Saturday, November 24, 2007

Cliff Hacks Things - ASUS eeePC: First impressions and GPL violations


For my birthday, I bought myself an ASUS eeePC. Now, I've been lusting after very-small-form-factor laptops for some time (ever since I saw the Zaurus C series), and this is quite the small one. It also ships with Linux, which (I thought) was a good indication that the hardware is well supported by Linux. (Not so; read on.)

I'm very pleased with the hardware with a few exceptions, which I'll detail in the latter two thirds of this post. The screen is bright and clear, the keyboard is surprisingly usable (even with my giant hands), etc. I'm really happy with it, now that I've bent it to my will. Obligatory laptop porn below.


Full Article

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Defense-in-depth starts with DNS

Defense-in-depth starts with DNS by ZDNet's Ryan Naraine -- Guest Editorial: It's become painfully clear to that DNS can no longer be a fire hose that just pierces the firewall. Here are some simple action items that can be implemented on just about every network out there...

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Is it ethical to turn on wireless security for an open access point?

In my opinion, George Ou has an ethical obligation to turn this guy in for illegally attaching to several networks and changing settings on users that don't know any better. His actions could possibly cost the owners of the routers several hundred dollars in service calls and someone needs to be held liable.


Is it ethical to turn on wireless security for an open access point? by ZDNet's George Ou -- One of my readers sent me the following question and I thought it posed an interesting question on ethics. I’ll post his email and then I’ll answer his questions. I helped a friend move, and re-established her wireless network working with a new ISP. While working, I encountered 7 wireless networks (in addition to hers), 3 [...]

Firefox 3 Beta 1 has landed with better bookmark management, security

Firefox 3 Beta 1 has landed with better bookmark management, security by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- Firefox 3 Beta 1 is available for download, but Mozilla recommends that only those with a strong stomach download this release. That disclaimer aside Firefox 3 Beta 1 seems pretty stable in the early going. As reported by Paula Rooney Monday, Mozilla was prepping the release of the first Firefox 3 beta. This beta is the [...]

Testers get Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate build

Testers get Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate build by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley -- Microsoft has begun rolling out to testers a near-final Release Candidate (RC) build of Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3. Meanwhile, some testers are questioning whether Vista SP1 will remedy some of the performance problems they've been encountering with Vista.

Rogue anti-malware lures squirming though Skype

Rogue anti-malware lures squirming though Skype by ZDNet's Ryan Naraine -- Malicious hackers are using Skype to try to trick Windows users into buying a rogue anti-malware application. The lures arrive via Skype's instant messaging feature with a warning that malware has been detected on the machine and urging users to buy and run a fake "repair utility.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Another Windows Server Update Services glitch hits — on the eve of Patch Tuesday

Another Windows Server Update Services glitch hits — on the eve of Patch Tuesday by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley -- It's never a good thing when Microsoft's Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) enterprise-patch mechanism malfunctions. It's even worse when WSUS breaks down right before the company plans to start pushing out its regularly scheduled Patch Tuesday fixes.

DNS-changing Trojan opens Mac OS X floodgates

DNS-changing Trojan opens Mac OS X floodgates by ZDNet's Ryan Naraine -- Guest Editorial by Gadi Evron “The Mac is going main-stream” is just one of the catch-phrases that we’ve seen in the past two weeks when reading about the Trojan horse infecting Apple Mac OS X users. This attack has created a lot of controversy in the security realm. What’s so special about this [...]

Wal-Mart’s $200 PC - sold out

Wal-Mart’s $200 PC - sold out by ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes -- About two weeks ago, Wal-Mart began selling $200 Linux-based PC. The initial run was around 10,000 units. Now Wal-Mart is sold out. Has Linux now found a niche?