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How to search Objects in SQL Server 2005/2008

JC — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:33:00 +0200

Software evolves… new versions of major software are released once every few years, they contains improvements, bug fixes, but sometimes, some features disappear just like they appeared… without any seemingly valid reason…

So is the case, with the useful “Object search” feature, which was present in SQL Server 2000 Query Analyzer but somehow didn’t make its way into SQL Server 2005 and 2008’s Management Studio.

In the past, SQL Server came with two main GUI tools: SQL Server Enterprise Manager for administration-oriented tasks, and SQL Server Query Analyzer for running queries, creating stored procedures, and other development-oriented tasks. This design was not the most efficient because both DBAs and database developers often found themselves... Read How to search Objects in SQL Server 2005/2008

Autoruns: a tricky option to be wary of...

JC — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:55:00 +0200

This week, I had the occasion to work on a computer who had been infected by several malwares. Removing the malwares wasn’t much of a problem using my customized BartPE-based BootCD but the nasties left all sort of tracks behind them that I had to wipe clean. One of the consequences of these infections was that several administration tools wouldn’t run, most noticeably Regedit. Several viruses try to make the job as hard as they can for the computer user to get rid of the malwares and one of the best way to prevent this is to disable several tools that are usually very helpful in the process…

Personally, I don’t think it is very wise to rely entirely on online malware elimination (ie. deleting them while running on the infected OS): you can not be entirely sure the system is clean afterwards, especially since rootkits have become so popular since the last years. The best ways is to boot from a clean media and remove the infections... Read Autoruns: a tricky option to be wary of...

A new kind of search

Fred — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:31:00 +0200

About one year ago was released Cuil, the self-proclaimed Google-killer. Although Cuil's search quality has significantly improved since the grand (and failed) opening, the site could only grab a negligible share of the overall search market and does not currently propose a compelling enough service to grab more. People are still waiting for the real Google-killer to come... So this is no surprise to have a huge buzz around WolframAlpha, the new "search engine" sponsored by Stephen Wolfram, the world-class scientist behind Mathematica. But…

…let's put it this way: comparing Google and WolframAlpha is like comparing apples and oranges. Because contrary to what we could read on some newspapers these days, WolframAlpha is not a web search engine. It's a knowledge engine, which means that where Google will return (indexed) content, WolframAlpha will return facts. Let's take an example... Read A new kind of search

The second browsers war

JC — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:19:00 +0200

Some days ago, a BetaNews article caught my attention with its sensational title “Can Mozilla escape a premature endgame for Firefox?”, which hypothesizes that the popular web browser can’t last long, especially since Google’s arrival on the market with Chrome. It is true that the browser’s market has been rather busy in the last months, especially in the Windows area with the arrival of two challengers, Google Chrome and Apple Safari, in an area which was thought to be locked down by both Microsoft with IE, and Mozilla with Firefox. It is funny to remember that roughly 10 years ago, the first browser war was raging between Microsoft and Netscape for the domination of the Windows browsers market and the winner remained unchallenged for a bit less than a decade. Let’s see how things are changing with the appearance of outsiders and what it means for each of the warriors in the arena.

Case #1 : Firefox vs IE Firefox is a browser that has gained an incredible popularity in the last years and managed to convert an impressive number of Internet Explorer users. According to the latest figures available, Firefox’s market share is currently of 22% world-wide and not less than 35% in Europe. Few people would have thought it would get... Read The second browsers war

More anti-virus fail...

JC — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:32:00 +0100

If you are a regular follower of this blog, you’ll probably remember my couple of rather recent entries regarding the current state of the anti-virus technology and whether this kind of products still are as useful as they were in the past in today’s world. I’ve been going into great lengths regarding their weak points and how they tend to lagging behind the Operating Systems more and more every year due to their missing of infections, delays in signatures updates, which makes their protection far from being bullet-proof. What’s worst than everything, though, is when a system isn’t infected but the anti-virus thinks it is… and has identified an important system file as an offender…

This morning, I received several e-mails notifications from our anti-virus system (Eset’s NOD32) indicating a virus intrusion in several of our servers, namely by the Win32/Kryptik.JX trojan in the file msdtc.exe (I won’t translate what the dtc acronym means in french, but it could have been an appropriate name, had I not known that it actually... Read More anti-virus fail...

FileZilla insecurities

JC — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:07:00 +0100

I have been using SmartFTP so far for my FTP needs but my current hosting company is having some compatibility problems with it (or rather, it is the other way around since all the clients are fine with this server). SmartFTP is one of the best FTP clients feature-wise but unfortunately has a lot of little annoying bugs and I decided to check out for more stable, and possibly free alternatives. Of course, Google was my friend and FileZilla turned out to be one of the most popular results. I obviously had heard of this software before and often under a good light, but I decided to review it a bit more, especially regarding the security… and for an open-source application, the mentality of the developers towards this important matter in our increasingly connected world doesn’t fail to surprise…

It turns out that FileZilla already had some problems with its storing of the passwords in its Site Manager, a feature allowing the user to memorize his favorite servers into the software’s configuration and log into them with a single click rather than reentering the password manually. It is obviously a given that storing passwords is (most of the... Read FileZilla insecurities

Application skinning and user-interface consistency

JC — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:25:00 +0100

To be remarked and distinguished, one's products must be clearly different from the others: it is a fact of marketing. When applied to software, there are two main kind of differentiation possible: the invisible to the eyes, yet noticeable, differences, such as better internal engineering and better performance, and the visible ones, most particularly the user-interface. In operating systems supporting windowing systems, the user-interface is one of the most important aspects of the product because it is the interface between the user and the machine: this interface thus needs to be both pleasing to the eyes but still ergonomic and efficient for the user to be able to accomplish his duties as quickly as possible.

Having one’s application stand out from the others is maybe a good thing for marketing, but what happens when every application on the system wants to look different from the other in term of user-interface of the system taken as a whole? This is what we are going to see through this argumented rant, with the help of some applications examples, and try to see whether the short-term benefits of these moves are worth the longer-term inconveniences of inappropriate user-interface skinning.

First case: “I want to look like the very newest thing available, even though it doesn’t suit your system” Here is one of the application I have on my system “PDF Password Cracker Pro” which is able to recover/remove the password protection of some PDF files. The purpose of this application here is irrelevant, so let’s only look at its user... Read Application skinning and user-interface consistency

Are anti-viruses still really up to their job (Part 2 of 2)

JC — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:30:00 +0100

As we have seen earlier, the anti-virus current detection schemes are not bulletproof and tend to let threats get through for a number of days and sometimes weeks. From this bleak situation, we can legitimately ask ourselves whether anti-viruses still are the right answer to nowadays threats and if a more drastic approach is not to be envisaged, and if the security-mechanisms implemented in the modern Operating Systems do not make anti-virus products redundant, or even excess their performance. Ironically, anti-virus products were created to protect the weak Operating Systems and acted as its sole immunity system for a long time, but with the Operating Systems maturing and outgrowing their original weaknesses, what is the future of anti-virus products, especially in the corporate world?

I distinctly remember, and I don’t doubt you do too, this story about Jim Allchin declaring to the Press that Windows Vista was secure enough for it to be used without an anti-virus installed. While this comment was seen by some as an arguably small communication mistake, judging by how the Press and forum users commented on this declaration, it... Read Are anti-viruses still really up to their job (Part 2 of 2)

Are anti-viruses still really up to their job (Part 1 of 2)

JC — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:00:00 +0100

Anti-viruses, as everyone knows, are software that prevent intrusion of malware into the system where it is installed and active. But what happens when anti-viruses become less efficient in this mission than the the very Operating System that they are supposed to protect? In this article, I will try to establish whether anti-virus as they currently stand are a trustable protection to the current threats, and, in the next installment of this two-parts series, what’s their future, in a IT world where the focus on security has never been so high, especially in the Operating Systems area.

At the beginning of the month, a colleague I get along particularly well with brought me his home machine to ask me to take a look because it was infected by a virus. It turns out that the same colleague asked me for advice some months ago when he wanted to buy an anti-virus and I advised him to get Eset NOD32, which is the product I chose to... Read Are anti-viruses still really up to their job (Part 1 of 2)

The UI ribbon, more than just evolution

Fred — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:35:00 +0100

The latest fashion in terms of user interface is the Office ribbon, this thick horizontal bar containing various visual icons grouped by general task. After getting through most of the applications of the well-known suite, the ribbon will also invade most of the Windows accessories soon…

This move is not a surprise, as the mastermind of the Office 2007 UI, Steve Sinofsky, replaced Kevin Johnson at the head of the Windows division a few months ago. But this will not prevent the controversy, after months of complaints from disappointed users of Office 2007, who were “forced” to use the ribbon and were not able to change back to the... Read The UI ribbon, more than just evolution