Computer Tips -Tech Info

Incidents.org is reporting on the defacement of a security related web site (winsnort.com). They say they usually decline to comment on those because the attention is what the defacers thrive on. However, it does pay to keep your browser updated and antivirus current. What’s more…. Several days ago there was the news that the President […]

This is worth reading if you’ve got a Dell laptop. There have been numerous stories in recent months of Dell laptops exploding into flames and it looks as though now over 4 million batteries from their inspiron, Latitude and Precision laptops are being recalled. The manufacture dates range from April 2004 to July 18, 2006. […]

Looks like RFID passports are coming very soon for the US. It was probably just a matter of time, but in light of some of the risks in the current implementation, I thought it might be delayed. The most disturbing of the security risks (as if cloning of a passports rfid is not concerning…) is […]

I’m quite frustrated this evening. Another long day of computer problems and tonight I come in to around the tenth call from a collection agency. The kicker in this case is that it’s not for me, but for someone I’ve never heard of. Over the years we’ve had a fair amount of credit card debt […]

The new Docsis 3.0 standard has been finalized and it allows for 160Mbps or more downstream and 120Mbps upstream. It also will support IPv6. Of course, in order to support those speeds cable system hardware will need to be upgraded (and cable modems…) so don’t expect those speeds next month. But, perhaps by ~2008? Our […]

It looks as though Ubuntu has released the first maintenance release in the Dapper Drake life cycle. So, now 6.06.1 can be downloaded. (In analagous terms this might be considered the first service pack). Many updates have been incorporated into the bootable install cds which should cut the amount of download updates a new install […]

Security vulnerability. Download page    Send article as PDF   

A new version of Ruby on Rails has been released in response to a critical security vulnerability. The link will take you to information at incidents.org. 1.1.5 is the new version and should be compatible with 1.1.4 all previous versions appear to be vulnerable.    Send article as PDF   

The big computer security news of the day is the release of exploit code publicly for MS06-040. The patch of course was released Tuesday and it is fairly critical to get the update installed. This is “wormable” It CURRENTLY affects all Windows 2000 systems and XP (with no service pack) as well as SP1. It […]

I’m such a sucker for technology sometimes…. I’m into too many things it seems. I do computer repair which can keep things fairly busy, I keep up with this and a slew of other websites which is another job in itself. (Not to mention the genealogy hobby (or addiction/affliction?)) We’re fairly involved at Church… and […]