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Posts Tagged Microsoft

SQL Server and FoxPro on September 9 MS Security Bulletin

Sep 5

Posted by Tod McKenna in In The News, Reviews

According to Microsoft’s advanced notification system for security updates, slated to be released on September 9, SQL Server and Visual FoxPro are among the affected software. A webcast will likely be held the day after the bulletin is released. The critical issue has to do with a vulnerability allowing remote code execution.

Specifically, these FoxPro versions as installed on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4:

  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro 8.0 Service Pack 1
  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 1
  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 2

For SQL Server:

  • SQL 2000 Reporting Services Service Pack 2
  • SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2
  • SQL Server 2005 x64 Edition Service Pack 2
  • SQL Server 2005 for Itanium-based Systems Service Pack 2

Be sure to check out the full report when issued on September 9th if this concerns you (.NET, MS Office, and IE users, you had better have a look too!).

Security Bulletin website

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Life in Redmond

Apr 28

Posted by Tod McKenna in Data Management

Imagine this:

“Everyone has an office (a few people share), doors are often closed, and people are heads down working. [...] Sounds are muted, there’s no animation from the employees, it just seems like it could be an accounting firm as much as it could be a software developer. I’m not sure what I was expecting, maybe more people running around with Nerf dart guns, maybe more people excited and jazzed about what they’re working on. A few loud “Yes”s or “Aha”s, following by someone outside their cube, reveling passerbys with the amazing code they’re just written. ”

Source: Steve Jones of SQLServerCentral.com

That’s what things are like, according to Steve Jones of SQLServerCentral.com, for the SQL Server team at Microsoft as they busily prepare the next great version of SQL Server. Things have been delayed already. And as it goes, they may need to change the name to SQL Server 2009. “2008″ already sounds dated.

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FoxPro ActiveX (FPOLE.OCX) Security Bug Fix

Feb 13

Posted by Tod McKenna in In The News

In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft released several security updates yesterday — 11, to be exact. One of these patches updates a known issue with VFP regarding FPOLE.OCX. This is what was written in the Washington Post:

MS08-010 fixes a publicly disclosed ActiveX bug that affects Visual FoxPro users. Although hackers have already posted code showing how to exploit this vulnerability, the buggy ActiveX control is not included in Internet Explorer 7’s default list of controls, so the flaw should not affect most users.

You can read more information about this patch (and details about the vulnerability) here: ISS:

The Microsoft Visual FoxPro ActiveX control is vulnerable to a stack-based buffer overflow, caused by improper bounds checking by the FoxDoCmd function. By persuading a victim to visit a malicious Web page using Internet Explorer, a remote attacker could overflow a buffer and execute arbitrary code on the system with the privileges of the victim.

More info: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-010.mspx

Of course, MS recommends to get patched right away…

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Marketing for FoxPro

Aug 9

Posted by Tod McKenna in In The News

Who said Microsoft doesn’t care?

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Certification revamp at MS does not inlude VFP

Jun 19

Posted by Tod McKenna in Events and Trainings

Well, this was certainly a logical development: no new FoxPro, no more certifications. Sorry that I’m not an expert on MS certs, but have VFP certifications been available in the pat year?Anyway, for those looking to get certified, there is a little hope: “We’re open to discussing it with customers but at this time we have no further plans to address FoxPro.” said Master of exams Lutz Ziob, GM of Microsoft Learning.

MasFoxProCerts anyone?

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FoxPro One of Three Development Languages Supported on Vista

Jun 7

Posted by Tod McKenna in Software Development

According to this article, “Microsoft Releases Virtual Vista Versions” by Keith Ward, Visual FoxPro 9.0 is one of only 3 development languages supported on Window’s Vista. Is this true? Where’s the fine print?”

Developers may be excited by the Vista with VS 2005 option. Currently, Microsoft supports Vista for three Microsoft development products: Visual Basic 6.0, Visual FoxPro 9.0 and VS 2005, but only with the Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista. Versions of VS 2003 and earlier aren’t supported by Microsoft. Earlier development products may work with Vista, Microsoft said, but it won’t support them.

I just thought I’d pass this along!

What I find interesting (and maybe I’m wrong?) but VB6 is no longer supported by MS. That leaves Visual FoxPro and VS 2005 as the only two development platforms available and supported on Vista.

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Microsoft and Open Source

May 15

Posted by Tod McKenna in In The News

As you know, Microsoft and Open Source have had an oil/water type of relationship. Here’s an article that gives us 10 things that MS loves and hates about Open Source. I post this here because FoxPro made the list:

The year-old open source project hosting Web site started by Microsoft lets users share open source development projects. The big news is that portions of Visual FoxPro will be posted as open source on Codeplex. A new version of the Web site is released every three weeks adding additional features and updates. As of early March, there were 1,029 projects on the site.

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