Archive | January, 2006

Yet another very cool GNHLUG meeting…

What : Open Source Development and Productization

Who : Tim Burke, Director of Fedora Project and Kernel Development at Red Hat

When : Tue, 24 Jan 2006, at 5:00 PM

Where: Walker Auditorium, Robert Frost Hall, SNHU

GNHLUG, NH IEEE/ACM, and SwANH are privileged to host a joint presentation: Tim Burke, Director of Kernel Development for Red Hat Software, and Director of the Fedora Linux Project. He will be speaking on how Red Hat balances its role as community steward and purveyor of enterprise products. The event will take place at 5:00 PM, on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006. It will be in the Walker Auditorium, in Robert Frost Hall, at Southern New Hampshire University.

GETTING THERE

Campus Map: http://www.snhu.edu/212.asp

Robert Frost Hall is #2 on the map.

Directions: http://www.snhu.edu/209.asp

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION

Open source development is rapidly gaining momentum due to developer interest as well as empowerment to end users. This presentation will describe Red Hat’s approach to balancing the interests of community, customers, and business partners. We will see how open source projects are integrated to form our distribution and how Red Hat fosters and contributes to the community development process. This approach can serve as a model to others who are trying to understand the intersection of free open source software and business.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Tim Burke is the Director of Kernel Development at Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise. The Kernel Development team is responsible for the core kernel portion of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Burke is also the Director of the Fedora Project, an open source project sponsored by Red Hat and supported by the Fedora community. In his role as Fedora Director, Tim leads both internal and external community projects with the ultimate goal of product incorporation. Prior to becoming a manager, Tim earned an honest living developing Linux high available cluster solutions and Unix kernel technology. When not juggling bugs, features and schedules, he enjoys running, rock climbing, bicycling, and paintball.

ABOUT GNHLUG

GNHLUG, the Greater New Hampshire Linux User Group, is a not-for-profit organization committed to furthering the cause of Linux and Free/Open Source Software in and around the Granite State. GNHLUG has chapters and regular meetings in Nashua, Durham/UNH, Concord, Peterborough/Monadnock, Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee, and Manchester, as well as a state-wide online community. http://www.gnhlug.org

ABOUT NH IEEE/ACM

The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) promotes the engineering process of creating, developing, integrating, sharing, and applying knowledge about electro and information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and the profession. The New Hampshire Section of the IEEE hosts periodic technical and professional talks, and provides professional networking for technology professionals. http://acadweb.snhu.edu/Isaak_James/ITseminars/

The ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) is a non-profit educational and scientific society dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences, and applications of information technology. The Greater Boston Chapter of the ACM (GBC/ACM) is a sponsor of monthly meetings, full-day professional development seminars, and publisher of The Real Times. http://www.gbcacm.org/

ABOUT SwANH

The Software Association of New Hampshire (SwANH) promotes and supports the software and information technology industries throughout the State. SwANH sponsors networking events, educational programs through its SIGs and affiliates, and discount programs that provide members with opportunities to gain information, connect with resources, grow their businesses, and succeed. http://www.swanh.org

Microsoft ships WMF patch early!

Bravo to Microsoft for shipping the WMF patch early, rather than waiting an additional five days to ship on their regularly scheduled Patch Tuesday. Many security experts were very concerned about this flaw.

Users of Windows 2000, XP and 2003 should update immediately. Users of previous versions of Windows should stop using IE until Microsoft ships a patch.

The actual MS06-001 Security Bulletin is a bit confusing. It lists “Maximum Severity Rating: Critical” but in the FAQ seems to indicate that they are not shipping a version for Win9x/ME:

“Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (ME) — Review the FAQ section of this bulletin for details about these operating systems….”
In the FAQ… “How does the extended support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition affect the release of security updates for these operating systems?”
“For these versions of Windows, Microsoft will only release security updates for critical security issues.

Okay, I’m confused. Critical or not? Supported or not?

Palm 700w: bulkier, clumbsier

NYT > Technology: David Pogue: A Marriage Not Made in Heaven. “Some features of Palm’s new Treo 700W cellphone-organizer are so well executed, you can’t help grinning, while others are so clumsy, you smack your forehead.” By DAVID POGUE. “The Treo 700W ($400 with a two-year Verizon commitment) is a Frankensteinian mishmash.”

Over at the Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg concludes “The Treo 700w will appeal to some Windows Mobile fans, and to some corporate IT staffs. But for everyone else, I advise sticking with the Palm-based Treos.”

Too bad. A friend had told me to keep an eye on the Treo line as he felt the Treo 650 needed one more version to be the category-killer PDA-Phone. Looks like the 700w was not the right one. Palm promises a PalmOS-based version is on the way. I’ll wait.

Latest Sober worm due to launch at midnight tonight

Computerworld News catalogs A Sober Primer: The worm from A to Z. “With the Sober worm set to launch new attacks at midnight tonight, here’s an A-to-Z guide to identifying the worm’s many iterations for the past two years.” The linked article talks about the latest incarnation, due to launch at midnight tonight. You may want to turn your Windows PC off tonight, just in case. Check to make sure your virus scanner is up to date, that your firewall is enabled (both incoming and outgoing, not the Windows one-way XP firewall), that your malware detectors are up to date and have scanned your machine recently.

It probably won’t affect anything more than usual, but you ought to check to make sure you’ve got charged batteries for the cellphone, the PDA, the flashlight. A full tank of gas in case you need to drive off to a client first thing, and the Windows ATM isn’t working. Filling the bathtub with water will let you flush the toilet if the water pressure goes. Perhaps you should review your Emergency Preparedness Checklist, just in case. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.

Trustworthy Computing. Ain’t it grand?

Wisconsin passes verifiable voting law

Slashdot post: Wisconsin Requires Open Source, Verifiable Voting. AdamBLang writes “Previously covered on Slashdot, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle today signed legislation that “will require the software of touch-screen voting machines used in elections to be open-source. Municipalities that use electronic voting machines are responsible for providing to the public, on request, the code used.” Madison’s Capital Times reports “the bill requires that if a municipality uses an electronic voting system that consists of a voting machine, the machine must generate a complete paper ballot showing all votes cast by each elector that is visually verifiable by the elector before he or she leaves the machine.””

Bravo! Kudos to Wisconsin! The electronic voting industry has been asking “Trust Us!” for much too long. Voting is far too important to trust a black-box, unverifiable, unauditable system. Full transparency is not an option, it’s required.

WMF exploits continue to multiply and mutate…

Computerworld News Pre-release Microsoft patch for WMF flaw leaked. “Microsoft today confirmed that a pre-release version of its security update for the recently disclosed WMF vulnerability was briefly posted on the Internet . Users appear divided on whether to install an already available third-party patch for the problem.”

Meanwhile, InfoWorld: Top News is reporting…

Attempts to exploit WMF vulnerability by IM multiply.

(InfoWorld) – Security researchers have logged over 70 variations on instant messages attempting to exploit the WMF vulnerability since the first were reported on Saturday.

ColdPlay doesn’t want you to listen to their music.

Ars Technica notes “A CD insert to make Sony blush. CD disclaimers are becoming more common now that DRM routinely renders discs unplayable for consumers, but the disclaimer accompanying a Coldplay CD takes the cake. Then smashes it. Then points and laughs.” By caesar@arstechnica.com (Ken “Caesar” Fisher).

What an astoundingly bad idea. Let’s punish the 98% of music fans to prevent (badly, poorly and ineffectively) a small number of pirates. This is so clueless. Copying and sharing (and legitimate Fair Use, time-, place- and device-shifting) is always going to happen. The winners in the music industry will be the ones who learn how to turn that sharing into revenue. Lots of musicians and music sites are learning how to do that. Patronize them, and not the clueless.

Watch out for the WMF exploit!

The Internet Storm Center has set their InfoCon alert to Yellow and is full of information on the recent WMF exploit. They are even promoting a private patch, due to Microsoft’s weak response on this issue. Microsoft has plans to ship a patch with their next regular Tuesday (the 10th) patch. Many of the media are a bit agitated to get a patch out sooner. Let’s see how Microsoft’s evaluation of the threat plays out. If they’re wrong, their customers could spend millions cleaning up the mess. If they’re right, no one will notice. Any change to the bottom line for Microsoft? Time will tell.

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