rudis dot net

Hey folks… The last day of the year begins with an early roundup of some interesting bits from around the internets:

• If you think you’re safer using your credit card at a restaurant than over the Internet, you’re very, very wrong. You need to read this one.
• How exactly does 14,800 pounds of ground beef go missing? (Brings new meaning to “Where’s the beef?”)
• Maybe the DHS should stop oppressing the average folks and take a look inward instead.

When NPR decides to delve into the murky waters of security and technology, professionals should probably take some notice:

• Marketplace reported (wait a bit for the audio associated with that blurb to be posted) on the increased dangers of identity theft predicted for 2008.
• NPR’s Morning Edition also covered identify theft and gave a brief nod to Netscape Navigator’s demise.
• At the peak, Amazon was selling 17 Wii’s per second this Christmas. That’s quite a bit of Wii.

It’s a gorgeous day out here and the posts may be few and far between for the rest of the day. Mary & I will be taking some time alone at Monsoon tonight and I’ll be sure to post some comments on the cuisine.

One last note is that EVE Online looks amazing on a 46” Sony Bravia LCD HDTV. Booted Windows XP on the MacBook Pro and hooked it up with a DVI-to-HDMI cable, piped the stereo out to the receiver and worked the controls with Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard (old school) and a Logitech wireless mouse. The Trinity expansion with the enhanced graphics make it look like you’re watching a movie. Great fun!

Happy new year everyone!

Technorati Tags: 2007 amazon beef data loss eve online htdv identity theft internet marketplace npr roundup security sony Technology wii

It’s been a tough day so far, and I’m still recovering from the MacBook Pro open heart surgery (new 320GB HD + Leopard install + BootCamp/WindowsXP/EVE Online Trinity Premium Content install last night), but here are some odds-and-ends from this morning:

• The Kindle is cooler than I thought (but Amazon is as lame as I expected)
• These two discs are not even gold plated and they still cost $500,000,000.00USD
• It’s the end of the world as we know it [for Netscape Navigator]
• Warner music just decimated Zune, Rhapsody, Napster, et al (the subscription model was never all that intelligent to begin with so these folks deserve to have their business model crushed)
• I hear they killed Kennedy and Lincoln, too

Finally, is anyone else thinking that Google may have to re-issue their 2007 Zeitgeist in light of the Bhutto assassination?

Technorati Tags: 2007 bhutto data breach e-book Google kindle leopard mozilla music netscape os x security Technology zeitgeist

MacNN purports that the iPhone is in the top five of e-disappointments this year. Part of their argument relates to the problems folks faced after they deliberately cracked the security of their device to load unsupported apps and then tried to keep up with official patches. That’s just silly.

I’ve written some poor posts, but that author really needs some time off to find that lost clue.

The Zune isn’t exactly a wholesale failure or disappointment either (tho the iPod Touch wins with a KO in round #1 of any battle between it and the Zune).

Technorati Tags: 2007 Apple e-pundit iphone iPod Microsoft Technology vista zune

Highly portable routers are nothing new. Apple’s Airport Express is a good example of a compact device which seamlessly bridges wi-fi and ethernet with an admin interface almost anyone can use. It’s disruptive - small enough to conceal anywhere - but it has a drawback - it requires a physical power connection. It’s also limited to wi-fi rage in terms of wireless connectivity.

Enter CradlePoint and their new PHS300 Personal Hotspot, an 802.11b/g access point with the ability to pair with a cell phone for 3G or utilize a USB 3G modem for internet connectivity. While interesting, those features alone do not make the device noteworthy. The killer feature of this package is the lithium ion battery which can power the whole setup. A truly portable wireless internet connection that will let you provide wi-fi to all the other folks stuck on I-5 during the AM/PM rush hour periods.

While the device is cool, I’m interested in a slightly altered configuration where it’s a 3G to ethernet bridge with the same battery. Make the configuration/administration simple enough and you’ve now got a way for anyone to setup remote access into their organization and completely decimate security and network integrity. Great tool for consultants who want to still be there once their contract is up. It’s also a great tool for corporate espionage.

NAC (network access control) may be able to save you from this one, if you implement an in-stream solution and have all of your static device assignments up-to-date and restricted to certain protocol profiles. Full network monitoring may help as well, provided you have a comprehensive understanding of all your connection and protocol usage baselines. I know my current and previous corporate network would not be safe from such a device.

If the box I’ve proposed is made and used on your network, how will you detect it? What will you do to protect your information assets? What tools are out there to help or what do we need to build in order to respond to this new “weapon”.

(via MacNN)

Technorati Tags: 2007 3G 802.11 disruptive technologies security Technology wi-fi

Google has mixed up the presence world with it’s acquisition of Jaiku. Jaiku is just like Twitter and both let you tell the world what you’re up to and listen to what the world is doing (the “world” being those users on Jaiku and those feeds you’ve asked to flow through Jaiku).

Official Google Blog: Reach out and message someone: “Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder: living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it’s more difficult to keep track of everyone when they’re running around at warp speed. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired Jaiku, a company that’s been hard at work developing useful and innovative applications for staying in touch with the people you care about most — regardless of whether you’re at a computer or on a mobile phone.”

Technorati Tags: 2007 Google Technology Array

From the Stanford News Service:

Geologists recover rocks yielding unprecedented insights into San Andreas Fault: “Altogether, the geologists retrieved 135 feet of 4-inch diameter rock cores weighing roughly 1 ton. They were brought to the surface through a research borehole drilled more than 2.5 miles into the Earth. The last of the cores was brought to the surface in the predawn hours of Sept. 7”

You think they would have learned from history:

Moria… You fear to go into those mines. The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum… shadow and flame.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Technology Array

Now I won’t have to clean the gutters in the new house, thanks to the iRobot Looj.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Gadgets robots Technology

Yesterday, I received my AT&T bill (just as poorly designed as the ones from Verizon Wireless) and noticed it was way too high. After some inspection, it was blatantly obvious they charged me an activation fee *again* for the two iPhones we purchased.

It took 30 minutes talking to a customer support rep - and eventually threatening legal action - to get it straightened out. Ultimately, they removed the charges.

So, keep an eye on those bills, especially if you decide to enroll in auto-bill pay with them.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Apple at&t cingular iphone Technology

A couple more things:

• Chat client. The need Jabber & AIM connectivity @ least. If only on wi-fi.
• Full Bluetooth headset support. I paired my Motorola HT820 stereo headset with the iPhone and could use it for phone conversations, but not for music. Just plain dumb. No good reason not to support this.

I also wasn’t thrilled that my car charger/dock that also has a line-out connector doesn’t work with the iPhone (the device said so via a nicely formatted popup). It said it was charging it, but the phone got extremely warm, so I won’t be plugging it in there again.

I also had to turn the phone on-and-off again today (day 3 of ownership) since the response from the touchscreen was almost nonexistent.

I’ll keep documenting issues/requests. It was good to see that there may be Flash support coming soon.

Technorati Tags: 2007 Apple Gadgets iphone Technology

Two additions to theprevious post:

• Streaming radio. While they claim to have support for streaming media, it’s only through certain protocols and formats. Like the Apple TV, I still cannot play iTunes-listed or manual-playlist-generated streaming radio links through the iPod portion of the iPhone. Trying to play the stream from WHYY via Safari gave me an error message as well. I don’t think folks would mind if this were limited to wi-fi only, especially given the slow EDGE speeds.
• Blogging client. While relying on internet access and site forms for blogging is not unreasonable, a local client would be much more useful (i.e. think ecto on the iPhone).

Technorati Tags: 2007 Apple Gadgets iphone Technology