SimonTek
News Articles
Matthew Conley uses a Wi-Fi antenna and a laptop computer to find wireless networks in historic Savannah. Conley found 219 networks in a short drive through downtown Scott Bryant Savannah Morning News
Creating a secure network Thursday, June 24, 2004
Unprotected networks are an open invitation to information thieves 912.652.0362 l alison.zielenbach@savannahnow.comThere's a blanket on the couch, and a Bible on the end table.
The cuddly, black cloth has "blanket" written on it in terminal green binary code and it's a "Linux Bible." There's also a binary clock over the TV, beaming out the time in what seems to be a random pattern of blue dots.
Matthew Conley and Mary Hill live here.
Conley, 23, wardrives. Armed with only a laptop and antenna, Conley goes driving to find unsecured wireless computer access points or networks around Savannah.
"I'm lucky if I find one in 10 that is secured," he said. "If I'm lucky."
An unsecured access point means Conley, or anyone else with a computer and wireless card, could get into any computer logged onto the network.
Let's be clear. Most people don't.
And those who do are usually people on the road who just want to check their e-mail, so they borrow an unsuspecting stranger's Internet connection but don't rifle through any personal files. Barely a handful plan to do anything malicious.......
_________________________________________________________________________________________
alison.zielenbach@savannahnow.com
Tired of computer viruses, spyware and expensive computer operating software?
Matthew Conley thinks he has a solution for Savannah's fed up computer users.
It's call Linux.
Linux is not a new operating system.
What is new is Conley's store that sells bundled Linux-based software and compatible hardware at The Open Store, at the corner of Abercorn and 33rd streets.
(You'll know you're in the right place, when you see the "Linux Club" neon sign over the door.)
And there's a demo machine set up so those curious about Linux can go and see what it looks like, and how it works.
(It looks remarkably like a Windows-based computer.)
So who's he selling to?
"Anyone that's willing to change," he said.
"Anyone that wants something that works," he added.
(Linux-heads tend to be true believers.)
The open source code called Linux was developed as a hobby by Linus Torvalds while he was a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland in 1991. It's since grown into an operating system widely used on servers and personal computers around the world.
What's different about Linux is that it's free.
Free in that users are allowed to make changes and improvements to the source code. And if their modifications are good enough, they become widely adopted.
Try that with Microsoft and you'd have a lawsuit on your hands.
With Linux it's like buying a car and getting the blueprints at the same time and being told to make whatever changes you like, and then sharing them with others, explained The Creative Coast's Executive Director Chris Miller.
"The result is a highly polished, highly efficient piece of code that's basically free," he said. "It sounds like a fairly small thing, but with thousands of people doing it, it ends up being a very powerful development paradigm."
The payoff is the acknowledgement of your peers.
(No small thing in the programming community.)
And a very stable operating system, which makes for a stable computer.
Where the companies that bundle and sell Linux-based programs make money is in support. They also earn money by selling to people who don't want to rewrite the code, but do like what Linux offers as an operating system.
Sound like a strange business model?
"The next thing you know, they'll be bottling water and selling it," said Miller, who sees the opening of Conley's store as another step in the development of Savannah as a technology-oriented city.
There's no reliable way to gauge how many Linux users there are out there, because you can download a copy of free source code and load it on as many desktops as you like.
So calculating it is not an exact science.
But in December, a study by global market research firm, International Data Corp., predicted that by 2008 the combined worldwide market for desktops, servers, and packaged software running on Linux will reach .7 billion.
The number of personal computers running the operating system is expected to total 42.6 million in the same time frame.
Locally, the universities and colleges use and teach Linux, Web servers, and anyone who has a Linksys router, a piece of computer hardware commonly used by people with a wireless Internet connection, use Linux.
"Linux is everywhere," said Mary Hill, who handles tech, sales and marketing for The Open Store. "People just don't know it."
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer Hackers Unite, not like that's a Bad thing....
Link to Atlanta Journal Constitution article.
