Walter Soldierer's Blog » Internet

Google Analytics Datenschutz

Webvet — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:19:32 +0000

Wer die datenschutzrechtlichen Rahmen-bedingungen für die Nutzung von Google Analytics auf deutschen Websites noch nicht kennt, sollte sich spätestens jetzt informieren.

Folgende Maßnahmen werden erwartet:

Google Analytics tracking code um die Funktion AnonymizeIP erweitern
Schriftlichen Vertrag mit Google zur Auftragsdatenbearbeitung abschließen
Datenschutzerklärung der Website ergänzen
Alte Google Analytics Profile löschen

Warum das alles? (more…)

Close button in iOS app?

Webvet — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:09:38 +0000

Apple is quite strict about their Human Interface Guidelines for iOS devices. Complying with these guidelines is not always easy though.

Much of what Apple states in the guidelines is open to interpretation. It’s a guideline, after all. Lots of statements such as “in general…”, “if possible…”, “in most cases”.

Apple’s developer support avoids clear answers on questions about the guidelines. If your question is a tricky one, they will much rather refer back to the guideline or recommend that you simply submit your app and give it a try.

When an app is rejected there is often only a very general statement about why this happened. Usually it’s just a boilerplate message referring to a section in the guideline, including a brain dead recommendation to rectify the issue, like taking out a feature alltogether. (more…)

AusweisApp und neuer Personalausweis

Webvet — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:09:32 +0000

Was für eine Enttäuschung! Ich hatte gehofft, der neue Personalausweis würde endlich eine verlässliche und sichere online Authentisierung ermöglichen. Nach zwei Stunden Frustration mit Installation der AusweisApp und vielen gescheiterten Tests komme ich heute zu dem Ergebnis, dass sich diese Technik in der jetzigen Form sicher nicht durchsetzen wird. Da muss noch einiges verbessert werden. (more…)

Neue FRITZ!Box mit DSL 6000

Webvet — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:48:35 +0000

Wir hatten uns vor Monaten entschlossen, den alten 1&1 Vertrag auf DSL 6000 zu erhöhen, auch wenn man dafür auf dem platten Land mit 5 Euro mtl. Zusatzkosten bestraft wird. Jetzt habe ich endlich die Zeit gefunden, meine neue FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7270 zu installieren. DSL 6000 funktioniert noch nicht 100%. Anscheinend wird die Bandbreite auf 3456 kBit/s gedrosselt. Ich habe den 1&1 support gebeten, das zu korrigieren. Die FRITZ!Box hängt im Netzwerkschrank im Keller. Tolles Gerät mit vielen features. Endlich haben wir den beiden großen Kindern auch ihre eigenen Rufnummern und DECT Telefone verpasst. Kein stundenlanges Blockieren der Leitung mehr. (more…)

Computer and network security

Webvet — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:11:17 +0000

Whenever I take a look at our web server log files, I am amazed how many robots are trying to hack their way into our machines every day. And whenever I help a friend or neighbor to fix a computer problem, I need to explain even the most essential safety measures as most PCs are infected with some trojan or virus already. Computer and network security is a big issue, don’t underestimate the risks. I first noticed this years ago when I installed a free personal firewall on my PC. Only seconds after the program started to do its job, it alerted me of suspicious activity on ports and protocols that I even didn’t know existed. Steve Gibson calls this activity Internet Background Radiation. Much of this is not merely junk but malicious traffic. To protect my personal computers, data, and privacy, I have taken a number of simple security measures which I want to share with you. (more…)

Color blindness and accessibility

Webvet — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:23:50 +0000

In an effort to meet accessibility requirements, I was looking for tools to check whether users with a variety of color blindness conditions can actually use our websites. Posters and brochures can already be difficult to read for color blind people. On web sites another dimension is added to this problem because certain features may be rendered useless by choosing a bad color palette. Colored links for example, if not underlined, may not be seen as links because they appear to be of the same color as all other text.

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Free encryption software (2)File encryption on USB flash drives

Webvet — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:21:53 +0000

I am a PGP user since 1996 and I still use Ståle Schumacher’s international DOS version 2.63i to encrypt files on my USB flash drives. All I need is PGP’s small exectutable file (pgp.exe, 237.737 kb). On first use, PGP will create a second small file that contains some random seed data for the encryption. With this minimal setup, PGP will warn you about a missing configuration file, but this does not affect the strength of encryption. The USB drive on my key ring contains an encrypted passwords file and pgp.exe, providing easy access to the many cryptic passwords I use. All I need is one strong master pass phrase to decrypt the file and get instant access to more passwords than I could ever remember.

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The mobile web (2)

Webvet — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:42:39 +0000

If a mobile device provides a good browsing experience, users will use it to access the web. This statement is clearly supported by Net Applications’ operating system market share data for devices accessing the web in February 2008. Apple’s iPhone outperformed Windows mobile (CE) devices more than 2 times. This is particularly impressive because only about 4 million iPhones compete with 20 million Windows CE devices. In addition there are hundreds of millions of Nokia phones, for which the market share (Series60 OS) is reported to be only 1/7 of the iPhone figure. In other words, 4 million iPhones access the web almost 2 times more often than all Windows mobile and Nokia devices together. (more…)

Free encryption software (1)

Webvet — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:24:37 +0000

All data on my laptop’s hard drive is encrypted. If the machine gets stolen, no one will be able to boot the operating system without entering the correct pass phrase beforehand. Nothing on the drive looks like a file of has any readable information. My letters, photos, and all other private information are no more than an cryptic stream of random bytes.

I also set up encrypted hard disk drives for private data on my desktop machines at home. I once had to send a defective hard disk back to the manufacturer for repair. A nosy mechanic would not have found anything other than a boring C: drive with Windows XP and some programs on it.

On the USB mass-storage device that I always carry on my key ring at least one file is encrypted. It contains many different login passwords and other secret information that I need to have access to no matter where I am.

Great free software is available to encrypt entire hard disks, partitions, folders, files, and emails. This is the first post of an encryption series that will explain what software I use on my Windows XP machines. The programs I use are available for Linux and Macintosh computers, too. And they are all open source which to me is the most important reason for not using commercial software for encryption. I trust that many cryptographers have already inspected the code to make sure that it does not contain any weaknesses or backdoors.

Free encryption software (2): File encryption on USB flash drives
Free encryption software (3): Hard disc encryption
Free encryption software (4): GNU Privacy Guard

The mobile Web (1)

Webvet — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:54:22 +0000

Most mobile phones have some sort of Internet access built in. However, not many owners of mobile devices use them to surf the web. There are several obvious reasons. First of all, carriers still charge too much for internet access. The WWW user experience on mobile phones is variable, to say the least. Access fees will go down, and I am sure that mobile flat rates will be the predominant pricing model soon. It will take some time though until most mobile phones belong to the 3rd generation and until mobile web standards are sufficiently well defined and implemented to support consistent web page rendering on the mobile web.

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