Kilo Seven

A philanthropic hacker asked, on the web, for the money to buy all the Federal USGS maps, which were public domain but which the USGS would not freely provide. He got his money, bought the files, and now makes them available on the web for free. One of the many programs which read is available for free download here .

The National Weather Services has a report on their tracking and prediction of Hurrican Katrina . Interesting reading.

Over four million Dell laptops with batteries made by Sony are being recalled. Check that second link to see if your model is included.

In a rare alert, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has urged Windows users to plug a potential worm hole in the Microsoft operating system. The agency, which also runs the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), sent out a news release on Wednesday recommending that people apply Microsoft's MS06-040 patch as quickly as possible. The software maker released the "critical" fix Tuesday as part of its monthly patch cycle. Details here . The ISO image file of all August patches is available here if you do not trust Microsoft and wish to avoid installing, say, Windows Genuine Disadvantage on your machine through Automatic Update.

I am not kidding. Knock on your laptop... and run commands. Of course, it requires Linux.

Subject: Re: [QRP-L] A Miscommunication Story -- 2nd corrected version Here's a perfect example of why hams need to a) Continue supporting Morse Code... for could a voice signal gotten through ? b) Continue educating, and in this case re-educating, the 'authorities', to make sure they understand our capabilities. c) Continue sharpening our other skills, e.g., GPS and co-ordinate systems (the subject of last night's Clackamas ARES meeting , BTW, Ain't guaranteed to be easy. Neither are many other ways to save lives. We do it anyway. (Redaction of names by blog editor for privacy.) Thanks for your interest, K***. I've just finished a telephone conversation with Deputy F**** R**** of the Okanogan County Sheriff Department, who clarified some points raised in my piece. Here is the corrected version: Late in the afternoon of Saturday, August 5, 2006, my wife Margaret and I were hiking up the connector trail to the Snowy Lakes from the Pacific Crest National Sc...

Patch Tuesday was yesterday, and here are the ISO Images of the August patches. For details I'll explain later, it's much better to download the patches yourself and then apply them... better for YOU, anyway.

A year later, not much has changed in Louisiana . One minor example: Relying on "beefed-up" cell towers for communications in a major disaster, as the gov't official interviewed does, is ludicrous. Cell towers have one, maybe two T-1 lines, permitting 24-48 phone calls in an area with, typically, 5,000 cell phones per square mile.

Clackablog: 9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes