Windows VISTA newly-revised retail license

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/11/02/news-revision-to-windows-vista-retail-licensing-terms.aspx

 

Microsoft has revised its Vista retail license in a good way. please check it out.

 

 

 

-Nex6

Microsoft vs "the Others"

On every Blog, Forum and Tech/Geek site you find the many fractions
of geekdom fighting it out. MS this, Linux that. freeBSD this etc......

Sure I like "free" software as much or more then the next person and as a professional geek
I have greater need the most. But I also realize that Microsoft's place in the ecosystem is ensured.

Windows, and Microsoft will not ever go away, Microsoft Office and its sister applications will not go away. It much better to learn to integrate these systems. To: use the best tool for the job, period.

I admin, and develop Windows and Linux stuff. and I find, that in some or even many cases. a well Nix steeped person
is almost a rookie when it comes to how to admin/dev on the windows side.(and sometimes the reverse is true) they also tend to compare modern Nix to old style win98/NT technologys. (had a redhat demo really happened)

and I see this online line and at LUG meetings all the time, if i say i have x app that cant be ported to Linux. the asnwer
will come back it could be rewritten. I know their are many ways to skin a cat. but sheesh, and its even worse
online.

even within the Linux/BSD communities themselves you can see it. where you have debian users and Redhat/Suse users saying stuff about each other tho that's very very minor compared to the MS vs Nix stuff.

Going forward, I see .NET, C# and WPF/E playing a big part of the IT future on both windows and Linux as these are all standards
and MS is developing a MacOSX version of WPF/E and is going a farm out the Linux version and allow it to happen. (so i hear via channel9 )

which is a good thing.

I think as all the web services and technology's mature they will be better support on all platforms.

not that i see Java, and or LAMP stuff going away......



just something to think about.




-Nex6

Microsoft Office and Fat client Office installs

There is a decent article:

here

Where as the Arthur makes some decent points about a web based office suite replacing
MS office or any fat client local install of an Office application.

I don't think local installs of office software will disappear anytime soon. I think, they will augment, even supplement Office installs
but not replace. I think Office software integrated into a web based service is inevitable. Where as you write your documents local and sysnc them to a webservice. Where you can sync or open them from any NET connnected computer or device.

This model is far more likly and makes far more sense. Sure web based stuff like googles will be arround and be used for some stuff but:
Office software both Microsofts and others will be arround for the long haul.



-Nex6

Apple + Sun

http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Sun_Apple_Snapple

 

altho, big mergers and buyouts of this level dont always work. the "buy" company useally gains 

longterm advantages such as technogloys and talent. even patents.

 

that said, I think a apple buying Sun, would be good if steve Jobs headed the new combined

company. steve is a visionary and could make the deal work and keep the new company afloat.

 

apple would gain all the sun engineers and stuff like ZFS, and other sun tech into OSX, and sun would gain all of apple user friendlyness

and marketing knowlege.

 

overall I think it would be good if steve job did it and headed the new company.

 

 

-Nex6 

Sensitive data on laptops

Recently, there have been many laptop thefts with huge amounts of data
on them. like the VA laptop with like 26 million records.

People just don't realize that laptop thefts can and do happen. and that
the data on it is far more valuable then the laptop itself. Granted
most of the time laptops are stolen just for the hardware itself.

but: Once the laptop is stolen weather or not they access the data or not
it still is huge. people need to take responsibility for not only the data on there laptops
but for the laptops themselfs. people need to be very careful with laptops like:

*never leave unattended
*get a strong 3rd party crypto for data
-->* windows EFS is very weak and easly gotten arround



-Nex6

Future and economys

As I sit here the china president just visited bill gates on his way into see president bush.

and I can't help but think: That we are entering a new stage where globalization and where everything

is connected to everything.  And as nano technologys and genitics combined for some real and major changes

in our everyday life.

 

and if we look back 25 years to  say 1980  and compare the progress we have made. now,  technoloy builds apon itself and moves at faster rates. so what took us the last 25 years we will be able to do in the next twelve. so our progress (in 25 years) should be about the same as our progress in the last 50 (1955). so now you see my point, we will have major changes both economic and social.

 

-Nex6

 

More on Crypto

I am a firm believer of using crypto and having good backups.  I think, crypto with  digital signatures
adds a strong layer to any security model, and even for the home user protects you from basic things like
identity theft.

And by using crypto for things like Email it makes sure only the person whom it was intended reads it.
becuase anything that goes across the 'net' is unencrypted by default.

and, if you have a laptop and you lose it or it gets stolen.  all your data is protected becuase you have strong crypto
so noone can get your data(use strong passphrase).


RSA FAQ ->http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2152

-Nex6

Encrypting data and Kremlin

If you use a laptop, you should really really encrypt all your valuable data on your computer.

and should make it a good practice to do it on all the computers you use.

 

with the rise of identity theft, and stolen data. The only real defence is encryption (in addition to all the good security practices)

 

and on that note:

 

with Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP pro. you have 'EFS' which is  build in crypto. With Windows 2000

based EFS being very weak and breakable. Windows XP pro SP2 based EFS configured correctly (no local recovery agent) is pretty secure. but has limitations and weakness's.

 

other then windows based EFS you have 3 basic choices:

 

Kremlin ->http://www.kremlinencrypt.com/

PGP -->http://www.pgp.com/

GPG -->http://www.gnupg.org/

 

 

with GPG being an an open source version of pgp and is a command line version with some Gui front ends and plug ins. it cipher strength is generally weaker then pgp and kremlin.

 

Kremlin crypto strength is very strong symmetric crypto and is what is considered "Military grade" with the added bonus's of a secure text writer, and a security  "sentry" that secure deletes, wipes free memory and free hard drive space etc.

 

PGP is asymmetric and is based on the openPGP protocal is pretty secure and is also feature rich.

 

 

 

 

-Nex6

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellowstone Volcano Grows as Geysers Reawaken

wow, watch a movie will come out next year about this. hehe

Microsft Security advisory posted, and RSA thoughts.

title says it all, but its non security and contains all the recent internet explorer updates.

Hiring Is Up in Silicon Valley for High-Skill Jobs

Well, looks like things are getting better for some of our brothers and sisters.

chance to crack unbroken Nazi Enigma ciphers

Pretty cool, stuff crack old codes with your old idle PC's

Microsoft’s ‘Origami’

Microsofts about to release a new "device" stay tuned....

Enzyme Computer KurzweilAI.net

Very cool, this kind of technology combined with nono and DNA research could very well change our
everyday lives.


-Nex6

Yahoo! Search - Web Search

Yahoo's basic search page very google esk... i like it. much better then there portal
for search at yahoo.



-Nex6

IEBlog : Internet Explorer Administration Kit and Group Policy in IE7

I link, to the Microsoft internet explorers team: about IE7 and the IE7 eask and gpo stuff.

some good stuff in there.


-Nex6

Official Google Blog: And now, News

Google takes google news out of beta, woo hoo. hopefully more google stuff comes out of beta.


-Nex6

mental

You sit in the shadow following your instinct. Command after command,  coding line after line.

you sit halfway between the shadow and the light. always one side calls, always tempting

 

still, you sit. designing software knowing this code you write, the creation. could and will be used by

millions. yet, as you 'create' others look at you funny, like your not a person. but still you

create code that makes the net go. you sit in your own personal shadow always creating always

there remains the the aspect of mental warrior and the war of light and darkness.

 

 

-Nex6 

Internet Communications and convergence

Email Instant Messaging, chat etc all all converging in a  Communications medium. which will end up

more and more unified. we will start to see it with the new gmail with intergated chat. 

 

and I am sure Yahoo's next generation Email client will have some of this eventually. This is a natural evolution of this Communication medium.  even blackberrys have gogletalk now,  and most phones have IM and SMS, email etc.

 

we are seeing a convergence of internet Communications. it will only get better...

 

 

 

 

-Nex6

Human 1.0 vs Human 2.0

current humans have been relatively unchanged for over a 1000 years, with the comming of nano technology and Gentics Human 2.0 will emerge. with this "human 2.0"

you will have things like better health, longer life spans, and other things we can only speculate about like intergration with computers.

 

over all the beginnings of Human 2.0 will be within  20 to 30 years, so many of us will see the early part.

 

 

-Nex6

 

mynd

In the depths of our minds we seek freedom from ourselfs. we search, we ponder as there

remains the depth of our knowledge. we seek both the light and the darkness and always

there is the balance. 

 

 

-Nex6