s some of you may have read, my site came under a large-scale denial-of-service (DoS) attack some while ago. It managed to endure it, but I was used as a ‘human filter’, getting sporadic exercise, sleep and food for a couple of days. Below I present the aftermath in my logs, which leaves lessons to be learned.

Click image to see it full-sized

As you can see, the motives of the attacker may have been high Google listings through referrer spam. However, as my site was requested for around 50 GB of dynamically-generated pages in just 1 day, there might be more to it. I suspect that the hundreds of hijacked Windows boxes were programmed to primarily wreak havoc; they were targetting my heaviest pages specifically.

Dear Windows users,

Please get your act together and always patch up your operating system, if not migrate to a less vulnerable operating system. The Macs, for example, are not so hard to use.

Your current machines are occasionally getting infected and then used as zombies in the midst of our network. Subsequently, under the control of evil hands, they commence a collateral onslaught on Web sites. Such sites, if not computers in your network, can be powered by Mac O/S, Linux or other UNIX variants. You must become responsible as you reside in a networked environment and can affect it tremendously without you being aware of it.

I am currently suffering from an international army of infected Windows machines. This is no laughing matter as I can confirm all zombies are Windows-driven and there are hundreds of them all over the world.

Windows out-of-the-box (i.e. unpatched) is somewhat of a weapon. It can easily drain bandwidth of other users and inject spam content. It can also lead to downtime of others in a global village that is the Internet. We are now hearing about a Dutch network of people who exploited vulnerable Windows machines world-wide. Be more cautious than ever before or else get disconnected by your ISP. Here at the University we already charge people if they continously get disconnected due to viruses in their Windows machines. Viruses (virii as the common slang) are causing a great deal of distress to network administrators, which is the reason for monetary penalty.

If the attacks on my site do not reach a halt or some solution is found, it might have to be isolated (READ: brought down), which is unacceptable. If not isolated, my site may take other sites down along with it in the future. I am not alone in the recent batch of attacks according to Tao of Mac.

Related items:

• Internet Explorer Breaks the Web
• MSNBot Fights Linux Servers
• Explorer 7 Against Web Standards

Bill Gates arrested in his younger days (photo in public domain)

HE O/S industry continues to worry me. As a recent item suggests, if not practically reveals, Microsoft makes Windows-powered Dell computers cheaper than blank hard-drive computers, probably by subsidising hardware under the table.

This leads me to recalling a progmatic Ballmer reference to a $100 PC, possibly relying on kick-backs, lock-ins, steering of users towards MSN filled with adverts, not to mention extortionate Microsoft Office licences. When costs for hardware are being covered, it can be perceived as illegal practice if not bribery, which led to anti-trust lawsuits in the past. Software suffers the most from such legal loopholes due to (1) ‘duplicability’ and (2) compatibility, which make software different from most physical world analogies. Rules must adapt immediately to prevent a closed-circuit whereby competition is denied access.

If you are using Windows, be aware that 9 more vulnerabilities have been discovered today (check your favourite newsletter’s headlines for more details). Additionally while on the subject, Microsoft may soon be able to cash in on its own critical bugs, which is by all means outrageous.

As a sequel to my previous reference to Linux-powered tablets, it is worth mentioning the Nokia 770.

When the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet hits the streets in the coming weeks, it will mark a technological milestone for the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. The tablet not only is Nokia’s first non-voice Wi-Fi device, but it also runs on the Linux operating system (OS).

To me, this seems like an excellent (yet more expensive) replacement to Palm handhelds. Palm have recently lost their direction and their commitment to Linux appears to have been crippled.

Sun Microsystems, makers of the Linux-related Solaris, have formed a pact with the Linux-oriented Google. The exchange between the two is that of search technologies (i.e. search bar) and Java Desktop, most notably OpenOffice, which is treading strongly and becomes among the main dangers to Microsoft alongside Web-based Office.

Sun Microsystems Inc. and Google Inc. on Tuesday said they agreed to a multiyear pact for Google to promote Sun’s software technologies in what amounts to a direct challenge of Microsoft Corp.’s dominance of business users’ desktops.

HIS morning I received a flash reminder of how disasterous Windows can be. I tend to forget this as my professional life is Microsoft-free. My mother’s computer refuses to boot as the hard-drive cannot be mounted by Windows XP. Not even safe mode can do the trick.

This comes at a time when I strongly urge my mother to switch to Linux (probably Ubuntu), which perhaps would be a blessing as the computer reached a halt (over 5 minutes to boot) due to Registry bloat. Perhaps this O/S crash will wind up serving us well, but the amount of distress and required restoration work is enormous. This all comes at a time when we are reminded how mature Linux has truly become.

“Why choose Ubuntu for the parents?”, one might ask. I have 3 Linux machines at Manchester and 2 of them (the more recently set up) run Ubuntu while the main one (repository or so-called ‘mother ship’) runs SuSE, which is my favourite.

While I’m here at home I occasionally the Ubuntu Live CD because, let us face it, it can be a pain working under Windows as you cannot (trivially) SSH with X forwarding. Only the bandwidth is somewhat of a barrier at the moment (ADSL as opposed to proper LAN).

S Palm form an alliance for their smart phone with their former rival Microsoft, many perceive the step as a damaging one to the Open Source community or advocates of open standards and inter-operability. Microsoft are already strutting about, showing off in their front page a Palm device while labelling it “Windows-powered” (a segment of the image is shown below). This image looks rather offensive since they go a rather long way in order to pass across the message: “the enemy is ours”. Sadly, Palm do similarly in their front page; maybe a reciprocal exchange?

This aggressive attitude is by all means nothing new. It comes after a great deal of trouble and distress at Microsoft. Windows Vista, for example, needed to be-built from scratch and there was recent loss of government support and trust, which in turn opted to move to OpenDocument. So, that “incompetent-at-best” move from Palm gives Microsoft a small victory among the many recent losses, ‘Google threat’ being the most prominent one.

How can Palm live with the shame? (from Microsoft’s front page)

In UseNet, several threads come up with misleading subject lines insinuating a complete Palm migration to Windows, which is evidently false. Then again, when will Palm complete their promised move to Linux? Is the recent Access-Palm takeover going to have an effect on strategic alliances? What if Palm carried on with Windows for their smart phones, as well as Linux in tandem, primarily for older-generation devices?

Looking at the users’ side, how would smart phone owners, whose data has been stored in line with Palm’s conventions, synchronise their data with a Mac or a Linux machine? Are they supposed to be swayed to change their desktop environments because of a PDA?

This move by Palm left me bitter and I am not alone in feeling somewhat betrayed. I came to witness a platform which I voluntarily supported (assisting many hundreds, if not thousands, of Palm users in UseNet) as it gave strength to an opponent — an opponent whose purpose is to destroy and cripple anything that is not Microsoft. I am beginning to investigate a migration to the Zaurus after many years of sticking and evangelising Palm. I truly hope that Palm prove that their commitment to Linux is true, thus keeping me ‘on board’. They will need to do that soon enough, or else rumours will grow wings and suggest that Palm(One) have become merely a hardware vendor and that PalmSource are history.

Cited by: PalmAddict