Steve Speak

You probably are aware of this scam concerning wifi, as it is not new. But for OSX users, I just wanted to post a visual of it. I took this screen-shot on a recent trip while I was at the airport. As you can see, you should be looking for a network to join up where it says TELUS. If you look under ‘Computer-to-Computer Networks’ you will see ‘Free Public WiFi’ and ‘tmobile’. Both of these are scams. They are probably people sitting in the airport with their personal sharing turned on, waiting for someone to connect to the Internet through them. They can then capture packets of data, and look for people logging into services. Many services an average user might connect to are not all that secure (ie: properly encrypted passwords, etc.). They snag this info and then can use it.

Even if you connect to an actual router… such as ‘TELUS’, it could still be a scam. However, it is certainly more complicated to to setup that scam. Also, if you are somewhere such as an airport, there are usually advertisements as to what the name of the service is you should be seeing.

Also, just to be safe, whenever you are in a place using a Internet connection other than your own, be aware of what kind of services and things you sign into. The big problem is that many people check their e-mail, which is not a super-secure thing to do. While you can’t ever make yourself totally safe, you can prevent a lot of problems with just a bit of care.

Well, I guess it’s morning officially. In a few hours, Apple will be pulling the covers off whatever they have been teasing us about. The interesting thing is that I’m really not sure what to expect this year. In years past, I had been waiting on various products to be released…. especially on the computer front. This year, Apple already has the best computers on the market across the board. There really isn’t anything for them to do in that category. So, speculation seems to be that most of the announcements will be in the home theatre / phone category. I’m sure we’ll also see a bunch of nifty software released, as we usually do at January MacWorld. I’ll be roving the floor at the show later this week… maybe I’ll post some pics from it.

You never can be too safe living in the on-line world of today. If you read the ‘tech’ web sites, you are assured to find some article about a new exploit endangering your cyber existence. Even if you don’t follow the tech news, you would pretty much have to live in isolation of the media in order to be unaware of the dangers of the wiley wide web.

Heck, even us Mac users have been perking up and paying attention… over the last year security firms have found spots in OSX where a skillful hacker *could* potentially have caused us some problems. We’ve not seen a virus yet, so it’s not like panic has set in or anything… but one always has to be on guard. Some Mac users even go so far as to install anti-virus software, just in case!

But, while I was perusing some of those ‘tech’ sites this morning, I ran across a totally new approach. Duh! It seems M$’s Windows co-president, Jim Allchin, found a MUCH more simple way to avoid all these problems.

WARNING: Don’t read further if you are not sitting down….

It seems that Jim has actually unleashed his 7-year-old son…. to surf the net…. on a Windows machine…. WITHOUT anti-virus software! GASP!

OK… if you’re still with me… before you go into a state of shock, read on…

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193700656

“Honestly, he doesn’t have an antivirus system on his machine. His machine is locked down with parental controls, he can’t download things unless it’s to the places that I’ve said that he could do, and I’m feeling totally confident about that,” Allchin said. “That is quite a statement. I couldn’t say that in Windows XP SP2.”

Man, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. All you have to do is lock down your computer with parental controls, so you can only go to a few known good web locations…. and you’re safe. How amazing is that?! Maybe he should patent the idea.

However, what I find even more amazing is that last sentence. Apparently, to get this safety, you’ll have to buy Vista (oh, and probably a new computer which can run Vista). I guess previous versions of Windows can catch a virus just by thinking about the Internet.

Well folks… there you have it. A simple solution from the great minds at M$. All you have to do is give them a couple hundred bucks…. buy a new computer… and lock down your parental controls for a 7-year-old… and you’re safe.

Oh, I guess the only thing I need to figure out now is how you determine the ‘safe list’ of web sites. Maybe Jim will be distributing this? Or, I guess you can call one of your friends with Mac.

But Jim, I have an even more simple solution…. why not just get a Mac and save yourself several hundred $.

(OK… I promise to write about something besides picking on M$ soon. But, they just make it so easy… ‘like shooting fish in a barrel’ I think the saying goes.)

ComputerWeekly just named Steve Jobs the greatest IT person of all times. He even beat out Bill Gates, who came in 3rd. Many will think this is just silly, but really… read the article. I think it is a well deserved honor. While he had a LOT of help… without his vision and drive, much of what we now know in the the IT world would not exist, or probably be greatly delayed.

ComputerWeekly article

My only question… where is my name?

I just ran across this article on Apple’s security problems. From the press lately, you’d think the sky was falling. Thankfully, John Welch has written this excellent article on what this really means, and some tips to help protect yourself. To sum it up, no, the sky isn’t falling chicken little. I especially liked the idiots who added a 3rd party wifi card to a MacBook, and then hacked it (so that makes what? one MacBook like this in the entire universe?… what dorks.)

http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193001536

This week, I was a bit bummed about some issues Apple has been experiencing with their new MacBook Pro and MacBook models. It turns out that some manufacturing problems have lead to CPUs running hot (due to thermal paste application issues), and some problems with fan bearings. In one case, some plastic was left covering the back vents.

It became personal when I ran into the fan issue on the MacBook Pro that was issued to me at my job (YAY!). I ended up having to take it into the Apple Store to be repaired, and am currently awaiting its return. It’s not a big issue, mind you. Though, any day away from a new Mac can be quite traumatic (as any Mac user can attest).

However, I found that things could certainly be a lot worse. Sure, Apple has a problem now and then, but they are generally very good about fixing problems. And even with the problems, their products are still on par, or superior in quality to just about anything else on the market.

Case in point… I wonder how much press Dell will get compared to Apple on this one?

This photo is from the following article:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550

The laptop was apparently set up at a conference table, when it ‘exploded’ into flames. Good thing it wasn’t on someone’s lap. Think about that the next time you’re sitting on the couch surfing the web! Yikes!

Now I’m certainly not saying that non-Apple laptops explode or burst in flames on a regular basis (not counting the Windows OS in a figurative sense, which happens VERY often). But, the types of issues Apple users tend to see are not uncommon at all with other higher end vendors, and very mild compared to the lower priced brands PC users are quick to refer to when comparing to Apple.

So, I’ll not complain too much about a bit of bearing noise in a fan… and a week away from the new little Mac… sniff, sniff. And even though Apple is getting quite a bit of press on ‘issues’ with their new laptop line… we just have to put it all into perspective.

Well Christmas and the Holiday season were going nicely this year… busy but I got some actual time off and I was really enjoying that. I’m certainly behind in my posting and editing the Intelligent Design article I had planned. But, 2005 went out in a bit of a wild way here in the Bay area. We got rain… lots of rain! It was the start of a rather different New Years event than I have experienced before.

I had come home around midnight from a day playing Gran Turismo 4 with a friend and parked Trixie (hey… you folks didn’t come up with a better name… don’t you feel bad now?) in her usual parking spot on the street curb by our apartment.

About 4am on Dec 31st, we were woken by doorbell and pounding on our door. Fortunately, it was a neighbor who had got up for some reason and noticed that things were being flooded. At the time, there was no water in our actual parking lot, but street was beginning to flood. Several of us ran to our cars to get them out of the street… the parking between our buildings is space limited, but on a bit higher ground.

Well, soon we realized that it was coming up into that area too, but the street would have been over Trixie’s dash for sure! As the water level got higher, we soon realize that our cars might still be in trouble… but there was no where else to go. Then we began to be concerned about our actual apartments. Our apartment is on the 2nd floor, but many of our neighbors were in possible trouble. We were house sitting the 1st floor apartment below us.

We watched the water level closely and it crept up steps, step by step. It was about 1 inch from invading the 1st floor apartments, when it stopped rising. It slowly began to drop. Some people had actually started to move 1st floor things to 2nd floor. We were all pretty tired from the excitement, yet no one could sleep as it was still raining, but it had slowed for sure.

In a couple hours, the water had dropped another inch or so, and it was beginning to get light. We could see more damage at this point and debris floating around. We were certainly lucky compared to many others in our community who lost homes, business, and lots of cars. I think 170 businesses in San Anselmo were badly damaged or destroyed. I heard a number of $50 million in damage being mentioned in this small town while I was out the other day.

Trixie did take some damage. There is about 2 inches of height difference between the door sill of the Miata and our Civic. The Civic was fine, but the Miata got an Inch or so of water on its floor. It initially started fine, but after driving a bit, wasn’t running so well, and the engine and ABS lights are on. I’m hoping after it is dried out, it is just something simple like water splashed in the spark plugs, or O2 sensor and brake pad sensors for ABS. Time will tell… she is at the shop now.

So, while this is not the start to the New Year I had been hoping for, I still have to be thankful for what we have. It could have been MUCH worse. Gave us just a small glimpse into what so many have gone through over this last year. Let’s hope this year is much better for the world in regard to natural disasters.

Here are some photos I snapped when it got light out. It was at least 3 inches higher at its peak level… maybe more.

Well…. I am REALLY behind in writing blogs lately. I have been just swamped with work from every angle. However, as this is the one month anniversary of my last blog (oh my… the horror… the horror), I decided to send the world a laugh I ran across. Maybe you will forgive me then???

http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/28888/

Hopefully everyone hasn’t already seen this… but I thought it was pretty funny.

OK, so we have heard about some pretty wacky lawsuits over the years. It seems like there are a never ending supply of stupid (ops… I mean common sense and ethically challenged) people looking to make some free cash at someone else’s expense. You know what I’m talking about… people driving with coffee and then suing because it was hot and burned them… or people suing an auto or aircraft maker because they lost control while driving drunk. I could go on and on.

Well, here we have another one I ran across, and it pretty much blew me away again. Think maybe we should take up a collection to send Ms Bay home to the comet? ;o)

“Russian sues Nasa for comet upset” article.

Well… at least it’s good for a laugh or two.

In the coming Windows Vista (the OS formerly known as Longhorn… Mmoooo!), Microsoft is promising the ability to access applications and desktops over the Internet without a virtual private network.

Considering their past and current track record, is anyone but me just a tad nervous about trusting M$ to VPN their data around the internet?

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1842176,00.asp