Joe's Random Ramblings

I've just read through the September 2008 issue of Scientific American, which was a special issue on privacy.
Among other articles, they printed the discussion of an industry panel on online security.
One of the participants was Steven Lipner, Senior director of security engineering strategy at Microsoft. On the topic of education or design he had this to say:

We need to take the burden of sophisticated education off the end user and get to the point where the technology is just helping the user be secure and you?re not imposing pop-up fatigue on users, because it?s counterproductive.

No sh*t, sherlock...
And when can we expect that great insight in actual Microsoft products
Vista definitely didn't follow this insight. Indeed, Vista's UAC system is proof positive of Mr. Lipner's insight. It is so annoying that people switch it off, with the result of Vista being less secure than XP.

John McCain, the current Republican US Presidential candidate, and strong supporter of the DMCA, obviously never thought he would be on the receiving end of DMCA complaints.
He was one of the Senators who voted for the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and thought it was a good thing.
Now his campaign videos are pulled left and right from YouTube, for copyright violations, no less

So, like every two-bit politician, he wants an exception for politicians...
Maybe he should have thought about this before voting for this flawed law.
Here's a suggestion to him: introduce a bill that would revoke the DMCA

The Register has an article about a TSA Baggage screener stealing expensive items from passenger baggage.

Investigators searching Brown's home recovered 66 cameras, 31 laptops, 20 cell phones, 17 electronic games, 13 pieces of jewelry, 12 global positioning systems, 11 MP3 players, eight camera lenses, six video cameras, and two DVD players.

No wonder TSA is mistrusted by everybody. The next President really should fire every single one of the TSA employees and shut this miserable excuse for security down. We need real security, not the make-believe that TSA presents. Everybody who knows about security laughs about idiocy like x-raying shoes.
And they still haven't fixed their website. It seems they don't have any competent webmaster, either.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/09/30/heres-the-problem-with-the-sun/
I needed the laugh.

Now getting thirsty

The title phrase comes from a commentary by the prominent conservative columnist Kathleen Parker.
She calls Palin "out of her league":

Palin?s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

There is nothing to add. I think this election is going to end up as a bloodbath for the Republicans. And it is all of their own making, including the financial meltdown.