Robby Pedrica's Tech Blog

Author: Robby Pedrica

  • Microsoft hijacks Firefox

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    Microsoft was quite upset with Google recently with the latter’s attempt to install a plugin ( Google Frame ) for IE; it seems though that it’s fine for Microsoft to install a plugin for Firefox – and it’s come back to haunt them with a security hole in the plugin that they silently installed! Earlier…

  • Data loss for Sidekick users Part 2

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    So yesterday Microsoft/Danger indicated that they had managed to get back most of the users’ data that was ‘lost’ as part of a problem with their core database earlier this week. Unfortunately not many of their customers are amused and have started a host of legal challenges regarding the system failure. Most of this revolves…

  • Trance cats

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    Yes I know this has got nothing to do with nothing but I couldn’t resist:

  • Apple and data leakage?

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    Wow, looks like it’s getting to be a very bad week for data security. First Microsoft and Co. lose ALL of your Sidekick data, then Apple has a pretty serious bug in terms of their OS and the possibility of data loss. Now from Apple’s MobileME service, there comes a  report of data leakage –…

  • Data loss for Sidekick users

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    It appears that Sidekick users in the USA, who stored their data/backups on-line though the Microsoft/Danger on-line cloud service, have lost access to all their data after a server failure: “Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger’s latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device—such as contacts, calendar…

  • Possible data loss in Mac OS X 10.6

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    Based on the amount of Apple forum postings on this issue, it seems to be very serious: there is the possibility of data loss if you have a guest account enabled prior to installing/upgrading Snow Leopard. It is speculated that the actual bug is that after logging in to the Leopard-created guest account while running…

  • Online mail services, security and your identity

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    A number of high profile on-line mail services were hit with a phishing scheme which resulted in the posting on-line of thousands of account details over the weekend. Hotmail seems to have been hit the hardest but both GMail and Yahoo were also targetted. There are 2 serious issues here: many people are still using…

  • The new Browser Ballot Screen for EU Windows

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    This is the latest iteration of the browser for any Windows PCs sold into the EU in the next 5 years.

  • Patents – Eolas strikes again

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    Microsoft fought a patent battle with Eolas for many years, with a number of twists and turns that made Days of our Lives look like a beginner soapy. Eolas originally sued Microsoft for infringement based on their patent ‘906 in 1998, which describes a method for 3rd party browser plugins to run various forms of…

  • Windows and critical systems

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    I’ve blogged previously about using Windows in critical systems ( Win2k in French air-force fighters and British attack submarines ) and my disregard for this platform in these kinds of applications. Honestly, would you really want a Windows machine running your life-support system when in hospital? or the device that decides whether or not a…

  • Tweetdeck on Slackware64 13.0

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    I recently came across this application ( thanks Nic ) so only natural that I try it out ( especially as I have an issue with the plasma twitter widget in KDE 4.2.4 ). Couple of issues though: requires Adobe AIR only 32-bit packaged only for deb and rpm I did some searching and with…

  • Microsoft and its GPL Hyper-V drivers

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    Considering the lack of general attention this has received in the media, Nick asked me to blog on this topic and set a time-line. So here goes: Microsoft first announced they were releasing the Hyper-V drivers as GPL code on the 20th of July 2009. Note this is an announcement and not the actual release.…

  • The SMB2.0 zero-day vuln

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    The SMB 2.0 vulnerability that was found earlier this month, is set to be covered with a patch soon according to Microsoft. Next Patch-Tuesday is only on Oct 13 so one would hope that it comes before. Especially as there is exploit code out in the wild now, with Stephen Frewer of Harmony Security adding…

  • Bind and Nominum

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    I thought yesterday’s article ( well it actually reads like an advertorial ) on ZDNet UK regarding Bind and Niminum’s new Skye offering, was a joke. Then I realised that no, it wasn’t. But why would the ZDNet author, Toby Wolpe, start with such an inflammatory header? Is he actually looking to be flamed and…

  • Virtualisation part 1: OS

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    I had an interesting question from a business colleague of mine today – please spell out what types of virtualisation are available. It’s good to know that, even though it’s fairly pervasive these days, people can still inquire as to what is the reality. Because running virtualisation for production loads can have a big effect…