their schedule. The Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9 Automatic Update Blocker toolkits prevent automatic upgrades of IE for Windows customers who do not want them. Of course, we firmly believe that IE9 is the most compelling browser for business customers, and we want them to make the decision to upgrade at their convenience. Commercial customers can learn more about how this auto upgrade affects them here.
Similarly, customers who have declined previous installations of IE8 or IE9 through Windows Update will not be automatically updated. Customers have the ability to uninstall updates and continue to receive support for the version of IE that came with their copy of Windows. And similar to organizations, consumers can block the update all together and upgrade on their own. Finally, future versions of IE will provide an option in the product for consumers to opt out of automatic upgrading.
Peter Clarke, Chief Technology Officer for the Isle of Man government, recently talked about the importance of approach in moving the Web forward, while respecting customer choice:
“Getting people to use the latest browser version has many benefits, chief among them is that newer browsers have better security features and keep users safer. The Internet Explorer team’s balanced approach to helping people move to the latest version is a good idea. Not only does it help individual users, it also takes into consideration the needs of enterprises.”
Jeremiah Grossman, Chief Technology Officer and founder of WhiteHat Security agrees as well, saying…
“Automatic updates are a very good idea based on every piece of security research I’ve seen. Keeping software up to date — particularly Web browsers — is critical for online security. With that in mind, I’m pleased that Microsoft is moving toward an automatic update model, particularly since their approach balances the needs of enterprise customers who still need a mechanism to manage software updates.”
We are excited to help make the Web better by upgrading Windows customers to the latest version of Internet Explorer.
Ryan Gavin
General Manager, Internet Explorer Business and Marketing
Damien Hirst skull to go on show at Tate Modern
It was the world’s most expensive piece of contemporary art, and one that sharply divided opinion.
Was Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull a work of genius from one of Britain’s most talented artists ? Or a tacky symbol of excess and an art market “drunk with money”, as one critic put it?
Now the public can decide for itself as the skull, titled For The Love of God, is to go on public display in Britain for the first time.
It will be exhibited in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall from April 4 — June 24 2012 to accompany a major retrospective of the artist’s work.
The skull will be housed in a special viewing room amid tight security. Cast in platinum — but retaining the original teeth of the 18th century skull’s owner — and covered in 8,601 diamonds, it has a 52.4 carat pink diamond on its forehead.
When Hirst unveiled the work in 2007, it carried a price tag of £50 million. It was bought for an undisclosed sum by a mystery “consortium of businessmen” that turned out to include Hirst himself.
Hirst explained how he came to name the skull. “The idea of the title came from my mother — when I had crazy ideas she used to say, ‘For the love of God, what are you going to do next?’”
The main Hirst show will run from April 4 — September 9 next year, forming part of the London 2012 arts festival, and will feature 70 of the artist’s works spanning two decades.
Most of his greatest hits will be on show, from the pickled shark to the cow and calf suspended in formaldehyde, plus early examples of spot paintings and medicine cabinets.
Butterflies are a Hirst motif and one highlight of the exhibition, a recreation of a 1991 work, will involve visitors walking through a room filled with them. Ann Gallagher, the curator, said: “It shows the butterflies’ life cycle — hatching, mating and then expiring on the floor of the gallery.”
Chris Dercon, director of Tate Modern, said: “Damien Hirst is an artist who we all think we know because of reproductions of his works in the media, but it becomes a completely different thing if you can experience them.
“You will be able to see the skull in a completely different context, without the hype and speculation.”
He added that Hirst was “incredibly excited and also a little bit nervous about how all these works, when put together, will look in the reality of a museum”.
Intel’s Parallel Extensions for JavaScript
Intel’s Parallel Extensions for JavaScript, code named River Trail, hooks into on-chip vector extensions to improve performance of Web applications. Details of Intel’s attempt to get on the JavaScript juggernaut emerged last month at its developer event.
The prototype JavaScript extension offered by Intel is intended to allow JavaScript apps to take advantage of modern parallel chip capabilities. Sequential gives way to parallel, at least in theory.
In-browser games and image editing are pitched as examples of application elements that would take advantage of new eight-core processors, blogs Intel’s Stephan Herhut.The software is said to ”play nicely” with the WebGL JavaScript API to OpenGL for 3D visualization in the browser. Intel has a beta Firefoxextension for interested developers. Says Herhut:
You can download a prebuilt version for Windows and 64 Bit MacOS [from github] or build it yourself. For the latter, we have written a README that explains the process. Once you have the extension installed, take a look at our demos to see what is possible.
Why should the browser be a second fiddle to the operating system? As browsers, JavaScript, and HTML5 gain more influence, top-tier chip makers will start to adapt their libraries to Web application demands. More, including material on API design or the beginnings of API documentation, is on a RiverTrail wiki.
Google Can Now Execute AJAX & JavaScript For Indexing
This morning we reported that the comments on Facebook are being indexed by Google. Google’s Matt Cutts just confirmed on Twitter that Google is now able to “execute AJAX/JS to index some dynamic comments.”
This gives Google’s spider, GoogleBot, the ability to read comments in AJAX or JavaScript, such as Facebook comments or Disqus comments and others that are dynamically loaded via AJAX or JavaScript. In addition, this means, Google is better at seeing the content behind more of your JavaScript or AJAX.
Why the QR code is failing
They have become the standard violator appearing on advertising; in the corner of print ads, across billboards, on buses, or in pieces of direct mail — even peppered throughout this article. You’ve seen them; that little block of even littler squares. Unfortunately the technology behind QR codes was not invented for advertising and marketing; we are just co-opting its usage, and it shows.
From the relative lack of public understanding of what they even are, to the dearth of creativity in their usage, the QR code is destined to become just the little box that geek built. But if it does go the way of CueCat, only we are to blame. Here’s why.
The current use of QR codes in advertising is…
I could finish that statement with “stupid,” “useless,” “uncreative,” or “uninspiring.” Surprisingly, that is not news to anyone at advertising agencies or brands. QR codes seem to be a last ditch effort; an ignored piece of “Hey, throw a QR code on there that leads to our website.” But why bother? The general public seems largely oblivious to what they are used for, and why they are on all those ads. In my informal “on the street” survey of 300 people last month, I held up a sign with a QR code on it and the phrase: “Free gift if you can tell me what this is.“
I was not asking them to decipher it, just tell me what it actually was. Here are the results:
- 11 percent correctly answered QR code or quick response code
- 29 percent responded with “Some barcode thingy”
- Seven percent guessed some variant of “Those things you stare at that get 3D when you cross your eyes. What picture is it? I can’t seem to get it”
- The remaining 53 percent tried everything from a secret military code, Korean (uh really?), to an aerial street map of San Francisco
My survey was conducted in San Francisco, the veritable Mecca of the planet for tech, so it only goes downhill from here. When I asked those who knew it was some type of “barcode” how they could decipher it, 35 percent answered “with their phone.” When I asked them to actually “read” it with their phone? Only 45 percent of those were able to do it, and it took an average of 47 seconds for them to take out their phone and find the application to read the QR code — not exactly a “quick response.” Remember that agencies are putting these on moving buses and highway billboards.
Japanese Fat Ban
The Japanese are trying to get super skinny after a recent law was passed that bans beer guts. They hope to ward off metabolic syndrome, an all-encompassing term for the threat of high blood pressure, cholesterol, and belly fat… Or so they say. Japan’s already the skinniest industrialized nation in the world! Sure, they love cultivating a near-fascist homogeneity, but passing laws to mandate an already-prevalent body type seems a little excessive. We think they just want to get small enough so they can fit inside those goddamn child-operated mech-warriors the Japanophiles are always prattling on about.
Read more about Japanese body dismorphia at viceland
See the rest at VBS.TV: JAPANESE FAT BAN — ELLIS JONES | VBS.TV Blog
iQ font — When driving becomes writing / Full making of
iQ font — When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo.
Two typographers ( Pierre & Damien / plmd.me ) and a pro race pilot (Stef van Campenhoudt) collaborated to design a font with a car.
The car movements were tracked using a custom software, designed by interactive artist Zachary Lieberman. ( openframeworks.cc )
Download the font here: nl.toyota.be/iqfont
More pictures here: flickr.com/photos/40243214@N05/sets/72157621047564023/
StumbleUpon Button Reaches 25 Billion Clicks
Social discovery tool StumbleUpon has reached a new milestone; its famous “Stumble” button has been clicked more than 25 billion times.
“Today we celebrate 25,000,000,000 clicks of the Stumble! button,” StumbleUpon Community Manager Monica Semergiu said in a tweet.
The social media company has been on a roll ever since it was spun out from eBay in 2009. In November 2010 the social site hit 12 million users.
StumbleUpon reached 27.5 million stumbles in a single day last month and broke its mobile usage recordduring this year’s Super Bowl. In April, the company hit 1 billion stumbles per month.
While StumbleUpon doesn’t receive the same type of media attention that Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or Google+ garner, it has quietly grown into a social media powerhouse with millions of loyal users. The result has been a solid business that will celebrate its 10th birthday in November.
The most awkward 404 not found page on the internet
This is brilliant!!! I spend several minutes staring at the 404 page? that is nuts.… LOL. try your self.
The most awkward 404 not found page on the internet
Bacon Ipsum Turns Your Dummy Text Into Yummy Text
Anyone harnesses the written word for a living is eye-bleedingly familiar with lorem ipsum the long string of Latin jibber-jabber that acts as a placeholder until your actual dictional genius shines through. Good news! It’s dead. Bacon ipsum killed it.
Bacon ipsum does pretty much what you’d expect; replace Latin with delicious meaty meat words. Just tell the online dummy text generator how many paragraphs you need and whether you want all meat or meat and filler. If you’re having a hard time letting go of the old ways, you can even start with “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet…” before diving into the pork. But tell me you wouldn’t rather just dive right into this:
Tail chicken pork corned beef bresaola pork loin. Meatloaf ham corned beef ham hock, pig ground round sausage short ribs fatback. Strip steak ribeye tail flank, t-bone pancetta biltong hamburger ham hock beef ribs tongue. Flank pork loin venison, corned beef shoulder tongue bresaola sirloin pig t-bone ribeye. Sausage beef pork belly short loin, spare ribs pork loin flank short ribs chuck ham venison ground round. Sausage cow short ribs chuck chicken bacon tongue. Bacon shank pork spare ribs ribeye ground round shoulder, bresaola salami ham hock short ribs tongue hamburger fatback tail.