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Saturday, January 17, 2004
Terry Pratchett writes about the United States
Um I mean Borogravia, yeah... Borogravia. As seen in Monstrous Regiment. Since the latest thing is ranting against Bush's $1.5 billion marriage proposal, it's useful to mention that
As there is no wedding ring in the Bible either (what with there being no mention of a ceremony whatsoever), they didn't believe in using a ring either. Many of the Separatists later colonized... the United States. They were called... the Pilgrims. Yes, that's right, that venerated group of Mayflower passengers did not believe in marriage as a church rite. from God's Secretaries, pp. 180-181 and http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/colonial_life/pilgrims.htm So I watched the video of Space Bush. (That's why I have the 20" LCD set up with the capability to show streaming video.) Overall it sounds like a fairly sensible plan. First I have say there is a problem with space. Space is boring. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is incredibly boring, which makes it unfortunate that most of our time for the past few decades we have been sending people there. The Moon is gray rocks, dust, and dirt. Mars is red rocks, dust and dirt. This is not so very interesting unless you're a geologist. The space program also got a bit off track. The whole space shuttle thing made no sense. It makes a bit more sense now that they're putting together the space station. Also this "let's go into space so we can invent Tang" thing is a bit off the track. anyway, on to the commentary
Um, yes, in theory it's much easier to send stuff into space FROM space. However, "abundant resources"? Um, abundant rocks maybe. The moon is so devoid of resources that the best people can manage is to get excited about Helium-3 in some unlikely fusion scenario. As far as I know, it has no other major resources. The only scenario where the moon has useful stuff is if there is some ice somewhere that could provide oxygen and hydrogen. I think Near-Earth Asteroids and Comets would be much better resource candidates.
Um, of course you don't know what the breakthroughs will be. They wouldn't be breakthroughs if you did. Resources on Mars, yes. Mars is a much more sensible place from which to stage further planetary exploration. We should be going Mars mining nuts. And also with the asteroid mining. Then you're talking some reality. And in the end, I think the real reason to do this is to give people something to aspire to. Otherwise, what have we got. Bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger TVs. At some point, when we're all living in starter castles with two hummers in the driveway and 80" TVs in every room... The fundamental point is, we may be alone in the universe. Just us as technology-using, exploratory beings. That means, amongst other things, that the entire universe is up for grabs. At 100 billion galaxies, that's about 16 galaxies for every man, woman and child on earth. Feel rich yet? Friday, January 16, 2004
Finished reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It reads very much like a movie, and not surprisingly, is being made into one. I did a web search and amazingly, I didn't turn up the following, so I am sharing it with you. I worked it out when reading the book last night.
use the numbers as an index into the text
so you have V R D E O O I C which is an anagram of O DIVORCE MSDN Library - .NET Security (insert obligatory joke here) Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures Did you know you can write command-line statements to block ports using IPSecPol in Windows 2000? MS KB Article 813878: How to Block Specific Network Protocols and Ports Ignore Microsoft's ridiculously confusing use of "IPSec". Thursday, January 15, 2004
Apparently today is Personal Firewall Day. Via servergeek.net Their list of firewalls is actually not that bad. However it really is WINDOWS Personal Firewall Day. They don't have any information for non-Windows platforms. I have my collection of security software links for Windows, Mac, Linux and beyond at http://www.akerman.ca/trojan-port-table.html#Protect-Soft Apparently the days are more than we can number
from Security firms put up 'Personal Firewall Day'.
from Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO). NB Power and Hydro-Quebec also reported record electricity demand. Hydro-Québec again asks for the population's cooperation
Via OCIPEP Daily Briefing 15 January 2004. Wednesday, January 14, 2004
computer and network security - Microsoft January 2004 bulletins
For some reason, I didn't get the monthly MS security email, but anyway Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin Summary for January, 2004 There is an MDAC vulnerability, just rated "important". Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-003: Buffer Overrun in MDAC Function Could Allow Code Execution (832483) Symantec Security Response: Microsoft MDAC Function Broadcast Response Buffer Overrun Vulnerability Note that when they say "Windows Security", they're just bulletins for the core OS. MS has separate security bulletins for all of its various products. The one that is getting the most attention is for their rather uselessly named "Internet Security and Acceleration Server" Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-001: Vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000 H.323 Filter Could Allow Remote Code Execution (816458) There are accompanying, related advisories from OCIPEP, CERT, Symantec. Note that the H.323 vulnerability extends to a variety of systems other than just Microsoft. OCIPEP AV04-001: Vulnerability Issues in Implementations of the H.323 Protocol CERT® Advisory CA-2004-01 Multiple H.323 Message Vulnerabilities Symantec Security Response: Microsoft ISA Server 2000 H.323 Filter Remote Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
I expect though you may need port 1720 (H.323 host call) for other H.323 audio/video conference apps, for example according to my TCP/IP port page you need it for NetMeeting, GnomeMeeting, Netscape Conference, presumably ohphone and so on. So you may want to be careful about blocking it at your perimeter.
http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/skateway/conditions/index_e.asp Tuesday, January 13, 2004
So there are all these ads up on Bank Street. Be Web Aware they proclaim. Since I spend 99% of my time on the web, it's not clear how much more aware I could possibly be. In any case, since their site reports "Launching January 13" and I cannot help but notice that it is January 13, it seems they are not so very aware themselves. I wonder if their site is just supposed to end up at http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/web_awareness/ or if they have some more elaborate thing planned. I bet all of you net addicts didn't even know that February 19, 2004 is Web Awareness Day. Monday, January 12, 2004
New Trojan masquerades as Windows XP update Newest Trojan: Disguised to Do Damage Virus Info Library @ NAI: Downloader-GJ Symantec: Trojan.Xombe
Via OCIPEP (PSEPC) Daily Briefing. Sunday, January 11, 2004
So a 17" LCD goes for about $750 now. I have a new thinking about computers. I think they are fast enough. I think you now get more benefit from more screen realestate. Either one big monitor or two monitors side-by-side. There's an interesting thing in LCDs though. They seem to get stuck at 1280x1024. Nothing above that until a very small number of 20"+ that do 1600x1200. Witness: Dell 15" LCD E152FP (I have the older model, the E151FP): 1024x768 Dell 17" LCD (highend) 1703FP: 1280x1024 Dell 18" LCD 1800FP: 1280x1024 Dell 19" LCD 1901FP: 1280x1024 even some of the 20" models stick at 1280x1024 Dell (USA) 20" 2001FP: 1600x1200 Apple 17" LCD: 1280x1024 Apple 20" LCD Cinema Display: 1680x1050 Apple 23" LCD Cinema Display: 1920x1200 The Apple Store Canada has it for $2800. Dell USA lists one high-end model Sony 23" LCD SDM-P232W/B: 1920x1200 SonyStyle.ca shows it instore only for $4900. Dell USA also has a section on multi-screen monitors Ok, so here's the story on the 8200 motherboard. I posted to the Dell Community Support Forums and I quickly got some informative replies. A useful resource, although I still think it's a shame we have all these discussion groups scattered across so many different websites, rather than a central USENET2 where you could find everything. My thread: Dell 8200 motherboard. Another one they pointed me to: 8200 motherboard upgrade, what's a 7G535 motherboard According to them, the 7G535 motherboard being sold on eBay is the original 400MHz FSB model, regardless of what people say. So it should be fine with my CPU and RAM. I also went through the Dell troubleshooting with a nice helpful guy from India. Usual stuff with reseating all cables, reseating CPU, removing all add-ons and cables. Only scenario I hadn't thought of was a partial failure of the power supply, but I checked with an identical working one and the motherboard is still dead. The motherboard has only a few ways that it can communicate with you. There is the colour of the light on the power button in front, and there are four small LEDs, ABCD on the back. Unfortunately the light is orange and none of the LEDs are lit. I'm going to call Dell spare parts Canada, the number is 1-866-440-3355, they're only open M-F 8-8 EST. Another option would be to buy an entire used 8200 on eBay, they only run about $400 now. HOME - |