internet kaspersky security

Security Software Performs Poorly in Exploit Test - PC World

2008-10-14T05:22:00.007-07:00

Security Software Performs Poorly in Exploit Test - PC World

National Insecurity
"National Security" has been burned indelibly into the vocabulary of average Americans ever since 9/11. Of course, prior to 9/11 we had enemies- even enemies who attacked us. We knew...

Kaspersky Lab's Distributor supplies internet security to ... - The Channel magazine

Protecting Your Web Mail Account
In the wake of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account being compromised by hackers last week, Yahoo's VP of Mail, John Kremer, wrote a brief article highlighting...

Microsoft Office OneNote File Uniform Resource Locator Remote Code Execution
Microsoft Office is vulnerable to remote code execution through specially-crafted OneNote URLs.

Protecting Our Nuclear Research
The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is the foremost research site for nuclear power in the United States, and possibly in the world. There is a completely separate...

Symantec Goes on Shopping Spree
The economy is in a tailspin...plummet...freefall. Apparently Symantec has not gotten the memo and the credit crunch seems to be having little impact on their shopping plans. The security software...

Symantec launches Norton Internet Security - IT Examiner

New Computer Security Threat - ClickJacking
I know. You were sitting around thinking that computer security has gotten boring. You were like 'viruses? worms? Trojans?...yawn'. You were thinking that spyware and phishing attacks are so yesterday....

Vodafone Broadband Bandwidth meter: Total crap

2008-10-14T05:22:00.005-07:00

Vodafone Broadband Bandwidth meter: Total crap
I noticed that there was an issue currently occuring with the Bandwith meter for the 24th and the 25th:

Bandwidth issue 2008-07-25 11:32:57

Some customers may notice that their bandwidth for the 24th and 25th of July is higher than usual.

We are currently investigating this issue with our Engineers and we hope to resolve this as soon as possible

Thank you for your patience

So I went along to My Vodafone to check.

While the meter in the picture below only accounts for my PC only (out of two), I am the biggest user of this household, so you could multiply the figures in my meter report by around 1.5.

Do note that my meter report may have slightly higher usage than the actual one as some packets may not be going to the Internet.

It sometimes fluctuates below my own PC's usage... and the 24th has a sudden peak spike (but the days before it were pretty unaccounted for)

Also, the 22nd of July is missing! Where did that go?

Some dates also seem to have huge delay in processing the usage (so sometimes the usage on one day goes on the next day).

I've seen problems with ihug's/Vodafone's usage checker a few times before. I haven't seen many occurrences of other ISPs having similar problems...

This also reduces the trust laid upon Vodafone's systems. I definitely know that I'll need to use my meter to check for usage rather than My Vodafone. Could this mean that we could be paying more for our data? (as if there is substantially more data usage than the actual one, then Vodafone have actually been taking away the value of the plan)

Vodafone's engineers better rectify this problem soon!

Windows Server 2008 is my Desktop Workstation

After hearing lots of good stuffs about this new SERVER product from Microsoft called Windows Server 2008, I took the decision to move from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

The good thing is, Windows Server 2008 can be configured as a fully featured desktop workstation. Your one stop guide for completing this ‘awesome’ task is here

Below is my laptop configuration:

1) Apple Macbook 2.4 GHz

2) 4 GB RAM

I have Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 Edition installed

Below is the list of software installed:

1) Apple Bootcamp

2) Microsoft Office 2007

3) Microsoft Visio 2007

4) Mozilla Firefox

5) Skype

6) Apple Quicktime

7) Apple iTunes

8 ) Windows Live

Live Writer
Live Messenger
Live Photo Gallery

9) Foxit PDF Reader

10) Flashget Download Manager

11) Virtual PC

12) Kaspersky Internet Security

13) tWhirl

14) Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1

This server is Fast, Sleek, and Customizable (in Features and Roles). That’s a huge benefit over Vista where many services get started no matter you use them.

I have also moved my development stuffs to a virtual environment now and virtual machines run quite fast than in Vista here. Yes, I am quite happy with Virtual PC 2007 and I don’t think I would install x64 version just for Hyper-V. The application support for x64 sucks!

Everything works good in my setup including sleep,shutdown and hibernate

So far, my experience of having Windows Server 2008 as my main desktop workstation is good and I think I will continue to stay on this for a long, long time until Windows 7 comes out

Microsoft Windows Mojave
So you complain about Windows Vista but actually never used it? Maybe what you need is Microsoft Windows Mojave.

In summary, a set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave".

One of the subjects in the study even said "Wow", the word Microsoft used in the "The wow starts now" campaign for Windows Vista.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I know a lot of Linux and Mac OS X users who bash Windows Vista without ever having touch a computer running the OS. How can they "know" so much? Or perhaps they don't.

Isn't this a big perception problem?

All the details here.

UPDATE: The Mojave Experiment results are coming on-line!

Thanks Duncan from Orcon
I have a phone again, amazing! My internet has only failed 3 times today (it is of course only mid morning, but that's cool.

And in reply to the comment about how retro I am still having a phone line, think of it this way, it comes with the net and it means that relatives who are still more analogue don't have to pay me, but there's a thought, maybe the ones I don't care to hear from won't lol.

Checking your mobile data usage online is not easy: a Telecom New Zealand tale
Yesterday I posted about Telecom New Zealand's lack of a "meter" for their mobile data. Here is something that I thought would illustrate the issue well...

Let's say you rent a car on a monthly basis, for work. You agree to pay $49.95 a month if you drive up to 1,000 km per billing cycle, and $1 per km after this.

You decided on 1,000 km because you thought this could cover your average daily usage multiplied by the number of days in the month.

You get the car and notice there is no meter in it, but the rental agency tells you it's ok, they are monitoring it within their system, remotely.

You drive away. During 30 days you have no exact idea of how many kms you've done. You have to keep calling the company to find out how many kms you have driven so far, and calculate to see if you are still within the expected average.

Then you receive the monthly bill. You look through five pages for something that says "kms driven this month", but instead you find "times you started the car this month". And a charge for the rental.

Does it make sense?

No. Neither does Telecom New Zealand's "data sessions" line in the bill. They don't tell us how many megabytes or gigabytes we used during the month, only how many times we used it during the period.

Telecom, are you going to fix your systems?

Technology activist Lessig to focus on creativity

2008-10-14T05:22:00.003-07:00

New Zealand speeches to address cultural freedom Read More

MSD CIO to take deputy commissioner role Read More

Survey shows archiving challenges users

2008-10-14T05:22:00.001-07:00

Half of respondents still trying to implement their solution or have cancelled the project Read More

Despite an IP write-down, company makes breakthrough sales Read More

School aims for zero Microsoft licences, but wants to keep budget savings Read More

Every year robots get a little more capable. In Japan where there has been a short supply of security guards they've built security robots to patrols malls at night.

Now Microsoft are showing off there latest foray in robotics with a new rec... (more in the full post)

The good thing is, Windows Server 2008 can be configured as a fully featured desktop workstation. Your one stop guide for completing this ‘awesome’ task is here

Below is my laptop configuration:

1) Apple Macbook 2.4 GHz

2) 4 GB RAM

I have Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 Edition installed

Below is the list of software installed:

1) Apple Bootcamp

2) Microsoft Office 2007

3) Microsoft Visio 2007

4) Mozilla Firefox

5) Skype

6) Apple Quicktime

7) Apple iTunes

8 ) Windows Live

Live Writer
Live Messenger
Live Photo Gallery

9) Foxit PDF Reader

10) Flashget Download Manager

11) Virtual PC

12) Kaspersky Internet Security

13) tWhirl

14) Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1

This server is Fast, Sleek, and Customizable (in Features and Roles). That’s a huge benefit over Vista where many services get started no matter you use them.

Everything works good in my setup including sleep,shutdown and hibernate

So far, my experience of having Windows Server 2008 as my main desktop workstation is good and I think I will continue to stay on this for a long, long time until Windows 7 comes out

E-tales: Nerds get more sex - potentially

2008-10-14T05:21:00.007-07:00

North Shore Council fails yet again to do anything about e-waste Read More

Revenue forecasts cut for tech bellweathers Read More

MED says interest in Broadband Investment Fund is strong Read More

It's not clear whether Microsoft intends to fix the flaw this week Read More

Microsoft woos developers under the Silverlight

2008-10-14T05:21:00.005-07:00

Microsoft is funding development of tools to use the open-source Eclipse framework to write Silverlight apps Read More

Analyst firm says CA or BMC could be takeover target Read More

The Microsoft Windows GDI+ API (Gdiplus.dll) is vulnerable to multiple buffer overflows that could result in remote code execution. Read More

Forum: Banks back regional smart card projects

2008-10-14T05:21:00.003-07:00

Auckland said to trim integrated ticketing plans Read More

Read More

OK- that is total FUD. It reminds me of when my kids' computer has issues and he tells me that he "thinks he broke the Internet", or when one site... Read More

North Shore Council fails yet again to do anything about e-waste Read More

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is the foremost research site for nuclear power in the United States, and possibly in the world. There is a completely separate... Read More

Read More

Bryan Simpson appointed general manager Read More

MSD CIO to take deputy commissioner role Read More

SBS 2008 RC1 and EBS 2008 RC1 finalised (updated with all download links)

2008-10-14T05:21:00.001-07:00

Last Friday, Microsoft finalised the code for the RC 1 (Release Candidate 1) prerelease versions of both Windows Small Business Server 2008, and Windows Essential Business Server 2008. See below for download links.

Rumour has it that organis... (more in the full post)

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Multiple Mozilla products are vulnerable to a stack buffer overflow allowing remote code execution by enticing a user to click on a specially-crafted URL. Read More

Read More

Checking your mobile data usage online is not easy

2008-10-13T14:53:00.015-07:00

Isn't that incredible that Telecom New Zealand can charge my mobile data usage every month but it can't provide a simple way, other then calling their help desk every day, to follow my usage?

They are able to put a $$$ amount in my monthly bill, but I can't find my usage in data terms (megabytes or gigabytes) anywhere on the invoice or on-line.

They use a very cryptic "data calls" unit that means nothing to me.

Telecom New Zealand makes it really hard for me to control my usage. And they charge dearly if I go over my limits.

Vodafone is a bit better in this area, but their on-line meter is frequently outdated or incorrect according to discussions in our forums.

In Australia the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a warn to consumers regarding mobile data usage.

What about here? TUANZ? Commerce Commission? Anyone awake and aware that we have overpriced data plans?

Read More

I have just received the confirmation I will be running the Windows Mobile Roadmap session (UNC117) at Tech Ed New Zealand 2008.

At this stage I don't know the exact date/time but it's all go.

See you there!

... (more in the full post)

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Read More

A backdoor in Skype?

It has long been speculated that there might be a backdoor built into Skype, something that would allow Skype (the company) or the police to easily monitor Skype conversations. Skype is closed software and can therefore ... (more in the full post)

Read More

I have been watching this a few times as so much of it makes scene. I like how he displays a learning system, that with time/more samples it get better. I found this inspiring in regards to some concepts I have been learning, regarding the design of expert systems for (tag cloud)/categorisation development of forums.

Read More

Some bits sound like meetings I attended... Other bits sound like exactly what I expect "Big Telco" would be talking when creating a campaign for their new JesusPhone offering...

Warning: some heavy NSFW language. But worth watching the whole thing.

Microsoft Windows Mojave

2008-10-13T14:53:00.013-07:00

Update Windows Live Mobile or not?
This week we got the news Microsoft has released an update for Windows Live Mobile. No, don't go updating your Windows Mobile Pocket PC yet. Read on.

First the good news: this update enhances Windows Live on your Windows Mobile. Great. But if you have Windows Live Messenger on your device (installed by an OEM), don't install this update yet. Read more.

Windows Live Mobile is really cool - it enables push e-mail for your Windows Live accounts (this includes Hotmail and even the Geekzonemail accounts).

Here is the bad news: Microsoft stopped providing Windows Live Messenger with Windows Live Mobile - a departure from earlier versions. And if you have an old Windows Live Mobile version with Windows Live Messenger, installing this new version will disable the Messenger component.

The Windows Live Messenger files are still in the system, but the program won't start at all. Uninstalling the "update" will automatically revert to the previous version and enable Windows Live Messenger again.

What is really annoying is that Microsoft makes Windows Live Messenger available for RIM BlackBerry users, but leave Windows Mobile users in the cold, waiting for operators to release their software (which we all know ain't gonna happen any time soon).

If you don't have Windows Live Mobile on your device (some OEMs don't include it), then you can download it now - and use a third party software for communicating with friends on Windows Live Messenger. Try one of the following:

- Fring (free, multiple IM systems, Skype, SIP, Twitter)
- Pocket MSN
- MSN Messenger Force

Microsoft wants to fire your receptionist, are you and I next?
Every year robots get a little more capable. In Japan where there has been a short supply of security guards they've built security robots to patrols malls at night.

Now Microsoft are showing off there latest foray in robotics with a new rec... (more in the full post)

ANZ overhauls technology units, names managers
New Zealand, Australian and Asian groups formed as some functions centralised

Orcon Homehub/ADSL2 Setup - A Quick Review
After going unbundled with Orcon's Gold+ Account I was having issues getting online and was recommended an Orcon HomeHub over D-Link DST-502T. The 502T was theoretically more than capable of doing ADSL2+ (as I was running it at home on the same plan already). But at $5 a month, and to solve a problem I thought, stuff it, and got one sent out.

The HomeHub is really just a Siemens SX-763 WLAN DSL Router. Its running a slightly modified firmware that has the Orcon settings preset. You can't flash newer vesions of Firmware, although Orcon can from their side of things. This could lead to an interesting future for this little hub - more on that later.
The Homehub features (according to Orcon) -

"This sleek wireless router lets you access your Broadband from anywhere in your house without plugs or cables.
What's more, because our network can talk to it, our helpdesk can easily support the device remotely to get you back online faster if there is ever a problem.
In the future, we'll be teaching the Homehub some cool new tricks to give you an even better Orcon experience through new and interesting services, so stay tuned..."

On the Siemens site it lists it features as -

High-speed wireless data transfer at up to 108 Mbps (compatible with IEEE 802.11b/g)
Integrated ADSL 2+ modem
4 Port 10/100 Hub
External broadband access modem support (e. g. VDSL, cable)
Support for up to 6 VoIP public telephone accounts (SIP Protocol)
USB Support (SMB/FTP/Web/Printer).

So after ordering it, the unit arrived a couple of days later, interestingly I had to pay postage, with a white Orcon slip over a standard Siemens box. In the box were all the cables one could ever need to setup and use the unit. Network cable, phone, filters etc... Annoyingly Siemens have gone with RJ-45 (Network) Adaptor plug for the phone cable, not the smaller and standard phone plug - so don't go loosing your cables.
The Unit is one of the nicer Routers or modems I've seen, although it does feel a but light and plasticy. All the ports are nicely placed on the back. It can be mounted on a wall or look fine on a desk.

The web inerface is pleasent to look at, and functionally seems to include all the settings. There's wizards both for the absolutely basics and also for the security features. Add to that the normal Advanced Settings, It's feature packed but simple to get around. There's support for all the necessary wireless standards - WEP, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK/WPA-PSK.
I'd love to go into the VOIP settings but as I have never been too interested in it before, I wouldn't know much. The fact they're there, and are quite feature complete shows a feature I imagine Orcon will use in the future.

Connection wise, the wireless seems solid, although I personally use an Apple Airport Extreme to run a parallel 5ghz Only 11N based network and a 2.4Ghz for older clients. Excessive. Maybe. A bonus of using the $5 a month homehub though.
Internet wise, in the Auckland CBD, just off K Rd I've got a 12286 kbps (upstream) ADSL Connection. Its strange as when the connection was first setup I was getting up to 22500kbps on the connection - close to ADSL2's limit - and now its back down to the top of ADSL1's top....... Orcon?
UPDATE See first comment.

Heres some results from speedtest.net -

Auckland -> Auckland (WorldxChange Communications) - 9907 Down / 354 Up

Auckland -> Christchurch (Snap Internet) - 6587 Down / 266 Up

Auckland -> Sydney (Mammoth Media) - 3327 Down / 333 Up

Auckland -> London (Namesco) - 1723 Down / 180 Up

Auckland -> San Francisco (Unwired) - 2739 Down / 194 Up

Things that aren't cool -
USB only does FTP no SFTP so not great for putting online.

The DHCP server won't list connected devices - Wireless status lists the Host name, Mac and IP's of any wireless clients but for the overall IP's - nothing. The settings are there - just broken, a bug that I hope Orcon will get on to fixing.
UPDATE Orcon do indeed have a forthcoming update. Orcon were nice enough to flash mine and it does indeed fix the issue.

Things that are cool -
USB Features.
Looks good.
A full featured router for only $5 a month (on Orcon).
Assumably VOIP support from Orcon in the future.

Mobile Me - Or is it?
Mobile Me - good in practice, not so sure about the execution.

My wife has been without email for 3 days now, missing out on business-critical communications. No useful explanation has been provided by Apple, Support is virtually impossible to contact and to claim that only 1% of users are affected seems disingenuous given the vast numbers of irate posts on Apple Support!

The theory is great but a better tagline might be "Exchange For (Some Of) The Rest of Us"!

Apple may well become a victim of their own success, I think.

HISAC health IT group still in limbo
All members of HISAC, except chairman, had their terms end in February

Oracle to buy project portfolio management player
Primavera latest target in Ellison's shopping spree

Windows Server 2008 is my Desktop Workstation

The good thing is, Windows Server 2008 can be configured as a fully featured desktop workstation. Your one stop guide for completing this ‘awesome’ task is here

Below is my laptop configuration:

1) Apple Macbook 2.4 GHz

2) 4 GB RAM

I have Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 Edition installed

Below is the list of software installed:

1) Apple Bootcamp

2) Microsoft Office 2007

3) Microsoft Visio 2007

4) Mozilla Firefox

5) Skype

6) Apple Quicktime

7) Apple iTunes

8 ) Windows Live

Live Writer
Live Messenger
Live Photo Gallery

9) Foxit PDF Reader

10) Flashget Download Manager

11) Virtual PC

12) Kaspersky Internet Security

13) tWhirl

14) Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1

This server is Fast, Sleek, and Customizable (in Features and Roles). That’s a huge benefit over Vista where many services get started no matter you use them.

Everything works good in my setup including sleep,shutdown and hibernate

So far, my experience of having Windows Server 2008 as my main desktop workstation is good and I think I will continue to stay on this for a long, long time until Windows 7 comes out

National Insecurity

2008-10-13T14:53:00.011-07:00

"National Security" has been burned indelibly into the vocabulary of average Americans ever since 9/11. Of course, prior to 9/11 we had enemies- even enemies who attacked us. We knew... Read More

Today I received an invitation that I am able to extend to you. HP is running the HP Software BTO Tour 2008 in Wellington, 2nd September 2008.

This half day event is ahppening at the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa from 8:30am through 1:30pm.

There will be conference streams during the day, designed to give IT Professionals a more practical approach to IT Management.

I won't be attending the event though, because I will be in Auckland attending the Microsoft Tech Ed, and writing the Unofficial Tech Ed Blog while there...

Read More

We all know the Vodafone iPhone is not SIM or network locked. You can purchase the handset outright, paying full price and just use it with a prepay SIM card or any other network's SIM card.

We also know that because of its current APN configuration it will only have voice and SMS on prepay. The current APN configured in the iPhone is not "visible" to prepay accounts.

But there's a very legal way around this. You can change the configuration on your iPhone by visiting UnlockIt - APN changer for iPhone.

The author LennonNZ has posted some UnlockIt statistics in our forums.

So many people benefited from it, and so little was paid back. I recommend you make a donation if you use the site to "unlock" your Vodafone iPhone.

Read More

Cool, it's that time of the year again when the IBM Forum is on. I've attended previous events and it's always an interesting day.

Here's a bit about this event:

IBM Forum 2008 focuses on Sustainable Innovation, starting with the keynote, Ray Avery, a kiwi scientist and entrepreneur; founder CEO of Medicine Mondiale. Ray is developing sustainable products and technologies for world markets, such as his latest invention “Proteinforte”. Ray will be talking about global opportunities for high tech innovation in healthcare, education and infrastructure.

Also on the agenda, Edward Orange, Director of Lotus Software of IBM Asia Pacific, will be talking about Web 2.0 and how it can be leveraged by enterprises of all sizes to help revolutionise the way they conduct business, help employees collaborate more effectively and enhance their client outreach.

The agenda also features a session on 'Co-Web: re-mixing audio and video collaboration in the next generation of the Internet’ and ‘Demystifying SOA - driving business agility with service orientated business applications’, as well as insights into the latest advances in strategy and technology; customer stories and interactive demonstrations.

The full day event is happening in Wellington (11th August, Michael Fowler Centre), Auckland (14th August, Hyatt Hotel) and Christchurch (19th August, Convention Centre).

Registrations are open now.

Read More

The saga of the Mobile Me debacle continues.

Now over 7 days since my wife had access to her mail. I would imagine that Apple could have totally replaced any servers affected many times over within seven days. The average corporate IT dept can fix things in 24 hrs - I am sure the problem is bigger, but then so are the resources Apple has available to deploy!

Worst of all is the fact that there just seems to be no comment coming from Apple about the nature of the issue and when they expect to have things up and running.

On top of that it has still barely stopped raining....!

We did go and see Dark Knight today. IMHO one of the better Batman films to date. The late Heath Ledger is, I think, an excellent Joker - a memorable Swansong performance from an actor who had much potential. If you like that kind of thing, it's a great film with lots of action. We are in danger of trying to explore 'the reason why' a bit too much though - Batman is because Batman is! We need not be troubled with his navel gazing when we have so many of our own issues to resolve, I feel.

Well, have a good weekend, Dear Reader!

Read More

Read More

After going unbundled with Orcon's Gold+ Account I was having issues getting online and was recommended an Orcon HomeHub over D-Link DST-502T. The 502T was theoretically more than capable of doing ADSL2+ (as I was running it at home on the same plan already). But at $5 a month, and to solve a problem I thought, stuff it, and got one sent out.

The HomeHub is really just a Siemens SX-763 WLAN DSL Router. Its running a slightly modified firmware that has the Orcon settings preset. You can't flash newer vesions of Firmware, although Orcon can from their side of things. This could lead to an interesting future for this little hub - more on that later.
The Homehub features (according to Orcon) -

"This sleek wireless router lets you access your Broadband from anywhere in your house without plugs or cables.
What's more, because our network can talk to it, our helpdesk can easily support the device remotely to get you back online faster if there is ever a problem.
In the future, we'll be teaching the Homehub some cool new tricks to give you an even better Orcon experience through new and interesting services, so stay tuned..."

On the Siemens site it lists it features as -

High-speed wireless data transfer at up to 108 Mbps (compatible with IEEE 802.11b/g)
Integrated ADSL 2+ modem
4 Port 10/100 Hub
External broadband access modem support (e. g. VDSL, cable)
Support for up to 6 VoIP public telephone accounts (SIP Protocol)
USB Support (SMB/FTP/Web/Printer).

Three ways of looking at storage virtualisation

2008-10-13T14:53:00.009-07:00

There are different approaches to the technology, says Jim Damoulakis Read More

Analyst firm says CA or BMC could be takeover target Read More

Read More

Tales from the world of ICT Read More

Microsoft seeking more than US$2 million in damages from DHL Read More

Despite an IP write-down, company makes breakthrough sales Read More

Technology is over-rated as an element, says Dave Linthicum Read More

It's not clear whether Microsoft intends to fix the flaw this week Read More

Auckland said to trim integrated ticketing plans Read More

Ministry says no as school opts for free software

2008-10-13T14:53:00.007-07:00

School aims for zero Microsoft licences, but wants to keep budget savings Read More

"National Security" has been burned indelibly into the vocabulary of average Americans ever since 9/11. Of course, prior to 9/11 we had enemies- even enemies who attacked us. We knew... Read More

40% of breaches come from the inside, survey finds Read More

Apple fanatics have maintained that Apple's operating systems and applications are simply more secure than Microsoft's. Others (myself included) have held the theory that the software is not necessarily more... Read More

Tales from the world of ICT Read More

Secunia tested how well internet security suites could identify an exploit Read More

iovation to Speak at ETRE 2008 - MarketWatch

2008-10-13T14:53:00.005-07:00

iovation to Speak at ETRE 2008 - MarketWatch

Shocking conspiracy underway, The Truth REVEALED! this will shatter you to the core.
There are subtle changes around the world all the time, some of them more obvious than others,

As many suspect, some know and some redicule,
These changes are effected by the annoymous controllers of the world, the ones who cause wars for financial gain, those who control the world economies, those who ensure the greater populace is kept in the dark from knowing the real story, and keep us from interacting with our friendly Aliens from neighbouring systems.
Some say they are really members of the ruling lizard Army,
others swear its the illuminati, perhaps its the government, or those with the black helicopters and red sports shoes.

I cannot say for sure who these anonymous fellows are, but I do know one thing for sure. they are at it again.

this time with the humble Match. the unobtrusive supplier of fire, lighter of ciggarettes, cigars, candles and incense sticks,

How many Matches in a standard box of Beehive "Safety Matches"???

I bet many of you will state "50" and in the better, more positive days of old, when the future was bright and mankind controlled its future you would have been correct.

I your intrepid investigator, went deep in the depths of the conspiracy, risked life and limb and discovered an earth-shattering revelation, something that could rock your perception of reality to the core.

be prepared for this. it is a shocking, terrible revelation.

THERE. IS. NOW. ONLY. FORTY FIVE matches in a box of "behive safety matches"

Surely this is the beginning of the end, the controllers, those secretive evil overloads are plotting to de-evolve the human race,

sure you say, it could be a cost cutting measure, who really uses all 50 matches in a box of matches, BUT NO!

At the same time this sinister ploy was rolled out, the cost for a humble box of matches rose by 10 cents!

Again! I hear you say, surely this could be coincidental, the cost of everything is rising due to the cost of fuel for transportation, and this surely will effect matches too.

WRONG AGAIN!!! Pull the wool away from your eyes! that is exactly the sort of thinking they want! they want you to believe it is a result of a highly complicated series of economical factors locally and abroad causing the costs of manufacturing to increase.

AHA! I hear a few of you say, you think you are smarter than that, you think that you have seen through this, you think,
This is a straightforward capitalist move, in which they are covering increased costs while increasing margins by dropping the number of items per unit by 10% meaning they can produce 11 units for at a cost only slightly higher (the cost of the extra box) than the cost they previously had for 10 units.

Ah my poor, naive populace, oh how I envy your blissfull sleep wrapped in your dillusioned reality.

This is only the start of the plan, these "Men X" have a sinister plan to de-evolve the human race into cavemen level humanoids.

You see. we have grown too much. we have too much of the Internet, at first they thought "Aha this internet. it is the new Television, in which we can place many time-taking activities, more intellectual soylent green, we can use this to gradually increase the depth of the reality disfunction"

-But Alas for them and fortunately for us! we have moved past.

whilst many get trapped, and sucked into the mass mind control vortices that have been created, projects with codenames so terrible I cannot mention, but which were re-branded into friendly sounding names until you realise the ominous portents of what these names portray.

these mass mind control vortices such as "MY SPACE" a secret covert program derived from
Mind Yoke, Situation Programming And Control, and another similar covert black op "FACE BOOK" a name that fills me with such ominous dread I dare not delve far for fear of causing horrors such as were envisioned by HP Lovecraft, but let it be said it was a covert operation linked to Fully Assimilated Control Environments..

But these vortices were still not enough. they had to push further least we discover the truth.

and that is where the diabolic plan to de-evolve the human race has sprung.

it starts of small. they reduce the number of matches in a box by 5 and increase the cost by 10c.
that looks innocent enough on the purpose, but if you look further you are getting 10% less, for 20% more cost,

That is only the beginning. soon they will perform this step again, and gradually spread it out to other devices in which to make fire, gradually decreasing the resources and increasing the cost for us to create fire to such an extent that we no longer have the facility for fire,

One may point out that "what about friction - rubbing two sticks together" - this is one of the reasons their plan is soo diabolically cunning.

Citys were created for just this purpose. to eradic the availability of "sticks" and make us wholly dependand on store bought combustion created materials.

Soon we will be stuck wilth very few sources for ignition, and fewer for burning and keeping those fires lit.

"Environmental Sustainability" = "systematically remove mans capacity to make and keep fire"

if we do not prepare ourselves. we will become what the goal of their master plan is, a sub-human race of cavemen like bipeds the perfect slaves t operate their intersteller fastfood chains and cleaning resteraunts whilst they put their hyper intelligent robots to valuable tasks such as enabling awkward teen overlords to score with the hot overlord teen chicks who know about cars, by changing into a car with a cool engine then becoming a futuristic robot that deathmatches other robots before amusing crowds with puns involving Ebay.

Student benifits!
I'm currently doing a Bachelor of Communications and Information Technology at UCOL, Palmerston North.

A few days ago I received an email stating I am registered with the MSDN Academic Alliance: Online Software System. I visited the link included in the email and was very pleased to find out I have access to free downloads which include; Windows Vista Business, Windows 2008 Server, Visual Studio 2008 and many more! This is great, I can download hundreds of dollars worth of software for free.

I think I'll be reaching my monthly download quota very early this month!

http://www.e-academy.com/

The Future of Telecommunications - Some Thoughts

“Different methods of communication and of identifying users on communication networks will become irrelevant. I use many different methods of electronic communication, including a home phone, a mobile phone, e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, online forums and social networking sites and so on. Why should I have to distinguish between these forms of communication and they way they identify their users – why should I have to have an e-mail address, several phone numbers, several usernames of different services – why can users not just have a single user name or number which can be used to reach them however you like? Why should I have to use multiple devices such as a home phone, a cell phone, a computer and a laptop to communicate – why not have one device that can utilise all methods of communication but that comes in many different shapes and sizes – something desk-sized like a computer, something portable and then something pocket-sized. We need to take the focus out of the “how” and turn it more to the “who” and “what” of communications.”

From the section on the future of telecommunications from my thesis (of sorts). Thoughs/feedback welcome/requested

Vendors Work to Fix Bug that Could Crash the Internet
OK- that is total FUD. It reminds me of when my kids' computer has issues and he tells me that he "thinks he broke the Internet", or when one site...

New Computer Security Threat - ClickJacking
I know. You were sitting around thinking that computer security has gotten boring. You were like 'viruses? worms? Trojans?...yawn'. You were thinking that spyware and phishing attacks are so yesterday....

Microsoft Windows Mojave
So you complain about Windows Vista but actually never used it? Maybe what you need is Microsoft Windows Mojave.

In summary, a set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave".

One of the subjects in the study even said "Wow", the word Microsoft used in the "The wow starts now" campaign for Windows Vista.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I know a lot of Linux and Mac OS X users who bash Windows Vista without ever having touch a computer running the OS. How can they "know" so much? Or perhaps they don't.

Isn't this a big perception problem?

All the details here.

UPDATE: The Mojave Experiment results are coming on-line!

Student benifits!

2008-10-13T14:53:00.003-07:00

SHARK TANK
Tales from the world of ICT

HISAC health IT group still in limbo
All members of HISAC, except chairman, had their terms end in February

What to Call this Post...
How about Blogging isn't for cowards? Or maybe Linda's other big day off? A funny thing happened on the way home? Playing good samaritan has it's spinoffs?

This is really hard for me to publish, but what the ... Close your eyes, Linda, hold your breath and jump!
Ok, here goes... Oh, yeas, and I have sat on it for nearly a week...

Well, thanks to Our English Lass, who is still in one piece, I have a few Tuesday's off until she becomes Mother and Child. Having just had a week off the Monday-itis was massive yesterday, so I gratefully took her suggestion and had the day off.

Popped off to best friend's house, put in my Avon order. Stunning stuff really, and not worth blogging about, I know.

Came home with a piece of chockie on my tummy, feeling good about the lippies she gave me. Did a u-turn before getting home and went off to see Junior's mate who is about to turn sixteen. Thought I might buy him a pair of shoes for his birthday so he thinks he's got his pressy and gets a bit of a surprise with the rest of it.

Knock on door. Door opens. In walks Linda. Hello D, would you like me to buy you some shoes for your birthday? Oh, you already have new shoes? Excellent. What, that pair down there, next to the pair of shoes that belongs to Junior?

Uh, didn't I drop Junior off at school this morning and wasn't he wearing those shoes?

Junior!!! I call several times... Where is he, D? In your bedroom hiding behind your chest of drawers? Come here you gutless wonder.

D seems to think that last bit is funny. Right about that time I am starting to feel sick. He emerges. Finally. The Emergent Kid.

Put those shoes on. (They could not have been any more obvious if they were painted yellow with flashing signs anouncing Truanter This Way...) Get in the car.

Where are we going, asks Junior. I stop outside hubbie's place of work. In here. We are going to see your father.

Now comes the begging...

Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad... etc etc etc. All in incredible monotone.

Get inside, anounce to Junior - You tell him. I sit down and wait for it...

And of course, the upshot of it is that, yet again, I have to go to the school and enquire as to WHY he is not at school and we have not been informed...

Now, Don't know if I told you this, but the dean in charge of dear darling Junior was going to put him on a principals report. Yesterday, I assumed. Get him some counselling. Plus careers help, so that we can pull him out in Sptember, on his 16th birthday if things don't go well...

Dean not available, see his form overlord. Thingy, whatever he is called. Adviser? Deputy or assistant principal?

Oh, he knew Junior was going onto a principal's report at sometime... No, the normal thing is to wait until a child is away three days in a row before contacting the parents/carers. Oh, really, away seven schooldays in a row last thing last term? And not here yesterday or until now today? Doesn't that make it NINE days? Isn't the advice that he is not there overdue by three times?

Find the head counsellor. That in itself was a miracle in a school this size. We see the counsellor together.

Guess what? We don't look like a happy family... Being sanguine, of course, it is the ultimate insult. Happy? I hate being asked that question. I was happy until you asked me... Strange, I know. And not very condusive to a good chat with the school counsellor. Hmm, my Mum never even got to see my counsellor, so I suppose I am doing well. (Well, what else do you do when your student's Mother turns up with the truant in hand. Apart from sack the paid truancy officer? Wait till I find him...)

So, why should junior stay at school, or even be there in the first place? For the first time in a long while it Is All About Him. He's not going to get a job just on his good looks. Unless.... Nah....

See, I have to push through here. I have been sick to my stomach this morning, I am still reeling and ready to crawl into a hole called mental illness, resign from the noble sisterhood of motherhood, whatever... But in the end, it's all about Junior.

I sit there in front of him and tell his counsellor (who probably hasn't seen all Junior's notes) that he has Asperger's syndrome, ADHD and a few more things to boot. That he didn't learn to read until he was ten years and nine months old, and then he taught himself on footrot flats books... That we have had an uphill battle right from the start. He didn't even talk until he was four, and then there were his muscular problems....

If I don't fight for my child, who will? Like a Paul Coleman song, not good enough for ... not bad enough for... Not good enough to just walk out there and take the world by storm, even if he does stand there and shake his fist at it with his opposition defiance disorder... Not bad enough to get the help he has always needed.

If I don't fight for my child, what will become of him? My heroes are the parents of the young lady with Down's Syndrome who stuck out the fight and saw her achieve her NZqa's or whatever, in a normal school and normal classes. But they were teachers, and knew how to fight.

I have given this school ample opportunity to teach my son, and was determined to make them do it, too, but they had time on their side. All they had to do was sit back and do nothing. And I am the baddy who has failed, who has allowed their son to become a truant, who could make him go to school (haha) but couldn't make him learn. Couldn't make him excited, or at least stop him from getting bored....

Well, the fight isn't over yet, and I am just going to get off my butt and run again. Go to aquarobics in the freezing cold, push my body to the limits, sore back and all. Keep my mental wits about me.

And as a Christian, I can say, to myself if not to you - 'having done all, to stand'. (Ephesians 6:13) Or my favourite - 'Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: For the LORD upholds him with His hand.' (Psalm 37 verse 24, and it's a ripper of a psalm in all it's total. Must go and read it up now. TTFN)

Linux powered mini-machines for Macs - iTWire

2008-10-13T14:53:00.001-07:00

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Back in April I wrote about Microsoft's music store closing, thus rendering any music purchased from that store worthless. Why? The music is DRM infested, and thus will stop playing after they switch off their servers that are needed for license veri... (more in the full post)

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Multiple Mozilla products are vulnerable to a stack buffer overflow allowing remote code execution by enticing a user to click on a specially-crafted URL. Read More

Yesterday I posted about Microsoft Windows Mojave, an experiement in perception.

A set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista during the Mojave Experiment. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave", a new operating system that impressed everyone.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I have just found out the full "Mojave Experiment" results will be available 29th July on The Mojave Experiment website.

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The Microsoft Windows GDI+ API (Gdiplus.dll) is vulnerable to multiple buffer overflows that could result in remote code execution. Read More

Microsoft wants to fire your receptionist, are you and I next?

2008-10-13T05:29:00.015-07:00

Now Microsoft are showing off there latest foray in robotics with a new rec... (more in the full post)

Backdoor in Skype? We need an open-source replacement
A backdoor in Skype?

Mobile Me - Or is it?

2008-10-13T05:29:00.013-07:00

Mobile Me - good in practice, not so sure about the execution.

The theory is great but a better tagline might be "Exchange For (Some Of) The Rest of Us"!

Apple may well become a victim of their own success, I think.

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Cool, it's that time of the year again when the IBM Forum is on. I've attended previous events and it's always an interesting day.

Here's a bit about this event:

IBM Forum 2008 focuses on Sustainable Innovation, starting with the keynote, Ray Avery, a kiwi scientist and entrepreneur; founder CEO of Medicine Mondiale. Ray is developing sustainable products and technologies for world markets, such as his latest invention “Proteinforte”. Ray will be talking about global opportunities for high tech innovation in healthcare, education and infrastructure.

Also on the agenda, Edward Orange, Director of Lotus Software of IBM Asia Pacific, will be talking about Web 2.0 and how it can be leveraged by enterprises of all sizes to help revolutionise the way they conduct business, help employees collaborate more effectively and enhance their client outreach.

The agenda also features a session on 'Co-Web: re-mixing audio and video collaboration in the next generation of the Internet’ and ‘Demystifying SOA - driving business agility with service orientated business applications’, as well as insights into the latest advances in strategy and technology; customer stories and interactive demonstrations.

The full day event is happening in Wellington (11th August, Michael Fowler Centre), Auckland (14th August, Hyatt Hotel) and Christchurch (19th August, Convention Centre).

Registrations are open now.

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The Microsoft Windows Media Encoder wmex.dll ActiveX control is vulnerable to a buffer overflowthat could result in remote code execution. Read More

How well companies that offer something for "free" can do with a subscription option?

When there are so many "free" things on the web, one has to wonder how companies can keep their products up and running (or even if they can manage to get out of beta).

Some companies just don't. They close the service and tell the customers to get out of here:

Personal Media: Bluestring, Xdrive and AOL Pictures will be sunset. These consumer storage products haven't gained sufficient traction in the marketplace or the monetization levels necessary to offset the high cost of their operation. We have found that building media management applications within the context of a social experience is a more rapid and effective way to grow the business. For example, today the Bebo audience is uploading over three million photos per day. To effectively grow the XDrive online storage business we would need to focus on subscription revenues vs. monetizing through advertising revenue, and this business model is not in strategic alignment with our company's goals. We are exploring plans to migrate our users assets to ensure the best possible transition experience.

This is part of the memo AOL sent out to staff explaning the end of some of their services - including Xdrive an on-line storage service that offered 5 GB of storage free to anyone.

There's a reason why people buy external drives for home or buy Windows Home Server or NAS boxes. First broadband speed sucks around the world. Then the services don't work as expected or not as easily (Xdrive is only one that I know that could be mounted as a drive on your OS so you could just copy things from and to instead of having to open a browser window). And even so it was very unstable.

Which leads me to the next one: the on-line service businesses seem to be quite unreliable - unless they are a subscription service with a SLA, not a freebie. But even so sith happens.

When there are lots of free things, some won't last long.

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There is a new form of credit card fraud going around New Zealand. It involves customers using fraudulent cards made overseas that either, not linked to a bank account or the bank does not exist at all. They have been hitting retailers throughout New Zealand. Their modus operandi is to be friendly, chatty, well dressed as well as talking on a cellphone. Primarily they are of Asian decent, and use credit cards link to Asian banks.

The credit cards have all of the signs of being genuine, embossed numbers match front and back, signature matches for of ID (which is usually and passport) as well as the name matching. They always know what they are after, and do not mind mixing and matching goods if certain colours are not available.
The retailer will not know what has happened until they find that a few weeks later the funds are never transferred into their bank account.
They are confident enough to ask for goods to be put aside if their card declines, and then come back with a different card. Transactions can vary between just under $1000 to just under $2000.

Purchases can include Apple products, Playstation products and prepaid mobiles. To help ease the retailer into the suspicious looking sale, they will ask for a cheap mobile, stating that it is to be used as a spare. The perpetrators are usually Asian, and are dressed very well. They are usually using a high end cellphone to talk to their mates in a near by vehicle.

Apple releases another mega-patch for Mac OS X

2008-10-13T05:29:00.011-07:00

Apple releases another mega-patch for Mac OS X
Abnormally high number of patches for third-party software, says security researcher

A visit with Guy Kawasaki, evangelist
Mac guru and venture capitalist gives his views

Exploit code loose for six-month-old Windows bug
It's not clear whether Microsoft intends to fix the flaw this week

Mobile Me - Or is it?

2008-10-13T05:29:00.009-07:00

Mobile Me - good in practice, not so sure about the execution.

The theory is great but a better tagline might be "Exchange For (Some Of) The Rest of Us"!

Apple may well become a victim of their own success, I think.

Read More

New version released Read More

You can read the rest of my story on my WordPress blog, but the service these guys have given me is unbelievable, BAD that is.

This is my status for today for the rest follow my link below.

So if you read my previous blog you will know that our phone line died yesterday. So This afternoon I rang Orcon to find ut what is happening. I rang the 0800 number and selected landlines and waited for a response which came pretty quickly and I got a very polite response from Jamie who advised me that she had to pass me on to a different department because the other department was responsible for the port change. She also explained that the port change affected the landline and the broadband connection.

So off to another department and another woman who advised me that they were still waiting for a technician to advise the date when someone would do a port change!

I said “Are you telling me that I have no phone and that you can’t even tell me when someone will advise when they will look at it?” Correct, it might be this afternoon, they do work on Saturdays so someone might turn up then or, well they just don’t know because it is another department.

I asked if they would forward incoming phones to a mobile and they have agreed to do that, but why couldn’t they suggest that in the first place? Basically this now means that people can contact us without having to know our mobile numbers and without having to pay for the toll call, but it does also mean that we have to pay mobile call rates for the outgoing local calls, but at least we have communications.

But we have no idea when our home phone line wll be reconnected.

Since last night I have had 2 people come to me saying that they had been planning to move to Orcon and now won’t. Would you like to be in on a sweepstake as to when I will have a home phone line? Or perhaps hw many times my internet will disconnect today? Yes, funny isn’t it, I still have a Broadband connection at home even if I don’t have the phone. I just checked, so far my broadband has disconnected 18 times today.

HP invites to Software Business Technology Optmisation Tour in Wellington

2008-10-13T05:29:00.007-07:00

Today I received an invitation that I am able to extend to you. HP is running the HP Software BTO Tour 2008 in Wellington, 2nd September 2008.

This half day event is ahppening at the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa from 8:30am through 1:30pm.

There will be conference streams during the day, designed to give IT Professionals a more practical approach to IT Management.

I won't be attending the event though, because I will be in Auckland attending the Microsoft Tech Ed, and writing the Unofficial Tech Ed Blog while there...

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19 July 2008, Harvey Norman had a huge sale on, I cant remember exactly what it was called but it had '12 hour marathon' in the name. Anyway, I ended up buying a new laptop! Compaq Presario V3500 with Windows Vista Home Premium, I don't care what anyone has to say about Compaq I absolutely love this laptop. Considering my previous laptop was a Dell Inspiron 2200 anything reasonably up-to-date would have been sufficient.. One or two more usb ports would have been nice and maybe even bluetooth connectivity but apart from that it does everything I need and does it well. I especially like the button above the touchpad which enables me to lock it.

If anyone is looking for a really nice laptop under $1300 I would recommend the Presario V3500.

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Isn't competition in the mobile marketplace fantastic? It's a concept that unfortunately New Zealanders are missing out on due to the cosy duopoly that exists between our two mobile providers - Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone.

Optus have just launched unlimited "timeless" mobile plans into the Australian marketplace. For A$99 per month you get unlimited calling to other mobiles and landline phones in Australia as well as unlimited SMS and MMS messages. This $99 pack however isn't quite $99 - it requires the purchase of a A$14.95 mobile pack that gives you 200MB of included data.

For A$129 however you receive unlimited calling, SMS and MMS along with 2GB of data.

Now compare that to what you're paying in NZ. Competition really is a great thing.

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I have talked about this in previous posts, but there are certainly varying opinions about the ethics of monitoring computer activity. I think everyone is in complete agreement that companies... Read More

OK so I have already talked here about why I prefer mythtv to MediaPortal, it’s not an exhaustive list but I think it makes a pretty compelling argument for Mythtv. However what makes an even stronger compelling argument for MP is its support for NZ's DVB-T broadcasts, and hence I use it. The latest from the mythtvnz mailing list is that Freeview HD is now working well in myth with the patches from pkendall, so hopefully it is just a case of getting the updates to ffmpeg etc into the main mythtv 'trunk' (is that what it called?) and we will be away!

Anyway I should get to the point of this post. I want to list a couple tips I picked up for improving mythtv here, as I alluded to earlier, myth does require more work than MP or GBPVR but it’s worth it:

1) Adding FM radio. I have no idea why this isn't included by default, it can't be hard and all other major HTPC programs have it. To get it in myth requires a bit of a hack, the setup instructions are here. As they note on the wiki page, it is a hack but looks like a plug-in in the end. It doesn't perform like a plug-in (in terms of sharing the card with recording etc) but it is good enough. Also this page gives an idea to the sort of changes to the menu structure that could be made if so desired.

2) By default myth only allows one job (such as commflagging, or a user job such as a special transcode) at a time. Assuming you are running a somewhat modern processor you can get away with a lot more, especially if you have a dual core. Under the 'general' settings in mythbackend setup, change the max number jobs to say 3 or 4. Also set mythcommflag to begin at the start of the show rather than wait until it has finished.

3) Make sure you enable plugins such as mythmusic, mythvideo and mythweb. If you are using Mythbuntu the Mythbuntu Control Center is the easiest way to change these settings. Mythweb in particular is great, and if you can successfully enable access through your router you can check out your computers status, and create recordings even when you are way from home.

That’s all can think of for now, but there are plenty of other settings worth investigating by hunting through the menus. There are some other good features that I never managed to fully implement, such as http://mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mythwelcome and automatic sleep/wakeup.

Next I will spill my thoughts on Media Portal, and the improvements made now we are at RC2.

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So you complain about Windows Vista but actually never used it? Maybe what you need is Microsoft Windows Mojave.

In summary, a set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave".

One of the subjects in the study even said "Wow", the word Microsoft used in the "The wow starts now" campaign for Windows Vista.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I know a lot of Linux and Mac OS X users who bash Windows Vista without ever having touch a computer running the OS. How can they "know" so much? Or perhaps they don't.

Isn't this a big perception problem?

All the details here.

UPDATE: The Mojave Experiment results are coming on-line!

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A few months ago I created a Jobs forum on Geekzone to allow for some of our readers to exchange job information, post requests for specific skills, etc.

Of course it's no competition for the big job sites around, but it seems to be working ok for our community. We do have some of the job agencies posting some ads there - and why wouldn't they, it's free!

Anyway, after talking to the guys at JobX, New Zealand's newest site for job search, we decided to add a Job Search to Geekzone.

One of the first joint initiatives was their sponsorship at the Geekzone Pizza evening in Christchurch - by chance we selected a pizza place just next to their offices, so that helped too.

The Jobs forum is still active and I expect it to get busier every day, but I think the Job Search will bring an even bigger selection for you.

Good luck!

Trend Micro 2009 Suites Launched - TrustedReviews

2008-10-13T05:29:00.005-07:00

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Do you have antivirus software installed? Is it updated? How about antispyware protection? Do you have a personal firewall protecting your PC? Do you have some sort of antiphishing program... Read More

Abnormally high number of patches for third-party software, says security researcher Read More

Don't automatically accept it, says Katherine Spencer Lee Read More

I have talked about this in previous posts, but there are certainly varying opinions about the ethics of monitoring computer activity. I think everyone is in complete agreement that companies... Read More

In the wake of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account being compromised by hackers last week, Yahoo's VP of Mail, John Kremer, wrote a brief article highlighting... Read More

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Apple releases another mega-patch for Mac OS X

2008-10-13T05:29:00.003-07:00

Abnormally high number of patches for third-party software, says security researcher Read More

Dow, Dow, down she goes, laying a cable and taking a stand for online justice Read More

Check this clip to see if the iPhone will blend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLxq90xmYUs

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Ministry says data warehouse project delivered, others say funding was cut Read More

The good thing is, Windows Server 2008 can be configured as a fully featured desktop workstation. Your one stop guide for completing this ‘awesome’ task is here

Below is my laptop configuration:

1) Apple Macbook 2.4 GHz

2) 4 GB RAM

I have Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 Edition installed

Below is the list of software installed:

1) Apple Bootcamp

2) Microsoft Office 2007

3) Microsoft Visio 2007

4) Mozilla Firefox

5) Skype

6) Apple Quicktime

7) Apple iTunes

8 ) Windows Live

Live Writer
Live Messenger
Live Photo Gallery

9) Foxit PDF Reader

10) Flashget Download Manager

11) Virtual PC

12) Kaspersky Internet Security

13) tWhirl

14) Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1

This server is Fast, Sleek, and Customizable (in Features and Roles). That’s a huge benefit over Vista where many services get started no matter you use them.

Everything works good in my setup including sleep,shutdown and hibernate

So far, my experience of having Windows Server 2008 as my main desktop workstation is good and I think I will continue to stay on this for a long, long time until Windows 7 comes out

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Mobile Me - good in practice, not so sure about the execution.

The theory is great but a better tagline might be "Exchange For (Some Of) The Rest of Us"!

Apple may well become a victim of their own success, I think.

Read More

Multiple Mozilla products are vulnerable to a stack buffer overflow allowing remote code execution by enticing a user to click on a specially-crafted URL. Read More

Some bits sound like meetings I attended... Other bits sound like exactly what I expect "Big Telco" would be talking when creating a campaign for their new JesusPhone offering...

Warning: some heavy NSFW language. But worth watching the whole thing.

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It has taken a flippin long time, but it is good to see these issues sorted/being sorted:

Adobe PDF ratified by ISO as standard - finally let go of proprietary format last year and put it up for ratification
Microsoft OOXML ratified by ISO as standard - although the ISO version won't be incorporated until Office 14 comes out next year, and the approval is being challenged by 4 governments . .. .
ODF being supported by Microsoft - in an Office 2007 Service Pack to be released in 2009

Good article here on Computerworld.

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Technology is over-rated as an element, says Dave Linthicum Read More

E-tales: Nerds get more sex - potentially

2008-10-13T05:29:00.001-07:00

E-tales: Nerds get more sex - potentially
North Shore Council fails yet again to do anything about e-waste

Very slack proof reading at Vodafone
... and by poor proof reading:

- from the Vodafone website.

It's been up there for a few days since they changed their little advertisement blocks into images...

SHARK TANK
Tales from the world of ICT

Jailbreaking iPod touch 2.0 with WinPwn
It took a while, but I'm finally at it - iPod touch 2.0 now jailbroken for me, using WinPwn.

You'll need:

WinPwn (2.0.0.3 is what I used, since some bugs were apparently fixed)
Your iPod 2.0 restore file (please note that it must be 5A347)
iTunes 7.7
Some patience

Step 1

Open up WinPwn.

Click "Browse .ipsw" and find your original iPod touch 2.0 restore file.

Step 2

Click "IPSW Builder"

You don't really have to do anything here, but you can select "Install Cydia" if you want it.

Step 3

Click "Build .ipsw", save to a location, and wait a while.

Step 4

Once the whole process is complete, click "iPwner" and click OK to the confirmation message.

Step 5

Open up iTunes, and put your iPod into DFU mode.

I tried to do this a few times, but having a counter on hand is best.

Connect iPod to PC
Turn off while connected to PC
Press Sleep/Wake and Home buttons for exactly 10 seconds. Leave iPod connected.
After the 10 seconds, release the Sleep/Wake button. Continue to hold the Home button. Leave iPod connected.
Windows will now see the "new hardware", and iTunes will give a message that it has found an iPod in recovery mode.
Click OK.

Step 6

In iTunes, hold Shift while pressing "Restore".

Find your custom restore file and Restore. And wait for an extremely long time.

Step 7

Afterwards, iTunes may prompt for a backup restore.

It worked for me, but I'm not 100% sure if this affects anything, but if you don't mind, you can set it up completely from scratch.

The restore took around 25 minutes. Maybe it's because of my apps, but expect to wait.

... and now you should have a jailbroken iPod touch with Software 2.0!

There was one problem - Cydia always hangs when downloading or installing software. A hard reset is required. (Hold Sleep/Wake and Home buttons until it shuts down, then start up normally)

High-tech rides: cars with cool technology
Forget smartcards, here come the smart cars

Photographic Evidence of the Conspiracy...
As I promised my faithful reader, I have obtained at great risk to my life and well - being, photographic evidence of the conspiracy!

behold!

See the difference in the packaging? subtle very subtle...

Again! further subtley, notice the difference in sizes between the matches! they are reducing the capacity of fire!

you cannot claim you weren't warned! its going to happen!

Optus introduces unlimited calling plans in Australia
Isn't competition in the mobile marketplace fantastic? It's a concept that unfortunately New Zealanders are missing out on due to the cosy duopoly that exists between our two mobile providers - Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone.

Optus have just launched unlimited "timeless" mobile plans into the Australian marketplace. For A$99 per month you get unlimited calling to other mobiles and landline phones in Australia as well as unlimited SMS and MMS messages. This $99 pack however isn't quite $99 - it requires the purchase of a A$14.95 mobile pack that gives you 200MB of included data.

For A$129 however you receive unlimited calling, SMS and MMS along with 2GB of data.

Now compare that to what you're paying in NZ. Competition really is a great thing.

Do You Know How (In)Secure Your Are?

2008-10-11T15:41:00.015-07:00

Do You Know How (In)Secure Your Are?
Do you have antivirus software installed? Is it updated? How about antispyware protection? Do you have a personal firewall protecting your PC? Do you have some sort of antiphishing program...

Lords to attack UK.gov failings on internet security - Register

Symantec Goes on Shopping Spree
The economy is in a tailspin...plummet...freefall. Apparently Symantec has not gotten the memo and the credit crunch seems to be having little impact on their shopping plans. The security software...

National Insecurity
"National Security" has been burned indelibly into the vocabulary of average Americans ever since 9/11. Of course, prior to 9/11 we had enemies- even enemies who attacked us. We knew...

F-Secure Achieves Excellent Results in Internet Security Suite ... - MarketWatch

Keep an Eye on Your Kids (or Employees)
I have talked about this in previous posts, but there are certainly varying opinions about the ethics of monitoring computer activity. I think everyone is in complete agreement that companies...

Protecting Your Web Mail Account
In the wake of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account being compromised by hackers last week, Yahoo's VP of Mail, John Kremer, wrote a brief article highlighting...

Internet 'driving test' urged - The Press Association

Beware iPhone Users
Apple fanatics have maintained that Apple's operating systems and applications are simply more secure than Microsoft's. Others (myself included) have held the theory that the software is not necessarily more...

Working with Vista
It seems like the debate about Vista has subsided in recent months. I don't know if that is a function of Vista SP1 fixing some of the issues peope were...

Microsoft Windows Media Encoder Wmex.dll ActiveX Control Remote Code Execution
The Microsoft Windows Media Encoder wmex.dll ActiveX control is vulnerable to a buffer overflowthat could result in remote code execution.

SBS 2008 RC1 and EBS 2008 RC1 finalised (updated with all download links)

2008-10-11T15:41:00.013-07:00

Rumour has it that organis... (more in the full post)

Read More

It has taken a flippin long time, but it is good to see these issues sorted/being sorted:

Adobe PDF ratified by ISO as standard - finally let go of proprietary format last year and put it up for ratification
Microsoft OOXML ratified by ISO as standard - although the ISO version won't be incorporated until Office 14 comes out next year, and the approval is being challenged by 4 governments . .. .
ODF being supported by Microsoft - in an Office 2007 Service Pack to be released in 2009

Good article here on Computerworld.

Read More

The saga of the Mobile Me debacle continues.

Worst of all is the fact that there just seems to be no comment coming from Apple about the nature of the issue and when they expect to have things up and running.

On top of that it has still barely stopped raining....!

Well, have a good weekend, Dear Reader!

The good thing is, Windows Server 2008 can be configured as a fully featured desktop workstation. Your one stop guide for completing this ‘awesome’ task is here

Below is my laptop configuration:

1) Apple Macbook 2.4 GHz

2) 4 GB RAM

I have Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 Edition installed

Below is the list of software installed:

1) Apple Bootcamp

2) Microsoft Office 2007

3) Microsoft Visio 2007

4) Mozilla Firefox

5) Skype

6) Apple Quicktime

7) Apple iTunes

8 ) Windows Live

Live Writer
Live Messenger
Live Photo Gallery

9) Foxit PDF Reader

10) Flashget Download Manager

11) Virtual PC

12) Kaspersky Internet Security

13) tWhirl

14) Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1

This server is Fast, Sleek, and Customizable (in Features and Roles). That’s a huge benefit over Vista where many services get started no matter you use them.

Everything works good in my setup including sleep,shutdown and hibernate

So far, my experience of having Windows Server 2008 as my main desktop workstation is good and I think I will continue to stay on this for a long, long time until Windows 7 comes out

Read More

Oracle WebLogic Server (formerly known as BEA WebLogic Server) is vulnerable to a buffer overflow, which would cause a denial of service and potentially remote code execution. Read More

Microsoft Windows Mojave

2008-10-11T15:41:00.011-07:00

So you complain about Windows Vista but actually never used it? Maybe what you need is Microsoft Windows Mojave.

In summary, a set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave".

One of the subjects in the study even said "Wow", the word Microsoft used in the "The wow starts now" campaign for Windows Vista.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I know a lot of Linux and Mac OS X users who bash Windows Vista without ever having touch a computer running the OS. How can they "know" so much? Or perhaps they don't.

Isn't this a big perception problem?

All the details here.

UPDATE: The Mojave Experiment results are coming on-line!

Palin hacking charge flawed, lawyers say

2008-10-11T15:41:00.009-07:00

Palin hacking charge flawed, lawyers say
Felony charge a bit of a stretch, say lawyers

Attending the IBM Forum 2008 in Wellington
Cool, it's that time of the year again when the IBM Forum is on. I've attended previous events and it's always an interesting day.

Here's a bit about this event:

IBM Forum 2008 focuses on Sustainable Innovation, starting with the keynote, Ray Avery, a kiwi scientist and entrepreneur; founder CEO of Medicine Mondiale. Ray is developing sustainable products and technologies for world markets, such as his latest invention “Proteinforte”. Ray will be talking about global opportunities for high tech innovation in healthcare, education and infrastructure.

Also on the agenda, Edward Orange, Director of Lotus Software of IBM Asia Pacific, will be talking about Web 2.0 and how it can be leveraged by enterprises of all sizes to help revolutionise the way they conduct business, help employees collaborate more effectively and enhance their client outreach.

The agenda also features a session on 'Co-Web: re-mixing audio and video collaboration in the next generation of the Internet’ and ‘Demystifying SOA - driving business agility with service orientated business applications’, as well as insights into the latest advances in strategy and technology; customer stories and interactive demonstrations.

The full day event is happening in Wellington (11th August, Michael Fowler Centre), Auckland (14th August, Hyatt Hotel) and Christchurch (19th August, Convention Centre).

Registrations are open now.

Now Microsoft are showing off there latest foray in robotics with a new rec... (more in the full post)

Google blacklists ATUG website
ATUG unaware of the label when contacted by Computerworld

Occleshaw moves to senior IRD role
MSD CIO to take deputy commissioner role

Update Windows Live Mobile or not?
This week we got the news Microsoft has released an update for Windows Live Mobile. No, don't go updating your Windows Mobile Pocket PC yet. Read on.

First the good news: this update enhances Windows Live on your Windows Mobile. Great. But if you have Windows Live Messenger on your device (installed by an OEM), don't install this update yet. Read more.

Windows Live Mobile is really cool - it enables push e-mail for your Windows Live accounts (this includes Hotmail and even the Geekzonemail accounts).

Here is the bad news: Microsoft stopped providing Windows Live Messenger with Windows Live Mobile - a departure from earlier versions. And if you have an old Windows Live Mobile version with Windows Live Messenger, installing this new version will disable the Messenger component.

The Windows Live Messenger files are still in the system, but the program won't start at all. Uninstalling the "update" will automatically revert to the previous version and enable Windows Live Messenger again.

What is really annoying is that Microsoft makes Windows Live Messenger available for RIM BlackBerry users, but leave Windows Mobile users in the cold, waiting for operators to release their software (which we all know ain't gonna happen any time soon).

If you don't have Windows Live Mobile on your device (some OEMs don't include it), then you can download it now - and use a third party software for communicating with friends on Windows Live Messenger. Try one of the following:

- Fring (free, multiple IM systems, Skype, SIP, Twitter)
- Pocket MSN
- MSN Messenger Force

In the clouds is not always safe...
How well companies that offer something for "free" can do with a subscription option?

When there are so many "free" things on the web, one has to wonder how companies can keep their products up and running (or even if they can manage to get out of beta).

Some companies just don't. They close the service and tell the customers to get out of here:

Personal Media: Bluestring, Xdrive and AOL Pictures will be sunset. These consumer storage products haven't gained sufficient traction in the marketplace or the monetization levels necessary to offset the high cost of their operation. We have found that building media management applications within the context of a social experience is a more rapid and effective way to grow the business. For example, today the Bebo audience is uploading over three million photos per day. To effectively grow the XDrive online storage business we would need to focus on subscription revenues vs. monetizing through advertising revenue, and this business model is not in strategic alignment with our company's goals. We are exploring plans to migrate our users assets to ensure the best possible transition experience.

O.J. Simpson guilty verdict could lead to malicious spam
Anytime there's a big news story, spammers latch on to it, says security company

Optus introduces unlimited calling plans in Australia
Isn't competition in the mobile marketplace fantastic? It's a concept that unfortunately New Zealanders are missing out on due to the cosy duopoly that exists between our two mobile providers - Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone.

Optus have just launched unlimited "timeless" mobile plans into the Australian marketplace. For A$99 per month you get unlimited calling to other mobiles and landline phones in Australia as well as unlimited SMS and MMS messages. This $99 pack however isn't quite $99 - it requires the purchase of a A$14.95 mobile pack that gives you 200MB of included data.

For A$129 however you receive unlimited calling, SMS and MMS along with 2GB of data.

Now compare that to what you're paying in NZ. Competition really is a great thing.

Brocade secures funding for Foundry acquisition
Despite credit crunch, banks advance $1.7 billion to storage vendor

Mozilla adds geographic tagging to Firefox
Add-on enables the browser to automatically pinpoint a user's location

Google blacklists ATUG website

2008-10-11T15:41:00.007-07:00

Google blacklists ATUG website
ATUG unaware of the label when contacted by Computerworld

IBM reports 20% jump in Q3 net income
IBM preannounces third-quarter earnings beating analysts' expectations

Firefox extension blocks dangerous web attack
Popular security tool for the Firefox browser upgraded

Auckland Uni showcases innovation
Robotics, wireless and power technologies to be displayed

Symantec Has Its Head In The Cloud - Forbes

2008-10-11T15:41:00.005-07:00

Symantec Has Its Head In The Cloud - Forbes

Internet Security - Sunday Times.lk

House of Lords to debate internet security - Broadband Expert

State insurance being dodgy? Or just clever?
Should State insurance offer 'market value' payouts on a set amount policy?

My parents car was recently involved in an accident where their car received significant damage after a truck hit the car. No one was hurt but we got the details, went to the police and got the stuff rolling.
The car is sitting in my driveway, not safe for road use.

Anyway, the insurance policy was insured for a set value rather than market value. The assessor for state insurance (IAG?) has basically offered approximately $5600 for repairs or replacement. This is below the set amount that was insuranced and the assessor only viewing the exterior of the car and not assessing potential damage to the car. The understanding is that anything above ~$5600 would be out of pocket.

When we contacted the assessor for further comment, he advised that this was because the car was only worth a certain amount, a market value and that we are lucky that we got offered that amount. That would be ok if it wasn't insured for a set value.

Clearly state insurance can't have their cake and eat it too? To me it sounds like a scam.

Whats your thoughts?

Microsoft Office OneNote File Uniform Resource Locator Remote Code Execution
Microsoft Office is vulnerable to remote code execution through specially-crafted OneNote URLs.

HP invites to Software Business Technology Optmisation Tour in Wellington

2008-10-11T15:41:00.003-07:00

HP invites to Software Business Technology Optmisation Tour in Wellington
Today I received an invitation that I am able to extend to you. HP is running the HP Software BTO Tour 2008 in Wellington, 2nd September 2008.

This half day event is ahppening at the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa from 8:30am through 1:30pm.

There will be conference streams during the day, designed to give IT Professionals a more practical approach to IT Management.

I won't be attending the event though, because I will be in Auckland attending the Microsoft Tech Ed, and writing the Unofficial Tech Ed Blog while there...

Auckland Uni showcases innovation
Robotics, wireless and power technologies to be displayed

Mac Security: Antivirus - Macworld

Symantec Has Its Head In The Cloud - Forbes

House of Lords to debate internet security - Broadband Expert

Oracle and SAP fail to settle TomorrowNow lawsuit
Two sides squabbling over Oracle's access to certain documents

Court orders spammers to pay US$236M to Iowa ISP
Couple bombarded ISP over a four-month period, says judge

Firefox extension blocks dangerous web attack
Popular security tool for the Firefox browser upgraded

Retailers stung by credit card fraud
There is a new form of credit card fraud going around New Zealand. It involves customers using fraudulent cards made overseas that either, not linked to a bank account or the bank does not exist at all. They have been hitting retailers throughout New Zealand. Their modus operandi is to be friendly, chatty, well dressed as well as talking on a cellphone. Primarily they are of Asian decent, and use credit cards link to Asian banks.

Thanks Duncan from Orcon

2008-10-11T15:41:00.001-07:00

Very slack proof reading at Vodafone
... and by poor proof reading:

- from the Vodafone website.

It's been up there for a few days since they changed their little advertisement blocks into images...

Court orders spammers to pay US$236M to Iowa ISP
Couple bombarded ISP over a four-month period, says judge

REANNZ seeks trans-Tasman cable
New 1Tbit per second cable specified

Microsoft Windows Mojave
So you complain about Windows Vista but actually never used it? Maybe what you need is Microsoft Windows Mojave.

In summary, a set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave".

One of the subjects in the study even said "Wow", the word Microsoft used in the "The wow starts now" campaign for Windows Vista.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I know a lot of Linux and Mac OS X users who bash Windows Vista without ever having touch a computer running the OS. How can they "know" so much? Or perhaps they don't.

Isn't this a big perception problem?

All the details here.

UPDATE: The Mojave Experiment results are coming on-line!

Symantec to buy email security vendor MessageLabs
MessageLabs holds a 29.7% share of the hosted security services market

Jailbreaking iPod touch 2.0 with WinPwn
It took a while, but I'm finally at it - iPod touch 2.0 now jailbroken for me, using WinPwn.

You'll need:

WinPwn (2.0.0.3 is what I used, since some bugs were apparently fixed)
Your iPod 2.0 restore file (please note that it must be 5A347)
iTunes 7.7
Some patience

Step 1

Open up WinPwn.

Click "Browse .ipsw" and find your original iPod touch 2.0 restore file.

Step 2

Click "IPSW Builder"

You don't really have to do anything here, but you can select "Install Cydia" if you want it.

Step 3

Click "Build .ipsw", save to a location, and wait a while.

Step 4

Once the whole process is complete, click "iPwner" and click OK to the confirmation message.

Step 5

Open up iTunes, and put your iPod into DFU mode.

I tried to do this a few times, but having a counter on hand is best.

Connect iPod to PC
Turn off while connected to PC
Press Sleep/Wake and Home buttons for exactly 10 seconds. Leave iPod connected.
After the 10 seconds, release the Sleep/Wake button. Continue to hold the Home button. Leave iPod connected.
Windows will now see the "new hardware", and iTunes will give a message that it has found an iPod in recovery mode.
Click OK.

Step 6

In iTunes, hold Shift while pressing "Restore".

Find your custom restore file and Restore. And wait for an extremely long time.

Step 7

Court orders spammers to pay US$236M to Iowa ISP

2008-10-10T15:23:00.013-07:00

Couple bombarded ISP over a four-month period, says judge Read More

Apple fanatics have maintained that Apple's operating systems and applications are simply more secure than Microsoft's. Others (myself included) have held the theory that the software is not necessarily more... Read More

What to Call this Post...

2008-10-10T15:23:00.011-07:00

How about Blogging isn't for cowards? Or maybe Linda's other big day off? A funny thing happened on the way home? Playing good samaritan has it's spinoffs?

This is really hard for me to publish, but what the ... Close your eyes, Linda, hold your breath and jump!
Ok, here goes... Oh, yeas, and I have sat on it for nearly a week...

Well, thanks to Our English Lass, who is still in one piece, I have a few Tuesday's off until she becomes Mother and Child. Having just had a week off the Monday-itis was massive yesterday, so I gratefully took her suggestion and had the day off.

Popped off to best friend's house, put in my Avon order. Stunning stuff really, and not worth blogging about, I know.

Came home with a piece of chockie on my tummy, feeling good about the lippies she gave me. Did a u-turn before getting home and went off to see Junior's mate who is about to turn sixteen. Thought I might buy him a pair of shoes for his birthday so he thinks he's got his pressy and gets a bit of a surprise with the rest of it.

Knock on door. Door opens. In walks Linda. Hello D, would you like me to buy you some shoes for your birthday? Oh, you already have new shoes? Excellent. What, that pair down there, next to the pair of shoes that belongs to Junior?

Uh, didn't I drop Junior off at school this morning and wasn't he wearing those shoes?

Junior!!! I call several times... Where is he, D? In your bedroom hiding behind your chest of drawers? Come here you gutless wonder.

D seems to think that last bit is funny. Right about that time I am starting to feel sick. He emerges. Finally. The Emergent Kid.

Put those shoes on. (They could not have been any more obvious if they were painted yellow with flashing signs anouncing Truanter This Way...) Get in the car.

Where are we going, asks Junior. I stop outside hubbie's place of work. In here. We are going to see your father.

Now comes the begging...

Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad... etc etc etc. All in incredible monotone.

Get inside, anounce to Junior - You tell him. I sit down and wait for it...

And of course, the upshot of it is that, yet again, I have to go to the school and enquire as to WHY he is not at school and we have not been informed...

Now, Don't know if I told you this, but the dean in charge of dear darling Junior was going to put him on a principals report. Yesterday, I assumed. Get him some counselling. Plus careers help, so that we can pull him out in Sptember, on his 16th birthday if things don't go well...

Dean not available, see his form overlord. Thingy, whatever he is called. Adviser? Deputy or assistant principal?

Oh, he knew Junior was going onto a principal's report at sometime... No, the normal thing is to wait until a child is away three days in a row before contacting the parents/carers. Oh, really, away seven schooldays in a row last thing last term? And not here yesterday or until now today? Doesn't that make it NINE days? Isn't the advice that he is not there overdue by three times?

Find the head counsellor. That in itself was a miracle in a school this size. We see the counsellor together.

Guess what? We don't look like a happy family... Being sanguine, of course, it is the ultimate insult. Happy? I hate being asked that question. I was happy until you asked me... Strange, I know. And not very condusive to a good chat with the school counsellor. Hmm, my Mum never even got to see my counsellor, so I suppose I am doing well. (Well, what else do you do when your student's Mother turns up with the truant in hand. Apart from sack the paid truancy officer? Wait till I find him...)

So, why should junior stay at school, or even be there in the first place? For the first time in a long while it Is All About Him. He's not going to get a job just on his good looks. Unless.... Nah....

See, I have to push through here. I have been sick to my stomach this morning, I am still reeling and ready to crawl into a hole called mental illness, resign from the noble sisterhood of motherhood, whatever... But in the end, it's all about Junior.

I sit there in front of him and tell his counsellor (who probably hasn't seen all Junior's notes) that he has Asperger's syndrome, ADHD and a few more things to boot. That he didn't learn to read until he was ten years and nine months old, and then he taught himself on footrot flats books... That we have had an uphill battle right from the start. He didn't even talk until he was four, and then there were his muscular problems....

If I don't fight for my child, who will? Like a Paul Coleman song, not good enough for ... not bad enough for... Not good enough to just walk out there and take the world by storm, even if he does stand there and shake his fist at it with his opposition defiance disorder... Not bad enough to get the help he has always needed.

If I don't fight for my child, what will become of him? My heroes are the parents of the young lady with Down's Syndrome who stuck out the fight and saw her achieve her NZqa's or whatever, in a normal school and normal classes. But they were teachers, and knew how to fight.

I have given this school ample opportunity to teach my son, and was determined to make them do it, too, but they had time on their side. All they had to do was sit back and do nothing. And I am the baddy who has failed, who has allowed their son to become a truant, who could make him go to school (haha) but couldn't make him learn. Couldn't make him excited, or at least stop him from getting bored....

Well, the fight isn't over yet, and I am just going to get off my butt and run again. Go to aquarobics in the freezing cold, push my body to the limits, sore back and all. Keep my mental wits about me.

And as a Christian, I can say, to myself if not to you - 'having done all, to stand'. (Ephesians 6:13) Or my favourite - 'Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: For the LORD upholds him with His hand.' (Psalm 37 verse 24, and it's a ripper of a psalm in all it's total. Must go and read it up now. TTFN)

FryUp: second cable is go

2008-10-10T15:23:00.009-07:00

Dow, Dow, down she goes, laying a cable and taking a stand for online justice Read More

Apple fanatics have maintained that Apple's operating systems and applications are simply more secure than Microsoft's. Others (myself included) have held the theory that the software is not necessarily more... Read More

Despite credit crunch, banks advance $1.7 billion to storage vendor Read More

AUT-backed project positions NZ for part in $2.5 billion project Read More

Digg founder Kevin Rose says the social news site has to address niche interests Read More

Revenue forecasts cut for tech bellweathers Read More

Multiple vendor DNS protocol implementations could allow a remote attacker to poison the DNS cache. Patches that resolve the vulnerability on the DNS may be rendered ineffective if the DNS is behind a NAT device that does not randomize ports. Public exploit code was made available on July 24, 2008. At the time of this update, neither X-Force nor IBM MSS has witness any active exploitation nor the integration of this exploit into any exploit toolkits. Read More

Auckland-based Flintfox CEO becomes Kineticsware's Asia Pacific MD Read More

ASB and others roll out new site certifications Read More

ATUG unaware of the label when contacted by Computerworld Read More

Felony charge a bit of a stretch, say lawyers Read More

Microsoft Windows GDI+ Remote Code Execution

2008-10-10T15:23:00.007-07:00

The Microsoft Windows GDI+ API (Gdiplus.dll) is vulnerable to multiple buffer overflows that could result in remote code execution. Read More

I know. You were sitting around thinking that computer security has gotten boring. You were like 'viruses? worms? Trojans?...yawn'. You were thinking that spyware and phishing attacks are so yesterday.... Read More

Microsoft Office is vulnerable to remote code execution through specially-crafted OneNote URLs. Read More

Do you have antivirus software installed? Is it updated? How about antispyware protection? Do you have a personal firewall protecting your PC? Do you have some sort of antiphishing program... Read More

Read More

Multiple Mozilla products are vulnerable to a stack buffer overflow allowing remote code execution by enticing a user to click on a specially-crafted URL. Read More

Apple fanatics have maintained that Apple's operating systems and applications are simply more secure than Microsoft's. Others (myself included) have held the theory that the software is not necessarily more... Read More

IBM reports 20% jump in Q3 net income

2008-10-10T15:23:00.005-07:00

IBM reports 20% jump in Q3 net income
IBM preannounces third-quarter earnings beating analysts' expectations

National Insecurity
"National Security" has been burned indelibly into the vocabulary of average Americans ever since 9/11. Of course, prior to 9/11 we had enemies- even enemies who attacked us. We knew...

Internet Security Solutions Co. Cymphonix Forges Partnerships in ... - TMCnet

2008-10-10T15:23:00.003-07:00

Internet Security Solutions Co. Cymphonix Forges Partnerships in ... - TMCnet

Brocade secures funding for Foundry acquisition
Despite credit crunch, banks advance $1.7 billion to storage vendor

Researchers show how to crack popular smart cards
Researchers publish full details on how to crack the Mifare Classic RFID card

Keep an Eye on Your Kids (or Employees)
I have talked about this in previous posts, but there are certainly varying opinions about the ethics of monitoring computer activity. I think everyone is in complete agreement that companies...

Endace reports 61% sales boost
Kiwi network monitoring technology company delivers mid-year bonus

Wall Street: Tech shares slump to 2003 levels
Revenue forecasts cut for tech bellweathers

IPFX takes Dimensions suite mobile
New version extends reach of Unified Comms package

New Computer Security Threat - ClickJacking
I know. You were sitting around thinking that computer security has gotten boring. You were like 'viruses? worms? Trojans?...yawn'. You were thinking that spyware and phishing attacks are so yesterday....

Cyberbullying: Parents, Tech Companies Join Forces to Keep Kids Safe - FOXNews

Mozilla adds geographic tagging to Firefox
Add-on enables the browser to automatically pinpoint a user's location

Thanks Duncan from Orcon

2008-10-10T15:23:00.001-07:00

What to Call this Post...
How about Blogging isn't for cowards? Or maybe Linda's other big day off? A funny thing happened on the way home? Playing good samaritan has it's spinoffs?

This is really hard for me to publish, but what the ... Close your eyes, Linda, hold your breath and jump!
Ok, here goes... Oh, yeas, and I have sat on it for nearly a week...

Well, thanks to Our English Lass, who is still in one piece, I have a few Tuesday's off until she becomes Mother and Child. Having just had a week off the Monday-itis was massive yesterday, so I gratefully took her suggestion and had the day off.

Popped off to best friend's house, put in my Avon order. Stunning stuff really, and not worth blogging about, I know.

Came home with a piece of chockie on my tummy, feeling good about the lippies she gave me. Did a u-turn before getting home and went off to see Junior's mate who is about to turn sixteen. Thought I might buy him a pair of shoes for his birthday so he thinks he's got his pressy and gets a bit of a surprise with the rest of it.

Knock on door. Door opens. In walks Linda. Hello D, would you like me to buy you some shoes for your birthday? Oh, you already have new shoes? Excellent. What, that pair down there, next to the pair of shoes that belongs to Junior?

Uh, didn't I drop Junior off at school this morning and wasn't he wearing those shoes?

Junior!!! I call several times... Where is he, D? In your bedroom hiding behind your chest of drawers? Come here you gutless wonder.

D seems to think that last bit is funny. Right about that time I am starting to feel sick. He emerges. Finally. The Emergent Kid.

Put those shoes on. (They could not have been any more obvious if they were painted yellow with flashing signs anouncing Truanter This Way...) Get in the car.

Where are we going, asks Junior. I stop outside hubbie's place of work. In here. We are going to see your father.

Now comes the begging...

Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad. Please don't tell Dad... etc etc etc. All in incredible monotone.

Get inside, anounce to Junior - You tell him. I sit down and wait for it...

And of course, the upshot of it is that, yet again, I have to go to the school and enquire as to WHY he is not at school and we have not been informed...

Now, Don't know if I told you this, but the dean in charge of dear darling Junior was going to put him on a principals report. Yesterday, I assumed. Get him some counselling. Plus careers help, so that we can pull him out in Sptember, on his 16th birthday if things don't go well...

Dean not available, see his form overlord. Thingy, whatever he is called. Adviser? Deputy or assistant principal?

Oh, he knew Junior was going onto a principal's report at sometime... No, the normal thing is to wait until a child is away three days in a row before contacting the parents/carers. Oh, really, away seven schooldays in a row last thing last term? And not here yesterday or until now today? Doesn't that make it NINE days? Isn't the advice that he is not there overdue by three times?

Find the head counsellor. That in itself was a miracle in a school this size. We see the counsellor together.

Guess what? We don't look like a happy family... Being sanguine, of course, it is the ultimate insult. Happy? I hate being asked that question. I was happy until you asked me... Strange, I know. And not very condusive to a good chat with the school counsellor. Hmm, my Mum never even got to see my counsellor, so I suppose I am doing well. (Well, what else do you do when your student's Mother turns up with the truant in hand. Apart from sack the paid truancy officer? Wait till I find him...)

So, why should junior stay at school, or even be there in the first place? For the first time in a long while it Is All About Him. He's not going to get a job just on his good looks. Unless.... Nah....

See, I have to push through here. I have been sick to my stomach this morning, I am still reeling and ready to crawl into a hole called mental illness, resign from the noble sisterhood of motherhood, whatever... But in the end, it's all about Junior.

I sit there in front of him and tell his counsellor (who probably hasn't seen all Junior's notes) that he has Asperger's syndrome, ADHD and a few more things to boot. That he didn't learn to read until he was ten years and nine months old, and then he taught himself on footrot flats books... That we have had an uphill battle right from the start. He didn't even talk until he was four, and then there were his muscular problems....

If I don't fight for my child, who will? Like a Paul Coleman song, not good enough for ... not bad enough for... Not good enough to just walk out there and take the world by storm, even if he does stand there and shake his fist at it with his opposition defiance disorder... Not bad enough to get the help he has always needed.

If I don't fight for my child, what will become of him? My heroes are the parents of the young lady with Down's Syndrome who stuck out the fight and saw her achieve her NZqa's or whatever, in a normal school and normal classes. But they were teachers, and knew how to fight.

I have given this school ample opportunity to teach my son, and was determined to make them do it, too, but they had time on their side. All they had to do was sit back and do nothing. And I am the baddy who has failed, who has allowed their son to become a truant, who could make him go to school (haha) but couldn't make him learn. Couldn't make him excited, or at least stop him from getting bored....

Well, the fight isn't over yet, and I am just going to get off my butt and run again. Go to aquarobics in the freezing cold, push my body to the limits, sore back and all. Keep my mental wits about me.

And as a Christian, I can say, to myself if not to you - 'having done all, to stand'. (Ephesians 6:13) Or my favourite - 'Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: For the LORD upholds him with His hand.' (Psalm 37 verse 24, and it's a ripper of a psalm in all it's total. Must go and read it up now. TTFN)

Windows Mobile Roadmap session at Tech Ed New Zealand 2008
I have just received the confirmation I will be running the Windows Mobile Roadmap session (UNC117) at Tech Ed New Zealand 2008.

At this stage I don't know the exact date/time but it's all go.

See you there!

... (more in the full post)

The Future of Telecommunications - Some Thoughts

2008-10-09T11:55:00.011-07:00

The Future of Telecommunications - Some Thoughts

“Different methods of communication and of identifying users on communication networks will become irrelevant. I use many different methods of electronic communication, including a home phone, a mobile phone, e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, online forums and social networking sites and so on. Why should I have to distinguish between these forms of communication and they way they identify their users – why should I have to have an e-mail address, several phone numbers, several usernames of different services – why can users not just have a single user name or number which can be used to reach them however you like? Why should I have to use multiple devices such as a home phone, a cell phone, a computer and a laptop to communicate – why not have one device that can utilise all methods of communication but that comes in many different shapes and sizes – something desk-sized like a computer, something portable and then something pocket-sized. We need to take the focus out of the “how” and turn it more to the “who” and “what” of communications.”

From the section on the future of telecommunications from my thesis (of sorts). Thoughs/feedback welcome/requested

New laptop - Compaq Presario V3500
19 July 2008, Harvey Norman had a huge sale on, I cant remember exactly what it was called but it had '12 hour marathon' in the name. Anyway, I ended up buying a new laptop! Compaq Presario V3500 with Windows Vista Home Premium, I don't care what anyone has to say about Compaq I absolutely love this laptop. Considering my previous laptop was a Dell Inspiron 2200 anything reasonably up-to-date would have been sufficient.. One or two more usb ports would have been nice and maybe even bluetooth connectivity but apart from that it does everything I need and does it well. I especially like the button above the touchpad which enables me to lock it.

If anyone is looking for a really nice laptop under $1300 I would recommend the Presario V3500.

Geekzone Jobs: search and forums

2008-10-09T11:55:00.009-07:00

Geekzone Jobs: search and forums
A few months ago I created a Jobs forum on Geekzone to allow for some of our readers to exchange job information, post requests for specific skills, etc.

Of course it's no competition for the big job sites around, but it seems to be working ok for our community. We do have some of the job agencies posting some ads there - and why wouldn't they, it's free!

Anyway, after talking to the guys at JobX, New Zealand's newest site for job search, we decided to add a Job Search to Geekzone.

Retailers stung by credit card fraud
There is a new form of credit card fraud going around New Zealand. It involves customers using fraudulent cards made overseas that either, not linked to a bank account or the bank does not exist at all. They have been hitting retailers throughout New Zealand. Their modus operandi is to be friendly, chatty, well dressed as well as talking on a cellphone. Primarily they are of Asian decent, and use credit cards link to Asian banks.

Unleash your Vodafone iPhone
We all know the Vodafone iPhone is not SIM or network locked. You can purchase the handset outright, paying full price and just use it with a prepay SIM card or any other network's SIM card.

We also know that because of its current APN configuration it will only have voice and SMS on prepay. The current APN configured in the iPhone is not "visible" to prepay accounts.

But there's a very legal way around this. You can change the configuration on your iPhone by visiting UnlockIt - APN changer for iPhone.

The author LennonNZ has posted some UnlockIt statistics in our forums.

So many people benefited from it, and so little was paid back. I recommend you make a donation if you use the site to "unlock" your Vodafone iPhone.

I've had it up to there with Orcon
You can read the rest of my story on my WordPress blog, but the service these guys have given me is unbelievable, BAD that is.

This is my status for today for the rest follow my link below.

So off to another department and another woman who advised me that they were still waiting for a technician to advise the date when someone would do a port change!

But we have no idea when our home phone line wll be reconnected.

Companies reinventing themselves: I am not sure I laugh or cry on this one...
Wow... Talk about a complete reinvention. I just read this press release and I can only think what a waste of investors' money from the start.

I am talking about Foldera, a company which started as a "developer of web-based organization and collaboration software" and now decided their market is really selling network switches.

I see this as an example of where all this "web-based" craze is going if people keep investing in good ideas with short sighted implementations. Too much money being thrown into companies with no vision, or trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist - or doing it in the wrong way.

I am posting this because I think it's relevant to a topic Ben posted today on "web 2.0 and monetisation".

Want more "fail"? Their new web-site, linked from the press release doesn't even exist yet:

Here is part of the press release to inspire you more confidence on "web 2.0" business:

SANTA ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foldera, Inc. (OTCBB: FDRA), today unveiled the Company’s new strategy, management team, market thrust, name and capital structure by issuing the following letter to shareholders.

Dear Shareholder:
We are pleased to announce that Foldera has now successfully transitioned itself from being a developer of web-based organization and collaboration software. We have searched to find the right market, management team and product with which to take the Company forward and we would like to take this opportunity to outline the Company’s future plans.

New Strategic Direction
The Company’s principal market moving forward is with the core network infrastructure of the telephone companies, cable operators and wireless suppliers. The Company has recruited a new management team with a wealth of telecom infrastructure experience and who have already independently completed much of the software development for a High Speed, High Density Carrier Grade Ethernet Switch that will be the Company’s initial product launch. Along with our product development partners, we are continuing to develop the software and hardware in a closely integrated program that will result in timely implementation of the system using components that will exceed all carrier and prospective customer requirements.

There are other players attempting to enter these markets. Cisco Systems (CSCO), Juniper (JNPR), Force10, Alcatel-Lucent (ALA), Huawei, World Wide Packets and Foundry Networks (FDRY) clearly have well-established brand names and large customer bases. However, they also have legacy technologies and cannot re-launch into new markets with products that must be redesigned/re-architected and which would cannibalize their existing product lines. We will compete in the high density, carrier grade 10 Gigabit switch market with a switch that is both extensible and affordably scalable. This will present a ‘new standard’ in the market and the Company will be a ‘first mover’ in this segment.

The Company’s new technology will transform the Ethernet Switching market segment by developing and selling dramatically more cost-effective, scalable solutions for High Speed Ethernet switching with the industry’s first 288 10 Gigabit port Ethernet switch as our initial product launch at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas in April 2009.

Corporate Name Change
As is appropriate with this major change in the Company’s direction, we have decided to change the name of the business to CeCors, Inc., an acronym for Carrier Ethernet Core Switch and pronounced ‘SeaCores.’ This will become effective in the coming weeks as the Company’s legal name, registrations, trading symbol and marketing materials are changed.

Expanding Management Expertise
The CeCors executive team brings 100+ years of combined management experience in IT and communications technology, manufacturing, sales and marketing. The team has worked together and successfully led a number of liquidity events, such as mergers and acquisitions, as well as IPO’s.

As of July 18, 2008, Jim Fiedler, an experienced and respected leader in the telecom industry, with vast experience in running early and mid-stage telecom networking and services companies, has become Chairman, President and CEO of CeCors. His experience and contacts within the industry will provide exceptional leadership into the future.

Excuse me while I laugh here. Seriously, I think Ben Kepes should look into this and analyse it further because he's the SaaS guy.

The Windows Mojave experiment results
Yesterday I posted about Microsoft Windows Mojave, an experiement in perception.

A set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista during the Mojave Experiment. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave", a new operating system that impressed everyone.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I have just found out the full "Mojave Experiment" results will be available 29th July on The Mojave Experiment website.

The Dark Knight: Batman remodeled.
I took the opportunity to see "The Dark Knight" on saturday night, (in Reading Cinemas Gold Lounge)

and I have to admit, the hype is not totally misplaced, it is a stunning movie,

Heath Ledger truly played the part to a legendary level, the gadgets again are fantastic,

the sheer grittyness that was brough about made it all the more real, rather than having a fantastical approach, it gave it a realisticness lacking in many hero movies.

I'd love to write more but I'd hate to spoil it,

I think this movie will go down as a definite movie to watch.

SBS 2008 RC1 and EBS 2008 RC1 finalised (updated with all download links)
Last Friday, Microsoft finalised the code for the RC 1 (Release Candidate 1) prerelease versions of both Windows Small Business Server 2008, and Windows Essential Business Server 2008. See below for download links.

Rumour has it that organis... (more in the full post)

US-based Kineticsware acquires Flintfox

2008-10-09T11:55:00.007-07:00

US-based Kineticsware acquires Flintfox
Auckland-based Flintfox CEO becomes Kineticsware's Asia Pacific MD

Windows Mobile Roadmap session at Tech Ed New Zealand 2008
I have just received the confirmation I will be running the Windows Mobile Roadmap session (UNC117) at Tech Ed New Zealand 2008.

At this stage I don't know the exact date/time but it's all go.

See you there!

... (more in the full post)

Mozilla adds geographic tagging to Firefox
Add-on enables the browser to automatically pinpoint a user's location

Auckland Uni showcases innovation
Robotics, wireless and power technologies to be displayed

The Truth in Advertising
Some bits sound like meetings I attended... Other bits sound like exactly what I expect "Big Telco" would be talking when creating a campaign for their new JesusPhone offering...

Warning: some heavy NSFW language. But worth watching the whole thing.

NZ SaaS providers welcome Chrome as 'game changer'
Operating systems not necessary anymore, says SaaS analyst

Apple doesn't need Jobs, analyst says
There's a stable management team in place, and they know what they're doing, says analyst

Oracle and SAP fail to settle TomorrowNow lawsuit
Two sides squabbling over Oracle's access to certain documents

Google's Knol online encyclopedia launches debate forum
Adding debates to the Knol site is a good business move by Google, says blogger

What makes life? (Kinstens Interpretation)
Is it a rose that opens in the morning light?
A new leaf upon each twig, that grew from humble beginnings?

The branch that broke will turn into the scar for life.The scar of emotion runs deep within us all, this injures everyone slowly but surely. Until the only way out of your own emotion turns to destruction. Destruction turns to chaos. Chaos turns to the way the world is operating at present with only a small amount of reason and intelligent thought.

Don’t believe everything that you see,
Because seeing isn’t believing,
Feeling is.

If I was to die today,
Would I be remembered tomorrow?

Would life go on without me?
Or does someone else’s existence end with mine?

If truth is letting people know the details of something real,
Does that mean reality is a truth only known to you?
Or is truth and reality far more complicated than that?
You could believe anything that someone tells you,
Or decide to think they are lying.
Either way your own decision is what you choose to believe.
Which in turn makes reality your own creation of thoughts comprised of facts given by not only yourself, but other people as well. How these facts are interpreted depends on the translator. You!

If something is too difficult, would you try your best to solve it, or simply give in and let someone else figure it out.

Thought, emotion, truth, justice, wisdom, creation, intellect, visualisation, hands on experience.
Does everything come down to what the individual is capable of, or rather what the individual is willing to accomplish.

You have to experience happiness to know sadness. You have to experience love to know hate. If there is one thing that lives alone in this world, without needing to relate to another. Show me this thing, for it will be a beautiful thing indeed.

To fly is to fall,
To swim is to run,
To walk is to crawl,
To speak is to be silent,
To create is to imitate,
To build is to destroy,
To make peace is to make war!

Everything exists for a reason, and there is always balance. When there is too much of one thing there has to be an equal amount of the other to compensate for the balance lost with the first.

Begin your day with birds in mind,
Never let the dawn show its face,
You will crawl upon any road given to you,
And you will find the path that suits you.

Am I going insane or is it just a figment of my imagination. If I was going insane, would I be trying to figure it out, or would I just ignore it and let things happen as they do. Because when thoughts take over my life, I feel responsible for all the thoughts that are approaching my life.
Never get too involved.
Never hold a grudge.
Never begin something if you do not intend to finish it.

The Dark Knight: Batman remodeled.

2008-10-09T11:55:00.005-07:00

So what is this MythTV anyway?
OK so I have already talked here about why I prefer mythtv to MediaPortal, it’s not an exhaustive list but I think it makes a pretty compelling argument for Mythtv. However what makes an even stronger compelling argument for MP is its support for NZ's DVB-T broadcasts, and hence I use it. The latest from the mythtvnz mailing list is that Freeview HD is now working well in myth with the patches from pkendall, so hopefully it is just a case of getting the updates to ffmpeg etc into the main mythtv 'trunk' (is that what it called?) and we will be away!

Anyway I should get to the point of this post. I want to list a couple tips I picked up for improving mythtv here, as I alluded to earlier, myth does require more work than MP or GBPVR but it’s worth it:

1) Adding FM radio. I have no idea why this isn't included by default, it can't be hard and all other major HTPC programs have it. To get it in myth requires a bit of a hack, the setup instructions are here. As they note on the wiki page, it is a hack but looks like a plug-in in the end. It doesn't perform like a plug-in (in terms of sharing the card with recording etc) but it is good enough. Also this page gives an idea to the sort of changes to the menu structure that could be made if so desired.

2) By default myth only allows one job (such as commflagging, or a user job such as a special transcode) at a time. Assuming you are running a somewhat modern processor you can get away with a lot more, especially if you have a dual core. Under the 'general' settings in mythbackend setup, change the max number jobs to say 3 or 4. Also set mythcommflag to begin at the start of the show rather than wait until it has finished.

3) Make sure you enable plugins such as mythmusic, mythvideo and mythweb. If you are using Mythbuntu the Mythbuntu Control Center is the easiest way to change these settings. Mythweb in particular is great, and if you can successfully enable access through your router you can check out your computers status, and create recordings even when you are way from home.

That’s all can think of for now, but there are plenty of other settings worth investigating by hunting through the menus. There are some other good features that I never managed to fully implement, such as http://mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mythwelcome and automatic sleep/wakeup.

Next I will spill my thoughts on Media Portal, and the improvements made now we are at RC2.

Microsoft Windows Media Encoder Wmex.dll ActiveX Control Remote Code Execution
The Microsoft Windows Media Encoder wmex.dll ActiveX control is vulnerable to a buffer overflowthat could result in remote code execution.

Intelligent Assistance for Desktop User Tasks. Google Video.
I have been watching this a few times as so much of it makes scene. I like how he displays a learning system, that with time/more samples it get better. I found this inspiring in regards to some concepts I have been learning, regarding the design of expert systems for (tag cloud)/categorisation development of forums.

Another DRM infested music store closes - music becomes worthless
Back in April I wrote about Microsoft's music store closing, thus rendering any music purchased from that store worthless. Why? The music is DRM infested, and thus will stop playing after they switch off their servers that are needed for license veri... (more in the full post)

'A battle for the future integrity of the internet is under way' - Public Servant Online

2008-10-09T11:55:00.003-07:00

Read More

I have talked about this in previous posts, but there are certainly varying opinions about the ethics of monitoring computer activity. I think everyone is in complete agreement that companies... Read More

In the wake of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account being compromised by hackers last week, Yahoo's VP of Mail, John Kremer, wrote a brief article highlighting... Read More

Do you have antivirus software installed? Is it updated? How about antispyware protection? Do you have a personal firewall protecting your PC? Do you have some sort of antiphishing program... Read More

The Microsoft Windows Media Encoder wmex.dll ActiveX control is vulnerable to a buffer overflowthat could result in remote code execution. Read More

Read More

Multiple vendor DNS protocol implementations could allow a remote attacker to poison the DNS cache. Patches that resolve the vulnerability on the DNS may be rendered ineffective if the DNS is behind a NAT device that does not randomize ports. Public exploit code was made available on July 24, 2008. At the time of this update, neither X-Force nor IBM MSS has witness any active exploitation nor the integration of this exploit into any exploit toolkits. Read More

The Microsoft Windows GDI+ API (Gdiplus.dll) is vulnerable to multiple buffer overflows that could result in remote code execution. Read More

Read More

I've had it up to there with Orcon

2008-10-09T11:55:00.001-07:00

You can read the rest of my story on my WordPress blog, but the service these guys have given me is unbelievable, BAD that is.

This is my status for today for the rest follow my link below.

So off to another department and another woman who advised me that they were still waiting for a technician to advise the date when someone would do a port change!

But we have no idea when our home phone line wll be reconnected.

Read More

Microsoft Office is vulnerable to remote code execution through specially-crafted OneNote URLs. Read More

Read More

Ingredients:

1x E4800 2.4GHz C2D workstation w/4GB RAM, 250GB HDD ~$1000NZD (It does some other tasks too)

2x Logitech Z2300 THX Cert 400w RMS 2.1 speakers ~$200NZDea (Director + IT Guy)

1x Logitech Z4 2.1 ~$70NZD (Reception)

1x ... (more in the full post)

Read More

Last Friday, Microsoft finalised the code for the RC 1 (Release Candidate 1) prerelease versions of both Windows Small Business Server 2008, and Windows Essential Business Server 2008. See below for download links.

Rumour has it that organis... (more in the full post)

Read More

Read More

Multiple Mozilla products are vulnerable to a stack buffer overflow allowing remote code execution by enticing a user to click on a specially-crafted URL. Read More

Isn't competition in the mobile marketplace fantastic? It's a concept that unfortunately New Zealanders are missing out on due to the cosy duopoly that exists between our two mobile providers - Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone.

Optus have just launched unlimited "timeless" mobile plans into the Australian marketplace. For A$99 per month you get unlimited calling to other mobiles and landline phones in Australia as well as unlimited SMS and MMS messages. This $99 pack however isn't quite $99 - it requires the purchase of a A$14.95 mobile pack that gives you 200MB of included data.

For A$129 however you receive unlimited calling, SMS and MMS along with 2GB of data.

Now compare that to what you're paying in NZ. Competition really is a great thing.

Read More

Read More

How well companies that offer something for "free" can do with a subscription option?

When there are so many "free" things on the web, one has to wonder how companies can keep their products up and running (or even if they can manage to get out of beta).

Some companies just don't. They close the service and tell the customers to get out of here:

Personal Media: Bluestring, Xdrive and AOL Pictures will be sunset. These consumer storage products haven't gained sufficient traction in the marketplace or the monetization levels necessary to offset the high cost of their operation. We have found that building media management applications within the context of a social experience is a more rapid and effective way to grow the business. For example, today the Bebo audience is uploading over three million photos per day. To effectively grow the XDrive online storage business we would need to focus on subscription revenues vs. monetizing through advertising revenue, and this business model is not in strategic alignment with our company's goals. We are exploring plans to migrate our users assets to ensure the best possible transition experience.

Auckland Uni showcases innovation

2008-10-09T11:54:00.003-07:00

Robotics, wireless and power technologies to be displayed Read More

NEC's Multi Service Access Node (MSAN) product used for local loop unbundling push Read More

On the downside, boot-time for the machine is horrendously long Read More

Two sides squabbling over Oracle's access to certain documents Read More

internet kaspersky security

Security Software Performs Poorly in Exploit Test - PC World

Vodafone Broadband Bandwidth meter: Total crap

Bandwidth issue 2008-07-25 11:32:57

Technology activist Lessig to focus on creativity

Survey shows archiving challenges users

E-tales: Nerds get more sex - potentially

Microsoft woos developers under the Silverlight

Forum: Banks back regional smart card projects

SBS 2008 RC1 and EBS 2008 RC1 finalised (updated with all download links)

Checking your mobile data usage online is not easy

Microsoft Windows Mojave

National Insecurity

Three ways of looking at storage virtualisation

Ministry says no as school opts for free software

iovation to Speak at ETRE 2008 - MarketWatch

Student benifits!

Linux powered mini-machines for Macs - iTWire

Microsoft wants to fire your receptionist, are you and I next?

Mobile Me - Or is it?

Apple releases another mega-patch for Mac OS X

Mobile Me - Or is it?

HP invites to Software Business Technology Optmisation Tour in Wellington

Trend Micro 2009 Suites Launched - TrustedReviews

Apple releases another mega-patch for Mac OS X

E-tales: Nerds get more sex - potentially

Do You Know How (In)Secure Your Are?

SBS 2008 RC1 and EBS 2008 RC1 finalised (updated with all download links)

Microsoft Windows Mojave

Palin hacking charge flawed, lawyers say

Google blacklists ATUG website

Symantec Has Its Head In The Cloud - Forbes

HP invites to Software Business Technology Optmisation Tour in Wellington

Thanks Duncan from Orcon

Court orders spammers to pay US$236M to Iowa ISP

What to Call this Post...

FryUp: second cable is go

Microsoft Windows GDI+ Remote Code Execution

IBM reports 20% jump in Q3 net income

Internet Security Solutions Co. Cymphonix Forges Partnerships in ... - TMCnet

Thanks Duncan from Orcon

The Future of Telecommunications - Some Thoughts

Geekzone Jobs: search and forums

US-based Kineticsware acquires Flintfox

The Dark Knight: Batman remodeled.

'A battle for the future integrity of the internet is under way' - Public Servant Online

I've had it up to there with Orcon

Auckland Uni showcases innovation