What the fuck is wrong with you people?
Computing
Frontline looks at the “Digital Nation.”
Feb 2nd
I like to consider myself to be a wired individual, but even though I grew up alongside the technology that is now commonplace these days I am nowhere near as wired as some of the kids who have never known anything other than the highly digital world we have today.
I’m not even that good at multitasking. If I’m doing something I’m usually doing that one thing to the exclusion of anything else. Be it writing a blog post, chatting in IM, playing a game, or talking on the phone. I think I’ve sent a total of a dozen texts on my phone in my entire life. I don’t own a smartphone. Occasionally I’ll talk on the phone while driving or do a little IM chat while working on a blog post, but I usually end those conversations quickly so I can get back to concentrating on the primary task at hand. I’ve never had a lengthy, pointless conversation on my cell while driving. It’s too distracting. About the best I can do is listen to the radio while driving or talking to a passenger.
Compared to some of the kids I know today that makes me a total Luddite. Every time a break come around at work the kiosk computers are filled instantly with people checking their Facebook pages while chatting on IM and eating a snack. They’d have their cellphones out if it were for the fact that they’re banned from the building and some of them go out to their cars to get around that restriction.
This is why I found the following episode of Frontline so interesting. In it they take a look at how all these highly wired and constantly multitasking people are affected by the technology they’ve so immersed themselves in. How is it affecting them socially and physically? What’s it doing to their brains? How’s it affect their relationships? How will it all change the way the world works?
As per usual with Frontline, this is a very balanced bit of journalism that points out the pros and cons. In the end they don’t draw any conclusions one way or the other, but simply look at where things are headed and what it might mean. We’re going to lose some things along the way, but we will gain others.
The episode airs tonight on your local PBS station, or you can watch it here as I’ve embedded all nine chapters in this entry. The first is below and the rest are after the jump. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on it if you take the time to watch it.
The TSA incompetently posts its secrets on the Internet.
Dec 8th
What a sad fucking joke the Transportation Security Administration has turned out to be. Not only they do engage in security theater that does little to nothing in preventing actual threats, not only have they removed any desire I might have had to fly anywhere anytime soon, but now they’ve gone and posted their entire screening manual online:
Massive TSA Security Breach As Agency Gives Away Its Secrets – ABC News
In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers.
The most sensitive parts of the 93-page Standard Operating Procedures were apparently redacted in a way that computer savvy individuals easily overcame.
The document shows sample CIA, Congressional and law enforcement credentials which experts say would make it easy for terrorists to duplicate.
Here you go, terrorists! Everything you need to bypass our shitty security system! It includes a detailed listing of the limitations of our x-ray machines and the fact that we only check 20% of checked bags by hand. Those two bits of information alone should make smuggling a bomb into the luggage compartment a lot easier to do. You’re welcome!
“This is an appalling and astounding breach of security that terrorists could easily exploit,” said Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security. “The TSA should immediately convene an internal investigation and discipline those responsible.”
Gee, ya think?
“This shocking breach undercuts the public’s confidence in the security procedures at our airports,” said Senator Susan Collins, R-Me., ranking Republican member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “On the day before the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s hearing on terrorist travel, it is alarming to learn that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted its own security manual on the Internet.”
I hate to be the one to tell the good Senator this, but most folks already have little confidence in the security procedures at our airports.
OK, perhaps “most” is an overstatement, but there’s a lot of us who have little confidence in the TSA and this certainly justifies that lack of faith.
“This manual provides a road map to those who would do us harm,” said Collins. “The detailed information could help terrorists evade airport security measures.” Collins said she intended to ask the Department of Homeland Security how the breach happened, and “how it will remedy the damage that has already been done.”
My guess is they’ll come up with even more annoying and pointless procedures that’ll further depress airline profitability causing more of them to go belly up. Soon you won’t be able to take anything onto the plane and everyone will have to fly 90% naked wearing only loincloths which will have to be inspected by TSA agents with very cold hands.
The TSA claims the manual is old and outdated, but I’d be claiming that too if I had caused such a massive fuck up. They’ve asked for the original version to be taken offline, but it’s too late to put that genie back in the bottle. Once it hit the net it was all over the world in short order and there are plenty of places you can read it. Wanna read it for yourself? Even ABC News has a copy of it online for your planning convenience.
No need to thank the TSA. They’re not listening to you anyway.
Preliminary SEB templates are in place.
Dec 2nd
As you can see, if you’ve stopped by the site instead of reading its RSS feed, I’ve got a half-assed port of the old SEB template moved over to WordPress. It’s missing a few things here and there, but it appears to be functional so I wanted to try it on the live site and see how well it holds up. I may yet try to make use of one of the frameworks instead of doing it this way, but for now this feels more like home.
One other advantage is that I’m able to incorporate plugins when and where I want them instead of hoping they work with the theme I was using. You’ll note, for example, that there is now a “preview” and “post” button on the Comment form. Try ‘em out and let me know what you think.
As always let me know if there’s any glitches or bits that don’t work.
Playing with SEB’s templates.
Nov 25th
No, not on the live site. I’ve set up a test blog with some old SEB content in it and I’ve been working on porting the old template over from ExpressionEngine. So far I’ve got it working pretty well albeit with some differences between them, but it’s still not quite ready for prime time.
The good news is that I’ve learned a helluva lot about how WP handles themes and it’s not quite as horrible as I first thought. The documentation I’ve found out there is for shit, the WP Codex is a pain in the ass to wade through, but by looking at the original WP default theme I’ve been able to piece together the basics and get it working. I do have to say that WP’s templating system is more powerful, if somewhat more confusing, than it first appears to be. The fact that you can make a Child Template, which uses a pre-existing template and just replaces the bits you want to replace, is amazingly powerful and allows for Theme Frameworks to be developed.
The bad news is that I’ve learned just how shitty a web designer I am. The old SEB templates were a hack job when I made them and they only get worse when I re-hack them to work in WP. Both the index and comment pages are working so far even if they are a tad uglier than before, but I’m sure I’m missing some of the hooks that would make integrating some plugins easier. It’s a lot of work and it makes me wonder if I shouldn’t just figure out how to do a proper Child Theme or make use of one of the frameworks already out for WP.
Either way, I won’t be sticking with the Atahualpa theme we’re using right now. Despite how customizable it is it has some serious quirks that I’m not happy with. For example it makes its own custom fields on every entry containing the title for single pages, multi-post pages, and meta information. It does this for reasons I cannot fathom and it does not like it when I use double quotes in titles as a result. I also think it may be interfering with the operation of the various Twitter plugins I’ve been trying to use. Lastly there’s no easy way to add comment previews in with the template as it stands. So despite how flexible it is, it has to go.
I’ve played around with the Sandbox, Thematic, and Hybrid frameworks, but the documentation for them is, again, sadly lacking. Figuring out how to change them so they look like SEB’s old theme has not gone well, but if I keep plugging at it I may be able to come up with something that works. With any luck I’ll figure out which way I’m going to go — do it all myself or make use of a framework — soon and get something a little more familiar back in place before too long.
I’ll be messing around with SEB’s theme soon.
Nov 19th
I’ve mentioned before that I’m currently using the Atahualpa theme for SEB because it’s the most configurable one I’ve found outside of Thesis. The latter of which costs money while the former does not, though they do accept donations. Athualpa has a few annoying quirks, but it is amazingly malleable so working with it is worth the effort. I’ve already made a major modification by reducing the layout from a three column format to a two column format as several folks seem to prefer that. I’ll be working on the color scheme as well in the days to come to get us back to a darker look. Alas, this means updating a lot of different sections one by one so as I do it the site will look somewhat funky during the process.
So this is just a note to say that if you stop by and the site looks a mess it’s because I’m working on getting it back to something a bit more familiar. Just so you know.
Viruses can infect your PC with child porn.
Nov 9th
As if you really needed yet another reason to make sure your computer is patched and you have a decent anti-virus solution installed, now comes word that an infected PC could lead to you being charged for having child pornography:
An Associated Press investigation found cases in which innocent people have been branded as pedophiles after their co-workers or loved ones stumbled upon child porn placed on a PC through a virus. It can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence.
Their situations are complicated by the fact that actual pedophiles often blame viruses — a defense rightfully viewed with skepticism by law enforcement.
“It’s an example of the old `dog ate my homework’ excuse,” says Phil Malone, director of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. “The problem is, sometimes the dog does eat your homework.”
via AP IMPACT: Framed for child porn — by a PC virus by AP: Yahoo! Tech.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise considering that many trojans and viruses are designed to allow full access to your PC for any of a number of nefarious purposes be it the sending of spam email to launching DDoS attacks. It was only a matter of time before someone thought to use them as a handy repository for their child porn.
It is possible to successfully defend yourself in cases where you’re a victim of a computer virus, but it’s not cheap and it still destroys your reputation:
Fiola and his wife fought the case, spending $250,000 on legal fees. They liquidated their savings, took a second mortgage and sold their car.
An inspection for his defense revealed the laptop was severely infected. It was programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute — an inhuman feat. While Fiola and his wife were out to dinner one night, someone logged on to the computer and porn flowed in for an hour and a half.
Prosecutors performed another test and confirmed the defense findings. The charge was dropped — 11 months after it was filed.
The Fiolas say they have health problems from the stress of the case. They say they’ve talked to dozens of lawyers but can’t get one to sue the state, because of a cap on the amount they can recover.
“It ruined my life, my wife’s life and my family’s life,” he says.
The folks at F-Secure Corp. estimate that at any given time 20 million of the 1 billion Internet-connected PCs are infected with viruses that could give the bad guys full control. That estimate sounds a little conservative to me, I suspect it’s much higher than that. So make sure your systems are patched and secure. An ounce of prevention could save you a lot of trouble later.
Trying out Microsoft Security Essentials.
Sep 30th
Microsoft entered the free anti-virus utility arena today with the release of Microsoft Security Essentials:
Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.
Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.
Early reports from folks that participated in the beta and others who have tried the final product are that it’s pretty good so I thought I’d give it a shot. It’s most attractive feature is that it’s relatively lightweight, the Vista/Win 7 (64 bit) install was 4.71MB and XP was 8.61MB, and it has a low impact on system resources. I’ve been running the free version of Avast Anti-Virus for home users for a few years now and it does a pretty good job, but can slow your system down a bit at times. One big advantage of Microsoft’s solution over Avast’s is that I’ll no longer need to reapply for a license key once a year. Not that it was ever a huge burden, but it’s nice not to have to worry about it.
Assuming, of course, that I decide to stick with it. Already after install it managed to detect a dormant trojan on my system which Avast had missed. The trojan wasn’t running as it had never been launched, but it was still surprising to see it was on my system. Avast probably would’ve caught it if I were to launch it, but it’s always best to catch it before it ever gets a toehold on your system. I suspect it tagged along on a recent ISO burning utility I downloaded to fill an immediate need as I couldn’t find my Nero Burning ROM discs. The folks over at ArsTechnica are impressed with it as well.
The upshot is that you now have even less of a reason not to have an up-to-date anti-virus utility on your system. Between all the free options already out there and this new almost no-hassle offering from Microsoft there’s no good reason not to protect yourself.
Try Windows 7 RC free for a year.
May 1st
On May 5th the Release Candidate version of Windows 7 will be made available to the general public—it’s already available to MSDN subscribers—and if you decide to give it a try you’ll have a full year before it expires:
Windows 7 RC, slated for download by MSDN and TechNet subscribers Thursday and by the general public on May 5, doesn’t expire until June 1, 2010, 13 months from Friday, Microsoft confirmed Thursday.
When asked why the company is giving users such a long free pass for the software, a spokeswoman declined to comment.
The date had been leaked more than a month ago, when a Microsoft site temporarily posted a page that revealed other details of the upcoming RC, including a May delivery and no limit on the number of downloads.
“You don’t need to rush to get Windows 7 RC,” the leaked page read in late March. “The RC release will be available at least through June 2009 and we’re not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time.”
Vista’s RCs had relatively short trial periods, a little over 6 months, so having 13 months to dick around with Windows 7 makes for a nice change. The OS itself has already generated quite a bit of buzz with a lot of folks saying it’s what Vista should have been. I downloaded the beta myself, but never got around to installing it. I’ll be setting up my system to dual boot with the RC version once it’s available.
Momma’s new toy arrives. Some assembly required.
Apr 16th
The first PC I built for my parents is probably close to 10 years old at this point and yet my mother still uses it. That’s because the newer PC I built for my parents more recently is usually occupied by my dad and rather than wait for him to get off it she just uses the older one. It’s been showing signs of its age for awhile now and between a CD-ROM drive that doesn’t want to open anymore and the fact that it now literally growls at her every time she turns it on she’s decided that it’s time that I build her a new PC. So I sat down and priced one up and it came in at just this side of $400. Placed the order for the parts on Monday and got a big box full of stuff today:
Click to embiggen!
This box has everything except for the actual case itself, as that had to ship from California, so while I can dig through it and ooh and ahh I can’t actually start building it yet. Well I could, but it’d be pretty pointless without the case which has the 500W power supply. I expect that to arrive tomorrow and then I’ll build the PC over the weekend. Delivery will probably take place the weekend after this one. I’m pretty excited as this should be a pretty nifty PC when I’m done as I’m using a micoATX motherboard and case which means it’s smaller than a breadbox and will sit on top of her desk. Plus it has cool side windows so she can peek in and see what she spent all that money on.
Looking for help on how to distrubute a Kubuntu build over a network.
Feb 20th
OK all you Linux gurus, I’m in need of your help. After literally months of dicking around I’ve managed to cobble together an Internet kiosk for the scanners here at work that meets my boss’s requirements using Kubuntu. I’m actually quite proud of this accomplishment, but I’m having trouble with the last part. I want to be able to deploy it to the PCs over the network as opposed to installing and building each workstation by hand. One of the guides I used during my research, How To Create An Internet Kiosk with Kubuntu over at dimmeria, suggested the following command to do the deed:
- sudo dd if=/dev/sda | ssh -t ip.target.machine sudo dd of=/dev/sda
It turns out this is an amazingly slow way to do it and it has the unfortunate habit of failing. I’ve tried it three times now and have managed only to copy 36GB, then 7GB, and then 31GB per attempt before it fails with an I/O error. This pretty much ate up most of my day here at work to this point. Doing some Google searches it seems there are about a hundred thousand different ways to do something like this all of varying difficulty and most of which don’t seem to be aimed at what I’m hoping to do. Namely I want to copy the disk layout of the current machine to the new machine exactly as it is and then just go in and give the new machine a new name and have it go. I’ve done this sort of thing under Windows countless times using something like Ghost or Acronis True Image, but I’m not sure which of the hundreds of thousands of suggestions I’ve come across so far is the right one to take.
So I’m turning to you Obi Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.
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