“Today [May 18th] we’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.”

Of course, this follows the announcement a few days before that Dropbox, a poplular remote file synch and storage service, also put user’s data at some degree of risk. http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/security/229500683

For the vast majority of users, these issues are probably not big deals. These examples really should only serve as reminders that anything done digitally is potentially vulnerable. Opening the process up to a network only adds a different layer of risk that should be considered when thinking about moving all apps to the network.

The WiFi Acer model will reportedly to sell for about $350, while the Samsung WiFi and 3G models will sell for $450 and $500 respectively. Not a bad deal. And unlike Chromium OS, these will be the only manner one will be able to use Chrome OS -  à la Apple and OS X.

When the above video ends with “It’s kind of a new thought,” I just groan and feel as though I’m back in 1980 using a PC as a terminal emulator.  There is no “Cloud” okay? That’s just tech-zecutive snake oil.  There are clients and servers or server clusters and networks.  They aren’t fluffy things floating in the sky, they’re in terrestrial data centers. When the network, or servers go down, so do you. There are also potential privacy concerns that should really be the subject of another post.

The difference between 1980 and now is network speed, infrastructure, and the more user-friendly interface of the web along with vastly more powerful and compact computer hardware on both the client and server ends.  Most ofl the advantages to general users as shown in the above video are indeed true.  However, there are some stunning over-simplifications being drawn:

1. Yes, there is too a computer – not a computer-like-object.
2. Yes, there is too an operating system, which is actully called Chrome OS. It is a custom distribution of Linux that will be installed and shipped only on these new machines. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS  for more details regarding this.
3. And yes, if you throw it in a river, you will definitely need a new notebook computer. Your filew may still be available, but no more so than if you’d used any number of other backup services.

When Sergey Brin said that Windows and other traditional PC operating systems are “torturing users” at Google’s Chrome OS Launch, he was correct.  And I applaud the simplification of the desktop, but there is a better way.  Today, a 1 Terabyte hard drive can be purchased for about $30 and excellent netbooks or laptops can be purchased for under $450 that can be configured to provide all of the benefits touted by the Chromebook announcement and then some.  Simply install Ubunutu, which is free, and away you go – even if you aren’t connected to the internet.

I will be writing more about the most recent Ubuntu release soon.

JuntoSoft updates clients’ database management systems and related websites, continually. This isn’t just because of new client desires or needs either. Software environments have become complex ecosystems of technologies, all evolving (or becoming obsolete) on their own schedules.

So, if you and your organization are still on the fence regarding technical decisions based on old information, do you really think everything is standing still?  Call us.

Who Else is Looking at Your Photocopies?

I imagine this is a huge potential threat given the number of small mortgage/loan origination businesses that have either gone out of business or have closed some offices.

Just another reminder of how much of our personal information is out there in digital format.

To Star Wars fans, Chee is the Keeper of the Holocron, arguably the leading expert on everything that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. His official title is continuity database administrator for the Lucas Licensing arm of Lucasfilm—which means Chee keeps meticulous track of not just the six live-action movies but also cartoons, TV specials, scores of videogames and reference books, and hundreds of novels and comics.

Of course, Chee’s Holocron isn’t a Force-sensitive crystal. It’s a FileMaker database, a searchable repository of more than 30,000 entries covering almost every character, planet, and weapon mentioned, however fleetingly, in the vast array of Star Wars titles and products.”