Digital Choke Daynotes |
What's a Daynote?"Daynotes" are daily (usually) journal entries of interesting happening and discussions. They are not 'blogs', which are often just a collection of links to other information (although we do include links occasionally). Daynotes are much more interesting (we hope). These "Digital Choke Daynotes" were inspired by the collection of daily journals of the "Daynotes Gang" (see sites at .com, .net), a collection of daily technical and personal observations from the famous and others. That group started on September 29, 1999, and has grown to an interesting collection of individuals. Readers are invited and encouraged to visit those sites for other interesting daily journals. If you have comments, send us an email. A bit more about me is here. You might also enjoy our little story about the death of the 'net. |
Reports
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Today's (7/18/05) Wall Street Journal has a special section on the various threats to personal and corporate data. It's not just the viruses and worms and spyware, but other threats that are out there. Readers who are interested in informaton security subjects are advised to grab a copy of the paper at their local newstand.
Some of WSJ's content is available for free on the "Interweb". These links are working today: (or http://tinyurl.com/cxfv2 ), there are other links on that page. It's not clear if all the articles are available on-line, which is why spending US$1.00 (or heading to your local library) might be a good idea.
If you have Windows Remote Desktop enabled on your computer, you might want to turn it off until you really need it. There is a problem with it not being blocked by the Windows Firewall (by default). You can go in an add port 3389 to your blocked list for further protection. Corporate/business firewalls should be blocking that port from the outside. The vulnerability is limited (at the moment) to a Denial of Service (possibly causing a blue screen). More details are at today's diary entry at the Internet Storm Center (along with some humorous new 'ph' words).
Spent most of the day with Crystal Reports and the web filtering database
making some customized reports. The databases are acting like they are slightly
damaged, since I am not seeing all of the records I would expect. But that
could be because I'm a 'n00b' with Crystal Reports. I'll be spending some more
time with it tomorrow.
The Mozilla folks have released another update to Firefox. Current version is 1.06. There are several critical security fixes, along with some 'stability' fixes.
Firefox users should look for the (easily missed) triangle in a red circle in the upper right corner of the browser screen. Or they can use the Tools, Options, Advanced, Software Update, Check Now command.
Recommended...three times..
I see that the authorities in Spain have been busy: (see here)
"The FBI and Spanish police have arrested 310 people in Malaga, Spain in connection with a €100m bogus (email) lottery scam run by Nigerian gangs. It is the biggest 419 bust in history, and may result in drastic reductions of scam mails.
"The operation, codenamed Nile, centered on a mob which operated from
Southern Spain. No less than four hundred officers from the Spanish police,
the FBI and the US Postal Service were involved with the investigation, which
began in 2003. Officers raided 166 homes in places such as Malaga, Benalmádena,
Mijas, Torremolinos and Marbella. Police seized € 218,000 in cash, 2,000
mobile telephones, 327 computers and 165 fax machines."
(Note to new readers: "419" scams are those emails you get promising
you a share of millions of dollars that are trapped in a foreign country.
Also called the "Nigerian Scam", they include those emails
about the lottery you 'won'. They are all extortion attempts; some
have resulted
in death. This site http://www.419eater.com/ is
one of many that are "scambaiters",
who reply to the 419'ers to waste their time and resources. Some of
the exchanges are quite interesting.)
Wednesday and Thursday afternoon was spent at the local nuclear imaging lab for a 'nuclear stress test'. After being injected with some radioactive material (no, not "Spidey Juice"), a big camera took some scans of my heart. Wednesday was the 'resting' scan.
Thursday was the 'treadmill' scan. The intent is to dilate the blood vessels to see if there is any blockage under stress or physical activity. So you get to walk on a treadmill until your heart rate is about 150/min. At least, that was their plan.
Until I told them that because of the heart drug I take (Rythmol, for the atrial fibrillation I have) might not allow that. When I go to the gym (not nearly enough, of course), and walk on the treadmill there (moderate pace and incline), I'm lucky to get my heart rate to 95/min (from a resting rate of about 65/min).
So, we did the alternative. After hooking me up to the EKG and a IV, they pumped in a drug that did the dilation. After three minutes of that, then the radioactive fluid, a minute or two more, then another drug to bring the dilation back to normal. All during that, the EKG machine is going along with blood pressure readings.
After getting back to my normal rate, a 30 minute rest in the waiting room, then back to the camera room for some more pictures.
So, didn't have to use the treadmill (always a plus, in my estimation). And now I wait for the results. I don't expect anything significant, although I do get a slight muscle-type ache on my left side occasionally (that was the impetus for the test).
Very hot around here. Temps in the 100's this week (and last), although yesterday mostly cloudy and only 96 degrees (F). Back to the 100's today.
No significant humidity, though. As we say around here: "But it's a dry heat". Although hot, there isn't the uncomfortable humidity along with it. And the evenings get down into the 70's.
More heat this weekend, though. So I plan to stay inside where the AC works well.
... more later ...
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