truetech

From BBC News: David Aucsmith is Microsoft’s security architect, and he came to London this week to ask forgiveness for his company’s former sins. Speaking to an audience of senior police officers and security professionals at the E-Crime Congress, he admitted that when Windows 95 was released to the world it came with no security features at all.

This really pisses me off.

Don’t misunderstand: it doesn’t surprise me that Windows 95 shipped without security. It’s fact of which I am painfully aware. I am slightly surprised that Microsoft admits this, although it fits well with their “Everything we made before is crap; buy our new stuff cuz it’s great!” marketing machine.

What pisses me off is how much time and energy I spent trying to secure Windows 95 for years. Why did I spend so much time? Because I had Windows 95 deployed in four high school computer labs. They need security; otherwise some punk kid will trash the machine for kicks. (No, I’m not saying all kids are bad; I’m saying there are some who are. I know this because I’ve had to deal with their aftermath.)

We installed third party software. We worked with user, group, and machine policies. Nothing worked. We were utterly unable to secure the machines in the end.

And now Microsoft says, “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. We didn’t really have any security measures in place back then. But you should try our new stuff, because we’re taking it seriously now.”

Riddle me this, Microsoft: WHY SHOULD I TRUST YOU NOW?

Well, here it is. Our first full GarageBand creation. This is a re-recording of an old Anonymous Joe song called “It Happens All The Time”, which first appeared on our self-produced album, Strange Days, in 1997, and was later re-recorded for WJTL’s Unite CD in 1998. I did the vocals and acoustic guitar, Jen did the bass. All the rest is loops and samples. I hope you enjoy listening to it. I’d appreciate any feedback you’d like to provide.

Click here to listen to “It Happens All The Time” in MP3 format. It’s a 4.5 MB download, so if you’re on dial-up, please be patient.

It Happens All The Time

Somebody asked me once,
“How do you know that everything is gonna turn out fine?”
I told him I don’t know
I just believe and it happens all the time
And it’s just like I told a friend of mine
It happens all the time

Someone said I was wrong
He said, “Do you want you want to do but leave me out”
I looked him in the eye
And said, “You don’t even know what I’m about”
And it’s just like I told a friend of mine
It happens all the time

It happens all the time
I say everything but they just don’t see
They don’t know what’s on my mind
But they don’t see me on my knees
And it’s just like I told a friend of mine
It happens all the time

One day I shut my mouth
And kept it shut and everybody looked at me and said
“He finally gave it up.”
But I can’t have that on my head

It happens all the time
I say everything but they just don’t see
They don’t know what’s on my mind
But they don’t see me on my knees
And it’s just like I told a friend of mine
It happens all the time
It happens all the time

Apparently I am 65% Dixie, which is a definitive Southern score.

How do you rate, y’all?

Frequency 1.6 is out. Enjoy!

Let me know what you think!

No animal should ever jump up on the dining-room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation.
-Fran Lebowitz

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.
-Anonymous

Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
-Ann Landers

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
-Will Rogers

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.
-Ben Williams

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.
-Josh Billings

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.
-Andrew A. Rooney

We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It’s the best deal man has ever made.
-M. Acklam

Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate.
-Sigmund Freud

I wonder what goes through his mind when he sees us peeing in his water bowl.
-Penny Ward Moser

I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.
-Rita Rudner

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.
-Robert Benchley

Dogs need to sniff the ground; it’s how they keep abreast of current events. The ground is a giant dog newspaper, containing all kinds of late-breaking dog news items, which, if they are especially urgent, are often continued in the next yard.
-Dave Barry

Anybody who doesn’t know what soap tastes like never washed a dog.
-Franklin P. Jones

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
-James Thurber

If your dog is fat, you aren’t getting enough exercise.
-Unknown

My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to $3.00 a can. That’s almost $21.00 in dog money.
- Joe Weinstein

Ever consider what they must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul — chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we’re the greatest hunters on earth!
-Anne Tyler

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
-Robert A. Heinlein

Outside of a dog, a book is probably man’s best friend; inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.
-Groucho Marx

Thanks to Dave for the quotes.

Sometimes, you see something that just seems so totally and completely unnecessary.

This is one of those things. The other day in the mail, I received an offer to sign up for a Linux credit card.

I will be the first to admit that I use a General Motors MasterCard. That card, however, has saved me somewhere in the neighborhood of two thousand dollars on vehicle purchases. I doubt that the Linux MasterCard will save me money on my next Linux purchase. I mean, it’s open source; do the math.

To be honest, I don’t what other benefits or rewards this card may offer. I laughed and threw it away. It just seemed so self-consciously techno-hip.

Besides, the letter said, “Dear Linux Supporter” in the salutation. I have no problems with Linux (aside from some usability issues), but I don’t know that I’d label myself a Linux supporter. At one time, I really wanted to dig into Linux, but then Mac OS X came out, and I haven’t had much interest since.

Following the recent wake of cheaters, someone has discovered a reusable key that you can use to download as many free songs from iTunes as you want.

That’s right, folks. The algorithm has been cracked and the store is wide open.

Here’s the code:
8UYM0R30V4L71N3

Leave a comment if you caught the reference.

I know I said I wasn’t going to talk about Frequency much on this site anymore, but… oh, well.

I nailed it!

I fixed the stupid frickin’ bug.

In Frequency 1.6 for Windows, when you went to edit a post, it would come back with no line breaks. Really quite annoying.

Took me the longest time to figure it out. I wanted to release it weeks ago, but I just couldn’t figure out this bug, and it was too big to let it go.

But now it’s fixed. So I’ll wrap up the docs and ship it out Tuesday.

Why Tuesday and not Monday?

I don’t know. I just have a good feeling about Tuesday.

Besides, Monday will be my sixth anniversary at Etown. I started on February 23, 1998. That was a Monday, too.

Six years. Ugh.

Please join me in welcoming Josh to truetech.org. His new weblog can be found here.

Disclaimer: I bear no responsibility for anything he might say or do.

The iTrip, inexplicably, is working this morning.

Last night, the little red light would come on, but it utterly failed to broadcast.

And if you shook it, it made a jingly kind of sound.

This morning, it doesn’t make noise when you shake it.

But it does broadcast to my car radio again.