Joel Esler

Path uploads your entire iPhone address book to its servers

2012-02-08T08:16:00.000-05:00

Path uploads your entire iPhone address book to its servers

I guess my appropriate reaction here would be..

Well. WTF!?

Don't use anything by Path.

Let's make TCP faster - The official Google Code blog

2012-01-23T20:44:00.000-05:00

Let's make TCP faster - The official Google Code blog

Interesting Article here.

Samsung Commits To Increasing Smartphone Battery Life In 2012, Hopes For All-Day Use

2012-01-18T08:16:00.000-05:00

Samsung Commits To Increasing Smartphone Battery Life In 2012, Hopes For All-Day Use:

Headlines don't get any easier to write than that.

Quality.

Latest Snort provides alarm for industrial control systems

2012-01-12T13:36:00.000-05:00

Latest Snort provides alarm for industrial control systems - The H Security: News and Features
:

Nice publicity for Snort 2.9.2. as result of years of work.

On this day in 1996, Apple acquired NeXT

2011-12-21T12:37:00.000-05:00

On this day in 1996, Apple acquired NeXT (Updated) | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog:

I just thought this was an interesting reflection in time.

If you are having problems with your flowbits

2011-12-07T16:20:00.001-05:00

I moved this post over to the Snort.org blog:

http://blog.snort.org/2011/12/if-you-are-having-problems-with-your.html

iOS code suggests Apple could bring iChat to iPhones and iPads

2011-11-19T12:11:00.000-05:00

AppleInsider | iOS code suggests Apple could bring iChat to iPhones and iPads

From the "duh" department. Apple would be stupid not to combine iChat, Facetime, and iMessage.

It would be awesome.

FILE_DATA_PORTS error in Snort, SOLVED

2011-11-05T15:25:00.001-05:00

I'm basically putting this post up for Google to index it and maybe it'll help some people solve the problem in the future.

PortVar Lookup failed on '$FILE_DATA_PORTS'

If you came to this blog post by searching for the above error, or if you have the above error in Snort, you should read this post on the VRT blog that we wrote. It'll help solve your problem:

http://vrt-blog.snort.org/2011/11/say-hello-to-file-identify-category.html

There. Check that out.

Yield Thought, this guy swapped his MacBook for an iPad+Linode

2011-11-04T16:13:00.002-05:00

Yield Thought, I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode:

This guy is nuts. I could never do this. Even though 99% of my work is done via screen @ work as well.

Interesting though.

(whoops)

A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs - NYTimes.com

2011-10-30T16:41:00.000-05:00

A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs - NYTimes.com

Great read. I've never read her writing. But she's good.

Snort.org Blog: Snort 2.9.1.2 has been posted!

2011-10-20T15:18:00.000-05:00

Snort.org Blog: Snort 2.9.1.2 has been posted!: Snort 2.9.1.2, a minor bug fix, has just been posted to the Snort.org website.

Check out the blog post there!

MacOSX Flashback Trojan is covered by ClamAV

2011-10-19T14:50:00.000-05:00

So called because it looks like an Adobe Flash Installer. There seems to be a ton of news around this Trojan on various Mac-related websites. http://www.tuaw.com/2011/10/19/trojan-variation-disables-mac-malware-protection/ for instance.

We wrote protection for this in ClamAV about 5 days ago. I know a lot of Mac users run ClamAV, so I just thought I'd throw this out there.

Please leave comments below.

Apple - Remembering Steve Jobs

2011-10-19T08:19:00.000-05:00

Apple - Remembering Steve Jobs:

One more thing...

Apple today put up a "Remembering Steve" site. Where you can basically go and read emails from the people that wrote in at rememberingsteve@apple.com.

Nice tribute. Apparently today the Apple employees are attending a "remembrance" service for Steve. Apparently this won't be broadcast to the world. Too bad, I am sure many would have watched it.

Please leave comments below.

E-mail improvements in iOS 5 - iPhone J.D.

2011-10-19T08:17:00.000-05:00

E-mail improvements in iOS 5 - iPhone J.D.:

Sorry, a link to another interesting iOS 5 article. Sorry if I am not adding a bunch of color commentary to each of these articles. I am blogging them because I think they are of interest to the readers of my blog. (Which, according to the stats, most of you run OSX.)

I am sure some of my friends will accuse me of trying to draw hits to my blog instead of twittering about the article directly. Here's the truth to that: When I post to my blog, Twitter picks up the article and tweets it immediately. If I don't post to my blog and only to twitter, the readers of my blog through direct links and RSS feeds won't get the article.

So it's a loss either way. So I post on the blog, and it goes to both.

Anyway... read the article. ;)

Please leave comments below.

My Dinner With Android - Four months with Android: reflections, grievances and some tenuous metaphors bundled up into a weighty tome

2011-10-19T08:10:00.000-05:00

My Dinner With Android - Four months with Android: reflections, grievances and some tenuous metaphors bundled up into a weighty tome:

Interesting article, no matter if you are an Android user or an iOS user. He makes a couple interesting points in the article. One being, you can't approach Android like you are using iOS, it just doesn't work like that. Vise Versa as well.

I have a friend that has had an Android phone for awhile, and recently moved to the iPhone 4S. We were talking yesterday and he mentioned to me that it was very strange. I answered him saying that you can't approach iOS like you do with Android.

Another quote from the article that is pointed:

"Fans of Android, let’s not tiptoe around this: Android exists because it is a rip off of iOS. Sure, it has grown into its own in a lot of ways, but its roots are decidedly placed at the introduction of iOS in 2007. Consider the before and after that caused a stir last year. Things changed when the iPhone came out. Apple changed the mobile phone game, and Google did a one-eighty to realign with what they recognized to be a better direction."

Steve Jobs narrates The Crazy Ones

2011-10-07T09:52:00.000-05:00

Steve Jobs narrates The Crazy Ones:

One of my favorite Steve Jobs "things".

Please leave comments below.

Bad-Lip Reading

2011-10-07T08:10:00.002-05:00

Tremendous work.

More here

Please leave comments below.

Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T19:35:00.001-05:00

Over the next few days, there will be countless specials, news casts, and thrown together documentaries about Steve Jobs and Apple.

Everyone will be focusing on his products. The iPod, iPhone, the personal computer, and the iPad. This was a part of his legacy, but not his genius.

His genius was how all the products worked together in a single coherent strategy (iCloud is a perfect example). Making everything work together seamlessly. Simply.

So that my two year old could operate it, as well as my 75 year old Dad.

You could interact with any of the products without an instruction book.

I think the best example of that is Siri. Being able to interact with your devices in a natural language way.

His genius was how everything was simple. The packaging, the website, the buying experience, the product, the operation, the genius bar. The way Apple itself functioned.

This was his genius. He was a visionary in the best way.

Call me a fanboy all you want.

He was smart. He demanded brilliance. He settled for nothing less than awesome.

RIP.

Let's just assume this pcap is bad...mkay?

2011-10-04T16:20:00.000-05:00

Alerts (2.9.1.1, 4924362.pcap)
1:18347:3 BLACKLIST USER-AGENT known malicious user-agent string AutoIt Alerts: 4
1:19734:1 BLACKLIST DNS request for known malware domain 770304123.cn Alerts: 2
1:16816:5 BOTNET-CNC known command and control channel traffic Alerts: 1
1:18762:1 BLACKLIST URI request for known malicious URI /blog.updata?v= - Win32-Agent-GRW Alerts: 1
1:17834:3 BLACKLIST DNS request for known malware domain 343.boolans.com Alerts: 1
120:3:1 (http_inspect) NO CONTENT-LENGTH OR TRANSFER-ENCODING IN HTTP RESPONSE Alerts: 3
1:16815:4 BOTNET-CNC known command and control channel traffic Alerts: 1

Please leave comments below.

QR Codes Found Sending Users to Site Containing Android Trojan | threatpost

2011-09-30T13:35:00.000-05:00

QR Codes Found Sending Users to Site Containing Android Trojan | threatpost:

It really sucks that Android is taking a beating on the malware front. I guess that's the difference between the walled garden (iPhone) approach and the "free for all" approach (Android).

Please leave comments below.

Ninja Turtles: Hey Apple App reviewers, you let one slip through

2011-09-30T09:39:00.000-05:00

App Store - Ninja Turtles

This is pretty funny, read the review on it. However, the funniest part to me is the background in the screenshots.

It's the original Contra.

IDC: Apple's iPad 2 took market share from Android tablets in Q2 2011

2011-09-14T11:18:00.000-05:00

AppleInsider | IDC: Apple's iPad 2 took market share from Android tablets in Q2 2011

Dear IDC, your headline is wrong. You meant to say "Android tablets lost more ground to Apple's iPad 2"

You can't take market share away from someone when you already own the whole market.

Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO

2011-08-24T21:02:00.000-05:00

Daring Fireball: Resigned:

I think the link above says exactly what I think about it.

We knew Steve was going to resign. Tim Cook has been running the company for awhile now in transition, and now the title has changed hands.

Steve is still there, the people he has put in place are still there, and his ideas are still there.

Just the titles changed.

Microsoft courting webOS developers with free phones

2011-08-20T07:48:00.001-05:00

AppleInsider | Microsoft courting webOS developers with free phones

Fantastic idea Microsoft:

"To Any Published WebOS Devs: We'll give you what you need to be successful on #WindowsPhone, incl.free phones, dev tools, and training, etc.," Watson wrote on Twitter.

Please leave comments below.

iSec Partners' presentation on "Macs in the Age of APT"

2011-08-17T14:03:00.000-05:00

Interesting slide deck here if you are interested in OSX vs. Windows security. I'd like to see Dino Dai Zovi's take on the slide deck.

http://www.isecpartners.com/storage/docs/presentations/iSEC_BH2011_Mac_APT.pdf

Related: Dino's recent iOS 4 security evaluation slide and whitepaper (written in Pages ;)

http://trailofbits.com/2011/08/10/ios-4-security-evaluation/

Please leave comments below.