Microsoft Suggests Licensing Internet

Microsoft’s security chief, Scott Charney, thinks that the government should license the Internet and block computers that don’t have virus protection and a firewall.

If that ever happens say goodbye to free thought on the Internet. I sometimes wander how anybody can be so silly as to suggest that this will somehow solve the bot net problem. It was caused my Microsoft and now they want to punish the rest of us for their failure. How about fixing your operating system Microsoft?

I must confess this kind of stuff does nothing for my view of Microborg and their agenda.

LINK

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9189838

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx – First Impressions

Ok, so I have upgraded to the latest and greatest Ubuntu operating system.

Firefox Problem

First, Firefox is completely hosed. It pops up and then crashes. So I switched to the Chromium browser, which is the open source version of the Google browser.

I tried a number of ways to fix it, uninstalling and reinstalling. I didn’t want to delete my config file, so I didn’t try that.

Instead I completely removed firefox through the Synaptic Package Manager and the ran Ubuntuzilla.
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ubuntuzilla/index.php?title=Main_Page

It worked, Firefox is up and running.

Button Problem

Second, as if that was not enough, they moved the close, maximize, minimize buttons to the left. Hate it!!!
And you you think that they gave me a choice? Nope. They are trying to copy the Mac again.

You can change it back, but it takes a little work. An easy tutorial is found below:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13535/move-window-buttons-back-to-the-right-in-ubuntu-10.04/

Although I prefer:

Change the text in the Value text field to:

menu:minimize,maximize,close

Other than these two things, so far so good.

I will update this post if any other things come up.

UPDATE ON FIREFOX
It appears that Firefox will no longer come branded in Ubuntu. The unbrabded version is called ABrowser, but is Firefox. You can even go into synaptic and download the branding, which returns things to normal.

All in One SEO plugin and Google

The All-in-One SEO plugin for WordPress has caused my site to be removed from Google. For some reason Google has penalized me and has removed my site from its search engine results. This is the second site that I have had this happen on. I have finally uninstalled the plugin and am in the results again.

Has anyone else had this problem? I read some comments on WordPress.org of people having their sites disappear from Google results. Maybe we can find a fix for this.

Top 5 Firefox Plugins for 2009

Here are my top five Firefox plugins for 2009:

  1. Download Statusbar – I hate the default downloader
  2. Xmarks Bookmark and Password Sync – Great way to back up your bookmarks
  3. Flagfox – let’s you know what country the site is from
  4. AniWeather – I love weather and this is cool
  5. Wired Marker – Highlight website pages

Previous top 6 were:

  1. Download Statusbar – a must for those who hate the default downloader
  2. BetterSearch – Enhances Google.
  3. Delicious Bookmarks – I never lose links to great sites.
  4. BetterPrivacy – Super Cookie Safeguard plugin
  5. Flagfox – It shows what country a website is from
  6. Wired Marker – It highlights text in web pages

Some good security plugins:

  1. WOT – Safe Browsing Tool
  2. BetterPrivacy
  3. NoScript
  4. Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out (TACO)
  5. PluginChecker

How to Completely Remove W.I.N.E.

Completely removing Wine can be harder than just removing it from the Synaptic package manager. You can even delete the hidden .wine folder in your home directory and still have Wine configuration files left behind. So in case you want to completely remove Wine, simply copy and paste the following in the terminal. It will uninstall Wine and remove it from the menu as well.

sudo apt-get remove wine

Then

rm -rf $HOME/.wine
rm -f $HOME/.config/menus/applications-merged/wine*
rm -rf $HOME/.local/share/applications/wine
rm -f $HOME/.local/share/desktop-directories/wine*
rm -f $HOME/.local/share/icons/????_*.xpm

Then you can reinstall it if you so desire.

A Scam I Almost Fell For

I consider myself pretty skeptical when it comes to the Internet. I am currently job hunting and this scam almost got me. The first clue was that it was sent from a gmail account. That was enough to start the wheels going. Then he had me go to a different web site then the company he represented. At that point I was suspicious. I then contacted the Human Resources department of the company of the web site he gave. I then did a search of the text used in the job offer. It was then I found the exact wording used almost 2 years a go. It was too close to be anything then a copy of the previous scam. Notice one last clue, “During the training you will be paid by New Business Solutions, Inc. directly to your bank account.” In other words they want your bank account information so they can steal your money. This was the red flag that made me start checking. I then reported the scam.

First Email
Good day Jay,

This is Josh West, assistant staff manager from New Business Solutions, Inc.. Jay,
I have noticed your resume at Career Builder job site. Your education
really interested me. As far as I understand, you are most interested in
customer service area. Today New Business Solutions, Inc. has a vacancy in your state,
I would like to offer. It is both part time and full time position of the
Customer Service Manager. Annual salary starts from $36,000 for the part
time and over $50,000 for the full time. Additionally, we provide the 20
days training course to cover all aspects of our products. During these 4
weeks training you will be paid $500 weekly. This is ENTRY LEVEL position.
Jay, if you are still looking for a job, and this offer interested you,
let me know. I will provide you with more detailed information upon your
request. Please, reply at your earliest convenience, because this vacancy
is the only and immediate.

Yours respectfully,
Josh West
Assistant Project Manager, New Business Solutions, Inc..

Second Email
Hello Jay,

I am glad that you are interested! Here is the detailed information
about this vacancy, Jay.

OUR COMPANY

To learn more about New Business Solutions, Inc and iCommerce platform, please visit
the web site of our subsidiary company engaged in worldwide promotion:
WWW.TRIVNET.COM

New Business Solutions, Inc is a dynamic e-business development company, widely
recognized for its professionalism and track record of success.
New Business Solutions, Inc is committed to delivering the latest technologies that
enrich people’s lives with our leading-edge iCommerce platform for
wireless and ISP carriers. The company’s patented technology enables
all types of online payment and supports multiple access channels,
transaction models, networks and devices.

New Business Solutions, Inc iCOMMERCE PLATFORM

iCommerce platform enables the rapid and efficient introduction of new
merchants, distributors, services and products, instantly bringing
interactive commerce services to the entire subscriber base. It also
lowers operational costs by leveraging existing investments in
infrastructure, while providing the operator with an advanced, unified,
comprehensive and business-driven infrastructure capable of delivering
all existing and future payments, promotions and electronic recharging
services.

In general, iCommerce platform represents very flexible Internet payment
system that accepts almost every e-currency and transaction method.
iCommerce allows customers and users to perform any kind of transfer from
one money system to another in no time. This system enables our customers
to broaden the variety of accepted payment methods, to reduce the transaction
time and to make the whole payment operation highly secured. For example,
iCommerce allows performing a direct exchange from PayPal to Western Union
or from Western Union to bank account. Money can now be sent from one system
to another in no time. Also iCommerce lets customers to provide the
person-to-business transfers for every user, when other systems provide the
person-to-person transfers only.

CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER

New Business Solutions, Inc is located in ISRAEL and needs customer service representatives
worldwide. Today our US customers require specialists to manage
iCommerce platform to assist users. So customer service manager will be an
official employee of one of the telecom operator that we serve. Today our
company serves 7 large telecom operators in USA.
New Business Solutions, Inc will provide the 20 days training course that would be sufficient
to start working in one of these companies. We guarantee this immediate
employability after the training period.

Responsibilities will be to provide assistance with iCommerce platform to current
telecom operator. Customer service manager’s accountability will be to instruct
users, to provide the current statuses of their operations in the system and to
be ready to answer on any general question about iCommerce. Candidate will get
all necessary knowledge and experience during the training. No previous experience
with iCommerce or alternative systems is required.

New Business Solutions, Inc provides a training course to cover all aspects of the iCommerce
platform operation and maximization. Duration is 20 week days. This course is
to be done distantly. This means that you will be studying from your own home or
university computer with Internet access. You will not need to attend to any
lectures or seminars. During the training you will be paid by New Business Solutions, Inc
directly to your bank account. The training period wage is $500 USD weekly. This
training course can be started at any time on any week day.

After you finish the training course successfully, you become a certified
New Business Solutions, Inc specialist. And you start working in one of the US telecom companies
that our organization serves. Usually it takes no more then 5 week days after the
training course to start working in the company. First guaranteed salary is $2900
monthly for the part time and $4100 for the full time. Superannuation is provided
by the telecom company.

Jay, if you have any questions, then ask me freely. I will be glad to clarify
at any time. If you are interested to start the training course, please let me know
as soon as possible. And i want to repeat again, the training course
is absolutely free, you don’t have to pay any fees to start.

Yours respectfully,
Josh West
Assistant Project Manager, New Business Solutions, Inc.

LINKS
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/785536.html
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?p=546805
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Software/Primesoftware/primesoftware-fast-cash-scam-i-5d3e9.htm

REPORT A SCAM
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/reporting.php

Ubuntu One Problems – Capacities Mismatch

If you were using the beta version of Ubuntu 9.10 karmic koala you might have problems with your Ubuntu one client. After you upgrade your system to the final release, you may still have a problem.

Here is how I fixed it in my system. I opened synaptic package manager and noticed I had both a ubuntuone-client and a ubuntuone-client-beta. The beta was the one installed, so I chose the one that didn’t have the beta. In the process of installing it will remove the beta version. After that I then right clicked on the Ubuntu One icon on the upper task bar and closed it. I then went to Applications > Internet and clicked on Ubuntu One to restart it. It seems to be working fine now.

LINKS: Linux and Open Source News for October 25, 2009

This weeks podcast (for October 25, 2009) was canceled because I have a bad cold. We do however want to share the research links that were created for this podcast:

NEWS
Red Hat Ranked as #1 Software Vendor for Fifth Time in CIO Insight Study
Red Hat passes Microsoft’s stock price, now what?
Apple shuts down ZFS open source project
SCO story ends with a whimper
SCO fires CEO Darl McBride, architect of litigation strategy
Random users Google Voice mail is searchable by anyone?
IBM and Canonical team up against Windows 7
Amazon: Windows 7 is ‘the biggest pre-order product of all time’
FCC Agrees to Set Rules on Net Neutrality Canada Gets New Neutrality Rules
Nation’s First Open Source Election Software Released
Mozilla disables vulnerable Microsoft plugin for Firefox
Firefox blocks, then unblocks, Microsoft add-on
Stallman Urges EC to Stop Oracle Acquisition of Sun
MySQL founder says Oracle should let go of MySQL
Sun cuts global workforce by 10 percent
Sun Communications Server speaks VoIP
LynxSecure Selected by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment
CME Group Uses Red Hat Solutions to Process Over a Quadrillion Dollars in Critical Financial Transactions Per Year
Bell, Torvalds usher in next wave of supercomputing
Everything Linux store set for opening on Friday
Symbian Foundation Releases Open Source Microkernel
Mozilla to support Web Open Font Format in Firefox 3.6
Eeevolution – Eeebuntu 4.0 and beyond.
Metasploit Security Site Bought by Rapid7
Mozilla’s Raindrop to Provide a Tidy In-Box for Everything
System76 Prepares Ubuntu 9.10 PCs, Notebooks
REVIEW: Ubuntu 9.10 Beta Promises to Strengthen Distro’s Position as Desktop Favorite
Keeping Ubuntu CDs Available
Happy Birthday, Ubuntu! – Our favorite operating system is turning 5 years old

LINUX MOBILE NEWS
Nokia – ShowPressRelease
Bigger News for Verizon Than Motorola’s Droid
Smartphone smackdown: Motorola Droid vs. iPhone 3GS
Motorola Droid coming to Best Buy on 24 October?
Motorola Droid (”Sholes”) hits the FCC with AT&T-friendly 3G – for real this time.
Acer to release Android smartphone
HTC posts Hero kernel source code
Symbian Foundation opens smartphone kernel source code

RELEASES
Stable kernels 2.6.27.38 and 2.6.31.5
Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.32 (Part 1) – Network subsystem and network drivers
GNOME 2.28.1 released
CentOS 5.4
Constantine Gets Ready to Unite Again: Fedora 12 Beta Now Available
Fedora 12 Goodness OpenBSD 4.6 Released
Open Source Nuxeo EP and DM 5.3 Support OpenSocial
Talend Upgrades Leading Enterprise Open Source Data Integration Solutions
Open Office 3.2 Beta
A sneak preview of new OpenOffice 3.2 part 1
Open Office 4 Kids
SpringSource releases Spring 3.0
BeRTOS 2.3.0 Released
SeaMonkey 2.0 RC2 arrives
Caffeine 1.0 For Linux Released
Avant Window Navigator (AWN) 0.4 Beta Available
Development Release: Chakra Fuzzy
Elive 1.9.51
RSSOwl 2.0
Wine 1.1.32 Released
sidux 2009.3 Preview 1
MOPSLinux 7.0 Alpha 2.7

Review of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

I made the plunge. I am now running Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala on my main system, even though it is still beta. I had problems with my first attempt, but I downloaded the latest beta and I have had no problems. Being a podcaster I am so happy they finally straightened out the sound preferences. I also really like the Ubuntu Software Store. It makes browsing software a lot easier. The new version of Ubuntu also defaults to ext4 and grub2, though it is really not noticed. The artwork is better, but still brown – though dark brown. I like the changing desktop wallpaper. I give it an A. Still suggesting people hold off till the final release before upgrading.