Our life is what we are imaging it to be, here is an atom of our imagination…
right from the source
21
Apr 07
Hacker Broke into a Mac
A hacker managed to break into a Mac and win a $10,000 prize as part of a contest started at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver.
In winning the contest, he exposed a hole in Safari, Apple’s browser. "Currently, every copy of OS X out there now is vulnerable to this," said Sean Comeau, one of the organizers of CanSecWest.
The conference organizers decided to offer the contest in part to draw attention to possible security shortcomings in Macs. "You see a lot of people running OS X saying it’s so secure, and frankly, Microsoft is putting more work into security than Apple has," said Dragos Ruiu, the principal organizer of security conferences including CanSecWest.
Dino Di Zovie, who lives in New York, sent along a URL that exposed the hole. Because the contest was only open to attendees in Vancouver, he sent it to a friend who was at the conference and forwarded it on.
The URL opened a blank page but exposed a vulnerability in input handling in Safari, Comeau said. An attacker could use the vulnerability in a number of ways, but Di Zovie used it to open a back door that gave him access to anything on the computer, Comeau said.
The vulnerability won’t be published. 3Com’s TippingPoint division, which put up the cash prize, will handle disclosing it to Apple.
One reason Macs haven’t been much of a target for hackers is that there are fewer to attack, said Terri Forslof, manager of security response for TippingPoint. "It’s an incentive issue. The Mac is not as widely deployed of a platform as, say, Windows," she said. In this case, the cash may have provided motivation.
Was it a coincidence that on late Thursday Apple released a patch for 25 vulnerabilities in OS X? :)
19
Apr 07
Michael Dell uses Ubuntu on his Home Laptop
What kind of laptop does Michael Dell use at home? See for yourself. This is the laptop and peripherals Michael is using right now.
Hardware:
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Software:
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Just another laptop – right? Not quite – check out the Operating System that is installed on Michael Dell’s laptop – it is newest version of Ubuntu, 7.04 Feisty Fawn. This is no Vista, not even Windows XP – it’s Linux! If Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of the #1 Laptop/PC market player Dell Inc., is using Linux, then what are you, my dear reader, planning to use within next 5 years?
The only answer that is not "Linux" would be "Mac", but hey, OS/X is FreeBSD 5 (the process model, network stack, and virtual file system) which is Unix :)
to see the full list of computers (including the above) that Mr. Dell uses go to dell’s official site
18
Apr 07
Ubuntu Feisty Parties all over the World
According to Ubuntu once Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) is out, there will be plenty to celebrate, whether you were directly involved the release process or just rejoice because the next iteration of the best distribution is finally out.
April 19, 2007 is the tentative date for Ubuntu 7.04. Many parties will be on this date, or you can pick your own date! Go ahead and put down your favorite pub, park or cafe and celebrate getting Feisty out of the door!
get it while its hot :)
Come and join Ubuntu parties all over the Globe! The schedule of already "Confirmed Parties" are here.
picture’s source
18
Apr 07
Firefox Rise – IExplorer Dies
According to xitimonitor Firefox is getting 25% share in Europe. That is a huge deal – now every 4th European uses Firefox to browse the www. Here is a chart that shows European Firefox usage per country:
Besides Europe, Firefox wheels spin all over the World, for example in US over 15% of users use Firefox, for Australia it is 25%, almost 12% in South America, over 13% in Africa and around 12% in Asia. Here is a snapshot:
There are three more factors that play in favor to Firefox:
- Everybody wants MAC :)
- Ubuntu is getting very popular
- Vista is not exactly going anywhere, while XP is going, but mostly going down
For somebody who does not do any web development and uses Microsoft Windows products (XP, Vista – well who uses Vista anyway.. ), this may not sound like great news, but for everybody else it is a pleasant "turn around", and it is going towards:
- Much better browsing experience for people with MAC, Linux, and other non-M$ OSs
- No more optimizing for IE, including those ugly JavaScript if(IE)/switch(OS) statements, and different CSS
Yes, the idea is that Internet Explorer will die out the same way it was born – along with Windows
It will not happen overnight or tomorrow, but it is already happening today…