[LINK] a little light diversion

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

At 04:53 PM 11/08/2007, Craig writes:

> a lot of security holes in corporate firewalls are there because some
> ignorant high-level manager wants to do something stupid .. and has
> the authority to order IT staff to ignore best-practice and do it anyway.

Then the company IT professionals would be acting counter to several
of our APS code of conduct clauses <http://www.apsc.gov.au/conduct/>
at the very least, and, class-legal-action were it to be a public company.

> it's bad that the WSJ is encouraging such abysmal security breaches

And Roger, "failing to show appreciation of the insecurities. It instructs
in available dodges, without conveying anywhere near enough about the
risks involved."

Given the likely WSJ financial-market-computer-savvy readership, where
computers regularly manage business in the billions, I suspect the article
might best be regarded as a grey-suit corporate network self-test weapon.

I much prefer this WSJ approach to IT, (arm's length), to the New York
Times approach which is somewhat gushy about personal technology:

At 07:30 AM 10/08/2007, The New York Times wrote:

Thursday, August 9, 2007   THIS WEEK IN CIRCUITS:

Five Fun Little Gadgets 

I do a lot of stuff for The Times: a weekly print column, this weekly e-
column, a daily blog, a weekly audio podcast and a weekly video..

Anyway, my video last week profiled five fun little gadgets that were too 
trivial to write about in my columns, but seemed telegenic enough to show 
off on camera. 

Each would make a great stocking stuffer; each solves a minor technology 
problem in an ingenious way.

Here, for anyone who missed it, is a recap of the handy little inventions 
I featured in last week's video.

BlueQ ($40, www.bqwireless.com). The BlueQ, shipping this fall, looks like 
a black rubber watchband, minus the watch. It contains a tiny Bluetooth 
receiver and a cellphone-like vibrating module. 

The idea.which is, actually, rather brilliant.is that you'll no longer 
miss cellphone calls because your cellphone's own vibrate mode is feeble 
and you can't hear the ringer. Because of the BlueQ, you'll feel the 
vibration on your wrist, where you can't miss it. (Get the name now? Blue 
as in Bluetooth; Q as in your cue to answer the phone.)

Of course, black rubber isn't many people's idea of a fashion statement, 
so the kit comes with a special sheet of inkjet printer paper. The idea is 
that you can design self-adhesive strips, using a template on the Web 
site, that precisely fit the rubber wristband to make it a little less 
industrial-looking. On my prototype, the sticky paper didn't stick well at 
all.

Even so, this is a killer idea, and it'll do very well.

Quik Pod ($25, quikpod.com). Another clever solution to a problem you 
didn't know you had: This is a lightweight, plastic, telescoping support 
for your digital camera or camcorder. Its threads screw tightly into the 
camera's tripod socket and adjusts to any angle. The idea is that now you 
can take self-portraits without having to hand the camera to a stranger. 
You can also shoot over crowds, under the car, and so on. (You set the 
camera's self-timer to make it take the shot.)

>From the description, I couldn't really understand how the Quik Pod is any 
different from a monopod (which is something like a tripod but with only 
one leg, so it helps stabilize a camera with less bulk than a tripod).

But as the inventor pointed out to me by e-mail, "the largest diameter 
segment of the Quik Pod is at the opposite end to the camera mount, to 
allow a hand grip. If you used a regular monopod to hold a camera out, 
you'd have to grip the thinnest rod, which normally touches the ground. 
The thinnest rod of a monopod does not provide a positive grip and is 
somewhat slippery."

The Quik Pod's hand grip, on the other hand, is rubberized to make it a 
more comfortable grip. And the whole affair is made of polycarbonate and 
aluminum, so it's waterproof, for you lucky ducks who have underwater 
cameras or camera housings.

DiscEraser (disceraser.com, $13). This tiny plastic tool quickly and 
easily gouges nasty quarter-inch-wide tracks in the back of a CD or DVD 
that you want to throw away, rendering it completely unreadable by anyone 
else. It's a good safeguard before you throw away any disc that contains 
personal data.

It's a heck of a lot safer and cleaner than breaking the disc (which 
results in nasty plastic splinter shards). It's also much cheaper and less 
messy than a disc shredder. And it's kind of fun to use.

If you can believe it, five readers actually wrote me after watching my 
video to say that they routinely destroy their CDs and DVDs by nuking them 
in the microwave.

Yikes, people! As the DiscEraser Web site points out, the arcing can 
damage your oven, the toxic fumes can damage you, and even then your disc 
may not actually be unreadable.

Besides: one swipe of the DiscEraser is much faster than 60 seconds in the 
microwave.

See Eye2Eye (bodelin.com/se2e, $50 from bhphotovideo.com.much better than 
the $100 list price I had in my video). The See Eye2Eye is a sort of a 
periscope attachment that slips over your Web cam and hangs down over your 
screen. The idea is that, when you have video chats, you can make eye 
contact with your buddy. That's because you're no longer looking down at 
your buddy's image halfway down your monitor; you see it instead floating 
directly in front of your own camera.

With some optional add-on software, this mirror contraption also becomes 
an excellent teleprompter; that is, you can look directly into the camera, 
all the while reading your script. Clever stuff.

Monkeysoft Office Upgrade ($20, monkeysoftoffice.com). OK, I don't even 
know where to begin.

This kit includes software for a Windows PC, a foam caveman-style hatchet 
and a U.S.B. motion sensor.

You affix the U.S.B. sensor to the back of your monitor. Then, the next 
time your PC starts driving you crazy, you grab the mallet and start 
pounding your screen. SMASH! CRASH! SHATTER! With each pound, realistic 
sounds and animations make it look like you're breaking the glass of the 
screen.

And then, on the fourth smash, the glass shards fall away to reveal what's 
really causing your computer problems: a roomful of juvenile, out-of-
control monkeys.

O.K., how does someone even come up with something like this.and who'd 
believe in a product like this enough to bring it to market?

Well, whatever. I'm just glad someone did, because it's hilarious.

-
This week's Pogue's Posts blog. 
Visit David Pogue on the Web at DavidPogue.com. 

POGUE'S POSTS The Blog The Times's David Pogue keeps you on top of the 
latest in personal technology. 

<http://www.nytco.com/>
620 Eighth Ave.
New York, N.Y. 10018 
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company  

--
Cheers all ..
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia
 


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