Kilo Seven

'Day Zero' of the PalmSource Developer's Conference revealed this interesting tip for PalmOS users: If your device locks up with just the PalmOS logo after a reset, you may not have to do a hard reset. Before you get that desperate, try the following: Hold down the "Scroll Up" button and hit the reset button. It will reboot, but not send launch codes to applications. Then do a soft reset to reload everything properly (after removing the offending application if the problem was caused by a new app just loaded.) So, now we have another kind of reset to add to the myriad of other resets . I'll have to write a PalmApp which shows the difference, so if one Palm fails, you can haul out your emergency backup Palm....

Folks, I warned you all before that WEP is no security at all when anyone with any technical saavy wants your data, your network and your information. Now, Tom's Networks has published a two-part cookbook how-to-crack-it tutorial. Your teenage hacker neighbor has already read this and this , so you, too, should see how easy it is to break into a wireless network without WEP security.

Here's a free database for PDAs which synchs to Excel files. You must register with a valid e-mail address to receive the unlock codes. Checklist is also included along with MobileDB . No idea how long this will last. No idea what they will do with your name and e-mail.

When Phones Lie is a Washington Post blog article on the basics of hacking into phone system voice mail. It explains the necessity of requiring a password for access to your voice mail. And, in a related story, the online magazine Slate suggests a course of action if you are the victim of identity theft .

A Photoshopping contest has social relevance today. I'll just leave you with one special image .

Google, ever the busy little beavers, has intro'd a blogging service for SMS and MMS users: Blogger Mobile . Details over here .

FSIRT (the French Security Incident Response Team) has announced a critical 0-day vulnerability in Firefox 1.0.3 , and published working exploit code. This exploit allows an attacker to execute random code. If a user visits a malicious page and clicks anywhere on the page, the exploit code can create and execute a malicious batch or .exe file that contains code of the attacker's choosing. Mozilla has not yet released a final patch, but they do have a workaround and an interim patch available . Until the patch is released, you can avoid the problem by clicking on Tools | Options | Web Features and disabling "Allow web sites to install software". Obviously, that's a good idea anyway. It would also be a good idea to disable Javascript for routine browsing. Linux systems do not appear to be vulnerable to this exploit, because merely using an executable filename extension such as .bat or .exe does not make a file executable under Linux. So, although the exploit code can...

UPDATE: The Senate Appropriations Committee has decided to butt out and not restore this odious Big Brotherism. Keep checking , as no man's video collection is safe while the Congress is in session. The Wall Street Journal reported on May 6 the FCC requirement for a 'Broadcast Flag' has been struck down. That ruling, which was never requested by the Congress, would have allowed television you record to be automatically erased whenever the station, network or studio wished, and also would have enabled a block on digital copying of TV programs. (Of course, several Comcast subscribers have posted on line this is already happening, and several cable companies have been explicit about their plans to do so. Fortunately, the First District Court saw reason and ruled that the FCC did not have the right to require a broadcast flag. Ruling in a case brought by the American Library Association, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the Federal Communications Commis...

Stumbled across DocReader today, which allows you to read (not edit) PalmDOC .PDB files on your Windows PC. It led me to a Ring for e-text on PalmOS PDAs which I am sure will be somewhat useful, once I wade through all the fanfic links. In my earlier post on e-text (et al.), I neglected to mention Sunrise , a Java-based scooper for Windows which automates collecting websites, converting them to Plucker documents and sets them up to install at next sync. Sunrise supports right-click context menu selection of web pages in IE and Firefox . Freeware like Firefox, DocReader and the rest, but requires Java freeware.

From Chaos Manor today: Rules of Computerdom 1. There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works. 2. A printer consists of three main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light. 3. The programmer's national anthem is 'AAAAAAAARRRRGHHHHH!!'. 4. At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer, you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer. 5. Beta. Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it's released. Beta is Latin for "still doesn't work." 6. Computer analyst to programmer: "You start coding. I'll go find out what they want." 7. Computer Science: solving today's problems tomorrow. 8. Hidden DOS secret: add BUGS=OFF to your CONFIG.SYS 9. Hit any user to continue. 10. I wish life had an UNDO function. 11. If your computer says, "Printer out of Paper," this problem cannot be resolved by continuously clicking the "O...

Wikiwiki is Hawaiian for quick, or 'super-fast'. One public-spirited Portland programmer, Ward Cunningham , came up with the idea of a really simple system for hyperlinked documentation in '95 he called Wiki , and moved it shortly thereafter to HTML and web servers. Well, it's grown like The Blob . Now, it's a well-accepted system for knocking documentation together quickly, for the ability for anyone to make updates in documentation is very, very useful. Even some advertising-supported websites use Wikis as their primary sources of information. Some Wikis are locked, without the ability for everyone to update the information, but most are open. That openness and the resulting ease of creating and updating entries far outweighs the occasional crank who posts incorrect data. Most Wikis have volunteers who track changes, and remove them if incorrect later, and many Wikis are inside firewalled corporate networks, which guarantees no unruly outsiders have access. I...