Iron Wil

DomainKeys Identified Mail has been given the all clear. We will see if it can stop all the nasty spam before it gets to our inboxes. This is a promising new development in the eMail world.

Simply it works like this: (1) your eMail server gets an eMail and checks the header for the incoming domain; (2) if the DomainKey in the eMail matches to the sending server [eg, theironwil [at] gmail.com matches gMail.com], you get it in your inbox; and (3) if it doesn’t, it is marked as spam and you never see it.

I am looking forward to seeing this implemented, it will really reduce the amount of spam in my family account.

If you want to read the whole article from C|Net News, click here.

iron wil

Note: In case you have never heard of Adamantium.

I have added the first How-To, you can find it on the new How-To’s page which also has a permanent page here @ IronWil.net.

iron wil

The reason I am writing is because of Firefox & Thunderbird from Mozilla. Two weeks ago, I got a great deal on a 17″ iMac; a friend told me I “stole it”. However, I did pay for it. After my wife saw it, she asked when we were going to get rid of the Windows machine. Side Note: I have to admit that I am really happy with it.

I am going to try to explain why I love these programs so much. Reason #1 - FREE!; reason #2 - easy to use; reason #3 - the profile is easy to pack-up and move to another computer. I mean ANY computer, if you can install Thunderbird or Firefox on it, you can pack up your eMail Profile.

The reason this is important is because you can back-up, zip, and copy the entire profile. I have been doing this via SyncBack, which is a great free program from 2 Bright Spots. If you open Windows explorer and drill down into your personal Documents folder [you need to turn on "Show Hidden Files"] and into the Applications folder. You need to find the program folder & then your profile. From there you can manipulate the contents.

I have now moved my personal eMail and Firefox profile from Windows, to Linux, back to Windows and now to a Mac. I have not lost a single eMail and all of my bookmarks & other information moved without problems. I did have to re-install my Add-ons, but since they were still listed in the add-on list, it was pretty easy [I did however make a list of them just in case].

My wife, yeah, no problems for her either. The biggest problem that we have run into is that [the] Shockwave [player] has not been updated for OS X, which my son doesn’t even realize. He just doesn’t go to his websites that much [hey he is only 16 mos].

So my hat goes off to the Mozilla team for pulling off such a fantastic feat of programming!!! Woot! Woot!

iron wil

P.S. Quicken for Mac 2006 was pretty easy, however we lost functionality with one of our banks.

Friday morning in my news reading I came across an article from ZD Net Australia about Microsoft criticizing IBM’s support of ODF [Open Document Format]. As some of you may have noticed I support/promote Open Source software. So this criticism from Microsoft really irks me and shows us a bit more about their desire to “take over” the desktop. They have rolled out MS Office with great precision and accuracy; I mean they have 90% of the office software market!

I have to be honest, I like Office, but as you know, I don’t like the price (cough - arm and leg). I covered this in enough detail in a previous article. In the story on ZDNet Australia, the writer conveys the thoughts of both Microsoft and OpenOffice.

Microsoft has been pushing OXML through the system to get it approved as an Open XML format for savings different document types [like .doc, .xls, .ppt etc.] the struggle comes in that ODF has already gained approval [and acceptance]. A nice feature of ODF is that the suite of software does not take precedence over the document itself; meaning that I can use several different text or spreadsheet programs to edit my file, like StarOffice, Google’s Writely, and Lotus Notes¹.

The point here is that many companies are getting on board and Microsoft’s complaint is that they will have to make changes because ODF is getting the support that they are after. Several governing bodies, including Massachusetts, California, the Department of Defense, Belgium, and Denmark, have officially made ODF the standard for their documents¹. This means that they will have to be able to read and save in these formats. They are not dictating what software package will be used to do that job! This is an important note, because Microsoft could drop OXML and implement ODF and probably stay in their cushy desktop domination position. Instead, they want the rest of the world to adopt their implementation.

I feel that it is imperative that access to your documents and spreadsheets are more important than what Office Suite you are using to edit them. I mean that is the whole point, isn’t it? Look at websites, we have HTML, it is the standard that allows all browsers to ‘read’ the internet pages and display the content². Granted ODF is not perfect and it has its short comings, however, it has a strong support base and they are working to improve ODF³.

Before to long it will be a strong and well defined standard & many will flock to ODF because it will provide a way for everyone to send, read, edit, and return documents.

iron wil

Notes: some content has been used from the following articles

1) What Is OpenDocument, by Sam Hiser.

2) When Standards Are Political — ODF (the Open Document Format), by James Love.

3) Open Document, Wikipedia.

I have added KeePass Password Vault, which is a cross platform [Mac, Linux, and Windows] password application. It has several cool plug-ins like the one I used to import my Oubliette password file, straight from the .oub format!

iron wil

(IN)SECURE Magazine is a freely available digital security magazine
discussing some of the hottest information security topics. Issue 11
was just released. Download it from: http://www.insecuremag.com

The covered topics are:

- On the security of e-passports
- Review: GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner 8
- Critical steps to secure your virtualized environment
- Interview with Howard Schmidt, President and CEO R & H Security
Consulting
- Quantitative look at penetration testing
- Integrating ISO 17799 into your Software Development Lifecycle
- Public Key Infrastructure (PKI): dead or alive?
- Interview with Christen Krogh, Opera Software’s Vice President of
Engineering
- Super ninja privacy techniques for web application developers
- Security economics
- iptables - an introduction to a robust firewall
- Black Hat Briefings & Training Europe 2007
- Enforcing the network security policy with digital certificates

Visit the (IN)SECURE Magazine web site at: http://www.insecuremag.com