Blog: Pete Loshin

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July 28, 2008

Data Loss Database

I try to keep posted on important incidents of data loss (see More data blunders for example), but it's a big job.

That's why it's great news to hear about this: Open Security Foundation To Maintain Attrition.org's Data Loss Database - Open Source. Here's a link to the DataLossDB site, where you can track the latest database disasters. You can even download the database to do your own research or produce your own reports.

This is a big deal. There needs to be an authoritative place you can go to keep track of data loss incidents, and so far this looks good. Do you know of any others? Let me know--I want to hear about them!

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July 25, 2008

Microsoft continues to get pummeled

Again, more bad news for Microsoft. With Apple's market share continuing to explode (Mac OS X approaches 8 percent market share in June), and Linux notching some respectable increases (er, sort of: Linux - Still chasing that elusive 1% market share) , the people at Redmond have to be worried, despite all the "success" they're having with Vista.

Here's the latest round of pain and humiliation:

• Network World's Stiennon on Security offers Top Ten Worst Uses for Windows, and Ten More Stupid Uses for Windows. Some are silly, like the first, "To display a static green arrow over the open TSA security lanes at Detroit Metro.", except when displaying BSODs. But more are frightening, like using Windows for things like running trains, air traffic control systems, medical systems and other seriously mission-critical applications.


• Is Vista really all that? Apparently, there's still plenty of demand for XP: Windows XP a hot item on Amazon.


• Leave it to Wikipedia to publish these lists: Features new to Windows Vista and Features removed from Windows Vista. Number one on the "removed" list? Active Desktop, which back about ten years ago was a really cool feature (kind of like desktop widgets, where you can map live web content onto your desktop). There's lots more, which is scary: what happens in ten years if Microsoft decides to remove support for your mission-critical application from the latest version of Windows?


• This guy is a real hero: How I got a Windows Vista refund from HP. After many hours on the phone with HP support, and lots more time spent documenting the process over months, he tells the story of how he got a refund after deciding the Windows Vista license was too abusive to agree to. I felt the same way when I bought my current PC, but didn't have the patience or perseverance to pursue it (and my recollection was that my license explicitly stated that there would be no refunds from the manufacturer).


• Finally, here's indication that Linux can get some real traction out of the appliance computing market: Linux for housewives. XP for geeks. ZD Net blogger Robin Harris points out that Linux has advantages for the appliance market: it lowers the software cost, but it gives manufacturers more freedom over what software capabilities to build into their products.

What does the future hold? Stay tuned...

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July 18, 2008

I am not making this up...

Here's a link to a real article in a real newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Man gets Windows Vista to work with printer

It's a follow-up to a story, Vista at one year: Progress and pain, that ran back in January and started off telling the story of Charles Walling, a man who just wanted his printer to work with Vista--after all, it worked with Windows XP.

Six months later, and Mr. Walling is a happier man, after:

Tom White, test manager for documents and printing in Microsoft's Windows Experience group, visited the Walling household on multiple occasions, figured out what was wrong, and ultimately got the printer to work.

Turns out, if you're configuring the printer for Vista but using the original printer driver CD provided by the vendor for Windows XP, you could have problems because Vista has problems keeping it all straight. Somehow. Sort of.

Read the whole article for excuses and spin from Microsoftniks.

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July 11, 2008

Random list of lists

I love lists, and I kind of enjoy making my own lists. This one is a sort of paradox: how do you make a list of things with not so much in common (aside from the fact that I think they're all interesting or amusing or just plain worth looking at)? Once you do, they share the attribute of being members of the list. Oh well, enjoy--it's Friday!

• 5 Tools Everyone Working Online Should Have (IMHO)


• The only 7 investments you need


• 10 Essential Sites for Tips and How-To’s


• 15 Reasons Mister Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever


• 25 Reasons to Convert to Linux. Actually, there are 26 reasons to convert--and 2 reasons to switch to Windows FROM Linux!


• The 30 skills every IT person should have


• 50 Cool Things You Can Do with Google Charts API


• Believe it or not, 80 How-To Sites Worth Bookmarking has a pretty good signal-to-noise ratio. Or it may just be the fact that most of these sites are places I already have bookmarked myself. Good job!

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July 10, 2008

LinkedIn architecture, and more

Here's another link to an overview of a successful and big-data outfit: LinkedIn Architecture. It's from Cookies are for Closers: Oren Hurvitz’s Blog, which has more good stuff in it that you might like.

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July 9, 2008

More data blunders

Here's more reports about data/base security follies:

• Bank of NY Loses Tapes With 4.5 Million Clients' Data


• From the UK: Intelligence official suspended over al-Qaeda file left on train


• Data Breach Study Spanning 500 Break-Ins Released. Some interesting results, such as "Nearly nine in 10 corporate data breaches could have been prevented had reasonable security measures been in place"


• Here's another UK story about surveillance cameras, This surveillance onslaught is draconian and creepy. The CCTV craze seems to have really gotten out of hand over there, but I suspect we'll be catching up here in the US soon enough. What are they used for in the UK? From the article: "the civilian in charge of a Worcester [UK] police station's surveillance team was suspended after detectives found, among one day's footage, a 20-minute sequence of close-ups of a woman's cleavage and backside as she walked oblivious through the streets." That's just the tip of a sickening iceberg of misuse of the technology, so read the article if you dare.

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July 7, 2008

More Data Visualizations

As we get access to more and more data, we need more, and more interesting, ways of looking at it--and I keep tripping over some of these interesting visualizations. Sometimes they're even worth using!

• One of the nice things about online bookstores like Amazon is that you can find just exactly what you want, instantly. Of course, that eliminates part of the charm of going into a bricks-and-mortar shop and discovering something you weren't expecting. So, consider Zoomii, which is a more real-world like bookstore experience. Working like the love-child of Amazon and Google Maps, you browse books visually, zooming in on "shelves" and looking at book covers. As a front-end, you can buy the books you find on Amazon; Zoomii makes their money through the Amazon Associates program.


• Want to explore the Linux kernel? Try the Interactive Linux Kernel Map. It's a lot like the Zoomii (or Google Maps, for that matter): scroll-wheel to zoom in and out, click and drag to move around, and click to open up source code. Not as slick, perhaps, as other visualizations, but certainly useful if you're interested in understanding how the Linux kernel works.


• It's one thing to remap huge databases into user-friendly interfaces; it's another to demonstrate relationships among different entities. That's what these Maps of science show: how different scientific fields are related to each other.


• Not exactly data visualization, but it's a neat application, Asirra (Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access), from Microsoft Research, is a friendlier and possibly easier alternative to CAPTCHA for sorting out bots from humans. The idea is to require completion of a task that's pretty easy for humans, but almost impossible for computers: differentiate between photos of cats and dogs. I played with it for a while, and it seems as if you don't have to get all the cats perfectly, but as long as you only miss one (I think) and don't misidentify any dogs as cats, you can pass for human.


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  Posted by Pete Loshin at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)