PC History - great read

Image via WikipediaIf you have been around PC's for more than a few years here is a very entertaining review of PC History by Briard that will bring back memories or fill in pieces of the story you may not have heard. It covers not just the IBM PC but also Apple and the fun that led up to the IBM and Apple branches of the PC tree and the growth of those branches through the years. In addition Briard adds a lot of color to PC History with his naming of the characters that were involved.

Also this article is part of a new wiki started by Gizmo Richards who puts out the Support Alert monthly ezine which is one of my must reads every month.

New tool cracks enterprise wireless LANs

I am hoping the article noted below from ZDNet is wrong and only 50% of companies are vulnerable. But when you consider how prevalent wireless LANs are in most companies I'm sure I don't want to know the percentages of companies that are vulnerable. So if have a wireless LAN at your company you should check out the following article and if your not the network admin get your admin to review and implement the changes if possible. One problem that is pointed out in this article is that Apple machines can not be configured to prevent the problem. Because as I pointed out yesterday Apples market share is increasing and even if that was not the case most companies have always had a few Macs somewhere in the company and you can bet Mac users want to be on the wireless LAN too.

Also something to keep in mind you don't want your company to repeat what happened at T. J. Maxx last year.

New tool cracks most enterprise wireless LANs by ZDNet's George Ou -- If your company or organization runs an enterprise wireless LAN network, I have some troubling news for you. Odds are high that your current “enterprise-class” wireless LAN deployment is vulnerable to authentication leakage which not only exposes your internal network but all of your server access controls. You can use all the strongest authentication protocols such [...]

PWN2OWN - Apple is now the target

Apple Macs have in the past been perceived as more secure than Microsoft Windows systems and depending on what you read and who did the tests you might have been able to make that argument. Well I think the PWN2OWN contest from CanSecWest last week and last years month of Apple exploits shows that Mac owners just like Windows owners need to keep their systems current on patches. Also with Apples increased market share the size of the bullseye on Apple is growing. The problem I think for Apple is first having to admit their systems need frequent patching just like Windows machines. But a bigger problem for Apple and Microsoft users in general is finding out about patches and then the real killer is getting people to take the time to install the patches once they are aware of them. For Microsoft products you have the Microsoft Update tool which helps users find and if you let it automatically install patches. But the problem is your average Windows machine has lots of other non-Microsoft software on it and Microsoft Update does little to help you with non-Microsoft software. So here is where a free tool that is currently in beta from Secunia called PSI (Personal Software Inspector) helps you find most of your unpatched software. PSI continually scans your Windows PC for installed software and then lets you know if patches are needed and where you can download the patches from, no it will not automatically install patches and probably never will . Now if Microsoft and Secunia would just team up and make PSI part of Microsoft Update so that all Windows users would be more aware of the all the needed patches that would be progress. For Apple owners tools that accomplish what PSI does are also needed and hopefully are a priority for Apple. Overall both Apple and Microsoft need to keep improving their patch management tools so users can easily keep all of their software patched not just the software from the OS vendor. Also scanning for patches needs to be a free tool that is part of the OS, not another paid subscription tool like anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc.. Otherwise most users will not take the time to install a free tool and forget it if you expect most consumers to spend money for a patch management tool.

It's the Browser not the OS anymore

After seeing a post on Safari for Windows at Because I said So and now this post on the AT&T Pogo browser at Techcrunch I started thinking. What is Apple thinking and especially AT&T what am I missing, why would these large Internet players want to get into the middle of the desktop browser wars. Well It's the Browser not the OS anymore, if you can own the browser which is where many of us live, you own the user for the near future. So what better way to do that then to have a browser that is as similar as possible on your desktop and your PDA/phone. Speaking of the PDA you have browser wars heating up there also. You have a private beta of the Skyfire browser for Windows Mobile and eventually Symbian, next is Firefox Mobile which is suppose to be out sometime this year. Then there is Opera which has a browser version for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile and many phones. But what about Microsoft and IE, IE for Mac had support discontinued in 2006 and Microsoft has never had a direct Linux version. But there is IEs 4 Linux which allows you to run IE5 through IE7 on Linux. So one question is will Microsoft sit around while Apple moves in on Windows with Safari or will Microsoft buy what it needs to fight on all fronts in this round of browser wars. The other question is what will Microsoft arch rival Google do, is Google working on developing a browser from scratch, that doesn't seem to be there style based on what I read. Instead after reading this article at Read WriteWeb about Google and Opera, you wonder if Google is now going after Opera or still working on Firefox or maybe Google buys both Opera and Firefox to keep them from Microsoft. Add it all up and this year looks to be very exciting in the browser world.

Let me know who else we should add to the scorecard I'm sure I have missed some of the players.

MacBook Air if only

If only Apple had added a Ethernet port, user changeable battery and 3G wireless then the MacBook Air would truly be a machine to be hyped. I have to admit the size and current features of the MacBook Air are impressive but I'm going to wait for MacBook Air version 2. Here is a suggestion Apple, provide a means for docking the MacBook Air that would satisfy the need for an Ethernet port for me. Next the MacBook Air is touted as built for wireless, well wireless is more than Wi-Fi. You really need 3G wireless for the traveler because the current state of Wi-Fi hotspots from so many different providers doesn't work for me. Why didn't Steve leverage the iPhone relationship with AT&T and at least provide AT&T's 3G network builtin. I know this can be solved via a 3G USB adapter which I believe most carriers have although I'm not sure about drivers for MacBook's. But the sealed battery is probably the biggest show stopper for me. I don't want to pay $300 every 2 years in order to have a battery that will hold a charge. In addition based on the experiences my family has had with a number of iPod batteries Apple's track record with batteries is not the best. I find it hard to believe Apple could not make the battery user changeable, I'm not asking for the addon battery in an expansion bay just a few small screws on the bottom and out drops the battery.

Let me know your thoughts on the MacBook Air, what should Apple have done different or have you already prepaid so you can get one as soon as possible.