Month: March 2005

IT Publication Hall of Shame

After reading Blake’s entry about Foxfire, I did a little bit of Googling and found the following two articles from respected (no longer) publications: Infoworld: Foxfire gets patches eWeek: Mozilla is Dead; Long Live Mozilla, which contains the following gem: Given the group’s resources, I think that was probably the right move. And, back in … Continue reading “IT Publication Hall of Shame”

After reading Blake’s entry about Foxfire, I did a little bit of Googling and found the following two articles from respected (no longer) publications:

Infoworld: Foxfire gets patches

eWeek: Mozilla is Dead; Long Live Mozilla, which contains the following gem:

Given the group’s resources, I think that was probably the right move. And, back in November, Baker made it clear that Foxfire and Thunderbird would be on the front burner, but sudden shifts like this one make me wonder about Mozilla’s long-term planning and management.

Can you say dyslexic? Personally, I think the name is fine. If there are people around who can’t remember a simple name, chances are that they won’t be able to figure out tabbed browsing either.

SMS.ac are Knavish Spammers

I recently found out (somewhat belatedly, I know) that the SMS.ac service (for which many of you will have already received “invitations”, and a few of you may have already signed up for) is a scam. I advise those who have already signed up to keep a close watch on their mobile phone bill and … Continue reading “SMS.ac are Knavish Spammers”

I recently found out (somewhat belatedly, I know) that the SMS.ac service (for which many of you will have already received “invitations”, and a few of you may have already signed up for) is a scam. I advise those who have already signed up to keep a close watch on their mobile phone bill and their email account (especially if it is a Hotmail email account). I will explain how the scam works below:

During sign up, the user is presented a notice that mentions that they should “Use your Hotmail email for best results!”. If the user enters a Hotmail address at this stage, later they will be explicitly asked for their Hotmail login information. If provided, using this login information, by default, the SMS.ac site will log into your Hotmail account, download your entire addressbook, and begin spamming each of the people listed in your addressbook multiple times, asking them to sign up for this “service”.

A potentially worse effect is that if you provide them with your mobile phone number, they may begin to send you SMS messages which you, as the recipient, will be charged for. This may happen even though you have not provided them credit card information, because during the sign up process you will have (likely unwittingly) agreed to have these messages sent to you and be charged for them by your mobile phone provider.

If you have already signed up for SMS.ac and have provided them with your email password, your first step should be to immediately change that compromised password so that SMS.ac will not continue to have access to your email account.

Second, if you have signed up for their SMS “services”, I recommend that you cancel your account with SMS.ac immediately and scrutinise your mobile phone bill at the end of the month for any unexpected charges.

If you have not yet signed up for SMS.ac, then you can prevent being affected by deleting all emails from SMS.ac without clicking on any links offered in their emails. If your email provider offers a ‘Mark as Junk/Spam’ option, you may wish to use that instead of doing a regular delete.

There is a wealth of information about SMS.ac online (most of which is rather negative), which you will be able to find using most search engines.

As a general reminder, divulging passwords to any third party website is never a good idea. It is good practice to have unique passwords for services for which security is essential, such as online banking and email. Good passwords are never less than 8 characters long, and there are tools online that will help you to create strong passwords.

UPDATE: SMS.ac is not just reading addressbooks from Hotmail accounts, but also from Gmail and Yahoo! accounts as well! Please don’t encourage this kind of repugnant behaviour by signing up for their “service”.

Computer World HK on Linux and Firefox

Computer World Hong Kong (CWHK) recently ran an article about alternatives to the Microsoft platform, focusing on Linux and Firefox. The article mentions the browser wars and quotes the WebSideStory statistics that we’ve all read so many times. When discussing the adoption of other open source software, it points out that the Singapore Ministry of … Continue reading “Computer World HK on Linux and Firefox”

Computer World Hong Kong (CWHK) recently ran an article about alternatives to the Microsoft platform, focusing on Linux and Firefox.

The article mentions the browser wars and quotes the WebSideStory statistics that we’ve all read so many times. When discussing the adoption of other open source software, it points out that the Singapore Ministry of Defence (MinDef) has already installed OpenOffice on 5,000 desktop machines (20,000 by March 2006), running alongside Office 97. MinDef had this to say about it:

“With our limited budget, we are always exploring opportunities to maximize the value for every dollar spent…We also intend to experiment with Linux desktops, but there are no concrete plans to replace the Microsoft Windows OS on the desktops at this point in time.”

Linux vendors are thrilled at the prospect, and MandrakeSoft’s Francois Bancilhon believes that as soon as customers start using OpenOffice and Mozilla, a switch to Linux is a no-brainer. Microsoft naturally maintains that Windows plus Internet Explorer is more compatible [me: okay, I can give them that], more secure, has a lower TCO, and that Internet Explorer remains the choice [me: emphasis mine] of customers and businesses worldwide.

CWHK examines Linux adoption amongst Hong Kong companies, and talks to Yusuf Goolamabbas of Outblaze, who also happens to be an avid Firefox advocate:

“We started our business in 1998,” said Yusuf Goolamabbas, managing architect for Hong Kong-based outsource-messaging provider Outblaze. “And we’ve been using Linux since Day One.” Goolamabbas noted that at that time, Windows 98 wasn’t suitable for his firm’s needs.

At work, Goolamabbas said that his firm’s engineers use Linux exclusively, while the marketing department uses Windows machines to stay in step with the firm’s 35 million users.

But Goolamabbas uses Red Hat Linux on his desktop machine at home. “My five-year-old daughter uses it without any problems,” said the Outblaze IT architect. Goolamabbas remains wary of IE’s reputation for Swiss-cheese-security and bemoaned the productivity lost as users spend time “killing viruses, squashing worms and keeping out Trojan horses.” He also declared that the HKSAR government could do more to promote usage of open-source software among its Netizenry. “The Hong Kong government says, ‘oh, everyone uses IE, but it’s not the case.”

The article is very detailed and covers a lot more topics as well. It’s well worth a read for anyone who is interested in learning about both the challenges of adopting open source software in Asia and the extent of its deployment there.

GDS with Firefox support coming Today

CNet reports that Google Desktop Search is coming out of beta today with new features including the ability to search Firefox history and Thunderbird mail. This is great news for Mozilla, though other desktop search engines such as Copernic have supported Firefox and Thunderbird for months already. Better late than never, eh?

CNet reports that Google Desktop Search is coming out of beta today with new features including the ability to search Firefox history and Thunderbird mail. This is great news for Mozilla, though other desktop search engines such as Copernic have supported Firefox and Thunderbird for months already.

Better late than never, eh?

CNN Censored in Beijing reporting on Taiwan

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since I’ve heard others mention it happening before, but it was the first time I saw it for myself. Tonight CNN was covering the annual session of the National Peoples’ Congress, and was describing the efforts of the NPC to pass a law forbidding the secession of Taiwan, its … Continue reading “CNN Censored in Beijing reporting on Taiwan”

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since I’ve heard others mention it happening before, but it was the first time I saw it for myself. Tonight CNN was covering the annual session of the National Peoples’ Congress, and was describing the efforts of the NPC to pass a law forbidding the secession of Taiwan, its renegade province. The story started out uncensored with video footage of the NPC. The CNN anchor talked about the topics discussed during the conference, and talked about China’s efforts to pass the anti-secession legislation. The anchor then went on to say that “critics are dubbing it a war preparation bill…” at which point the audio and video cut out for a few seconds and resumed when CNN had moved on to talking about measures aimed at Chinese farmers.