Another web-based spreadsheet. I don’t know how it compares to Google’s.

Firefox 2.0 is better than Internet Explorer 7 at preventing phishing, according to a study commissioned by Mozilla. A study commissioned by Microsoft found that IE7 is better than a range of 7 third-party security applications. The Microsoft study didn’t include Firefox.

There are some worrying aspects to the anti-piracy technologies that are part of Microsoft’s new Vista operating system.

In any case, the entire concept of significantly reducing the functionality of running systems is saturated with risks. Microsoft notes that their products aren’t supposed to be used for “critical” types of applications. That’s a fine sentiment, but Microsoft has succeeded all too well in getting developers to use their operating systems in all manner of exceptionally important applications. That’s the reality.

Of course, just because Microsoft says that they can use such drastic anti-piracy measures in any particular situation, doesn’t mean that they necessarily will, but can we really afford to take that chance? Even if you are the most 100% squeaky-clean human on planet Earth, and would never even dream of running pirated software, you may want to think twice (or more than twice) before jumping into bed with Microsoft on this one.

The End User License Agreement (EULA) for Vista is also much more restrictive than previous EULAs. So your chances of inadvertently violating it, and hence being a software pirate, are much higher.

It’s been reported that yet again sensitive information has been posted on the web because people don’t understand the difference between what you see and what you get. A pdf document posted by the Civil Aviation Authority contained blacked out sections that were about airport security. However, the sensitive sections could be read quite easily: they just used black on black, or something similar.

Pdf documents contain all the text that was in the document from which they were produced; just because it’s not immediately visible (black on black, or a black block superimposed) it doesn’t mean that it’s disappeared. Just select the text to see it, or if necessary copy and paste into another application, or view the pdf file with a text editor.

When you draw up a specification for a software application that you are developing, are you sure it’s complete?

OK, let’s start again. You should always provide a specification for a software application before you develop it. This applies to everything, even a little one-off spreadsheet. Obviously in the latter case it needn’t be particularly detailed; a single sentence is sometimes adequate. However, remember that you can’t tell if the software is doing the right thing unless you know what the right thing is.

If it’s more complicated than a single calculation, the specification should be more detailed. Typically it would cover what actions the user should be able to perform, and give details of the calculations.

Which brings me to my point. Remember that testers are users too. Unless the application is tested, you won’t be able to tell if you’ve got it right. When you’re testing, you often want to do things that normal users can’t do, such as start afresh, or input large amounts of data. This is especially likely if it’s a database application. It’s extremely frustrating to find that it’s impossible to test an application properly because it doesn’t include the functionality that you need.

And yes, this is the voice of experience speaking.