David Adams Archive

I was reminded of Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy's infamous sound byte (used as the title of this article) when I read about Google CEO Eric Schmidt's foot-in-mouth moment during a recent CNBC interview (YouTube Link). Here's what Schmidt said: "I think judgment matters. If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines -- including Google -- do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities."

Websense has made ten predictions about security/vulnerability trends for 2010. There's no crystal ball, so we're not talking about malicious innovation, but mostly a recognition that certain nefarious activities are gaining traction and will expand in the near future. Of particular interest to OSNews readers: exploitations of Windows 7 and IE 8 vulnerabilities, the beginning of the end of the Mac's reprieve on security issues, and increasing targeting of mobile devices (beyond Rickrolling your iPhone, presumably). Read on to learn OSNews 2010 security predictions.

This holiday season it seems that everyone has forgotten the recession and has just decided to pretend to not be broke. In the US, somehow the retail industry has hoodwinked everyone into celebrating a shopping holiday the weekend after Thanksgiving, with the recent addition of "cyber monday" to encourage both irresponsible spending and doing personal shopping on company time while at work. Far be it from us to stand in the way of this Juggernaut. I personally do most of my shopping online, and much of it at Amazon.com, who over the years have proven a dedication to low prices and excellent service. Cyber Monday or not, if you're planning on shopping online this holiday season (or anytime), please consider using OSNews' shopping page, which gives you a good launching point to browse for products and compare prices, and supports OSNews by kicking back a small percentage of your purchase price. It doesn't cost you anything, but makes a big difference for us. So bookmark the page, and show the love all year round. We'd like to make some improvements to the OSNews Shopping launchpad. Please include your recommendations and suggestions in the comments.

A few weeks ago, we asked you for ideas on interesting interview subjects. You had a lot of great ideas, and we started contacting people. We'll probably be working through that list for many months. We've decided to start with three interviews: Timothy Normand Miller from OGP, Michael Dexter at Linux Fund and the Arch Linux Team. We've created a "conversation" for each interview subject over at our conversations area. For the next few days, we're going to collect interview questions in the comments of those conversations.

The Blogosphere has been abuzz over the past few days, with remembrances of the halcyon days of the internet viewed through the lens of atrociously-designed GeoCities sites. If you missed the xkcd GeoCities tribute, you'll have to be content with a screenshot, as it was a limited-time engagement. (Update: a mirror) The Archive Team is working on saving as much of GeoCities as possible for future generations. The internet is ephemeral, and, like ancient civilizations, it seems we're constantly building our new cities on the ashes of our old cities, but, this being the internet, in a much faster cycle. Like anthropologists who get excited about pot shards or shriveled woven sandals found in a cliff dwelling, a lot of internet old-timers like me get pretty nostalgic about how the internet used to be, and think it's worth preserving, or at least commemorating.

Can't wait two more days? Microsoft Technet has a free 90 day trial of Windows 7 Enterprise for your evaluation pleasure. If you've been using the Windows 7 RC, this one is likely to have a bunch of bug fixes, as several bugs have been reported in earlier versions of the Windows 7 RTM that were made available to developers, including a pretty serious CHKDSK bug.