Practical Technology

for practical people.

September 9, 2011
by sjvn01
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Microsoft’s online services briefly go dark

This has not been a good month for the Internet’s core address system: the Domain Name System (DNS). First, there was a man-in-the-middle attack on numerous Web site users caused by a Turkish cracker. Now, according to Microsoft, many of its online services were disabled by a DNS failure.

At first, some people thought this collapse of Office 365, Hotmail, SkyDrive, and other Windows Live programs might be due to problems with Windows Azure cloud or other Windows server problems. It quickly became apparent though that it was a DNS problem.

Microsoft’s senior vice president for Windows Live, Chris Jones, has been keeping users up to date on how the company is handling the problem on the Inside Windows Live blog. By 12:45 AM Eastern time, Jones reported that “We believe we have restored service for all customers at this time. We will continue our investigation into the root cause of these issues and post an update following our investigation. Again we appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.”

While an easy fix, it wasn’t an instant fix. At that time, Microsoft had only corrected its DNS problem with their master DNS servers.

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September 8, 2011
by sjvn01
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A Google Android and Java history lesson

Recently, some people were shocked-shocked I tell you-to discover that Google had looked at Java to help create Android’s Dalvik and that Google kept its Android source code to itself and its closest partners until the final product was released to the public. Oh please. There’s nothing new here. It’s always been that way and everyone who knows anything about Android’s history already knew that.

First, there’s the accusation that Android used Java code in creating its Dalvik virtual machine (VM). This is news? When Android first came out, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, then Java’s owner, greeted the news of Android’s birth with “heartfelt congratulations.”

Oh, by the way, anyone could look, use, and, yes, copy Java’s code too. You see, Sun had open-sourced Java under the GPLv2 in November 2006. Sun wanted Google and anyone else to use and copy its code. That’s kind of the whole point of open-sourcing a program don’t you know.

So there you have it. From day one Android was using Java. I knew that. Sun knew that. Anyone who ever developed in Android knew that.

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September 7, 2011
by sjvn01
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Carol Bartz at Yahoo: Set up to fail?

Let me say this straight out: I think Carol Bartz was a great CEO. She worked miracles at Autodesk. Bartz took a company headed straight to hell and transformed it into a profitable giant. At Autodesk, though, she had a free hand to set the company’s course. At Yahoo, her hands were tied with a lousy board of directors who had already set a strategic course that pointed Yahoo straight at the rocks. Bartz was doomed from the start.

Look at the record. Bartz made multiple smart moves to get Yahoo back on track, but the company was already sinking underneath her. Frankly, I blame Yahoo’s stick-in-the-mud board. As my old-friend Charlie Cooper put it, “With a board of directors as incompetent as this one, even the most talented CEO would be hard pressed to engineer a Yahoo turnaround.” Amen.

Let’s take the way-back machine to Yahoo 2009 shall we? Yahoo has beaten back a hostile takeover attempt by Microsoft, knocked back a related proxy fight with Carl Icahn, many of its best executives have left and it has a failed AdSense/search deal with Google to its “credit.”

When I say “hostile” by the way I meant that then Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang thought Microsoft’s $47 billion offer was “substantially undervalued.” Let me check, yes, a bit more than two years later, Yahoo’s market-cap is $17.1 billion. Great job Yang!

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September 7, 2011
by sjvn01
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Mainframe Ubuntu Linux?

When you think of “Ubuntu Linux,” you probably think of the community Linux distribution and the Linux desktop. That’s great, but Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, also wants you to think of Ubuntu as a server and cloud operating system platform. To that end, Canonical has been working with IBM to get Ubuntu certified on IBM’s high-end System P Power hardware line and System z mainframes.

Yes, that’s right little Ubuntu Linux may soon be certified and running on top-of-the-line IBM enterprise hardware. Before this, Canonical worked successfully with IBM on bringing Ubuntu certifications for IBM’s x86-powered System x and BladeCenter lines.

Officially, all Canonical has to say is “Our company policy is that we don’t comment on any rumours that might be circulating. We’ll of course keep you well informed of any news that comes out of Canonical.” Away from public relations though I’m hearing that Canonical and IBM have working hard on expanding Ubuntu’s reach on IBM hardware.

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September 6, 2011
by sjvn01
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Fake SSL certificates pirate Web sites

There’s never much you could really trust in computer security, but you could usually put your faith in a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connection being secure. The combination of the Web’s HTTP and security provided by the Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocols was a gold standard of Internet security. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. Now we need to be wary of those as well thanks to DigiNotar, a Dutch Certificate Authority (CA), being cracked and then issuing fake SSL certificates.

Here’s how this newest network security fiasco came about. DigiNotar was cracked on August 28th by a Farsi speaking cracker, probably from Iran. Once in, he was able to issue public key certificates for numerous legitimate sites, such as Google and Microsoft to various malicious ISPs.

So, what did that mean for users? Say you were in Tehran and you wanted to check your Gmail account. If you log into your account, and your ISP has been corrupted or is in on the SSL certificate fraud, it would look like you have a normal secure connection to Gmail. Wrong.

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September 6, 2011
by sjvn01
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No Android forks here

Yes, Android has a forking problem. Google forked its mobile, open-source operating system into two versions: Android 2.x for smartphones and Android 3.x for tablets earlier this year. It also doesn’t help Android any that there are so many different supported versions out in the market. But, what Amazon and Baidu are doing with their forthcoming tablets has nothing to do with forking Android.

Let’s take a closer look at these so-called “forks” shall we? From what we know of the forthcoming Android Kindle tablet, it’s going to be running Android. I expect it to be running Android 3.x Honeycomb, but since the initial model will be a 7? display tablet it could run say Android 2.3.3 or 2.3.4.

Let me underline that, the Amazon Kindle, despite what you may read elsewhere, is going to be running Android. The interface, however, will be different from the ones we currently see on other Android smartphones and tablets. Specifically, it’s going to be designed to work well with Amazon’s Web site and Amazon-branded applications.

That doesn’t make it a fork. Indeed, that’s no more a “fork” of Android than using KDE 4.x, GNOME 3, or Unity as your desktop GUI forks Linux. You’re simply choosing to use a different desktop. Under the surface, it’s still Linux.

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