Before the negative posts start arriving please understand that this is my comment to the editorial story on IDG which I’ve linked here for you entitled:
“http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=E7290BAD-D82E-48D3-7B44A9A6D5FAD161” “Why Linux on the Desktop Is Dead”
To clarify, I call any PC which a user sits at, that has the traditional keyboard, mouse and display a desktop PC.
I cannot fault the author of that article because it is simply true. You can convert users, but over time without good constant support from a real person they are likely to move back to Windows.
Continue reading 'Why The Linux Desktop Will Never Be Mainstream'»
Computers & Tech
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When it comes to passwords nearly everyone has their own system to deal with them. But how secure are they? Today most passwords under 9 characters are not really deemed secure thanks in large part to the databases that are available to simply look up the passwords. But aren’t they encrypted or secured from prying eyes you may be thinking? Sure but the most common form is to save them in MD5. SHA1 and similar variants are uncommon as well as better methods but for the vast array of online web sites, MD5 is considered standard.
Continue reading 'How Secure Is Your Password?'»
Security
cracker, data, login, md5, method, methods, online, OS, password, passwords, RC, site, ssl, Store, system, unknown
Released to the public on October 22 Canonical’s latest and greatest Ubuntu yet “Karmic Koala 9.10“. For many folks using a Linux distribution probably ranks up there with a visit to the dentist, but I have to say that as the kernel keeps improving in leaps and bounds the software wrapped around it can just work on the majority of hardware without issue.
Sure many folks may try it out and find out that it ‘does not work’ with their specific hardware, but compared with last years 8.10 the numbers are down with the sad exception of two particular vendors; ATI and Intel. ATI recently dropped support for much of their older hardware, but then released a new series of drivers that do support. Thankfully using the older drivers or using the open source communities versions can at least get them working, if you have problems with the more supported drivers. Intel on the other hand has basically thrust it’s middle finger up at the linux community with a blatant refusal to provide open source to allow many distributions to be able to integrate support, so for many it means booting to a broken system, and downloading proprietary drivers and praying it works. Obviously this isn’t the end of the world, but from my perspective a seriously ‘good’ reason to avoid using Intel hardware, especially if you want to use wine to run Windows games or applications, you’d do so much better with non-Intel chipsets. nVidia has the best support out of the box for most people not only linux users, but also windows users that it’s becoming a staple requirement. Don’t get me wrong, Intel does provide drivers, but do not expect them to work directly from installation. In some cases the generic drivers get installed and it works, in other cases you’re faced with non-working hardware and off to the various support forums seeking a solution. Thankfully they are available.
In my situation I decided to get a new laptop and specifically bought a Compaq CQ60 which features NO Intel or ATI hardware, simply so I could avoid any hassles. I’m pretty good at fixing these issues, but if I am spending money and the amount is equal, why buy something with hardware that will not work? So without further adieu, I release my notes on installing Ubuntu 9.10 x64 on this laptop.
Continue reading 'Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” Release Candidate – Installation Notes'»
Computers & Tech
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If you had an opportunity to view your local newspapers job classifieds this weekend you may well find an ad like this one. 
It looks like a highly sincere advertisement seeking folks who would like an opportunity like this. They obviously are seeking to appeal to anyone interested in a highly flexible and possibly rewarding (getting paid to shop) opportunity. The site seems to indicate a 4-12 hour work week on average and you are considered part time. This is all cool. However, what isn’t so cool is the lack of ANY security features for the sites ‘job application’ forms.
In my eyes this is very troublesome that anyone would submit this much personal information without any measures at encrypting the data to the site. And it wants a LOT of data from you.
Continue reading 'Looking for Work – Qualityshopper.org wants you, but does it secure your data?'»
Security
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Are you one of the folks who has an Google email account? They are not hard to find, and very easy to get and many folks find it very handy. But for most Windows users, trying to adopt a webmail-like email such as GMAIL in place of typical clients like Outlook Express can have some problems.
Enter Google Notify. Its a great little tool that simply monitors calls to email and redirects them to your Gmail account. No more clicking on email links on web pages and getting outlook express popping up. Now the request generates a gmail compose message and seems to work very well. It will also tell you when you have new mail!
What if it doesn’t work?
Continue reading 'Google notify not working?'»
Internet & Networking
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