Hedgehog: Free Database Security Solution

This is a personal as well as a commercial posting for me… Tomorrow is a special day in the short history of my company - after long months of R&D, we are finally releasing our product, named Hedgehog. These are very exciting times both for me personally and for the entire team at Sentrigo, who’ve made this possible through a lot of hard work and well applied knowledge - I feel very lucky to have such a great team working with me.

Hedgehog is database security monitoring software that monitors DB transactions in real-time, and generates alerts based on a highly flexible set of policy rules. A light-weight sensor is installed on the database machine and monitors the shared memory. It doesn’t use redo logs or DBMS APIs - those would be too slow… The trick is to do it so that it doesn’t use up CPU power.
Hedgehog can be downloaded from Sentrigo’s website, and while it supports only Oracle for the moment, in the coming months we will release versions for MS SQL, DB2 and other major DBMSs. There are basically two version - Hedgehog Standard, which is totally free to use, and Hedgehog Enterprise, which is not free but available for free evaluation. The differences are explained in some detail on the website, but basically it boils down to prevention capabilities and enterprise scalability and integration.

My sense is that we’re bringing something new to this space, and I’m anxious to see how this will be received. Feedback is of course welcome. Give it a try!

"Haute Secure" unveils anti-malware browsing add-on

The malware blocker for XP, Vista goes up against major players.

A start-up founded by four former Microsoft Corp. employees has released a beta of a real-time malware-blocking tool that also bars malicious content from reaching PCs.

Seattle-based Haute Secure's eponymous malware/site blocker enters a market crowded with the likes of McAfee Inc.'s SiteAdvisor, Symantec Corp.'s AntiBot, Exploit Prevention Labs' LinkScanner and even offerings from Google Inc.. Haute Secure, however, is counting on a multilayer strategy to see it past rivals.

The first layer, said Steve Anderson, who heads the company's product strategy, is a kernel-level driver that looks for and stops executables coming out of the browser. By monitoring multiple Windows processes and services -- nearly six dozen in total -- the tool watches for malicious behavior, then blocks execution when it sniffs something dangerous. "We're hooking API [application programming interface] calls to the kernel and watching for malicious behavior coming from the browser," said Anderson.

A second layer blocks the links from which malware is delivered, he added. That tactic is probably more familiar to end users, since it's the technique used by Google's blacklisting efforts, which will be the foundation of a new feature in the upcoming Firefox 3.0. "We're blocking at the site and the page level," said Anderson, noting that many domains have multiple malicious URLs.

Haute Secure, which is currently ready only for Internet Explorer users -- a Firefox version will roll into beta next month, and one for Apple Inc.'s Safari is due out sometime after that -- stores the malicious site/page blacklist locally to avoid performance problems, and it updates blacklists several times daily.

The software also can accept multiple blacklist feeds, a characteristic Haute Secure is counting on to deliver revenue down the road. "The way the system is designed, we can take numerous feeds from multiple sources," said Anderson. "In August, we'll [integrate] Google's antiphishing antimalware API, for example. The bigger idea is that we want to be the trusted platform between the Internet and users or enterprises."
A bank, for instance, that already collects the addresses of sites spoofing its legitimate online service, could add its feed to Haute Secure to guarantee that customers who use the tool would be protected.

Haute Secure will remain free to download and use while it is in beta testing, a process that will run into September. After that, Anderson said, plans are less clear. "We may charge for using the malware-blocking feature, since we think link scanning will be more and more commoditized." Under that plan, the blacklist-based layer would be provided free. Another revenue possibility, said Anderson, is to sell a malware-scanning service to companies that fear that their legitimate sites may be hacked at some point and start spewing malicious code. "That's an interesting model, too," said Anderson.

Haute Secure's other principals include Iain Mulholland, a former manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center; Frank Swiderski, a security researcher and developer who once worked at Microsoft, @Stake and the U.S. Department of Defense; and Rob Vucic, a former Microsoft security researcher who was cited by the FBI for his help investigating the long-running and wide-ranging Zotob/Mytob worm attacks of 2005.

The Internet Explorer add-on, which runs on Windows XP and Vista -- including the 64-bit version of the latter -- can be downloaded from the Haute Secure site.

Are You A Peepel Person?

What is Peepel? (www.peepel.com)
Peepel is an Online Office Suite, it provides the users with the freedom to communicate and work online (and, before long, offline) without the expense of propriety software, the technical hassles and the inevitable pain of upgrading both operating systems and applications. They have spreadsheets, word proccessor and more...

It is very impressive and holds much promise, this is an alternative to the web based docs and spreadsheets that promises soon to allow the use off and on line of the app and related files.

I have used the Google apps to much utility in the past 2 months or so and find now that I fire up the web based apps first to do my work unless I need to really make a complicated doc or spreadsheet. Having the ability to work in one browser page makes this new application unique. You can have both a spreadsheet and document open on the same "desktop", I like the speed and look of the app so far. You have a toolbar floating above the windows, it changes like the ribbon bar on Office 2007 and more importantly changes as you change windows.

What Peepel Offers:

• Peepel Desktop is the technology that enables multiple PeepelWindows and applications opened in the one browser window.
• Peepel WebWriter is a simple word processor. It can be used from any modern browser.
• Peepel WebSheet is a spreadsheet. Access your spreadsheet files from anywhere.
• PeepelPanel stays at the top of Peepel Desktop and changes for each application you are using.
• Peepel TaskBar allows users to easily see what files are open by bringing the relevant PeepelWindow to the top of the Desktop.
• Peepel WorkSpace Manager is used to save a desktop layout, and return to it anytime easily.

Bottom Line:
Peepel is a unique approach to online office applications, allowing multiple applications to run in the same window. Users can open as many applications as they wish in multiple resizable PeepelWindows within the one browser window. Peepel is in early stages at the moment, but keep an eye out for tight integration between all the applications.

Peeple Demonstration Video:

Guy Levin

Joost - Web TV and More?

What's Joost?

Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.

The best thing about it is that it's free. :)))
hundreds of full-screen shows at your own time.

See the Quicktime promo: What's Joost

Only TV??
Nope.
You get great internet features too, such as search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the Joost software – so you find shows quickly and talk to your friends while you watch. And with no schedules to worry about, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you like – as often as you want. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection.

With Joost, you're in charge. No more schedules – watch what you want, as often as you like.

Spotback Is Out There (and out of Beta)

First let me start by saying that my very good friend works at Spotback and I know the hard work the spotback team has done in the last few days - Great job guys!!!

Now, lets start the review...

What is Spotback? (www.spotback.com)
First, there were Spotback News (http:\\news.spotback.com) . After a couple of hours playing with it, I fell inlove with it and since then I am using Spotback News something like 2-3 times a day, reading articles according to what interests me.
Spotback News is a really great concept, you enter tags that interests you (e.g. computers, web 2.0 and etc.) and you get articles and news according to them. Brilliant, easy and fast is the way that I would describe it.

Second, Spotback just released the Rate Everything widget that anyone can put on his site and get ratings from users. The interesting thing about this particular sidebar widget is that it is not a plugin, you just put the code into your site or blog and Spotback does all the hard work for you.

Spotback widget gives your three things:

• Tags
• Ratings
• Recommendations
  

To start using the widget just look below each and every post in this blog. You will find a small slider and a little button marked tags. From there forward just click on the slider to cast your vote! Click on the tag button to add tags. That’s it, as simple as that.

Ok, I added the widget, what now? What is it good for?
Well, I will try to answer that question with a few questions of my own "Do you value your users input? Do you want to give added values to your site or a blog? Do you want more traffic coming your way?".

Also I think that this widget is a great way for the blog owner to track what his readers like and dislike. Most readers will not take the time to comment but, they may take the time to leave a rating. If a user does not want to take the time to look in the sidebar for the widget they can also click on the “like it? Get more” link beside the tags button. This will bring up the sidebar widget right there. If you check out the Spotback widget on this blog you will notice a new tab, “Recent Raters”. This tab tells you who has been on your site rating things.

The first two questions onyone can understand but the last one requires a small explanation. When people are rating your posts or something else the data goes to Spotback and is shown at their site, and you can get a few more people coming to your site from Spotback.

What's next?
The Spotback home page is a bit low on inputs right now but I’m sure that will change once more people will sign up and more sites will use it to rank posts, articles or whatever.

Personaly, I think that Spotback should make their own toolbar that you could rate a site from that toolbar, search the Spotback News with it and get your related articles alarms to it. Also, the Spotback News is fading away and it is a damn shame because it was one the thing I really liked in Spotback. I am willing to give them my www.spotgnome.com domain, just keep the Spotback News guys!

Bottom line?
Spotback blends social bookmarking with social voting. Your profile page on Spotback tracks all of your (i.e. bookmarks) and allows you to change my votes at any time. When I click on someone else’s profile, not only does it show me what they voted on (but not their rating) but, if we voted on the same thing it shows me my rating.

Guy Levin

Using A Blog as Project Management Tool

During the last time a have constantly feeling that awareness about projects state is poor. Top management often doesn't know project status and weekly reports don't help. Yes, maybe project manager articulates some problems, but when discussion turns into details, there is a lack of information.
This problem especially important for remote teams.

One solution is using a blog. Project manager or team lead may post all interesting events in project flow on a daily basis. Solved problems with brief solution description, new problems, feelings about progress and possible risks, personal thoughts about overall project status and so on. Blog is informal, and I like it. This is a project diary with comments that holds all project's history.
During a "lessons learned" phase blog will help a lot. Such blog definitely should have RSS feed and comments as a minimum. Sometimes RSS feed is even more usable than email notifications (depends on personality). The other useful feature might be an integration with project management system to insert direct links on user stories, bugs or documents.

Also consider integrating Wiki and use it in some sort of a bug control in a project or version changes. In the bottom line, take Blog + Wiki and give an RSS to everyone who needs to know all the changes in the project and you got a pretty nice project management tool :)

Guy Levin
CVO & Co-Founder
Commerix LTD.
Technorati Profile

Jott - Beta 2 Released

What is Jott? (http://www.jott.com)
When you need to send to yourself a reminder. From your Cellphone, just call to Jott phone number (1-877-568-8486) and leave a message. Jott will send you an email with your audio message as well as the transcribed text.
The registration is simple, you register your Cellphone number and enter few info/password and voila, you can start using the free service immediately!

Jott has recently rolled out a much improved version of Jott. There are small changes and big ones. If you haven’t given Jott a try recently, this release makes it worth your while.





Features:

• Just Jott:
  Jott creates email and text messages completely hands free. No more driving with your knees as you type (please!). With V2, you simply Jott to yourself, other people, or groups. This means there is a change in our voice menu: we simply ask “Who do you want to Jott?”… For a jott to yourself, just say “Myself”.
• Instant Jotts:
  If your message to someone has to get there immediately, use Instant Jott. Simply press 1 after recording a message to someone, and we will deliver the jott as audio right away, with no transcription.
• Jott for Groups:
  Do you hate having to make phone calls to multiple people saying the same thing? Has the soccer game shifted to another location? Jott “Soccer Team”. Flight delayed? Jott “The office”. A little late filling the tank? Jott “carpool”. With V2, simply say the name of a group you’ve created, say your Jott, and you’re done.
• Contact import:
  We now have a tool which makes contact importing trivial. It works with Outlook, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail and others. Having your contact list up to date unlocks the power of Jott; it’s a voice powered address book at the other end of a simple phone call.
• Better User Interface:
  We’re fanatical about simplicity, and we think our new web inbox is both easy to use, and keeps your jotts better organized.

Quick tours of all of this are at http://www.jott.com/jottinaction.aspx.

Screenshot:

Guy Levin
CVO & Co-Founder
Commerix LTD.