Latest in the Series of Free Utilities: Advanced IP Scanner

I use What's Running a great deal so I can know what is going on within my box but here is a small free utility which is a handy way to get a quick list of all the devices connected to your network. They are listed by IP address, along with information about each device. It quickly scans all IP addresses in a range that you specify, then specifies whether a device is present at each address. For each device, it lists the status, the machine name, NetBIOS information, ping information, and MAC address. I usually have difficulty keeping track so this can be useful.

Moreover, the program not only scans your network but it also gives you a set of tools that lets you shut down PCs remotely, use the "Wake on LAN" feature for any PC whose network card supports that capability, and connect to remote PCs via Radmin, if it's installed. I have used another remote site so this would allow an opportunity to combine functions in one use. You can also apply some operations, such as shutting down remote PCs, to a group of computers, not just individual ones.

This tool could be effectively used and handy.

Virtualization Trend

One of the biggest developments of the year will be in virtualization so I'll be reviewing topics along these lines.

Al Qaeda on the Run

Graphic source: Fred W. Baker

The combination of military operations and local population support in northern Iraq has forced quite a few al Qaeda fighters out of urban areas in order to flee to the desert, or even out of the country.

The northern division is about the size of Pennsylvania and includes Diyala, Salahuddin, Ninevah and Tamim provinces.

Some insurgents are hiding out in abandoned mud huts, canals or caves in the desert.

The desert hideaways are targets under six-week-long Operation Iron Harvest, part of the countrywide Operation Phantom Phoenix.

The insurgents are most likely thinking that the military if after them: a sound thought, because they are.

Note on Red River

Graphic source: http://www.filmsite.org/index.html.

I didn't know Red River was shot on location near Elgin, in Arizona and Mexico, but having Netflixed it recently I was curious about its background. The film realistically portrays the code and harshness of the West, and the journey, as in The Odyssey or in the Old Testament Exodus, is an epic yarn related to the audience with the vehicle of the Old West. John Wayne actually acted in this movie, thus Howard Hawks, the producer quipped, "the old lug can act." Wayne plays the hard bitten surrogate father to Montgomery Clift, in his first film, and hard-driving trail boss. The film appears over as the younger Clift mutinies, as in Mutiny On the Bounty, but he then successfully takes the herd to Topeka, of course, all is not well and he must still face the wrath of the soon-to-arrive, Wayne.

Chaotic State of Iraqi Executive Branch

The fragmented state of the Iraqi Executive branch is contrasted in this graphic with the U.S. We have a long, long way to go if democracy is ever to survive in Iraq.

Chinese Spies

The Chinese are at it again, or at least four more are allegedly spying. The U.S. Department of Justice announced two separate espionage cases for allegedly passing information to the Chinese government.

One case involves a former Boeing Company employee who was charged with economic espionage and other crimes, and the other includes three individuals who are charged with conspiracy to disclose national defense information.

In the Boeing incidnet, the DOJ claimed that Dongfan Chung, a 72-year-old, stole trade secrets related to the Space Shuttle, the C-17 military transport plane and the Delta IV rocket while working at Rockwell International Corporation, and then again once Boeing bought Rockwell's defense and space unit.

The alleged espionage stretched back for years and he also allegedly used Chi Mak to transmit information. Mak and four of his family members were convicted last year on charges of passing defense information to the Chinese government.

In the other case the DOJ arrested a U.S. Department of Defense employee and two New Orleans residents for an alleged espionage scheme.

Tai Shen Kuo, 58, and Yu Xin Kang, 33, both of New Orleans, were indicted for conspiring to disclose national defense information to a foreign government, while Gregg William Bergersen, a 51-year-old resident of Alexandria, Va., who works as a weapons systems policy analyst at the DOD's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, was charged with conspiracy to disclose national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it.

Kuo and Kang both face life in prison if convicted. Bergersen faces up to 10 years in prison.

The Chinese connection seems to proliferate as China seeks to re-engineer American products.

Scrappy Chinese Entrepreneur

One fascinating story in the rise of Chinese entrepreneurship is that of Zhang Yin, owner of the Nine Dragon Paper Company. In the 1990s, she cashed in on China’s paper shortage by collecting scrap and shipping it to mainland China for recycling. She astutely saw a bigger opportunity in the empty container ships that returned to the U.S. and Europe after unloading their full loads of goods in China. She filled those empty ships with wastepaper collected in the U.S. and Europe to recycle the contents in China into cardboard boxes to be used for shipping Chinese goods back to the American and European markets. The shipping continues so she has a steady stream to recycle. In seemingly no time at all, according to the Hurun Report’s 2006 China Rich List, Zhang has become the wealthiest person in China and one of the richest female entrepreneurs in the world. Her wealth is not unconnected with simply taking a sound, simple, but profitable idea and creating wealth: from scrap of all things.

Network Notepad Diagrams Live

My network site actually allowing me access to my network has limitations so Network Notepad may ease in the designing of a network. I don't really have an adequate tool so this tool will be easy for creating a network diagram.

Not only can I design my network and draw schematics but they are live and include links so that I can Telnet or employ other networking tasks to access any device on the network simply by clicking on a button on the diagram.

The palette is equipped with icons for routers, servers, printers, boxes, hubs, modems, and other network devices. The way to do this is by simply dragging and dropping them onto a diagram, and then connect the devices using a set of drawing tools. You add names and IP addresses. You can also import a host file, and Network Notepad will automatically populate the devices with the right IP addresses.

This method seems quite handy because the diagram becomes a live, interactive drawing.

Spiceworks IT Desktop, Better than Network Magic

Another free tool that may be helpful to a small network or business is the Spiceworks IT Desktop. It is a bit difficult to navigate for just a home network so be forewarned although it does includes a significant number of features for a free tool: it does perform as an all-in-one network inventory and management tool.

Spiceworks IT Desktop provides a substantial bit of information about each PC connected to your network. The program will inventory a network and provide information about each device on it and I found it deeper than Network Magic. The types of information it provides about each PC and device, is free and used disk space, anti-virus software being used, and problems on the device (such as server connection errors). It will even provide an inventory of the software installed on each PC, in quite a bit of detail.

There are other features as well, such as, easy access to ping and traceroute functions. And it attempts to be a help desk application as well. You can create help tickets with it, assign the ticket to others or yourself, and include due dates, priorities and so on. For someone like me with simple home network needs it is sufficient.

How a DNS Works (And What a DNS Is)

Graphic source: OpenDNS

A DNS stands for Domain Name Service which is how a browser can navigate the Web. The URLs (Uniform Resource Location) that are typed in a browser are translated into a computer readable format which lead you to a specific Internet page.

Bush Requests Greater Security Spending

Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell warned Congress that terrorists are showing an increasing desire to use cyber attacks against the U.S. By the same token, the Bush administration is proposing a federal budget that calls for the government to spend one out of every 10 IT dollars on information security. The budget proposal earmarks $7.3 billion for information security, a 9.8% increase over what was budgeted for the current fiscal year. If approved as is, security spending would account for 10.3% of the entire federal IT budget. Bush's proposal continues a trend in which security spending has been increasing at a rate that's greater than the growth of the overall IT budget.

Al-Qaeda Training Children as Terrorists

Al-Qaeda is training children from 6-14 according to a news story released today.

Network Magic, Simple, Free Management

While always on the lookout for simple, free, and in this case, all-in-one network management tools for a small peer-to-peer network, Computerworld, as is their usual, noted some handy tools. Network Magic looks like one of the best. It handles all the basic network chores, including adding new devices to the network, fixing broken network connections, setting up wireless encryption and protection, sharing printers and folders, and for me, one of the most important features, reporting on the state of the security of each PC on the network. I have several geographically dispersed machines so Network Magic will come in handy.

I appreciate the visual network map which displays every connected device, shows whether it's online or off line, and displays details about each, including the computer name, IP address, MAC address, operating system being used, shared folders, and system information such as its processor and RAM. It is hard to believe you can get that much network information out of a free tool. I also like the fact that it displays alerts about each device, such as if it isn't protected properly. It displays overall information about your network, such as whether there are any problems with overall security or with an individual PC. It also lets you troubleshoot connections, shows whether there are any intruders on the network, and displays information about wireless protection. The tool can create reports about Internet and network use of each PC connected to the network. For example, the software can monitor the use of any individual PC on the network for the Web sites it visits, the times the computer is online and which programs are being used, and then mail a daily report about it to an e-mail address. I have not seen Windows Vista's Network Map offer a comparable level of detail.

There is a paid version of the software as well. The paid version, which costs from $24 to $40 (depending on how many PCs are on your network), delivers daily reports of Internet activity and supports remote access to your network's files.

You Should "X" Active-X: How To

The U. S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has advised in no uncertain terms: "US-CERT encourages users to disable ActiveX controls as described in the Securing Your Web Browser document." Too many vulnerabilities have arisen from the feature, it is not worth having. CERT released a "how-to" so users can disable the feature easily.

Obstinate NATO Allies

The obstinacy of Germany, along with France, Turkey, and Italy, knows few bounds. As the U.S. and its coalition partners bear the brunt of fighting in Afghanistan, the NATO partners refuse to seriously commit themselves to initiatives in Afghanistan. These four countries will not send significant number of troops to the southern front lines. Troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States are committed and seek support from their reluctant NATO cohorts. These nations criticize the U.S. for going it alone but they certainly have their opportunity to become more greatly involved in the fighting. They are not helping though. The U.S. shares a heavy load in the resurgence of Taliban violence with support from Denmark, Romania, Estonia, and non-NATO nation Australia.

New and Improved Al-Qaeda Encryption Tool

I had commented before on a new al-Qaeda encryption tool but now security researchers have had more time to analyze the piece, they have troublesome news.

The updated encryption tool improves on a first version, is well-written, and is an easily portable piece of code.

The messages that are encrypted using the tool, Mujahideen Secrets 2, should be relatively easy to spot and track, according to Paul Henry, vice president of technology evangelism at Secure Computing Corporation.

I disagree that this should be handled by law enforcement, though most counter-terrorism is, but it is better than no tracing at all.

The files can be identified because it puts a unique fingerprint on them. "You may not be able to read the messages, but you will be able to figure out where it was sent from and to whom," Henry stated.

Mujahideen Secrets 2 was released last month via an Arabic-language Web site set up by an Islamic forum called al-Ekhlaas. The two servers it was available on, from a Web hosting firm in Tampa, Fla., and previously on a system owned by another company in Rochester, Minnesota, both have ceased working.

The al-Ekhlaas site had been moved to a server based in Phoenix but the link to the site on that server also is broken.

Mujahideen Secrets 2 is sophisticated software, from an encryption perspective, in that the new tool is easy to use and provides 2,048-bit encryption, an improvement over the 256-bit AES encryption supported in the original version. Moreover, even more interesting is the ability to encrypt Yahoo and MSN chat messages in addition to e-mails.

Not surprisingly, I have noted my dismay with the ability to house terrorist sites, and use sites, all based in the U.S.

The tool also employs a more obscure manner of communication. The tool can take a binary file and encrypt it in such a way that the file can be posted in a pure ASCII or text-only format. What this means is that terrorists could use Mujahideen Secrets 2 to encrypt files and post them on sites that aren't on the Internet, for example, on a telephone-accessed bulletin board.

The portability of the tool is also impressive. The software can be loaded on a USB memory stick, then a person could employ an Internet cafe, plug in the USB device and run Mujahideen Secrets 2 to encrypt any communications from that cafe.

This would make it virtually impossible to track such an individual because the communication can be done so covertly and quickly.

The ease of use is improved in the new version, it has an improved GUI (Graphical User Interface) and the software appears to be easy to use by relatively low-level operators according to Henry. The tool and transmission of information allows relative novices to easily and surreptitiously access encrypted messages.

Note on Benjamin Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld

In Benjamin Barber's book, Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism's Challenge to Democracy, he presents an interesting interpretation of Jihad. He does not mean the typical Islamist struggle but he portrays, rather like Thomas Friedman's, The World is Flat, Jihad as a divisive impulse, as in Friedman's other work, The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Most people across the world need to decide which they favor, Jihad and the Olive Tree, or a Flat World with a Lexus. The choice is rather stark so Barber illustrates how American life is impoverished given as it is to rampant consumerism. Democracy and community and neighborhood involvement is at an all-time low so he points out how neighborhood and local initiatives must become engaged for democracy to work.

Women Urged to Jihad and Suicide Operations

Not only are mentally challenged women employed as suicide bombers but a host of women's forums on Islamist Websites are preparing women to carry out Jihad and suicide operations. Several of the Islamist websites include special forums for women which reveals that these forums encourage women to carry out suicide operations. Islamic history and the present is invoked to urge that women take an active part in jihad. They also promote jihad indoctrination from an early age and publicize the most radical sheikhs' fatwas on jihad and martyrdom.

The most active sites are sites: al-hesbah, shmo5alislam; and, al-faloja.

A typical example is: "How I Hoped to Turn My Body into Slivers to Tear the Sons of Zion to Pieces, and to Knock with Their Skulls on the Gates of Paradise."

Another typical Al-Hesbah subscriber entitled a message: "Secure Yourself a Chandelier under the Throne [in Paradise]," in which she encouraged Muslim women to carry out suicide bombings.

Cf. Memri.

Mentally Disabled Contribute to Iraq

I know there must be some sort of limit on the atrocities of the insane but news out of Iraq states that two mentally disabled women were strapped with explosives.

The women were sent into crowded Baghdad markets where they were blown up by remote control.

The bombs killed at least 98 people and wounded more than 200 during the holiest day of the week for Muslims.

The threat is real, the insurgents will use anything, and anyone to achieve their goal of de-stabalizing Iraq.

Vista Shrinks

How do you shrink a bloated 15GB Vista operating system? Dino Nuhagic, a fifth-year student from Split, Croatia answered with his own product, vLite.

The free program builds a selective installation of Vista components that strips the bloated OS which can be burned to a DVD.

Some vLite users stripped Vista into a package as an image file that was as small as 515MB and takes up just 1.4GB on the hard drive.

One report stated that condensing Windows Vista Home Basic into a 526MB .iso file and installing it in a virtual machine that used 1.3GB of drive space.

TSA Announces Blog

Under the banner: "Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead. You Play A Part," the (Transportation Security Administration (TSA) launched a new blog to get questions and feedback on airport security issues.

I have a question, what are the limitations, if any, on the attire of TSA inspectors. For example, can the TSA inspector wear a hijab?

The checkpoint personnel may seem pushy, we are all wondering how to adjust since as travelers we need to, as the Islamofascists seem to travel at will. I just wondered.

Hoover's Scoops Up Social Networking

Hoover's launches a professional networking tool so that goes to show you how business is learning from teenagers. Hoover's Connect can leverage Outlook contact lists to expand professional networks which is not significantly different than what the kids have been doing. An algorithm in the Connect tool evaluates the strength of the networking and rates them accordingly. In addition, users themselves can evaluate the potential for a particular networking opportunity based on their own Outlook contacts.

Not All Find Al-Qaida's Presence Comforting

The Iraqi tribal Chief Saban al-Bazoun asked al-Qaeda to go home and blow themselves up and to stop targeting Iraqis.

Video source: Memritv.

Philadelphia's Wi-Fi Network to Close?

Like most municipal plans nationwide, Philadelphia's Wi-Fi network may not happen but the City announced plans in that eventuality occurs. Philadelphia's CIO stated that there is a 75% chance that EarthLink Inc. will sell or abandon its network operation within a year.

Terry Phillis, Philadelphia's CIO, anticipated that the city will know more within 60 days about what EarthLink, the present network builder, will do regarding the Philadelphia plans. Either the City will take over the project, which is not really a good option, or, a sale of the Wi-Fi network may hand it over to another private network builder and operator.

The network is designed to close the digital divide and assist lower-income residents gain Internet access. Whether this happens or not is still up in the air. Those programs which seem to help those most in need don't always happen. `The best laid plans of mice and men . . . '

Welcome to the New Boss: Globalization

Graphic source: somethingworthwhilequotes.com

Globalization is something I experienced first-hand ten years ago although at that time I don't think I had realized what the term implied or even if I'd heard it at that time.

I needed work done for online projects and my staff, inclined as they were to spending time with their families, wanting to sleep, and having sundry and important things to do actually wanted to go home circa 5 p.m. Slackers!

Work needed to get done so I starting looking online for free-lancers who could do the work. I was pleasantly surprised to find eager, competent, and educated personnel who could do the work responsibly and easily meet 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time deadlines. Didn't they have to sleep? Didn't they have families and lives too?

Of course they did but as the sun sets on the United States, hopefully not permanently, the sun is rising, and I hope only metaphorically, to the West. Geographically this area is generally known as the Pacific Rim, or the East: China, India, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Korea.

I should have been more aware of this development because during 1994-1998 I first employed electronic bulletin boards and sought qualified experts to comment about online academic courses I developed in a University Liberal Arts program.

The answers were articulate, accurate, and academically credible.

All of this though has hardly prepared me for the hand-wringing which began in earnest a couple of weeks ago when Citibank, Merrill Lynch, and other financial services giants announced that they were turning to countries like China, Singapore and Kuwait for the billions in funds they desperately seek to cover their losses from the sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

Is American #1? The question haunts my classroom on a daily basis as I consider the notion of the wealthiest, most powerful nation on Earth depending so uncomfortably on foreign investment.

We need to get accustomed to it.

IBM, the paradigmatic "American" IT company, relies on foreign interests for nearly two-thirds of its business and has advertised its position as a stalwart globalized IT enterprise. IBM is closely allied with Asia, in particular, India.

The plain truth is that globalization is inherent in economic life today. If you are fighting the inevitable, you need to adjust.

This is not your father's analysis and globalization if anything will simply increase. The task here is to adjust, decry risk-averse strategies, and try to prosper through challenging times.

Note on Karl Christ, The Romans: An Introduction to their History and Civilization

The Roman struggle over social equity during the Struggle of the Orders during the Republic is one of the classic eras to examine as grist for the mill as adherents of all political persuasions seek to capture it for their polemics. Karl Christ deftly handles the period and does not pander to an extreme liberal view, as in Marx, nor does he defend the conservative status quo. He rightly situates the Struggle as a two century battle, not easily captured by any more contemporary politics.

In an outstanding book in so many ways, a genuine highpoint is his summary of the civilization as one of the most important bases of the modern world. Christ notes that the Romans form the basis of so much of Western Civilization and later Revolutions. He handles the major scholars of Roman history, Mommsen, Herder, von Ranke, Burckhardt, Rostovtzeff, and Syme, all of whom appear with a flourish in the concluding chapter. He summarized the "virtues" and excesses of Rome and describes why they are so important to our own questions and why Roman civilization remains a treasured darling of historians. This is the best one volume introduction around.

Fort Dix Six Recruit for al Qaeda in Prison

In newly released government documents, the Fort Dix Six are continuing jihad by recruiting, circulating an al Qaeda DVD, and proselytizing amongst fellow inmates. Their hand-written notes have been released. Cf. http://intelwire.egoplex.com/index.html

AQ Slithering Towards Mosul

Graphic source: The Long War Journal

AQ in Iraq is slithering northwards towards Mosul since the Coalition is pressuring, and eliminating, AQ in the south in and near Baghdad.

Rotten Apple Takes the Cake

Thanks to the good folks over at Internet Evolution an unscientific survey noted that Apple rankles more people as the most hated technology company.

Over a 1,000 pollsters ranked Apple first, then, Microsoft with 27% and 22% respectively. Google was voted on the best liked company at 33%.

U.S. Web Site Supports al-Qaida

A Computerworld
article today announced that a U.S. website offers a strengthened encryption device intended to hide al-Qaeda supporters.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an organization that has monitored how radical Muslims have housed jihadist sites in the U.S. for some time.

In this case, the current server is hosted in Tampa, and previously the site appears to have been run off a system in Minnesota. MEMRI identified the Web hosting firm that owns the server on which the site, al-Ekhlaas that offers the encryption device, is the Florida-based Noc4hosts Incorporated.

Welcome to the Club!

A Professor, an Assistant of course, is claiming to be the first professor to employ a blog to get a peer review of an academic book. He may get more than he bargained for since there are non-peers out there but this is a worthwhile effort.

Academe is a closed circuit process. You have to qualify for the club, and club members decide who is in the club. The club is not always open to alternative voices but if you are an academic you should remain open to creative impulses. Those creative impulsive are often first noticed and expressed by outsiders because they are outside the club. They notice things that the club members miss.

The blog in this particular effort is one that is apropos for the book itself. Outsiders, gamers, and Internet savvy persons are some of the best and creative minds who have applied themselves to the topic. They should be involved.

I wish the author well.

The professor is working on a book about digital fiction and video games and many of these people are outside academia but they have intriguing insights into the subject matter.

It is in this vein then that Noah Wardrip-Fruin, an assistant professor of communication at the University of California San Diego, announced plans to post portions of his forthcoming book, Expressive Processing, on the Grand Text Auto blog to seek peer review and before the book is published by MIT Press.

Computerworld Recommended Books for 2008

Today's Computerworld has an interesting article entitled: Books That Can Change Your Life: Must-reads for 2008 which is well-worth taking a look at.

Financials Get Ready for the Next Challenge

One of my biggest concerns in the Internet age is the “rude awakening” Americans received on 9/11, and realizing how prone our computers systems are to nefarious deeds. Of those directly effected, they learned they didn’t have the communications diversity and redundancy that should have been in place. Many IT organizations though responded quickly and did an unbelievable job of rectifying the identified problems. As people have grown complacent though, they are most likely forgetting several important steps that a recent Computerworld article addressed:

Financial companies have taken these steps to protect themselves against another Internet outage:

* Set up dedicated networks independent of telephone companies in certain parts of the country.

* Negotiated more aggressively with communications companies to guarantee diverse routing.

* Separated data centers and communications centers more widely geographically.

Cf. Computerworld 21 January 2008.

A Contemporary Application of "Teach The Children"

"Teach the Children" is an anti-war song made famous during the Vietnam conflict by Crosby, Stills, and Nash. This is the same group who memorialized the four students killed at Kent State by National Guardsmen in the song "Ohio."

IBM Puts the International to Work in its Name

Due to off sourcing nations "U.S." companies are kept in the black. The question to consider though is how American are companies once their operations are no longer American.

IBM, supposedly a U.S. company, is dependent on its third-quarter earning statement which is justification for globalization. Not only are countries taking U.S. technology jobs, but a recent IBM statement noted that the opportunities in emerging markets is equivalent to the California gold rush.

IBM has 65% of its business overseas, with emerging markets growing by double digits. In the 2006 calendar year, IBM's non-U.S. operations accounted for 60% of its revenue. IBM signed $1.4 billion in services deals last quarter in India alone.

In a broad range of countries such as Malaysia, Poland, South Africa, and Ecuador, a growing middle class favors a buildup of public and private infrastructures to support explosive economic growth.

In India last week, Sebastian Teunissen, adjunct professor and executive director of the Clausen Center for International Business and Policy at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, stated: "I've been doing this for a number of years, and I'm still blown away."

The moribund growth of PCs in the U.S. is outstripped in India. He stated: "There are an awful lot of people there who are really, really hungry for technology."

Cf. Computerworld

Who Should Hack Power: Criminals or the Government? What's the Difference?

Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, according to a CIA analyst, and unless IT professionals begin to close the antiquated systems down or truly security test them, the government will next move to regulate the process.

At a SANS Institute conference of security professionals, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks.

The talk was long on threats while painfully scarce on specifics as to what actually went wrong.

Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the U.S., he said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said.

Of course the government will have to supervise this process unless IT professionals step up their efforts. The alternative is to have the government spying on every power grid in the country.

Wouldn't we all rather have a choice and some options to government spying and intrusion?

Good Morning: Bad News, The Internet Is Gone

Indeed, although most of us worry only about local, and network threats, the threat of the Net being down is “urgent and real,” according to The Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of large U.S. companies. The advocacy group says there is a 10% to 20% chance of a “breakdown of the critical information infrastructure” in the next 10 years. The biggest culprits according to the Washington-based public policy group, may be brought on by “malicious code, coding error, natural disasters, [or] attacks by terrorists and other adversaries.”

Stay tuned for upcoming developments.

French Make Move to Build Naval Base in Abu Dhabi

Graphic source: BBC

I don't know if the French are strong enough but they are about to make a serious move into the Gulf.

I've maintained here that both Russia, India, and probably China should step up to the plate but little France I haven't really considered.

Nonetheless, President Nicolas Sarkozy has not only done France's traditional policy of selling arms to Gulf states but he has done one better by signing a deal with Abu Dhabi for a permanent French naval base.

Will France become more of a target if it is interjected into the complex politics of the Gulf? Probably.

President Sarkozy appears willing to accept that this exposes France to the risks involved in such a sensitive area. There was the recent confrontation between Iranian speedboats and US naval ships recently. In addition, there is a dispute between Abu Dhabi and Iran over three small islands in the Strait of Hormuz.

Even the timing is interesting, coming as it does with a major visit to the region by President Bush, during which he has criticized Iran.

France is already playing an active role in trying to increase sanctions on Iran over its refusal to accept Security Council demands for a halt to uranium enrichment.

I think its a good move and is another indication that the U.S. can stand down as much as possible. I say let the French and others take up some slack and catch some of the flack that the U.S. ordinarily takes.

France is also constructing two nuclear power reactors for Abu Dhabi.

All this interest in nuclear power could indicate a capacity for nuclear weapons at some stage.

France has already sold Mirage jet fighters and AMX-30 tanks to the Emirate and has had a defence agreement with it (mainly dealing with the support of arms contracts) since 1995.

The British never fared well in the Lower Gulf and this allowed the French to make their move which they took full advantage of.

How German Engineering Thwarts Suicide Bombing

It is a sign of the times when a car advertisement incorporates suicide bombing as its motif.

Islamic Terrorists Infilitrating Europe

This is a post about a French journalist who as a refugee from his native Algeria is opposing Islamic terrorists who are infiltrating Europe.

Two Good Quotes

"History does not entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

George Orwell

Insurgents Fight Now for the Coalition

Reports from Al Anbar Province indicate how former insurgents are fighting al-Qaeda and joining Coalition efforts to stabilize Iraq.

Philadelphia Freedom (Its in the water)

With the swearing in of a new Mayor, Philadelphia's belated water project reaches its final phase with new off-the-shelf billing software from Prophecy International. The software finished a month ahead of schedule and at 25% less than budgeted. The project that I mentioned before was actually completed as it was supposed to be, under the previous Mayor, John Street.

Operation Phantom Phoenix Deadly for al Qaeda

Graphic source: The Long War Journal

Around a year ago the surge was announced and Operation Phantom Phoenix is the current nationwide operation targeting al Qaeda's remaining safe havens,. Since 8 January at the beginning of the campaign, Iraqi and US forces have captured or killed 121 al Qaeda fighters, wounded 14, and detained an additional 1023 suspects. Al Qaeda's leadership has been hit hard during the operation, with 92 high values targets either killed or captured.

The material benefits include Iraqi and US forces who have also discovered 351 weapons caches and four tunnel complexes. Iraqi and US forces have also discovered three car bomb and improvised explosive device [IED] factories and 410 IEDs, including 18 car bombs and 25 homes rigged with explosives. Also found were numerous torture chambers, an underground medical clinic, several closed schools and a large foreign fighter camp with intricate tunnel complexes.

The conflict at home though has gone cold. Most of these details have escaped and as people speak up, we will understand more of the language.

Former Congressman Working for al-Qaida?

Graphic source: AP

This is one of those just-when-you-think-you-have-heard-it-all you hear about a former congressman and delegate to the United Nations who was indicted on charges of working for an alleged terrorist fundraising ring. The ring allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida supporter.

Mark Deli Siljander, a Michigan Republican as a member of the House was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about being hired to lobby senators on behalf of an Islamic charity. As in numerous so-called charities, the indictment charges that the group was secretly sending funds to terrorists.

The 42-count indictment accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying; what makes the indictment even more chilling, is that the money turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Siljander served in the House from 1981-1987 and was appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations in 1987.

Siljander writes in a new book that he was closing the chasm between Christian and Muslim communities.

Since 2004 the Islamic group (IARA) has been classified by the Treasury Department as a suspected fundraiser for terrorists.

The government accuses IARA of sending approximately $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated a global terrorist.

After working for the government, Siljander founded a consulting group Global Strategies Inc. and, according to the indictment, was hired by IARA to lobby the Senate Finance Committee to remove the charity from the panel's list of suspected terror fundraisers.

Siljander, IARA, and five of its officers were charged with various counts of theft, money laundering, aiding terrorists and conspiracy.

I find it hard to imagine that Americans would not find al-Qaeda as more of a threat if they can penetrate the United States Congress.

New Inexpensive Laptop

Graphic source: Linspire.

Since October a new sub-$200 fully equipped Linux desktop PC has been released.

Sears.com is selling a Mirus Innovations Inc. desktop machine that runs Linux from Linspire Inc. for $299, minus a $100 mail-in rebate.

The Linspire/Mirus PC features an Intel Celeron 420 1.6-GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, a 56Kbit/sec. modem, a CD-RW burner, a media card reader, a keyboard, speakers, a mouse and Linspire's Freespire 2.0 Linux operating system. There is no monitor included so shoppers will have to find their own to add.

Ghetto Scholarship

I can watch in alarm as scholarship is inhibited and parochial because even with the best of intentions academics inhabit ghetto worlds. Himmells edited a fine volume but although the ancient religions covered here are all over the earth, including the Middle East, there are no contributors from the Middle East. Wouldn't it stand to reason that an Arab or Middle Eastern expert could be found on Mesopotamian religion? Nonetheless, there is no such person in the work. But, the lack of Arab and Middle Eastern scholarship is typical, not extraordinary.

Panopto Giving Away CourseCast Technology

Rich Media software developer Panopto is releasing its CourseCast lecture-capture technology available free to qualified educational institutions. The software is distributed freely though its Socrates Project in exchange for participation in "ongoing beta and developer programs aimed at continually enhancing the technology."

Seems like a good deal to me.

India is the Place to Recruit H-1B Visa Holders

Indian nationals contribute 54% of the H-1B temporary visas available in 2006.

And of those who hold these visas, more than half again, are in computer-related occupations.

China was not even a close second, at 9%, among H-1B recipients. The next largest group of countries, all with 3% each, were Canada, South Korea and the Philippines.

A study by the National Science Board (NSB), which oversees the National Science Foundation, is the 588-page "Science and Engineering Indicators 2008" report that examines the state of science and engineering training as well as the ability of the U.S. to compete globally, and includes an analysis of H-1B visa trends.

Although the U.S. spent a record high in 2006 of about $340 billion in research and development, federal support for basic and applied research has declined for years. Additionally, the report warned that U.S. grade school students continue to lag behind those in other developed countries in science and math.

In a related point the Association for Computing Machinery concluded that Congress is abandoning its commitment to lead in science and technology.

In 2006, the top three employers of H-1B holders were India-based Infosys Technologies Ltd., at 4,908 visas; Wipro Ltd., at 4,002; and Tata Consultancy Services, at 3,046, according to data released by U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) last year.

The U.S. may not be competitive in a global economy. These reports, and ones like them, indicated that the economic output in China, India, and South Korea, is that the NSB report stated that what may be happening is "a slow shift of the epicenter of the world economic growth toward that region."

The education level of people receiving H-1B visas is generally high, almost have possessing a master's degree. The starting salary for both bachelor's and master's degree holders was approximately $56,000.

Vista: The Choice of Small Business

Although Vista adoption has been fairly slow in coming, in a latest report, tracking Vista adoption from Oct. 31 to Nov. 7, 2007, small businesses accounted for 53% of those companies either using or evaluating Vista. The small businesses may not be tied to XP as the larger organizations are and I wonder if SMBs might be more nimble and take advantage of their quicker adoption rate. In addition, the higher-education segment came in second place to the small business, with 49% reporting that their organizations are evaluating or using the operating system, finally, midsize to large businesses were third, with 48%.

Operation Iron Harvest

Graphic source: The Long War Journal

Operation Iron Harvest, based largely in the north, has resulted in 60 al Qaeda fighters killed and 193 suspects captured since the operation began last week. Seven al Qaeda fighters were killed in clashes south of Baqubah. Iraqi Special Forces captured an IED cell leader in Mosul. Coalition forces detained eight al Qaeda operative during raids in central and northern Iraq. Iraqi soldiers captured two terrorists in Baghdad. A senior Sadrist leader was killed in Baghdad.

Operation Phantom Phoenix Increases the Grip On Al Qaeda

Coalition and Iraqi security forces were active on Thursday and Friday in fighting as part of Operation Phantom Phoenix. Two senior al Qaeda in Iraq operatives were killed along with 32 foot soldiers during fighting in Arab Jabour, Miqdadiyah, and the Samarra region. Another 34 al Qaeda fighters were reported captured.

Cf. The Long War Journal. And in response, according to an insurgent video, the terrorists shot off a round or two.

Cheetah May Be a Bargain

The Cheetah, from Force Protection, costs twice as much as a Humvee but it will save lives.

India Transformed

India does not need to be considered a developing country but one that is transformed.

Don't Hold Your Breath

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to authorize peace talks but I would not expect too much.

Anything is better than nothing but not too much will come of this effort.

Waxman Releases TSA Report

Chairman Waxman releases a report on information security breach at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Traveler Redress website.

Pledge to Build a $75 Laptop

As if the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative was not enough a former OLPC CTO (Chief Technology Officer) aims to create a $75 laptop. If a new effort, Pixel Qi, by former CTO Mary Lou Jepsen can deliver the company a sunlight readable device.

A low-cost laptop has arisen from OLPC however the $100 XO laptop in 2005 has since become afflicted by production delays and rising costs. The laptop's estimated price rose $200. Now the effort is plagued by waning orders and competition from commercial vendors that threaten to sideline the nonprofit effort.

Government To Stop Killing Trees

For the first time the White House will cut paper out of federal budget. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will release a paperless 'e-budget' for FY09. The new budget will save roughly 20 tons of paper, or about 480 trees, for the government's first-ever paperless budget on Feb. 4.

Secunia Patches

Nearly every one is a victim of Windows PC but far fewer suspect they have an unpatched application.

Secunia provides the numbers and they are bleak: nearly all Windows computers are likely running at least one unpatched application and about 40% contain 11 or more vulnerable-to-attack programs.

Secunia ASP research shows that more than 95% of the PCs that have downloaded and installed its Personal Software Inspector (PSI) utility in the last week sport one or more applications. The solution is usually pretty simple, download the security fixes, but most people are not patching their systems.

So many systems are insecure. Almost half scanned in the last week have 11 or more vulnerabilities, while more than two-thirds have 6 or more unpatched programs.

Keep in mind that the typical user is more than most concerned about patches so the numbers are no doubt higher amongst average users

PSI runs on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Server 2003, and can be downloaded from the Secunia site.

Ideas Too Big for YouTube

A new site that I just considered is Big Think. The site bills itself as YouTube for intellectuals and that is a fair assessment. There are videos and people can post their comments on the content. Its worth a look.

Big Think is funded by Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, and Larry Summers, former U.S. secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard University.

Sears Sued

As an update to the Sears issue which some people claimed was a privacy breach, a suit has been filed as a class-action case.

The case was filed on Friday by New Jersey resident Christine Desantis, who is represented by KamberEdelson LLC, a technology law firm.

Microsoft Says "Happy New Year"!

Microsoft greeted the New Year with only a moderate number, three, of patches.

Microsoft Corporation today released two security updates that patch three vulnerabilities in Windows. Only one of the three flaws is rated "critical," the highest ranking Microsoft uses, and the other two are only "important" and "moderate," the next two lower steps in the company's four ranks.

MS08-001 is the critical update that addresses two bugs in a trio of Windows' TCP/IP protocols.

Most of the issues are resolved unobtrusively for most users because these patches can be downloaded and installed via the Microsoft Update and Windows Update services, as well as through Windows Server Update Services. However, most ordinary users will receive the updates if they have their automatic updates enabled. The more problematic machines are for company or corporate computers in which the administrator would need to check that the updates were installed.

31 December 2007 Order of Battle of Coalition Troops in Iraq

Graphic source: The Long War Journal

For informative purposes, I posted the latest Order of Battle in Iraq.

The Hand That Rocks the Bombs

The hand that rocks the cradle.

Daily Report from Amiriya

7 January 2008
The alliance between the US army and Sunni former insurgents is being credited with forcing Al Qaeda out of Baghdad. Murders in the capital have decreased by 80% and calm is being restored.
"It all kicked off when we gathered the men of the area and decided to stand up to Al Qaeda", recalls Abu Tariq. "That was the start of the awakening". Tariq is the media agent and official cameraman for the Knights of Amiriyah, (also known as the Amiriyah Freedom Fighters), the jihadi insurgents who turned against Al Qaeda to help the Americans. While still ambivalent towards US forces, thousands of Amiriyah's erstwhile freedom fighters have signed up. They receive 0 every month from the Americans in exchange for cleaning out Al Qaeda. "The Amiriyah Freedom Fighters have done a great job", raves Capt Brian Wayman. "In the month that I've worked with them, they've caught and killed more Al Qaeda members than we've been able to do for quite some time". In recent months, the Knights have spread beyond the boundaries of Amiriyah into other neighbourhoods, where Al Qaeda are now on the run. As Abu Tariq states; "Things are 90% better now. You can see for yourself".

Muslim Clerics Speak

This is a clip of Muslim clerics preaching.

The Future: Middle Eastern Children's Performance

This clip features the performance of children at a rally. The children are our future.

Sears Gets it Half Right

I blogged before about the criticism that Sears ran into and they addressed the issue. Sears plugs the Web site's privacy hole.

The problem was that Sears Holdings appeared to violate privacy concerns, and as a result, they took part of its Managemyhome.com Web site offline.

A customer's purchase history on Manage My Home might have been able to be accessed by unauthorized persons.

The feature, although handy for customers, is a violation of Sears' own privacy policies.

On the other hand, Sears, the third-largest retailer in the U.S., has left intact its My SHC Community portal, which downloads invasive ComScore Web tracking software to some users.

The criticism is that the company does not fully disclose what the software actually does.

As the Sears 2005 merger with Kmart progresses, there are apparently some rough spots. At least partially, Sears is making the effort to right the ship.

Note On: "The Looming Tower"

The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright, an excellent book by the way, has a touching scene when Ali Soufan, the Lebanese American FBI agent who interrogated Abu Jandal, the Yemeni source for much of what we know about the 9/11 hijackers, where Ali finally breaks him.

Ali got Abu to identify the hijackers in a brilliant ploy.

But Wright builds up to the identification of the hijackers by beginning his story six decades ago with the first Middle Eastener to attack the West.

Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian who was offended by the decadent Americans while attending college in Colorado. Qutb's jail time manifesto justified takfir which held that Islam was the only true religion and that true believers had the religious obligation to kill everyone—including women and children—who disagreed with the true faith (29).

Wright describes Bin Laden's youth and evolution as a thinker when in 1980 Osama adopted the doctrine of takfir as al-Qa’ida’s operating principle.

The Americans are slow to understand Bin Laden but when they do FBI terrorist experts Dan Coleman, John O’Neill, and to a lesser extent Michael Scheuer and Richard Clarke are quick to identify him as a significant threat. They first learned of al-Qa’ida from a Sudanese defector, Jamal al-Fadl, shortly after bin Laden declared war on the United States in 1996. While al-Qa’ida evolved and planned its terrorist operations—the first World Trade Center bombing, the attacks in Lebanon, Africa, and on the USS Cole—leading up to 9/11, the FBI and CIA came to realize that al-Qa’ida planned terrorist attacks against America itself.

Wright documents that on 11 September 2001, the Bureau had only one analyst working full time on the al-Qa’ida account.

Wright demonstrates that the failure of the FBI and the CIA to cooperate at key junctures and the failure of Clinton to aggressively identify and attack Bin Laden provided him a loophole to escape.

In the words of Scheuer in his own work Imperial Hubris, American policy makers failed to smoke Bin Laden in the dust of history. Americans were failed by the tepid investigation and muted response by American policy makers. The tragedy of 9/11 is the result.

Texas Teen Girls Slain for Honor?

Graphic source: The Dallas Morning News

The faces that peer out of the photograph may look like typical American teen age girls but they are not.

The two slain Lewisville High School students, near Dallas, Texas, sisters were mourned at services. Sarah, 17, and Amina Yaser Said, 18, both excelled in academics and athletics but their Egyptian-born father, Yaser Abdel Said, is still on the loose. They were both found shot to death in a taxi at an Irving motel.

There are rumors and media reports that the Muslim father's religion may have been the reason for the killings as "honor killings," a practice in which a man kills a female relative who he believes has somehow shamed the family.

Irving police are investigating but they have acknowledged that the family had some previous domestic problems.

Gail Gartrell, the sisters' great-aunt, charged that Mr. Said physically abused the two girls for years. The father was upset recently to discover that the girls had boyfriends.

The mother and girls had fled the father thinking he would kill them.

At the funeral, Dr. Yusuf Kavacki, head of the Richardson mosque, told mourners that all living things are destined to die. He did not address the Muslim issue of honor killings.

These are strange days in America when no one questions the death of children.

Juan Cole Addressed the AHA on the "Lessons Not Learned in Iraq"

Juan Cole spoke yesterday at the American Association of Historians.

Biography:

John "Juan" Ricardo I. Cole (born October 1952 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is an American professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan. As a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, he has appeared in print and on television, and testified before the United States Senate. He has published several peer-reviewed books on the modern Middle East and is a translator of both Arabic and Persian. Since 2002, he has written a weblog, Informed Comment (formerly Informed Consent).

Cf. Wikipedia.

Criticism

Alexander H. Joffe in the Middle East Quarterly has written that "Cole suggests that many American Jewish officials hold dual loyalties, a frequent anti-Semitic theme." Cole argues that his critics have "perverted the word 'antisemitic,'" and also points out that "in the Middle East Studies establishment in the United States, I have stood with Israeli colleagues and against any attempt to marginalize them or boycott them."

According to Efraim Karsh, Cole has done "hardly any independent research on the twentieth-century Middle East", and Karsh characterized Cole's analysis of this era as "derivative." He has also responded to Cole's criticism of Israeli policies and the influence of the Israel lobby, comparing them to accusations that have been made in anti-semitic writings. Cole responded directly to Karsh in his blog, dismissing one of Karsh's charges, that Cole's criticisms echo themes in the antisemitic tract Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as a "propaganda technique," adding that "No serious person who knows me or my work would credit his outrageous insinuations for a moment." Cole also defended his knowledge of modern Middle Eastern history, comparing his experience "on the ground" in the modern Arab world favorably with that of Bernard Lewis, a historian he said is "lionized" by Karsh.

AAH Features a Non-Expert to Present on Contemporary American Foreign Policy

Bruce Cumings spoke yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Historians.

He is a historian and a professor at the University of Chicago, specializing in modern Korean history and contemporary international relations in East Asia. In this instance, I'm not sure why he is considered an expert in American presidents or in Middle Eastern affairs. This is not his area of expertise.

During his talk, he stated that he is not sure why he is so "nervous" but he has been on a "liquid diet."

Criticism

Cumings' scholarship on Korea has been challenged by some academic critics, and in general his work has stirred up more controversy than that of most other historians.

Paul Hollander has argued that Cumings' has a left-wing, pro-North Korea bias. He cites the example of Cumings' discussion of the North Korean gulag system, noting that "in a triumph of selective perception, he manages to interpret the most damning indictment of the North Korean gulag available--The Aquariums of Pyongyang, by Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot--as providing support for his views of the system. As he sees it, the book is 'interesting and believable' because it is not the 'ghastly tale of totalitarian repression that its original publishers ... meant it to be.' But it is precisely and resoundingly that, as any reader without a soft spot for North Korean tyranny would readily discover. Cumings writes that "conditions were primitive and beatings were frequent [in the camp described in that book] but the inmates also were able to improvise much of their upkeep on their own ... small animals could surreptitiously be caught and cooked." He delicately refrains from mentioning that these small animals were mostly rats, and a regular part of the narrator's diet. That book makes abundantly clear that hunger and malnutrition were endemic; inmates stealing food or trying to escape were executed. Cumings also fails to mention these public executions the inmates were obliged to attend, stressing instead that families were commendably kept together and that "death from starvation was rare." In any event, he suggests, these deprivations are put into the proper perspective by our "longstanding, never-ending gulag full of black men in our prisons"--which should disqualify us from "pointing a finger."

Historian Allan Millett has argued that Cumings' "eagerness to cast American officials and policy in the worst possible light, however, often leads him to confuse chronological cause and effect and to leap to judgments that cannot be supported by the documentation he cites or ignores."

Writing in the Atlantic Monthly, Korea expert B.R. Myers lambasted Cumings and in particular his book North Korea: Another Country. Myers argued that, in the book, "Cumings likens North Korea to Thomas More's Utopia, and this time the wrongheadedness seems downright willful; it's as if he were so tired of being made to look silly by forces beyond his control that he decided to do the job himself."

Cf. Wikipedia article: Bruce Cumings.

Santa Knows How to Navigate and Shows Me How

Graphic source: Magellan.

Finally haven taken the GPS plunge, thank you Santa, I now plot my current location, so that my Magellan Maestro 4210 North America can acquire at least three different satellite signals. The more signals it grabs, the more accurate its positioning will be. The device allows you to see your current GPS signal reception, the number of signals, the direction from which they're being received, and your current longitude and latitude. You can touch a Point of View (POI) icon for nearby services on the interactive map and see the address and phone number (when available) and get an instant route. The SiRFstarIII™ GPS receiver and built-in high-sensitivity antenna provide quick position acquisition for reliable navigation. QuickSpell™ intelligently searches and checks spelling so you can enter your destination with just a few touches of the screen. SmartDetour™ prompts you to route around sudden slow freeway traffic. The SD/MMC card slot may be used to Backup or Restore your receiver’s address book and store Custom Point of Interests (POIs). Backup and Restore is available in the receiver’s User Options from the Main Menu.

Firefox 3 Beta 2, A Tweak or Two

Graphic source: Computerworld

I'm a big fan of Firefox so with a new release in the offing I took a look. One handy new feature is the downloading information. In order to keep better track of downloads the upcoming Firefox 3 Beta 2 includes a handy Mozilla tweak. Not only the file name is listed but also the URL it was downloaded from, and the download information includes an icon that leads to information about when and where you downloaded it. The Remove link has been removed from the Download manager although you can still delete by right-clicking. I would have let it as it is but I'm quibbling here. I look forward to more development to see what Mozilla comes up with. I do like the increased security features as well.

Internet Is a Mixed Blessing for Politics

In Iowa, as I think has been the case building up to the caucus, is that however interesting novel uses of the Internet may be, the number of Facebook "friends" or the number of YouTube video views that campaigners have elicited, has not resulted in solid results. The candidates seem to be stuck in the same quandrey as businesses. They don't know how to effectively exploit the unbelievable amount of free time that people expend online into purchasing, or electoral support. The Web 2.0 world has been a mixed blessing for politicians.

A note on: Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, Robert Pape

Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (2005; ISBN 1-4000-6317-5) by Robert Pape is a cogent analysis of suicide terrorism. Pape compiled a database at the University of Chicago where he directs the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism.

Pape claims to possess the world’s first “database of every suicide bombing and attack around the globe from 1980 through 2003 — 315 attacks in all” (3).

He states: “what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland” (4).

It is imperative that Americans understand his point.

How can the U.S. respond? Pape has a few suggestions.

Victory should be defined as defeating the current crop of terrorists and preventing a new group arising.

He states: “the taproot is American military policy” (244).

Pape suggests a policy of “‘off-shore’ balancing”: establishing local alliances while maintaining the capacity for rapid deployment of military forces (247-50).

The local alliances, this is my point, Pape is not responsible for this, should be to increase the involvement of Middle Eastern states, the Russians, and Chindia.

Sears and Kmart Nabbed in Spyware Controversy

Graphic source: screen shot by Benjamin Googins

Sears and Kmart are old-time companies that do not grasp the implications of the technology that they are using. This is not to excuse what they did, as they have recently been embroiled in a spyware controversy but it is what it is.

This is unfortunate for Sears since I've been really been impressed recently with Sears' sensitivity and support for our military personnel but here they are in the midst of spyware.

How so? Apparently, customers who sign up for a new marketing program may be giving up more private information according to a leading anti-spyware researcher.

According to a story released by Computerworld, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Ben Edelman, Sears Holdings' My SHC Community program falls short of U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) standards by failing to notify users precisely what occurs once they download the company's marketing software. Sears does not tell customers that the software "tracks every site you go to, every search you make, every product you buy, and every product you look at but don't buy. It's just spooky."

CA senior engineer Benjamin
Googins wrote in a late December blog entry that criticized the software. The Sears software was written by VoiceFive, a subsidiary of Internet measurement firm ComScore.

In his blog, Googins states his conclusion:

Sears.com is pushing software with extensive user tracking capabilities and doing a very poor job of obtaining informed consent – if at all. After the proxy software is installed on the user’s system there is nothing on the user’s desktop to indicate their every move on the Internet is being collected and sent to a third party market research company, comScore.

Although the software was not written by Sears they are still clearly responsible for the content and application of the contracted software. Oops, it looks like the old-time companies who foster good customer relations need to work harder.

Graphic source: another screen shot by Benjamin Googins

Acceptable Costs of War?

There are those that would say there are acceptable costs associated with war. The key is of course that the current sentiment in America does not allow for complex answers, unspeakable horrors, and relentless warfare. This new type of American would be unrecognized by historical figures such as Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, et. al.

Islamofascists Testify

A recent video introduces us to some Islamofascists.

Considering a Hard-Drive Erasing?

Looking for a disk-wiping program, preferably one that meets the U.S. Department of Defense's standards for disk sanitation? The DOD suggests that a hard drive should be wiped clean seven times so these programs will overwrite your entire hard disk with data multiple times, ensuring that the original data can't be retrieved. I hope you can be patient because it can take several hours to wipe the hard disk.

One to consider is Darik's Boot and Nuke which is free down loadable software that creates a boot disk which wipes everything cleanly on the hard drive. It can be used with floppy disks, USB flash drives, as well as CDs and DVDs. A similar program is Eraser which I have not seen or used so at some point I may be able to compare the two.

FBI Abuses Biometrics

Graphic source: Bob Shaw For The Washington Post

The FBI is preparing to abuse a vast database of biometric data in a $1 billion project which includes images of irises and faces. The FBI has consistently had a truly abysmal IT record so I would not imagine this can be a good development.

The basic procedural protocol and etiquette between our top two crime and espionage units, The Company, and the FBI, is so much more a cultural and organizational priority that I can see little good to come out of the new project. It also seems inherently flawed along Orwellian lines.

With the FBI possessing the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, I can envision a government with an unprecedented ability to monitor individuals in the United States and abroad.

Apparently, digital images of faces, fingerprints, and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement.

A 10-year contract will be announced soon that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information the FBI receives. World-wide policing will rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even individual characteristics and personal traits such as the unique way that people walk and talk will be included. At an employers request, the FBI will also retain the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees encounter the law.

The project has alarmed some, such as Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Project of the American Civil Liberties Union because: "It's enabling the Always On Surveillance Society."

The system planned by the FBI is called Next Generation Identification and it looks like its here to stay.

The servers in the Appalachian underground facility which houses the project, the size of two football fields, receives a hit every second from somewhere in the United States or Canada, comparing a set of digital fingerprints against the FBI's database of 55 million sets of electronic fingerprints. A possible match is made--or ruled out--as many as 100,000 times a day.

If the system works well at all, the information would be collected from a wide variety of sources and would subsequently available to multiple agencies which increases the chances to catch criminals. This procedure was not done in 2001 which allowed the 9/11 hijackers to escape detection. The FBI will make both criminal and civilian data available to authorized users and there are now 900,000 federal, state and local law enforcement officers who can query the fingerprint database.

Orwell, anyone?