Middle America's Worldview

Started up in Tulsa around 6 a.m. Watched Kel do the 5K. I attempted the 1K with the kids. Drove home, no time for a nap. Unloaded, and enjoyed some time with the family. Then off to the airport.

Now I am in PA. It was an interesting flight in.

I arrived at the nearby airport (early as usual). The ticket lady asked if she can help. I said I had a flight through Dallas to PA. She named me right off the bat.

Uh, yeah, how did you know it was me.

I was the only paying customer on the flight. Yeah. I was it. Crazy. So from Arkansas to Dallas, Texas I had a quite ride.

Yet from Dallas to Philly, I (among others) got to hear the screaming kid in the back.

I arrived in Philly and waited for the rental driver to pick me up. Fortunately, it wasn't a hassle to get a car and on my way to King of Prussia. So at 2 a.m. I made it to the hotel safe.

Now in 3 hours, we should have those servers upgraded. Then I can sleep for awhile.

Very interesting.

The U.S. may have captured one of the most important terrorism suspects yet -- a mother of three with a degree from one of the top universities in the nation, and ties to al Qaeda.

Until her capture last month in Afghanistan, Aafia Siddiqui was the only woman on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. She is believed to be a top agent of al Qaeda.

"We've been looking for her for a long time, and we knew she's been involved in a variety of nefarious activities," former CIA officer John Kiriakou explained.

Siddiqui was a neuroscientist, schooled in America at MIT before her return to Pakistan.

Her captors found on her information on chemical, biological and radioactive weapons. She was also carrying maps of New York City and its subway system, Times Square and the Statue of Liberty, as well as the nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center, home to many lethal pathogens.

"They found someone who is highly educated, who's very capable and who's willing to do the research," Kiriakou said.

The FBI said Siddiqui also possessed a computer thumb-drive storage device loaded with emails to potential terrorists. They hope it's a roadmap to terror plots in the works.

Siddiqui is now in custody in New York City, where friends and family have been protesting her innocence.

She's charged with trying to shoot the agents and soldiers who captured her, a fight in which she was shot.

The FBI is now trying to track down some of Siddiqui's classmates from MIT.

CBN News Terror Analyst, Erick Stakelbeck, says it's very significant that she was educated in the U.S.

"This is exactly what al-Qaeda wants. They want to place operatives in the U.S. who are westernized, who are fluent in English," he said. "Aafia Siddiqui fits both of those qualifications. And not only that, she's very, very intelligent."

Enterprise Security has an interesting article relating to modern day hacks. Long is the day for a simple phone call asking for a password into the mainframe.

I have taken some of the article below with comments, but it is a good read.

Want to break into the computer network in an ultra-secure building? Ship a hacked iPhone there to a nonexistent employee and hope the device sits in the mailroom, scanning for nearby wireless connections.

How about stealing someone's computer passwords? Forget trying to fool the person into downloading a malicious program that logs keystrokes. A tiny microphone hidden near the keyboard could do the same thing, since each keystroke emits slightly different sounds that can be used to reconstruct the words the target is typing.

A similiar tact was shown on a MI5 show. The target was given cuff links as a gift. They had a small mic within that allowed this same technique.

Hackers at the DefCon conference here were demonstrating these and other novel techniques for infiltrating facilities Friday.

Their talks served as a reminder of the danger of physical attacks as a way to breach hard-to-crack computer networks. It's an area once defined by Dumpster diving and crude social-engineering ruses, like phony phone calls, that are probably easier to detect or avoid.

As technology gets cheaper and more powerful, from cell phones that act as personal computers to minuscule digital bugging devices, it's enabling a new wave of clever attacks that, if pulled off properly, can be as effective and less risky for thieves than traditional computer-intrusion tactics.

Moore's law has already proven this, time and time again.

Consider Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a gadget whose processing horsepower and cellular and wireless Internet connections make it an ideal double agent.

Robert Graham and David Maynor, co-founders of Atlanta-based Errata Security, showed off an experiment in which they modified an iPhone and sent it to a client company that wanted to test the security of its internal wireless network.

Graham and Maynor programmed the phone to check in with their computers over the cellular network. Once inside the target company and connected, a program they had written scanned the wireless network for security holes.

They didn't find any, but the exercise demonstrated an inexpensive way to perform penetration testing and the danger of unexpected devices being used in attacks. If they had found an unsecured router in their canvassing, they likely would have been able to waltz inside the corporate network to steal data.

To keep the phone running, the researchers latched on an extended-life battery that lasts days on end. But they only really need a few minutes inside a building to test the network's security.

Ingenious.

Eric Schmiedl, a lock-picking expert and undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, outlined several surveillance methods long used by government intelligence agents that have become more accessible to garden-variety criminals because of the falling price of the technologies.

Gotta love it.

After hearing about how important work is, I was given the OK to provide a Fall Co-op class! I had been wanting to provide some form of computer class to the kids, but the Co-op always fell during the day, where I was unable to. However, this year, I had some vacation time I could use. So I am taking 1/2 days for those Thursdays, during Co-op. I will give two classes, easy / not so easy regarding computers/internet ect.

Now that I have the go ahead, I can move forward with the planning. I am a bit excited and there really seems an interest in this group for such a class. It will be only for 6 weeks. Now the work begins.

I thought this was rather interesting. As ACLU constantly mis-reminds us the interpretation of church/state, buisiness's are moving toward appeasement of religious holidays. I know, I know, government and buisiness are different. Yet, I couldn't help raising my eyebrows on this one.

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. - Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be given the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr as a holiday.

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate the hundreds of Somali Muslims who work at the plant .

Eid al-Fitr — which falls on Oct. 1 this year — marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Union leaders say implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.

The Shelbyville Times-Gazette newspaper quotes union spokesman Randy Hadley as saying the negotiating team felt this change was "extremely crucial, since this holiday is as important to Muslims as Christmas is to Christians."

The newspaper also quotes the union as saying two prayer rooms have been created at the Shelbyville Tyson Foods' plant " to allow Muslim workers to pray twice a day and return to work without leaving the plant."

Source

Yawn. I didn't want to get up this morning or yesterday morning for that matter. For some reason, with the kids and wife home, I become lazy. I seem to not be able to focus as much nor do I get anything accomplish around the house.

Perhaps it's due to me being more relaxed and comfortable knowing their safe at home.
I like to think that anyway.

I was checking out my new feedjit on my blog to see where some viewers are at. Then checking out Google maps, out of curiosity. Understanding the pictures are old (from Google), I am still amazed of the detail you can see.


Below two pics are Ottawa, Ontario.




This is about as close as I can get to the streets of Ottawa, Ontario.



Below two pics are Fort Smith, Arkansas.



I can get it this close, viewing some cars.



Seems, many have already started to incorporate this map utility.


Google maps with Geocaching
Web-Based Epidemiological Reporting System

I would think using the Google Map API in your projects would be pretty much limited to only your imagination.

My family returns tomorrow and I am glad for it. The wife and kids been gone all week, as of last Friday.

The time away, allowed me to get some home projects done, as well as catch up on some guy movies. Yet, I am glad to see them returning.

I guess the most difficult of the home projects was actually the weatherstripping in the door. Seems, I could never find the exact same fit as the builders of the home. I managed to rig something up, but that little gem took 3 trips.

The one project I kept putting off was redoing the cement rings around the trees. I don't mind yardwork, but when its still 90 degrees after 9 p.m., its a bit of a pain. I mowed our yard before work the other morning around 6:30 a.m., just to hit it before the heat was up. It's been ranging anywhere from 101 to 107, not counting the index around here lately.

All in all, I managed to do the most of the list with some additional items I had not originally planned for. So, I hope the family will be satisfied.

I had heard a special fox report regarding "honor killing in America". I have it recorded, but haven't watched it yet.

Stop the ACLU has the special on their website. You can see it here.

Of course we are speaking of the Muslim faith, regarding Honor Killings. I noticed the commercial I seen for it, didn't mention the religion, rather the killings.


Of course, this is nothing new in other countries. Yet, we are shocked in America. Why? Because some muslims are willing to be acclimated in our country, others are not.

Since the family is away, I been getting some things done around the house.
I've already managed to get half of my honey-do list done, and a couple of extra things I wanted to do.

I finished off the remaining 5 lb hotwings tonight. My dad has invited me to dinner tomorrow night. I plan to go over there. It will be a nice change. I think he was really surprised I said yes.

I've been watching the first season of Lost. I never seen it, and now see why the show was such a hit.

I miss my kids and wife, but glad to get some things done here.

This evening, my evening runs became this.

1) Return weather strips to a store
2) Grabbed some duct tape, reusable unit filter for the house
3) Ran to the alarm systems to pick up a new battery (from our 2 a.m call)
4) Ran to mother-in-laws work to pick up item
5) Run to bank to cash a check from the weekend
6) Run back home to finish my hot wings

I was able to put in the new filter and replace that battery tonight.

This is pretty staggering, or is it? It is estimated 8.5-9 billion web pages on the Internet now, indexed only. Index means what Yahoo and Google has in their database to search, not necessarily the number that exist. There is probably never going to be a true idea of existing sites as it changes per minutes.

Taking that in perspective, does this news seem so staggering?

"EVERY five seconds, a website falls prey to hackers and gets infected with malicious software. This puts visiting
surfers at risk of having their computer systems infected.

That startling figure is from a recently published report by IT security and control firm Sophos.

The half-yearly report, which was released last Thursday, documents the latest trends and figures on Internet security and cyber-crime within the first six months of this year.

According to Sophos, an average of 16,173 malicious webpages are discovered each day, and a whopping "90 per cent of these webpages are legitimate sites which have been hacked".

Surprisingly, these sites are prominent and esteemed ones.

The website of Cambridge University Press was hacked in April, and the website belonging to the Association of Tennis Professionals a month later. According to the report, even government agencies are not spared."

Full article here

Another awesome movie, called "The Kingdom".



I was able to watch this yesterdsy, simply awesome. The last 30 minutes was simply full of action and awesome! From start to finish action and drama.

Synopsis:
"When a deadly bombing attack targets Americans in the Middle East, a counterterrorism squad is dispatched to find the culprits. Once they arrive in the desert, the U.S. agents (an ensemble that includes Jamie Foxx as the group's leader) learn that in these parts, they are the true enemy. With their investigation hampered by local bureaucracy, the team realizes they may be the terrorists' next target. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman also star."

Talk about a cool movie! I watched it last night, while alone and it was a great guy flick.



Premis:
"Based on a true 1971 event, this thriller tells the story of Terry (Jason Statham), a car dealer who becomes involved in a London bank heist only to find that the contents of the bank vault will draw him deeply and irrevocably into the city's criminal underbelly. Murder and scandal abound in this tale of corruption populated with a surprising mix of offenders, from low-level thugs to government officials and all the way up to the royal family."

It has MI5,some nudity, drama, intrique and just all around great movie.

I realize Miley C. is on a bad train leading to the pits with her actions. However, I am more interested in the hack of her Gmail.

After getting to bed nearly 11 p.m., I was awaken by a siren going off in the house.
Man, was it loud. I jumped out of bed and did a dash like I was 18 again to the alarm system. I am not sure I even opened my eyes. If there was a robber, I would had sacked him like a freight train trying to get to that system.
After about 5 tries, I finally shut it off. The wife was asking "what the h###". I checked the doors, ect. and all were still locked up tight. Better call the alarm people to ensure I don't need the cops. Although, that would had made for some interesting conversation for the neighborhood.
So I called them and they asked what does the screen on the system show. The lady on the phone didn't realize it took me 4 minutes to find the right keys on the phone through my blurry eyes.

I checked the screen and it mentioned "low battery". This thing has a battery?
Evidently it does. It must use the battery, when the electric is out. Obviously, that's not the case. I wonder if those Cable guys screwed something up the other day?
So when there is light outside and I have more than 3 hours sleep, I will be crawling in the attic to check/replace the battery. Then do an alarm test. (at this point I am suspecting she didn't even know our alarm went off)

During all this drama, the kids remained asleep or non-moving. How they can manage, I have no idea. Even the dog was spinning like a top during that world war 2 siren.

I just read a very interesting article regarding the new step for internet users.
full article here.

It uses GovTrack.us as the example.

A full implemented website that harnesses all the current tech on the net.

Think of the site Tauberer has created as a virtual news fetcher, bringing all the relevant info right to your PC. No more need to surf around the Internet or plow through wordy government sites. It all comes to one spot, his Web site.

Such Web-service sites are just starting to catch on, thanks to technologies such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML), which is sort of a lingua franca for Net programmers, and Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, which make it possible for sites to easily share data. It's not a stretch to say they could revolutionize the way content is delivered.

This is what I been waiting for. It will remove the need for searching, to a great extent. Rather going out there looking all the time, you can bring the subject to you.

Other sites hope to use Web services to grab a chunk of the classifieds market. In March, LinkedIn.com, a social-networking site for 1.8 million professionals, will begin using a Web service to collect job ads from all over the Internet on its site.

Through the site's social network, a LinkedIn.com customer interested in a listing will be able to find out if the recruiter is a friend of a friend, and if so, get a referral, says Konstantin Guericke, LinkedIn.com's vice-president for marketing. LinkedIn.com is working out an agreement with sites like Feedster.com to post their jobs data.

It's only the early days of information Web services, of course. But the potential is huge. Consider this: Just 10 years ago, businesses were tiptoeing to the Web, trying to figure out if they could make money on it.

Today, the question isn't "if?" It's "how much?" Ten years from now, savvy business folks will be asking the same of informational Web services.

Awesome. Now we need the information to create our own personal "All in one' sites to really get going.

I am on the edge of like/dislike. The acting, action is great. The special effects were phenomenal. However, the message of the movie was bleak.




I understand they wanted to convey the horrible tragedy going on in Burma. This is akin to Darfur. Freaking Genocide. Yet, it would had been nice to see one lost soul saved by the christian group.

Over the past week (more like 2), I been delving into the online tutorials, book on PHP/MYSQL.

Ideally, I want to be able to pull the information from a database, and have it viewed on a configured, concise layout, via the web. This would allow me to simply update the database, and not to have to re-configure the webpage so much.

The hardest thing is getting the construction down. I am getting close in the understanding, but man it's time consuming.

The way I normally work, is take a existing working project. Unravel it to see how it works, then try to apply those same means in my own desired format.

I already pulled some scripts down from the net and going through them. I already have a PHP/MYSQL book I bought for reference. Yet, there is nothing the same as writing and testing your own code.

Currently Resource for the Christian is using an existing script/sql I had found. Yet, I want to do more with it, rather than being a hack.

I have another free site I am using to simply test out on.

I keep saying the mantra in my head, "Once you get the basics down, you can do anything with it". I truly believe this. I am just working on getting that initial "aha" to come through.

I have to give a shout-out and say, I am really proud of my wife. She has continued to run after her first 5K. She really seems be loving this.

This morning she did 5 miles. I find that to be estoric. So a shout-out to my wife to say way to go!

Yesterday marked my 13 years of marriage. Looking back at the old pictures, we were just kids. The best gift I received? A wonderful full year with my wife of course.


Yesterday, during a work break, I figured I would walk with the kids. Our area is made out, where if you walked from end to end 3.5 times, it equals out to a mile. My kids been doing this with my wife for some time now, but me, not so much. My daughter said, "lets run to the end". Sure, why not. By the time I was at the stop sign (1/2 way), my heart was screaming 'what the hell'.

I kidded with my daughter (after I regained my breathe and composure), my heart was asking me 'why are we running, is there a twinkie down there?' She thought it was hillarous. But in the end, I managed to walk the remaining mile.


Last night, the homeschool group had the water park to themselves. Needless to say, I played like a kid. Rather, I tried to keep up with mine. They had some neat slides we had to go down way more than once. However, you had to walk up bloody four stories to the top. The first 2-3 times were not bad, after the eight time up, I was not only feeling it, I was getting slower. My son the ever energizer bunny kept baiting me "Comeon slowpoke, old man". Sigh, I was feeling it. I am feeling it more this morning.

Irregardless, I think we all had fun.

So, with all the physical exertion I am not used to, I am feeling it this morning.

Not as young as I use to be