Lack of Posts

Sorry about the lack of any posts on monday, it was an INSANE day yesterday!

In return I give you and oldy but a goody, the comedian Stephen Colbert showing that he has more cajones than any other social commentator in the last ten years.

A Reading Nook is a little slice of Heaven.

A few days ago it occurred to me that I hadn't read a single novel in almost a month. There were many contributing factors of course (The first round of fall exams being one of the bigger ones), but to be honest, the greatest one was the internet. In an age of instant gratification entertainment, I had subconsciously pushed recreational reading to the bottom of my priorities list.

I'm sure many of us fall into that trap, reading an 800-page behemoth seems like a bit of a chore compared to surfing a plethora of stupid websites, or spending a few hours enjoying our own guilty pleasures (Mine being Civilization games). So today after chastising myself for being so apathetic, I decided to grab my old standby, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and search the campus for a good nook to disappear from the world for a few hours. I found a lovely row of stuffed chairs on the fourth floor of the campus library with a fantastic view (see pic), and I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be in that spot, suffering from a literature induced coma, for many of the coming months. I always feel so much more relaxed after enjoying a good book, and in an all too stressful world, its a great escape that doesn't involve chugging vast amounts of liquid bread like many of my classmates.

Rick Sanchez fired for Calling Jon Stewart a "bigot"

Apparently everyone's favorite Cuban-American reporter got fired on Thursday after a radio appearance on "Standup with Pete Dominick". During the interview, Sanchez repeatedly called Jon Stewart of the Daily Show a bigot, without coming up with any justification for his claim. Apparently Sanchez didn't take too kindly to Stewart after he made Rick the butt of several jokes over the years, and he was going to let this radio host know it. The radio jockey pushed Rick on several occasions for him to justify the bigot statement with a specific example to no avail. When Sanchez was unable to come up with any real facts to back his claims, he used the old fallback that his father was a Cuban immigrant who worked his entire life, so Stewart simply can't know where hes coming from. Let's be honest, Sanchez was simply backed into a corner, caught red-handed making a stupid, unsubstantiated claim and the whole "my childhood isn't comparable to his" comment was just a cop-out.

Sanchez is simply showing his own ignorance in thinking that HE is the only one that could have possibly had a childhood like him, or had a father that worked his entire life, which is a complete load of crap. By that extension of logic, his Cuban father who worked his entire life somehow increases HIS character more than someone like me whose own father worked six days a week up to the day he died. Rick is just pulling the "poor me" card and obviously the management at CNN called him on his BS.



One has to wonder if Rick Sanchez really thinks that Jon Stewart is a bigot, or is simply reverting back to the instincts of the average grade school bully. "That skinny Jewish kid from across the playground called me a meat-head so I'm going to hate him for the rest of my life", give me a break Rick Sanchez!

Ok, I stumbled upon this video a while ago and it's just too comical to pass up.



There are so many things wrong with the parent's assumptions about his son that I barely know where to start, but I'll take a crack at some of the more ludicrous points made in this video.

1. Does asking to change ISPs mean that your son is a computer hacker? Hardly, more likely your son is the only one in your family that realizes that using AOL was a crap way to connect to the internet when it was brand new (but I did love getting the free Frisbee CDs in the mail a few times a month)
2. Are you finding programs that you don't remember installing? OK, if all you are finding are mysterious new programs called "firefox" or "warcraft" I wouldn't worry about it. If you happen to stumble across a folder with two programs called Cain and Abel, then you are one of the few people who might have a legitimate concern! Cain and Abel has few legitimate uses and is more commonly the tool of people who perform man in the middle attacks on your wireless devices to steal personal info (I'll do an in-depth discussion of it at a later time).
3. Is your kid asking you for new hardware? Then they're most likely not hackers. The much more plausible explanation is that your family computer has a six year old processor that can barely run programs from FIVE years ago.
4. Does your son play Quake? No that does not make him a hacker, it makes him a nonconformist! (99.99% of his friends would play Halo or Call of Duty instead)
5. Finally my favorite. If you son is using "LUNIX" (Linux for the informed), chances are he is simply part of the wide-spread open source movement. Most of the time your kid is just using Ubuntu (or similar distributions) to stick it to Windows. DISCLAIMER: if the "lunix" he is using is a distribution called BackTrack, then the stars and sun have aligned and your son might actually be a legit hacker! Whereas BackTrack 4 is supposed to be a system penetration testing tool, it does work equally well in stealing your neighbor's wifi and compromising their computers if they're unpatched.

A Possible Change in Direction

When I first started this blog I didn't have a clear idea where it would go or what I should focus on, so I threw out a little of everything. After experimenting with diet, personal beliefs, and technology, it looks like I am getting overwhelmingly positive results from the tech article. Thus I put this to you, my readers. Would you prefer that I simply specialize on various tech tips that I come across on the internet and in information assurance classes, or would you like it if I just hodgepodge various pieces of info in all aspects of life?
Comment and let me know what's the most interesting so I know what resources to mine for your benefit :P

Now you can protect your Important Files with Minimal Effort!

Starting off, I'll be totally honest with you, in this modern age of information exchange, your personal information will never be 100% safe. Every ounce of computer prowess and common sense on the internet will not stop an elite hacker who has your IP address and REALLY wants what's on your computer, but we don't have to make it easy for the average script kiddy hacker who happens to live next door. So I present for your benefit, the following ways I use to thwart the typical hard drive heist!:


      1. Update your operating system (Windows, OSX, ubuntu) completely. Apple and Windows don't come out with these software upgrades because they're bored, they do it because over time they discover easily exploited holes in their program and plug them up! The added irony is that these companies post whatever weaknesses they fixed with each new service pack, so all a hacker needs to do is find an un-patched computer and go down the list that was so conveniently posted to the world!

      2. Make sure, if you use wireless, that it is well-encrypted. Click the network manager in the bottom right hand side of your task bar where it shows your signal strength and then mouse over the router to which you are currently connected. Does it say unsecured? DANGER! That means there is no password and literally ANYONE can connect to your computer through it! Does it say WEP? if so, then you are less protected than you could be. Most new Linksys routers come standard with WPA encryption and this is the good stuff. Now don't get me wrong, WPA passwords CAN be cracked with sufficient time and effort, but having WEP or no password at all is just inviting trouble.

     3.Encrypt your sensitive files with TrueCrypt. Lets say that the above steps haven't stopped a troublesome intruder, he got onto your wifi and exploited your computer so he has access to everything on your computer, would you be in serious trouble if he found that text file you use to remember you bank account password? How about some...compromising photographs that you took of your ex-girlfriend? Fear not, because even if someone gains 100% access to your hard drive, you can protect delicate info that only you ever need to see. TrueCrypt will take a certain part of your harddrive and encrypt it so well that the NSA will have a hard time looking at what's inside, particularly if your password is over 20 characters long. Bonus points if you keep the TrueCrypt password taped to the underside of your desk; one of the few places someone without physical access to your office will never be able to reach.

     4. MOST IMPORTANT: Use common sense. If a website has a banner promising you a brand new Ipod, ignore it, its probably just going to download a virus that will gradually slow down your computer or steal your personal information. When entering your credit card info anywhere, check the bottom right of your browser to make sure there's a padlock symbol. If there isn't that means the site is unsecured and any Joe Schmoe identity thief might intercept your info.




Link to the free open-source TrueCrypt, its very simple to use and after you install it will offer to run a tutorial
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads

Who else is tired of pundits running the media?

Every day I take about 35 minutes to get a general idea of what's going on in the world by watching 5-10 minutes of CNN, then FOX news, and top it off with some MSNBC and HLN if I'm feeling particularly masochistic. Every day I shake my head at the sheer subjectivity of these supposed "anchors" in the news. I'll just put out the disclaimer that I absolutely despise FOX news, so don't be accusing me of trying to hide my bias, its right there in the open. Gretchen Carlson may be one of the worst, particularly with the whole deal with the ground zero mosque (that nobody seems to notice is replacing an empty building two blocks away) but they all play this stupid little game in the news that really grinds my gears. They are given free reign to say whatever defamatory comment their idiot writers can come up with as long as they phrase it in the form of a question. You see, if they're simply ASKING on national television if Bill Gates has four secret mistresses, isn't that the same as straight out accusing him of it without any facts?
Now don't get me wrong, FOX news isn't the only bad grape in the bunch, they all have their faults. Keith Olbermann's rants aren't informing anyone when all he seems worthy of his time is bashing anything to do with the GOP. I just don't understand how our media got this bad. Did people simply stop caring about the quality of their information? Maybe people are just more worried about what Lindsey Lohan is up to this time instead of the Russian-Jordan conflict, or the human rights violations in the sweatshops that produce all of our Nike shoes or cheap t-shirts.These guys have a great racket going on, they can report the "news" during the day, and then talk about it with The Bill O'reillys and Wolf Blitzers as 100% pundit. That way if anyone questions their journalistic integrity, they can pull the "hey, we were just discussing the issues in a pundit environment" card and call it a day.