Ryan's Journal

After hanging out with Sparky and reading this Wired article, I'd like to reiterate my belief that surfing the World Wide Web is a lot safer if you don't use Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Sparky's computer has Nimda, a worm that installs itself through MSIE (and email, but I don't think Sparky's so lax about email, plus she doesn't use Outlook). The Wired article details an insidious toolbar bent on taking over IE's operations, probably installed through IE's overly insecure default settings.

If your computer came pre-installed with IE, use it to download a better, safer browser, and never touch IE again on pain of crap installing itself and doing worse things than upsetting your surfing sessions. Of course, you have to leave it installed, because the rest of the operating system depends on its presence.

Repeating my recommendations, go for a Mozilla-like browser, such as Mozilla itself, Netscape, or the light weight Phoenix (to be renamed), or Chimera for Mac (also Safari, but if you're a Mac user, you already knew that). There's also Opera. All of these are just about compliant with most prominent browser content specifications, and they all have a free version (Opera has a paid version).

On a related note, Microsoft helped bring down net connectivity for most of the weekend. The latest scandal of Internet worms killing everyone's net connections because of a measly 40,000 machines running Microsoft SQL Server related products is so preeminently worth some regulatory smackdown on Microsoft for making shoddy software.

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