Circuit Writer Version 7.5

by Jim Scheef

IPv6 is coming to Malware near you
 
Are you running Vista or Windows 7? Did you know that you have a gaping window wide open to your computer even if you are behind a hardware firewall? The default network configuration for both Vista and Win7 includes the IPv6 protocol. While this makes you ready for this eventuality, it does nothing to prevent the peer-to-peer connections that IPv6 provides. If the protocol is installed and active, software (including malware) can establish IPv6 connections or use IPv6 tunneling. Neither of these will be prevented by an IPv4 router/firewall. So far I have been unable to find any home routers that support IPv6 or are even IPv6 aware. The only bright spot is that software firewalls that understand IPv6 can and do work effectively. I'm still researching whether this includes the personal firewalls built into any Windows versions. One would hope that the Win7 and Vista personal firewalls would understand IPv6 since both Windows version come with IPv6 enabled by default. In the meantime, I suggest that you disable IPv6 until such time as you actually need it and you have a hardware router that understands it as well.
More on this next month.

Droid Does Navigation
 
You know it’s really fun when technology actually works and works intuitively.

Alert readers will recall that I paid about $100 for my Droid (plus 2-years indentured servitude to Verizon Wireless and an unlimited 3G data plan). $100 is a lot less than a cell phone plus a dedicated GPS navigation system for the car. The amazing part is that when mounted in your car, the Droid works as well as a dedicated GPS giving turn by turn directions with both screen navigation cues plus street names in a pleasant female computer voice I find reminiscent of the Enterprise ship's computer on Star Trek Next Generation when "she" had a cold. Of course, there is always a catch and, in this case, the Droid's navigation works over the 3G cellular data link so if you get lost somewhere that's not blue on the Verizon Wireless map, then you will remain lost. Better have some old-fashioned paper highway maps as a backup!

While on the way to Christmas dinner, I got lost in northern New Jersey. Now that I have all my contacts in the phone (see last month), it was time for a navigation "trial under fire". Honest to God, this was the first time I had attempted to use the phone's navigation feature. Here's what happened: I pulled out the Droid and opened the Contacts app. Scrolling down the list, I selected the appropriate contact and pressed "View Home Address" from the menu. Naturally, other choices include Call Home or Email if that information is included for the contact. The View Home Address option opens Google Maps and displays a pin flag at the address location. So just guessing what to do next, I pressed (the Droid version of a click) on the flag and a menu opened with choices to Get Directions and Navigate, among others. Pressing "Navigate" resulted in a prompt to turn on the GPS; once the GPS figured out where I was, it gave me the first in the series of turn-by-turn directions to get to my destination. Please be assured that I did not do all this while driving; I pulled into a side street and was quite stationary while I concentrated on the phone. Arriving at my destination a few minutes later made me a fan of Google Maps and the Droid's navigation.

This past Saturday I went into the city to visit my son and daughter-in-law. While I have pretty much learned how to get to their apartment from Grand Central Terminal, I used the phone to navigate. There is a native HopStop application for the iPhone but not for Android yet, so I am forced to use the HopStop mobile website. Once you enter your starting location and destination, HopStop offers to send you the directions as either a text message or email. I chose email, as I have not worked on how to use texting quite yet. (Hang in with me here, folks, I used to think that a cell phone was used to talk to people.) I sent the directions to the Gmail account associated with my Droid. I'm not certain when such emails are delivered to the phone as I have never tried to open a message on Gmail while in airplane mode (all radios off). Since cell phones work even in NYC subway stations, I cannot be sure if the email is synced to the Droid when it arrives at Gmail or when I try to open it. Obviously there is more to learn, but the only salient point here is that I was able to open and read the directions when needed. This process was not nearly as good as a dedicated app for the phone because the website, even when optimized for a tiny screen, does not have access to the address information stored in the Contacts. A real Android app will solve this and I hope HopStop gets one out soon.

Once on the street, I turned on “navigation” and the turn-by-turn worked on foot just the same as when driving. When on foot, it would be nice if the voice directions could be heard in a Bluetooth headset. This would make it easier to hear the directions when the phone is in a pocket. If this is possible, I have not figured out how to make it work.

On Sunday, we went on a "city hike" in the rain. We rode the subway (#1 train) to Dyckman St. and then walked back to the 90's. Along the way we saw The Cloisters, Grant's Tomb, Riverside Church, the Little Red Lighthouse and walked under the George Washington Bridge twice. Unfortunately in the rain I did not think to turn on the GPS tracking until after we had left Fort Tryon so I did not get the entire hike. (What I did get was 7.39 miles with a time in motion of 1:50:50 for an average of 2.72 miles/hour.) The recorded track was not nearly as accurate as my other hikes around home. I suspect that being inside my wet parka hindered the GPS. On a couple of occasions I've used both the phone and a Garmin handheld GPS device intended for hiking to record the same walk. In every case, the resulting map was more accurate on the phone; by this I mean that the track from the phone was placed on the correct side of the road while the Garmin GPS showed me walking way off the road.

While this travelogue may not always seem tech-related, the bottom line is that you, too, can have fun with an App Phone, no matter which one you choose.

Phones as Hacking Targets

As a segue back to reality, I'll point you to an article in the NY Times about how the popularity of App Phones has attracted the nefarious element of the hacking community. The article says that Kaspersky Lab reported a malicious program that stole money from Nokia phone users. There is a proof of concept app for "jailbroken" iPhone. Naturally this means that soon someone will want to sell you software to protect your cell phone from other software. Imagine what that will do for battery life!

 


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