Ohio Voting Fraud

"In a video interview with Triad staffer Michael Barbian, he confirms that the recount machines were taken completely apart and put back together and reprogrammed with new software without any of the supervision required by Ohio State Law. He also says that he has done the same thing in several other counties."

"On December 23, Conyers learned that Triad Systems had remote access capabilities to the voting machines in numerous counties, prompting him to send a second letter to Rapp and Barbian inquiring about these capabilities and how exactly they were utilized by Triad during the recount."

"Senators Kerry and Edwards are very concerned that the law for conducting the recount should be uniformly followed. Only then can the integrity of the entire electoral process and the election of Bush-Cheney warrant the public trust."

Wonderful. Just freaking wonderful. Four more years of a President who apparently has never actually won an election.

Our President is Seriously Ill

George W. Bush apparently is wearing a medical device for "persons at risk of cardiac arrest." It is a LifeVest wearable defibrillator. He started using it sometime after his January 2002 fainting spell, which was attributed to choking. Based on photos showing him wearing the device, one can conclude the fainting was due to atrial fibrillation (AF), which his father also had. His father's AF was caused by Graves' hyperthyroidism, which his mother also has. Bush likely has AF and less likely Graves', based on his family history and symptoms. The AF may have caused a stroke or TIA (mini-stroke), of which physicians watching the debates detected symptoms. Observers have noted psychological symptoms consistent with this and with Wernicke-Korsakoff disease.

All of this remains speculation, since TPTB all claim George is in great physical shape. Then again, would they tell us that he has the same genetic disease that his mother and father have? Or will they just hope he can make it another four years? Does anyone remember watching Reagan's slide into Alzheimers while he served out his term?

GPS: George is Probably Satan

President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.

If you are dependent upon GPS you better stop now. The EU is working on a system called Galileo -- switch over, as soon as you can.

Cell Phone Turned Car Alarm

This little goodie will turn that unused cell phone into a motion sensor that calls any phone number and leaves an SMS when it's disturbed. With GPS-enabled cell phones it would be possible to track your stolen car.

Moral: Toss all cell phones out the next time you steal a car.

SpyWare: Combating the New Menace

From a minor annoyance for home-PC users to a major plight on enterprise environments around the world, SpyWare (also known as AdWare, MalWare, ScumWare, and a host of other sordid names) is infecting millions of computers with multiple purposes: stealing personal information, enabling identity theft, tracking users' online activity, and selling the information back to anyone willing to pay. According to new research from IDC, the need to identify and eradicate these parasitic programs will drive AntiSpyWare software revenues from $12 million in 2003 to $305 million in 2008.

I have always preferred calling it scumware -- much more... visceral. I spend a large amount of my time cleaning up the mess this stuff causes. I can warn the user about risky online behavior, but most of them don't "get it". I can come back in a few months and clean up the mess once more.

US military gets its own secure version of Windows

The US Air Force has had enough of Microsoft's security problems. But rather than switch to an alternative, it has struck a deal with CEO Steve Ballmer for a specially configured version of Windows to be used by all its 525,000 personnel and civilian support staff.

This does not leave a warm and fuzzy feeling! Perhaps the Air Force (their CIO is named Gilligan !!!) should have talked to the Navy. It wasn't that many years ago the Navy floated an Aegis-class missile cruiser, completely operating on a Micro$oft OS. During an early battle test it BSOD'd, leaving the cruiser dead in the water, adrift, for several hours.

I used to have a poster on my college dorm room wall -- a very old, toothless geezer, dressed in a WWII flight jacket and helmet -- the caption read:

    Sleep Well Tonight -- Your Air Force is Awake

Do Not Call Except List

The National Do Not Call list is about to be opened up to telemarketing spam. Yes, the very reason most of signed up in the first place is about to be struck down by the FTC. Read the article printed in the "Chicago Sun-Times" (linked here), and then visit the FTC's Comment Form and let them know how you feel about this change. Public comment is accepted until 10 Jan. 2005.

Browser Security Check

How safe are you? Really? Sure?

I'm running Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 -- very recent stuff. I discovered that the JRE I just installed a month ago had a leaky sandbox. Luckily Sun has a patch for it. This web site spotted the leak and pointed me to the patch.

Live-Shot

LIVE-SHOT is similar to a trip to the rifle range with one very notable exception. Everything is done through a computer and the internet. A paid membership will allow for access to the range viewing camera(s) at any time. Members can then schedule a reserved session time which allows exclusive control of the shooting system to fire at a choice of various reactive targets. Please note that the shooting range is an outdoor facility located on a secluded ranch in the Texas hill country. Please take this into consideration while shooting is taking place, as weather can affect accuracy.

Sorta boggles the mind, huh? This guy is planning to offer game hunting options next, if the Texas Parks and Wildlife folks don't step in. What's next? Internet sniper? Let's make the weapon/camera platform mobile and hook it up via WiMAX! Beats the crap out of Playstation or Xbox!

Pain From Above

A kinder, gentler, type of warfare. Now comes a (hopefully) non-lethal flying microwave oven that boils the water in the targets' skin.

I can't help but wonder how many tax dollars could have been saved if rather than allowing the Air Force to develop this weapon system we had outsourced it to Amana or Westinghouse.

Drive-by Scanning

Our Office of Homeland Security has been playing with this technology with an eye towards use in airports. This appears to be a solution looking for a problem. Backscatter imaging is sexier than simply beeping, however. The price? If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it.

Notice that in each of the images the vehicle's operator isn't exposed to the x-rays. I wonder if anyone has bothered to investigate the effects such equipment might have upon the frequent flyer...

Fraud in Florida... ?

In Baker County, for example, with 12,887 registered voters, 69.3% of them Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans, the vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush, the opposite of what is seen everywhere else in the country where registered Democrats largely voted for Kerry.

In Dixie County, with 4,988 registered voters, 77.5% of them Democrats and a mere 15% registered as Republicans, only 1,959 people voted for Kerry, but 4,433 voted for Bush.

The pattern repeats over and over again - but only in the counties where optical scanners were used. Franklin County, 77.3% registered Democrats, went 58.5% for Bush. Holmes County, 72.7% registered Democrats, went 77.25% for Bush.

[source: Dan Gillmor's eJournal ]

Take a look at the voting results in Florida. They have the numbers by precinct, by type of voting machine, with expected and actual results. Take a look at the variance in those precincts with optical scanners. This page also includes links to other Florida data analysis.

Bots With Guns

PackBot (linked here) has been modified for service in Iraq. It now carries a pump action shotgun. I think the jack-booted model is still in development.

Witches in The Clear After 400 Years

Roy Pugh is East Lothian's leading authority on the hysteria surrounding alleged witchcraft which cost 81 people their lives in Prestonpans alone at the end of the 16th Century. Another 3500 were put to death across Scotland. He will preside at a formal Pardoning Ceremony at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg on Sunday October 31st when many descendants of those individuals will be present. The Pardons were officially declared by the Barons Courts of Prestoungrange & of Dolphinstoun at their Final Trinity Session Sitting on July 27th.

DIY Star Wars Masks

Trick or treat in your StarWars mask that you made yourself. All you need is a color printer.

NASA's Columbia Supercomputer is World's Fastest

Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI) with NASA today confirmed that NASA's new Intel® Itanium® 2 processor-based Columbia supercomputer is the most powerful computer in the world. Only days after NASA completed installation of Columbia—and using just 16 of Columbia's 20 installed systems—the new supercomputer achieved sustained performance of 42.7 trillion calculations per second (teraflops), eclipsing the performance of every supercomputer operating today.

Columbia's 16-system result easily tops Japan's famed Earth Simulator, rated at 35.86 teraflops, and IBM's recent in-house Blue Gene/L experiment, rated at 36.01 teraflops. Columbia's record results were achieved running the LINPACK benchmark on 8,192 of the NASA supercomputer's 10,240 processors. Columbia also achieved an 88 percent efficiency rating on the LINPACK benchmark, the highest efficiency rating ever attained in a LINPACK test on large systems.

Earth Simulator was conceived in July, 1996, construction began in February, 1999, and it reached 35.86 teraflops on May 3, 2003.

Blue Gene is an IBM supercomputing project dedicated to building a new family of supercomputers optimized for bandwidth, scalability and the ability to handle large amounts of data while consuming a fraction of the power and floor space required by today's fastest systems. The full Blue Gene/L machine is being built for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and will have a peak speed of 360 teraflops. When completed in 2005, IBM expects Blue Gene/L to lead the Top500 supercomputer list.

Columbia was constructed using off-the-shelf equipment in less than four months, and it has been in use throughout it's contruction. It doesn't do Windows.

Home PCs Plagued With Problems

The study being released Monday by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance found that 77 percent of 326 adults in 12 states assured researchers in a telephone poll they were safe from online threats. Nearly as many people felt confident they were already protected specifically from viruses and hackers.

When experts visited those same homes to examine computers, they found two-thirds of adults using antivirus software that was not updated in at least seven days.

Two-thirds of the computer users also were not using any type of protective firewall program, and spyware was found on the computers of 80 percent of those in the study.

But this line tells it all:
The survey participants all were AOL subscribers.

TSA to Start Data Snoop; 54 Million Americans at Risk

To the Department of Homeland Security, you are no longer an American, you are a potential terrorist. Unless immediate action is taken by you, anyone who flew on any airline in the United States during the month of June 2004 will have a government dossier opened-up on them.

The Making of the Terror Myth

Much of the currently perceived threat from international terrorism, the series argues, "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media." The series' explanation for this is even bolder: "In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power."

I would also direct your attention to an article I blogged on 5 Aug. 2004 titled " Terror Alerts & GB2's Popularity".

BillyG Does "USA Today"

Bill Gates is interviewed in the October 13 issue of "USA Today".
Best Quote:

Q: Speaking of security, Internet Explorer has had well-publicized holes …

Gates: Understand those are cases where you are downloading third-party software.

There. Security has been your fault all along.

Patriot Act tour carried a hefty price tag

He may not have trashed any hotel rooms, but U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft spent over $200,000 of taxpayer money in a four-week, 31-city tour last year promoting the controversial USA PATRIOT Act, according to a report by Congressional auditors released Tuesday.

Isn't that special... The USA PATRIOT Act is the single most evil piece of legislation I've ever seen. It has nothing to do with patriotism and everything to do with the surveillance of our society and the removal of some basic rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Follow the links from this story to learn more. Then, go over to Patriot II: The Sequel to see how this regime has plotted to erode the Constitution even further.

Sinclair Broadcasting's Election Interference

The next time our GOP friends charge the media with being liberal, remember this story. Sinclair Broadcast Group, a publicly-traded company with direct control over the programming of 62 TV stations around the country, is ordering its TV outlets to run an anti-Kerry piece of propaganda on the public’s television airwaves in the days leading up to the election.

It's one thing to release "Fahrenheit 911" to DVD in the final days before the election, yet it's quite another to commandeer the airwaves for political purposes. I think this is perhaps the largest example of corporate interference in the election process ever carried out in the light of day. I'm sure abuses of this scale generally occur behind closed doors.

The SANS Top 20 List

The vast majority of worms and other successful cyber attacks are made possible by vulnerabilities in a small number of common operating system services. Attackers are opportunistic. They take the easiest and most convenient route and exploit the best-known flaws with the most effective and widely available attack tools. They count on organizations not fixing the problems, and they often attack indiscriminately, scanning the Internet for any vulnerable systems. The easy and destructive spread of worms, such as Blaster, Slammer, and Code Red, can be traced directly to exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities.

Every IT manager and UberGeek should have this bookmarked and be reading it often.

What's in your computer?

Bush's Mystery Bulge

I've known for nearly a decade that George was just a puppet -- I just didn't know who was pulling the strings. Looks like he's been caught wearing a wire.

Update     Click here to view a PhotoShop'd analysis.

George Lied

Quoting from the ISG report --

Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability—which was essentially destroyed in 1991—after sanctions were removed and Iraq’s economy stabilized....

Desert Storm and subsequent UN resolutions and inspections brought many of Iraq’s delivery system programs to a halt....

Iraq Survey Group (ISG) discovered further evidence of the maturity and significance of the pre-1991 Iraqi Nuclear Program but found that Iraq’s ability to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program progressively decayed after that date....

Yeah, it goes on and on. George lied. There were no WMD -- none hidden, none shipped out of the country -- NONE. Oh sure, Saddam wanted to get his hands on some, but he wasn't even close. That didn't stop George from going to war specifically to stop Saddam and his WMD. A war that has cost us over 1100 American lives and over $200 billion tax dollars. A war that has cost them nearly 25,000 lives -- so many lives that they are no longer counting -- and each additional death swells the ranks of our terrorist enemies.

Still think you are safer now? Better think again.

Bush's Top Ten Flip-Flops

The Repubs have taken "flip-flop" to a new level. If a thinking man has a position that he later reverses, it generally means he has admitted an error and corrected it. That's no longer so -- particularly if you are a Democratic Presidential candidate. Let's look at Gee Dubya's position changes, shall we? [by CBSNEWS.com]

Pulling Back the Curtain: What a Top Reporter in Baghdad Really Thinks About the War

"Iraqis say that thanks to America they got freedom in exchange for insecurity," Fassihi wrote (among much else) in the letter. "Guess what? They say they'd take security over freedom any day, even if it means having a dictator ruler." And: "Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a 'potential' threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to 'imminent and active threat,' a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come."

Fassihi observed that the insurgency had spread "from isolated pockets in the Sunni triangle to include most of Iraq." The Iraqi government, he wrote, "doesn't control most Iraqi cities.... The situation, basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four days, 110 people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad alone. The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health--which was attempting an exercise of public transparency by releasing the numbers--has now stopped disclosing them. Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.

And what of America's "hope for a quick exit"? Fassihi noted that "cops are being murdered by the dozens every day, over 700 to date, and the insurgents are infiltrating their ranks. The problem is so serious that the U.S. military has allocated $6 million dollars to buy out 30,000 cops they just trained to get rid of them quietly....

"I heard an educated Iraqi say today that if Saddam Hussein were allowed to run for elections he would get the majority of the vote. This is truly sad...."

Making clear what can only, at best, appear between lines in her published dispatches, Fassihi concluded, "One could argue that Iraq is already lost beyond salvation. For those of us on the ground it's hard to imagine what if any thing could salvage it from its violent downward spiral. The genie of terrorism, chaos and mayhem has been unleashed onto this country as a result of American mistakes and it can't be put back into a bottle."

A friend of mine has just returned from Europe and Scandanavia. He tells me how Americans are hated everywhere he went; how Sweden has banned the immigration of American males. Thank you, George Bush.

The Phishing Guide

Throughout the centuries, identity theft has always been high on a criminal’s agenda. By gaining access to someone else’s personal data and impersonating them, a criminal may pursue a crime in near anonymity. In today’s 21st Century world, electronic identity theft has never been easier.

Hidden away amongst the mounds of electronic junk mail, and bypassing many of today’s best anti-spam filters, a new attack vector lies in wait to steal confidential personal information. What originally began as a malicious hobby, utilising many of the most popular Internet communication channels, professional criminals are now using spoofed messages to lure victims into traps specifically designed to steal their electronic identity.

The name on the (electronic) street is Phishing; the process of tricking or socially engineering an organisations customers into imparting their confidential information for nefarious use. Riding on the back of mass-mailings such as Spam, or using ‘bots to automatically target victims, any online business may find Phishers masquerading as them and targeting their customer base. Organisational size doesn’t matter; the quality of the personal information reaped from the attack has a value all in itself to the criminals.

Weapons of Mass Delusion

Just in time for 9/11 comes this book from Richard Forno called Weapons of Mass Delusion. It's now available as a free download.

In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us,
‘Make us your slaves, but feed us.’
  -  Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor

Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to
more popular songs.... don’t give them slippery stuff like philosophy
or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy…
  -  Fire Captain Beatty, discussing political strategy in
     RayBradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

The Repugnant Convention

Alex Jones is a bit of a local legend -- a member of the independent media and star of his own radio program. He was in NYC and took some interesting pictures.

"I've Never Seen the Police State This Bad. This So-Called National Security Event Was, in Truth, Textbook Martial Law. My crew and I, despite having official NYC Press credentials, were threatened with arrest at least three times a day, had a still camera smashed by police, were detained twice, had photos taken of us by police and were told that we had no right to film in the City.

None of this has anything to do with terrorism or security. It's about setting the precedent that we have no First Amendment."

I rarely agree with Alex, but on occasion I find later that he was right and I was wrong. He's always "out there", but sometimes that makes him the discoverer.

Genesis data 'retrieved intact'

Material has been found still intact inside the crashed Genesis space capsule, say Nasa scientists.

"We should be able to meet many, if not all, of our primary science goals," said physicist Roger Wiens of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Gee Dubya's Service Record

The Bushies have been making a lot of noise about Kerry's military record, yet there hasn't been a lot said about GW. We know he was in The Guard, but a lot of his military record is either sealed or simply unavailable. So, from what we know, here's a .pdf timeline of how he served our country.

The Whitehouse has released memos that are supposed to explain the lapses in his record, however, check this quote from "Green Footballs":

I opened Microsoft Word, set the font to Microsoft’s Times New Roman, tabbed over to the default tab stop to enter the date “18 August 1973,” then typed the rest of the document purportedly from the personal records of the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian.

And my Microsoft Word version, typed in 2004, is an exact match for the documents trumpeted by CBS News as “authentic.” The spacing is not just similar—it is identical in every respect.

Hmmmm.... An "authentic" 1973 document exactly reproduced by the default settings found in Micro$oft Word, ca. 2004...

EcoBot II

This little fella is an autonomous robot that eats flies to generate electricity. Right now it has to be fed, but the inventors plan to use a "lure" -- and it's NOT sugar. Expect it's lure and digested fly battery creates an... interesting aroma.

Genesis Crashes

The Genesis sample return capsule entered Earth's atmosphere at 9:52:47 a.m. MDT and entered the preplanned entry ellipse in the Utah Test and Training Range as predicted. However, the Genesis capsule, as a result of its parachute not deploying, impacted the ground at a speed of 311 kilometers per hour (193 mph). The impact occurred near Granite Peak on a remote portion of the range. No people or structures were anywhere near the area.

Micro$oft Rules the Waves

Well, the British Navy anyway. Three years ago the British Navy began converting to a W2K-based command and control system. The engineers on this project balked and got canned.

I recall a test of this sort conducted on an American vessel that failed horribly, leaving the vessel floating dead in the water.

Micro$oft now holds the keys to the release of nuclear weapons. Let's hope they didn't include a wi-fi connection to the Internet.

Capture a Piece of the Sun

On Sept. 8, NASA's Genesis mission is returning to Earth, bearing samples of the Sun. In a well-rehearsed midair maneuver, a helicopter will hook the spacecraft's return capsule and bring it gently and safely to the ground. The capsule's contents of solar wind may help scientists understand the origins of our solar system. The event, which takes place in the skies over Utah, will be broadcast live on NASA TV and the Internet.

This is the culmination of an experiment started over three years ago -- TV coverage begins at 11:00AM.

Why Dell Loves Gates

A common question that I get is, "When will Dell start promoting desktop Linux computers?" The answer is "probably not for a long time."

This article, written by Michael Robertson, the CEO of Linspire, goes on to make some informed assumptions and suggests that 25% of Dell's profit comes from Redmond's kickbacks and price fixing. Further, he recounts meetings suddenly canceled, for no apparent reason, between Dell and his Linux company, Linspire.

I once worked for one of Dell's competitors in Austin as the director of R&D. I know how Micro$oft stepped in with adjusted pricing when word got out that I wanted to start selling Solaris on my servers. Robertson's article doesn't surprise me in the least.

A Better Nuke

It's cheap, it's foolproof, and it not only generates electricity it also makes hydrogen fuel to power your automobiles. It can be mass produced and shipped anywhere for assembly, and spent fuel isn't an environmental nightmare. The technology is as old as atomic power, but it was forgotten and swept aside by business and government. Now, in China, it's getting a second chance.

FanWing

I had pointed out Totally Absurd Inventions to a friend and commented specifically on the Paddle Wheel Plane .

He replied with this -- the FanWing. The PWP was only a drawing -- FanWing has actually video clips.

Hurricane Charley Gallery

DigitalGlobe Delivers Before and After Satellite Imagery of Florida Gulf Coast Following Hurricane Charley Destruction

Justice Department Censors Supreme Court Quote

Claiming "national security", this regime's Dept. of Inustice blocked out a portion of the Supreme Court's decision in a case brought by the ACLU:

"The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect 'domestic security.' Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent."

Just who the hell do these people think they are, anyway!?

How Long Can the Country Stay Scared?

Written by noted security consultant Bruce Schneier and printed in the "Minneapolis Star-Tribune" on this date.

The DHS's threat warnings have been vague, indeterminate, and unspecific. The threat index goes from yellow to orange and back again, although no one is entirely sure what either level means. We've been warned that the terrorists might use helicopters, scuba gear, even cheap prescription drugs from Canada. New York and Washington, D.C., were put on high alert one day, and the next day told that the alert was based on information years old. The careful wording of these alerts allows them not to require any sound, confirmed, accurate intelligence information, while at the same time guaranteeing hysterical media coverage. This headline-grabbing stuff might make for good movie plots, but it doesn't make us safer....

The DHS's incessant warnings against any and every possible method of terrorist attack has nothing to do with security, and everything to do with politics. In 2002, Republican strategist Karl Rove instructed Republican legislators to make terrorism the mainstay of their campaign. Study after study has shown that Americans worried about terrorism are more likely to vote Republican. Strength in the face of the terrorist threat is the basis of Bush's reelection campaign.

Now read my post on 8/5/04 titled "Terror Alerts & GB2's Popularity".

On This Date in History

Birthdates
1882 Samuel Goldwyn pioneer film maker/producer (MGM)
1908 Lyndon B Johnson (D) 36th Pres (1963-1969)
1908 Martha Raye [Margaret Reed], Butte Mont, actress (Martha Raye Show)
1910 Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu], Yugoslavia (Nobel 1979)
1942 Daryl Dragon Pasadena Calif, keyboardist (Capt & Tennille)
1943 Susan "Tuesday" Weld NYC, actress (Dobie Gillis, Wild in Country)
1949 Barbara Bach [Goldbach], Queens NY, actress (Spy Who Loved Me)
1950 Charles Fleischer Wash DC, comedian (Roger Rabbit)
1952 Pee-wee Herman aka Paul Reubens, actor (Pee-wee's Big Adventure)
1952 2old4this, Grafton ND, legend and visionary
1959 Gerhard Berger formula-1 racer (Italian Grand Prix-1988)
1961 "Downtown" Julie Brown TV host (Club MTV, Inside Edition)
1963 Patty Duffek Woodland Hills Calif, playmate (May, 1984)

Deaths
1967 Brian Epstein Beatles' manager, dies
1971 Bennett Cerf (Random House)/panelist (What's My Line), dies at 73
1990 Stevie Ray Vaughan blues guitarist, dies in a helicopter crash at 35

On this day...
1783 1st hydrogen balloon flight (unmanned); reaches 900 m altitude
1883 Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons
1896 Zanzibar loses to England in a 38 minute war (9:02 AM-9:40 AM)
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, where 60 nations agree to outlaw war
1937 George E.T. Eyston sets world auto speed record at 345.49 MPH
1939 Erich Warsitz makes 1st jet-propelled flight (in a Heinkel He-178)
1945 US troops land in Japan after Japanese surrender
1950 General Foods blacklists Jean Muir of Aldrich Family as a communist
1961 Francis the Talking Mule is the mystery guest on "What's My Line"
1962 Mariner 2 launched; 1st probe to fly by Venus
1984 President Reagan announces the Teacher in Space project
1985 20th Space Shuttle Mission (51-I)-Discovery 6-launched

Programs Broken by XP SP2

This is the official list, from Micro$oft. It has only 37 programs on it, including Norton Anti-Virus and the AOL toolbar (that won't effect too many millions). The unofficial list runs to over 200 programs. The numbers are growing while you read this.

Bottom Line: If you have been paying attention you aren't using XP anyway, but if you still do, don't rush out and pick up SP2. But you probably aren't listening to this either.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Spotlight

Saddled with XP? Fearing to use SP2, yet afraid not? The folks at Tech Republic are collecting tales of woe and the solutions others have found. Good stuff, before and after.

Epson Lied

6.9 grams
4 channels
full carbon
no servo's
no swashplate
InfraRed control

This machine was announced almost a year ago. Check out the video. The Hamster is cuter than the bored Japanese chick.

Epson Announces World's Lightest Micro-Flying Robot

Turning once again to its micromechatronics technology, Epson has redefined the state of the art with its µFR-II micro-flying robot—the world's new lightest and most advanced microrobot, which also features Bluetooth wireless control and independent flight*2. The µFR-II will be on display at the Emerging Technology Fair, part of the Future Creation Fair that runs from August 27 to 30 at the Tokyo International Forum.

Check out the video (1.03M, 40 seconds, WMV).

Inside Al-Qaeda’s Hard Drive

From the September issue of The Atlantic Monthly :

On the night before Kabul fell, Taliban officials were fleeing the city in trucks teetering with their personal effects. The looter who sold me the computers figured that al-Qaeda had fled as well, so he crawled over a brick wall surrounding the house that served as the group's office. Finding nobody inside, he took the two computers, which he had discovered in a room on the building's second floor. On the door of the room, he said, was the name of Muhammad Atef—al-Qaeda's military commander and a key planner of 9/11. Each day, he said, Atef would walk into the office carrying the laptop in its black case. The looter knew he had something good.

This is very interesting stuff -- gives some insight into the internals of al-Qaeda.

The Surf At Work Page

This guide discusses a way an employee or student can securely access the Internet while at work or school, and also get around some common firewall restrictions that prevent you from using most networked programs.

This material describes how to use free software to create a secure communications channel between two Windows PCs. This channel uses encrypted packets, so if your employer is listening in on the transmission he will get only garbage. Route the traffic through port 80 and it will probably go completely undetected.

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

A White House with a clear determination to draw paranoid conclusions from ambiguous data has finally gone over the top. It has now implied that the al-Qaeda computer geek arrested last month in Pakistan was involved in a plot to destabilize the USA around election time.

Chicken Little must certainly be running our current regime. Read the article and follow the many links.

Terror Alerts & GB2's Popularity

There are a few things that are quite evident from the chart:

- Whenever his ratings dip, there's a new terror alert.

- Every terror alert is followed by a slight uptick of Bush approval ratings.

- As we approach the 2004 elections, the number and frequency of terror alerts keeps growing, to the point that they collapse in the graphic. At the same time, Bush's ratings are lower than ever.

Read the full commentary by clicking HERE .

A Promise Falls in the Forest

A federal court recently ruled that website privacy policies aren't binding, because nobody reads them. The implications are far reaching for contract law and the Internet.

This came just in time! I was about to waste my time and develop a privacy policy for a business's web site.

International Flight Aborted -- Bomb on Board

Perhaps you recall the UA flight out of Australia bound for Los Angeles on the 27th of July. It made news because they had a bomb threat and returned to Sydney. I don't recall hearing any more details. Until now:

Ninety minutes after taking off from Sydney Airport, a flight attendant on a United Airlines flight bound for Los Angeles found an airsickness bag - presumably unused - in a lavatory with the letters "BOB" written on it.

The flight attendant decided that the letters stood for "Bomb On Board" and immediately alerted the captain, who decided the risk was serious enough to turn the plane around and land back in Sydney.

In classic "Catch-22" style, this pilot and air crew were praised for their prompt action that resulted in the delay of their passengers and an additional $100,000 emergency landing fee to UA. "BOB" is common flight attendant jargon for "babe on board". There is but one explanation for the sudden leap one flight attendant made to decide it was "bomb on board", and why the pilot would agree with that conclusion. FUD Rules.

Sanity and security must not be mutually exclusive.

Gone Phishin'

US consumers are still easy prey to fraudsters using phishing emails to lure consumers into handing over valuable financial information. In a survey sponsored by anti-spam outfit MailFrontier, 28 per cent of US adults were unable to distinguish phishing emails from legitimate correspondence.

I can't help but be amazed -- 28% average, with even more falling for specific scams. The fed is about to spend zillions of our tax dollars to make this illegal, too -- just like they did with spam. Spam has been illegal since the first of the year, and I just know you have seen it drop to a trickle, right? That one cost us hundreds of millions, I'm sure, and so far has netted a fine of $50,000. There's bang for your buck.

CAPPS is Dead! Long Live CAPPS!

From the July 15 issue of The New York Times:

The government is backing away from a plan to use commercial databases in its computerized system for determining which airline passengers might pose a security risk.

But it is pressing ahead with a new computer system that will rely on government databases.

The government has decided that this invasion of our privacy was just too hot an issue, so they have moved it closer to the chest, away from public scrutiny. Oh, they still want to know where we go and what we buy -- they just plan to do it behind closed doors. All in the name of "national security", of course.

FBI's Guide to Concealable Weapons

Throwing cards, titanium charge cards, plastic razor blades... This is a truly amazing collection of stuff -- all potentially deadly, complete with scaled photography and manufacturer's name.

A War Crime, by Any Other Name...

"The question put to lawyers was how the president and the others could commit war crimes and get away with it."

That statement was made by Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post the first week of June. I've linked to the memo written by the Assistant Attorney General, Jay S. Bybee, to Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the president.

It's apparent that no one truly adheres to the Geneva Convention, and it's only the losers that cry foul. And occasionally the media.

Quoting Bruce Schneier:

"I don't even want to debate the moral issues: Is it moral to torture a bomber to find a hidden ticking bomb, is it moral to torture an innocent to get someone to defuse a ticking bomb, is it moral to torture N-1 people to save N lives? What interests me more are the security implications of torture: How well does it work as a security countermeasure, and what are the trade-offs? ...Given that torture doesn't actually produce useful intelligence, why in the world are we spending so much good will on the world stage to do it?"

Fahrenheit 9/11 Notes + Sources

Michael Moore has published his notes and sources backing up his statements in "Fahrenheit 9/11". Does this make F911 "the truth"? No, it does not, but it makes his claims much more credible -- he wasn't pulling this stuff from thin air.

Scientists horrified by Bush's Bad Science

What started as a group of 62 scientists fighting what they saw as Bad Science being practiced by the Bush administration has now bloated to a body with more than 4,000 whitecoats calling for change.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), in a new report, has again expressed its feeling of "embarrassment and disgust" over the way the Bush administration uses - or misuses - science when making policy decisions. The scientists have found that the administration often ignores the recommendations of advisory panels and "suppresses, distorts and manipulates" scientific work. In particular, the group is concerned about Bad Science affecting environment, emergency contraception and endangered species policies .

Rather than link to the article from which the above text is taken I'm pointing back directly to the Union of Concerned Scientists web site where you can read their own press release and the original documents.

A DIY Cruise Missile

The New Zealand government has moved aggressively to shut down this project -- and by using quite unscrupulous methods which appear to be in breach of the law.

Having publicly admitted that the project broke no laws, and thereby making it very difficult for them to simply shut it down by direct methods, the government appears to have broken their own laws in an attempt to ensure that I can no longer continue this project -- and, as perhaps a purely punitive step, ensuring that I can no longer even continue developing my jet engines or maintain my websites.

They have even gone so far as to deliberately scuttle a licensing deal I had arranged with a US company who was to begin manufacture of my X-Jet engine -- despite the fact that this meant sacrificing jobs and export earnings.

The strange thing is that just a matter of months ago, they told me I could export the very same technology to Iran -- despite the fact that it is widely considered to be a terrorist sponsor and similar exports are prohibited in the USA.

On the up-side, the missile has been completed (apart from some minor work that is relatively inconsequential) and, to ensure that the testing will proceed at sometime in the New Year, it is no longer in my possession -- but it is in safe hands.

I've been watching this project for a very long time now -- and it did indeed look like Bruce Simpson was going to succeed. He has a clear understanding of jet turbine and pulse jet design. He has built several. But now it looks like his DIY cruise missile project has been scuttled by the gov't of New Zealand, perhaps as a result of pressure from the U.S. Much of the design information has been removed from his web site, but there remains a great deal of information in his project diary. It's not sufficient information to go out and build one of your own, so don't even think about it.

Security hole found in Mozilla browser

Developers at the open-source Mozilla Foundation have confirmed that the latest version of their Web browsers have a security flaw that could allow attackers to run existing programs on the Windows XP operating system.

The exploit will also run on a Windoze 2000 box, and it's been repaired. If you visit the Mozilla web site and download the latest version of their browser, the hole is plugged. The web site incorrectly identifies the download as a previous version, but what you get is new.

IE Users, Proceed with Caution -- If at All

It's also true that many Web-based enterprise applications have a preference for IE, but with your company's security on the line, it's time to send a message to these application vendors by going with cross-platform-friendly options.

Micro$oft's browser must be used if you want to access certain web sites, perhaps your own bank, for example. Install Firefox and try it. If you can't get into your bank let them know you are NOT happy and you question their ability to handle your money if they think so little of your security.

Microsoft half fixes serious IE vuln

Acting with law enforcement authorities, Microsoft was able to rapidly shut the Russian web site down, but the affair still highlighted security concerns with IE. Security clearing house CERT took the extraordinary step of advising users to ditch IE in favour of alternative browsers because of the problem.

I gave up MSIE years ago in favor of Netscape, and then when Netscape fell victim to AOL went back. I didn't stay long. I went over to Opera, and recently have been using Firefox. Firefox is truly an amazing tool from the Mozilla group -- a group spun off from Netscape back in the take-over days. Tiny and secure, it's my default browser (though I still use Opera for some heavy jobs).

Find Firefox here

Make Your Own Flamethrower

And just in time for your Independence Day celebration! If this kid lives long enough to attend college I'll be surprised. Scroll down when the page opens. Lots of pictures and video available.

Of course, no discussion of do-it-yourself WMD is complete without mentioning my own favorite:
Backyard Ballistics




LEGAL DISCLAIMER -- This sort of s*** can get you killed, maimed or arrested. I cannot be held responsible for your use of the information provided here.

But for perfectly legal entertainment, try:
Drozd BB Rifle by IZH-Baikal

Fear and Closing in Big Bend

On May 10, 2002, the Border Patrol, which has always pursued narcotics traffickers and illegal immigrants, began, without warning, to enforce the law against crossing, period. Twenty-one people were arrested, including "Gordo," the 18-year-old boatman who rowed the jonboat back and forth at Paso Lajitas.

Gordo was taken to El Paso, to await deportation. He couldn’t have been 20 yards from the Mexican shore when his boat was confiscated in the middle of the Rio Grande.

Another fine example of Your Tax Dollar At Work. I've been down to the Santa Elena Canyon and walked across into Mexico, to the little town of Boquillas. This tiny little collection of adobe shacks appeared to exist for only one purpose: selling cerveza to thirsty Americans. But that was before Homeland Security closed the border.

U.S. Expels Iranian Guards at U.N. Mission

The Iranians were caught on three occasions taking photos of infrastructure, transport systems and New York City landmarks, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hello? Let me see if I get this straight -- there are foreigners, in New York City, taking pictures of buildings, bridges and stuff? Damn! Terrorists!

Hiding Behind Certification

For reasons I fully understand but totally reject, many CIOs increasingly look to certification and accreditation standards as "market signals" indicative of professional quality and reliability. This represents the laziest and most dangerous kind of cover-your-ass thinking by C-level executives.

No, Michael -- tell us how you really feel.

Michael Schrage is codirector of the MIT Media Lab's eMarkets Initiative. And he has a dim view of so-called "accreditation standards". He wrote this article for the 6/15/04 issue of "CIO Magazine".

Bypass Compulsory Web Registration

Tired of all those web sites (specially newspaper sites) that require you to sign up and log on? Seems more and more newspapers demand information from you before you are allowed to read an article. I think that stinks, and apparently so do the folks at BugMeNot. Visit their page, key in the offending URL, and they will give you the logon. They have 4,847 sites cataloged as I write this; add your own if you wish.

Optical Camouflage

This is new, from Tokyo. It's not exactly invisible, but it's close.

Multiple Antivirus Scanners DoS Attack

From BugTraq:

While having a manual scan of compressed files; several Antivirus, Trojan,
Spy ware scanners suffer a DoS attack if the software tries to completely
extract the archive and scan its content for a hostile file.

I just tried their proof of concept file and found it locks up AntiVir as well. Suspect it gets most AV and scumware products.

High Performance Humanoid Robots

From the Sarcos web site:

Sarcos generates revenues and profits through the sale of commercial products and through contract development projects for governmental and commercial clients. Sarcos commercial products are unique and intelligent systems that address specific economic and performance requirements.

TheOpenCD

This collection of Windoze software is truly amazing. You get GIMP, OpenOffice, PDFCreator, TightVNC (much better than RealVNC), PuTTY, Really Slick Screensavers, and many more titles. All programs are distributed under an Open Source License. The CD is packaged as a zipped CD image file -- just download (about 275M), unzip and burn the .iso file. The software is then accessed from a very descriptive browser-based menu system. Tres kewl!

Keeping Presidents in the Nuclear Dark

When the history of the nuclear cold war is finally comprehensively written, [it] will be one of a long litany of items pointing to the ignorance of presidents and defense secretaries and other nuclear security officials about the true state of nuclear affairs during their time in the saddle.

Bruce Blair describes a number of amazing... words fail me. Did you know that the Minuteman nuclear missile force was "unlocked" for more than a decade? Yes, the locks that were put in place to prevent an unauthorized launch were all set to 00000000 -- and everyone at the Strategic Air Command knew it. Launch Control Officers were instructed to monitor the PALs and make certain that a lock code WAS NOT used -- SAC feared that this added security feature would just get in the way if a launch became necessary.

Scale Model B-52

This project is truly awesome -- the model weighs over 300 lbs and has 8 specially designed jet turbine engines -- the first of it's kind. The videos run from 1.1M to 3.3M and require the Windows Media Player. If you have the bandwidth or the time, it's worth a peek. Crank up the volume.

Al-Qaida's choice in November

Yesterday, CNN Justice Department correspondent Kelli Arena spread the unsubstantiated myth that al Qaeda has a preference in the upcoming U.S. elections.

Seems the current regime is running scared. A few people in the Bush administration have indicated that al Queada feels they have a better chance in Iraq if Kerry is in the White House. Too, the terrorists in Washington are claiming that America will be attacked this summer, even though the threat indicators have remains unchanged for months.

Bar Monkey

A Bar Monkey is a machine that automatically mixes and dispenses alcoholic drinks. The original Bar Monkey v1.0 was created by Steven Avery, Dustin Cooper, and Brad Greer. The total cost of this Bar Monkey was $235 and took 3 months to complete.

An interesting use of open-source technology...

Owning the Standard for Search Engines

From Fool:

A $30 billion valuation of Google implies that due to strong network externalities, the company will own the standard in the search engine space, like Microsoft in PC operating systems or eBay in Internet auctions. While a standard will likely be established for search engines, Google's ability to own that standard remains highly uncertain.