Kilo Seven

Incredible, simply incredible. It costs 2 cents a minute to connect to Iraq. ATT charges 21 cents a minute and has a monopoly in doing so. That's a 950% profit, taken out of the pockets of GIs. GIs with families often are so poor, they're on food stamps. Should ATT change their slogan to "Reach Out and Rip Off Someone"?

Here's a WOU/OSU research team flight-testing an atomic rocket engine on NASA's C-9 null-gee flying testbed . More about the C-9 here and here .

To: sites@securecomputing.com Subject: Remove from all lists, completely Ref: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/27/isps_in_iran_tunisia.html Ref: http://www.bloglines.com/citations?siteid=66&itemid=16801 Dear Secure Computing: You're blocking access to the ARRL website for users of your dumbware, SmartFilter? You have GOT to be kidding. Amateur Radio is a vital resource of national Red Cross / Red Crescent societies at the local , state , national and international levels, and is partnered with the federal Department of Homeland Security. Countless MOUs (Memorandum Of Understanding) document the value of Amateur Radio to local, state and national government agencies. Amateur radio operators need constant web access to get essential information in and out of disaster areas, yet YOU want to choke off access through including such sites as www.arrl.org www.rac.ca www.eham.net www.qrz.com www.qsl.net Maybe you haven't heard of the Boxing Day Tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina, Rit...

The OCR system used in vote-by-mail in Oregon has the lowest error rate of all systems' surely lower than the voting machines profiled here .

Ever wonder about the post-cash-register checkpoints at stores like Fry's, CompUSA, et al? One blogger's experience with excessive zeal by those loss-prevention checkers led me to an article from a loss prevention specialist who outlines do's and don'ts for legal and professional conduct by same . You can, apparently, Just Say No.

The next time you hear some politico blithering about 'spectrum' and 'compatability' for emergency responder radio, you'll understand how clueless they are if you've read this article . Don't coast on these excepts; there's a lot more meat in the entire article.. There are many lessons to be learned from how emergency communications performed, or failed to perform, in the wake of Katrina. The debate is burdened by a weighty status quo, bureaucratic politics, and the inescapable fact that emergency response most often is a local function, divided up among more than 60,000 state, county and city jurisdictions nationwide. {SNIP} But no one perfect frequency exists for all emergency communications; firefighters prefer the brick-and-concrete-penetrating abilities of lower frequencies, for example. No single frequency band can meet the public safety demand. {SNIP} Katrina, however, drives concerns about emergency communications down to an even more basic leve...

Handy site, this: A ranking of CDR/DVDR quality .

The Burning Man set have upgraded plans for making Geodesic Domes from recycled shipping cartons . If you need expedient shelter, or want to add something to keep you dry to your 72-hour kit, these look interesting.

Here's a link to report splogs and other spam you find from a Google search to Google, thanks to the GregHughes blog .

Disposable e-mail addresses : Use once, get another. Spammer's mail goes nowhere. Everybody's happy. Spammers delenda est!

Gettin' tired of the OWIE (Office-Windows-InternetExploder) Critical Security Breach of the week club? Well, some public-spirited folks have made it easy to migrate away from who-knows-what-ware from M$ and onto software which is actually documented , down to the source code, so professionals can figure out if it's safe. Folks like SourceForge (a project of OSDN out in Beaverton) figure they'll make a buck if they give you their software, profiting from customizing it and supporting it. That also includes OpenOffice , a competent suite of free programs which reads and writes Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and does much, much more. And, here's a head start on learning OpenOffice: Free downloadable training videos . Free is a very good price.

When you post from a computer not your own, the data you send to your e-mail service can be monitored and recorded. Here's details on how (simply!) to encrypt all that you send up and pull down when you use Google's free e-mail service , Google Mail (AKA gMail ).

Apparently Linksys has changed the underlying operating system of its very popular WRT54G wireless router. Versions 4 and previous used Linux, and quite the cottage industry sprung up improving on the original code (including, of all things, running the open source Asterisk PBX to give you a VOIP home telephone exchange). Now, version 5 of the WRT54G is said no longer to run Linux . Aarrgh. Peter Rysavy found the serial numbers for v4 begin with CDFA and the serial numbers of v5 begin with CDFB Version 4 also has a faster CPU and more flash RAM than previous versions, so version 4 is the way to go. Of course, other wireless routers use the same Broadcom chipset which allows use of the Sveasoft and other mod code, so Linksys may see sales of an otherwise marvelous product drop, at least as far as the digerati are concerned.

Here's a working map of cellular tower sites for Oak Grove & vicinity. This Cell Phone Tower Search website does all the heavy lifting to find the towers in the FCC database and plot them in Google.

Decent wireless security depends on WPA, for the older WEP security systems (whether 40-bit or 128-bit) are useless in preventing any curious and bright grade schooler on your block from hacking in and accessing everything you do over the network. Really. Not to mention any aficianado of informally acquired methamphetamine who happens to be driving by with a laptop and a wireless card. If the FBI can do it in three minutes , how long do you think it would take a teenager? WPA-PSK , the version of WPA which does not require special hardware, instead needs a very, very random number used as a 'key.' Fortunately, doyen utility publisher Steve Gibson now makes available a good random key generator to make that part easy.

Inquiring minds wanted to know, I guess. Gotta love this finding (from the abstract) : ... certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason. However, I must take exception with their claim that The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations. for mobile telephony in North America primarily uses 824MHz-894MHz and 1850-1990MHz frequencies. Think they need a better grade of tinfoil.

EggsHam is a freeware test drill program for US hams, now with the updated question set. Whether you are working on your first Technician license, or want to step up to the General or Extra tickets, this freeware program is extremely useful. It contains every question in the Question Pool, and throws them at you randomly, scoring after you complete the test and showing you the errors.

Play RISK(TM) on line using Google Maps . Kewl. Now, where's Freedonia ?

This Washington Post article details how badly 911 failed in Katrina.

Futureme will, free of charge, send an e-mail to you, or someone else, at a specific date in the future.

Tired of paying through the nose for absurdly spendy hardware plus signing away your firstborn with a multi-yaron 'contract' for cellular service? Then, look at this DIY Cellphone project up in Pugetopolis , and another one here .

I've been pondering how to explain the immensity of the evil which Sony Music has done to any Windows user who has bought a CD from any of their record labels (which include Arista, BMG, Columbia, Epic, J, RCA, RCA Victor, SunComm). Then, Dr. Jerry Pournelle, and authentic Rocket Scientist, former Presidential Advisor and whose work on computing I've trusted for a quarter century, sends me this. No way I can top it. Yes. he's serious, and 100% accurate. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jerry Pournelle Date: Nov 4, 2005 8:57 PM Subject: A Chaos Manor Root Kit Warning (1) To: Jerry Pournelle This is a Chaos Manor Warning. I would be shouting if I were not concerned that it would trigger your spam filters. You may or may not be familiar with the Sony Music CD Root Kit problem. Let me begin with the warning: do not buy or install any Sony Music CD on your PC. The records play just fine on other systems. There's no problem with Mac or Linux or with self conta...

Junior asks his dad, "Daddy, how was I born?" His dad, who is a software engineer sighs and replies, "Ah, my son, I guess one day you would have to find out anyway!" "Well, you see your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on MSN. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, but it was too late to hit the delete button." "Six weeks later your mom sent me an instant message saying that her operating system was showing signs of unauthorized program activity from a self extracting file which had implanted itself in her BIOS. Then nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared and said: 'You've Got Male'!" ( Found, somewhere, I ain't tellin' ) ________________________

The Siemens Audiology Group here offers a hearing test . Flash must be installed on your computer, and you must use headphones, earphones or earbuds, but not speakers.

This map lets you see which Oregon and Washington stations have adopted HD Radio . HD Radio adds extra signals within or near the edge of the analog radio signals we've been using forever, for improved sound quality. Not only are the digital signals stronger in town, but they're also longer lasting.

Quick website calculation of distance and bearing using longitude & latitude (decimalized, or degrees-minutes-seconds). Handy stuff, as is this map site, which shows topographic maps (here showing No Name City, from Kellogg Lake at the top, down to Oatfield Hill at the bottom of the frame) at eleven different levels, from 1:3,333 to 1:1,000,000. Enter the location on this page to get a small map, then resize it to any of three different on screen dimensions, and then scale up and down as needed. Click on any element on the map to recenter it where you clicked.

Is your software approved by Big Brother...err, the FBI?

Here's a researcher who's seriously studying fine-tuning the power nap as a substitute for eight hours of Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs. If you have not sussed out power napping, this eeper will eep at you if you nod off while motoring . But, if you live in Pugetoplis (Seattle/Puget Sound area), you're weary of I-5, the world's fastest parking lot (and, what about the pavement change at the King-Pierce county line, eh?) One approach is to measure your misery & see just how bad the traffic is on your Palm . But, instead, you can take the bus, and leave the driving to Sound Transit, who now provide free WiFi on (some) city buses . WWRKT ( What Would Ralph Kramden Think ?)

Communicating with mobile phones in disaster areas despite system overload ( updated 2006-07-20 ) SMS, Short Message Service, or text messaging, will work over intermittant and often even overloaded connections, to get messages in and out of congested areas to/from mobile phones. It's worked transcontinentally to save lives , and help evacuate thousands from harm's way . Learn it . eMail-to-phone Don't have an SMS-ready cellphone yourself? You can e-mail from a computer to an SMS-capable phone. Here's E-mail to SMS addressing for major carriers: AreaCode+MobileNumber @alltelmessage.com Alltel AreaCode+MobileNumber @message.alltel.com Alltel ( alternate ) AreaCode+MobileNumber @mmode.com former AT&T users on Cingular AreaCode+MobileNumber @mobile.celloneusa.com Cellular One 1+AreaCode+MobileNumber @mobile.mycingular.com Cingular AreaCode+MobileNumber @page.nextel.com Nextel AreaCode+MobileNumber @omnipointpcs.com OmnipointPCS AreaCode+Mobi...

If you ever access Hotmail from a machine shared with others, you are very vulnerable to this attack. The full message is at Totse.com , which I have not yet caught in any bloopers. Here's a summary: MSN Hotmail users, guard your cookies . A simple technique for accessing Microsoft's free e-mail service without a password is in the wild and could be easily exploited. The trick involves capturing a copy of the victim's browser cookies file. Once the perpetrator gains two key Hotmail cookies, there's no way to lock him out because at Hotmail, cookies trump even passwords. What's scary about this is that once they have your cookies, they have your account forever. Even if you change your password, they can still get in. {snip} But even with the expiration option enabled at its most secure setting, testing showed that a cookie could be exported to another computer and still used to authenticate a password-less Hotmail login 24 hours later. There's little Microsof...

Amazon's just announced a new new web site for Palmphones and other mobile websurfers . Price comparison in stores just became much, much easier.

TrendNet announced on 12 July a combo 802.11b/g USB adapter with a difference; it's also a WiFi detector, and shows hotspots on its own LCD. Its internal battery for detection purposes is recharged when you plug it back into a laptop of desktop. Kewl.

Unpatched, Critical Flaw Found In Windows XP Washington Post, 15 July 2005, Brian Krebs on Computer Security Security researchers have uncovered a potentially serious security hole in Windows XP and Windows XP Professional that could allow skilled attackers to take over vulnerable computers, even PCs equipped with the latest Microsoft software patches and running the built-in Windows firewall. {snip} The problem resides in the Windows "Remote Desktop," which lets users configure remote access to their computer. By default, the Microsoft firewall built into the Windows XP Service Pack 2 update is configured to deny connections from the Internet for remote desktop. But remote desktop shares the same vulnerable Microsoft programming code as "Remote Assistance" -- a service designed to allow Microsoft and other technicians to troubleshoot problems on Windows machines from afar. And the bad part is that the remote assistance program is automatically allowed to bypass t...

This just makes too damn much sense not to do it... Use a consistant acronym 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) to store contact data for the folks who should know when you're hurt, in your cellphone, computer and other digitized Address Book programs. It's such a simple idea, but could be really helpful in an emergency, as it saves EMS & ER staff time, and helps make sure a patient's loved ones are contacted ASAP. My PalmPhone has an extensive Notes section, and supplement the ICE data, with emergency medical data in its NOTES section attached to the address (leading with my MD's contact information, followed by medications and conditions). And, yes, I have this in my wallet, too; but, I'll wager that, given my wallet and my PalmPhone, that any stranger will find it in the cellphone first, and the cellphone can carry a lot more useful info. This is the kind of thing best spread by 'viral marketing'; you tell your family, they tell their friends, fo...

Blank Administrator Password on OEM Windows XP Installation Summary: DELL OEM XP Professional has a default hidden administrator account, with no password set. Use of this account will allow anyone with physical access to the computer to fully control the computer, add spyware, keystroke loggers, password stealing software and read all files, including temp files, local files, documents, and any email that has been stored locally. Details at http://www.securiteam.com/windowsntfocus/5KP091PGBO.html Thanks to Robert Bruce Thompson , author of PC HARDWARE IN A NUTSHELL.

Google Maps keeps getting more and more useful, quickly surpassing in both utility and elegance the other mapping websites. The publication of their API lets anyone create specialty maps, decribed in these reports , and sites are sprouting up all over which share information on how to do this , or provide excellent examples (like this map of free Portland WiFi ). One not included therein is this Gmaps Pedometer site (or http://tinyurl.com/8a7g3 if you like Tiny URLs). Click on your starting point, on every waypoint along the way, and then your destination; the site will then calculate the distance travelled in your Morning Constitutional. You can also download Google's Toolbar for Firefox which now turns street addresses into links to Google Maps. Many thanks to Sue and Paul Drouin Degnan who created this jewel , and extra special thanks to D. D. for many, many things entirely unrelated .

One of my favorite blogs, BoingBoing , today mentioned a most delightful device: a USB MP3 car-stereo with SD reader , the CA-5555 . from H&B . Of course, there's no telling which Chinese factory actually designed and made it..... but here's the spec sheet, en Anglais (PDF format) . This jewel has, not only an ISO-standard sized AM/FM receiver to pop into your dash, but also slots for SD/MMC cards and USB memory drives, so you can load a card or thumbdrive with your tunes and tune out Commercial Radio. Must find a US vendor, as all the dealers so far offering it are across the pond .

The Esteemed First Blogger , rocket scientist and Campbell and Promethius awards winner , Dr. Jerry Pournelle , stumbled across a nice bit of shareware while looking into external USB HD backup system failures: Error Messages for Windows . The author describes it as: a small utility that will allow you to look up MS Windows error code numbers and display a descriptive message explaining what the numeric code actually means. If you have software programs that produce numeric error codes now you can find out what they really mean. Not shabby.

Firefox/Mozilla speed enhancements for broadbanders 1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries: browser.turbo.enabled network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading. 2. Alter the entries as follows: Set "browser.turbo.enabled" to "true" Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true" Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true" Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once. 3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on inform...

If you use a PDA to read-ebooks, here's a freebie: eReader will offer a free eBook daily in July . This is nothing new: Baen Books found that by making eBooks freely available, the paperback and hardback sales of those same books increased . Here's Eric Flint, one of the authors who gave away his own eBooks, describing the methodology he used to study this, and his conclusions as to why free eBooks boosted his sales. Cory Doctorow also offers his novels for free download under the Creative Commons license at his website , simultaneously with their publication in dead-tree form.