Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Another reason to avoid Microsoft Windows

Read:

In short, Microsoft created a thumbdrive device for law enforcement agents to use to gain access to Windows on machines while bypassing Windows securities.

Firstly, it's a total violation of trust of Microsoft products because such down right dirty things can be done by Microsoft and not just this time but many times. It also violates human rights and rights of protecting personal data. So any law enforcement or any one with that wild card , even Microsoft themself , can go round without trouble getting pass Windows defenses.... and look at people's stuff.

Imagine what happen if one of these wild cards got slipped away or stolen, then cracked and made into some distributed softwares and attackers would have another victory card in their hand.

What happened if countries and government computers running Windows become hacked because of this wild card ? Imagine someone getting hold of a lost government laptop running Windows or maybe gain entry into some government compound secretly or through trickery and managd to plug one of these wild cards in and copy secretive and highly confidential data ? What happened if this happened to some country's defense department running Windows and this wild card somehow found it's way into a disgrunted employee or someone managed to intrude into the building and gained illegal access to defense materials ?

There are many possibilities of anything that can go wrong with this wild card and the above is but a few.

What happened if foreign spies and espionage agents use the wild card to intrude into some other governments ? It may trigger some war or political disaster ?

What happened if the content of this wild card is made into a software and can be used on remote login systems or some virtualized machines allowing remote access ?

So from the above, any government agenices and civilians or companies, should not use Microsoft Windows if they fear their data confidentiality , intergrity and safety.

What a lowly thing Microsoft really could do by creating such lowly products.

I think people should by now have seen so much of the ugly side of Microsoft !

What a shame !

What a low life !

Monday, April 28, 2008

What Linux GUI should do for the dummy

Linux desktop's GUI have been improving tremendously but it has some weak spots.

Read: http://contentconsumer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/is-ubuntu-useable-enough-for-my-girlfriend/

The GUI , especially for desktop versions, should be created with user in mind ... not just for a user who knows Linux in mind, but also for a complete dummy who just migrated over from Windows. By doing so, it would allow the dummy user to easily navigate and use the Linux desktop with as little trouble as possible.

I think most users do not really expect heavy special effects like what Mac and Windows Vista tries to present. Linux could still stick to it's simplistic and clear UI with not much special effects, but also brings comfort and ease of understandably and use.

If I were to choose between special effects and comfort, I would rather take comfort.

I too had my fair share of troubles while using Linux (Fedora 8) because of the desktop made in a way that they expect the user to have a bit of Linux experience and skills. Over the time, I picked up some basic Linux skills and I am off... but thinking back of the days when I just started using Linux (Fedora Core 4... I guess... I have forgotten the version) , although the desktop was rather usable, I was at a certain degree of lost too.

Comparing past Linux GUI to current Linux GUI, it has gotten better... but it should have gotten far better if it did some UAT (User Acceptance Testing) with some noobs before releasing. I guess Mac and Win might have done some UAT privately before releasing theirs ?

This comment about GUI doesn't just apply for Linux, it applies for all software development. Ensure that your software, if developed for the general public, are made simple so dummies and noobs wouldn't complain much or give an excuse of not using... and ensure that you have got a couple of UAT done before making any Alpha , Beta , Preview , Stable ...etc.. releases.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Good BotNet vs Bad BotNet ?

Read: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn13753-to-defeat-a-malicious-botnet-build-a-friendly-one.html

It's a rather stupid thing to say this thing is good and that thing is bad. This is good BotNet to counter and protect and shield and that is evil BotNet to manipulate, spam , DDoS ...etc. The notion of good and evil is the weakness of human's mind that likes to create conceptions for their brains to try and understand and comprehend the uncomprehensible...

A blade , like a BotNet, is neither good or evil. It depends on how you use the blade and a blade used for good can be corrupted for bad. You can use a blade to cut up your veg and meat for preparing your meals but the blade can be used to stab you and injure you.

The good BotNet, is just simply some BotNet same as the evil BotNet, use for a different purpose and things can be corrupted easily.

What happened if the evil BotNet could hack into and take over good BotNet ? It would exponentially boost the strenght of the supposed evil and the hacker may allow the good BotNet to act as if it were listening to orders while underneath, getting the corrupted BotNet to do nasty stuff like introducing viruses, trojans , DDoS ...etc ...

BotNets are simply just softwares made for distributed network environment and nothing else.... the use of it... even if the BotNet is equipped with tools for hacking , spamming and DDoS, can be used for good purposes like diagnostics in real time testing ...etc.

The concept of duality (good and evil), is just the limited perception of the nature and working of the world. Things are simply as they are...neither good not evil... What is really good or evil is the perception of the individual and it's use and notions...

Monday, April 21, 2008

Biofuel

Biofuel is a potential solution to the world's oil crisis with prices for a barrel of oil shooting sky wards and increasing with very few decrease in oil prices in the record of oil prices history for modern civilisation. The monopoly of oil is a particularly lucrative business where you can squeeze dry pockets... especially making poor people poorer since oil is needed for many things in daily needs like vehicles, power plant ...etc. I personally see the monopoly and misuse of the power of monopoly of oil and it's prices as a form of tyranny... but anyway, back to the main topic on biofuel.

Biofuel is cleaner than conventional fuel as everyone knows. But the negative side of biofuel is undeniable and not excusable too.

More lands have been clearer to plant crops for biofuel and crops yielded have been focused on making biofuel, rather than on feeding the world's hungry population ... thus similar to conventional fuel, as bad as always.

The current food crisis is because of the diversion of huge amount of crops and lands to the creation of plant based biofuel. Imagine the amount of trees you have to cut down just for something clean ?

The equation doesn't add up !

If you really want to be green, then why do you need to destroy trees and habitats of the wild just for biofuel ? Why ?

By giving up huge pieces of nature just to produce biofuel, it's no better than falling more timbers and producing more green house gases and the cutting down of trees which could be used to convert greenhouse gases !

Look at the current food crisis... people are taking such a chance to jack up their food prices drastically. What a pathetic bunch of species called humans... always living such a low life !

Governments should have rules and controls passed to regulate the crops used for biofuel and the crops for exporting and feeding the people. Fair rules have to be passed, researched to be done, to right the wrongs that hurt the innocent. If governments do not quickly regulate crops used for biofuel and knwo the limits, then situations of hunger and misuse of opportunities to jack up food prcies would keep increasing... thus degrading a country.

In essence, know how much to use for biofuel and keep ample enough for export and feeding the people... Balance, Balance , Balance. Look at the cause and effects before doing !

The Earth would not die ... it's the humans and species living on the surface of the earth and many organic life that would die. Earth have always cleansed itself whenever it's surface is too polluted... but by cleansing itself, many organism are doomed to die.. including humans.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Oklahoma Data Leak

Readarticle: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Oklahoma-Leaks-Tens-of-Thousands-of-Social-Security-Numbers,-Other-Sensitive-Data.aspx

I think such simple and stupid mistakes should never have occured in government agencies. What happened to the testing dept for testing all these codes and sites ? Sleeping on the job ? Well, now the databases associated with these events are truely doubtful and corrupted because who knows someone might have done some changes to the databases quietly? I was wondering if someone did a drop database statement to delete off a database or a couple of all database or did some insert , alter table or update table to insert/update/alter the data in the tables and databases, they deserve it since why are they so silly to allow people to allow literal SQL statement parsing and that method of attack done is called the SQL injection method.

Hmm... it seems the databases now are not very reliable since anyone could have corrupted the data unnoticed...

Friday, April 11, 2008

High Availability Automated Peers concept for BT

If BitTorrent (BT) requires someone to upload/seed by specification either manually or by by schedule, it is still a manual work by humans. If there is some item available with no active seeding because of different time zone of the requester and possible seeders, there would be as good as nothing.

I think the High Availability Automated Peers (HAAP) which I recently just thought of may help lighten the work. I am not sure if this concept is already available but this is what I thought of personally. HAAP would require an automated bot BT client programmed to randomly download or download certain or common BTs and data and the this bot client would go around doing it nealry 24/7 if the owner of the bot client allows. The bot would automatically download and thus would have either a pool of random or controlled items. See these bot clients as mini servers that a re spread out across the world , switched on nearly 24/7 and randomly or according to the owner's orders, downloading items and then upload / seed it. In this way, you would have somme sort of highly available BTs on this server likg bot clients and if there are no humans seeding, these bot clients are there for you to leech if the bot clients do have the items you want and plus, if there are more bot clients, it's also lightening the load of uploads across the board and it would be as good as extra help.

This is just my personal concept I thought of.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Microsoft in despo mode...

As everyone knows, Microsoft have forced Yahoo to re-consider it's choice of offering itself up for Microsoft to eat. Microsoft have warned Yahoo that within 3 weeks, if there is no agreement, Microsoft would go directly to the Yahoo share holders to buy their shares. By doing so, Microsoft is pushing Yahoo to the edge of a cliff. If Yahoo doesn't agree, Microsoft go to the share holders and grab their share and when Microsoft have enough shares in hand, Microsoft could take over Yahoo outright, if Yahoo bends to Microsoft's will, Yahoo would be eaten up by Microsoft, Both ways, Yahoo could not escape.

The most underhanded way Micrsoft have done to Yahoo is to buy the shares from share holders and it's the one of the WORSE I HAVE EVER SEEN MICROSOFT DOING !!!

It seems Microsoft have not learnt it's lessons from the numerous anti-trust suits by EU and other organisations and individuals against it. I think more anti-trust suits should be slapped on Microsoft with heavier punishments.

I would imagine that sooner or later , there would be some groups of people boycotting Microsoft for it's most recent underhanded ways against Yahoo.

It's not that Microsoft have no rights to acquire Yahoo, but by using underhanded and forcefully brutal ways to acquire, pushing Yahoo to the edge of a cliff... is the WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN !!!!

Microsoft is really in MODE=DESPO FOR POWER

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Some bloated softwares

Definition of a bloated software: A software that uses too much resource and too much memory and is an overkill. Very little of the original software is used.

I personally don't like bloated software because I have experience the negative effects of bloated softwares... lag , consume too much memory and resource... very little functions is of frequent use.

Some bloated softwares are:
  • Windows OS ...yes... the infamously long boot up time and the frequent lags and crashes and quick using up of memory spaces. If you open the Windows Task Manager and check the amount of processes and memory taken up. We somehow still have to use Windows base products since most applications are built for Windows although other OS flavours like Linux , Solaris , Mac , BSD ... are available.
  • Windows based products
    • Internet Explorer (IE) - I have no idea why this is the slowest and most bulky of all browsers.
    • Live Messenger / Windows Messenger - Takes very very slow to connect and load and I notice everytime it loads , the graphics would lag , screens would appear white areas ... some applications would hang ...etc. Pidgin and other messengers aren't like this... they are fast and don't hang applications frequently or cause screen to appear weird.
    • MS Office based - long load time , take a significant mount of main memory ... some may lag or hang.
  • Adobe
    • Photoshop - weird white space ... bad graphics load up ...but not too bad after that. Takes a bit too much resource though but hey, this is graphics rendering so good graphics... means trade off of some more resources right ?
Just to name a few as of above... but it seems things made by Windows are bloated.