Two fork, one cup - toothpick trick

Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke an eye out... Welcome to the Make Blog!

Where I've Been

Last May I was invited by Mark Gibbs to begin blogging with him on Network World's Gibbsblog. It's gotten me a lot more exposure, and I've been given pretty much the same freedoms I have here. I don't get into rants as easily on Gibbsblog, and I avoid politics... well, mostly. So, if you have been reading my stuff here and wondered what happened to me, you've got your explanation.

The Network World Community includes a large number of blogs, all searchable. If you are interested in techie conversations, I suggest checking it out.

MQ-9 Reaper, revisited

The first unmanned attack squadron in aviation history will arrive in Iraq today looking to deliver 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles to the enemy - all from the comfort of a US Air Force base in Nevada.

Go to war without leaving home.

We are no longer on top

The National Academies of Science produces regular reports on the state of scientific research in the US... The report identifies six key questions that will represent the grand challenges that materials science will face over the coming decade, the ones most likely to produce the next revolution. But it also raises fears that those challenges will be met by researchers outside of the US. It highlights the fact that government funding has not kept up with the rising costs of research at the same time that the corporate-funded research lab system has collapsed. As a result, US scientific productivity has stagnated at a time when funding and output are booming overseas. The report makes a series of recommendations that it hopes will get US physics research booming again.

"booming again"... I think it's time for a regime change.

Climate change: A guide for the perplexed

...the world is warming, this warming is due to human activity increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with increasingly serious consequences.

So for those who are not sure what to believe, here is our round-up of the 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions.

There is also a guide to assessing the evidence. In the articles we've included lots of links to primary research and major reports for those who want to follow through to the original sources.

MQ-9 Reaper

The availability of high performance sensors and large capacity of precision guided weapons enable the new Predator to operate as an efficient "Hunter-Killer" platform, seeking and engaging targets at high probability of success.

You can run, but you can't hide. This weapon requires human operators, but the next version can operate autonomously. Anyone remember Terminator 3?

[ADDED 16/05/2007]      To make it even more apocalyptic the control system is called SkyNet.

Recognizing "Hinky" vs. Citizen Informants

This kind of thing isn't easy to train. (Much has been written about it, though; Malcolm Gladwell's Blink discusses this in detail.) You can't learn it from watching a seven-minute video. But the more we focus on this -- the more we stop wasting our airport security resources on screeners who confiscate rocks and snow globes, and instead focus them on well-trained screeners walking through the airport looking for hinky -- the more secure we will be.

Technical ways to get around censorship

The decision to use circumvention technology should be taken seriously, carefully analyzing the specific needs, available resources and security concerns of the end-user. There is a wide variety of technologies available for users who want to circumvent Internet filtering. However, using them for successful and stable circumvention service depends on a variety of factors, including the user’s level of technical skill, potential security risk, and contacts available outside the censored country. Governments may also take counter-measures to effectively block specific circumvention technologies.

In other news today, Wikipedia has begun blocking TOR.

Dell Brings Back Windows XP

"We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell said on the Idea Storm portion of its Web site, dedicated to implementing customer feedback.

This is almost funny! They are trying to put a positive spin on what has been a failure and make it look like they are being responsive to their customers.

A customer of mine purchased a brand new dual-core Dell with Vista on it, and the sound card would not work properly -- failed DRM. It defaulted to 16-bit stereo rather than delivering the promised surround sound. I suspect it works just fine under XP, however.

Using Google as a Proxy (or HOW TO: View MySpace at School)

I'm not a fan of MySpace, but I think much less of censorship. This technique should work with any blocked URL.

Survey: most people know about Vista but few intend to upgrade

The Harris Poll of 2223 US online adults in early March found that 87% were aware of Vista. Unfortunately for Microsoft, only 12% of Vista-aware respondents were intending to upgrade to Vista in the next 12 months.

I don't think the numbers for XP were that different. XP was forced upon you when you purchased new hardware. I suspect that's how Vista is going to be as well.

But Dell wasn't selling a new PC with Linux on it back when XP came out. Today you have a choice.

30 Days with Windows Vista

Based on my personal experiences with Vista over a 30 day period, I found it to be a dangerously unstable operating system, which has caused me to lose data.

I really did want to like Vista. Yes, it is possible to enjoy both Windows and Linux - but unfortunately this product is unfit for any user. I still intend to keep a Windows XP partition on my computer for gaming and some multimedia editing, but as of the time of this publication, I have removed Vista entirely.

The Daylight Saving change: no savings, no point

As it turns out, the US Department of Energy (and almost everyone else except members of Congress) was correct when they predicted that there would be little energy savings. This echoed concerns voiced after a similar experiment was attempted in Australia. Critics pointed out a basic fact: the gains in the morning will be offset by the losses at night, and vice-versa, at both ends of the switch. That appears to be exactly what happened.

Tear Down the Walls

EMI and Apple announced that they will beginning offering every song in their catalog in a "premium" service. You will pay more, but you get no DRM and twice the audio quality. Apple's iTunes will let you upgrade all your existing music to "premium" by paying the difference ($.30). Is this the beginning of the end for DRM? Where will Vista go when DRM is gone?

eEye Offers Free Fix for Windows Zero-day Vulnerability

According to eEye Chief Technology Officer Marc Maiffret, Microsoft should have caught the problem two years ago, when his company first reported the bug that was patched in the MS05-002 update. "They fixed the bug we discovered back in ’05, but during their standard bug report code audit, they missed an area... where identical code was used, with an identical vulnerability," he said via instant message. "It is hard to say how long people have been exploiting this in the wild due to the similar nature of the bugs."

Micro$oft has known of this for two years -- in fact patched identical code in a separate area -- and yet the problem still exists today, in Vista, their "most secure product ever". Thank you, BillyG.

TJX Data Breach Called Biggest Ever

According to The Boston Globe, "At least 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen by hackers who accessed the computer systems at the TJX Cos. at its headquarters in Framingham and in the United Kingdom over a period of several years, making it the biggest breach of personal data ever reported."

According to a survey done by the IT Policy Compliance Group, 68% of all companies lose sensitive data at least six times a year, and another 20% suffer losses twice a month.

"Your data will be stored encrypted, using the latest Igpay Atinlay algorithm, developed by our dedicated out-sourced IT staff in Rawalpindi."

Bottom Line: Hackers ain't the problem. Lame and loose controls are.

Extend Vista's Activation Grace Period - For a Year

Undoubtedly, someone will discover where the increment counter is for slmgr and you'll be able to do this indefinitely, but until then, Vista users will have a year to extend activation if they wish.

Everyone likes "free" windows, but at some point you have to ask yourself one question: If you can get herpes for free, do you still want it?

How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes

By Dirk A. D. Smith, Network World, 04/19/05

Excellent stuff here. I used it to chase down and dissect a kernel dump on my Windows 2000 box. I think the windbg tool has changed a bit since the article was written, however. You aren't going to need the second command to search out the driver information -- once the bad driver is identified, it's hyperlinked -- just click on it instead.

Read the article, try it out on the sample data, and get ready for your next BSOD.

A day without a BSOD is... 1) a good day in Windows, or 2) just another day to Linux.

U.S. DOT Ban On Windows Vista, Explorer 7, and Office 2007

Tens of thousands of federal workers are prohibited from upgrading to the latest versions, according to memos seen by InformationWeek

In a memo to his staff, the DOT's CIO Daniel Mintz says he has placed "an indefinite moratorium" on the upgrades as "there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade."

That will cut some tens of thousands of Vista installs.

Florida likely to ban paperless voting systems

The proposal, made as part of the state's budget process, would pay for 100 percent of the conversion, would only allow touchscreen system for disabled voters and for early voting, and would upgrade those systems to include a paper trail. The move is a setback for paperless polling machines and a rejection of the contention by former governor Jeb Bush, brother of U.S. President George W. Bush, that touchscreen systems are reliable.

I'm pleased to learn that the someone has finally come to their senses! And Jeb is GONE!

Military Builds Robotic Insects

Oh, this is wonderful. NOT!

Real-ID: Costs and Benefits

Essay by Bruce Schneier.

It doesn’t really matter how well a Real ID works when used by the hundreds of millions of honest people who would carry it. What matters is how the system might fail when used by someone intent on subverting that system: how it fails naturally, how it can be made to fail, and how failures might be exploited.

'Secret' Key For Every Diebold Voting Machine 'Revealed'

It was revealed in the course of last summer's landmark virus hack of a Diebold touch-screen voting system at Princeton University that, incredibly, the company uses the same key to open every machine. It's also an easy key to buy at any office supply store since it's used for filing cabinets and hotel mini-bars!

Sleep well. Your government is awake.

Faulty Dell Inspiron LCD Screens

Dell shipped faulty LCD screens in 2005 and is giving customers grief about replacing the screens. It's time to bring attention to the issue.

It's long past time to stop buying from Dell!

NSA Helps Microsoft with Windows Vista

"I kind of call it a Good Housekeeping seal" of approval, said Michael Cherry, a former Windows program manager who now analyzes the product for Directions on Microsoft, a firm that tracks the software maker.

Cherry says the NSA's involvement can help counter the perception that Windows is not entirely secure and help create a perception that Microsoft has solved the security problems that have plagued it in the past.

Yeah, and if you believe THAT I've got a bridge I'd like to sell.