Change your router password...and a brief word from Tom

Security...it's sexy.

Not completely sure how it was implemented, but a drive-by pharming attack observed in Mexico illustrates the severity of introducing some modicum of security for your home network.

A group of individuals (assuming it was a group) executed the attack in a 2-initiative approach: changing the DNS settings on unsecured (i.e. no security or default security) residential routers and spamming individuals with an phished email which looks normal, but the tricky-dickies changed an image tag reference in the HTML to direct the user's browser to a fake bank's site.

The 'drive-by' aspect refers to the way in which the routers were hacked: this group probably roamed residential neighborhoods scanning for networks and used the manufacturer's default admin credentials to see which hadn't had their password changed. Those that hadn't had their default DNS settings reconfigured were susceptible. If a person accessing the internet via the affected router also received and participated in the phished email, they could potentially have given the group access to their login information to their bank.

Just think, in a residential neighborhood someone sat in a car, and using a laptop or some other capable handheld broadband device silently made the reconfigurations to various routers in a given area.

Granted, there are a lot of conditions that need to be met to make this attack work, but all the group would've needed was 2 or 3 well-heeled individuals to fall for the ploy. Recently, I was on the road and needed to check email, and wasn't near a hotspot (ok, I didn't want to go into a Starbucks or MacDonald's) so I used my laptop to scan for unsecured networks in the area, found one, connected, initiated my VPN connection, checked email, then got off the system, and drove away.

I wonder how long it'll take before this becomes a serious issue, and how local law enforcement will deal with it. Will they have a special task force ('Police Operations: Residential Networks' what an awesome acronym!)? What kind of statutes and laws will need to be put in place? Or, will the marketplace come up with solutions to deal with this new criminal activity? Or, will people spend a little extra effort and change their password on their routers?

All of this applies to everyone...except Tom Cruise...because he can make people do what he wants just by furrowing his little brows, flexing his featherweight high school pugilist build, and dropping mad Scientology energy on yo' ass. I'm OT-7, bitch! Clear as a muthafuckin' bell! Whoo-hooo!!

Here he is now pontificating on his thoughts on how to eradicate anal warts while also buttressing your home network:

Tom Cruise: a walking, talking space opera...David Bowie is jealous

Ground control to Major Tom...

We've seen this coming for some time.

First, he was an unstoppable blockbuster force.

Then, he was a mysterious, androgynous (closet?) enigma.

Then, he erupted into bizarre career-deathing activities with Matt Lauer.

Then...damage control consisted of getting him a gig to appease the Germans who absolutely hate his culty ass.

Finally, or rather I should say, and most recently, his 9+ minute manical, self-serving, cryptic soapboxing of the 'church' of Scientology streaks across the internets.

Doesn't anyone with a high school degree...oh wait...Tom doesn't have one...or at least a modicum of intelligence and rationale thought (oooo...sorry Tom, looking a couple kids short of a Brady Bunch on that one, too) know that it isn't a religion, and really just a manifestation of

1. L. Ron Hubbard's failed sci-fi ramblings and
2. proof that there's a sucker born every minute and with Tom heading the propaganda at least some sheep appear to be flocking to the wolf?

Scientology persists because folks running the show realized that a religious institution benefits from wonderful tax breaks. The 'church' remains venemously litigious to maintain that shield because without it, the honeymoon is over. A recent example is how it responded to Gawker posting the video.

Well, even with his own studio (the recently defunct United Artists, which he 'got' after Paramount dumped his crazy ass), and a would-be Bryan Singer-helmed Hitler-killer movie to woo the Germans he still manages to come across like the person we always knew he was. I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I think he suffers from the malady known as 'crazier than a shithouse rat', which I thought was always a funny saying because the mental image of a rodent kickin' it in the outhouse gnawing on corn dogs just conjures the chuckles out of me.

I don't think I'll ever be able to pay to watch another film of his ever again. Did you see the video that's been making the rounds?

WTF? Why does some of that nonsense he's spewing sound like D&D talk? Apparently, this video was culled from a longer, more agonizing 3 hour version that was blasted in the face of 'parishioners' just before Tom went on stage to accept a humanitarian award: the 'Freedom Medal of Valour'. Ahem.

Where was Tom when I was in that car accident and needed to use a phone? He never flew out of the sky and helped me change a tire.

To me, he's just so glib. Yer glib Tom! YER GLIB!

The good virus

I'm normally not one for viral marketing campaigns. They just seem like a waste of time to me.

But (there's always a 'but'), the one for the J.J. Abrams movie, 'Cloverfield', is pretty cool. It's releasing today.

IGN Movies has an done a fine job encapsulating the viral campaign components.

What's a viral campaign? Well, without 'ask'ing the internet, I'm going to give you my erudite (or lamebrained) definition. With the advent of embedded and prolific technology coupled with the explosion of social networking, the viral campaign is one that is a cheap and interactive way to increase brand awareness. I also like to think that they're a cousin of mememails and sibling to viral videos.

For example, a game studio is launching a huge title...like Halo 2. They drop little packets of seemingly unrelated information (like some bizarrely named URL...like 'ilovebees.net'), and people go to that URL and find that its content is either deliberately obfuscate or shares some peripheral relationship with the title and provides additional background information.

Whatever the method, the delivery vector (a website, email notifications, or 'secure access' [those requiring a password obtained after completing some other task on another related website] sites) is designed to engage the consumer. An example of a successful iteration of a slightly older, but cult film of the early 2000s is the Flash site of Richard Kelly's 'Donnie Darko'.

Entertainment viral campaigns (those for movies and games) have been extremely successful in generating buzz. The hype for 'Snakes on a Plane' was primarily driven by its viral marketing and from the incorporation of suggestions from bloggers into the actual script. Of course, the movie was a disaster, but did showcase the awesome power of Samuel L 'Muthafuckin' Jackson, but I digress.

'Cloverfield' is shot in the Blair Witch style, which means that when we see it, the movie plays out like we're watching documentary content. Except this mockumetary is about a monster attack on NYC, and we see it through the eyes of some hip 20 somethings who could never afford to live in the places that they do in real life. In reality, they'd be sharing a couch in Brooklyn.

The movie's campaign is pretty cool because 1) it's not bizarrely obscure, and 2) because it fleshes out some back-story details. Kinda cool. It's like backstory that was left out of the movie, and I happen to like sci-fi/monster films.

You can actually infer quite a bit from the various viral components, although the film I find myself making in my head after checking out these viral vectors could be in polar opposite of the desires of production and creative team.

Regardless, the fact that there's deep-sea drilling, a mysterious substance that appears to infect/mutate people, satellite imaging, and an origin unknown skyscraper-sized creature running amok is good movie times for me!

If you're curious to see more on the viral aspects of the fime, consider this: according to the plot, there's a fictional Japanese company that does deep-sea drilling. One station is located in the Atlantic, relatively close to NY. A 'press release' on the company's website provides a phone number (+81-3-5403-6318) to call if you have more questions about the 'incident'. Hmm...want to call Japan?

The ship does not go down with its captain

Let's say I'm the head of a major institution, and as such, I'm ultimately responsible for the actions of my staff/supporters/minions (think Enron's Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling). Let's further hypothesize that I was being tried for destroying electronic records...in fact...let me restate that...let's say there were rumblings of a suit being brought against me, so in anticipation of such action I went ahead and destroyed the files. Of course, I probably had some kind of 'legitimate' reason to excuse the destruction of these files - whoops! Sorry! I was just following industry best practices...what's that over there? LOOK OUT! Killer terrorists! Threat level omega-seven-polka-dot-bravo!

I'm getting ahead of myself...

You'd think I was reprehensible, correct? You'd think I was sneaky and conniving, right? You'd think that I thought I was above the law by doing such a thing. You'd think that I should be brought to justice and made accountable for my actions, even though I might not have personally put the papers into the shredders, right? After all, even though I might possess 'plausible deniability', the fact that I run the ship should make me responsible, or are we saying that the laws in the country don't apply to me. Yes, I think that's what we're saying.
At least that seems to be the reasoning behind the latest American freedom-'n-democracy ass-raping fiasco perpetrated by the White House. WTF!?

WASHINGTON -- The White House acknowledges recycling backup computer tapes of e-mail, a practice that may have wiped out many electronic messages from the early years of the Bush administration, including some pertaining to the CIA leak case.

The disclosure about recycled backup tapes came minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it previously had refused to provide.

Before October 2003, the White House recycled its backup tapes "consistent with industry best practices," according to a sworn statement by a White House aide. The White House started preserving backup tapes in October 2003, which would have been shortly after the start of the probe into who outed CIA operative Valerie Plame in July of that year.

The backup tapes, which also contain electronic documents in addition to e-mail, are the last line of defense for saving electronic records.
...
Mr. Fratto, the White House spokesman, said that "there is no basis to say that the White House has destroyed any evidence or engaged in any misconduct."

No basis...hmm...I'm reasoning those words were used because it hasn't been proven that anything was 'destroyed', at least in the linguistically accurate perception of the word. I imagine it was just serendipitous that the 'recycling' of the tapes occurred just before a court-order demanding said 'recycled' tapes be turned over.

You know what? I am sick to death of this administration. It's not that it's Republican. There are plenty of great Republicans out there. I heart Republicans. I'm sick of this administration's stomping on the vestiges of our integrity. I'm tired of blowing taxpayer dollars on issues that don't benefit the nation, when we're in the middle of a mortgage collapse and financial institutions are recording record losses (from over a 100 year period) and when our educational system is stuck in the 1950s and when we can't seem to produce enough effective domestic college graduates. I'm sick of the lies and false-truths and truthery and strategery and the fact that the President of the effing United States of America sounds like a g-d idiot when he opens that effing hole in his face. STFU Dubya.
While the bar for Presidential approval has been lowered tremendously, and we're on the brink of electing a new President, and although I'm optimistic about the future, I think we need to expect more from our elected officials, and insist on running a government that's less focused on infiltrating and more cognizant about stabilizing and scaling global socio-economic growth. Just a thought. Just throwing it out there, cuz, y'know...things are pretty crappy right now. Never hurts to dream, right? Obama anyone? The whole 'audacity of hope' notion is very appealing compared to the scary faith infused dogmas of Huck or baseball Mitt. It's like the GOP reasoned with all the instability in the Middle East, which this administration helped fuel (btw), the U.S. needs to further polarize itself and become more militaristic and ethno/faith-centric, so they unleash Huckabee and Romney.

[ending soapbox transmission now]

The road to a movie theater near you

Just found out that Cormac McCarthy's recent book, The Road, is being made into a movie. Viggo Mortensen is cast as the father, and Charlize Theron as the mother.

A little background on the book: there's an apocalyptic event that occurs and just about everyone is dead or dying. Ash and dust cover the land. Trees are dead. There's no animal life. It's a bleak landscape peppered with damning (or desperate) actions perpetrated by random survivors. Thrown against this setting is a father and a son on a trek to get to the coast. The mom is revisited in flashbacks.

The book gained considerable notoriety after winning the Pulitzer and getting the sales-boosting 'Oprah Book Club' stamp of approval.

McCarthy has been having a steady interest in his books having led them to being optioned to films: 'All The Pretty Horses', 'No Country for Old Men', 'Blood Meridian', and now 'The Road'.

However, after having read No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian, and The Road, I can say that the latter is a great departure from his brooding and intense western-themed tales. The Road was a brisk read for me, that is, I found it to be sparse in areas where McCarthy previously would devote pages of detail. It's a sharp and raw experience: one that illustrates how heart-breakingly fragile love is, yet underscoring how it's as necessary as air to maintain our humanity.

I only hope the movie does it justice. The saving grace for me is that Will Smith and his son aren't being cast a la 'Pursuit of Happyness Pt. 2: The Aftermath'. Don't get me wrong, but Will just hasn't really stood out for me since 'Six Degrees of Separation'. He plays the same guy in all his films: 'MIB 1 & 2', 'I, Robot', 'I am Legend', 'Bad Boys 1 & 2', 'Independence Day'...but I digress.

Casual vs. Hardcore

PC IGN put out this interesting piece on findings from the gameplay characteristics of casual & hardcore enthusiasts.

Of course the study was conducted by the Casual Games Association (CGA), so it found that everyone is a casual gamer and only less than 15% of the total population (every person on Earth, not just the U.S. mind you) is considered a hardcore gamer.
Soooo...um....yah...the thing is that the CGA is looking to support growth in the casual gamer market, given that they are the Casual Games Association. It's kinda like the NRA doing a PSA on the benefits of handguns. It's not like they're an unbiased source of information.

Whoops, here's the right video I was looking for.

But, then again, who isn't biased. I'd be hypocritical to say that I wasn't biased towards truth, freedom, and the killing prowess of a Black Talon cartridge. In my case, I think I fall into the hardcore camp, then. Whew. So glad I got that off my chest.

8800...more lanes your friendly neighborhood Spiderman

So, after blabbing about it for months...years it seems... I finally got what I wanted: an 8800 series graphics card (an EVGA 8800GT Superclocked to be precise). Found it for an amazing deal through Dell (yes, I was surprised...Dell), which actually advertised it as the XFX 8800GT Overclocked. Dell then fulfilled the order with the EVGA manufacturer's model. Weird.

For Christmachanukwanzaa I received a lovely Zalman VF1000 cooling device, which I just installed this weekend after having also ordered and received some Thermaltake CL-C0025 copper heatsinks (which I needed for some of the smaller chipsets on the card).

Let me tell you...it was worth the wait. Here's how the install went.

Here's the stock card.

Here's what the card looks like with the stock fan components removed. The white stuff is this interesting feeling thermal tape, which assisted in dissipating heat.

Here's what the card looked like after I put on some of the copper heatsinks. Let me just say that while copper is a wonderful heat conductor these heatsinks had serious issues sticking to the chipsets. One kept falling off, which I ended up having to use thermal compound to attach. I'd also cleaned the original stock thermal compound off the GPU. I can speak honestly when saying that 99% isopropyl alcohol works great when applied to a coffee filter to do the cleaning: no lint or chemical residue.

Here's the card after attaching the Zalman provided heatsinks (blue) and the additional Thermaltakes.

Here's the Zalman fan attached to the card. Installation was a breeze, although a little spooky, as I didn't want to damage the GPU by screwing the unit on too tight, nor did I want a loose contact with the GPU and the copper base, but everything worked out well. The instructions indicated that the mounting holes for an 8800 series card were in the #6 position, but that doesn't apply to the 8800GT: use the #5 position. Additionally, I didn't need to use all the extras that the Zalman package included , and I didn't use their thermal compound. I used Arctic Silver.

Here's the PCI-E slot (blue) on my motherboard where the card went. I thought Zalman's placement of the fan power cord was poor, as it has to move behind the card to attach to the mobo fan 3-pin connector. I thought it'd make more sense to have the line come from the top of the card, but hey...I'm no electrical engineer. I ended up tucking the line under the front of the card (ahead of the portion that plugs into the slot). The device sports a design that allows you to manually control the speed of the fan by using a small controller which mounts to the external chassis.

Was it worth it? Well, Zalman is known for its aftermarket cooling solutions, and given that:

• the ambient temp in room gets high in the summer,
• I don't have the best ventilation provided for the machine,
• the 8800 series runs hot as it is (mine hit 60 degrees C on peak, with RivaTuner managing the stock fan speed), and the stock fan is LOUD (like a small mosquito-piloted plane continually doing a nose-dive)

it made sense to protect my investment, and this device does just that.

How did it perform? With an ambient temperature in the room at about 68-70 F degrees, the card was at 36C on boot after the install. After gaming (COD4 and Crysis) it'll heat up to about 41C at the most. Wow. That's cool. Fer shizzle.

Was it quiet? OMG! Totally quiet. Even with it turned all the way up, I can't hear anything from the card.

Aesthetics? Well even though it's inside the computer and I can't take advantage of my chassis's clear case, the device is gorgeous (as you saw in the earlier picture). The blue LED light on the fan brightens as you turn it up, but the noise never increases, as mentioned. The device is made entirely out of copper (except for the fan itself), so it gleams with a fine shine as cookware on display at Sur La Table.

So what do you do with a a rig like this? You play any game you want and you don't have to worry about melting your graphics card or going deaf from a loud fan. Of course, right now, all I've been playing is the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer. As my brother-in-law intoned: it's what 007: GoldenEye was for the Nintendo64 back in the day, but that's for later.

What's it look like in action? Well, some clever bloke already put out some *not very riveting, but functional* visuals:

Just as a note for those interested in doing the same thing, but aren't yet sure: you do NOT need the Zalman’s RAM Heatsink ZM-RHS88 to install on an 8800GT.