Taking the Season Off

I will be taking the Holiday season off from blogging. I will spending my time with family and on vacation. If I can I will try to make a few posts, between school and the holiday season I have enough already. You can always email me at mcampbell@live.com
I look forward to blogging in latter months.

Happy Holidays,
Matt

We Moved...

http://geek20.wordpress.com/

Windows Live Mail

As you may know I use Windows Live Mail to access and send out mail messages. Well, tonight was the first time I saw this dialog message:


You don't know how much this ticks me off, I was actually enjoying actually being able to use a browser other than IE to access any Microsoft content on the web. It says 1.5 but everyone I know is using 2.0. I should check and see what happens if I change the user agent to IE. But come on and get with it Microsoft.

*Update* Changing the user agent does not work, I guess I will have to use IE :(

Screenshots Of Office 2007

I had a chance to check out the Final version of Office 2007 and I took a few screenshots that are located over at Flickr.
I will post a review of the screenshots later but you can just check out the photos at my Flickr photo set.
By the way these are different screenshots than any found elsewhere I took these screenshots myself. These screenshots are of Office 2007 Enterprise Edition. Also, the white at the bottom of some photos is where the taskbar was cropped out.

Installed Ubuntu 6.10 Server

Today I just converted my home mail server to Ubuntu 6.10 code name: "Edgy Eft". Coming from Windows Server 2003, it was quite a change. For one thing there is alot of command line scripts to enter in. The overall install was fairly easy. I configured my mail server to a max. I used Postfix,Courier IMAP,MySQL,Amavisd-new, SpamAssassin,ClamAV,SASL,TLS,SquirrelMail and Postgrey. Let me tell you that is the last time I'm going to touch that server, considering how long it took me to configure all the settings. I don't think it's a bad server option though people tend to lean to RedHat. If your considering downloading Ubuntu you might want to wait a few days if you perfer FTP and HTTP. The only way to get it fast is through Bittorrnet.

If you're looking for a good deal on customized desktops and laptops that run Ubuntu check out http://system76.com/

Exploring Linux

Want to see what all the hype is about Linux? Well, then read on.
I'm sure you've seen countless articles on how Linux is great and countless manuals on how to use Linux. When you see those you probably think "That's way over my head" or ' I don't have time to learn another OS". Well, it doesn't have to be hard at all.

I can tell you when I started with computers years ago I never read a manual on how Windows works or how to use the Windows OS. The way I learned it was by exploring and clicking on things. If I would of read a book on how to use Windows and how it operates I would probably still be reading it today. I agree, there are alot of things to learn about an Operating System but to learn the basics is not that hard. I've been a Windows user all my life and I still haven't explored everything to the OS and never will.

With that said, don't be afraid to try Linux. There are alot of good distros for beginners to Linux which I will discuss below. When you download an ISO and Burn it or use it in a Virtual Machine, Just start clicking on menus and taking a look around at different programs and menus. If you want to read a manual go ahead. Most people learn by interaction and not reading. I guarantee you if you just explore and do this on a daily basis you will become fairly familiar with Linux.

Their are several good distros or Distributions for first time Linux users. Some of them are listed below.

Ubuntu
Fedora
openSUSE
Mandriva

Many other distros can be found at:
http://distrowatch.com/

If you're looking for tutorials or software the best place would be to check out the Distributions website or community forums.

Have fun exploring Linux!

Vista Kernel API?

There has been or I have been having confusion on the Vista kernel situation. I've heard from many sources that the kernel will be locked down from any third party, that's why Symantec and Mcafee have gone crazy. But, Steve Gibson mentioned that Microsoft will only open up the kernel to other parties through an API and that API will only be used on the x64 Windows Vista. I would really like to know what Microsoft is going to do. I don't see why Microsoft would release an API. Microsoft is doing a very smart thing by locking the kernel down.
By the release of the API to security companies they are opening the kernel up to the hackers and other nasty rootkits and malware. It would be very smart to lock the security companies out of the kernel and to only keep the kernel open to themselves. It's a win-win situation on Microsoft's part, they are able to keep the hackers, and rootkits out and also beat other security competitors by Windows Live OneCare only having access to the kernel. It will be very interesting to see what Microsoft does here.

A (Video) Look at the Zune

Robert Scoble just released a video interviewing the Product manager of the Zune team Matt Jubelirer. They explore and talk about some basics of how the Zune works and what features are available. Scoble points out one thing in the video that is very cool and that is the Subscription service that the Zune Marketplace will have. Unlike other services *cough* *cough* iTunes you will be able to purchase a subscription for 14.99 a month and will be able to download as many songs as you like from the “millions” of songs available in the Zune Marketplace. One thing funny I find in this video is that they can’t find another Zune to demonstrate sharing music between players, yet their at the Zune Headquarters. Though through some parts of the video you want to fall asleep as the Product manager goes on and on about experience and the community aspect of the Zune, overall it’s a good look at the Zune Player. Also, the Zune is to hit stores the 14th of November.

Spreading RSS

I have seen many articles around the Internet saying that RSS has failed and that RSS is only for the Tech savvy geeks out there. Take this article for instance.

I agree most of the people that use RSS are the savvy “Geek” type people. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We as in people doing podcasts and blogs and the like, need to share the knowledge of what RSS is. Because RSS is one handy thing and can help many non Geek people. Also I believe that the new RSS capabilities built into IE7 will help those new to RSS. I’m so glad that Microsoft and the IE team have built these capabilities into IE7.

But most of all the people that publish this content need to share the knowledge to these people that have not discovered the magic of RSS.

For a follow up on IE7 and RSS check out this Channel 9 Video that interviews people from the IE7 RSS Team.

Paying to be dugg, Come On!

This post just blows me away. Why in the world would you pay someone to digg one of your stories? If you are doing this you are missing the whole point of digg. No one is going to read the story unless it interests them, they are not going to read it because of how many diggs it has gotten. This is just ridiculous and just plain stupid of whoever is doing this.

Netscape 8.0

I recently gave the new Netscape Browser a spin. I remember Netscape being the browser that everyone used now it's either FF, IE, or Safari. Well to be honest with you I was very surprised on the outcome I had.

First off, there are so many features included with Netscape 8.0, not to the point of bloatware though. Lot's of customizations and really easy, and good to look at interface. On setup, you have the option of using the old type interface or the new stylish interface. I choose the Stylish one.





The UI is wonderful and Easy to use.





Security Center

One of the best additions to Netscape is the Security Center. The security center is a very simple thing, it alerts and scans for phising attacks and know adware on a site a reports it to you. Either by the tab or bottom right of the browser. The security center also features a Malware, Spyware, and Adware scan that works fairly well.

Spyware Scan

Engines

Netscape allows you to pick which engine you would like to use to display webpages. Either IE or The Mozilla Engine. Which is a great feature.


You can choose which engine you would like to use by clicking on the Firefox Drop-Down menu.


Sidebar

The sidebar has some really cool features including an AIM addon.



Conclusion:

Other than the great UI, the Customizations, and which Browser engine to use the Netscape browser is not up to par. The only reason that I'm not going to be using the Netscape Browser is the aspect of AOL. As you have seen lately that AOL is not doing very well with Security and Privacy Issues, and this Netscape browser was built with AOL as it's the core foundation. But overall if your not to worried about that, it's a solid browser.



Ready to Download?

Download Here

Spam Filters: A Comparison

I've talked alot about spam and spammers lately so I thought I would compare some of the best Free ones.

Spamihilator

Spamihilator works between your E-Mail client and the Internet and examines every incoming E-Mail. Useless spam mails (Junk) will be filtered out. This process runs completely in the background. Spamihilator uses Bayesian Filtering to filter out Spam. One of the great things about Spamihilator is that you can use plugins. Plugins are listed on there main page. After downloading Spamihilator it will take about two weeks for it to become fully trained.

POPFile

POPFile is an automatic mail classification tool. Once properly set up and trained, it will scan all email as it arrives and classify it based on your training. You can give it a simple job, like separating out junk e-mail, or a complicated one—like filing mail into a dozen folders.

POPFile is a spam filter that is setup using your web browser it uses a proxy to filter spam.

SpamBayes

The SpamBayes project is working on developing a statistical (commonly, although a little inaccurately, referred to as Bayesian) anti-spam filter, initially based on the work of Paul Graham.

SpamBayes also uses Bayesian Filtering and also uses a proxy. There is also a plugin for outlook avaliable.

There are many spam solutions out there.

I have found using ClarkConnect, GMail, Spamihilator, and Tinymailto has eliminated most of my spam. ClarkConnect is a great Linux Server product that I will talk about later. To find out more Information check out this podcast.

Technorati tags: Security, Spam, Spam Filter, ClarkConnect, SpamBayes

Zero-Day Flaw In Firefox

ZDNET is reporting that an attacker can take control of your Windows, Apple, and Linux computer by the use of malicious JavaScript. This is a fairly new flaw, and there is not much assurance if this is true or not.

But to be safe,

The only fix at the moment would to disable JavaScript. To disable JavaScript in Firefox go to tools>>options>>content>>uncheck enable JavaScript.This will probably make alot of sites break in that case use NoScript a browser extension where you can choose what sites use JavaScript, and what sites don't use JavaScript or temporarily enabling JavaScript for a site.

By doing the steps listed above you will be protected against this Zero-Day and other unknown JavaScript exploits.