Nathan's Occasional Blog

Kiss your old SSN goodbye | Perspectives | CNET News.com:

“Politicians are starting to realize that permitting data brokers like Acxiom and ChoicePoint to buy and sell your Social Security number like a raffle ticket may not be that wise after all.”

Finally someone is starting to realize that the purvasive use of the SSN is a BAD thing. “They” keep telling us to protect our social security number, but then we have to give up our SSN just to sign up for cable TV? I’ve already stopped giving out my phone number to local merchants who say “we just try to track where our sales are from.” Fine, I say as I rattle off my zip code. Heck, my phone number is through Vonage and is on a Bellevue, WA exchange that’s 30 minutes (and a few microclimates) away from my residence so it’s pretty pointless for them as a location tool anyway. Why do they want your phone number? Revenue stream: they sell it to telemarketers. Bastards.

Another tip from one of our friends who was the object of credit card fraud a year or so ago … don’t pass along full credit card numbers to local merchants. She had someone take her full credit card and expiration date off of a restaurant sales slip she had signed and left on the table (how often have you done this). Unfortunately someone got ahold of that slip and purchased over a $1000 of stuff in Texas (while she was here in Seattle). Most merchants “x-out” the majority of your card number, leaving just the last 4 numbers. If you see a receipt with all the numbers printed black all but the last 4 out with your pen.

Maybe we should just build a bomb shelter under our back yard and live in there for the next 20 years with no contact with the outside world… nah, I’d miss Grey’s Anatomy. 🙂

Bink.nu | Microsoft about to debut antivirus tools?:

“Researchers at Gartner estimate that only 13 percent of consumer-operated desktop computers connected to the Internet have third-party antivirus tools.”

You have got to be kidding me! 13%!?! That’s just appalling. No wonder so many hackers write viruses – it’s so easy for them to exploit these idiots. I wonder how many keep their operating systems and other software up to date … a precious few I’d imagine. Plus there are a ton of people who just plug their cable modem right into their computer without a firewall in place (hardware or software). Yikes!

My dad, for example, doesn’t trust Windows Updates and I have to beg him to install them. On top of that he’s still running Windows 98, then he wonders why it crashes (most of the time the system runs out of memory). He’s going to join the ranks of the modern in a few months though … he’s contemplating getting an Athon 64 machine with some serious hard drives, etc. He does digital artwork on his computer and has hundreds of CD-R and DVD-R’s filled with archived pictures, etc. (that’s how he runs out of memory – huge files). Check out davidnovak.com for his work.

This is my dream car!

From Yahoo news via AP Photos.

This is a profile (obviously) of Kaitlyn at 4 weeks old. What a cutie!

The Hilton Technology Room:
I have an urge for a business trip…

No, for once we’re not talking about our favorite gadget goddess — we’re talking Hilton as in hotel. It may be no Abu Dhabi, but the Hilton thinks it’s got a pretty sweet suite in its Technology Room, outfitted with some of the latest and greatest in emergent tech. They’re calling it their “laboratory” for gathering customer feedback on cutting edge technology. We’re not exactly sure who would complain about being set up with any of the toys stashed away in there, including a 70-inch projection screen with Bose home theater 5-channel surround sound, sonically matched cube speaker arrays, satellite and high def programming, and a couple of wireless touchscreen remotes to control the whole works (including the LCD flat-panel above the hot tub, of course).

Florida signs law to track sex offenders via GPS for life:

There are other states that have minimum sentences, and other states that require some sort of tracking of sex offenders after their release, but Florida’s new law makes them the first to require mandatory lifetime tracking via GPS for those convicted of sex crimes against children 11 and younger. Governor Jeb Bush signed the law, which also mandates a 25 years to life sentence, in response to the killing of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford. The Jessica Lunsford Act was drafted and pushed through quickly after lawmakers discovered that the man who had murdered Jessica was a registered sex offender. It passed both Senate and House unanimously.

Don’t get me wrong, I think these folks are, generally, skum. That being said, this does raise the something’s not right with this hairs on the back of my neck. I mean, there is something in the Constitution that says you can’t be continually and repeatedly punnished for a single offense, right? If you want them to serve a 25 year sentance that’s great, but that’s the length of the punnishment. After that’s served they’re done, free, time served. This will get overturned by the courts lickedy split.

Again, being a new dad I’d personally flip a lid if something happened to my daughter, but this is’t the right solution. Can you say Florida is a Police State?

Elecom got balls that talk:
And we have our “caption of the week” winner! Thanks Engadget!

These speakers ain’t for squares. Elecom’s new PSP-CS500 speaker set looks suspiciously like the Sternform Twin, ‘cept we wouldn’t advise eating out of them. You can’t really expect great specs on these things, and 2x2W by 8 Ohm is all you’re gonna get, but they do make a unique contribution to the typical portable speaker fare.

ESPN.com – MLB – Yankees overhaul lineup after dismal April:

“Plus, Randy Johnson could wind up on the disabled list because of a stiff groin, putting another young pitcher in the rotation.”

Um … that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Getting put on the DL because of a stiff groin? HA!

Can you believe it? It’s been a month since Alicea was hospitalized. WOW! Kaitlyn is now 3+ weeks old and is doing great. She’s no longer in an incubator and she’s feeding well. Our guess is that she’ll be home in a week or two. YIKES!

Well, I’m back to work today. I’m going to be doing 1/2 days for the next couple months, so I get my work-a-holic fix and get a lot of time at home too. Plus I’m still taking 100% time away for 2 weeks when Kaitlyn finally does come home. My Dad is coming out this Friday for a week to help me finish up some projects around the house. This was supposed to be the beginning of the final “nesting” month before Kaitlyn’s birth … well, the nesting still needs to be done!

I guess I should actually do something useful here at the office, so I’ll try to post later. If you want to see some pics of Kaitlyn check out http://novaks.smugmug.com. A lot of her clothes are from Build-A-Bear! 🙂

Mother Sues School District Over Band Dues – Yahoo! News:

“A Sacramento-area school district is now on notice it will be sued by a mother who claims she was pressured to pay for her child to perform in a school’s band. The question is: Was payment required or merely requested?

When it comes to who pays for the music program at Folsom High School, one mother says the school is out of step with the law.

‘My attorney has now sent them a letter, advising them the district is, in fact, responsible,’ said parent Donna Kinsella.

Kinsella is now fighting the Folsom-Cordova School District over invoices she has received for years that assessed dues for all three of her children to participate in the school bands.”

You have GOT to be kidding me. As a long-time instructor for marching bands on both coasts, these people need to realize that marching band is an EXTRA ACTIVITY! Plus, most programs get on the order of $5000 a year from the school district to teach 150+ kids (usually bigger in California) in an activity that needs a lot of staff (it’s not like 1 band director can handle hundreds of kids alone) and over a hundred thousand dollars of equipment. Plus there’s transportation fees, etc. If she didn’t want to fork out a few bucks for her kids to particate, send em off to the local library and tell them to read. I mean think of this … the school doesn’t make you rent a math book right? Right. But a math book doesn’t cost $2500 per unit!