It is always a bit difficult to actually think about doing backups. Either you spend too much time thinking about it or you forget about it. For Windows, I found a nice free utility program: FileHamster from MOGware.
This small utility will allow you to automatically backup every single file you save or modify. FileHamster will create a full history track of your activity without even the need to think about it. It acts immediately (you don’t have to wait for a daily backup), and keeps everything. Of course, you need some free disk space, but it’s so much of a relief…
In September 2007, the Inspector General of the Justice Department reported that the Terrorist Screening Center (the FBI-administered organization that consolidates terrorist watch list information in the United States) had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 - and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month. [1]
Interestingly, this statement allows to believe that by June 2008 the list will have grown to 1 million terrorists in the US of A. I believe that Americans can be silly, but I doubt that one out of 230 is a dangerous moron attempting to end western civilization next time he or she will take a plane.
I suggest that you have a look at the astonishing list of “unlikely suspects” displayed in this article from ACLU. It includes US Senators and US Congressmen (and their spouses), war heroes, John Does with a common name, dead 9/11 hijackers, foreign presidents (dead as Saddam Hussein or alive like Evo Morales), pop star singers and toddlers.
I found this funny little piece of SciFi/security litterature. I’m sure you’ll like it.
The man blurred into existence behind the dense shrubs, and checked a small device he took from his pocket. Since time and date seemed correct, he straightened his sports coat and stepped from behind the bushes.
Everybody keeps hearing that those buildings built in Abu Dhabi are the most extraordinary ones because the architects have huge amounts of money flowing to build them. But, actually, it’s a world wide competition to create the most astonishing sky-scrappers and buildings. Here are my best finds in this huge category:
Vertical urban farm
Imagined by the environmentalist researchers of Columbia University. More details [PDF].
The very good anti-virus software got a little better with version 8. But the free version (which made it so popular) is not yet available. For now, you’ll have to stick to the excellent v7.5.
Did you know that, before the actual deployment of radar, the localisation of flying planes was done by listening to them?
With a good sound mirror, you could hear the motor of a plane from very far. And a sound mirror is essentially a wall able to reflect sound (like in a subway station or the underground cathedral of Brazilia). As you can see, some have tried to apply the idea to a portable device (don’t you like the way the listener looks?)
But, the larger the reflection device, the more amplification power and the more frequencies you can catch.
In front of the Channel, in United Kingdom, the Royal Air Force installed such devices of increasing sizes. The largest one (see below) was more a wall than anything else. (more…)
If you want to do discreet (if not completely anonymous) P2P, Bittorrent and Gnutella or Kazaa are not your friends. With the advent of more attention from authorities, it is difficult to consider them as good opportunities.
I have been looking quickly at some of the possible solutions to protect your privacy while exchanging files over the Internet. I found the following ideas:
Omemo is a recent Spanish development. I tried it and it is very obvious that the program is still in beta. Essentially, I was unable to download a file if it was not very small in size or to upload any. Let’s wait until it works.
GigaTribe seems a good solution if you are willing to pay for the Premium package. It builds a closed network with your friends, but the standard (free) software is not able to grab files from multiple computers at the same time. So performance is very limited for the free version. GigaTribe3 is said to correct a number of issues some time later in 2008.
Freenet is rather difficult to use at first, but if you run Thaw, one of the applications provided at installation, you will get a large choice of file downloads and performance while limited is not ridiculous: A few days for 2GB of video, it could be much worse. However, some may be troubled by the kind of data found there: While the common P2P data can be observed, you will also find conspiracy-related information and a quite significant load of pornography and child pornography (normally not found on the more open Internet).
I don’t know where the future of P2P lies, but it is certainly around some of these darknets (networks that are protected from external Peeping Toms). Freenet is supposed to be the best and most secured one, even if it is not perfect (it seems clear that some powerful agencies have setup some Freenet nodes in order to be able to spy the traffic).
The stars of show business and other stars are chased all around the world by paparazzis. Sometimes even catch them in X-ray photos. Here are the evidences:
The TSA (or Transportation Security Administration) is in charge in the US of the organization the safe transportation of people in planes and through airports. Unfortunately, either they have a lot of other responsabilities (which is true) and fail at this one (which is also true), or they utterly incompetent at insuring the security of the passengers (true again).
I have been amazed at the number of horror stories that I could find lately about their abysmal track record, so here is a short compilation I made just for your your laughs (or cries).
TSA has a no-fly list of people who should not board airplanes for fear of terrorism. This list is a shame since it contains tens of thousands of names remotely linked to terrorists (if they are dead, like Mohamed Atta known for dying on 911, they do not even get removed from the list) and even very common names are included making the life of thousands of innocent people impossible in airports. Like Sam Adams, 5, probably very dangerous despite his nice smiling little face.
Speaking of faces, TSA started to train its screeners with some facial expressions that are considered ground for additional screening and interrogation (in a program called SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) probably only a thin veil on “let’s stop this guy because I don’t like his face“). Unfortunately, they would not say if you should avoid smiling or making faces to the TSA personel. After that, you immediately think about George Orwell’s 1984 (”facecrime”) and Kafka’s Trial (not to speak of stalinist behavioral crimes). And when you see how untrained the screeners are…
Speaking about training, should I mention the cases where the agents are so unable to handle your belongings that they drop them on the floor. Don’t mention dropping a T-shirt. Think about pro-photo equipment like here or here.
TSA and some English goons decided that transporting liquids was a major terrorist danger. Even if it is the milk bottle of Junior, the Coke for Dad or the Perrier for Mom. So, now, liquids in more than 100ml are prohibited from your carry-on luggage (even though it is more or less admitted that the threat was exagerated). Except if they are in a clear plastic bag. What has this to do with security? Does it make a difference between the following two eye mascara sticks?
Even pilots are annoyed at bullshit “security” procedures that the TSA has put into place. [The linked article has interesting references to British Security officials admitting that the “liquid bomb plot” public statements were overcooked, inaccurate and “unfortunate.”
The TSA web site supposed to help people request their removal from the no-fly list has been demonstrated as a major Internet security risk, it looks more like a scam with all the security errors/snafus than an important US national asset handling personal data.
Even, according to a story […] in the London Daily Mail newspaper, the British government has had enough with the “War on Terror” hype. [from Spurgeon Blog]
I am in no hurry to test the US borders by taking a plane to go and see my American friends. Sorry Veronica, Renata, Bing, Michael, and others.
For most of us, IPv6 has been a little more than vaporware. But in order to fight the upcoming lack of Internet addresses (as IPv4 addresses are more easily known), there is this new protocol, IPv6. It is steadily progressing and tomorrow, February 4th, several of the major international routers of the Internet backbone will start routing IPv6 packets.
It means that IPv6 will become a reality in most regions of the world, even if a lot more is to be done to make it overwhelmingly present.
everybody told you about it, Boeing is preparing a new medium range jet airplane that will do everything but coffee: It is nice, it is light, it eats 25% less fuel, it is less noisy.
But it has two problems:
Boeing was forced to announce a dealy for the first deliveries (EADS-Airbus is not the only one to have such difficulties here)
The FAA, US Federal Aviation Authority, is troubled by the sight of this airpline having a computer network open to the passengers. Here, I would say it’s rather good news bringing plenty of in-flight computer fun (email, web, IM, network games, etc.) but Boeing had a bad idea: The public network seems not to be isolated enough from the on-board network. So, the FAA is afraid of the possibility that some passengers may break havoc (voluntarily or not) on the plane’s instruments.
This was a test flight to meet the most extreme take off conditions, not the usual day-to-day routine of the airplane. But, you have to admit that being a test pilot is not always fully safe.
Previous Entries
It is always a bit difficult to actually think about doing backups. Either you spend too much time thinking about it or you forget about it. For Windows, I found a nice free utility program: FileHamster from MOGware.
In September 2007, the Inspector General of the Justice Department reported that the Terrorist Screening Center (the FBI-administered organization that consolidates terrorist watch list information in the United States) had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 - and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month. [
The TSA (or Transportation Security Administration) is in charge in the US of the organization the safe transportation of people in planes and through airports. Unfortunately, either they have a lot of other responsabilities (which is true) and fail at this one (which is also true), or they utterly incompetent at insuring the security of the passengers (true again).
