Miles Associates LLC

These are hilarious.  I thought the best (quoted here) were from Windows.

Euphemism #3
Error message: “Windows has encountered an error and must shut down.”
Translation: Now you’ve done it.

Euphemism #4
Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) message: “Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart you computer.”
Translation: Oh sh*t.

Euphemism #5
Error message [Windows XP]: “Error copying File or Folder: A system call that should never fail has failed (While copying a file to the desktop).”
Translation: Sometimes the instability of this OS surprises even us.

Euphemism #6
Warning message: “Buffering video stream.”
Translation: Upgrade your slow DSL line, buddy.

Euphemism #8
Error message: “Non-System disk or disk error.”
Translation: If you don’t have a backup, put your head between your legs and kiss your data goodbye.

Euphemism #9
Error message: “Microsoft (MSFT) Word has stopped working.”
Translation: You have stopped working.

via Tech Euphemisms: What Those Error Messages Really Mean.

Palo Alto Networks surveyed Web application usage at 347 organizations and found Facebook, Twitter and other programs for communications and collaboration are all being used in enterprises to a great degree. Some 22 Google applications, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Wave, showed particularly strong usage, according to research from the network security firm. Of course, the widespread use of social network and other Web apps used in enterprises can wreak havoc on network security and regulations for financial services and health care industries.

Palo Alto Networks surveyed use of 750 applications across 347 organizations for its fifth Application Usage and Risk Report, released March 30. The company’s firewall appliances and software monitored the use of Web apps for the volunteering companies from September 2009 through March 2010.

…

Some of the stats are eye-popping. The bandwidth consumed per organization by social networking applications doubled from 18 months ago to 9GB in this new report, with Facebook consuming an amazing 5GB of these companies’ bandwidth counts.

via eWeek.  (Emphasis added by me — jm)

SharePoint Bible: Your Complete Guide to Microsoft’s Collaboration Software

via SharePoint Bible: Your Complete Guide to Microsoft’s Collaboration Software.

Microsoft today announced it will issue an emergency security update for Internet Explorer IE tomorrow to patch a zero-day vulnerability that has been used to launch drive-by attacks for at least several weeks.

Tuesday’s update will be the second out-of-band update — Microsoft’s term for one outside its normal once-each-month Patch Tuesday — in the last three months.

via http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/032910-microsoft-to-patch-ie-zero-day.htm

I found this article very interesting in spite of the fact that I am a strictly Windows Mobile guy; my current phone is a Palm Treo Pro.  I have never used either a Blackberry OR an iPhone.  (My day-job company recently forbade users to use Blackberry for email access, citing the privacy dangers of the intermediate mail server).

…in light of a recent study that found that two out of five BlackBerry users are eager to switch from their Research In Motion (RIM) devices to shiny new Apple smartphones, I decided to revisit the iPhone v. BlackBerry war…

The people I hand-selected to appear in this story aren’t smartphone “newbies,” by any means. In fact, most of them have used not only one or two smartphones or BlackBerrys before making the iPhone switch; the majority of these gadgets geeks have employed handfuls of smartphones in the past, making them ideal subjects for this account…

And their experiences can serve to inform others curious about what a switch from BlackBerry to iPhone would mean to them–or vice versa. In addition to the six BlackBerry-to-iPhone converts profiled in this piece, I’ve included the accounts of two gadget-lovers who first swapped their BlackBerrys for iPhones, only to switch back to BlackBerry shortly thereafter.

via CIO Magazine: The BlackBerry-to-iPhone Switch: Converts Speak.

Google has patched 11 vulnerabilities in the Windows version of Chrome, including one that earned its finder the first $1,337 check from the company’s new bug bounty program.

Like Apple , which updated Safari last week , Google beefed up the security of its browser just days before the Pwn2Own browser hacking contest was to kick off in Canada.

The update to Chrome 4.1.249.1036 fixes six flaws rated “high,” the second-most-severe ranking in Google’s four-step threat system; plugs three “medium” holes; and quashes two “low” bugs.

Danish vulnerability tracker Secunia rated the update as “highly critical.”

via http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/031910-google-patches-chrome-days-before.html.

Out of the 13 advisories this month, administrators are advised to patch MS10-006, MS10-009, MS10-013, MS10-015, and MS09-012 immediately. Machines with Microsoft Office installed should also be patched for MS10-003 and MS10-004 as soon as possible. The remainder of the patches should be applied after environment testing, or to environments that have the specifically affected software deployed.

As always, eEye suggests that users roll out Microsoft patches as fast as possible, preferably after testing the impact on internal applications and network continuity.

via eEye Digital Security .