I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at the opening excerpt of this article over at The Inquirer.  Although I’m not one for bashing Apple users, especially for my recent respect of the company and its products, but I thought it was humorous:
“Wi-Fi positioning accurate to within one or two continents.  THAT APPLE users are pretty much helpless basket cases is a given. But to discover that the pastel-hued gadgets on which they base their designer lifestyles are about as much use as a chocolate teapot is more amusing than a duck shooting Dick Cheney by mistake.”

Although this technology(dubbed “feature”) would be nice if it actually works correctly.  I think there might be a future security concern here.  This feature is supposed to triangulate the position of the iPhone user with WiFi access points within your area(for um “tracking” purposes so you know where you are).  The article complains that this feature currently is pretty useless but IF they did get it working what happens if you could reverse the technology?  What if you could triangulate the users position just by using the same technology but look up their positions from the access points instead?  This means you could find that person as long as they’re within range of your access point.  I’m sure this technology has safeguards against such a practice but as with everything in this industry, NOTHING is secure.

When Viruses, Trojans, Malware, and Spam isn’t enough researchers have found a more brutal way to hack your computer.  For years, hacking software has been the norm to gain access to someone else’s computer or network.  Now, Samuel King from the University of Illinois says hacking the hardware or the chips is the next level.  A snibbit from the article:

“New research has shown that it is in fact possible to alter chips in such a way as to leave computers helpless to back-door attacks, which would be almost impossible to detect.

To prove their point, researchers set up a demo of such an attack yesterday, in San Francisco, at a security conference called the Usenix Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats. The alarming demo showed how a processor running a Linux operating system was left totally vulnerable after a malicious firmware laden chip was given instructions to allow an attacker to log on to the computer without any trouble at all.

Needless to say, this will just hype up the paranoia at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) , who already issued a warning back in 2005 about how offshore integrated circuit manufacturing could give rise to dangerous security breaches. After all, if you let pesky foreigners handle your chips, who knows what they might do to them.”

You know those annoying squiggly numbers and letters that you’re forced to type in whenever you open a new account on a website?  These things are called Captchasand are used to help deter from automated bots to create fake accounts.  Computers have been unable to read the text in these images and humans were the only ones that could read/translate them.  Now it has been announced that this process has been cracked and can be read by a computer in under 60 seconds.  This means that spammers can use these automated bots and auto create hotmail, gmail, or any other web based email service to send out spam.  Just when you thought there’s enough spam in the world here comes a lot more.  Source: The Inquirer

According to this blog post over at sphere.com AOL had quietly started using “Sphere it” icon’s in their News, Sports, and Entertainment articles on 04/01/08.  Well today Time Warner Inc. has announced AOL’s acquisition of Sphere Source Inc.  According to the press release Sphere was founded in 2005, although Tech Crunch says their site didn’t launch until May 2006(with $3.75 million venture financing).  This pretty much says that AOL is not sitting around twiddling their thumbs while Yahoo contemplates merging with them.  Sphere.com on the other hand had a nice run up starting with $3.75M initial investments and selling for $25M not even 2 years after launch.  What a nice ROI!

I keep seeing more articles and blogs about the failure of Windows Vista.  I can’t help but think about what is going on behind the scenes right now at Microsoft.  What are the collaboration idea’s flying around the conference tables.  How far into Windows 7 are they really in terms of the source code and do they still have possible alternatives on the table to change or scrap it.  Is it really going to come out in 2010 or are they just blowing smoke up every one’s asses to try and retain market share.

For the longest time, the PC markets have been divided.  You either owned a Mac or a PC and the software was not interoperable between them.  Recently, Apple has an operating system that not only handles their own apps but also has the ability to run Windows and Windows related applications via virtualization software(you could also dual boot).

Here’s what I think:

Microsoft should create their own Linux distribution.  Yes!  It’s a crazy idea, not new, but it can work and I’ll tell you why.

• Almost every other operating system besides Windows is based on some sort of Unix or Linux flavor.  If Microsoft’s operating system was also on this same infrastructure they would have a lot more alliances.  The open source community will be able to find, fix, and patch security holes to help collaborate with Microsoft’s support team.  Of course all these new patches would have to be verified and released by them “officially”.  Software would be interoperable across all platforms, Linux flavors and Mac’s alike. 
• Hardware manufacturers are still having driver issues with their hardware working properly in Vista.  See the Creative Labs and Nvidia forums.  ATI’s hardware seems to have less headaches judging by the amount of complaints.  But then again, Nvidia also has more market share so take that for what it’s worth.  This will also give the driver teams less overhead as they only need to make Linux based drivers, not to mention they’ll have the open source community behind them.
• Software publishers, same thing.  Even with the release of Vista Service Pack 1, it broke a few software packages.  Granted, no where near as many XP Service Pack 2 during its release but still notable.  Again, they will have the open source community behind them to find/solve issues and work ’s.  They can still charge for licencing and deter pirating with some sort of activation like Microsoft/Adobe.(the activation system is a bit buggy too but that’s for another article).  Windows/Critical updates will be similar to the update system in Ubuntu.  Simple and streamlined.
• Microsoft has released the virtualization Hypervisor feature in Windows Server 2008.  Modify and port this feature over to their Linux distribution as a virtualization layer similar to Wine.  It should have the ability to run not only Windows operating systems but also Windows based applications on the fly.  No need to run it within a virtualization program as the Hypervisor layer will be integrated into the operating system and you can open the programs as if you’re in Windows.
• Microsoft’s Enterprise sector will have to slowly be revamped to work under this new infrastructure.  Windows Server and it’s features will have to ported over but once it’s done once then everything can be modular like Mac’s Leopard and server counter parts.  SQL Server and Exchange, same thing.  But all of this, including Windows Server versions, SQL Server, Exchange, etc. SHOULD all work under the Hypervisor feature just like it does now in the Windows Server 2008 version.  This will help smooth out the transition over to the new operating system structure.
• I’m sure there’s a lot of other things I can’t think of or I’m missing but would like further input on this from the Open Source community.  How would this community feel about Microsoft converging into them?

Yes, it’s an enormous change for Microsoft.  But, they themselves said they wanted to be more interoperable.  It doesn’t get much more interoperable than this.  Microsoft Linux 2012 or Winux has my vote.

Malware has been getting out of hand these past couple of years. Policy Makers continuously try to make new laws to protect consumers from Malware incidences such as identity or credit card theft. But is it really necessary? According to an article on The Register, these new laws are redundant, a waste of time, and completely hamper the priorities of the judicial system. Furthermore, it’s stated that “Cyber crime is no longer the province of teenage hackers holed up in their parents’ basement, but rather an enterprise that’s been co-opted into the most hardened and powerful organized crime families”.

The Register lists three examples of such incidences:

• “Dmitry Golubov, a Ukrainian alleged to be an original member of Carderplanet, an online clearinghouse for people engaged in the theft of credit and debit card information. He was arrested in 2006, but his case languished after two members of the Ukrainian parliament intervened on his behalf. He recently founded the Internet Party of Ukraine.
• Younis Tsouli, who last year was convicted by UK authorities for inciting acts of terrorism. Tsouli frequently distributed propaganda videos for Al-Qaeda by hosting them on computers he had hijacked, Alperovich said. He frequently engaged in online credit card theft as a means to support his activities.
• Maxim Yamstremsky, who was arrested last year for allegedly selling large amounts of credit card numbers that were stolen from the network of US retailing giant TJX. He was selling card data in batches of 10,000, and was charging $20 to $100 per card.”

There will always be people that will try to exploit the system(s).  Would any of this even be in the news or be in the scope of policy makers if say… Microsoft had more secure operating systems?

Apparently some anti-spam filtering services throttle down traffic from Gmail and Yahoo networks. This is due to the reports from security firms that the Windows Live CAPTCHA, or “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”, used by Hotmail and an equivalent system used by Gmail, have been cracked by automated attacks. The Register also reports that “Cyber criminals are employing sweatshops in India for as little as $4 a day to defeat anti-spam security checks, according to a recent analysis by net security firm Trend Micro. It reckons miscreants prefer to hire cheap labour rather than using automated techniques to defeat CAPTCHAs”

Google recently acquired Postini, which is one of the leading email security and filtering systems in the world. Postini not only filters incoming traffic and emails but also outgoing as well. You would think this service would help deter from this type of abuse. I personally have experience with Postini’s service as the company I work for is a Postini partner. It’s a great service that filters incoming and outgoing traffic alike with optional email encryption/archiving. We have converted many customers from software based anti-spam software to this service and its been a huge improvement. About as good if not better than the Barracuda devices. Better actually because it doesn’t even reach your network or consume any of your network resources. I’m beginning to sound like a Postini sales rep now so I’m going to stop. I’m not sure if Postini has the resources to filter out the entire Gmail network, but I would presume Google would have integrated this service with their data centers to help cope.

–UPDATE–

First of all, I want to thank Nic for commenting on this and utterly blasting me on this article into oblivion.  He was right, I’m at work, so I’m doing ten things at once(I know, not much of an excuse)and I completely take the blame of not researching the OLPC further before the initial writing.  I did actually hear about the OLPC’s running on Linux before but it slipped my mind at the time.  Nic is right for the most part, but Linux does still have its share of viruses and malicious coding.  Granted, NO where near the volume of Windows PC viruses, but they are still there and will definitely increase in number in correlation to Linux distro popularity. With that said, most likely they won’t have to worry about this for sometime as the machine’s are fairly isolated in terms of network access.

My initial opinion still stands, around half of the people these kids know have died or are dying from Aids, Malaria or some other wide spread disease.  I just think laptops for children in these area’s are a lower priority than some of the other issues.

“Dell finally enters the low-cost laptop battlegrounds a year late and a dollar short. The One Laptop Per Child or OLPC groups are a bit counter productive in my opinion. It’s nice to be charitable by producing low cost PC’s for children and people in financially challenged countries but I have a few issues with this. Intel dropped out of this program recently and perhaps they were one of the smartest companies ever involved with the program from the start. The whole OLPC program seems to be poised more so for press release glam than it is for actually helping people. Most of the people in these countries hardly have running water, let alone electrical outlets to plug devices in.

How many of them know how to use one? Hell, most of the people in the US don’t know how to use one properly. What about maintenance? Antivirus? Spyware? Who’s going to fix their broken PC’s? What about warranty and out of warranty support? Where do they purchase the software? How will they get on the Internet with these devices? It’s not like they have dialup, broadband, or Wifi networks readily available. Do they have the money for it? Okay so they can be used in schools and public places like library’s. My point is, they need more medical help than anything else. These companies involved would do a much greater benefit than if they donated to The Children’s Health Fund, The Global Fund, Save The Children, or Malaria No More Better yet, if they got together and started localized foundations in each of these countries where the kids can be further educated or give them a place to play.  Maybe even get their parents involved(dare I say PTA meetings?) to help the localized communities come together for education and awareness.”

Just my .02 2 cents

Call me crazy, but this “computer” or Asus Essentio PC, looks similar to an Xbox 360.  The sides are even rounded and protrude out like the 360.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool looking unit and I wouldn’t mind it being part of my Home Theatre arsenal.  Especially when looking at the specs!  But I just hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate as the Xbox 360’s frying with the Red Ring of Death, yikes. 

Anyways, this hot little number will have a Bluray drive onboard, 1080p HDMI out, 7.1 Surround Sound, 802.11n WiFi, 250GB-1TB Hard Drive, Nvidia 8600M GT Video, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR capability, and a whisper quiet 23.9dB operation.  Warm fuzzy feelings are optional.

At last, the AMD Quad-Core server processors have been announced problem free. Initially they were announced for availability in September 2007 but AMD pulled all model’s due to erratic issues they had. It’s less catastrophic pulling broken processors off the shelves than it is selling them and have companies live servers go down. AMD has announced they will come in 10 different flavors but have yet to release the model numbers or specifications.

This announcement comes at a crucial time, shortly thereafter announcing they’re cutting 10% of their workforce. The AMD Opteron’s stole quite a bit of market share from Intel for a few years as their performance was unmatched. This of course was up until Intel answered back with their Quad-Core Xeon processors that stole the performance crown. Can AMD do it again?

I don’t know about you but I’m tired of remembering 100+ usernames and passwords for every single site on the internet. Technewsworld.com reports that Project Concordia demonstrated several products at the RSA Security Conference to help with just that. A single username and password that is interoperable with all of your website accounts. Several vendors are involved with this project including Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, FuGen Solutions, Internet2, Ping Identity, and Symlabs. Unfortunately, this service is still in early stages of beta and the current working service is rough around the edges. But if they work out the kinks and get this to be fully operational it will definitely revolutionize the Internet.

Nvidia’s outlook is grim. But with Intel integrating GPU’s into the core’s of their upcoming processors and AMD doing the same with ATI’s acquisition, we already knew this fate didn’t we? Nvidia for the most part was left out in the cold.

Now, here we are in Q2 of 2008 and Nvidia’s stock prices have plummeted 40% over the past three months. Several factors contribute to this. First and foremost, most low end systems have integrated graphics for desktop use. This sector is mainly from home budget oriented PC’s to business computers. Secondly, the PC gaming market is dwindling down, succumbing to the console markets. Even Electronic Arts announced they will not be making Madden 2009 for the PC. Third, investors know that Intel and AMD now have the upperhand because eventually GPU’s will be integrated into the CPU’s thus eliminating or at least drastically reducing the need for a video card for low-mid range applications.

What do you think Nvidia needs to stay alive?

Another episode of the Microsoft-Yahoo saga continues.  Yahoo again has rejected Microsoft’s offer that included an ultimatum.  Should Microsoft even bother pursuing Yahoo?  I mean yeah it’s one of the leading search engine and marketing company’s on the Internet, but if the only reason to spend this enormous amount of cash is to double the size of your search domains then there are better alternatives. 

For example, why not buyout one of the leading social bookmarking/networking sites such as Facebook, Friendster, Digg, RedIt, Del.icio.us, etc.  Facebook easily has twice as many users as Microsoft Live Spaces.  Friendster, according to Wiki, has about 18 Million more users too. They could use the user base of these sites to(and advertising space) to converge them with Microsoft Live Spaces applications. Essentially killing two birds with one stone, additional advertising revenue and more users subscribing to their online applications.