Practical Technology

for practical people.

January 4, 2011
by sjvn01
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The day of the password is done

When the popular Web site Gawker was hacked into recently, more than a million user IDs and passwords were released. If you were one of the people compromised that’s annoying — very annoying. Not that it’s a big deal that someone could log into a gossip site under your name. But many of those people used those same IDs and passwords on other sites that are a wee bit more important, such as LinkedIn. Now, that’s a problem.

What should you do about it? Well, I could tell you that you need to use different passwords for different sites; that you need to pick passwords other than that all-time favorite, 123456; and that you should change your passwords every month for every site. I’m not going to, though. It’s all good advice, mind you, but it’s also all pretty darn useless.

People never have, and never will, use good security practices. After more than 30 years of working with networks and security, I’m ready to give up on trying to get the general public to do the right things to keep themselves safe. In a company, it’s a different matter. It’s a pain, but if you keep at it and enforce the rules, eventually you’ll get most of the people to do the right things most of the time. But people at home? It’s not going to happen.

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January 3, 2011
by sjvn01
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Android’s Biggest Worry: Fragmentation

I like Android a lot. It’s Linux’s biggest end-user success story. Android has great applications. It works well for me in my Motorola Droid 2. And, Android’s smartphone market-share is growing fast. Indeed, analysts such as Piper Jaffray predict that eventually Android will become the number one smartphone operating system in the world. If, that is, everything goes right.

So what could go wrong? The iPhone wipes it off the map? I don’t think so. Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone is a great phone. But, you’ll never see new, inexpensive iPhones. Apple’s preferred place in the market is to be the Porsche of computers: they don’t sell cheap anything. Windows Phone 7? It’s better than ever, but that’s not saying much. Blackberry? Symbian? MeeGo? Too little, dead in the water, and not fast enough off the mark. No, what Android has to worry about isn’t the competition, it’s concerns are its friends.

You see, all the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), like Motorola and HTC put their own software, Sense UI and Motoblur respectively, on top of Android. Then, all the carriers add their own special-sauce of applications.

It can get messy. On top of this, there’s multiple current versions of Android out and supported at any given moment on the same hardware. While Dan Morrill, Google’s Open Source & Compatibility Program Manager, can say Android “Fragmentation is a bogeyman, a red herring, a story you tell to frighten junior developers,” it’s not. It’s a real problem.

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January 3, 2011
by sjvn01
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Five 2011 New Year Resolutions for Network Administrators

For the last few years, network administrators have, generally speaking, had it easy. All you had to do was maintain your network, albeit with less funding and fewer resources than ever. In 2011, though, you’re going to be asked to do more with less. This will not be easy. Here, for better of for worst, are the challenges you’ll be facing.

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December 30, 2010
by sjvn01
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A Game of Clue: What Killed Skype

Days after Skype, the popular Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP), crashed we finally know why Skype died for several days. Perhaps launching into what blasted Skype though you need to know how Skype works.

You need to keep in mind that Skype is a true peer-to-peer (P2P) network application. Indeed, if you trace back Skype’s ancestry you’ll find that its developers first cut their teeth on the Kazaa P2P file-sharing program. What’s important about that is that Skype, unlike client-server programs, relies on its client PCs to help carry voice communications.

If you’re a Skype user your PC may not just be an ordinary client, but it may be working as a Super Node (SN) as well. When you login to Skype, the odds are you’re not logging directly into the Skype login-servers but into a SN instead. The SN in turn, stores your Skype name, your e-mail address, and an encrypted version of your password.

Skype automatically and constantly modifies its network as users go off and on the service. With Skype installed, your PC may be used as a SN and you’ll never know it. As a SN, your PC will store the addresses of up to several hundred Skype users. If your PC isn’t behind a firewall and/or NAT (Network Address Translation), it may also be used to route calls.

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December 30, 2010
by sjvn01
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My 5 Essential Android Applications

There are lots of lists of the best Android applications. As the proud owner of a new Motorola Droid 2 and in-house tech. support for my wife’s Droid Pro, though, I started thinking about what the essential applications are for a new Android phone user.

Everyone uses devices in different ways. What works for me, may not work for you. Here’s where I’m coming from: I use my smartphone first as a phone and then as a way to receive information. I don’t try to work on a phone–even the over-sized Droid X.

I’m also not interested in texting. For some reason, even though instant messaging (IM) is second-nature to me, texting just never worked for me. If, like many other people, though texting is your life, I recommend you give chompSMS a try.

My friends who use it tell me they like that it includes contact pictures, signatures, and blacklisting to keep creeps off their phone. What they really love though is that they can text for free with their other friends who are using chompSMS. Free texting is a win in anyone’s book.

For my personal list though my first essential application is:

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December 27, 2010
by sjvn01
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The Top 5 Networking Stories of 2010

I’d much rather write about what was new and neat about networking in 2010, but the sad truth is I think the many of the most important networking stories in 2010 were about regulations rather than innovations.

That said, there was some “good news” about networking in 2010 as well. Number one with a bullet in my book was:

1. The Browser Wars Revived

Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari, take your pick, all the Web browsers got better in 2010. You can argue until you’re blue in the face about which one is better. It’s Chrome by the way.

Agree with me or not, though, the important point is that because of this competition all the Web browsers significantly improved during 2010. While Chrome and Firefox, the two big open-source browsers, made the most gains I have to say that Internet Explorer 9 looks pretty darn good. Now, if only IE 9 were available for XP and IE 6 would finally die. Die! Die! Die!

Ahem. Excuse me.

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