Cus Productions

I loved a concept outlined within this article of President Roosevelt encouraging people to join in with him in discussing what was going on in the Pacific:

In February 1942, Roosevelt urged Americans to spread out a map during his radio “fireside chat” so that they might better understand the geography of battle. In stores throughout the country, maps sold out; about 80 percent of American adults tuned in to hear the president.

Could you picture any country’s leader doing that today? It’s easy for them to say “Leave it to us, we know what we’re doing”, but sometimes explaining why something went wrong and letting people feel involved lets them feel a part of the process. But maybe nowadays letting people feel involved is the last thing that world leaders want.

On a related note: Little Mia will be getting a world map in her bedroom. It can often be difficult using something like Google Earth to comprehend distances involved. Sometimes getting a good old fashioned picture of the world can help you see just how far away something is

Looks like it can happen to anyone. Omar Shahine, the Lead Program Manager of Hotmail got his account hacked. Normally I’d blame user ignorance of open hotspots that can be sniffed. However, he rang up his colleagues in Microsoft, got his account reset, then 10 minutes later while being on the same computer he lost his account again.

Just goes to show – don’t trust the cloud for storing all your data thinking it’ll always be there. Backup often, always use https for accessing your accounts (not just for logging in, either), don’t trust public PCs.

In response to the BBC article on the Government Green Paper on illegal file sharers facing a net blackout, Matt Mason reveals 5 Reasons Why Illegal Downloaders Will Not Face a UK Ban. It’s a thoughtful piece and ties in nicely with his book “The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism“

Stephen Fry wrote an interesting article in ‘Dork Talk’ in the Guardian newspaper which he has mirrored on his blog: “Deliver Us From Microsoft” where he expounds the virtues of the Asus Eee PC. Mine’s on order already, but it’s good to know that such technology is being more and more noticed in the mainstream.

An Open Operating System with office software and full internet experience for £200? Nice. The capabilities should allow me to keep all my oft-used pen-testing gear on it as well, and while it may not have the typical features I need in a wifi card (prism chipset and external aerial) I can soon expand that with an external USB port, including WIFI-Spy for good measure for 2.4GHz  diagnostics.