Join Dr. Bill as he examines the wild and wacky world of the web, computers, and all things geeky! Hot Tech Tips, Tech News, and Geek Culture are examined… with plenty of good humor as well!
Malware is becoming too big of a problem to handle according to M$. They suggest just re-formatting and starting over.
“When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit,” Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference.
Microsoft, it seems, will deign to host Linux on it’s Virtual Server Platform.
Microsoft to Host Linux Virtually
“Microsoft will support customers who chose to run Linux with Microsoft’s Virtual Server 2005 R2, software for running multiple operating systems on one machine. In addition, the company on Monday said that it has now made Virtual Server 2005 R2–which the company had charged either $99 for up to four physical processors or $199 for an unlimited number of processors–a free download. The announcements were made in conjunction with the LinuxWorld conference in Boston this week.”
Scott Redmon, my former co-worker (at Guilford County IS) and current Webmaster there, designed a new header for the ol’ Doctor! It is way cool! Thanks, Scott! If you need awesome computer graphics or logos done, see Scott… he da’ man!
By the way, Scott is a “hired gun” for graphics, at Triad Web Solutions, check him out:
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Dr. Bill Podcast – 30 – (04/01/06)
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Intro, Microsoft Internet Explorer exploits getting worse, our “Geek Software of the Week” is MediaMonkey… very cool audio jukebox software built on Open Source!, I explain why I dropped MusicMatch in favor of da’ Monkey!, Will Apple Run Windows Apps in Emulation?, Microsoft is spreading the FUD again! Now they are threatening to SUE over software patents, an encouragement to come out to the Greensboro Linux User Group meeting to be held at the Center for Creative Leadership!
This Monday night’s (April 3rd at 7:00 PM) GLUG (Greensboro Linux User’s Group) meeting will be on Linux-based media players like MythTV. More info on MythTV is here:
The meeting will be out at the Center for Creative Leadership, where I work. Directions can be found here:
Come out and enjoy learning about a REAL operating system!
Although how one “sues Linux” is open to question… M$ (the Evil Empire) may be considering trying to destroy Linux, since they can’t beat it in the marketplace.
Microsoft set to attack Linux with patents?
“Is Microsoft getting ready to attack Linux and open-source software with its patents? Florian Mueller, spokesman for the European NoSoftwarePatents.com and a leading anti-patent activist, thinks that may be the case. Mueller sees a recent Forbes interview with Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer as stopping just ‘short of announcing patent litigation against Linux.’ In the interview, Ballmer said, ‘Well, I think there are experts who claim Linux violates our intellectual property. I’m not going to comment. But to the degree that that’s the case, of course we owe it to our shareholders to have a strategy. And when there is something interesting to say, you’ll be the first to hear it.'”
Here’s a great article on the history of M$’s FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) campaign over the years!
We just saw how some hackers got Windows XP to run on the new Intel based Macs. Now, there is a rumor that Apple may come out with emulation for the next edition of OSX that will allow Windows apps to run under OSX. Dewd! That will change things, if true!
Is Apple Getting Ready to Run Windows?
“Notable curmudgeon John Dvorak raised hackles last month when he suggested that an Intel-powered Apple would dump OS X and switch to Windows. Turns out he may have been right — sort of. Word is out now that Apple has joined BAPco, an industry group that does one thing and one thing only: create benchmarks for testing the performance of Windows-based PCs. The move comes on top of rumors that Apple will include VMWare-style virtualization capabilities in the next version of OS X, which could enable the Mac OS to run Windows apps without requiring a third-party emulator or a reboot. While those rumors have yet to be confirmed, it does seem possible that Apple is indeed working on a way for OS X users to run Windows apps, and wants to use BAPco’s tools to benchmark the Windows-on-OS X performance (though the tools are said not to work all that well in virtual environments). Either that or they just want to confirm the rumors that the MacBookPro is the fastest Windows laptop out there.”
Now, I can play albums, or collections of media again! And, MediaMonkey has assembled their free “jukebox-like” player using Open Source software bundled into their software! Cool!
“Manage a music library consisting of small to very large collections (50,000+ ) of audio files and playlists*, whether they’re located on your hard drive, CDs, or a network. Organize, browse, or search music by Genre, Artist, Year, Rating, etc., and never waste your time trying to find mp3s you know you have. MediaMonkey is the music organizer for the serious collector.
*Supports MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC, MPC, WAV, CDA, M3U, PLS, etc.
Synchronize with iPods and other Portable Audio Devices in seconds. Simply configure MediaMonkey once, and then click the Synchronize button to synchronize tracks and related properties including Album Art, ratings, play history, and playlists with a broad range of portable devices. With Volume Leveling, the tracks will even play back on your device at consistent volumes!”
This is a GOOD ONE!
I reported last week that there was a big, and grievous exploit that was targeting a hole in Internet Explorer. Well, turns out there are two OTHER big holes in IE as well. So big, that M$ is thinking about releasing a special patch BEFORE the normal April patch cycle.
MSRC Program Manager Stephen Toulouse said, “…the IE patch is ‘on schedule’ to ship as part of next month’s Patch Tuesday, which will take place on April 11, but the company is not ruling out an emergency, out-of-cycle release if the threat escalates. ‘We’ll release it sooner if warranted,’ Toulouse said.”
Again… Mozilla Firefox. ‘Nuff said.
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Dr. Bill Podcast – 29 – (03/25/06)
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xp-AntiSpy: Geek Software of the Week!, Microsoft Delays Vista Again… at least to 2007, Dell buys Alienware to beef up it’s gaming “cred,” the fastest Windows XP laptop is and Apple? Yep! It’s the MacBook Pro!, another good security reason to dump Internet Explorer, Background on Linspire, and talk of it’s new “Mac-Mini”-like system! Sneak Peak… not even on their website yet!