Computer Tips -Tech Info

How can I say this…. this is one of the worst ideas I think I’ve heard this week from an ISP. (Maybe in a long time, but I’d have to think on that a few minutes.) An executive at Bellsouth thinks that ISP’s ought to be able to charge certain websites/companies to ensure responsiveness for that ISP’s users. In other words, they would want to charge say… Yahoo $xxxxx to make sure that the yahoo site is faster than the Google site for Bellsouth customers.

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Linux devices has a story on the Linksys WRT54G wireless routers. The WRT54G has been known for quite a while to be running linux and a community has sprouted up with customized software to add many neat features to the access points. However, Linksys is moving to VxWorks as the operating system for the routers in a move that will cut memory and flash sizes installed. (VxWorks is more of an embedded OS and many other network hardware makers have made the move.)

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This is something I’ve wanted to build for some time. I hadn’t actually thought about a terrabyte of storage, but… linux journal has the article on making your own home network backup storage solution using an old pc, linux and relatively cheap discs. The concept of any backup system is redundancy so that a single failure doesn’t take out your data.

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I really don’t know how a SMALL operation can do any kind of software scanning with all the…. legal challenges to have to answer to. Of course, I suppose some don’t, they just cave and their scanners suffer in effectiveness. Anyway, Sunbelt Software blogs about ANOTHER cease and desist letter they’ve received from the makers of CasinoontheNet, Cassava. I still think there should be class action suits against spyware/malware/difficult to remove-ware/makers that use deceptive practices to get their software installed/make it a nightmare for an end-user to remove and generally wind up COSTING end-users money having their pc’s cleaned.

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Kerio Personal firewall will be acquired by Sunbelt according to the sunbeltblog. It looks as though the acquisition will be complete within a month. They hope to offer downloads “within weeks”. There will be a price reduction and discounts for Sunbelt users, and discounts for Kerio users on Sunbelt software. Also it looks like the free edition will continue.

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Well, truth be told, your money is the target. Phishers are using information on a real class-action settlement to try to lure people in to entering sensitive information. The FBI is warning on these emails. Essentially they cite a (real) class-action settlement (with links) and claim that in order for PayPal to ensure that you receive payment, enter your information here….

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A lot of things javascript have made the “web 2.0” idea what it is (Ajax and all), well, the new Mozilla-Firefox supports a canvas tag. To my limited understanding of it (at this point), allows some javascript interactions with the web page. For example…. one demo is of a first person shooter game (well… first person walking around carrying a weapon game… no shooting), another is of a web based paint program.

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It’s funny, in the last couple days 180solutions had a blog post that was somewhat… what’s the term I’m looking for ? well they were quite defensive and concerned about “anti-spyware zealots” about “Scanning companies” and trying to work with them to explain their business model. Of course, legal action is not something they want to pursue, but if the business talks with the scanning companies fail, well it’s an option. Some months ago they claimed to be trying to clean up their act. Supposedly they were to crack down on “affiliates” using unscrupulous means to spread their ad content.

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Looks like Windows Live Mail Beta has seen an update, this beta program is open to those that request to partake from what I see and is Microsoft’s next generation replacement for Hotmail. It looks like it will be quite well Ajax-ified and some interesting features for classifying mail by senders (known/unknown/unsafe) is interesting.

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News continues on the Sony mess…. (Expect to hear about this for some time…) The researcher that informed the world about the Sony DRM rootkit, Mark Russinovich, has joined the class-action suit against Sony and First4Internet as an expert witness on the matter.

Russinovich said he opted to join the suit because he “wanted to make sure that a message was sent loud and clear to Sony and hopefully to the rest of the industry. And if a technical expert is required to back up the suit, then that’s what I’m willing to do to make sure that message gets driven home.”

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