Celah di Internet Explorer 6

Para pakar keamanan internet memperingatkan tentang adanya lubang baru di Internet Explorer versi 6 (IE 6). Celah di browser besutan Microsoft tersebut membuat pengguna dapat diserang dedemit maya sewaktu-waktu.

US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) mengatakan, jika cracker berhasil memanfaatkan lubang tersebut, mereka dapat menyelinap masuk dan mencuri data tanpa diketahui pengguna.

Perusahaan antivirus McAfee pun memberikan peringatan serupa dengan US-CERT. Yichong Lin, peneliti dari McAfee mengatakan, lubang tersebut diketahui pertama kali disingkap dengan sebutan 'pstzine'. Meski demikian, browser lain semisal Internet Explorer 7 dan Firefox dikatakan dapat menangkal serangan akibat celah ini.

Sementara bagi IE 6, baik US-CERT dan McAfee sama-sama menyarankan pengguna internet untuk melakukan upgrade agar keamanan berinternet pengguna lebih terjamin.

Technorati Tags: internet explorer, web browser

2 Metode Mempercepat Browser Firefox

Bagi pengguna Firefox yang ingin menambah kecepatan browser, metode-metode berikut ini bisa dicoba.

Metode 1:
1. Buka browser Mozilla Firefox.
2. Ketik 'about:config' pada address bar, lalu tekan enter.
3. Turunkan halaman sampai Anda menemukan kalimat 'browser.tabs.showSingleWindowsModePrefs', lalu double klik sehingga settingannya menjadi 'true'.
4. Turunkan lagi halaman Firefox sampai Anda menemukan baris berbunyi network.http.pipelining', lalu double klik sehingga settingannya juga menjadi 'true'.
5. Terakhir, turunkan lagi halaman Firefox dan carilah baris yang berbunyi 'network.http.pipelining.maxrequests', lalu double klik. Anda akan disuguhi sebuah window pop up. Ubahlah angka di pop up itu menjadi 60. Kemudian tekanlah 'Ok'.
6. Tutup Firefox lalu coba buka kembali. Jika tidak ada masalah, Firefox Anda akan terbuka 10-40 persen lebih cepat daripada sebelumnya dengan langkah-langkah seperti di atas.

Metode 2:
Langkah mujarab lain untuk meningkatkan kecepatan Firefox adalah dengan menggunakan add-on untuk Firefox bernama FasterFox. FasterFox ini membuat pemakaian bandwidth lebih efektif sehingga bisa mempercepat performa Firefox. Anda bisa mendownload FasterFox di alamat: http://fasterfox.mozdev.org.

Technorati Tags: firefox, config

Increasing Brainpower

by Dr. Paul Nussbaum

The NY Times recently reported on a new study that showed it is possible to improve brainpower. The study demonstrated that training the brain in particular cognitive or thinking processes actually help to improve those particular processes. This should make sense as the brain is a dynamic system that will respond to environmental input.

The resistance to such belief lies in the long held and erroneous position that the human brain is a rigid and fixed system that is somehow set by age five! We now know the human brain has “plasticity” and can be shaped across the lifespan. In fact, your brain does not know how old it is, it simply wants to be stimulated.

New research from the University of Michigan supports the power of mental exercise on the ability of the brain to acquire new information. Our ability to learn new information [...] historically has been labeled “fluid intelligence.” This tends to be information we did not acquire in school and that we have no background exposure. In contrast, information acquired in school that is over learned is referred to as “crystallized intelligence.”

Researchers found that new learning (fluid intelligence) increased with increased exposure to the training stimuli. They asserted that fluid intelligence can increase with appropriate training.They are not sure how long the gains will last after training stops, but gains are made with intervals of 8 to 19 days of training for 30 minutes a day.

While research is catching up on what probably is a very practical and basic reality: the human brain, like many of our systems is influenced by environmental input. In the case of the brain the stimuli tends to be information that is processed from the outside world. Repetitive mental exercise will have an outcome and it is reasonable to think that it will be positive with regard to learning. And yes, there will also be a neurostructural and neurochemical change as well.

Technorati Tags: brainpower, kognitif, particular

Android open source by Google

Contrary to some reports, everything that makes Android “Android”, including all the core platform components and libraries needed to port Android to new devices will be open sourced under commonly used, industry standard licenses, says Google.

What is open ?
I confirmed with three different Google employees at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco that the core Android platform will be 100% open source. Even multimedia codecs, which historically are held close to the vest will be open. Except where noted, everything will use the Apache software license (ASL v2). This is the same open source license used by projects like the Apache HTTP server, Tomcat, Harmony, and many other large projects in the open source community.

There are two exceptions to the Apache license rule:

1. Software that is already covered by by a free/open source license will continue to use that license. Most notably, this includes Google’s enhancements to the Linux kernel. Linux uses the GNU Public License (GPL v2) so enhancements to the kernel will use the same license.
2. Any software that touches Eclipse, for example the Eclipse Android Development Tools plug-in (ADT) will be licensed under the Eclipse Public License (EPL), because that’s what Eclipse uses.

What is not
Google chose the Apache license because it gives carriers, OEMs, and application developers the freedom to use whatever license they want for their own software. While Google encourages everyone to make their own code open if possible, it’s not required by the license. Even Google plans to make a few of their applications closed-source, including their GMail application. These programs are not part of the core Android system, even though they may be bundled with Android phones.

A Google employee I talked to felt the need to apologize for this. “We’re not holding it back for any nefarious purpose,” says Dick Wall on the Android team. “We’re simply not ready to publish the API that talks to the back end server.” This makes sense given Google’s extreme reluctance to be “stuck” with a poorly thought out API that they can’t support forever. This doesn’t preclude the company from opening up the source to those apps later.

Remember that up to now, all the software on your typical cell phone has been proprietary. With Android, carriers like Sprint and Cingular are free to use either open or closed source for any custom applications they install on their new Android phones. And of course, third party programs (like the ones you write) can be open or closed. It wouldn’t surprise me to see completely free/open distributions of Android which eschew any proprietary add-ons in favor of open source alternatives.

source : http://blogs.zdnet.com

Technorati Tags: android, open source, google

Cyber Attack!

Setidaknya ada tiga jenis serangan cyber generasi baru yang akan mengancam pengguna internet. Apa saja serangan itu?

Serangan-serangan generasi baru tersebut diramalkan oleh lembaga analis terkemuka Gartner seperti dikutip detikINET dari Dark Reading, Selasa (3/6/2008). Peluang serangan cyber itu terjadi karena makin banyaknya penggunaan teknologi populer di lingkungan korporat.

Berikut adalah jenis-jenis serangan cyber generasi baru yang diramalkan Gartner:

1. Serangan pada penyedia jasa piranti lunak. Saat ini makin banyak perusahaan yang memanfaatkan piranti lunak dalam bentuk service/jasa yang disediakan pihak ketiga melalui jaringan internet. Penjahat cyber pun sudah mulai menargetkan serangannya ada penyedia jasa semacam ini.

2. Serangan via jaringan sosial. Serangan tipe ini akan marak dengan makin lekatnya pekerja pada penggunaan situs jejaring sosial. Penyerang akan berpura-pura menjadi 'teman' dalam Facebook atau Friendster, kemudian ia akan [...]menjebak korban. Contoh cikal bakal kasus ini adalah saat halaman MySpace Alicia Keys disusupi oleh pembuat virus.

3. Serangan via widget dan gadget. Penggunaan aplikasi mini (widgets), yang banyak didapatkan pada situs jaringan sosial, diramalkan akan membuka peluang serangan cyber ini. Penjahat cyber akan menyusupi widget tertentu yang menarik bagi korban namun diam-diam mengandung ancaman.

Selain tiga serangan itu, Gartner juga meramalkan makin banyaknya serangan pada lingkungan server virtual dan jaringan nirkabel. "Meramalkan serangan itu menyenangkan --sama seperti meramalkan cuaca, dan kadang sama tidak akuratnya dengan ramalan cuaca. Tapi intinya, akan ada perubahan 'iklim' dan kita harus memahami itu," ujar John Pescatore, wakil presiden dan peneliti senior di Gartner.

Technorati Tags: cyber, frienster, social

AdSense for RSS Feeds Set to Launch Next Week

mashable.com
Google-owned FeedBurner is set to launch AdSense for RSS next week according to a post on the company’s blog. Much like the AdSense for Web sites, AdSense for RSS will show contextual text advertising in publisher’s RSS feeds. In other words, if you’re reading a blog post about mobile phones in Google Reader, you might see ads for AT&T, Verizon,and Sprint.

How will AdSense for RSS work in conjunction with the ads Feedburner already sells and displays? The company explains:

“Publishers already in the FeedBurner Ad Network will continue to see premium CPM ads directly sold onto their content, [...] but with the added bonus of contextually targeted ads that will fill up the remainder of their inventory. That means you get the best of both worlds: a dedicated Google sales force that knows how and why to sell onto your content, with the added revenue that full back-fill coverage provides.”

This is huge news for content publishers. As we know first-hand, monetization on RSS feeds to-date has been mediocre at best compared to Web-based advertising, and with an increasing amount of reading and conversation taking place off-site, that’s a brewing problem in the world of content publishing. It also means that the few remaining hold outs who only publish partial feeds (I’m looking at you CNET and The New York Times) may finally offer full feeds, since they can now be effectively monetized. On the other hand, for RSS consumers, it probably means the free ride is over.

While Feedburner has seemingly been neglected by Google since it was acquired, the strategy behind the deal is now coming full circle, as Google has effectively cornered the market on RSS monetization. They own the #1 (or #2 depending on who you ask) feed reader in Google Reader, the dominant feed management tool, and now what sounds like the most comprehensive way to monetize RSS, with Google’s huge base of advertisers already signed up (via AdWords) to participate.

Expect the full details of the AdSense for RSS program to be announced next week.

Technorati Tags: adsense, rss, advertising