God Made a SysAdmin…and a linkfest to feed them

One of the best 2013 ads I saw so far this year was this one during a small little scratch football game.

It worked for me on several levels.

However, soon a "parody” of sorts soon followed. First the words were developed by Chester Gifford and -- inspired - Matt Simmons of the great Standalone Sysadmin blog tossed together some images, and finally Drew Stemen contributed the voice-over.  The whole story is here; God Made a SysAdmin | Standalone Sysadmin

Full text at website God Made a Sysadmin

Brilliant!  I want to personally thank all those who appeared in the piece as well as the creative work and toil from Chester, Matt, and Drew. Who knows how much extra un-recorded time went into this project’s success? Well, a sysadmin would, naturally!

More Tips & Rumors

• Reset Your Forgotten Windows Login Password The Easy Way - Addictive Tips
• How to reset a Windows 8 password - 4sysops
• How to reset a Microsoft account password (connected account) - 4sysops
• Offline enable the Windows 8 built-in administrator account - 4sysops
• Triple Your Speed: How to Install an mSATA SSD Boot Drive in Your Laptop = LaptopMag blog
• Seagate is done making 7200rpm 2.5-inch pure hard disk drives - Ars Technica

Networking News

• Chrome's Developer Tools for HTML Analysis - LoveMyTool blog by Tony Fortunato
• Network Capture is Dead! - MessageAnalyzer - This post highlights how MessageAnalyzer (the next generation Microsoft capture tool evolving from Network Monitor) doesn’t just focus captures on network “traffic” but also can monitor and analyze Event Tracing for Windows data as well. Pretty cool.
• Sniffing Traffic on the Wire with a Hardware Tap - Open Security Research blog
• Wireshark Security Updates -ISC Diary post
• Wireshark · Download - Versions 1.8.6 stable, 1.6.14 (old stable), and 1.9.1 (Dev release)

Toys and Wonders

• Kali Linux - New Sec/PenTest distro built on the back of BackTrack Linux and developed specifically for enterprise environments supporting penetration testing and security auditing. According to the distro documentation, it has over 300 tools baked in, will be free, sports many wireless devices, and has ARMEL/ARMHF support for “non-standard” hardware platforms such as Raspberry Pi, a VMWare Image, and the Samsung Chromebook. Pretty snazzy!
• Kali Linux - Downloads
• Kali Linux - Documentation
• Kali Linux arrives as enterprise-ready version of BackTrack - The H Security: News and Features
• Kali Linux Cracks Passwords and Finds Security Exploits on the Enterprise Level - Life Hacker
• Piriform pushes out minor update for CCleaner, version 4 coming soon -  BetaNews
• CCleaner v3.28 - Piriform News
• Easily Download & Launch Sysinternals & Nirsoft Utilities With WSCC - Addictive Tips. Previously mentioned back in this Windows System Control Center (WSCC): Awesome Cool! GSD post.
• VirtualBox update fixes problems, makes the virtualization tool more stable - BetaNews - Yeah, go get your update… Downloads - Oracle VM Virtualbox
• Changelog – Version 4.2.10 - Oracle VM VirtualBox
• Upgrading Linux Guests - The Fat Bloke Sings blog
• Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater - pXc-coding - now at version 1.1.0.2 - Works on XP,Vista. Win 7, Win 8, can work without user interaction (handy); of course Flash does have the option imbedded to auto-update. As I understand it, Flash auto-checks every seven days while this app can check for Flash updates at every reboot (or every two hours) if you are patch twitchy.
• Uninstall Flash Player - Windows - Adobe - Can’t get Flash out of your Windows system using Add/Remove/Programs & Features? Or want to roll back to and older version and Flash won’t let you? Use the official Flash Uninstall utility to remove all traces.
• JavaRa - SingularLabs - Fantastic all-in-one utility to update Java runtimes, remove Java runtimes, and clean up logs/temp-files used by Java runtimes.
• USB Image Tool 1.61 - alex's coding playground - Fast arriving update to fix a bug, use user-defined date/time formats for file name suggestions, and once an image restore is completed, automatically rescans for all devices to be detected.
• UEFI MULTI 72 - reboot.pro - Project to make a multi-boot USB-harddisk to boot systems with BIOS or UEFI firmware.
• IntegrateDrv - reboot.pro - Project for utility tool to integrate mass-storage or PNP drivers into Windows setup. This is a little bit different than the WinPE/DISM driver integration tools such as DISM GUI - Download: DISM GUI 3.1.1, and Je Jin's DISM Tool, and GUI Dism ELDI v3.0.2. I covered use of those in my GSD post Scratching at a SCSI Drive Itch - Part II - WinPE Redux .

Cheers and may you have a marvelous work-week!

Claus Valca

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ForSec News Linkfest

I am super-behind on my blog posting of Forensics/Security news of note.

Here is a rapid-fire linkfest dump.

Some is old news and some is hot-off-the-press.

Cross-pollination is to be expected.

Enjoy!

Mostly “For”

• CaseLeads: China Cyber Espionage Exposed, Account Issues with Twitter and Plenty of Great How-To's - SANS Computer Forensics and Incident Response Blog
• Hiding Data in Hard-Drive's Service Areas (PDF Link) - Ariel Berkman - Recover Information Technologies LTD
• Intro to Report Writing for Digital Forensics - Brad Garnett - Part I - SANS Computer Forensics and Incident Response Blog
• Report Writing for Digital Forensics: Part II - Brad Garnett - Part I - SANS Computer Forensics and Incident Response Blog
• HolisticInfoSec: toolsmith: Redline, APT1, and you – we’re all owned - Holistic Info blog
• Open Source Forensics for Windows, MacOS, and Linux - LoveMyTool blog. Casey Mullis outlines a forensic tool, the Digital Forensics Framework. Available directly or pre-packaged in Debian, Backtrack, DEFT, the SANS SIFT kit, and CERT.org package repository.
• Location Data within JPGs - Forensics from the Sausage Factory blog
• High Watermark - The Hacker Factor Blog - I am SO digging into Dr. Neal Krawetz’s awesome blog that covers all manner of things, but primarily photo/image forensics. Jump over and prepare to get lost and overload your favorites/bookmark folder in the process!
• (IN)SECURE Magazine - Issue 37 “Becoming a malware analyst edition” - now available for free PDF format download.
• Clean Windows Registry of USB Drives - GetUSB.info
• 3RPG - Rapid RegRipper Plugin Generator v0.3 - Hexacorn
• 3RPG – 4 RegRipper Plugins in 15 minutes - Hexacorn
• 3RPG – Rapid RegRipper Plugin Development - Hexacorn
• BinMode: IE Index.dat - Windows Incident Response blog

Supplemented with some “Sec”

• Another Forensics Blog: Finding and Reverse Engineering Deleted SMS Messages
• In-Depth Look: APT Tools of the Trade - TrendLabs Security Intelligence Blog
• The strange case of Gamarue propagation - Microsoft Malware Protection Center
• Research & Analysis of Zero-Day & Advanced Targeted Threats:YAJ0: Yet Another Java Zero-Day - Malware Intelligence Lab from FireEye
• UAC Impact on Malware - Journey into Incident Response blog
• Static analysis tool for examining binaries - Help Net Security
• Update: PDFiD Version 0.1.0 - Didier Stevens
• Update: pdf-parser Version 0.4.1 - Didier Stevens
• OS Image Wrangling - SpiderLabs Anterior
• Windows 8: Tracking Opened Photos - Digital Forensics Stream blog
• Wow6432Node: Registry Redirection - Windows Incident Response blog
• Houston We’ve Had a Problem – Wow64 - Journey into Incident Response blog
• Wipe the drive! Stealthy Malware Persistence Mechanism - Part 1 - SANS ISC Diary blog
• Wipe the drive! Stealthy Malware Persistence - Part 2 - SANS ISC Diary blog

Please correct me I I am wrong but I am now seeing the terms “YAJ0” and “YAJU” pretty often in blog posts and titles.  YAJ0 seems to mean “Yet Another Java Zero-Day” and YAJU probably means “Yet Another Java Update”.  That both of these are now come in text-worthy shorthand forms is no LOL-ROLFLMAO matter.

And a final object lesson…

Be careful in your watchfulness to not overlook the obvious hiding in plain sight.

• A Smuggling Trick - Daniel Miessler

Cheers!

Claus Valca

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Internet Explorer 10 (for Win 7), Firefox bits, and How Google Works

News of Microsoft’s release of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 seemed to go off like a flare; lots of noise and brilliance…and then flickering out to nothing.

In my security posture of trying to keep all the web browsers installed on all our home systems current, I went ahead and jumped on IE 10 and installed it almost immediately after release on our Windows 7 systems. 

None of us (well except Alvis with her college portal) regularly use Internet Explorer.

I use still primarily use Firefox for my daily heavy-lifting at home, and supplement it with Chromium (a build version of Chrome).

Alvis prefers the public release version of Chrome…which self-updates BTW…so that is fine by me.

Lavie uses Firefox exclusively….also because of the bookmark sidebar feature.

But I leave Internet Explorer on our systems (for compatibility reasons with some applications and websites).

Anyway, it went on all out systems without much fuss…well, not really on mine. Lessons learned. If you want to manually put it on your system, just make sure of all the links you are offered, the one you are using is to the actual FINAL release installer and not one of the IE 10 “preview” release version installers. In my haste (and trust in the IE Blog post I used) I grabbed a preview version and had to go through a series of additional security updates and IE 10 release upgrades to eventually arrive at a fully updated version of IE 10.  I didn’t make that same mistake with subsequent installs on everyone else’s systems.

• Internet Explorer 10 finally released for Windows 7 - Ars Technica
• Internet Explorer 10 now available for more than 700M Windows customers - Exploring IE Blog
• IE10 for Windows 7 Globally Available for Consumers and Businesses - IEBlog
• RELEASED - Download Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 - Scott Hanselman’s ComputerZen
• Bloody well time, Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 - BetaNews
• Internet Explorer For Windows 7: New Features & Improvements - Addictive Tips
• IE10 on Windows 7: 5 Essential Facts - Software -Information Week
• Download Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 (32-bit) - Official Microsoft Download Center
• Download Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 64-bit Edition and Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit Edition - Official Microsoft Download Center
• Download Internet Explorer 10 Language Packs for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 - Official Microsoft Download Center
• Release Notes - Microsoft
• Download Internet Explorer 10 - Microsoft Windows - Worldwide installation packs

Meanwhile, these Firefox articles were pretty timely.

• Prepare Mozilla Firefox for Enterprise Deployment and Virtualization - Aaron Parker
• The Firefox Extension Guru's Blog links to this How to make Firefox the Fort Knox of browsers - over at Ghacks.

And Google has some great presentations to help you understand how their email and search services work.

• Follow an email’s journey with Story of Send - Google Official Blog
• The Story of Send - Google
• Google Releases Interactive Infographic: "How Search Works" - Search Engine Land
• How Search Works - Google

Stay informed & Browse safe.

Claus Valca

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Advanced Tips for Windows Defender with Windows 8

My primary recommendation for home users (friends, family, etc.) for a first-line Windows anti-virus/anti-malware protection remains Microsoft Security Essentials from Microsoft.

It is resource light - especially important on older Windows OS systems - and does an acceptable level of protection for average home users.  It gets pretty consistent high marks in most AV testing. Not the highest, but not the lowest.

And it isn’t scary with it’s presentation of threat findings.

So it goes on our own Windows 7 systems.

When Lavie upgraded to a Windows 8 system, Microsoft Security Essentials couldn’t be installed as in it’s wisdom, Microsoft bundles a MSSE version of Windows Defender on the system instead.  That’s just the way it is.  While essentially the same product, it doesn’t have some of the more granular control in setting scheduled scans, DAT updates, or on-demand scans.

So if you have Windows 8, and are using the stock Windows Defender as your AV/AM solution, then you might find the following “power tips” to using/tweaking Windows Defender helpful.

• Configure Windows Defender in Windows 8 - Marqus Saluste - WinHelp - Particularly helpful was the section “Advanced Tweaking - Scheduling Windows Defender Scans and Updates in Windows 8”
• Windows Defender on-demand scan in Windows 8 - Marqus Saluste - WinHelp - Particularly helpful was the section “Advanced Tweaking - Scheduling Windows Defender Scans and Updates in Windows 8”
• Add Scan With Windows Defender To Context Menu In Windows 8 - The Windows Club

If you are looking for some extra sauce for your Windows 8 system, you might consider checking out Bitdefender Antivirus Free.

I am using it on my virtualized Windows 8 system and finding it just as simple to use and run as Microsoft Security Essentials…with the added benefit of a "web-based” console view to manage the AV system. If you install it on more than one system, then you can manage each system in the same console.  Handy.

Cheers.

--Claus V.

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Abandon Hope all ye who log into the Web…

Sigh.

I really shouldn’t have read Bruce Schneier’s CNN Opinion post over the weekend: The Internet is a surveillance state

I’m not a tinfoil-hat wearing guy…Stetson is more my thing, but I think he makes a valid point. The rate at  which we generate capturable data in our daily lives continues to get easier and easier. Almost every local or national store I do business at wants to capture my email address or phone number. More than a few look offended at me when I decline to immediately sign up for a “consumer rewards” card at checkout.

Our ISP’s and our cellular providers likely capture more data about our web-habits, our locational habits, and all points in between.

I seriously doubt we could successfully fly “under the radar” even if we ditched all things electronic, because even if we don’t directly create “data track patters” via digital activities, our “off-line” actions would continue to get logged by others who remain plugged in.

I’ve come to accept that -- even it my head is dizzy from the constantly accelerating pace of data collection we subject ourselves to -- what really, truly, frightens me are the following things;

1. Others who collect that data just don’t seem to be able to keep it secure.
2. The personal consequences for data loss/theft/abuse become larger and more catastrophic in impact.
3. More and more people seem to just not know or care about data collection or protection.
4. Data collection to these business, organizations, entities seems to be a right -- not a privilege.
5. Your rights to control (and knowledge about) the data collected on you seems to get more and more removed from your ability to do anything about it.

In many people’s minds it has just become another price to pay for the privilege of eating at the trough.

The consumers are the consumed. Reminds me of a digital version of a certain classic film.

Bruce’s well composed post reminds us in IT…gatekeepers, sysadmins, for/sec incident responders, and policy makers that our own cry should be “Data is people!”  And never, ever forget it.

Filed under “Oh Bother”

• Former Obama advisor argues Comcast is a threat to the open Internet - Ars Technica
• The World Has No Room For Cowards - Krebs on Security
• If I Can’t Trust You with my Photos, How Can I Trust You with My Sensitive Data? - Newsome.Org
• Yahoo Mail accounts still hijacked daily - Help Net Security
• Yahoo Mail Accounts Have Been Getting Hacked for Months - TheNextWeb - These Yahoo account hacks are still happening way to frequently. Every couple of weeks I get a call from a friend (or see a spam email sent to me from their Yahoo mail account). Yahoo claims to have fixed the XSS issues but it serves as a solid reminder to me to never, ever, ever, browse the web logged into any secure account I have.  I log into the service…do my business…log out. Dump my cache/cookies/saved forms/etc. Restart the browser, and go on to the next site. It is a super-hassle but is the best I can do to avoid XSS site hacks/exploits (even beyond using NoScript).  A simpler way would be to drop into your browser’s “Private” browsing mode for your secure login session.
• Bits from Bill: Hackers Steal WinPatrol Data Already Available
• Most PC security problems come from unpatched third-party Windows apps - Ars Technica

Cold Java

I was feeling so smug and confident having recently thrown in the towel with Java here at the Valca homestead and removing it from all of our Windows systems.  At seeing notice of the latest Java releases I automatically began moving towards my Java download site to snag the updated…when I realized I didn’t need to.

When I set up my father-in-law’s new (to him) laptop with Windows 7 I didn’t install Java. He asked me about Java when I was showing him just how similar Windows 7 would be to him from his old XP system. He said he was wondering how he needed to update Java since it was always complaining on his old XP system. He looked relieved when I told him he probably wouldn’t need it so I didn’t event install it. The Java update notices in the system tray just confused him to no end.

So Saturday, Alvis started complaining about her on-line college class course not working on her laptop.  A “sidebar” was missing used to navigate the course and material.

Hmm.

At first I thought it had something to do with the upgrade to IE 10 I did on her Windows 7 laptop. It’s been Spring Break so she hasn’t worried about classes since the update.

I added the college domain into the IE compatibility mode and that helped (the site now saw the browser engine as IE 7) but didn’t fix the issue.

According to the college, their program was only supported on IE, not Chrome or Firefox or Opera. I tried.

More troubleshooting with their helpfully unhelpful wizard.

Eventually I figured out it was trying to call to Java. Well, that made sense since I removed it at the same time I upgraded to IE 10.

So I did the “correct” thing and installed the latest, most secure version of Java, 1.7.17.  Only it still didn’t’ work as that was an “unsupported” version of Java.

SO I did the next-best “correct” thing and installed the latest, most secure previous version of Java, 1.6.43…and went into the Java control panel applet to disable use of the 1.7.17 version (and showed Alvis how to toggle between them). That works for me at work with a particular Symantec Java console applet that likes 1.6 but not 1.7. Alas, the college’s web portal still saw the 1.7 version and wouldn’t run.

(Side note: The Java 1.6 download versions aren’t easily accessible to install directly from Java.com as it is no longer being publically made available.) I had to grab a copy off a trusted third-party software mirroring site. Later I was able to finally find a public link to it on Java after-all: Java Downloads for All Operating Systems Version 6 Update 43). That will probably be the end of the line for 1.6 so you better bookmark this link if your Java app doesn’t like 1.7 builds.

SOOOO I uninstalled Java 1.7.17 completely.  And then the web-app portal was happy and Alvis could finish the course homework she had put off over Spring Break.

And all the hard work and victory I felt about us “plain home users” not needing to fuss with Java evaporated.

So it looks like I will have to continue to regularly scratch that itch on at least one of our home systems for the foreseeable future.

• New holes discovered in latest Java versions - The H Security: News and Features
• The Lowest Hanging Fruit: Java - F-Secure Weblog : News from the Lab
• All I need Java for is .... - ISC Diary
• Oracle investigating after two more Java 7 zero-day flaws found - ZDNet
• New Java 0-day exploited in ongoing attacks - Help Net Security
• Blackhole Exploit Kit Run Adopts Controversial Java Flaw - Security Intelligence Blog / Trend Micro
• Another Java zero-day exploit in the wild actively attacking targets - Ars Technica
• And the Java 0-days just keep on coming - ISC Diary
• Java j6u43 update #YAJU - ISC Diary -
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/6u43-relnotes-1915290.html
• ISC Diary | Java 7u17 update #YAJU - ISC Diary -
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/7u17-relnotes-1915289.html
• Oracle plugs critical Java vulnerability it knew of in February - The H Security: News and Features
• Oracle releases emergency patch to fix exploited Java flaw - Help Net Security
• Malicious Java applet uses stolen certificate to run automatically - Help Net Security

..and the Emperor Flash is found to have no clothes…

• Adobe releases third security update this month for Flash Player - Ars Technica
• Flash in Windows 8 - IEBlog
• Microsoft changes default Flash behavior in Windows 8 and RT - ZDNet
• Microsoft Adds Flash Back To IE10 - Is That A Good Thing? – ReadWrite
• Guess what? Flash is vulnerable again...still - BetaNews
• Adobe closes more critical holes in Flash Player - The H Security: News and Features
• Flash Safety 101 - Security Intelligence Blog / Trend Micro

For those who care…

• Adobe Flash Player Distribution - Adobe
• Shockwave Player Distribution Downloads - Adobe
• Java Downloads for All Operating Systems - Java.com
• Qualys BrowserCheck

Stay safe.

--Claus Valca.

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Google Reader’s Demise: A Big Deal for being not that big a deal

At first I almost overlooked notice that Google Reader service was shutting down this summer.

Fortunately for me a wealth of articles burst forth on the Web and the noise couldn’t be missed.

• A second spring of cleaning - Google’s Official Blog
• Google announces Reader’s imminent demise - Ars Technica
• Google Reader Is Shutting Down; Here Are the Best Alternatives - LifeHacker
• Poll Technica: Where should we go when Google Reader is put out to pasture? - Ars Technica
• Google plans to execute Reader, among other apps - BetaNews
• End of an Era: Google shutting down Reader - Justinsomnia
• The End of Google Reader - NT Blog
• Google Reader Going Away - Standalone Sysadmin
• Users rally against Google's plans to shut down Reader - BetaNews
• R.I.P Reader: Google giveth, and Google taketh away - TechBlog
• Google Reader may very well rise again… as part of Google+ - Ars Technica
• Why We Mourn Google Reader - And Why It Matters – ReadWrite
• How to export and transfer your Google Reader feeds to another RSS service on iPhone and iPad - iMore.com
• Google Reader Alternatives - Caschys Blog (GTranstated)
• Google Reader: Feedly will allow seamless transition - Caschys Blog (GTranstated)
• Digg to Build RSS reader with 'Best of Google Reader's Features' - TheNextWeb
• Best Free Google Reader Alternatives For Web, Windows & Mac - Addictive Tips
• Three Reasons why Google Reader shutting down may not be such a bad thing - freewaregenius.com
• Why Google killed off Google Reader: It was self-defense — Gigaom
• More than 500,000 Google Reader users flock to Feedly in two days - The Verge
• Five Best Google Reader Alternatives - LifeHacker
• 5 iOS news app alternatives to Google Reader — Gigaom

I’ve enjoyed reading the perspective and comments left by users of RSS and Google Reader in most all of the above articles I’ve found.

As a very recent user of Google Reader, my perspective is a bit unusual.

Very early on, I realized the power and usefulness of RSS/Atom feeds to collect, centralize, and allow rapid mass monitoring of consumption of the wealth of material on the web.

Without RSS/Atom feeds that I subscribe to, I seriously doubt I could process the 90-120 sites I go to for news, tips, and areas of interest.  On any given day, they provide me between 300-400 articles to sift through.  And because of RSS/Atom feeds, I can usually complete that process in about 30 minutes or less.

There is no way I could do that by checking each site directly via bookmarked web-pages. I would miss tons of updated content and probably get loose hours of my time trying to do so.

For years I have relied upon Windows RSS feed reader clients running on my system.

First I used Sage which is an add-on for FIrefox. for a while development slowed and a few issues pushed me to the NewsFox add-on next. It worked very good.

I had flirted back in 2008 and did a RSS Reader Roundup…Valca Style. There were lots and lots of feature-rich RSS feed reader clients for Windows back then.  But I kept with reading my feeds in Firefox through the add-ons.

Eventually, however some of the peculiarities of running a RSS feed reader in your primary browser began to create issues.  It would run in a background tab session, but would “lock-up” the browser as it pulled feeds down during refreshing.

So in 2012, I revisited the search for a desktop Windows RSS feed client and eventually found that Omea Reader fit the bill for me a bit better than my runner-up choice, Feedreader.

Since I am using a local-client-based RSS feed reader, Google Reader was a service I was aware of but didn’t care about. When I found a new site to follow, I would subscribe directly in my client to the RSS/Atom feed and move on.  If you use RSS/Atom feed reading with this approach you too might overlook or care very little for the status of Google Reader.

But here is where the impending loss of Google Reader does matter to me, a lot; I got an iPhone.

This is the rub. While I am feed reading directly on my PC, my feed client does all the work pulling in and managing the individual feeds.

When I got my iPhone, I looked at the RSS iOS apps available and they all seemed to require some third-party back-end API to manage the feed subscriptions, and would then pull the article/feed information down and present it.

So I got my Google Reader set up by exporting my Omea Reader’s subscription pile as a single OPML file, imported it into Google Reader, downloaded Phantom Fish - Byline. Ironically, “Google Reader on the go” is their product tag-line.  Then I connected Byline to my Google Reader and away I went with my RSS feeds on the road.

While I can live without checking my RSS feeds during the day (as I survived just fine before my smartphone adoption), it does make the time spent at the end of the day on my local PC client reader that much faster since I come at it mostly caught up.

However, at this time Byline hasn’t seemed to offer any information about their plans to cope with the shut-down of Google Reader.  Reeder for iOS also looks pretty good, but it also can use Google Reader. Feedly is working on a back end API that hopefully will mimic Google Reader. I like the thought very much, but the iOS app itself is a bit too GUI/graphic intensive. I like the streamlined, more text-based format of Byline and Reeder. Is it possible to recreate a Byline/Reeder experience in Feedly?

There are lots and lots of RSS apps for iOS. However they all seem to leverage a back-end API to collect the feed subscriptions from.

What I really would like is to find a RSS iOS app that allows me to import my OPML file directly to it, and let it operate as a “standalone” RSS feed client directly in-app (like my desktop RSS feed reader) and not need to depend on a third-party API to pull the feeds down from.

I’m confident that other developers will step into the void, and as Samer Kurdi at freewaregenius posted, this might indeed turn out to be a good thing.

It’s just going to cause a fair amount of anxiety and chatter among hard-core RSS feed users until it sorts itself out.

At least we have until July 2013 to see who steps up and delivers, both for the RSS feed ecology in general and the iOS/smartphone app ecosystem in particular.

Until then I will keep on RSS-feeding with my desktop client with nary a worry, but obsess about a future without RSS feeding on my iPhone until a savior is found.

Cheers.

--Claus Valca

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