GUI Interface Nightmares!

Check out some of these screen shots of GUI interfaces! What were they thinking when the released these products? All I can say is WOW!

Coding Horror

FileMatrix

Emerging technology sees through clothing

Security in airports and other sensitive areas may get a huge boost, thanks to a technology under development that is straight out of science fiction, said to be capable of looking through clothing to detect weapons and other dangerous items. But privacy advocates—and shy people—may have cause for alarm.

Millimeter-wave technology researchers at Northrop-Grumman Space Technology are developing a technology said to enable small cameras to look through clothing and other inert materials to detect weapons or other contraband. This technology, known as passive millimeter-wave (PMMW) technology, can also see through heavy clouds in order to perform aerial surveillance on bad weather days, according materials provided by the organizers of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). Northrop-Grumman researchers plan to present a paper on PMMW at ISSCC here in February 2007.

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VoIP - open season for hackers

This is an interesting article about how easy it is to hack into VoIP calls and extract information, including the ability to listen in on the call itself. Being a VoIP customer, using VoIP in my home, this immediately drew my attention.

But let's give this some thought. So someone hacks into my phone call and discovers my IP address, and maybe even my name. Then let's say they even go so far as to listen in on my conversations. I have to ask myself, do I really care? Do I care that a stranger, who is located "somewhere", knows that in my discussion with a relative that one of my kids were sick or that the car needed repairs? After giving this some thought, this doesn't concern me that much at all!

Now if they were able to get enough information from the call to figure out how to make long distance calls on my tab... then I would be a little concerned.

Click here for the full article.

Apple Mac OS X patch plugs 31 vulnerabilities

I have quite a few acquaintances that use Macs and who have lectured me on the security benefits of using a Mac. My retort was always the same, that since the Mac accounts for such a small percentage of the market, it has not the target of malicious code writers. In the past while, Macs have been gaining in popularity and with that comes more attention.

This recent update by Apple addresses a lot of serious security holes however it does not fix all known issues! As part of an initiative called the "Month of the Kernel Bugs", bug hunters have been focused on finding flaws in Mac OS X. Many of those bugs found are classified as serious and critical flaws.

I guess it goes to show you that Apple is no better at writing secure code or fixing issues when they arise than any other software company. Time to talk to my Mac friends again!