News from PANUG/BizNix - July 10, 2003
http://panug.org - http://biznix.org


BIZNIX MEETING

Tonight at 6:30 pm is the July BizNix meeting.
Please RSVP by replying to this message so we'll
have enough pizza.

The main presentation will be Easy To Install Linux.
If you've been struggling with installations of
commercial Linux distributions, such as Red Hat
Linux, you need to take a look at better ways of
doing Linux installations. We'll demonstrate a
Linux installation that installs Linux and a
boatload of applications in under 20 minutes,
while asking you a minimal amount of questions.


S_P_A_M

It seems that whenever we broadcast a message that
mentions s_p_a_m, as we did in the last broadcast,
several of you don't get the message because your
mail server thinks it's s**m. Rejecting a message
because it contains a single common word is far too
simplistic a filter - you'll turn away white mail
as well the s**m mail.

Note that the MSN and Hotmail mail servers reject
any messages from the PANUG/BizNix mail server -
probably for similar reasons.


CRUSOE COMPUTERS

PANUG received an email message from a company
selling notebook computers based on the Transmeta
Crusoe processor, which seem reasonably priced.
For details, go to:
http://www.computeroppz.com/promologin.html

The promo code is NP4597

Note that we have had no dealings with this company,
don't know whether they're a legitimate company,
have not asked the Better Business Bureau about
them, etc.


MICROSOFT USES LINUX
by Dick Pilz - PANUG President

At their London office, Microsoft uses the Akamai
Technologies cacheing system to deliver content.
Akamai runs on Linux:

http://panug.org/25

Note the uptimes of the Microsoft/Akamai servers here
(Note the top ten times):
http://panug.org/24


WINDOWS SECURITY FLAW
by Dick Pilz - PANUG President

It's a weekly announcement and I know you have heard
it before, but there is a new critcal security flaw in
Windows. It is due to a buffer overun in the HTML
translator of the OS. It is "critcal" for 9X, NT, W2K,
and XP. It is "moderate" for Windows Server 2003.

Evil email or websites can trigger the overrun.
Sounds like they need to automate some QA checking of
inputs. Or, stop using Visual C++, notorious for this
kind of flaw.See the ZDNET article here:
http://panug.org/26


FEEDBACK

Bruce Yatvin and Dick Pilz commented on the terse
statement about Hormel Foods and spam in the previous
broadcast. Both had the same thing to say so we've
included Brude's response:

"Hormel going afer everyone using the phrase spam is not
exactly correct. They are getting press for going after
a company using the name SPAM Arrest for their product
and trying to trademark their name.

On its official Spam Web site, the company outlines what
it considers acceptable use of the word. Its guidelines
include referring to the potted-meat product in capital
letters. 

It says it doesn't object to the use of spam to describe
unsolicited commercial e-mail. But the company does object
to the use of pictures of its product used in association
with the e-mail term."

http://panug.org/27


DISCLAIMER
PANUG and BizNix welcome contributions from all members.
Member contributions do not necessarily represent the
official positions of PANUG or BizNix. If you don't
contribute, the views of members that contribute
frequently may appear to be the official position of
the group(s).