Blog for "the-enabler" of the letsnet.org network

---

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley

As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.

---

Opera Tackles Voice Browsing and RSS in Latest Beta Release Opera Software ASA unveiled Thursday a beta test version of its next Web browser release that features speech recognition, discovery of news feeds and automatic Web-page resizing.

While the next release had been on track to be Version 7.60, the Oslo, Norway, company announced a change in plans. It is retooling the version to be more than an update, which will include a yet-to-be-determined name, said Jon von Tetzchner, Opera's chief executive officer.

"We were preparing for the 7.60 release, but as work progressed and we kept adding improvements and functionality, it became very evident that we now have a browser that is so powerful, secure and easy to use that it exceeds the next logical version number and warrants a major release," von Tetzchner said in a statement.

Opera plans to make its newest browser generally available in 2005. While Opera supports Windows, Mac OS X (news - web sites) and Linux (news - web sites), the beta is available for Windows only.

Opera is the biggest commercial competitor to Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer, though it falls behind open-source contender, Mozilla, in user share. Opera holds about a 1.3 percent share worldwide, compared to 88.9 percent for IE and 7.4 percent for Firefox and Mozilla's other browsers, according to Web analytics provider OneStat.com. The rest of this Story with hyper link to an interview with Opera's CEO
You remember my talking about Opera the bowser that deletes cookies on closing, & reloads all the webpages you were looking at when you closed it last time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First Look: Thunderbird 1.0 a Winner - Dennis O'Reilly, PC World

If you find yourself spending more time sorting your e-mail than reading it, consider the Mozilla Foundation's new Thunderbird e-mail client. The free program, which complements the group's Firefox browser, combines advanced e-mail sorting functions, first-rate spam filters, and lightning-fast performance to help you cut through your inbox like a hot knife through butter.



Steelhoop of letsnet.org & Dennis tested version 1.0 of Thunderbird (a 5.8MB download). After years of using Microsoft Outlook, the switch was like trading in a big, lumbering Buick for a Mustang GT. A mere second after you launch the program, it's ready to retrieve your mail or compose a message. With Outlook, you launch the app and then go get a cup of coffee while it loads its numerous modules and applets. Steelhoof swithched months ago, remember readers????

Thunderbird's interface is equally sleek, borrowing many of the best elements of its sibling Firefox. The icons are stylish yet easy to identify, and navigation is simple and efficient.
Easy Sorting

Like most people, I'm in too much of a hurry to create a nice, neat folder hierarchy for my received e-mail, so I tend to keep all my messages in the inbox. That's why my favorite Thunderbird feature--and the one that may get me to dump Outlook for good--is the ability to create custom views of the inbox based on easy-to-set rules.

For example, I created a "Family view" that shows only messages from people in my personal address book named "O'Reilly" (I could add other names or conditions to this rule as well). Now when I want to see only messages from my family, I simply click the View drop-down menu and select "Family view."

Of course, any e-mail program worth its salt today has to be able to handle spam, too. Thunderbird's Junk Mail Controls include adaptive filters that are trained to identify spam based on the contents of your incoming messages. The feature also helps keep viruses off your system by blocking JavaScript from executing in news and mail messages.

Thunderbird supports all POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, as well as AOL Mail and HTML mail. Users of Netscape Webmail or Microsoft Hotmail need to download free plug-ins available through the Mozilla.org site.

In addition to e-mail, Thunderbird offers support for newsgroup access and includes an RSS news reader. The program has a basic Address Book, but it lacks an integrated calendar (although Mozilla offers a free calendar extension).
Slightly Imperfect

Despite Thunderbird's open-source underpinnings and collective development, the program's documentation is sparse. The link in Thunderbird's Help menu to the support Web site was broken each time I tested it, too.

The program shows its 1.0 nature in other ways, as well. For example, when I entered contact information in my Personal Address Book entries, the cursor continually disappeared, and my first attempt to save a contact record failed.

Still, Thunderbird proved robust enough to become my number one e-mail client in no time. I don't use Outlook's calendar feature, so Thunderbird's lack of one doesn't bother me. I can say unequivocally that if you're still using Microsoft's outdated Outlook Express, you should switch to Thunderbird immediately--no questions asked.

With Thunderbird version 1.0 the Mozilla Foundation has created a fast, simple, and fully functional e-mail client. The fact that it just happens to be free is icing on the cake.
Mozilla Thunderbird
E-mail client is fast, functional, and free; but documentation is scarce and there are still a few bugs.Street: Free to downloadhttp://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linux, you know, the other "Operating System" for computers,well the Honeypot Project Finds Unpatched Linux PCs Stay Secure Online For Months - The average unpatched Linux system survives for months on the Internet before being hacked, a report recently issued by the Honeypot Project claims.

The life expectancy of Linux has lengthened dramatically since 2001 and 2002, the project said, from a mere 72 hours two and three years ago to an average of three months today.

Honeypot Project is a non-profit that, as its name suggests, connects vulnerable systems to the Internet in the hope of drawing attacks so that they can be studied. To figure out the lifespan of a Linux system, the group set up a dozen "honeynets" -- the project's term for a system that hosts numerous virtual honeypot machines -- in eight countries, then tracked the time it took for those machines to be compromised.

"What's surprising is that even though threats and activity are reported as increasing, we see the life expectancy of Linux increasing against random attacks," said the group's report.

In comparison, unpatched Windows systems often are hacked within minutes of connecting to the Internet. Late last month, similar "honeypot" research done by AvanteGarde tallied the average survival time of several versions of Windows at just four minutes.

Although Honeypot Project deployed several Windows-based honeypots, it felt they were too few in number to use in drawing conclusions. It did note that several of the Windows honeypots were compromised in mere minutes. A pair of honeypots in Brazil, however, were online several months before being eventually compromised by worms.

The group also spotted several interesting facts about Linux's lifespan.

The older the Linux distribution, the more likely it would be hacked, said the group, which attributed that to more secure default settings by newer versions, a trait Windows, particularly Windows XP (news - web sites) SP2 and Windows Server 2003, shares with Linux.

And once a system had been compromised, it was more likely to be compromised again (and possibly again and again). One honeypot running Red Hat Linux, for example, was hacked 18 more times in just one month after its initial compromise. Again, that's not uncommon in the wider world of Windows, where previously-compromised PCs are often "updated" with the latest worm to take advantage of an even new vulnerability.

Although the data was somewhat of a surprise, particularly the huge increase in life expectancy even as Windows' continues to shrink, the group had several explanations for the results.

Default installations of Linux are, the report said, "becoming harder to compromise" thanks to changes such as fewer services automatically enabled and host based firewalls filtering inbound connections.

More important, however, is that hackers are now using tactics to target users, not the systems they work on. The best example is the flood of phishing attacks cranked out by criminals this year that need nothing more than an enticing e-mail message, an easily-duped consumer, and a bogus Web site to haul in dollars and steal identities.

The group also admitted the obvious, that Linux, by virtue of its small slice of the market, is a much less appealing target than Windows. "Based purely on economies of scale, attackers are targeting Win32 systems and their users, as this demographic represents the largest percentage of the installed base," the report stated.

"[You'd] expect that a greater threat could exist to Windows than Linux," the group concluded.

And from the results of this honeypot experiment, you'd be right.
END
And so, Steelhoof of letsnet.org is the one to ask question of as he's the one on Linus dude as we Thunderbird as well .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Broadband in U.S. Jumps 38 Pct in Latest Data-FCC WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of American consumers and businesses that subscribe to high-speed Internet service, or broadband, jumped 38 percent in the year ended June 30, 2004, according to new statistics released on Wednesday.

About 32.5 million broadband lines connected homes and businesses to the Internet, up from 23.5 million at the end of June 2003, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) said in its semi-annual report of the latest statistics.

In the six months ended June 30, the number of broadband lines rose 15 percent while during the previous six months the number of lines rose 20 percent, the agency said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

China shuts down 1,287 pornographic and cult websites
AFP - Thu Dec 23,12:08 PM ET
China has shut down 1,287 websites which spread "harmful information" on religious cults, superstition and pornography, a government Internet watchdog said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Honeypot Project Finds Unpatched Linux PCs Stay Secure Online For Months
TechWeb - Thu Dec 23, 2:53 PM ET
Study says the average unpatched Linux system survives for months on the Internet before being hacked. Another report sasy Windows PCs last just minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Google Stops Santy's Claws - For Now
NewsFactor - Thu Dec 23, 1:57 PM ET
Google has blocked a new type of Internet worm that was targeting the company's search engine in order to find vulnerable computers on the Internet.


MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

---

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley

As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.

---

Burning a CD in Windows XP takes a lot of room on your hard drive because Windows Media Player 9 (WMP9) has to convert the songs into a format that works on audio CDs. If you don't have an extra 700 to 800MB of free space on your main hard drive to accommodate the process, here's how to get it.

Click Start, My Computer, right-click your CD-R drive, and click Properties, Recording. The CD Drive Properties dialog box appears. Change the drive where Windows can store an "image." This space on the new drive is used only temporarily. It has to be on a hard drive, because the CD burning process can't be interrupted. If you have to copy a bunch of files to another computer on your network, or even compress some files to make room for the temporary image area, go ahead. You can always move them back later. Oh. And while the recording session is under way, don't edit that home movie or print 200 vacation pictures, okay? The CD burning routine needs a little room.

Burning a CD of carefully selected tunes is a great gift for someone you care for. But if you're tight on time, see what our Holiday Gift Ideas page has to offer!



MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

---

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley

As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.

---

Money management is a life lesson you can teach when the kids are very young — as early as age 3, say experts. Your child is likely to receive some cash for birthdays, holidays, and other celebrations. What do they do with it? Gift Money & the Three-Part Rule shows you how to help children be fiscally responsible by allocating gift money three ways. Knowing how to handle finances builds personal responsibility and decision-making skills in children and shows them how to respect — not worship — money.



MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

---

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley

As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.

---

Michael Desmond of PC World

Are you sick and tired of Internet Explorer? Have you grown weary of the constant vulnerabilities and patches? Do you scratch your head at sudden program lockups and crashes? Are you dismayed that Microsoft hasn't lifted a finger to improve or enhance IE since it buried Netscape's Navigator browser at the dawn of the century?

Yeah, me too.

Welcome to Internet Explorer backlash. For the first time since Microsoft launched its flagship browser in 1995, Internet Explorer is actually losing market share. Research firm WebSideStory reported that the enormous chunk of IE users declined from a high of 95 percent in June to 92.9 percent in October. That number could drop further, as a sudden wealth of good browser options attracts users of all stripes.

A lot of the credit can go to the folks at the open-source Mozilla Foundation, which was established in 1998 to breathe new life into the fast-failing Netscape browser platform. It's taken six years and the utter failure of Netscape the company, but Mozilla is finally delivering on its promise.

Today, not one, but two significant browser alternatives are powered by Mozilla's Gecko software code base--America Online's Netscape 7.2 and the wildly popular new Firefox 1.0 browser. Of course, even those two aren't the only IE challengers: A third major alternative, the Opera browser from Opera Software, has been serving disaffected IE users for years.

With so many choices just a software download away, questions swirl. Why should you care? Which browser is best? And after all is said and done, should you really switch? Software junkies may tell you the answers are obvious and conclusions foregone, but wait; read on.

It's the Tabs, Stupid

There are a lot of reasons why users are fleeing Microsoft Internet Explorer, but a lot of it boils down to security. Microsoft has chosen to run IE like a highly automated factory. ActiveX controls, dynamic HTML, and other technologies deliver lots of automation and programmatic control over IE. That's great if you want to integrate, say, a billing system with your browser, or have Web sites offer dynamic interfaces. But those same controls can be misused or targeted, amplifying the threat from malicious code.

Microsoft's response has been a grim parade of patches, fixes, and advisories. In some instances, Microsoft has suggested turning off features or setting security levels so high that they disable the very capabilities that make IE attractive in the first place. Finally in October, Microsoft released Windows XP (news - web sites) Service Pack 2, a wholesale update that helped close many of the vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.

But understand this: No browser is without flaws. Mozilla patched some holes of its own prior to the Firefox 1.0 release, and Opera has issued a few security-centric updates in the past year. The problem for Microsoft is the overwhelming popularity of its browser. Virus writers and hackers target IE because there are so many systems running it.

Perhaps more frustrating than security leaks is the fact that Microsoft quit adding new features to its browser. The last major feature refresh for IE dates back to August 2001--and it shows. Firefox, Netscape, and Opera all offer significant feature improvements over IE, including tabbed browsing for juggling multiple Web pages, and built-in pop-up blocking to prevent ads from opening new browser windows. Other refinements include helpful managers for file downloads, integrated search bars, and more accessible controls for managing histories, cookie files, and the browser cache.

In fact, the future of Web browsing comes down to one word: tabs. I realized it the instant I fired up multiple pages in a single Opera program window. Just like that, I could browse a half-dozen Web pages with ease, jumping from one to the next simply by clicking on the little tabs at the top of the window. What's more, I could open multiple tabbed pages in the background, so they could load while I looked at the page in the foreground.

Not all tabbing systems are created equal, and no one has done it perfectly yet. Opera gets the nod for best keyboard shortcuts. For example, I can close a tabbed page by holding Shift and clicking on the page tab; clicking the tab for the foreground page bounces me to the last page I viewed. I can even drag tabs around to keep pages in neat order. Both Firefox and Netscape offer tabbing that is a bit more rigid.
Time to Switch?

Of the four browsers I've worked with--IE, Firefox, Netscape, and Opera--Firefox 1.0 stood out as the best overall choice. The browser does an excellent job of faithfully displaying Web pages, offers a superior user interface, and suffers fewer crashes than my previous favorite, Opera. It's also highly customizable through something called Firefox Extensions. I installed one module that lets me navigate pages using mouse gestures, a feature I became addicted to during my Opera years.

One area where you'll hear browser makers tout an advantage is performance, or how quickly a browser can show you Web sites. I'd urge you to take any such claims with a grain of salt. In my testing, I found that performance was usually determined by the speed of my Internet connection (not surprisingly) rather than one browser or another. Although Firefox tended to outperform all the others in loading complex pages, we're talking about a difference of one to two seconds.

When the dust settles, the different browsers offer their own unique benefits and drawbacks. Here's a quick take on which browser might be best for you, depending on how you work.

Firefox: The best all-around alternative to IE. Great for power users who want to add functionality to the browser, and appropriate for newbies just getting started.

Internet Explorer: Best for corporate users in controlled environments and those who spend most of their time on Microsoft-branded or IE-specific Web sites.

Netscape: Best for AOL subscribers (with AOL Instant Messenger integration) and those who are willing to put up with some rough edges to use other goodies, including an HTML editor and e-mail program.

Opera: Best for power users who keep many pages open at once and perform frequent downloads. There's an e-mail program included, but banner ads on the free version of the browser are annoying.

So is it time to ditch Internet Explorer once and for all? In a word, no. Microsoft requires its browser to access its Windows Update and Office Update services, and it's not uncommon to find Web sites that are designed specifically for IE. Pages such as MSNBC.com can challenge non-Microsoft browsers. Firefox renders MSNBC pretty well, while Opera fails to render the fly-out menus on the navigation bar.

For the time being, most users will need to keep IE handy, just in case. Keep in mind that you can have more than one browser on your computer. If one acts up, close it and launch the other.

But for general-purpose Web browsing, there is no reason to put off the switch a minute longer. Firefox, Netscape, and Opera are an impressive trio of IE alternatives that could help shelter you from the daily blizzard of Internet exploits.
END
Michael Desmond is a freelance writer living in Burlington, Vermont. His wife doesn't understand how anyone can get so excited about tabs. And you know me, if you read me alot, Opera, because of how it handles the cookies, & Firefox are my babies.


MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".

---

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley

As the prostitute said, "It's not the work, it's the stairs." As told to me by Elaine Stritch, star of stage, screen, & TV, right after she won her 1st Emmy. Ago 79.

---

And your right the is not computer tech, but so many people have cell phones that I haD to just because "YOU NEED TO KNOW. D

By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

The most important development this year in U.S. wireless communications wasn't the headline-grabbing mergers of various wireless carriers. It was the quiet, gradual rollout by Verizon Wireless of a technology called EV-DO, which for the first time is providing broadband-speed Internet access over the air from anywhere in the cities where it has been deployed.

This new Verizon network, which the company calls "BroadbandAccess," promises users in 18 cities so far that they can get on the Internet at typical speeds of between 300 and 500 kilobits a second. That's the equivalent of what many wired home DSL modems do, and much faster than prior American cellphone data networks. But in my first tests of the new network last spring I was able to do even better, averaging nearly 600 kilobits a second.

And, unlike Wi-Fi, another form of wireless broadband, the new Verizon network doesn't require the user to be near a "hot spot," usually found in coffee shops or hotels. Verizon hopes to have most major metro areas covered by EV-DO by the end of 2005, and Sprint is also planning to roll out an EV-DO network next year.

But so far, this capability has been available only via a special modem card inserted into a laptop computer, and it has carried a whopping monthly price tag of $80. Now Verizon is introducing two hand-held devices, a combination PDA/phone and a standard flip phone, that can tap the EV-DO network. And it is charging lower monthly fees to use the network with these devices than it does for laptop use.

I've been testing these new EV-DO hand-helds over the past few weeks. Both achieved broadband speeds when connected to the Internet, but only one can really make practical use of the higher speed. The first is the Audiovox XV6600, a PDA with a built-in phone that is based on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system. This model is essentially identical to a Sprint Pocket PC I reviewed in October. But the Sprint version achieved only a fraction of the Internet speeds that the new Verizon model can.

Like its Sprint sibling, the Verizon PDA has a crucial new feature -- a slide-out keyboard that finally makes the Pocket PC a plausible competitor of the palmOne Treo and the Research In Motion BlackBerry for serious mobile e-mail users.

The XV6600 went on sale this week through Verizon's corporate sales channels and will be in Verizon stores next month. It costs $549 with a two-year contract. The monthly fee for unlimited use of the high-speed EV-DO data network is $44.99, on top of the cost of a voice calling plan.

Compared with the new Sprint Treo 650, the gold standard of such smart phones, the XV6600 is big, pricey and power hungry. It's heavier and bigger than the Treo and has less battery life -- just 2.5 hours of talk time, half of the Treo's. It also has a lower-resolution screen and costs $100 more. But the Sprint Treo 650, as nice as it is, can only fetch e-mail and surf the Web at speeds of up to 70 kilobits a second. In my tests, Verizon's new Pocket PC was never slower than 349 kilobits a second, and it averaged between 450 and 550 kilobits.

Armed with those speeds, I was able to confidently set the e-mail program on the device to get the full text of messages and even attachments. It downloaded hundreds of e-mails daily, at speeds that, while not as fast as my office and home PCs, were close enough that I felt almost as if I was at the computer. On the Internet, Web pages rendered quickly, and I was able to play streaming audio and video, at good resolution, with no more stuttering than you'd get on a PC.

The new EV-DO phone, the LG VX8000, is a standard-looking camera-equipped flip phone that will go on sale in the first quarter of 2005 for less than $300. The monthly fee for high-speed network use will be less than $25, which includes unlimited access to Verizon's basic video news clips service, its "Mobile Web," and some other canned Internet services designed for cellphones.

Like many phones, this new LG model lacks a decent e-mail program and Web browser, and comes with only crippled versions mainly intended to access services selected by the carrier. For that reason, I couldn't use speed-testing Web sites to measure the phone's Internet speed. But downloading Web pages on the phone felt like a broadband experience, and I was easily able to view videos streamed from the Web, usually a painful experience on a phone.

Verizon says the VX8000 will have a better e-mail program when it ships next year. But unless it's a really good one, I doubt it will be worth buying this phone for its EV-DO capabilities. The high speed gets you only online video clips and faster downloading of games and ring tones, which hardly seem worth the monthly fee.

Bottom line: The new Verizon EV-DO network is a very good thing, and it's a great addition to a laptop or PDA. But until Verizon and other carriers allow regular phones to have more computerlike capabilities, wireless broadband won't matter much for average cellphone users.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com



MY ADVICE endeavors at keen.com. The number is 1-800-275-5336 (800-ask-keen) + ext. 0329063 for tech stuff, 0329117 for running a small business, and 0329144 on investing. Want to CHAT, I use Yahoo's IM as the_web_ster. View me in the Friends & Family part of webcamnow.com, just click on "view cams", then in the Java window click on WebcamNow Communities drop down arrow & select Friends & Family. Under the live webcams look for & click on me "the_webster".