Hoorah for smart people!

SMRT People

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On Sunday, March 2 at 7:20 p.m., computer systems personnel at UT Austin discovered a computer malfunction. The affected computer system was immediately shut down, and detailed analysis was begun.

What happened?

The malfunction was assessed to be the result of a deliberate attack from the Internet. Subsequent analysis revealed that a security weakness in an administrative data reporting system was exploited by writing a program to input millions of Social Security numbers. Those SSNs that matched selected individuals in a UT database were captured, together with e-mail address, title, department name, department address, department phone number, and names/dates of employee training programs attended. It is important to note that no student grade or academic records, or personal health or insurance information was disclosed.

...

How many individual records were exposed?

Approximately 55,200 individuals had some of the above data exposed. This group includes current and former students, current and former faculty and staff, and job applicants.

Data Theft and Identity Protection

] It's not that I'm bitter. Oh alright then, I am. When I
] was doing a weekly round-up of interesting web links in
] 1996 (still the top search result for the phrase "GLR
] jokes", if you'd like to check), I found myself using
] something very similar to what experts now call the
] weblog format. And was I hailed as the pioneer of a brave
] new form of distributed grassroots journalism? No, I was
] not.
]
] I was regarded - quite rightly, as it turned out - as
] some sort of nut who re-used the same HTML to update his
] home page every now and again. Don't get me wrong: I'm a
] huge fan of fanzines, home pages, and the whole
] do-it-yourself attitude. But because publishing one of
] these usually requires some element of effort, sometimes
] that's reflected in their contents.
]
] On the other hand, it's getting so easy to update a
] weblog that some users seem to type in their thoughts
] willy-nilly, posting unimaginable banalities, like a
] nation of Alan Partridges trying to fill an internet's
] worth of dead air: CDs they're listening to,
] scintillating accounts of their day at work, URLs of
] sites they feel they should acknowledge, despite having
] nothing new to say about them. It is like one of those
] terrible Christmas family newsletters for every single
] day of the year.

I love the conclusion of this article. It's so true:
"People used to worry about the government compiling a database of everything they knew about you and everything you did. But who'd have thought we'd be so keen to keep updating our own entries?"

Guardian Unlimited | Online | A blogger is a stalker's dream

"[It's] just like having drugs," said Al-Shalchi of his dependence on e-mail and Web access.

Despite not even getting access to the internet until 2000, their geeks are just as addicted to a "net fix" as we are. Interesting article on the current state of connectivity in Iraq and the seemingly ludicrous idea that they could wage a cyber-war against us.

Unleashing the dogs of cyber-war on Iraq!

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

HootersAir - We loves us some flying, and it be showing like a mofo

] The CDC is still analysing the bacteria responsible for
] these outbreaks. But Bancroft says initial tests show the
] same strain is responsible for all the outbreaks in Los
] Angeles, and that it appears to be the same as a strain
] first isolated in New York in 1997. It may be more
] virulent because it has a gene called PVL, which codes
] for a potent toxin.

More info on the Superbug

New Scientist - Superbug strain hits the healthy

] 06/06/02 Here is my first case mod. It was inspired by
] the design of Clive Barker's Puzzle Box from the
] HellRaiser movies. I've changed it a bit because although
] I think the design is beautiful, I'm not comfortable with
] all that evil stuff.
]
] It is a Pentium III 1 Gig Machine with 512 Meg Ram and a
] 24x CD Burner. I'm running Windows 2000.
]
] I've included a Corona bottle to give an indication of
] scale. Each panel is 10 inches square.
]
] I've added captions so you could know what my process
] was..

coolest case mod i've ever seen

Projects

] Tokyo--Toshiba Corporation today announced the
] world%u2019s first prototype of a small form factor
] direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) for portable PCs, a
] clean energy breakthrough with the potential to end
] reliance on rechargeable batteries. The new fuel cell
] currently realizes average output of 12W and maximum
] output of 20W, and can achieve approximately five hours
] of operation with a single cartridge of fuel. It provides
] instant power supply, and achieves significant advances
] in operating times with replaceable methanol cartridges.

Toshiba : Press Releases 5 March, 2003

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I am the coolest stud at MIT. I hacked an old-school telephone handset on my cell phone. Now I walk around Cambridge MA, looking like a phat pimp!

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Why I'm the Coolest Stud at MIT

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 4, 2001; Page A01

TEHRAN -- Arash Fahimi is a teenager in a nation that frowns on dating, outlaws rock music and offers a 17-year-old almost no chance for travel beyond its borders.

But Fahimi, like hundreds of thousands of young Iranians, has discovered an escape from his cultural cocoon. Sitting at a computer terminal in an Internet cafe, he downloads the latest Western pop music hits and chats daily with cyber-acquaintances around the globe. He even found a girlfriend on the Internet.

"I want to have a better idea of what the world is like," said Fahimi, earphones clamped under a Nike baseball cap and fingers tapping out a chat room response on his screen. "If I can't make a trip abroad, the Internet is the best way."

washingtonpost.com: Cybermania Takes Iran by Surprise