Microsoft: The monohedral and the bizarre

Summary: It's obvious to all observers that Microsoft is in a state of transition and transformation. Ballmer has declared that now that there is 'One Microsoft.' E Pluribus Unum, dude. What's the next move?

This is a brilliant article by Ken Hess of ZDNet... I tip my hat to you. Read on...

Ken's full article is here.

In case you haven't noticed, Microsoft has been in a state of transition for a few years now. Their foray into open source software, their giving away of software, their new stance on competition and cooperatition; it's a whole new company. Microsoft is entering middle age. And with middle age comes the regular prostate exam and colonoscopy. Both of which involve discovery from the bottom up. Welcome to the new age of reason, Microsoft, we've been waiting for you. Grab your ankles and think pleasant thoughts.

The discovery that you're doing things wrong is painful. Microsoft has historically been just a bit behind the game in three key areas: virtualization, consumerization, and cloud computing. Now that they've caught up and surpassed other companies in technical features, it's time for the company to re-evaluate itself. Take a close look at where it is today and where it's going tomorrow.

It's kind of ironic that the catch phrase for Windows 95 was, "Where do you want to go today?", when it should have been, "Where do you want to be tomorrow?"

The realization that the world has passed you by isn't a good one. It requires restructuring, refocusing, and making some tough decisions in order to remain relevant and profitable. Some of those tough decisions always begin at the bottom and work their way skyward. This typically means layoffs for technical staff, salary adjustments, deleting bonus programs, removing redundant positions, and shifting of personnel from silos and towers to unified global strata.

I feel bad for the average Microsoft worker. I really do. Every large company experiences growing pains. But Microsoft has been experiencing more than its share for the past decade or so. I think though, that its pain is almost over. Middle age doesn't have to be full of aches, pains, and complaints. It can be a time of great and positive discovery. It can be a time of enlightenment. It can be the transitional and transformative time that Microsoft is now experiencing. 

 I think it's good that Microsoft is refocusing and reasserting itself as "One Microsoft". Microsoft was once the most powerful company on the planet led by the richest man on the planet. But that was a different time. Things have changed. Now there's cloud and big data and XaaS and consumerization. Yes, the dirtiest of all IT slanguage, consumerization. Since this blog is consumerization focused, I get the best opportunity to focus on that part of this transition. 

Why does consumerization come into play, you ask? It's very simple, you as a consumer, now have more power than ever before. Consumers can now shift a company from Fortune 500 to yesterday's news. You have to make people happy or they'll switch. Today, we have the power.

Microsoft now realizes that its power is gone, or at best is on the wane. No longer can it churn out products that we must love or lump. We can now choose. Sure we've always had a choice but never such good choices that we enjoy today.

Microsoft knew that.

And why not tighten the vise when you have one's victim's delicate parts in it? Anyone would. Although Microsoft took a good beating over doing what anyone would do. It took advantage of its top seed position, just as others have done in the past. But somehow Microsoft was a criminal for doing it too.

Now the tide has turned.

The old saying goes, "The customer is always right." And it's true. The customer is always right.

Apple has proved this. Microsoft had to learn it the hard way.

Unfortunately, the price of this lesson, and all lessons, is very high.

The consumer now drives the market, not the vendor. You probably think that the market has always been consumer-driven. You'd be wrong.

It's the same lesson that Russia learned. One choice is not enough and quality does matter. You can't give people what you want to give them and expect loyalty or happiness. You have to give people what they want.

And the all-powerful consumer is a fickle beast.

This is where it gets "weird".

Do you remember when Blackberry was the "must have" mobile phone? I do. I had one and thought it was the greatest mobile device the world had ever seen. It was ahead of its time. Then the service took a couple of big hits and the fickle consumer jumped to other technologies almost over night. Now the company struggles in the single digit market share range. FYI, Blackberry, in my opinion has addressed its issues and is well worth another look, but that's another story.

Now Microsoft has to compete with Apple, a host of mobile device vendors, and itself.

Yes, itself.

It sounds crazy but Microsoft has committed the ultimate crime: competing with itself.

Windows XP was too good and Microsoft decided to support it for too long. Vista didn't have the uptake expected because of its too soon release and a myriad of problems. Windows 7 was the savior that rescued us from Vista but still XP hung on. A lot of people still use it, while others have only begun to convert to Windows 7.

And now there's Windows 8. Corporate uptake of Windows 8 might never happen. Once the Windows 7 conversions are fully realized, businesses might wait until Windows 10 to consider another major cutover. So, in the meantime, what does Microsoft do with Windows 8 or Windows 9?

One answer is to change support policy. Provide full support for an operating system for five years and extended support for two more. Seven years is long enough with one operating system. No company should be held over the fire for a decade or more for a product that should have been replaced years ago.

The alternative is for Microsoft to only create a new operating system every seven years, charge more for it, charge more for support or change its model completely to one of support tiers.

It might work something like this:

• Microsoft builds new operating systems every seven years and offers ten years of support, which gives companies that three year transition period they often need.
• Microsoft gives away its operating system software or charge a subscription for use. Crazy I know but wait, there's more.
• Setup tiered support for individuals, SMBs, and Enterprises that allows companies to pay for support on an annual or on a per incident basis.
• Only provide updates and patches for those who subscribe. Of course, certain critical patches would have to be made public to address major security issues with applications but not the operating system itself.
• Provide its own Microsoft-branded virtual desktops and servers to companies and individuals via subscription. All patching and updates would be handled from the data center and not left to the individual user or company.

I rather like the idea of subscribing to a desktop that I can use from anywhere and at anytime I choose. And the idea of a virtual infrastructure that's owned and supported by Microsoft appeals to me as well.

Microsoft must change its business model to meet the new consumer paradigm. Allow me to use a Microsoft desktop and servers from any device. Microsoft owns their own cloud that I subscribe to. I like it. Bizarre, yes. One Microsoft, definitely.

What do you think about Microsoft' restructuring? Do you think that they're playing catchup or is there something bigger brewing? Talk back and let me know.

MS Cloud background image used with permission from Meghan D. Cox. I placed the MS logo on top of the original image.

It’s Beyond Ridiculous That Email (But Not Mail) Has Been Left Out of Privacy Laws

• BY KEVIN YODER, TOM GRAVES, AND JARED POLIS
• 06.17.13

As with so many significant privacy violations of late by government agencies — from the NSA to the IRS — it’s become clear that technology has far outpaced law. Federal laws meant to protect our Fourth Amendment right “to be secure in [our] persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable search and seizure” do not adequately cover Americans’ property online.

Especially email. Under current statute, government agencies such as the IRS, DHS, SEC and many others are allowed to access emails and other private communications older than 180 days without obtaining a search warrant or demonstrating probable cause that a crime has been committed.

How is it possible that government can claim this authority, accessing our most intimate “soft” communications — but not, say, a “hard” letter lying around our houses?

The reason is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Originally intended to protect — not violate — the privacy of our digital communications, this act set standards for government access to private information (such as emails, private photos, documents) transmitted and stored on the internet with an online service provider.

But ECPA was passed in 1986. Twenty-seven years ago, most Americans did not have a home computer or an email account. They did not all carry cell phones. “Facebook” described only the hardbound photo books of university freshmen and “Twitter” was an adjective used to describe the chattering of birds — such social networking sites did not even exist.

Whether they occur online or offline, our private communications should be protected. And that’s why we, a bipartisan group of representatives — Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas), Tom Graves (R-Georgia), and Jared Polis (D-Colorado) — have come together to introduce the Email Privacy Act. We’ve already gained a bipartisan group of 94 co-sponsors, and are pleased to join with our colleagues in the Senate, Senators Patrick Leahy and Mike Lee, who are pushing companion legislation that would modernize the ECPA.

Simply put, this bipartisan legislation would affirm what most Americans already assume — and have every constitutional right to believe — that their privacy is protected from unwarranted government intrusion.

The Email Privacy Act updates legislation written in a time when server storage was limited. Back then, an email user was expected to permanently download his or her email locally from a server for reading, response, and long-term storage. So the 180 day rule made sense, because email left on a server for that long could be reasonably viewed as abandoned. But that’s not the case today with people accessing and storing years and years worth of email through third-party servers.

Fundamentally, the Email Privacy Act would ensure that the Fourth Amendment protections Americans already have for mail, phone calls, and other paper/ hard documents are extended to their soft communications too. Specifically, our legislation updates ECPA by strengthening privacy protections for electronic communications stored by third party service providers such as Amazon, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and countless other cloud services. If government agencies want to obtain any of these communications, they would first need to obtain a warrant from a judge — not their self-anointed authority.

The constitution prohibits the government from accessing personal files stored in a cabinet or letters sent through the mail without a warrant. When the telephone was introduced into mainstream culture, our laws changed to protect the privacy of calls using such technology. But even though email is ubiquitous today, such electronic communications don’t have the same privacy protections as the — arguably far less used! — mail and landline phones do.

This is a real issue and must be addressed; Congress needs to act now to update our laws through the Email Privacy Act and reign in any overreaching by government agencies. It’s ironic that we have benefitted tremendously from technological innovations and advancements such as smartphones and always-connected networks but that our laws have not kept pace with the privacy realities of the 21st century.

Still, Americans deserve to have a reasonable expectation of privacy … despite what the NSA, IRS, or other government agencies believe.

Original article is here.

SPLITTING THE SEA: TURNING OCEAN WATER INTO HYDROGEN FUEL

Great work University of Wollongong...

UOW scientists have developed a novel way to turn sea water into hydrogen, for a sustainable and clean fuel source.

Using this method, as little as five litres of sea water per day would produce enough hydrogen to power an average-sized home and an electric car for one day.

The research team at UOW’s Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) have developed a light-assisted catalyst that requires less energy input to activate water oxidation, which is the first step in splitting water to produce hydrogen fuel.

A major limitation with current technologies is that the oxidation process needs a higher over-potential input, which rules out using abundant sea water because it produces poisonous chlorine gas as a side product under operational conditions.

The research team, led by Associate Professor Jun Chen and Professor Gerry Swiegers, have produced an artificial chlorophyll on a conductive plastic film that acts as a catalyst to begin splitting water.

The results were recently published in the journal Chemical Science.

Lead author, Associate Professor Jun Chen, said the flexible polymer would mean it could be used in a wider range of applications and it is more easily manufactured than metal semiconductors.

“The system we designed, including the materials, gives us the opportunity to design various devices and applications using sea water as a water-splitting source.

“The flexible nature of the material also provides the possibility to build portable hydrogen-producing devices.”

The development brings UOW’s energy research a step closer to creating an artificial leaf-like device that can efficiently produce hydrogen.

ACES Executive Research Director Professor Gordon Wallace said: “In today’s world the discovery of high performance materials is not enough”.

“This must be coupled with innovative fabrication to provide practical high-performance devices and this work is an excellent example of that,” he said.

Original article here

The ISS Has Ditched Windows Entirely--For Linux

International Space Station switches from Windows to Linux, for improved reliability...

Original article available here.

The United Space Alliance, which manages the computers aboard the International Space Station in association with NASA, has announced that the Windows XP computers aboard the ISS have been switched to Linux. “We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable.”

In specific, the “dozens of laptops” will make the change to Debian 6. These laptops will join many other systems aboard the ISS that already run various flavors of Linux, such as RedHat and Scientific Linux. As far as we know, after this transition, there won’t be a single computer aboard the ISS that runs Windows. Beyond stability and reliability, Keith Chuvala of the United Space Alliance says they wanted an operating system that “would give us in-house control. So if we needed to patch, adjust or adapt, we could.” It’s worth noting that the ISS laptops used to run Windows XP, and we know they’ve been infected by at least one virus in their lifetime: in 2008, a Russian cosmonaut brought a laptop aboard with the W32.Gammima.AG worm, which quickly spread to the other laptops on board. Switching to Linux will essentially immunize the ISS against future infections.

The laptops that were upgraded belong to the station’s OpsLAN. The crew use the OpsLAN to perform day-to-day activities, such as viewing stock inventory, controlling scientific experiments, or checking their current location. Presumably the laptops used to run bespoke Win32 apps on Windows XP, and now those apps have been re-written to work on Linux — hopefully they’re not being emulated in WINE. To get the astronauts and cosmonauts up to speed, they will be trained by the Linux Foundation.

To be honest, we shouldn’t be too surprised at the ditching of Windows. Linux is the scientific community’s operating system of choice. CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is controlled by Linux. NASA and SpaceX ground stations use Linux. DNA-sequencing lab technicians use Linux. Really, for applications that require absolute stability, which most scientific experiments are, Linux is the obvious choice. The fact that the entire OS is open source and can be easily customized for each experiment is obviously a very big draw, too.

In other news, the first humanoid robot in space, Robonaut 2, which also runs Linux, is due for an upgrade soon. Robonaut 2 (pictured above) was delivered on Space Shuttle Discovery’s final mission in 2011, and at the moment it’s just a torso with two arms — but later in 2013, some climbing legs and a battery pack should be delivered. The ultimate goal is to see whether humans and robots can operate peacefully in zero gravity, with Robonaut eventually performing menial tasks (vacuuming, changing filters), and possibly dangerous tasks during space walks, too.

Now read: Windows 8 may drive me to Linux

What Should I Do With My Old Windows XP Laptop?

This is a great article from Lifehacker...

Don't throw away that old laptop or desktop...

Read the full article is here.

Malware fight goes public on the wed

The original article by Ben Grubb (SMH) goes on to outline the numbers of Australian computer IP numbers that were found to be infected by Bot's and Trojan malware. For the lay-people... you are assigned an IP address when you access the internet via your ISP. Malware signatures can be detected by the 'packets' of information your computer sends and receives.

Please don't be fooled by tele-marketers telling you you are infected, you may be, but they only want remote access to your PC in order to plant malware of their choice, and to get you to pay them for it.

The Government would like the ISP to contact their users and offer assistance to remove the infection from the end users PC. This however is a BIG ask and can be quite difficult.

The ACMA (Australian Communication and Media Authority) have published a page that outlines the statistics daily - click here for that page. The page details the total numbers and type of infection that it has detected.

I have listed the malware variants (outlined by ACMA) below:

1. Zeus targets Microsoft Windows machines. It does not work on Mac OS X, or Linux.
2. Conficker Exploits the Windows Server Services.
3. IRCBot affects Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2.
4. Ramnit only infects Windows. Mainly known for spreading via USB devices.
5. Mebroot infects all Windows O/S'.
6. Virut infects all Windows O/S'.
7. Rootkit TDSS infects all Windows O/S'.
8. Flashback is a virus that infects Apple's OSX.
9. Sality infects all Windows O/S' and spreads through Windows networks.
10. Slenfbot infects all Windows O/S'.
11. Festi infects all Windows O/S'.
12. Cutwail infects Windows XP, Vista and 7.
13. Kelihos infects all Windows O/S'.
14. Waledac infects all Windows O/S'.
15. Nitol Botnet, interestingly, came installed in Windows PC's manufactured in China. Meaning it was installed at the factory.
16. Spyeye infects all Windows O/S'.
17. Lethic infects all Windows O/S'.
18. Darkmailer infects all Windows O/S'.
19. Trojan Pony - Found inside Pirated Apple & Windows versions of Adobe Illustrator CS4.
20. Dorkbot infects all Windows O/S'.
21. Pushdo infects all Windows O/S'.

Only two are capable of infecting Apple Mac computers the rest will infect all Windows operating systems. None quoted affect Linux.

Particularly interesting is 'Nitol' came pre-installed on some PC's manufactured in China. Clearly this is a real worry. The other worry is that pirated versions of software from Adobe (Illustrator CS4) came with the trojan Pony. The CS series of Adobe products are so expensive ($1800 approx) that people without the ability to buy them were forced to install pirated versions. I prefer to encourage people to use 'Open Source' instead. A good example is Gimp. Possibly not as comprehensive as Illustrator but how much do you need... really.

Flashback uses a well known exploit. It tricks the user into thinking that it is a real Adobe Flash player and asks the user to authorise it's installation. Seems Steve Jobs had good reason to disallow iPads from using flash. Unfortunately Flashback will infect Apple Macs.

So what do you do?

From my experience (if you are a Windows fan) you need to start from a clean operating system. Installed from an 'original Microsoft' disc. Even if your PC is pre-installed... format it and install from the original disc. You will not have the 'Bloat-ware' installed by your PC manufacturer. You should also be able to install the appropriate drivers from the manufacturer's disc's. If the manufacturer does not supply the disc's choose a different manufacturer's PC. Many of the cheaper Chinese PC's don't come with original disc's. Stay away from those. Once you have a clean PC, install a good virus scanner. My choice would be Avast, available here for free.

If you already have a PC (or more), and want to use a cheap PC but also want to be safe... format them and install Linux instead. Linux Ubuntu is my choice but Linux Mint is also a favourite as it is the most similar to Windows XP in it's interface. You will not require a drivers disc as they will sense your hardware and install the drivers automatically during the installation process. Both have support for all your Windows document/image/music/video formats and are the easiest to use for beginners. Both are also perfect of corporate desktop applications as they support Windows RDP sessions and VPN connections to Windows Servers.

Drop me a message on Google+ if you need help/advice.

Ubuntu for your Phone

As a corporate IT Support person (in my previous life) we had to support iPhones. As is usual only the upper level of executive staff were issued with them. And as per usual they were the least capable of using them. This turned out to be a nightmare.
But now with Ubuntu (Linux) that job is made a whole lot easier.
Bring it on!

Graphine - the new wonder material

There has been a lot of buzz globally about the wonders of a new material called "Graphene". This video will explain the importance of this discovery.

Imagine charging your iPhone in about 5 seconds, or your laptop in 30 seconds. Perhaps charging your electric car in the same time it takes to fill a tank of gas.

I'm sure we will hear more about "Graphene" in the future.

Enjoy the video...

Upload Photos to YouTube for a Simple and Easy to Share Slideshow

Original Article: Here

We're all well aware that YouTube is great for sharing videos, but tech blog Digital Inspiration points out that it can also be used to create easily shareable slideshows in a matter of seconds.

The process is incredibly easy. Just login to your YouTube account, and head over to the upload area. Navigate over to "Photo slideshow," and click create. Now you just need to drag your photos into the upload area. When you're done, head to the next screen to change time duration, transition effects, and add some background music. You can always set your slideshow to private or unlisted if you're just trying to share vacation pictures with you grandma and not the entire world.

Not Just Videos, Upload your Photos to YouTube | Digital Inspiration

Why use OpenERP in your business

OpenERP is a full featured Open Source Enterprise Resource Planner for small to large organisations.
It is available online for a monthly fee or you can install it on your own server for FREE.

My choice would be to install it free. I have installed it on a Linux Ubuntu 12.04 workstation and can access it from any other workstation on my network regardless of operating system. The benefits are obvious.

The video below gives you an overview of the numerous features of OpenERP... enjoy!




Other video's from OpenERPConsulting are available here

The death of Google Reader - Sob :-(

This really saddens me... really...



So what now?

I'm trying out Akregator for Linux. The rest of you are on your own... :-(

My relationship with operating systems.

My relationship with operating systems. 

I started my computer career back in 1985. It was the age of main frames and CPM was in flavour. A couple of geeks (Bill and Chris) working in a garage in Seattle came up with a system to operate smaller computers. They called it DOS. In a few years it took over the world and it got me hooked too. They sold it to IBM who named it PC-DOS and it flourished. Bill & Chris changed it's name to MS-DOS and Microsoft came to the fore.

At this time I began my career as a Database Developer. I used a RDBMS called Dataflex. And till this day find that Dataflex is better than sex. Only another Dataflex Developer will understand. I was intorduced to Dataflex by a computer salesman who loaned me his Dataflex manual. I read it and found I understood it. Nobody else could? I did do 3 courses to learn Dataflex properly and within 3 months wrote a system to control a Travel Distribution company I worked for.

In the next few years the dudes at Xerox (correct me if I'm wrong) came up with something later called a GUI and also a mouse as Xerox was into document scanning/printing. Microsoft saw an opportunity and Windows was born. My acceptance to that technology was during the reign of Windows 2.0. Other versions of Windows were released and the best version for networks was Windows 3.11, which supported workgroups and networking. Do you remember 'ini' files. They rocked!

Around this time Viruses were born. I remember the Jerusalem Dos based virus, then the Michaelangelo Virus.

Years passed... the Internet came, Windows adapted. Bill even tried to compete with it and started a parallel network called the 'MSN' or Microsoft Network. It failed and was forced to infuse itself as part of the Internet. Netscape was the web browser you had to have to surf the world wide web.

In 1995 Bill released Windows 95. It was sexy, good looking and had great promise. It was a complete redesign of the Windows system, It had something called a 'Registry' and promised to encompass all those pesky 'ini' files. The masses cheered. Only thing was, when you looked at the registry it had more entries that the human brain had synapses. I was worried, and for good reason. Viruses had all this 'white noise' to hide in.

Time passed and 'NT' came. At first it was not considered as a replacement to other Server software but later was adopted by smaller companies. Windows 98, Windows ME, SE and then... Windows XP arguably the best and most utilised of all operating systems. Viruses flourished and they needed to be categorised as there were so many of them. Trojans, Worms, Bots, Malware, Adware. They all seemed to do the same thing. Make my life difficult.

I recall one time being called into the Microsoft head office in North Ryde, Sydney to offer my technical knowledge because my company was applying for a distribution job they advertised. They so proudly showed me their air-conditioned, glass walled, raised floor server room. I asked what OS do they run, NT? They blushed as replied... Unix. They are connected to Seattle directly. Gosh. Why was I there... well... they had a call centre that took calls from consumers who were interested in their software. The call staff took a blank A4 envelope and wrote down the address of the caller and on the inside of the envelope flap wrote what product they were interested in. Ya know... Windows, Office, Publisher etc. They then placed the envelope in a tray and took the next call. Someone then came from the mailroom and collected all the envelopes, inserted the applicable brochures, sealed and posted the envelope. How many calls did they take, who called, what did they ask for? No body knew as they didn't recorded anything. Nothing...

This is from the people that created Access and Excel? I was shattered. I could have done that in a week. Automated everything for them and offer them a customised sort of CRM. We didn't get the job, possibly because our solution to them was too cheap. Those Managers are probably retired now but I think they lied on their resumes when getting their job.

My 4 daughters all had PC's running Windows and I soon was fed up of restoring their OS when they became infected. Steve Jobs was plugging Mac's like crazy and they were all happy when I suggested they go Mac and not PC. Till this day they are all Apple users.

Windows Vista came and soured my fondness of computing. Windows 7 arrived and I was dismayed that it wasn't a whole new OS, but just Vista polished up. Everything was hidden but it essentially remained the same. I could have XP run with under 20 system processes. 7 had around 60 to 80 processed running and needed more and more memory and processor speed to run efficiently.

Around this time I started to notice other good lookers in computing. The old Unix system for servers had spawned an offspring... Linux. At first it was a character driven (Dos like) system, but later a GUI emerged. A friend of mine introduced me to Ubuntu. I was immediately attracted to this gorgeous system. I remember thinking about my first introduction to 95, only this was better, faster and crikey... stable.

I was intrigued, hooked, and explored like a cat in a new house. It had something called the 'software centre' which was like a catalogue of software tried and tested for that version. What's more all that software was free. Also I was completely taken aback by the fact I could now browse the internet without any fear of catching any pesky viruses. It was completely liberating.

I first put Ubuntu on my old Thinkpad laptop. Ubuntu sensed the hardware and immediately found that my old Thinkpad's scratch pad could tolerate multi-touch and enabled it. It was like having an iPad before they were invented. Windows on the other hand could only tolerate single-touch or edge-scrolling. What's more the old Thinkpad sped up like Lance Armstrong on steroids. Booted up in a flash, shut down in a flash and the 'suspend/hybernate' actually worked and didn't crash as in the case with Windows. I found that I could VPN and RDP into my work server just as if I was using Windows.

Ubuntu was now my secret 'mistress'. Don't tell the wife.

I kept my relationship with Windows alive as I was working in the IT department of the 2nd largest Privately owned Transport company in Australia. They were a Microsoft preferred organisation. However even my work PC was dual booted and I used Ubuntu first and Windows only if I really needed to. Slowly though I noticed I needed Windows less and less.

Everything I needed in a Windows system I found in Linux, with only one exception... iTunes. Apple as it seems, didn't want to bother creating a version of iTunes for Linux. Bad move Apple... I traded my iPhone for an Android. Again a breath of fresh air... instead of fussing with iTunes to update my music and ringtones... all I needed to do is drag and drop new music & video to and from the phone. No more 5 PC limitation in iTunes. FREEDOM was mine at last. It felt good... really, really good. No more rules to follow using proprietary software. No more worrying about registering a software license, looking over you shoulder in case Windows WPA itself detected you were using pirated software when in fact you weren't.

Windows is now my ex-wife. Although I still have my pc's dual booted, I can't remember the last time I needed Windows for anything. What's more I no longer need to buy software, it's all FREE.

Dataflex runs happily in Lunix and the world is wonderful again.

For those of you that have done the Microsoft MCP, MCSE courses and have been told you need to do the refresher course for the newer OS or remove the letters from your business cards and letterheads will understand the costs involved. I am free from that.

My advice to anyone that is caught in a relationship that requires constant work to maintain... it's simply not worth it. It's time for a change. 

Linux Video Editing Software - What an Open Source Sony Vegas Looks Like

Here Nixie shows you a bit about Kdenlive for video editing.

Kdenlive is what I use and find brilliant... all for FREE.

Linux Gaming Faster Than Windows & Incredible OUYA News

Ouya! Now faster games on Linux than Windows... go people...

Ubuntu 12.04 Review - Precise Pangolin

Another great review from Nixie Pixel...

Linux VS Windows

Another useful video from Nixie Pixel...

Here she compares Windows 7 to Linux Mint. I prefer Linux Ubuntu, which fills in more of the gaps in software available. Kdenlive for video editing is brilliant and does 'green screen' and other advanced features for video editing.

So, why are people still using Windows?

Top 5 Things to Do After Installing Ubuntu

Another helpful video from Nixie Pixel...

Tricks to speed up Ubuntu

From nixiedoeslinux

She shares my name and she is really good with linux.

Bad SSL Certificate errors whilst clearing mail

If you ever get a bad SSL certificate error in Outlook or Evolution mail, here's a clue for you.

Open Firefox and go to the server in question. Make sure the https://servername is in the address bar. So if it's the gmail server then log into your gmail account. If it's a local ISP then log into their web mail interface.

Find the locked padlock icon on the Firefox window and click it. Then navigate to view certificate. You will notice it will be a self-signed certificate. Find the option to export certificate and save it to a file.

Now open your email client and find the 'preferences' or 'options' page for certificates. You should find the option to import 'contact certificates'. Import the file you just saved.

That's it... you should not get this error.

Apple, Microsoft and Adobe summoned by Australia

Technology giants Apple, Microsoft and Adobe have been called by the Australian parliament to appear before a committee looking at pricing levels.

Will anyone ever figure out there is an alternative to all the above? For me personally, I hope Microsoft, Apple and Adobe triple the cost of their products. I haven't needed anything from them for years now.

The House of Representatives launched a probe in July last year to see if some goods were more expensive in Australia than in other parts of the world.

Consumer bodies have often complained that Australians are overcharged.

The firms have previously made written submissions to the committee but have so far declined to appear in person.

They are now scheduled to appear before the committee on 22 March.

The Australian newspaper quoted Ed Husic, a member of parliament, as saying that according to some estimates the price of some of goods in Australia were as much as 60% higher than in the US.

"Given the widespread use of IT across businesses and the community, the prices paid for hardware and software can have a major commercial and economic impact," the politician was quoted as saying.

"Getting downward movement on IT prices and easing the bite of price discrimination should be an important micro-economic priority - so I'm looking forward to hearing from these firms about their pricing approaches," he added.

Using Gimp to edit PDF files

So you want to open a PDF and edit/erase some of the contents...

Find the PDF file you want to edit in windows explorer or nautilus (linux users). Right click on it and select open with Gimp. You may have to select program manually the first time in windows if you have not done this before.

Once Gimp opens it will give you the option to import the pdf to an image file. Take note of the toolbox window on the left of the gimp interface.

If you want to erase things, you can use the square select tool (top left). Click on it and then click on the upper left corner of the area you want to select on the image. Then drag it to the bottom right of the area and release the mouse button. Once selected you can delete the area.

If you want to erase small portions of the image, I suggest you use the paintbrush tool. First select the background colour (usually white). To do this lick on the 'eye-dropper' tool and then clock anywhere on the image that is the colour you want.

Then click on the paintbrush tool. Make sure the brush is a large enough size (use the button labelled 'brush' in the middle of the toolbox screen). Now brush over the parts you want to cover up.

To save your work back to a pdf. If using linux just print to a pdf file. If using Windows you will need to use a 3rd party PDF creator like Cute-PDF. Cute-PDF is easily downloaded and installed. Once installed it shows up like a printer so all you need to do is print to it.

Now I don't condone this practice to alter PDF files created by others, but I can see a need for it from time to time.

Everyone... EVERYONE needs to read this... take notes if you must

5 Security Holes Almost Everyone's Vulnerable To
by:

 Thorin Klosowski

Original article is here.

Problems with security seem to pop up all the time—from an easy to hack router to apps that leak your data into the world. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to protect yourself. Here's how to do it.

Unless you keep up to date on all the security news, it's easy to miss a bit here and there about what has been exploited and what hasn't. We're all vulnerable at some point, and if you haven't touched the settings on your computer since you took it out of the box, it might be time to take another look.Already know about these security holes and have them patched up? Good for you! Send this along to your friends who don't to help keep them safe.

UPnP Allows Access to Your Gear from Outside Sources

UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), a component meant to make devices like routers, printers, and media players easy to discover on a network, has been accused of having security holes for a long time, but this week the US Government suggested you disable it yet again. The most recent study suggests 40 million to 80 million network-enabled devices responded to discovery requests from the internet and are vulnerable to an attack that gives hackers access to webcams, printers, passwords, and more. This means routers and devices with the bug can be accessed from the internet to remotely screw with your system even if you don't have malware installed.

The good news is that most of the affected hardware is old, and the problem likely isn't as widespread as it seems. That said, in the case of most devices, you can turn UPnP off in the settings (look in your manual for directions). The UPnP setting on your router doesn't have anything to do with the protocol that lets you stream media over a network, print from inside the network, or anything similar. Turning it off on the router level only blocks you from controlling these devices over the internet, which most people don't need to do.

To turn it off on a router level, you pop into the admin page and disable UPnP. If you want to check your hardware, security site Rapid7 has made a tool to scan devices on your network.

As far as security risks go, this one's easy to fix and it's not going to affect a lot of people these days. The rest of these are much worse.

WEP/WPA Passwords on Your Router Are Easy to Crack

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Chances are that your router is using either a WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) password or a WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) password. Unfortunetly, it's pretty simple to crack a Wi-Fi network's WPA password and a WEP password.

Both of these vulnerabilities exist for different reasons. In the case of WEP, it's as simple as cracking the password with an automated encyrption program (and a lot of time), while in WPA, it's more about a vulnerability in WPS (Wi-fi Protected Setup) on certain routers. This can be corrected by turning WPS off. If you can't turn WPS off, you can install DD-WRT orTomato so you can. DD-WRT should add a nice security layer to your home network.

Browsing Without HTTPS Leaves Your Vulnerable to Snoopers

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HTTP Secure is the protocol used to secure everything that you send online that's important. This includes your bank information, social networks, and just about everything else that needs security. For your home network, you can simply install the HTTPS browser extension that ensures you'll always use the secure version of a site so your data doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Without HTTPS, your personal data is far more likely to fall through a security hole and into the hands of some nefarious person.

While it's important to use HTTPS at home, it's far more important to always use it on public Wi-Fi. At places like hotels, airports, or libraries, someone is probably snooping out your passwords. Your best solution for public Wi-Fi is to use a VPN (virtual private network) to route your traffic safely and securely.

All the Apps, Software, and Websites You Use Might Accidentally Leak Data

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It happens time and time again. A hacker finds an exploit, and suddenly all your favorite software and web sites are vulnerable to people snagging your passwords. This might make your entire system insecure, it may give your passwords away, or they're leaking your personal data like name and address. This happens with Java constantly, but it has happened to pretty much everyone at some point, including: Mega, Google Wallet, Apple, Skype, Path, Zappos, LinkedIn, andFacebook.

First off, you need to keep your software up to date. This means both your operating system and your mobile software. Generally, when your data is leaked, someone notices, and the software is patched up right away.

It's not exactly the perfect solution, but since the security holes are on the service or software side, it's all you can do. That said, make sure you have: two-factor authentication enabled where you can, you use a different password for every site, and use a a password system like LastPass to ensure your leaked data doesn't reveal enough information to get your login information for another service.

Strong Passwords Aren't Enough to Protect Against Everything

When it boils down to it, a good password only gets you so far. Certain security holes, like social engineering hacks can happen when a skilled hacker bypasses technical protections (like a strong password) to get the information they want from talking to a person—no "real" hacking is required. It's exactly what happened last year when theApple and Amazon exploits were uncovered in Mat Honan's hack.

In short, people are one of the biggest security holes in the larger chain. Hackers can use psychological tricks to get your information, they might pose as someone important, as a Facebook friend, or even as you when talking with customer support. With a little information, they can then gain access to your account. If that account uses the same password as everywhere else, they essentially get access to everything you do. Thankfully, you can protect yourself with a few simple tips.

The main goal is to make sure you don't have all your eggs in one basket. That means if someone gets one password to one site, they can't get in elsewhere. So, never use the same password more than once, use two-factor authentication, get creative with your security questions, and monitor your accounts.

Plugging up these security holes isn't exactly a fun way to spend an afternoon, but it's certainly more entertaining than waking up one morning to find someone has stolen your identity. It's also a pretty easy process, and once you're set up you don't need to do much else.

Security fears over exposure of web-accessible printers

The page where you can upload a document to the printer on one of the exposed HP printers.

Google is exposing thousands of Hewlett-Packard printers that aren't password protected, allowing anyone to control and manage them remotely and print reams of documents.

Many of the printers are at universities, including a number in Australia.

All it takes is one malicious script written by a clever hacker and you'll be replacing the paper tray every five minutes. 

ZDNet's Zack Whittaker

British blogger Adam Howard first highlighted the exposure in a post titled “Google has indexed thousands of publicly accessible printers” on his Port3000 blog.

An exposed printer's usage page.

Mr Howard points out that a well-crafted Google search returns about 86,800 results for publicly accessible HP printers.

Surprisingly, many of the printers aren't protected by a password, meaning anyone can upload a document to them via a web interface and print it remotely.

When accessed remotely without a password, the printers display an array of information such as how much ink or toner they have left in them, how many pages they have printed in their lifetime and how many paper jams they have had. They also display the names of documents printed to them, which could potentially contain personally identifiable information.

The exposure mainly affects large organisations whose IT staff fail to enable a password on printers when telling their routers to allow inbound connections so that staff can print from one office to another.

Mr Howard wrote on Port3000: “There's something interesting about being able to print to a random location around the world, with no idea of the consequence.”

After revealing the exposed printers, he warned: “Lock down your printer :)."

Mr Howard added that there were other, more serious, security concerns with the printers being exposed, as many models “have known exploits which can be used as an entry point to a private network”.

A Fairfax Media Google search on Monday of exposed printers in Australia revealed that the University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, University of Wollongong, La Trobe University and the University of Sydney all had printers accessible remotely via the web that could be used by anyone.

The University of Melbourne appeared to have the most publicly accessible printers, with 26 able to be accessed without a password.

John DuBois, director of communications at the University of Melbourne, said the university was aware of access issues with some of its printers, which are locally and externally managed.

Mr DuBois said they were set-up incorrectly.

"We are already implementing substantial network improvements which should prevent any unauthorised external access," he said.

In total, about 44 HP printers in Australia (mostly at universities) were found using Google.

University of Wollongong's deputy director of Information Technology Services, Daniel Saffioti, thanked Fairfax for letting the university know about an unprotected printer it used.

"We have looked into the matter and are rectifying the issue as a matter of urgency," Mr Saffioti said.

Rob Moffatt, director Information Technology Services at the University of Queensland said an insecure printer on its network was located in an independently owned and operated child care centre within university grounds.

"While someone could possibly change settings remotely, causing the device to malfunction, only limited information can be extracted from the device," Mr Moffatt said.

"We will, however, recommend as an extra precaution that this device be password protected."

A University of New South Wales spokeswoman said three printers within its networks had been identified as being insecure.

"...Appropriate steps will be taken to ensure access is secure," the spokeswoman said.

"The university currently has a program in place to consolidate and secure UNSW printers."

Ged Doyle, chief information officer at La Trobe University, advised there were "several very old printers from years ago" on its network with no password. "These were rectified immediately," Mr Doyle said. "The standard process for network connected devices now deployed at La Trobe, which was not in place years ago when these old printers were installed, overcomes this type of issue."

Comment is being sought from the University of Sydney, as well as from Google.

Printers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Gothenburg in Sweden and University of Freiburg in Germany were also found to be exposed.

Even the United Nations Development Programme had a vulnerable printer.

“All it takes is one malicious script written by a clever hacker and you'll be replacing the paper tray every five minutes, and using up the toner supplies faster than you've ever known,” wrote Zack Whittaker for tech website ZDNet's Zero Day blog.

“Perhaps more worryingly, many of these printers do not have passwords enabled and can be directly accessed from outside their company's firewall.”

Tech website Gizmodo said the unprotected printers could be used to play pranks on the organisations that used them, and added that it had conducted two pranks itself.

“Send the University of Cambridge a hard copy of a Rihanna cover. (We actually did this, and it worked),” wrote Gizmodo writer Leslie Horn. “Congrats, random Chinese IP address, you just got bombed with 50 copies of a report I once did on War and Peace.”

In a statement, HP said it encouraged customers to protect their printers with safeguards by placing them within a firewall and providing network credentials only to trusted parties.

"By following the HP recommended security features, printers should not be accessible to the public via the internet."

James Turner, an analyst at IBRS in Australia who specialises in information security, said the exposure of printers without passwords on the internet was “just one facet of where someone decided that it was better for the printers to be easily accessible, than to be secure”.

“This is the ongoing challenge of the internet. Devices that are intended for easy access on smaller networks can take on new dimensions when plugged into the internet,” he said.

“This issue with printers is similar, though on a much smaller scale, to the challenge that industry has had with [industrial control systems] being connected to the internet.”

Mr Turner suggested pranksters would be the main people taking advantage of the issue, but said more malicious uses of the security gap were no doubt being thought of.

“Passwords are a nuisance to usability, but we don't have better options that are less intrusive while also providing equivalent confidentiality,” Mr Turner said.

Paul Ducklin, of security firm Sophos in Australia, said: “You'd think we would have learnt by now. It was over 10 years ago that we first got a wake-up call about printers accessible on networks where they shouldn't be.”

Mr Ducklin was referring to the “Bugbear" virus, which was widespread at the end of 2002.

One of the things the virus would do was copy itself anywhere on a network it could find, including to printers, which resulted in them printing a lot of gobbledegook.

He said IT people learned quickly back then that they should put passwords on printers.

“Printing other people's viral garbage wasn't just a security risk, it cost real money in wasted paper and toner,” Mr Duckin said. “Coming in on Monday morning to an empty paper feed and 2000 pages of hexadecimal drivel in the output tray focused the mind of many a bean-counter.”

He added that there was a security risk implicit in letting untrusted outsiders connect to internal devices.

"Printers these days have their own [operating system], network stack and often rather powerful firmware,” he said. “A lot could go wrong. Secondly, it's resource mismanagement, plain and simple. You don't let outsiders randomly and remotely turn on taps in the bathroom to waste water they can't even see, let alone wash with. So why let them send print jobs they will never read or even collect?”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/security-fears-over-exposure-of-webaccessible-printers-20130129-2dhxo.html#ixzz2JOFRSeor