PatchDayReview.com

Explaining Microsoft's Monthly Patches in Non-Technical Terms

Interscape Recommends GFI LANguard N.S.S. for IT Patch Management
posts - 53, comments - 94, trackbacks - 6

Welcome to the All-New PatchDayReview.com!

Hello, My name is Robert McLaws, President and Chief Software Architect of Interscape Technologies, Inc. You've stumbled across PatchDayReview.com, a new site dedicated to keeping non-techies up-to-date on Microsoft software vulnerabilities.

You may not have known this, but every Wednesday, Microsoft releases patches, or software band-aids, to its users to fix problems that have been recently discovered. If you've seen Microsoft's reports on these issues, you know that they are very jargon-heavy. Heck, I'm a technical guy and even I have a hard time understanding them sometimes. Another thing that really frustrates me is the fact that you have to click through at least 4 different pages to get to the patch that you need to install. It's really ridiculous.

PatchDayReview.com was designed to tackle all those issues. It gives a very brief description of the problem, using terminology my mom would understand. On the left, you'll see a thermometer (courtesy of Microsoft) that rates the severity of the problem. Then, right underneath the summary, are direct links to the files, straight from Microsoft. No fumbling through sites trying to find the link.... just simplicity in all its glory.

So, I hope you like what we've done here. Feel free to leave me comments on how my company can improve this site. We welcome your feedback, because this site is for you. Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed, and don't forget to tell your friends and family. I'm sure you all know at least one person who suffered because of the Blaster worm. This is our little way of helping out, but to borrow from Smokey the Bear, “Only you can prevent unnecessary vulnerability exploits!” Security is everyone's problem, so make sure you do your part.

Thanks for coming to the site :) .

Robert W. McLaws
President and Chief Software Architect
Interscape Technologies, Inc.

Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 10:36 AM

Feedback

# re: Welcome to the All-New PatchDayReview.com!

Would it be possible to include the Microsoft Security Bulletin Number as well as the knowledge base article number when listing the patches? It makes it easier to relate to the email messages coming from Microsoft annoucing patches.

Thanks.

Greg
10/2/2003 8:13 AM | Greg Pagan

# re: Welcome to the All-New PatchDayReview.com!

I just tried the link to register for the RSS feed and it did not work. You might want to check into it. I was using XP SP1 with IE6 SP1 and all I got was the ASPX code on the screen not the application.

Otherwise, the idea of the site and the information in it is very helpful. It provides a very succent want to get the information needed to stay current with Microsoft products.

Thanks

Greg
10/2/2003 8:18 AM | Greg Pagan

# re: Welcome to the All-New PatchDayReview.com!

Any news on the "next" flaw with the browser, allowing dial up users to be routed to lines costing $5 per minute?
10/2/2003 8:19 AM | Bob

# Suggestion / Request

could you explicitly put the 'TechNet/User Version' number right after the Product/Description/Article# so we don't have to manually cross-reference these labels?
e.g. OFFICE: Flaw in Visual Basic for Applications Could Allow Code Execution (822715 - MS03-037)


BTW - why does the "OFFICE: Unchecked buffer in Microsoft Access Snapshot Viewer Could Allow Code Execution (827104)" TechNet and User Version take you to the same MS03-037 - are they the same? not mention of 827104, only 822715.

nice idea,
thanks, jaxon
10/2/2003 9:26 AM | Jack Schweigel

# re: Welcome to the All-New PatchDayReview.com!

Likewise to Greg 8:18 using W2K and I.E. 6.0.2880.1106 and rec'd code not app.
10/2/2003 10:18 AM | Diana

# re: Welcome to the All-New PatchDayReview.com!

Diana,

The code is called RSS, and it contains entire contents of the site. It's not ASPX, it's actually XML. I'll be posting a tutorial on RSS and how to use it in the next several days.
10/2/2003 9:34 PM | Robert McLaws

# re: Welcome to the All-New PatchDayReview.com!

Hi Robert,

I like the site. Great idea and practical use for the .Text blog app!

Jerry Bryant
Microsoft IT Communities - Security
10/3/2003 9:38 AM | Jerry Bryant

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