And in case you are wondering why I just don't post from the boat there are three good reasons:

1. I don't own any kind of cell phone or personal remote access program.

2. As regular readers of the blog know I'm much too cheap to pay for any 3rd party service.

3. My wife has made it clear that if I want to have a 25th anniversary there will be nothing even resembling a computer near us for the next week.

So I am back to the 70's living totally sans technology. It will be the first time since 1980 that I didn't have at least an Apple IIc near me. (That's what I learned on.)

So I will see you all in a week and perhaps have some pictures to show you on my return. Take care all.

Back in September of 2007 Microsoft carried out what I and many others at the time considered to be a pretty big breach of trust and pushed a stealth update for the Windows Update mechanism. What’s wrong with that, you might ask? Well, as it turned out the update disrupted some Windows XP users ability to repair their installation. Not good, and precisely the reason why there are some people who like to know exactly what is being installed on their systems, and control when that happens.

Well, according to Microsoft, there’s another update to the Windows Update mechanism ready to be unleashed. The difference between this update and the stealth update from back in 2007 is that Microsoft is being more open about this update and actually talking about it before it hits the download servers and starts getting installed on systems.

Better than not giving warning like last time.

as I watch my high school budget dwindle for last-minute summer purchases in favor of a desperately-needed elementary and middle school tech refresh, I have to ask myself, should I buy 20 laptops for 40 desktops? People can argue the math, but when it comes down to it, I can still buy a lot more reasonably-equipped desktops for the same amount I’d pay for 20 laptops. In fact, looking at the state contract pricing, with my current budget, I can put a new desktop computer in every classroom. On the other hand, I can replace roughly half of my teachers’ aging laptops.

He agonizes of this a bit but In my opinion the bottom line comes at the end of the story:

Of course, I also know that all of the desktops we purchased three years ago are running like champs. The laptops we purchased at the same time are generally in dismal shape. I feel purchase orders for desktops coming on…I just hope they’re headed for the desks of understanding teachers.

Hey I live in Massachusetts save your budget its going to be a long ride.

Did you know that Russian troops are thrusting into the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia? That's what readers will learn from a Google Maps graphic accompanying a news story about Russian incursions into Georgia — the nation-state in the Caucasus, not the Caucasian-pride-ridden state in the southern United States.

Then again maybe its because as of today Google Maps shows Georgia as blank.

A closer look shows that Azerbaijan and Armenia are just as blank. Was that the case last week or does google know something we don't?

Several Georgian state computer servers have been under external control since shortly before Russia's armed intervention into the state commenced on Friday, leaving its online presence in dissaray.

While the official website of Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President, has become available again, the central government site, as well as the homepages for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence , remain down. Some commercial websites have also been hijacked.

The Georgian Government said that the disruption was caused by attacks carried out by Russia as part of the ongoing conflict between the two states over the Georgian province of South Ossetia.

Look for this to be standard operating procedure in the years to come.

Security specialists said Saturday that hackers are taking increasing aim at iPhones and Macintosh computers as the hot-selling Apple devices gain popularity worldwide.

Hackers have historically focused devious efforts on computers using Windows operating systems because the Microsoft software has more than 90 percent of the global market, promising evil-doers a wealth of targets.

Macintosh computers have been gaining market share and catching the interest of hackers, according to Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) security vulnerability analyst Cameron Hotchkies.

We saw this coming for a while.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority filed a suit in federal court on Friday seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent three undergraduate students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from presenting a talk at the DefCon hacker conference this weekend about security vulnerabilities in payment systems used in the Massachusetts mass transit system.

The transit authority, known as the MBTA, is seeking to prevent the students from "publicly stating or indicating" that electronic passenger tickets used on the transit system have been compromised until the MBTA can fix security flaws in the system. It further seeks to bar the students from releasing any tools or providing any information that would allow someone to hack the transit system and obtain free rides.

Stopping that speech is a great idea. It's not as if there is some kind of world wide information system out there that could get the word out to people who wouldn't have even heard about this issue if it hadn't been for a lawsuit. Or a website that would present the slides from the talk.

With thousands of hackers milling around the Black Hat convention here, and widespread snooping on the public Wi-Fi network, one place was supposed to be off limits: the press room.

But in a case of reporters spying on other reporters, three journalists working for the French publication Global Security Magazine were booted Thursday from the hackers' conference after they were allegedly caught hacking into the private computer network set up for the media.

Did these guys actually think they wouldn't get caught here?

The criminal network identified in the Justice Department indictments this week as having stole tens of millions of credit card numbers used people with skills in technology, finance and black markets -- some whom were notably polite, attentive and productive.

In one chain of ICQ messages excerpted by federal authorities in an indictment, there is back-and-forth about the software used to get credit card data from Dave and Buster's Inc. restaurant chain. The U.S. says it was one of nine retailers hit. The hackers gave the chain a positive review: "A very nice place, they have many locations," wrote Albert Gonzalez, of Miami in an instant message.

But little time was wasted on chitchat. Tech support was needed to modify sniffer software for an intrusion.

Sniffer software is the same stuff that is used to crack wireless software. Remember that your data is only as safe as the safest location it is in.

The gang was identified publicly in May by Joe Stewart, director of malware research at SecureWorks, a computer security firm in Atlanta. Mr. Stewart, who has determined that the gang is based in Russia, was able to locate a central program controlling as many as 100,000 infected computers across the Internet. The program was running at a commercial Internet hosting computer center in Wisconsin.

Mr. Stewart alerted a federal law enforcement agency that he declined to identify, and he said that it was investigating the matter. Although the original command program was shut down, the gang immediately reconstituted the system, he said, moving the control program to another computer in the Ukraine, beyond the reach of law enforcement in the United States.

The system infects PCs with a program known as Coreflood that records keystrokes and steals other information. The network of infected computers collected as much as 500 gigabytes of data in a little more than a year and sent it back to the Wisconsin computer center, Mr. Stewart said.

The real worrying bit is the screen info capture stuff, great for watching your kids but nasty when its used to watch you.

Its kind of funny that places where the governments have a ton of direct control and power stuff like this still manages to happen, then again maybe not so strange.

In my 20's I liked the A-Team but was never a fanatic about it but it got me thinking about how normal this type of things is becoming.

At a home you are getting an internet signal along with phone and video through a line, that same line is on many occasions supporting multiple pc's connecting at once usually including a teenagers which means a ton of bandwidth for video and streaming audio.

Exactly how much can the current infrastructure handle as the demands increase on the lines coming in? to what degree can dish providers keep up with the speeds as more and more people look for this stuff and expect it to work fast out of the box?

I have no idea what the answers to these questions. Machines are going faster and faster but in the end any network will go only as fast as the slowest part. The most expensive part to replace is the infrastructure and it has to carry the load.

I don't know how its going to work but I suspect some seriously lateral thinking will be involved to get around the expenses.

Anyways time will tell.

More U.S. music buyers are getting their music fix through iTunes than from any other source, according to data released on Tuesday by NPD Group. Earlier this year, Apple took over the top spot from Wal-Mart Stores, and it maintained that lead during the six months from January to June, NPD said.

They must be doing something right.

#1...A password should be something you can remember.

If you can't remember a password then the person who will be locked out will be you.

#2...A password should be hard to guess.

Naming a password after your children is an easy way to get cracked. Likewise if everyone knows your into the Three Stooges I'd avoid passwords like Moe Larry or curly.

#3 A password should contain letters and numbers

....to foil alphabet attacks. An easy way to do this is to substitute a "0" for a letter "o" in a name or a "1" for an "L" or an "i".

#4 A password should NOT be kept on a written or a pc list:

What's the point of something that can be grabbed or snarfed.

And finally

#5 A password should Never be shared with friends or family.

A password is only as safe as the most reckless person who knows it.

As you know I have an aversion to this kind of stuff but it hit me that when my card expires in a short while my online bill payment is going to bounce like a ball.

This is a very easy way to make trouble for a credit rating, so the solution is a reminded. If you are running outlook or any kind of business program you can set reminders for particular dates. Simply go into the calendar and set an appointment for yourself to change the card info a week or two before the renewal date. That way your system will remember even if you don't.

If you are going to use technology use it, it may save you a big headache later.

IOC President Jacques Rogge news conference Saturday:

"foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet."

From wired news today:

"I'm not going to make an apology for something that the IOC is not responsible for," Rogge said "We are not running the Internet in China. The Chinese authorities are running the Internet."

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies:

There's been no change in the IOC's position

These people sound like they are running for office.

UPDATE:

Of course there is oppression and there is OPPRESSION:

Police said the 42-year-old man dialed 911 twice last week so he could have his sub made correctly. The second call was to complain that officers weren't arriving fast enough.

After all some things are beyond the pale.