It appears that Senator Conroy and the Labor party are are determined to continue with the introduction of internet censorship to Australia – another first for ‘western’ democracies.
You may like to read this blog post from the West Australian and also read Google’s view on the subject.
You may also wish to express your views at Getup: http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet&id=892
A lawsuit has been filed against Apple claiming that technology used in the iPhone to surf the web infringes on a patent recently filed by a Los Angeles real estate developer (Elliot Gottfurcht) and two partners.
The lawsuit was filed by EMG Technology LLC on Monday in the US District Court in Tyler, Texas. EMG was founded by Mr Gottfurcht and is based in Los Angeles.
The lawsuit alleges that technology the iPhone uses to navigate and display websites specifically designed for small phone screens infringes on a patent obtained in October which was assigned to EMG.
Apple has declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Sorry for the recent lack of activity – I had to go away on some urgent business at short notice and was unable to attend to IT Resource.
I’m back on board now, and normal service will be resumed ASAP. In fact, there should be some exciting times ahead, as we are hoping to make some changes that will greatly improve the ‘community’ side of things here. IT Resource is a great source of information for many people, but we want to build on that and add some Forum sections which will allow for a much greater level of interactivity and allow people to post questions (and answers) more easily.
I will keep you informed of developments on that front, and in the meantime will resume normal posting.
thanks
IT Resource
There is often a requirement to block/deny user access to certain websites and this post shows how administrators can utilise Squid to achieve this:
Squid is a popular open source web proxy server and web caching software. It has a wide variety of uses, from speeding up a web server by caching repeated requests, to caching web, DNS and other network lookups for groups of people sharing network resources and (which is of most interest to us for the purposes of this post) by aiding security via traffic filtering. It was originally inteneded for Unix/Linux but has been ported to a number of platforms.
Squid has powerful ACL (access control list). The primary use of the ACL system is to implement simple access control. This can be used to deny a user from accessing particular site.
In order to do this we have to edit the Squid configuration file.
e.g. # vi /etc/squid/squid.conf
Search for `Access Controls’ and append the following lines (in this example we are blocking access to ‘nastysite.com’):
acl badsite dstdomain .nastysite.com
http_access deny badsite
Save and close the file, and then restart Squid:
# /etc/init.d/squid restart
If required, you can specify more than one site to be blocked:
acl badsite dstdomain .nastysite.com .anothernastysite.com
http_access deny badsite
You can also use regex expressions to block access to more than one website. for example, if you would like to deny access for any sites where the URL contains the word “twitter”, use the following ACL lines:
acl badsitegroup url_regex -i twitter
http_access deny badsitegroup
More information on Squid commands can be found at: http://wiki.squid-cache.org/FrontPage
Ping verifies IP-level connectivity to another TCP/IP computer by sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Echo Request messages. The receipt of corresponding Echo Reply messages are displayed, along with round-trip times. Ping is the primary TCP/IP command used to troubleshoot connectivity, reachability, and name resolution.
Windows
ping google.com
Pinging google.com [64.223.167.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 64.223.167.99: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=57
Reply from 64.223.167.99: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=57
Reply from 64.223.167.99: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=57
Reply from 64.223.167.99: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=57
Ping statistics for 64.223.167.99:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 37ms, Maximum = 75ms, Average = 47ms
Linux
ping -c 5 itresource.com.au
PING itresource.com.au(203.88.118.177) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from kookaburra.cbr.hosting-server.com.au (203.88.118.177): icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=36.6 ms
64 bytes from kookaburra.cbr.hosting-server.com.au (203.88.118.177): icmp_seq=2 ttl=57 time=36.5 ms
64 bytes from kookaburra.cbr.hosting-server.com.au (203.88.118.177): icmp_seq=3 ttl=57 time=37.0 ms
64 bytes from kookaburra.cbr.hosting-server.com.au (203.88.118.177): icmp_seq=4 ttl=57 time=36.9 ms
64 bytes from kookaburra.cbr.hosting-server.com.au (203.88.118.177): icmp_seq=5 ttl=57 time=36.6 ms
— itresource.com.au ping statistics —
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 9000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 35.918/36.638/37.106/0.400 ms
Mac OS X
ping -c 10 itresource.com.au
PING kookaburra.cbr.hosting-server.com.au (203.88.118.177): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 203.88.118.177: icmp_seq=0 ttl=53 time=40.019 ms
64 bytes from 203.88.118.177: icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=47.502 ms
64 bytes from 203.88.118.177: icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=43.208 ms
64 bytes from 203.88.118.177: icmp_seq=3 ttl=53 time=50.851 ms
64 bytes from 203.88.118.177: icmp_seq=4 ttl=53 time=46.556 ms
— ping statistics —
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 40.019/45.575/50.851/3.588 ms
Useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping
Apple has been touting the new 3G iPhone as an enterprise communication tool at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The company spent much of yesterday’s opening keynote showcasing the iPhone’s business credentials and development tools.
Apple said that the upcoming iPhone 2.0 software package will feature several tools aimed primarily at business users.
Read more…
Apple has announced that its new 3G iPhone will be available in Australia through mobile carriers, Optus and Vodafone, on July 11.
Unveiled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the opening of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WDC) in San Francisco, the new 3G version of the popular iPhone will allow faster Internet access for both consumers and business users alike.
“We’ve learned so much with the first iPhone,” Jobs told a packed audience at WDC. “We’ve taken what we’ve learned and more and created the iPhone 3G; and it’s beautiful.”
Read more…
Students in Australia and New Zealand will now be able to take the classroom anywhere with the adoption of Apple’s iTunes U at seven universities in the region.
iTunes U makes audio and video curriculum from lecturers available for students to sync with their iPods or iPhones, so they can carry learning materials anywhere they go and use them on their own time.
The first Australian and New Zealand schools to offer iTunes U include Griffith University, Swinburne University of Technology, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, the University of NSW, the University of Western Australia and Otago University.
Read more…
Expanding on its popular portable storage offerings, WD today introduced its new Mac-formatted My Passport Studio Portable Drives. The newest members of the My Passport family are designed for Mac users on-the-go and are equipped with both FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces, a clever capacity gauge, and include a soft drawstring carrying bag for protection from scratches and dirt. Available now at select retailers and at WD’s online store (www.shopwd.com), the My Passport Studio portable drives are offered in capacities of 320 GB and 250 GB.
Weighing in at less than 5 ounces, the My Passport Studio portable drives make it easy to securely carry office files, thousands of songs, videos or photos and back up a Macintosh laptop using Apple Time Machine backup software utility. With an elegant silver metallic finish that perfectly complements other Mac products, these portable drives feature a shock-resistant enclosure to provide protection from the bumps and jars of everyday life on-the-go. Ultra portable, these drives are USB-bus powered which eliminates the need for an external power adapter.
Read more…
Sun has released a major update to its open-source desktop virtualisation tool xVM VirtualBox, adding support for Apple’s Mac OS X and Solaris host operating systems, in addition to other improvements.
Software makers such as Parallels have been making Mac OS X virtualisation software for some time, but Sun is the first to release an open-source virtualisation product for the platform.
Virtualisation technology allows several operating systems to run at the same time on a single physical host. VirtualBox runs as an application on a host operating system, on top of which various guest OSs can execute.
Source & More Info: ZDNet
Vodafone Australia has officially confirmed it will be Australia’s first mobile service provider to stock Apple’s much lauded iPhone.
The announcement comes barely a week after industry speculation that Optus would also carry the iPhone.
According to a statement from Vodafone, the mobile service provider has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Australia joins the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey among the list of key markets to sell iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.
Read more…
Optus will be one of several Australian mobile service providers to be selling Apple’s iPhone, with sales and service commencing in the last week of June.
Optus plans to make the announcement mid-May ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference on June 9 in San Francisco where Apple CEO Steve Jobs is tipped to launch the next generation of iPhone.
There remains speculation as to which of the remaining Australian carriers will also licence the sale of the iPhone. With the first generation of the iPhone operating on the EDGE mobile network, the obvious choice had been Telstra as it’s the only carrier with the necessary back-end technology.
Read more…
JotForm is the first web based WYSIWYG form builder. Its intuitive drag and drop user interface makes form building a breeze. Using JotForm, you can create forms, integrate them to your site and collect submissions from your visitors.
JotForm is developed mainly for webmasters, but anybody with an Internet connection can use it. JotForm is WYSIWYG, so you can still make web forms without any web design or HTML experience. Since JotForm is hosted on our servers, there are no requirements.
JotForm supports all standard web form field types. In addition, it allows you to use new and intuitive fields in your form such as Date Time Picker, Star Ratings, or CAPTCHA checks. Using JotForm, you can create any kind of web form.
Here is a short list of examples:
JotForm is completely free for Basic usage. You can create forms, integrate them into your site, and collect submissions from your users without any cost. For Premium usage, it is $9/month.
You can check out JotForm for yourself and all the great features it has to offer at www.jotform.com.
Apple has patched four security vulnerabilities in Safari affecting the Mac OS X and Windows versions of the web browser.
The vulnerabilities range from cross-site scripting to remote code execution.
For Windows XP and Vista users, the update addresses four flaws. Two of the vulnerabilities, a memory overflow error in the browser itself and a buffer overflow in the JavaScript component, could be exploited by an attacker to remotely install and execute malware on a target system.
Another flaw in the browser could allow for a URL to be displayed without the page itself being loaded. Apple warned that this could be exploited by an attacker to spoof legitimate sites by displaying normal URLs with forged web pages.
Read more…
Research which pitted Windows PCs against Macs found that Vista works better on a Mac.
The May issue of Popular Mechanics includes a comparative review of Macs running OS X Leopard with PCs running Windows Vista without SP1. The verdict: Vista PCs are slower.
While PCs were able to install some software faster than on a Mac, Apple’s laptops and desktops proved to be better on overall performance than PCs, according to the reviewers.
“In our speed trials… Leopard OS trounced Vista in all-important tasks such as boot-up, shutdown, and program launch times,” Glenn Derene writes in the review.
Read more…
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