Good news, there is a new article up in the Library! I have posted a Solaris reference that covers lots of common basic tasks that new system administrators look to do, and us old system administrators lookup to remember how to do! I’ll be adding more and revising as time goes on, so check it out and see what you think. Enjoy!
Trying to understand Sony’s rootkit
I for one used to be a huge Sony fan. I loved their electronic products, and I was a big fan of their games (EQ, SWG, etc.). However, between what they didn’t to the players of their games, treating us like cattle or morons or something and what they did to people who bought their music CD’s, they lost favor with me and now I avoid Sony like the plague. For anyone who has been sleeping under a rock for the last few years, Sony put a software rootkit on their music CD’s, so if you popped that sucker into your computer, it infected your computer and spied on you. All in the name of DMCA and anti-piracy. Well, there is an article over at ars technica about it, examining what lead to it all. It’s an interesting read, check it out.
From the article:
“In a new paper examining the Sony BMG rootkit fiasco, a pair of lawyers argue that the music company didn’t just damage itself—it unwittingly struck a blow against DRM in general.”
Free Windows! What? A catch? Naaah
Ok, it appears that Microsoft is giving away Vista Ultimate, Office and other software. No, really, for free. You just have to let them monitor what you do with it! Um … I don’t think so, thanks for the offer but I’ll just go download Ubuntu.
Sun Microsystems Opens the T2
Sun Microsystems is a great company anyway, they make outstanding hardware and deliver a rock solid operating system. Add to that all of the stuff they open source to the public and it just gets better. Now they have announced that their latest chip, the T2 or Niagra 2 has also been open sourced. This means that anyone can get the code, plans, schematics, etc. and make their own … for free. Think about that for a second. Let’s say you are a device maker, some mobile gadget, and you need a CPU to work with. Would you rather use something like the T2, which is unmatched in capabilities for free? Or pay a few million for an Itanium chip? Yeah, me too. I’ll take the Sun chip and run before they change their mind. They have opened other chips too, like the T1, and software like Java and Solaris. Good stuff as far as I am concerned.
The U.S. Army is expanding it’s use of Video Games
I am sure that any game playing geek out there has heard of, if not played America’s Army. This was the FPS put out by the Army about five years ago. It has been so popular that it seems the Army is looking to use video games even more for training and other purposes. It’s about time someone decided to tap this gold mine!
This can’t be good
Anyone that reads much on this site will see a theme in many of my posts and articles, where I stress security quite a bit. Here is a prime example of security being the job of everyone, users and system administrators alike. Here is a snippet of an article from ars technica:
“Hackers successfully infiltrated Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL),
one of the nation’s leading military research facilities. The attackers
gained access by sending e-mails infected with trojan horses to ORNL
employees. The lab claims that no classified information was retrieved,
but admits that the perpetrators managed to acquire a database
containing personal information about ORNL visitors and employees,
including Social Security numbers.”
Yikes! Read more about it …