posted
I've been using Firefox for about a month now, and so far I like it. Not so sure about its habit of returning to the top of the previous page whenever I hit the Back button, and I've yet to figure out why the tables on my website looks so strange when viewed through Firefox.
But the large message that's just appeared on the Flare main-page saying that everyone should stop using Internet Explorer? Or, to quote it in full, "The use of Microsoft Internet Explorer is a danger to the internet. Please switch to Mozilla Firefox or another alternative browser. This message will persist until you do so. We're that serious about it." Get real. For instance, I'm writing this at work where we don't have any choice but to use IE. IT departments generally take a dim view of people loading unauthorised software on company PCs.
Perhaps people who have jobs don't fir the Flare profile anymore. Or am we to be banned from posting here during work hours? Why not just ban anyone who posts using IE? It's just plain stupidity.
And those of you that survive the purge can just hope and pray that Charles doesn't become a Machead. . . 8)
posted
I'm curious to know how it's a "danger to the internet"? Does it have links with Al-Quaeda?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
It is a pretty lame header- Is Flare sponsored my Mozilla now? I thought someone hacked the forum at first...
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
Charles Capps
We appreciate your concern. It is noted and stupid.
Member # 9
posted
Apparently you haven't heard of the latest IE security flaw.
A specially crafted JPEG image can now cause a buffer overflow, leading to arbritary code execution. In other words, an image can hijack your computer. This is basically a nightmare.
~95% of internet users use IE. All of them are therefore vulnerable to this issue. And this doesn't even begin to touch all the programs that use the IE rendering engine...
IE has had an increasing history of critical issues, this being the latest and most absolutely insane. IE is a danger to the stability of the internet.
If you use IE by choice, then you are absolutely nuts. That's the final word on the subject.
Now, of course, sometimes you have to use IE, either by work policy or by being unable to install an alternative browser. BFHD, so you now see a red splotch on the Flare frontpage. The world is not coming to an end.
You should raise the continued IE security issues, including the idiocy of the latest, with your IT department and encourage them to consider bailing. Chances are that they're tied to a third party vendor that uses some IE-only idiocy in an application in use by your employer. That third party vendor must also be encouraged to open their application up to other browsers.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I totally abandoned Internet Explorer a few weeks ago.
(I think a case could be made for a sizable chunk of internet maliciousness being made possible by IE, not just because it is the most popular browser, but because of its host of known security holes. But this does sound a bit like overkill.)
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
But sticking large bits of red text up isn't going to change that. You might as well replace the words "Microsoft Internet Explorer" therein with "TEH Micro$haft INTERNET EXPLOITER!!" It's not cool. It's much less welcoming.* And it solves nothing.
*Not that I'm one to talk about being less welcoming round here.
quote:Microsoft rates the flaw "important" for many of its products, but "critical" for Outlook versions 2002 and 2003, Internet Explorer 6 with Service Pack 1, Windows XP and Windows XP with Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2003, and the .Net Framework 1.0 with Service Pack 2 and .Net Framework 1.1, according to the Security Bulletin.
Well, I'm SP-2ed on both IE and XP, and don't have any of the other products. And what they say hardly justifies a blanket "We don't serve your kind here!" warning for 95% of the global netusers.
posted
HOw is a JPEG imbedded with nastiness? I take it this is some fuck-o at work and not a design flaw with loading the file?
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
Okay security flaw, fine.
Does it affect your site?
If not, then I think the message right on the front is a bit overkill.
Perhaps moving it to the bottom and making the font smaller would be less of a shocker and a distraction.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
"And what they say hardly justifies a blanket "We don't serve your kind here!" warning for 95% of the global netusers."
Well, it doesn't say "we don't serve your kind here". It says "hey, your browser is awful". It's not like the page won't load in IE, or something.
I've been thinking for a while about switching the computers at work to some form of Mozilla, but I haven't done it for two reasons: 1. When members of the general public sit down and find an unfamiliar browser and get snippy about it, I'm the one who's going to have to deal with them, and 2. I just made all the staff switch to IE because most of them were still using Netscape 4; I'll surely hear complaints if I tell them to switch again.
However, it may be worth it. Images, the second-most common medium on the Web after text, can be used to hijack your computer? That's just getting ridiculous.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
