On Friday, May 9, 2008, InfoWorld reported that Clear Hat Consulting has developed a rootkit that could run in an obscure part of a computer’s microprocessor making it 100% undetectable. Not only have they written such a rootkit but Clear Hat plans to demonstrate their “proof-of-concept” creation at the Black Hat Security conference in Las Vegas this August. Is it just me, or does anyone else have a fundamental problem with a guided tour of what could be the most malicious piece of software ever written?

Computer security research is important…but

I understand the importance of progressive research in the area of computer security and am grateful for companies and individuals that toil endlessly to help keep my PC safe from malicious attacks; however, I am concerned with Clear Hat Consulting’s latest discovery. Yes, you could argue that this discovery helps the “good guys” stay one step ahead of the “bad guys.” You could also argue that the “good guys” just gave hope to an idea that they “bad guys” might have given up on. And, if the “bad guys” had any questions about “how it works,” they only need to attend the August Black Hat conference for the guided tour.

Will ego get the better of them?

I suspect that Clear Hat will act responsibly at the August conference and not give away too much in their guided tour; however, with a name like “Clear Hat” it’s not clear (pardon the pun) whether their intentions are good, bad, or simply indifferent. That being said, there is no guarantee that on the day of their presentation that techno-machoism won’t get the best of the presenter who, in a fit of ego, doesn’t “give away the farm.”

I respect and appreciate the work that the “good guys” do in the area of computer security, but sometimes I wonder whether talking about their latest “discovery” isn’t doing more harm than good.

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Since my recent hard drive issues, I’ve been thinking about different approaches to the basic “computer backup.” During my daydreams I wondered about a specific backup facility for the Thunderbird email client. Yes, a basic system level file backup can save all of my Thunderbird email data, but is there a way to backup email from within Thunderbird itself?

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I’ve been doing a lot of work over the past year with PHP, and have been loving this language for dynamic web page development. I program in a couple of other languages so I have a few personal preferences for how I write code regardless of the language. Therefore, I often write standard if statements in PHP the same way I do in other languages; however, there are at least two other ways to write a PHP if statement that I often forget (old habits die hard) and am writing today’s post a quick “cheat sheet” type of reference for myself, and anyone else that needs a quick reminder of the available PHP if statement styles.

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I’ve been having some problems with my computer’s hard drive recently. The drive is actually a RAID level 0 two drive configuration. And while RAID 0 technically isn’t RAID, because it offers no data redundancy, I set up my desktop computer at this RAID level to make two 250 GB SATA 3 drives into one large and very speedy 500GB drive. I would have gone for a RAID level that offered some data redundancy, but my budget at the time did not allow for a third drive. Now I’m suffering a little pain from that decision.

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Assuming you don’t already own an XBox 360 or PS3, does the release of Grand Theft Auto IV compel you to make the jump to one of these new consoles? Previous versions of Grand Theft Auto had a tremendous impact on PS2 sales. Will this latest release of GTA have the same impact, and which console will benefit the most?

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I might not be a twenty-something college student living my life on Facebook, but I do have a LinkedIn account (actually, I also have a Facebook account, I just never use it). I guess you could say LinkedIn is the Facebook for working professionals. Not everyone will agree with that categorization but this 40-ish father of 3 feels more at home on LinkedIn than I do on Facebook. Regardless how I define these virtual communities, they remain extremely popular. And once something on the Internet becomes that popular, it’s only a matter of time before the “spammers” invade.

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This week I’ve been writing about Microsoft’s dominance of the realm of word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation graphics — the office suite. In my opinion OpenOffice remains the best alternative to the Microsoft application trio because OpenOffice is free, has most of the same features as Office, and can read and write all the proprietary Microsoft Office formats. If, however, you’re not sold on OpenOffice, there are a few other alternatives; however, most are not free and don’t come as nicely packaged as OpenOffice.

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On Monday I answered the question (at least in from perspective) why Microsoft Office continues to dominant the realm of word processing, spreadsheets and presentation graphics — it’s the proprietary document formats for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Basically, once you’ve started amassing a pile of documents saved in .doc, .xls, or .ppt format, you’re stuck with an application that can read and edit those formats. Obviously, many find it easy to just stick with Microsoft Office; however, for those that prefer a non-traditional route, alternatives do exist.

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Despite all of the buzz about “cloud computer” Microsoft Office still dominates the realm of word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation graphics — the standard office suite. Forget for a moment “how” Microsoft became dominant and ask yourself this question: How do they continue to dominant this area of computing?
Do they dominant because of the features?
Does […]

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I’m in the deepest darkest form of computer hell at the moment, which is preventing me from posting anything interesting and even remotely technical.  Hoping to get things resolved over the weekend and back on track with posting.  Thanks for stopping by and please don’t give up.
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