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The sharing feature of the Jetpack plugin for WordPress is currently being exploited for the purpose of sending spam and possibly for DDOS attacks. FOSS Force became aware of this after we began looking into emails being sent to us by our server’s security system, notifying us of massive amounts of email being sent from our server. An investigation by our IT people traced the problem to the “Sharing” function of the Jetpack plugin.

The thing to remember if you should find yourself at a workshop hosted by a person who’s “open source” company really wants to be Microsoft or Oracle is that the open source community, especially at the enterprise level, is a microcosm of the greater community from which it sprung. Don’t be disheartened by a presenter whose message is that “it’s all about the money” and that open source is nothing but another way of doing business. I promise you that two or three workshops down the road you’ll realize that person represents the minority — and that’ll make you feel very good.

Those of us who use Linux as our main operating system are insulated from this problem. A smaller number of us may be trying to help others ween themselves from Microsoft Windows entirely. The first thing some of us do is search for one of the more user friendly distros. A few of these distros claim to mimic one or more of the Microsoft operating systems. And yeah, there are some visual similarities, but that’s where it ends.

On Friday, March 14, the U.S. announced it’ll relinquish control of the Internet’s root zone file, which contains all information about top-level domain names. According to Ars Technica, the move came as a surprise, although the United States has promised for many years that eventually the system would be put in the hands of an international body.

On Monday Ken Starks published an article on Internet access in his neck of the woods, which is outside the Austin city limits. That got me wondering how much most of you spend each month to have the ability to read articles on FOSS Force, watch the latest episodes of your favorite TV shows and check in with your friends on your favorite social network.

There is more to open source than software, hardware and the creative commons. Open source can also be seen as a guide for living life that is based on principles that go back to antiquity. Openness and sharing aren’t only for computers, electronics and creative writing.

AT&T offers their basic DSL service starting at $14.95 a month. People might ask themselves why it’s so inexpensive when compared to Time Warner Roadrunner service. If they had a chance to run each service side by side the answer would be obvious. But it’s not all bad. The AT&T customer gains the opportunity to learn a new technological term — buffering.

It’s beginning to appear to us as if Oracle has absolutely no idea how to deal with the security issues posed by Java. This should come as no surprise to anyone, especially given the fact that the company has been unable to deliver a working website, albeit a highly complex one, even after burning through $100 million of Oregon’s money.

There was a time, back before smartphones and tablets, when most of us used, at most, only three operating systems. Indeed, for the average computer user there was only one operating system that mattered and that was Windows, which held a 95% market share. Even those of us who used Linux or Apple at home usually had to use a Windows computer at work–which remains true today.

Since leaving SCO, McBride’s life has continued with the sort of gangsteresque intrigue that defined him in the days when he was Linux’s public-enemy-number-one. Last May he made news when The Salt Lake Tribune reported that he had turned over a four year old audio recording of a conversation he had with Mark Shurtleff, who had been Utah’s Attorney General when the recording was made.

Anyone still using MS Office should consider the advantages of moving to LibreOffice. For most single computer users, the move can be made with ease. When multiple computers and users are involved, as would be the case with most businesses, migration must be handled with care. However, any effort in this direction would quickly pay for itself in reduced licensing fees to Microsoft.

“Why we don’t all switch to Diaspora I will never understand.”

My friend Ross made this remark on Facebook Thursday as introduction to a link to a petition by Demand Progress, a progressive political action site. The petition addresses Facebook and privacy issues, making some rather disturbing accusations. Although the text is short on siting sources, the accusations still ring true. The claim is that every time something is typed into a comment box but then not posted, Facebook keeps a record.

It appears that the police in Tallahassee, Florida have been busy tracking folks by their cell phones without bothering to show up before a judge and ask for a warrant. Why would they violate the constitutional rights of their citizens this way? Evidently because they were using technology on loan and had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Not so long ago all of us pretty much did our computing either on a desktop or a laptop. Those were pretty much our only choices, unless servers are included and they’re pretty much desktops without…well, a desktop.

The good news is that in lieu of POSSCON, IT-oLogy is throwing what promises to be a big shindig of an enterprise level open source conference in Atlanta. Called Great Wide Open, the conference is less than a month away, scheduled to get cranked-up on April 2nd and 3rd at the 200 Peachtree Special Events & Conference Center in downtown Atlanta.

Last year, we began holding two day “Computer 101? classes each week. For two hours each night, we taught people the most basic computer skills. We discovered that the majority of people attending were in the age group of 50-70 years old. That’s when I coined the term “task-set mouse clickers.” As long as people are doing things they are used to doing, they are comfortable. But take them outside of their task set and the mouse in their hand becomes a hand grenade.

We figure that any currency that can’t be safely tucked into a mattress isn’t secure, so we haven’t been too quick to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon. Needless to say, we weren’t surprised on Monday when Reuters reported that there’s a botnet on the loose with the aim of stealing the virtual currency.

Those who keep up with my posts on Google Plus might know about my month-long struggle with Google Drive. For those who do not, here’s the deal. I split a 200 gig account with my organization Reglue. Half of it I pay for so I have a place to backup my important stuff. The other half is dedicated to files and other documents for Reglue.

He walked me over to a computer at the back of the big room and told me that I could conduct tests on that machine. I nodded and he left me to my business at hand. In my haste I had forgotten to ask him some pertinent questions and at that moment I was staring one of those pertinent questions in the eye.

A huge Ricoh wall to wall copier, scanner, printer, make-your-coffee-and-do-your-dishes business solution.

It appears that Satya Nadella is everything Steve Ballmer is not, or so it seems at first blush. It’s hard to remember what Microsoft was like before Ballmer, at least for me. He didn’t lead at Microsoft. Most times he reminded me of a charging storm trooper, shooting first and asking questions later.

Ballmer rarely asked questions. You did what he said or you did the unemployment line. Friends at Microsoft have told me of such abrupt firings, even at the executive level. No one was warned or privy to the change ahead…the next day there would be a new name plate on someone’s door. The attitude from above? Deal with it.