Posts by Kevin Davidson 22 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Jul 2009
Next week do we find out how to set up either ActiveSync or Apple Push Notification support so mobile devices (which are now the most common way to check email) don't drain battery by fruitlessly polling every few minutes? Keen to know how you can do that on OpenBSD with free software... (AFAIK you can't - Zimbra, Kerio, OpenXchange etc all have costs for ActiveSync licensing)
Doesn't really help. If people who know you have a Facebook account, then you'll already have a hidden shadow profile populated with most of your personal and contact data. That seems like more of a problem - there's no mechanism for checking this, correcting it or deleting it.
And it will get updated with every web page you view that has a Facebook widget.
Surely the only people with any interest in this will be enterprises deeply wedded to Exchange.
But their existing MDM will configure the built-in Mail, Contacts and Calendar apps. They won't be able to use this Outlook connection to remotely enforce security policies or remotely wipe/lock devices through Exchange either. Outlook will be sandboxed like any other app.
Baffling waste of engineering effort just to keep marketing happy.
The only devices that can't be upgraded to at least iOS 6 are the original iPhone and iPhone 3G or the original iPad or 3rd gen iPod touch.
All other iPhones (3GS, 4, 4s, 5, 5c, 5s) and all iPads (2 onwards) and all iPods (4th gen onwards) will work just fine. Who can afford a Sonos system but is still using a 5 year old iPhone?
There are some assumptions here that need some justification. For example "If we have no protection of originality, then we get too little innovation." If that's the case, please explain the success of the fashion industry and the ubiquity of celebrity chefs - fashion and recipes are two things that have no "intellectual property" rights protecting them, yet they continue to support huge industries. There's no sign that people have stopped designing new clothes and new ways of decorating our bodies (there never has - do we still wear animal skins?) or thinking up new ways of combining foods.
And what about the near certainty that several people will have a similar idea at the same time (because they're all building on others ideas at the same time - nobody lives in a bubble). Someone gets to "own" an idea that someone else laboured over independently. That's a sensible system that rewards inventors?
The idea that people will stop having creative ideas because they can't stop someone else using them for 15 years (or for 70 years after they have died) is laughably untrue.
All patents have ever done is slow innovation down and hold us back. Or generate money for patent lawyers.
Pure FUD. Both Linux and Mac can authenticate just fine against AD.
And if you want further control over Macs you can use either Managed Preferences (by extending your AD schema to include the missing fields required or by using an Open Directory/Acitve Directory Magic Triangle). This is all well used and documented. Or use the Profile Manager (which will manage your iOS devices as well).
See, this is part of the confusion. Windows RT *does* have the Windows 7 desktop, just like the full grown Win 8. It's needed because the embedded Office is just the same Office you'll get on a desktop; designed for a mouse and keyboard with a tiny smattering of touch-enabled menus.
I predict punters tearing their hair out in rage and confusion.
I've seen it claimed that the published list is a deduped subset. It seems unlikely that the passwords were stored one place and the usernames/email addresses somewhere else with stronger protection, so assume that the hackers have a complete list of email/password tuples.
Also, as there's no word on *how* the data got out and now LinkedIn are asking the FBI for help it looks like the hackers may still have complete freedom to download fresh copies of the passwords whenever they want. So be prepared to change your password again after the hole is finally closed.
All they had to do was plug in an external hard disk, say "Yes" when asked about using it for backups and hourly incremental backups would have started immediately. Just leave the disk locked in a drawer at work or home.
What a clueless clown.
That's on top of whatever the IT department were doing to ensure all users data is backed up...
1st choice RAIDZ2 or at least RAIDZ. Yes, with a Z - ZFS.
2nd choice RAID10
3rd choice RAID6, but that's assuming you're not running any databases, in which case you only get the first two choices.
SMART, BTW, is pish. It will very rarely warn you of impending failures.
There are dozens of Exchange replacements thts not only work with Outlook, but support open standards such as CalDAV, CardDAV etc so work out of the box with Linux and Apple clients, as well as smart phones. Most have ActiveSync support for iPhones, Android, WinMo, Nokia even BlackBerry (third party ActiveSync client required).
Try Scalix, Kerio, Zimbra, Open-xchange for starters.
The clue is in the text "cattle feed". Cows are supposed to eat grass, not expensive and wasteful to grow grain which is what US farmers give their cattle. They'd do better eating their natural food instead (and yes, that includes growing better). Stupid. I take it this guy's patenting the idea to sell even more expensive cattle feed paid for by govt subsidies?
There are endless studies (that I can't be bothered googling for you) that show regular forced password changes are stupid. You are actually forcing your users to come up with a predictable scheme or write it down. Let them choose a strong password with mixed case, punctuation and numbers that they can remember without writing it down.
More ill informed nonsense from the Apple haters. Android is just as bad - try tampering with your Motorola Droid and it will detect that and brick itself. Android is not open for end users, only for manufacturers. And with malware appearing the manufacturers will work harder to lock them down, when they're not conspiring to push out Vodafone branded nonsense.
You may want to recalculate including the number of times AV signature updates have wrongly identified Windows system files or third party software as malware and crippled PCs all over the world. Or the hours of productivity lost as your AV software gobbles up CPU time. Or the regular uninstalling, reinstalling and babysitting Norton needs just to allow your computer to work without it randomly crapping out and blocking all your email or preventing VPN connections.
And how much time would be lost reimaging a Mac using NetRestore or Deploy Studio or even a Time Machine backup?
Not saying don't run AV software, but be aware it has real costs. And they don't work - you can bet the vxers test their viruses against the latest AV software so there is a guaranteed window between release and signature updates when that virus will spread and infect computers.
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