Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 6, 2009
by sjvn01
3 Comments

An important Linux fix

Most of the time you can go for months, years, without patching your Linux distribution and not be in any real danger. A recently uncovered security hole in the Linux kernel does deserve your attention.

Specifically, Earl Chew, a Linux developer, and, at about the same time, Brad Spengler, creator of the Linux security program Grsecurity, discovered that there was a possible null pointer error that could, in theory, enable non-root users grab administrator privileges. You don’t want that to happen.

This particular bug, known in developer circles as CVE-2009-3547, hits all modern versions of the Linux 2.6 kernel It’s been fixed in the upcoming 2.6.32 RC (release candidate), but unless you’re running on Linux’s bleeding edge, you’re not running that version of the kernel.

So chances are you might have this problem. I say might because for this security hole to be open the value to the mmap_min_addr pointer has to be zero. If it’s not, you’re safe.

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November 6, 2009
by sjvn01
2 Comments

Could Microsoft switch to Linux?

You’d expect, as my friend Preston Gralla did, that when someone says “proprietary software is eventually going to be doomed,” and that Microsoft’s future might best be served in releasing its own version of Linux that he’s a Linux fan. Wrong, this prophet of Windows doom and gloom was Keith Curtis, a former Microsoft Research staffer. Could he be right? I think the answer is yes and no.

Yes, proprietary software is on the decline. Forget about the free software ideology that holds that free access to code is morally right. Businesses have figured out that not only does open source tend to produce better code, it’s cheaper to produce it. Economic reality has made even Microsoft to, ever so reluctantly, embrace some open-source projects.

Sure you have to share the fruits of your efforts in open-source development, but you end up creating better code faster. As many developers have discovered it’s a lot easier to build on top of other programmer’s good work rather than waste time with proprietary software development constant reinvention of the wheel.

And, yes, Microsoft could release a Linux of its own with a Windows Aero-like interface on top of it. Why not? It’s not that hard to make a Linux desktop distribution.

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November 4, 2009
by sjvn01
2 Comments

Linux for grandma & grandpa

Like a lot of technically savvy people I’m the default technical support person for friends and family. I’ve no problem with that, but I can’t spend all my time answering my mother-in-law’s questions and worrying over what malware she might stumble over. So, I put desktop Linux on her laptop and ever since then I’ve had a lot fewer late night calls.

What’s that? Linux is much too complicated and techie for someone who might have trouble navigating Outlook Express? Sorry, that’s not been the case for years. Take a look at the new Ubuntu 9.10, and you’ll see what I mean.

Besides, think about it. If your older relatives are like mine they use the desktop for e-mail and the Internet and that’s about it. Firefox, with GMail for e-mail, looks and works the same both on Linux and Windows.

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November 4, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

Guard your Wi-Fi for your own sake

Recently I ran into the Internet connection problem from hell. My 6Mbps down/512Kbps AT&T DSL connection started running at speeds I hadn’t seen since my dial-up modem days. When you do what I do for a living, trying to work with an Internet connection as slow as that is like trying to run a marathon while having an asthma attack.

It turns out I’d run into a perfect storm of multiple problems, but one of those problems surprised me. My network was enduring a SYN attack… from a neighbor’s malware-infected Windows PC. I was getting hit because they were, sometimes, using my open Wi-Fi AP (Access Point) to connect to the Internet.

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November 4, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

5 Reasons why Ubuntu 9.10 is better than Windows 7

OK, I’m a Linux guy you already know I’m going to come down in favor of Ubuntu 9.10.. But, I actually like Windows 7 as well. Which lead me to the question, why do I still prefer Linux?

1) Security

First, Windows 7 is no more secure than Windows has ever been. Is it better than Vista? Sure. Is it faster than XP? Well, not so much. Does it run a ton of popular applications? You betcha. But, is Windows 7 still prone to an endless array of malware programs and stuck with a pre-Internet security model? Yes, yes it is.

Now I can keep a Windows PC safe. I run my own Windows PCs and servers and help with friends. And, while I’m good at computers, I’m sure anyone who’s reasonably smart can manage it as well. But, you see, I’m lazy. I don’t want to always be keeping my eye on Windows threats; I don’t want to worry about being hacked while shopping online; and to have to be careful about avoiding clicking on a crooked link in yet another malicious e-mail letter.

With Linux, I can be lazy and safe.

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November 3, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

Patch and Patch Again

Why do I prefer Linux to Windows? I could count the ways, but here’s a big one. When mistakes are made in Linux, they tend to get fixed and that’s the end of it. With Windows, it often doesn’t work that way.

Take, for example, Microsoft recent release of its biggest set of security patches ever. This uber-patch set fixed 34-different bugs.

Or, well, to be more exact, it tried to fix 34-different security holes. It turns out that it didn’t fix some problems and it caused some new ones. My particular favorite had been the one that completely disabled Communications Server. That ‘fix’ nailed every version of Communications Server from Live Communication Server 2005 on up to Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

What kind of quality assurance allows a company to put out a patch that doesn’t just get something wrong, it actually stops a major office server program dead in its tracks? The word ‘awful’ is what comes to my mind.

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