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Information Salad: Episode #17

By Slobokan | November 6, 2006

More geek news this week, with talk about Ubuntu 6.10, Firefox 2.0, and Microsoft changing the licensing structure for Vista. We touch on a few political topics as well.

Here’s what we tossed up this week:

Vinny talks about Nanowrimo.
Slobokan talks about problems with Ubuntu 6.10.
Vinny talks about issues with the Google Toolbar and Firefox 2.0.
Virus Disables Windows Firewall

Hackers have published code that could let an attacker disable the Windows Firewall on certain Windows XP machines.

The code, which was posted on the Internet early Sunday morning, could be used to disable the Windows Firewall on a fully patched Windows XP PC that was running Windows’ Internet Connection Service (ICS).

…

The attacker could send a malicious data packet to another PC using ICS that would cause the service to terminate. Because this service is connected to the Windows firewall, this packet would also cause the firewall to stop working

Oh yeah, but only if…

the attacker would have to be within the LAN in order to make the attack work, and, of course, it would only work on systems using ICS, which is disabled by default. Furthermore, the attack would have no effect on any third-party firewall being used by the PC
Windows Vista now supports moving from machine to machine.
Vinny is testing Second Rate Hosting and our “high traffic” customer, Flopping Aces.
Texas Border Watch Test Site

As part of the Virtual Neighborhood Border Watch Program, the State of Texas has been testing video surveillance cameras in different environments along the 1240 miles of Texas/Mexico border using the internet to transmit the images. The last stage of the test is to stress the system by providing public access to eight surveillance cameras.

I think it’s safe to say the system is “stressed”, I haven’t been able to view a camera all day.
We have some fun with statistics, in reference to John Kerry’s statements from 1972 and again this week.
We discuss the NY Times article and their admission that Saddam had a nuclear weapons program.
We both highly recommend GMail for Mobile.
We talk about reality shows, Amazing Race, Survivor, Heroes, 6 Degrees.
NASCAR: Robby Gordon Penalized

Gordon, who owns his own race team, was docked 50 driver points and 50 car owner points, and fined $15,000 for throwing a piece of roll bar padding onto the track during Sunday’s race at Atlanta.