Why did Lebron James create a Twitter account the same week he decided to crush his hometown’s collective heart? Maybe he was unaware that the micro-blogging service had been available to the public for the past 4 years. It could be a coincidence that he decided to utilize that forum during the biggest spectacle of self-love that I have ever personally witnessed. Truth is that Twitter provided an environment where he could display his glaring character flaws. Compassion, humbleness, loyalty and respect are not prerequisites to creating a Twitter account.

This culture of instant media, instant gratification and instant fame usually is closely trailed by shame and doubt. After watching a one hour special dedicated to “King James”, the two words I would use to describe the look on his face are shame and doubt. The Cleveland Cavaliers billionaire owner should also feel the same way for his tribute to the “Chosen One” that was fitting of a bratty, spoiled 13 year old girl. Who is to blame for this latest display of selfishness and taking the path of least resistance? You…well, us I guess.

I too have been in awe of his talent just like every other sports fan. But I saw his flaws before most. Last year when the Orlando Magic exposed the Cleveland Cavaliers in 6 games to reach the NBA Finals, “Bron Bron” walked off the court without congratulating or at least acknowledging the winning team’s upset. Not even a post game interview. What was his explanation for this act of immaturity and disrespect?

“It’s hard for me to congratulate somebody after you just lose to them. I’m a winner. It’s not being a poor sport or anything like that. If somebody beats you up, you’re not going to congratulate them. That doesn’t make sense to me. I’m a competitor. That’s what I do. It doesn’t make sense for me to go over and shake somebody’s hand.”

I’m not sure, but that could be the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard. The dude was being sore loser and he knows it. After that I refused to buy his shoes for my son ever again. I wasn’t going to be apart of creating that monster. ESPN, NBA executives and more importantly this cyber culture created this gigantic jackass. He can be insulated from the world on Facebook and Twitter, so he doesn’t have to face the ramifications of his actions. The man singlehandedly crushed the hopes of an entire state and did so on an international stage.

His logic in doing so was flawed and just a smoke screen. He wanted to win right away…please, his previous team had the best record in the league the past 2 years. Plus the Chicago Bulls actually had a whole team waiting for him. He just didn’t want the pressure anymore, so he slithers off to Miami. Look, I know he is only 25 years old and that he will make mistakes. But he is a super rich megastar that has a TEAM of advisors. How many of us had a team advising us when we were coming up? Oh yeah, it was our families. They were there to tell us when we were going off the right path and help us get back on it. Now all you have to do is turn to social media to have a bunch of “friends” validate your every move.

I LOVE sports and the Internets, but not all of the creations that spew from their loins. We have to remember that words and actions hurt people. Hurting them on TV, web or radio doesn’t damage them any less. And after hurting people then turning to your new city to be instantly praised sends the wrong message. LeBron James will not learn from this, because we won’t make him. You will forgive and forget because he entertains and everyone loves a winner. Well, I love the Chicago Cubs and will continue loving them for the next 100 championship-less years for reasons that LeBron’s fans would probably never understand.

LeBron James has 405,000 followers (and counting) on Twitter, so he doesn’t need me to be apart of the lovefest. We are all “witnesses” to this phenomenon of our own making, and we should all feel ashamed. I just hopes he gets the values he’s lacking in Miami, but I doubt it.

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The internets is abuzz this morning after Kevin Rose dropped a potential bombshell rumor on twitter. According to Rose, Google is positioned to enter the social networking space very soon to compete against Facebook with a new service potentially called “Google Me.”

Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon “Google Me”, very credible source

For those who do not know, Kevin Rose is the founder of popular social news site digg. He has a somewhat spotty track record when it comes to rumors, so it may be worth taking his tweet with a grain of salt even though the idea may initially appear to be plausible.

While many would argue that Google is already competing in the social networking space with Orkut, the reality of the situation is not quite so black-and-white. Unlike Facebook, Orkut is not very popular in the United States, mostly having been adopted by South American internet users for whatever reason. A lot of the interactivity on Orkut is overrun by “brazilian mobs” on a frequent basis, causing people to feel uncomfortable with the service. The somewhat lawlessness of Orkut generally scares people away, in addition to the lack of truly compelling, unique features.

If Google really is launching a home-grown social network – Google Me – then it will be quite interesting to see how they pull it off. Would such an application make use features seen in other already-released Google products, such as Gmail, Google Profiles Wave, Buzz and Picasa?

What I would expect, and even hope for, is to see Google marry its many disparate services in to a single, unified social networking application. Rather than having yet another inbox – like on Facebook – integrate Gmail for such functionality. Use Buzz for the activity streams, synonymous with the Facebook news feed, offering both posting and mere reading. Wave could be adopted to be similar to groups while Picasa could be used for sharing photos. Google Profiles could be the very foundation for building a profile on Google Me. Google already has the making of the fundamental social networking building blocks but has not coupled the features into one application.

If packaged together in a unified, simplistic, intuitive interface these seemingly distinct applications could be forged in to one and work together as a true social networking platform similar to Facebook.

“Google Me” is an intriguing idea, and if executed correctly could be a very cool product. I look forward to this rumor turning out to be true. If it is true, expect the times to be quite interesting, especially if Google has been courting online social game companies like Zynga whose relationship with Facebook is on the verge of disaster as these companies seek less reliance on Facebook.

Are you interested in the prospect of yet another social networking site?

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In case you’ve been living under a rock or in an alternate universe, BP plc has screwed up royally (again, but we’ll get to that later) due to the explosion of their oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico causing the unrestricted release of thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf. Sadly, eleven people died in the tragedy.

Also in case you thought that the Gulf of Mexico is in Mexico and thusly is of no concern to you, it’s not. Well, it is, but it’s also partially in the good old USA. Specifically, it’s off the coast of Florida and Louisiana. Of course, since it’s in USA waters, the result is a global public uproar placing BP under the intense scrutiny of the global media and population. Everyone in the world thinks that BP has screwed them over and now feels that BP owes them something, meaning everyone has BP under a magnifying glass.

And I mean, magnifying glass. Everyone in the world can keep themselves updated in real-time on everything that BP is doing to fix the problem. Despite a very, very spotty safety record, this was apparently the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. So much so that BP is going over the top to show that they’re doing everything that they can to fix the problem, including using cheap labour courtesy of American criminals. Even though they claim that the accident wasn’t their fault at all (!), they’re trying to make amends by making their efforts as transparent as possible.

The result is an amazing use of technology to keep BP operating under a microscope. I mean, seriously, I knew that the technology was possible, but I didn’t think it could be implemented so widely and cheaply.

The following are the top 10 websites that, with the impressive abilities of technology, will keep you updated on everything (and I mean, everything) about the spill, BP, all related topics – and ultimately provide the fodder with which the world will judge BP for their actions:

1. BP has set up a website dedicated to showcasing minute-by-minute details on what they’re doing to fix the problem. You can also sign up for SMS alerts at BP’s Deepwater Horizon Response website.
2. Just to make sure they’re being completely transparent, BP’s live feed from Remotely Operated Vehicles lets you keep an eye on their activities from 5,000 feet below the surface just in case you think that they’re pulling anything funny (this one kept me pretty occupied for a while)
3. The EPA is making sure you know exactly how much BP has polluted the Gulf with up-to-date air, water, sediment and waste management data
4. In case that wasn’t enough, the EPA is letting you use their aircraft, the ASPECT, to show you where the oil is, with a step-by-step guide on how to use the aircraft to find it
5. BBC has conveniently provided an interactive guide showing BP’s efforts to stem the free flow of oil into the Gulf as well as the spread of oil to date
6. Reuters has kindly informed the world about the laws that can be used to prosecute BP, whether or not they will be used, and explores the possible future scenarios for the corporation http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6520O420100603
7. National Geographic has set up a dedicated news page exploring the environmental impact of the spill as it happens
8. USA’s Office of Response and Restoration also has a “one-stop shop for spill response information”, using a web-based tool to map the spread and trajectory of oil
9. The CDC has jumped on the bandwagon making sure you know how the oil spill will affect your health, whether through exposure to the oil dispersants or the heat
10. And of course, the God of the internet, Google has a Crisis Response website dedicated to the spill to keep the world updated

Ain’t technology grand?

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Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 earlier today, during a keynote speech presented by the man himself, Steve Jobs. As usual, the keynote was a work of art in and of itself, exquisitely displaying the beautifully designed new hardware for the world to see. The iPhone was not the only exciting reveal, for iOS 4 (the OS formerly known as iPhone OS) was unleashed as well – both products unveiled in tandem, available in sync, with each relying on the other to propel their exhilarating new features in to the mainstream and in to the hands of mouth watering consumers. Will you be one of the select few to wield an iPhone 4 come June 24?

The new specs on the iPhone 4 are pretty sweet, as the device heralds the same speedy architecture powering another recent Apple addition – the iPad. Although the iPhone is powered by the designed in-house A4 chip, Apple leaves that out of their standard literature. Their goal is for consumers to stop being concerned with the inner-workings of these computing devices, and to assume they are fast by nature of the company producing the products.

Put another way, because Apple has designed and is selling these devices, consumers should understand the products to be high quality, high speed computers, allowing users to perform the work they need without fear of being slowed down by processor speed bumps.

Through the use of the A4 chip Apple has managed to squeeze additional processing power and better battery life out of the new iPhone. Improved performance is what consumers look for when purchasing new computing devices, especially portable devices requiring recharging, so this is a no brainer.

The iPhone 3GS is already a fairly quick product, but its speed pales in comparison to an iPad. The latter just feels faster, with its instantaneous browsing capabilities – undoubtedly a goal Apple has for the iPhone 4.

According to Apple, the iPhone 4 offers the following features:

• 6 hours of browsing via 3G
• 10 hours of browsing via Wi-Fi
• 10 hours of video viewing
• 40 hours of music listening
• 300 hours standby
• 40% Improved talk time

All of the aforementioned are better than the current iPhone 3GS but nothing extraordinary. These updates are merely incremental. If you were hoping for kick ass battery life then you are not going to be happy with the new device. The iPhone 4 is still just as power hungry as its younger brother 3GS, offering only slightly improved battery consumption per the specs. Actual field testing once the unit is available for purchase will be interesting.

The updated video recording and editing capabilities of the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 appear to be the most exciting additions. Not content with mere video recording and simple editing, Apple upgraded the device to be capable of shooting 720p video – high definition video normally only seen in dedicated video cameras like the Flip SlideHD.

Cisco has to be fairly concerned about these updated iPhone capabilities because it almost renders their entire Flip line of camera obsolete.

What should be obvious to most people is that recording video in 720p, and subsequently editing such video, has got to be taxing on the processor. This normally translates to substantial battery life being eaten to complete these tasks. If the iPhone 4 is capable of pulling off both without major hits to the battery life then that will be an immense achievement. I remain skeptical and expect the unit to drain the battery considerably.

John Gruber has some very interesting observations about the iPhone 4′s screen:

It’s mentioned briefly in Apple’s promotional video about the design of the iPhone 4, but they’re using a new production process that effectively fuses the LCD and touchscreen — there is no longer any air between the two. One result of this is that the iPhone 4 should be impervious to this dust-under-the-glass issue. More importantly, though, is that it looks better. The effect is that the pixels appear to be painted on the surface of the phone; instead of looking at pixels under glass, it like looking at pixels on glass. Combined with the incredibly high pixel density, the overall effect is like “live print”.

The effect described is not something you can really visualize in your head – it has to be viewed firsthand. I am looking forward to playing with an iPhone 4 solely to see how the new glass looks, and to see if it truly does appear to be pixels on the glass.

Ultimately, the iPhone 4 is one sexy beast. The new industrial design is quite sexy and the new features of the device are worthy updates. If you were solely looking for increased battery life then forget it – the iPhone 4 is not much better off than the iPhone 3GS. If you want advanced video shooting and editing capabilities in addition to a more powerful processor then the iPhone 4 is a winner.

As for me – come June 24 I will be in a Softbank shop snatching up a black 32GB iPhone 4. My old 3G has no qualms about showing its age, and is in a dire need of being replaced. It has faithfully served me for the past two years, but its time to finally move in to the big leagues for yours truly.

Lastly, I wanted to mention the iPad. The unveiling of both the front-facing camera on the iPhone 4 and the Facetime feature in iOS 4 made me pause. As I tweeted earlier today, if iPhone 4, or more apropos iOS 4, offers Facetime and it is usable only via Wi-Fi, then why is the iPad devoid of a front facing camera?

Will Apple be releasing updated iPad hardware sooner rather than later, this time following the same design conventions offered in the iPhone 4? Translated – will there be an iPad with a front-facing camera, to be used with Facetime, offered in the near future, such as prior to the Christmas buying season?

If you were on the fence about the iPad then surely waiting is the smart option at this juncture.

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People with bosses usually either want to do 1 of 2 things to him (or her, but for the purposes of this article, let’s stick with him): impress him or annoy him without being obviously annoying. Here’s how to pimp your Excel worksheet to either impress him or annoy him, whichever it is you feel like doing. Who knows, you may even be able to use it at work.

To activate Data Validation, go to the ‘Data’ menu on the Menu bar and select ‘Validation…’.

Basically, Data Validation allows you to set what you want the value in the selected cell to be. It could be a number, text, or a whole number. By default, it’s set to ‘Any Value’, allowing the user to input anything that they want in the cell. Here’s the breakdown of the options:

Whole Number / Decimal

Selecting the ‘Whole Number’ option restricts the user to only entering a full number into the cell and not letters or fractions like 1.244. If the user attempts to put in anything other than a full number, an error message will appear, thus annoying him to bits, as such.

Likewise, the ‘Decimal’ option restricts the user to only entering numbers into the cell. This gives the user more flexibility, as they can input both whole numbers and fractions. Anything else will result in an error message.

These options can only be set to allow a specific range of numbers, like ‘between’, ‘greater than’, ‘equal to’, etc. This is great if you’re one of those people who create quizzes on Excel in their free time, but if you want to allow any number, you could always just set it to a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 1,000,000,000.

List

The ‘List’ option is far more interesting and has the potential to totally impress your boss instead of annoy the hell out of him when he tries to enter something and Excel doesn’t let him. Activating the ‘List’ function creates a dropdown box where the values are made up of things that you specify. This has the potential to impress anyone with anything less than an intermediate level knowledge of Excel functions, i.e. anyone above the age of 40.

To input the list of what you want the dropdown box to say, click the ‘Source:’ box and select the cells you are using as a reference.

The drawback of this function is that the values that you specify have to be kept somewhere in the same worksheet. You can’t even create a separate worksheet for the data because it has to be in the same one.

For this option, there’s a box called ‘In-cell dropdown’. Un-checking that box will get rid of the dropdown list but still restrict the values entered into the cell to whatever you want it to be. If your box tries to put in something other than what you choose, an error message will appear and annoy the hell out of him.

Date / Time

The ‘Date’ and ‘Time’ options are exactly like ‘Whole Number’ and ‘Decimal’ in that the user can only enter dates in a mm/dd/yyyy format and times in 00:00 format. Anything else will create an error message or appear as a date or time.

Text Length

The ‘Text Length’ option allows you to set how long you want the entry to be. For example, if you’re asking your boss to fill in a report on your performance and you want him to write ‘Awesome’, you could set it to 8 characters and drop psychological hints by using the word ‘Awesome’ frequently around him. “Isn’t this pen awesome?” “How awesome was that Tiger Woods thing?”

Custom

Of course, a much easier way would be to set it so that he can only type ‘Awesome’ and nothing else. But seriously, you can customize the cell according to whatever formula you want using the ‘Custom’ option.

That’s that. On the next episode of Pimp Your Worksheet, we work on other visual effects, like creating scroll buttons. Who knows, we may even make it to pimping charts one day. Excel Pimp Out!

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Kevin Kutz, Director of Public Affairs at Microsoft, said in a statement today that Microsoft will comply with an injunction just upheld against the software behemoth that would have forced Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office off store shelves by January 2010.

“With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products. Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction.”

Read the full statement at Microsoft Presspass.

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The holiday season is almost upon us and many of you might be trying to think of a gift to give someone, or maybe you’d like to add something to your own wish list. Every year we see more and more tech gadgets coming out that can help us with the daunting task of keeping ourselves in good health. And why not? After all, health is of paramount importance in living a happy and fulfilling life.  If you don’t agree then ask yourself this, “What will I have if I lose my health?” If you do agree then why would you not make health the number one priority in your life? Think about it. Now on to the gadgets.

Instead of buying something that will promote bad health, like a deep fat fryer to make lots of artery-clogging french fries, how about a heart rate monitor. I’ve personally used one for years and I highly recommend everyone who works out to use one, especially if you’re getting up in age. This device usually consists of a sensor on a chest strap with a receiver on a wristwatch. Being able to monitor your heart rate allows you to keep it in a safe and efficient range while not letting it get too high and overdoing it.  There are lots of different manufacturers and models with a myriad of bells and whistles available but I have only used a simple Polar, and it more than meets my needs.

If you like to know where you are, where you’ve been, and how far you’ve gone you might want to have a personal GPS tracking device. Polar also makes these along with Garmin and others. You can save routes and review them later on your home computer or online. They can also work together with a heart rate monitor so you can compare new results with those of a past workout.

There’s nothing like progress to keep you motivated.  Whether you’re trying to lose fat or gain muscle mass a body composition monitor will let you know how things are going. Tanita has a good selection of these. Not only will it weigh you but it will tell you your body fat, body water, and muscle mass percentages, and much more. These devices use Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) to measure your body’s fat and muscle content.

Finally, if you want to keep it really simple and you’re able to walk, just do it. Walk. Aim for no less than 6,000 steps per day. A pedometer is the perfect companion to keep count for you. Simply clip it to your waist and go. It’s not very high tech, but it’s a gadget and it’s dirt-cheap.

So there you have it, a few gift ideas to help keep health your top priority. After all, once your health is gone there is nothing left. Now go have a steamy bowl of natto miso soup.

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Dear iPhone and Blackberry users,

I know your phones are awesome. I know that your phones have video editing capabilities and Blackberry Messenger respectively. I know that your phones can do a gajillion things all at once. I know that your phones have their own plans from your providers.

Even so, despite being the Mobile Brat that I am, I do not want to spend every moment with you watching you play with your phone. I do not want to discuss the latest thing that you’ve discovered that your phone can do.

Dear iPhone and Blackberry users,

No, I do not think that your phone is all that. I do not think that your phone is better than mine, and I do not feel the need to get a new phone, and even if I did, it would not be yours.

Believe it or not, some people actually do not like your phone. Some people think that despite your ability to download useless battery-sucking apps and a glorified instant messenger, your phones aren’t all that.

I appreciate that you like your phone, but I like mine too. In return for not running me through every single capability of your phone, I won’t run you through every capability of mine.

If we all act responsibly and maturely, iPhone users, Berry users and Nokia users could all live in harmony. All bets are off with regard to other unfortunate (read crappy) phone users.

Sincerely,
A Nokia E71 user.

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Information Assurance remains a growing field of expertise, maturing on an almost daily basis. The industry has exploded over the last 10 years even though the concepts of IA has been around since as early as the 1960’s. Although the industry and its practitioners continue to evolve, those in upper-management have a difficult time fully grasping the core principles. As in many areas of management these days, there are far too many gun-shy managers who are more concerned with appearances and perception than properly mitigating risk to the networks they are charged with protecting.

Information Assurance, like any job where managing risk is involved, is about tough decisions. Almost all information assurance choices are not cut and dry, not black and white. Security versus convenience. The vast majority of IA work resides in that gray area, where a case can be made for either argument.

The deciding factors are similar to traditional security models, with risk topping the list. Is the risk, whether small or large, acceptable? Determinations are based on a successful evaluation of the threat. Is it credible? Easy to exploit? Etc…

Risk management is a huge domain of information assurance, and one that practitioners take seriously. IA professionals regularly complete risk assessment and continually evaluate the threat. These opinions are likely regularly compiled in to reports and or briefed to management so they can make informed decisions.

How does this affect information security specifically?

Unfortunately, most in upper management subscribe to the cover your ass mentality. In the majority of cases, upper managers are far more concerned with their careers and peer relationships than pulling the trigger on difficult decisions. When it comes to brass tacks, many upper managers will weasel their way out of a tough decision to save face with their peers.

This is what I have aptly dubbed the, “I don’t want to be a dick” syndrome of information assurance. Managers, whether directly involved in IA or charged with rendering a verdict based on risk assessments performed by IA staff, opt not to make the tough, right decision. Instead, they choose to accept unnecessary risk because they don’t want to be perceived as a dick by those within their organization.

Simply put, in their eyes it is easier to maintain good working relationships with their peers than to properly protect the network. In this day and age, when networks are constantly under attack from unknown, unforeseen vectors, it is important to make tough decisions, otherwise such decisions may have unintended consequences in the future. Playing the CYA game in IA is not an adequate security posture even though it may be a popular route with ones peers.

Adding unnecessary risk to a network is dangerous and can lead to bad things(tm), especially if not properly managed. If upper management is content with taking the easy route then the IA team is going to find it exponentially more difficult to protect the network. Displaying weakness when making IA decisions is tantamount to a General displaying weakness on the battlefield – the enemy will exploit those vulnerabilities to the organizations detriment.

While it is important the IA team not be perceived as the “network Nazi’s” it must not be accomplished by evading complicated decisions when the risk is unacceptable. If there is a valid threat then the decision, while not necessarily inline with the desires of the end-users, should be fairly obvious. IA must not be a roadblock to productivity, however legitimate security concerns must be addressed rather than ignored.

So how is the “Dick” syndrome mitigated?

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, information assurance decisions are rarely black and white. They are often times difficult, complicated and thorny. In many cases, the choices will likely piss off the end-users who will look for ways around the policies implemented by the IA team.

Being perceived as a dick is fairly easy to mitigate. Listen to your end-users and make them believe you truly care about their operations and productivity. They need to understand that their thoughts are taken in to consideration when the IA team performs risk assessments. Even though the decision to implement may not go the way they desire, if they feel as that they are part of the process then they will understand in the end.

Consistency is key. When IA decisions are constantly going back and forth it sends the wrong signals. End-users feed off of consistency and should come to know what to expect from their IA team. Fear of the unknown is one of the reasons end-users perceive their IA team as the bad guys. Inconsistency leads to uneven application of IA policies, which in turn causes confusion for the end-users. Never send mixed signals.

“NO” can not always be the first answer. When an IA team automatically responds to inquiries with “no” that ends up causing more harm than good, even if the request must be disapproved. This links back to what I mentioned about allowing the users to feel as if they are part of the process. An automatic “NO” answer is decidedly against such a mantra.

Conclusion

IA, like many professions, has its ups and downs, and is filled with days where you may feel like an asshole even though you desire to assist the end-user. Unfortunately, doing the right thing is not easy – it’s tough because the very people who you are providing a service to are staring at you, awaiting a helpful answer.

If you are charged with making difficult IA-related decisions you must think of the risk to the network before anything else. Relationships with peers, with supervisors, with subordinates, must be placed on the back burner. Failure to do so because you “don’t want to be a dick” is dereliction of duty. Placing unacceptable, unnecessary risk to the networks is self-serving and precarious.

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Ever felt like getting your karaoke on but found yourself to be miles away from the nearest karaoke bar? Ever feel like singing off-key with your BFFs but found yourself to be in a totally different country? Ever go camping and suddenly feel the need to play Rock Band? Never fear, technology comes to your rescue! Mobile carriers in Thailand and USA have what they call a ‘mobile karaoke solution’, enabling users to karaoke over the phone. I kid you not. Just in case there weren’t enough people who think they’re awesome singers when they’re actually not.

Developed in collaboration by NMS Communications, Grammy Thailand and Golden Dynamics, the arrival of mobile karaoke was hailed as the future of the Idol franchise. Like a mini Rock Band, you can sing along to a song over the speakerphone and overlay the recording with your own voice. Just in case that isn’t enough, you can send the whole thing to your friends, and the song can be set as your ringtone. Or your husband’s, just to remind him of your existence everytime someone calls.

What should be less surprising to me but totally wasn’t, is that this isn’t a new application. In 2003, Nokia showcased a mobile karaoke application called air.karaoke developed by Alatto, but totally failed to make an impact on the karaoke world, despite marketing it only in Asia which should be like shooting fish in a barrel.

The next step was, of course, a TuneWiki application which allows you to do all that and then some, clearly because TuneWiki isn’t being sued enough for things like publishing lyrics online. TuneWiki is available for both iPhones and Blackberry in both paid and free versions, but sadly no version is as yet available for Symbian users. TuneWiki even lets you search for other TuneWiki users in the area, just in case you’re walking down the street and feel the need to do a duet, I guess.

So seriously, just in case you ever feel that you need to rock out at the top of your lungs while air guitaring, you totally can. But before I say goodbye to my ears and eardrums respectively, here’s a community service message: Sometimes when your family tells you that of course, dear, you have a lovely voice and you could totally be the next Mariah Carey/Jamie Foxx/Beyonce, they’re just telling you that to make you feel good and so that they can tick the box next to ‘Be A Supportive Family Member’ on their ‘Being A Good Person’ list in their head. I beg of you, listen to reason.

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Macintosh is better than Windows, and Microsoft is run by idiots. Appleʼs software is open source whereas Microsoftʼs software is all closed source and therefore it sucks balls. You wonʼt get any friends when using Windows, whereas youʼll be the most popular person in the world when using Mac. Simply said, Mac is so much better than Windows.

Does this sound familiar? It probably does since most of us had to deal with Apple fanboys at least once. It gets even worse when you try to explain to them why they are wrong since they simply refuse to accept the fact that they donʼt know anything about Apple or Macintosh at all. What makes me even more angry is that whenever you finally manage to get the time to explain to them theyʼre wrong, all they say is “Youʼre just a Windows fanboy”. Excuse me? A Windows fanboy ? Werenʼt you the fanboy screaming about how great Apple is, while at the same time not being able to name a few Apple computers besides the iMac and Macbook?

But it doesnʼt stop there. Not only are the fanboys a problem, but Apple itself is a problem as well. Since the beginning they have fought for open platforms which would give the user freedom to use the technology in pretty much any possible way. In fact, this was one of the main things Apple advertised in the early days. Remember the 1984 Apple commercial in which a rebel throws a hammer through a screen thatʼs brainwashing people? It stands for the freedom of technology and how to use it. Exactly the opposite is happening now 25 years later.

Take a look at Macintosh and the iPhone OS. Both are closed source (with some open source parts). On top of that, all iPhone applications have to first be verified by Apple. Mac OS X [luckily] doesnʼt have those kind of restrictions, mainly because itʼs nearly impossible to restrict applications for a desktop operating system. Nevertheless, Apple is still doing the opposite of what they told people they would do.

Mix fanboys with a hypocrite company and you end up having a very, very bad day. Obviously Apple fanboys arenʼt the only fanboys, Windows and Linux fanboys are just as worse. I remember a person from a party who claimed that Ubuntu is the best operating system since it was so damn secure. I didnʼt even bother to reply since it was already hilarious enough. Another common mistake that people make is that they think Macintosh computers are for design related work only. Truth is, almost any Windows application has a little (or big) brother that runs on Macintosh. The only downside of a Macintosh is that there arenʼt that many games available for it.

Face it, Mac is better than Windows. My writing skills rock and yours suck. After not having written for more than a month I decided I had to make a comeback, and whatʼs better than writing an article about the best operating system in the world.

Possibly Related Articles:

1. Apple Responds to Microsoft Accusation that Macs are Too Cool

Many a time have there been office workers who arrive at their workplace in the bleary hours of the morning, fire up their coffee makers, poke blindly at their CPUs until it hits the power button either by sheer luck or accident, opened Internet Explorer and gone, “WTF? When did my company get a content filter?”

In the unfortunate real world of cubicles, phone extensions and annoying colleagues, this is a very real issue faced by many a web surfer. You can link them all the ‘Surfing The Internet Makes people More Productive’ articles that you want, but companies, big and small are cracking down on staff members who enjoy the odd visit to social media sites, online comic sites, blogs, and so on and so forth. How, then, will the everyday office minion find entertainment on a Monday morning while their brain is booting up? What will the trainees and interns do while their bosses are out for meetings?

Never fear, the internet is full of those who believe in the freedom of speech and surfing, and there hasn’t been a cyberwall put up that people haven’t found a way around. The answer is, in theory, ridiculously simple: a proxy that re-routes your surfing via a website that looks nice and safe to your company’s content filter.

In practice, there are 2 questions that you first need to ask:
1. What is your company’s policy on surfing the net?
2. How good is your company’s content filter?

Before deciding to get around the company’s content filter, one should always understand the company’s policy on surfing the internet – Will your browsing history be logged? What will the company do in cases of breach of policy? Have there been cases in which they have taken action against a staff member? Always know what you’re getting into before you’re knee deep in it.

Understanding what you’re up against is also essential for your convenience. There are content filters (like mine) that actively work to identify proxy URLs and ban them, and then there are filters that just ban the basics that the company has installed for the looks of it. In the case of the latter, it’s very simple to get around it, just choose a proxy from a proxy list like TechFAQ and you’ll be surfing in 0.0001 seconds.

In the case of the former, it’s a little bit more complicated. The content filter will update its list of proxy URLs daily. Every morning, you’ll have to find a new URL that works. However, after the first couple of days, you’ll notice that there are URLs that are more likely to work. For example, in the case of Me vs My Content Filter, I’ve noticed that URLs with ‘proxy’ in it or ending in .cc are less likely to work, while URLs ending in .info are far more likely to work. Innocuous URLs that sound like http://www.howtoworkharder.info or http://www.homeworkforschool.info are also preferable because my server logs my browsing history. Some proxy websites also have daily emails listing their latest proxy URLs that can be delivered for your convenience to your inbox.

You’ll notice that it’s a bit annoying to keep using the proxy, and in some cases, it’s difficult to access password-protected websites like GMail using a proxy – and for good reason. Always be careful when surfing by proxy and make sure to never do so when using internet banking because a proxy isn’t always secure and allows the transfer of unencrypted data, meaning that your password could be leaked. I mean, there has to be a reason that your company instituted a content filter.

With this information, it should be easier for you to face up to that big bully of an IT Policy.

No related posts.

Back in May 2009, Stephen Wolfram launched an ambitious effort that seemed likely to re-carve the landscape of internet search — www.WolframAlpha.com. Stephen’s project provides precise [and sometimes amusing] answers to what seems to be nearly every category under the scientific sun.

With Statistics, Physics, Geography, Medicine and Nutrition to name just a few, WolframAlpha search is unequivocally a stellar scientific tool. Using it though [for everyday search] is like walking into a physics class to find a recipe on how to make meatballs.

Compare WolframAlpha with Google on the other hand and you’ll find Google is more like walking into your local library to find a book on, well, just about anything. Google’s scientific and statistical search response may not be as polished and precise as Wolfram’s, but nonetheless the data is out there. What Google does that WolframAlpha doesn’t is give

So now that everyone has spent their hour or so wishfully plugging search strings into WolframAlpha, has the hype faded? Or is Stephen Wolfram just scratching the surface of our world’s future in intelligence-based internet search.

Can WolframAlpha become the next omniscient community library.

Still a ways to go — If you search WolframAlpha for ‘rich chuckrey?’, you get zero. Not even a blip of my existence. I’m quite certain WolframAlpha’s awareness of my ‘existence’ is a low priority for entry into the WoflramAlpha database, but this is where the relevance of Wolfram’s search engine lies [and currently ends]. Google however knows who I am on Twitter and other social networks.

Plugging through WolframAlpha gives me a feeling that much of what’s returned back through its search engine is 99.999999% textbook response. No better than a scientific bot.

It may very well be that, on August 29, 2029, deep space algorithmic calculations predict WolframAlpha will become self-aware. But until that sci-fi day comes, for current practical and even scientific search, Google still rules the day. Even Bing has come to the table with strong search relevance whereas WolframAlpha is [by far] still a static scientific calculator geared more for that high school science project or college physics thesis.

Google take note: The potential for a new internet search order makes Stephen Wolfram’s futuristic vision for WolframAlpha a key milestone in search engine development. Where Stephen takes his project next might just shape the future of world wide web search.

Possibly Related Articles:

1. The Second Biggest Search Engine

Earlier this week the internet was abuzz over Apple rejecting the official Google Voice (GV) iPhone app. This story was quickly followed by Apple removing every GV-enabled app already available in the App Store. The official GV app and all previously approved GV-enabled applications appear to have been removed from all international App Stores. Based on many accounts, the culprit behind this dastardly deed is none other than AT&T. Does this mean that AT&T, the U.S. mobile carrier, has veto authority across all U.S. and international App Store applications?

Outside of the obviousness of how utterly irresponsible Apple is behaving with their lack of professional administration of the App Store, I have to wonder why Google Voice is not allowed in the U.S. App Store and the other international App Stores. One logical explanation is that Google only submitted the official GV app to the U.S. App Store since Google Voice is currently only available for U.S. consumers. That still does not explain the perceived authority AT&T has displayed over the entire U.S. App Store.

I have never seen this information published anywhere, and a few quick web searches did not really yield a solid answer, but is the U.S. App Store intended solely for U.S. consumers who posses a valid U.S. address?

For example, are U.S. expatriates living in non-English speaking countries supposed to be forbidden from the U.S. App Store, thus forced to use the App Store tied to the country the live? If this is not the case, which I suspect, then why is AT&T allowed to dictate what applications are available to international consumers not using AT&T as a mobile provider?

Customers of SoftBank in Japan using GV-enabled applications do not interfere with the AT&T network whatsoever. Why does AT&T get to make the availability determination for the whole of the U.S. App Store even when the potential traffic will not travel through their network?

Another point I am interested in is the partnership between Apple and AT&T. Is the entire U.S. App Store somehow tied to AT&T? Think about that for a moment – if it is, then there is potential collusion and anticompetitive behavior taking place. Not as if that ever happens, right?

I wonder if one of the contractual obligations between Apple and AT&T is that AT&T gets some form of right of first refusal for all applications submitted to the U.S. App Store. Essentially, when AT&T deems necessary, they merely ask Apple to pull an app or disapprove a submission and the app is banished from the U.S. App Store. Based on the treatment of GV, the pulled GV-enabled applications and the SlingPlayer app, one certainly has to wonder if this is a possibility.

I have been quite disappointed since Apple started acting so irrationally with the App Store back in the first place. But now I am severely dismayed and wonder if this is even fixable. Apple, with its peculiar and secretive nature, will undoubtedly remain tight-lipped and never publicly comment on the issue.

The only good news to come out of this is that the FCC is looking in to the GV rejections. The agency sent letters to Google, Apple and AT&T, querying all three companies on the issue. Hopefully there is reconciliation, and the type consumers require – allowing GV-enabled applications in to the App Store.

Possibly Related Articles:

1. The iPhone App Store is One Huge Joke

Being safe and smart when using the Internet is an issue that has been around since the rise of chatrooms and the exploitation of naive individuals by social predators. In other words, forever. The emphasis on being safe and not giving away details has always been young children or teenagers, since they’ve always been regarded as more trusting and the natural prey of social predators. It was assumed, of course, that adults would be more practical and less naive. As usual, we took for granted the processing power of the human brain.

While social networks like Facebook can give you access to invitations to parties and special online contests, it also opens you up to other things, such as:

• Being served legal papers, like the Australian couple who missed payments on their home loan
• Getting arrested, like the burglar who was nabbed by police via Facebook
• Being murdered because you changed your Facebook status, like this woman
• Getting fired because you surfed Facebook while you took a sickie like this woman
• Being outed by your wife when your job requires as much anonymity as possible like the head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency
• Getting fired because you decided to write your own book about your students like this teacher, even if it did contain the real names of your students
• Getting fired because you complained about work like this teacher

Of course, there are also real life incidences for which I have no links, for example:

• A certain relative’s girlfriend whose photo of her in a bikini was hijacked and put on a Malaysian porn website.
• Numerous instances when the opening conversation upon meeting some friends began with, “Oh my god, guess who just changed his/her status on Facebook to single/in a relationship”.
• An email that went around with the whole email thread of an employee of an Australian company who was fired because he took a sickie after a night out drinking and decided to declare so on his Facebook.
• Acquaintances who you haven’t seen for years creepily knowing almost everything that’s going on in your life because you or your friends put it up on Facebook.

Your first reaction might be that these people were idiots (which is quite likely to be true) and should have set their privacy settings properly. Well, think about it. If your manager asks you to be his friend on Facebook, do you say no? Even if he doesn’t, many companies have an IT policy allowing them to log your every key and browser history so they know exactly what websites you visit and what you type. Not many are aware of this because, let’s face it, who bothers reading the IT policy?

These are real issues facing real people. What may seem like an innocent statement may come back to bite you in the ass, especially if the practice of firing employees for comments, suggestions or insinuations made on social networking websites becomes common practice like it has in Australia and America. It’s about time that people start being smarter about social networking. Here are some suggestions to prevent any unintended issues when on a social networking site:

• Don’t forget who can see what you’re typing or putting up. Even if you’ve set your privacy settings to only allow approved people to view things, think about who has access to it. Can people who were not meant to see it (e.g. colleagues or bosses) have access to it?
• When posting photos, think about what you’re posting. Is this something that you wouldn’t mind going around? There is always the inherent possibility that someone will save the photo and put it up somewhere else, even if he is your friend.
• Be mindful that your work computer could be monitored by your company’s IT department, and excessive social networking while at work can raise red flags. Read your company’s IT and Privacy Policies carefully.
• For God’s sake, if your boss is a friend on Facebook, don’t advertise the fact that you’re taking a sickie when you’re actually not ill on your Facebook page! Also, don’t call him an anally retentive asshole, no matter how anally retentive he is.

Possibly Related Articles:

1. New York Times Issues Facebook Gag Order – Ethical Dilemma With Social Networking

Security clearances are not your sugar-coated M&Ms handed out on Halloween night to neighborhood kids tricking and treating. The United States government takes painstaking steps to determine a person’s [or an agency's] eligibility to access sensitive information and in turn issues a certificate of qualification.

But what have clearances come to stand for? Are they just a showpiece for employment eligibility or power play? Or worse yet, have clearances become an excuse to act inappropriately.

A recent article on FederalTimes.com points out standards for background investigations may be falling below acceptable levels. This is alarming considering how close a clearance ties a person’s character to the protection of national security.

Master Sgt. Rosene Goods, 56th Medical Group first sergeant sheds a bright light on how the military approaches security clearances. Pay close attention to the last consideration regarding technology systems:

Defense Department regulation 5200 2-R tells us that the ultimate determination of whether the granting or continuing of eligibility for a security clearance is clearly consistent with the interests of national security and must be an overall common sense determination based upon careful consideration of the member’s allegiance to the U.S., foreign influence, foreign preference, sexual behavior, personal conduct, financial considerations, alcohol consumption, drug involvement, emotional, mental and personality disorders, criminal conduct, security violations, outside activities, and misuse of information technology systems.

A quick example of misuse might be where a cleared government employee prints non-work related and potentially demoralizing material from his US government workstation.

The agency at this point has a prime opportunity to set strong precedence that this type of activity is not tolerated. And that this type of behavior is clearly not a case for the proverbial carpet lift. Any inaction by the agency inevitably sets a somber mood for overall agency morale. An inappropriate level of response by the agency also succeeds in diminishing security clearance value.

Comparing this employee’s actions to an employee printing out a work-sponsored insurance statement, well, it’s like comparing apples and oranges.

I hold an expired top secret clearance from days back in the Air Force and as a US Department of Defense contractor. The investigative process tied to acquiring that clearance [and keep it] was exhaustive. I felt confident that clearances weren’t just handed out to anyone. And the LAST thing I would do as a cleared employee is misuse my agency’s technology assets — not even to the smallest degree. Not even as a joke.

More commentary from Master Sgt. Rosene Goods:

…the individual may be disqualified if available information reflects a recent or recurring pattern of questionable judgment, irresponsibility or emotionally unstable behavior.

Those with active US government security clearances are expected to maintain the highest degree of work ethics. If you hold a clearance, then the next time you think about behaving in a questionable manner, think twice. Your clearance [and your image] is on the line.

Possibly Related Articles:

1. Flaw In Defense Contracting Of Information Technology Staff

Online banking users are hopefully aware of the need to login to their banks web-based system using secure means, such as via a web site protected using SSL encryption. Every legitimate bank offers such protection, normally disallowing customers the ability to login via unsecure means. But not every bank appears to be conscious of the myriad of potential security risks associated with their site. Navy Federal Credit Union is plagued by a huge security vulnerability on their web site and is possibly the easiest bank on which to perform a phishing expedition.

Updated – August 12, 2009: Added correspondence from the RSA Anti Fraud Command Centre and SliceHost Support regarding a take-down notice and trademark infringement claim. This little article has apparently generated some interest and visibility by an NFCU “security” contractor.

Updated – August 15, 2009: The saga appears to have come to an end as the RSA AFCC responds to SliceHost after TechMiso stipulates the content was not infringing. The attack dogs are ostensibly caged for now.

As web browsers have matured throughout the years their ability to quickly and easily identify secure web sites has gotten exponentially better. Years ago the only way to determine if a genuine SSL connection was established was to look for the lighted “lock” icon in both Internet Explorer and Netscape.

Fast forward to today where all current major browsers display the SSL connection status in the browser location bar. For example, Firefox 3.5 uses the leftmost side of the location bar to visually present the validity of the certificate presented by the server. If a valid Certificate Authority can verify the authenticity of the certificate, if company information is present in the certificate and if the fully qualified domain name on the certificate matches the one in the address bar then the background color of this area is green to let users know they are essentially safe from a potential phishing attack.

Any other combination of the above will result in a different background color, alerting to a probable security issue. At this juncture users should not attempt to login because there is a high risk for their data being stolen or misused.

But even with all the security controls offered by browser vendors, nothing can stop people from forsaking security for convenience. In this case, Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) does just that – it offers customers the ability to login to their web based banking system from their unsecured home page. How many users merely enter their credentials in the form provided without ever thinking twice about whether the site they are visiting truly is NFCU?

Even though the web browser does not display any sign of a secure connection or an authentic connection to navyfcu.org, rest assured most users make use of the convenient form on the home page. This is a huge security risk because it is ripe for phishing. By allowing users to login to an online bank from an unsecure, unverified site, those same customers could be tricked in to entering their credentials from just about any domain.

To their credit, NFCU does offer the ability to enter login credentials from a secured page. By clicking the home page “sign on” button with an empty form users are then redirected to an SSL-enabled page where they are assured the site being visited is in fact the authentic NFCU web site.

Even though the NFCU home page is unsecured and offers the ability to enter details on a potentially phished page, the form data is in fact submitted via secure means. So although users may use this less-than-secure yet convenient method of logging on to NFCU, their credentials are secure – assuming they are entering the data from the authentic site.

But the secure transportation of data to NFCU is not the issue in question. The issue is the complete and utter disregard NFCU displays for the potential for their customers to be phished by malicious attackers seeking to gain access to NFCU customer accounts. Any bad guy could easily copy the entire contents of the NFCU home page and everybody would be none the wiser because NFCU fails to follow industry standard security best practices.

The best solution to this issue is for NFCU to completely remove the login form from their home page and replace it with a huge “LOGIN HERE” button which, when clicked, takes users to the secure login page. It is easy to implement, can be done in a mere 5 minutes and is exponentially more secure than the current method. Additionally, this mitigates the potential risk from any phishing site because users will be able to identify NFCU via browser security controls.

Alternatively, NFCU can do what Chase has done and merely secure their home page via SSL, redirecting all http visitors to their https site. This approach essentially provides the same level of assurance the previous method does, but in a different manner. Assuring users they are visiting the authentic NFCU home page rather than some mirrored version being run by malicious attackers is the ultimate goal.

The NFCU web site has been run like this for years. Considering today’s climate, I find it very peculiar they continue to take on such liability and allow their users to be potentially phished so easily. While I am amazed to a degree, since the average user does not entirely comprehend these issues in full it does make sense to see NFCU allow this vulnerability to persist.

If your bank is doing anything similar, ensure you take the necessary steps to protect your login credentials from being phished. Otherwise, if there is no other recourse, close your account and contact the bank to explain why you will no longer conduct business with them to their lacking security controls.

Update 1 – July 19, 2009. It seems this article generated some interest from the RSA Anti Fraud Command Centre, a company “under contract to assist Navy Federal Credit Union in preventing or terminating online activity that targets, or may potentially target Navy Federal Credit Union’s clients as potential fraud victims.” It seems they are not too happy with the spirit of this post, which is pretty peculiar considering that we are pointing out a pretty serious, long-standing security flaw with the Navy Federal Credit Union web site. Here is the first email I received from the RSA Anti Fraud Command Centre:

Dear Sirs:

RSA, an anti-fraud and security company, is under contract to assist Navy Federal Credit Union in preventing or terminating online activity that targets, or may potentially target Navy Federal Credit Union’s clients as potential fraud victims.

RSA has been made aware that a domain name, which abuses Navy Federal Credit Union’s trademark, has been registered with you. This domain http://techmiso.com/2434/navy-federal-credit-union-web-site-operating-with-security-issue/ not only violates Navy Federal Credit Union’s copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property rights, but may also become a host to a phishing attack, or other fraudulent scams against the bank and the bank’s clients.

The fraudulent website not only represents a misuse of Navy Federal Credit Union’s intellectual property; its purpose is to mislead the Navy Federal Credit Union clients. Our experience has shown that such sites become a host of phishing** and other fraudulent scams against the bank clients.

Please take all necessary steps to immediately shut down the fraudulent website, terminate its availability to the Internet and discontinue the transmission of any e-mails associated with this website.

We understand that you may not be aware of this improper use of your services and we appreciate your cooperation.

We specifically would ask that you also take the following actions (if relevant or possible):

Please provide us with a tar/zip file of the source code for this site, so that we may analyze it to help prevent further attacks.
If any customer data has been captured that is stored on your systems or equipment, please send us that data so that the customers to whom that data
relates can be notified and take steps to protect their credit.

Please provide a copy of any records you maintain that indicate the name, contact information, method of payment or similar information that may be useful in helping learn the identity and location of the customer for whom the website has been operated.

We specifically would ask that you also take provide a copy of any records you maintain that indicate the name, contact information, method of payment or similar information that may be useful in helping learn the identity and location of the customer for whom the website has been operated.

Thank you for your cooperation to prevent and terminate this fraudulent activity.

Sincerely,

RSA Anti Fraud Command Centre

Tel: +44(0)800-032-7751 (UK)
Tel: +1-866-408-7525 (US)
Fax: +972-9-9566658 (EU)
Fax: +1-212-208-4644 (US)
E-mail: afcc@rsasecurity.com

http://www.rsa.com

For more information about RSA’s AFCC http://www.rsa.com/node.aspx?id=3348

Navy Federal Credit Union Legal Department
contact Julie Griffin
AVP., Telecom
Tel: 703.206.3327/ 571.283.9930/ 703.919.9939
email: Julie_griffin@navyfederal.org

*”Phishing” is an e-mail scam that attempts to trick consumers into revealing personal information, such as their credit or debit account numbers, checking account information, Social Security Numbers, or banking account passwords, through an imposter’s Web site or in a reply e-mail.

At first glance I thought the RSAS AFCC email was bogus because of the what appears to be some severely lacking English skills. For an official inquiry, the email was peculiarly worded. After all, RSA surely must employ personnel capable of coherent and literate English skills. It just seemed really odd to go after TechMiso for an article designed to help point out a fatal flaw with NFCU’s web site and inform users of a smarter way to login to the banks site.

But after performing a bit of checking I was unable to find anything to truly lead me to believe this was a phishing attempt or a falsified claim. So I immediately responded to the RSA Anti Fraud Command Centre as well as Julie Griffin, the NFCU representative RSA asked me to contact, with the following reply:

Did you people bother to even read the article written at “the domain” specified in your email? Or, do you merely allow your bot to crawl the Internet uninhibited so that it may send out potentially libelous communications without verifying the authenticity of such claims prior to their transmission?

The article, which coincidentally I authored, is written about a web security vulnerability on the navyfcu.org web site. Ironic how a blog devoted to technology is improperly targeted by a business whichclaims it is under contract with NFCU for “preventing or terminating online activity that targets, or may potentially target Navy Federal Credit Union’s clients as potential fraud victims,” especially when the article was written to help shed light on a security issue with
NFCU’s web site!

Might I suggest you consider looking at the navyfcu.org web site and resolving the issue I outlined in the article at the URL cited below? More importantly, is it too much to ask that a human actually read the article before an automated bot send out emails to web site owners without verifying the validity of any potential issues?

If you have a specific claim with the TechMiso article then please kindly clarify your concern without the use of a form letter. We are more than willing to assist because we care about NFCU and its customers, hence the article we wrote which addresses our concern with security vulnerability on navyfcu.org.

TechMiso has no reason to immediately shut down because there is absolutely nothing fraudulent in use. As I mentioned, if you have an issue then please clarify what your concern is.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Best Regards,

Scott Jarkoff
Faithful NFCU customer

I received the following response from RSA, which essentially completely ignored anything relevant.

Dear Sirs:

RSA, an anti-fraud and security company, is under contract to assist Navy Federal Credit Union in preventing or terminating online activity that targets, or may potentially target Navy Federal Credit Union’s clients as potential fraud victims.

The problem with the material on the blog is that it suggests that Navy Federal’s website is not secure.

You claim in your Blog that you care about NFCU and its customers whereas the blog you wrote only confuses and frightens the customers.

The bank has asked RSA Security to try taking the offending blog down.

It is true that the first page isn’t https secured but it is secured in different ways.

We will forward the complaint to the bank regarding the first login page.

Sincerely,

RSA Anti Fraud Command Centre

Tel: +44(0)800-032-7751 (UK)
Tel: +1-866-408-7525 (US)
Fax: +972-9-9566658 (EU)
Fax: +1-212-208-4644 (US)
E-mail: afcc@rsasecurity.com

http://www.rsa.com

For more information about RSA’s AFCC http://www.rsa.com/node.aspx?id=3348

Navy Federal Credit Union Legal Department
contact Julie Griffin
AVP., Telecom
Tel: 703.206.3327/ 571.283.9930/ 703.919.9939
email: Julie_griffin@navyfederal.org

*”Phishing” is an e-mail scam that attempts to trick consumers into revealing personal information, such as their credit or debit account numbers, checking account information, Social Security Numbers, or banking account passwords, through an imposter’s Web site or in a reply e-mail.

Their stipulation is that the material on TechMiso suggests the NFCU web site is not secure? Uh, hello – it’s not. If you read the entire article then you will understand why we make the claim we’re making. I wonder if these people are required to pass some form of English comprehension prior to signing on with RSA.

At this point I really questions whether this was a valid claim or not. It seemed so peculiar, and lacked any legal basis, that I decided to ignore any further emails from the RSA AFCC. I ended up receiving nothing more from this supposed security company.

It was at this point that Jennifer Sadler, someone purporting to be an NFCU Public Relations employee commented on the blog post, thanking us for the post. As far as I was concerned, this was proof positive that NFCU did not have an issue with the post and recognized the issue with their web site.

Update 2 – August 12, 2009. After figuring that the “fight” with the RSA AFCC was over because I had not heard from them in almost a month, I was very surprised to see an email from SliceHost support with the subject line “Trademark Infringement” sitting in my Inbox this morning. It seems the attack dogs at the RSA AFCC have not had enough miso soup and were back for more.

Apparently not convinced by our earlier conversation, these clowns have resorted to making a trademark infringement claim, most likely on the small little graphic in the upper-right of the post. Fair use? Moron in a hurry test?

Here is the email in full:

Dear Customer,

We have received a complaint alleging that you are infringing on the complainant’s trademark rights. A copy of the complaint is attached hereto.

We have established the following procedure for handling trademark infringement complaints where our customers appear as respondents:
(1) Upon receipt of a complaint, we will forward it to you.
(2) If you agree to take down or otherwise disable access to the allegedly infringing content, we will notify the complainant. If you do not agree to so, we will require that the complainant furnish us with the following information:
a) Federal trademark registration numbers the complainant relies on for his rights in the trademark(s) at issue. The trademark(s) must be registered on the principal register and registrations must be issued and active (not pending, not expired, cancelled, or abandoned).
b) The owner of the furnished trademark registrations as it appears on record with the USPTO. The name of the complainant must appear as the registrant of record.
c) The complainant must submit a statement attesting that, to the best of his knowledge, you do not have any implied or express permission from the complainant or his authorized parties to use the mark(s) nor do you make fair use of the mark(s).
In the event the complainant is unwilling or unable to supply the information, as outlined above, we will not provide assistance.
(3) If the complainant is able to satisfy the above information requirements, we will advise you that the complainant’s asserted rights appear valid and serve you with a 30-day takedown notice. In the event of non-compliance within the 30-day period, and absent any legal process served by you on Rackspace, precluding Rackspace from carrying out the takedown, Rackspace will be required to proceed with disabling access to the allegedly infringing content.

Please be advised that in the event Rackspace has to comply with the takedown demands, and you believe that the complaint is unsubstantiated, Rackspace recommends that you consult with your attorney regarding options relieving Rackspace of such responsibility.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Regards,
Renee Graves
Rackspace AUP
——————————————————-
Dear Sirs:

RSA, an anti-fraud and security company, is under contract to assist Navy Federal Credit Union in preventing or terminating online activity that targets, or may potentially target Navy Federal Credit Union’s clients as potential fraud victims.

RSA has been made aware that a domain name, which abuses Navy Federal Credit Union’s trademark, has been registered with you. This domain http://techmiso.com/2434/navy-federal-credit-union-web-site-operating-wi
th-security-issue/ not only violates Navy Federal Credit Union’s copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property rights, but may also become a host to a phishing attack, or other fraudulent scams against the bank and the bank’s clients.

The fraudulent website not only represents a misuse of Navy Federal Credit Union’s intellectual property; its purpose is to mislead the Navy Federal Credit Union clients. Our experience has shown that such sites become a host of phishing** and other fraudulent scams against the bank clients.

Please take all necessary steps to immediately shut down the fraudulent website, terminate its availability to the Internet and discontinue the transmission of any e-mails associated with this website.

We understand that you may not be aware of this improper use of your services and we appreciate your cooperation.

We specifically would ask that you also take the following actions (if relevant or possible):

* Please provide us with a tar/zip file of the source code for
this site, so that we may analyze it to help prevent further attacks.
* If any customer data has been captured that is stored on your
systems or equipment, please send us that data so that the customers to
whom that data

relates can be notified and take steps to protect their credit.

* Please provide a copy of any records you maintain that indicate
the name, contact information, method of payment or similar information
that may be useful in helping learn the identity and location of the
customer for whom the website has been operated.
*

We specifically would ask that you also take provide a copy of any records you maintain that indicate the name, contact information, method of payment or similar information that may be useful in helping learn the identity and location of the customer for whom the website has been operated.

Thank you for your cooperation to prevent and terminate this fraudulent activity.

Sincerely,

RSA Anti Fraud Command Centre
Tel: +44(0)800-032-7751 (UK)
Tel: +1-866-408-7525 (US)
Fax: +972-9-9566658 (EU)
Fax: +1-212-208-4644 (US)
E-mail: afcc@rsasecurity.com

http://www.rsa.com

For more information about RSA’s AFCC

http://www.rsa.com/node.aspx?id=3348

[49450]
—-
Slicehost Support
support@slicehost.com

What a complete and utter set of lies by the RSA AFCC! NFCU needs to settle these attack dogs down. What is there to gain by going after TechMiso other than a hot, steaming bowl of miso soup goodness?

I opted not to remove the content and promptly responded to the good folks at SliceHost with the following:

Hello Renee,

Thank you for the email and for contacting me about the trademark complaint submitted by RSA.

I do not agree to take down or disable access to the content specified in the complaint because I stipulate there is no trademark infringement taking place. The content is not an attempt to mislead NFCU clients but, rather, to inform them about a serious long-standing security issue with the NFCU web site. I already rejected the entire claim when RSA contacted me directly.

The article in question displays an image depicting a small portion of the NFCU web site, specifically the account access login form, and is in no way infringing on any NFCU trademarks. The article delves in to a long-lasting security issue with the NFCU web site and does not make any attempts to misrepresent NFCU or its trademarks. Our use of any potential NFCU marks under this claim are fair use.

More importantly, the infringement claim does not pass the “moron in a hurry test” at all. Any user visiting the content in question will surely *not* be confused in to believing they are at an officially sanctioned NFCU web site. For more information on the “moron in a hurry test” please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_moron_in_a_hurry

As I already mentioned, I have been in contact with RSA regarding this matter. They emailed me directly and I responded saying we will not remove the content because there is no infringement, misrepresentation or attempt to phish NFCU clients. In fact, an NFCU representative that RSA asked us to contact ended up commenting on the blog post, offering thanks for pointing out the security flaw.

In any event, thanks again for the email. Please let me know how you would like to proceed at this point.

Best Regards,

–
Scott Jarkoff

http://techmiso.com/

It should be interesting to see what type of response this generates. I am very interested in pursuing this and seeing how far the rabbit hole leads and where we end up.

Update 3 – August 15, 2009. I had not had an opportunity to update the site yesterday due to a very busy day at work. The latest actually arrived in my inbox Friday morning, August 14, 2009. The most recent email I sent to SliceHost, in response to the take-down notice RSA sent our hosting provider, seems to have convinced RSA to back down. The wonderful folks at SliceHost support sent me the following concise email:

Hello Scott,

I just received the following response from the complainant.

I will go ahead and close the ticket at this time. We will continue to monitor the incoming complaints and will let you know if something arises. Thanks for your cooperation in this matter. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us!

Kindest Regards,
Renee Graves
Rackspace AUP

—————————————————————————————————————
Dear Rack Space Team,

Please disregard the shut down request email below.

Best Regards,
RSA AFCC

I am very glad to see RSA has opted to stop fighting such a pointless battle. They would have made better use of their time and energy working to reconcile the issues with the NFCU web site rather than attempting to silence a blog aimed at helping inform their customers (incidentally, I am an NFCU customer so I care about this stuff) of a long-standing security issue.

I want to thank the SliceHost Support Team for their kind, professional and very helpful assistance with this issue. In this day and age, it is nice to have a provider who comprehends these types of issues and does not automatically act to disable a web site without allowing their customers to first respond to the take-down notice. This is a testament to their excellent customer service, and clearly depicts why SliceHost is one of the most popular web hosts these days.

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I’m a homeowner, and only just recently decided to move into the house that I own. You may wonder what this has to do with TechMiso and why you should care. The answer is pretty simple: technology is all-encompassing and simplifies so many things in life. While I may have said that I’m unlikely to write about interior designing, I will write about the tools available to the average internet user that will simplify designing, decorating and making a dream home reality.

It has to be said that deciding how to overhaul a house and what to put in it is overwhelming. There are so many things to consider. First is, of course, the cost. Second is how to make the house comfortable and home to you by reflecting your personality. This kind of thing is highly subjective and is where I got stuck. How am I supposed to decide what to do to the damned pile of bricks if I don’t have anything in front of me to visualise? Especially since after a few trips back and forth to and from the place, I discovered that the house in my mind fits any amount of couches and tables and chairs, but the house in reality fits substantially less. After talking to a few people, I discovered that these were common issues with new homeowners, especially for those who can’t afford interior designers.

The answer was, of course, the internet. I thought, “Screw this. There has to be something on the net to help me.” Simple Google and Bing searches with the right search strings gave me several answers that ridiculously simplified my tasks.

• ColorSchemer is a website that helps you generate colour schemes for your home. You can use it to help you decide what colors to paint your walls or what colour furniture you need. There is also a downloadable version for your PC. The program isn’t just for choosing colours for your home, but for anything involving colours.
• The Plan Collection is essential if you’re starting from scratch and have no idea what to do. The website has a huge library of sample home plans. This really is like playing the Sims, except it’s much more detailed. The downside of the website is that it doesn’t seem to show plans for terraced or town houses and the like. Even so, it will really help a n00b to visualise what could be home.
• Of course, there are also softwares that allow you to design 3D models for your home. For example, there’s DesignWorkshop Lite, a free home design software which offers a good selection of basic features for someone who may only need it for just one home. For those who plan on doing it quite often, you may want to spend a bit (or a lot) more on more user friendly and extensive software. Here’s a selection of home design softwares with reviews and a list of specs. Some of them even let you design your landscape.

In general, there’s a lot of useful advice out there for those moving into their first home. The most useful I’ve found so far are:

• Decide what style you want your house to be. A green house? A modern house? Would you prefer something more kitschy? Once you decide on this, you’ll find it much easier to decide what you actually want in the house.
• Set out a budget for everything, including any renovation costs, installation costs, and the cost of furniture. It doesn’t matter if you keep having to change the figures. What matters is that you have an idea of exactly how much you’re spending.
• If you’re not sure how much to spend or if a brand you’re looking at is a good one, the general rule of thumb is to look around and see what people say about it. This especially applies to things that you want to last forever, like your bathroom tiles or your appliances. Googling or Binging for user reviews are essential to make sure you’re buying a good product.
• Don’t forget to think about the little things: security systems, fire extinguishers, power points, insurance, etc.
• Don’t be swayed by discounts or sale items. Before you go shopping, spend some time in the place and think about what you need. Take extensive measurements so you know the size of the furniture that should go into a particular spot. Otherwise, you may end up with a couch that’s way too big or a desk that’s too small.

Decorating your house really is a little bit like playing the Sims, especially if you use design tools that you can find online. Unfortunately, there’s no Undo command for real life, so make sure you know what you want. This is, of course, just a brief article on some things that I’ve found useful so far. If you have any tips or online tools that were useful to you, do feel free to share.

No related posts.

Heads up Balmer, The boys at Google are on the hunt. Larry and Sergey are planning a strategic strike at the heart of Microsoft’s flagship product, Windows.

In a recent announcement on The Official Google Blog, Google says they are ramping up a new hopeful in the OS market — Chrome OS.

If Chrome OS runs with speeds anything like Google Chrome (the browser), then Microsoft is staring up the nose of a 300-pound gorilla.

Web surfing in 3 seconds? Google has this to say:

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds.

Google is banking on their vision of web-everything. No more local data on your workstation. No more backups. Lower hardware compatibility problems. Portability. In other words, park everything you have on the internet:

They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates.

Google is promising us security, speed and functionality with Chrome OS. These are all areas of daily computing that in some way or shape have given us all lousy experiences with Microsoft.

With cloud computing taking a firm hold on the internet and broadband speeds bouncing higher and higher, there’s little reason why Google’s vision can’t come through to reality.

Just imagine-
Flip your computer on and in a few brief seconds be on the web surfing, checking email and plowing through your daily computing needs. Insane concept, but now closer to reality — thanks to Google.

Microsoft, however, isn’t just sitting idle on the secure browser sidelines watching all this Google hype go down. They’re chalk-boarding their own game plan for a ‘multi-principle OS’ code named, Gazelle.

This takes the browser [or OS?] wars to an all new new level in the tit-for-tat software battle. Gentlemen, choose your operating weapon.

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Have you been at a job where you admired a successful IT colleague of yours? Someone you were amazed by? Maybe even blown away by their level of proficiency?

Did that person seem to complete work effortlessly? Were they ultra-productive in the work environment?

Could you accept this person into your personal realm? Or did you feel threatened? Were you ready to develop this new relationship or did you quickly throw up your defenses?

Inside most [if not all] IT team environments there exists a competitive atmosphere among staff members. Whether rivalries are obvious or hidden, healthy or toxic, they exist.

You generally see two types of people — those that are willing to work together on projects and then those that rather isolate themselves on self-fulfilling tasks while repelling their team or worse yet, repelling their bosses.

Team-

To win in a competitively staffed IT environment, your most successful bet is to adopt those around you regardless of your skill set or theirs. Always strive towards being a positive force on your IT team by showing your motivation to teach — or showing your willingness to be taught.

Being negative in any fashion will get you nowhere.

I’ve seen it happen before. The IT tech that sits at her desk, plugging away at her computer and failing miserably to integrate with her team. This person’s best effort to interact is a carpet-burning route back-and-forth to the company fridge and Coke machines.

I’ve watched a network engineer talk to and treat fellow staff as if those people were 3-year olds in kindergarten. Granted, his attitude is more likely a fear rooted deep within himself. And likely an unfounded fear of becoming obsolete or pushed back to second place.

I sense from watching folks that react negatively in a challenging environment that they have rarely been effective in their own lives. They have likely developed a strong pattern of trying to manipulate others for their own success. Quick to judge and reluctant to budge.

Have you ever prematurely judged someone? Maybe as they just stepped off the plane? Maybe you thought their ego was massive when you barely even knew them?

Egos-

Egos are easy to misread in the IT arena. Naturally, all technical staff have a varying degree of technical knowledge which sometimes incorrectly translates to an ego. If IT folks didn’t have technical knowledge they of course wouldn’t be in IT. It’s this technical knowledge that tends to blind folks into believing they are superior or maybe even inferior. When in fact it’s an individual’s knowledge that makes the team diverse and successful.

It’s well known that people with large egos often have low self esteem. In turn, low self esteem is most noticeable in people who need constant praise to continue functioning in their lives. In other words, those who are egotistical need to be stroked and stroked often. The cold truth is that there’s little to NO time for stroking in an IT environment. The satisfaction of getting the job done in high tempo operations is a stroke in and of itself.

Large egos often manifest themselves through low self esteem. In turn, folks with large egos often produce poor levels of job performance. Egoists also tend to cry foul more than others. This type of self-suffocation can kill an IT environment — where self-motivated and ultra-performing staff are most desirable.

Winning-

Focus on your team and scrap your ego. One of the most difficult things to accomplish as an IT careerist is introspect. Assess yourself, your performance and your skill set. Size yourself up and gauge your effectiveness as it relates to your surroundings. Constantly tweak your approach — both technical and sociable. Complacency kills.

Challenges in IT present countless opportunities to excel. The sheer number of technical projects affords everyone a chance to shine and excel. Believe in yourself and believe you can [and should] always compliment your team in a positive fashion.

Are you winning with your IT team or are you on the outside peering in?

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