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Posts published by “Christine Hall”

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

When the Police Can Brick Your Phone

By Christine Hall on August 16, 2014 |

Hardware, Mobile and Security

“Tyranny. Pure and simple. If it is software, somebody will find a way to hack it. If it is hardware, ‘old’ smartphones will be worth their weight in platinum.”

My friend Ross from Toronto made this comment with a link he posted on Facebook to The Free Thought Project’s article on a new about-to-be law in California. The law mandates a kill switch on all new smartphones, allowing the owner of a stolen phone to disable it until it’s recovered. The bill, CA SB 962, now only needs the expected signature of governor Jerry Brown to become law. In July, a similar law went into effect in Minnesota.

Organized using smartphones.
Photo by Jonas Naimark – Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
On the surface, a law with the purpose of protecting expensive smartphones from theft might seem to be a no-brainer good thing. Just render the device inoperable, while activating a homing program to locate it. Presto! In no time at all the phone is back in the hands of its rightful owner and made operable again. Supporters also hope the kill switch becomes a deterrent that greatly reduces the number of phone thefts.

Continue readingWhen the Police Can Brick Your Phone

Tentative Schedule Meets Tentative Schedule For ATO

By Christine Hall on August 11, 2014 |

Business, Media and Software

If last year’s inaugural All Things Open (ATO) conference in Raleigh was primarily an event for developers and admins, that’ll be even more true when ATO II cranks up on October 22 at the Raleigh Convention Center. At least that’s how it appears when scanning the tentative schedule posted on the ATO website. There’s also much on tap for management types, but the main focus is on developers and system administrators.

At first glance, it might look as if there’s very little for what blogger Gary Newell calls the Everyday Linux User, those who have adopted free software at home or in a mom and pop business. To my eyes, there is barely enough — but that still qualifies as enough.

That might change. The schedule is still tentative and very much in flux. There are no descriptions of the presentations posted yet and there were still a few slots that remain unfilled, presumably waiting on schedule confirmations. However, the presentations’ names are usually descriptive enough and there are bios of all speakers, making it easy enough to get some sort of idea of what to expect.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingTentative Schedule Meets Tentative Schedule For ATO
USB Ports Are No Longer Your Friend (If They Ever Were)USB exploit

USB Ports Are No Longer Your Friend (If They Ever Were)

By Christine Hall on August 9, 2014 |

Hardware, News and Security

Just because the good guys have discovered a new security risk doesn’t mean the bad guys haven’t known about it forever. The risk is only new to us. It’s actually been there for a long time, maybe forever. Who knows how long everyone from the black hats in Moscow to the NSA in bucolic Maryland have been taking advantage of what appears to us to be a “new” exploit?

The USB security hole recently unveiled by Berlin based Security Research Labs (SRL) seems to be of those that’s been around “forever.”

USB exploit infecting Linux
A slide used by Security Research Labs at the Black Hat USA security conference explaining how a USB device can be infected by a Windows computer in order to gain root access on Linux.
(click to enlarge)
While it shouldn’t be news to anybody that caution should be exercised when using USB devices, the new exploit would seem to indicate that even the most draconian security measures, short of doing away with USB devices entirely, might not be enough. The recently revealed problem has to do with the USB controller chip found in most, if not all, USB devices. The chip basically identifies the device type to the computer.

The trouble is, most of these chips are relatively easy to reprogram.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingUSB Ports Are No Longer Your Friend (If They Ever Were)
When Linux Was Perfect EnoughLinux muscle car

When Linux Was Perfect Enough

By Christine Hall on August 3, 2014 |

Distros, Operating Systems and Software

The other day my colleague, friend and sometimes partner-in-crime, Ken Starks, published an article here on FOSS Force on one of his favorite gripes: things that don’t work right in Linux. This time he was complaining about a font issue in Mint when using KDE. This is nothing new from Ken. In the past he’s written other articles about broken aspects of various Linux distros that never seem to get fixed. It’s his contention that these “small” bugs, which remain unfixed release after release after release, are largely responsible for desktop Linux’s failure to take hold with the general public.

He might be right.

For Christmas I bought my roommate a new second generation Nexus 7 tablet running Android, an OS built around the Linux kernel. It “just worked,” out of the box, with no tweaking necessary. During the last seven months she’s used it for hours daily. As far as I know, she’s found no glitches that require fixing. I’m reasonably certain I’d know if she did, since the main reason I gave her the Nexus to begin with was because I had tired of trying to keep her Windows laptop running to her satisfaction. She has no trouble telling me when her computer goes kaput, and she always wants it fixed right now. Facebook waits for no one, you know.

I point this out because Linux has all but taken over the tablet and phone end of the computing spectrum. Apple makes plenty of money with the iPhone and iPad, but that’s due to their high prices. In market share, they lag far behind Android devices. And Microsoft has proven that Windows isn’t the unbeatable giant it was once thought to be. Even with massive money spent on television ads and conspicuous product placement in nearly every scripted drama on CBS, mobile devices running Windows remain a mere asterisk when looking at market share.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingWhen Linux Was Perfect Enough

It’s Round Two for Raleigh’s ‘All Things Open’ Conference

By Christine Hall on July 28, 2014 |

Business, News and Software

It’s official. The All Things Open (ATO) conference that had it’s inaugural run in Raleigh last year wasn’t just a flash in the pan. As event chair Todd Lewis promised at the end of last year’s event, ATO is returning to the Raleigh Convention Center on October 22nd and 23rd. Again this year, FOSS Force is an official Media Partner of the conference.

During last year’s closing ceremonies, Lewis said he intended to make ATO the premiere open source conference on the East Coast. It appears as if he’s keeping his promise, as this year the conference will feature a greatly expanded schedule, with the number of tracks being increased to ten. Currently there are forty speakers lined-up for presentations, with more to be named soon.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingIt’s Round Two for Raleigh’s ‘All Things Open’ Conference
The Return of a Legend in Her Own MindFOSS Force

The Return of a Legend in Her Own Mind

By Christine Hall on July 27, 2014 |

Site News

Maybe you didn’t notice, but I’ve been MIA here at FOSS Force for some time – since the first part of April to be exact. During that time I’ve basically been missing as a writer and editor and other than a couple of much appreciated articles by Ken Starks, FOSS Force has been a silent site.

Without going into too much detail, it started when I fell ill.

Nothing serious, but it zapped me of my energy. I was still able to perform my duties at my “day job” at a local university library, but left me without the energy needed to write and edit the site.

During this period, FOSS Force lost a couple of good volunteer writers who’d written articles for us but which I was unable to edit. Eventually they grew tired of waiting for me to reply to their emails and quit our site. For that, I am most sincerely sorry.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingThe Return of a Legend in Her Own Mind

China Says ‘No’ to Windows 8

By Christine Hall on May 21, 2014 |

Business, News, Operating Systems, Politics and Security

Reuters reported yesterday that the Chinese government has banned the use of Windows 8 on Chinese government computers. According to the official Xinhua news agency, the ban is being put in place by the Central Government Procurement Center primarily over security concerns now that Microsoft has ended support for XP, which is thought to be the most widely used operating system within China. This news has led Forbes to speculate that this may prompt Redmond to continue to support the OS within the People’s Republic.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingChina Says ‘No’ to Windows 8

eBay Hacked – Will Ask Users to Change Passwords

By Christine Hall on May 21, 2014 |

Internet, News and Security

eBay announced this morning that they’ve been hacked and that “encrypted passwords and other non-financial data” have been compromised. They’re expected to begin notifying their customer base later today, which will include a suggestion for users to change their passwords. The company says that PayPal, an eBay subsidiary, uses its own servers and was not affected by the attack.

According to CNET, the first public news of the compromise came by way of a cryptic blog posting by PayPal:

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingeBay Hacked – Will Ask Users to Change Passwords

Poll: You Mainly Use Desktops & Laptops

By Christine Hall on March 27, 2014 |

Hardware and Polls

Desktop wins pollIt’s hard to remember that it wasn’t that long ago that we only had a couple of choices to meet our computing needs. As recently as 2007, the year before Obama was elected, someone looking for a new computer basically could choose between a desktop or a laptop. In mobile, Research In Motion offered the Blackberry, which candidate Obama was famous for using — and still uses.

2007 was the year things began to change. In June of that year, Apple introduced the iPhone and in October Asus released the Eee PC, the first netbook of the modern era. When in October of the following year HTC released the Dream, the first handset running Android, it became obvious that consumer computing space had been forever changed. Less than two years later Apple released the iPad which was quickly followed by tablets running Android.

The introduction of the modern generation of tablets, which were highly capable and easy to use, had an immediate effect on sales of traditional desktops and laptops, leading some tech writers to proclaim that the age of the desktop was over and that desktop computers were on their way out. This wasn’t true, of course. We were just experiencing what the Wall Street types call a “market correction.”

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingPoll: You Mainly Use Desktops & Laptops
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