September 17, 2008

Terry Childs' attorney withdraws from the case

Terry Child's attorney has withdrawn from the case, citing a conflict of interest. more

TAGS: Problems, San Francisco's FiberWAN, Terry Childs

September 11, 2008 | TrackBacks: (0)

Some observations on the next round of motions in the Terry Childs case

The latest filing by the City of San Francisco in the Terry Childs matter features more technical inaccuracies and raises many more questions more

TAGS: Networks, Problems, San Francisco's FiberWAN, Terry Childs

September 08, 2008 | TrackBacks: (0)

No power outage in the Terry Childs case?

An insider claims that the power outage that Terry Childs was accused of using to sabotage the San Francisco network was never intended to affect the datacenter. more

TAGS: Problems, San Francisco's FiberWAN, Terry Childs

September 04, 2008 | TrackBacks: (0)

Quick update on the Terry Childs case

Terry Childs was scheduled to have another hearing tomorrow, with the defense prepared to submit a motion to reduce his bail from the current $5 million. It appears that the hearing has been postponed, with no new date set. A new hearing date may be set tomorrow. The reasons for the postponement weren't clear, but it seems that the prosecution has requested more time to prepare their motion in opposition to his bail reduction, and the judge that heard the original motion is away.... more

TAGS: Problems, San Francisco's FiberWAN, Terry Childs

September 02, 2008 | TrackBacks: (0)

Google Chrome, or 'Great, yet another browser to support'

Google's beta browser looks fine, though plug-in support is limited. But what's the deal on Google owning anything you submit through it? more

TAGS: ./configure && make && make install, Other stuff, Web dev

September 02, 2008 | TrackBacks: (0)

Mobile apps, passwords, and security

As I move more and more towards using my phone for tasks that I might otherwise use a laptop, I can't help but notice that passwords are a problem. Strong passwords, like wI34$Rg5%Ttg (obviously, not one of mine) are fine when you have a normal keyboard, but on any mobile device, they're a real pain to enter. Even the best mobile keyboard requires lots of patience and exacting finger placement to get right, all while dealing with apps that may or may not echo the actual character back to the screen while you're typing. Combine this with the fact that... more

TAGS: Gear, Problems

September 02, 2008 | TrackBacks: (0)

MacBook Air update is kind of a big deal

I've been running my MacBook Air pretty hard in the six months since I received it. It's become my main laptop, in fact. I still use my 17" MacBook Pro, but I'm on the Air probably 80% of the time now, and overall I'm quite happy with it. In reading postings on forums and various other blogs, I see that some people have been having problems with heat issues and core shutdown during load, especially when an external monitor is in use. I never really ran into those problems, and certainly not to the degree that some have, but I... more

TAGS: Gear, Problems, Systems

August 28, 2008 | TrackBacks: (0)

Who needs identity theft when you have identity gifts?

Hot on the heels of my post earlier this week comes a perfect example of the negligence I was talking about. In this case, nobody had to hack into anything to get access to "[d]etails of customers of three companies, including the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and its subsidiary, Natwest". Also, this appears to be some really high-test info. "The information is said to include account details and in some cases customers' signatures, mobile phone numbers and mothers' maiden names." The vector for all this data? eBay. They sold a computer containing this information for around US$140. The banks... more

TAGS: Other stuff, Problems

August 24, 2008 | TrackBacks: (0)

Identity theft should be a crime

The act of stealing someone's identity is illegal. Allowing crackers to steal the identity in the first place isn't, but it should be. The most recent case is a doozy: Best Western gave up every piece of data on every customer of theirs since 2007. Note the choice of words -- they gave this information to criminals, whether they meant to or not. Every year, we're treated to several stories of large corporations losing personal information collected from their customers. I wrote about this back in May of last year, and obviously nothing has changed. I've had to change my... more

TAGS: Life, the Universe and Everything, Other stuff, Problems