Showing headlines posted by tracyanne

Life without walls is the title of microsoft's new advertising campaign. It is yet another example of microsoft taking someone else's idea and trying to claim it as their own.

LXer Feature: 04-Mar-2009

The BENQ net book and EeeBuntu. One of the interesting things about KDE4 is the fact that it has caused me to look at Linux Distributions, other than Mandriva, which I've use almost exclusively since I started using Linux in 2000.

Microsoft plans to ship four security bulletins next Tuesday with patches for a range of serious security vulnerabilities affecting millions of Windows users.

Nothing to do with Linux, except that if these were Linux vulnerabilities, they would already be released.

There's a story making its rounds across the 'net about a woman who missed several online classes, and failed her semester, and she claims this happened because she bought a Dell laptop with Ubuntu on it - instead of Windows. She didn't know what Ubuntu was, and was surprised to see that her Windows software, such as Microsoft Office, didn't work. While this isolated case sounds a bit ridiculous, there is still a bigger problem here.

[This talks about the real problem, which of course was not the girl, not Ubuntu, or even Dell.. It's the entrenched view of the ISPs and the Educators, the, so called, facilitators of technology and learning. - Tracy]

The second alpha for Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring (2009.1) is now available. There is information about the new release in various places:

The first pre-release of Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring is now available. This alpha concentrates on updating to the major desktop components of the distribution, including KDE 4.2 Beta 2, GNOME 2.25.2, Xfce 4.6 Beta 2, X.org server 1.5, and kernel 2.6.28 rc8. It is also the first distribution to introduce the major new Tcl/Tk release, 8.6. The alpha is available only in the DVD Free edition with a traditional installer and no proprietary applications; future pre-releases will add the live CD One edition with proprietary drivers. Please help test this first pre-release and report bugs to Mandriva.

Please sign this petition to help Adam Williamson get his job at Mandriva back, and to give me a reason to go back on my words that I will stop using and recommending Mandriva products.

The main difference between Linux and Windows is that Linux is open source and windows are closed source. So? Well, that means that only Microsoft is authorized to change any part of the code of the Windows operating system. While in Linux, anyone can change it. The other problem is that the Linux Operating System doesn't receive the same level of support as Windows does. That means that updates and security packages are released with each new version of the Operating System (OS), but not as periodic updates as in the case of Windows XP's Windows Update.

[Saying that this article is 'slanted' and full of 'inaccuracies' as I will call them, would be an understatement of galactic proportions. - Scott]

It has become clear that the RIAA is losing ground in the file sharing wars. They tried to play nice (actually, no they didn't), tried to offer a superior product (actually, for years they offered no product), and tried to appeal to people's decency (actually, they called everyone thieves from day one). To fend off users legal rights, they have tried to employ a variety of technological methods which seem to have stymied those without permanent markers for the better part of 20 minutes. All is not well in lawsuit central, the California edition, not the Utah one.

To date this year, we have built and placed 315 Linux computers with kids that normally would not have been able to afford a computer for their school work. Add this effort to our Linux Labs and you have a well-rounded effort that benefits everyone. Our HeliOS Project has inspired others to do the same thing in other communities and we're proud to help them any way we can. So, what are the goodies for this year's drawing? Let's take a look.

Earlier this month we saw the military ban the use of USB drives and other removable media. Apparently the virus outbreak that lead to this measure affected 75% of all systems at the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan....... This is really quite frightening.

In a previous blog entry, I wrote about how you can now choose how much you want to pay for an all-you-can-eat Magnatune membership. These memberships let you listen and download everything on Magnatune, without any limits. From today on, you are no longer required to commit to a 3 month minimum: you can have as short a membership as one month.

Obviously FOSS is having a significant impact, as more and more often we're seeing these sorts of articles. This came to me in a news feed I get from Tech Republic.

Known as Kardphisher and “in the wild” since April, 2007, last week the malware author of this trojan horse mimicking the Windows XP activation interface while collecting the credit card details the end user has submitted, has made significant changes to visual interface and usability of the trojan, consequently improving its authenticity. Guess what happens when a gullible end user falls victim into this social engineering attack?

LXer Feature: 10-Nov-2008

Over the last week I've changed Internet service providers from Dodo to Pacific Internet and activated 2 domains I had registered with a web hosting company called Crazy Domains a Perth Western Australia based company.

My oldest son, creator of flame wars, finally discovered that you can only surf to the nether regions of the Internet so many times before even Vista business succumbs to malware. His computer an unusable mass of pop-ups, spewing traffic over our network actually asked me tonight to reinstall Linux for him.

More Windows Mayhem. They could just replace the virus riddled piece of puss with Linux, but no, they continue to fiddle while their OS burns.

So it appears there will be no way to escape from being blocked from seeing sites that are false positives due to buggy & broken filters or incorrectly classified, etc..

The next time you get the urge to enter angry messages to phishers on fake (malicious) Web sites, stop and consider this discovery by researcher Joe Stewart. The identity thieves behind the Asprox botnet have built extra logic into phishing sites to detect taunts and subject those computer users to drive-by malware exploits.

The K-12 Open Minds Conference is the first of its kind - an International event specifically for K-12 educators designed to make OPEN SOURCE software and OPEN SYSTEMS more available and easier to use. Last year's conference was a huge success and paved the way for an even more exciting conference this year!