Mommmmmm! The series of tubes is plugged!
Jan. 14th, 2013 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogIn case I haven't mentioned it recently, computers are pains in the asses.
Various people posted stern warnings yesterday- backed up by the full weight of an imprimatur from the Department of Homeland Security (sheesh, Obama, can't you change the name of that Bush-era monstrosity, or, even better, drown it in a bathtub?). There was a Major Security Exploit in Java, which could lead to trojans, ransom notes, bad breath and Republican victories in by-elections.
Yup, better turn that puppy off, they said. So I did- in both my regular browsers (Java's own instructions for a system-wide fix through Control Panel not working for me). I puzzled my way to the links, and got Javascript turned off in Firefox and Chrome, plus disabled it on both my tablet and Eleanor's.
The machines, they were not pleased. Facebook, especially, had a major hissy on all platforms. Then came the kind, almost pitiful, hint from a friend of mine there:
Javascript has *absolutely* nothing to do with Java. They just have similar names for some weird marketing reason.
Mmmmmmkay then. I went back and actually READ the browser-by-browser instructions to disable Java, rather than just assuming it was the thing I thought it was, and got them shut down. Zuckerberg LIKEd me a lot more after that. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the patches to arrive, which were promised for tomorrow.
The first arrived today- on the XP machine in Emily's room, which we use to watch some movies and run some cranky old programs that don't get along well with Vista or the tablets. Everything's up to date in XP City, but do you think there would be a way to prompt Java to send an update for, say, this computer?
Hellz to the no, there ain't. Unlike Adobe, Apple, and a dozen others in the other 25/26ths of the alphabet, Java is so stealthy, it doesn't even acknowledge its presence with a program group. So I have to wait for a sudden arrival of an update- or possibly reboot to see if THAT will force one out of the suckas.
Think I'll do that now.
ETA Annnnnd, nothing of the sort. Oracle will feed me the "86 new security vulnerability fixes" when it damn well feels like it:P
Various people posted stern warnings yesterday- backed up by the full weight of an imprimatur from the Department of Homeland Security (sheesh, Obama, can't you change the name of that Bush-era monstrosity, or, even better, drown it in a bathtub?). There was a Major Security Exploit in Java, which could lead to trojans, ransom notes, bad breath and Republican victories in by-elections.
Yup, better turn that puppy off, they said. So I did- in both my regular browsers (Java's own instructions for a system-wide fix through Control Panel not working for me). I puzzled my way to the links, and got Javascript turned off in Firefox and Chrome, plus disabled it on both my tablet and Eleanor's.
The machines, they were not pleased. Facebook, especially, had a major hissy on all platforms. Then came the kind, almost pitiful, hint from a friend of mine there:
Javascript has *absolutely* nothing to do with Java. They just have similar names for some weird marketing reason.
Mmmmmmkay then. I went back and actually READ the browser-by-browser instructions to disable Java, rather than just assuming it was the thing I thought it was, and got them shut down. Zuckerberg LIKEd me a lot more after that. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the patches to arrive, which were promised for tomorrow.
The first arrived today- on the XP machine in Emily's room, which we use to watch some movies and run some cranky old programs that don't get along well with Vista or the tablets. Everything's up to date in XP City, but do you think there would be a way to prompt Java to send an update for, say, this computer?
Hellz to the no, there ain't. Unlike Adobe, Apple, and a dozen others in the other 25/26ths of the alphabet, Java is so stealthy, it doesn't even acknowledge its presence with a program group. So I have to wait for a sudden arrival of an update- or possibly reboot to see if THAT will force one out of the suckas.
Think I'll do that now.
ETA Annnnnd, nothing of the sort. Oracle will feed me the "86 new security vulnerability fixes" when it damn well feels like it:P
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-15 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-15 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-15 12:45 pm (UTC)I have Java 6 on my laptop so I just left the sucker running. Oh, but I didn't check my work laptop, gotta do that. Java's a _programming language_, it's _supposed_ to be stealthy and not have a program group. If you haven't been running any programs lately that require firing up the little coffee cup thing to work, you don't have to fuss with it, I don't think.