Friday, April 25, 2008

Bob's Junkmail, #200

Banyan Drive

What do Amelia Earhart, Richard Nixon, Louis Armstrong, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, and Earl Warren have in common? They all planted trees. Banyan trees. In Hilo, on the big island of Hawaii.

I was driving along Banyan Drive last month in Hilo, HI, and thought I saw a sign in front of a tree that said "Amelia Earhart." It turns out I did.

P1000537.jpgP1000538.jpg

I noticed a few other names I recognized. I thought that was pretty odd. Then I read about it. I was surprised that all those people had come to such an out-of-the-way place.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan_Drive


Camera License

You apparently need a camera license to take photos in the U.K. Otherwise you are a terrorist or a pedophile. In the U.S., you only need an errant click to be a terrorist or a pedophile.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7351252.stm


Sea Ice

Did you ever wonder how much sea ice there is today compared to April 2007, or April 1992, or November 1996?  Naturally!  Here's where to find out:

      http://nsidc.org/cgi-bin/bist/bist.pl?config=seaice_index

Here is a good satellite photo of some huge icebergs near South Orkney Islands, South Atlantic Ocean, taken 3/31/2008 by the Terra satellite.

AtlanticOcean.A2008091.1215.250m.jpg
   hi-res...



NSA Kids Site

This is kind of cool.

      http://www.nsa.gov/kids/


Bots and Zombies

I might have mentioned this before, but it's a bad idea to click on an email attachment unless you are sure what it is. That's the most popular way to spread trojans around the internet.

A bot or a zombie is a computer that can be controlled by someone who installed a trojan on it. They are commonly used for sending spam, occasionally for phishing, and rarely for controlling other computers on the botnet. A botnet is a collection of bots or zombies controlled by a person or organization.

For example, a botnet known as the "Storm Team" sent out a trojan in an email that described an April Fool joke. I got one. So did millions of other people. But I don't click on executable email attachments, so I didn't install the trojan on my computer. Apparently someone did click on these and similar email attachments, because there are hundreds of thousands of computers in the Storm botnet. I think my baby sister Tricia is largely responsible for this.

      http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,144012-c,worms/articl...

The computers on the Storm botnet send about 20% of all spam on the internet. Most of that comes to my inbox.

Another botnet may be even bigger than Storm -- the Kraken botnet. The Kraken botnet is sending out around 500,000 spams every day. Its command and control servers are in the U.S., France, and Russia.

     http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080408-new-krake...

A botnet may have many command and control servers. When one server becomes unreachable, a bot computer automatically transfers to another. The servers can update the trojan on the bots to respond to antivirus software updates.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_botnet

People try to get access to the controlling systems so they can track it back to the people running the botnet and shut them down. Little do they realize that there are no people involved -- computers are taking over the world.

One or two of the largest botnets will automatically detect attempts to access the controller computers, and trigger a denial of service attack by the botnet against the computer trying to access the botnet.

What can you do to stay off botnets? Run some antivirus software and keep it up-to-date. In the past I've had the best luck with Norton Antivirus, but I haven't had any viruses or trojans (malware) for several years, so I haven't really tested it lately. Norton Antivirus installs a lot of stuff on your system, and I don't like that so much. Even so, it installs less extra stuff than McAfee.

I uninstalled Norton Antivirus today, and it left a bunch of its services running on my machine. I consider that quite rude. I replaced it with PC Tools Antivirus, because PC Tools updates are free, and my Norton Antivirus was several months out of date.

      http://www.pctools.com/anti-virus/

AVG and PCTools antivirus are free, and seems to work pretty well. I haven't seen how well they detect viruses or trojans, but you should be careful about false positives with them. They both thought a couple of files on my system were viruses that weren't. If you let them "fix" those files, some programs will stop working. I don't use real-time virus protection (other than ZoneAlarm firewall) so I can't say how that part works.

Overall, I think Norton Antivirus is best, but it's not free. It puts some of extra stuff on your computer that you'll probably never see, but that stuff bugs me.

      http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/03/31/cybercrimin...

      http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2008...


Happy Birthday Thomas!

Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743. In addition to some minor accomplishments such as writing the Declaration of Independence, becoming the 3rd President of the U.S., and launching the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Thomas was U.S. Ambassador (or Minister Plenipotentiary) to France from 1785 to 1789.

James C. Oberwetter was U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2004 to 2006. One of James's daughters decided to celebrate Thomas Jefferson's birthday the other day.

Brooke and some online friends (19 or 20 total) went to the Jefferson Memorial and did some dancing at midnight on Thomas's birthday. They used iPods to keep things quiet and abide by the rules. It didn't work.

They were all thrown out of the Jefferson Memorial, and Brooke was arrested for asking why they were being thrown out. When I read this, I figured they were being jerks and provoking the police. But they weren't. After watching thevideo I can see they were a lot better behaved than I normally am.

TV Report:

      http://jdtalley.tumblr.com/post/32001347

I thought it was pretty ironic for an ambassador's daughter to be arrested for celebrating the birthday of another ambassador, and the author of the Declaration of Independence.

I ran across another video of Brooke Oberwetter. She said in 2006 that Barrack Obama would have a hard time making sound bites because of his tendency to explain issues. That's pretty funny -- I just heard someone say that on the radio yesterday!  She was in an interview in which the news experts were saying that Obama would never be able to compete financially with Clinton. Brooke might be pretty sharp.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFVJzUPLpFQ

Here's an article she wrote in 2004. It's pretty funny.

      http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=6481

I noticed that Brooke Oberwetter's personal blog and public Facebook page have been recently snuffed. I'm not sure whether this is because of the arrest or because of her new job at a telecom trade association.

Details on the "Jefferson 1":

      http://freethejefferson1.wordpress.com/

I did donate $1.41 to the cause.

      http://www.juliansanchez.com/2008/04/13/discord-of-the-...


Network Solutions

Network Solutions is an internet domain registrar. You can get domain names from them. They have been known as one of the more reliable and safe registrars, at least until recently. I couple of Junkmails ago I mentioned that some ISPs are intercepting mistyped domains and serving up link pages to so they can get paid for clicks.

      http://xpda.com/junkmail/?issue=198#Where-Am-I-

Network Solutions has taken this one step farther. For some web sites, if someone tries to go to a specific subdomain that doesn't exist, such as http://xpda.com/junkfreemail/, Network Solutions serves up a link page. This is considered very bad manners in the internet world since it looks like the Network Solutions page is part of the main web site.

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080410-keeping-n...

In addition, Network Solutions was found to be registering expiring domains before they offered them to their customers, so they can sell them for a profit. They do this for domains that people have been querying for availability. This is technically legal, but also very bad manners.

To top it off, Network Solutions has shut down the domain of a European company providing travel arrangements to Europeans, where it is all perfectly legal. That kind of worries me. I suppose if I do something they don't approve of, they're liable to shut me down, too.

Network Solutions doesn't seem quite so safe and reliable to me anymore. Maybe I'll move to 1and1.com. I already use 1and1 for web hosting.

Domestic Spying

The U.S. government has announced that they will start using spy satellites to spy on people within the United States. (Start?) Homeland Security Boss Michael said not to worry, your privacy and civil liberties will not be compromised.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...


Illegal Clicking

The FBI is now using a novel technique to catch criminals. They make a web page and put links on it with illegally sounding labels -- child pornography, for example. When someone comes along and clicks on one of these links, the FBI raids the person's home, takes all the computer equipment out of the house, and goes over it looking for evidence of criminal activities. Clinking on the link provides enough probable cause to get the search warrant.

If they don't find anything, I guess they just apologize for leaving the clicker computerless for a few weeks. In addition to pedophiles, I assume they're also using this technique to nab sociopathic criminals such as terrorists, drug dealers, and music downloaders.

Some people don't like this. They say that clicking on a link can happen accidentally. They say that your browser might pre-fetch a web page and make it look like you clicked a link that you didn't. They say the FBI will be seizing computers of innocent people.

Some people like it. The FBI says this is a valuable investigative tool they need to fight terrorists and child pornographers, and that it will not be abused.

      http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9899151-38.html

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080323-rick-roll...


Stupid Patents

Last month, SES had a communications satellite launched into orbit that it intended to use for Dish TV. They used a Russian Proton Rocket and launched it in Kazakhstan. As the satellite headed for geostationary orbit, the upper stage of the rocket, called Breeze M, shut down 2 minutes and 13 seconds early. This left the satellite a few thousand miles short of geostationary orbit.

      http://spaceflightnow.com/proton/amc14/

The Breeze M stage has failed in 4 of the 45 launches operated by the company that launched this satellite.

prod_1715_600.jpg

This failure was caused by a rupture of the gas duct between the gas generator and the propellant pump turbine in the Breeze M main engine.

      http://www.moontoday.net/news/viewpr.html?pid=25270

The satellite has enough fuel to propel itself toward the moon and use the slingshot effect to land in geosynchronous orbit. But the U.S. Patent and Trademark office issued a patent to Boeing for this (basic physics are now patentable, apparently), and Boeing wouldn't let SES do it.

Rather than pay lawyers a lot of money to have a stupid patent invalidated, SES decided just to collect the insurance money for the satellite and call it a total loss. No problem, it's only $150,000,000.

      http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Boeing_Patent_Shuts...

That would almost make a person want to buy Airbus tankers. Boeing did have a reason not to let SES save their satellite, though. There was a pending lawsuit between SES and Boeing, and Boeing wanted SES to drop the lawsuit before they could save their satellite.

The thing that irritates me is that this patent should never have been awarded in the first place. People have been writing and implementing this "novel invention" for decades.

Other Stupid Patent News:

Forbes is clueless about an exceptionally stupid jpeg patent.

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080421/223735908.shtml

U.S. Patent boss John says there are too many weak patent applications. That guy is on top of things!

      http://eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;?artic...

Microsoft has asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether a patent should be assumed not to be obvious, as is now the case, based on the expertise of patent examiners. Microsoft (and more than a few others) seem to have noticed some obvious patents coming out of the USPTO.

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080404/172232760.shtml

An internet marketer is trying to trademark SEO, an abbreviation (Search Engine Optimization) that has been in common use almost since the advent of the search engine.

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080408/003240783.shtml

USPTO's Educational Curriculum

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080414/194924846.shtml


Web Politics

In Paraguay, a few days before the elections, the state run internet company killed the web site of a group that denounced the government corruption. Here's an image of the hijacked DNS -- complete with a very creative cursor:

      http://www.partidocoloradoantrodeladrones.org/

I was very surprised that, after 61 years in power, the ruling party lost the election. A former Catholic bishop named Fernando Lugo was elected. Fernando will take office in August.

      http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0421/paraguay.html

This is much better than in Zimbabwe, where they refuse to count the votes until the count magically changes to support the current president. I'm not sure how President Mugabe's math will work out since the African countries in the area refused to unload a Chinese ship full of guns, RPGs, mortars, and other fireworks, all addressed to the Zimbabwe government.

      http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/04/chinese-sh...

In Connecticut, Joseph Lieberman ran for Senate in 2006 and won. The day before the primary, his web site went down. Lieberman accused his opponent of hacking it and demanded a federal criminal investigation. A few days ago FBI determined the cause of the crash was stupidity, with a contributing factor of technological incompetence on the part of the Lieberman campaign.

The FBI used slightly more palatable words, saying "The server that hosted the joe2006.com Web site failed because it was overutilized and misconfigured. There was no evidence of attack." The case is closed.

      http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_8859029


Promo CDs

Suppose someone gives you a promotional CD with some new music on it. Who owns the CD? According to Universal Music, they do. They claim if they put some fine print on the CD, they can own it forever. They say it is illegal to sell, give away, or even throw away such a CD.

So, according to them, they can send me a CD in the mail, unrequested, and then I am required to abide by the terms of their fine print on the CD. I think I should send them a CD with some fine print saying they agree to send me $3,000 by the end of the week. I wonder if they'll agree to be bound by my agreement.

This all started when someone gathered up a bunch of old promo CDs and sold them on eBay. The problem with their policy is, besides being contrary to established law, the music companies would put fine print on every music CD made making it a mortal sin, or worse, to resell it, give it away, or copy it to your computer.

      http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2008/04/uh_that_promo_cop...

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080408/231307794.shtml


Buying Votes

It's election campaign season! Time to buy votes. Let's pay everybody $600 cash, just to make them feel better about politicians.

While we're at it, maybe we can get rid of the federal gasoline tax. At least for a while, but certainly not after the elections. Maybe that won't promote conservation. Maybe it will increase dependence on foreign oil. Maybe it will add to budget deficit. Who cares? It's election year! In fact, why not use oil in the strategic petroleum reserve? We're not going to be in any wars.

We can pay off everybody's mortgage who is behind on payments. I wonder how many people have stopped making house payments in hopes of getting the government to pay off their mortgage.

Who will pay for all this? No worries. We'll just borrow a little more. We already have a $500,000,000,000 federal budget deficit this year -- what's a bit more? We sure don't want to raise taxes until the elections are over.

      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120826831952916201.html 
      (subscription may be required)


The End of the Olympic Torch

The Wall Street Journal Online heading:  "The End of the Olympic Torch"

Then in small print it continued with "relay through Paris was canceled because of..."  Rupert Murdoch must have hired some tabloid writers.

The End of Olympic Torch relay through Paris was canceled because of...

CNN reported a denial of service attach to its web sites in Asia last week. Some people in China are a little unhappy with what they (and I) see as biased reporting on the Olympic Torch protests.

      http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/18/cnn.websites/ind...


Private Laws

When the government passes a law, the law should be made public so people can get a hint when they're breaking the law. The state of Oregon seems to disagree. The state says Oregon statutes are copyrighted material, and you have to buy them from the state if you want a copy. You can read the laws online, but if you copy them you're breaking the law.

      http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/home.htm

That sure seems stupid to me. The government should want the widest possible distribution of their laws. But they didn't ask me. Weird, huh?

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080416-oregon-pu...


Apophus Asteroid

Apophus is an asteroid, about 900 feet in diameter, flying around the sun. Some people, including NASA, think there is about a 1 in 45,000 chance it will hit the earth. Granted, these odds are much better than hitting the lottery, but still not very likely.

A thirteen-year-old boy named Nico did some calculations for his science fair project that proved NASA wrong. He figured out that the chances are 1 in 450 that Apophus would hit the earth.

As you might guess, Nico was mistaken. But that did not stop newspapers all over the world from writing articles about the 13-year-old German student who proved NASA wrong, with the additional hint of impending world destruction. Even if the asteroid did hit the lottery and land on earth, it wouldn't come close to destroying it.

I am surprised the media didn't do even a little checking before writing up the young hero.

      http://cosmos4u.blogspot.com/2008/04/apophis-risk-not-i...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis


Flagstaff

Here's a good photo of the night sky at Flagstaff, with San Francisco Peaks covered by a cloud. The caption says it's a lenticular cloud, but it looks to me like it could be fog.

      http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080416.html


Oklahoma Foster Care

Oklahoma's child foster care made the New York Times.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/us/16foster.html


Comcast and the FCC

A couple of Junkmails ago... I mentioned that Comcast hired a bunch of people off the street to fill the chairs at an FCC hearing, keeping out the critics.

At last week's FCC hearing, Comcast's street people were not in attendance. But Comcast did manage once more to avoid its critics. Comcast decided not to attend the hearing.

      http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/0...

      http://techdirt.com/articles/20080417/020414870.shtml


Dead IDs

The Social Security Death Index gives the names, addresses, and social security numbers of people who have died. I think you have to be dead for 50 years or so before they'll put you on the list, so if you're reading this you've got a wait ahead of you.

A lady in California named Tracy decided the death index would be a good source of names and social security numbers for acquiring credit cards. She was apparently too dumb to realize the credit card companies would just check the death index to make sure their applicants are not dead yet.

However, it seems the credit card companies were even dumber than Tracy. They issued Tracy about 100 credit cards in the names of dead people. It only took the credit card companies about three years to catch on.

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080418-woman-acc...


FBI Internet Surveillance

It looks like it won't be long before the FBI has complete, unfettered access to the entire internet. FBI Boss Robert said, "The surveillance should include all Internet traffic, whether it be .mil, .gov, .com--whatever you're talking about."

This is one of those "the FBI has called for..." things, so it may be a little while before it's actually a law.

Look at the bright side.Maybe they'll do something constructive with it and stop spam.

      http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9926899-7.html

The FBI also wants to require ISPs to save everybody's browsing history, connection history, etc., so they can go back and access this information and catch terrorists, file sharers, and other evildoers. Still no word on spammers.

      http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9926803-38.html

When and if they get these laws passed, the FBI won't need to worry about warrants or even National Security Letters. In 2005 they manufactured evidence to get the power to issue National Security Letters under the Patriot Act. They lied. It didn't do much for public support.

      http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/fbi-director-c...

The New Jersey Supreme Court seems to be at odds with the FBI's new and future policies. They just ruled that people have an expectation of privacy when they are online, and that police need a warrant to access the private information of internet users.

      http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1...


Missouri Grammar

In a blatant attempt to imitate Oklahoma, Missouri has released new license plates with incorrect grammar, leaving out the dash in "the show-me state." They don't intend to correct the mistake.

      http://www.kmbc.com/news/15922554/detail.html?rss=kc1...


iCasualties

Sometimes I look at icasualties.org to see the progress (or regress) of the Iraq War.

      http://icasualties.org/oif/

The other day I noticed this note:
"Due to a malicious attack on our web server we have removed most of the content from this site. I will be adding content back to the site on a daily basis. Thanks, Michael White"

Maybe he needs a backup?

It is nice to see the information without all the hype and spin attached. It's surprising to me that the U.S. has been in the Iraq War longer than it was in World War II.


Message in a Bottle

The other day I looked up in the sky and saw a bunch of balloons flying by. It looked like they had notes attached. It was probably a children's program, kind of a message-in-a-bottle for the plains states.

A United Space Alliance worker named Jill found a message washed up on the beach at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Jill now has a new pen pal from Holy Name Catholic School in Bimini, Bahamas.

      http://www.local6.com/news/15926198/detail.html


Uranium for Sale

The United States has decided to allow other countries make enriched uranium for nuclear power plants. In 2004, Bush decided that countries that didn't already have uranium enrichment capability should not be allowed to get it. The U.S. persuaded Group of Eight top industrialized countries to agree to the annual ban, up until now.

This will give Canada the ability to enrich uranium and sell it to countries with nuclear power plants. Canada produces about a quarter of the world's uranium. With oil prices at record highs, nuclear power has become more economical.

      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120856815673528249.html  
      (subscription may be required)


MOA and VFR

A military operations area (MOA) is an area where the military does aviation training. There are dozens of them around the country. Usually they route planes on an IFR flight plan around active MOAs. Planes flying not under air traffic control are free to fly through MOAs, and the military aircraft avoid them just like they would anywhere else.

In Arizona, some F16s flyers apparently didn't appreciate a Pilatus PC12 and a small business jet flying through their MOA, because one of the F16s came in and intercepted them at close range on two separate occasions. The PC12 pilot said the F16 was within 20 feet of his plane, and he filed a near miss report with the FAA. The Air Force said the F16s never got closer than 600 feet to the PC12. The legal limit is 500 feet.

The F16s were flying out of Luke Air Force Base. Miki from Luke said the F-16 was "fully within Air Force rules" to conduct the intercept.

      http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/1097-full...

I was intercepted by a couple of A10s once when I was flying a PC12 in a MOA, but they were definitely over 500 feet from me. I thought it was pretty neat.


RIAA v. The Homeless

In what some refer to as their mass extortion campaign, the RIAA has filed a lawsuit against a homeless man for illegal file sharing. It seems he didn't respond to their threatening letter and send them a few thousand dollars. He might have confused it with one of those letters from Nigeria.

Facing legal sanctions by the judge involved, the RIAA did drop the case. However, they reserved the right to refile the lawsuit. You can never be too careful when it comes to file sharers and other terrorists.

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080418-riaa-esca...

Here are some other RIAA articles. I already do enough ranting and raving about them, so I will make this material optional. It will not be on the exam.

EMI says that it's illegal to backup your musing using an online backup site such as MP3tunes.com. And MP3tunes.com is really a backup service, not a file sharing site.

      http://consumerist.com/382824/emi-says-you-cant-store-y...

RIAA Mob Tactics?

      http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/does-riaa-engage-...

The MPAA wants to require all universities to filter their network to stop the illegal exchange of any copyrighted material.

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080320-mpaa-to-c...

Some recent court cases decided that making music available for download does not constitute file copying. The RIAA has ignored these so far and is still sending out demands for "settlements" so you can avoid being sued.

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080407-recent-ma...

The RIAA spent $2,000,000 lobbying for stricter copyright laws. They asked for penalties of up to $1.5 million for illegally copying 10-song compilation CDs, but that won't happen. Now they want the Justice Department to take over their lawsuits against IP addresses.

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080421-riaa-spen...

Sony got nailed for pirating software. Sony said, "But we're part of the RIAA. We can do that." Or not.

      http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9362/Sony+BMG+Sued+for+Sof...

In the UK, BPI is working to get ISPs to become internet cops.

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080404/084828750.shtml

One movie director said he was flattered that someone camcorded his movie. Too bad that's now a criminal offense involving jail time.

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080403/110311738.shtml

The RIAA is trying to attach additions to university funding legislation that would require universities to "develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity."

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080415-big-conte...

Joseph Biden wants the U.S. to spend $1 billion to monitor P2P internet connections for illegal activity. Heck, why not just give the money to the record companies and leave people alone? I am very happy Joseph Biden will not be President.

      http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920665-7.html

The international whisper campaign against fair use.

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080403/012447736.shtml


Superconductors

Here is a good article on high temperature superconductors. It's worth reading.

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080420-supercond...


80/20 split

When people call me asking for money, I usually talk to them if I have time. I ask them where they're calling from, about the weather, what they do in their spare time, do they swim a lot, where do they swim, what kind of fishing do they do, and other important stuff.

When they get down to asking me for a donation, I ask them if I donate a dollar to this charity, how much of it goes to the charity? Most of the people lately have been answering that it's an 80/20 split.

That doesn't sound too bad, until you ask who gets the 80 and who gets the 20. The companies making the phone calls are getting 80% of the money donated toward the charities! It's legal, too, as long as they tell you when you ask. Sometimes they say they don't know, or they don't know who gets the 80 and who gets the 20.

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: If you intend to donate your money to a charity, it very well may be 5 times more effective if you give it directly to the charity and don't go through one of these telemarketers.


Laptop Searches

It's getting pretty popular for Customs agents at the U.S. and other countries to search laptops as you enter the country. I'm not sure what they look for -- maybe pornography or drug delivery schedules or plans for nuclear bombs.

A U.S. Appeals Court decided that these searches are fine with them.

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080423-laptop-se...

Declan McCullagh wrote "The Security Guide to Customs-Proofing Your Laptop." It's pretty interesting.

      http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9892897-38.html

I don't think there is anything illegal on my laptop, at least in the U.S. If I go to Berzerkistan, though, I may have to encrypt my email. Possession of some of the spam I get might be considered a thought crime there.


Pictures of Today!

The International Space Station, taken by the crew of the Discovery last August:
iss2_sts114_big.jpg
   hi-res

Mike caught a 22 lb dolphin off the island of Molokai, Hawaii.
P1010100.jpg

A Molokai dirt road:
P1010102.jpg

Molokai, to the north:
P1010111.jpg

Kamakou, the high point of Molokai. Mike and I tried to climb it twice. We were unsuccessful. So far.
P1010120.jpg

It was a little hard to walk.
P1010123.JPGP1010128.JPG

So that's why they're called humpbacks!
P1010249.jpg

Mike and I took the Minnow around to Kilauea Volcano's lava flow into the Pacific.
P1010309.jpgP1010322.jpgP1010331.jpgP1010331a.JPGP1010338.jpgP1010339.JPGP1010398.jpgP1010406.jpgP1010480.jpg

Windmills at dusk, South Point, Hawaii. It's the southernmost place in the United States.
P1010511.jpg

How to unload an oil tanker:
P1010548.jpg

The orange line up to the front of the boat is a chain or rope. The oil line is floating in the water.
P1010557.jpg

A tug boat is on the opposite end holding the tanker in place.
P1010547.jpg

More Hawaii photos are here:
http://xpda.com/hawaii


That is all.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Bob's Junkmail, #199

Fishing in Sakhalin

Hokkaido is the northernmost island in Japan, unless you count the Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a string of islands that run northeast from Hokkaido to the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Sea_of_Okhotsk_map.png

About 25 miles north of Hokkaido is the island of Sakhalin. Sakhalin is about 600 miles long.

Japan and Russia have been arguing over the Kurils and Sakhalin off and on for the past 300 years. In 1875 they agreed that Japan could have the Kurils and Russia could have Sakhalin.

Near the end of World War II, in August 1945 after the atomic bombs and before the surrender, the Soviet Union mounted a big offensive to take over Sakhalin and the Kurils. In 1946, the Soviet Union kicked out the Japanese and now owns the islands. Japan still claims ownership of at least some of the Kurils, but Russia is in control.

It looks like they may finally resolve the dispute this summer. Japan may end up with the Southern Kurils (Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and Habomai (Japanese names)), and a World War II peace treaty between Japan and Russia may finally be signed.

      http://www.russia-ic.com/rus_international/in_depth/681/

Sakhalin Island is now a big oil producer. It is also a popular place for ice fishing. In the winter they take snowmobiles miles out into the frozen Sea of Okhotsk. Apparently, large amounts of vodka are among the required fishing equipment for these expeditions.

The ice melts in the spring and the people stop ice fishing, but not always in that order. Sometimes the ice floats away, carrying with it the ice fishermen, ice fisherwomen and ice fisherchildren. This is known as trolling. Then they get rescued by helicopters and boats.

In February 2007, 442 people were rescued from drifting ice, although about 70 initially refused to be rescued without their fishing gear.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6327495.stm

This month, 758 people were rescued from the drifting ice. Some of the anglers called for help when the ice floe had blown 5 miles out to sea. Impressively, there were no deaths or injuries outside of hangovers.

One report said, "Similar rescue dramas are something of an annual ritual in spring when local enthusiasts target migrating fish and the winter ice pack is already starting to break up."

      http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/191049.html

I suspect this would also be the case in Minnesota if Minnesota had an ocean.

Sunken Truck

Only in Minnesota do they recommend you leave your window down when you drive on thin ice so it's easier to swim out when your truck sinks.

      http://fishingminnesota.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=sh...

      http://video.aol.com/video-detail/truck-falls-through-i...


John Ashcroft

Former Attorney General John runs his own Washington consulting company called Ashcroft Group, LLC. Last fall his company was awarded a no-bid government contract that will bring in somewhere between $28 million and $52 million over 18 months.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Ashcroft said there was nothing wrong with this. He said this is how the government saves money. I guess that would explain this year's half-trillion dollar federal budget deficit.

The federal government is spending $500,000,000,000 more than it has this year. For some reason, that seems worse to me than a delinquent sub-prime loan. Maybe I should foreclose on the Washington Monument.

      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120674836533173281.html
      (may require subscription)

Oddly enough, John did not go on to explain how his company was selected for the contract, or why other companies should not be allowed to bid on such a contract. He was quoted as saying, "Certainly I deserve $50,000,000. The National Republican Congressional Committee Treasurer stole a cool million, and I'm easily 50 times more important." Or maybe I just made that up.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...



Airplane Cockpits

Here are cockpit photos of various planes, from the F-35 to the Desert Hawk UAV. It's pretty interesting.

      http://www.codeonemagazine.com/test/archives/2007/artic...

There's no photo of the Airbus A319 cockpit, so we can't see the bullet hole.

      http://www.codeonemagazine.com/test/archives/2007/artic...

Here's a good article on the F-35 cockpit.

      http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archives/2006/articles/a...

The F-117 Stealth Fighter is being retired. The last flight of four will be made on April 21-22 to Tonopah, Nevada where the F-117 was secretly tested before 1988.

      http://www.afmc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123089796

I think the F-117 became obsolete because new and better radar made it a little less stealthy. And its stealth is its only defense -- it has no radar and no defensive weapons.

The F-117...

030321-F-0000J-111.jpg

...will be replaced by the F-22...

070820-F-7049H-219.jpg

...and possibly the Cessna 177:

Cessna177BCardinal05.jpg

A Cessna 177 (not this one) meandered over Washington DC on March 12. The terrorism threat level was raised from some color to another color, and Capitol personnel were ordered to prepare to evacuate. Tourists, however, were left to die, with a threat level of purplish-yellow.

Destruction of the nation's capital and capitol were imminent when two F-16 supersonic fighters and a Coast Guard(?!) helicopter intercepted the single engined Cessna and escorted it to Leesburg, Virginia, where the terrorist threat level was 13.6-F.

The Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) around Washington is violated just about once a day by terrorists and other unsuspecting pilots. Maybe the new President will have a bit of common sense and get rid of the ADIZ (or at least reverse it so it keeps the politicians inside instead of keeping the people out). Ordinary controlled airspace should do the job very nicely.

      http://www.townhall.com/news/us/2008/03/12/hill_roiled_...


G-Archiver

There is a program called G-Archiver. Gmail users can use the program to copy email from their Gmail account to their hard drives.

But when you use G-Archive, an email with your username and password gets sent to jterry79@gmail.com, the author of the software.

A guy named Dustin figured this out. He found jterry79@gmail.com with its password hard-coded in the software. So he logged onto jterry79@gmail.com and found 1,777 Gmail usernames and passwords, including his own at the top. So Dustin deleted them, changed the password, and notified Google.

      http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?a...

G-Archive said "Oops," pulled the application off their web site, and promised a new version without the password harvesting feature. I don't think I'll be using it.

      http://www.garchiver.com/what-happened.htm

It's possible that the White House could use a good email archiver. They seem to have misplaced a few million emails.

      http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-21-whit...



Gmail IMAP

The top free email applications are Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Gmail. Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL put ads at the bottom of emails you send out. Gmail doesn't. So I like Gmail better.

You can use POP, SMTP, and IMAP software with Gmail. That means you can use Outlook Express or other email clients with Gmail.

SMTP is outgoing email. It is pretty transparent unless you send out something like Junkmail.

POP is the "normal" email interface for Outlook Express and similar email clients. When you receive your email with a POP client, it normally copies it to your hard drive and removes it from the server.

IMAP is an email interface that reflects what is on the email server (or Gmail web site) in real time. If you delete an email from the Gmail web site, it is automatically deleted in Outlook (or whatever email software you use.) If you delete it from Outlook, it is deleted automatically from the web.

With IMAP you need to be connected in order to read your email. With POP, you can download the email, disconnect from the internet, and read it later while you're not connected. IMAP only saves the email headers on your computer.

With IMAP you can use both the web interface (such as gmail.com) and your email client (such as Outlook Express) without having to synchronize them. You can also use email clients on different computers, for example, Outlook at the office and Outlook Express at home, without them getting out of synch. For example, if you send an email at home using Outlook Express, you can go to the office or the web and access that sent email.

This probably seems pretty obvious to people who are already using IMAP, but I didn't understand it until this week. In Gmail you can set it up at Settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP. It tells you how to set up Outlook or other email clients.


CIA Reading Room

It's not too interesting to me, but I was surprised that the CIA puts this online.

      http://www.foia.cia.gov/



Awareness Test

This is pretty good. I thought they cheated the first time.

      http://www.dothetest.co.uk/


Google Sky

Browse the night sky. A giant virtual telescope.

      http://www.google.com/sky/

And a Landsat Art browser:

      http://earthasart.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.htm

      http://earthasart.gsfc.nasa.gov/americas.html


Mexican Border

The drug business controls the Mexican side of the border.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...


BigDog

This is an impressive robot!

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww

      http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog



Craig's List

Craig's List is a web site for online want ads. The ads are free, and are meant to be local. For example, here's an ad from Craig's List, a $25 lawn mower that needs work:

lawnboy gold series, know for sure the coil is bad. It has set for awhile so dont know if anything else is wrong. It was a nice mower, not used very much.
LawnBoy.jpg

Some people in Jacksonville decided to play a trick on someone. They put a couple of ads in that said the owner of a home in the 7900 block of Sterling Creek Road was forced to leave the area suddenly and that his belongings, including a horse, were free for the taking. The homeowner, Robert, didn't know about the ad and was not planning to move.

People came to his house and started taking stuff. When Robert arrived home and told them to stop, some of them refused, saying it was "free for the taking," as advertised. Robert lost quite a bit of property because of the prank, but he did get his horse back.

      http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2...


Borrowed Wireless

If you don't want someone using your wireless internet, why not put a password on it? Instead, a Maryland lawmaker named Leroy thinks that you who connect without permission should enjoy three fun-filled years in jail.

The people at the Maryland public defender's office showed some common sense and told Leroy he's an ignorant Luddite. Except they were not quite so clear and concise.

      http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_...

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080320/172759602.shtml


A Mess of Mites


MitesMassing.jpg


Intellectual Property Hypocrisy

Some people say the U.S. is a little hypocritical when it comes to copyright laws. Surely not!

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080325-ip-hypocr...

The U.S. was hassling Israel over copyright laws, until Israel clearly explained that the U.S. was trying to pressure them into passing laws that even the U.S. won't.

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080318/075016574.shtml

Howard Berman summed up the position of the U.S. Government, saying "Anybody who doesn't support the new law just wants to steal something." OK, maybe I paraphrased a little. But not much.

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080328/162315688.shtml

Also, according to our new Attorney General Michael, illegal file copying fosters terrorism.

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080331-us-attorn...

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080328/122324685.shtml

The RIAA agrees. They say we should convict people who share music of crimes, because that will round up drug dealers and terrorists.

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080220/151032309.shtml


U.S. Security

Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario had a computer crash. Google set up a new system for them. But the university cannot use Google's email system for any private information such as grades or personnel matters. Why? The U.S. Patriot Act.

Canada has laws (as the U.S. does) insuring privacy of grades and other personal information in public schools and universities. The U.S. Patriot Act allows the U.S. Government to read emails of the University staff and students. That makes it illegal for them to use Gmail for private data.
      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2008...

Of course, the U.S. Government would never abuse Canadians. Except maybe for that Canadian telecommunications engineer who was snatched when he changed planes in New York, and sent to Syria for months of torture and interrogational entertainment.

      http://xpda.com/junkmail/junk146/junk146.htm


Passport Outsourcing

The U.S. Government is has redesigned passports, including RFID chips and antennas to make them more secure. To anybody outside the government, this would appear to make the passports less secure, since it makes it easier for people to grab data from a passport.

But life in Washington DC is an alternative universe that adheres a logic contrary to our reality. The new passports are more secure. We know that because the government told us. That's why they are manufactured in Thailand and the Netherlands.

      http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080328/EDITORI...

This sounded a little weird, so I checked the U.S. Department of State's web site. It gets even more weird. Not only are the blank passports made in Thailand, but there are no companies in the U.S. who can make them. Doesn't anybody in Washington see a problem with this?

Q: Describe the State Department's role, if any, in the decision by the Government Printing Office to use a factory in Thailand for assembling the components of U.S. passport. Can the Department reject a manufacturer selected by the GPO?

A: GPO and Department of State employees jointly evaluated proposals from several companies to supply the unprinted passport cover (which contains the chip and antenna and the only part of the passport not produced or assembled by GPO). The GPO/State evaluation committee recommended the two companies selected as there were no American manufacturers who could provide the needed product. GPO signed the contracts with these companies on behalf of the U.S. Government.

Q: When the Department began its e-passport program, were there any American companies that produced the electronic chips needed for those passports?

A: We are not aware of any U.S. companies that made the chips that could satisfy the requirements of the e-Passport Request for Proposal at the time we launched our e-Passport program and we received no acceptable proposals from them.

      http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2008/mar/102718.htm

In other security action, The U.S. Government has ordered every state in the U.S. to start issuing new driver's licenses, redesigned to be "secure" like the new passports. These are called Real IDs. But even with the snazzy name, states are not cooperating.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

      http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/20/california-asks-fo...

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080321/003022610.shtml

The federal government even had a seminar for states on how to push Real ID. One of the seminars was "Every State DMV needs to find a way to educate their public so that they can ensure the legislature changes necessary to become Real ID compliant." This is NOT propaganda. It is education.


Bering Tunnel

Russia's President Putin (for a little while longer) has suggested a tunnel between Siberia and Alaska. We could finance the 64-mile tunnel by putting the Iraq War on pause for a couple months. We can order a pause button from Thailand.

      http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/arti...

I'd like to drive from Oklahoma to Siberia.


Pictures of Today!

Today: a bunch of photos from Hawaii. If you are really bored you can see the rest at

      http://xpda.com/hawaii

P1000038.jpgP1000073.jpg

Moon

P1000085.jpgP1000096.jpg

Kauai

P1000098.jpgP1000103.jpgP1000116.jpgP1000131.jpgP1000132.jpg

Dates:
P1000139.jpg

Highway:
P1000193.jpg

Canyon:
P1000202.jpg

P1000229.jpg

Reading Area:
P1000282.jpg

The Big Island

Rainbow Falls, Hilo, Hawaii
P1000306.jpg

Banyan Tree
P1000326.jpg

Moana Kea, the Top of Hawaii
P1000369.jpg

It snowed!
P1000383.jpgP1000411.jpg

P1000422.jpgP1000468.jpgP1000477.jpg

People built houses on the lava after it came through.
P1000564.jpg

P1000566.jpgP1000589.jpgP1000597.jpgP1000598.jpg
P1000614.jpg

Fresh Lava:
P1000600.jpg
Lady Bug
P1000633.jpgP1000634.jpg

Crider the Spider
P1000635.jpg

P1000666.jpgP1000688.jpgP1000695.jpgP1000701.jpgP1000707.jpgP1000723.jpg

Road Closed:
P1000729.jpgP1000731.jpgP1000739.jpgP1000733.jpgP1000771.jpgP1000777.jpg

This is where the lava runs into the Pacific.
P1000802.jpg

Akaka Falls, north of Hilo, Hawaii.
P1000831.jpg

Oahu
P1000899.jpg

Kaala Mountain
IMG_1438.jpg

Kaena Point
P1000916.jpgP1000917.jpgP1000933.jpgP1000956a.jpgP1000973.jpgP1010020.jpgP1010036.jpgP1010050.jpg

And finally, the Vulture. Melinda took this picture somewhere south of the border. She claims it's an osprey with a fish from Baja California, but she had a shadowy upbringing.

vulture.jpg


The End