Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

SPYBLOCK Heads to Senate Floor

From PCWorld.com: Spyware Foes Push New Law

WASHINGTON — A Senate committee has approved a bill that would outlaw the practice of remotely installing software that collects a computer users’ personal information without consent.

In addition to prohibiting spyware, the Software Principles Yielding Better Levels of Consumer Knowledge (SPYBLOCK) Act would also outlaw the installation of adware programs without a computer user’s permission. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the bill Thursday.

21 Nov 2005 by Congress Cyberspace

Source of AIM Worm is in Middle East

Attackers in the Middle East may be compromising computers that use AOL Instant Messenger.

Read PCWorld.com – AIM Worm Spreads.

Excerpt (emphasis mine):

The W32/Sdbot-ADD worm infecting some users of AOL Instant Messenger is more dangerous than previously thought, according to Facetime Security Labs, the researchers who discovered the worm in October.

The rootkit installed by the worm, lockx.exe, is allowing systems to be further compromised by a group of attackers based in the Middle East, according to Facetime researchers. The attackers are installing additional malicious code capable of stealing personal information, according to the group.

21 Nov 2005 by Cyberspace

Democrats from Ohio

While reading an article yesterday, I saw mention made of “Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).” I wondered if that shouldn’t be “Dennis Kucinich – d’oh!” Or, is he even from this planet? I dunno – some of the ignorant things he says . . .

20 Nov 2005 by Whacko Politics

Computer Brains in Space

In my job, making our products rad-hard is essential; use of TMR (triple-modular redundancy) and SECDED (single error correction/double error detection) are common practices in spacecraft systems design.

Perhaps science can develop a similar technology for the moonbat tinfoil-hat and koolaid crowd who are continuously bombarded by “radiation’ from the hard-left.

Excerpt from NASA – Computer Brains in Space:

When your computer behaves erratically, mauls your data, or just “crashes” completely, it can be frustrating. But for an astronaut trusting a computer to run navigation and life-support systems, computer glitches could be fatal.

Unfortunately, the radiation that pervades space can trigger such glitches. When high-speed particles, such as cosmic rays, collide with the microscopic circuitry of computer chips, they can cause chips to make errors. If those errors send the spacecraft flying off in the wrong direction or disrupt the life-support system, it could be bad news.

Right: The humans inside this spacecraft aren’t the only ones who need protection from space radiation; their computers do, too.

To ensure safety, most space missions use radiation hardened computer chips. “Rad-hard” chips are unlike ordinary chips in many ways. For example, they contain extra transistors that take more energy to switch on and off. Cosmic rays can’t trigger them so easily. Rad-hard chips continue to do accurate calculations when ordinary chips might “glitch.”

20 Nov 2005 by Aerospace Rocket Science

Damsel Sends you Rainbows

What causes these dazzling rainbows cast on the table and the carpet? Sunlight through the crystal chandelier over the staircase! These are but a couple of the colorful spots strewn about the living and dining rooms emanating from six crystal teardrop prisms hanging in the sunlight streaming through the figmented transom window. Faerie lights is a term used to describe these brilliant patches of light in our household.

Left: Rainbow on the table; Center: Rainbow on the carpet; Right: The bright crystal.
19 Nov 2005 by Arts Photography

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