Author: Dr. Bill

Ah… OK, I mean, I know that, for me, I gotta have a hot Internet connection, but a basic human right? Ummmm… well, maybe a bit extreme!

United Nations Declares Internet Access a Basic Human Right

“A lengthy report released by the United Nations Friday argued that disconnecting individuals from the Internet is a violation of human rights and goes against international law. ‘The Special Rapporteur underscores the unique and transformative nature of the Internet not only to enable individuals to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression,’ according to the report’s summary, ‘but also a range of other human rights, and to promote the progress of society as a whole.’

Released after the seventeenth session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, the report ‘on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression’ comes on a day when its message couldn’t be more important. It’s the same day, Wired’s Threat Level blog points out, that ‘an Internet monitoring firm detected that two thirds of Syria’s Internet access has abruptly gone dark, in what is likely a government response to unrest in that country.’

The report’s authors speak to a wider issue that we’re currently facing, though; this isn’t just a problem in Syria. ‘[T]he recent wave of demonstrations in countries across the Middle East and North African region has shown the key role that the Internet can play in mobilizing the population to call for justice, equality, accountability and better respect for human rights,’ the report notes. ‘As such, facilitating access to the Internet for all individuals, with as little restriction to online content as possible, should be a priority for all States.’ Of course, many of the dictators and leaders across the Middle East region that the report highlights recognized the power of the Internet early — and attempted to cut it from their citizens’ lives.

But people, in most cases, found a way online. In Egypt, for example, we saw hundreds of individuals using old modems and telephone lines to route their traffic through a volunteer network around the globe. And we support them. A survey of 26 countries conducted by the BBC in March 2010 found that nearly four out of five people (79 percent, to be exact) believe that access to the Internet is a ‘fundamental human right.'”

I don’t think so! Apple iCloud may be a “me to” copy of DropBox, but it is for Apple-only devices. DropBox is cross-platform! I can’t see existing DropBox users leaving them for iCloud!

“There is some overlap, but the two services aren’t really comparable; iCloud is primarily aimed at making iOS devices & iTunes more convenient,” said Drew Houston, CEO and co-founder of Dropbox, in an e-mailed statement. “There’s a big world beyond Apple, and our users love that Dropbox works just as well with your Android phone or PC as with your iPad or iPhone.”

I’d say so! Whether I am on a Mac, Linux box, or my Windows systems, I can use DropBox. Even my JoliCloud Cloud client netbook has Dropbox on it. So, I’d say DropBox is safe!

So, Oracle finally gave up on OpenOffice. Good for them. I just wish it hadn’t been so long a process!

Oracle Donates OpenOffice.org Open-Source Project to Apache

“In a surprising move, Oracle hands over the source code for OpenOffice, the popular open-source office-productivity suite to its erstwhile adversary, Apache.

The open-source office-productivity suite OpenOffice has a surprising new home: Apache. There was some speculation Oracle might donate the project to the The Document Foundation, the group of developers that split from OpenOffice to launch LibreOffice last fall.

OpenOffice will join Apache Software Foundation as an ‘incubator’ project, Oracle said June 1. As an incubator project, OpenOffice must mature and prove its viability and sustainability before graduating to full project status. Oracle has assigned the trademark to Apache, as well.

‘The Apache Software foundation’s model makes it possible for commercial and individual volunteer contributors to collaborate on open-source product development,’ Oracle said.

Oracle had promised that it would fully relinquish control over the open-source project and donate it to the community April 15. The company also appears to be trying to silence its critics who claim the database giant is anti-open source. Donating the code to venerable Apache, home of the popular Apache Web Server, proves that Oracle is committed to the developer and open-source communities, the company said.

“Donating OpenOffice.org to Apache gives this popular consumer software a mature, open and well-established infrastructure to continue well into the future,” said Luke Kowalski, the vice-president of Oracle’s corporate architecture group.

The move was surprising, as Oracle and Apache have had a contentious relationship over another open-source project, Java. Oracle subpoenaed Apache as part of its lawsuit against Google for violating Java patents in the Android mobile operating system. Oracle also blocked Apache’s Project Harmony from getting a Java license, which resulted in Apache quitting the Java Community Process in protest.

IBM relies heavily on OpenOffice and the ODF (Open Document Format) for its own Lotus Symphony office suite. The company, which had been lobbying for Oracle to spin off Open Office in the first place, immediately welcomed Oracle’s decision.

Sony can’t catch a break! They were hacked and lost 1 million more user’s info!

Sony hacked again, 1 million user accounts compromised

“The same group that was responsible for hacking into PBS’ site recently to post fake news claiming Tupac Shakur was alive has set its sights on Sony. Lulz Boat said it had broke into the SonyPictures.com website and compromised the personal information of one million users.

Among the information is name, password, e-mail address, date of birth, and home address. Any other information the user opted to share with Sony is also in the hands of these hackers as well. The hackers were only able to download data on 150,000 of those users, but walked away with admin details and 3.5 million music coupons and 75,000 music codes, it said.

For Sony, it’s only the latest in a series of at least a dozen hacks to various properties over the past two months. The most serious obviously was the hack that took down the PlayStation Network, but smaller hacks have occurred to other Sony properties, including Sony Online Entertainment and Sony Ericsson Canada.

What may be most embarrassing for Sony is again the company has been revealed to have done a poor job with securing data. The hackers said that passwords were stored without any encryption at all — in plain text — making it even easier for them to break into compromised accounts with little trouble.”

Microsoft, in their tease of Windows 8, which looks like Windows Phone, is basically telling businesses to stick with Windows 7 for their standard office desktops. Windows 8 is really aimed at tablets, which are expected to “take over” the world anyway. It is a BIG gamble on Microsoft’s part!

I suppose it may be encouraging to Open Source folks that may see it as a chance for Linux to get a bigger share of desktops. However, even Ubuntu is moving away from “standard” types of UIs with it’s new Unity interface. Not that Unity isn’t workable… but, it is more “tile-ly” as well.

And, of course, you have Google moving toward a Cloud oriented OS with Chrome, where essentially, the browser is the OS. Who will “win out?” What is the future of computing? It gets more interesting, that’s for sure!

This is the second time in three months that Google has had to take apps out of the Android Market due to malware infections. Sigh.

Google faces new round of Android malware

“Computerworld – For the second time in three months, Google yanked dozens of malware-infected smartphone apps from the Android Market.

The 34 apps were pulled over the weekend and Tuesday by Google after security researchers notified the company.

Google acknowledged giving some Android apps the heave-ho. ‘We’ve suspended a number of suspicious applications from Android Market and are continuing to investigate them,’ a Google spokeswoman said in an email reply to questions late Tuesday.

As in the March episode, when Google removed more than 50 apps, the newest round consisted of pirated legitimate programs that had been modified with malicious code and then re-released to the Android Market under false names.

But there was an important difference to this campaign, said Kevin Mahaffey, co-founder and CTO of Lookout, a San Francisco firm that specializes in mobile security.

‘These apps have the ability to fire up a page on the Android Market,’ said Mahaffey, adding that the hackers can send commands to the smartphone telling it which Market page to display.

He speculated that the attackers probably intended the new feature as a way to dupe users into downloading additional rogue apps that would have malicious functions, just as a hijacked PC is told to retrieve more malware.”