Digital Common Sense

This evening I find myself in an interesting, and uncommon position. As many of you might remember, it wasn’t that long ago when I lived in rural Vermont and was tied to the idiosyncracies of DirecPC satellite Internet service as the only option to dial-up. Well, yes, there was always the dedicated T-1 approach too.

This evening I’m dual-broadbanded with both Comcast cable service and Qwest DSL. I’ve had the cable for over a year now and overall don’t really have major complaints. Comcast is sometimes the target of network nastiness that causes performance problems, but in general, no complaints.

Qwest DSL, was easy to set up. Came with a WiFi enabled DSL modem, and is noticeably faster. Twice as fast by feel. I haven’t done benchmarking yet, but it’s definitely faster and cleaner. Sure I got a ton of MSN add-on garbage that I’ll go back and delete, but the core service underneath (which is all I really want…gimme a pipe) looks pretty darn fine at this point.

I’ll run both in parallel for a month and be doing some comparison benchmarking. Then we’ll see. There’s a fair chance I’ll keep both and maintain dual network redundancy, but I’m not convinced I really want to do that just yet. Other factors and projects on the radar scope will help influence that decision.

Filed by Ken at 8:37 pm under General, Technology
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September 27, Silicon.com — VoIP wiretapping rules to be considered. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) has developed a 59−page decision for Broadband providers and Internet phone services. They now have until spring 2007 to follow a new and complex set of rules designed to make it easier for police to seek wiretaps. This includes that any voice over IP, or VoIP, provider linking with the public telephone network must be wiretap−ready.
Source: http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39152744 ,00.htm

Filed by Ken at 11:20 am under General, Unified Communications
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Back from DC late last night. I really am back. Tired. Brain fog. Swamped in a plethora or project work, but I’m around again. Some very exciting project activity in the mill. Some below the radar and some that will surface here soon.

Filed by Ken at 8:26 pm under General
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Palm to unveil Windows-based cell phone - Wireless World - MSNBC.com
SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. and its longtime rival in the mobile software market, Palm Inc. are set to unveil Monday a cell phone that will run Microsoft’s software, sources said Friday.

The new mobile device, the Treo 700, will be offered by wireless carrier Verizon Wireless and will be able to access the Internet, news and e-mail, just like previous Treos, sources familiar with the companies’ plans said.

Filed by Ken at 9:05 pm under Mobility & Handheld, Technology
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Some of my personal favorites from www.officeslang.com.

Adminisphere - The rarified organizational layers above the rank and file that makes decisions that are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant.

Alpha Geek - The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. “I dunno, ask Rick. He’s our alpha geek.”

Beepilepsy - The brief siezure people sometimes suffer when their beepers go off, especially in vibrator mode. Characterized by physical spasms, goofy facial expressions, and stopping speech in mid-sentence.

Blamestorming - A group discussion of why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.

Ohnosecond - That minuscule fraction of time during which you realize you’ve just made a terrible error.

Percussive Maintenance - The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

Uninstalled - Euphemism for being fired. Also: decruitment.

*** mo:Blogged ***

Filed by Ken at 10:40 pm under General
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So while I’ve adamantly avoided podcasting here, I can’t really plead total ignorance of the technologies in play. I’ve used Audacity, Lame and the like for a while. To be honest, the whole experience isn’t unlike early blogging days and tools. Not terribly far afield from writing your blog posts, html code included using Notepad.

Ok, perhaps I exagerate a bit, but you get the idea.

I’ve been dabbling a bit with WebPod Studio from Lionhardt Technologies. There’s a clear-cut difference between the standard and professional versions, notably the ability to live broadcast. That’s an interesting feature since you can broadcast live while building the canned podcast for upload. The only real differentiator for the enterprise version is support for dual cameras.

So I’m a bit curious of all you other dabblers out there. What tools tdo you use? Any of you use WebPod Studio at all? Just gathering some information as some of my needs and tools change.

Filed by Ken at 8:58 pm under General, Technology
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Thanks to Don for an email about something he posted about computer users and general understanding. His always pithy comments and thoughts are so “on the mark” that I often click back through to see what started things. He points back to a Slashdot post, that I then followed back to Office blunders caused by computer jargon
Office blunders caused by computer jargon

Sep 23 2005

Western Mail

Office workers are baffled by computer jargon and make serious business blunders because they see ‘IT speak’ as a foreign language, a survey has revealed.

Among office workers 26% aren’t sure what a firewall does and therefore have been tempted to turn it off. A firewall is a form of computer security that prevents unauthorised access from the internet and turning it off is the worst thing you can do.

A massive 61% don’t understand the difference between gigabytes, kilobytes and megabytes and as a result have sent e-mails with huge attachments that have blocked clients’ systems.

Around 48% are confused by different kinds of files like Jpegs and PDFs and don’t know how they should be used.

A further 23% are not sure whether to upload or download - requiring further contact with the IT department for an explanation.

From java-script and cookies to Trojan horses and worms, over two-thirds (68%) of office workers believe IT lingo is incomprehensible. And almost 32% of office blunders are caused by misunderstandings surrounding ‘IT speak’.

Nearly 75% of people said they spend more than an hour every week simply trying to find out what something means in order to finish a task, according to the survey by recruitment consultants Computer People.

I point this all out for a reason. For those of us who have a technical customer base, those terms might all make sense, but in the general business world, think about how many people you encounter on a daily basis who have two core skills. They can point. They can click. Beyond that, they’re out of their element.

That’s one reason some of us make a really good living being thoughtful about how we explain things. And it isn’t amazing what we get paid for what we do sometimes?

Filed by Ken at 5:31 pm under Technology
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September 19, SecurityNewsPortal.com Security vendor warns of Googlespoofing worm. There is a new Google worm, called P2Load.A and it is being spread on peertopeer programs like Shareaza and Imesh. According to Forrest Clark, senior manager of consumer product marketing with antivirus vendor Panda Software, the worm is posing as a free version of the Lucasfilm game “Knights of the Old Republic II.” P2Load.A first began spreading on Wednesday and is most widely spread in the U.S. and Chile, Clark said. Users that download this game are finding themselves installing a new work and then receiving poor Google search results. This is done in installation which changes the browser when a user is trying to access Google. Instead of reaching Google the user is directed to a spoof site, hosted on a server in Germany.
Source: http://www.snpx.com/cgibin/news55.cgi?target=109996736?262 2

Filed by Ken at 8:53 am under InfoSec, Technology
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September 19, BBC News Hackers target net call systems Report is reporting that hackers are starting to turn their attention phone calls. The Voice over IP (Voip) systems as a technology criminals and the report predicted that within 18 months, Voip “significant” attack vector. Voip could resurrect some old hacking old hacking techniques.
Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4259554.stm

Filed by Ken at 8:53 am under InfoSec, Technology, Unified Communications
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I’ve been poking in over at nobody asked…BUT…i’m gonna say it anyway! now and then lately to read. Adding to the list of regular reading here and pointing it out to you because these rules to live by and Winston’s recounting of the bird lady really are worth your reading time.

Show Up
Pay Attention
Be Honest
Play Fair

Work Hard
Take Responsibility
Honor Commitments
Mind Your Own Business

Filed by Ken at 6:00 pm under General
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Handbook offers tips for cyberdissidents | Tech News on ZDNet

Free-speech advocate Reporters Without Borders has published a guide for blogging in China, Iran and other countries that strictly censor the Web.

The 87-page booklet, titled “The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents,” includes chapters on how to blog anonymously and on technical ways to get around censorship. Released on Thursday, the handbook is available for free online in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Farsi.

Interesting stuff

Filed by Ken at 5:48 pm under General, Technology
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Thanks to Lifehacker for a blurb pointing to Internet protocol suite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet runs. It is sometimes called the TCP/IP protocol suite, after the two most important protocols in it: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which were also the first two defined.

Having spent some time teaching TCP/IP, networking and routing protocols and such, I’d say this is a pretty good representation overall. If you’re one of those who claims to be self taught, this could be for you.

I always wonder…if you’re self taught, did you self learn?

Filed by Ken at 5:47 pm under Technology
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I”ve never linked to a nws post from from Bloglines before, but so many of us use this web-based RSS tool, that we need to recognize the voice the give to many who we might not read without them. So here’s a news post link for those who use some other RSS tool. You can follow the link to see the letter they sent.

Bloglines | News

Blogs have given individuals of any and every background the ability to freely speak their minds and share information with anyone who chooses to read it, at any time they wish to do so. Bloglines was created for people as a window to access this world of dynamic content and a way to participate in its creation. We believe blogs have helped enable an open exchange of information that has never before been possible. As some of you may have heard, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is reviewing its regulations concerning political speech on the Internet, including blog activity. Bloglines is committed to the continuation of open exchanges of information and opinions throughout the blogosphere and the Internet in general. Today, the Committee on House Administration is having a hearing on this issue. In the spirit of these beliefs, I have provided the Committee with the following statement. We encourage you to express your opinion on this matter in any forum you choose.

-Mark Fletcher and the Bloglines team

Filed by Ken at 5:32 pm under Technology
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I’ve traded email with several people lately who were having problems getting w.Bloggar, Mo:Blog or other remote editing tools to work with WordPress. Not spending a lot of time dinking with code things, I hadn’t noticed when mine quit working. Suffice it to say this evening I got both working again. I’ve tested them and am tickled to have these tools back now that I’m actually doing a bit more with the blog again (and expect to see an increase in the months ahead).

If you need to know what I found, leave a comment or drop a note. Hint - the problem is with xmlrpc.php.

Filed by Ken at 8:58 pm under General, Mobility & Handheld
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I’ll be in DC area the first part of next week for a conference on a cyber exercise coming up later in this year. If you’re involved with CyberStorm 2005 or in the area, drop a line.

No, I will not be blogging the conference. I don’t blog conferences live, and it’s a planning conference - not for general consumption.

Filed by Ken at 5:05 pm under General, InfoSec, Technology
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For the few of you who actually look here rather than read an RSS feed, I’ve been making some cosmetic changes lately (simplicity remains a key concern). I’ve also done quite a bit of updating the links at right and some of the post categories. I’ve also been posting a bit more again lately. That may be changing.

I anticipate almost immeditaly undertaking a writing project to put together an e-book on spec somewhat for a project that has some pretty tight timelines. As such, if it comes together, the recent flurry of activity seen here will diminish for a bit as I focus on that project. I’ll still be here and around, but may be busy putting material together for publication.

As fortune would have it, this project may lead to another, even more exciting project. As things unfold, you’ll find news here. Interesting things are afoot…

Filed by Ken at 5:02 pm under General, Technology, Unified Communications
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This comes from close to home, so if it strikes your fancy, follow the link to read it all and point links back toward my son’s blog rather than here if you’re so inclined. The View From The Left » Battle Hymn of the Republicans

Battle Hymn of the Republicans

Mine Eyes have seen the bungling of that stumbling moron Bush;
He has blathered all the drivel that the neo-cons can push;
He has lost sight of all reason ’cause his head is up his tush;
The Doofus marches on.

I have heard him butcher syntax like a kindergarten fool;
There is warranted suspicion that he never went to school;
Should we fault him for the policies — or is he just their tool?
The lies keep piling on.

Filed by Ken at 4:49 pm under Politics
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My capacity for new work projects is infinite….

as long as you agree that quality can approach zero.

Filed by Ken at 12:23 pm under General
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The last week or so comment spam has picked up a bit again. I manage it pretty aggressively and just implemented some changes. If you leave a legitimate comment and it doesn’t show up right away, please be patient while I tweak rules.

OTOH, if you leave comment SPAM, FOAD.

Filed by Ken at 10:37 am under General
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Filed by Ken at 12:00 pm under General
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