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Ubuntu Still My Favorite – Plus , The Story Being Written Behind the Survey
–by Andrew McCaskey
Heads up with thanks to SDR listener Alan Parekh for the email tip on the Ubuntu password security issue. The user password selected during the initial install appears to be captured in an install log file, and then is used as sudo to root. This left over log file is open and accessible to any user on the system. And if you have not changed root password since the install, it’s there for the world to see.
I could not find an exposed password on the two installs that I have in regular service here – and from the forum thread it seems it is an intermittent bug – affecting some installs from the same distro CD and not others. It looks like if you have explicitly changed the root password at some time after the install you are ok. To be on the safe side, I just hit the upgrade button on both machines, and moved on to more serious worries.
I still think that the Ubuntu distro is one of the simplest ways to get Linux working productively – and regardless of the install you choose, Desktop or the server command line version, I think you will find it smooth and easy. Plus, even for issues as serious as this one, the Ubuntu community was pretty fast to admit the problem, and let us non-professionals know how to correct it simply and easily.
I promised a quick summary of Mark McCrery’s Podtrac presentation from Saturday : Podcasts are emerging as an especially effective way for certain types of advertisers to reach specific listeners – maybe 2, 4 or even eight times more efficent in some cases than the standard ways of doingso. With over 40,000 data points in some cases, his information indicates that such a small percentage of the internet has listened to a podcast that there is substantial potential for growth.
So my conclusion and comment – The future of commercial side is bright. The content of the podcasts that get that commercial support is yet to be determined. If you find podcast content that you like, especially the narrow focused valuable material that is not in the Top 100 or Top 500 podcasts let the podcaster know, by email what you like and dislike about the show. If that podcaster keeps producing, and is encouraged to do so by listeners, the advertisers will become educated and eventually find them. If he or she does not get that listener feedback, that diverse content will disappear. Right now, the votes that count the most – to keep the content that you like the most being produced – are the personal connections and encouragement. That’s what I make of the real story behind the survey – at this stage of the game.
Don’t forget that you can get Slashdotreview by email, with a built in flash player, arriving in your email inbox each day. Just sign up for the free FeedBlitz service on the site. Plus you can then forward that email, and introduce someone new to podcasting to SDR – without having to explain a thing.
The audio and recorded versions of the TechPodcast Roundtable from March 11. The video of the event contains both the U3 and Podtrac presentations.
CES CD Now Available
The official package of the entire SDR coverage for the CES Convention available in data CD form at the SDR CD Store page.
The book that I spoke about on 3/2 is called “Amusing Ourselves to Death” .
The preface to the book gives a good idea of the basic premise, and specific comments on television. (Remember, this was in the early 1980′s .. the hundred channel universe was not yet revealed )
A more lengthy summary is found at WikiPedia.
Interactive Touchscreen Demo: a video of a really cool touchscreen interface – about ten times better than the Bill Gates demo at CES. Hard to describe, about three minutes long.
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Now a really useful guide to Fixing Windows with Knoppix has appeared online, a reprint of a chapter in the book Hacking Knoppix from Scott Granneman . You might want to plan ahead, print out the chapter and put it alongside a fresh burn of Knoppix STD when you get the call.
I came across Google SMS again today- a way to pull all sorts of useful stuff from Google with the fast SMS from your cellphone.
Be sure to sign up for our upcoming roundtable. We will be using GoToMeeting. Also, be sure to check out GoToMeeting. Why? Because you can hold meetings right over the Net — from anywhere. Plus, you can hold all the meetings you want for one flat rate. To get your free 30-day trial , visit www.gotomeeting.com/techroundtable.
If you happen to own a Motorola ROKR or RAZR, Nokia 6620, 6630, 6683, or the Sony Ericsson k700, s710 or k750i, check out the Melodeo Mobilcast cell phone podcast player. .
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