Girl Geekette

A few days ago, I found a great article on Techdirt that I really loved. "You’re Not As Secure As You Think… Except Maybe On Wireless Networks " does a great job of showing an example of how most people believe that wireless networks are insecure by nature, therefore, if the general population believes that, then they are in essence as secure as they believe they are. From all the work with wireless that I have done, I can fully agree with the way this article is presented.

Out of the box, wireless networks are extremely vulnerable and insecure. Through recent studies I have done, I can conclude that over 50% of Wireless Access Points (WAPs) are left with no security enabled - not even MAC address filtering or any type of encryption - WEP or WPA. WEP has been crackable now for a few years using programs like WEPcrack. MAC address spoofing is also easily done by using ifconfig in *nix and a simple registry change in Windows XP. Even WPA PSK has been cracked (WPA itself has not been cracked, but the PSK - private shared keys - is susceptible to brute force and has been cracked). So, when I read the article on Techdirt, I had to completely agree.

As SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, becomes a very hot topic for web designers, I have decided to delve into the topic. This site - being a new site with content moved over from the old Aleeya.net - will be part of my experiment.

I will be keeping a track of all of my findings on a new category on Aleeya dotNet called SEO . I wll take the information I use and apply it to this site as well to help benefit GirlGeekette. Along with SEO, I also plan on incorporating the idea of reader accessibility and usability. My hopes are to improve both sites greatly.

You may have noticed the similarities of the sites as far as the theme goes. I have taken a theme that I like the layout of - Ragiels Dream 3 Column and stripped it down and modified it. This theme is wonderful when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Credit for the basic code and layout still goes to Firman Pribadi .

Following the leads of a few other major cell phone companies like Nextel, Sprint and others, Cingular is now going to try its hand at Push To Talk (PTT) technology. Cingular will be offering the LG F7200 for use with this service.

As of now, charges for the PTT service will add an additional $9.99 a month for unlimited minutes. If you have a family plan, the charge will be around $19.99 a month.

Although the actual service may be delayed to begin in November, this new service for Cingular will be a landmark in the Untied States. Cingular will mark its name again - this time by being the first GSM carrier with PTT technology in the US.

In America, it seems sometimes that we live in a lawsuit happy nation. Most of the time, it is all about the money. Since lawsuits seem to have been trivialized these days, I did happen to run across one that I am happy to see.

Spyware and Adware can be detrimental. Whether you spend hours cleaning your infected computer, lose privacy and security, or even start out from scratch a computer just never seems to run the same again.

Finally, the FTC has taken the law where it should go. It is now suing Odysseus Marketing of New Hampshire. Their Spyware and Adware -Clientman -  is listed in Computer Associates’ Spyware Encyclopedia. With claims such as "Download music without fear," and "Don’t let the record companies win," it would end up rewriting search engine results and creating popups. By installing its own malicious code, it causes headaches for those who do not give permission for this to be done.