I see dumb people
I really got a kick out of the Editor’s Letter in the front of the 7/17 issue of InfoWorld. It’s about using social engineering instead of hacking to break into computer systems. Apparently it’s far easier to con your way in than break your way in. The founder of a computer security company is profiled and he talks about a recent security audit for a client. Check this out…
As part of a security audit for a credit union, one member of his team wrote a Trojan that would collect passwords and other data and e-mail them back to SNT. The team installed the Trojan on 20 USB thumb drives and scattered them around the credit union parking lot early one morning. Soon enough, folks picked them up, plugged them in, and the passwords came rolling in. It was a trivial matter to trawl the client’s network and get other confidential data.
Is that just crazy or what? I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. Curiosity kills more than cats.
Sphere: Related ContentMoving down in the world?
I just realized last night that Port Orchard, WA, is smaller than Balaka, Malawi (my Peace Corps post). Only about half the size of Balaka actually. Maybe it’s just me, but I find that really funny. Here’s a list with populations of most of the cities that Karin and/or I have lived in (largest to smallest):
- Nairobi, Kenya – 2,500,000 (2001 est.)
- Philadelphia, PA – 1,463,281 (2005)
- Columbus, OH – 730,657 (2005)
- Seattle, WA – 578,800 (2006)
- Washington, DC – 563,384 (2003)
- Glendale, AZ – 218,812 (2000)
- Peoria, AZ – 123,239 (2002)
- Surprise, AZ – 75,000 (2004 est.)
- Yakima, WA – 71,845 (2000)
- Des Moines, WA – 29,267 (2000)
- Balaka, Malawi – 14,298 (1998)
- Port Orchard, WA – 7,693 (2000)
And I don’t have to remind any of you that the metropolitan areas of Philadelphia, Columbus, Seattle, Phoenix, and Washington, DC, extend far beyond the borders of their respective cities. So as you can see, aside from my Peace Corps days, we are not at all accustomed to small town living. This should be quite an adventure. At least Seattle will be a short ferry ride away…
Sphere: Related ContentAn overdue, but very happy update
So what good is a fast, new theme if I never write anything? What is the sound of one hand clapping? Do you walk to school or carry your lunch? There are many unanswered questions in the world…
What I can say for sure is that we are now in contract with a buyer for our house! The inspection was yesterday and we’ve reached an agreement that is agreeable to both sides. The closing should take place in mid-August. This is a huge load off our shoulders and really gives us the green light to start looking ahead to our cross-country odyssey and gettting settled out in Port Orchard. Looks like our departure date will be August 2nd. More soon as the plans are made.
Sphere: Related ContentAlimadzi now built for speed
Yes, I’ve changed the theme of this site again. Since I started using Google Analytics, I’ve noticed a surprising number of international visitors to my blog from places such as Saudi Arabia, India, Singapore, Peru, Russia, and all over Europe.
My first thought was how great that was, but my second thought was how my current theme (Lush) was slow as molasses. I ran a speed report on my homepage and found that the total size was a dialup-killing 280KB!! So I switched to a nice lightweight theme called Blue Moon and chopped my page weight down to a measly 27KB. People browsing Alimadzi now will be consuming about 9% of the previous bandwidth required. Not bad, eh?
Being an “under the hood” type of guy, I plan to tweak this theme over the next several weeks. I might even add a custom logo. In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys a speedier Alimadzi. This is actually quite ironic considering the meaning of Alimadzi. Heh.
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