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FOSS Force

Yet Another Windows Security Fail

Windows logoWe might as well start with the moral of this story: Don’t protect Windows with Windows.

For at least a decade, Microsoft has been chanting the mantra, “at Microsoft security is job one,” over and over and over. During this time, it’s repeated this mantra often enough to convince a lot of people that Windows is much safer than it once was, which I suppose is true since it couldn’t have gotten much worse. However, a new report from AV-Test proves the company isn’t yet ready to move up to the next mantra level and begin chanting, “at Microsoft we do security right,” because clearly it doesn’t.

Ubuntu on a Stick, Cascadia’s Best & More…

FOSS Week in Review

antiX logoIt inspires awe how quickly Friday comes along — one minute I’m talking stories for publication with my colleagues Ken Starks and Christine Hall, and the next thing I know, deadlines are poking me in the shoulder and saying, “Well…?”

So while I am reminded by my astute daughter that pirates, too, would also prefer to program in C because, well, that’s where they sail (thank you, Mimi), let’s take a look at the week in FOSS.

Looking at the Cracker Hacker Economy

Today I spent some time looking at a white paper issued by the security firm Symantec called Website Security Threat Report, which is basically a catalog of malware threats for the non-techie suits who control the purse strings for web facing server deployments — sort of a “here boss, this is why we have to spend so much money on security” type of thing. Most of it’s old news to those of us who, for whatever reason, follow tech news, but some of the trends noted by the folks at Symantec are interesting enough.

As a matter of fact, there’s a bit of sobering news for sites like FOSS Force, as again in 2014, technology sites top the list of the type of sites most likely to be exploited by cracker hackers, with the number on the rise. According to Symantec, last year tech sites represented 21.5 percent of sites infected by malware, up from 9.9 percent in 2013. Even more disturbing is that number two on this list are hosting sites, up from the number three position in 2013, with 7.3 percent of malware infected sites.

R, Matey: Hoisting the Sails for a Programming Language

One of the several privileges of fatherhood — maybe it’s a duty, I’ll have to check — is that you have opportunities to torture your children with bad jokes. I am proud to say I have not failed in my parental role in that endeavor — ask my daughter — and whenever the letter R comes up, it is usually quick to be followed by a pirate reference. The R programming language, which runs on a variety of platforms and architectures, is no exception.

R programming language logo
So, what’s a pirate’s favorite programming…oh, never mind.
Jokes like this, in your best pirate voice: Avast, matey, what be a pirate’s favorite programmin’ language?

R (of course, you have to extend it out, like “Arrrrrrrrrrrr” or it won’t make sense).

June’s Top Ten

These are the ten most read articles on FOSS Force for the month of June, 2015.

1. SourceForge Not Making A Graceful Exit by Christine Hall. Published June 11, 2015. We look at why many well known FOSS projects are fleeing a once popular code repository, and what this means for its future.

2. A Look at Mageia 5’s Magic by Christine Hall. Published June 22, 2015. A first look at Mageia latest and greatest release, and putting this release in historical context.

Limit Your Linux Super Powers With su & sudo

I recently offered some security tips aimed at new system administrators. And hey, the home users among you should take note, after all, you’re the administrator of your home system! One of the tips was “Don’t run as root.” Today I would like to expand on that a bit. First, we’ll take a look at why you should limit the use of your super powers. Then we’ll look at the best ways to use su and sudo to help you limit your risks.

Linux: Boldly Going Where We’ve Not Gone Before

I wasn’t in search of a hero when I found him.

Burt Rutan signed autographs on that blistering hot June day in the Mojave desert. His collection of engineers, scientists and “enterprise rouges” shouldered their way into front page news. SpaceShipOne had just become the first civilian aircraft/spacecraft to carry the first civilian pilot into space. His pilot for that epic flight into space, Mike Melvill, was the first recognized and licensed space pilot on the planet. How about that as “your most shining achievement” on a future resume? Burt Ratan and his company, Applied Composites, took home the ten million dollar prize offered by SpaceX. They fulfilled all of the requirements, to include everyone being alive upon landing.

Mike Melville & Burt Ratan
Mike Melvill and Burt Rutan speak to the media after SpaceShipOne’s first flight into Space. Photo by Don Logan
Yeah, I believe that stipulation was hard-coded into the contest’s requirements. Everyone gets a hero’s parade, not a solemn funeral procession.

I was a member of the crowd that gathered in the high country desert for the flight and the homecoming of SpaceShipOne. We planned our trip in order to be early. We were sure that a couple of hundred people would show up for this history-in-the-making event.

ATO Opens Reg – Releases Partial Speakers List

All Things Open 2015
“I’m trying to get to Raleigh — how far are you headed?”
The All Things Open conference today pushed out a notification to recipients on its mailing list announcing that registration for the event, slated for October 19th and 20th. has begun. For the first time ever, event organizers are offering something of a super early bird special: Buy a ticket before July 7th and get admission for both days for only $99 — which is a deal since that’s what a single day will cost once the Early Bird Special kicks-in next Tuesday.

Is Google the New Microsoft?

Now that Microsoft has been pretty much neutralized as a threat, who’s next on the list to be free tech’s “public enemy number one?”

Oracle? While it’s true that the company is more thuggish than Redmond ever dreamed of being, Oracle has never really been a threat to anyone but the database and high finance crowds. Also, the company’s recent financials indicate the company, like Microsoft, isn’t what it used to be.

Google logoApple? So long as it continues to be an overpriced walled garden, it’s not likely to pose much of a threat. It’ll always be held in disdain by free tech folks, but always in the number two position because it’s easily ignored.

My guess is that the company poised to win the most-hated-in-free-tech prize is Google.

Red Hat, Samsung Team Up; TXLF Names Keynoter, and More

FOSS Week in Review

It’s been a busy week for those in the FOSS realm — from sea-to-shining-sea, and even down South — with the Red Hat Summit going on in Boston, with Open Source Bridge in Portland, Oregon, and with preparations being finalized for the upcoming Texas Linux Fest in two months, among other things.

Let’s take these one at a time, shall we?

Red Hat logoRed Hat, Samsung Team Up: While there has been a lot of oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over what’s been coming out of the Red Hat Summit in Boston this week, probably the most intriguing news to come out of the proceedings is that Red Hat and Samsung Electronics America “announced a strategic alliance to deliver the next generation of mobile solutions for the enterprise,” according to Red Hat’s PR department.

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