DaniWeb Forum Index

Inside Edge - IT News, Analysis and Opinion

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All About happygeek (Davey Winder)

Follow me on Twitter: happygeek

I am a freelance technology journalist from England, and have been for fast approaching 20 years now. For 14 of them I have enjoyed being Contributing Editor with PC Pro magazine, the biggest selling monthly IT publication in the UK.

Currently, I hold the title of Information Security Journalist of the Year (2008) an award that I also was fortunate enough to win in 2006 as well. Other awards include Best Information Security News Story (2008) for a DaniWeb piece about TomTom satnav Trojans, Best IT Security Feature (2008) and (2007), as well as Technology Journalist of the Year back in 1996. All of the above being UK based awards, I hasten to add.

My latest book 'Being Virtual' was published by Wiley, in conjunction with the Science Museum in London, during May 2008.

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Viruses, Spyware and other Nasties

OMG! Gumblar gets busy

1 Day Ago - I just had a Jaws moment. You know, you think it is safe to go back in the water and then a bloody great shark bites your legs off. Except in this case you can replace the sea with the Internet and the shark with the equally dangerous Gumblar. According to the latest ScanSafe numbers, Gumblar... (Read More)

How to destroy a botnet

6 Days Ago - Botnets are, without any shadow of a doubt, one of the biggest scourges of IT security today. From sending spam to launching DDoS attacks and distributing malware, botnets can be found at the centre of most of the security problems facing computer users right now. So wouldn't it be fun if you... (Read More)

Trick or Treat Security Scares

22 Days Ago - You probably call it Halloween, for myself and other pagans it is Samhain, but for the cyber-gangs it is phishing time. Seasonally-themed spam is on the up at this time of the year, Halloween related messages accounting for 0.5% of the daily spam traffic by volume in mid-October according to the... (Read More)

Spam fighting Europeans must do better

Oct 12th, 2009 - The European Commission has called on EU member countries to do more, and do better, in fighting spam and other online privacy threats. In a newly published study, commissioned by the EC, it was revealed that almost all EU countries have at least one spam, spyware or malware reporting site for... (Read More)

Malware hosting trends exposed

Sep 30th, 2009 - Using newly registered domains with a very short lifespan to host malware websites is so last year. It would appear that these days such things are far more likely to be hosted on much older compromised web sites instead. Could this be down to a decline in domain tasting? The latest MessageLabs... (Read More)

The evil twins of cyber-security: clients and servers

Sep 15th, 2009 - According to a new report, published today by SANS, the overwhelming majority of all cyber-security risks can be laid at the door of just two areas: unpatched client-side software and vulnerable Internet facing web sites. The report was compiled by Rohit Dhamankar, Mike Dausin, Marc Eisenbarth... (Read More)

Conficker is back and twisted

Sep 11th, 2009 - Remember Conficker, the virulent worm which caused such havoc at the start of the year? No, well maybe news headlines such as 'Virus sinks Royal Navy fleet comms' and 'Windows worm infects millions' might help jog your memory. Well hold onto your hats people, Conficker is back. And this time it... (Read More)

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Window and Desktop Managers

Introducing the Linux OAPC (Old Age Personal Computer)

2 Days Ago - What do you get if you combine a computer company with a group of Vegans and someone who used to present a popular children's TV show? The less than obvious answer is a Linux computer designed especially for old people. But there you have it, and according to the press release that sits before... (Read More)

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Mac Rumors and Reports

Warning: iPhone exploit in the wild and stealing user data

8 Days Ago - Over the weekend news broke that a worm had started infecting Jailbroken iPhones in Australia. Nobody really took the exploit too seriously as all the 'ikee worm' did was change the phone wallpaper to a picture of 80's pop singer Rick Astley in a kind of warped tribute to the RickRolling Internet... (Read More)

Top 10 reasons why I don't care about The Beatles on iTunes

Sep 9th, 2009 - All the news and social media feeds seem to have overdosed on one story this week: will The Beatles be on iTunes after the big Apple 'Rock and Roll' event today? News at eleven: I don't give a stuff, and here's my top ten reasons why. Most people would rather have an iPod with a camera than an... (Read More)

Is the Apple happiness honeymoon over?

Aug 18th, 2009 - As honeymoon periods go, the Apple customer satisfaction one has lasted a remarkably long time. However, you might be forgiven for thinking that honeymoon is now over, given some headlines I have seen online. Forgiven but, I would maintain, as wrong as wrong can be. Google might not like Apple... (Read More)

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C++

Programming Google - expressive, concurrent and garbage-collected

8 Days Ago - First Google expressed an interest in the web browser client market, and then the operating system market and now it has launched its own open source systems programming language. Google Go is being touted as 'expressive, concurrent, garbage-collected' and promises to produce fast code, fast.... (Read More)

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Game Development

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Have 600,000 modders lost Xbox Live access in Microsoft cull?

9 Days Ago - Reports are starting to emerge online that Microsoft may have initiated a cull of Xbox Live accounts belonging to users of modified games consoles. One claims that a "trusty source" working in a call centre which handles Xbox 360 accounts has had an influx of "screaming teenagers who don't don't... (Read More)

FIGHT: World of Warcraft vs China

17 Days Ago - It would seem that there is something of an ongoing battle in the world of online Chinese gaming, and World of Warcraft is right in the midst of it. As I reported back in July, the company behind World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) was having problems in getting The Burning Crusade... (Read More)

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Growing an Online Community

Does Twitter mean business with LinkedIn deal?

10 Days Ago - Everyone seems to be talking about how first Facebook and now Twitter are being adopted by business users, as if the concept of social networking in a business environment was somehow new. Of course, the truth is that services such as LinkedIn have been providing just that for many years now. ... (Read More)

5 Billion Tweets!

31 Days Ago - GigaTweet has been counting the total number of messages posted to Twitter in real time, and the rolling count is almost hypnotic. Overnight the 5 billionth Tweet was posted. So what was it? Perhaps someone speaking out against corporates trying to gag freedom of the press again? Nope. ... (Read More)

Twitter gets knickers in a twist over security scare

Oct 12th, 2009 - I love Twitter, and post a lot of links to security related stories via my @happygeek account. But now I am getting a little worried that I might suffer the same fate as a well known, and highly respected security expert. Mikko Hypponen is a familiar face around the security conventions, and a... (Read More)

The political power of Twitter challenged

Oct 4th, 2009 - It would appear that a political activist from New York has been arrested by the FBI in connection with helping orchestrate G20 summit protesters in Pittsburgh. According to The Guardian the man, Eliot Madison from Queens, has been charged with hindering prosecution after helping G20 protesters... (Read More)

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eCommerce

Hold the front page: Piracy is not killing the music business!

19 Days Ago - If piracy and illegal downloaders really are killing the music industry, how come more singles have been sold this year than ever before and people who file-share spend more money on legal releases than those who do not file-share? I have to admit, it's not been a good week to be on the side of... (Read More)

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Web Browsers

Firefox by the numbers: 30 million new users in just 8 weeks

24 Days Ago - Some Twitter postings just demand you read them two or three times to take in what is being said in 140 characters. One such posting was made today by Mozilla CEO John Lilly which simply said: "Firefox user growth has been amazing last 8 weeks or so. +30M or so unique monthlies" That's worth... (Read More)

Mozilla says Microsoft browser malware can Firefox off

33 Days Ago - Odd isn't it, how Microsoft kicked up a fuss when Google announced the Chrome plugin for Internet Explorer on the grounds that it could make the browser more insecure. Indeed, it went as far as to suggest that it doubled the potential surface area for malware and scripted attacks. Yet, amazingly,... (Read More)

Netscape Communicator is born again

Oct 12th, 2009 - Remember when a web browser was so much more than just a web browser? It seems that the days of the all-you-can-eat Internet suite are back as the SeaMonkey 2.0 release code is made available to download. There was a time when Netscape ruled the online world, but you have to be something of an... (Read More)

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Search Engine Optimization

Google, Bing and Twitter sitting in a tree...

29 Days Ago - Forget the Windows 7 launch, the real big news from Microsoft this week is that it has reached a deal with Twitter to include real-time tweet data in Bing searches. If that wasn't excitement enough for the Twitterati, just a few hours after Microsoft made its announcement Google joined in and... (Read More)

Blogger uses SEO to get vacation refund

Sep 18th, 2009 - When a complaining consumer starts topping the Google search rankings for your company, perhaps it is time to start taking them seriously? Who says that blogging is a waste of time? Not me, but then I've been blogging for a while now, admittedly in a professional capacity as a technology... (Read More)

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Network Security

Gary McKinnon wins extradition reprieve for psych review

32 Days Ago - Just when it looked like every avenue to prevent the extradition of self-confessed NASA Hacker Gary McKinnon had been exhausted, especially when just last week a couple of High Court judges denied him leave to appeal his case to the highest court in the UK, it looks like the hacking cause célèbre... (Read More)

FTP Security FAIL

Sep 16th, 2009 - One third of businesses totally fail to encrypt their sensitive data transfers. That's the conclusion of a new survey into file transfer security which noted the huge disparities in attitudes towards data security in general and data security during transfer. According to the 2009 File Transfer... (Read More)

Security spending to outpace other IT spending in 2010

Sep 8th, 2009 - It's good news for those in the security business, according to Gartner at least. It is predicting that security software and services spending will outpace other IT spending areas in 2010. The Gartner report suggests that security software budgets will grow by approximately 4% in 2010, while... (Read More)

Government gets tough on pirates after Mandy dines with Geffen

Aug 26th, 2009 - I'm not a great fan of the phrase 'total coincidence' and nor am I a fan of The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson, First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills and Lord President of the Council to be formal. While I'm on the small matter of things I don't like, I'm not... (Read More)

The high price of fake software

Aug 14th, 2009 - As someone who works within the IT Security space, I have to say that rogueware (also known as scareware) is starting to seriously hack me off. Not that I have ever been conned into purchasing it, I hasten to add, but rather because so many others have and so many people are making rather a lot of... (Read More)

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Advertising Sales Strategies

World ad-supported first as C4 lets you see more on YouTube

Oct 15th, 2009 - UK broadcaster Channel 4 has signed a deal with YouTube to bring full TV programmes online, streamed for free. It's the first time that any broadcaster in the world has made such a comprehensive schedule of 'catch-up' programming available for free via YouTube. Of course, when I say free I mean... (Read More)

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The Return Oriented Programming Hackers

Oct 8th, 2009 - Want to know how to fix an election without resorting to bribery and corruption? Ever thought about throwing some Return Oriented Programming into the voting equation? Ordinarily, the hacking into of an electronic voting machine might spark a little bit of interest if there were an election... (Read More)

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Computer Science

WW2 code breakers win the lottery

Sep 29th, 2009 - Bletchley Park, the top secret code breaking hub that played a pivotal role in the outcome of World War Two, has finally been awarded development funding of some £460,500 ($735,500) from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The money will literally save the place the saved the lives of countless people by... (Read More)

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Cellphones, PDAs and Handheld Devices

How the music copyright debate turned into a copywrong farce

Sep 27th, 2009 - When singer Lily Allen posted a passionate plea for people to stop illegally sharing music files, and started a dedicated blog where fellow pop stars could voice their concerns over the 'theft' of their work, you might have been forgiven for thinking it would just turn into the usual bunch of rich... (Read More)

Time for the SexBox 360 and PornStation 3?

Sep 12th, 2009 - If it wasn't bad enough that someone is filing for a trademark to cover an adult-oriented games console called a SexBox, the world's largest adult entertainment company is seeking approval from Sony to turn its entertainment console into a PornStation 3. Silican Xtal Corp, a San Jose based... (Read More)

Sony PS3 Slim shrinks in size and price

Aug 21st, 2009 - Don't get me wrong, I'm a great fan of the PS3 but not for the gaming which, when compared to the Xbox 360 is in a totally different league in my opinion. But when it comes to the actual hardware, well, the PS3 wins every time. Not only is it of a far higher quality than the Xbox 360, and if you... (Read More)

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Windows Vista and Windows 7

The true cost of a free Windows 7 upgrade revealed

Sep 22nd, 2009 - There ain't no such thing as a free Windows 7 upgrade. At least that's what it is starting to look like for the majority of people, despite the 'free upgrade' vouchers that are being handed out with new computers as part of the Windows 7 Upgrade Option scheme. A scheme which has been introduced to... (Read More)

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Apple Hardware

Can a Cosmic iPhone bring order to your life?

Sep 21st, 2009 - It has long been affectionately known as the Jesus Phone because of the almost religious following it receives, but can the iPhone really harness the power of the Cosmos to help organise your life? Veteran TV presenter Noel Edmonds, he of Deal or No Deal, Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old and... (Read More)

An iPhone in the bedroom

Aug 27th, 2009 - What do you wake up to? An old-fashioned alarm clock with small hammer and large bells atop a round clockface? Maybe a clock-radio or perhaps a straightforward digital alarm with a loud beep-beep-beep to get you moving of a morning? If you do, then you are in the minority as more and more of us... (Read More)

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Posting Games

Is Sony a Linux killer?

Aug 30th, 2009 - Most people welcomed the news that the Sony PlayStation 3 was slimming down, both in physical size and in terms of off the shelf pricing. The Linux crowd are not so impressed however. According to SCE president and CEO Kazuo Hirai, the PS3 slim is some 36 percent lighter and 32 percent smaller... (Read More)

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Windows Software

Microsoft comes out fighting over XP mode security fears

Aug 24th, 2009 - It's always fun to stand and watch as two big names slug it out, and they don't come much bigger than Microsoft. Sophos, it has to be said, is no small fry either when it comes to the world of IT Security. So when a Sophos blog posting from it's Chief Technology Office, Richard Jacobs, started with... (Read More)

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