Last week marked the original official deadline for the Digital Television Transition, after which analog television broadcasts would be terminated. (The official deadline was recently extended to June 12, 2009.) To ease the transition, the US government launched the TV Converter Box Coupon Program, which “allows U.S. households to obtain up to two coupons, each [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Economics, Security on Feb 17th, 2009
One midsummer night in 1977, the power went out in New York City. “Thousands of people took to the streets and smashed store windows looking for TVs, furniture, or clothing… The police made 3,776 arrests, although…many thousands escaped before being caught. 1,037 fires burned throughout the City…” (Blackout History Project) The troublemakers weren’t faceless terrorists [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Security, Technology on Feb 9th, 2009
Walking through the Minneapolis airport, a friend and I came across something… not right. Apparently, the “New and Improved” Internet Access GateStation kiosk had rebooted, and hung with the BIOS displayed. We laughed and walked closer to get a good look. Interesting. It was configured to boot off a USB floppy drive. There couldn’t be [...]
Read Full Post »
Credit bureaus and credit card companies have direct control over the risk of identity theft. They control the systems for granting and rescinding credit, including fundamental mediums for communication and related security features. Oddly, that doesn’t stop them from trying to profit when things go wrong. Credit companies strongly push their identity theft “protection” services, [...]
Read Full Post »
