Stefano Demiliani WeBlog

DNJ Staff, are you alive?

demiliani — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 11:24:00 GMT

This is a message for Donny or others can administer this great site.
You're loosing lots of bloggers due to not have an antispam alternative. I've wrote lots of times to you that I want to help this community against blog spamming but I've not received any response.
Why?
If you have some free minutes to try to solve the spam problem on DNJ Blogs, I've a solution that works 100% good and only requires to open SQL Enterprise Manager and launch a trigger creation.
5 minutes of your time (or less) and you've solved the problem. Why not doing so?
This is a solution that don't requires any touch to the .Text installation.
If you want also a CAPTCHA filter, I've a solution developed on our User Group that works good and it's more simple to install than the Clearscreen solution (to install it, no .Text recompilation, only to copy 2 files on your .Text directories).
I've sent this solution to lots of communities (the last are the MVP Blogs) and all have no problems to use it.
I repeat that all these solutions only requires some minutes to be taken and no work on .Text files.
Think about this... spent 2 minutes of your time to have a better community.
I'm here if you want an help: http://www.demiliani.com/blog
I hope on a contact.

DotNetJunkies and Spam: can I help you?

demiliani — Fri, 20 May 2005 10:08:00 GMT

I've see this post by Donny Mack and sincerely I think it's the time to do something concrete... why a big community like DotNetJunkies is maybe remains the same without a spam countermeasure?

Donny, if you want I've 2 antispam countermeasure ready to use for you:

a CAPTCHA control (exactly the control you can see on my personal blog), easy to install (you've only to copy the file on your .Text directory, I've just prepared the modifications for all the skins).
A modification to the .Text post stored procedure. You've only to replace the old stored procedure with my new stored and you can obtain a spam filter via SQL.

On my blog I've the 2 countermeasures together and I've totally reset the spam problem. DotNetJunkies can do the same...

If you need help, I'm glad to send you my solutions. Just contact me via my blog!

Happy Birthday to Me :)

demiliani — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 17:16:00 GMT

30 years ago, exactly at this moment, a little boy called Stefano was born... Happy Birthday little boy!

Ops... I've rounded my age today!

Little alert for who is searching for Gmail invitations here..

demiliani — Sun, 16 Jan 2005 19:17:00 GMT

I'm receiving a big quantities of requests for Gmail invitations as feedbacks on my old posts about Gmail and many people posts lots of messages with their mail adresses in clear text.

I don't want to be a great spam source for email addresses retrieval, so I've taken a decision: from today I'll remove every Gmail related requests that I'll receive on this blog.

I'm sorry for this decision but it's a necessity now!

Hard decision... :(

demiliani — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 14:59:00 GMT

I was thinking to this for a lot of months and today I've decided that the time is coming... I've decided to host my Blog by myself.

The reason are mainly two:

I want my Blog on my personal server and I want the possibility to customize it as I want and to integrate it on my site.
DotNetJunkies Blog platform is old and suffer of problems that I've signalled for a lot of time.

I love the DNJ community so my Blog presence here is not definitely dead, but I'll post less here. I know that this choice has some bad side effects (the main is the Blog visibility and so the number of comments) but I hope that some of my visitors will come to see what I've to say also on the new place.

So, the new URL to bookmark for who is interested to my Blog is this:

http://www.demiliani.com/blog

I hope to see you soon on the new site! Thanks...

2005 and Windows "Amarcord"

demiliani — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 13:05:00 GMT

Today a friend has pointed me to a curios thing... 2005 will be a special year for all Windows users and fans. Longhorn release? Media Center 2005? A new release for Windows Server 2003? No, nothing of this...

2005 will be an important date because it's the anniversary of 20 Years of Microsoft Windows 1.0.

Do you remember it?

The New Year is started...

demiliani — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 02:43:00 GMT

Just come back from my 3 days of holiday and tomorrow morning will be my first day of work in the 2005...

I'm happy to have seen that here in Italy all the parties for the beginning of the New Year was devoted to retrieve donations to help Tsunami Victims. The idea to donate 1 euros with an SMS launched by the 4 Italian Mobile operators is a success and now I hope that all the donations retrieved will arrive at the correct destination soon.

Don't stop donations... all together we can do something for these people.

Happy New Year

demiliani — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 02:15:00 GMT

Tomorrow I'll start for a little holiday (3 days) and I will be without PC and without Internet connection for all this time so, altough today is the 29th of December, this is the time for me to say this words to all my readers and to all Bloggers in the world:

I wish you a wonderful end of 2004 and a great beginning of 2005. My heart now is with all the population on the South East of Asia... I encourage every people in the world to donate something to help this people and my first thinking for the new year will be totally for them.

Happy New Year to all the Blogosphere... 2005 is here!

Microsoft Anti-Spyware Preview

demiliani — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 17:16:00 GMT

Paul Thurrott has published a little preview of the future Microsoft Anti-Spyware tool, born after the acquisition of Giant Software from Microsoft, and Ben Riga has a nice review of the first internal Beta release of this product.

If you're curious it's an interesting reading to do... However, I hope that Microsoft will decide to release the Anti-Spyware tool for free and not under an annual subscription (as rumours are saying). An official Microsoft Anti-Spyware freely available to all Windows Users (maybe under Windows Update with all the Spyware definitions) could be a great service for the community and for the security of all users.

The first beta could be released on January 2005, so only the time could say what will be the choices.

If you love Firefox...

demiliani — Tue, 28 Dec 2004 21:04:00 GMT

... and you think to live in a Firefox World, this is the set of Icons for you (128 pngs and 7-size XP icons):

Nice!

A little recommendation for who comments my Blog...

demiliani — Mon, 27 Dec 2004 21:39:00 GMT

I see continuously that most of people who comments my Blog posts place their mail address in clear text on the their comments (there's a large email addresses collection in clear if you see my posts about Gmail and MSN for example).

I don't delete your comments if they're in theme with the post subject and obviously I don't delete your mail address, but a little recommendation for you is not post your mail address in clear... I don't want that my Blog could be a good source for spam bots to easily retrieve email addresses to spam and I don't want that you'll receive lots of trash on your mailbox.

I hope the message will be received. Thanks!

Windows XP Reduced Media Edition

demiliani — Mon, 27 Dec 2004 21:28:00 GMT

As most of you know (I think everyone), after the big problem with the European Courts, Microsoft has promised to sell a version of Windows without a built-in Media Player.

For what I've listened, seems that this new version will be called Windows XP Reduced Media Edition and will be delivered for both Home and Professional XP editions in January (obviously, only in Europe).

Now my question is... someone has news about this? What about the price list for this new versions? January will be here soon but no news about the shipments.

New Year's Resolutions for Microsoft

demiliani — Mon, 27 Dec 2004 01:57:00 GMT

These are the resolutions that Directions from Microsoft has planned for the new year (as reported by Cnet).

This is a brief summary (obviously, with my personal comments ):

Better detailed, multiyear road maps for major Microsoft products: I think Microsoft is working well on this direction, expecially this year (we've received roadmaps for products, CTP versions, Beta versions to test, documentations and support tools for free).
Improve diffusion of its revenue-generating acquisitions (business products such as Navision, GeCad etc.): Yes, this is a big point of work for Microsoft I think. Lots of these products that Microsoft has under his brand are really interesting and powerful products (I'm thinking about Navision that I've known a little on this month) but there is not good support from the big mother (MS) and no good documentations on the net. Microsoft can work a lot for this and I hope on a major support for the (few) Microsoft Certified Partner that works with these products.
Better Security: Obviously, big improvements are doing about security but MS can't stop his investments on this field.
Making the PC a home entertainment hub: The big investments on Windows Media Center are on this direction I think and this could be a new world for business.
Doing a better job of convincing customers that they can get more out of their software by using newer versions: Customers must upgrade their software versions, but I hope on big price down campaign, expecially for developers products and home OS (such as XP and XP Pro).
Fending off open-source software: This is about server software but now increasingly also about the desktop (Linux, products such as Firefox, OpenOffice etc.). The key for me is not a war against the Open Source movement but a profitable collabouration with this world. Open Source could retrieve benefits from Microsoft and viceversa. Oh, and don't forget interoperability, a must for the future.
Convincing developers that its upcoming Longhorn version of Windows is the way forward: there's not too much work to do for convincing developers that Longhorn is the future. I think all of us now know that we've to move on this direction a day, but we hope only that Longhorn will be a really powerful, secure and extendible platform.
Making Xbox 2 a profitable and well-supported game console: No particular comments about this...
Shipping a 64-bit version of Windows that encourages PC upgrades: move to 64 bits is not only an hardware upgrade, but also a software upgrade. Developers must have the right developer tools to move all existing applications to the 64 bit world.
Playing well with others: the last proposal on this list but one of the most important for me. Microsoft must take the "others" in considerations, must work with others and must interop with others. I hope that in the future we'll be more standard compliant and all the software world (Microsoft, Apple, Sun, Open Source world etc.) could be more collabourative.

Something forgotten? Mmmm... maybe continue to improve Windows Update Service. Now is a great service, but I hoope on something better.

Christmas side effects

demiliani — Sun, 26 Dec 2004 01:55:00 GMT

Just turn on my pc for a quick email check after the Christmas rituals (a big dinner, meeting with parents etc). The big surprise of the day was the snow that is faling down from this morning. A white Christams is really nice!

However... I think that if today I was at work, maybe I could be less tired now.

Christmas Vulnerabilities for Windows

demiliani — Fri, 24 Dec 2004 20:12:00 GMT

A bad Christmas for Windows... some new vulnerabilites that affects all Windows systems are been discovered yesterday from a Chinese company, able to discover it but really stupid to publish the exploit on the net. Congratulation...

However, one vulnerability, in the operating system's LoadImage function, could enable an attacker to compromise a victim's PC when the computer displays a specially crafted image placed on a Web site or in an e-mail. An other vulnerability, in the Windows Help program, likewise could affect any program that opens a Help file.

The other 2 exploits are explained on this SecurityFocus post and they involve the Microsoft Windows Kernel management of ANI (Windows Animated Cursor) files.

Parsing a specially crafted ANI file can cause the Windows Kernel to crash or stop to work properly. An attacker can crash or freeze a target system if he sends a specially crafted ANI file within an HTML page or within an Email.

Seems that XP SP2 is not vulnerable to this, but must be well verified I think.

No words about the common action of publish on the net some exploit code. I don't know if the authors can imagine how dangerous could be actions like these. if you're so intelligent to discover flaws on a complex system like Windows, don't trash all your intelligence on actions that only a stupid can perform please...