Classic Tech Tips Archive

Yesterday there were articles and blog posts comparing the next generation of the big three browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. Among the insightful comments on one of those articles, the…

I sometimes forget that VLC is cross-platform. Given that linux is my primary platform I've used it quite a bit in playing around with streaming a video from one machine to another. Engadget has a gr…

The Google reader team have been working on ways to simplify adding RSS feeds to your Google Reader profile. There are a couple ways now to do this (outside of logging into reader and entering the ad…

For a long time, email was the primary vector for viruses, before that floppy discs carried bugs from pc to pc. Then came network worms exploiting windows security vulnerabilities which led to the ri…

According to Planet Mozilla it looks like we should expect the release of Mozilla Firefox 1.5 at around 3PM EST (12 noon PST). There are no promises, but that's what I'm seeing, no exact time mind yo…

DesktopLinux has the news of a new release of Inkscape, an open source SVG editor for Linux, Max, Windows and Unix. The program boasts capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, and Xa…

New York's Attorney General is trying to hold Sony's feet to the fire. Over a week after the recall of the Sony discs carrying the controversial DRM Rootkit XCP, affected discs were still available f…

Desktoplinux.com has a story on a new application directory for KDE. The directory can be found here and lists all applications that are native to KDE, (or QT). There are ratings for how well integra…

Somewhere along the line, there was a review up of Mandriva 2006 where the reviewer mentioned extremely slow performance in KDE, but on loading GNome instead, things were just fine. I've seen some sl…

InnoDB (and MyISAM) has been the backend MySQL engine up until now, but Oracle's purchase of InnoDB could threaten that. MySQL has wasted little time in search for replacement options. InnoDB is open…

There's a local Denial of Service vulnerability in the linux kernel's ptrace function according to secunia.com. It reportedly is present in kernel's prior to 2.6.14.2 and is listed as a non-critical …

The 3.5 release of the KDE (linux) desktop environment has come today. Among other things, konqueror is now the second browser to pass the ACID2, CSS rendering test (ahead of Internet Explorer and Fi…

Incidents.org has the story on an "in the wild" exploit for MS-053 vulnerability. The patch is out, so if you haven't already - go ahead with the patching. The vulnerability is entitled "Vulnerabilit…

This is a great lead from Spyware Confidential. There is a relatively new site out and about called eulascan.com. They allow user submitted comments on EULA's (End User License Agreements). Of course…

For those of you using adsense for your sites outside of the U.S. I've just read that adsense firefox referrals are now available internationally. This is coming from the official Google adsense blog…

If you've always wanted your own astromech, it won't be too much longer to wait. A voice activated R2-D2 will be available next year from Hammacher Schlemmer. It runs on 4 AA and 4 D cell batteries a…

The OTHER Sony-BMG DRM (Digital Rights Management) software is in the news again today. freedom-to-tinker which did great research into the security flaws that the UNINSTALL process for both XCP and …

Software has been released that essentially allows users to take advantage of GMAIL's 2+GB of storage space for peer to peer (p2p) file sharing. There are disadvantage's such as turning over your gma…

Slashdot has a story from the Wall Street Journal online about why beta's last so long. Google News' beta, Microsoft's Antispyware beta are both mentioned. This has become a new way of marketing soft…

Linux.com is running an article on easy automated backups with a new program called sbackup. Sbackup is a product of Google's summer of code and is a GUI to pick and choose what to backup and when to…

I can't recall trying Ubuntu (maybe a livecd), but I've heard quite a bit about various variations on it lately. I've seen articles on business desktop use, certification by IBM (?) for running one o…

There are a couple articles out today (last few days) on the growing conflict between the ODF (Open Document Format) Microsoft's XML. For starters, the ODF came about as a response/alternative to clo…

The dot has an article on a Dutch record chain switching some 1000 desktops over to Novell Linux with the KDE desktop. The Kiosk mode in KDE has been helpful in locking down certain settings and crea…

On the back of new server sales numbers, cooltechzone has been declaring the demise of linux. I remember looking at the stats and numbers when they came out and didn't see anything terribly surprisin…

Reuters has a story about how big the sales of the Apple iPod Nano such as the Apple 2 GB iPod Nano White, Apple 2 GB iPod Nano White, and Apple iPod Nano Armband Grey are exceeding expectations this…