Staff Sergeant George Alexander, of Killeen Texas, died today, of wounds received during his tour of duty in Iraq. You'll know Sgt Alexander better by his media moniker, “Death #2000”. The liberal media has been in a frenzy, waiting for Death #2000.  Plans have been carefully laid.  Protests planned.  Cindy Sheehan plans to return to Washington DC and chain herself to the front gate at the White House to protest Death #2000.  They can't fucking wait for Soldier #2000 to die. I wonder if, when news came across the wire that Sgt Alexander had succumbed to his wounds, if there was a big...

My loyal readers will remember a certain rant a month or two ago about Rolling Stone rating Eddie Van Halen only the 73rd best guitarist of all time.  Which I immediately called “bullshit” on.  I mean, WTF?  73rd?!?!?!  It still makes me mad just thinking about it.  How corrupted is your capacity to appreciate music when you consider George Harrison a better guitarist than Eddie Van Halen? So recently, one of the local radio stations in Seattle (KISW) did a poll on their website, asking listeners to rank the 99 best rock guitarists of all time.  And, not surprising even in the least, the FANS...

On a lighter note: In the most recent Rolling Stone issue, they rate the top 100 guitarists of all time. Kurt Cobain ranks 12th. While I don't have a problem with Kurt's guitar-playing, it's borderline criminal for Rolling Stone to rank Eddie Van Halen #73 (WTF?!?!?!). Kurt also magically beats out Carlos Santana (#15), as well as Mark Knopfler (#27?!?!?!?!). How none of those 3 made it into the top 10 is beyond explanation. George Harrison better than Mark Knopfler? Please someone tell me in what alternate universe is George Harrison a better guitar player than Mark Knopfler and Eddie Van...

Just a note announcing the general availability of my latest admin script, IPEnum.vbs. IPEnum is a script I wrote to facilitate the enumeration of my various networks, and quickly highlight systems that have appeared or moved since the last time I scanned. The script is absolutely free for anyone to use. You can read the full details and download the code and samples here: IPEnum: Network Enumeration Script

My friend Mixa forwarded me via email yesterday's Security Update newsletter from Windows IT Pro Magazine, and said only “Search for Beau Monday.” Doing that revealed this paragraph embedded in an article by Mark Joseph Edwards about using SSH to securely copy files from one system to another: If you run Win2K Server, you can use Beau Monday's step-by-step guide, "Configuring OpenSSH (Win32) for Public Key Authentication." His guide is equally detailed and includes information about how to configure PuTTY, which is an open-source SSH command-line client for Windows platforms. The PuTTY package also includes a PuTTY Secure Copy (PSCP) client. If...

The guys over at The CounterTerrorism Blog have a nice summation of what we know (and don't know) about the recent suicide bombing in Oklahoma.  There is a lot of speculation going on, even by the local media.

I'll be playing a bit part in the upcoming SecureWorld Expo next week, moderating an expert panel on Identity Management.  Kirk Bailey, former CISO of the City of Seattle, and current CISO of the University of Washington, was supposed to moderate this event but he had a conflict and asked me to fill in for him. If you have any questions that you'd like me to ask the panel on your behalf, leave me a comment here and I'll see if I can work them in.

I've been doing a lot of research on Identity Management, in preparation for my participation in next week's SecureWorld conference.  I came across this presentation by SXIP's CEO Dick Hardt on the subject.  But the amazing thing about the presentation isn't the subject matter, really.  It's the presentation format itself, and the style in which it was delivered.  It blew my mind.  I'd like to be able to present like this.

I keep meaning to mention a new blog that has become a daily read for me.  It's The Counterterrorism Blog, which started just about 6 months ago.  The contributors are VERY well connected and seem to have very deep and specific knowlege about all matters related to terrorism and the fight against it. It's a must-read.

Did you know there was a suicide bombing on Saturday, 100 yards away from where 84,000 people were attending a Sooners football game?  Neither does anyone else I asked. It has come out in the investigation since that the subject was a recent convert to Islam, and attended the same mosque that Zacarias Moussaoui attended.  He also used the same explosive compound that shoe bomber Richard Reed used in his failed bid to blow up the plane he was in.  Days before the event, he had tried to buy a quantity of ammonium nitrate, the base chemical used in the 1995 Oklahoma...

A friend of mine is a lawyer, and she's got her life on her laptop.  If the thing goes toes up, she loses years worth of work that would be difficult to replace.  Everything she does ultimately ends up as a hard copy, so it could be reproduced.  But it would be an enormous undertaking. So I've been doing some research on backup solutions for her.  Something that she doesn't have to think about, but results in at least weekly backups of her critical information.  I was very intrigued when Steve posted about a cool NAS appliance that NetGear is currently making.  But...

I have to admit to being somewhat disgusted by the rash of celebrities auctioning off personal items for charity.  The latest is Britney Spears, who has announced she will be auctioning off clothing and other personal effects and donating the proceeds to hurricane victims. In other words, Britney, surely a millionaire many times over, is apparently too fucking cheap to donate her own money to these charities, she instead is offering to donate YOURS. Only in America can giving someone else's money away seem like charity.  God bless us. Don't get me started on that fucktard Sean Penn.  The guy who insisted that his...