The Internet is dangerous

Where were Little Red Riding Hood's parents? The same logic that gave Little Red her name probably sent her out through the wolf infested forest, alone, with a basket full of smelly food to Grandma's house. Of course, you would never send your child out into the spooky woods alone. But, when was the last time you let your child use the Internet without you? When was the last time you ventured out there unprotected and alone?

Luckily, Little Red was saved by the lumberjack. For your safety and the safety of your family you may want to brush up on your Internet lumberjack skills a bit. One good way to do that is to check out the Internet safety podcast. If you prefer your information in text form or you're already a seasoned veteran lumberjack with something to contribute head over to the Internet safety wiki. These are resources that can help keep Little Red Riding Hood from getting close enough to the wolf to ask him stupid questions.

Linux makes me feel guilty

People are always telling me all I ever do is take, take, take. I never give back to the community. Ya well, I don't have time for that sort of stuff. Sure, I have talents and programming abilities that could be put to good use in the open source community, but I'm busy "gettin' mine." A man's gotta eat. Haven't you ever noticed that those guys don't get paid? They do make a pretty mean operating system though (It's got a penguin for a mascot and everything). As far as I can tell these open source guys live off the warm fuzzies they get from making high quality software products freely available to the masses. Here's where I contribute. It is a proven fact that everyday my usage of open source software feeds a programmer suffering from warm fuzzy starvation.* That's right, I'm a philanthropist.


*This is neither proven nor a fact.

The world is flat. Who knew?

In case you haven't noticed, the world has been changing in the last 20 years or so. Growing up I never thought anything I wrote would be read by anyone outside my immediate family. Today, literally tens of people will read this post (ignore the fact that they're still all family members). Virtually anyone in the world has access to my biased opinions and mediocre writing skills. All of a sudden, everyone is within my reach, they all live in my hometown. The world is flat again, we've gone back to Pangaea. So, how do we keep from falling off the edge?

Understanding the events, processes, and technologies that have led to our global society is critical to survival in the flat world (Start here). No one ever thrived in an environment they didn't understand. But, just knowing about something about your environment doesn't guarantee success.

You must adapt to the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities in the flat world. Companies like Dell and Wal-Mart are thriving in the new world because they have recognized (and often created) opportunities that have allowed them to break out of traditional business models and do business more efficiently. These businesses also recognize that they must continue to adapt and evolve with the changing world to stay competitive.

Just like companies must adapt and evolve so too must individuals. A lot of people are trying to push you over the edge of the new flat world. You used to have to outperform the guy in the next cubicle over to get the promotion. Now, you have to outperform all of India to keep your job. This is a pretty scary thought (it scares me anyway). Of course, the solution is to stay marketable by continuing to invest in yourself. You should always be progressing and adding to your skill set. There will always be a place for someone who is versatile and competent.

So, the world is flat, but as long as you're willing to adapt, evolve, and innovate you won't fall off. And just in case you're having a hard time seeing how much things have changed in the last 10-15 years here's a little trip down memory lane.

Hackers are lame

The world is full of malicious hackers. Some of them may have government funding, but the real motivation seems to be proving they are smarter than whoever wrote whatever they're hacking. What they don't seem to understand is that no one is impressed if you hack into a website, it's not that hard and it happens all the time. If you really want to prove your superiority, create a website no one else can hack into, that would be impressive.

Women are wonderful

If you don't want to be a nurse, don't be a nurse. If you don't want to be a homemaker, don't be a homemaker. If you do want to be a scientist or a computer programmer, work hard, study, and make it happen. Unfortunately, we've created a society where it is difficult for women to develop the self-confidence necessary to break gender roles and penetrate male dominated disciplines. Everyone, male or female, old or young, black or white, should be taught to pursue the path they are most interested in. If we give people the confidence to follow their dreams we don't need to worry about encouraging or prodding them into various fields of study. Let them decide for themselves. If you want to be a homemaker, then, dang it bob, be a homemaker!

You never have to leave your house

Most employers offer direct deposit for your paychecks. You can pay all your bills, make transfers, and perform almost any other bank transaction online. If only we could get Grandma to direct deposit our birthday checks we'd be set. Unfortunately, paper checks will probably be around for a while longer. So, you're stuck driving down to the bank to deposit Grannie's loot. Unless of course you could just scan your checks and deposit them through your online banking service. I've actually been doing this for the last 9 months or so with usaa.com and, I have to say, it's freakin' awesome. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how they're detecting fraud with the scan and deposit method but I guess they must have it figured out. With this little advancement you truly never have to go to a local branch (as far as I know, the closest USAA branch to me is in San Antonio, about 1400 miles away).

Cuckoo's Egg

How difficult is it to break into computers containing government records or corporate trade secrets? Well, that depends. It's really up to the person administrating the computers. These days people are paranoid about the security of their data, which helps motivate them to take the necessary precautions. Rarely does anyone's password not contain at least one number and a symbol making a dictionary attack more difficult. Any system administrator that leaves the default passwords on their machines will be quickly dismissed for incompetence. Still, the security is in the hands of humans, and humans aren't perfect.

The complexity of computers and computer networks continues to grow at an incredible rate. As the complexity increases so does the difficulty of keeping these systems secure. More code equals more bugs and back doors in our systems. You could always just disconnect your computer from all networks. You could also move into the middle of the woods and never communicate with the rest of the world. Sure, no one will harm you, but it's hard to get much done out there by yourself.

We are the at the mercy of the people who know about our systems' holes and insecurities. If we're lucky, those people have morals and want to solve the problem rather than exploit it. We're not always lucky but anyone who discovers a security risk has a few options available to them, each with pros and cons:

1. Publish the problem to the world.
Pro: Raises awareness so that the problem can be addressed and a solution can be found.
Con: The whole world now knows a problem that can be exploited until a solution is found.

2. Inform only the creator of the bug of the problem.
Pro: Limits the number of people aware of the problem to those who should be able to do something about it.
Con: The company may decide that solving the problem is more costly than it's worth or if they create a patch, people may not use it because they don't know the severity of the problem it fixes.

3. Write a "virus" program that takes advantage of the problem.
Pro: Forces people to take the problem seriously and find a solution quickly.
Con: Possible criminal charges, destruction of property, and/or lost productivity.

4. Ignore it and hope it goes away.
Pro: Maybe the problem is small or obscure enough that it's not a temptation to hackers.
Con: If it is a temptation to hackers the problem is still wide open and systems are vulnerable.

You get to decide what you're going to do when you discover the next security weakness. It's an ethical and practical issue that you'll have to weigh out in your mind. Or, you could continue to rely on other people to find the weaknesses and decide whether to protect or take advantage of you.