Back when I was in school teachers would always scare me with stories of how my exploits would end up in my permanent record. I believe this is it! – Geoff Fox
The site is still down as I write this! Why? I could have gone to Best Buy, picked up a new PC, loaded a “LAMP” suite (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) and restored from a backup hours ago.
A little before 2:00 AM 1and1.com finally responded to my “website down” complaint.
Thank you for contacting us.
We do apologize for the inconvenience.
Currently the server on where your sites are hosted is down and that is the main reason you couldn’t pull up your site. Our admins are now working on it right now to fix the problem in the fastest time possible.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
—
Sincerely,
Christian Rey Tanilong
Technical Support
1&1 Internet
The site is still down as I write this! Why? I could have gone to Best Buy, picked up a new PC, loaded a “LAMP” suite (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) and restored from a backup hours ago.
If it goes much longer, replace Best Buy with mail order from NewEgg.
I read a lot last week about Google’s new mobile phone initiative – Android. It’s not an actual phone, that much is perfectly clear. Instead, phones will be built on Android.
Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications.
My current Samsung Blackjack runs on Windows Mobile 5. Android would perform that same function. There are many similar, though different, phones using WM5. I expect the same thing with Android.
Does the world need another mobile platform? Maybe not. But what makes Android so exciting and different is, it’s open source. That puts it in the same category as Linux, MySQL and Apache¹.
In a video (see below), Google co-founder Sergey Brin makes it perfectly clear he wants Android to be supported by the same type of free software tools he used to get Google going! This time, in his role as super rich guy, he gets to be the one who pays to have them developed, then set free.
To that end, the Android SDK (Software Developers Kit) is open and free. The SDK is the tool with which Android applications will be developed. SDKs for platforms are pretty commonplace. Having them be open and free is not.
Finally, Google has offered a $10,000,000 bounty for Android software developers. That might not be enough to excite Microsoft or Motorola, but it will spark many propeller head geeks into action. That’s big money if you can write a killer app all by yourself, or in a small partnership.
This open source phone talk can’t be pleasing my cell carrier, at&t, or any of the other incumbent carriers. Their business model is predicated on control of both the network and the hardware you buy. Right now, they decide what you phone can do, not you.
Understand, this isn’t a perfect solution. Free and open software can lead to ‘crashed’ cellphones, with no one to take responsibility. Still, it’s a very exciting concept.
My limited time with the Blackjack has shown me the potential in the mobile platform. We’re barely out of the stone age. My hope is, Android takes it to the next step.
For someone like me, who still fancies himself a bit of a hacker, it’s pretty exciting. There’s a lot of upside potential here. This is actually better than if Google had just gone ahead and announced a phone!
¹ – Even if Linux, MySQL and Apache mean nothing to you, understand that much of the Internet would stop running immediately without them! That includes Google, EBay, and a gaziilion other sites… including geofffox.com
Some Microsoft webservers have been infected with a strange virus that infects user’s computers. It’s really dastardly because this can happen on well known, well respected sites where you’d never expect trouble.. Even though the threat from this particular exploit is now virtually nil (the website which was to receive the purloined info has been closed), it will definitely be the first of many similar attacks.
It’s just too lucrative a move for hungry thieves to avoid!
Just in case you’re worried, you should know it can’t happen here. This is an Apache webserver running on a Linux PC. The exploit needs Microsoft IIS servers.
However, this just continues to point out how vulnerable Internet Explorer is. The virus is passed along to individuals through IE.
Last night I downloaded Foxfire, a browser from Mozillla which can replace Internet Explorer. I guess it’s time to make the switch… while I still can.