Watch Out for Newer Java Versions Not Printing

[Linda Kozak]

I work in a school district where several teachers assign students to type their weekly vocab words into Wordle and print.  I started getting reports of some students noting being able to print their Wordles. 

 

Tested it on my system and it would not print either.  

 

I'm in charge of keeping all of our desktop images (physical and virtual) updated and I usually install the latest versions of Java and Adobe products about once a month.   I tested it on an image that I haven't updated since November 2012.  And it worked!

 

So on my system I uninstalled the latest version of Java 7 Update 17 (build 1.7.0_17-b02). Then I downloaded an Archived version of Java from Oracle site ( Java 7 Update 4). This is a version that I know works not sure if about any of the ones between Update 4 and 17.

 

I'm hoping that Wordle will be updated to run with the latest version soon.  I'll have to make the decision on whether or not it's worth downgrading the Java version on current images so they can use Wordle or not. 

 

Note: This is on Windows 7 using either IE8 or 9.

 

 

 

[Jonathan Feinberg]

On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 5:29 PM, Linda Kozak <linda....@gmail.com> wrote:

 

So on my system I uninstalled the latest version of Java 7 Update 17 (build 1.7.0_17-b02). Then I downloaded an Archived version of Java from Oracle site ( Java 7 Update 4). This is a version that I know works not sure if about any of the ones between Update 4 and 17.

This is a reckless thing to do, analogous to driving without your seat belt on because that makes it easier to reach the gun in your glove compartment. The reason Java updates itself so frequently is because bad people figure out how to exploit bugs in Java's security in order to hijack your computer for their purposes.

 

 I'm hoping that Wordle will be updated to run with the latest version soon.

There's nothing Wordle can do to work any better with recent updates to Java; the printing problems are due to bugs in the Java runtime.

--
Jonathan Feinberg  j...@pobox.com  http://MrFeinberg.com/

[Linda Kozak]

Please note Mr. Feinberg...that I don't plan on or anticipate rolling back our Java updates to accomodate it's inability to not work with Wordle.  I understand the security risks.  I will just have to explain to the teachers that using Wordle to it's full ability will not be possible until the issue is resolved.   They will just have to Snip and Paste into Word to print their assignments. 

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Linda Kozak

Azle ISD

Technology Specialist