Thursday, April 19, 2001

James Monroe .plan Update -- 4:51 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Raven's James Monroe updated his .plan with a list of the fixes he is trying to get into the HoloMatch patch for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force.

Pondering the Imponderable -- 3:21 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Well, if I wasn't before, I am definitely now a certifiable geek. I just got done downloading Red Hat Linux 7.1 and burning it to CDs. I feel like I've just gone through some rite of passage. I will also have to check if any birds were fried from flying between my wireless Internet antenna and EZ-Net's.

Audiogalaxy Satellite Installs Spyware -- 2:34 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I upgraded my version of Audiogalaxy's Satellite to download some MP3s of songs I have on tape that are no longer playable. With that new version came webHancer, a spyware program. Nowhere on Audiogalaxy's download page, nor on the page a Download.com from which I got it, is webHancer mentioned. It is in the fine print on the installation wizard though, including this rather ominous comment:

In consideration of the foregoing license from WEBHANCER to you, you grant to WEBHANCER the perpetual, unrestricted right to record and use your web surfing performance metrics, in whole or in part, in any form or format.

That comment comes after the part where they mention that any future "upgrades" of the software fall under those terms. I only discovered it because I found it in my task list. Fortunately, it was relatively easy to uninstall. Audiogalaxy must be desperate for cash.

IPTABLES Exploit -- 10:54 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

A vulnerability has been found in Linux kernel 2.4's IPTABLE firewall. Bugtraq has all the details and a patch to fix it. Basically you don't need to be concerned unless the firewall is protecting an FTP server. This shows open source's main strength, IMO: bugs are quickly identified and quickly patched. Thanks Slashdot.

Mandrake 8 Released -- 9:48 am CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

If you're a Mandrake fan, today's a big day: Mandrake 8.0 is here! Looks like it has lots of cool new stuff.

A.T. Hun comments: Mandrake goes for the version number bloat :) I'm just getting done downloading Red Hat 7.1, the first distribution I've ever personally downloaded and burned. I'm switching back from Mandrake because I felt a lot of their Drake-whatever configuration utilities never seemed to work quite right (especially not MenuDrake) and I could never get printing to work satisfactorily. Having said that, Mandrake is very easy to use and provides the extra hand-holding that newbie users would like.

Wednesday, April 18, 2001

Too Many Choices Or No Choice At All -- 11:26 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

ZDNet's Evan Leibovitch ponders which is better, having too many choices or no choice at all. Linux tries to provide support and drivers for everything, Windows tried to tell you what you want (as shown by WinXP's lack of USB 2.0 and Bluetooth support). I prefer to make my own decisions, but I also know human nature. People really don't want freedom of choice, they want freedom from choice (as the Devo song so succinctly put it). Plus the article mentions Powdered Toast Man, so it's all good.

I saw this article on the ZDNet To Go AvantGo channel.

Can We Trust M$? -- 10:22 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Interactive Week asks the musical question: Can we trust Microsoft with our data? The .Net initiative requires users to trust M$ with our most personal and sensitive data. Given their recent security "issues", dare we trust them?

Actually I would argue a slightly different way: Do we really need .Net? I don't think we do. It's an answer to a question no one is asking.

J.t.Qbe comments: I had some comments on this, but I take 'em back and simply say this: read this article. Go. Now. Read it and think seriously about whether you trust Microsoft with your most sensitive data. I think it's telling that even traditional Microsoft cheerleaders like Gartner are questioning this one.

Simpson on SoF 2 -- 10:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Raven's Jake Simpson updated his .plan with a couple nuggets of news about Soldier of Fortune 2, including the difference between the Ghoul system in SoF and SoF 2.

Past Two Days' News

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