Microsoft Bad, Switch to Linux, Part 2

Groklaw is a website that discusses legal issues open source software. This posting caught my attention. It is about a paper from European Committee for Interoperable Systems that provides brief history of the anti-competitive practices of Microsoft.

It introduces the concept of middleware, which explains why there is a browser war even though no one ever pays for a browser.

It also gives a great description of Microsoft's systematic method of using its monopoly on the desktop operating system to attack competitors.

This is the Groklaw article...

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090421111327711

This is the European Committee for Interoperable Systems paper...

http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf

Ubuntu 9.04 NBR on eee pc 1000

I installed Ubuntu 9.04 netbook remix on my eeepc 1000. I had been using an unofficial Ubuntu derivative prior to that which worked well but lacked a little polish in some areas. This is the first official Ubunutu NBR release and it works great.



The process of downloading the USB stick image and writing it to disk was the most time consuming. The instructions at www.ubuntu.com worked without a hitch. The actual install took the standard 20 minutes for Ubuntu, then I was ready to go.

The only changes I made to the standard install were to install nfs-common to talk to my nfs file server and setting temp and log files to write to RAM since I have a solid state drive and don't want the contstant writes to wear it out. These are the lines I added to /etc/fstab...

#mount the raid array on the nfs server
192.168.15.6:/home/documents /home/brett/server nfs defaults 0 0

#mount temporary data to tmpfs to reduce disk writes
#(https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC/Using)
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0

I should have used aptonCD to transfer the installed software from my old install. Since I didn't, I had to manually install the applications I like. Not a major task with a package manager, but it could have been avoided.

Kids Playhouse progress

I got the roof on and got roofing on one side. Then cleaned up a weeks worth of construction debris.

I guess it is usable now.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Kids Easter Vacation

Rebecca has gotten in the habit of taking the kids on trips for Easter
vacation. One year it was Monterey Bay, the next it was London, this
year they went to Port Townsend to visit Grandma and Grandpa.
Unfortunately I was not able to attend due to a lack of vacation days,
but it did afford me the opportunity to work on the kids playhouse. See
the previous posting.

They are due back on Sunday (it is Friday night right now) so I will
have more pictures then, but here are a couple that I wanted to share.

Jacob lost his first tooth shortly before they left and lost his second
during the trip. He is missing the lower two front teeth. Jessica got
to hold a falcon. I can't wait to hear about that.

While they were gone we had an evacuation at work because smoke was
coming out of the AC ducts. We evacuated the building twice but the
fire department never found anything. The AC workmen were there earlier
in the day so maybe they miswired a motor and it burned up. Anyway, we
were never told what the root cause was.

Kids Playhouse

I have been building a playhouse in the backyard for the kids.

It all started about a year ago when Jessica asked if I would build a
tree house in our back yard. I said our tree was not big enough, but I
would look at building a non tree playhouse. Being an engineering type
I told her about all the planning and design work we would have to do.

One year later I was taking Jessica to the hardware store when she asked
if we were going to get stuff to build the playhouse. Being a sucker I
immediately replied yes.

So I bought a bunch of wood and we went home and started working on a
little house. That was in late February. Six weeks later I have most
of the walls clad and am ready to spend my Saturday painting and putting
the roofing on.

Notice the beam over the windows. The idea is that when the kids get
bored of it, at least I will have a nice shed.

Personal Network Security

This is my recommended listening list for home network security and public network security (hotels or wifi hotspots)

The bottom line is that at home you should:

1.  Use a NAT router to connect to the internet.  Make sure all your ports are blocked (default on almost all routers).  Use Shields Up at www.grc.com if not sure.

2.  Use WPA or WPA2 for wireless encryption.  WEP is easily crackable.

3.  Be aware that any non SSL traffic at public hot spots can be easily intercepted.

 

If you prefer to read, transcripts are available at:

http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm

 

If you like podcasts, you can subscribe at:

http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml

 

HOME NETWORK SECURITY

Episode 3, NAT Routers  http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-003.mp3

 

Episode 11, Bad WiFi Security http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-011.mp3

 

Episode 13, Unbreakable WiFi Security  http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-013.mp3

 

PUBLIC NETWORK SECURITY

Episode 10, Open Wireless Access Points http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-010.mp3

 

Episode 27, How Local Area Networks Work  http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-027.mp3

 

Episode 29, Ethernet Insecurity  http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-029.mp3