Tracking people using NIKE trainers and the iPod

I like this one and the link below goes to my security news blog..... Some people have way too much time on their hands.!!

TRACKING

A Factoid....

If Manhattan had the same population density as Alaska, there would be only 25 people living there.... Source National Geographic

Mother has son arrested for opening Xmas present early

I had to laugh....

A South Carolina mother has had her 12-year-old son arrested for opening his Christmas presents early.

The boy was taken into custody after his mother discovered he had entered his great-grandmother's house and taken presents from their hiding place.

The boy was handcuffed and taken to a local police station on petty larceny charges.

The boy's mother, Brandi Ervin, told the Associated Press news agency she had acted to teach her son a lesson.

"He's been going through life doing things... and getting away with it," she said.

He had repeatedly taken the present, a Nintendo video game console, from its hiding place in his great-grandmother's house.

Hyperactive

The boy, who has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is already facing an expulsion hearing at his school for attempting to hit a police officer assigned to the school last month.

The boy's case will be presented to York County's Department of Juvenile Justice, which will decide what action to take.

Ms Ervin told the Associated Press she hoped the authorities could scare her son into behaving himself.

"It's not even about the Christmas present," she said.

"I'd rather call (the police) myself than someone else call for him doing something worse."

Starbucks Gossip

If you like your Starbucks Coffee check out the gossip blog, I like the piece about getting Starbucks stores on the moon... :-)

The Blog

High Risk outsourcing

I was reading an article by Bruce Schneier today and he talks about the difference between good outsourcing and high risk outsourcing... and uses the following example to emphasise the point... I like it.. :-)

• Food assembled by 15 - 18yr olds
• Who can't keep their room clean
• They think that a clean working environment is a day old shirt
• Who don't always use soap and shampoo in the shower
• Who believe that washing their hands is a waste of time
• Who have no credentials or experience
• Who barely have a 10th grade education
• Who couldn't boil water 2 weeks ago
• Who work for a minimum wage
• And they are preparing our food.!!

Makes you think doesn't it........

Iraq and private contractors the risk but the money is good!!

OK the money is good but there is a risk and that's not one I would like to take.... But $17000 per month sounds like a good packet.... !!

The US military depends more than ever on private contractors to keep its operations here going - not just to provide meals and other support services to the 150,000 US troops in Iraq, but to guard the convoys bringing in the food and supplies.

If you can live with the risks, being a contractor in Iraq is lucrative

I was talking to one of these contractors recently, as he started his second tour.

He works as a gunner protecting convoys between Baghdad and Kuwait.

"We bring in everything - food, medical supplies and ammunition," he said.

And the convoys are regularly attacked, with far higher casualties than among US troops.

"We had 160 in our group on my last tour," he said. "We lost 40 guys." He was involved in several serious clashes himself.

I asked him why he kept coming back.

"Simple. The money," he replied.

I won't name his company, but the contractor told me he was earning almost US$17,000 dollars a month, tax-free, and with his health insurance covered.

He has a large family.

"Where else can I make that?"

For him, an early American withdrawal would be bad news.

"I need to do this for another three years. Then I can retire."

Something close to my heart....

And a fine example of British Law gone to pieces..... !!

Family Law and the decisions........

5-year "Breathing Space" for a two-year-old
In the case of "G" (A Child) [2003] EWCA Civ 489 in Northampton County Court, HHJ Mitchell recognised that prior to any contact mother "went to pieces", and so ordered a five-year bar on further contact proceedings concerning a 2-year-old child, on the basis that "everyone needed some peace and a breathing space."

Prison for giving his children Christmas presents
In 2000, a judge sentenced a father to four months in prison for giving his children Christmas presents during a scheduled contact meeting, in breach of the court order.

Seeking more then two hours contact is "being too possessive"
A judge who said in relation to a father who sought more than two hours contact per fortnight that "it may well be that the father is being too possessive."

One day's contact per year plenty for two young children
Lady Hale, in a judgment made in the Court of Appeal on the 13th February 2003, stated: "Father should be satisfied with 1 day of contact per year. Father should appreciate that any happy contact, no matter how brief, no matter how infrequent, is of benefit to the children."

If you want to see your children, don't go to court
Said one Judge, "The way to increase contact is to reduce pressure on the mother, contact improves when mother is not under pressure, bringing the matter to court puts mother under pressure."

If you see your children, make sure they don't enjoy it
In another recent judgment, the Judge observed that whilst the child enjoyed seeing the father, this also upset the mother. This in turn led to the child feeling guilty for having good times with his father. The outcome was that the father was prevented from seeing his child as it was judged not to be in the child's best interest.

Family Judges turn to violence
In a case in 2003 concerning an 11 year-old child who was refusing to see his mother, a Judge held a father confined in the courtroom while he sent Court bailiffs to snatch the child from his home. Within two minutes of his order being made, bailiffs forced entry into the house and spent 4 hours smashing down the boy's bedroom door before removing the child, later described as extremely traumatised by the experience, from the home.

Is Vista More secure???

Well the new version of M$'s operating system is on us at last..!! Is it more secure will it help stem the tide of malware and confidence online??

See a BBC story here

Dilbert Made me laugh.....

Image courtesy and copyright Scott Adams...

92 year old blogger

The possibly oldest blogger?? Is there someone older out there. Check out his blog, it is actually very witty and a good read...

92 Year Old man Blogs Up

Prisoners forced to go cold turkey

OK, they were not given the treatment they were used to outside, however I am sorry these people are criminals and get better treatment than the average man on the street....

Reminds me of the story recently about the supposed terrorist who stabbed to death a policeman, he has so far received nearly £1 million in legal aid and the family of the dead officer receive £113K.... Is that justice or fair...

"What human rights did they give to their victims"

Six prisoners and former inmates forced to stop taking drugs by going "cold turkey" are to receive payments, sources at the High Court have said.

The unspecified settlement followed claims the practice amounted to assault and a breach of human rights.

Got the Skis, it was easy....

Went to Snow and Rock at the weekend and got myself a pair of K2 Commanche series skis..... Good price too...

Link is here to K2

Buying a pair of Ski's....

Buying a pair of Ski's isn't easy... well what does all this mean... :-)

Salomon’s new X-Wing Tornado freeride ski offers the versatile, aggressive all mountain skier the perfect solution to the one-ski-fits-all dilemma. Its oversized sidecut and wide waist deliver effortless float off piste, while Salomon’s new Smartrak Prolink technology ensures that the X-Wing Tornado ski offers precise steering and a much-enhanced edge grip on all types of snow. The combination of a monocoque composite single wall construction and Isocell wood core helps to produce a smoother, more manoeuvrable freeride ski that excels across the whole resort with confidence. Salomon’s X-Wing Tornado is a ski that truly opens up the whole mountain for thorough investigation; in Salomon’s own words: “It gives you everything to let you take on the extreme terrain and live the challenge.”

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death

From the BBC Saddam has now been sentenced to death by hanging... He was defensive when the sentence was laid out and they are now saying he will be hanged in the next 2 days... "edit"Actually he has 30 days to respond, so not sure what the time scales will be..

Looks like it's getting very mixed reactions as expected across Iraq, there was one report that in minutes of the verdict a machine gun battle broke out in a Sunni township in North Baghdad....

I can imagine there will be repercussions from the sentencing...!

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity by a Baghdad court and sentenced to death by hanging.

He was found guilty over his role in the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail in 1982.

His co-defendant former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander was also sentenced to death. Former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan got life in jail.

Three others received 15 year prison terms, another official was acquitted.

Its Official its cold....

It only seems like 5 mins ago when it was warm getting up in the morning, suddenly its damn cold here in the UK, well not quite as cold as some places but hey it is...
It can't be as cold as the Alaskan winter, am reading a book by Guy Grieve who gave up all things corporate and the rat race to go live in a log cabin in Alaska... well he had to build it first.. :-) Its a great read... and although sometimes I feel like escaping the rat race I would have to think very hard about going that far... kudos to Guy though..

Fake Boarding passes

I really worry sometimes, OK this guy figured out how to create and print "fake" boarding passes and he cries when the FBI raid his home... considering the current situation I think he should be lucky thats all they did......

If that sort of thing works and I suggest it probably would on internal US flights, there is no way I would consider getting on a flight with any old bozo with fake credentials....


The Link to one of the many posts

Corporate meetings

I found this line on a blog and I just know I have been in on these meetings..... :-)

Besides, the people who say "let's be bigger than Starbucks" in corporate meetings are invariably never the people who become bigger than Starbucks. Their currency is more about fear, politics, mediocrity and golf handicaps. Their lot is simply not that interesting to me.

Useless Information but fun all the same...

The first one amuses me and if you saw the papers recently, on the front page of the Independent there was a picture of a Pelican with a pigeon in its beak, although the pigeon tried to escape, the pelican swallowed it.... now thats quite unique.... considering what they normally eat


1. Pelicans can swallow pigeons whole.
More details

2. Pelicans were first introduced into London's St James's Park as a gift from the Russian ambassador.
More details

3. Sex workers in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.
More details

4. Only 12% of the adult male population had more than one sexual partner in the past year, says the Office for National Statistics.

5. Finland is the only country in the world which broadcasts the news in Latin.
More details

Steve Wozniak

The Woz, on technology hacking and all things techy and geeky... If you haven't read his book iWOZ go get it, its an interesting read on the father of the MAC.....

The WOZ

The clocks are going back and I still don't understand the rationale... I suspect based on the text below we would piss off the Scottish.. :-)

Hundreds of lives would be saved if Britain's whole time system was shifted forward an hour, say council leaders.

The Local Government Association wants winter to be GMT +1, equivalent to British Summer Time. Summer, under the proposals, would be GMT +2.

Campaigners for change believe lighter evenings would make the roads safer for children and cyclists.

But any move to change the time system would be likely to face fierce opposition in Scotland.

The LGA, which covers England and Wales, wants a three-year trial of Single/Double Summer Time (SDST).

Paparazzi

This is a shot I took a while back at Ladies day Royal Ascot, the best thing about the shot is if you look bottom right, the girl with the point and shoot camera, who needs all that gear anyway... :-)

The Nikon D200

Decisions decisions...... I currently own the following:-

D2X
D2H
D1X

I am starting to get a lot of requests for wedding shoots and although the D2X and D2H have provided some great images the reports I have read are that although the D200 being a pro-consumer camera it gets great images and a lot of dedicated wedding tog's are using them, even Joe Buissink uses one, the reports are that the metering is way better than the D2X...!!

I can always see the metering difference between the D2X (which is great) and the D2H after a shoot and therefore editing to get levels etc can take some time, I am very much one for getting the image in the camera and straight into final after download, the D2X pretty much does that for me, so I was wondering if the D200 can improve on that??? Maybe I should hire and try for a weekend??

Pretty cool photography

I came across this set from a blog I was reading "Robert Scoble's". Thomas Hawks photography on ZoomR... I like his style, OK he is a Canon user and I am a Nikon man but hey check out his images they are real nice...

Thomas Hawk

The Winner

An image I took a while ago when I was in Australia at the races.

All images copyright to me.

Money Making Camera's

The introduction of more cameras in the City of London and plans to spread them around the country is once again another money making scheme, the news this morning reported that there was a 20% reduction in congestion in the City after introducing them. mmmmm.... I would like to know how those figures are computed, I for one drive across town most days and it is hugely congested.

You can get fines for blocking or entering the yellow box zones at crossroads, or using certain lanes. Although it is a good thing in some ways, I just can't help feel its all about money.

Motorists are now hesistant to cross junctions just in case they end up in the yellow zones, therefore I would say that slows things down also??

Online Gaming

You know I never knew I would say this, but it is a tad addictive, played online last night with some friends on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, difficult but great fun all the same. The XBOX360 rocks... :-)

Funny Images

I like this image... :-)

The Picture Link

Mums4Justice Campaign

Made me laugh out loud then I considered there may be reasons for it, there are probably many fathers out there who are not really worthy of contact with their children, it reminds me of daytime TV and the people who have set this up, well take a moment and if you have EVER watched the Jeremy Kyle Show you will know what I mean.. :-)

MUMS4JUSTICE

South Korean Man dies after 50 hours online.>!!

50 hours online playing a game, the bit that made me laugh and I shouldn't he was in an internet cafe......!

There is also a story on the same page showing statistics of online craze in China and the fact that a new clinic has been opened in Beijing to treat those people addicted... :-)

The Link

iPods ship with a virus

Interestingly I had an attempt to infect my laptop with the same virus and autodetect deleted it. I got it on my 1GB usb disk when I passed a presentation to a sound engineers laptop in Turkey and it infected my disk, so when I put it back in my laptop it attempted infection. So be careful who you give your USB disks, we use them all the time for transferring data and in my case presentation material..

Apple has posted a warning that a small number of fifth-generation, video-capable iPods shipped carrying a Windows virus.

Apple states, “We recently discovered that a small number - less than 1% - of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it. So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free. As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.”

Web rage.....

Whatever next, a web rage incident a man tracked down a user on a chat room who had annoyed him, drove 70 miles to his house and beat him up. So I suppose a warning for everyone don't piss someone off in a chat room there may be a knock on your door the next day.. :-)

the link

Boy & Camera

A shot I took whilst covering a wedding earlier this year, the boy in question was the page boy and was getting really bored... I just loved the expression on his face against the camera on the table.....
I think I took it with a D1X???

Who are the two most famous Seattle Residents??

The two most famous Seattle residents are?? click on the link when you think you know..!!

Seattalites....

How secure are you on the internet

A quite simple test the BBC have put up online, I got 10 out of 10 but had to think twice about the "elk-online". See how you do?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6047560.stm

Get A MAC

Head on over to the Apple site and check out the new getamac video's they are very funny

GETAMAC

That Look...

This is a shot of a protester outside the South African Emabassy in London. She was aware of me shooting and just gave me that look, not sure what she was thinking but I think I captured something...... Taken with a Nikon D1X and a 70-200mm F2.8 Nikon VR lens.

The Eye

A shot I took of the London Eye a while ago, and edited it to appear as it is now. It was taken during the afternoon in bright sun, but looks better like this......Taken with a Nikon D2X and a 20-35mm Nikon Zoom

Why do the news presenters have to stand up

I can't believe some people.... there are now complaints against the BBC as to why there presenters stand up.... and that some people find it distressing..! "what"
They also find using the presenters names when handing over an element of the news is also bad.

Some people have way too much time on their hands.....

Zorbing

Just seen on the early morning news a craze that has been brought to the UK from New Zealand called ZORB. Basically a large hamster ball created for humans, you get strapped in and get pushed down the hill whilst you scream your lungs out... sounds and looks like great fun... gulp

ZORBING Website

iWOZ

Just got the new book written by Steve Wozniak, the father of the MAC. It's an interesting read and I hope that there is some links with the realtionship him and Job's had over the period they went through some sticky patches. I think the last time they were seen together was macworld Expo 2005, but I may be wrong??

Blogger BETA

And now blogging on the BETA.

The Future of Vista!

As always the news of a soon to be new and all singing OS from Microsoft brings along the sooth sayers and damned.... The code will be broken, as already seenPatch guard is reported to have been cracked and if that is not true the community are reporting within a year it will be... So with Microsofts stance on allowing no security company near their kernel the chances that a major incident will appear within 18 months is actually pretty damn near the mark.