Microsoft didn't invent spell checking, but it certainly made it famous. The infamous Clippy became synonymous with checking your spelling and grammar. It's technology from the 90's - so its definitely mature. It has been in every other major browser (Chrome, Firefox, Seamonkey, etc.) for many years. Which begs the question, where's your spell checker, IE9?
IE9 is a leap forward for Microsoft, both in terms of user-oriented design and standards compliance. It's not where it should be considering Microsoft has been at the browser and PC software business for longer than the other players, but its definitely getting there.
I enjoy using it on my Windows machines, but whenever I try to do any serious work with it, I find myself missing the spell checker that I take for granted in all other browsers. I know I'm not the only one to complain about this.
I know that you can get toolbars like Google's that offer spell check, but its not seamless, and you shouldn't have to do this to get functionality that should be in the core of the browser itself. Also, from what I remember about Google Toolbar for IE, it doesn't automatically do a spell check - you must click the button to check the contents of forms before you submit. I would forget most of the time.
Microsoft is a great company that makes a lot of good products. The "I hate Microsoft" crowd generally isn't well informed about all the company does and isn't keeping an open mind in today's fast-paced IT world. Of course, we're a Linux-oriented company, but we do offer Windows hosting and appreciate Microsoft's contribution to the web.
I'd appreciate them even more, and consider using IE again on my PC's if they would implement a spell checker for IE9.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Your Domain Name Should Be Your Own
Every month or two I help a client out with reclaiming their domain name from a previous hosting company, a disgruntled employee, or an uncooperative previous webmaster. It's an uphill challenge that isn't necessary to go through, and rarely has a happy ending.
I am blogging about domain registration today because I helped a client today try to get their domain transfered from their previous hosting company, but was ultimately unsuccessful. They went through months of trying to get an approval on the transfer from the previous host. They ended up registering another domain name to avoid the problem. It is a very unfortunate situation, but is completely preventable.
You can protect yourself from this hassle quite easily. Simply have your domain registered in your name, under your control. All OCS Solutions hosting customers enjoy this, and if you order your domain name from OCS Domains, you can fully control your domain - including changing your registration information (WHOIS), nameservers, DNS, and other vital data concerning your domain name anytime you wish. It's under your complete control.
If you are an OCS hosting customer and had us register your domain for you, we'll be glad to make changes for you at any time - just contact us. However, we can also put your domain in your own domain registration account that allows you to fully control nameservers, DNS, WHOIS info, and even transfer the domain to another registrar. If you'd like us to enable this domain registration control center for your domain(s), just let us know. We'll be glad to do it at no charge!
If you don't host with us, please make sure you're in full control of your domain. If you can't change your own nameservers or WHOIS information, contact your hosting company to see how you can do that if you wanted to. It's an important piece of information you need to know to manage your internet property address.
I am blogging about domain registration today because I helped a client today try to get their domain transfered from their previous hosting company, but was ultimately unsuccessful. They went through months of trying to get an approval on the transfer from the previous host. They ended up registering another domain name to avoid the problem. It is a very unfortunate situation, but is completely preventable.
You can protect yourself from this hassle quite easily. Simply have your domain registered in your name, under your control. All OCS Solutions hosting customers enjoy this, and if you order your domain name from OCS Domains, you can fully control your domain - including changing your registration information (WHOIS), nameservers, DNS, and other vital data concerning your domain name anytime you wish. It's under your complete control.
If you are an OCS hosting customer and had us register your domain for you, we'll be glad to make changes for you at any time - just contact us. However, we can also put your domain in your own domain registration account that allows you to fully control nameservers, DNS, WHOIS info, and even transfer the domain to another registrar. If you'd like us to enable this domain registration control center for your domain(s), just let us know. We'll be glad to do it at no charge!
If you don't host with us, please make sure you're in full control of your domain. If you can't change your own nameservers or WHOIS information, contact your hosting company to see how you can do that if you wanted to. It's an important piece of information you need to know to manage your internet property address.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Rails Vulnerability Tuesday
Today there were four Ruby on Rails security vulnerabilities announced. In this post we'll give you the basics on each and help you determine if you need to take action on your Ruby on Rails site to address these vulnerabilities.
If you have any questions about these vulnerabilities please contact us.
CVE-2011-0446 - Potential XSS Problem with mail_to :encode => :javascript
This vulnerably can allow an attacker to circumvent the Cross-Site Request Forgery mechanism inside Ruby on Rails.
This issue is likely to affect many 2.3.x and 3.x users, and thus we recommend applying the patch found at the above link. There are no workarounds known at this time.
CVE-2011-0449 - Filter Problems on Case-Insensitive Filesystems
This vulnerability can allow attackers to circumvent filters in your application. This can be a potentially devastating impact, but it only applies to Rails applications using Ruby on Rails 3.x (2.x or 1.x series aren't affected) on file systems that are case-insensitive.
This means that all Rails applications hosted by OCS Solutions are presumed safe from this issue, because we use Linux and ext3/ext4 based filesystems which are case sensitive.
If you run your Rails application in production on a Windows server (thought I wouldn't advise that anyway), you are advised to click the link above and apply the patch.
CVE-2011-0448 - Potential SQL Injection in Rails 3.0.x
This vulnerability allows an attacker to potentially perform an SQL injection on a Rails 3 application. This can be serious, and users of Rails 3.x are advised to upgrade to Rails 3.0.4 immediately. We'll be installing Rails 3.0.4 on all of our servers over the next 2-3 days but you may use 3.0.4 immediately by freezing Rails 3.0.4 to your application and redeploying.
Note that Rails 1.x and 2.x users are unaffected by this issue.
A workaround is available as well at the above link, but given the ease of upgrade from 3.x to 3.0.4 an upgrade to 3.0.4 is recommended.
CVE-2011-0447 - CSRF Protection Bypass in Ruby on Rails
This issue allows the Cross-Site Request Forgery protection included in Ruby on Rails 2.1.x and above (including the 3.x series) to be circumvented in certain cases.
A patch has been included in the above link and all users with Rails applications using versions 2.1.x and above are encouraged to either use it or upgrade to 2.3.11 (if you're using the 2.x series) or 3.0.4 (if you're using the 3.x series). We'll be installing these versions on our servers over the next 2-3 days but you may use these new versions immediately by freezing 2.3.11 or 3.0.4 to your application and redeploying.
If you have any questions about these vulnerabilities please contact us.
CVE-2011-0446 - Potential XSS Problem with mail_to :encode => :javascript
This vulnerably can allow an attacker to circumvent the Cross-Site Request Forgery mechanism inside Ruby on Rails.
This issue is likely to affect many 2.3.x and 3.x users, and thus we recommend applying the patch found at the above link. There are no workarounds known at this time.
CVE-2011-0449 - Filter Problems on Case-Insensitive Filesystems
This vulnerability can allow attackers to circumvent filters in your application. This can be a potentially devastating impact, but it only applies to Rails applications using Ruby on Rails 3.x (2.x or 1.x series aren't affected) on file systems that are case-insensitive.
This means that all Rails applications hosted by OCS Solutions are presumed safe from this issue, because we use Linux and ext3/ext4 based filesystems which are case sensitive.
If you run your Rails application in production on a Windows server (thought I wouldn't advise that anyway), you are advised to click the link above and apply the patch.
CVE-2011-0448 - Potential SQL Injection in Rails 3.0.x
This vulnerability allows an attacker to potentially perform an SQL injection on a Rails 3 application. This can be serious, and users of Rails 3.x are advised to upgrade to Rails 3.0.4 immediately. We'll be installing Rails 3.0.4 on all of our servers over the next 2-3 days but you may use 3.0.4 immediately by freezing Rails 3.0.4 to your application and redeploying.
Note that Rails 1.x and 2.x users are unaffected by this issue.
A workaround is available as well at the above link, but given the ease of upgrade from 3.x to 3.0.4 an upgrade to 3.0.4 is recommended.
CVE-2011-0447 - CSRF Protection Bypass in Ruby on Rails
This issue allows the Cross-Site Request Forgery protection included in Ruby on Rails 2.1.x and above (including the 3.x series) to be circumvented in certain cases.
A patch has been included in the above link and all users with Rails applications using versions 2.1.x and above are encouraged to either use it or upgrade to 2.3.11 (if you're using the 2.x series) or 3.0.4 (if you're using the 3.x series). We'll be installing these versions on our servers over the next 2-3 days but you may use these new versions immediately by freezing 2.3.11 or 3.0.4 to your application and redeploying.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Replying on Top in Mozilla Thunderbird
We have many clients that use Mozilla Thunderbird for their e-mail, and one of the most frequent questions we receive on using it is how to always make your reply start on the top of your quoted message instead of the bottom.
This used to be a lot more complicated to set up, but in Thunderbird 3.1 it's quite easy. If you're using an older version, we recommend you upgrade first. By having the most up to date version of Thunderbird you'll be running the most stable, secure copy, and enjoy some new features as well, including tabbed e-mail viewing. The instructions below are for the latest version as of this writing, version 3.1.
To begin, start Thunderbird and go to the Tools menu and choose Account Settings. Click on Composition & Addressing under the account that corresponds to your e-mail address. On this tab, you'll want to set the options as described below:
Make sure Automatically quote the original message when replying is checked and pick start my reply above the quote in the next selection box. It is recommended to put your signature at the bottom of the quote for readability. Click OK when done.
You'll have to repeat this step for other e-mail accounts if you have more than one added to Thunderbird.
This used to be a lot more complicated to set up, but in Thunderbird 3.1 it's quite easy. If you're using an older version, we recommend you upgrade first. By having the most up to date version of Thunderbird you'll be running the most stable, secure copy, and enjoy some new features as well, including tabbed e-mail viewing. The instructions below are for the latest version as of this writing, version 3.1.
To begin, start Thunderbird and go to the Tools menu and choose Account Settings. Click on Composition & Addressing under the account that corresponds to your e-mail address. On this tab, you'll want to set the options as described below:
Make sure Automatically quote the original message when replying is checked and pick start my reply above the quote in the next selection box. It is recommended to put your signature at the bottom of the quote for readability. Click OK when done.
You'll have to repeat this step for other e-mail accounts if you have more than one added to Thunderbird.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Applying Jumper Cables to Our Blog
With all the upgrades and improvements we've been making at OCS, our blog has been left mostly untouched. We're terribly sorry about that. I'm making this post now to let you know we're going to be changing that - starting this week!
It's often said that the shoemaker's children have no shoes, and this holds true in our business as well. We've been so busy expanding our services and servicing our customers that our blog has fallen into a sad state of neglect.
We've been hearing from you more and more that you want more information, news, and helpful tips and tricks from us, so we're here to deliver!
Every day someone from the OCS staff will be posting a helpful tip, some important news, or a notice about a new feature. Be sure to add us to your favorites and check back often!
Please feel free to leave a comment about any of our posts and participate in the discussion!
It's often said that the shoemaker's children have no shoes, and this holds true in our business as well. We've been so busy expanding our services and servicing our customers that our blog has fallen into a sad state of neglect.
We've been hearing from you more and more that you want more information, news, and helpful tips and tricks from us, so we're here to deliver!
Every day someone from the OCS staff will be posting a helpful tip, some important news, or a notice about a new feature. Be sure to add us to your favorites and check back often!
Please feel free to leave a comment about any of our posts and participate in the discussion!
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