More IT Information

Probably the most innovative and interesting thing about the One Laptop Per Child project is the desktop, nicknamed Sugar, that has been designed for the systems. The system was designed to be the best option for the collaborative environment that they will operate in.
The display is built as a zoom with four frames. Each frame is for one purpose. The frames include a home, friends, neighborhood and activity frame.
The first frame is the home frame and is the starting point where all activities begin. From here the user can focus on friends then the neighborhood or begin a specific activity. This display centers on a stick figure which represents the user. This is surrounded by a ring which show the activities the user is currently working on. The amount of the ring that each task takes shows the amount of memory that is being used. This makes it easy to see when the person is running out of memory. Users can start, end and switch activities from this view.
The next frame is the friends frames. This frame consists of colored stick figures that each represent a person that the user has included as a friend in sort of buddy list. These figures can be moved and arranged to form groups any way the user likes. This view also shows which activities the friends are doing and allows the user to join their friend's non-private activities. For an educational environment or even a business one, this is a very good idea and makes collaboration very efficient and fast.
The third frame is the neighborhood. From here the user can see everyone that can be seen from the wireless link. Again stick figures are used, but this time they are clustered around the current activity they are using. Again it is easy for users to collaborate on activities in the same way as from the friends view.
Lastly there is the activity frame. This is where the user can work on whatever task they like. This display avoids multitasking which is so common in modern operating systems and devotes the full view to one activity at a time. While I wouldn't say it is a good idea in most environments, for children devoting their time to learning, this can be very good in avoiding distractions. The small screen size of the laptops also leave little room to view more than one activity at a time.
Each of the frames is built the view in the center with the sides devoted to different parts. The bottom represents possible actions while objects, places and people are devoted to the sides and top.
In the people section is a list of all the people that the user is currently working with. This still uses the standard colored stick figure and allows the person to see details such as name, age, interests, and a small photo of the person.
Places includes the features of changing the zoom level as well as listing a bulletin-board. This is the navigation feature between frames on the laptop
Objects is a clipboard which users can put files or text into and copy them to other locations such as the bulletin board or a friend in order to send the file. This allows for the standard keyboard shortcuts or a drag and drop interface for dealing with clipboard items.
Activities acts as an activity launcher, but also includes invitations and notifications. Colored activities and invitations match the color of the person who sent the invitation or is running the application. Local applications are grey.
The bulletin board is exactly the same as it is in reality. It offers a place for pictures or work to be place to share with others around.
After looking at the layout and structure of this desktop, I would recommend a slightly modified version of the desktop for most people and businesses as it is very effective and efficient. The only think lacking is the multiuser features that is needed and common in current desktops. People with children should consider this setup as it provides a very straightforward interface for children that would require very little from parents to help the child use the interface. It would be even more fun for children and children can have even more fun while learning, especially if this desktop were used in a school setting on a normal system. This is not just something for developing countries' schools, but can be a great educational aid for all schools.

Labels: desktop, linux

There is an interesting product for those who need to manage their hard drive without losing data. Partition Manager from Paragon Software Group offers just that and more features.
This software allows users to resize, move, hide, merge, restore and convert partitions without loss of their data. Along with this the software allows for drive defragmentation and data recovery from deleted partitions and crash recovery with a bootable CD. For the full features with descriptions look at their feature page.
The enterprise server edition of course has more features including advanced backup features and the ability to resize hard drive partitions without interrupting the normal operations of the computer. Again the feature page has a complete list of options and descriptions.
While I don't recommend such software for everyone, it can be useful for people managing Windows-based computer systems especially when data loss is not an option.

Labels: harddrive, management, partition, windows

Some people are beginning to realize the amount of data that can be found online about them from simple social networking and other sites. In a recent gathering North American Federation of Temple Youth were presented with images and data about themselves displayed on the walls of the auditorium they were meeting in. It seems that the people were rather embarrassed by the gossip, images, and partying and dating details listed as well as the reference to the organization. After this meeting many removed some of the information that was listed and all are more careful to keep too personal details out of their postings.
Not only is this a matter of people being able to find things about you that you would rather they didn't know, it's also a matter of protecting yourself against predators and criminals.
I encourage parents of children who use such sites to look into what their children have posted. Not to spy on what the children are doing, but to make sure there is nothing that can lead to trouble. I would encourage doing it with the child present so the child still can keep some privacy possible but also so that both you and your children are involved and understand the dangers of such information and can change it as soon as possible.
For parents who do not know how, I will volunteer to help them in the issue, but only to parents and I hold the right to refuse anyone. I will not provide any details of the information I find, but only references to what is potentially dangerous to protect those involved. While it is public information, I am not going to provide perverts with catered details of their next victims.

Labels: internet, safety

Currently there seems to be a controversy over the laptops that were sent out to bloggers with Vista installed to be reviewed. Many are saying they are bribes, but MS has stated that they are for review only and should be returned or given away. While I disagree that the are bribes, I am curious to learn the selection process Microsoft went through to select bloggers for the laptops.
From a strictly selfish point of view, I would have loved to have tested the laptops. While I'm not a supporter of MS, I am not against any product that works well and would like to see for myself the performance of Vista. It wouldn't take me away from Linux either way, but it might have affected my warning people against using Vista for the time present if it turned out to be a system that is better than XP or other Windows versions.
But going back to the topic at hand, it is a very good marketing move by Microsoft. If they can win over some bloggers, they have people who will write about Vista as well as tell friends. It may be more believable than reading a review in a magazine. Microsoft can use all the commentary on Vista it can get to make the system popular at a time when there are a lot of skeptics especially when speaking of Vista.
The only question I have is of the 90 laptops that were given out, how many of them were to people who were already pro-Windows and how many were to critics. It may be even more believable to have a Mac- or Linux-biased individual say something good about Vista than the usual Windows junkie.

Labels: bloggers, laptops, microsoft, vista, windows

A PowerPoint presentation is going around emails right now called Christmas+Blessings-4.ppt which contains a version of the Hupigon (Hupigeon) Trojan. This installs two other files called msupdate.dll and sdfsc.dll.
The Trojan comes in an email with the subject "Merry Christmas to our hero sons and daughters!". There isn't much known about the attack but it is assumed to be based on the MS06-012 exploit in MS Office that lets commands be executed from a remote source.

Labels: email, microsoft, powerpoint, trojan, vulnerability

Good news has come from Microsoft regarding Vista. It seems the tests conducted by Sophos that resulted in a statement that Vista was vulnerable to malware were redone by Microsoft and they found that Vista is not vulnerable to any of the malware tested.
The problem comes from other software particularly email applications being run on Vista. Outlook fits into this category of applications that can make Vista vulnerable.
The comment from Microsoft that these applications are what causes Vista to be vulnerable is like saying connecting to the Internet is what causes vulnerabilities. Every business needs to run some sort of email application and Outlook is the most popular and in many cases has a lot of very nice features not seen in other Windows email clients.
So we know exactly where the problem comes from, now the issue is how can Microsoft fix Vista so that it's use of (as MS states) 3rd party software does not cause vulnerabilities. People buy computers with the intention of running other software on them.

Labels: microsoft, vista, vulnerability, windows

Microsoft has announced the development of the ability to use multiple mice concurrently on one machine to control Office and other applications. They say this will benefit schools in developing nations where there are more students than schools can afford computers. This allows for all the students to be able to benefit from using the program.
There is just one problem I see, what good can come when 2 people are trying to control the same application. The most appropriate development would be allowing virtual systems to run off of one computer on multiple displays. This would allow all the children to use a computer and still keep the costs considerably lower than having multiple computers. This has already been done with Novell Enterprise SUSE, which has the ability to use one computer to create up to 10 workstations consisting of just keyboards, mice and monitors. This provides for a better learning environment than having 2 mice controlling one application.

Labels: education, linux, microsoft, novell, suse

BadVista.org has been launched by the Free Software Federation (FSF) to warn users of the harm of Windows Vista.
The site states that Vista is a "regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does." Windows, it considers is restrictive but calls Vista a Trojan Horse that takes even more control from users. Their focus is to educate users on how Vista works, why it is bad for users and how to prevent it from happening. Also a part of this is a campaign against the Digital Rights Management that keeps slipping into more and more places including Vista.
As an example of some of the dangers of Vista, Trusted Computing is given which is nicknamed Treacherous Computing because of it's control over the way a computer operates and prevention of users allowing their computer to operate in ways that the manufacturer doesn't approve of.
While the FSF is definitely biased toward the Open Source community having viewed the site, they do a very good job of presenting this in a very professional manner and are not attacking Vista to promote Open Source, but are showing the flaws and giving Open Source as an option. They have created the site because Vista goes against their beliefs of what a computer should be and want to educate people on the issue. I would recommend people take a look at it for that reason and make their own judgments based on the facts provided on the site.

Labels: microsoft, vista

As more is being learned about this worm, we find out that it is not targeting Skype directly but is spreading through links and people downloading the sp.exe file. It affects all Windows computers from Win95 to XP. Luckily it is rather easy to remove and easy to stop which makes it do very little damage.
When a computer with Skype is infected with this it will give a warning message before running that says,
"Warning!
Allow this program in skype!"
If users do not allow the program to run then it cannot spread. That doesn't of course mean that it cannot find information on your computer, it just won't move to the next random Skype user.
When it does find another random user it will send a message that says:
"Check this! [http://]marx2.altervista.org/surpr"
This URL has been removed by now which gives a lot more protection to users in the spread of the worm.

If you have been infected, it is not so difficult to remove.
The first step is to disable the system restore feature in Windows ME and XP. Then with an updated antivirus definition file, do a complete system scan.
For those who aren't sure how to disable the system restore feature:
From the start menu, right click 'My Computer' then select properties. From there you will see a 'System Restore' tab. Inside that tab will be a option to 'Turn off System Restore' or something very similar. After doing that apply the changes and confirm it then hit OK. At this point you are ready to scan for the virus.

Labels: skype, vulnerability, windows

A warning to Skype users. There seems to be a worm out that is sending messages asking users to download sp.exe.
When this file is run, it installs spyware that is used to steal passwords and personal information on your computer and as well downloads more code from a remote computer.
This is very new so not much is known about it yet.

Labels: skype, vulnerability

A vulnerability in Symantec AntiVirus is being actively exploited. It was discovered in the end of May and patched by June 12. The first exploits were discovered around the end of November, but the current worm is spreading on a large scale and doesn't need help in spreading. The FTP server that the worm downloads files from was accessed 71513 times in the 24 hour period before 15 December.
Users can protect themselves by making sure their copy of the antivirus program is patched and that the TCP port 2967 is blocked.
A complete analysis of the worm can be found from eEye Research.

Labels: antivirus, symantec, vulnerability

People who are tired of all the spam mail they receive can now turn to boxbe for help. This service was recently started to combat spam messages and may actually succeed.
The service allows users to list email addresses of their friends and then charge a fee for others to send you any message. This fee is set to whatever value you decide from a few cents to $99. If the sender pays the fee, you receive the message and after confirming either you or your choice of charity will receive the money from the message. Of course you will have to collect a certain amount before any money is sent. Boxbe allows users to provide information about themselves as a way to advertise yourself to advertisers.
How popular this will become is completely unknown, but if it provides a way to stop unwanted spam or at least charge spammers for annoying us, it is definitely a needed service.

Labels: email, money, spam

As of January Skype will offer unlimited calls to mobiles and landlines inside of the US and Canada for $30 a year. For those who do a lot of calling to different parts of the States, this may be the cheapest option available. Also those living outside the States with family and friends in the States can benefit from such a plan.

Labels: skype

An interesting email comes back to us from the past thanks to the court case (Comes v. Microsoft).
The email is from the beginning of 2004 when the then co-president of Microsoft, Jim Allchin, wrote that he believed the company had lot sight of what the customers wanted. He further stated that the company lost sight of 'what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, [and] how important current applications are." He adds that the company doesn't understand the most important problems of the customer. On a slightly positive note he says that there are a lot of features with "great vision" but that they are random and do not create a good product. He further says that had he not been working for Microsoft he would buy a Mac.
I'm sure Apple is quite happy to hear this as an added endorsement for their products, but to be serious, I believe more people are beginning to feel this way. Microsoft products are beginning to go down in quality and the company seems to have more interest in making a profit from customers than actually providing them with useful services.
Vista may be a change in this direction, but I have my doubts. It seems more to focus on the bells and whistles than to focus on a solid stable OS. Vista also seems to be created as a panic to stop people from migrating to Linux which to give an example has had a similar type of desktop environment eye-candy for quite some time. Eye-candy is what impresses gamers and standard-users, but more power-users and companies are looking for stability, security, and performance without the cost of upgrading their computers. Most people who upgrade to Vista next year or buy a lower end computer with Vista pre-installed will not be using the more advanced eye-candy, their computers won't support it, which will leave even more dissatisfied customers. This could bring the cost of buying a Mac similar to the cost of a Windows box, which is one of the main advantages that Windows had over Mac recently.

Also coming out of this court case is the news that Microsoft requires employees to delete all their mail after 30 days. This is troubling as many emails are still relevant at that time or can be looked back on as a reference. This causes a person to think that the company has something to hide and doesn't want any evidence to exist that could be used against anyone.

Labels: microsoft

This has been a dangerous week for MS Office users. Two exploits have been discovered.
The latest exploit is the result of an error when processing word files. Thankfully it is not being exploited very actively and requires a person to open the file to actually be affected by it, which mostly prevents anyone who practices safe computing habits from being affected by the exploit. The word file used in the exploits contains the PWS-Agent.g Trojan which collects passwords from IE, Firefox and email clients.
Unfortunately currently Microsoft has released very little information aside from a confirmation of the exploit and has no patch or workaround.

Labels: microsoft, office, vulnerability

We've seen the electronic greeting cards, flash animation with some message we type or a fixed message that we can add to, much like what you would find in a greeting card store (minus the animation).
Now Web 2.0 seems to have got involved with YouTube and Coca-Cola teaming up to provide video greetings. The choice involves your own video, videos from popular YouTube personalities (I'm certain the lonelygirl15 team will be one of them), or Coke's holiday themes which include vintage advertisements (which seems to be my preference).
Coca-cola.com will feature some greetings that people want to share with the world under the category of Holiday WishCast.

Labels: christmas, greetings, holiday, internet

Ecommerce Times asks an interesting question. "Is now the time to move to Linux?"
The answer to this very may be yes. Linux is not the technical geek OS that it used to be (or at least not all distributions are) For people still learning computers Linux or Windows both would involve the same amount of learning. For more experienced users looking for a more stable environment with less viruses and other worries, it's definitely an option. For new or experienced computer user looking for complete freedom on their computers, it's definitely the only option.
I first got interested in Linux in the late 90's but never made a complete switch until June of 2006. I didn't switch because of hating Windows or any similar reason, I switched because of the power Linux gave me. I could work a lot more efficiently than I could in Windows. The multiple desktops allowed me to organize my work a lot better. Some Open Source applications helped my organize my life better than I could manage in Windows. Being able to modify and create command line commands, made it faster to get and sort all of the information I need and want with even less work. Also the applications that come standard in Linux helped to secure my network and communications as well as monitor my network status.
Of course those who are happy to live inside a box and do things a standard way without having options to other methods and shortcuts, Linux will never be the choice. More than anything Linux and the Open Source community are about the freedom to use your computer the way you want.

Labels: linux, os, windows

A cracking technique has been released for Windows Vista Enterprise that in theory should work. No one has yet confirmed that it does work.
The idea is to take advantage of the way Volume Activation works. One option for businesses to have a server that authenticates the keys using Key Management Service. This also allows people who want to pirate the OS to create a virtual server that will authenticate the software. This server should probably be reactivated every 180 days, but in theory will work.
Battling the pirated software industry is a difficult battle. There's a lot of money to be made with pirated copies of software, especially Windows and these groups will stop at nothing to find a way to pirate the software. This of course is a problem for software producers, who are losing money, usually made up for with higher prices of the software, which can cause more people to consider pirated copies. The problem is to eliminate piracy, software would have to be so complexly authenticated that most users would be put off. Rather than doing this, the goal is to find some balance between, accepting that there will be some pirated copies, but making the pirated copies difficult enough to maintain that the majority of people will just buy the software.
Microsoft seems to have currently reached this stage in Vista. The average computer user is not going to want to deal with the virtual server or recreating it every 180 days and will find it better to just buy Vista. The question is if Microsoft is satisfied with this or if they can make that impossible without making it too much work for IT departments in companies running Vista Enterprise.

Labels: crack, microsoft, vista

Using a scanner with Linux can be a complicated affair, at least the setup part. For those looking for help on the issue linux.com offers a complete howto section on just that issue.
Since most scanners today are USB, I'll focus on that. The key file needed for this is libusb, which comes standard with most distributions. It may as well be required to mount usbdevfs or usbfs.
Also it is possible that you will need to create the device if it isn't created dynamically if devfsd is not running. Mknod can be used to create usb scanners if libusb is not configured correctly. To make the device you need to know what the device is named in /dev/usb. It could be scanner0, scanner1 or it could be usbscanner0. To make the device for the scanner from the root account you need to type for example:
mknod /dev/usbscanner0 c 180 48
Next you need to have SANE, which should automatically detect the scanner and appropriate front-end at this point.
Testing your scanner is as simple as making sure it's on and plugged into the computer the typing sane-find-scanner or scanimage --list-devices. This will give you information about the type and location of the scanner.
To scan an image from the command line type scanimage -d :/dev/ --format > outputfile.pnm (or .tiff)
This is a very basic summary to get you started. For a better description of the steps to follow please read the guide. If you have libusb, it will be a lot easier and just plugging the scanner in should get you to the step of testing the scanner. If you don't find the scanner then you may want to look at the other options. The command line can sometimes be the easiest way of doing things in Linux and very efficient, especially in this case.

Labels: linux, os, scanner, setup

# posted by N_Lien @ 22:40 0 comments

If you use MySpace you may want to be careful of worms. A video file which was designed to steal information from subscribers has been discovered on MySpace. It was embedded in a Quicktime file which can install itself on a users computer as a JavaScript file (js.js) when the video is viewed with IE.
To spread the worm changes the user's MySpace pages and sends people to a fake log-in page.
On the bright side though it is detectable. Affected pages display a strange blue navigation bar. If this is the case for your page, remove the fake navigation bar and make sure that your friends are not infected. If they are infected the worm will use your friends list to transfer itself back to your profile.
PCAuthority.com has more information on this worm.

Labels: myspace, vulnerability

This is not something I would normally write about, but it is a perfect example of why we need to not completely rely on technology but rather use it as a tool.
In England an ambulance transporting a patient from a London hospital to another hospital on the outskirts of London travelled all the way to Manchester before they realized their GPS had led them off course.
Computers and computerized gadgets are wonderful tools that make things faster and easier, but when people begin to rely on them completely and not think for themselves, such events like this can happen.
Recently I was talking with some people who didn't like GPS because it made them forget how to get anywhere without it. People begin to become too dependant on GPS to travel. They will for example sit in traffic jams that they normally would have known would be there and would have driven a different way only because the GPS told them to drive that specific way.
Electronic gadgets can help make decisions and speed up the process, but they do not always provide the best decision for us, they don't have the experience of life to help make those decisions as people do.

Labels: gps, mistake

Vista features an image-based install process to allow third-party software to be included on the installation DVD, making it easier for corporate users to have their private software pre-installed. Unfortunately, this can allow for images to be distributed with Trojan horses and other malware included.
People looking for cracks for Windows Vista are very likely to find a Trojan horse, specifically PSW.Win32.LdPinch.aze. I can't say that I am very worried about this though. It should be expected that when downloading something illegal, there is a high probability of having something more than you want.
The money that can be got by gaining personal information from computers is high enough that the people involved are looking for any way possible of getting that information, what easier way than let you install it yourself.

Labels: crack, microsoft, os, trojan, vista

The W32.Spybot.ACYR worm is attacking educational sites and computers. It using vulnerabilities in Microsoft and Symantec. Users who have patched their Symantec security in May are safe, but others may not be. Those who don't have a patched version of Symantec's software should consider blocking port 2967 at their firewalls.
For the most part households should have no problems as it seems to only be targetting .edu domains, but people should still be prepared in case there is a change.

Labels: education, microsoft, symantec, vulnerability