Tech Talk With Hawke Sunday 2007-01-28 Notes

Topics Disclaimers Announcement about new show time(s) Email Clients, Discussion with Randy. Internet Weather Report 3, now make that 4 major threats to MS Word still unpatched Microsoft defender failing to detect more than 80% of spyware/malware Definitions of Malware Malware general term Viruses Worms Trojans Rootkits Backdoors Spyware Loggers and key-loggers Botnets Zombies Dialers (porn dialers) DoS/DDoS Headlines Tech News Blogger rights in jeopardy DMCA Gets 6 new exemptions (good news finally) China vows to „purify the Internet“! Microsoft Related news & Commentary Half of pirated vista available through download networks is malware! Vista Bootloader and BitLocker trying to stop dual/multi-boot choices – All those who purchase xbox are funding and supporting lack of choice in software, hardware, and operating systems. Cumulatively so far, MS has been find nearly 1 BILLION dollars by the EU for antritrust and other violations. Microsoft's COO Kevin Turner is a former Walmart VP. Reminder that Vista zero-day exploits are currently being sold for (and purchased) 50k USD. Clairification about the connection between IBM, Bill Gates, and Bill Gates's Mother, was through her and the president of IBM both being on the United Way Board. I mistakenly said the board of IBM. My apologies for that flub. Linux & Open Source State of the Union Update for January 2007 (if time, else do in next show). Reminder about new show times

Email Clients:

Comparison List: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-mail_clients

Reminder about Email safety basic practices: Disable Preview Pane Disable viewing images from within email Disable any javascript/vbscript/active-x in from running Disable HTML, only use plain text email Never open an attachment directly, run it through scanners before ever opening. More pointers: http://www.wiredsafety.org/safety/email_safety/

Many safety tips: http://www.wiredsafety.org/index.html

WiredSafety.org is a 501(c) (3) charity

Headlines of Note:

Current Internet Weather Report:

http://isc.sans.org/

1. still unpatched dangers to current MS Word, and brand new one discovered by symantec: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2087554,00.asp

Open Office is free equiv from www.openoffice.org

Older headlines, but of note:

So much for freedom of speech online.... 50k fine for blogger libelling a lawyer (in Georgia). This was against political activist David Milum. This is the first time a jury in the USA has found a blogger guilty of libel. Not the first time there have been lawsuits against bloggers of course. Some in the millions of dollars. „For a plaintiff to recover in a libel lawsuit, the court must find that the statement was a false statement of fact which actually harmed the subject of that statement. For plaintiffs who are public figures, the court must find that the allegedly libelous statement was made with “actual malice,” meaning the defendant knew his statement was false, or he recklessly disregarded the falsity of the statement. For plaintiffs who are not public figures, the standard is lower: the court must find that the alleged libeler acted negligently in publishing the libelous statement.“

DMCA gets 6 new exemptions to the prohibition against copy protection! Effective from November 27, 2006 to October 27, 2009:

1. Professors may break CSS on dvds to create compilations for classrooms. 2.Old computer software and video games no longer available (this is a continuation). 3.Computer programs that are protected by dongles – small computer attachments – can be circumvented if the dongles prevent access due to malfunction or damage and are obsolete 4.In its fourth exemption, the Copyright Office authorized the circumvention of access controls for eBooks to enable blind users to use them with read-aloud software or screen readers. 5.Under the fifth exemption, cell phone users are authorized to break software locks on their phones to enable their use with competing carriers. (for example a currently ongoing lawsuit based on recycled cell phones. 6.The sixth and final exemption allows researchers to test copy-protected CDs in an effort to find and correct security flaws and vulnerabilities. This exemption was based largely on Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s use of a copy-protection system that increased the vulnerability of consumers’ computers to hacking.

This is good news for once about the DMCA. However, the downsids are: Clinton signed the DMCA into law in 1998. During the past 9 years, there were very few, to no exemptions. So it took NINE YEARS just to get this little bit of our original rights that were originally there from original copyright law, freed back up. There are still so many other restrictions, for example making a backup of your DVD or CD so that the original is not damaged, is a violation of DMCA, (however in the UK there is no such right to „backup“ apparently), but was completely legal prior to the DMCA implementation. This is an ongoing battle.

Vista and Bitlocker try to stop dual-booting. Bitblocker enables encrypted the whole hard drive, requires special chip and bios, or usb-key. This will effectively lock out any operating systém choices if it becomes standard in pc motherboards as MS is trying to force vendors to do. In a review from desktoplinux.com, one of the writers wanted to dual boot Linux and Windows Vista. However a Vista's new bootloader (BCD - Boot Configuration Data), and BitLocker, are clearly (intentionally?) setup to try to stop dual-booting from being an option. But, he in true Linux-user fashion, figured out how to overcome these blocks and acheived his desired goal. Reminder: ALL those who buy Xboxes are helping fund the development of Microsoft's attempt to figure out how to STOP people from having choices of software or operating systems on Pcs.

BEIJING, China (Reuters) (CNN.com tech section)

Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has vowed to "purify" the Internet,....“"Maintain the initiative in opinion on the Internet and raise the level of guidance online," he said. "We must promote civilized running and use of the Internet and purify the Internet environment." "Ensure that one hand grasps development while one hand grasps administration," he said.

State of the Union Linux and Open Source January 2007 Update.

in December 2006, Novel Suse Linux 10.2 became the #1 distro on distrowatch.com, beating out ubuntu (for a while).

Meanwhile distrowatch.com estimates approximately 29 million linux users world-wide. No idea where they get those numbers from...

Linux industry booming in China.

Vista and Bitlocker try to stop dual-booting. Bitblocker enables encrypted the whole hard drive, requires special chip and bios, or usb-key. This will effectively lock out any operating systém choices if it becomes standard in pc motherboards as MS is trying to force vendors to do. In a review from desktoplinux.com, one of the writers wanted to dual boot Linux and Windows Vista. However a Vista's new bootloader (BCD - Boot Configuration Data), and BitLocker, are clearly (intentionally?) setup to try to stop dual-booting from being an option. But, he in true Linux-user fashion, figured out how to overcome these blocks and acheived his desired goal. Reminder: ALL those who buy Xboxes are helping fund the development of Microsoft's attempt to figure out how to STOP people from having choices of software or operating systems on Pcs.

eWeek states Ubuntu and Suse Linux „deemed worthy rivals to Xp and Vista“. They even go as far to state that basically unless you have some specialized hardware or software needs from some rare/unusual/speciliazed area that does not have an equivalent replacement, you may very much want to consider making the switch now, especially instead of going to Vista.

in 2003 Sun signed an agreement with China to provide approximately 200 MILLION linux-based systems! No idea on the update on this though. This is usung Sun's Java Desktop system, based on Novell's Suse linux.

n September 2003, China, Japan and South Korea announced that they working together to produce an open-source alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system

Big conversion news about linux/open source:

List of conversions: http://www.linux.org/info/linux_govt.html

Cities/countries/governments converted of large numbers:

eNorway 2009, goal is to try to help facilitate covnerting the entire country to opensource based, including government, citizens, and even encouraging businesses to follow the same standards. We'll see if this actually happens. It was just announced 6 months ago.

The conversion of spain update: A massive project begun several years ago by the local government in the Extremadura region of Spain. The project has managed to convert more than 75,000 citizens' PCs to run on Linux. The Extremadura government has saved 30 million euro in licensing fees by adopting gnuLinEx for an investment of 125,000 euro, according to local officials.“

India: The Tamil Nadu government, which is on a fast-track pushing the state to the top in the Indian IT sector, has almost shut its door on the software giant, Microsoft, preferring the Open Source Systems (OSS) for reasons of costs and easy migrating capabilities. ...Initially, 99 per cent of government systems have been running on Microsoft systems.... ...We are fast migrating to Linux operating systems which are so much cheaper and can be operated at low cost, besides offering continuous updates and freedom from viruses,â€ﾝ says Mr C. Umashankar, managing director of state-owned ELCOT, .... In just this January 2007, „We have already dispatched 6,500 Linux systems to village panchayats and another 6,100 Acer desktop systems with Suse Linux operating systems are on their way. We are procuring 20,000 desktop systems for schools, which will run only on Suse Linux. Remaining 30 desktop systems will also migrate as and when the new machines arrive,“

2,600 schools in the Indian state of Kerala converting entirely to Linux for their more than 1.5 million high school students.

One convert is state owned Life Insurance Corp. of India, which in 2005 switched its servers to Linux. With the $2 million in savings from using the free software, LIC is adding more computers. Today it has 70,000 PCs, all running Linux, and by next year it expects to have more than 100,000 (reported october 2006).

„We will train over 30,000 government officials in Linux Operating Systems and Open Office. „

http://mandriva.blogspot.com/2007/01/tamil-nadu-india-may-shut-door-on.html

Munich Germany converting 14,000 computers from Windows to linux over the next 2 years. http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/09/21/HNmunichbeginslinux_1.html

the country of Brazil is planning to convert 80 percent of state-agency computers from Windows to Linux. (NPR)

Vienna converting to Linux.

Switzerland government converted to Linux (servers) in 2005.

Rhode Island converted to LAMP in 2004.

Vendors offering linux default install: Dell & Lenovo

Linspire works with many smaller pc vendors.