Prank starts 25 years of security woes
Excerpt:
What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta notoriety as the first person ever to let loose a personal computer virus.
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"Elk Cloner" — self-replicating like all other viruses — bears little resemblance to the malicious programs of today. Yet in retrospect, it was a harbinger of all the security headaches that would only grow as more people got computers — and connected them with one another over the Internet.
Skrenta's friends were already distrusting him because, in swapping computer games and other software as part of piracy circles common at the time, Skrenta often altered the floppy disks he gave out to launch taunting on-screen messages. Many friends simply started refusing disks from him.
So during a winter break from the Mt. Lebanon Senior High School near Pittsburgh, Skrenta hacked away on his Apple II computer — the dominant personal computer then — and figured out how to get the code to launch those messages onto disks automatically.
He developed what is now known as a "boot sector" virus. When it boots, or starts up, an infected disk places a copy of the virus in the computer's memory. Whenever someone inserts a clean disk into the machine and types the command "catalog" for a list of files, a copy gets written onto that disk as well. The newly infected disk is passed on to other people, other machines and other locations.
Comment: Symantec and McAfee should pay this guy! Here's the Source for it (harmless!)
Mother bought herself a new car today! (Her '94 Sable died earlier this week). This is the first time she bought a car.
I have been experiencing a vexing database issue that I finally resolved this week.
I have a database with a field titled "reviewed_date". It keep periodically resetting itself to "10/01/2006".
At first (and for quite a while), I blamed it on a system problem, but the problem was actually mine!
Earlier I posted on the "DATEDIFF" function. When I started using it, some rows did not have the "reviewed_date" field populated and so the function failed. So I created a utility piece of CF code to populate all NULL fields to "10/01/2006".
I moved this code to production and never removed it.
Meanwhile I weekly took a backup of this particular table.
This past Friday I noticed that the table was intact with no issues. Monday when I came in all the "reviewed_date" fields had been reset to "10/01/2006".
Wednesday I scanned for all occurances of "10/01/2006" in my *.CFM code and noticed that this utilize code was still in production. I had used it once! I purged it from production and pondered the situatution. I hypothesized that something had been running that code in an automated way periodically. My manager scoffed at my hypothesis.
To test my hypothesis, I created a sample table, that mirrored my table that was perioically corrupted. Then I created code - aptly named hypothesis.cfm - that would update that table and reset the "reviewed_date" column to "10/01/2006". I set the "reviewed_date" values to my birthday "08/19/1949". The hypothesis.cfm code also included a CFMAIL section that would send me an email when it executed.
My hypothesis was that a regular indexing of our corporate Intranet was causing that code to execute.
Today at 10:02 am that code executed and sent me an email. The column "reviewed_date" had been set to "10/01/2006".
This seemingly small detail had vexed me for months. And I thank God that I got it resolved!
There's a programming lesson in this story!
Jott is the voice to text service that I mentioned earlier. I signed up and tried it tonight.
How one might use it? Scenario: I need to group message my children (Nathan, Rachel, and Roger). We are to meet at a restaurant at a certain time. I set all three of my kids up in Jott as contacts (both their cell phones and their email addresses). I want to communicate to all at once. I call Jott (toll free #), speak "Kids" as the contact, state a message and hang up. Jott transcribes the message and sends a SMS message to each of their cell phones. The same message is also sent to their email addresses.
Example: "Meet us at Applebees by Ridgedale at 7".
I tried this out with Roger tonight. He thought it was interesting.
Jott and PingMe (the service I mentioned earlier today) are free.
Our reading was from 1 Chronicles 9 & 10 tonight. This ministered to me (9:22-27):
All those chosen as gatekeepers were two hundred and twelve. They were recorded by their genealogy, in their villages. David and Samuel the seer had appointed them to their trusted office. So they and their children were in charge of the gates of the house of the LORD, the house of the tabernacle, by assignment. The gatekeepers were assigned to the four directions: the east, west, north, and south. And their brethren in their villages had to come with them from time to time for seven days. For in this trusted office were four chief gatekeepers; they were Levites. And they had charge over the chambers and treasuries of the house of God. And they lodged all around the house of God because they had the responsibility, and they were in charge of opening it every morning.
Comment: Being a gatekeeper was obviously an important position and to be taken seriously. The Christian must be diligent about the Lord's work and not be a slacker. Proverbs 10:4, "He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich."
Data on 313 Minnesota bridges now online
Excerpt:
Minnesotans who want to check the structural rating of their favorite bridge can now do so by computer, according to an environmental group that has organized data on 313 bridges on interstate highways, U.S. highways and state trunk highways across the state.
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) used information from state and federal sources to compile maps, which list the bridges and their identification numbers, and the degree to which they are functionally obsolete or structurally deficient.
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
Excerpt:
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy today released maps and data bases on more than 300 Minnesota bridges which will allow citizens to become informed on the state of their bridges and the votes of their representatives on transportation issues.
Comment: Data is in zipped archivesm (PDF & Excel). Another file is for those with specialized GIS software.
The official murder rate in New Orleans had dropped to zero
Excerpt:
“This is one of the most interesting experiments in crime we’ve ever seen. Without effective courts, corrections, or rehabilitation, we have reduced the crime rate by 100 percent.”
New Orleans Crime Swept Away, With Most of the People
Excerpt:
But the bullets and the drugs and the fear are gone now, swept away by Hurricane Katrina, along with the dealers and gangs and most of the people.
There has not been a single killing in this violence-prone neighborhood, or anywhere else in New Orleans, since the chaos that immediately followed Hurricane Katrina subsided. New Orleans, the nation's most dangerous city, has suddenly become perhaps its safest, and what had easily been the country's murder capital now has a murder rate of exactly zero. Although several people were believed to have been killed in the disorder that followed the floods for several days, the last killing officially recorded by the police was on Aug. 27, two days before the hurricane hit. A bar owner was found shot to death that day in his establishment on Magazine Street.
And when the city was finally evacuated, the criminals left, too.
Since then some 60,000 to 80,000 residents have returned, a fraction of the city's previous population of 450,000. What is remarkable to criminologists, though, is how few criminals seem to be among them.
Comment: As a student of economics, I have read Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything . Freakonomics is a daily feature of the NYTimes and generally interesting. As tragic as Katrina was (This is the 2 year anniversary), there were some silver linings to those swirling storms! The crime rate dropped.
At 70, McCain Takes On Talk of His Age
U.S. / Politics
At 70, McCain Takes On Talk of His Age
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: August 25, 2007
John McCain, who will turn 71 on Wednesday, is hoping to become the oldest person ever elected to a first term as president.
Excerpt:
Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, who will turn 71 on Wednesday, is hoping to become the oldest person ever elected to a first term as president. So on the stump, he makes his experience a central theme of his campaign, while keeping up a grueling campaign schedule and showing his not-inconsiderable store of energy, despite injuries he sustained as a prisoner of war that limit his mobility and a bout with melanoma that left his face scarred.
My view: Experience & character! I like the man!
Twin Cities Editor Planning Online Daily
Business / Media & Advertising
Twin Cities Editor Planning Online Daily
By BRIAN LAMBERT
Published: August 27, 2007
The former editor and publisher of The Star Tribune of Minneapolis is expected to announce plans for an online, nonprofit daily newspaper for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
We celebrated my Brother's 54th birthday tonight. We gifted him with a Maglight flashlight and a Hoagy Carmichael CD: Stardust Melody.
Some pics:
Other:
We drove down to Jordan Minnesota to look at maintenance-free outdoor furniture for our deck at ByTheYard. They are offering a 10% State fair discount, free assembly, and free delivery. We bought a bench and 2 chairs. This furniture is made out of recycled milk jugs!
Rainfall Sets State Record In SE Minn.
Peggy Noonan: A toast to American troops, then and now
Excerpt:
A funny thing. We're so used to thinking of American troops as good guys that we forget: They're good guys! They have American class.
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Whatever is decided in Washington I hope our soldiers know what we really think of them, and what millions in Iraq must, also. I hope some day they get some earned tenderness, and wind up over the hills of Iraq, and land, and an old guy comes out and says, "Are you an American?" And they say yes and he says, "A toast, to old times."
Comment: Roger exited the USMC Reserves today after 75 months of service.
Freakonomics Quorum: What is the Right Way to Think About the Obesity ‘Epidemic’?
Tidbits:
Random Thoughts:
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr
1 Chronicles 4:9,10, "Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested."
Comment: We commenced reading the Chronicles last night. The first 9 chapters are heavy with genealogy and not easy reading. But the prayer of Jabez is a highlight. So much is made of the phrase "enlarge my territory" ... must be balanced with "keep me from evil"! Interesting read: What is the prosperity gospel?: "The Prosperity Gospel seems to “prove” that God exists and that faith “pays off.” Many American Christians do not know the Biblical Gospel and, therefore, cannot spot a counterfeit. Christian publishers have published books like “The Prayer of Jabez” in order to enrich themselves."
What I read in the emergency room waiting area last night (an interesting article from a May 'Business Week'):
The Poverty Business
Excerpts:
HAPPY AS SHE WAS with the Saturn (GM ) she bought in December, 2005, Roxanne Tsosie soon ran into trouble paying off the loan on it. The car had 103,000 miles on the odometer. She agreed to a purchase price of $7,922, borrowing the full amount at a sky-high 24.9%. Based on her conversation with the Byrider salesman, she thought she had signed up for $150 monthly installments. The paperwork indicated she owed that amount every other week. She soon realized she couldn't manage the payments. Dejected, she agreed to give the car back, having already paid $900. "It kind of knocked me down," Tsosie says. "I felt I'd never get anywhere."
The abortive purchase meant Byrider could dust off and resell the Saturn. Nearly half of Byrider sales in Albuquerque do not result in a final payoff, and many vehicles are repossessed, says David Brotherton, managing partner of the dealership. A former factory worker, he says he sympathizes with customers who barely get by. "Many of these people are locked in a perpetual cycle" of debt, he says. "It's all motivated by self-interest, of course, but we do want to help credit-challenged people get to the finish line."
Byrider dealers say they can generally figure out which customers will pay back their loans. Salesmen, many of whom come from positions at banks and other lending companies, use proprietary software called Automated Risk Evaluator (ARE) to assess customers' financial vital signs, ranging from credit scores from major credit agencies to amounts spent on alimony and cigarettes.
Unlike traditional dealers, Byrider doesn't post prices—which average $10,200 at company-owned showrooms—directly on its cars. Salesmen, after consulting ARE, calculate the maximum that a person can afford to pay, and only then set the total price, down payment, and interest rate. Byrider calls this process fair and accurate; critics call it "opportunity pricing."
So how did Byrider figure that Tsosie had $300 a month left over from her small salary for car payments? Barely a step up from destitution, she now lives in her own cramped apartment in a dingy two-story adobe-style building. Decorated with an old bow and arrow and sepia-tinted photographs of Navajo chiefs, the apartment is also home to her new husband, Joey A. Garcia, a grocery-store stocker earning $25,000 a year, his two children from a previous marriage, and two of Tsosie's kids. She and Garcia are paying off several other high-interest loans, including one for his used car and another for the $880 wedding ring he bought her this year.
Asked by BusinessWeek to review Tsosie's file, Byrider's Brotherton raises his eyebrows, taps his keyboard, and studies the screen for a few minutes. "We probably should have spent more time explaining the terms to her," he says. Pausing, he adds that given Tsosie's finances, she should never have received a 24.9% loan for nearly $8,000.
Comment: There are some really unscrupulous lenders preying on the ignorant and uninformed.
"What Does God Care What We Call Him?"
Excerpt:
Bishop Muskens is disingenuous at best when he suggests that God does not care about His name. This is not a matter of mere "discussion and bickering." If the Bible is the Word of God, we can be assured that human beings did not invent this discussion.
There is one final and insurmountable problem with Bishop Muskens' proposal. Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize believers "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" [Matthew 28:19]. When this command is taken seriously and obeyed, the whole issue is greatly clarified -- a Christian cannot baptize in the name of Allah.
If Allah has no son, Allah is not the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even if the case is made that Allah could be used in a generic sense to refer to God ( and I am not persuaded that it can), the word cannot be used to mean the Father in a Trinitarian affirmation. This is not mere "discussion and bickering." This is where the Gospel stands or falls.
Comment: See earlier post: Call God Allah?
It occasionally happens: I trip and fall. My mind has a registry of these events: falling on the moving walkway at the Dallas Fort Worth airport, falling in downtown Denver, falling in the parking lot of my Dentist, falling at work, falling on the sidewalk walking to work, falling while out on church visitation, falling in the garage, falling in the street ... more times that I would like to remember.
The good news: I get banged up but nothing serious!
Last night wasn't serious either, but I did end up going to the emergency room.
On the way to bed (from my easy chair to the bedroom - a mere 20' or less!), I tripped in the hallway and fell on my face on the tile. Tile is a lot harder than carpet! The fall opened two cuts above my right eye. These seemingly small cuts (think of a boxer!) really bleed! Blood on the tile, blood on my face, on my hands, etc.
Nathan and Roger were there and they got me to my feet (my legs were really wobbly).
My "bell was rung" and I was dazed. We cleaned up and got dressed. Kathee drove me to Methodist hospital. My right elbow was x-rayed. It is not broken but very sore. Because my head was cracked and I was a little nauseous, I had a cat scan. The nurse said they "found nothing"! (a little ER humor!). Both cuts were stitched up. Nothing really but my modeling days are in jeopardy.
My glasses also took a hit. Frame bent. I've had this set for over three years so I am due to go back to the eye Dr again anyway.
Kathee and I were out until 2:30 in the morning. Interestingly there was another guy in the ER who fell and cracked his head. An old guy! (Which I am not!).
Today I am chilling at home. I needed a day off anyway! I am resting in my recliner with my bruised elbow (which really hurts) supported by a pillow. Ouch ... better stop blogging!
Phishers looking to cash in on Wells Fargo crash
Excerpt:
The anticipated spike in Wells Fargo phishing had not occurred as of Tuesday afternoon. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, an organization that tracks online fraudsters, had counted 43 live Wells Fargo phishing sites, said Dave Jevans, the group's chairman. That's a tiny fraction of the 36,000 sites tracked by the group. "I would call that a usual background noise level," he said of the Wells Fargo activity.
However, online criminals are quick to tailor their scams to any newsworthy event, and Jevens expects the Wells Fargo scams to pop up soon. "Give them a day," he added "I would be surprised if it didn't happen in this case."
According to Helgeson, criminals are planning to send out e-mails that acknowledge the computer problems and ask victims to log on to phony Wells Fargo sites in order to validate their user information.
Wells Fargo Fixes Computer Problem, Restores Service
Kathee did an all-nighter working on this. (A tribute to the technology workers at Wells Fargo who have the expertise and the dedication to resolve problems!)
When I awoke this morning, she had been awake since yesterday morning at 5:30.
Excerpt:
Avid Modjtabai, head of Wells Fargo's Technology and Information Group:
"Using our back-up facilities, we restored Internet banking service in about one hour and 40 minutes Sunday, Aug. 19, and within hours, customers could access Wells Fargo Phone Bank Centers and make basic ATM transactions, such as withdrawing cash and making deposits at our ATMs but not at non-Wells Fargo ATMs. All point-of sales transactions, processing for mortgage, home equity, student loans, ACH, wire transfers and remittances, are now up and running. Our customers hold us to a high standard of trust and reliability and we want to assure them that all data about their accounts has remained safe and secure throughout this disruption. We apologize for the inconvenience this caused them. We thank the hundreds of team members in our technology group for working so hard to resolve this problem."
John MacArthur on Larry King Live
I fell asleep before John MacArthur was on. But here is the transcript!
Edmund Fitzgerald ring a fake?
Excerpt:
But the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum received a visitor recently who refutes the ring's authenticity.
Cynthia Edwards told a museum employee last week that her father bought the orange preserver at a garage sale many years ago, painted the name of the ore carrier on it and hung it at his cabin in Eagle River — not far from where it ultimately was found in the Upper Peninsula's Keweenaw Peninsula. When they remodeled two years ago, they put the ring on a tree and from there it disappeared.
"With the information coming in now, it looks more and more like it's not from the Edmund Fitzgerald," said Tom Farnquist, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, which owns the museum.
Earlier Post
Sex offender back in pulpit: Despite prison term, preacher welcomed by Baptist congregation
Excerpt:
A southwest suburban Southern Baptist congregation allowed a convicted child sex offender to preach for the last few years -- despite his past, and a warning from his previous church that he might still be dangerous, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
In 1996, Jeff Hannah was sentenced to nine years in prison for having sexual relations with four underage girls -- ages 15 to 17 -- while a married youth minister at Crossroads Church in Libertyville.
Hannah was paroled in 2001 and joined the First Baptist Church of Romeoville, where his new wife was a member. Soon after, the pastor moved on, and church members -- aware of Hannah's crimes -- asked him to step into the pulpit until a replacement was hired, according to church members, Hannah and others.
Hannah served in that role for three years and ever since has been a fill-in preacher, teacher and music minister at the church.
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The Rev. Steve Farish, pastor of Crossroads Church, which has relocated to Grayslake, said he considered Hannah so dangerous that he warned the Romeoville church and a regional Southern Baptist official.
I preface my remarks by saying:
Giant Migrant Cash Pool Powering World Economy
Excerpt:
Experts tracking the phenomenon told The Associated Press they have gotten a much clearer picture since the 9/11 attacks, when authorities trying to cut the flow of cash to jihadists began taking a harder look at how immigrants move their money around.
Mass migration, they say, has spawned an underground economy of staggering proportions.
Globally, remittances - the cash that immigrants send home - totaled nearly $276 billion in 2006, the World Bank says. Remittances have more than doubled since 2000, and with globalization increasing the numbers of people on the move, there's no end in sight.
If these guest workers incorporated as a company, their migrant multinational would rank No. 3 on the Fortune 500 list, trailing only Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil in annual revenue.
Remittances "are larger than direct foreign investment in Mexico, tea exports in Sri Lanka, tourism revenue in Morocco, and revenue from the Suez Canal in Egypt," World Bank economist Dilip Ratha said in a recent report.
And unlike the conventional economy, more cash tends to change hands in an economic downturn, political crisis, natural disaster, famine or war.
Comment: Extremely interesting (and news to me!)
Don't be vexed by a high VIX
Excerpt:
The VIX is officially the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, and it measures the market's expectation of future volatility based on Standard and Poor's 500 stock index options prices.
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Turns out the volatility we're experiencing today isn't terribly unusual, even though it might feel that way after the steady run it follows. In the past decade, the VIX traded above 40 three times: During the Russian debt crises in 1998, after 9/11, and during the market downturn of 2002. The VIX's historical average going back to the early 1990s is about 19.
Wiki: VIX
CBOE VOLATILITY INDEX
Comment: Today was the first I've heard of this index! Interesting
We had a small family celebration tonight for my 58th birthday. Rachel is out of town in Midland, MI and missing.
Pictures:
Roger and me. (Mother got me geode bookends)
Kathee and me (235 lbs)
Roger w his USMC beer stein
Roger w old fedora of mine
The Danger of Hate Crimes Legislation
Comment: a good read from Pastor Frank Sansone.
Rochester judge battles what constitutes a 'family,' and who gets to decide
Excerpt:
If allowed to continue, the suit will determine whether the club must give a lesbian couple and their 11-year-old child a family membership, which would save them about $500 per year.
Comment: Should be interesting. Wide ramifications!
CD celebrates 25th anniversary
It was August 17, 1982, and row upon row of palm-sized plates with a rainbow sheen began rolling off an assembly line near Hanover, Germany.
Comments: I remember a friend (a weathy friend) who had a CD system way back when. It was expensive (as I recall he had paid $ 1,200 for it)! My first CD player was purchased about 15 years ago. We had a couple from the church by and listened to Herb Alpert and the Tijuani Brass.
Californians rush to pull money from Countrywide Bank
Anxious customers jammed the phone lines and Web site of Countrywide Bank and crowded its branch offices to pull out their savings because of concerns about the financial problems of the mortgage lender that owns the bank.
Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest home-loan company in the United States, sought Thursday to assure depositors and the financial industry that both it and its bank were fiscally stable. And federal regulators said they weren't alarmed by the volume of withdrawals from the bank.
Comment: Folk are getting nervous! Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC)
Money Ball: What works, and what doesn't, in a credit crisis.
Excerpt:
On that score, the feds went one for two this week. On the plus side, Countrywide Financial was able to call on an $11.5 billion bank credit line when that giant mortgage lender couldn't sell its commercial paper. It also said it would move its mortgage business under its bank unit, which will give it a further liquidity cushion. Countrywide is at the center of the subprime storm, and its stock price has taken a huge hit. But it retains significant earning capacity and a solid business in safer mortgages.
The last thing anyone should want is for an otherwise solvent business to go bust because it can't meet its short-term borrowing needs. The bank credit line will be expensive for Countrywide. But as the 19th-century journalist Walter Bagehot advised, in a financial crisis lend freely at a penalty rate. To the extent that Treasury and the New York Fed played an indirect role in creating this private financial cushion for Countrywide, this was effective crisis management.
Comment: This smells so much like the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s!
Hezbollah video game: War with Israel
Excerpt:
Raid Israel to capture soldiers, battle tanks in the valleys of southern Lebanon and launch Katyusha rockets at Israeli towns -- a new Hezbollah computer game puts players on the frontline of war with the Jewish state.
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Designed by Hezbollah computer experts, players of "Special Force 2" take the role of a Hezbollah fighter, or Mujahid. Weapons and points are accumulated by killing Israeli soldiers.
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The game retails at about $10 in Lebanon and is produced by volunteers. Hezbollah is expecting strong demand for the game at home and abroad. Hundreds of copies have been reserved in advance in Lebanon.
The 3-D game forces players to think and use their resources wisely, reflecting the way Hezbollah fights, Daher said.
"The features which are the secret of resistance's victory in the south have moved to this game so that the child can understand that fighting the enemy does not only require the gun.
"It requires readiness, supplies, armament, attentiveness, tactics."
Comment:
See earlier posts about Farfour.
32 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:
‘He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.
33 By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the LORD.
34 ‘For I will defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”
How this blessed me: This text demonsrates the absolute sovereignty of God over the nations! How it comforts my heart!
Image from www.livius.org
Remembering a Classic Investing Theory
