David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
I ran into something maddening today. I have a large number of self-study questions in plaintext format that I’ve been using to prepare for my upcoming test. To weed out the large number of duplicates, I massaged the file into a tab-separated format so I could load it into Excel and alphabetize it by the question wording. It worked nicely, especially in Excel 2003.
I got a nasty surprise when I loaded the same file on an Excel 2007-equipped machine.
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ESPN’s David Schoenfield writes, regarding Hall of Fame votes, and Bruce Sutter vs Lee Smith specifically:
Why does [Bruce] Sutter start at 23.9 percent [of the vote] and later gain momentum and enshrinement after 13 years on the ballot, but Lee Smith start at 42.3 percent and after nine years remain at 45.3 percent?
It doesn’t make sense.
As someone who grew up in St. Louis watching both pitchers, it makes sense to me. Sutter and Smith look similar by some mathematical models, but the people who watched them remember them differently. And memory is everything when it comes to close-call Hall of Fame candidates.
If Copyright law was still the way the Founding Fathers intended, anything copyrighted before 1955 would be in the public domain today. A number of noteworthy things came into being in 1955.
But like Duke University’s Center of Public Domain Studies, I’m a bit more concerned about the stuff that isn’t as noteworthy.
Back in November, I bought a bunch of insulated vinyl blinds on sale. Installing them took about a week–I had to replace all the hardware, which involves drilling, so I had to be careful what I did and when so as to not wake the kids–but they’ve all been up almost a month now, and it didn’t take long for them to leave an impression. I know you’re asking, “Do insulated vinyl blinds work?” I have to say yes.
If the vulnerability in WPS that I linked and talked about this week wasn’t bad enough, some of the commenters at the always excellent Hackaday found something terrible.
Many vendors use a predictable number as the WPS PIN, and don’t even bother to make it unique on a router-by-router basis. So much for it taking a couple of hours to get into a network. Since some vendors set the PIN to something like 123456789 or 123456780 (how clever), the vulnerability may not even be necessary to get in. Just try some of the known numbers, and chances are you can be on somebody’s network in a matter of minutes.
So you’ve downloaded this great new piece of free software, but you’re not sure if it’s safe to install. Your antivirus software says it’s not infected, so you can assume it’s safe, right?
Not so fast. Nothing detects everything. Using multiple virus scanners dramatically decreases the chances of something getting through.
As I continue studying for my CISSP, I’m rebalancing things a little bit. I plan to still post most days (probably weekdays), but until I pass the test, I’m probably going to be posting shorter pieces than I usually do. I don’t know exactly how much time I spend writing every day, but it would be prudent for me to limit myself to 30 minutes or less until I reach my goal. I write fast, but I know I can’t write 1,000 words worth reading in 30 minutes.
Once my life returns to normal, I expect the length and content mix will also.
Halon-2402 and I have met. Some years ago, I saw an old sign in a computer room. The sign had to be old, because smoking in offices has been banned since the 1980s, and the sign appeared to be hand-lettered in colored permanent marker. It read something like this:
No smoking is allowed. Smoke in this room will cause the release of an expensive gas (Halon) and require its replacement. Absolutely no smoking is allowed!
The sign omitted one relatively significant detail. Not only is (was) Halon-2402 expensive, it will also kill you!
This is going to sound like gloating, so I’m going to apologize for that right up front. A few weeks ago, I recommended you keep WPS disabled except for brief intervals for convenience. I had no specific reason in mind. Just in case. Just in case, you know, a vulnerability in WPS got discovered.
Well, one got discovered.
The hacking group Anonymous hacked security contractor Stratfor, stealing its customer list including names, addresses, and credit card numbers, which they then used to go on a charity shopping spree.
My former boss’ wife asked him on Facebook what these guys want. And that brought a CISSP question to mind.