Archive for June, 2008

Man the news hounds have been having a field day as the long rumored Fed raid on Humboldt County has finally come to pass. A couple of local blogs have really been busy. The Humboldt Herald, always a stew of opinion has been gathering news snippets from various sources.  But the NCJ Blogthing has really been burning it up. And poor Hank Sims is trying to get out of town. Cruel irony  that he’s taking his first vacation in years as one of the biggest stories of the year unfolds.

Radio waves have been buzzing as well. KHUM has been following the story and according to Hank,  “tomorrow morning at 9:00 on 94.1 KSLG, John Matthews will receive an update on Operation Southern Sweep from FBI Special Agent Joseph Schadler.”

Hurrah for local live radio!

Technorati Tags: blogs, hank sims, humboldt herald, khum, kslg, pot, radio

I joined Twitter quite a while ago like I join nearly everything that comes along (LinkedIn, Facebook, OK not MySpace,  but Twine, Newsvine, Jaiku, I can’t even remember all the Web 2.0 things I’ve signed up for) and then pretty much forgot about it. But every once in a while I get an email that someone is following me on Twitter. My first thought is always, “How sad for them.” Then, I start feeling guilty. I don’t have many tweets (updates). In fact, the last one was March 28 and I was sick. But I have decided to try and learn more about Twitter. So, I started following a few people myself today, mostly to see how others use this tool. And I think I will start posting tweets as I go through the day. So, follow me…if you dare.

Technorati Tags: facebook, jaiku, linkedin, myspace, twitter, web 2.0

Gosh Dell’ Arte had a nice looking web site. Unfortunately, just as their annual Mad River Festival kicks off, the site keeps going down. Maybe by the time you click the link it will be back up. I hope so.

And now the Eureka Reporter site is down.

Is it the strange a wonderful weather we’re having? Nah. I think they’re both running on Windows boxes. Not the same one. But could it be that platform is just not very stable? Could be.

Update: Both sites are back up. Dell’ Arte has been up and down for the last couple days. I hope they have the issues straightened out.

Technorati Tags: dell' arte, eureka reporter, hosting, Windows

InfoWorld is reporting a new Trojan vulnerability for Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5. If this were a Windows alert I wouldn’t bother since there are so many. But Macs are often seen to be less vulnerable to this sort of thing and I believe most Mac owners have become lazy about security. I know I have. But as Macs gain more market share, look for more of these bastards attacking the system.

Technorati Tags: mac os, security, trojan

Spam, viruses, phishing attacks, denial of service attacks and other serious breaches in security are ongoing hazards of life on an open network like the public Internet. There is an ongoing battle between security professionals and the bad guys who want to breach the security. As one side improves network security, the other side finds new holes. But the truth is, no matter how secure certain levels of the Internet are made, hackers will always be able to exploit the weakest link: The end user.

Whether it’s through social engineering, brute force attacks, simple stealth programs unleashed through email, or a variety of other widely known strategies, hackers can eventually find keys to unlock computers and put them to work for their own purposes. But the naiveté of a large percentage of computer users make the hacker’s task that much easier, and make the jobs of system and network managers that much more difficult.

It’s a conundrum. We want computers and the Internet to be easy to use. And we can’t expect everyone to understand the dangers of having simple passwords, or the need to maintain good virus and securty software on personal computers.But this lack of understanding is one of the factors that makes the network so vulnerable. I don’t really see a way around this short of enforcing a set of protocols that will require some basic good practices on end users, whether at the personal computer level or at the network level with hosting, email and other types of accounts. This is unlikely to happen, so the battle will go on. But i am going to encourage our hosting clients to be better stewards of their accounts so I don’t have to spend so much time rooting out hacks.

Technorati Tags: brute force attack, passwords, security, virus

After months of gather and analyzing data, Redwood Coast Connect is starting to share its findings and plans. Tomorrow they will make a presentation to the Board of Supervisors. RCC has been developing information on the best ways to get broadband deployed to rural areas of the region.

If you can’t make that meeting, a similar presentation will be offered at the Redwood Technology Consortium’s open meeting this Thursday, 5:30 PM at the Humboldt Area Foundation Conference room.

Technorati Tags: broadband, Redwood Coast Connect, Redwood Technology Consortium

According to Sean McLaughlin, head of Access Humboldt, the long awaited wireless network at the main branch of the Humboldt County Library will finally be unveiled on Wednedsday, June 11 at 1:00 PM. I’m not sure what has taken so long to get to this unveiling. But I suspect it had much more to do with politics and bureaucracy than any technological issue. Initial funding shouldn’t have been a problem, either as last year’s Oysters & Ale was a benefit for the project and I understand raised around $20,000 was for the project.

Congratulations to Debi Farber-Bush, Kitty Yancheff and Barbara Groom, organizers of Oysters & Ale for seeing your good work getting the intended results!

Technorati Tags: library, oysters & ale, WiFi, wireless

So the Bank of America, I guess trying to streamline the deposit process, has installed these new ATMs where you no longer put your checks in an evelope, but instead insert them one at a time into a slot like the dollar bill slot in a vending machine. The machine is supposed to scan your check and read the amount. Great. Except they don’t work half the time. Or, in my most recent episode with the bank, 2/3 of the time.

Last week I had three checks all the same size and configuration, all from the same company. All neat and flat, no wrinkles. I stuck one check in and it got rejected 4 times. I stuck the next check in and it got accepted. Thinking maybe the machines are smart enough to learn, I stuck the 3rd check in. It too got rejected multiple times. I know, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is supposed to be a sign of insanity. Believe me, this was driving me insane.

I did finally give up. But since it was 8:30 in the morning I couldn’t even go in to the bank and deposit the remaining checks with a real person. Instead I had to wait until later in the day and visit another branch where the line was very long. So, just to be perverse, I tried my checks in that ATM. They were accepted. Same checks, maybe even a little worse for wear. WTF? Technology should be installed to improve our lives not drive us mad.

Is B of A installing these infernal machines everywhere? Or is Humboldt County part of a social experiment to see how long it will take before people start trashing and burning their buildings like they did in the 70s? I know, I should be using a local bank. But we’ve had  those accounts for years. Long before Redwood Capital was around. Besides, I really like the Bank’s online services which save us lots of time. And we do have accounts at RCB as well.

Technorati Tags: atm, bank of america, redwood capital bank

You might remember the film that was shot here a while back called, ironically, Humboldt County. It’s still out there and most recently got some good notices at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin. According the directors’ blog, the film has finally been sold to a distributor and is scheduled for a limited release this Fall. But in  a post script to the latest blog post, director Danny Jacobs hints that the film may get a screening sooner and closer to home.

Today, if you hadn’t noticed, is the day to go to the polls. For information on local and state issues and to find the correct polling place for your area, see this page from Smart Voter.