One of the fun things about my friends at squarespace is the amount and kinds of statistics I can pour through concerning my readers. All 4 of you. But seriously, data is fascinating, it doesn't matter what it's about. It can, however, also be scary... worrisome... perhaps horrifying is the correct word. Let me tell you why. Squarespace (and frankly any semi-sophisticated web site) knows what your IP address is, it knows what browser you are using and it knows what operating system you are using. Ipso facto, I know what your IP address is, I know what browser you are using and I know what operating system you are using. So, as a matter of pride and personal responsibility I feel I need to provide this PSA to my readers out there who need to hit the Windows Update site, of which there are FAR TOO MANY. I think perhaps a list of what I'm seeing followed by its remedy and how-to would be the best procedure here, so let us begin.
Prologue: I should start this by saying Apple users need not read below; you already drank the kool-aid, Apple wipes your ass for you then helps you pull up your pants (to maintain their tight control over you) and you don't need me to do it. Bye now.
Browsers: I'm making browsers big because they're your intertubes experience. However, experience is not everything, security is super important.
Internet Explorer 6 - If you are still using Internet Explorer 6 (and I know at least one person is) you need to print this out, close your browser and update immediately. I'm not joking. ie6 is so chocked full of holes that someone has probably already taken over your computer. Go here and download ie8 NOW!!
Internet Explorer 7 - Same as above, except not AS dire, but seriously, get with the program.
Internet Explorer 8 - I still use ie8 for a lot of things, watching hulu, anytime I want to use Silverlight, checking my work email (exchange), simply because it feels better at it. I do like it, it feels reliable, albeit slow. However I am using it less. Why? Because it has 70 some odd percent marketshare and it gets attacked by every 30 year old hacker still living in mom's basement. It's a huge target, it's perfectly good for everything you want to do, but most exploits hit it first and I'd rather not take chances.
Mozilla Firefox 3.6 - Firefox is great. I've used Firefox for years, since before ie could do tabs, and I love me lots of tabs. It's pretty reliable, very safe and saves your passwords (which you can actually find later {cough, internet explorer}).
Safari 4.0 - Safari is pretty, I'll give them that. I've used it occasionally and I liked the "ease" of use, but it felt and looked too much like iTunes...which I hate. Yes, hate is a strong word and I hate iTunes. I haven't tried Safari on Win7 so I don't know what the experience is like. But knowing Apple, when they update Safari, they'll try to get you to install iTunes, Quicktime and possibly even Aperture and Numbers or something with it, beware.
Chrome 4.0 - Chrome is fast. Damn fast. I'm trying to not drink the Google juice, but it smells so good. I'm not exactly thrilled about Google having my data and using it to give me ads suited to my needs, which is why my yahoo mail is still my main personal email account. Zeus knows what ad-sense would think about that. Regardless, I've been running Chrome for a few weeks now and am quite happy with it. For one thing I really hate all of the tab bars, search bars, address bars, bookmarks bars, bars bars bars every other browser seems to have. I want that valuable screen real estate to go to what I'm browsing, not my browser itself. Chrome has none of that. Address and tabs. Period. I like it.
OSes:
WinXP - If you're at work, you have no control over your OS, but, why are you reading this? I know most offices are probably sticking with XP for a little while longer because every piece of software they have works on it. It's stable, reliable and pretty safe. They've been using it for a decade now and they know how it reacts. Plus business don't like spending $200 a pop on OS upgrades. If you're using it at home it is time to move on and I have three potential avenues to rectify this situation:
Win Vista - See WinXP above.
Linux - I have nothing bad to say to you, except you rock my world. I cried a little when I saw a fellow Linux adept browsing little old me. Who are you? I love you, will you marry me?
Miscellaneous:
While we're at it, let's do a little maintenance. Go to Windows Update. Update everything. Microsoft releases updates and patches on the second Tuesday of every month, get into the habit. Go get Microsoft Security Essentials, it is a free anti-virus/malware/spam. Uninstall Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, all of that other BS. Seriously, it's not as wonderful as they say it is. Stop paying for it. Back up your data. Go out and buy an external hard drive, or use an online back up service like Carbonite. Get your pictures, documents, movies, songs, emails, et cetera backed up somewhere. I don't care where, just do it. You don't want to lose the first 2 years of your child's life because the pictures you took are gone.
Happy Computing. Cheers.