This is my blogchalk:
United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

Subscribe to this blog in Radio:

Monday, July 19, 2004

Monkey See, Yanqui Know   Newsweek July 26 issue - Baghdad's streets are as mean as any in the world, and since Ayad Allawi took office, the stories people tell in them are even meaner. Soon after he became prime minister of the interim government last month, many Iraqis whisper, he ordered two suspected insurgents shot in front of him. Or, goes another account, he shot seven captive terrorists himself, one after another. Or he personally chopped off the hand of a suspect with an ax.   Vaguely reminiscent of that recently-deposed Saddam fellah but, truthfully, if you come from a very rich family with oil and CIA connections, you can pretty well do as you damned well please these days.   Next up: Iran.   Hey, Rube, do you suppose them cantankerous Iranians might have fearsome weapons of mass destruction up their sleeve, and maybe even some nasty guy in charge whose PR image can be conveniently Murdoch-molded into yet another modern day Hitler?   I bet they do! Isn't this fun! It's Foreign Policy 101.   6:19:08 PM    comment []

Fear II   If you’re not afraid of Windows XP SP2 due out next month, you should be. It’s gonna seal all the holes in your “always on” home network via DSL or cable modem through a router, but it will also disable file and print sharing. Then you will take a school of hard knocks lesson in networking protocols. More likely, you will just turn off the (enabled by default) built-in firewall. Then when someone hacks your computer, you have only yourself to blame as Bill Gates builds a bulletproof firewall over his butt. Quick! Do you know what ports 137, 138, and 139 are doing on your computer? Of course not, what’s that got to do with Google? Soon you will know, I guarantee. How about port 445?   Update 07/21/2004: Wrong again! File and Printer sharing will not be disabled by default by SP2. The little I've learned about the ports used for this still have convinced me to shut them off and use another protocol for these services on my home network. Leaving them open makes your computer(s) too vulnerable to malicious attacks. 6:01:19 PM    comment []