A Borg's Blog

Global warming, we have to learn to live with it.

2012-02-11T00:59:00.002-05:00

I was reading this: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21465-earth-summit-is-doomed-to-fail-say-leading-ecologists.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Basically they are complaining that the current political governance of the world fails when it comes to global warming. "We can forget about fixing the planet's ecosystems and climate until we have fixed government systems, a panel of leading international environmental scientists declared in London on Friday."

Politicians can never come up with solutions for anything like this. They have only one thing on their mind, getting elected and re-elected so their time frame is the length of time between elections.

And because we have to get elected politicians to agree on what to do for a problem that is long term it will never happen. And even if we did now, the facts are that no matter what other countries do, no matter what Europe, America or Russia do, the only country that now matters is China. If they do nothing, and it looks like they will do nothing because they are now bringing a new coal fired power plant on line every 3 days, plants that will last for 60 years or more, if they do nothing, anything anyone else does will make no difference. And if everyone else does nothing but China does all it can (which means going back to farming rice for a living with oxen and poverty for everyone in the country) then global warming doesn't happen.

So unless you want to make china take one for the team and go back to being a country of rice farmers then we have global warming.

Or if the rest of the world went back to the dark ages, all modern electronics, electricity, transportation, cities went back to what they were before the automobile was made. We all went back to farming and manual labour, sailing ships and horses then we might be able to stop global warming, maybe, but probably not likely.

Global warming is going to happen.

We can't stop it now without gutting our economies losing our consumer lifestyle, losing all of our modern conveniences, medicine, internet and out ability to have a life span of more than 45 years like the 70+ years we have today. Unless we all want to give that up we will not be able to stop global warming.

So instead of wasting all of the effort and generating all of the hot air over trying to stop it, instead, we should be dealing with how to live with it. We have done something that is going to make changes to the whole planet. People will lose the places they live. species will be lost, rain will fall differently than it does now, some places will become deserts, others will get more rain.

We will have to deal. We will have to let people move to new homes, we will have to fish for different fish, eat grains grown in new areas, find new ways to grow food in places it wouldn't grow before.

We can not anticipate all of the problems that will happen, where a desert will grow or shrink, how much the water availability will change. All we can do now is guess and then try to scare people with the worst thing we can dream up and that doesn't help. We have to say yes it's going to happen, and agree that we all will help when it does. No need to talk about what will happen, or that we will only help if this or that happens, just all agree, when stuff starts to happen we will help. Deal with how we will help when it happens because I guarantee when it happens it won't be what we think will happen.

And agree with no strings attached. We will help, period. Sign the dotted line.

Why? I know we as a species have been through a lot before; Ice ages, biblical floods, plagues, volcanic winter, the worst of course we did to ourselves, wars that spanned the globe. We have grown from each and together we will make it through global warming.

SO we can't stop global warming, but we can learn to live with it if we all just agree to help each other, locally and globally as it happens.

What doesn't kill makes me hungry

2011-08-11T19:19:00.002-04:00

I'm sitting at home trying not to move to much as that makes it hurt more. I was at work today had a sudden and severe attack of chest pains, my normal lung problem but much worse than normal. So I got a free ride to the hospital from one of my co-workers who is a great chap and I owe him big time.

At the hospital they did everything they could, basically make sure it wasn't my heart and so isn't going to kill me and let me rest and fed me oxygen for 3 hours and sent me home to lay around some more.

No advice on staying home from work tomorrow but unless I feel a lot better I'm staying home.

So I missed lunch. And while I have very good friends who bring me coffee I settled for oven baked fries for supper, which as a diabetic is probably not the best.

Anyway there you have it, it didn't kill me but it did leave me hungry.

New Email

2011-07-16T18:32:00.002-04:00

Ysrd has finally moved to gmail! And I am hoping to finally start blogging here again.

If I get to depressing or dark please tell me, I don't intend to but I feel a bit crappy right now.

But here I am and hopefully we can make something of it.

Who's fault is it anyway?

2010-05-23T11:37:00.005-04:00

You know what I am tired of? I am tired of people who should know better blaming the wrong people for computer security issues.

When you talk to any computer security people the first person they blame for security issues is Microsoft. People saying Microsoft makes their products with too many security holes. If only Windows was more secure then there would be no viruses or worms or people hacking computers. BUT that is of course wrong. There was computers being hacked into way before Windows and the OS being hacked then? Unix. So if Linux's user access rights were the panacea why were Unix systems being hacked?

Yes Windows is attacked more then any other OS but, it's not Microsoft's fault.

So the next thing people blame, the users. If they only had their systems patched fully and the latest version of the OS available, the latest antivirus software or if they didn't download that codec with the Trojan horse in it. Well then how do you explain all of the computer experts that get hacked, Google, Intel, Microsoft, MIT... Is it their fault? Is Google at fault for being attacked, they are to big a target, they should do what, disconnect from the internet to reduce the risk?

NO! Again users only want to be able to use their computers. They want email, on-line banking and to be able to buy shoes on-line and for it to just work. They don't want bigger better faster, they want good enough and like their TV and toaster, it just has to work.

One other source the pundits point their finger at, security researchers. Blame the guy who found the hole and told the companies what to fix, but then when the companies are too slow (or a 0 day attack is launched) some people blame the researchers because they found the hole. They are trying to be part of the solution, they are not the problem!

Nope, OK who else to the pundits blame, the government? business, ISPs, and who do we never hear the pundits going after? (and why)

How about the criminals that make the attacks? The Mal-ware writers, the script kiddies, scam artists... How come I never hear anyone blaming them? No idea but you never hear it.

OK they may say Chinese hackers or Russian hackers or what ever but no-one goes after them?

When was the last time anyone really blamed the criminals? OK there are a couple of times one or two have been arrested but normally they are petty thieves or collage kids out to have some fun and show off their skills. Did the kid who guessed Palin's password really count as a hacker at all? Come one he guessed her password.

We need to go after the serious crackers and malware writers. And if we can't get to them we need to indict them anyway and convict them in-absentia and if they are backed by governments indict them as well.

For those convicted if we can reach them we need to grab from them everything they have. IF we can't we have to find a way to make what they do not profitable and make their lives miserable. For individual crackers/malz; license/authorize privateers/bounty hunters to do what they can by any means necessary to make the attacks stop.

For larger organized or government sponsored attacks, and if the foreign gov gets convicted and won't stop, declare them rogue and seize all assets/debts.

We have to do something. Patching the heck out of systems isn't working and blaming the wrong people isn't working. We can only win this if we make it not profitable fro them. In the case of individuals (and not the joyriders, just the true criminals) ruin their lives, jail or free season on them. For government sponsored attacks, make the foreign gov pay.

Phishing scams, hotmail and GMail passwords

2009-10-06T17:06:00.003-04:00

OK so now someone has posted a ton of email accounts and passwords on the net.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8292928.stm and

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/706223--hacked-email-accounts-affect-thousands

The problem with a lot of the coverage is either pointing fingers at Microsoft and Google (for not educating their users and not making it more secure) or at the users for getting caught in the phishing scheme.

Speculation is that it is a phishing scheme, but as far as I can see there is no proof of that yet.

(Microsoft believes a phishing scheme is behind the security breach)

(If you have anything better then MS says it is please forward)

But who is out there trying to get the mals who did this?

I try to educate those around me to phishing and other security issues but most people don't want to know and can you blame them? They have other things to do and while some of us live to do this type of thing most people do not have the time.

People want email because it is easy and no fuss. So they want to just get it and they put up with passwords but a lot of people set the password and never have to do anything again.

And while there are things out there like the cryptocard and other pass key generators (which work very well) but a lot of people don't like them because of they are fiddly and you have your pin plus the generated number and, all good for us but most people don't want it, not to mention that they cost money and most people want these email accounts because they are free.

I have seen sites that asked if their users want to buy these devices and the users said no.

I would pay the cost of the device (I believe they are about 20 bucks per in bulk) so that my Google account (or MSN) is secure.

What about you?

Post a comment if you would or wouldn't and why?

MalZ and Crackers, detect, identify and eliminate

2008-06-30T14:08:00.003-04:00

Do you think you have been cracked? Someone has been trying to guess usernames and passwords for days on end. How do you know if they have? How do you find out who they are?
What can you do about it?
First thing is detecting the attack, how can you find a Mal if you don't know they are there?
Sings of an attack: 1 Log files. You have to have something watching your log files to see if there is an attack. And that something better not be human as humans don't like boring jiobs and find ways of not doing them.
You need an IDS (Intrusion Detection System) that reads all of your logs and tells you when suspicious activity happens.
How? Well if someone tries to login for a number of times they either forgot their login credentials (I do all the time, early signs of Alzheimer's?) or they are trying to break in (crack your system, hence cracker). If they are trying to break in then your IDS will catch them and in the case of system or network login and also email or whatever you can set on most systems a maximum number of login attempts before you time out that username for a specific period of time after a number of tries (usually 3 but you can set this.)
If the user then starts using other names and trying again then after a number of different names tried unsuccessfully from that location then block the IP for a while. This can all be done with your IDS if you want it to; and have it alert you and you can then watch as the attack unfolds or you can do something about it.
So you now have an crack attempt; if you want to find out who the cracker is then this is where a sniffer comes in handy. You can watch all packets to and from the system being attacked and get the information you need to start finding out who the cracker is.
What you might want to do about it is up to you. And most likely the subject of a future post.

MalZ not hackers

2008-04-09T20:32:00.002-04:00

OK I am introducing a new term to the lexicon because i see the word Hacker used way to often in the wrong way.
So since the people we want to talk about are people who make 'Malware' and do 'malicious' acts and are 'maligning' the hacker name, MalZ, it just makes sense.
And it's short, easy to remeber, single silable, has the 1337 look and you can even 1337 it a bit 'M41Z' if you want (Although for using in a media outlet of any sort I recommend 'MalZ'.

Why? I am a hacker, old school. I like being called a hacker cause that's what i do. I make things work by hacking them. I know how to use code and use it to do things that are out of this world.
So there you have it, MalZ, tell everyone.

\\//_

Death and Taxes

2006-05-01T10:34:00.000-04:00

They say that there are two ineviatable things, death and taxes. This last little while we have had both.
Tracy's mom had a turn for the worse and we had to go see her ar Easter and then the following week she passed after her long struggle with cancer.
Tracy and the kids took it bad, me I am just depressed so no problem. And today is tax day for canadians and so the inevitable hit us.
I hate taxes, not paying them or the idea but the act of doing the stupid things. I hate the paper work and don't start thinking about it in time to get someone else to do it.

Pain in the butt I say.

Anyway LLAP

good morning

2005-08-10T07:14:00.000-04:00

Well another really late post. I was sure they had cut this off and I would have to recreate it. I was wrong :-)

July 1

2005-07-01T09:45:00.000-04:00

Canada day and the country is a year older.
I have had a bad few weeks. With smog levels in Ontario at record levels I am sick as a dog. Two trips in stretchers in the month. The first one caused exclusively by the smog. The second smog and kidney stones.

Rob and Sue are here and Tracy's Dad. Fred and Craig are adding a new room in the basement for me and then Jen gets my old room.
I am going to have to add a different machine for the firewall and I will probably use the one I brought home from work.
Marty is coming up today so Rob has to leave. Hopefully Marty can help Fred a bit and also we can get his boat in the water and tracy can get a ride.
Long life and Happiness,

Back hopefully for a while

2005-06-19T20:57:00.000-04:00

Sorry gone for a bit, recouping from another bad episode.
Was taken from work on a stretcher last week so am still recovering and not to steady on my feet.
I guess hackfest is going to be late.

My lung condition is dependant on air quality. We are having a bad year, maybe the worset on record.
This sucks.

It wasn't US (Linux Users)

2005-05-21T21:21:00.000-04:00

According to Groklaw (http://www.groklaw.net/index.php) and the story they quote from Businessweek (May 30 ed.) the DDOS attacks on SCO were not the work of a Linux user.
according to the story the DDOS attacks were perpetrated by a member of an on-line hacker mob style gang and not a Linux user.
As part of their investigation of on-line criminals the Secret Service (USA) were able to confirm that it was not a Linux user who created the worm that made the DDOS attacks on SCO. The SCO attack was a smoke screen and millions of Windows Users got the worm and lost billions of dollars.
I guess the guy used Windows; as MS is want to say "Where would you like Windows to take you today?" In this guys case into a lot of people bank accounts.

Where do you look for news

2005-05-15T18:30:00.000-04:00

I have a different taste for news then most people. I keep on top of the world and national news but also the Hacker news and science news.
I do this on my Pocket PC mostly and use my watch a bt (yes my watch, look at an older post.)
I also follow some sites like CERT http://www.us-cert.gov/current/current_activity.html
and Info Sec Hackers and Hacking http://www.infosyssec.net/infosyssec/
(They have a neat are you cracked page.)
Hacker news http://www.hackers-news.com/
and hackWire http://www.hackwire.com/
I also follow space.com and wirednews religiously and use slashdot as well.

So what are you news sources, anything you can share, bring us up to speed.

a crappy week

2005-05-07T12:08:00.000-04:00

Health wise very crappy week. I have been having chest pains all week, dibilitating at times. I really hate this.
On the plus side we are hiring 3 new people in my area at work, 1 to work with me so I won't be so over burdened.
Hopefully i will have something positive to say later.

FoxFire 50

2005-04-30T20:18:00.000-04:00

Foxfire has had it's 50 millionth download. they are claiming (and as far as I can tell rightly) that this is just downloads, not upgrades and not people looking but downloads.
Very cool, here's to another 50 million.
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/fifty.html

Life

2005-04-30T16:37:00.000-04:00

Hi,
I don't seem to post much do i.
Well today i have to tell you that I have my new portal/vpn working and I think it works. have to try it yet.
I am using my Windows box with Zone Alarm for firewall. I am then using sslexplorer on it as my VPN.
I will have to try it from work but I think it will work. have to try it yet though.
I think the current IP is at 64.230.88.125
Someone try to get to it for me and tell me if you get the ssl-explorer page?

K' Post a reply here if you do.

Moving up

2005-04-10T18:08:00.000-04:00

Well I just added a DVD player to the big machine here. This machine is an HP with an expansion bay. I just borrowed one of the screws from the existing CD writer drive and put it on the lock slot in the new drive and added one screw on the other side. It then just snaps in place.
Hooked up the three cables and set it for slave on the same wire as the burner. I don't intend to burn drive to drive but off the hard drive so no problem there.
Plugged it in put in Alanna miles and let it play, very good, nice sound. And only 60 bucks Canadian.

This will let me use the DVD's we burn at work to do some playing with and let me take gigs of data home to work on on weekends instead of trying to bring it home 5 meg at a time by email.
At the same time added a second monitor to this computer, with an old 4 meg card and a 14 inch 1024 x 768 beside the 19 inch at 1280 x 1024. Looks good but I really needa better supported vid card, this one actually sucks big time but what the heck.

The other news is the my life right now is that last week Wednesday someone at work used some type of cleaner, varsol or something in our office building. What the heck? Varsol.
I was sick that afternoon and for thee rest of the week although I did go to work.
This is 5 times in 4 months (almost, actually 5 times in 4 months and 4 days.)
The wd-40, then the exterminator, the toast, the chlorine, then the varsol. I am a wreck with trying to figure out what is happening, if there is something in the building that might hurt me, always looking over my shoulder, sniffing the air like a rat. But they pay me and the product we make is probably the best thing the world needs (clean non-polluting energy) I just wish my health would let me work better.

I am planning to build a new clean room at home with no carpet, better filters, clean, sealed...
Move my computers in there and try to keep it cleaner then what I have now.
\\//_
llap

Ysrd

To Blog or not to Blog

2005-04-08T20:11:00.000-04:00

That is the question.
I don't put much stuff here, to busy, to much pain, to many kids running around the house?
Who knows. I seem to post once or twice in two week periods.

What I am planning to do this weekend is to get my port forward going, get the game going, start making the hackfest2k5 site and sleep.
Oh and play KoL.

\\//_

More fun and games

2005-03-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

I am working on this game.

I have gotten the game fight engine working and now inventory, selecting weapons, selling stuff eating foods.
Have to implement a store and more items yet as well.
Not sure how much user to user interaction yet. Work on that later I suppose.

\\//_

Attack of the Killer Toast

2005-03-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

I am working on a game as an excersize to keep my web dev skills up.
Using php. Decided to use a premade portal (open source) to make it so I don't have to do logins and track users and can just keep the game up front.
Might release the whole thing as GPL at some point.
\\//_

Now what

2005-03-10T17:08:00.000-05:00

Bad experiance yesterday and it's shacking me to my core.
I had yet another runin with someone at work who did something with a chemical that affected my health without telling me beforehand.
I don't know what to do. Is there still even more people out there who are going to do something close to me that can harm me because of my disability.
I don't know how I can continue going in to work, I am having to always lkook over my shoulder, don't know what will happen, have no sense of security at all.

I hate it.

Remote Control

2005-03-10T17:06:00.000-05:00

I watched a webinar today of an interesting product.
It allows very good remote control of servers or control systems remotley. It will even let you power off, then power on the remote computer.
How, it's hardware with it's own power supply and backup batteries.

Very cool.

Pain is a pain

2005-02-21T17:07:00.000-05:00

I know everyone knows this but here you can see it again. My chest pain is exploding like lava on a volcano. I really wish it would just go away.
I talked to some nice people and they suggested weight training (already do it) yoga, (I meditate using techniques I learned from artial arts) and getting better sleep.
You all already know i use a tens machine but at the moment I have had a few months away from it because I keep burning holes in my back.
Time to start using it again I guess.
\\//_

Big Tim

2005-02-19T12:43:00.000-05:00

To most of the world a Big Tim is a big guy named Tim. BUT in Canada everyone knows that a big Tim is a giant cup of coffee which is thew equivilent to a pot of coffee.
i finally got the berve to buy one and yup it's big. Took it to work on Friday and when people saw it my comment was, "I'm trying to cut down to one cup a day."

OK not funny. Good coffee though.
\\//_

More technology

2005-02-12T21:10:00.000-05:00

So I had to buy a new watch. And instead of just getting a watch that tells time i got the Ironman USB Data Link.
Cool watch and a PDA to. You set up your appointments and numbers and stuff and away you go.
I now have a cable I connect to my wrist to update my schedule :-)

So on a regular basis I use my Pocket PC (Always carry, always use.) my phone with internet connection for it and for the PocketPC, my watch with my schedule and appointments as well as some phone numbers and data, and my tens machine to control pain in my chest.
I wired., how about you?

\\//_

Future Personal desktop?

2005-02-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

IBM is today moving to put the g5 and other ppc chips as the future of personal computing using ... Linux.
I'll buy one sign me up. These things are crazy fast and with linux on it secure, and right up my alley. What else do we need?

Moores law having trouble keeping up?

2005-01-31T17:14:00.000-05:00

I am not sure what is going on but from my point of view moore's law is in trouble.
For those of you not up to date on what Moore's law is it is the statement that every 18 months computers double in speed.
With the Intel X86 this has mostly been the case and if you follow what intel has been putting out you would think this true but.. Is it.
Last year I purchased and overclocked (not for long) a pentium 2.6 ghz. computer. I overclocked it to the max at about 3.9 Ghz.
Now you can buy Pentium 3.9 Ghz chips but you can't over clock them, not one bit they are already maxed out to the max.
It's been over a year and there has been no improvement in speed.
Intel recently introduced a new chip and it's another 3.9 no 4.0 or higher just 3.9 and you can't over clock it.
This is a null improvement in a year. Sorry but it seems for now Moore's law is dead.

Anyone who can find a faster chip please tell me. (I just checked Intel's site, they have no faster chips.)
\\//_

Our number grows

2005-01-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

We are an increasing population us borg.
Not only are the students of Steve Man (http://eyetap.org) actively pushing the bounds of borgdom forward but the rest of us are looking again at our past and saying does that class of person actually qualify as borg?
Does a person who has a pacemaker classify as borg? They are dependant on technology for their every heart beat. How about people with hearing aids?
I have tens (as well as the computers and screens and internet connectivity 24/7) and I rely on all of it for my quality of life.
Quality of life, quality of work, speed of access to information, enhanced memory; they all are valid reasons for being borg (and so is just cause it's cooooolllllll.)

\\//_

Winter cold

2005-01-30T19:09:00.000-05:00

Final days of January
cold cold cold outside
technology fails in the cold.

Late again

2005-01-19T17:22:00.000-05:00

Well I have been a bit inactive of late haven't I. I have been working hard on the preperations for hackfest 2k5 and this takes some time.
No-ome yet got to the server and registered, only 3 weeks folks, times a wastin'

\\//_

Hackfest 2k5-1

2005-01-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

I have decided to change the way hackfest works this year with a few changes.
People have complained that I am to elitist and do not let anyone attend. So there will be invitations going out to the usual suspects but as well the first 25 people who can find hackfest will be allowed submit for 2k5-2. The top five from there get to come to the fest, either physically (please bring some network gear to help set up, we do have a budget and the homestead is not that large) or virtually by VPN/web cam.

So 2k5-1 is find the site, login and request an invite. The first twentyfive get to continue, more may be added later depending on demand.

This is the first step to getting there. Once you can prove you can find a site and hack the login then you have to prove your programming prowess. No wussy languages allowed, we don't care what platform but prefer Linux. That is hackfest 2k5-2; more on it later once we have our 25 entrants.

\\//_

New years cometh

2004-12-31T15:29:00.000-05:00

A new yesr dawns on the borg and our slow but steady assimilation of the planet Earth. No we are not outworld aliens bent on dominating the galaxy (yet) but we are earth bound but not for long.

We are the people who will move this planet to steller exploration. We are the geeks and the computer nerds who keep things running and who are beginning to accept our technology as part of us.

A happy new year to all, and especially to the borg out there.

nightmare

2004-12-15T19:57:00.000-05:00

Well al living nightmare. I got a massive migraine today. Totally put me under. better now but ..

Van fixed

2004-12-04T11:27:00.000-05:00

I fixed the van. It was a vacumm hose off.
This goes to show, before you take your car to be fixed look for obvious thinsg that could be wrong.

\\//_

Saturday paperwork

2004-11-20T17:08:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had to do a ton of paperwork on a Sat.?
I did today and I hate it. Mind you it had to be done but what a pain.
This is worse then raking leaves.

High tech Lightbulb?

2004-11-14T13:04:00.001-05:00

OK, A high tech lightbulb?
Well to me this is amazing thing. A light bulb that does more then just convert electricity into light and heat but also helps make the air fresh? This is not an air freshener that uses perfume but actually destroys the things in the air that make smells well, smelly.
Go to http://fresh2.com/ and see what it's all about.
"Fresh2 is a revolutionary light bulb that safely breaks down odors, while providing energy-efficient light. "

Way cool
\\//_ LLAP

YSRD

loath to blog

2004-11-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

Well I took the plung.
It's been there for a year or so and well you have to try anything once? No?
Well I did and I am hooked. The simple graphics and silly humour is just the thing to forget what work did to you over the day and let you get in there and play and be silly.
OK it's not like Doom 3 or the latest in the smash and kill series type of games but harkens back to a simpler time with games like hack and ncsnipes.
So chill and be cool, have a martini and drop in and check it out.
\\//_ LLAP

Spyware

2004-11-06T14:59:00.000-05:00

The scourge of the current web. Spyware is showing up all over and almost imposible to keep out.
The original spyware of course just being Windows, but we won't go into that.
It's amazing how many people come to me complaining of slow computers but don't know what spy ware is. You tell them and they say "gee my home page changed recently to. I don't know why?"
I point them to http://lavasoftusa.com and tell them to download the free version of Adaware SE.
Invariably the responce the next day is a plate of cookies, a box of donuts or an offer for a free beer because "It's like I have a new computer. It removed (X) hundred files and boy is my computer fast now!"
I then tell them to get a good virus checker (most of the people I run into work where I work and have a copy of the corporate av software) and a firewall (anything but the MS one will do) and run adaware once a week.

To people who are more computer literate I also advise suing one of the on-line virus checkers such as house call at trend-micro because it's always good to have a second opinion.

Of course the real fix is install Linux (I like Xandros and FC2 personally but I am also partial to slackware and just putting a kernel on and adding what ever you want :-)

\\//_ LLAP
|||

New toys

2004-10-24T04:03:00.000-04:00

I have added to the cybertronics. I now have better input and output. Input, added a new wireless keyboard to the PPC, I still do the writing thing once in a while but I can type anywhere now.
New memory, updated to an extra 128 meg of internal ram. I can remeber stuff now :-)
New digital input device. Hacked a camera i got from Walmart, now adding the display to my heads up for better resoluion and 24 bit colour.

\\//_
| |

LLAP

Computer insecurity

2004-10-24T02:41:00.000-04:00

I am continually flabbergasted by the people who are professionals in cyber security who are so into the latest fad of the security world.
You know, we have to stop spam, we have to block worms, update Windows continually ....
Yes these are problems, spam though is not a security problem, physhing is, worms may be (but the root cause is not the worm writers) and viruses, although it's been a long while since we actually saw a real one, are.
All of these are fixed real easy by just keeping morons off computers and teaching the rest of the people using them how to avoid worm, trojans and virii.
The real problem is computer security are employees that are about to attack their place of work over some real or imaginary beef.
The chance of acme widget getting hit by a terrorist cyber attack is about the same as them being hit on the next pass of hailies comet. The chance that bob in accounting is pissed of at brenda in HR is much higher and bob is your security threat.
Bob's biggest pay off will be to delete all the files on Brenda's hard drive or he just might send the plans for the next pink flamingo to another widget company for some real money and a secret attack on acme.

Spam is not a security problem but an accounting one, the same as denial of service is not going to hurt the company servers but will hurt the company bottom line. Security should not be watching the bottom line but checking to see if there is some reason they should be watching bob more closely. (Isn't that what security clearances are for?)
Spam and physhing, or at least 90% of it can be stopped real easy by getting the header of the email and seeing if the reported sender actually is the person who sent it.
MS and a bunch of others want to add more information to the header (which can just as easily be hacked and added) when there is already more then enough info there to stop 99.99% of it now.
If you use a real email program that lets you see the full internet header of the email you get it has a traceback in it. the : recieved from lines.
If the bottom most recieveed from ip address is not within the domain of the person who is in the from line toss it. Even Microsoft Outlook ccan do this and any good open source email program can be easily modified to do it. (You will need to know how to use whois, but this is not for morons right?)

ysrd has not has a single virus hit us for the last 15 years of internet use. We have never had a single trojan attack and we have never been hacked (except at hackfest and that's inside the firewall.)
We use three industry standard firewalls and one of our own in series. Our network includes everything from pocket pcs to macs, windows, linux, unix, minix, IBM360 and os/2 (and others to numerous to mention.) We have never had a worse problem then one of the kids deleting a picture that we got back from a 5 minute delayed raid backup.
Our policy is if we can hack it don't use it. We do not use credit cards on-line. Nothing of any consiquence is sent outside the firewall unless it's an encrypted file with at least 1024 bit protection. Our IP is on servers that never have a connection to the internet. Our most secure system can only read cd's encrypted with our own special algorythm and can only be connected to by sneaker net. No floppy, no usb key, no network, just the cd. Backups are made by cd manually and kept in two seperate secure off site locations. They are kept offline and no other machine but one can read them. All other machines think the cd's are junk. Hardware hack.

Why? because it's the only secure way to do it; period.

And this is just our little IP. I think I could argue that anyone who doesn't do this is asking for trouble. If you know that there is someone out there who could get into your system and you don't do enough to keep them out then you may as well just open source it. If someone really wants into 99% of the data out there in major corperations they can get it and not leave a trace.

I know I am in the 99th percentile when it come to computers, I would even hazard that as 99.8 percentile. That leaves a lot of people who if they wanted to could easily learn how to do this. They already work for you. Most likely not in your IT or IT Security departments. They are the researchers in your lab, the salesman who plays with Linux or hacks his Ipaq. All of the tools are readily downloaded and most run off cd without installing anymore.

Have you heard of Knoppix yet? Have you seen the dozens of versions of it out there that include all of the latest non-detectable sniffers? Did you know sniffers can work on a switched network? Did you know the computer in the local library has a direct connection to the internet and if you boot it from a knoppix cd the user leaves no trace on the computer? When it runs off the cd it doesn't even start the hard drive. It doesn't change the hard drive anyway. It doesn't leave log files behind, it just lets the user have complete and unfettered access to the net anonamously and no-one can stop him.
Now that computer could also be one of the ones in an empty cube in your company as well. One of your employees could fire this up (or one of litterally hundreds of other bootable cds) and be on your network right now. He could have hunt running right now and capturing all of the traffic, including passwords, and burning it to cd or even shoving it out onto the web.
He can access all of the shares on your Windows computers and even log into them as a sysadmin if he wants. he can then copy anything you have on-line and can walk out the door or even send it out to the net completely under your nose and there is not one way for you to stop him.
If he is smart he will make it look like it was your cio who did it, right down to using his password which is probably insecure, but then with hunt who cares.
And you are worried about worms and dos attacks.

Your IP is your company. Your employees are for the most part good people, but do you really know who they are? Now you don't need to hire private investigators to follow them around the clock but you should know something about them. regular security checks, police record checks, make sure people who are to have data can be trusted with it.
Another way to make your security better is to involve everyone in it. Impress on them that security is not just your job but every ones job. If the company has a major security problem it may well be their jobs on the line if your company loses all of it's IP.
Teach people how to avoid getting a worm on their computer, how to avoid Office macro viruses, or switch to a more secure or even just obscure office suite.
Teach employees how to spot someone doing something they are not supposed to and report it.
Just knowing that everyone is a part of security will make Bob think twice about hijacking the computer in the corner.
For your more skilled computer people get a higher level of security check, Secret level or higher is a good way to know you can trust your key people. have their managers kept up to date on what to watch for and keep them in the loop as far as security is concerned. They should know all of their employees right down to who they are dating regularly and if their kids are back room hackers.
Give your employees free copies of firewalls and virus checkers at home, know how to use spyware checkers and keep your employees up to date on how to use them. With the home network becoming an extension of the Corperate network this is imperative. Poeple take work home, make sure it's as secure there as at work.
Give regular talks and information sessions on security, keep them interesting and supply free food and coffee. If you don't you don't reach your audience. Don't force them but make sure they are there anyway. Have a course you give and do it on company time. It's worth the investment.
Use wireless but use it right. Put your wireless network in a dmz, use vpn, use encryption and make sure that the wireless is set up to only allow known devices by mac address.
Defense in depth. I use firewalls on evey computer plus the one in the gateway computer plus the one built into the proxy server. This puts 3 firewalls between your data and the internet.
Use a gateway computer instead of an appliance. All of the appliances out there are just monitorless computers with an OS and some type of net access admin. The OS is most likely Linux or Windows and how often do you patch them? Do you apply the monthly worm patches from Microsoft to the appliance? Did you know you have to? Did the supplier tell you that what you have running as you primary security device is an unpatched version of windows. Did you even set the admin password to something other then the default?
We use a real computer for a gateway. We patch it as patches become available, daily checks for OS, Firewalls and virus software and sig updates.
Well that's my rant for the day.

ysrd

Beam me up.

2004-09-26T08:18:00.000-04:00

I am off. i will be gone for a week. If I can get to the blog while gone i will update with what I am doing.
I am away because the town is paving close to my house and because They are roofing at work. I get real sick if I get into the fumes.
While away I will try to fix my bike and I will look for more eq for my PAN. I am looking at cameras I can control from a computer or with a bluetooth connection. Other things I need is a bluetooth headset and anything else bluetooth.
I will check with Office Depot in the city near where I am going to get away.

I am open to suggestions for both bluetooth and personal computing.
Ysrd

If it's not good it's bad department.

2004-09-21T18:51:00.000-04:00

My presentation monday went well. The group I was presenting to really liked what i did and my boss was impressed. That part good, but the roofing is going on until the end of October. AAHHHHH>>>>>
Sucks, and the building where I have my home away from home office, there is roofing there as well and the town is tearing up the street in front of my home and going to pave it as well as other streets in town.
So I can't be at home because of the paving, can't be at work (either spot) because of roofing and i guess I am going camping for a week or so.
Charge up the batteries on the laptop and get the pocket PC fired up. Chrge the cell phone and take my solar cells with me. Solar powered kayak.

Gonna be fun.
Of course everything at work I am working on is stopped because i am the only coder at the moment as wel as the technical and program lead. I need to clone me.
YSRD

What ya gonna du?

2004-09-19T18:45:00.000-04:00

Tommorow I am going to work and it's one of the more important days in my year. The project I am on is working with some software we got from IBM, namely their middle ware suite WebSphere.
We got a team coming from IBM and it's important I be there so i can give them a show of what I am doing and then basically get a brain dump from them.
Friday I find out that the caretaker group at the plant I work at have started repairing a roof. No big deal but it's one of those flat type of roof and they use hot tar. Tar stinks and the smell can literally kill me. So I may have to miss the most important day of my year and I am pissed.
I am goping to turn up with all of my gear on, Tens, air quality meter, hopefully I can get the spare O2 tank from the firestation and have it with me.
What's a borg got to do to be able to stay at work and stay alive?
ysrd

Idea

2004-09-18T18:33:00.000-04:00

I have been a bit off of ideas lately for what to post here. I had originally thought I would post things like what implants I have and what EQ I am using to augment reality.
That's what we call it now, augmented reality. See the site at eyetap.

Anyway I am also going to report here on my latest work " the internet as collective memory" or We are the net, you will be assimilated.

If someone were to take snapshots of the web we will be able to track the changes in the collective mind of the planet.
For instance if we wanted to see how prevalent a certain Idea is we can just search for it on the web.
One of the things I saw was a comparison of the number of places "coke" is on the web and compare that to the number of places water shows up on the web. In that comparison (on google) we see water shows up 56,100,000 timers and "Coca Cola" shows up 2,500,000 times. This suggests that water is much more favoured over Coke. Not the best example but hey there it is.
So I am assuming that if we search for any thought by creating a google search for keywords we can gauge the level of thought about that particular idea. If we then snapshot the web and can compare the levels of thought on an idea at different times we can gauge the increase or decrease in that line of thought being held around the planet.
This is the collective thought.
Welcome to the internet. Welcome to the collective.

A borg gets a reality check

2004-09-11T10:15:00.000-04:00

I have been quiet lately because of work and family and health. It's bbeen a reality check.
I have not had any vacation or even just gotten out to the bush for a few. I have been hard at work on a new initiative with work and our suppliers on a new info management and retrieval system that I hope will revolutionize my bussiness.
I hope you don't mind I don't say who I work for because I don't think that belongs here.
Because of this and because we get summer interns and I had a real fireball this year and I wanted to get the most I could out of him I didn't take any time off for a vacation yet.
At the same time, I think i have mentioned my health problems here before (I have a lung disease and use electrnics for pain control), there was going to be a room at work repainted so I was going to take that week off. The painting got delayed and delayed untill when they started to paint I was only a week away from a release and so couldn't get away and worked from home and another building we have in town.
Now the town is going to repave a street and I will have to evac when they doo that so i will be taking a week or so in about a week.
My reality check in all this is the effect this is having on my health.
ysrd

I am a Star Trek freak

2004-08-25T17:12:00.000-04:00

Hi,
OK So I have just added a full Lcars Interface to my Computer. It's not a new one either but it's still the best I can find for Windows. http://lcars-terminal.net

Lots of lcars themed stuff and a great Control Panel replacement. I was a little unhappy about the lack of imap support in the email (PADD) module. It does though have a great ton of data on trek in the databases.

Ysrd

Web Development

2004-08-09T20:42:00.000-04:00

Lately i have been doing a bunch of web development. Not the flat text files all in html stuff but dynamic web pages in a portal with Java, JSP, html, javascript in the front end with php asp, vb, .net, fortran and c as the backend (and sql, ....)
Quite different then the regular write in C stuff that i have been used to. Juggling 10 languages at the same time for the same proiject is a bit of a headache. (now was that strip or split or toArray that i wanted to use in this function, Oh ya this one is the while not eof ...)

I was showing a fellow worker what i was doing and I think it made his head hurt, he had to sit down. It's cool though, jetspeed and apache and tomcat4 as fronet end then a php apache server as middleware and linux backend with IIS and asp with vb, vbscript and fortran with a smattering of C on the Windows side.
Both sides have databases off on other machines, postgresql, mysql, MS SQL ... and old fortran code compiled to a dll with vb. net wrapping it to make it web visible.

I am also writing some of the pages as WAP interfaces to applications on the mainframe, it's going to all just click over like it was made to fit.
Starting tommorow I am in another office with all of my main systems back in my regular office. I put xandros on the laptop to test it and see how that works. i will be using tight vnc over a vpn to access the desktops back at the office and away we go.

Just have to love this stuff it lets you do what you want from where you want.

ysrd

Borg goes to a wedding.

2004-08-06T10:18:00.000-04:00

My neighbour's kid is getting married and because we are so close to them we are up to our ears in it.
The latest thing is the photog called and won't be able to get there so the borg to the rescue. With the latest eye cam and a good connection we will be recording the wedding to disk across the net (as well as using the 35s and hi 8 vid.)
Got to go get film and batteries. I use 35 still because even with my best camera you don't get the clean picture you do with analog.

ysrd

More hardware.

2004-08-02T10:53:00.000-04:00

My freind gave me an old broken lcd screen for a security system.
i am trying to fix it and then see what I can attach it to. I am thinking some sort of display for a robot. it's 12 volt, and stabdard tv signal. (NTSC)
Should be a fun project.

non-bashing MS

2004-07-07T23:59:00.000-04:00

You may have or may not have noticed that i do not bash Microsoft. I am a Linux user but I believe in using the best tool for the job and there are times that is (ahh don't make me say it) Windows.
I use a windows powered Pocket PC for my always at the ready and always in my pocket computer. I also use their compiler and IDE for writing apps for the PPC. I use Java and Linux for development but lately I have been using WebSphere Studio on a Windows 2k box for java dev.
So when I hear that MS is putting out a bunch of free lite versions of their development products I take a look.
I have argued for a long time now that if the basic tools for developing for one platform (ppc) are free why can't a basic set of dev be available for another (desktop Windows) at least for the guy sitting at home about to have the next big idea. If putting the development tools into his hands means your platform is the one the next big thing sits on then your platform can see clear benefits.
So here's what i have so far. The sql server and web page tool are already available. They are cut down free versions of the real thing.
The others (vb.net, c#.net, c++.net, j#.net are all coming soon if not already.
These are for " hobbyists, enthusiasts, and novices"
At the moment they are only in Beta 1 and are free to download but they say you are not licensed to distribute the results.
The web page indicated that in the beta 2 stage there will be some type of license to distribute.
Anytime something is free it is a good thing but with the you can't distribute thing in palce I am suggesting people who have studio to stay with it, if you want to start to learn how to develope then the beta one may be ok for you to try out programming (use the j# to start is what I suggest) and then move to c# and c++
If you alreadt program in VB moving to the express version will leave you wanting.
Another thing I noticed is that they are trying toi keep the sizes down so if you are using an older computer this may be what you need. Only 50 meg HDD space required and the other specs are loose as well.

ysrd

Hard wired vs wireless Borg

2004-07-04T10:25:00.000-04:00

What kind of Borg are you?
I consider myself to be a wireless Borg but I do have to hook up so to speak once in a while to do large data transfers and recharge batteries.
What the heck am I talking about? Well you see as a Borg I have wearable electronics including my Pocket PC, cell phone and medical devices. I wear a tens machine when I need to and have the PPC and cell with me at all times.
I am "connected" able to read my email, surf the web, view information, work on work and all that stuff wirelessly by using the celphone and my pocketPC wirelessly. The two have Bluetooth so they can talk, I have a ton of music on the ppc as well as the other stuff (including the PADD and a rudimentary tricorder.)
All of these machines use batteries, which I have to recharge.

Some people are wired borgs, they have to carry a power supply or be plugged in to communicate. These include the older but still prevalent laptop borgs and people on kidney dialysis.
Don't get me wrong I do have a laptop as well as dektop computer systems but the computer I always carry is my PPC.

How does life as a borg make my life better then the normal non-borg varient human? I use my technology to augment my human tools. I can't think faster by using it but I do have more information to make decisions on. I am able to control the pain from my medical problems. I am able to remeber things I couldn't before (such as people names and phone numbers.)
Soon I will be able to see better with the edition of a heads up display and computer augmentation of what i see.

With the increase in computing power and the ability to connet to my home computer network I can use the collective power of those computers from anywhere I can connect by bluetooth or cell. Life is good.

ysrd

stuff

2004-07-03T20:29:00.000-04:00

here we are sitting, me and my son and we are listening to our fav songs, Thousand foot crutch and SCC.
I spotted a book on my shelf, "The Formal Logic of Emotion". Nathan found his fav book his colouring book from SK.
We are looking at the remains of a robot as well and pondering it's future.
Another fin saturday night.

Another Virus

2004-07-02T20:54:00.000-04:00

After looking at the latest virus code and at the fact it was a triple threat (used an unknown and unpatched hole in IIS two holes in IE, one unknown the other unpatched and was a completely new and undetected Trojan) is it time for people to finally understand that staying with Microsoft is a loosing proposition?
How many people finally got the idea that since IE is the most used it is the most targeted?
The question though is of the 15% of the internet that downloaded Moz or one of it's variants are going to stay with it? And how many will take the plunge and switch to a Mac or Linux?
And will the virus writers move with the people?

I for one think that most people will stay with IE Windows and BG. That will be enough for the virus writers to stay with MS and the rest of us can get on with our lives and making money by fixing the computers of the 95ers.

Another thing, I know I'm from Canada but does that mean that the Microsoft executive emails have to be in French? I don't speak French, I speak C, C++, java, php, VB (and Asp but don't tell anyone), Pascal, Ada and Fortran but not French.

YSRD

Another on-line attack

2004-06-26T10:35:00.000-04:00

Yet again another on-line attack by a group from Russia. This time a triple whammy on the Microsoft front.
It starts with an unknown IIS (The microsoft web server) security hole that allowed the group into a ton of internet sites to add code to the sites web pages. This added code downloads a trojan program onto your machine if you are using Internet Explorer (the Microsoft web browser) and this Trojan is so new none of the virus checkers catch it yet.

So advice people, move away from IIS if you are hosting web pages because this is a zero hour attack on you If you are just someone browsing the web move to a browser that is not based on the Microsoft browser or better yet to a non Microsoft Operating System.

This will not guarantee that in the future you will not be attacked again just that right now the bad guys are only paying attention to the Microsoft world.

ysrd

Day after fest 2k4

2004-06-13T21:08:00.000-04:00

Well it was a blowout, and YSRD is again the world champ.
We had everytool you can think of and all major firewalls and OS combos you can imagine and Every root password of the target servers and all contestants falling to the champ.

the contest is based on the hacker being able to get into the system without getting caught by any honey traps and IDS software and get the holy grail of hacking, the root password. This involves finding and exploiting any hole in the system and then cracking the native mode root or administrator password and ten announcing their ability by changing a file or web page on the server and doing so while the owner is on the machine and possibly seeing you do the damage.
Secondary is protecting your own system while you do this to every other machine on the network. With 6 native servers on the network (the targets) and from 4 to 20 people connected at once trying to do the same thing to you. Winner take all, getting all root passwords is an automatic win.

This year we added wireless and Bluetooth segments to the network and had people using Mac, Intel, Palm and PPC systems. It was a ball and one of the only safe hacking forums left with all contestants and participants signing wavers to allow hack attacks while connected to the network. (All legal and fun.) The main goal is to show that no system is completely secure and to show the participants (mostly 500's employees and administrators) how they can be attacked and to possibly show them how to defend themselves and protect their IP.
Even Ysrd learned a trick or two and everyone went away with something they could apply back at base.

I had a lot of fun as did everyone who attended.
Best newcomer was a 13 year old girl (accompanied but not helped by her dad) and she shows a lot of promise as well as an enthusiasm and focus that many of her older peers could learn from.

Best firewall is a new comer that is not yet released, brought by it's creator in an attempt to stop the champ. Watch for him to incorporate what he learned and make a remarkable firewall that can stop anything thrown at it. Running on a new OS that will be released at the same time keep an eye out for "the Moat(tm)" to be released in early fall.

New Ideas for next year (or earlier if we can get together again) are tunnel and VPN hacking.
Happy hacking but keep your white hats on,

YSRD

Hackfest 2K4

2004-06-10T18:33:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again, and we are setting up the newest and greatest of Windows, Linux and Macintosh firewalls, ids and day after pills to see how fast they will fall, it hackfest 2k4.
Hey isn't this what having your own network is all about?
You thought it was to keep people out of your machine. Hell no, you want to keep someone out you don't connect (that's what we do, all the important stuff is never connected.)

But for the duration of the fest the network will not be connected to the internet to keep prying eyes away from the festivities. Nope we are not even leaving a beacon up if you want in you have to be here by 9:00 am and BYOB.

We have 5 servers up and running on the network already and we are setting up more. Guests are to bring their own computers and cables. Don't bring anything you can't afford to lose guests computers are open targets as are the servers.
Points awarded for speed and finesse; anyone getting all root passwords scores an automatic win. Judges decision final, prizes as always: the admiration and acclaim of the best of the best of your peers.
\\//_ LLAP
.||.

The day after...

2004-06-09T18:08:00.000-04:00

OK you've just got hit by a virus or youv'e been hacked or someone in your company has just deleted all f your files or , well your not sure are you.
Want to be sure?
Today i find on the net a set of tools that can help you answer those questions (and more) and they all come on a single cd that you don't need to install to use. pretty good eh?

Yup another Knoppix disk is out and thids time it's the security tools distribution.

If you have to watch over a file server that might get attacked or if you are a web master or a security firm in the making this is the tools you have been looking for.
There are all kinds of tools from intrusion detection (IDS) to forensic analysis of a dea hard drive.
And it's all Open Source. Right, GPL mostly and free for anyone to use. Yes people can use these tools to cause trouble but if you now how to use them you can stop them and catch them as well. Each set of tools of a given type is grouped together in the directory structure as well as the menu structre in the windo manager.
Very cool layout and every grouped directoy has an RTFM directory so you can learn how to use the tools included.
Well thought out and based on top of one of the best bootable distributions out there it's one tool I will keep in my tool chest.
ysrd

Introducing Malcolm

2004-06-06T12:08:00.000-04:00

We sort of lucked out the other day. We went garage saling last week (not sailing, saling) and I picked up some remote Control toys including Malcolm the robot.
Not much really just a motorized base with remote control and a blow up robot balloon on top, but with the addition of the remote controlled car and other parts we have the ability to create something more.
His moving about is handled quit well with his own wheeled base for what we want to do with him but we will have to add a more useful bot on top with more brains then just hot air. (Some of our foliations are getting by with the latter but this is the real world not politic so the blowup is probably going to go away unless we can make it a bit shorter and add stuff to it.
I am looking TA using an old Pentium 133 as his onboard brains with sometype of wireless networking like bluetooth to connect him to the closest network or even my PAN.
Next thing is to figure out what we want him to do so that we can then program him.
I have a robotic arm here from an old project that I will be adding to him. One arm for now, might leave one of the blowup arms in place as well as the head and pat of the body.

ysrd

2 Borg or not 2 Borg

2004-05-31T19:52:00.000-04:00

Are you a Borg? Do you want to be a Borg? What would becoming a Borg do for you?

We are all to some extent becoming Borg. Some of us more so and faster then others but in they end we will assimilate you.
Some of us depend on our technology to survive, some to keep from getting lost others to keep from getting bored. (Bored, not Borged!)
one of my friends at work who would not consider himself Borg has 2 cell phones a beeper and a PDA. Is he Borg? Maybe not.
I have my PPC, cell (Bluetooth connection both always on) my TENS and my GPS (not yet a Bluetooth model but soon, I will give the old one to a friend when I get the new one.)
Not only that but I am developing my own HUD and will probably convert that to an camera/HUD as soon as I can.
some people have technology but use it little, others of us depend on them. I go camping and take solar chargers for my computer in my drybag.

So what do you have that may or may not make you Borg? Are you?

What not to do after an F1

2004-05-23T23:38:00.000-04:00

I just watched Truely win the Monaco F1 and then left where I was watching it, jumped into a vehicle with 300 HP and this is not a good combination. Smoking tires and sliding corners I decided that running around town at 60+ might attract attention and I pulled it in a bit.
Of course being borg I knew the speed i was going and where i was due to my always there GPS unit. Borg never get lost, we use electronic bread crumbs.
LLAP

My latest computer virus scare

2004-05-23T18:56:00.000-04:00

My sister-in-law got a virus on her computer today. Well it's been there a week or so but I took the time to ID it today. I got to thinking. What if my newly connected computerized life support system (I use wearable medical devices that I have connected together and to my pocket PC to make controlling them easier and well the PPC is wireless to the net all the time) What if they got a computer virus, or a virus that infected my PPC made them go haywire.
Not a pretty sight believe me. I have an antivirus software installed on all my connection points but not on the PPC; not enough mem to put one.
One more thing for a Borg to think about.
LLAP

My Technology

2004-05-22T09:27:00.000-04:00

I am sitting here typing into my computer when I could be just dictating it, except the voice control for computers is just not there yet.
I would like to do this with my pocket PC but it's not even ready to take commands yet.There is the new Voice Command for Pocket PC but with only 128 meg of ram and no hard drive having enough storage space for the software and the tables and pattern analysis software is not going to fit.
On the PC you can do some with Microsofts new voice command SDK. But the recognition rate is lower then the rate on my 10 year old Mac.
For now the part of a borg that listens is still the biological part.

Definition of a Borg.

2004-05-16T08:08:00.000-04:00

Yes you watch Star Trek and you know what a Borg is. Are there any actually living wth us? Not the TV type but there are a ton of people who i consider to be real Borg.
The word Borg is a shortened form of the word cyborg which is a just a person with non-organic parts. These parts must augment the persons life in some way such as a person with a pacemaker is a borg because they have an embedded device that keeps them alive. (If that is not an augmentation of their life them what is?)
I am a borg because of my use of electronic devoces to control pain. I use a tens machine all the time. I also have other devices I use all the time such as my pocket PC and other devices in my Personal Area Network (PAN).
I believe there are a ton of us out there and we need to gather the collective via the internet and hopefully we can do this by using blogs and IM.
\\//_ LLAP
.||.

Welcome

2004-05-16T08:05:00.000-04:00

Hi,
I am in the process of moving my blog here from another site.
I am not moving all of the posts here but will start fresh and hopefully I can get a better more mature audience here.