Hawaii Web Consulting » technology

Security Tip: Regularly Check Your Website Scripts For Updates

Mark — Fri, 28 May 2010 02:35:43 +0000

If you are a website owner, you might think that once you get your site up and running you no longer have to do much. But consider how easy it is for your website to be hacked. You WANT people to visit it and look around. You WANT to show off the cool functionality of your site.

Well, that same functionality can get outdated pretty quickly. Code that was written five or six years ago probably didn’t even check the validity of requests to pages. A simple example of an attack is a site that uses ID numbers, for example www.somedomain.com/index.php?id=12 — what happens when that isn’t a number, or that ID is missing? Did the programmer check for those possibilities?

There are some wonderful open source web applications out there, including WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, to name just a few. However, every week new vulnerabilities are discovered on those platforms — security hacks, SQL injections, cross-site scripting, etc. Luckily many of those open source applications also have a robust community to write updates to protect against those attacks.

As a website owner, you should check for any updates to your website scripts regularly. This also includes to make sure your passwords are strong and safe. And, have regular backups of the site made that you can download to your computer for safe storage (as even hosting sites aren’t immune to attacks).

It’s a real pain to have your website hacked. You struggle to uncover how the attack was done. You work to get the site updated and back to where it was. You try to clear your name with any search engine that might say your site is “suspicious”. Meanwhile you lose visitors that might never come back.

If you don’t take care of your site yourself, then talk to the developers who built it and ask them to help you backup, upgrade, and lock down your site before you get hacked.

Security is an ongoing process, just like those updates on your computer…

Google Announces Ways to Opt-out of Analytics

Mark — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:54:09 +0000

In a move that will surely upset those obsessed with their web stats, and bring some joy to those concerned with online privacy, Google has announced that they are offering tools to opt-out of their very popular Analytics.

For site owners and stats jockeys, the ability for individuals to more easily hide visits to web sites using Analytics is a bad thing. They want to know as much as possible about everyone that visits. If more people don’t get “tracked”, they might feel that their efforts to create content to move people toward certain goals, funnels/calls-to-action, will be less effective.

For privacy nuts, they’ve probably already been blocking Analytics Javascript code using techniques like I’ve discussed in “How to Hide from Google“. But with Google publicly allowing people to opt-out of this tracking, and to make it as easy as a plugin to your browser, those less technically skilled will also be able to block Google’s tracking code.

My concern with Analytics is that while it is VERY useful for site owners (I use it myself on some sites), the fact that it is used by SO MANY sites all reporting back to GOOGLE, makes for some serious questions on privacy. I don’t mind that site owners do some SITE-LEVEL tracking — I mean, it’s built into the web server anyway — it’s just when all that information from all those different sites is sent to ONE entity — Google — it raises some serious flags.

So, I welcome whatever tools Google has that will allow users the option to opt-out of site tracking. Also included is the ability for site owners to anonymize IP address information sent to Google through Analytics — for site owners that love Analytics, but are concerned about the issues I’ve discussed above.

(Thanks Google! )

iPad: Ebook Reader = yes, Netbook = no

Mark — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:08:53 +0000

iPad's iBook

Like a lot of people I was excited to learn about yesterday’s Apple iPad release. Steve Jobs had said it would be “one of the most important things I’ve ever done” [techcrunch]. Apple calls it “magical and revolutionary“. And, also like a lot of people, I was let down by learning the details of the iPad. I think I know why.

Many people assumed that this new device would be along the lines of a netbook — one of those small-screened devices that allows users to do MOST of what they can on their larger PCs, but using more cloud-based services to get around storage and processing limitations. In other words, netbooks are a perfect match for things like Google Docs, Dropbox, and Picnik to help get around less powerful CPUs and smaller drives.

That assumption — that iPad would be a netbook — was what led to my disappointment. The iPad doesn’t do a lot of the things you need a netbook to do: multitasking (multiple applications running at the same time), Flash in web sites, and file and document control. In fact, several sites have lists of why the iPad fail: gizmodo, pcworld. But I think they are missing the point.

Classics App page example

As far as most of the features on the iPad, they are available already (albeit in smaller screen space) on iPhones and iPod Touches: Safari, Mail, Video, Photos, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, App Store, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, Home Screen, Spotlight Search. The biggest NEW feature is the “iBook” which makes the iPad an eReader for electronic books. (Yes, iPod Touch and iPhone also have this ability — Classics app, for example, looks amazingly like what iBooks became.)

What the iPad does do, though, is “revolutionize” Apple’s money stream on iTunes. They will now be selling e-books (along with music, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, and apps). They will now be competing with Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Ebook Readers. They will also be (indirectly perhaps) taking on Google’s Books.

So, if you consider iPad as an eReader (with the ability to do some apps and multimedia) it’s a great, little device. Pricier than the competition, but with more functionality and style.

Just give up your notions of netbook (Apple has the Macbook Air for that (cough, cough)), and consider this iPad as the missing eReader device in their already excellent music (iPod) and cell phone (iPhone) device line.

Syncplicity: backup and syncing with 3GB FREE

Mark — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:02:14 +0000

One of the requests I hear from people is they want to backup up their files (MP3′s, videos, photos, and documents) but be able to also view them on different computers, wherever they might be: across town or across the world.
Are you looking for a way to backup and sync files between Windows computers? Looking to have a safe way to view those files remotely, from anywhere? Want to share those files with others? Syncplicity is set up to do that, with a lot of extras!

Take a look at how easy and versatile Syncplicity is:

3GB cloud-based web space
Windows XP or Vista
View files online (download from anywhere)
Edit your files to Google Docs, Picnik, or Scribd (no need to have those installed on the computer you are using, great for on-the-road use)
Sync between computers
Auto-backups
Share files and folders with others

The cost for all those features? FREE! Need more space? Get 50GB of space, more than enough for most people’s collections for just $10 month!

So, check out Syncplicity and see how easy it is to backup and sync your computers!

—

Looking for FREE set-it-forget-it backups; check out our article on Mozy.

Amazon has Snow Leopard and Windows 7 for pre-order

Mark — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:16:18 +0000

Amazon has Snow Leopard Mac OS X version 10.6 (the upgrade to Leopard) available for pre-order on its site for $29. Their Free-Shipping option works even to Hawaii!
Amazon also has Windows 7 available for pre-order. Prices start at $119.99 for the Home Premium Upgrade, or $199.99 for the Professional Upgrade. The difference depends on the features you need, see this chart for more information.

Note however, if you are thinking of upgrading directly from XP, head the warning from Walt Mossberg:

Happy upgrading!

Journalism schools using and teaching social media

Mark — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:35:01 +0000

Back when I went to j-school, the Internet wasn’t considered a form of “mass media” yet. It was still pretty well limited to email and clunky browsers with limited information. Well, obviously that’s all changed. Journalism schools are teaching about how social media (things like blogs, twitter, facebook, etc.) are changing the way information is communicated, often making it into the “traditional mass media” (newspaper, television, radio).

Mashable has an interesting article 10 Ways Journalism Schools Are Teaching Social Media. This includes News Gathering and Reporting, something that shouldn’t be much of a surprise to those watching CNN recently. Here’s a funny clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on just how much CNN is relying on these new social media feeds:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

“i” on News

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Jason Jones in Iran

Star Trek’s Enterprise: In Your Hands

Mark — Sat, 09 May 2009 01:54:37 +0000

In support of the new Star Trek movie that is coming out, a very cool site is online that allows you to hold the Enterprise in your hands: www.Experience-the-Enterprise.com. You visit the site, install an Active-X browser plugin, print out an image (that’s used to control the movements), and get your webcam fired up. (Yes, you need a webcam.)
Here’s a video of what happens:

I tested it myself with a black/white printout, OLD webcam, and not so fast computer. Worked really well. However, controlling it is like trying to cut your hair in the mirror, awkward. (Practice a bit before showing others.)

Some real Trek-fans told me there were errors in the narration that goes with it: “Lieutenant Sulu” instead of “Ensign Sulu”, etc., etc. I don’t know. Just know it was FUN! Check it out: www.Experience-the-Enterprise.com.

(Or, just kick back and let Shatner pick the videos: youtube.com)

Get Ready For Hawaii Geek Week: Mactoberfest and more!

Sync Files Between Computers, Even PC/Mac: Dropbox

Mark — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:41:47 +0000

If you are like most people, you have a work and home computer. They may even be on different platforms — like a Mac at home and PC at work. There are several solutions out there, but the one I want to discuss is Dropbox. Dropbox allows you to easily set up a “cloud” storage space that can sync between your computers. That’s 2GB of FREE storage that you can share, backup, or sync files with.

You can set up hidden or public folders, even share your photos with others through Dropbox. And, best, it just seems to work. I’ve used it since it was beta, and I’ve only had 1 problem with it. And that just was because I was running an older version on one of my computers. Upgraded and all worked fine again!

How does it compare to some other solutions? It’s similar to both Syncplicity and Microsoft’s livemesh, though for me, both of those solutions were more difficult to get set up (and for livemesh, a pain on updates).

If you are looking for a fast, free solution to file storage and syncing, check out Dropbox.

Small businesses to use more social networking tools

Mark — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:46:43 +0000

An article today from eMarketer finds that small business plan to spend more online using social networking tools. These tools might include things like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, even YouTube:

More small businesses said they would increase their spending on social networking than on any other format.

via Small Businesses’ Online Plans – eMarketer

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Upcoming Unconferenz: February 7th

Mark — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:25:51 +0000

An upcoming event that sounds very interesting: Unconferenz. Using Pecha Kucha which is basically a open discussion with limitations on each speaker of 20 slides and 20 seconds each slide.

Date: February 7, 2009, Saturday
Time: 8:00am to 4:00pm
Place: JAIMS (in Hawaii Kai)
6660 Hawaii Kai Dr
Honolulu, Hawaii 96825

Attendance: 50 – 100 Limited

Cost: $25 – This will include a t-shirt and lunch

Check out their site to register and get more information!