We all know our good friends at Microsoft are not shy for a stunt here and there, but now they really hit the jackpot…
Brian Krebs from The Washington Post has been advising the average Windows user on various things. A while ago, people started asking him if they could trust a Service Pack for the .Net framework. While you probably are well aware about .Net, what it is and what it does, many people are not. So Brian took it upon himself to test the SP and after some time gave it a go.
However, it seems now that when installing this update, Microsoft is so friendly to add their own add-on for FireFox. While it is nice to see that MS is acknowledging FF as a major player in the browser world, it is not the normal way to install add-ons. One of the great features of FF has always been it extendability, but moreover the choice what & when to extend it.
With positive reports from beta-testers worldwide about the new and improved Windows version coming out late this year, early next year, one would think that the tides for Microsoft are turning. To some extent that probably is true, for home users and early adopters at least…
But what is happening in the corporate environment? Well, this aren’t looking so gloomy there… InformationWeek is reporting that a staggering 83% of businesses will not upgrade to Windows 7 next year. So what is happening there?
Just a quick post to let you know that this site is now also available on IPv6! Check it out on http://www.v6.gunthy.net. Of course you need to have an IPv6-enabled internet connection.
For those who don’t have the option yet to get native IPv6 (which will be most of the people, including me ), you can get a free tunnel from the friendly people over at SixXS, who are also providing my tunnels. The site is filled with quality information on how to get it working. Once you’re up and running, don’t forget to check out the Cool IPv6 Stuff page, which immediately gives you some v6-fun!
Don’t know what this strange thing I’m writing about is? Read up on the wiki page and learn all about it. Better sooner than later in my opinion, as you will find yourself on this new technology at some point in time anyway!
For now, enjoy the v6-version here, and keep an eye out for things, I might be including some nice v6-only goodies once in a while .
Whether you like it or not, the final release of Microsoft’s newest browser, Internet Explorer 8, is coming closer and closer. While this latest version of IE has been giving quite some attention around the Web, with both the lovers and the haters elaborately venting their opinions, I thought it was time for me to take a little look on how things are going. IE8 promises to bring both better security and more standards complaint handling of all sorts of web-code. Of course one can only applaud such initiatives, but is it true?
I’ve stumbled upon an interesting article lining out the 2009 roadmap for CodeWeavers. CodeWeavers is the commercial implementation of the Wine project, allowing Windows applications to run on Linux & Mac platforms.
The CodeWeavers people have already put in great support for DirectX 9 in their latest version for gaming, and it seems they are planning to also include version 10. Other things include support for .Net & GDIPlus. All this should be included in their latest release, version 7.2. For the expected 8.0, they plan on revamping the Linux UI, but also the Mac version is going to get some new goodies. Further on, better support for IE7, Office and much more applications is to be expected.
While I haven’t used any of their products myself lately, I must say I’m quite impressed by their efforts. Since I use Wine myself on an almost daily basis, I can vouch for the fact that the program has definitely reached a mature state. However when using the ‘vanilla Wine’, be prepared for a lot of tweaking. This is where CodeWeavers jumps in. They have been able to provide all this tweaking for you, giving you a working product out-of-the-box.
I’m usually not so enthousiastic about commercial spin-offs of Open Source products, but this one really is worth it’s money. If you’re not willing to spend time on tweaking & troubleshooting Wine issues, or would like professional support when stumbling upon a problem, then consider this product, I’m sure you’ll love it!
After some time not blogging at all, and even taking the site down for a very brief amount of time, I’ve decided I’m back . I’ll try to write again on a regular basis, provided of course there is something to write about…
I’ve also added a new toy. From now on, you can talk to me on IRC. Use the link to your left or the one in the menu to the right to open a java-based IRC client. The channel is hosted on KreyNet, which is mainly a dutch speaking network. For that reason, my channel is only available through this webchat. If you feel you should have access through your own IRC client, you’re always free to drop me a line & I’ll see if your claim is valid .
Don’t worry if I don’t reply right away, I’m not 24/7 on there, but if you give me your contact details in a private message, I’ll be sure to let you know something in due time.
It’s been a while now that this worm has been spreading around on the Net, but apparently after all this time, it’s still out there, alive and kicking more than ever before.
Downadup is one of the nastiest worms I’ve seen in my professional history. Having quite the amount of hands-on experience with it myself, I can say that I haven’t seen such a persistent one before. And I’m not alone… F-Secure reported Friday in a blog-post that they estimate the number of affected machines to be over 8 million. EIGHT MILLION!!! My god…
So what happened? Well the worm seems to be detected first late September, using a flaw in one of Windows’ services which allowed it to brute-force account passwords it spread rapidly. Once successful, it starts spreading itself through network shares, USB-sticks and other computers affected by the same security hole. Late October, Microsoft released an emergency patch to fix the hole, but a lot of machines still remain unpatched, thus very vulnerable.
A lot of corporate networks got infected as the worm spread havoc using the exploit. It locked users out of their accounts by keeping on guessing the password. Once on the machine, it starts securing the places it uses by removing all access rights to parts of the file system and registry, making it very hard to remove. Once your network is infected, it feels like your efforts to wipe out the worm are like carrying water to the sea. Counter-measures like installing the MS-patch and updating your anti-virus solution do help, but seem to only slow down the spreading. Use of USB sticks should definitely be heavily restricted, or if possible be banned completely.
To make things worse, the worm in some cases renders the infected computer useless, using methods like stopping services or using excessive bandwidth. It’s ability to install third-party malware such as trojans and other viruses, which gives full control over the machine to the worm author(s), doesn’t help either.
I think we haven’t seen the last of this one yet. The biggest question I think is, if you ever get your network clean again, how can you be sure no remnants are left behind. After all, as with any virus or malware, can you ever be sure you are completely safe? I guess only time will tell…
19 January 2009
by
Gunthy
Filed under
Linux + Software
Over at Computerworld, there’s a very interesting article about the new version of Samba. For the first time, there is a real alternative for Microsoft Active Directory on Linux. While the FOSS world already has a certain amount of Directory Servers like Apache Directory Server, Fedora Directory Server, OpenDS and others, none of them have ever really been able to provide an alternative for AD.
According to its developers, Samba 4 is about to change all this. While it is true that there is still a long way to go, some nice things are to be expected. As previous versions required tedious configuration skills and reading through tons of manuals, version 4 should “just work”. The DNS scheme is now being generated automatically, and the OpenLDAP back-end, if required, is being configured by Samba itself. Scripting has vastly improved, as now Python is being used as the default scripting language, however there are still bindings for other tools as well.
All good news, but there are of course a couple of disadvantages. For example, there is no real administration interface. In the past, Samba used to have a web-interface, but due to lack of support this has been removed. The door has of course been left open for the community to develop this, so I think we will see quite a few of these interfaces pop up soon enough. Another downside is that authentication for Unix clients and the print server, compared to Samba 3, are not yet implemented. In it’s current state this would mean you’d have to run the two versions side by side. Luckily, there seem to be plans to re-instate these features as soon as possible.
Of course there is still a lot of work to do. One of the things mentioned are domain trusts not yet implemented. This is still a bit of a set-back. However the fact that the Samba-team is working closely together with Microsoft is proving to be successful. Unfortunately, Samba 4 is not yet released to the public, but an alpha release is due soon. So for all you early-adopters out there, just a little more patience .
), you can get a free tunnel from the friendly people over at 
