If you are at all interested in UFOs or unexplained phenomena of any kind, this is good news for you. Britain's Ministry of Defence is releasing files for investigations into UFO sightings between 1978 to 1987. In total, 160 files will be handed over to the National Archives. The first 8 of these files are available at http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
I hope this information is interesting to some of you out there. I always love to read the often bizarre reports that are gathered around this type of activity.
British UFO files released to public
IBM and Linux ad - Probably the best ad ever
This add (although old) is probably the best ad I have ever seen for IBM or Linux. It encapsulates the spirit of open-source, freedom, information and learning. Big Blue has been a major backer of Linux and open-source in general, and I'm proud to place their ad on my blog.
Dell to drop XPS gaming desktops in favor of Alienware
In a 'better late than never' move, Dell has decided to stop competing with itself in the gaming desktop PC market. The Wall Street Journal reports that Dell will now focus exclusively on it's premium Alienware line (which it purchased in 2006) for the gaming PC market. After falling behind in sales to HP, Dell is in the midst of a turnaround strategy put into place with the return of Michael Dell to the helm of the once dominant PC maker. Although these gaming PCs are an ultra-niche market with astronomical prices and insane capabilities, they often influence the regular PC market when the bleeding-edge components make their way down to commodity pricing and availability. This is where the bulk of the gaming enthusiasts (not fanatics) prefer to purchase higher end components for their PCs. Alienware has a very strong brand amongst the PC gaming community and the gaming community at large, and it would better serve Dell to build on that brand than to try and subvert it via a gaming line within the Dell product portfolio. Hopefully all goes well for Dell, as I fully support one of the few manufacturers to offer Linux to the casual user direct from the factory.
Debian Security Advisory - OpenSSL Vulnerability
For all you server admins running Debian and Debian derivatives (like Ubuntu), heed this advisory. Make sure you patch your systems!
Debian Security Advisory DSA-1571-1
Package : openssl
Vulnerability : predictable random number generator
Problem type : remote
Debian-specific: yes
CVE Id(s) : CVE-2008-0166
Luciano Bello discovered that the random number generator in Debian's openssl package is predictable. This is caused by an incorrect Debian-specific change to the openssl package (CVE-2008-0166). As a result, cryptographic key material may be guessable.
This is a Debian-specific vulnerability which does not affect other operating systems which are not based on Debian. However, other systems can be indirectly affected if weak keys are imported into them.
It is strongly recommended that all cryptographic key material which has been generated by OpenSSL versions starting with 0.9.8c-1 on Debian systems is recreated from scratch. Furthermore, all DSA keys ever used on affected Debian systems for signing or authentication purposes should be considered compromised; the Digital Signature Algorithm relies on a secret random value used during signature generation.
The first vulnerable version, 0.9.8c-1, was uploaded to the unstable distribution on 2006-09-17, and has since propagated to the testing and current stable (etch) distributions. The old stable distribution(sarge) is not affected.
Affected keys include SSH keys, OpenVPN keys, DNSSEC keys, and key material for use in X.509 certificates and session keys used in SSL/TLS connections. Keys generated with GnuPG or GNUTLS are not affected, though.
A detector for known weak key material will be published at:
<http://security.debian.org/project/extra/dowkd/dowkd.pl.gz>
<http://security.debian.org/project/extra/dowkd/dowkd.pl.gz.asc>
(OpenPGP signature)
Instructions how to implement key rollover for various packages will be published at:
<http://www.debian.org/security/key-rollover/>
This web site will be continously updated to reflect new and updated instructions on key rollovers for packages using SSL certificates. Popular packages not affected will also be listed.
In addition to this critical change, two other vulnerabilities have been fixed in the openssl package which were originally scheduled for release with the next etch point release: OpenSSL's DTLS (Datagram TLS, basically "SSL over UDP") implementation did not actually implement the DTLS specification, but a potentially much weaker protocol, and contained a vulnerability permitting arbitrary code execution (CVE-2007-4995). A side channel attack in the integer multiplication routines is also addressed (CVE-2007-3108).
For the stable distribution (etch), these problems have been fixed in version 0.9.8c-4etch3.
For the unstable distribution (sid) and the testing distribution (lenny), these problems have been fixed in version 0.9.8g-9.
We recommend that you upgrade your openssl package and subsequently regenerate any cryptographic material, as outlined above.
Upgrade instructions
--------------------
wget url
will fetch the file for you
dpkg -i file.deb
will install the referenced file.
If you are using the apt-get package manager, use the line for sources.list as given below:
apt-get update
will update the internal database
apt-get upgrade
will install corrected packages
KDE on Linux now de facto platform for Brazil primary school education system
I just received excellent news from Mauricio of Open Source Diary that Brazil has made KDE on Linux the official computing platform of the primary education system. The official details and such are available at his blog, but I'll post one quick screen shot here showing the new desktop.
The long and short of this news is that primary education system of Brazil includes some 52 million users spread across the country. That's not an exaggeration folks...52 million.
Here's a brief excerpt:
[At] the end of this year there will be already 29,000 labs deployed, serving approximately 36 million students. This number grows to more than 53,000 by the end of 2009, and at that time 52 million students will have access to them. You can also see in the slide a solution that is being developed for classrooms: a single hardware unit with integrated projector, cpu, bundled content and DVD player. With it, digital content will no longer be restricted to the info lab, and will be usable by teachers in the traditional classrooms as well.I am thinking that this is the largest massive Linux deployment in history. I may be wrong, but I'm just elated to see that 52 million young people will grow up in a free (as in freedom) environment where they will learn and flourish without the trappings of proprietary technology. This is one HUGE victory for Linux. Sphere: Related Content
IBM iDataPlex server line offers power on demand and liquid cooling
IBM has released data on it's new iDataPlex line of servers that are aimed at web services companies which need power on-demand for certain applications, but also need to watch power costs carefully. The new servers use liquid cooling which is much more efficient than traditional air conditioned and cooled units. The new line allows companies to double the server capacity of a single rack and still use 40% less electricity. The systems are also designed to be used as pools of computing resources rather than in the traditional single use server model. This further enhances efficiency within the data center. To the new internet startup company, this new line of servers will offer massive and efficient scalability, reduced energy consumption and reduced data center footprint. It's a win-win on all sides.
My Home Office
Here are those pictures I promised of my home office...I don't have pictures of the new iMac yet, but it's off to the left where you cannot see it. I recently swapped the black case with blue lights in the front for a clear sided case and added UV lights. Next in the series is one of my Dell laptops...the other laptop is a M1210 which I keep free of "schwag" for business travel purposes. The last pic is of my office guard dog, my Chihuahua Mary. She's almost 3 years old now.
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