Kilo Seven

Originally posted 2004-06-18: Here's a site (was: http://gmailmachine.mmgn.com - gone now); which, if you like the 1 in 30,000 odds and don't mind the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome, allows you to gamble on winning a Gmail account. Groovy. And, here's another similar site . It's cheaper than the Oregon Lottery, and to my mind, more entertaining.

This month's M$ Security Updates show multiple security patches . Please make sure to apply all the relevant patches, today. Secunia reports yet another IE security vulnerability . Solution: Find another web browser or turn off JavaScript and ActiveX. There are security bugs in Word and Messenger as well. Bill Gates: "Our software should be so fundamentally secure that customers never even worry about it." Uh-huh.

If you enjoy listen to folks talk about tech, this web link leads to a list of radio and Internet talkshows on technology.

Looking for a way to make WiFi reach further? Here's the improvizations of a New Zealand ham who's done rather well with off-the-shelf hardware. In spite of wind susceptibility & carrying weight, pressed steel parabolic woks have also emerged as suitable homemade WiFi dishes.

The BBC (hardly a bastion of conservative thought) here reports the Sun is at a 1,000-year high of sunsports (a key indicator of how much radiation the Sun emits). Gee, if the Sun's hotter than usual, could that explain 'global warming'? Perhaps it can, if it's really happening... for the key study which claims it's underway has been 'corrected' because of collation errors, unjustifiable truncation or extrapolation of source data, obsolete data, geographical location errors, incorrect calculation of principal components and other quality control defects... poor data handling, obsolete data and incorrect calculation of principal components. So, we're actually no warmer now than in the 15th Century, according to the true data. This surprises me not, for I remember from history class the Perfidous Brits hauling cannon on sledges across the frozen Hudson River to defend Staten Island in 1779 ... and, when was the last time the Hudson froze that s...

YAIESR (Yet Another Internet Explorer Security Risk): OWIE (Outlook, Windows, and Internet Explorer)! (updated 7-07, original post 6-30) As per Robert Bruce Thompson , author of O'Reilly's extremely useful PC HARDWARE IN A NUTSHELL : The SANS Internet Storm Center has announced yet another critical exploit against Internet Explorer, this one related to the Browser Helper Objects (BHO) commonly used by banks (Note: and other web sites) to extend the functionality of IE. This exploit subverts SSL and HTTPS security to give the malefactor access to passwords and other account information. For details, see: SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Institute report Tech Republic report This exploit is still more confirmation that the focus of these attacks has changed. Until recently, most viruses/worms/Trojans were mere vandalism perpetrated largely by teenage script kiddies looking for a cheap thrill. Most malware/spyware was, if sometimes skating gray areas of t...