When the Linux Ten Commandments were committed to stone, Number One was, "Thou shalt not use root for thy personal login." Too bad the masses didn't get the memo. They've left the Linux priesthood forever gnashing its teeth in denial. I captured a chat with one of the sinners.
The new breed of rootkits is operating system-agnostic. 64-bit implementations of BSD, Linux, MacOS X, Windows Vista are all considered vulnerable, as long as they're riding atop the wrong chips from AMD and Intel. VM rootkits quietly sieze control of the chips' virtualization technology to control or pervert any and every process the attacker chooses. Current defense possibilities are depressingly mechanical.
The fallout from an intentional dump of search data by AOL researchers is rapidly spreading. So far, those poisoned by the spill include porn-seekers, suicidals, murderers, other AOL users, the spillers, MySpace and Google. Beneficiaries include blog spammers, pay-per-click crooks, trial lawyers and competitors of every stripe.
When eBay's CEO Meg Whitman sends you a personal letter, it's only polite to respond... especially when it's about one of her pet crusades: Net Neutrality. Unfortunately, I discovered that her mail server could send mail, but appeared to be incapable of accepting replies. "Must be a DNS goof-up," thought I. So I posted my personal reply right here. Please don't read it if you are not Meg Whitman. It's personal.
Modernizing cellphone networks are forcing the elderly and handicapped to upgrade from cellphones they have used for years to the new breed of confusing devices with keys too small for aging eyes to see. I've found a few tricks you can use while you're waiting for America's too-slick cell phone marketers to catch up with the aging Baby Boom.
Microsoft security guru Jeff Jones is extending the meme that Windows is more secure than Linux. Ever curious, I decided to check out his assumptions and methodologies. Setting aside easy red herrings like the timing of fixes, I still came across judgment calls that less MS-centric researchers might have made differently.
By digging on the vastly improved US Census Bureau site, I found that there really isn't much poverty in my small midwestern city. Can local geeks use this knowledge to close the portion of the digital divide that's due to income? My plan's designed to satisfy Conservatives, Moderates, Liberals and Greens. If it doesn't please you, let's hear yours.
When we first built our newsblog, existing blogging software was dumb and ugly. So we wrote our own blogware in Python, using Zope as the platform. It was beyond state-of-the-art. But blogging software grew up with lots of exciting features, while simply maintaining our custom-built platform became more and more painful for our guy with more important things to do. In the end, we gained a lot, and lost a little.
Should a small town offer free mobile municipal wireless? A midwestern city confronted with the question digs through the possibilities. The second meeting of our Wireless Task Force reveals that robust private efforts are already under way. A question is emerging: How far should a city go to bridge the digital divide?
After a year of testing, French virus experts have concluded that Microsoft Office is less dangerous than its competitor, OpenOffice. In the short term, this is great news for Microsoft... outside of Europe. More anti-open source FUD will delay some planned migrations. Longer term, OpenOffice will benefit, as France and Germany pour resources into securing the product they now rely upon. The race is, as they say, afoot.
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