Don't break that Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb!

More grumbling about CFL's after my last mini-rant.

"Bridges had the misfortune of breaking a CFL during installation in her daughter's bedroom: It dropped and shattered on the carpeted floor.

[ . . . ]

The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges' house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state's "safe" level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter. The DEP specialist recommended that Bridges call an environmental cleanup firm, which reportedly gave her a "low-ball" estimate of US$2,000 to clean up the room."

Congress wants to pass a Spyware law that you don't want.

Spy Act Only Protects Vendors and Their DRM

"Last week a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved H.R. 964, the Spy Act.

[ . . . ]

If the Spy Act become law, hardware, software, and network vendors will be granted carte blanche to use spyware themselves to police their customers' use of their products and services. Incredibly broad exceptions will probably allow even the worst of the adware outfits to operate with legal cover. State attempts to deal with the spyware problem will be pre-empted and enforcement left up almost entirely to the FTC."

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack released

If you use Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel or PowerPoint) version 2000, 2002 (aka XP) or 2003 and would like to be compatible with the new file formats for the 2007 versions of those applications, Microsoft released a 'free' new compatibility pack that will enable you to view, edit and save your files to those new formats. This is pretty nice, as you will no longer have to tell co-workers/co-students/co-anybody using Office 2007 to save stuff in the old formats so you can use them.

Before you run off to install it, there are some caveats. You MUST upgrade your version of Office (or standalone Word, Excel or PowerPoint) to the very latest service packs available.

If you need direct links to the various required Service Packs:

Office 2000: SP3 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5c011c70-47d0-4306-9fa4-8e92d36332fe&DisplayLang=en

Office 2002 (XP): SP3 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=85af7bfd-6f69-4289-8bd1-eb966bcdfb5e&DisplayLang=en

Office 2003: SP2 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=57e27a97-2db6-4654-9db6-ec7d5b4dd867&DisplayLang=en

Those Service Packs work for all full versions of Office, as well as the standalone versions of the three main applications included.

In turn you must also get the most recent critical fixes published as of April 10, 2007 using the Office or Microsoft Update site.

Once you have finished all the updates needed, go and install the Compatibility Pack from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en&tm

Global warming???

Global warming?


"Local fishermen say the ice conditions are the worst they've seen in more than 20 years."

The new frontier for hackers: your router

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/19/HNroutercellattackrisk_1.html

"Jack's null pointer exploit is effective on the Arm and xScale processors that are widely used in embedded devices, but it does not work on Intel architecture processors used by PCs.

In his demonstration, Jack plans to show how his attack could be used to make changes to the firmware of a router so that it injects malicious code into any executable files downloaded from the Internet. This technique could be used to turn legitimate software updates -- Microsoft's monthly software patches, for example -- into an avenue of attack."

So what routers use these processors? Almost all of the home firewall/router boxes made by D-Link, Netgear, Linksys and other brands. Most modern PDA's and Pocket PC's also use one of these processors.

Nothing like this is in the wild -- yet. But now that the concept is out, you can be sure it will be used sometime in the future. I will be tracking this closely. Best case scenario is that simple firmware upgrades to your router can close off the attack vector. Worst case scenario is that millions of home routers will need to be replaced.

Scary stuff . . . :-/

A nod to sanity in the media

There is (some) hope . . . At least one of the media outlets picked up on this opinion:

Mental Health Expert Says Shooter Was Trying to Attempt Immortality; Showing Clips Validates His Delusions

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/VATech/story?id=3056168

Welner believes that instead of offering insight, these videos merely offer validation of delusional behavior.

"I think that's very important for the viewing audience to understand. This is not him. These videos do not help us understand him. They distort him. He was meek. He was quiet. This is a PR tape of him trying to turn himself into a Quentin Tarantino character," Welner said. "This is precisely why this should not be released."

Let there be light!

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned and a bit of a power pig, but I really hate fluorescent lamps for indoor use. I especially hate so called compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) designed to fit into incandescent sockets. Give me warm light from a "natural daylight" spectrum bulb to work and read by at night. Don't get me wrong, compact fluorescents have their place - outside my home on the lawn post, or in the garage. There are even some that come very close to producing pleasing light - but I remain a skeptic for now.

Recent moves by Wal-Mart to discontinue selling ALL incandescent bulbs, and rumors that a new bill will soon come before congress to outlaw them, concern me.

Seems that I am not the only one.

First and foremost, compact fluorescents contain mercury. People that toss CFLs into the garbage when they burn out are contributing to mercury contamination in our ground water. Everyone should recycle these types of lamps - even though it's hard to get rid of them in areas with poor recycling programs.

Secondly, it appears that the move to compact fluorescents will also impact the US job market - again.

Is your Microsoft Update service not working? Error 0x8DDD0009 ?

Two days ago I ran across a perplexing post by describing an odd problem with Microsoft's Update Service. Automatic Updates . . . weren't. Manual Updates via Microsoft's Update Site were failing with error code 0x8DDD0009 after a VERY long time watching the scan animation.

I totally fubared on my initial advice to her, which led me to do a bit of research.

Searching Microsoft for that error comes up with nothing. Searching the Internet provided hundreds of posts describing the same exact problem, with conflicting advice from others - some of which was close, but none that were complete or reliable solutions. I decided to try and reproduce the problem myself - then find a solution.

---

The problem is multi-part and started with a recent update (January I believe) from Microsoft that was supposed to reduce CPU overhead when Automatic Update ran. Unfortunately, it appears that there was a bug in that patch that corrupts the Windows Software Distribution folders. Once it gets into this state, all updates - Automatic or Manual - will fail.

Here is the fix. Be warned, parts of this process will take a while, so if you do this on a Laptop, make sure you're plugged in . . .

1) Right click My Computer >> Properties >> Automatic Updates and turn it OFF. Click OK back out.

2) Start button >> Run and type in CHKDSK C: /R then press enter. Answer Y when it asks you if you want to run it at the next reboot. But don't reboot just yet.

3) Go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891/ and find the link for the version of Windows you are running under RESOLUTIONS, then download the hotfix.

4) Install the hotfix you just downloaded and reboot. Wait for that CHKDSK you did in step 2 to complete - go take a break as it will take a while.

5) Right click My Computer >> Manage >> Services and Applications >> Services. Find both the "Automatic Updates" and "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" and right click them >> Stop. Make sure that both services show a stopped status in the Management window.

6) Open My Computer (double left click) and browse into C:\Windows (click the warning about system files to clear it out if you get it) and find the folder named "SoftwareDistribution". Rename that folder to "$SoftwareDistributionOLD$".

7) Reboot again, and try using http://update.microsoft.com/ . . . it should work now.

8) If it succeeds, go ahead and turn Automatic Updates back on if you are so inclined. Reverse the directions in step 1.

Please comment below on your results if you try this.

Pluto!

Some of you may not know, but I am a step-grandchild (one of many) of the late Clyde Tombaugh, the guy that discovered Pluto many many moons ago.

So when I stumbled on this Userpic today, ganked from and , I could not help myself, I had to grab it . . .

ERA Status

Old news, but apparently still true.

- 96% of American adults believe male and female citizens of the United States should have equal rights

- 88% believe the Constitution should make it clear that male and female citizens are supposed to have equal rights

- 72% believe that the Constitution of the United States does make it clear that male and female citizens are supposed to have equal rights [even though it in fact does not].

The 15 currently - unratified - states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

http://eracampaignweb.kis-hosting.com/why.php

http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/era.htm



And yes, posting this is my reaction to the whole Imus thing.