21. January 2012 by admin.

I got an email at just 4:34 pm today, that’s an hour ago. For those that don’t know, other jailbreaks were already available for older iPhones and iPod Touches up to iPod Touch 4, but not for the new iPhone 4S and the iPad 2. iPhone 4S (and iPad 2???) uses a new A5 Processor … more powerful than the previous model Apple devices CPU’s. Somehow this thwarted the hacking or cracking (the exploiting) of the iOS Operating System. So users of the newer devices, wanting to jailbreak, had to cool their heels and wait … and wait.

News about the jailbreak from GreenPois0n tells that it was VERY DIFFICULT. Exploits within exploits … had to be done to accomplish it. The Mac OS X version of the program file required to perform the jailbreak was released first, causing the Windows PC crowd to pitch a bitch about it. But the group doing the exploit software, called Absinthe A5, program on Apple Computers under the Mac OS X operating system. So the Windows jailbreak crowd will have to wait for Absinthe A5 to be ported to the PC/Windows OS.

The GreenPois0n web site was swamped this evening … I was getting “unavailable” … and supposedly there is an Internet network link involved in the jailbreaking process that has caused problems for some people trying to do the jailbreak. So maybe we’ll have to wait a little longer until this cools down a bit to be able to jailbreak our iPhone 4S’s and iPad 2’s. The following is the supposedly official news from GreenPois0n:

Here’s the official post by GreenPoison;

Greetings, friends & jailbreakers!

We are well-aware of how very many of you, our faithful fans, have been waiting for months for this announcement, so – with no further ado, we are excited to unveil the newest addition to our GreenPois0n toolkit…
Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 4S & iPad 2 !

This release should come as no surprise to those of you who have been following pod2g’s iOS blog for the past few months. Earlier this week, you might have even wet your pants a little when you watched the video demonstration of today’s release (named Absinthe A5) and first witnessed our jailbreak working its magic to liberate both the iPhone 4S & iPad 2.

What you may not fully realize yet is just how hard the exploits in this Apple A5 jailbreak are working behind the scenes – and, though I mentioned it last week on my Twitter – what a glorious hacker’s wet dream the Absinthe A5 toolkit has ultimately evolved into!
Hacking the A5: Not Exactly a Walk in the Park

The ridiculously complex combination of exploits-within-exploits that make this iOS jailbreak possible have consumed thousands of hours of brain-power & effort from a legion of world-renowned hackers, several of whom have been working diligently on this project since the dual-core A5 processor was unveiled by Apple last March. Ten months ago, I myself was live tweeting from a tediously long line at the nearest Apple retail store, where I anxiously waited to become one of the world’s first owners (& hackers) of the newly-released iPad 2.

At that point, I don’t know if any iOS hacker anticipated how much the A5 chip would completely change the game & up the stakes. The endless war we fight to jailbreak has become more & more difficult with each new device released, and our recent battle against A5 only proved this further. After working for months with few tangible results, Chronic Dev hackers tried a new approach – we launched CDevReporter to accumulate all your devices’ crash reports, an invaluable source of information for iOS hacking & research. You answered our call-to-arms quickly & emphatically, sending us more than 10 million of these reports in less than a week. (Keep up the good work!)

Meanwhile, the iPhone 4S was released with resounding success – more than four million devices were sold in the first weekend alone. As a result, demand for an untethered A5 jailbreak grew exponentially overnight, and a mob-like mentality was adopted by many of the (usually courteous) Apple fan-kids. Suddenly, every iOS hacker found himself the target of constant clamoring – on Twitter, in our (& other) blog’s comments, in forums & tech news blurbs. Their message was loud & clear: “We want our new iPhones jailbroken, & we want it NOW!”
Introducing the 2012 iOS Hacking “Dream Team”

We finally admitted that the escalated obstacles presented by Apple’s new A5 processor would not likely be overcome by one individual or team – but all together, we should be more than able to conquer any challenges encountered. As such, a diverse group of iOS hackers all decided to set aside our personal goals & egos, relax our die-hard team loyalties, and pool our respective skill-sets, talents & exploits to form an iOS Super-Hacking “Dream Team.”

Numerous prominent iOS hackers contributed time & expertise to the project through their troubleshooting, brilliant obstacle-clearing ideas & other support. We’d like to extend special thanks to saurik & MuscleNerd, both core members of iPhone Dev Team.

Of the 4 hackers who deserve extra recognition & gratitude for completing the lion’s share of the research, development & programming of this jailbreak, 3 are members of Chronic Dev Team: myself (posixninja), pod2g & nikias. The fourth & most legendary member of our “Dream Team” is planetbeing, the globally-admired iOS hacker/developer responsible for initially porting both Linux & Android to the iPhone (among his many other contributions).

As to the amazingly innovative fusion of exploits used in this iOS jailbreak – we plan to save most of that discussion for a panel/presentation we hope to give at a conference later this year. If you want to learn more now, pod2g wrote an excellent blog post after the release of Corona, in which he describes in detail the userland & kernel exploits we used, both for the A4 iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak and as a starting point for this Absinthe A5 toolkit.

Help Advance our Ongoing iOS Research & Support the Future of Jailbreaks!
CONTRIBUTE HERE directly to Chronic Dev Team

Say “THANK YOU!” to Developers of this A5 Jailbreak for a Job Well Done!
CONTRIBUTE HERE to iOS Hacking “Dream Team”
Download GreenPois0n Absinthe Now

To jailbreak your iPhone 4S (running iOS 5.0 or either 4S version of 5.0.1**) and/or your iPad 2 (all Wi-Fi only, GSM & CDMA devices supported; must be running iOS 5.0.1**) – select one of the links below to download your Absinthe A5 untethered jailbreak. Simply unzip the file, then install on your iOS A5 mobile device with one click of a button! As always MacOSX version is being released first, and Windows and Linux versions will be released shortly after.

Windows » Coming Soon…

Mac OS X » GreenPois0n Absinthe v0.1.2-1

Linux » Coming Soon…

**NOTE: If you haven’t yet heeded the advice I gave weeks ago – before you take one step further, upgrade your firmware to iOS 5.0.1 NOW! (Unless you need an iPhone4s Unlock) Also, we don’t mean to beat you over the head with this warning, but please remember: you should not update to iOS 5.0.2 when it’s released, or you will lose your jailbreak! Bookmark our GreenPois0n blog now, and be the first to know the next time we advise our jailbreak users to safely update their iOS firmware.

As with all our previous GreenPois0n releases, should you run into any bugs in the A5 jailbreak, leave us a comment below or contact us on Twitter (via Chronic Dev Team, GreenPois0n, or directly to “Dream Team” hackers posixninja, pod2g or nikias). Even if we aren’t able to respond to your messages individually, we depend on all users to let us know about any issues you run into so that we can address them & fix the most-reported problems as quickly as possible.
Muchas Gracias

First & foremost, THANK YOU to all our loyal fans & readers for your enduring patience over the past several months. We’ve been toiling night & day in order to perform the serious hacking ninja magic required to develop the most advanced iPhone jailbreak yet – we only hope it was worth your wait! And as always, thank you for your never-ending support of Chronic Dev Team & all our GreenPois0n releases!

I also want to express my personal gratitude to:

saurik – for all your guidance & support, especially in helping us out of the sandbox, and for acting as administrator to the “Dream Team” donation fund;
Chronic-Dev, LLC – for hosting the web servers that will inevitably crash due to the sheer number of simultaneous download requests; and
finally & especially, the other “Dream Team” members – for all your expertise, dedication, cooperation & countless hours of hard work! It was a true pleasure to work closely with each of you, and without your contributions, this jailbreak would not have been possible.

Download Absinthe A5 Untethered Jailbreak Tool
Download Absinthe for Windows (coming soon)

—————————————————————————————————————————————————–

* Years ago … nobody had computers … except in Big Computer Centers. You paid for time sharing of such large computer systems. When Personal Computers came along it kind of broke that “Centralized” method of computing. There is a sort of ressurection of “centralized” computing and storage being pushed on the masses via “Cloud Computing” where the Internet is the Cloud but it really means centralized (not at your home or office) servers doing the storage of your files and in many cases doing some of the calculating (processing … CPU job.) A lot of people like myself thinks this is an attempt to make everyones computer back into a DUMB TERMINAL … only sending and receiving information but having no Horsepower locally. A lot of people like to have the power to do whatever they want with the Computing Horsepower being owned by them. In the Apple portable device crowd a similar kind of thing is going on. Apple wants to lock everyone down to only installing “Apps” (Application Programs) that they approve of … and that are available via their APP STORE and such infrastructure. * I don’t like that because they are denying me access to WiFi Scanning and Diagnostic Programs that I can use in my work. Its a censorship and “centralized control” kind of thing … somewhat akin to the old Central Computer thing. Your portable Apple Computer device is YOURS but in a way it’s not really. You can’t do what you want to do with it. In the Apple Doctrine this is supposed to protect the Mother Ship (them) and to protect us, the users, from unstable devices because of being able to freely install programs, apps, device drivers, etc. onto the Apple Portable Computing Devices.

Anyway, phewwwww!!!! Having said that, I have jailbroken an iPod Touch 4th Generation. The exploiting program for that was called RedSn0w. So I have seen first hand the ability to use another “repository” for APPs on a portable Apple Device. I could get my WiFi Tools and many other programs that were no available from the Apple “Matrix” described above.

[That’s all for now]

—

Alan Spicer … reporting live from the Internet somewhere

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18. January 2012 by admin.

Wikipedia is DOWN … Blacked Out …

Pre-Blackout (T-Minus less than 1 hour) to Blackout Time: 00:00 Eastern, 05:00 UTC

(This is YOUR BRAIN)

AfterTime-Zero - Wikipedia Blackout “Engaged” …

(and this is your brain on SOPA and PIPA legislation.)

Google SOPA - PIPA Blackout initiative …

Google Additional on the link from their logo blacked out …

Get the PDF on that page … I believe you have to be a member on Google, Google Docs anyway. I got a document not found or such and had to click on a button for Get Original or such.

Anyway according to this a LOT of people oppose this legislation.

… And the Washington Post - Monica Hesse puked the following onto the worldwide web, maybe they should have BLACKED HER OUT. I guess she can’t see any good in the Wikipedia … She thinks it is only used by School Students to cheat on writing papers and such (Drunken Disputes?). She can’t see the good in being able to look up things in a FREE online encyclopedia for many reasons, personal, business, and educational. She can’t the forest for the trees or something.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/with-sopapipa-blackout-some-rest-for-the-wikied/2012/01/17/gIQATE6Y6P_story.html?tid=pm_lifestyle_pop

By Monica Hesse, Published: January 17

Wikipedia, the completer of homework assignments and mediator of drunken disputes, was set to go black Wednesday, in protest of SOPA and PIPA, two bills that purport to crack down on online piracy, but which detractors say just give the government undue power to shut down Web sites.

By Tuesday afternoon, Wikipedia searches had achieved a deranged, panicked quality, much like the ritualistic scarfing of ice cream that happens before a scheduled power outage. If we do not learn the difference between an oligarchy and a plutocracy now, right now, this moment, then when? Wikipeda has meant a lot of things, but most of all it — and Google — has meant the end of wondering. We do not wonder anymore, we find. Our most errant, absurd, obscure questions (What was the name of Adolf Hitler’s dog?) are now answered with minimal keystrokes (Blondi).

(more was up chucked at the Washington Post link above.) 

—

Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom and WiFiYacht.net

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18. January 2012 by admin.

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout

To: English Wikipedia Readers and Community
From: Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director
Date: January 16, 2012

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States – the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate – that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.
 
This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. Here’s how it’s been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community’s discussion. From the public statement, signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:Billinghurst:
It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web. Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support. On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations.

In making this decision, Wikipedians will be criticized for seeming to abandon neutrality to take a political position. That’s a real, legitimate issue. We want people to trust Wikipedia, not worry that it is trying to propagandize them.
 
But although Wikipedia’s articles are neutral, its existence is not. As Wikimedia Foundation board member Kat Walsh wrote on one of our mailing lists recently,
We depend on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. And we depend on a legal infrastructure that also allows other sites to host user-contributed material, both information and expression. For the most part, Wikimedia projects are organizing and summarizing and collecting the world’s knowledge. We’re putting it in context, and showing people how to make to sense of it. But that knowledge has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikimedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to.

The decision to shut down the English Wikipedia wasn’t made by me; it was made by editors, through a consensus decision-making process. But I support it.
 
Like Kat and the rest of the Wikimedia Foundation Board, I have increasingly begun to think of Wikipedia’s public voice, and the goodwill people have for Wikipedia, as a resource that wants to be used for the benefit of the public. Readers trust Wikipedia because they know that despite its faults, Wikipedia’s heart is in the right place. It’s not aiming to monetize their eyeballs or make them believe some particular thing, or sell them a product. Wikipedia has no hidden agenda: it just wants to be helpful.
 
That’s less true of other sites. Most are commercially motivated: their purpose is to make money. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a desire to make the world a better place – many do! – but it does mean that their positions and actions need to be understood in the context of conflicting interests.
 
My hope is that when Wikipedia shuts down on January 18, people will understand that we’re doing it for our readers. We support everyone’s right to freedom of thought and freedom of expression. We think everyone should have access to educational material on a wide range of subjects, even if they can’t pay for it. We believe in a free and open Internet where information can be shared without impediment. We believe that new proposed laws like SOPA and PIPA, and other similar laws under discussion inside and outside the United States, don’t advance the interests of the general public. You can read a very good list of reasons to oppose SOPA and PIPA here, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house-principles-supporting-free-speech

Why is this a global action, rather than US-only? And why now, if some American legislators appear to be in tactical retreat on SOPA?
 
The reality is that we don’t think SOPA is going away, and PIPA is still quite active. Moreover, SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. All around the world, we’re seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the Internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond SOPA and PIPA: they are just part of the problem. We want the Internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone.
 
  Make your voice heard!
On January 18, we hope you’ll agree with us, and will do what you can to make your own voice heard.
 
Sue Gardner,
 Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation

—
Alan Spicer
Alan Spicer Marine Telecom and WiFiYacht.net

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13. April 2010 by admin.

Yachts, if you can’t have automatic updates on all of the time - due to Internet bandwidth / cost constraints, then at least get the updates when you are in dock somewhere and can go on a less bandwith restricted or costly Internet connection. Apple Computer users don’t feel left out, and definately don’t feel bullet-proof. Apple Computer users make sure you are getting your updates as well. Mac OS X, according to comments on the same article quote below, has 88 vulnerabilities of recent vintage. Don’t kill the messenger here. I’m just repeating what has been said in the comments on this article. And someone provided a link to prove it.

– Alan Spicer

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/193871/batten_down_the_hatches_for_microsoft_and_adobe_patches.html?tk=nl_bax_h_cbintro

April 08, 2010 8:33 PM
Batten Down the Hatches for Microsoft and Adobe Patches

By Tony Bradley

Next Tuesday is both Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday for April, and Adobe’s quarterly patch release. Combined, there are a total of 27 vulnerabilities being patched in Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, and the Acrobat Reader application. It will be a busy day for IT administrators and information security professionals to analyze and prioritize the deluge of updates.
It seems a little odd to have a Patch Tuesday so far into the month, but when the first of the month falls on a Thursday it takes longer to get to the second Tuesday of the month. Things also seem a little out of whack in terms of timing due to the out-of-band update Microsoft issued for Internet Explorer on March 30.

Nevertheless, Patch Tuesday is coming. Amol Sarwate, manager of Qualys’ Vulnerability Research Lab, e-mailed to provide some expert insight on what Microsoft has in store. “There are 11 security bulletins that affect a range of Windows operating system components as well as Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange. This is a fairly large update and will keep system administrators busy on Patch Tuesday.”

Sarwate explained “Out of the 11 security bulletins, five are rated Critical and affect components in Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 2003, 2008 and Windows 7. If left un-patched, an attacker could execute code or programs on the victim’s machine and therefore all are categorized as remote code execution.”

(more at the link above…)

—
Alan Spicer

DBA Alan Spicer Telcom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
Computer Services, Wired/Wireless Networking,
Cell/Sat/Landline Communications, General Consulting…
Marine, Business, Small Office and Home Office (SOHO)

* Cost Savings and Integration of Multiple Internet Technologies
on board Sail and Motor Yachts * Documentation, Operating
Instructions, and Support after the Sale *

* http://www.marinetelecom.net/
* http://www.internetforyachts.net/
* http://www.wifiyacht.net/
* 954-683-3426

Mobile Internet! Step up to the HSPA 3G Fast Internet!

Ericsson W35 released in the USA. This you’ve gotta SEE!!
Better looking presentation than W25 (you might not want to
hide this one in the Doghouse!) + High Speed Upload which
the W25 did not have.
http://www.marinetelecom.net/Ericsson_W35/

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1. April 2010 by admin.

I’ve noticed here lately that two of my Windows 7 installations have had the operating system *reboot* without my consent. For me this can be bad because I might be running important software that requires a proper shutdown in the background. Just because I didn’t pay attention to Windows 7 for a little while it *should not* be rebooting and killing every software that I am running. On boats this could be bad as well because you might be running a navigation software or something else important, say a mail server software that has to be always up.

I noticed this for the 2nd time in a Virtual Box test installation of Windows 7 - used as a Sand Box / Safe environment to test stuff on Windows 7. My virtual box virtual machine somehow got a mis-configuration that made the hard drive not one of the default boot devices … anyway it brought to light the question … Why the heck did Windows 7 go down and reboot anyway.

So I went on to find out, in Control Panel, where they hid the Windows Update settings. I set it to notify me before downloading and installing Windows updates. This still causes it to *check* for updates - but not download them, and not reboot my computer with important stuff up and running. You might want to do this on your boat as well - because depending on your Internet Connection you may not want Windows 7 to download large Windows Updates over an expensive connection. You might wish to wait until you can switch to a less expensive Internet Connection.

—

Alan Spicer - KA4UDX (http://www.qrz.com/db/ka4udx)

Alan Spicer Telecom / Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

+1 954 683 3426

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25. March 2010 by admin.

Microsoft removes “hardware virtualization” requirement for XP Mode in: Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows 7

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/191938/windows_7_xp_mode_loses_hardware_requirement.html

http://windowsteamblog.com/

A new functionality that came with certain versions of Windows 7 (not all of them?) includes an “XP Mode” which comes with a full rendition of Windows XP. This was great for those that still like Windows XP or have a real reason to run XP because of Legacy Applications (Programs) that won’t run in Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Now grant it there are some persons, like myself, Alan Spicer, that require Operating Systems Virtualization not for legacy applications purposes, but for being able to “run” many different OS’s for educational and support (of my customers) purposes.

Anyway this XP Mode of Windows 7 only worked on hardware that could perform the “hardware assisted virtualization” which lots of PC Hardware (computers, laptops, desktops) does not have. I’m not even sure how you would shop for that. I don’t think it’s one of the “features” on a lot of the web sites or price / features sheets in stores. You’d almost have to be a geek (not that there’s anything wrong with that) to recognize that you would need that and know how to ask for it while computer shopping. Here’s a link that explains what this is all about.

http://www.desktop-virtualization.com/2008/05/14/what-hardware-virtualization-really-means/

Anyway, I for one, wanted to try the XP Mode out in Windows 7 - but I didn’t have hardware VT in any of my CPU’s in any of my computers. I was happy for a few seconds when I read the above linked post that the hardware requirement would be gone… only to be saddened a few seconds later when I realized that it was only for a few versions of Windows 7 … and definately not for Windows Home Premium, which I run on my main Windows 7 Desktop machine.

Now grant I have another machine around here (somewhere) that I think is running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, I’d sure like to be able to do this on my main PC that’s hooked up to the big screen all of the time. I could get another Windows 7 Pro 64-bit at a discount … but I ‘ve already done upgrade on this machine from Windows Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 64-bit (it was a free upgrade) and going to Pro wasn’t supported in that free upgrade. Well at least I’m in the 64-bit class which lets me test 64-bit and 32-bit “stuff” on this class and see how well things work. And in general it has been working out *rather well* - thank you.

Soooo I’d like to see Microsoft bring this XP mode, with hardware VT requirement removed, brought down one more level to Windows 7 Home Premium. So we can all get a taste of it. Maybe the XP Mode wasn’t even in this version at all anyway? So maybe we’re asking for more than Microsoft is willing to give? But hey, we’re singing your song … we’re praising your Windows 7 OS release, how about throwing us a bone? ehhh?

* What’s all the fuss over XP Mode?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=896 

—

Alan Spicer (Radio Amateur KA4UDX)

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

+1 954 683 3426

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

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6. March 2010 by admin.

Here is part one of the video I just made on the Livewire Access Controller FB-10 line of products. I will post the other part as soon as I have uploaded it to Youtube. And as always you can click on the video to go through to my Youtube profile and see all of my other videos on there. This video as of this time is still being processed on youtube.com, so the audio seems to be out of sync … hopefully that will correct when the processing is done on there. The audio was in sync just fine when I recorded it.




This is Part 1 (part 2 will be coming soon…)

—

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net

http://www.youtube.com/user/alanspicertelecom

+1 954-683-3426 - communications (at) marinetelecom.net

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21. February 2010 by admin.

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom works on Communications, Internet Access Systems, and Computers for Sail and Motor Yachts, and other Marine Customers.

This is a video taken in 2009 when I was preparing 2 new Acer Small Form Factor Computers for a Motor Yacht customer in Seattle, Washington State. I prepared the two computers with a memory boost/upgrade, hard drive resizing / re-partitioning (Acer had put a Recovery Partion on the Hard Drive taking up 1/2 the hard disk drive), among other preparations to make the two computers ready for Nav1 and Nav2 - Nobeltec Navigation Software service.


---
Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
http://www.marinetelecom.net - http://www.wifiyacht.net
communications (at) marinetelecom.net
+1 954 683 3426

Posted in General Computer onboard Sail and Motor Yachts | No Comments »

14. February 2010 by admin.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/189233/microsoft_says_malware_causing_blue_screen_crashes.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

A hard-to-detect rootkit may be causing Windows XP systems to crash following Microsoft’s latest security updates.

Windows users began flooding Windows support forums this week, saying that their computers had been rendered unusable with a blue-screen-of-death (BSOD) error after installing Microsoft’s February security updates, released Tuesday. On Thursday, Microsoft stopped shipping the MS10-015 update, which had been linked to the issue, and said it was investigating.

On Friday, Microsoft offered a preliminary conclusion, saying that malicious software may be to blame. “Malware on the system can cause the behavior,” wrote Microsoft spokesman Jerry Bryant on a company blog. “We are not yet ruling out other potential causes at this time and are still investigating.”

“We have confirmed cases where removing malware allows the system to boot,” Bryant said in a Twitter message.

Windows XP user Patrick Barnes said he’d traced the issue to a malicious rootkit program known as TDSS that he found on one of his systems.

(More at the link above)

Alan’s Note: To my boating and yachting friends and customers - If you have this problem let me know. My consulting and support agreement customers have support for such issues. But I’d like to hear in marine having this problem. Perhaps we can track down the How-To to get rid of the malware or whatever and be able to solve it for others.

—
Alan Spicer

DBA Alan Spicer Telcom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
Computer Services, Wired/Wireless Networking,
Cell/Sat/Landline Communications, General Consulting…
Marine, Business, Small Office and Home Office (SOHO)

* Cost Savings and Integration of Multiple Internet Technologies
on board Sail and Motor Yachts * Documentation, Operating
Instructions, and Support after the Sale *

* http://www.marinetelecom.net/
* http://www.internetforyachts.net/
* http://www.wifiyacht.net/
* 954-683-3426

Mobile Internet! Step up to the HSPA 3G Fast Internet!

Ericsson W35 released in the USA. This you’ve gotta SEE!!
Better looking presentation than W25 (you might not want to
hide this one in the Doghouse!) + High Speed Upload which
the W25 did not have.
http://www.marinetelecom.net/Ericsson_W35/

Posted in General Computer onboard Sail and Motor Yachts | No Comments »

6. January 2010 by admin.

Netbooks are popping up everywhere … even onboard yachts. Well believe it or not most things that pop up elsewhere in the world do pop up on yachts.

Netbooks can be slightly lesser powered than their more expensive full laptop counterparts, so my recomendation is to try them out HARD. Run what you really want to run, or simulate it as much as possible, before you take the plunge. Many of them run Intel Atom or similar CPU’s, and Intel Atom even has Dual-Core versions out. But be careful because I have seen some of them perform rather slowly… You might check this out:

http://analytics.informationweek.com/abstract/18/1433/Mobile-Wireless/informed-cio-netbooks.html

Informed CIO: Netbooks
 
Download
The New Option: Netbooks
Challenge Notebooks’ Dominance

We’ve seen laptop alternatives before—bricks, iPAQs, smart pads and “ultra portables” that were never quite cheap or convenient enough to take a real bite out of the market. What’s different about netbooks? Simple: They’re really, really inexpensive and provide better functionality than any smartphone. We’re not surprised that consumers and business users alike are snapping these babies up like Twitter stock options.

Still, some CIOs wonder whether netbooks are ultimately a consumer play. The answer is unquestionably no. In our recent InformationWeek Analytics Windows 7 survey of 1,414 business technology professionals, 36% of respondents said they already have some level of netbook use in their organizations today. This saturation is expected to grow to 72% of companies over the next 24 months, with 19% planning extensive deployments.

While you can’t ignore the category, CIOs do need to educate themselves on what netbooks are capable of today and how the landscape of competitors, hardware options and OS choices will dramatically change over the coming two years. In this report, we’ll outline 10 key questions you need to review to see where netbooks fit within your organization.

Table of Contents
3 Author’s Bio
4 Little Device, Big Impact
4 Figure 1: Current and Future Netbook Use
6 Figure 2: Typical Device Configurations
7 Figure 3: 2009 Consumer Reports Usability Scores For Laptops and Notebooks
9 Figure 4: Impact of Vista and XP Use on System Policies
12 Figure 5: VDC: Netbook Unit Shipments Through 2013

10 Questions to Ask:
5 1 | Does everyone understand what a netbook is—and is not?
7 2 | Have we mapped our employees’ computing behavior?
8 3 | Can they play a role in our cloud and virtualization strategy?
8 4 | What’s our current plan for mobile phones?
9 5 | How are we going to manage them?
10 6 | How is our green policy shaping up this year?
11 7 | How open are you to Microsoft alternatives?
12 8 | How open are we to Intel alternatives?
13 9 | How will our organization account for these devices?
14 10 | Are netbooks just a fluke?

* Now you probably don’t need all of the information in there, but it might be an interesting one to browse. If you’re on a yacht and need information *like* this contact me and I’ll hook you up.

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Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

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