27 miles later Vlad is Back!

Posted: 11:56 pm
January 9, 2006
Misc, Vladville
10 Comments

Yes, I'm back. Not really running, more like limping and crawling. Last year I ran my first half-marathon at Disney World and it was such a thrill for me that I only remember telling my girlfriend that I could have easilly done the full 26.2 miles. I don't do anyting small. It is one of the reasons I started running in the first place, I would always manage to out-eat my break-even at a chinese buffet. Take all you want, eat all you take! So yesterday was the big day and I ran the marathon. It was perhaps the best 18 miles I traveled on this earth. Miles 19-22 were a little rough. On mile 23 I actually contemplated taking a nap and I am not sure how exactly I made it to mile 25 but I did take a picture. From there on I can only imagine I felt like my friend Jen who is habitually drunk (FUBAR-style) at Epcot. No wonder she never wants to go anywhere, it definitely seemed much further than ever before and I've been to Epcot 100's of times. Suffice to say, I finished the full 26.2 miles plus about two miles during the start, looking for the parking lot, starting corall, etc. Now the big question is usually, why? Why do something so suicidal. Here is my somewhat honest answer and there are a few parts to it. Mainly, stupidity which is reinforced by being male. Next in the line is ego.. I'm extremely good at what I do and marathons are very much a humbling experience. If you're not an athlete and you've never been physically beaten by someone twice your age you might want to give competitive sports a shot. It gives you a really good perspective on where you stand despite your successes in other areas of your life. At least it does that for me… but man, never again. I'll just stick to my wuss half marathons and feeling great after ~ 13 miles. On the other hand, I've been virtually crippled for the past day or so.. and here comes the new Vladville. I am still working on little bits and pieces but it has some of the stuff I've really wanted on here for a while. I think the best description of the blog comes from Guy Kawasaki: "blogger, n: someone with nothing to say writing to someone who has nothing to do."; This blog has had a purpose since day one when I set out to mobilize IT folks in Florida and drag them to all the places they could get better at thier job. That eventually grew into the world-wide reach with over 57 countries leaving comments and sending email. I think this new design makes it easier to find what you're looking for without drilling through a bunch of junk and believe me… 3 million article downloads and hundreds of thousands of SBS Show listeners hit the piggy bank pretty hard – so I figured I'd do to Google what they wanted to do with me: Make that money for me . Hope you enjoy the new Vladville!

Pardon The Dust

Posted: 2:58 pm
January 3, 2006
Misc, Vladville
Comments Off on Pardon The Dust

… we are working on making this more magical for you 🙂 I'm working on updating the layout code and templating for Vladville over the next few hours. Please ignore any errors or "unreadable" issues you encounter with Vladville until you see me say I'm done. Thanks! Update: I give up. 2006 is not going well so far, I think I'll just try later and see where it gets me. Quite frustrated. -Vlad

SBS Show #12 – Business Success in SMB with Beatrice Mulzer

Posted: 11:10 pm
January 2, 2006
SBS Show
18 Comments

SBS Show #12 features Beatrice Mulzer talking about her new book: "Making It Big In Small Business 2006: Top 15 Successful SMB Consultants Share Strategies and Lessons Learned"; As promised in the SBS Show #11 with Eriq Neale where he talked about his new technical reference, SBS Unleashed, we are doing our part to review some of the books that we feel would make you a better technician or a business(wo)man with SBS. The better business part, in my humble opinion, is covered by Beatrice's new book. It is a detailed look at the business leaders that have built successful practices on SBS Worldwide. In her own words "SMB Consulting Best Practices is a wonderful MBA book, and this is the next step. It is a look at how others have successfully implemented Harry Brelsford's techniques." Download the SBS Show Episode 12: Click Here http://www.vladville.com/sbsshow/sbsshow-episode12.mp3 We're also running a little contest. During the show I read a small passage from the book so the first person that emails me with the person that said what I read gets a little unique SBS Show prize. 🙂

Talk about starting off on the wrong foot

Posted: 9:10 pm
January 1, 2006
IT Business
Comments Off on Talk about starting off on the wrong foot

About three hours ago Chris, Beatrice and I got together to record the 12th episode of the SBS Show and talk about Beatrice's new book "Making It Big In Small Business 2006: Top 15 Successful SMB Consultants Share Strategies And Lessons Learned" and we recorded the whole episode. Over 1:30 in raw time (obviously there are many things that would get cut and edited out from the whole thing since the show is not live) and the Windows XP box that I've used to record every show so far just blew up. Not a little crash, not a timeout or a non-responsive application — all out blue screen of death, nothing left but a few temp files and a few periodic saves I made. In the interest of giving this subject its right attention we decided to attempt again tomorrow night. I'm sorry if you wanted to have some entertainment when you go back to work on Monday but those are the breaks… If you can't wait for the interview go and buy the book from Harry.

My 2006 Resolutions

Posted: 8:14 pm
December 31, 2005
IT Business, Misc, Vladville
1 Comment

In a few minutes I'm taking off to bring in the new year but before I hop on to that I figured I'd post my professional New Years resolutions. I'm farly public and up front about almost everything I do so here is what I'll strive to dedicate more time to in 2006. Communication Support & Development 2005 was a big year for me in this respect. My Exchange series of articles covering service packs, small business deployments, instant messaging and so on has been downloaded well over a million times. It has been an unbelievably gratifying experience to help so many people and I thank every one of you that took the moment to tell me how much time I've saved you. It has been my plesure. The 2006 looks to be a very big year in terms of next generation of messaging platforms, mobibility possibilities and how we use computer networks to stay in touch. I hope to help at least twice as many people through my Vladville and SBS Show efforts. Keeping it Real, Honest and Fair Honesty is the cornerstone of our society. Being objective and reasonable in technology choices is a mark of a true IT professional. While it does not universally build friendships with every vendor, I would have no respect for myself or anyone else that blindly follows Microsoft, Linux, MacOS X, or any other thing or diety. I'm going to work a lot harder on keeping an objective technical as well as business-oriented look at everything that is available to make us more productive and less hung up on data-entry details. Not moving to Firefox, MSN Messenger, Google Desktop and RSS Bandit faster has been a personal failing of mine in 2005. In 2006 I will look at more opportunities to make myself better and more efficient when it comes to personal time management and the management of my clients. Hit it Harder In 2006 we're (as in my Own Web Now Corp team) are going to hit small business a lot harder than we ever have before. As I already said, there are so many opportunities out there and I feel that we now have a huge network of professionals that feel the same way. I'm going to dedicate a lot more of my time and a lot more of OWN resources to growing that channel, growing the brainshare in that channel, and making every single individual I deal with a more successful technician, business man.. a true IT Professional. If you thought the initiatives through Vladville, SBS Show, SMB Nation and Orlando IT Pro (not to mention all the other SBS groups I've supported) were something in 2005 you'll really be surprised in 2006. But most of all.. remain positive. Finally, and this is not a promise, I will do my best to be less critical. I take enormous pride in what I do and who I do it with. I never take things personally in business but I'm very aware of my SWOT, ROI, TCO and I re-evaluate it month-to-month, day-to-day, minute-to-minute. In 2006 I hope to take that to the next step and start focusing on the many positives that I've helped generate, not the very few disappointments that came as a side-story.

Patch for WMF exploits

Posted: 3:58 pm
December 31, 2005
Security
6 Comments

I'm sorry to interrupt your New Years plans but there is now a patch available to stop the exploit of WMF (and all the other images processed by the vulnerable shimgvw.dll library). It is made public, along with the source code, by Ilfak Guilfanov who is a very popular decompilation expert. http://www.hexblog.com/2005/12/wmf_vuln.html Should you patch? Yes, immediately. Even if you've blocked WMF files at the firewall and everything else is up to date there is now a first worm running in the wild under the file xmas-2006 FUNNY.jpg so exercise caution and start patching.

Feed your Messenger

Posted: 8:59 am
December 30, 2005
Web 2.0
5 Comments

I try not to make it a secret that MSN Messenger is my favourite IM app. I lived inside of Trillian for a long time (few years) because it simply was the best client out there. As Google Desktop started taking off and I found less and less reason to be connected to five networks. Not to mention that all my business pals were dragging me to MSN Messenger. Then came the webcam. Bye Trillian. Now on to the cool part. Microsoft has organized a contest called "MSN Messenger World's Best App Contest" and it has some pretty cool apps already in the App Gallery but more importantly I think someone at Microsoft figured out one of the major Google Secrets. Yup, even better deal than Indian PSS: Get people to work for you for free. So for a few grand and a bunch of free software they have managed to get a ton of free apps written for them and give even more people and even more developers to work on their messaging platform. Brilliant!

So who is behind WMF exploits?

Posted: 8:31 am
December 30, 2005
IT Culture, Security
Comments Off on So who is behind WMF exploits?

Ok Bill, day 3? It's time for some editorial ranting here. So there is quite a bit going on with people unloading exploited DLL's and people claiming its too harsh of a move. While Susan does have a very good point in using the layered approach that I agree with, this is a little too severe to stop at the best effort security. Why? Because its not just about WMF. Any file format that the DLL in question opens is vulnerable. That means BMP, GIF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, JPE, JFIF, DIB, RLE, EMF, TIF, TIFF and ICO could also be used in the exploit. Some of you have questioned why of why does every post come with a Firefox logo. Why? Make no mistake, the reason this is still an issue and I am writing the third post on it is because Microsoft has not done anything about it. Absolutely nothing. This is now day three and there is no hotfix. No patch. Nothing. I'm sure they are working very hard, that it takes a lot of time to test it, that there is a corporate documentation and QA team that needs to sign off on any code release, that…. that… Sorry, I almost choked on my Koolaid. What I meant to say is there is no patch and this closes yet another disappointing year in Microsoft's security strategy. Download Firefox, while they have security issues as will every other software, they are far more proactive and release updates much faster. And now that you know whose fault it really is that you're putting in overtime the day before the largest celebration on earth, lets look at the scum that is exploiting this issue: toolbarbiz.biz toolbarsite.biz toolbartraff.biz toolbarurl.biz buytoolbar.biz buytraff.biz iframebiz.biz iframecash.biz iframesite.biz iframetraff.biz iframeurl.biz Before you do anything else, plug those URL's into your firewall and drop them. Those are the web sites that are using this exploit: Registrant ID: 6463915-SRSPLUS Registrant Name: Ezhi Brozkevitsh Registrant Organization: Ezhi Brozkevitsh Registrant Address1: Al. Armii Ludowej 24 Registrant City: Warszawa Registrant Postal Code: 00-609 Registrant Country: Poland Registrant Country Code: PL Registrant Phone Number: +21.225798400 Registrant Email: admin@buytraff.biz Most likely fake but at least it gives you someone to be angry at.

WMF workaround

Posted: 2:14 pm
December 29, 2005
Security, Web 2.0
9 Comments

Figured I'd post the update to this panic that started yesterday and at least try to help a few of you out there that may not be protected by the likes of ExchangeDefender or competent IT staff. If you're worried about WMF exploit infecting your system try to unassociate the WMF files so they cannot be automatically opened by Internet Explorer: Un-register the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (Shimgvw.dll)

1. Click Start, click Run, type "regsvr32 -u %windir%/system32/shimgvw.dll" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK. 2. A dialog box appears to confirm that the un-registration process has succeeded. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Then check with your system admin and ask if they have restricted WMF flow (through the mail server), how up-to-date is your virus protection, what kind of content/network filtering is in place. There is always Firefox… Slight update. I'm just read an email from Michael Curley alluding to what I've said above about unassociating the filetype:

"Although blocking wmf extensions at the proxy is a good idea, it should be noted that a wmf can present itself as a .png or a .gif or a .anything, and windows can still read the metadata on the file and treat it as a .wmf."

In practical IT security (which is quite different from the idiots that write security books and have no business experience whatsoever) where you have to consider business practices, user experience / education and all the other factors in implementing a good and efficient security plan one size does not fit all. You have to implement as many layers you can to protect yourself. That is, use antivirus. Use a firewall. Use a proxy/content filter. Use everything you can tag onto your mail server to stop direct contact. Use content permission software to block where users are going. It cannot be a shotgun implementation.

WTF is a WMF?

Posted: 9:44 am
December 28, 2005
Microsoft, Open Source
20 Comments

Don't you just love the acronym land? Did you know that there is actually a person at Microsoft whose sole job is to manage the list of acronyms that Microsoft uses (TLA)? If you didn't then please add that to the worthless knowledge you now possess. But why talk about acronyms today? Well, mostly because there is a 0 day exploit of another Microsoft file format that makes your Windows XP system wide-open for hackers if you made some bad decisions. On top of those is still using Microsoft Internet Explorer to surf the Internet – what in the world are you thinking? How many times do you have to stab yourself to bleed to death? If you know the answer to that please download Firefox today and say goodbye to IE-borne online threats. The second mistake, perhaps, is not updating the Firefox you already have installed on your computer. If you are running Firefox 1.0.4 or earlier on Windows you are still vulnerable (though you'll have to hold the knife and push in order to impale yourself in that scenario). So if you use Firefox remember that its not made out of titanium, its software, and software is broken no matter who writes it. So upgrade Firefox to 1.5 if you already have not. Now on to the actual knife – the 0 day exploit in WMF. WMF is a windows metafile format and pretty much only used by Office to store clipart and such. Well, today it joins the long line of exploited Microsoft formats that are no longer welcome in any mail system (along with .ico, .bmp, .hlp, etc) so please do not open wmf files, especially from third-party, untrusted web sites. The exploit is currently being used to distribute the following threats: Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Agent.abs Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Small.zp Trojan.Win32.Small.ga Trojan.Win32.Small.ev There is no known patch and you'll be waiting until at least the second Tuesday (patchday) of January to get this fixed so do something about it today. Install Firefox and stop clicking on WMF files! Update: Perhaps you don't have the time to switch your entire client base to Firefox today. Fair enough, Jesper Johansson has a post on how to restrict which extensions can pass through your ISA 2004 firewall. If your office does not have a firewall solution… well, you need to fire your network administrator. It is easy, look at the blog comments, I fired entire Microsoft Internet Explorer team today. Update 2: Ok, this appears to be a very sensitive subject for a lot of people, judging by the amount of you that have chosen to contact me. So let me come out one more step. Jokes aside. Folks, don't be afraid of the comments, what you say to me is between you and me, what you post in the comments is seen by everyone. If you feel strongly about something, VOICE it. Remember that the IE team dropped all development of Macintosh version of IE, then outright said it would not develop anything for XP anymore and everyone would have to upgrade to Vista, then they slacked away on security work and instead focused on visual issues while they got spanked on features by Firefox (which is why I switched) and finally its frequent posts like this one pointing to it. The Internet Explorer team needs to be punished, severely, for slacking away and compromising your computer and data security. This is not the case with almost any other Microsoft product. Will Bill fix it? Not as long as you continue to take it and not vote with your feet or at the very least tell them you are not happy with the risk they are placing on your computer. Step back, compose your thoughts and feelings and ask yourself one very simple question: If the manufacturer of your front door lock saw web sites giving away the key to your door, would you wait 2 weeks (Patchday, second Tuesday of January) or over a year (Windows Vista) to change that lock?