Linus calls Linux ‘bloated and huge’ • The Register

Citing an internal Intel study that tracked kernel releases, Bottomley said Linux performance had dropped about two per centage points at every release, for a cumulative drop of about 12 per cent over the last ten releases. “Is this a problem?” he asked.

via Linus calls Linux ‘bloated and huge’ • The Register.

Linus goes onto say that kernel bloat is unacceptable but it’s also probably unavoidable.  Personally, I think this is one peril of a monolithic kernel.  Can’t really fault Linus for this even though the releases go out with his blessing.  Feature inclusion is a by-product of preventing forking.  We want everyone to use and contribute back to the same kernel sources.  Perhaps it’s time that the gentoo system is more closely examined and made more user-friendly?

Single-Serving Cupcake Containers

This is a brilliant, albeit inevitable and wasteful, means of packaging a single cupcake.

Stairway to Heaven live (Rodrigo y Gabriela)

Wonderful

Old Dogs and New Tricks – Chinese Botnet on Dalai Lama’s PC

Security researchers unearth evidence leading to a massive spy ring called ‘GhostNet’ on His Holiness’s office computer

A 10-month investigation has led to the discovery of the world’s largest alleged cyber espionage network, dubbed ‘GhostNet’.

I can’t say any of this is a surprise.  Conventional open warfare and covert operations have a relatively low ROI compared to distributed covert operations and attacks.  China and Russia have both been linked to such operations.  I’m certain that the NSA, CIA, and DoD are ahead of the game.  However, to borrow Thomas Friedman’s metaphor –  the flattening of the world indicates that the network battlefield is a level one.  Anyone can have an advantage.

via Investigators find Chinese botnet on Dalai Lama’s PC.

Conficker: Doomsday, or the World’s Longest Rickroll? – Security Fix

What I find most fascinating about Conficker is that its real legacy may well turn out to be beneficent. To date, there really hasn’t been a threat that has given countries on opposite ends of the globe a unifying, urgent reason to work against a single Internet menace. Yet, due to the work of the Conficker Cabal and affected parties, that is starting to change.

“We’re literally relying on people in Latvia to protect computer networks in Brazil, and the other way around, too, so each country has some capability and some responsibility once they understand the role they can play here,” Wesson said. “No matter what happens with Conficker, it’s created something here….a beautiful opportunity to bring cyber security to the kitchen table.”

via Conficker: Doomsday, or the World’s Longest Rickroll? – Security Fix.

Conficker: Loathing the FUD and Misunderstanding – Security Blog – InformationWeek

Krebs details how a group, dubbed the Conficker Cabal, has managed to engage all of the countries whose country codes will be used by the worm authors to create domains the worm will try to contact to get those instructions. According to Krebs’ reporting: the Conficker Cabal has managed to get the co-operation of all of the 110 nations to block the registration of Conficker-related domains. That’s all of the countries except for one: the Republic of Congo.

That kind of massive response is no joke either. And shows how the globe can pull together in the face of a pressing threat and unknown. Hopefully, that’s the legacy left by Conficker.C.

via Conficker: Loathing the FUD and Misunderstanding – Security Blog – InformationWeek.

‘Conficker’ Worm Wakes Up Overseas, But It’s Quiet – News and Analysis by PC Magazine

“I think it’s just the Storm guys trying to build a bullet-proof botnet,” said Roger Thompson, the chief research officer of AVG Technologies, in an instant-message conversation. “I always thought it was a corp/gov/edu problem.”

via ‘Conficker’ Worm Wakes Up Overseas, But It’s Quiet – News and Analysis by PC Magazine.

Don’t Ignore Your Users, Empower Them

Michael Arrington ends his post about Facebook’s acquiescence to user feedback with:

Making users happy is a suckers game. Pushing the envelope is what makes you a winner. 

I don’t agree.  One of the largest (if not the largest) provider of end-user web services is Google.  So – how does Google implement change without such user outcry hitting the headlines of all the major blogs and news outlets?  First, there’s transparency and collaboration.   Ideas come from within Google and from outside via efforts like Greasemonkey or random open source mash-up projects.  

Second, and more importantly, these features are incrementally made available on an opt-in basis until a critical mass of users have accepted a critical mass of features… leading to a new release.  Through it all, there are statistics informing the designers and developers of the success and/or failure of individual features.  In turn, there is a cyclical refinement of features based on reviewing end-user statistics AND end-user feedback.  Finally, all of this is happening on a controllable scale without alienating the user.

As I’ve written previously, Facebook’s mistakes are not in their design, but in how the design disempowered it’s core of established users.  It reminds me of when Microsoft bragged about how the completely redesigned Office 2007 tested extremely well with novice and new users.  Are these really your core customers?  

Google empowers their users by giving them random opt-in beta access to features under development.  Nothing is imposed, very little is disrupted, and ultimately (and most critically) the user has control.  

In other words, if you hate the feature you’ll probably try it, hate it, turn it off (an important usability vector), and ignore it as a beta feature that’s being tested.  If you love it, you’ll not only use it, but you’ll talk it up, tweet about it, or even write a blog entry that sings it’s praise.  

Bottom Line:  A happy user is a user that feels like he has control.

BSG Watch: A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away :: Tuned In – TIME.com

Battlestar Galactica has always been marked as being not just a sci-fi show, which is to say that it was not just about the mythology, the science or the special effects but the ideas and the characters. (This is unfair to pretty much every good sci-fi show ever created, but there you have it.) Which if anything just doubles the expectations of it. 

via BSG Watch: A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away :: Tuned In – TIME.com. (WARNING:  TONS OF SPOILERS)

Sage Timberline Office, Citrix, and Error TS 3723

TS 3723 – This error occurs because the application can’t find or access the Timberline Accounting application share on your server.  According to Timberline KB, the problem is that the “System Directory” key is not set properly.  This is usually not true.  In my experience, the problem occurs for one of 2 reasons.

(1) Redirected Drive Mappings – when I tested the Timberline applications in Remote Desktop mode (instead of ICA Desktop or  Seamless Application mode).  I never saw this error.  So when I logged into the server in ICA Desktop mode I realized that the drive mappings were all screwed up because Citrix tries to map new drives in the remote session BACK to your local computer’s drives (A,C,D, etc).  It does this by starting with drive V: and working backwards.  Unfortunately, my Timberline Application folder is drive T:    When my users were logging on, Citrix was remapping Citrix session drive V: to local drive A:, Citrix session drive U: to local drive C:, and Citrix session drive T: to drive D: or E: (optical drive).  Damn that’s cold!

Using this Citrix KB article (http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX238200), here’s the fix I used:

1. Navigated to the registry key ”HKLM/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Citrix”
2. Created a new String value called “InitialClientDrive” and set the value to “S:”

(2) Asynchronous Execution – when the user launches the Timberline application, he is basically logging into a fully server session.  This means his profile and settings are loading and any logon scripts are running (including DRIVE MAPPINGS!!).  By default, this is an asynchronous process, which means that Timberline will not wait until logon scripts are finished before executing.   If Timberline launches before your Timberline Application mapping on the file server is connected, you will see the TS 3723 error.

Here’s how I fixed this:

1. Moved the Citrix server into a new OU in the Active Directory called “TerminalServers”
2. Created a new Group Policy on the “TerminalServices” OU  called “Citrix and TS Servers Policy”
3. Enabled the setting “Run logon scripts synchronously” setting in the new policy under Computer Configuration::Administrative Templates::System::Scripts