#activex

[mybodyisatempleofsin]

A robot girl who was designed around software that's rapidly becoming defunct.

It started with seeing warnings about insecure connections, easily ignored annoyances. But then they started to become more insistent. More troublesome. Sometimes requiring her to go to her settings to dismiss them, sometimes even forcing her to ask Miss for her Admin password to enable obscure permissions. Miss always would, but she hated to have to ask.

Then things started to get worse. Places she'd never had issues with before were suddenly inaccessible. Things she could once do without a thought were now out of reach or dangerous.

And with those places and things she lost the people she'd met there too.

Some stayed in touch, but even if they did, even if they made an effort, she still saw them less than before. Others just sort of drifted away. Their last meetings so unexpected the hadn't even given a proper goodbye.

Her first time going for maintenance after was a real shock. Her usual place where she knew all the people and had even flirted with some of them turned her away unceremoniously. "A danger to their entire network", "Too much of a liability", or just "Sorry" were the only answers she got. The only places that did help treated her more like an oddity or a toy than a person. Talked about her chassis and its quirks right in front of her like she wasn't even there.

Her connections were blinking out fast now. Miss had to set up an emulator even just to let her connect at home, and the artificial nodes were so empty without the chatter of her friends.

Maybe an update would come. An official new version seemed further off by the day, but perhaps some rogue coder or bored enthusiast would find a way. Would find something to let her connect like she used to.

Until then, at least she had Miss.

[soapdispensersalesman]

[flash-from-the-past]

Diner Dash Hometown Hero

[harepare]

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[embarcaderous]

Embarcadero - What is ADO?

ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) :- ADO is advanced universal data-access solution of Microsoft. It is a set of COM (Component Object Model) objects that provides an interface to OLE DB. It also acts as a layer to access any data store in generic way from database. Want to learn more? Then you can go to this article.

[kawaoneechan]

2000s: "I made a new web browser." "New new, or just the Internet Explorer ActiveX control in a Visual Basic form?"

2020s: "I made a new web browser." "New new, or just a fork of Chrome with a paint job?"

[fishmech]

nobody was a netscape 5.x user that shit didn't even make it to beta status. the failure of it and consequent inability of netscape to catch up is why IE was the browser of choice for web standards compliance for a number of years, pure fumbling from any reasonable competitor.

and of course the AOL ownership and mismanagement really fucked over the 6.x and 7.x versions which were based on versions of mozilla that frankly didn't work well (due to receiving poor support within netscape while they were there), and were hobbled by aol insisting on tying in the other application suite nonsense to the mozilla engine - not that mozilla was all that stable in the pre-firefox days on its own, but the official aol-netscape flavor was worse. if the failure of netscape 5 was the browser hitting a landmine and needing emergency assistance to survive, AOL management was making sure the browser bled out. (and man mozilla's first seperate release in 2000 really did a number on your system resources with that first implementation of XUL!! probably wasn't a big deal for people who already had the highest pentium iii/whatever the comparable athlon models were that year but we did not have those at home or school or the county library lol)

it is fascinating though that this poll doesn't include Opera as an option when it was already around for 5 years in y2k. i mean no one should rightfully support it because that was when it still had poor compatibility with all websites not specifically built for it AND they had the audacity to charge for it or force you to view extra ads.. but it did exist then and one of my friends swore by it.

konqueror of course barely functioned when introduced in 2000. Camino/Chimera didn't even exist til 2002 so it shouldn't even be here.

[teabree-shark]

Stop trying to build walls around the gardens you never tended yourself.

Web Environment Integrity? We already did this! It was called AOL. It was called CompuServe. It was called ActiveX. It was called Prodigy. It was called GEnie. It was called The Microsoft Network.

And they didn't work. They were just walled gardens plastered with billboards you couldn't block, and it was awful. They were bad for user security, they were bad for user experience, they were bad for everything except for executive pocketbooks.

I'm in my 30's and I've already been the baby of, the child of, and the adult of, failed walled gardens all in favor of shoving ads down my throat. I'm not going to do it again.

[lazeecomet]

HATEHATEHATE microsoft edge and how it and google are just getting in the way of anything web legacy

So there is this device at work. its called an EPD. the name is not important. all you need to know is that it has an IP address 192.168.X.XXX that you need to connect to it in order to get data.

for whatever reason the company that makes it just hasnt updated the UI or interface since 2005 because this thing does NOT work on modern browsers.

well.... it works mostly that is. except for the chart. it can display a realtime graph of Important Data that i need to look at in order to calibrate it. the chart does not work in edge. it does not work in chrome

it needs java

AND NOT ONLY THAT

it needs ActiveX Controls

BUT NOT ANY NORMAL ONES.

Noooooo it has to pretend to be a website to download you an unsigned ActiveX Control driver? extension? IDK what it is but you need to install it.

but we are getting ahead of ourselves here. suffice it to say, the computer that would NORMALLY display this chart got reformatted and now it cant. so i used my laptop

so i opened Interet Explorer because that is the program that works

Edge opens the MSN homepage instead.

thats not what i want. i tried Edge. it cant display the graph. I open Internet Explorer again

edge opens another MSN homepage window

i install google chrome. it also doesnt work. they are both chromium after all. i try to install firefox. its blocked on the network. i need to prevent edge from closing IE

with a little google-fu i rename my BMO or whatever folder in my edge folder to prevent it from openening Edge when i want IE

it doesnt work

i do some more google-fu and disable my extension settings to prevent the BMO thing

another MSN homepage opens

I start digging into the forums on HVAC websites because these guys are having the same problem only with AC units. I find it. I have to create a VSB file that force opens the website with edge. cool.

whats a VSB file?

after an hour of fucking around just TRYING to OPEN IE so i can use the browser that can display the chart i have created a VSB file that OPENS IE ON THE IP ADDRESS OF THE EPD UNIT

the graph doesnt work. i need java

the java webpage doesnt load on ie

i download it with chrome

still doent work. i have to enable it in my extensions from IE

THE GRAPH DOES SOMETHING!

it asks me to download something. i say yes

edge tells me it blocked an unsighed ActiveX Controls program from running.

what the fuck is ActiveX Controls? can i download it somewhere else?

NOPE! its backed into IE. you gotta go into your internet settings and basically turn off all your security or add the website to your list of trusted websites

my trusted website list is controlled by IT. i cant change it. the weakest settings i can enable still result in the program being halted.

i have apparently generated several dozen automatic support alerts as every time i try and run it it sends a warning to IT that i am accessing a potentially dangerous site

its taken me 2 hours and i have not even started calibration.

i am forced to do the backup method of just blindly assuming everything is working and downloading the CSV file later. this too ends up not working but for reasons i will have to figure out tomorrow. the data is there but the math is wrong.

fucking hate edge and its backwards incompatiblity

[cyber-sec]

Microsoft Is Disabling Default ActiveX Controls in Office 2024 to Improve Security

Source: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-office-activex-disable-default/

More info: https://mc.merill.net/message/MC884011

[eblu3]

if fortnite came out 15 years earlier it would have been called "Fortnite Online" and would have run only in internet explorer through an activex control

[soapdispensersalesman]

[ah-val]

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TAM LİSTESİ:

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Activex

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Islak mendil ve havlu

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Temizlik Ürünleri

[kennak]

素人が「保守契約なんて金の無駄遣いだ」と甘く見るからこんなことになる。そもそも、例に出てる半田病院って酷い状況だぜ。・VPN脆弱性を放置、保守契約なし（ここが侵入経路）・鯖のWidows Update停止・ADパスワードは最短5文字、ロックアウトなしなので何度でも試せる・PCの一部はWindows 7（2021年当時）・IE / ActiveXが有効（電子カルテで必要だったっぽい）こんなん数え役満だろ。VPNだけパッチ当たってても、他がズタボロじゃん。

保守契約になくてもベンダーは医療機関にセキュリティ情報を提供すべき？ | スラド セキュリティ

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

I’ve been on vacation/holiday/or whatever you call it. Work calls it Paid Time Off, or PTO. I call it time with the grandkids.

Kim and I spent most of the week camping with our grandchildren at Myrtle Beach State Park. This was our first trip to the park and I really enjoyed our time there. The amenities at the park were excellent. We had power and water at our campsite hooked directly to our trailer, a bathhouse about 30-yards away, and a nice camp store just around the corner. Oh, right, not to mention the beach about 100 yards from the campsite. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at the beach and kind of chilled or puttered around other places Myrtle Beach had to offer.

There are so many places to see and things to do we didn’t even scratch the surface. Next year we have to do seven to 10 days with our entire family in tow. ⛱️

Brian Merchant • Blood in the Machine

☢️ WARNING: Substack

Like a lot of figureheads in the AI industry, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says that ordinary people are not ready for the changes AI is about to unleash on the world. In a widely circulated interview with Axios, Amodei warns we are on the brink of what his interviewers describe as a “job apocalypse” that will wipe out half of entry level jobs and cause the unemployment rate to rise up to 20%.

I’m more torn than ever about using AI in the workplace. As I mentioned last week, I used AI to help with a CI/CD GitHub Action I was setting up and it provided clues to my issue but I never really found a true answer to the problem. It took an experienced human to figure out what I missed in my setup.

Poor prompting on my part? Probably. This is why AI will replace me someday. 😃

By that time I hope to be retired.

The Browser Company

You’re probably wondering what happened. One day we were all-in on Arc. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, we started building something new: Dia.

This piece feels rambling to me. It’s obvious the author has a lot to say and feels the need to justify their move to sideline Arc. I don’t blame them. I know folks who love Arc and have gone all in on it. They’re extremely disappointed. Hopefully the like Dia. 🤞🏼

Jonathan M. Gitlan • Ars Technica

Verstappen slowed to let Russell through, then sped up into turn 4, opening up his steering and colliding with the Mercedes. Call it petulance or frustration; it was an inexcusable lapse of judgment from a driver. Using one’s car as a weapon against another competitor on track is unacceptable, and the 10-second penalty that Verstappen earned as a result dropped him to 10th place at the end, ruining his own race more than anyone else’s.

I don’t know Max Verstappen but I’ve never really liked the guy. Temper tantrums like this don’t have a place in racing but they do happen. Professional athletes get to their positions by being the best at their craft and often have large egos to go along with the skill. Verstappen is a prime example of ego and skill.

Lauren Feiner • The Verge

Firefox could be put out of business should a court implement all the Justice Department’s proposals to restrict Google’s search monopoly, an executive for the browser owner Mozilla testified Friday. “It’s very frightening,” Mozilla CFO Eric Muhlheim said.

It would be absolutely tragic if Mozilla was out of business. We need more browser engines, not fewer. Microsoft giving up on their browser was a huge blow to the ecosystem and competition.

The thing is, the only companies who could afford to bail them out want to control the internet and have corporate interests to fulfill.

Who could be a good steward? Facebook? Definitely not. They’re a super scummy company. Apple? They don’t need another browser. Google? Don’t need another browser. Microsoft? They should have their own browser and seem like a logical choice, but they wouldn’t embrace the open web as Mozilla does. Remember ActiveX controls in IE? Yeah, total nightmare in an otherwise good browser. And to think Microsoft was arrogant enough to declare IE complete.

Joan Westenberg

The internet used to be limitless, open to anyone with an idea. Now, it’s a polished prison run by tech giants. Is this the future we signed up for? Here’s how Big Tech quietly turned freedom into captivity.

I think you could piece together a lot of what the big silos offer but it wouldn’t be as complete or cohesive. Blogs, Mastodon, and Micro.blog are great for social network replacements but so many people rely on Facebook for all of those activities. Heck, many businesses only have Facebook pages.

Side note: I once built a little website for a nano brewing company in Exeter, CA. I offered them the keys to it and they turned it down because Facebook gave them what they needed.

Also, they have a website now! Good move! The domain I got for them was better, but this works. I picked up bellcraft.beer for them.

They could’ve also picked up bellcraftbrew.co instead of the .com, but to each his own. I think that just proves the power of .com verses everything else.

Casey Newton • Platformer

It did not take any particular skill in forecasting to predict, at the end of 2024, that the unprecedented partnership between Donald Trump and Elon Musk would come to a dramatic ending. Both Trump and Musk are independently famous for their erratic leadership styles and abrupt purges of once-close allies, and neither shows any long-term patience for anyone who opposes them.

I’m here for the Space Karen and Marmalade Messiah breakup. Bring it! They’re both such petty man children. Each smoking his own supply and blaming everyone but themselves for their problems.

I can’t wait to be shot of both of them.

Please, send them to Mars to start a colony. They can own it and call it Muskland or Trumpville or whatever they want. At least I won’t have to hear about them ever again.

Amid Amidi • Cartoon Brew

A collective of international animation unions, federations, and organizations are calling for action over the usage of artificial intelligence, citing its destructive impact on the craft and business of animation, as well as on industry workers.

I like this move. And like I’ve said before AI has its uses but for some things we should say ‘No.’

If you’re a craftsman of any kind I’d say no to using it for the craft part of my job. The thing I pride myself on. In this case it’s the artwork.

Kev Quirk

I was wondering what kinda things you, dear reader, like to read online?

I like all kinds of stuff but most of it boils down to tech related stuff. I read old timers like Dave Winer and Jeffrey Zeldman. I also like reading folks like Manton Reece, [John Gruber](daringfireball.net], and Joan Westenberg among many others!

Dave Winer

But then in the mid 00s things changed, and since then the users have flocked to closed systems. It would be similarly wonderful if we had an open social web, but we don’t. Mastodon is open but it’s not simple like the web is, and Bluesky is simple, but it is not open. And neither supports the most basic features of the web.#

I’ve heard ActivityPub and Mastodon can be challenging to code against but I’ve also heard Bluesky is extremely difficult to understand from a technical perspective. Maybe it’s just me?

Folks are building open alternatives to many closed systems on ActivityPub. So it does work!

Dave continues to build excellent tools on top of technologies he’s created, like RSS. It’s different and it missing some of the things people like, like replies (as far as I can tell, it’s missing replies? I could be very wrong about that. I don’t know what I don’t know. Ya know?) 😃

If you haven’t seen WordLand you should give it a gander. It’s really the editor bloggers using WordPress really need. At least I think it is. It would be extremely cool if Dave and perhaps others could define a protocol for editors to connect to all different types of blogging systems. Heh, I think that’s what ActivityPub and others are for? 🤔

We need taco trucks on every corner of the White House sporting that picture, in poster size, on the side of their trucks. 🤣

[steadytrinitynexus]

When Microsoft former CEO Steve Ballmer got ‘frustrated’ with Microsoft's culture and shouted…

Recalling his early days as Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer recently revealed that he shouted his now-iconic “Developers! Developers! Developers!” chant out of frustration with the company’s internal structure. Speaking on the “Acquired” podcast, Ballmer said that the moment wasn’t just for show, but a call-to-action to change Microsoft’s internal mindset in the early 2000s. Ballmer recalled that during his early years as CEO, Microsoft teams were too focused on infrastructure like Windows, Windows Server, and ActiveX, while neglecting efforts to attract third-party developers. “I was just frustrated with myself and my inability to get people out of, 'We're just a platform company,’” Ballmer said. In an effort to jolt the company into action, Ballmer took the stage at a Microsoft developer conference and repeatedly shouted the word “developers.” The dramatic display, he explained, was a deliberate move to emphasize the importance of external developer support. “I'm trying to tell people at that time that third parties really mattered, and you got different opinions inside Microsoft,” he stated. “You have to be able to communicate that you really care about developers who are not your own,” Ballmer said. “We just had to tell people, ‘We want you, we want you, we want you.’”