2006 January

If you’re an old goat like, me, and grew up in the ’60s and ’70s, you no doubt remember the international phenomenon known as ABBA.
The Swedish foursome sold untold millions of records, riding the disco wave while curiously producing a style of music that was decidedly NOT disco.
If you were a teenaged male, what you [...]

Lockergnomie Mike Nelson is a bit frustrated with the way Microsoft has chosen to validate Windows XP. There’s a happy ending to this story, though…
You [recently] mentioned product activation. As a tech, I have no problem with product activation. I more than understand Microsoft’s position to slow down piracy. But the system really needs improvement. [...]

Today, the online media universe is inventing and producing ideas, services and new tools at an unprecedented rate.
For anyone, including topic experts, news researchers and media reporters like me, it is not easy to monitor and track all the new announcements, technology releases and fresh ideas being launched out there.

SiteAdvisor is a security add-on for your Firefox browser that helps you identify sites that are linked to spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, or online fraud. The SiteAdvisor service is based on a huge database with detailed test results for more than 100,000 pieces of software and covers more than 90% of the [...]

Only a short time ago, many Webmasters judged the success of their site by the amount of traffic that they were pulling in. These numbers are still highly regarded, but with search engines becoming more of an integral part of the Internet experience, rankings are now the new measurement of popularity. If you can be [...]

The predefined security templates can be applied as is. However they can also serve as a starting point for configuring security. Any of the predefined templates can be customized to meet the specific security requirements of an organization. To customize an existing template:

Open the Security Templates snap-in. Expand the Security Templates container.
Click the default [...]

Re-entry of the Stardust comet sample return mission was successful and the re-entry was on target. My cool video of the day is a movie taken by a crew out of the Ames Research Center whose mission statement is to run “An airborne and ground observing campaign to test thermal protection systems in the fastest [...]

January 27, 1756
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a leading Austrian composer of the late eighteen century. He was only five years old when he wrote his first minuet. Would you like to hear it? The multimedia magic of the Internet brings Mozart to life.

Infopackets contributor Douglas Godbey writes:
Every once in a while, things pop up in the news - techie types of things - that makes the old crystal ball start glowing.
Recently, I came across an article in which Samsung announced the development of 16 GB (GigaByte) Flash chips. Flash chips are persistent memory devices that can take [...]

Bill Brenner of SearchSecurity.com writes:
Microsoft said Tuesday that under certain circumstances, attackers could exploit an anomaly in how Windows 2000, XP and Windows 2003 systems establish wireless connections. But users can take simple steps to neutralize the threat.
Mark “Simple Nomad” Loveless — senior security researcher for Mountain View, Calif.-based Vernier Networks Inc.’s Vernier Threat Labs [...]