Script Error Traps and Debug Requests

Script errors and debug requests got you down?

One of the more annoying settings in Internet Explorer is the option to debug a running script. Microsoft apparently assumed that everyone who’d be using their browser would want to troubleshoot errant programs running in Internet Explorer because, obviously, everyone knows how to do this, so they turned on this feature by default. Well, because I see this feature always left on and annoying even the most patient of users, I want to tell you how to turn it off.

Scripts are instructions sent to your browser. They’re interpretted like programs and perform things on your computer. Just like programs, scripts can be flakey and break.

Essentially, this problem is typified with a dialog that looks something like this; your results may vary depending on your operating system and browser version. You’re getting this dialog because Internet Explorer thinks you want to fix this code and allow the program to run successfully. Chances are you don’t care and you don’t want to be prompted again to debug anything. If that’s the case, follow these instructions.

1. Access the Control Panel.

2. If you’re in Vista, switch to Classic View. Enter Internet Options.

3. Go to the Advanced Tab.

4. Again, depending on version, you could find the checkboxes we’re looking for under Browsing. you want to check the options to “Disable Script Debugging”; check this for “Other” as well as “Internet Explorer” if you’re provided the option.

5. Hit apply and restart Internet Explorer.

That’s it – look, ma, no more obnoxious messages. Now, sometimes, we can’t necessarily avoid screens that look like these.

This is a script that has gone bad and the browser is telling us that it’s malfunctioned. The question is: do we want a broken program to run against your computer or not? I’d recommend you always answer NO to a question like this. A professional website would probably try to take care of this relatively quickly as to avoid customer complaints.

R

iTunes Updater

Hey – so you’ve backed up your music to another drive or directory location than what iTunes defaults to at install. Example: iTunes wants to default to the User Documents directory under Vista and you keep your music on a removable or dynamic disk. Then, when you change the iTunes directory in its preferences, it doesn’t re-scan the folder to add that music to your library. And if attempts to import the old library aren’t working, you’re left to install each file manually by hand. Well, I found a free alternative.

The iTunes Library Updater is one of those brainless functions that you’d think Apple would want to include in the seventh edition of their software. However, you don’t have to wait for Apple to get a clue: you can have a library updater now! The application is easy to install and use – it goes out, enumerates the files in a target location, and then imports those files into the iTunes library. Within a couple of minutes, my library was re-compiled.

This one’s a keeper for system admin’s trying to put a machine back together for a client, or, for an end user frustrated with the native tools inside iTunes.

R

A Creative OpenSource Config for Client

Information Resources on Terrorism and InfoSec

A question from one of my online courses and my response – could be interesting to some people:

Search the Internet for a Web sites that presents educational information that pertains to Terrorism and Information Security. Report to the rest of the class on what you found.

In responding to this question, I decided to take a look at some of my own favorites logged in my browser. Here’s a few sites that I came up with:

The National Vulnerability Database. This is the national repository for vulnerability standards so that security management and assessment practices can be reasonably automated. There are some good mailing lists here as well. http://nvd.nist.gov/

The NIST’s Computer Security Division and the Computer Security Resouce Center. This site is hosted off of the NIST’s servers and is a resource for national computer information system security issues, community, publications, and safeguards. http://csrc.nist.gov/

US CERT – US Computer Emergency Readiness Team, a Division of US Homeland Security. Actually, this is a great service and mailing list that notifies the public on general threats in the wild, but it’s also a recognition by the federal government of the importance of monitoring microcomputer vulnerabilities. http://www.us-cert.gov/

National Security Checklists from the NIST. More from the NIST building baselines and metrics for vulnerability assessments using SCAP (Security Content Automation Protocol). I would find this useful from a terrorism perspective. http://checklists.nist.gov/

Ready.gov, I think, is a general populous response from the federal government to address readiness for any large scale emergency incident (terrorist or otherwise), and has a number of resources for small business and normal citizens.http://www.ready.gov/

CyberCiege. An online videogame to keep the network alive. Used for training purposes to simulate an attack against an enterprise computer system/gov’agency data center. http://cisr.nps.edu/cyberciege/

Symantec’s Security Response Blogs. Generally, good up to date information about what’s going on out there… http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/weblog/index.jsp

The Information Warfare Site. A UK resource that tracks maleware infestations. http://www.iwar.org.uk/news-archive/virus.htm

The Top 100 Network Security Tools. Now, this could be terrorist-related or not, but think if a couple of these tools fell into the hands of unpleasant people – or, tools you can use to monitor your network. http://sectools.org/

The DOJ Standards for Computer Forensic Investigations. A really great document. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/210798.pdf

An interesting read – the CDC’s strategy to terrorist Biohazard and Chemical attacks… http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4904a1.htm

The Center for Democracy and Technology – a hitlist of federal legislative responses to terrorism since 9/11. http://www.cdt.org/security/010911response.php

An MIT project on the affect terrorism could have on the supply chain. http://web.mit.edu/scresponse/overview/index.html

R

Why Do All the Crazies Talk to Me?

So I woke up early on Sunday and drove to Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast. I wanted to get a little work done and spend a little me-time aside sand and surf. I brought my iPod, my laptop, my digital camera, and my Blackberry; I’d been Yahoo! instant messaging to people all morning. I went into a cafe, graded a few papers, responded to some student and client email, opened up a port on a firewall for a client, and uploaded a few pictures I took. It was a fantastically productive morning, really.

Then, out of the blue, this crazy old guy saunters up to me and eyes me (with that quirky, pirate-looking squint that only old people who actually _live_ at the beach could possibly do) and says, leaning over me, “Leave it at home!” With that strange look of Cap’n Ahab he then smiles (at his own joke, myself, I was a little nervous and taken off-guard), and then lumbers off to go terrorize somebody else for the morning.

Whew, that was close. Like, he was referring to my laptop, but I think he was also referring to the camera USB’d into it, the Blackberry on the side of the table, and the iPod in my ears. I didn’t have the time nor the interest to really explain it to him – you see, if I had left “it” at home, then I couldn’t be here. I couldn’t have worked. Yet, I couldn’t have played, either.

It takes both: work finances play. Sure I can skip out and go to the coast for a day, but somebody’s got to pay for it so I have to carve out some time to do so, but this weird and archiac notion (work is “over there” and play is “over there”) is whacked to me. Play and work are intertwined in the same space, and, like tech, can accompany me anywhere. Even here. In this cafe. On the beach. So why should I leave “it” at home? Shouldn’t “it” be anywhere I go? My music, my peeps, my work, my play, my pictures? I am where I am; my work is where I go; isn’t “it” where you go? Shouldn’t it be?

Meanwhile, I seriously wonder where Ahab is. He’s certainly not here – not here and now, not with me anyway – in understanding that time and space for all things (play and work) are but one for the modern, roaming, geeky samurai… SIGH. I’m looking forward to getting more done this afternoon and taking a long walk in the sand.

R