TODAY'S TOURBUS STOPS: WINXP HOLE / TORTURE A SPAMMER

Greetings, Riders of the World's Biggest Bus. Today I have some depressing news about yet another Windows security flaw, and some lighter fare to follow. Read on! I promise that you'll finish this tour smarter and better looking than the average Internet user who must walk the dusty roads of cyberspace alone.

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WARNING, DANGER: WINDOWS XP SECURITY HOLE

Sigh... yet another serious security flaw has been discovered in Windows XP. A bug in the Help Center component of XP can be used to delete files or an entire directory from your hard drive. Even more troubling is the fact that this exploit requires no programming skills on the part of the attacker. A simple link placed on a web page or email can trigger the destructive action. For more details and a harmless self-test look here:

http://24.78.2.184/helpcenter.htm

The good news is that there are two simple fixes for the problem. You can install Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows XP by visiting:

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Or you can delete this file from your hard drive:

C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\System\DFS\uplddrvinfo.htm

Please note that this problem affects only Windows XP users. Sometimes being on the bleeding edge of technology hurts. I still use Windows 98SE and I feel fine! Hopefully by the time I am forced to install XP it will be reasonably stable and secure.

OKAY ENOUGH OF THAT!

Patrick mentioned recently that he was sorry that so many TOURBUS issues are devoted to Internet security problems, rather than fun, interesting and useful websites. Me too. So I'm going to make up for starting this issue on a somber tone. I hope the rest of today's TOURBUS will take your mind off your troubles and perhaps elicit a giggle.

SOMETHING FUN - Move over, Dancing Paul. George W is ready to boogie oogie oogie 'til he just cain't boogie no more. The Dancing Bush and Bush Aerobics sites use Macromedia Flash to animate the Commander in Chief.

http://www.miniclip.com/dancingbush.htm

http://www.miniclip.com/bushaerobics.htm

SOMETHING INTERESTING - Oh, the Humanities! Philosopher Francis Bacon died from catching a cold while trying to prove that refrigeration could prevent food spoilage. You too can become the life of the party, by filling your mind with interesting trivia. Trivia Portal is the world's largest trivia site with over 350,000 trivia questions, games and quizzes.

http://www.funtrivia.com

SOMETHING USEFUL - Did you know that 1 exajoule is equal to 239,005,736,137,667,296 thermochemical calories? That there are 3.26 light-years in a parsec? If you need to convert Distance,
Temperature, Speed, Weight or almost any other type of measure into something else, OnlineConversion.com is the place to go.

And if you need to convert an acronym into the phrase from which it was derived, look no further than AcronymSearch.com. There are over 40,000 acronyms and abbreviations in many categories such as computer, military, finance, accounting, sports and more.

http://www.onlineconversion.com

http://www.acronymsearch.com

SOMETHING JUST PLAIN DISTURBING - If you *really* hate spam, you will really like the "Torture a Spammer" frustration relief game. First select the type of spam you dislike the most and then choose a way to torture the spammer (Boiling Oil, Flying Killer Monkeys, a Spam-alanche or the Explosive Offer).

http://torturegame4.emailsherpa.com

[Despite the annoying popups at this sponsor site, the offer is a great deal. If you use long distance, it will save you money.]

That's all for now. Do feel free to pass along any issue of Tourbus, and tell your friends to visit the Tourbus website to see the archives, or play Warp the Busdriver (and his poor dog). --Bob Rankin