Security: only as good as your team
Once again, social engineering and halfway-configured systems provide an illusion of security without any actual securing going on. Not only do you have to train your security staff correctly and completely (and make sure they have brains and use them!) as well as audit regularly, your other employees have to be part of the solution… or they’ll be part of the problem.
Technorati Tags: security, social+engineering
Since I’ve been using Open Source firewalls for years, somehow the idea of an open source router doesn’t surprise me. However, I like the idea of it being very focused and providing support while still allowing innovation from the edges of the network. Good luck, Vyatta!
Technorati Tags: open+source, routing
Now that the telcos are failing to innovate and nationally respected research isn’t worth funding for the feds, a nice writeup on the concern that the US will lose its scientific advantage and no longer be driving key leaps forward. Indeed, I can see how a short-term view (10 years or less) could easily be driving now with the startups of the 90’s-2000’s…
A neat ACM Queue article about Amazon’s infrastructure, where the people who create a service are also responsible for its operational support. An amazing idea in a corporate environment where projects are usually thrown over the wall and the operations team bears the brunt of bad code and bad design.
Technorati Tags: amazon, acm+queue, support
An interesting idea for not fighting CSS… start from a template. I think that’s a marvelous idea because I still haven’t been able to get the whole CSS spec into my head enough to debug all the bits, but I want a nice looking page and I want it now.
Still, when I have enough free time I’ll do something like come back to the basics of CSS or maybe go directly to the CSS Tables info to try and get it to work the way I want…
Technorati Tags: css
Well, perhaps it’s better for an office… but maybe a home office? Whiteboard walls aren’t something I’ve seen enough of…
Very cool new setup for installing a Windows OS… since we spent months setting up ways to script application installs, this new file-based installer in Vista sounds really handy.
Technorati Tags: vista, microsoft
No Professional Responsibility allowed…
So Bush blocked the Office of Professional Responsibility (the Internal Affairs group at the Justice Department) from investigating warantless eavesdropping. Gee, I wonder why…
Technorati Tags: warantless+eavesdropping, privacy
Using energy where you make it
A neat article on utilizing energy where it is generated to promote efficiency. The idea is simple: install solar panels*, and instead of converting it to AC and feeding the energy back into the grid, just use the DC to drive all your house systems. The biggest drawback is that most devices (like TVs, refrigerators, etc.) do not come with a way to bypass the AC-to-DC converters and drink DC directly. At least one company, Nextek, is doing it for commercial setups… If we can figure that out and get it as a standard option, like the 110-and-220 power supplies in computers, that could be really slick.
*or other local generation source (wind, etc)
Another gem via Bruce Schneier… a mathematical analysis of the NSA data-mining of our (yes yours and mine) phone calls and internet access. The AT&T stuff that got folks in an uproar.
Surely the NSA folks are smarter than this…
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