OK, truth be told linux is usually thought of as a download for free and install operating system and there are LOT’s of ways to do that. But it is also available for purchase at various places, from the different distributions web sites.
Also, these are links to the product pages at Amazon. They have a new link style that I was curious to test out and see what it looked like.
I’ve spent some time covering some of the neat implementations of Google Maps and Google Earth, I’ve just come across a site that has similar uses for Microsoft’s MSN Virtual Earth. The site is called viavirtualearth.com and not only links to examples of neat things people have done using Virtual Earth, but also articles and how-to’s on implementing some of your own neat-tricks.
At this point, I still find Google maps easier (more intuitive?) to navigate in some of these (I tried a Ufo-maps link which offers both virtual earth and google maps overlays.) That could just be because I’ve used Google Maps more at this point.
There are flaws in Opera and Internet Explorer which could allow URL’s in the address bar to be obfuscated. One of the safest approaches is to be wary of web links from unknown or untrusted sources. To quote….
Claudio “Sverx” has discovered a weakness in Opera and Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to trick users into visiting a malicious website by obfuscating URLs displayed in the status bar. The problem is that the browser fails to show the correct URL in the status bar if an image control with a “title” attribute has been enclosed in a hyperlink and uses a form to specify the destination URL. This may cause a user to follow a link to a seemingly trusted website when in fact the browser opens a malicious website.
I’ve spent some time this evening looking at Google Analytics. (Now the data is being collected.) And I’ve got to say I’m impressed with the scope of what I’m seeing. First, since last night, more stats have been collected, there seem to be some missing from today yet (maybe ~12 hours behind at the moment). When I signed up, I went ahead and created profiles for 4 websites that I run to have some different things to look at. I’ve spent about 30-45 minutes looking through the stats for just one of those.
Incidents.org is reporting on an advisory for users of lynx. For those of you that don’t know lynx, it is a text based web browser used in text only terminal environments. I’ve used lynx from time to time to see what websites look like to a text only reader to help design towards better accessibility. Anyway, the three of you using it to browse the web with need to upgrade… (please, it’s a joke…)
The vulnerability is described at idefense.com. It appears that a new development version of lynx has been released which fixes the problem. (Development version 2.8.6dev.15)
The bad news is that the spyware situation for home pc users can be murkier every day. I remember a particular user who once installed an antivirus program because a popup appeared claiming to have found viruses on his drive, next thing he knew he was having all sorts of spyware problems, viruses found all the time (to “prove” the antivirus component was running.), etc. etc.
Spyware Confidential has the story on the latest wolf in sheeps clothing, something called spyaxe. This link shows a screenshot of one fake warning. One problem is how to describe to people how to identify legitimate versus illegit popups and warnings.
OK – for starters, the keylogger that sunbelt talks about here is a legitimate piece of software for sale. Like anything though it could have illegit uses. Apparently retrocoder is upset that Sunbelt’s software detects spymon and gives the option of disabling it. Spymon is a commercial keylogger. They’ve claimed that it’s against their EULA and copyright law to “reverse engineer” their product. More specifically they’ve complained as such….
One of the things that I’ve really not looked at until lately is the use of open source web templates. I don’t know why but I’ve never really paid much attention to the thought of templates outside of those for a cms platform like wordpress or ezcontents, etc. However, recently I’ve started a site redesign for someone that wanted to use a template. So, an article on open source web design caught my attention.
Of course the thoughts and prayers of the nation and indeed the world are with those in the Gulf Coast area of the U.S. and particularly the situation in New Orleans. I ran across an amazing story of a webhost that is based in New Orleans and their datacenter is still running. They are keeping a blog of the goings on there.
It looks as though there are quite a few things that I have skimmed over the last two days and haven’t posted on. I’ve been preoccupied with a couple of projects and frankly following news regarding the hurricane along the Gulf Coast. I thought I’d pass along two links that I’ve been following today specifically with regards to the situation in New Orleans. This is as much for my reference as anyone elses, but… The Times-Picayune’s Breaking News page, some detailed reports from a paper in the New Orleans area, they had to evacuate earlier today due to rising flood waters and are now keeping things updated from a temporary office. Also, WWltv.com has a blog page up with brief updates as they get them. These two sites have been sources that seem to lead the networks in updates. (The news networks seem to get bogged down recycling earlier stories.)