Rumors have been around for some time about Google launching Google OS, an Operating System to compete with Microsoft Windows. Well…. now the rumors are circulating around the Google PC (with Google OS). The Latimes.com is reporting that Google has been meeting with people from Wal-Mart (and others) to distribute a cheap pc. This would be a Google PC running something other than Windows – Google OS….
Category: Software
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Metasploit
I had hoped to do an article on metasploit in the not too distant future, but not as early as tonight…. However, I’ve made a couple of references to it in previous posts which, well, it would be nice if I’d already given a bit of information about metasploit in general. For starters, metasploit is considered a “framework” for exploit modules and payload modules. Much like real weapons, knives, guns…. there are good uses and there are bad uses. It can be used by a network/security auditor to check for vulnerable systems. It could also be used by a cracker to exploit systems remotely. There’s a fine line.
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Virtual machine as a safe browsing environment
I mentioned this in my summary yesterday morning as a possible workaround until there are patches for the WMF vulnerability that’s been big news the last week. I notice that incidents.org has mentioned it too as a possibility today. VMware has released VMPLayer as a free way of running premade virtual machines.
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Network Security guide for the home or small business network – Part 20 heterogeneous networks
One thing I’ve already mentioned in this serious is using alternative programs like Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, or Thunderbird, Eduora instead of Outlook Express. Even if you’re not using alternative software as your primary web browser, email program there are advantages to having networks with mixed software, operating systems and even mixed network hardware. Back when the blaster worm hit, there were stories of businesses paralyzed when every Windows XP machine in the place (read – EVERY machine in the place) could not stay up long enough to download a fix. In order to get a fix they had to get online to find out about it and it was crashing within 30 seconds of booting.
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Flightgear scenery objects
So, I’ve spent a bit of time talking about flightgear. Here are a couple extra resources that I want to “bookmark” here. There is a Good unofficial how-to here. (Mostly linux flightgear oriented. Also, the flightgear scenery is available here. The link is to a grid covered world map. Clicking on a grid quadrant downloads scenery for that quadrant.
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Linux Livecd Download
This should probably go in the Windows tech support category too… but, as I’ve talked about before I’ve spent a good amount of time using different linux livecd’s. I’ve even made a few livecd’s of my own with Mandrake (now mandriva) linux, using the mklivecd scripts. One of the nice things about a livecd is that it’s self contained, portable and relatively secure (any compromise should be able ot be undone by rebooting.) There are linux livecds customized for just about every conceivable use. The ones I did varied from booting to an image slideshow to a full cooker based desktop.
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Flightgear multi platform open source flight simulator revisited
Ok – I was thinking I might have been a bit too dismissive of flightgear. So, I took a second look (and a third and fourth.) In fact, I found a source rpm of the 0.99 version and rebuilt it for Mandriva 2006 and installed. And went in search of scenery for the local area. Now, to compare the two, X-Plane has more spit and polish and frankly the visuals (from the limited area I could see) are better. Flightgear is interesting from the standpoint that it’s open source (GPL) and can use a variety of flight models.
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X-Plane flight Simulator for Linux
I remember back when I was running Windows as my primary OS, one of my favorite diversions was Microsoft Flight Simulator (2000?) In fact, I clearly remember circumnavigating the globe in a Cessna in that program (landing at a small strip in Icelend, the old Hong Kong International airport and some airstrip in the Himalayas were the most challenging. In fact, for the altitude problems I didn’t think I’d make it past the himalayas…) Anyway, when I moved to linux it wouldn’t run under wine and there wasn’t much out there to compare that ran under linux.
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A Tip for cleaning up an infected PC
There’s a joke that many people bring out when new Windows viruses hit big…. it goes along the lines of, “download a fix here” and the link points to a knoppix linux livecd download, or a Mandriva download disk, fedora/etc… Some say linux isn’t affected by as many viruses because it lacks market share, I would point out that server market share (take a look at how many linux web servers there are…) would seem to tip the scales a bit, but that’s not the point of this post. What is the point is this…. When you have a Windows pc that is infested what you should do is disconnect from the internet. The problem is, that typically prevents you from getting the tools you need to fix the machine.
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Quicktime and iTunes vulnerabilities
Details of a vulnerability in Apple’s Quicktime and iTunes reported at betanews.com. Secunia also has an advisory. It is listed as moderately critical and affects the current version of both quicktime and itunes on Mac or Windows.