GAO notes IRS security improvements; wants further action
Topic: Miscellaneous
5:34 pm EST, Jan 15, 2009
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report (PDF) to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman regarding the state of the IRS' information security system. In its last audit of the IRS, the GAO identified 115 areas or systems as problematic. The IRS accepted the findings and agreed to remedy the situation. GAO's most recent audit (released this January) notes that the IRS has made progress—49 of the 115 vulnerabilities have been corrected—but must continue to act on the remaining 66. That may not be as bad as it sounds, as there's a certain gray area regarding how many of the 66 recommendations/changes have been partially adopted vs. not adopted at all; the report indicates that a number of the organization's changes are at least partly in place.
Kiwi police use Facebook to nab failed safecracker
Topic: Miscellaneous
5:33 pm EST, Jan 15, 2009
If there's anything the Internet likes to do, it's amateur detective work. And what better way to put such inklings to work than for the police to use social networking sites to help solve crimes? Such is the case with a New Zealand police department, who used Facebook to identify a man accused of trying to crack a safe by posting security camera footage to the site. The trick is clever and apparently works, though it has privacy advocates concerned.
Teens send nude pics to one other, face kiddie porn charges
Topic: Miscellaneous
5:33 pm EST, Jan 15, 2009
There are a number of reasons to think twice (or three times, or four times, or fifty times) before sending a nude photo of yourself to someone electronically. But, if you're under the age of 18, there's at least one big, glaring, serious reason: you and the recipient could be charged with trafficking child pornography. If you think this sounds crazy, it is exactly what happened in Greensburg, Pennsylvania after two teenage girls send nude photos to some teenage boys.
AppleInsider | Steve Jobs taking leave from Apple due to complex health issues
Topic: Technology
5:32 pm EST, Jan 15, 2009
Team,
I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.
In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.
I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple's day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.
On May 9, 1973, Schlesinger signed a directive commanding senior officers to compile a report of current or past CIA actions that may have fallen outside the agency's charter. The resulting report, which was in the form of a 693-page loose-leaf book of memos, was passed on to William Colby when he succeeded Schlesinger as Director of Central Intelligence in late 1973.
hmmm, that sounds cool.
The reports describe numerous activities conducted by the CIA during the 1950s to 1970s that violated its charter. According to a briefing provided by CIA Director William Colby to the Justice Department on December 31, 1974, these included 18 issues which were of legal concern:
And then, like a surprise chocolate center, amongst admissions of assassination attempts, overthrowing governments, and giving unsuspecting people LSD, we have this gem:
18: Testing of electronic equipment on U.S. telephone circuits.
Digital never quite knew what to do with its software prodigy; it spun out AltaVista as a subsidiary, then pulled it back in. Acquired by Compaq when Compaq acquired Digital, AltaVista still languished in a company that didn't know what to do with a software asset.
haha! I think the next fish down that chain is just as clueless ;-)
Nothing quite like dancing and singing this song at the top of your lungs to slip out of that post-holiday funk and start the New Year just right!
Sing it with me now! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wont you take me home tonight? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh down beside your red firelight! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you gonna let it all hang out! Fat bottomed girrrrrrrrrrrrrls You make the rockin world go rounnnnnnnnnnnnd!
A computer with scalable performance level components and selectable software and service options has a user interface that allows individual performance levels to be selected. The scalable performance level components may include a processor, memory, graphics controller, etc. Software and services may include word processing, email, browsing, database access, etc. To support a pay-per-use business model, each selectable item may have a cost associated with it, allowing a user to pay for the services actually selected and that presumably correspond to the task or tasks being performed. An administrator may use a similar user interface to set performance levels for each computer in a network, allowing performance and cost to be set according to a user's requirements.
