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Daily Installment of Coffee Joe, By Jim O'Connor
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While I was walking around on the roof, I noticed that someone had left a small pile of garbage up here. I really didn't give it much thought until I noticed a cigarette butt in the pile. I didn't go threw it or anything. It just caught my eye. I guess I knew I wasn't the only smoker left in the world, but usually people were a little more careful about these things. I thought it might also have been a trap to try to catch someone.
I couldn't help but to think of all the times I had so freely driven across Nevada when I was younger. Then the thought occurred to me, I must have been getting old. It seems like I was spending way too much time thinking about the good old days. I needed to focus myself on the future. Life wasn't likely to get too much better, so I knew I had to make the best of it. I mean things are not all that bad. There are still hungry people around the world. We were quite lucky really. I guess I was just trying to convince myself how lucky we were.
As I looked over to the other side of the wall, I remembered an incident that happen about a week after Nevada declared its independence. The U.S. tried to cut off air traffic to Nevada. Fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a commercial carrier, but when the pilot of the American Airlines jet refused to turn back, the Combined Defense Force ordered their fighters to shoot it down. The fighter pilots refused. So instead, the United States signed an agreement with Nevada, giving each other air space rights. The United States still didn't allow flights from Nevada to land at U.S. airports, but it did allow Nevada to fly their planes over the U.S.
After staring over the city and the lake for about 30 minutes, I said to the robot "let's go." The robot responded "back to your room Sir?" I said, "Yes." It really was a nice day outside. I thought I might come back out here later.
I followed the robot back in the room and I told it I wanted to hear the latest news. The robot said "Accessing news." then paused for a couple seconds. The news came on. "General Motors is being sued by a consumer advocate group known as 'Safe Products for America.' The group sued the automaker because an accident that happen in May of last year. The suit claims that the driver of the vehicle who was backing out of his driveway was distracted while trying to read the statement in the rearview mirror that read 'Objects are closer than they appear.' This could become a class action suit. General Motors said the warnings where only there to comply with a government regulation. Therefore the government should be held libel." I said, "That's it! Turn it off. Is there any good news?" I asked. The robot said "Sir, I'm not sure what 'good news' is or if there is any such thing." I told the robot to just turn it off.
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Our Daily Bit of the U. S. Constitution. Law Makers Ignore This Like Always
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Article II
Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:
Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be mo re than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President.
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My Mom Vs. Verizon, Round 1
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My mom called me on Friday of last week to tell me some rather interesting news: she bought a Treo 600 Smartphone from Verizon Wireless. Since she lives in a rather rural area, Verizon’s massive (and archaic) network has suited her well, thanks to its “adoption” (or, rather, apathy toward current technology) of the 800MHz Cellular Analog frequency, as well as its omnipresent CDMA mess. Verizon is the only cell phone provider aside from Nextel (yuck, iDEN) to put a tower in my small hometown of Manchester, Michigan. Yes, kiddies, that means that my Cingular phone doesn’t work within an 8 mile radius or so of my parents’ house.
Before the Treo, my mom owned a Motorola V720- one of the first color screen phones on any network, let alone Verizon’s. It was great in its day, but the phone was on its last legs. There’s a key difference between the Treo 600 and her old V720: the V720 was Tri-Mode; that is, it supported not only Verizon’s CDMA protocol, but the old 800MHz one as well. Simply put, that phone had service everywhere. The Treo, however – and I’m speaking from my own experience with the smartphone as well – doesn’t have service anywhere. (Well, unless you consider open fields and main interstates everywhere you want to be.) The Treo didn’t get service in my apartment, didn’t get service on North Campus (we know it’s the middle of nowhere but come on,) didn’t get service on East Medical Center Drive, in the S. Forest Parking Structure… Alright, you get the point. Simply put, the Treo’s service is terrible. (Ironically, it works with a full signal strength only from my parents’ house in Manchester.) I’d say that at least 60% of the calls made on the Treo are dropped mid-sentence. My mom was irate in the car, telling me that PalmOne is dying because they can’t make a decent product. I spent most of the afternoon convincing her not to blame the Treo, but rather to blame Verizon’s utterly awful service. After all, my SI-HCI friend Aaron Rothman never had any nasty issues with his Treo 600- in fact, he loved his 600 so much that he stuck with PalmOne and bought the Treo 650.
Oh, by the way: Aaron’s on Sprint PCS. That reminded me: Sprint is a CDMA protocol as well, and they have coverage in Manchester. To make things even better, they’ve got the sweet charcoal-colored Treo 600. That’s when I had the plan of telling my mom about Sprint. I’ve been begging her to get rid of Verizon for years now.
She wasn’t going to give up on Verizon just yet. She’d been with them since they were part of CellularOne way, way back in the eighties when bag phones were all the rage. At wit’s end, she called a Verizon tech. The support consultant said all of the usual things: it doesn’t work in concrete/metal buildings (simple physics, it’s called a Faraday Cage), make sure the batteries are charged, yada yada yada. The tech didn’t convince my mom: she was a bit smarter than the average cell phone customer. The Verizon tech then offered to do some “tests”. His wonderful battery of tests consisted of hanging up on my mom with nary a callback. He couldn’t solve the issue, and didn’t want to be the one on the line when she said she was trying other services.
Trying other services. That’s the verdict: my mom’s sick of Verizon. When she told me this, I had honestly decided that there had been some sort of divine intervention that had spoken to my mom about how awful Verizon is, but it wasn’t an angel that helped: it was a little Treo 600, the semi-obsolete angel in disguise. After three days with the little Palm OS smartphone, my mom didn’t want to return to a regular old cell anymore. She was now seduced by this wonderful call of technological convergence, and she didn’t just want a smartphone anymore. After less than four days with the Treo 600, life without a smartphone seemed like not living at all. The convenience was just too addictive, and she wasn’t about to give up her newly discovered convergence because of a stubborn, useless, and utterly archaic cellular service provider who is at least nine months behind everyone other major provider (save Nextel and their “our service is for hicks and construction workers” iDEN protocol.)
Needless to say, her Treo 600’s being returned to the store tomorrow: quite sad for such a beautiful device that I don’t want to see relegated to life in a return bin after four days of use, but at least that Treo gave its life to show my mother just what real technology, and real wireless service is, and both of those are definitely not part of Verizon.
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Google Dabbling with TV Set-Top Search
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By Mike Pearson
E-Commerce Times
Google may be ramping up to deliver a search engine to TV set-top boxes. Rumor has it the search giant is carrying out tests of software that allows viewers to use their boxes to search for Web and television programming and create their own personalized lineup. The end goal for Google, of course, is likely to enable search advertising through yet another channel.
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Dish Network are testing a service that allows television users to search for television programming and Web content from set-top boxes, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Google software installed in the boxes allows users to create a personalized programming lineup, according to the Journal article, which cites anonymous sources.
Google spokesperson Gabriel Stricker told the E-Commerce Times that the company doesn't speculate on rumors such as those contained in the Journal article. Dish spokesperson Robin Zimmerman said her company had no comment.
However, it's no secret that Google and Dish have been collaborating since 2007, when the companies entered into a partnership for Google to deliver ads to the satellite network's audience and develop mechanisms to more accurately measure how they are viewed.
Google said a year later that its Google TV Ads platform could report second-by-second data showing advertisers precise measurements on viewing habits.
Service, Not Hardware
The news that Google is testing the search service comes a week after TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) launched its Premiere line of digital video recorders with features that are designed to converge Web content and U.S. television programming.
Google's play is similar to TiVo's in that they are both trying to bring Web content to viewers, said Carl Howe, an analyst with the Yankee Group -- but don't look for a Google-branded set-top box anytime soon.
"I don't think Google is trying to do a Nexus One with this one," Howe said, referencing the HTC-designed and Google-marketed smartphone frequently compared to Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) market-dominant iPhone.
"I don't think they pretend they'd be a good seller of set-top boxes," he said. "They have a more modest goal."
That is to be the search engine that drives programming results delivered on set-top boxes branded by cable, satellite and other telecom providers, said Howe.
All About Ads
TiVo is pursuing a similar strategy, in that the company appears to be headed toward a future in which its boxes, which touched off the DVR revolution, are likely to become less and less important to the company. In its place, putting advertising on the interface and search results becomes more important.
That's something Google is already very good at, said Howe, a confirmed TiVo user who utilizes all sorts of technologies to strip advertising from his digital media -- except for Google's relatively unobtrusive ads.
If Google is successful in bringing Web content to television users while maintaining a low-key advertising approach familiar to users of Gmail and other services, the company could make significant inroads into the set-top search scene, Howe said.
"It's a one-trick pony," Howe said of Google's ubiquitous efforts to get people on the Web and looking at ads, "but they keep turning it over and over again."
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Microsoft Warns of Zero-Day IE Hole on Patch Tuesday
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by Elinor Mills
Microsoft warned of a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6 and IE 7 that has been targeted in attacks, and released fixes for eight holes in Windows and Office as part of Patch Tuesday.
The company issued Security Advisory 981374, which addresses a privately disclosed vulnerability. The hole could allow an attacker to take control of a machine if a user visited a malicious Web site, Microsoft said.
There are some features that could mitigate the effects of an attack. For instance, all supported versions of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Windows Mail open HTML e-mail messages in the Restricted sites zone by default, the company said.
"Protected Mode in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista and later Windows operating systems helps to limit the impact of the vulnerability as an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability would have very limited rights on the system," the advisory said. "By default, Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 runs in a restricted mode that is known as Enhanced Security Configuration. This mode sets the security level for the Internet zone to High. This is a mitigating factor for Web sites that you have not added to the Internet Explorer Trusted sites zone."
The advisory also provides information on workarounds. Microsoft suggests that IE 6 and IE 7 users upgrade to IE 8 immediately.
"For the second time in three months, Microsoft has also issued a warning about a new IE zero-day bug," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle, referring to the IE hole that was exploited in the attacks on Google and other companies late last year and disclosed by Microsoft in January. "There's no doubt that this new bug will be fodder for the ongoing security discussion that is a key part of the browser wars."
In its Patch Tuesday preview on Thursday, Microsoft said it would issue two bulletins rated "important" on Tuesday to fix eight vulnerabilities in Windows and Microsoft Office products. Details are in the company's Security Bulletin for March.
The first bulletin for March, MS10-016, addresses a vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker that could be exploited by getting a user to open a maliciously crafted Movie Maker project file.
"Both Windows XP and Windows Vista ship with affected versions (2.1 and 6.0 respectively). Version 2.6 is also vulnerable and can be freely downloaded and installed from the Web," Jerry Bryant, senior security communications manager lead at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post on the Microsoft Security Response Center. "Customers who install 2.6 on any supported platform, including Windows 7, will be offered the update."
The vulnerability also affects Microsoft Producer 2003, a free download with limited distribution. "At this time, we are not offering an update for Producer 2003," the blog post said. "While we continue to investigate Producer 2003, we recommend that customers either uninstall the application or apply an available Microsoft Fix It to disassociate the project file type from the application to add an extra layer of security."
The second bulletin, MS10-017, affects all currently supported versions of Microsoft Office Excel, as well as Office 2004 and Office 2008 for Mac, the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac, supported versions of Excel viewer and SharePoint 2007. A successful attack exploiting the hole would require a user to open a maliciously crafted file.
Meanwhile, the Malicious Software Removal Tool was updated to include Win32/Helpud, a Trojan that steals log-in information for popular online games.
Microsoft also re-released MS09-033, a bulletin for a hole in Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server, to add Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 to the list of affected software.
The software giant said it is continuing to monitor threats in connection with Security Advisory 981169 related to a hole in VBScript affecting older Windows systems that Microsoft disclosed publicly on March 1.
Although proof-of-concept code exploiting the hole has been released publicly, Microsoft said it was not aware of any active attacks. Customers using Windows 2000-, XP- and Server 2003-based systems are advised to apply the workarounds. Customers running Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Vista are not affected.
Updated at 1:04 p.m. PST with nCircle comment
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.
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Cisco Unveils Much Faster Crs-3 Router for Net Growth
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By Jennifer LeClaire
Cisco Systems has unveiled the CRS-3 Carrier Routing System, which it says is the foundation of the next-generation Internet. At 322 terabits per second, Cisco's CRS-3 Carrier Routing System could download the Library of Congress in just more than one second. The CRS-3 is far faster than Cisco's CRS-1, which was initially seen as too much.
The wait is over. Cisco Systems on Tuesday finally took the lid off its hype machine to reveal ... a new router. Cisco is positioning its CRS-3 Carrier Routing System as the foundation of the next-generation Internet that will pave the way for rapid growth of video transmissions, mobile devices, and new online services.
The CRS-3 offers three times the traffic capacity of the its predecessor, the CRS-1, Cisco said, and promises to accelerate the delivery of new experiences for consumers, new revenue opportunities for service providers, and new ways to collaborate in the workplace. That's a lot of hyperbole, but analysts said it's believable.
"It's too bad Cisco led up to this router announcement with so much hype. People were expecting Armageddon or something. They had this countdown timer as if something big was going to happen," said Zeus Kerravala, a vice president at Yankee Group. "At the end of the day what Cisco announced was a big, fast router. But that's what Cisco does. We expect Cisco to release bigger, faster routers. It's what they built their company history on."
Lighting-Fast Router
The Cisco CRS-3 can handle up to 322 terabits per second. To put that speed into perspective, this router would allow the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just more than one second. Or every man, woman and child in China to make a video call -- simultaneously. And every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.
The Cisco CRS-3 makes possible unified service delivery of Internet and cloud services. A Network Positioning System provides layers three to seven application information for the best path to content. And a cloud virtual private network for Infrastructure as a Service lets customers "pay as you go" for computing, storage and network resources by automating Cisco CRS-3 and Cisco Nexus Inter-Data center connections for Cisco UCS.
Those are the features and benefits on paper. But how does it work in the field? AT&T recently tested the Cisco CRS-3 in a successful completion of the world's first field trial of 100-gigabit backbone network technology, which took place in AT&T's live network between New Orleans and Miami. The results appear promising.
"We are entering the next stage of global communication and entertainment services and applications, which requires a new set of advanced Internet networking technologies. AT&T's network handled 40 percent more traffic in 2009 than it did in the previous year, and we continue to see this growth in 2010," said Keith Cambron, president and CEO of AT&T Labs. "Having leading-edge experience in managing the largest global data network, we are pleased to continue our close working relationship with Cisco and its groundbreaking Cisco CRS-3 platform."
Getting Beyond the Hype
After he removed his skeptic's hat and disregarded the hype Cisco created, Kerravala called the CRS-3 an "impressive piece of engineering." He still remembers when Cisco launched the CRS-1 and people thought it was a "crazy big box" with more bandwidth than customers really needed.
"The lesson we've learned over time is that no matter how much bandwidth you throw out there, we will find a way to consume it," Kerravala said. "Do most people care that Cisco has launched a big cool router? No, but I think what they'll care about is this: A number of years from now consumers will be able to watch multiple 3-D HDTV channels in their home and they'll be able to watch streaming media on their phone."
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Virus Update from Symantec
www.symantec.com MP3
Trojan.FakeAV!gen21 is a heuristic detection used to detect threats associated with the Trojan.FakeAV family.
Bloodhound.PDF.22 is a heuristic detection for potentially malicious files, which may exploit vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader in order to perform further malicious actions.
Bloodhound.Exploit.317 Trojan, Virus, Worm
Bloodhound.Exploit.318 Trojan, Virus, Worm
Bloodhound.Exploit.320 Trojan, Virus, Worm
Bloodhound.Exploit.321 Trojan, Virus, Worm
Backdoor.Sykipot Trojan
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And Now, a Word from Our Sponsor
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PC Backup
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