Blah, Blah, Blahg

Surely by now you’ve read about the crazy astronaut and her plans to rough-up a rival

Microsoft has announced that there is, unfortunately, another currently unpatched exploit in Excel.

In its security bulletin, Microsoft warned that “other Office applications are potentially vulnerable” to the zero-day flaw.

Zero-day refers to a flaw for which there is an exploit but no available fix. The Excel vulnerability is Microsoft’s fifth zero-day exploit since December, and part of an increasingly troubling trend.

The zero-day flaw affects Office versions 2000, XP, 2003 and 2004 for the Mac, but not 2007 or Works 2004, 2005 or 2006.

That means don’t open any Excel spreadsheets that you don’t know and trust the source if you are using any of the vulnerable versions.  In related news – if you aren’t already aware, there is a similarly troublesome exploit available for Microsoft Word.  While it is fun to pick on Microsoft, note that this problem is a nearly unavoidable result of increasingly complex software.  Even some of the best known security software and networking tools have had security vulnerabilities in the past.

Technorati Tags: Exploit out for Excel, Microsoft Word vulnerability, Secure software is tough – just ask Microsoft (and others)

It appears that the dismal failure of the first two passes of the N-Gage gaming/MP3 phone (well, MP3 was dropped in the first re-tooling) weren’t enough to dissuade Nokia.  With an announced ship date of later this year, the new N-Gage is predicted to be more successful.

According to the Nokia sponsored semi-official blog Future Watch, by the middle of this year, “the N-Gage experience will evolve into the next generation of mobile gaming.” The blog suggests that the new N-Gage will make its debut this September and that two major publishers, EA Mobile and Gameloft, are already backing Nokia’s latest effort.

. . .

“By early 2008, we expect to have some of the biggest franchises and hottest mobile games included in the N-Gage experience,” it concluded.

Seems like I recall predictions from Nokia that the first N-Gage and the revamped N-Gage were going to be big hits, too (in case you don’t know – they weren’t).  I also seem to recall all of 1 good game and 2-3 decent games were all that were available once you threw out the crappy games.  (via /.)

Technorati Tags: New generation N-Gage later this year, Nokia says *This time the N-Gage* will succeed, One ringtone to rule them all?

Another (and honestly, better) site for seeing the superbowl commercials you missed this past week-end.

Hahahahaha.  I’d never thought about it this way, but here’s what you get when you take a mathematical look at the 7 Deadly Sins:

  (via Neatorama)

Technorati Tags: A Mathematical look at combinations of the Seven Deadly Sins, The 7 Deadly Sins – A new angled view

In case you missed the game (like I did – I had to work that evening), you can see all the Superbowl XLI commercials on YouTube