Practical Technology

for practical people.

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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September 5, 2011
by sjvn01
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Improve Your Security: Don’t Be Stupid

Two recent incidents brought today’s column topic to mind. The first was when a friend asked for help on a Windows PC that was being eaten alive by malware. The second was when an acquittance gave away some personal information to a link from an e-mail that purported to be from Suntrust bank. What did these two things have in common? If either person had had better than a room-temperature IQ, neither incident would have happened.

The Windows user had never used any anti-virus software. No, I’m not kidding. Never. I’m sure he’s not the only one. If you’re a Windows user, you cannot — I repeat cannot —be on the Internet without anti-virus software. Your system will be infected. It will probably get a case of malware within the first day you’re using it. At the very, very least, get Windows Defender from Microsoft. Better still, give one of the programs I recommend in Free anti-virus software: The best and the rest a try.

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September 5, 2011
by sjvn01
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DNS hack attack mutilates multiple Web sites

When I first heard that The Register, a popular United Kingdom, technology news site had been hacked, I was doubtful that the site itself had actually been cracked. The first headline I saw read, The Register Hacked. That isn’t what I saw. To me, it looked like a typical Domain Name System (DNS) hijack attack. I was right. What I didn’t know at the time, though, that more than a hundred Web sites, several of them major ones, were having their addresses redirected to the wrong location.

So, when you went to The Register, or sites such as Coke-Cola, UPS, or the Telegraph newspaper, you were dumped to a black page stating “TurkguvenLigi” and “4Sept. We TurkGuvenLigi declare this day as World Hackers Day- Have fun;) h4ck y0u”. The message changed several times, but it usually just displayed a similar nuisance message, rather than any attempt to steal information from unwary site visitors.

It appears, according to Zone-H, a site that monitors Web site attacks, that at least 186 Websites were attacked. In addition to the ones I already mentioned, other companies that were affected included Adobe, Dell, Microsoft, Harvard University and, oh the irony, security companies BitDefender, F-Secure, and Secunia.

The fact that even security companies were hit by this attack underlines the point though that while you can secure your own site, you can’t secure the Internet. You need to make sure your Internet partners–ISPs and DNS providers–also have their security act together before you can assume that your customers and clients will be able to safely reach your site.

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September 2, 2011
by sjvn01
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Google Chrome Web browser kicks rump, takes names

Internet Explorer (IE) 9 is probably the best Web browser Microsoft ever shipped. Unfortunately for Microsoft fans, it’s too little, too late. While Firefox has fallen into the doldrums, Google’s Chrome Web browser is slowly, but surely becoming the most popular Web browser of all.

According to Net Applications, Chrome, which just turned three years old, is now up to 15.5% of the market in August 2011. Internet Explorer market share continued its long decline and hit a new low of 55.3 percent from last month’s 56 percent. Firefox continued its decline as well and hit 22.6 percent. Apple’s Safari browser stayed steady at 4.64 percent. The other Web smaller Web browsers also stayed static.

I strongly suspect that Chrome is going to continue to catch up with IE and Firefox and eventually surpass them both. By year’s end, I think Chrome will pass Firefox. It will take until late 2012 for Chrome to surpass IE, but I can see it happening.

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