Windows XP five times as vulnerable to network attacks as Linux 2.6

67% of Linux vulnerabilities are network-safe, vs a mere 13% of MS-Windows XP vulnerabilities. Source Secunia.

That makes a better headline, don’t you think?

Comments

I think the most incisive comment on the original CERT report was by a SlashDot poster calling himself nahdude812:

“even by their own description, this information is completely meaningless”

Or ruurd from GrokLaw:

“Tallying like this is inane, thinking that the tallies actually MEAN something is insane.”

_Arthur also pointed out that SANS list "Mac OS X" as the #17 security vulnerability of the year despite no OS X vulnerability having ever been exploited.

Real Life experience says that well-maintained MS-Windows servers get broken about three times as often as well-maintained Linux servers. The odds go up steeply in Linux’s favour for orphaned systems, but being ten or a hundred times safer doesn’t offer much comfort if you’re inevitably going to get 0wn3rz3d, which is the fate of all unmaintained systems.

08 January, 2006 11:41

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b...

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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