Thoughts and links from the crew of the On Computers Radio Show as we wander the Web.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Storm Worm Botnet More Powerful Than Top Supercomputers -- Botnets and other MS news
That's the latest word from security researchers who are tracking the burgeoning network of Microsoft(MSFT) Windows machines that have been compromised by the virulent Storm worm, which has pounded the Internet non-stop for the past three months. Despite the wide ranging estimates as to the size of the botnet, researchers tend to agree that it's one of the largest zombie grids they've ever seen -- one capable of doing great damage.
"In terms of power, [the botnet] utterly blows the supercomputers away," said Matt Sergeant, chief anti-spam technologist with MessageLabs, in an interview. "If you add up all 500 of the top supercomputers, it blows them all away with just 2 million of its machines. It's very frightening that criminals have access to that much computing power, but there's not much we can do about it."
Storm Worm Botnet More Powerful Than Top Supercomputers -- Botnets -- InformationWeek
And next weeks windows updates from the Microsoft Security Response Center 1 critical, and 3 important updates.
--MissM
It's Official: Apple is the New Microsoft
Then there is Jeff Smykil's take over at Ars Technica, titled; "A Brief History of Ugly: Apple in the last 10 years".
I guess the point is that Apple, which proudly points to it's fan base, while stiffing them badly at times, though not every, opportunity. From what I have been hearing over the last few days, they are in danger of losing their core community of fans. Not necessarily over the iPhone pricing debacle, but over their little actions toward users over a period of time.
Enjoy,
Jack
Friday, September 07, 2007
YouTube - Video: RSS in Plain English
I'd also suggest Newshutch as a good feed reader.
--MissM
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Zombie Pfizer Computers Spew Viagra Spam
I hope the public embarrassment is enough to push their network people into action, but somehow I doubt it will happen.
Jack
Voyager at 30: Looking Beyond and Within
Jack
Apple OX an open book with hack
Apple will fix it. Probably very quickly, too. In the mean time, make sure your kids don't execute this and you're on easy street. I don't know what to tell those running Apple's XServe on servers, but that's a whole nother class of problem and those admins probably don't need my input.
Jack
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett missing in Nevada
Palm Dumps Foleo Ultraportable Computer
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Custom-built botnet steals eBay accounts
Anyway; watch out. If you are forced to use eBay and PayPal in the next few days, make sure there is nothing unseemly in the appearance of the transaction. Jayna and I are sitting things out and won't go back into commerce using these facilities until things are more in hand. That might be something for you to consider, as well.
Jack
Does Quad Core Matter?
As the show cast has pointed out several times, we are now at a stage where we can routinely purchase more computing power than we will ever need, much less use. The manufacturers would love it if we kept buying more and more power, but in truth, somewhere along the way they are going to have to make gains in efficiency and ease of use because none of us will actually need the scale of basic power available. I actually look forward to that situation.
Anyway, here's the first salvo in what will surely be a nearly unending discussion. It's worth your time.
Jack
Coming soon: hard drives with 1GB+ DDR RAM cache
Anyway; here's a decent hard drive with a GIG of RAM for cache. Not just memory, either, but DDR2. It's bound to fly. The article is detailed enough to whet your appetite. It sure did mine. Welcome to the new age of storage.
Jack
Monday, September 03, 2007
Packard Bell releases mini UMPC
No pricing as yet, but it looks as if it could be very affordable and, frankly, I want one. I wonder if I can con someone out of one to test?
Jack
How Not to Catch on Fire
Sunday, September 02, 2007
OnComputers Radio show Podcast 09-02-07
A bug and a hardware virus on MacBooks?!?!?!
Catastrophic MagSafe Failure on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
A real Mac bug [h/t John Gruber], and I was reminded of this post [no idea how I saw this one, though I tried!] about a hardware virus on a mac at google. Enjoy!
Oh yeah, Woot has a $99 20GB iPod (4th Gen) from HP (refurb). Just in case anybody was interested, though there's a big announcement from Apple on the 5th which probably includes new iPods.
--MissM
Links from the Gregg Zone!
1) Okay, here we go to start things off this week a disclaimer is in order, when I started this blog, and show interview, at Joe’s request I agreed to try to keep my “stuff” under some control. At least in regards to politics, religion, and other material which some listeners might have difficulty with, however some of these things comprise my main interests. So please, if you find these subjects disturbing just ignore this weeks posting. Someone died recently, most but not all of you probably have never ever heard of this man, Aaron Russo he was very much like Michael Moore, in that he made very controversial films. The one linked here has evidentially been put up and pulled more than once according to the email I have received, so if you are inclined you should probably watch it soon, it was up as of this writing, Saturday September 1, 2007 around 11:30 P.M. The metaphors that come to mind are, where there is smoke there may be fire, ignorance is bliss, and you have no one to blame but yourself. Please be aware that if you are comfortable, think everything is okay, and the bogeyman does not exist, do not watch this. http://video.google.com/
2) Now if you did watch the Aaron Russo film, and are looking for a place to hide I have the perfect site for you. This is the best I have found for the survivalist type real estate searcher. Want to buy a home that is not only hurricane, and tornado proof, but will sustain a nuclear blast ten times the one at Hiroshima, worried about crazy neighbors, well, you just close the ten-ton blast doors and your worries are over. Even with their best cutting torches, and a few sticks of dynamite they will not get in. You will be safe with your ten thousand gallon stainless steel drinking water tank, wells going directly into the aquifer, and a sewage system set up to handle over one hundred people. Surprisingly affordable, one even comes with its own aircraft runway; yes, you can own your own personal government missile silo. Just think a home built for 18 million dollars, that is 1958 dollars, or a zillion of today’s dollars for just a few hundred thousand bucks you can own one, check it out. http://www.missilebases.com/
3) Okay you found all that stuff a little heavy, and you say “hey he has not done anything Art Bell related in a while”, okay here you go how about Art doing a commercial for aluminum foil on youtube, short, but you must admit it fits this post http://www.youtube.com
4) Now back to doom and gloom, this time I an going to just link the google search page, you can pick and choose on your own ending of the world as we know it, I have to admit every time I watch the news lately this seems to be in my face. http://www.google.com Sorry if there seems to be a trend here this week, you can blame it on Tony, I bought the beer, but he added the catalyst, it is late, and I’m moody, best I can do for an apology at the moment.
5) Well it's morning now and I feel much better, ran across this site I was going to put up but forgot about. This is a contest for kids grades k-12, and college students. They can win a Mac. or an ipod by creating a short video 2 min. or less on internet reliability. The contest is offered by World Book, and is aimed at how people doing research on the net can judge and evaluate the information they find at a site on the internet. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com