Linux Today Blog

April 20, 2010

Security FUD In Action: Not Windows' Fault, Nope, Not at All

The game of giving Microsoft a free pass on security flaws continues, despite the rapid growth of the world wide botnet and more Windows exploits roaming the planet than ever.

100 potential attacks per second blocked in 2009 fails to mention Windows, though it names various individual malwares such as Conficker, Hydraq, Sality.AE virus, the Brisv Trojan and the SillyFDC worm. It doesn't even use their full names: W32.Sality.AE, W32.SillyFDC, W32.downadup (Conficker). W32 is "Windows 32-bit."

It fails to identify vulnerable "PDF viewers" as Adobe Reader, and does not differentiate browser exploits by platform. The #1 unanswered security question from users is do Firefox exploits affect non-Windows users? I have yet to get a good answer to this.

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Posted by cschroder at 1:48 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

March 31, 2010

Groklaw: How One Person Can Do Big Deeds. Thanks PJ.

The endless SCO saga is finally at an end, and justice has prevailed. But without Groklaw, would it have ended differently?

Let me rephrase that: it will probably continue to sputter and emit random gases, because the nice SCO leadership and their backers are masters of weaving grand propositions out of fantasy, and perpetuating their fantasies in the seemingly non-functional US civil courts system. But for all non-Bizarro world purposes it is over. The SCO vs. Novell verdict settles the key question of who owns the Unix copyrights. Answer: not SCO. I know, it's a little more complex than that because there are several Unix variants. But as far as SCO's silly claims against Linux, it is definitively over.

Those of us who followed this loony saga from the beginning are wondering: What would have happened if Pamela Jones and Groklaw had not taken an interest in this case? Would there have been any semblance of truth anywhere? I think not.

Continue reading "Groklaw: How One Person Can Do Big Deeds. Thanks PJ."

Posted by cschroder at 12:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

March 10, 2010

All Hail Our Benevolent Corporate Overlords

After reading Electronics Manufacturers Use US Legal System to Thwart Hardware 'Hacks' I was all set to type a fiery response, but Linux Today readers beat me to it. In a nutshell, the tech industry is accelerating its attacks on our rights to do what we want with our own property.

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Posted by cschroder at 3:56 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

March 2, 2010

Keep Your Cloud, I'm a Customer Not a Consumer

The cloud hype is getting thicker and smellier every day. All the cloud excitement is coming from those who hope to profit from it, the vendors and breathless tech journalists who can't think of anything worthwhile to write about. They're working very hard to make it sound like a wonderful thing, a miracle of rare device that will transform life as we know it.

In related news, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Sasquatch, Yeti, and Elvis are all throwing a fabulous party at Graceland and everyone is invited. If you don't live in Memphis they'll send a private jet to pick you up.

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Posted by cschroder at 1:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 24, 2010

Open Source vs. the White Supremacists

A man who claims to be the head of the Aryan Nations says he wants to move their national headquarters into my little hometown in Eastern Oregon. This is alarming news, because we don't care to have organized crime, hatred, and intolerance invade our little community. He thinks we share his values and won't mind.

The Aryan Nations and related groups have been chronic thorns in the sides of the residents of Northern Idaho for decades. Oregon's own history is scarred by these groups; for one example, back in the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan had great influence in the state legislature, and to this day we're still finding their messes and cleaning them up.

But even though we are a rural area that has been especially hard-hit by the recession, we have some powerful tools that our predecessors did not have. Like Facebook.

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Posted by cschroder at 12:55 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

February 18, 2010

We're All Makers

I worry that modern Americans have lost both manual skills and the curiosity to explore how things work. I probably worry too much, but look how computers have progressed: from a text command prompt, to all kinds of rich GUis, to smartphones and PDAs, culminating in the iPad. The iPad doesn't even use a keyboard, all you do is grunt and point.

That's an exaggeration to be sure, because better tools are always good things. Still, there are two words in common usage that grate like fingernails on a blackboard: consume and consumer, and the especially odious consuming content. Fifteen years ago grumpy old geekbeards were muttering dark warnings about turning computers into televisions, and here we are. All of these fabulous advances, these wonderful high-tech power tools that make it possible for individuals to create things that used to be just for well-funded professionals, are being relentlessly pushed into functioning as fancier TVs.

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Posted by cschroder at 2:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

February 4, 2010

IT Salaries Projected to Rise in 2010

This article by David Needle, Slight Increase in IT Salaries a Ray of Hope is a much-needed bit of encouragement. He writes:

"Computer Economics found that IT organizations plan to increase operational budgets by a median of 1.8 percent in 2010, and that more than a third are planning to increase staff, restoring some of the positions shed over the past two years."

I know that for a lot of my friends, the best news is the part about hiring more staff. They've been over-stretched for a long time now, trying to do too much work with too few staff. The prospect of having a saner work schedule is going to make a lot of people happier. Having a sane work schedule is difficult enough, as tech culture seems to view that with disdain, and would rather say silly slogans like "Work smarter, not harder!" and "Don't let your work drive your life, let your life drive your work!" Which are code for "We own you."

Keep in mind there are wage and hour laws, and in most states they have real teeth. Salaried workers are protected too, and any expectation of massive unpaid overtime for salaried workers is most likely outside the law.

Posted by cschroder at 6:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 26, 2010

Fencing and Tollgating the Internet

This story about yet another attempt to raise a tollgate on the Internet deserves having some extra attention called to it.

"The players from Google and Vimeo do present a pretty serious problem, though. Each of these require a proprietary H.264 codec to be able to view them. These codecs aren't compatible with the royalty-free web standards that the rest of the web is built on. The fact that they are being so unabashedly hyped along with the new darling of the web - HTML5 - means that most people don't understand that something very dangerous is taking place behind the scenes...
"Remember, this is still very early in H.264's history so the licensing is very friendly, just like it used to be for MP3. The companies who own the IP in these large patent pools aren't in this for the fun of it - this is what they do. They patent and they enforce and then enjoy the royalties. If they are in a position to charge more, they will. We can expect that if we allow H.264 to become a fundamental web technology that we'll see license requirements get more onerous and more expensive over time, with little recourse."

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Posted by cschroder at 1:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 20, 2010

A no-cost Windows killer: On Sale Now, only $26!

You just can't make this stuff up. This alleged news article at Technology Marketing Corporation (there is a clue in the site name) makes grandiose, breathless claims about Ubuntu:

"Tired of Windows? Wish you could find an alternate operating system that will work on most PCs _ even those sold in the past decade? Reluctant to fatten Microsoft's coffers? Look no further than Ubuntu, a Linux operating system developed mostly by volunteers. Since the code in Ubuntu is what's called "open source," any talented developer can submit enhancements, have it reviewed, and have those improvements appear in the next release."

The punch line comes at the end of this piece.

Continue reading "A no-cost Windows killer: On Sale Now, only $26!"

Posted by cschroder at 1:13 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

A no-cost Windows killer: On Sale Now!

You just can't make this stuff up. This alleged news article at Technology Marketing Corporation (there is a clue in the name) makes grandiose, breathless claims about Ubuntu: