Archive | August 17, 2005

Clay Shirky: Ontology is Overrated: Links, Tags, and Post-hoc Metadata

Recorded at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego, California on March 15, 2005, and available for you to download and/or listen online at IT Conversations, Shirky cites several examples of why hierarchical representations of the web (Yahoo, dmoz) don’t work as well as the freeform “tagging” of Google, del.icio.us or Flickr. Worth an attentive listen or two.

Database-centric application designers need to be thinking about this, too. We often present workflow and data entry entry that’s linear or branching. Relational database design by its nature is hierarchical. Think about how flat tagging can apply.

OTOH, if you have a Mac G5 and run (rare) 64-bit apps, hold off on patching…

OSNews reports Latest OS X Update Breaks 64-bit Support. “The most recent Mac OS X security update from Apple Computer includes a glitch that prevents users from running 64-bit applications on the company’s new Tiger operating system, AppleInsider has confirmed.” 64-bit apps are still rare in the Apple world, limited mainly to console or background tasks, according to the linked AppleInsider article.

Microsoft’s patched UPnP vulnerability continues to be exploited

InfoWorld: Top News reports Experts see new variants of Windows 2000 worm.

(InfoWorld) – Security vendors have reported several new variants of the worm infecting PCs running Microsoft’s Windows 2000 operating system. Groups of virus writers are competing to cause the most damage, according to one security company, although the worm appears less severe than some first feared.

So far. Many media outlets are reporting they were hit. It’s hard to tell if we’re at the crest of the wave just yet. In the meantime, ensure all machines are patched, scan all foreign machines coming into your network (laptops, VPN, etc.) and shut down any unnecessary services that require these ports open.

Max OS X Tiger gets patch today

Computerworld News notes that Apple releases security update for Mac OS X. “Apple has released a security update for Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” that updates several of the components and technologies in the operating system.” In Apple’s Software Update, it goes on to say:

“Security Update 2005-007 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. This update includes the following components: AppKit, BlueTooth, CoreFoundation, cups, Directory Services, HIToolBox, Kerberos, loginwindow, Mail, OpenSSL, QuartzComposerScreenSaver, Security Interface, Safari, X11, zlib For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798”

Yikes. Get patching

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This work by Ted Roche is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.