David's Spot

The other fun thing we did that night was go to a home that had a backyard railroad. The event was hosted by a member of the Arizona Big Train Operators Club. The owners are Robney and Janet Benner and their railroad iss called the Redrock Railroad. It was cool! They had several trains running throughout the railroad with houses and stations setup all around. The club had 8 homes throughout the valley open. We went to this one because it was close. Janet said that they would have another event in April during the daylight hours. We plan on going back to see the setup then. Redrock Railroad has a personal website. Link

Posted by: David R. / 12/21/2004 05:52:00 PM

My wife's cousin, Kelly Swinford, is part of the team monitoring Mt. Saint Helens. He was featured in a local article about the monitoring of the volcano.

This link is to the U. S. Forestry's webcam. http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/

Posted by: David R. / 10/01/2004 10:14:00 AM

Use layers of security. Like protecting your jewelry. You put it into a safe deposit box at a bank and the bank provides layers of security.

Discussion of Microsoft's patches. The size of the patches are an issue for dial up users. Our grandmothers and friends who don't have a high speed connection.

One great suggestion: Microsoft should provide DVDs or CDs with all the service patches on them and place them in the large computer retail stores.

Technology is enough. You have to keep up with some of the security trends. Example: Do you know what fishing is?

Many people do NO automatic updates, people download Kazaa, they have NO firewall, NO anti-virus. I see this all the time while working at Cybertrails.

Consumer operating systems are a big topic. Suggestions of making an OS in which have few features and then allowing users to add features.

Some of these people are passionate! Good discussion.

Someone says computer education in schools should have a security component in their schools. Guy from Microsoft said he interviewed interns this summer and out of five candidates, two had had three hours of security courses. These are computer science students!

Decision Cast is taking questions from online listeners. They are reading one from a user in New Zealand now! Very cool.

Digital Rights Management discussed. The panel is very divided on this topic.

Question: Should ISPs allowed to kick people out if they have computers that are not patched with the latest security patches? Most are saying that it would be very difficult.

Security in society will become more important. Education needs to be key.

Hardware and software partnership.

Make people run as a normal user and not an administrator.

Help family and friends clean up machines and educate them about security.

Book recommended - "Shockwave Rider". (Written in 1976.)

Manufactures have to make more simplified systems.

Education, Education, Education. People in the mass media need to help.

www.microsoft.com/protect. -- Good place to learn about protecting computer.

www.microsoft.com/security -- Good place to learn about security and patches

Mac and Linux are good options.

Gotta keep up with Fishing Scams. Fishing is where people send email that is trying to get you to send your personal information submitted to their servers and they can steal your identity.

Social Engineering. Adopt the Mulder and Sculley attitude: "Trust No One."

Posted by: David R. / 10/01/2004 10:00:00 AM

The first panel discussion has started! The focus of the discussion will be security for the personal computer user.

The Future of Security Panel

• MODERATOR: Chris DiBona - Google
• Neil Wyler -hacker (Grifter)
• Fred Felman - Zone Labs
• CJ Holthaus - ??
• Dan Appleman - author

I user Zone Alarm Pro for my computer.

Posted by: David R. / 10/01/2004 09:10:00 AM

I made it to Tahoe after a LONG delay at the Phoenix airport. I flew into Reno and had to drive to Lake Tahoe. Before leaving Reno I went to one of my favorite catalog's outlet stores, Sierra Trading Post. The drive to Reno took me about an hour.

The conference is at the Harrah's Casino. My hotel is at Harvey's Casino. They are both Harrahs hotel/casinos, but are divided by a busy street. Thankfully there is a tunnel between the two hotels. The conference check in started at 7:00 PM so I walked around Tahoe for a couple of hours. The weather is great!

At 7, I came over and checked into the conference and to use their wireless internet connection. (Harvey's doesn't have wireless! Ugh!) Several of the vendors where setup and giving away cool gifts. Google, Yahoo, CPU Magazine, IT Conversations, VIA and several others are the big supporters. Checking email and visting vendors only took about an hour. I then went over to the Hard Rock Café for a hamburger and was in bed before ten. Too bad I woke up at 4:00 AM and couldn't go back to sleep. I guess by body has gotten used to only sleeping 6 hours a night.

This morning the conference truly starts. I am sitting here waiting on the speakers to get setup. They are about 30 minutes late. Thankfully there are Starbucks in both hotels.

Posted by: David R. / 10/01/2004 08:54:00 AM

This one makes me laugh:

“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.”Feed by Anderson, M.T.

This one makes me want to know more!

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.” The Crow Road by Banks, Iain

Posted by: David R. / 9/24/2004 09:39:00 AM

http://www.itbuzzer.net/corner/2004/07/how-to-backup-firefox.asp

Posted by: David R. / 9/16/2004 01:25:00 PM

Selig's comments make me wonder if he is stilling holding a grudge against the Dbacks because of Jerry Conlangelo?

Memo to King Bud: Jerry got fired! Quit taking your insecurities out on the Dbacks organization. We expect an All-Star game soon. (before the Padres!)

Arizona Republic Article on Selig.

Posted by: David R. / 9/15/2004 10:58:00 AM