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Tips for Securely Using Temporary Files in Linux Scripts
Dec 6, 2010, 23 :02 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (718 reads)
(Other stories by Jamie Adams)

[ Thanks to Jamie Adams for this link. ]

"Over the years, I've written hundreds, if not thousands, of shell scripts. With the ease at which you can redirect input and output within a shell script, many sysadmins store data in temporary files for processing purposes. In some situations scripts become essential to the day-to-day operations of a system and as such, may end up running on a regular basis via crontab ? never to be looked at again.

"Unfortunately, some sysadmins who write scripts might store sensitive data in temporary files, don't restrict access to temporary files, and might forget to remove them from the system when they are no longer needed. In many cases, they use them when it isn't even necessary. The beauty of Linux and UNIX is that there are hundreds of ways to accomplish the same task. I will keep my Bash examples simple so you can focus on grasping the general concepts."

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The state of MySQL forks: co-operating without co-operating
Dec 6, 2010, 22 :02 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (622 reads)

"Giuseppe "The Data Charmer" Maxia recently posted his take on the MySQL forks. I had been pondering whether to do the same, and seeing that what I planned to write will nicely complement Giuseppe's article, I was inspired to follow him into the same topic. Note that last Spring I created a Map of MySQL forks in preparation for Monty's keynote at the MySQL user conference. So let's see how things have evolved. I'll look into MySQL ecosystem as a whole and the forks separately.

"The post is long, but the key takeaway is that despite the challenges, the combined development seen in the MySQL ecosystem is probably stronger than ever, the current situation is hard for an outsider to grasp but manageable, and if a few more obstacles can be overcome, we are looking into a very bright future indeed. There are more than 100 engineers (how much more?) working full time on the mysql code base (including both developers, QA, build engineers...). This development effort is an order of magnitude higher than other open source databases I'm aware of, in particular PostgreSQL and Drizzle. Often the open source project with most momentum and mass will come out as the winner, no matter what challenges it may seemingly be facing, and this is the case with MySQL too. Oracle's MySQL"

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We are still busy to celebrate journal our 200th questions here on Linux and that leave includes seven great prizes you could win!  Today's price in our daily giveaway? An iXsystems Atom system server for $529 retail sales! Give today to the www.linuxjournal.com/giveaway.

Here is what could win today:

1U mercury 9.8 "depth Rackmount Server 200W PSU low noise"
1 HE optimized Atom motherboard Intel D510 chipset dual Intel 82574L Gigabit LAN 4 GB DDR 3 SO-DIMM max memory (2 DIMM slots) integrated IPMI
2 GB DDR3 SODIMM 667 MHz NON-ECC 128 x 8 laptop memory
Axiom 32 GB USB flash drive

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The High Road to HPC Tools: Lunch with Intel?s James Reinders

Avast sees single software license used illegally 774,651 times

Fanless barebone server offers dual-core Atom for $260

Gingerbread, Nexus S with Android 2.3 Unveiled by Google's Android Czar Rubin

SECURITY: Tips for Securely Using Temporary Files in Linux Scripts

USA v. Crippen ? A Retrospective

The state of MySQL forks: co-operating without co-operating

The Three Differences between Chrome OS and Android

SCALE 9x: Is your paper submitted?

How to Handle files with a strange name in linux shell

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Avast sees single software license used illegally 774,651 times
Dec 7, 2010, 01 :34 UTC (1 Talkback[s]) (551 reads)
(Other stories by Matthew Humphries)

[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for this link. ]

"Protecting your computer from malicious activity for free is easier than it has ever been. But you can guarantee if a license for a paid-for security suite appears online, some users are going to download it.

"In the case of Avast!, a single software license originally only meant to cover a 14-PC business operation, made its way on to the Internet and started spreading. Rather than killing the license code, the team at Avast decided to watch what happened and how many users would break the law by using it. The results are astonishing.

"Over the course of 18 months that single Avast! Pro license was shared and used on 744,651 different machines. At the current cost of $34.95 per pro license, that?s total lost revenue in the region of $27,074,052.45."

Complete Story

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