Dropping the ball

I haven't updated the ClamAV LiveCD yet. Usually, I just compiled it from the source tarball, but to be able to support it a bit better, I am waiting for the 0.93.3 package to be built. Hopefully, it will be sometime this week. If not, then I will go ahead and compile it.

On a lighter note, the Ubuntu Texas Logo contest ends tomorrow! We will have a week of voting for the best one, so for any late bloomers out there, get those logos in today! I will probably close the topic tomorrow after work and open a poll with the submitted logos. You will have to register at http://texas-ubuntu.org in order to vote.

I will be writing a post on the OpenDiagnostic blog about SSH proxies and how you can use www.volatileminds.net/ to get around any pesky filters that are in your way tonight, so if you are interested in that, take a look!

Any compression experts out there?

I had this idea today. Can anyone tell me how possible this is? I don't know anything about compression algorithms.

You create a mutating virus. The virus in itself includes a mutating compression algorithm that uses the MD5 sum of the mutating virus as the basis of the mutations of the compression algorithm. Given the compression will change each time the virus mutates, the virus definitions must be very generic* which would lend itself to many false-positives, unless you have an excellent heuristics engine (Avira has one of the best out there).

*This is speculation. I have only written small virus definitions, nothing to the extent of a mutating virus.

ClamAV Team Rocking (to and fro)

Today ClamAV 0.93.2 was released. Apparently there was a bug with freshclam and using previous definitions (or something of that manner), so within the next two hours, 0.93.3 was released to fix the bug.

So, if anyone is looking for 0.93.2, you won't find it.

http://www.clamav.net

My first package - endeavour2

I packaged endeavour2 today, my first package for Ubuntu. Rock. The current AVScan doesn't work without the latest libendeavour2, so it needed to be packaged.

I won't be updating the ClamAV LiveCD today. ClamAV 0.93.2 is due to be released tomorrow, so I will update the CD to the latest engine and grab the freshest definitions tomorrow (saves me bandwidth rather than uploading it twice in two days).

The future of computer software and piracy

Over the years, I have seen software companies (nearly) cripple their software with DRM and other similar technologies. The companies spend just as much money on the anti-piracy technologies as they do on the software using it. After they release their software, 0-day exploits and work-arounds are found, over and over again, causing the software company to constantly spend more and more money, time, and resources on a piece of technology that was originally meant to do the exact opposite. Yet software companies continue to think that this kind of business model is working (while it does to some extent, I can't imagine it will become easier to use this model, even in the near future).

IMO, within the next 10-20 years, the creation and selling of software won't be worth the time and trouble of coming up with "newer and better" anti-piracy technologies. Creating the software will cost a tenth of implementing any anti-piracy technology. Even now, my personal belief is that (even if your software isn't open source, but freeware), you will make just as much money from contracts and support (through companies and home alike). It may require a pretty hefty EULA (I don't speak legalese, so I am not sure what kind of things you would include in something like that compared to current EULA's), but many anti-malware companies such as Lavasoft, Grisoft, and Avira are already seeing this as a very marketable stance on software, giving away free personal licenses for their software, but charging for support.

I think watching the software industry for the next decade will be very interesting, to see the new ways they face piracy, whether it is crippling their software even more, or freeing it up (it isn't stealing if it is free!).

Any thoughts on this? Is there something I am missing or I should look at more closely? I am more than open to ideas and thoughts on this.

Microsoft 'Equipt'

So, Microsoft will be releasing this pack of software called "Equipt" (for a yearly subscription of 69.99 US) which contains Office (Home and Student 2007), Windows Live Mail, Windows Live One Care, Live Messenger and Live Photo.

Let's see, spend 69.99 US a year for basic computing programs or run Ubuntu.

Only 15 days left in the Ubuntu Texas LoCo Team Logo contest (say that 5 times fast). Still time enough to get together a really kickin' logo for the Texas team. Sign up at http://www.texas-ubuntu.org to participate! Don't forget, winner will receive one prize of their choosing from the Canonical store.

Other news, I have started another blog (http://opendiagnostic.blogspot.com/) about diagnosing and repairing computers using FOSS tools (hopefully, it will go along with a new CD I am creating to go along with the ClamAV LiveCD). Only one post so far, I will try to post at least once a week.

I haven't had a lot of time to work on Project Euler problems, which makes me a little sad. I really enjoy working on them. Maybe sooner, rather than later, I will be able to get some more time.

Software Freedom Day is Sept 20.

The next DFW LoCo team meeting will be July 13th at Java and Cha in Plano, Texas. I was not able to make it to the last meeting due to a sudden bout of sickness, I guarantee I will be at this one.