Monthly Archives: September 2009

Who’s the biggest open-source company?

Answer: Google. Conservatives estimates point that Google has released over 14 million lines of code. Compared to other projects, Google comes out on top. The Linux kernel contains 11.5 millions of code. Java has 6.5 million. IBM Eclipse has over 12.5 million. Google also makes contribution of its open-source code online as well as involving students in the Google Summer of Code.

WPA Cracked In 60 Seconds

If you have a wireless access point router at home, most of us do, you might want to review your wireless setup. It’s a well-known fact that WEP is insecure. Most of us, are now using WPA. I hope you are. But, don’t get too comfortable. Now, security experts are saying that WPA encryption can be cracked in less than a minute. The Temporal Key Integrity Protocol or TKIP algorithm is the culprit. If you have a wireless router, first, make sure you are not using WEP. Second, when you do use WPA, make sure you don’t use WPA TKIP. Use WPA AES or the new WPA2 settings. Article.

Windows 7 Student Price $30

Microsoft has set the price of Windows 7 Home Premium for students at $30. Does that mean everyone is a student? Well, you need to be an enrolled student with a college or university email address. Microsoft may require proof of enrollment. Not sure how they will enforce it. Nevertheless, it’s a deep discount compared to the $199 price tag for the Home Premium for every one else. Complete Windows 7 Pricing. Article.

Automate WordPress Backup

Hackers are increasingly attacking WordPress blogs. It’s always good advise to stay current with the latest WordPress releases. If you are worried about losing valuable blog data, consider automating your backups. In addition, you can send the backup data to yourself via email. WP-DB-Backup is plugin that does just that. It will perform automated backups of your database, based on your preference, whether it’s daily, weekly, monthly. You can setup the plugin to email it to you every time it performs a backup. Start automating your backups now.

50% Return Rate for Blackberry Tour

It seems like RIM hasn’t learned its lessons. The dreaded trackball issue seems to be resurrecting with each passing product. In this case, it’s the Blackberry Tour. Users have been returning the Tour at a high rate, at 50%, due to the trackball being stuck. Users must repeatedly move the trackball cursor to navigate the menu. The problem is similar to the old mouse with trackball and rollers. The trackball collects dirt and deposits them on the rollers. When the rollers can no longer move, then the menu becomes inoperable. This can be easily fixed by opening the trackball assembly and cleaning it with a cotton swab. After a few of these, then you begin to see for yourself the frustrations of the customers. It’s no coincidence that there is a high rate of return for this product. Read article.

Miguel de Icaza vs Richard Stallman

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumble! In the blue corner, we have Miguel de Icaza, Vice President of Developer Platform for Novell and started the Gnome and Mono projects. In the red corner, we have Richard Stallman, software freedom activist, hacker, and software developer. Stallman pioneered copyleft and spent most of his life advocating free software.

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Linux Load Balancers

If you’re looking for load balancers, consider a total Linux solution. You’ll have several options to choose from, and not only that, they are all open-source. Tech from Bohol gives us a list of load balancing Linux options we can deploy. The load balancers mentioned support any service like HTTP, FTP, HTTP, DNS, SMTP, POP/IMAP and VoIP. Read the article.