Liberty Systems & Software

Just a quick post today - here's a great article from Cory Doctorow on his computing experiences with Ubuntu and Lenovo ThinkPad X series.

The Register has a review of the Ubuntu 11.04 beta release which suggests there are some rocky times for existing Ubuntu users ahead.  The part the article that stuck out to me reads:

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I has been our privilege at Liberty Systems & Software to support the flood relief efforts of High and Dry Computers 4 U, a volunteer effort to provide computers for those affected by floods in the Ipswich area who are least able to provide them for themselves. Our thanks go to Redlands College, who provided a number of systems for us to refurbish and donate to the flood relief effort. We recently received the attached letter of thanks to all involved.

I happened across this post on Infoworld today which is more than a year old, but still highly relevant to many organisations.  The con that is cloud computing will continue to take over traditional IT departments until organisations realise the foolishness of making IT just a service provider to "internal customers" (that's an oxymoron if ever i've heard one).

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Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has some interesting comments on the repercussions of Apple's iPad.  What seems ironic to me is that when Palm stopped innovating (shortly after their announcement that they were switching to Linux), the PDA market virtually died - smartphones virtually chewed up the market overnight.  Now, as a spinoff of Apple's entry into the smartphone market, the PDA market looks set to revive.

Richard Bliss recently blogged at Novell and on his personal blog with some great advice: don't click on e-cards from your friends, and think about asking them not to send them at all, since the risks of clicking on e-cards vastly outweigh the benefits....

Dave Rosenberg at cnet has pointed out that Apple junkies don't have a monopoly on crack-head fanboyism: Microsoft's video on how to host your Windows 7 launch party breaks new ground in this area. This makes us Linux fans seem positively normal in comparison! :-)

cnet has a really interesting article about a clever trojan horse application which steals money from online banking accounts while the user is logged into them, and displays false balance details to the user so they don't know what's going on. Currently it only affects Windows users. Check your balances regularly from multiple different platforms (including your bank's ATMs).

Network world and SANS are reporting a new attack on wireless encryption, specifically, WPA with TKIP. The attack takes 60 seconds, and renders this combination almost as useless as WEP has been for some time. It's time to check your security settings, and if necessary, upgrade or replace your wireless routers.

ABC's Four Corners has an interesting episode about cybercrime and how it can affect ordinary people. Check it out on iView: http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/419222. (The program's victims were a little unsympathetic in my opinion, but they remain good examples of people who have been victimised by cybercriminals.)

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