01.07.06
Fruday Fun : Switch to Windows!
Windows is an easier operating system to love. After all, using a PC builds character
Yeah, I know I’ve been picking on alot Windows lately, but they make it way too easy as of late. Remember to patch that WMF vulnerability.
01.06.06
Official Patch for WMF Vulnerability
Using Windows? Make sure you’ve fixed it, so that pictures can’t give you viruses. This is a very important update.
01.05.06
VoIP Silos
“Silo” is a very jargonized way to refer to a concept that’s as old as the market economy. When you’ve got customers, you want to make it damn hard for them to switch. Think about it- how many of you use AIM, or MSN. Are you ever going to switch? Not if all your friends use the same thing- though you might get Trillian or gAIM, which lets you use every IM network out there.
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Your Tinfoil Hat for the Day
A very computer savvy chap put together a very interesting article about how to use Amazon’s wishlists to track potential subversives, based on reading preferences.
If nothing else, I think this article is a really great example of what “data mining” realy is. Data Mining is when you take a very large amount of data and tease meaningful information out of it. Which is exactly what this guy did- and anyone could do with a little programming skill (I’m contemplating it, but I’m kinda full up on projects- as you might gather from my posting (or lack thereof) recently).
Just keep in mind; everything you do on the Internet can be tracked by somebody. Amazon, Google, the FBI, NSA, CIA. Be careful out there.
(via BoingBoing)
01.03.06
WMF Patch
I mentioned the WMF vulnerability in Windows recently. Microsoft has not yet released a fix, which leaves you all out to dry.
This guy has put together a temporary fix that actually works like a rootkit (while a hacking tool and part of Sony’s DRM stupidity, they’re not _always_ evil). It is open source, which means if anything hinky was in the patch, someone would have already alerted us to it, because there are people who will check that code out before installing it.
It is a temporary fix, and is not guaranteed in any way- user beware. But it puts a patch- albiet a weak one- that protects you from a potentially massive vulnerability.
12.31.05
Government Cookies
The Government has been giving you cookies, and you probably didn’t even know about it. It’s been a big scandal, riding the coattails of the NSA domestic spying revelation. Some people are pretty concerned.
Okay, so lets talk cookies.
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Friday Not-So-Fun
This is hardly fun, but I couldn’t think of something more interesting to post for this week’s Friday fun. Using Google Earth, you can see all of the US Soldiers killed in Iraq.
It doesn’t matter what your stance on the war is, for or against, it’s important to realize the cost.
I’m amazed, right now, at how powerful Earth has become as a communication tool. I thought it was cool that I could find Wi-Fi hotspots and coffee shops in it. I was very interested in how people used it to track the damage to New Orleans, but this… it’s powerful.