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It looks like the EFF will have much to talk about… again!!

Last year, a talk about the RFID sensors for subways was pulled from DefCon. The EFF stepped in, represented them, and protected their legal rights. The talk still didn’t happen, but the end result was that they ended up teaming up with the transit authority to make their system more secure.

This time around, during Black Hat, there was a talk scheduled on “Jackpotting” ATM machines. Diebold was successful in getting it stopped. Hey Diebold, how about spending your time securing your machines then taking away our first amendment rights!?

This should make for an interesting Black Hat / Defcon. See you there!

Keep fighting the good fight, someday we may get our rights back!

Link to Story

Link to First Amendment (for those who forgot)

Even though I was pretty confident that I passed, I really wanted to know the results of my examination. I Just received the good news from ISC(2).

“Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you have passed the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (®) examination”

All I have to do now is secure my endorsement from another CISSP. I just sent out a request today, hopefully he will be happy to oblige.

It’s perfect timing, because I start night classes again this week. No rest for the weary.

I was reading the usual Penny-Arcade Strip, and I thought they were just making fun of Gillette. Then I looked up top, and the comic says this is actually a real product. I still didn’t believe them so I had to look further. It’s true friends, today I present to you the “Gillette Razor Power Fusion Gamer”.

So a few questions immediately entered my head. I wonder if you could pick it up at Gametstop? Do you have to preorder? Do they sell it used? What is the difference between the “Gillette Razor Power Fusion Gamer” and the “Gillette Razor Power Fusion Fighter Turbo Championship Edition”?

Gilette describes the razor as: “Gillette Fusion Power is Gillette’s Most Comfortable Shave. 8 years of shaving innovation and 20 more patents make Gillette Fusion Power better than MACH3. Gillette Fusion Power is an advanced shaving system with an advanced design that provides optimal performance when using either side of the razor. On the front of the cartridge, Gillette Fusion Power features 5 PowerGlide® Blades spaced closer together to form a shaving surface technology. This design distributes the shaving force across the blades to help reduce pressure, with more comfort and less irritation than MACH3. In addition to more comfort, the 5 Blade Shaving Surface engages more hair more times with successive cutting action, resulting in a closer shave.”

So basically, it has absolutely nothing to do with gaming, except for the fact that it shows “gamer” on the package. Most pathetic marketing attempt I have ever seen. It reminds me of the battery package that says “best for use in electronic devices”. I can just picture the executive board meeting where 10 suits are sitting around a huge conference table wondering how to penetrate into the profitable “gamer” marketplace. The director of marketing stands up, “let’s make a gamer razor, it will be the exact same as our normal razors, we will just put the word ‘gamer’ on the package, they will never know the difference”.

Unless it plays Pac-Man or Space Invaders, change the labeling. This is just pathetic and sad.

I at least give them credit for being honest about it. I think 99% of the spring, glacier, and mountain water are just tap water marked up to a bazillion percent profit margin. I hear Tap’d is doing quite well in New York. Should be interesting to see if it’s offered here in Chicago. If we do,  it will probably be marked up for being “imported”. The French are probably buying this by the truckload. You have to love capitalism.

Anyways, now I’m thirsty, time for some tap water tea.

Selling Your Tap Water Back To You!

Awesome!

A new 0-day exploit has been found. The details are at Security Focus. The interesting thing about this one is that it affects all versions of Microsoft Excel, including the most recent Office 2007 service pack. Proving once again, that keeping up to date on patches only goes so far.

It should be interesting to see how long it takes for a patch to come out for this one.

I’ve been really sick with what I have now called fluncheumonia. I call it that, because it seems to be a weird combination of flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia… or something. My doctor won’t give it a name, just prescribes random stuff for it. You have to love modern medicine.

I have canceled just about everything on my calendar that I have had planned for the past couple weeks. My schedule has been pretty crazy lately, so it’s been a lot. 

I spent a week off of work while staying at home playing Fallout 3 and admiring the next wonderful work of art that would come out of my lungs. I even had the wonderful new experience of completely passing out and waking up on the kitchen floor. It’s been a fun couple of weeks.

Good news is that I’m feeling better, finally. Although not 100 percent yet.