STM CORTEX M3

slow,

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True.

Mark Borgerson

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Mark Borgerson
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pdf's are perfectly safe as long as you use a safe pdf reader, and as long as you disable javascript on the reader. Basically, avoid Acrobat Reader. Any Linux reader (such as evince) is safe, as are all other Windows readers that I know of. Something like Foxit reader is free, safe, and /much/ faster than Acrobat.

Support for Lynx is not going to happen. Next you'll be wanting datasheets in txt format, not pdf, and films optimised for viewing ona black and white TV. I agree entirely about avoiding flash, etc., - except for parts of the site where it is actually useful - but making pages Lynx-friendly is an unreasonable request.

Flashblock will stop the flash and other nonsense, when they are not /required/ to view a page.

I agree. It's okay to add flash to /enhance/ a site - there are things that cannot be done well with HTML (though HTML 5 gives more scope), and sometimes flash can be useful - but as an extra, not a requirement.

Silverlight is an abomination and has no place on a website.

Reply to
David Brown

Data formats in themselves are not the problem, but the programs that interpret that data can have security problems. Typically you have specially mal-formed data files combined with bugs in the interpreting program to cause buffer overflows, stack faults, etc., which results in the system executing part of the "data" as code. Or you have a file format that supports some sort of scripting (say, javascript in pdf files) combined with bugs or sandboxing flaws in the interpreting program.

There are also a number of formats that are considered "data" formats, but actually can contain code. People thought of "doc" as a data format until the first MS Word viruses (but remember, the flaw was in MS word - not the doc format). Microsoft is an expert at this - for example, their font file format is actually a DLL format, and therefore executable. I haven't heard of any font-file viruses, but the infrastructure for them has been supported by MS since Win3.1.

There are many pdf viruses/trojans around. Yes, you can control the active content by turning off javascript and other active features - but only a tiny proportion of users do so. You can also use a better pdf reader - it is only Acrobat Reader that has so many security holes and vulnerabilities.

Reply to
David Brown

I use Foxit, already. But I also use the Kindle reader a lot, as well. Very convenient and cheap.

Well, I remember well the time when all web pages were text. If that were the case, today, I could surf quite quickly given the changes in technology I now have access to -- fiber

80Mb link, 3GHz processors, and so on. I really wouldn't mind a subset world I could access stripped of the dross. The ALT attribute for images, for example, would be nice for them to use and not hard to apply.

I block almost everything right now. Old habit. Harder to get by with that, these days, I admit.

Silverlight is Microsoft's .NET 4.0/WPF-light. They will ram it down our throats over time.

In any case, I'd still like a text window on the internet. I have NOT enjoyed being dragged along unwillingly. If I want video to play or other animations and widgets active in my face, I'd like to make that choice explicitly. I'd like text access until I say otherwise.

Yeah, I know. But still...

Jon

Reply to
Jon Kirwan

That reads as a contradiction. :-) It's using a mobile Internet connection for a good portion of the time I mean above; I've long given up on Flash based websites (I don't even need Flash for when I want a video from Youtube).

There appears to have been a major change behind the scenes with the new ST website and I wonder if someone realised they are getting massively whacked in the Google rankings.

When the new ST website was launched, all the links to the device specific pages were broken and you ended up with page not found errors. Now ST appears to have resurrected some device specific pages, but because of st.com's current poor Google ranking, you have to go looking for them.

For example (when using

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as the search URL), enter STR711FR2T6 and you will not find any reference to the st.com website on the few pages.

However, if you enter "STR711FR2T6 site:st.com" into Google, one of the links is for

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and if you click on "Design support", you get a nice list of related app notes and user guides.

This was not available immediately after the website launch because this is exactly what I tried to do (with this specific part number) to bypass the Flash based interface.

I have tried with a couple of the Cortex part numbers but I could not find them this way. I don't know if it's because similar pages do not exist on the ST website, or if it's because Google has not yet indexed them.

Simon.

PS: I use the https:// google link above because it bypasses all the dynamic search results page refreshing Google has started doing.

--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world
Reply to
Simon Clubley

I recommend watching the "OMG WTF PDF" presentation from the recent 27C3 event. It shows that there really is no such thing as a "well-formed" PDF file.

-a

Reply to
Anders.Montonen

Other readers have had their share of vulnerabilities as well (eg. both Foxit and Adobe Reader used to silently run executables embedded in PDF files, no JavaScript or exploits needed. CVE-2010-1240). PDFs have also been used as attack vectors, for instance one iPhone jailbreak was accomplished by exploiting a FreeType2 bug via a font embedded in a PDF.

Adobe Reader has by far the worst track record, but claiming you're safe just by switching to another reader is disingenuous.

-a

Reply to
Anders.Montonen

Yes, fair enough - you are not entirely safe with other readers. But you are probably a couple of orders of magnitude safer using Foxit (for example) than Acrobat Reader. One order is because Foxit simply has fewer bugs - it's small, and the developers understand it, while Acrobat Reader has grown into incredible bloatware with far more scope for problems. You get another big step up because Acrobat Reader is the most commonly used pdf reader, and it is the one targeted by malware authors.

Reply to
David Brown
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Even smaller, faster and less known is "Sumatra".

Oliver

--
Oliver Betz, Munich
despammed.com is broken, use Reply-To:
Reply to
Oliver Betz

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