***ORIGINALLY POSTED 30NOV08***
So my son, the one who is in speech therapy because he doesn't speak English, the one who will probably have to be put into a special preschool so that he can start kindergarten on time, shocked the crap out of me today. He was running around playing in the living room and looked up and noticed that my desktop was being used. I was remoted in from my laptop so I could manage some files and he could see what I was doing on the screen. He immediately ran over to me and looked at my laptop screen and could see that I was controlling the desktop. He looked at my monitor then pointed at the desktop and said something. It sounded important, but I don't speak his language. He then ran off doing whatever he had been doing before the interruption.
What stunned me was that he recognized that something was going on on the computer and that someone had to be controlling it. How does he have any frame of reference for this? How does he know that it's not just another "TC"? (His word for TV. Since he can't seem to close his mouth to form words, he alters them to sound close enough to the actual word but so he doesn't have to close his mouth.) How did he know that because something was happening on the desktop and his Mommy wasn't sitting there doing it that someone else had to be doing it?
More importantly how do I foster this? It's apparent that my kids are above average smart. Aurora sees patterns in things almost as fast as I do, and I see them faster than anybody I know. I'm not trying to be a braggart, I am genuinely concerned. My parents did a pretty decent job raising me. When I was younger they both worked with me to learn reading and math. Interestingly my Mom taught me to do things quite a bit differently than they taught in school, and it worked better. I got in trouble for doing math the way my Dad taught because I could shortcut out the work. My teachers would get pissed because I didn't show them HOW I got the right answer. It didn't matter that the answer was right, they wanted to see me get there. But when I was older, ten or eleven on up, they really couldn't spend time working on that kind of stuff. My brother was in the picture and they were getting divorced. Hell, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have done them any good even if they HAD the time. I did some stupid shit when I was younger and it saddens me to realize that I am just now beginning to realize the potential I once had. Hindsight is 20/20 they say. It's too bad foresight isn't at least 20/30. I see parents who stay at home and do nothing but push their kids, constantly teaching them new things, constantly testing them. And their kids are smart. But my kids are almost as smart (actually smarter in some areas) as they are and they don't have the benefit of the wife and I staying home and pandering to their every desire. Although you look at those kids as they grow up and you see that they may have book smarts, but not much else. What is the right mixture of teaching them intellectually and then teaching them about life? I saw a comic where the character said "Hold on a second... my common sense is tingling." The caption underneath - "Common sense: so rare it's a god damned super power." And it's really quite true. I've got a lot of common sense, but my wife makes me look like a dunce in that department. However, I've got her beat hands down in the intellectual stuff, generally speaking. I think that our kids will have the perfect mix of the two. Although Aurora sure has some problems with the common sense stuff sometimes. But then again, what six year old doesn't?
Another interesting thing to take from this. I talked to my Mom about what happened and she said something that gave me pause. "Kids are way more perceptive and intuitive than we give them credit for. Unfortunately we dumb it out of them." It's really true. When I was but a young lad one of my favorite games was Trivial Pursuit. I just barely met the minimum age required and I didn't really do great when we played, but I loved playing it. I learned so many things from those questions. I could beat the pants off anyone my age or even a few years older, but my parents generally won. I also became a walking encyclopedia of useless trivia. (Although I am learning that trivia isn't nearly as useless as I once thought. But I digress.) The point of this little side note is that I was watching "TC" the other night and saw a commercial for the "All new" Trivial Pursuit.... with Easy, Medium, and Hard questions. From a marketing aspect I guess it makes sense for them to do that. Nobody is smart anymore, in fact you are hated and feared if you are smarter than the status quo. But it just goes to show how we are dumbing this country down more and more. Have you watched that show "Are you smarter than a fifth grader"? It's truly sad how stupid some of the contestants are. Now some of the questions are a bit unfair (how many of us need to know the capitals of every state in the U.S. anymore?) but in general they go to show what a sad state of affairs we are in. What is causing this? On the outside it appears that our schools are getting better. My daughter comes home with homework in first grade that I don't remember doing until third or fourth grade. Yet she is missing some of the most basic steps in learning. Our kids are being bombarded with learning so much so fast that they are missing the foundational blocks needed to truly *understand* what it is that they are learning. They are taught to recognize words by sight instead of learning things like phonics so that they can learn HOW to pronounce the word. While this is fantastic at first, you realize later that when confronted with words they haven't seen before, they have no idea even where to begin trying to figure out the word. But they can program their DVRs to make sure not to miss a single episode of Spongebob Squareshorts. How do we get back to the fundamentals yet keep them abreast of the changing times?
I sure don't know the answer, but I am going to find out. Let me know if you've got it figured out.
16 January 2011
Repost - Obama's Inaugural Speech Pisses of the Xians
***ORIGINALLY POSTED 23JAN09***
So during Obama's inaugural speech, he actually said something that gave me a modicum of respect for him.
"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers."
Holy rusted metal, Batman! This sent the Xians (specifically African-American ones, interestingly enough) into a fucking tizzy. They are repeating that our country was founded on Christianity alone. Last I checked (which was right now) the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence says nothing about the Christian religion. The Declaration refers to a Creator and Nature's God. Neither of those are specifically Judeo-Christian, lots of religions - in fact almost all of them - have a creator of some sort. The words God or Christ(ian) do not appear anywhere in the Constitution. Oh, and the Pledge of Allegiance? Yeah, the words "under God" weren't added until 22 April 1951 and it wasn't done by the gov't, it was done by the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternity of wannabe Masons). It wasn't made law until 14 June 1954. LONG after the founding of our country.
I'm also pretty sure that this nation was specifically founded so that it's people could be free to practice religion they way they saw fit, which includes not at all. Not just Christianity. If that was the case, Catholics wouldn't be allowed either (seeing as how it was the Catholic church they were running from). Although it's funny that they make comments like this:
The Rev. Cecil Blye, pastor of More Grace Ministries Church in Louisville, Ky., said the president's reference to nonbelievers also set off major alarm bells for him. "It's important to understand the heritage of our country, and it's a Judeo-Christian tradition,"’ period.
The heritage of our country was actually non-Judeo-Christian. About as far from J-C as you can be, as a matter of fact. Apparently it's easy to forget that our "founding fathers" were actually immigrants to begin with. The original heritage of our country is Native American and they worshiped their ancestors and animal spirits. Some worshiped a "Great Spirit" but it sure as fuck wasn't the Judeo-Christian "God". It was probably a lot friendlier and less narcissistic. So before we start spouting off about the "heritage of our country" lets try to remember the truth of the matter. It was your God in whose name the conquistadors and the puritans enslaved and destroyed indigenous peoples from Canada to Argentina and back again.
Oh, and that was just this continent. Let's not forget St. Patrick. Or the Inquisitions, any one of 'em. What about the holocaust? Yeah, Hitler tried to eradicate the Jews in God's name, too. Actually, pretty much every atrocity and major war since the origin of your religion has been done in God's name. So before you get all sanctimonious about this country having a Judeo-Christian heritage, why don't you think about what that has wrought. Hell, maybe we need some non-believers running things for a while, we might actually get something worthwhile accomplished. Look what happened the last time we had an Evangelical in office. Oh yeah, that was Bush and we've been at war pretty much his entire tenure... interesting.
So during Obama's inaugural speech, he actually said something that gave me a modicum of respect for him.
"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers."
Holy rusted metal, Batman! This sent the Xians (specifically African-American ones, interestingly enough) into a fucking tizzy. They are repeating that our country was founded on Christianity alone. Last I checked (which was right now) the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence says nothing about the Christian religion. The Declaration refers to a Creator and Nature's God. Neither of those are specifically Judeo-Christian, lots of religions - in fact almost all of them - have a creator of some sort. The words God or Christ(ian) do not appear anywhere in the Constitution. Oh, and the Pledge of Allegiance? Yeah, the words "under God" weren't added until 22 April 1951 and it wasn't done by the gov't, it was done by the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternity of wannabe Masons). It wasn't made law until 14 June 1954. LONG after the founding of our country.
I'm also pretty sure that this nation was specifically founded so that it's people could be free to practice religion they way they saw fit, which includes not at all. Not just Christianity. If that was the case, Catholics wouldn't be allowed either (seeing as how it was the Catholic church they were running from). Although it's funny that they make comments like this:
The Rev. Cecil Blye, pastor of More Grace Ministries Church in Louisville, Ky., said the president's reference to nonbelievers also set off major alarm bells for him. "It's important to understand the heritage of our country, and it's a Judeo-Christian tradition,"’ period.
The heritage of our country was actually non-Judeo-Christian. About as far from J-C as you can be, as a matter of fact. Apparently it's easy to forget that our "founding fathers" were actually immigrants to begin with. The original heritage of our country is Native American and they worshiped their ancestors and animal spirits. Some worshiped a "Great Spirit" but it sure as fuck wasn't the Judeo-Christian "God". It was probably a lot friendlier and less narcissistic. So before we start spouting off about the "heritage of our country" lets try to remember the truth of the matter. It was your God in whose name the conquistadors and the puritans enslaved and destroyed indigenous peoples from Canada to Argentina and back again.
Oh, and that was just this continent. Let's not forget St. Patrick. Or the Inquisitions, any one of 'em. What about the holocaust? Yeah, Hitler tried to eradicate the Jews in God's name, too. Actually, pretty much every atrocity and major war since the origin of your religion has been done in God's name. So before you get all sanctimonious about this country having a Judeo-Christian heritage, why don't you think about what that has wrought. Hell, maybe we need some non-believers running things for a while, we might actually get something worthwhile accomplished. Look what happened the last time we had an Evangelical in office. Oh yeah, that was Bush and we've been at war pretty much his entire tenure... interesting.
Reposting
Hey, so I'm going to be reposting some of my favorite blogs from my MySpace... er My[____]. I'm closing that account and I'd like to have them around, so if you've already read these, my apologies. And if you haven't, well, they're new to you, so enjoy! ^_^
14 November 2009
Windows 7 vs OS X
I keep reading articles about how a Microsoft employee said "What we've tried to do with Windows 7 - whether it's traditional format or in a touch format—is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We've significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it's built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance." Then Microsoft came back and debunked this statement saying that the employee was not at all linked to the GUI development and wasn't equipped with the knowledge to make that statement.
First off, allow me to wipe my eyes, they were tearing up from laughing so hard. "Vista... is far more stable than the current Mac platform..." You're joking, right? I think the last time I had a kernel panic was when I had tweaked something I shouldn't have in a place I shouldn't have been tweaking things. That was my fault. And OS X asked me if I was really sure I wanted to do that. In comparison, my Windows machine was borking on a daily basis due to a Microsoft-installed driver for my video card. Still not sure how the hell that got installed.
But, see, here's the thing: 90% of all problems on Windows come from their (they being Microsoft) inability to keep the operating system secure. The other 10% come from effed up drivers. (EDIT: Statistics created off the cuff, but with some decent guesstimations based on experience.)
Let's address the 90% first. I run my Mac in Admin mode (which is naughty, I know), but every time anything wants to install on my machine, I still have to give it permission by typing in my Admin password. EVERY. TIME. Is that a pain? Not really. Does Windows do this? Sporadically at best, it seems. And it didn't start until Vista.
Here's another thing I hear all the time: "Well the reason there are no virii or spyware for the Mac is because nobody uses them and/or nobody cares enough to take the time to create a virus for them." Is that really the case? Or is it that the OS is locked down tight enough to where malicious software can't get into the system folder and start mucking about? I'm pretty sure most virus making toolkits are *nix based. Which means they aren't even created on Windows machines. But it only makes sense to deploy them on Windows machines because they have the majority of the market share. It's simple business. Are you going to advertise your product on TV in an Amish community? Prolly not. Or, better yet, open up an electronics store there?
Yes, Windows does continue to have the majority of the market share. And that will continue until someone else can put out an office suite that rivals MS Office. OpenOffice is good, but too many people worry because it's free that it won't be as good as the software you have to drop $150-$350 for. I still don't get that.
Now on to the 10%: drivers. The other great thing about a Mac is that I don't have to worry about my video card not being compatible with the rest of my system. For any of you that have custom-built a machine you know what I am talking about. If you don't do your homework you could end up with all kinds of incompatibilities that you'll tear your hair out trying to resolve. And that happens sometimes even when you DO do your homework. With a Mac, it all comes pre-packaged. If I do end up having a problem with the OS or the hardware, I can call one place: Apple. I don't have to call Microsoft first only to have them refer me to the video card manufacturer, only to have them refer me to the motherboard manufacturer, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Unless of course it's some bizarre third party app that I am having problems with, then I usually end up calling them first anyways.
Yes, Windows 7 does look a lot like OS X. But not really any more so than Vista did. In fact I remember writing a blog back when Vista came out calling it Windows OS X. They took a LOT of tips from Apple that time. Now they're just building on what they already stole *choke* borrowed and trying to make it unique. I'm still wondering when they are going to implement a decent version of Spaces or Expose. Yeah, they're getting there, but what they have still isn't remotely as simple to use. And at least if I buy a new Mac I can transfer all my data, my preference, AND my apps without having to reinstall every blasted one of them. Do you think I remember where the hell my Office disk is?
Oh and if ONE person mentions that stupid "Mac Tax", I'm going to charge you the "Windows Tax" by infecting the hell out of your system to where you have to go pay Geek Squad $249 to have them clean your shit. Do that once and then buy all the extra security crap they charge you for annually and by the time your PC dies, you've more than DOUBLED my "Mac Tax". Even if you could get this bitchin' a Windows system for the same price. Seriously go get the specs on a basic Macbook Pro and then try to find a comparable Windows machine for less with the SAME specs. I dare you. Plus almost all of my apps are free or close to it. Yay for OSS.
First off, allow me to wipe my eyes, they were tearing up from laughing so hard. "Vista... is far more stable than the current Mac platform..." You're joking, right? I think the last time I had a kernel panic was when I had tweaked something I shouldn't have in a place I shouldn't have been tweaking things. That was my fault. And OS X asked me if I was really sure I wanted to do that. In comparison, my Windows machine was borking on a daily basis due to a Microsoft-installed driver for my video card. Still not sure how the hell that got installed.
But, see, here's the thing: 90% of all problems on Windows come from their (they being Microsoft) inability to keep the operating system secure. The other 10% come from effed up drivers. (EDIT: Statistics created off the cuff, but with some decent guesstimations based on experience.)
Let's address the 90% first. I run my Mac in Admin mode (which is naughty, I know), but every time anything wants to install on my machine, I still have to give it permission by typing in my Admin password. EVERY. TIME. Is that a pain? Not really. Does Windows do this? Sporadically at best, it seems. And it didn't start until Vista.
Here's another thing I hear all the time: "Well the reason there are no virii or spyware for the Mac is because nobody uses them and/or nobody cares enough to take the time to create a virus for them." Is that really the case? Or is it that the OS is locked down tight enough to where malicious software can't get into the system folder and start mucking about? I'm pretty sure most virus making toolkits are *nix based. Which means they aren't even created on Windows machines. But it only makes sense to deploy them on Windows machines because they have the majority of the market share. It's simple business. Are you going to advertise your product on TV in an Amish community? Prolly not. Or, better yet, open up an electronics store there?
Yes, Windows does continue to have the majority of the market share. And that will continue until someone else can put out an office suite that rivals MS Office. OpenOffice is good, but too many people worry because it's free that it won't be as good as the software you have to drop $150-$350 for. I still don't get that.
Now on to the 10%: drivers. The other great thing about a Mac is that I don't have to worry about my video card not being compatible with the rest of my system. For any of you that have custom-built a machine you know what I am talking about. If you don't do your homework you could end up with all kinds of incompatibilities that you'll tear your hair out trying to resolve. And that happens sometimes even when you DO do your homework. With a Mac, it all comes pre-packaged. If I do end up having a problem with the OS or the hardware, I can call one place: Apple. I don't have to call Microsoft first only to have them refer me to the video card manufacturer, only to have them refer me to the motherboard manufacturer, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Unless of course it's some bizarre third party app that I am having problems with, then I usually end up calling them first anyways.
Yes, Windows 7 does look a lot like OS X. But not really any more so than Vista did. In fact I remember writing a blog back when Vista came out calling it Windows OS X. They took a LOT of tips from Apple that time. Now they're just building on what they already stole *choke* borrowed and trying to make it unique. I'm still wondering when they are going to implement a decent version of Spaces or Expose. Yeah, they're getting there, but what they have still isn't remotely as simple to use. And at least if I buy a new Mac I can transfer all my data, my preference, AND my apps without having to reinstall every blasted one of them. Do you think I remember where the hell my Office disk is?
Oh and if ONE person mentions that stupid "Mac Tax", I'm going to charge you the "Windows Tax" by infecting the hell out of your system to where you have to go pay Geek Squad $249 to have them clean your shit. Do that once and then buy all the extra security crap they charge you for annually and by the time your PC dies, you've more than DOUBLED my "Mac Tax". Even if you could get this bitchin' a Windows system for the same price. Seriously go get the specs on a basic Macbook Pro and then try to find a comparable Windows machine for less with the SAME specs. I dare you. Plus almost all of my apps are free or close to it. Yay for OSS.
20 September 2009
No such thing as "Secure"
I logged onto FB this morning to a note from a friend asking me if I had received the email from myself asking money to be wired to London. Apparently I had been attacked and mugged by "street orchids". Those damned British flowers are pretty aggressive from what I understand. So with a deep sigh I attempt to get my gmail account back. First problem I run into is that in order to get your account back they send an email to your backup email address. Well that's funny because I didn't set one up at hotmail which is where they sent it. Which means whomever got my account was savvy enough to change that. Makes sense. The next step? Wait over 24 hours and try to reset using the account security question. Yeah, cause I'm sure they didn't change THAT. So then I fill out a form to try to get my account back. Shit, they want some esoteric information. Like 5 email addresses I frequently email. Problem is I only use that for _receiving_ things like bank statements, credit card statements, TEP bills, etc. I don't actually email anyone from it. So that question is tough. Then they want to know the month and year I created the account. It was 5 years ago. I could tell you for certainty if I could log the fuck in. Then they want four labels. I am pretty sure I only have two, so I list them. I also gave them my most recent password. Which they may not have BECAUSE SOMEONE FUCKING CHANGED IT!!!! Oh, and most recent successful login. Well MY last successful login was Friday, but I'm pretty sure whomever has my account has successfully logged in more recently since they are sending emails to people asking for money.
Realizing all the financial data that I have attached to this account, I go to change my info on my bank. I change the username. What do they do? "Confirmation of your username change has been sent to your primary email address." Well fuck. So now the douchebag that has my account has my NEW username for my bank. Super. I then go to change my primary email account but I realized that given their response when I changed my username that they would probably send ANOTHER email to my compromised account informing them of my NEW email address. Bah. And double fuck.
I got an email back from Gmail, apparently I don't know enough to get my own account back. As a consolation prize they suggest I can make a new account. No thanks. I have four other ones. NONE OF WHICH HAVE MY FINANCIAL DATA!! I need THIS account back, god dammit. How many times can I fill out the form to get my own fucking account back?
***UPDATE***
Finally got my account back. I tracked down the email that had originally invited me to Gmail (thank you Corianin). With that information in hand I was able to successfully convince Google Account Services that it was, in fact, MY email address and they returned it to me. I logged in and saw the email that the douche had sent out as me. I also saw that he/she/it had read the email Well Fargo sent informing me that I had changed my username. Fortunately all it said was that I had changed it and needed to use the new one to login next time. No details about what it had been changed to. UNfortunately there was an email from the bank a few days prior that had copies of a deposit that I made so it's possible that the crackers have my checking account and routing numbers. And since I am in the middle of buying a home I can't just freeze my accounts and start over. Too much shit is linked to that account. So I will have to be extra vigilant for the next few weeks. Still not sure how all this happened. My password was of a decent strength and length and my Mac has no spyware on it. ::Sigh::
On a not unrelated note, I discovered something about Wells Fargo's alleged "security". The password to login to your account can only be between 6-14 characters, making it well within the limits to be easily brute forced. Oh, and case sensitivity is irrelevant. That shit is scary. Even AOL's antiquated shit was case-sensitive. It didn't read anything past the 8th character, but it at least respected case.
Realizing all the financial data that I have attached to this account, I go to change my info on my bank. I change the username. What do they do? "Confirmation of your username change has been sent to your primary email address." Well fuck. So now the douchebag that has my account has my NEW username for my bank. Super. I then go to change my primary email account but I realized that given their response when I changed my username that they would probably send ANOTHER email to my compromised account informing them of my NEW email address. Bah. And double fuck.
I got an email back from Gmail, apparently I don't know enough to get my own account back. As a consolation prize they suggest I can make a new account. No thanks. I have four other ones. NONE OF WHICH HAVE MY FINANCIAL DATA!! I need THIS account back, god dammit. How many times can I fill out the form to get my own fucking account back?
***UPDATE***
Finally got my account back. I tracked down the email that had originally invited me to Gmail (thank you Corianin). With that information in hand I was able to successfully convince Google Account Services that it was, in fact, MY email address and they returned it to me. I logged in and saw the email that the douche had sent out as me. I also saw that he/she/it had read the email Well Fargo sent informing me that I had changed my username. Fortunately all it said was that I had changed it and needed to use the new one to login next time. No details about what it had been changed to. UNfortunately there was an email from the bank a few days prior that had copies of a deposit that I made so it's possible that the crackers have my checking account and routing numbers. And since I am in the middle of buying a home I can't just freeze my accounts and start over. Too much shit is linked to that account. So I will have to be extra vigilant for the next few weeks. Still not sure how all this happened. My password was of a decent strength and length and my Mac has no spyware on it. ::Sigh::
On a not unrelated note, I discovered something about Wells Fargo's alleged "security". The password to login to your account can only be between 6-14 characters, making it well within the limits to be easily brute forced. Oh, and case sensitivity is irrelevant. That shit is scary. Even AOL's antiquated shit was case-sensitive. It didn't read anything past the 8th character, but it at least respected case.
17 September 2009
My apologies
So as you can see, I haven't been on here much lately. With the bazillion projects at work, my classes, the kids, buying a house, packing and moving I haven't had time to do shit else. Once things settle down a bit, I'll be back to writing a bit more. Well once the moving stuff is done. The classes, kids, and work ain't slowing down anytime soon.
TTFN.
TTFN.
09 August 2009
Is there no shame in advertising?
I'm watching a commercial on TV for a "Smart Mop" and this British guy is giving the ShamWOW dude a run for his money. Then I get to this part: He pours an entire can of soda onto the floor and shows how it can mop the whole thing up with no dripping and says this "And in these tough times wring it back into the glass and it's ready to drink all over." Wait, what? Did he really just suggest mopping up a DRINK and wringing it back into the glass? Even if the thing was brand new that would still be disgusting.
Way to cash in on the depression, guys. Capitalism at its finest.
Way to cash in on the depression, guys. Capitalism at its finest.
08 August 2009
Ghosts in the machine?
I think we're about to get hit, and hit hard. And by "we" I mean the U.S. Reading reports lately I've been noticing a trend. "N Korea behind U.S. cyber attacks", or "Cyber attack on U.S. nuclear arms lab linked to China", or how about "Military Looking Abroad for Source of Cyber Attack on Pentagon". If you'll notice, a couple of those articles are older, but I think it's enough to demonstrate my point. Now, read this article "Hathaway resigns as acting cybersecurity czar".
Anybody else see something wrong with this? The acting "cyber czar" takes herself out of the running after completing a 60-day review of our nation's gov't wide cybersecurity preparedness. Her reasoning? Personal. Yeah, methinks she discovered something and decided to pull out before something happened and they pointed the finger at her.
I'm sure you've all seen Die Hard 4, and as unrealistic as the technical details were, there was some truth behind the ideas. What would we do if our military networks were compromised? Our financial networks? These attacks are designed to test our weaknesses, find the holes in our firewalls. The scary question no one seems to be asking is this: what are they leading up to?
Other countries are proactively trying to compromise our infrastructure. They don't have our rules and regulations about playing nice. Sure we have gov't agencies that don't always play by those rules, but every time they do something there is a media flurry about civil rights violations or some other hippy, liberal bullshit.
Right now there is a call out for cyber gurus. Our gov't is finally coming to the realization that we are far behind the times when it comes to cyber security. Our nation's I.T. is being run by a bunch of fossils whose concept of security went the way of the dodo a long time ago. They are actively calling for information security students to join their ranks. The problem is they are also actively pursuing and prosecuting anyone good enough to do the job. Sounds kind of like cutting off one's nose to spite one's face if you ask me. The only way anyone is going to be good enough with something other than security theory is if they are actually breaking into systems, which is a felony. Sure there are lots of programs offered by online schools (ITT Tech, DeVry, UofP, etc) but those are $60k for a degree. And even then nobody really takes those graduates seriously. None of your traditional colleges are offering any serious security courses. Maybe Carnegie Mellon, or MIT, but there aren't enough graduates to fill the ranks. Even then they're usually too paranoid or liberal to be willing to work for our nation's government.
So it seems like we're kind of stuck in a grave of our own making. The question now is what the fuck are we going to do about it?
Anybody else see something wrong with this? The acting "cyber czar" takes herself out of the running after completing a 60-day review of our nation's gov't wide cybersecurity preparedness. Her reasoning? Personal. Yeah, methinks she discovered something and decided to pull out before something happened and they pointed the finger at her.
I'm sure you've all seen Die Hard 4, and as unrealistic as the technical details were, there was some truth behind the ideas. What would we do if our military networks were compromised? Our financial networks? These attacks are designed to test our weaknesses, find the holes in our firewalls. The scary question no one seems to be asking is this: what are they leading up to?
Other countries are proactively trying to compromise our infrastructure. They don't have our rules and regulations about playing nice. Sure we have gov't agencies that don't always play by those rules, but every time they do something there is a media flurry about civil rights violations or some other hippy, liberal bullshit.
Right now there is a call out for cyber gurus. Our gov't is finally coming to the realization that we are far behind the times when it comes to cyber security. Our nation's I.T. is being run by a bunch of fossils whose concept of security went the way of the dodo a long time ago. They are actively calling for information security students to join their ranks. The problem is they are also actively pursuing and prosecuting anyone good enough to do the job. Sounds kind of like cutting off one's nose to spite one's face if you ask me. The only way anyone is going to be good enough with something other than security theory is if they are actually breaking into systems, which is a felony. Sure there are lots of programs offered by online schools (ITT Tech, DeVry, UofP, etc) but those are $60k for a degree. And even then nobody really takes those graduates seriously. None of your traditional colleges are offering any serious security courses. Maybe Carnegie Mellon, or MIT, but there aren't enough graduates to fill the ranks. Even then they're usually too paranoid or liberal to be willing to work for our nation's government.
So it seems like we're kind of stuck in a grave of our own making. The question now is what the fuck are we going to do about it?
25 July 2009
Killer at Substation Zero
In BIO we had an assignment to come up with a series of tests to identify different types of cells: protozoan, fungi, algae, etc. Unfortunately my teacher said to be creative. While everyone else made up run-of-the-mill tests to identify parts of the cells, this is what I came up with. Enjoy.
-----
"Whatever it is, it got Freddy, too. I found him in his cot, the stuff was coating his chin," Theresa dropped off another vial of the plasm. We'd been on this expedition for two weeks, more than half of our original research team was dead and we had no idea what was causing it, and we had no way out. That was the problem with being dropped off in the middle of freakin' nowhere with no contact with the outside world for a month. Oh sure we brought communication equipment, but unfortunately Mr. Murphy stopped by when Keith, our geologist, died. Nick had been trying to raise the main base and tripped while trying to find a report with an encryption key on it, smashing the radio to the ground. That radio was our only link to anyone. The satellite broke during our insertion and nobody thought to pack a spare, so we didn't even had access to the internet.
Four people had died in the last eight hours. Ever since we opened that sealed door on the south face of The Cave. On the skin around the mouth of each body was a thin, clear, bluish-green liquid substance. It appeared that they had aspirated something when they went into the room. I had a feeling we were dealing with a new type of organism, but I had yet to figure out what. I had never seen something aspirated kill so quickly. As the team's sole microbiologist it was up to me to figure out what was going on. And I had to do it fast, there was just me, Theresa and Nick left. Unfortunately Nick's specialty was security and Theresa's was physics. That left me. Alone with the stuff that appeared to be killing people in less than two hours from exposure. I coughed.
I discarded the UV light I'd been using to test the last sample of the stuff. I figured since it was colored like some algae I would try to cause photosynthesis. There was no reaction to 45 minutes of exposure with the UV light, although I guess that made sense since it seemed each team member had been infected while down in the cave. There wasn't a lot of light 500 feet under the surface of Antarctica. My eyes blurred a bit as I looked back into the microscope. I shook my head and they seemed to clear a bit.
I'd already tested to see if it was a bacteria. I'd used a form of radiation on the first sample that will encapsulate a nucleus in a thin, green shell causing it to glow under a microscope. Since there are around 100 million undescribed prokaryotic species on the planet and bacteria seems to be the most logical choice for what was killing my team members, I tested that first. Unfortunately (fortunately?) whatever it was had a nucleus, so that ruled out bacteria. Now I ruled out algae because without photosynthesis algae can't survive.
I looked under the microscope again. "I wonder..."
I grabbed the bottle of HYPstain and put a small droplet onto a new slide. Using an eye dropper I put another drop from the sample on top of the HYPstain. I slid it under a microscope. "I'll be damned." The HYPstain lit up like a christmas tree. HYPstain is designed to dye the hyphae in fungi bright green. Whatever this substance was, it was full of hyphae.
I wrote down the evidence I had so far. In the last eight hours I had run dozens of tests trying to rule out various biologicals. It had a nucleus, ruling out bacteria and similar prokaryotes; it didn't respond to UV light, showing no signs of photosynthesis, so that ruled out the algae. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of the HYPstain before, it seemed logical now. In a cave full of unidentified organisms, why wouldn't there be molds and fungi?
It appeared that our silent killer was an ancient form of mold that humans probably have never come into contact with. The government agency funding our little "expedition" was going to be pleased. I don't suppose they cared that it cost them the lives of four of the finest minds in science. They'll get their superweapon. A mold that can kill within two hours of contact with a human host.
Now that I knew what it was, I could stop it from killing the rest of us. Hopefully unti---
-----
"Whatever it is, it got Freddy, too. I found him in his cot, the stuff was coating his chin," Theresa dropped off another vial of the plasm. We'd been on this expedition for two weeks, more than half of our original research team was dead and we had no idea what was causing it, and we had no way out. That was the problem with being dropped off in the middle of freakin' nowhere with no contact with the outside world for a month. Oh sure we brought communication equipment, but unfortunately Mr. Murphy stopped by when Keith, our geologist, died. Nick had been trying to raise the main base and tripped while trying to find a report with an encryption key on it, smashing the radio to the ground. That radio was our only link to anyone. The satellite broke during our insertion and nobody thought to pack a spare, so we didn't even had access to the internet.
Four people had died in the last eight hours. Ever since we opened that sealed door on the south face of The Cave. On the skin around the mouth of each body was a thin, clear, bluish-green liquid substance. It appeared that they had aspirated something when they went into the room. I had a feeling we were dealing with a new type of organism, but I had yet to figure out what. I had never seen something aspirated kill so quickly. As the team's sole microbiologist it was up to me to figure out what was going on. And I had to do it fast, there was just me, Theresa and Nick left. Unfortunately Nick's specialty was security and Theresa's was physics. That left me. Alone with the stuff that appeared to be killing people in less than two hours from exposure. I coughed.
I discarded the UV light I'd been using to test the last sample of the stuff. I figured since it was colored like some algae I would try to cause photosynthesis. There was no reaction to 45 minutes of exposure with the UV light, although I guess that made sense since it seemed each team member had been infected while down in the cave. There wasn't a lot of light 500 feet under the surface of Antarctica. My eyes blurred a bit as I looked back into the microscope. I shook my head and they seemed to clear a bit.
I'd already tested to see if it was a bacteria. I'd used a form of radiation on the first sample that will encapsulate a nucleus in a thin, green shell causing it to glow under a microscope. Since there are around 100 million undescribed prokaryotic species on the planet and bacteria seems to be the most logical choice for what was killing my team members, I tested that first. Unfortunately (fortunately?) whatever it was had a nucleus, so that ruled out bacteria. Now I ruled out algae because without photosynthesis algae can't survive.
I looked under the microscope again. "I wonder..."
I grabbed the bottle of HYPstain and put a small droplet onto a new slide. Using an eye dropper I put another drop from the sample on top of the HYPstain. I slid it under a microscope. "I'll be damned." The HYPstain lit up like a christmas tree. HYPstain is designed to dye the hyphae in fungi bright green. Whatever this substance was, it was full of hyphae.
I wrote down the evidence I had so far. In the last eight hours I had run dozens of tests trying to rule out various biologicals. It had a nucleus, ruling out bacteria and similar prokaryotes; it didn't respond to UV light, showing no signs of photosynthesis, so that ruled out the algae. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of the HYPstain before, it seemed logical now. In a cave full of unidentified organisms, why wouldn't there be molds and fungi?
It appeared that our silent killer was an ancient form of mold that humans probably have never come into contact with. The government agency funding our little "expedition" was going to be pleased. I don't suppose they cared that it cost them the lives of four of the finest minds in science. They'll get their superweapon. A mold that can kill within two hours of contact with a human host.
Now that I knew what it was, I could stop it from killing the rest of us. Hopefully unti---
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)