Category Archives: Go Read This

There’s a lot of news and other stuff that crosses my desk. I used to keep a Web page with nothing but pointers but this seems like a better way.

Today is World IPv6 Day!

Posted on by
Reply

Internet Society – World IPv6 Day

How are you faring? Here, I found that we were offline when I tried to log in this morning. We’d been down for a while, apparently, as the servers had stopped their incessant chatter to my inbox. Power cycling the cable modem put things right.

Coincidence? [shrug]

Alas, Optimum Online doesn’t support IPv6. I hear they’re not alone.

Spamalytics

Posted on by
1

Good article in the NY times, talks about what appears to be the best tool for fighting spam which accounts for some 89% of ALL email sent. What is it? Why, money, of course.

A recent study found that a vast majority of the money collected by spammers flows through a small number of financial companies. The best quote from the article is as predictable as it is telling:

Visa, the largest credit card company, declined to comment.

Go read John Markoff’s article, Study Sees Way to Win Spam Fight.

 

Once Again: The Importance of Privacy

Posted on by
Reply

My work as a mentor for the local robotics team puts me in contact with lots of smart kids from all over this rock. One of the (many) things that astound me is the continual erosion of awareness and concern for personal privacy. If there’s one way that I guess I really show my age it’s that I still hold that archaic concept in pretty high regard.

This article, from The Chronicle of Higher Education, is a very astute response to what’s probably the most common retort, “if you’ve got nothing to hide then there’s nothing to worry about.” Actually, the worries are very, very real.

Go read Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’, by Daniel J. Solove.

Automattic in the News Today

Posted on by
1

Seen on DarkReading.com:

WordPress, the popular blog-hosting site, is reporting a breach of several of its servers.

Automattic, the company that drives WordPress, as well as Akismet, “had a low-level (root) break-in to several of our servers, and potentially anything on those servers could have been revealed,” said WordPress [...]

Folks that use WordPress or other Automattic products will want to keep an eye on this.

http://www.darkreading.com/security-monitoring/167901086/security/attacks-breaches/229401553/wordpress-reports-multiserver-breach.html

MOVIEBARCODE

Posted on by
1

Do you know what a ‘cinematic scientist’ is? Or what they do? I’ll confess, until just a few short minutes ago I didn’t either.

Apparently one cinematic scientist has hit upon a way to fit an entire movie into one image? Howzat? It works something like this.

Take a frame and stretch it vertically while compressing it horizontally. Take the next frame and do it again. And the next and the next until you’ve processed the whole movie. Stand back and look at your work.

Fascinating!

(How the hell can I get a job like that?)

http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/

A Good Reason to Keep Your Old Automobile

Posted on by
1

Old cars never had problems like this.

There’s too much not-necessary-for-driving stuff that you can do with cars these days, and few of ‘em are any good. At best, many new features serve to distract you from the task at hand: driving the thing competently.

Even stealing cars isn’t what it used to be. With the demise of discrete wiring in favor of networks, in some cases all you need to do is access the network. Used to be you needed to break off a mirror to gain physical access. Jack in with your laptop and command the doors to open, the engine to start…

But now? Make a “phone call” from your laptop.

How long before we see car-botnets controlled from IRC? Or maybe viruses to cause an accelerator to stick? Or brakes to stop braking? Or, more subtly, stability controls to destabilize? Hmmm, cause your ex to seem like s/he’s driving drunk? For a price, of course, cash, please.

Here’s a NY Times article that ought to shake you up. (But I’ll bet it won’t.)

Researchers Show How a Car’s Electronics Can Be Taken Over Remotely

 

Usage-Based Billing

Posted on by
1

An excellent treatment of usage-based billing can be found here:

http://wordsbynowak.com/2011/02/22/10-myths-from-usage-based-billing-supporters/

Last year I paid my ISP a bit under US$600 for my Internet service alone. I’m expecting costs to rise this year, mostly because recent legislation will allow my service provider to add extra charges depending upon the ‘flavor’ of the bits consumed, i.e. Netflix streams. In the face of this, and also over the past year, quality of service has declined perceptibly: I’ve logged more service interruptions and outages.

I’m curious. How much does your service cost? And has your quality of service changed?