An Addition to the Certainty Index January 10, 2006
Posted by Resident Egoist in : Sci-Tech , comments closedBenjamin Franklin once said that in this life only two things are certain: death and taxes. Of course today, everyone knows he was wrong: that Microsoft Windows is absolute crap is an undeniable and unalterable fact of nature pretty much accepted by everyone. That makes it three things we can be certain of now.
A mere five days ago, Microsoft released a patch to fix a critical vulnerability in its Windows Metafile (WMF) format that could allow a compromised computer to be hijacked … of course this was only after they let their customers unprotected for days on end to the point that third party groups had to release their own fixes to the flaw. The reason cited for this was that they wanted to make sure that the patch worked. Well, today, two new WMF bugs were found again! An interesting thing to keep in mind here is that this is not the first time Microsoft has been patching this flaw — it was first patched in November of 2005, before it was patched again last week.
I wonder what this means for Microsoft’s recent entry into the security business with Windows One Care Live (Beta) and Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta). It’s a funny thing: Microsoft sells you buggy and insecure software and then charges you for protection against those very same bugs and vulnerabilities! It’s almost sad that most people think this is the only choice they have.
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Sidenote: You can read longer discussions on this subject at Gus Van Horn’s and also at Slashdot.org.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Windows
What You Might Not Know About the Privacy You Do Not Have January 10, 2006
Posted by Resident Egoist in : Politics, Sci-Tech , comments closedRecently, I learned of a new breed of rather very dangerous individuals: they call themselves “information brokers”, and they are a product of the popularity of the internet. And just in case you’re wondering what kind of information it is that these people “broker”, well, it is pretty simple: your phone records … that is, for a very modest fee these people promise to delivery to you accurate and current calling records of anyone in North America — all of it in as little as a single hour.
You can get a first hand experience by visiting the following sites: LocateCell.com and BestPeopleSearch.com. The former offers both land line and cellphone trace, and the latter a plethora more. And just to give you an idea about just how good these people are [at what they do], LocateCell recently sold the Canadian Privacy Minister’s phone records to a Newspaper which used it to illustrate the gravity of the issue.
Keep in mind that this is not merely information that can be accessed by your spouse who suspects you of infidelity [though I suppose that would be deserved, if in fact you are an "infidel"], it is available to such people as stalkers and other sorts of criminals as well.
But that is not all: just recently, the Chicago Police Department was warning its officers (especially those who are undercover) of the dangers this could put them in.
Via the Chicago SunTimes:
The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone — for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among law enforcement and privacy experts.
Criminals can use such records to expose a government informant who regularly calls a law enforcement official.
[...]
“Officers should be aware of this information when giving out their personal cell phone numbers to the general public,” the [PD] said. “Undercover officers should also be aware of this information if they occasionally call personal numbers such as home or the office, from their [undercover] ones.”
It gets better:
To test the service, the FBI paid Locatecell.com $160 to buy the records for an agent’s cell phone and received the list within three hours …
[...]
“Not only in Chicago, but nationwide, the FBI notified its field offices of this potential threat to the security of our agents, and especially our undercover agents,” [Frank Bochte, a sopkesman for the FBI in Chicago] said. “We need to educate our personnel about the dangers posed by individuals using this site and others like it. We are stressing that they should be careful in their cellular use.”
As to how these “info brokers” get to your records, their method of choice [when they don't have someone on the inside who sells it to them] is called “pretexting” — which essentially consists of pretending to be you, and duping your average customer service agent into giving away your information. ‘Nuff Said.
On to the second privacy issue of the day. This one is particularly interesting: did you know that there is a federal law dictating what kind of showerhead you must have in your bathroom, and by extension, what kind of shower you must take? Yep, it’s not just the Jesus-Freaks and your bedroom, it’s the Eco-Freaks and your bathroom as well.
The Seattle P-I reports:
When Al Dietemann ran across some Internet ads for shower heads promising experiences akin to tropical waterfalls, he went online and ordered some.
Then he sent them to a lab for testing.
The city of Seattle announced [recently] that it will seek sanctions against manufacturers of water-guzzling shower heads, armed with lab results showing that the products tested far exceeded the federal “maximum water flow rate requirement” standard.
“The people of Seattle have a very strong environmental ethic, and I think most people would be appalled at others who are wasting energy or water,” said Dietemann, water conservation lead for Seattle Public Utilities.
Dietemann had received complaints from local plumbers and developers about body spa and waterfall-type shower heads not conforming to code.
“This has the potential to significantly undermine all our efforts to encourage and achieve water conservation,” Dietemann said. “It’s a leak in the dike we want to plug.”
“[A] leak in the dike we want to plug.” Isn’t that a humorous thing for a bureaucrat to say. I believe it is. As to the people who “would be appalled [yes, appalled!] by people who are wasting energy or water”, I say cry me a river. Are they not paying for the water and energy they are supposedly “wasting”? But unfortunately we don’t have a true free market in water distribution, but the point here is to show how such alleged “waste” problems are, if they arise at all, solved by that “unknown ideal” called capitalism.
Jeffrey Tucker of the Mises Institute wrote one of its better articles on this subject today. You should have a look at it — if only for the humor.
Technorati Tags: Privacy, Bureaucracy, Capitalism
Microsoft Live December 12, 2005
Posted by Resident Egoist in : Sci-Tech , comments closedMicrosoft seems to be engaging in a lot of “live” stuff lately. The latest addition to its stock is Microsoft Office Live — which is in beta testing. Business owners might want to check it out: besides the ability to use the Microsoft Office suite and the various tools that come with it online, all approved beta testers will get a free domain name, a website freely hosted by Microsoft, company email, and more.
As to the residential Windows users, first of all, I would tell you to throw that thing away and get a Linux box B). If you are unwilling to do that, then check out Windows One Care Live (Beta), and Microsoft Antispyware (Beta). I’ve had both of these installed on my desktop for quite a while, and they seem to be pretty good — although that is a computer that I use only if I absolutely must.
Technorati Tags: Micosoft, Microsoft Live, Windows One Care, Linux