Micheal Espinola Jr's Blog

Adobe has released an update to fix the security vulnerability that I told you about back on February 25th. Please apply this fix as soon as possible.

To fix the problem, Adobe Reader must be upgraded to version 9.1.  This applies to all Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh users of the Adobe Reader. You can download and install Adobe Reader 9.1 here:

• http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Note: This fix is currently only for the version 9 Reader.  Fixes for version 7 and 8 Readers are in the works and scheduled for release by March 18 2009. The version 9 Reader can exist with older versions of the full Adobe acrobat product if need be.

Feel free to reuse the following text in your own notifications, as I wrote it to notify users within my company. It would be nice of you to send me a hello/thanks comment if you do!

Adobe has recently announced that there is a critical security vulnerability in their Acrobat and Reader products, and that they will be unable to release a patch for the issue until March 11, 2009.  This is a serious security issue that affects all current versions of Acrobat and Reader, going back to 2005 (which includes versions 7 through the current version 9.) Adobe Acrobat and Reader are the applications used to create and view .PDF files.

To help reduce the exposure you have to this security vulnerability, please make the following changes from within the Acrobat and Reader applications:

1. Launch Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader
2. Select Help → Update
   • After the update has completed (if necessary), complete the next steps within the application:
3. Select Edit → Preferences
4. Select the JavaScript Category
5. Un-check the “Enable Acrobat JavaScript” option
6. Click OK

Please note: These steps will not protect you completely from the security issue, but it will lessen the potential for being hacked. The actual fix for this issue is scheduled for release by Adobe on March 11, 2009.  Until then, as with other files you may download from the Internet, you must be careful and diligent regarding the source of any file you choose to transfer to and open on your computer.

Because of the lack of a patch or update for such an extended period of time, everyone needs to be particularly careful when opening PDF documents from potentially untrustworthy web sites on the Internet, via email, or from other sources.

It might not be the right time
I might not be the right one
But there’s something about us I want to say
Cause there’s something between us anyway
I might not be the right one
It might not be the right time
But there’s something about us I’ve got to do
Some kind of secret I will share with you
I need you more than anything in my life
I want you more than anything in my life
I’ll miss you more than anyone in my life
I love you more than anyone in my life

I just learned with great sadness that George Carlin passed yesterday, apparently because of heart failure. Myself having been born in the early 70’s, George Carlin has always been a cultural icon to me, and one of my all-time favorite comedians.

I had the great fortune of finally being able to catch his act last year.  He was just as cleaver as ever, and his routine was all that I could ever have wanted it to be. Although branded as a counter-culture troublemaker, his comedy was always well grounded and sensible.  Sensible in that we have to occasionally look back at ourselves and our culture, and see the wrong we are doing in our quest to be right and righteous.

George, you will be missed.

Ian McKellen has confirmed that he will reprise his role as Gandalf the Grey in the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit. Let the world rejoice in all the goodness of Ian McKellen’s portrayal of my all-time favorite archetype wizard.

But alas, learning of such things usually exposes me to more information than I need or want to know. Such as Peter Jackson handing the reins over to Guillermo del Toro to direct this Lord of the Rings prequel. BDT directing is a good thing, don’t get me wrong. I love what he did with Hellboy and El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth)… but … come on … why isn’t PJ handling TH’s parts 1 & 2?!

I attribute this near-travesty to New Line Cinema for succeeding in ticking off PJ enough that he went and attached himself as director to Steven Spielberg’s upcoming animated film, Tintin – before getting the issue resolved. I say “blech” on both counts.

I’m pleased as punch that PJ will executive produce the two-part prequel, and that he has agreed to collaborate with BDT on the project. But, in the long run I think his priorities have perhaps become en-lodged in some netherplace detrimental to his career. PJ instantly created himself a legacy with his extraordinary work on the LOTR trilogy. To relinquish that creative control and insight into establish character and storyline modifications, and to hand it over to another distinctly creative director with fantasy genre credibility … well, that just strikes me as a huge mistake to make regarding this franchise. I fear it will be something to be remembered and noticed for all time – blemishing one of the only truly good trilogies of my, or any time.