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.