Got this via internal communities at Avanade. Seems like in Ohio it is legal for cops to steal someone else’s identity as long as it is part of an investigation without your consent - quite scary I think.

SecurityFocus has two part article that looks at the new generation of WEP cracking tools for WiFi networks, which offer dramatically faster speeds for penetration testers over the previous generation of tools. In many cases, a WEP key can be determined in seconds or minutes. Part one , compares the latest KoreK based tools that perform passive statistical analysis and brute-force cracking on a sample of collected WEP traffic. Part two , looks at active attack vectors, including a method to dramatically increase the rate of packet collection to make statistical attacks even more potent. ...

What? Me ask what flavor of Linux to run? With all the hype of Star Wars, have I been consumed by the dark side??? On the contrary, I have been running a version in a virtual environment, and now have a old old machine, where I am comfortable running it natively. So, what version do you recommend and why? I do need a GUI since its been a while I worked in any of the Linux/Unix shells? I think I can guess the version Karan is going to recommend. ;) ...

There are two options when it comes to encoding in the context of webservices, e.g. .NET and Weblogic use document literal encoding while IBM and other vendors (Java) use RPC encoding. What is the difference and which one is better for which scenarios? Also, how easy is it to switch between the two? Well for those new to webservices, there are two options that you can choose when encoding your wsdl messages. ...

I have not tried this myself, no intention too either (one, am quite happy with my TomTom and two, maps are only for the US), but Moving Gmap adds moving map functionality for Google Maps using a connected GPS unit. (It makes the map recenter on you as you walk/drive around). If someone tries it out let me know how it goes. ...

This recent post on slashdot got me thinking again. As you may or may not be aware of I work for Avanade , a leading consulting company - a company to which I am fairly new and still learning about. We a few weeks ago, internally had a interesting debate about what a companies policies should be about letting their employees blog. This gets even more interesting, with all the interest with EntLibs - we built it after all and we would like to help other developers out there. As more and more employees are getting fired about writing work related stuff, what is the solution? Is it writing anonymously? Well I don’t think so. If you did want to write anonymously then write it in a notebook (not a laptop, but the old kind - you know paper and spiral binding and the likes), not online! But, I think your company should encourage blogging, if they don’t, then maybe its time to move on. I was happy to know after the end of our discussion, Avanade did not want to censor what I write, they value the freedom of expression of their employees and also their point of view. So while we have blogs internally, which I don’t know if we are ready to share publicly or setup public blogs like msdn , we don’t have a policy on blogging (yet I suppose). Having said that one must use common sense on blogging, e,g, I won’t blog about any financial information, or anything about our Assets such as ACA.NET , etc - nothing which is not publicly available on the website, or any customer details, etc. But every now and them you do come across something which falls in a gray area - in such cases it is always safe to err on the side of safety - if you are not sure ask your legal and HR department. So, what is your companies take on blogs? Is there a policy? Are they encouraged like at Avanade or are they ignored completely, in the hopes they go away? ...

Microsoft and Canadian authorities on Thursday launched a software program designed to help police worldwide hunt down child porn traffickers by enabling authorities for the first time to link information such as credit card purchases, Internet chat room messages and arrest records. Microsoft said the Child Exploitation Tracking System is the first software designed specifically to capture pornographers who prey on children and sell their images via the Internet. It will allow police departments worldwide to share and track previously unlinked information on investigations and suspects. ...

Got this via Megha (my sister). By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Thomas L. Friedman is the author of ‘‘The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century,’’ to be published this week by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and from which this article is adapted. His column appears on the Op-Ed page of The Times, and his television documentary ‘‘Does Europe Hate Us?’’ will be shown on the Discovery Channel on April 7 at 8 p.m. ...

Firstly, MSN 7.0 is launched, so have fun downloading it. Interesting developments on the latest version of the instant-messaging program lets people automatically display to others the name of the song playing at that moment on their computer. In a twist, however, the feature works not only with Windows Media Player but also with Apple’s rival iTunes music player. ...

Now that my Media Center is up and running (yes, yes I know, I will be posting the specs and pictures soon, as I am travelling on work in Brussels will do it when I get back), I have been thinking of how to extend that to make it a fuller experience (if there is such a word). Here are some things that I was thinking of integrating/extending/playing with (and hopefully have more stuff up on the sandbox). What else can you think of? Also, if you have something already working on this then let me know. My intention is eventually to release the bits (including code) for everyone - and to set expectations - that will happen once I have had a chance to check out the MCE SDK. ...

PCMag has a very interesting look into a Wireless Home - could this be our home of the future? You can check out things from Buglar’s beware , some place you can always be connected , the paranoids who should not read this, meter readers going the way of the milkman, a bluetooth hub , among others . I guess I should start saving to buy… :) ...

If you ever mange to screw up your IP Stack on Windows how to fix it? Well one way is to remove the protocol from all the network cards and then possibly also your network cards and adding them again (after rebooting of course). Alternatively, depending on your OS version you could apply a service pack. Also, in Windows XP, the TCP/IP stack is considered a core component of the operating system, and you cannot remove TCP/IP. Therefore, when you view the list of components for a network interface, you may notice that the Uninstall button is disabled when Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is selected. In extreme cases, the best solution for this issue may be to reinstall the Internet Protocol stack. But with the NetShell utility, you can reset the TCP/IP stack to restore it to its state that existed when the operating system was installed. Here is the command you run in a command prompt: ...

Here’s the untold secret of married life as told my Meenakshi my lovely wife *grin* A couple was celebrating their golden wedding anniversary. Their domestic tranquillity had long been the talk of the town. What a peaceful & loving couple. A local newspaper reporter was inquiring as to the secret of their long and happy marriage. “Well, it dates back to our honeymoon,” explained the man." We visited the Grand Canyon and took a trip down to the bottom on the canyon by horse. We hadn’t gone too far when my wife’s horse stumbled. My wife quietly said,“That’s once”. ...

Well, you can either start a blog like me (pun intended) *grin*, or you can stack pennies - which are quite cool, but then how much time is needed for creating each art thinggy ??? ;)

I got this via my lovely wife Meenakshi (who still has not bothered to start blogging ;)). Google is further increasing the storage space on Gmail (on the occasion of its 1st birthday) and running something interesting on their website which shows how the space is increasing. They are beginning to roll out their “top secret"Infinity + 1 plan, with the key being the gift that keeps on giving… storage space that is.. :). From last night this has gone up from 1611.47 mb to 1924.88 mb and still counting! They also list out some features such as Fonts, bulleting, colors, highlighting , etc. This makes this even more compelling to use than other options like Yahoo or Spammail… err.. I mean Hotmail. ...

Yes, its true! MS is going to port SQL Server for Linux! I don’t think they would be releasing the code for it though. ;)

I don’t agree with Microsoft’s approach here . Essentially if you are running XP and don’t have SP2 installed, then that will be forced down your throat. Now, I had SP2 running the day it went Beta and have not had any problems, but I am not sure if this really is to get the security patches out or forcing people running pirated copy of Windows to buy legal versions (remember SP2 cannot be installed on a pirated version)? I prefer to give the people the option to do it themselves rather than forcing them - I know of many legacy apps at various clients I have worked at that would not work with SP2…. ...

OSNews has an article Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative seems like an odd mix for the company when it works openly and a clever shot across the bow of open source when it works selfishly. How can the rest of us reconcile both positions? Microsoft ex-employee Stephen Walli shares his perspectives on the Shared Source Initiative from within and without the company - quite an interesting read. ...

I personally don’t like New York at all - especially New York city, it is a great place for a weekend, but that is it, I won’t live there for a million bucks! And this just makes it another reason on my “don’t like it” list. A telecommuter who lives out of state while working by computer for a New York employer must pay New York tax on his full income, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday in a case that could have wide implications in the growing practice. The Court of Appeals said that computer programmer Thomas Huckaby who lives in Nashville, Tenn., owed New York income tax for his full salary, not just the time he spent working at his employer’s New York offices. Huckaby paid tax on about 25 percent of his income over two years for the time he spent working in New York state. But the court upheld a state tax department ruling that all his income should be taxed. That amounts to $4,387 plus interest. However, the ruling could lead to much greater income for the state as it is applied to the growing field of telecommuting. ...

If you are like me and shy away from RealPlayer because of all the “junk” it installs with and the persistent nagging, well you don’t need to anymore. Check out RealAlternative (as of now at v1.33) which lets you play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer (or RealOne player). You do need a player that is capable of playing RealMedia. The included Media Player Classic supports it and works very well. Supported: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), ReadPix (.rp), RealMedia embedded in web pages. .smi and .smil files sometimes only play the first part of a clip. This is a limitation of the current Media Player Classic. The RealMedia Browser plug in supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape and Mozilla. ...

Though there have been lots of talk in Longhorn (especially recently), and I have dabbed in it previously, now some interesting bits are being released on what are the new features in IIS 7. The coolest one of these is the componentization of IIS where all of IIS’s functions will be specific components which can be turned on or off. This means that when you install the Web server, you’ll be able to add only the functionality you need, one piece at a time. ...

Got this one from Karan, if you have problems waking up in the morning, especially with an Alarm clock, you might want to check out Clocky . If you wondered what is so exceptional about this well read on… When the alarm clock goes off and the snooze button is pressed, Clocky will roll off the bedside table and wheel away, bumping mindlessly into objects on the floor until it eventually finds a spot to rest. Minutes later, when the alarm sounds again, the sleeper must get up out of bed and search for Clocky. This ensures that the person is fully awake before turning it off. Small wheels that are concealed by Clocky’s shag enable it to move and reposition itself, and an internal processor helps it find a new hiding spot every day. ...

If you’re a Silicon Valley geek, and you want to keep your “geek ID” what’s the best way to do it? That’s right, build your own Segway . Hmm … with the Summer approaching… just need to convince my lovely wife of this… can anyone help with a business case here?

Want to get more out of Firefox, then check out the Firefox tweak guide .

Ever wondered what is happening inside regsvc.exe? Well so did Tomas Restrepo, and here is what he found out.