Zune Family Safety Tips

Recently I shared my excitement with my recent acquisition of a Zune in Tuned In to Zune! I assure you that the enjoyment I am getting has not diminished either.

For parents of teens with a Zune, you need to ensure that they are not exposed to inappropriate content. It is easy to follow the simple instructions to Configure your Zune family safety settings to protect your family. After setting up the settings, please take the time to share these 8 safety tips for using Zune Social with your teen:

Zune Social is a beta online community that is designed for use with Microsoft’s digital music player, Zune.

If you are over the age of 13, you can use Zune Social.

1. Don’t post personally identifiable information on your Zune Card.
2. Limit your Zune Card to friends only.
3. Don’t post personally identifiable information in the Zune Forums.
4. Never meet a person that you’ve met on Zune Social alone in the real world. If you are an adult and you feel that you must meet someone alone, meet in a public place.
5. Be cautious about sharing your feelings on Zune Social. Your Zune Card and the comments you post can say a lot about you. A predator can use this information to make you feel important or special as a way of getting your trust.
6. Be smart about your Zune Card background and picture. Photographs can reveal personal, identifiable information such as the name of your town or school on your clothing or the license plate number of your car.
7. If you feel threatened, report it immediately. You can report abuse of Zune Social by clicking the Report Abuse at the bottom of any page on Zune.net.
8. Use your real age in your Zune profile.

References:

8 safety tips for using Zune Social
Configure your Zune family safety settings
Zune Code of Conduct

Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...

MSDN and TechNet Evolution

Microsoft is in the process of re-inventing MSDN and TechNet as community-driven sites. To that end, Microsoft General Manager, Dan Truax, provided the Microsoft vision as well as a brief outline of the changes for these two sites in his newly anointed blog:

Our vision is to be the largest and most vibrant online community for developers and IT professionals, enabling easy connections to the best resources and most knowledgeable people from Microsoft and the global community.
. . .

1. MSDN and TechNet will include content, samples, scripts and code that are created and contributed by our customers in addition to what is developed and authored by Microsoft.
   
2. Content, whether customer- or Microsoft-created, will be prioritized for placement and discoverable largely by customers through social activities such as tagging and rating.
   
   

References:

• DanTr: Welcome to my blog
• MSDN Online: Future Plans
• TechNet Onlie: Future Plans
  

Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...

May 2008 Microsoft Security Bulletin Release

Microsoft is releasing the following four new security bulletins for newly discovered vulnerabilities described below.

Note in particular that MS08-026 includes additional security mitigations against attacks as identified in Microsoft Security Advisory 950627. It is recommended that both MS08-026 and MS08-028 be installed. For additional information on MS08-026, see MS08-026: How to prevent Word from loading RTF files.

Critical:

MS08-026:

Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (951207)
Product: Word
Affected Software: Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003, 2007 Office System, Office 2004 for Mac, Office 2008 for Mac, Word Viewer, Word Viewer 2003, Office Compatibility Pack

MS08-027:

Vulnerability in Microsoft Publisher Could Allow Remote Code Execution (951208)
Product: Publisher
Affected Software: Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003, 2007 Office System

MS08-028:

Vulnerability in Microsoft Jet Database Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution (950749)
Product: Jet Database Engine
Affected Software: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003

Moderate:

MS08-029:

Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Malware Protection Engine Could Allow Denial of Service (952044)
Product: Malware Protection (AV) Engine
Affected Software: Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft Antigen, Microsoft Windows Defender, Microsoft Forefront Security

References:

• May 2008 Monthly Release
• Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for May 2008
• MS08-026: How to prevent Word from loading RTF files

Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...