Our UCC filing system was written by EDS. Biggest most bloated piece of crap I've ever come across.
That EMC and Dell are in that group surprises me. Of the ten Dell servers I'm responsible for, 5 of them are Linux boxes. All total, of our 20 servers, 10 are Linux, 4 are NT 4.0 and 6 are Windows 2000 Server.
And EMC should know better.
The reach of the Corporate dominated U.S. Civil and Criminal Court systems is totally out of control.
Copyright infringement should be a strictly civil case, but the media giants have decided to get rough. We should indeed get rough back. For example, while I'm not downloading I refuse to purchse music or video, or even buy new software. What I need I turn to GPL sources for.
If more people did this and really put the hurt on maybe we wouldn't be dominated by corporate fictions.
Disruptive technology is putting the hurt on the establishment. And I'm loving it.
Having witnessed the destruction of commercial radio and taken refuge in the open arms of NPR I'm so happy the established mega-stations are getting what is due them, their ultimate destruction.
For example, DAB. The cost to implement DAB is going to be hideously high. And you just know that they're not going to give it away for free. Add the fact that sat providers already have the infrastructure in place, and people willing to pay for it. Who will want to plunk $500 down for a DAB capable receiver and then probably pay closer to $20 a month. Not many people that I know, that is certain.
Homogenized radio does suck though. When the same song gets repeated in a playlist within four hours, you know your once favorite station has sold out.
I rejoice in the death throes of traditional radio. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys.
Actually it does work in some areas, Rhode Island being the first.
When I punch 911 I'm routed to the nearest PSAP and all my info comes up on their console. I guess that was one benefit for kicking in close to a buck a month for E-911 service for a little over a decade.
I think one of the few things that RI did right was it's E-911 system. Other than that it's just standard fare for everything.
The last nail has been driven into the coffin of the incumbent carriers.
The only way they can compete is to start peddling DSL to everyone and then selling their own VoIP. The thing though is that all VoIP calls touch a switch at some point or another.
For example, when I make a call to say another Vonage customer in my same rate center technically the call never really takes advantage of the local loops or trunking attached to the Paetec switch we're both homed on, but we do use switching fabric.
But lets say I call my father in Florida. It travels pretty much pure IP to a Paetec or Focal CO in Florida which then completes the function of gateway of the PSTN.
To this point the VoIP providers have been able to skirt issues such as universal service, E911 surcharges, TDD surcharges, mandated line fees, etc. and I believe they're rightfully doing so.
It is a disruptive technology, one that has gotten the notice of the incumbent carriers. I'm so happy the FCC levied the fine against a carrier for blocking VoIP though - it sets a great precedent. It stops the games of Theodore Vail from occuring again nearly one hundred years later.
Just Love VoIP. Here they've spent how many billions on outside plant and switching gear only to be supplanted by something that runs over a shared medium like cable.
But the thing is, I have no sympathy for entrenched monopolies like state telecoms or incumbent providers here in the United States. For years they've used their muscle to force state regulators to take a passive role.
Now comes a technology that utilizes infrastructure that is already in place, sometimes even using the incumbents own DSL circuits against them. I like seeing them scared. Even though they've spent billions over the years to build the network, they've reaped obcsence profit from all of us.
In many places, the disruptive technology always overtakes the incumbent technology. Sorry but that's just the way it is. My SO is always down on VoIP saying it isn't as reliable, etc. But it is, people just don't realize how unreliabel the incumbents can be.
It still amazes me that any CIO or VP of IT doesn't understand that security is paramount. But more importantly the CEO's and board members of these concerns need a serious wake up call.
With data circuits being so cheap, and encryption hardware and software easily in the reach of banks why on earth are they physically moving backup tapes between geographic locations? They could just replicate the data via secure link to a secured facility that is mostly self sufficient, has backup media and a vault, etc. But they won't do that.
While I was the I.T. director for the state AG's office we had a vault in hous, plus a set of tapes in the bank vault across the street. The problem? Both were in a flood plain. As much as I tried to make the administration aware of this flaw in policy they decided it wasn't worth addressing. One of these days they'll find out what happens when the barrier pumps don't work and the basements of both the bank and their building are under brackish water.
But this has been a dismal week for banks, credit bureaus and payroll processor that should know better. It is sad to say that everything is ruled by the dollar.
Check out Ken Silverstein's "The Radioactive Boy Scout". Seems that David Hahn, a Michigan teenager managed to build a neutron gun with some americium he'd gotten from over 100 smoke detectors, and some berillyum a friend at a local college had purloined for him.
He also purified enough thorium from gas lantern mantles to represent some seriously radioactive stuff. He was trying to build a breeder reactor.
The interesting part of the book is how the NRC didn't know how to deal with an unlicensed nuclear reactor. To this day, I bet they still don't know. In Hahn's case they just hauled it all to a nuclear waste dump, including the potting shed in which he did most of his nuclear experimentation.
I cannot believe we're more concerned with what is carried over the RF band than what potential nuclear threats exist. For example, you could bombard the the thorium with neutrons to create fissionable material. Nice huh?
Who wants to blow 3Kw in electricity to roast coffee? What would be cooler is if he did some robotic manipulation, ie. take the output of the roaster and dump into a grinder.
When I started working at the state AG's office they were just completing the job of putting up bulletproof glass in the lobby of the building. You had to have an RFID access card to get in, etc.
One day I'm in the deputy chief of BCI's office and I see this piece of glass that's about 1/2" thick with pieces of masking tape next to all sorts of fractures, etc. indicating the caliber and weapon type.
Apparently he'd taken it home and tested it. The only thing to pierce it was a rifle round, everything else, including a shotgun just wasn't powerful enough.
Then I mentioned to him that all the windows on the front of the building, particularly in the BCI unit were nothing but plain old glass laminate.
There were some embarassed people after that little comment.
My rating in the eyes of the former law enforcement folks went up several notches because of that comment. They even used to take me with them and let me qualify at the gun range whenever they went. I was already pretty good, but with some expert guidance got even better.
Just goes to show that you cannot cover all security concerns.
Lets see - at the current moment there are how many patches for Windows XP floating around out there.
Meanwhile - the MacOS is based on a Unix kernel and does just fine.
This is precisely why I'm moving away from the Microsoft camp.
My first exposure to punch cards was for the PL/I course I took that ran on the college's IBM 360.
This was of course AFTER I'd played with interactive stuff so having to type it all out on cards, submit it, have it return with errors, keep the cards in order, etc. got to be rather tedious.
How I hated those IBM 29 keypunches. "Where's the backspace?"
It led to me doing two things. First, I wrote a chat simulator for RSTS/E on a PDP-11/44 and then I used the allocate/assign commands in DCL to grab the operator console, record login and password and then pass those to system login. That got me into enough trouble.
Dang it, you beat me to it. All you'd need to do is add a charging/dc rectifier so you could plug it in and use AC power if need be, while also charging the batteries.
One of my co-workers is a retro fanatic. He wants to build one of those into an old WE500 set. Wouldn't be too hard to incorporate it into a trimline phone either.
Is the concept of rate centers that the Bell companies relied on to boost their revenues.
For example, even though my VoIP line is a Providence rate center I could put it anywhere in the world and still have that Providence based number. Calling out is meaningless in North America as everything is in essence my local calling area. But for those poor saps in Providence who still want to call me, they'd be dialing a local call and reaching me somewhere on the other side of the world if I chose to do so.
The Baby Bell's, though I believe that term is a misnomer now, are going to be buried by VoIP.
Verizon for example is spending a heavy chunk of money to roll out FIOS. Problem is, not everybody is going to buy into it. The return won't be nearly what the expense was and look for Verizon's implosion to start shortly.
First, bankers believe in security through obscurity. But for those of us who've been the victims of various cock ups at banks, we know how it really works. Demand Drafts are a funny thing.
Pretty much anyone who knows you account number can withdraw funds from your account. There isn't any verification of signature or even check number sequence. Sure, the bank notices when numbers skip on a statement by putting a little * next to the item.
In addition - they watch transaction patterns. I've used a debit card to purchse a computer from Dell. Within 30 minutes of the purchase I'd gotten a call from my bank asking if I had indeed made the purchase.
So the bank knew that $90K to Latvia was bunk. But now they'll claim CYA and security through obscurity "Heaven forbid we're open about our authentication systems they'll claim."
Whenever I set up a wireless network for a client I always turn off SSID broadcast, turn on WEP, and enable MAC denials.
Granted, you can always spoof a MAC address. Hell, almost every NIC I've run across has offered the capability to change the MAC address.
But the author makes a good point about security and logging. In the corporate arena I've setup dial-up servers with TACACS ro RADIUS behind them to keep things nice and tight. But wireless doesn't really offer that.
One of the local universities uses Blue Socket - that seems to be efficient enough.
My bet is that guestBox will be out of business within a year.
It's the incumbent carriers that are dead set against this and probably fronting the study.
I can't wait - if the old style big players don't start adapting they're going to fail. And I'm not pleased by the re-consolidation of telecom companies. I estimate that in five years there'll be one ILEC in the U.S. under the name AT&T.
Because if we were guess what all the malware would be written for?
That is exactly right - the dominant platform.
But anyone who puts up a Windows box on a broadband connection without a $49.95 firewall is asking for trouble.
One cup of Earl Grey, Hot.
Instead I got a cup of steaming liquid that tasted somewhat like but not quite like tea.
Also reminds me of the delightful little turn in THHGTG:
I teleported home one night with Ron, Sid and Meg. Ron stole Meggie's heart away and I got Sidney's leg.
Those fingerprint will be available to law enforcement, just as videotapes of street scenes by store security cameras are routinely requested/demanded.
I'm somewhat oppposed, why not instead design an RFID device that the customer keeps in a wallet that only contains certain minutae of the fingerprint. Then when the customer approaches the fingerprint scanner the card gets automatically read and then compared with the print which then sends an authorization token to the store.
If you really want to make it secure, include a decryption PIN for the fingerprint minutae stored on the RFID device.
Something you have, something you know, and you. Not a bad security device.
It's nothing but a poor adverisiting agent.
For example, shills have been all over various message board and Usenet about the new white pages search.
Problem is that it takes you to a pay site where the info is incorrect in most cases.
A Pox on Microsoft!
This is the dumbing down of America folks. This is what No Child Left Behind has brought to bear.
Granted, I'm one of those in-betweeners as in in between the Baby Boom and Gen-X but we had the Constitution drilled into us. And yes, I went to parochial schools from 1st through 12th.
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Our UCC filing system was written by EDS. Biggest most bloated piece of crap I've ever come across. That EMC and Dell are in that group surprises me. Of the ten Dell servers I'm responsible for, 5 of them are Linux boxes. All total, of our 20 servers, 10 are Linux, 4 are NT 4.0 and 6 are Windows 2000 Server. And EMC should know better.
The reach of the Corporate dominated U.S. Civil and Criminal Court systems is totally out of control.
Copyright infringement should be a strictly civil case, but the media giants have decided to get rough. We should indeed get rough back. For example, while I'm not downloading I refuse to purchse music or video, or even buy new software. What I need I turn to GPL sources for.
If more people did this and really put the hurt on maybe we wouldn't be dominated by corporate fictions.
Disruptive technology is putting the hurt on the establishment. And I'm loving it.
Having witnessed the destruction of commercial radio and taken refuge in the open arms of NPR I'm so happy the established mega-stations are getting what is due them, their ultimate destruction.
For example, DAB. The cost to implement DAB is going to be hideously high. And you just know that they're not going to give it away for free. Add the fact that sat providers already have the infrastructure in place, and people willing to pay for it. Who will want to plunk $500 down for a DAB capable receiver and then probably pay closer to $20 a month. Not many people that I know, that is certain.
Homogenized radio does suck though. When the same song gets repeated in a playlist within four hours, you know your once favorite station has sold out.
I rejoice in the death throes of traditional radio. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys.
Actually it does work in some areas, Rhode Island being the first.
When I punch 911 I'm routed to the nearest PSAP and all my info comes up on their console. I guess that was one benefit for kicking in close to a buck a month for E-911 service for a little over a decade.
I think one of the few things that RI did right was it's E-911 system. Other than that it's just standard fare for everything.
The last nail has been driven into the coffin of the incumbent carriers.
The only way they can compete is to start peddling DSL to everyone and then selling their own VoIP. The thing though is that all VoIP calls touch a switch at some point or another.
For example, when I make a call to say another Vonage customer in my same rate center technically the call never really takes advantage of the local loops or trunking attached to the Paetec switch we're both homed on, but we do use switching fabric.
But lets say I call my father in Florida. It travels pretty much pure IP to a Paetec or Focal CO in Florida which then completes the function of gateway of the PSTN.
To this point the VoIP providers have been able to skirt issues such as universal service, E911 surcharges, TDD surcharges, mandated line fees, etc. and I believe they're rightfully doing so.
It is a disruptive technology, one that has gotten the notice of the incumbent carriers. I'm so happy the FCC levied the fine against a carrier for blocking VoIP though - it sets a great precedent. It stops the games of Theodore Vail from occuring again nearly one hundred years later.
Just Love VoIP. Here they've spent how many billions on outside plant and switching gear only to be supplanted by something that runs over a shared medium like cable.
But the thing is, I have no sympathy for entrenched monopolies like state telecoms or incumbent providers here in the United States. For years they've used their muscle to force state regulators to take a passive role.
Now comes a technology that utilizes infrastructure that is already in place, sometimes even using the incumbents own DSL circuits against them. I like seeing them scared. Even though they've spent billions over the years to build the network, they've reaped obcsence profit from all of us.
In many places, the disruptive technology always overtakes the incumbent technology. Sorry but that's just the way it is. My SO is always down on VoIP saying it isn't as reliable, etc. But it is, people just don't realize how unreliabel the incumbents can be.
It still amazes me that any CIO or VP of IT doesn't understand that security is paramount. But more importantly the CEO's and board members of these concerns need a serious wake up call.
With data circuits being so cheap, and encryption hardware and software easily in the reach of banks why on earth are they physically moving backup tapes between geographic locations? They could just replicate the data via secure link to a secured facility that is mostly self sufficient, has backup media and a vault, etc. But they won't do that.
While I was the I.T. director for the state AG's office we had a vault in hous, plus a set of tapes in the bank vault across the street. The problem? Both were in a flood plain. As much as I tried to make the administration aware of this flaw in policy they decided it wasn't worth addressing. One of these days they'll find out what happens when the barrier pumps don't work and the basements of both the bank and their building are under brackish water.
But this has been a dismal week for banks, credit bureaus and payroll processor that should know better. It is sad to say that everything is ruled by the dollar.
Check out Ken Silverstein's "The Radioactive Boy Scout". Seems that David Hahn, a Michigan teenager managed to build a neutron gun with some americium he'd gotten from over 100 smoke detectors, and some berillyum a friend at a local college had purloined for him.
He also purified enough thorium from gas lantern mantles to represent some seriously radioactive stuff. He was trying to build a breeder reactor.
The interesting part of the book is how the NRC didn't know how to deal with an unlicensed nuclear reactor. To this day, I bet they still don't know. In Hahn's case they just hauled it all to a nuclear waste dump, including the potting shed in which he did most of his nuclear experimentation.
I cannot believe we're more concerned with what is carried over the RF band than what potential nuclear threats exist. For example, you could bombard the the thorium with neutrons to create fissionable material. Nice huh?
Who wants to blow 3Kw in electricity to roast coffee? What would be cooler is if he did some robotic manipulation, ie. take the output of the roaster and dump into a grinder.
But it's cool just the same.
When I started working at the state AG's office they were just completing the job of putting up bulletproof glass in the lobby of the building. You had to have an RFID access card to get in, etc.
One day I'm in the deputy chief of BCI's office and I see this piece of glass that's about 1/2" thick with pieces of masking tape next to all sorts of fractures, etc. indicating the caliber and weapon type.
Apparently he'd taken it home and tested it. The only thing to pierce it was a rifle round, everything else, including a shotgun just wasn't powerful enough.
Then I mentioned to him that all the windows on the front of the building, particularly in the BCI unit were nothing but plain old glass laminate.
There were some embarassed people after that little comment.
My rating in the eyes of the former law enforcement folks went up several notches because of that comment. They even used to take me with them and let me qualify at the gun range whenever they went. I was already pretty good, but with some expert guidance got even better.
Just goes to show that you cannot cover all security concerns.
Lets see - at the current moment there are how many patches for Windows XP floating around out there. Meanwhile - the MacOS is based on a Unix kernel and does just fine. This is precisely why I'm moving away from the Microsoft camp.
That law enforcement has a hard time crossing jurisdictional boundaries yet corporations do not. The premise of Robo Cop isn't far off.
That the mini-mac has a Firewire port. Lots of HD's out there for relatively short money that attach to Firewire ports.
My first exposure to punch cards was for the PL/I course I took that ran on the college's IBM 360.
This was of course AFTER I'd played with interactive stuff so having to type it all out on cards, submit it, have it return with errors, keep the cards in order, etc. got to be rather tedious. How I hated those IBM 29 keypunches. "Where's the backspace?"
It led to me doing two things. First, I wrote a chat simulator for RSTS/E on a PDP-11/44 and then I used the allocate/assign commands in DCL to grab the operator console, record login and password and then pass those to system login. That got me into enough trouble.
Dang it, you beat me to it. All you'd need to do is add a charging/dc rectifier so you could plug it in and use AC power if need be, while also charging the batteries.
One of my co-workers is a retro fanatic. He wants to build one of those into an old WE500 set. Wouldn't be too hard to incorporate it into a trimline phone either.
Is the concept of rate centers that the Bell companies relied on to boost their revenues. For example, even though my VoIP line is a Providence rate center I could put it anywhere in the world and still have that Providence based number. Calling out is meaningless in North America as everything is in essence my local calling area. But for those poor saps in Providence who still want to call me, they'd be dialing a local call and reaching me somewhere on the other side of the world if I chose to do so. The Baby Bell's, though I believe that term is a misnomer now, are going to be buried by VoIP. Verizon for example is spending a heavy chunk of money to roll out FIOS. Problem is, not everybody is going to buy into it. The return won't be nearly what the expense was and look for Verizon's implosion to start shortly.
Of The Toaster Story?
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http://staff.cs.utu.fi/staff/juha.kivijarvi/story
But I'm a purist when it comes to software design. Creeping featurism is a BAD THING. Just look at Microsoft Office.
First, bankers believe in security through obscurity. But for those of us who've been the victims of various cock ups at banks, we know how it really works. Demand Drafts are a funny thing.
Pretty much anyone who knows you account number can withdraw funds from your account. There isn't any verification of signature or even check number sequence. Sure, the bank notices when numbers skip on a statement by putting a little * next to the item.
In addition - they watch transaction patterns. I've used a debit card to purchse a computer from Dell. Within 30 minutes of the purchase I'd gotten a call from my bank asking if I had indeed made the purchase.
So the bank knew that $90K to Latvia was bunk. But now they'll claim CYA and security through obscurity "Heaven forbid we're open about our authentication systems they'll claim."
Whenever I set up a wireless network for a client I always turn off SSID broadcast, turn on WEP, and enable MAC denials. Granted, you can always spoof a MAC address. Hell, almost every NIC I've run across has offered the capability to change the MAC address. But the author makes a good point about security and logging. In the corporate arena I've setup dial-up servers with TACACS ro RADIUS behind them to keep things nice and tight. But wireless doesn't really offer that. One of the local universities uses Blue Socket - that seems to be efficient enough. My bet is that guestBox will be out of business within a year.
It's the incumbent carriers that are dead set against this and probably fronting the study. I can't wait - if the old style big players don't start adapting they're going to fail. And I'm not pleased by the re-consolidation of telecom companies. I estimate that in five years there'll be one ILEC in the U.S. under the name AT&T.
Because if we were guess what all the malware would be written for? That is exactly right - the dominant platform. But anyone who puts up a Windows box on a broadband connection without a $49.95 firewall is asking for trouble.
One cup of Earl Grey, Hot. Instead I got a cup of steaming liquid that tasted somewhat like but not quite like tea. Also reminds me of the delightful little turn in THHGTG: I teleported home one night with Ron, Sid and Meg. Ron stole Meggie's heart away and I got Sidney's leg.
Those fingerprint will be available to law enforcement, just as videotapes of street scenes by store security cameras are routinely requested/demanded. I'm somewhat oppposed, why not instead design an RFID device that the customer keeps in a wallet that only contains certain minutae of the fingerprint. Then when the customer approaches the fingerprint scanner the card gets automatically read and then compared with the print which then sends an authorization token to the store. If you really want to make it secure, include a decryption PIN for the fingerprint minutae stored on the RFID device. Something you have, something you know, and you. Not a bad security device.
It's nothing but a poor adverisiting agent. For example, shills have been all over various message board and Usenet about the new white pages search. Problem is that it takes you to a pay site where the info is incorrect in most cases. A Pox on Microsoft!
This is the dumbing down of America folks. This is what No Child Left Behind has brought to bear. Granted, I'm one of those in-betweeners as in in between the Baby Boom and Gen-X but we had the Constitution drilled into us. And yes, I went to parochial schools from 1st through 12th.