Monday, April 16, 2012
Meet Maine's New Governor... Paul LePage
Meet Maine's New Governor --- In case you haven't heard about this guy before, his name will stick in your mind! The new Maine Governor, Paul LePage is making New Jersey's Chris Christie look like an enabler. He isn't afraid to say what he thinks. Judging by the comments, every time he opens his mouth, his popularity goes up.
He brought down the house at his inauguration when he shook his fist toward the media box and said, "You're on notice! I've inherited a financially troubled State to run. Observe...cover what we do... but don't whine if I don't waste time responding to your every whim just for your amusement."
During his campaign for Governor, he was talking to commercial fishermen who are struggling because of federal fisheries rules. They complained that 0bama brought his family to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park for a long Labor Day holiday and found time to meet with union leaders, but wouldn't talk to the fishermen. LePage replied, "I'd tell him to go to hell and get out of my State." The Lame Stream Media crucified LePage, but he jumped 6 points in the pre-election poll.
The Martin Luther King incident was a political sandbag, which brought him National exposure. The 'lame stream' media crucified him, but word on the street is very positive. The NAACP specifically asked LePage to spend MLK Day visiting black inmates at the Maine State Prison. He told them that he would meet with ALL inmates, regardless of race, if he were to visit the prison. The NAACP balked and then put out a news release claiming falsely that he refused to participate in any MLK events. He read it in the paper for the 1st time the next morning while being driven to an event and went ballistic because none of the reporters had called him for comment before running the NAACP release.
He arrived at that event & said in front of a TV camera, "If they want to play the race card on me they can kiss my ass", and he reminded them that he has an adopted black son from Jamaica and that he attended the local MLK Breakfast every year that he was mayor of Waterville. (He started his morning there on MLK Day.) He then stated that there's a right way and a wrong way to meet with the Governor, and he put all special interests on notice that press releases, media leaks, and all demonstrations would prove to be the wrong way. He said any other group, which acted like the NAACP could expect to be at the bottom of the Governor's priority list!
He then did the following, and judging from local radio talk show callers, his popularity increased even more: The State employees union complained because he waited until 3 P.M. before closing State offices and facilities and sending non-emergency personnel home during the last blizzard. The prior Governor would often close offices for the day with just a forecast before the first flakes. (Each time the State closes for snow, it costs the taxpayers about $1 million in wages for no work in return.) LePage was CEO of the Marden's chain of discount family bargain retail stores before election as governor. He noted that State employees getting off work early could still find lots of retail stores open to shop. So, he put the State employees on notice by announcing: "If Marden's is open, Maine is open!"
He told State employees: "We live in Maine in the winter, for heaven's sake, and should know how to drive in it. Otherwise, apply for a State job in Florida !" Governor LePage symbolizes what America needs; Refreshing politicians who aren't self-serving and who exhibit common sense. THE LAW IS THE LAW So "if" the US government determines that it is against the law for the words "under God" to be on our money, then, so be it. And "if" that same government decides that the "Ten Commandments" are not to be used in or on a government installation, then, so be it. I say, "so be it," because I would like to be a law abiding US citizen. I say, "so be it," because I would like to think that smarter people than I are in positions to make good decisions. I would like to think that those people have the American public's best interests at heart. BUT, YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE I'D LIKE?
Since we can't pray to God, can't Trust in God and cannot post His Commandments in Government buildings, I don't believe Government (Federal, State and Local) and its employees should participate in Easter and Christmas celebrations which honor the God that our government is eliminating from many facets of American life. I'd like my mail delivered on Christmas, Good Friday, Thanksgiving & Easter. After all, it's just another day. I'd like the" US Supreme Court to be in session on Christmas, Good Friday, Thanksgiving & Easter as well as Sundays." After all, it's just another day. I'd like the Senate and the House of Representatives to not have to worry about getting home for the "Christmas Break." After all it's just another day.
I'm thinking a lot of my taxpayer dollars could be saved, if all government offices & services would work on Christmas, Good Friday & Easter. It shouldn't cost any overtime since those would be just like any other day of the week to a government that is trying to be "politically correct." In fact.... I think our government should work on Sundays (initially set aside for worshipping God....) because, after all, our government says that it should be just another day.... What do you all think???? If this idea gets to enough people, maybe our elected officials will stop giving in to the "minority opinions" and begin, once again, to represent the "majority" of ALL of the American people. SO BE IT...
Monday, May 30, 2011
Photoshop is heavy software that might make it slow on your system. GIMP, in contrast is very fast and does not require much of system resources.
More Here...
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Numerous websites have implemented the Facebook Like button to let Facebook members share their interests, websites, news, whatever...
It is an important business tool for content providers. However, that like button is also used to place cookies on the user’s computer, regardless whether a user actually uses the button when visiting a website.
This allows Facebook to track and trace users and to process their data. It appears that non-Facebook members can also be traced via the Like button. This means that Facebook’s tentacles reach far beyond their own platform and members.
Due to the extensive web coverage with Like buttons, Facebook has a potential connection with all web users. Web activity can be linked to individual accounts or a separate data set can be created for individuals who are not (yet) a Facebook member.
The hidden collection of data on browsing behaviour and the creation of individual data sets has implications for the privacy of individuals. Big Brother Baby...
For The Complete (PDF) Article ... Click
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Creeper virus made its debut in 1971. The Creeper looked for a machine on the network, transfered to it, then displayed the message “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!” and then starts over, thereby hoping from system to system. It was a pure proof of concept that tied the roots of computer viruses to those of the Internet.
Since then, the number of malware instances boomed from 1,300 in 1990, to 50,000 in 2000, to over 200 million in 2010. Besides sheer quantity, viruses, which were originally used as academic proof of concepts, quickly turned into geek pranks, then evolved into cyber-criminal tools. By 2005, the virus scene had been monetized, and virtually all viruses were developed with the sole purpose of making money... More
Thursday, March 17, 2011
1) ASSP: (short for "Anti-Spam SMTP Proxy") humbly calls itself "the absolute best SPAM fighting weapon that the world has ever known!" It works with most SMTP servers to stop spam and scan for viruses (using ClamAV). Operating System: OS Independent.
2) MailScanner: Used by more than 100,000 sites, MailScanner leverages Apache's SpamAssassin project and ClamAV to provide anti-spam and anti-virus capabilities. It's designed to sit on corporate mail gateways or ISP servers to protect end users from threats. Operating System: OS Independent.
3) SpamAssassin: This Apache project declares itself "the powerful #1 open-source spam filter." It uses a variety of different techniques, including header and text analysis, Bayesian filtering, DNS blocklists, and collaborative filtering databases, to filter out bulk e-mail at the mail server level. Operating System: primarily Linux and OS X, although Windows versions are available. More
Tuesday, March 01, 2011

The Google Apps Marketplace offers products and services designed for Google users, including installable apps that integrate directly with Google Apps. Installable apps are easy to use because they include single sign-on, Google's universal navigation, and some even include features that integrate with your domain's data. More
Thursday, February 24, 2011
That's the question the Financial Times was asking last week, and it's a rather strange question, when you think about it. It really begs another question: Was there ever, let alone still, anyone who thought Linux was "just for start-ups." Who would these people be? People who think a Windows server OS is a secure, stable platform that every established company should be using?
The sorts of people who have the bright idea of putting Apple hardware in their data centers? Surely not anyone who has the slightest understanding of what Linux is capable of, or who understands that open source operating systems are much more than a solution for cash-starved start-ups trying to do computing on the cheap. MORE
Saturday, January 29, 2011

2011: The Year of the Linux Tablet
For what seems like forever, we’ve been hearing the Linux fanboys of the world proclaiming that the coming year will be the “Year of the Linux Desktop.” It’s has become somewhat of a joke amongst Linux naysayers and even with the Linux faithful. I don’t know if we’ll ever see the year of the Linux Desktop or not, but it looks like 2011 is going to be the year of the Linux Tablet. MORE
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Open source Web development tools have come a long way. The open source community offers a huge array of applications that are useful to Web developers and designers. In many cases, these open source tools are even more widely used than their closed source counterparts. And some open source Web tools don't even have any real closed source competitors.
As these tools mature, it's becoming more and more difficult to sort them into categories. Some blogging platforms are robust enough to build an entire site. Content management systems often have some features you usually find in Web app development frameworks, and text editors begin to look more and more like full integrated development environments (IDEs).
While that makes it tougher to organize our lists, it's good news for designers and developers. As Web tools offer more features, it makes Web professionals' jobs easier, and it opens up new opportunities for hobbyist and home users whose coding skills might not be as well developed. MORE
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
"The Alpha 1 Release of Ubuntu 11.04, often known as 'Natty Narwhal,' is intended as a developer snapshot of the next major Ubuntu version, which is due in April." So, if you want to try Unity and Wayland before your neighbors do, this is the time.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Russian government recently made a surprising decision: to create a national operating system based on GNU/Linux. The motivation for this development is crystal clear: escaping the Microsoft Windows monopoly. Russia will gain two other huge advantages due to the shift: lower software expenditures and full access to the operating system's source code.
The source code access will allow any discovered security flaws to be quickly fixed. Russia appears to be following China's lead. A few years ago, China also decided to shift to a Linux-based operating system known as Red Flag Linux. More
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Mark Shuttleworth has announced that Ubuntu is dropping the GNOME desktop as the default and switching to it’s own, in-house desktop. That desktop is the Unity desktop which was designed for the netbook environment. Whether you like this move or not, it’s happening. But what is Unity? And how do you experience it now, instead of waiting... More
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Microsoft has seen a dramatic drop in the number of computers infected with Waledac, a piece of malicious software affiliated with a botnet that was once responsible for a massive amount of spam.
In the second quarter of this year, the company cleaned only 29,816 computers infected with Waledac, down from 83,580 computers in the... More
Friday, September 24, 2010
Ailurus is cross-Linux-distribution GPL software. It is a simple application installer and GNOME tweaker, which aims at making Linux easier to use, for newcomers.
Who is the target audience of Ailurus?
The target audience of Ailurus is the newcomer to linux, e.g., the people who uses Linux for not more than one month.
What does Ailurus hope to do?
Ailurus hopes to reduce the difficulty which newcomers encounter when they are using Linux.
Ailurus hopes to promote popular open-source software.
Ailurus hopes to promote open-source software which is elegant but has not entered official repository.
http://code.google.com/p/ailurus/
Thursday, September 23, 2010
What is VortexBox? It’s a Fedora-based, single-purpose distribution that turns a PC or virtual machine into a music server or jukebox. Basically, you install VortexBox onto a machine and it will serve up your media to networked media players like iTunes, Sonos, an XBox 360, PS3, or streamed directly to other OSes. More
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The British Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron has called on civil servants to make suggestions on how the government can save money. The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has published a list of ideas to "help get more for less" in order to "tackle the deficit" as part of the Spending Review.
The 8th item on the newly published list suggests that the whole of government, including the NHS and the Education services, migrate from Microsoft products, such as Windows and Office, to Linux and other open source software, specifically mentioning the OpenOffice.org office suite. More
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Forget about viruses... If the computer shuts down without asking, if there are strange windows corrupted, if there are other mischief without your asking, if e-mail sent to addresses in the address book without your knowledge, then your computer probably has contract a virus or malware. The main reason that happens is that Windows uses. More
Monday, August 09, 2010
Ekiga.net is a free Voice over IP, commonly VoIP or internet telephony, service provider. Using VoIP is like using electronic mails:
* You need an address. That's mainly what Ekiga.net is for: giving free SIP-Addresses.
* You need software to use this address. Any SIP aware software will do, but we recommend the free Ekiga softphone, which has Instant-Messaging, Audio and Video built-in. Visit them today at: https://www.ekiga.net
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Hackers are continually relying upon JavaScript vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and IE with Advanced Persistent Threat attacks used to evade detection and thwart security controls. More
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a developer. App Inventor requires NO programming knowledge. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior. More Here...
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Looking to get the most out of your computer, but don’t want to spend the money on a bunch of new software without a test run first? We’ve put together a list of the best free software that you don’t need money to buy. From Microsoft Office alternatives to free video conferencing to utilities that get your new computer off to a good start and keep it running smoothly to a classic game. More Here.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Chromium OS is an open-source project that aims to build an operating system that provides a fast, simple, and more secure computing experience for people who spend most of their time on the web, it's all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs. More
Thursday, June 03, 2010
MeeGo is an open source, Linux project which brings together the Moblin project, headed up by Intel, and Maemo, by Nokia, into a single open source activity. MeeGo integrates the experience and skills of two significant development ecosystems, versed in communications and computing technologies. The MeeGo project believes these two pillars form the technical foundations for next generation platforms and usages in the mobile, netbook and device platforms.
http://meego.com
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Apple fixed the so-called "carpet bomb" vulnerability in its Safari browser for Windows after Microsoft issued a security advisory about it in July 2008, but to date the very same flaw in Safari for OS X is still unpatched. More
Friday, May 21, 2010
Google TV is a new experience made for television that combines the TV you know and love with the freedom and power of the Internet. Watch an overview video below, sign up for updates, and learn more about how to develop for Google TV.
http://www.google.com/tv
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Sick of the barrage of Facebook privacy scandals? Don't trust a multi-billion-dollar corporation with your photos and personal information? Well, there may be an online social network for you yet.
It's called Diaspora, and it's an idea from four New York University students who say in a video pitch that big online companies like Facebook shouldn't be allowed to have access to, and to some degree "own," all of the personal data that flows in and out of their social networks.
The site, which is still in development, has been dubbed "the anti-Facebook" by tech blogs. More Here
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Cray Inc. — maker of some of the fastest supercomputers in the world — released the third-generation of its super-operating system. What makes it so super special? For one, it's Linux — and that's always a good thing. More...
Friday, April 09, 2010
How to install XMMS in Ubuntu Karmic Koala (9.10) add the third party repository, to install it follow these steps :
Login as root and add your repository by type :
$ sudo su
$ gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
Add this line and save :
deb http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/karmic ./
deb-src http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~knuta/xmms/karmic ./
Update and Install
$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install xmms
To run xmms, create launcher, right click on the desktop, choose create launcher, choose browse, go to /usr/bin then find xmms (application/x-executable) click ok.
And, Enjoy...
Monday, April 05, 2010
Have you ever wanted to convert files without the need to download software? Now you can, up to 100mb at: http://www.zamzar.com
Many computer users have an insatiable appetite to deepen their understanding of computer operating systems and computer software. Linux users are no different in that respect. At the same time as developing a huge range of open source software, the Linux community fortunately has also written a vast range of documentation in the form of books, guides, tutorials, HOWTOs, man pages, and other help to aid the learning process. Some of this documentation is intended specifically for a newcomer to Linux, or those that are seeking to move away from a proprietary world and embrace freedom. More Here...
Monday, March 29, 2010
While gaming on Linux has suffered some recent setbacks with id Software and Atari seemingly having abandoned the Linux platform, there are some bright spots on the horizon. http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7745/1.html
Is Opera 10.50 Really the Fastest?
Good news for Linux users who love the Opera Web browser: After being snubbed for a big chunk of the pre-10.50 release cycle, Opera has finally started putting out snapshots for all platforms, including Linux. http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7743/1.html
Ubuntu 10.04: The Perfect Consumer Operating System?
The upcoming release of Ubuntu 10.04 is on the way and with its new theme, looks simply stunning. With an online music store built in, integrated cloud backup services and a strong focus on social networking, could this finally be the release consumers have been waiting for? http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7740/1.html
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Hackers use a string of common passwords and user names to penetrate unsecured PCs. If you thought you were being clever by using your user name as your password, note this: Fully 43 percent of all password-guessing attempts simply re-entered the user name. More
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Twitter is expanding its integration tentacles by breaking ties with the APIs that developers have been using to incorporate the short messages into other sites and platforms.
A handful of sites will launch when Twitter flips the switch, though it didn’t say when that might be. Weeks? Months? The blog post by co-founder Biz Stone only used words like “soon” and phrases like “when we’re ready to launch.”
Upon launch, however, sites participating in @anywhere will be Amazon, AdAge, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, eBay, The Huffington Post, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, Yahoo!, and YouTube.
More Here
Monday, March 15, 2010
These days, when everyone seems to have a Facebook friend, is LinkedIn or can Google themselves, it's hard to remember the old days, before the dot-com revolution.
It was 25 years ago -- March 15, 1985 -- that the first dot-com domain name -- Symbolics.com -- appeared on the Internet, ushering in the commercial age of the World Wide Web. More Here
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Authorities have arrested three Spaniards suspected of infecting 13 million computers with a program that allowed them to steal personal and financial data worldwide, Spain's Civil Guard said... More Here
Friday, February 19, 2010
Psst. Hey, would you like to hear an Ubuntu secret? OK, how about five secrets?
The quest to discover something new and fresh about Ubuntu, which is arguably the world’s most popular and best documented Linux distribution, is an almost ridiculous one to accept and an almost impossible one to fulfill. I felt like the Mission Impossible character, Jim Phelps, as I read the request from my editor. I expected to see the words, “This is your mission, Ken, should you choose to accept it. This email will self-destruct in five seconds” at the end of that message.
More Here...
Friday, February 12, 2010
Blamed For Windows XP Blue Screen Of Death Microsoft has stopped serving a security patch that has apparently triggered the infamous Microsoft Blue Screen of Death for a number of Windows XP users. More Here
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security. The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems. More Here
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Blog Talk Radio allows anyone, anywhere the ability to host a live, Internet Talk Radio show, simply by using a telephone and a computer.
Blog Talk Radio’s unique technology and seamless integration with leading social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Ning, empowers citizen broadcasters to create and share their original content, their voices and their opinions in a public worldwide forum.
Today, Blog Talk Radio is the largest and fastest-growing social radio network on the Internet. A truly democratized medium, Blog Talk Radio has tens of thousands of hosts and millions of listeners tuning in and joining the conversation each month. Many businesses also utilize the platform as a tool to extend their brands and join the conversation on the social web. http://www.blogtalkradio.com
Friday, January 15, 2010
Hackers linked to China used a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser to compromise corporate systems at more than 30 U.S. companies, including Google, Adobe and Juniper Networks.
According to Microsoft, the vulnerability is still unpatched and can lead to remote code execution attacks if a target is lured to a booby-trapped Web site or views a malicious online advertisement.
Microsoft’s confirmation, in the form of a security advisory, follows public statements from Google and Adobe that their corporate networks were breached by coordinated, sophisticated attackers based in China. More
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Its Web site states that OpenMovieEditor has been "... designed for basic movie making capabilities... [and] to be powerful enough for the amateur movie artist, yet easy to use".
In fact is found OpenMovieEditor to be a surprisingly capable NLE, modest in its stated goals yet possessing some features not commonly found in Linux NLEs. More Here
Saturday, December 19, 2009
"Instead of a single computer taking a million days to calculate a problem, distributing the research load can allow for the same problem to be solved in ten days by a fraction of the machines.
"Contributing to Folding @ Home on Ubuntu is very simple, and can be done in just a few short steps. There are packages in the main Ubuntu repositories that support installation, management and removal of the Folding @ Home clients. Before I get into these, I'd like to outline what Folding @ Home actually does.
"To understand how the system works we first need to understand a few key underlying principles. Perhaps the most important is to answer the question: What are proteins?"
More Here
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Two developers have created "Detect and Eliminate Computer Assisted Forensics" (DECAF). The tool tries to stop Microsoft's Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE), which helps law enforcement officials grab data from password protected or encrypted sources.
More Here
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Aspiritech, a Chicago based non-profit company, has launched a program to train high-functioning autistic people as testers for software development companies. The company says autistics have a talent for spotting imperfections, and thrive on predictable, monotonous work. Aspiritech is not the first company to explore the idea of treating this handicap as a resource. Specialisterne, a Danish company founded in 2004, also trains autistics. They hire their workforce out as hourly consultants to do data entry, assembly line jobs and work that many would find tedious and repetitive.
More Here
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Threats of cyber-warfare have been hyped for decades. There have been unauthorized penetrations into government systems since the early ARPANET days and it has long been known that the U.S. critical infrastructure is vulnerable.
More Here
Monday, November 16, 2009
Google is set to become your new phone company, perhaps reducing your phone bill to zilch in the process. Google has bought Gizmo 5, an online phone company that is akin to Skype but based on open protocols and with a lot fewer users. TechCrunch, which broke the news on Monday, reported that Google spent $30 million on the company.
More Here
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
iPhones across Australia lit up with the face of '80s crooner Rick Astley this week as a Wollongong TAFE student made international headlines for releasing the first virus to infect the popular smartphone platform.
The virus is able to reset the phone wallpaper to display an image of Astley (a practice known as rickrolling) on “jailbroken” iPhones.
More Here..
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Phishers have been busy following the groundswell of celebrity deaths that have occupied recent news headlines. Although most attacks exploit Michael Jackson's death, hackers show they will take a chance on Patrick Swayze and anything else that will generate traffic.
Here are a few examples
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
End users are IT’s worst nightmare. They have a nearly inexhaustible capacity for misusing and damaging equipment, misunderstanding instructions and applications, and ignorance for how technology works. The Spiceworks community of IT professionals and service providers maintains a rolling list of stupidest questions end users ask.
Here’s a sampling.
Friday, August 21, 2009
"The prerequisite of this trick is to have an operating system already installed on your computer. This is obvious because unless you are able to boot into your machine, you can't install anything; and we are not going to boot from the Linux disk because we aren't burning any. Here I'm going to focus on Microsoft Windows as the pre installed operating system.
"Almost all Linux installers uses two files to boot the computer: a Linux kernel, and an initial root file system containing a minimal set of directories that is mounted prior to when the real root file system is available. This initial root file system is also called Ram disk (initrd). We will use these two files to boot our PC. Now lets get to the actual procedure."
More Here..
Monday, July 27, 2009

"It's a very thin veil of atmosphere around the Earth that keeps us alive," But there are some effects of the human destruction of the Earth as well."
More Here: http://bit.ly/y1jME
Find thousands of products that utilize alternative and renewable solar energy sources at: http://www.energylords.com
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sun has introduced the power of virtualization to hundreds of businesses of all sizes, including Wikipedia, eBay, SmugMug, and several other fast growing social networking sites. Learn how you too can save energy, time, and money, and improve scalability with this guide to virtualization success.
Download your free copy of Virtualization for Dummies.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
PortableApps.com is the world's most popular portable software solution allowing you to take your favorite software with you. A fully open source and free platform, it works on any portable storage device (USB flash drive, iPod, memory card, portable hard drive, etc). With millions of users all over the world and a full collection of open source software as well as compatible freeware and commercial software and partners in the software and hardware industry, PortableApps.com is the most complete solution for life on the go.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
"It seems that this economy has inspired a lot of businesses to move to Linux, with Red Hat posting profits that beat everyone's expectations. There's a dark side to being a highly profitable company in a down economy, though — now there are talks of Citigroup and Oracle wanting to buy Red Hat. For a while now, we've been watching Yahoo fend off Carl Icahn and Steve Ballmer so that they could stay independent, but the fight seems to be a huge distraction for Yahoo, with lots of energy (and money) invested. Will Red Hat stay independent? What potential buyer would make for a good parent company?"
Posted by Soulskill on SD
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
In an event that hits the computer world only once every few years, security experts are racing against time to mitigate the impact of a bit of malware which is set to wreak havoc on a hard-coded date. As is often the case, that date is April 1.
Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years.
Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent... though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives.
Thanks in part to a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the head of the writer of the worm, offered by Microsoft, security researchers are aggressively digging into the worm's code as they attempt to engineer a cure or find the writer before the deadline. What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.
Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.
At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.
Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
It's malware that actually removes other malware from its victims' PCs. And so far, nobody is exactly sure how it's being distributed.
Security experts this week are buzzing about a new Trojan called Tigger.A, also known as Syzor. The data-stealing malware has quietly claimed about 250,000 victims since it was first spotted by security intelligence company iDefense in November, according to a Washington Post report.
Tigger.A allows attackers to gain access to "administrator" privileges on Windows machines, even if the user himself doesn't have those privileges, according to the report. It takes advantage of a vulnerability (MS08-066) in Windows' "privilege escalation" feature that Microsoft revealed -- and patched -- in October.
"Tigger removes a long list of other..... More Here
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Koobface Variant Hits Facebook -- Again
In this scam, detected by researchers at Trend Micro, users receive a message with a link, purporting to be from a friend from the user's contact list, along with a spoofed version of YouTube. Once users click the link, they are taken to a site supposedly hosting a video that appears to be from the alleged sender, containing the name as well as the photo of the user's "friend" from his or her Facebook profile. Here
Facebook Corporate Security
The range of security threats around social networking sites, including LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and others, ranges greatly, Amit said. Here
Facebook Turns Site into a Democracy:
In addition to "poking" former classmates and updating your status update with what you had for lunch today, Facebook will now allow you to vote on the site's terms of service. Here
Thursday, February 26, 2009

Microsoft Sues TomTom For Linux Patent Infringement.
Microsoft has gone and done it, they've filed suit in U.S. District Court claiming Linux violates their patents.
The case centers on portable GPS device maker Tomtom, which uses Linux in its device. Despite Microsoft claiming for years that parts of Linux infringe on its intellectual property, the case is believed to be the first time Microsoft has tried to prove a case against Linux in court.
Here
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Silicon Valley has repeatedly urged Congress to raise the H-1B cap, which is currently set at 65,000 visas per fiscal year, but lawmakers have resisted, citing concerns over fraud in the H-1B program.
In October 2008, a USCIS report found that the H-1B program has more than a 20 percent violation rate. The fraud identified in the report included jobs not located where employers claimed, H-1B visa holders not being paid the prevailing wage, forged documents, fraudulent degrees and "shell businesses."
Even before the report was issued, Senators Charles Grassley of Iowa, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Bernie Sanders of Vermont were seeking reform of the H-1B visa program. A bill introduced in the 110th Congress by Grassley and Durbin would require employers to make a good-faith effort to hire American workers first. Employers would also have to show that the H-1B worker would not displace an American worker.
More Here

Vince at Facebook
Monday, February 16, 2009
Scientists are Afraid to Debate Global Warming for Fear of Losing Federal Grants..
"They’ve seen too many of their colleagues lose grant funding when they haven’t gone along with the so-called political consensus that we’re in a human-caused global warming."
Seventy global warming skeptics are going to speakat the International Conference on Climate Change next month. More Here
Vincent at Facebook

Saturday, February 07, 2009
With Google Latitude, you can:
* See where your friends are and what they are up to
* Quickly contact them with SMS, IM, or a phone call
* Control what your location is and who gets to see it
From your mobile phone - View your friends' locations and status messages and share yours with them.
From your computer - View your friends' locations and status messages on a full screen even without a compatible phone or data plan.
Link and Video Here
http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html
http://www.google.com/mobile/default/latitude.html
Monday, February 02, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
A worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is posing a growing threat to users.
The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008.
Although Microsoft released a patch, it has gone on to infect 3.5m machines.
Experts warn this figure could be far higher and say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft's MS08-067 patch.
According to Microsoft, the worm works by searching for a Windows executable file called "services.exe" and then becomes part of that code.
It then copies itself into the Windows system folder as a random file of a type known as a "dll". It gives itself a 5-8 character name, such as piftoc.dll, and then modifies the Registry, which lists key Windows settings, to run the infected dll file as a service.
Once the worm is up and running, it creates an HTTP server, resets a machine's System Restore point (making it far harder to recover the infected system) and then downloads files from the hacker's web site.
Most malware uses one of a handful of sites to download files from, making them fairly easy to locate, target, and shut down.
But Conficker does things differently.
Anti-virus firm F-Secure says that the worm uses a complicated algorithm to generate hundreds of different domain names every day, such as mphtfrxs.net, imctaef.cc, and hcweu.org. Only one of these will actually be the site used to download the hackers' files. On the face of it, tracing this one site is almost impossible.
Speaking to the BBC, Kaspersky Lab's security analyst, Eddy Willems, said that a new strain of the worm was complicating matters.
"There was a new variant released less than two weeks ago and that's the one causing most of the problems," said Mr Willems
"The replication methods are quite good. It's using multiple mechanisms, including USB sticks, so if someone got an infection from one company and then takes his USB stick to another firm, it could infect that network too. It also downloads lots of content and creating new variants though this mechanism."
"Of course, the real problem is that people haven't patched their software. If people do patch their software, they should have little to worry about," he added.
Technicians have reverse engineered the worm so they can predict one of the possible domain names. This does not help them pinpoint those who created Downadup, but it does give them the ability to see how many machines are infected.
"Right now, we're seeing hundreds of thousands of unique IP addresses connecting to the domains we've registered," F-Secure's Toni Kovunen said in a statement.
"We can see them, but we can't disinfect them - that would be seen as unauthorized use."
Microsoft says that the malware has infected computers in many different parts of the world, with machines in China, Brazil, Russia, and India having the highest number of victims.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7832652.stm
Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. There are many people today who are concerned with the serious problems that face our modern society: unemployment, violent crime, replacement of humans by technology, over-population and a decline in the Earth's ecosystems.
The Venus Project is dedicated to confronting all of these problems by actively engaging in the research, development, and application of workable solutions. Through the use of innovative approaches to social awareness, educational incentives, and the consistent application of the best that science and technology can offer directly to the social system, The Venus Project offers a comprehensive plan for social reclamation in which human beings, technology, and nature will be able to coexist in a long-term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium.
For More Information: Click Here
Friday, January 09, 2009
IDIOT SIGHTING:
We had to have the garage door repaired. The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, 'Lady, you need a 1/4 horsepower.' I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4. He said, 'NO, it's not.' Four is larger than two..'
We haven't used Sears repair since.
IDIOT SIGHTING:
My daughter and I went through the McDonald 's take-out window and I gave the clerk a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. She said, 'you gave me too much money.' I said, 'Yes I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back.' She sighed and went to get the manager who asked me to repeat my request. I did so, and he handed me back the quarter, and said 'We're sorry but they could not do that kind of thing.' The clerk then proceeded to give me back $1 and 75 cents in change.
Do not confuse the clerks at McD's.
IDIOT SIGHTING:
I live in a semi rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the DEER CROSSING sign on our road. The reason: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'
From Kingman , KS .
IDIOT SIGHTING IN FOOD SERVICE:
My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for 'minimal lettuce.' He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg lettuce.
From Kansas City
IDIOT SIGHTING:
I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?' T o which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?' He smiled knowingly and nodded,'That's why we ask.'
Happened in Birmingham , Ala.
IDIOT SIGHTING:
The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine. She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, 'What on earth are blind people doing driving?!'
She was a probation officer in Wichita , KS
IDIOT SIGHTING:
At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker. She was leaving the company due to 'downsizing.' Our manager commented cheerfully, 'This is fun. We should do this more often.' Not another word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare.
This was a lunch at Texas Instruments.
IDIOT SIGHTING:
I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into itself and for the sake of her life, couldn't understand why her system would not turn on.
A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriffs office, no less.
IDIOT SIGHTING:
When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. 'Hey,' I announced to the technician, 'its open!' His reply, 'I know. I already got that side.'
This was at the Ford dealership in Canton, MS
And, the scary part is.... They VOTE and they REPRODUCE..
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Few types of transport require as much thinking per mile as sailing - the sailor has to measure the speed and direction of both the water and the wind, which can constantly change, and then manage an array of sails and underwater hydrofoils at the correct angles to create motion in the desired direction. Navigation is its own challenge too, as it's impossible to sail directly into the wind and boats must 'tack' forward in zigzag patterns to make progress. All of which makes it quite remarkable that a group of European enthusiasts have created a Linux-brained autonomous sailboat.
More Here
Sunday, December 28, 2008
"While that doesn't tell us much, the knowledge base article (or "KB") 960714 referenced does spill the beans.
"Fundamentally, it was discovered that program code -- of a malicious person’s construction -- be executed on your computer, if a user views a specially crafted web page with IE.
"In particular, a rogue script can allocate a block of memory (an array) then apparently release it without updating the array's length, meaning that the block of memory still remains preserved.
"Then, if data binding is enabled (which it is, by default), a rogue web page can take advantage of an incorrect handling of certain XML tags within IE to cause the browser to pass control to the supposedly free memory location."
More here
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
IBM teams with Ubuntu provider Canonical and virtual desktop software maker Virtual Bridges on a bundle that lets systems administrators deliver open-source Linux and Lotus messaging and collaboration software to desktops and workstations across remote offices. Such virtualization deployments, IBM claims, enables great IT infrastructure savings for cost-conscious enterprises.
Link: Click Here
Friday, November 07, 2008
Subsonic is a free, web-based media streamer, providing ubiquitous access to your music. Use it to share your music with friends, or to listen to your own music while at work. You can stream to multiple players simultaneously, for instance to one player in your kitchen and another in your living room.

More Here
Friday, October 31, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
If you were born before 1975, you may have a collection of records that you want to convert to digital format. Some open source software and a cable are all you need to convert your prized vinyl to something portable.
If all you want to do is create MP3 files from you LP tracks, the only software you'll need is Audacity. If you want to convert vinyl to CD, you'll need cdrdao and cdrecord as well. All are readily available in most distributions' package repositories or from the projects' sites.
More Here
Monday, October 13, 2008
Christian Nielsen wrote from Sweden, he and his girlfriend
have named their baby Linux..

More Here
Monday, October 06, 2008
Maintaining filesystems can be a real administration burden. Over time you might start getting multiple copies of the same file, soft links that point to files that no longer exist, temporary files that have been hanging around longer than they should, and binaries that have been installed and not had their debugging information stripped out. fslint can help you find these troublesome files so you can clean up your filesystem.
More Here
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
If you are interested in learning exactly how to generate solar power and reduce your electric bill than this is the perfect resource for you.
For More Details: Click Here
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Sixty-hour work weeks with no overtime or comp time, a BlackBerry hitched to your belt 24/7, mandates from managers who have no clue what you actually do – all for a job that could be outsourced tomorrow. Is it finally time for technology workers to form a union and demand better working conditions?
More Here
Friday, August 22, 2008
Winpass. Repair lost access due to a lost or corrupted password issue with this software? Again, as this is designed to bail out Windows users, one must admit there is a certain pride to be taken in using a Linux distro to crack a lost Windows password.
CloneXP. Cloning a Windows partition easily, over a home network is something that will definitely save you a lot of time. No worries, though, it will be at a Linux command prompt where all of this magic happens.
Trk2usb. One of the most requested items of business for any rescue CD is the ability to forgo the CD and use a USB Flash drive, instead. Thankfully, Trinity allows for using this script.
Ntfsundeleteall. Nothing is worse than finding out your PC has lost all of its data. Considering how easy it is to have a hosed Windows system, there is certain logic to using a script that can act as a recovery agent for any lost NTFS files. Again, the entire process is done from a Linux command line.
More Here
Friday, August 15, 2008
Zimbra has announced that Canonical, sponsors of Ubuntu, the fastest growing Linux distribution, will give users direct access to Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop, which provides a centralized hub to manage multiple e-mail accounts and calendars online and offline, through the Ubuntu Partner Repository. Zimbra, a Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO) company, is a leader in open source, next-generation messaging and collaboration software.
More Here
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Imagine being able to open any Web page on your server in OpenOffice.org, edit it, and save the changes back to the server by pressing the Save button. It may sound too good to be true, but that's exactly what the ODF@WWW project is set to achieve.
Started as a relatively simple hack, ODF@WWW has become a nifty solution that allows end users to create and edit Web pages in OpenOffice.org.
The good news is that end users don't need to know anything about all the technicalities. Once installed and configured, ODF@WWW does the job in the background, providing seamless integration between the user's Web server and OpenOffice.org.
More Here
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Some Ubuntu fans out there may remember Automatix, a tool for Ubuntu that allowed easy access to many popular non-free applications and commonly-used audio and video codecs. It debuted a few years ago, and got negative reviews from Ubuntu developers and experienced users due to the risk of breaking dependencies, but it offered an easy solution for beginners who weren't familiar with the way deb packages worked. Automatix was discontinued in March, when its developers moved on to other projects. Now Ultamatix hopes to continue where Automatix left off.
More Here
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
When you make changes to your site design, it’s not always easy to figure out how the changes affect traffic and visitor behavior. That’s where the Google Website Optimizer tool comes into play. You can experiment with two or more designs and see which one works best to achieve your design goal. Best of all, this tool is free.
The typical site design process involves some people sitting together and choosing the design they think is best. The decision is usually based on a gut feeling, rather than anything close to a scientific method. What’s more, few companies have the resources to sit with focus groups to find out which design most people prefer, so it comes down to opinion, and even an informed opinion is not always right.
More Here
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Want to create an animation on GNU/Linux and then convert it to a video file? Well here is one way to do it that does not involve GIMP Animation Package (GAP). While there is nothing wrong with the GIMP GAP method, you might just find it useful to know about an alternative way of doing it that might just work for you. Maybe you are running into problems with GAP or you wish greater flexibility and control over your frames.
More Here
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Life would be a lot easier if we could live in a Linux-only world and if applications never required data from other sources. However, the need to get data from Windows, MS-DOS, or old Macintosh systems is all too common. This kind of import process requires some conversions to solve file format differences; otherwise, it would be impossible to share data, or file contents would be imported incorrectly.
More here
Friday, July 18, 2008
Ampache is a LAMP application that gives you a Web interface to your music collection, allowing you to search, rate, and play your music over the network. It even offers transcoding support to allow clients to play back lossless-encoded FLAC files from the server and stream them to clients as MP3 audio files.
More Here
Saturday, July 12, 2008
1. Update /etc/apt/sources.list by appending the following:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-hardened/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-hardened/ubuntu hardy main
Update repo:
apt-get update
3. Install updated packages:
apt-get upgrade
These packages have SELinux support patches:
libpam0g
openssh-server
grub
login
4. Install selinux:
apt-get install selinux
These packages will be removed:
apparmor
apparmor-utils
5. Reboot
If using aptitude instead of apt-get, you will need to manually remove apparmor and apparmor-utils, deselect selinux-policy-dummy, and then choose selinux-policy-refpolicy.