Practical Technology

for practical people.

December 30, 2011
by sjvn01
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The Top Five Linux Stories of 2011

Just like with networking, I looked at my five most popular Linux stories of the last year,

How to install Google’s Chrome OS

Review: Barnes & Nobles’ Nook Color goes Android Tablet

The Five Best Desktop Linux Distributions

Five Reasons why Google’s Linux Chromebook is a Windows killer

Sun CEO explicitly endorsed Java’s use in Android: What do you say now Oracle?

and while they’re all fine stories, I can’t say that they’re the most significant stories of the year. They did, however, inspire me with the ideas for my list of 2011’s most important Linux stories. So, with no further adieu, here from least to most important, is my list.

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December 30, 2011
by sjvn01
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Go Daddy really and truly opposes SOPA now

here’s nothing like getting kicked in the teeth by your customers to make a company see reason. When Internet registry and Web site hosting company Go Daddy first realized that supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a misguided Internet copyright and censorship bill, wasn’t a smart idea, Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman did a half-assed job of backing away from SOPA. A few days later, and quite a few lost customers later, Go Daddy has decided to really and truly oppose SOPA.

The first time around, when Adelman announced Go Daddy’s opposition to SOPA, he waffled saying, “Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation-but we can clearly do better. It’s very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.”

Now, after the Reddit Go Daddy protest gathered steam; Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales announced that he would be moving Wikipedia’s domain names from Go Daddy; and, last but not least, aggressive ads from competiting Internet domain registry and hosting companies such as Namecheap, Adelman has had a real change of heart.

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December 30, 2011
by sjvn01
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Verizon backs off $2 bill payment charge

It must have seemed like just another day for Verizon Wireless executives. “I know,” someone in the CFO’s office said, “We’ll charge people who make one-time credit or debit card payments on the phone or online $2 to pay their bill.” It must have seen like another fine way to nickel and dime their customers and make the bottom line better. Then, the customers got word of it and all hell broke loose. A day later and Verizon announced it would drop this new charge.

In their statement, Verizon said, “Verizon Wireless has decided it will not institute the fee for online or telephone single payments that was announced earlier this week.” Why? “The company made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions. The company continues to encourage customers to take advantage of the numerous simple and convenient payment methods it provides.”

Dan Mead, Verizon Wireless’ president and CEO added, that, “At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time.” You think?

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December 28, 2011
by sjvn01
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Wi-Fi Protected Setup is Busted

I’ve never trusted Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) on my Wi-Fi access points (AP) and routers. I’ve always thought that anything that was that easy to set up had to be easy to hack. It turns out my gut was right. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) has confirmed that security researcher Stefan Viehböck has found a security hole big enough to drive a network through WPS.

According to Viehböck, he took a look at WPS and found “a few really bad design decisions which enable an efficient brute force attack, thus effectively breaking the security of pretty much all WPS-enabled Wi-Fi routers. As all of the more recent router models come with WPS enabled by default, this affects millions of devices worldwide.” CERT agrees.

How bad is it? CERT states that “An attacker within range of the wireless access point may be able to brute force the WPS PIN and retrieve the password for the wireless network, change the configuration of the access point, or cause a denial of service.”

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December 28, 2011
by sjvn01
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The CIO’s Nightmare: Intellectual Property Lawsuits

u can’t read tech websites these days without seeing news of yet another patent, copyright, design, or trademark lawsuit. You might be distracted by current events, but even long out of date programs such as Microsoft Office 95 are still being fought over in courts today.

You don’t need to be a Google or Motorola to have intellectual property (IP) lawsuit worries. Fortunately, you can you do work to prepare and prevent these issues from giving you a very bad day.

First, get a grip on threats your company might be facing. “The assessment of these type of corporate risks requires a team approach in which the CIO needs to be an integral player,” says Mark F. Radcliffe, a lawyer and partner at DLA Piper. “The most important issue is determining in which suits the goal is receiving the payment of royalties – all patent trolls, such as Intellectual Ventures and Microsoft in the smartphone wars — and which are competitive, with the intention to stop distribution of a product, such as [what] Polaroid did with Kodak on instant cameras.”

You may able to work your away around lawsuits where your attacker’s goal is simply to get a piece of your profits. But, if an IP lawsuit’s target is to put you out of business, get the nastiest IP attorneys you can afford, and prepare to fight it out to the bitter end.

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December 28, 2011
by sjvn01
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The Army goes Android

The U.S. military stands to be stuck in its way when it comes to technologies. For ages the only smartphone you could use in Department of Defense (DOD) operations was a Blackberry. Now, as first reported by Stars and Stripes, you can use your Android phone and tablet on DOD business and with DOD networks.

Don’t get in too much in a hurry to try to connect your new Amazon Kindle Fire or Samsung Galaxy Nexus to your military Wi-Fi network when you get back to base. The DOD’s new Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) only approves Android 2.2 and that only on Dell devices. In other words, you can use it if you have a Dell Venue smartphone or, the now discontinued, Dell Streak tablet line. Sigh!

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