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I’ve seen only 4 Macs at the 2008 Academy of Management conference. There’s free WiFi in the conference lobbies, and I’ve been using it to check my EMBA course and grade the final assignments.

The vast majority of these management professors and doctoral students use Windows laptops, Outlook and Microsoft Office as they study their papers and PowerPoint slides one last time before their sessions. 

I helped one of these users connect to the conference’s free wireless network. It’s just another day of ad hoc user support for Bill Sodeman, professor and CIO.

If I get more questions, I may set out a tip jar.

In the meantime, it’s fun to watch the parade of growl notifications that Little Snitch displays on my Mac.

News is trickling into the mainstream media about the DNS security hole that Dan Kaminsky found a while back. It’s a problem that has existed for years in the DNS software used on almost every major computing platform. With a trivial amount of CPU power, a cracker can redirect a web browser from a legitimate domain name to whatever server they wish. In some ways, it resembles a pharming attack. Details on how to perform the attack were made available this week, and there’s a brief description in a Register article called Exploit code for Kaminsky DNS bug goes wild.

The Domain Name System matches alphanumeric URLs like billso.com to their corresponding numeric IP address. If DNS is broken, the Internet is more or less broken.

Patches for these systems were released after 8 July 2008, when Kaminsky announced that the bug did indeed exist. Many server administrators haven’t installed the new DNS software yet.

According to another Register article called Worlds biggest ISPs drag their feet on critical DNS patch, the following providers haven’t performed the patch on their ISP networks:

• Time Warner Cable
• AT&T
• British Telecom
• Bell Canada
• T-Mobile

I tested Hawaiian Telcom’s DSL network last night: they failed, too.

I haven’t heard whether Comcast has fixed their DNS servers, but based on the New York Times article called GComplaining Bloggers Hava a Cable Company’s Ear, I’d think Comcast would respond quickly to blogged complaints about their DNS service.

HPU’s DNS servers on the wired and WiFi networks passed the test this morning when I checked them, and I’ve received confirmation that they patched their servers earlier this week. That’s good news, since HPU’s primary ISP is Oceanic Time Warner.

You can fix the DNS hole yourself

ISPs must offer certain services as part of an Internet connection. DNS is one of these services. Many ISPs run their own DNS servers, which connect to larger servers on the backbone. Corporations usually have their own DNS servers inside their network, to help users connect to internal resources like printers, servers, and network shares.

But residential users don’t HAVE to use their ISP’s DNS in most cases. If you have your own router at home, or you just plug your computer into a cable modem or a nearby WiFi network, you can use Dan Kaminsky’s tool to see if your DNS server is vulnerable. Use the Check Your DNS button in the upper-right corner of his blog pages at doxpara.com

For those of you on a school or company’s network, please check with your IT or network staff before changing your DNS settings.

If your ISP or WiFi network is using a vulnerable DNS server, you can use a free system called OpenDNS that is probably faster and safer that what you’re already using. It takes about 5 minutes to change your computer’s or your router’s domain name settings to use the OpenDNS servers.

Make sure you have administrative rights on your computer or router. Read the OpenDNS tutorial and make the appropriate choices. Be sure to reboot or restart your computer after confirming the changes. You may find that your Internet connection seems faster. That’s a nice benefit of OpenDNS for many users.

OpenDNS also screens out phishing sites, and lets users block or restrict access to entire categories of sites and specific URLs.

Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome has been ranting about the hole for several days now, but he’s got a point. Read his article called Is Your DNS Server Safe? for his thoughts.

Updated 29 July 2008 1930 HT: Here’s an article from John Markoff of the New York Times With Security at Risk, a Push to Patch the Web . Kaminsky estimates that 41% of all DNS servers still need the patch. With Kaminsky’s presentation coming up next week at the Black Hat conference, the clock is ticking. This article by Robert Westervelt of Security News called DNS flaw handling leaves Kaminsky pleased has some good quotes from Kaminsky about the scope of the DNS hole.

Related posts and pages on billso.com

• OpenDNS
• Hawaiian Telcom
• 24 February 2008: Pakistan blocks YouTube, breaks trust
• 15 January 2008: OpenDNS update
• 3 September 2007: When users block the ads, should web sites block the users?
• 13 July 2007: Speed up your broadband connection with OpenDNS

The retirement of Bill Gates from daily duty at Microsoft prompted bloggers and journalists to write long articles about Microsoft technology. It’s summer, and we have to fill the pages somehow. 

This Engadget article called Bill Gates: top ten greatest hits (and misses) has some details and product photos. Two of the “misses” are interesting.

The AutoPC was a voice controlled system that connected the driver to music, GPS and Outlook services. It went on sale in 2000 and died a quick death, but many auto manufacturers are offering systems with similar features in 2008. The same Microsoft business unit that developed the AutoPC also developed the SYNC system for Ford. 

The second “miss” is another example of pervasive or ubiquitous computing. It’s interesting that both of these products were championed by Bill Gates himself. 

I have worn my Suunto N6 HR SPOT watch almost every day for the last 2.5 years. Yes, the watch is a little large, and I have to clip it to a USB charger every 2 or 3 days to freshen up the battery. I never got the heart rate monitor feature to work properly, though. 

Microsoft partnered with Clear Channel to distribute news, sports, stock market and other data to users via Clear Channel FM radio stations.The silvery rim of the watch face is the FM antenna. It’s a one-way device that receives broadcasts, so it’s impossible to send information from the watch.

I don’t use Outlook, so I never use the appointment and messaging features. But the baseball scores are usually up to date, as long as I’m in a Clear Channel city, and I never need to set the time. It’s synced by an atomic clock somewhere in the cloud. 

Sadly, Microsoft discontinued the SPOT watch line in April 2008 - see this Engadget article called SPOT watches R.I.P. - 2004-2008. The cloud service still works on MSN Direct. I just go to the web site, log in, and select the information and faces for my watch. 

I see fewer wristwatches on wrists these days. Many of my friends rely on their mobile phone’s clock instead, as they carry their phones with them everywhere. Most modern mobile phones sync their clock to their carrier’s system. 

Image courtesy of billso through a Creative Commons license. 

Microsoft is pulling Windows XP off the market, as the company continues to push Windows Vista as its core operating system.

On 30 June 2008, computer manufacturers are supposed to stop offering Windows XP as an operating system for new computers. There are loopholes, of course, Until January 2009, some manufacturers can sell users a copy of WIndows XP, as long the user purchases a copy of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate or Business edition.

Brent Evans article, Days of Windows XP Running Out, has more information.

Steve Tobak is fretting about his new Sony laptop computer, because it’s having problems and he doesn’t have time to fix it.

Sounds like he needs a Mac.