This isn’t a new experience for Microsoft.  Windows ME was a terrible disaster which cost Microsoft tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, years of development time, and an incredible amount of public embarrassment.  It was unofficially renamed “Windows Mistake Edition.”

When Windows XP was released, it united Windows 2000 and Windows ME and brought relative peace and stability back to the Windows product line.

And then Microsoft tried something new with Vista — and failed.  The most common user question regarding Windows Vista has been “How do I uninstall Windows Vista?”

This environment of frustration has create a storm of interest in Windows 7.  Microsoft customers want something new and most are anxiously awaiting Windows 7.

Many customers are now trying beta versions of Windows 7 and reporting mostly positive results.  But, of course, beta software can be a source of constant frustration.

My friend Kamal recently created a Windows 7 Forum where Microsoft customers can find news and information regarding the new release — and technical assistance making the new release work and work optimally.

If you are testing Windows 7 now, or if you plan to run Windows 7 in the future, give the forum a visit to make your path easier.

The warrant was issued based upon the “evidence” that the student was seen using a command line instead of the Windows GUI they teach at Boston College.

You can read the whole sad story at Boston College Campus Police: “Using Prompt Commands” May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity.

I think that anyone considering either attending Boston College or hiring a graduate of Boston College should think about how miserably low academic standards there must be if students in the Computer Science program are considered “hackers” if they have the skills necessary to use a command line.

For the first time in its recent history, the most popular search engine in the world malfunctioned. In what could be a temporary delight for Microsoft and Yahoo, users Googling for anything were warned about each result, that “this site may harm your computer.” Even results pointing to Google sites were marked as harmful. Clicking on the link explaining why a particular site was harmful would lead to a 502 Server Error page.

At first, it would seem like a malware attack on your own computer. But observing online discussions would reveal the issue.

The problem was there for at least half an hour, starting just after 14:30 GMT (January 31, 2009). The shock of users was palpable by the rate at which queries appeared at Yahoo! Answers – more than 200 appeared in a span of just an hour.

News websites had been speculating over what could have been the cause for this major issue. The speculation ended when Google itself acknowledged that a human error was behind the problem.

The BBC reports that a mobile phone trading website called FoneBank recently conducted a survey in the UK to find out the fate of old mobile phones. It was discovered that 28% of them simply put them away in a drawer, and 23% simply chucked them away. With the global recession setting in, consumers could easily opt for many of these second hand gadgets that are otherwise wasted away. And for those who still want to delve deeper into their pockets to upgrade to higher end phones, reselling old phones can fetch some money.

Particularly benefited from second hand phones are consumers living in developing countries. FoneBank, for its part has been recycling thousands of phones in recent months in regions like Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia.

The need for recycling old phones also arises from the concern for the environment. Toxic substances like cadmium found in their batteries can contaminate the water table. Manufacturers, importers and retailers of electronic devices often allow for the resale of old phones.

So before you decide to upgrade to a brand new handheld gadget, don’t forget about your old one!

Both are very old and authoritative web sites; Freshmeat was started in March of 1998 and SourceForge came along in August of 1999.

SourceForge has a larger database of projects to search, which is a major advantage.  SourceForge also has a better search feature, in that you can filter your search results by meta data fields such as Development Status, License, and Programming Language.

Unfortunately, once you find the list of projects which meet your criteria, SourceForge falls down.  SourceForge presents very little data about each individial development project and the current SourceForge design makes it very difficult to find the real homepage of the development project.  SourceForge is attempting to trap visitors within SourceForge’s limited environment.  This makes SourceForge almost useless.

Freshmeat doesn’t have a search feature with the sophistication of the one you will find at SourceForge, but when you find an open source project at Freshmeat, it gives you all the data you need — including the real homepage of the project — with a far superior user interface.

So what am I stuck with?  I go to Freshmeat and search for projects.  If I find too many or too few results, I go to SourceForge and repeat the search.  But then I take those search results back to Freshmeat to find useful project descriptions.

Freshmeat, please improve your search feature; SourceForge, please stop trying to trap visitors within your horrible new user interface.

The author is an Opera user who discovered that his favorite browser has slipped to the #2 spot for performance.

The author rates each browser in nine different categories.  The final totals are:

I’m running Ubuntu Linux here, so Google Chrome isn’t really an option for me.  Firefox’s stability and performance issues have become serious enough that I may switch back to Opera.

The creator of The Tech FAQ has recently started a forum for webmasters where he shares the knowledge he gained while building and promoting this web site.

If you have an interest in helping to build the World Wide Web, Net Builders will be a great place to learn.

]]> http://www.tech-faq.com/blog/new-webmaster-forum.html/feed http://www.tech-faq.com/blog/ubuntu-security-tools.html http://www.tech-faq.com/blog/ubuntu-security-tools.html#comments Sun, 07 Dec 2008 02:54:56 +0000 Will Spencer http://www.tech-faq.com/blog/?p=1968 Bootable Linux distributions are quite popular right now. Just by booting from a DVD or other media, they allow you to possess a dedicated security auditing or forensics workstation.

Usually though, I don’t want to reboot just to use a different set of applications. I want all of my applications available to me all of the time.

I normally use Synaptic Package Manager to add each application to my Ubuntu system manually. This is time consuming, but eventually allows me to create a system with a rich set of security tools.

A better approach is to call apt-get directly. This is much quicker than using the Synaptic GUI. Then, all available Ubuntu security tools can be installed with one shell script.

secbox is that shell script. With a single command, secbox installs every Ubuntu security tool supported by apt-get. secbox isn’t sexy, but it is very convenient for me — and for pretty much anyone who uses their Ubuntu machine for security work.

Download secbox Now

The bad guys used technology heavily:

• They trained using satellite images and video footage of their targets
• They used GPS navigation equipment on the boat they hijacked to get to Mumbai
• They used high-resolution satellite images stored on CD
• They carried Blackberry phones for communications
• They switched SIM cards between cell phones to make it difficult to intercept their communications
• They watched television to monitor police response
• They used satellite phones and VoIP to communicate to their leaders in Pakistan
• Their leaders in Pakistan used email to communicate to the news media

The Indian police, on the other hand, don’t have the financial support that Islamist terrorists benefit from. They lacked basic modern military technologies which would have provided them serious advantages in this conflict:

• Modern rifles
  with faster reloading and higher rates of fire
• Rifle scopes to allow the police to shoot more accurately and safely
• Night vision equipment to enable the police to fight better in dark buildings
• Military aircraft for rapid deployment

Technologies like cryptanalysis and nuclear weapons helped us defeat the Nazi’s and Imperial Japan. Similarly, technologies like GPS, night vision gear, and radio communications are proving invaluable against Islamists in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The technologies needed to defeat Islamist terrorism may not even exist today. Only the future will tell us what technological advances will be developed in the next few decades to help defend modern civilization against the barbarian hordes.

Remove the phone from the water source

If you are able to quickly remove the phone from the water, then you’re likely to be able to restore it. Most phones have a tight, sealed outside layer that will help keep out water for a short period of time. The key is avoiding contact between the water and the phones electronic components while they are powered by the cell phones battery.

Begin to dry the phone and remove accessories

You should quickly work to get rid of the excess water by draining the phone and then using a towel to clean off external moisture. Resist the temptation to use a hair dryer on the internal components, as this may cause damage to the circuitry, even at a low temperature. Instead, you need to use a suction source such as a vacuum, but be careful to keep it out of direct contact, otherwise static electricity might come into play. Once you have removed the water that you can directly, you should use a dessicate to absorb water on the phone.

Allow the Phone to Dry and Test It

After you have following the aforementioned steps, allow the phone to dry naturally dry. After 24 hours you should test its operation. If it’s still not working, you should visit your cellular carrier store to see if they can help replace or restore the phone.

This guest post was written by Stanley Richardson, who is an expert on cell phones. Stanley can be reached by combining his full name and adding [at] cellphones.org