Robby Pedrica's Tech Blog

Category: Computer Tech

  • Windows for War – scary stuff

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    A number of military organisations around the world have started using Windows 2000 as a platform for operational systems within navies, the army, air services and other war branches. But recently there has been quite a bit of consternation concerning the use Windows in UK naval vessels as well as French fighter planes. I’m the…

  • Kaspersky issues? or something more?

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    In the light of recent Kaspersky security issues I thought it useful to approach the subject of security companies trumpeting their own horns and crying foul once too many times. To start with, I don’t think this issue really merits any more attention than usual. Kaspersky do anti-virus software, not intrusion prevention software, which is…

  • Spam increasing again

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    Apparently it’s increasing to close to pre-McColo ( one of the major sources of spam last year which was clsoed down ) levels. Levels are now at 74.6% which means that every 3 in 4 emails are spam. The Mega-D (Ozdoc) botnet is making the largest single contribution to junk mail levels, sending more than…

  • OpenMoko anti-semitic and communist

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    It seems that a forged email at OpenMoko ( the free and open-source cellular handset ) was mistakenly sent out to the OpenMoko mailing list with some interesting content: According to the email, Obama “completely supports the theft of trillions of American taxpayer dollars to the Zionist international bankers” and Obama leading “America, Palestine and…

  • Microsoft’s AstroTurfing

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    Microsoft’s bullying tactics in the IT field are well known but one would have thought that they might have stopped with the AstroTurfing by now, seeing as many are wise to their tactics. But not according to one of their Technology Evangelists, James Plamondon.  For those unfamiliar with the term, AstroTurfing means that you, through…

  • IE fix

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    Microsoft yesterday release updates for a no. of zero-day vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer versions excluding IE8Beta2 – this one is still forthcoming. Considering this is only the 2nd out of sequence update in 18 months, you’ll have some idea of how serious it is. Please make sure you have auto updates switched on and have…

  • The Slackware 12.2 interview

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    Slackware, in my mind, has never been a Linux distribution for novices who aren’t interested in learning about the whole Linux ecosystem. Note that’s not a criticism, just a comment. And in that comment lies the issue with a lot of the Slackware articles that have appeared over the years. Many of them appear to…

  • More on the IE exploit

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    Microsoft says Internet Explorer 5.01, 6 and 8 (beta) are also potentially susceptible to the zero-day exploit, published recently. Until now it had been assumed that only Internet Explorer 7 contained the vulnerability. Microsoft recommends that Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and memory protection be enabled in Internet Explorer 7 (Tools/Internet Options/Advanced/Enable memory protection…), but this…

  • MS SQL vuln and Microsoft patch madness

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    Yet another zero-day vulnerability has been found in a Microsoft product, the 3rd this week. The MS SQL issue relates to a remote code execution bug in a stored procedure. All you can do is a. make sure there is no external access to your SQL servers using authentication or b. take them offline –…

  • FSF files suit against Cisco

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    The Free Software Foundation has filed a law suit against Cisco for alleged breaches of copyright in, specifically, many Linksys products ( WRT-series comes to mind as having OSS software ).  Apparently the 2 have been in discussions since 2003 but it appears that Cisco have gone into dormant mode as there are still apparently…

  • Formula 1

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    The most interesting news to come out of the F1 paddock for years is the departure of Honda from Formula 1. To say this puts a damper on things is putting it mildly and it’s possible there could be more departures.  This leaves Barrichelo and Button without drives for next season if a buyer for…

  • VMWare and virtualisation

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    It seems to me that there is still a large amount of confusion concerning virtualisation in general and VMware specifically. The problem stems from the fact that most users of virtualisation don’t understand the real benefits ( and pitfalls ) of this interesting technology – I’ll attempt to provide some insight here. Benefits Make better…

  • OOXML Documentation available online now

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    at the Boycott Novell forum and that’s causing a bit of an uproar in the ISO community. Even though their own processes indicate the docs were supposed to be made publicly available 30 days after the standard was sealed. It’s now a couple of months after the fact and we’re all still waiting so why…

  • WSBK 2008 – Troy Bayliss 3 times a champion

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    Robby Pedrica
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    Haga unusually rode a very good SuperPole to be no. 1 on the grid for the 1st race and went on to win – that’s 3 on the trot now. But the big story of race 1 was Troy Bayliss’ clinching of the 2008 championship with a 3rd place in that race, and that on…

  • Flash webcam hijacker!

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    Robby Pedrica
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    The security issues just keep on rolling in – the latest is a flash vulnerability that allows an attacker to gain control of webcams and microphones. Rated ‘critical’ by Adobe, the bug affects all browsers using the flash plugin or player – a patch isn’t yet available although there is a workaround of some kind.…