News from PANUG/BizNix - August 21, 2002
http://panug.org - http://biznix.org


GOVERNMENT NIXES WIRELESS
by Ed Sawicki - Accelerated Learning Center / Tailored Computers

At last week's PANUG meeting, I did a presentation on
Wireless Ethernet and Denial of Service attacks. If you
missed the meeting, you can get a good idea of what was
covered by reading an article at my company web site.
Go to http://alcpress.com, click the Articles link,
then click the Wireless Networks & DoS article.

In a timely coincidence, both the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) and the US Department of
Defense have issued policies and recommendations against
the use of wireless in government facilities.

The government's primary concern with wireless
technologies are the security issues, while my article
focuses on Denial of Service (network reliability). When
you combine both of these issues, wireless networks
seem to be too little benefit for far too great a risk.

The NIST report is here:
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/draft-sp800-48.pdf



THE FONT POLICE?
by Ed Sawicki - Accelerated Learning Center / Tailored Computers

Several months ago at a BizNix meeting, I did a presentation
on fonts. Part of the presentation focused on using the
free Microsoft "TrueType core fonts for the Web" with
Linux. At the time, I was careful to say "free - for now"
because I knew that Microsoft would realize that many people
who downloaded the fonts were not Windows users. Most of the
fonts in the package already come with Windows.

As predicted, Microsoft has pulled the font package from
their Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm

When asked why they did this, the answer was:
"Most users who wanted the fonts have downloaded them
already. They ship with recent operating systems - Windows
and Mac OS (via IE). In addition, the downloads were being
abused - repackaged, modified and shipped with commercial
products in violation of the end-user license agreement."

Since most of the fonts in the package are already included
with Windows, the above explanation seems silly. The more
likely reason is to prevent the fonts from being used with
Microsoft's chief competition - Linux.

If Microsoft demands that we stop using their fonts on
non-Windows computers, will we be able to comply?

Like most people, I have a mix of fonts installed on my
computers. Some were supplied by Microsoft, some downloaded
from the net, many were supplied with other software, and
some I've purchased. I don't think I can remember which are
which. I use many of these fonts with Linux.

What will we do if Microsoft and the BSA stage "font raids"
into companies looking for illegal fonts? How will we prove
we're not violating a Microsoft license? Will the BSA
offer a 31-day Font Truce at a special price?