I look like Kevin Mitnick…
This pleases me very much in a very sinister way…
For those not in the know here’s the Wikipedia article on Kevin Mitnick, old-school cracker of the early Internet.
The best quote of that entire article (emphasis mine): “Mitnick states that he compromised computers solely by using passwords and codes that he gained by social engineering. It is notable that Mitnick did not use software programs or hacking tools for cracking passwords or otherwise exploiting computer or phone security.”
People: beware.
Airshows, noise and fries with gravy…
Today I went to the McChord AFB Airshow with my airliners.net friends April and Steve — was a complete blast and the weather was perfect. I got my airshow need taken care of for the year. It was great.
I took mostly videos instead of photos. Here’s some of the best. The first two are experimenting with larger sized videos
An F/A-18 rips by at mach 0.99:
Thunderbirds solo cross:
B2 stealth:
Thunderbirds loop:
After waiting 2 hours to get out of the Parking lot, April MADE us stop at Ikea (where I left my car and carpooled with them) and eat meatballs, fries and gravy — with the gravy over the fries…Hmmmm. Must be a Canadian thing… 🙂
Gone fishin’
My Dad was quite successful in his latest endeavor — gone fishin’. Here’s the results:
This was significantly larger than the 2″ minnow we caught at Cranberry Lake while camping decades ago! 🙂
Be warned…
Natalie and I are once again joined in our relentless pursuit of all things beer & kitsch related.
Firefox is now my primary browser
As a geek-in-residence, I have about 5 different web browsers that I banter back and forth in my web surfing. Each one of them had advantages and weak spots.
So the Mozilla people released Firefox 3.0 with much fanfare this week, so of course I upgraded. I have used earlier versions and thought it was a competent browser, but wasn’t my favorite. Well, I got to give kudos — FF3, at least to me, seems so much more polished, faster and “ready”
The killer deal for me was a select set of “addons” that you can install within Firefox. These addons have become so important and complete that it’s almost like another operating system. I can do most things Internet-related within my web browser session. I use:
- Ad Blocker Plus
- All-in-one sidebar
- Sage-Too for RSS feeds
- Webmail notifier
- Download Statusbar
- IE Tab
IE Tab is what makes Firefox my primary browser now. Some of their sites just won’t work without it. IE Tab allows you to open a new tab/window within FF using the IE rendering engine so that all that stuff works. As a bonus you can write rules that look at URLs you click and open all such certain web addresses using IE Tab automatically. So now when I visit anything with “microsoft.com” in it, IE Tab takes over and the web pages work. Everything else Firefox handles. Nice!
Anyways, I encourage you all to give FF3 a try.
Life’s a beach!
So enjoying a weekend away at the beach. Even if it is a little cool, it hasn’t rained much although the wind has been fierce. I got a great little condo unit right on the beach in Moclips, which is around 20 miles north of Ocean Shores. Other than an excursion to Ocean Shores itself, I’ve seen maybe 10 people. The beach is wide-open. Me likey!
Also got to take a ride in the parent’s motorhome, as they came along as well — stayed in Pacific Beach down the road. Was fun, until my Dad won at mini-golf. My mother and I are still debating his alleged 10-point win
Wiedmeiers on Mars
So years ago I was reading articles about Mars and stumbled upon an article stating that the Planetary Society was producing a DVD full of Earth sounds, pictures, blah, blah, for an upcoming Mars mission. It also asked if you wanted to submit your name to be etched onto the DVD. So ever the geek I did, and added Mom, Dad and Grama for good measure.
Well, guess WHAT?! Tonight the Mars Phoenix lander…landed!
I watched it live and I had forgotten all about the name-on-DVD thing until I stumbled upon the old link in a news story. Yep, sure enough I had the certificates stored on my computer and viola!
Wiedmeiers on Mars.
CatPostCam Post Mortem, already
So it was working great and then I had to use the camera for something else — go figure. I never use it in 3 years and then I have 2 needs for it at the same time.
Hopefully it will be back in a week.
CatPostCam
Introducing the latest nerdy thing — CatPostCam! I know — very old school these days. But bound to be entertaining for me when I’m at work and want a break or want to waste some time. And hey, if it makes me smile that’s all that counts on this here blog!! 🙂
You can see it over yonder –> in the sidebar.