Bit-Shift.Net

I wish you all a safe and happy 4th of July Holiday!

California law makers have recently passed an act requiring all electronics manufacturers to list how much energy the device consumes while in stand by mode. Thinks like laptop chargers, cell phone chargers or your cable box that displays the time all consume energy when they are "off". In a time when energy is at a premium and people are trying their best to cut down on consumption, these devices are like vampires, constantly sucking down eletricity for no benefit.

An interesting name for a real albeit not widely know problem. Read about it here.

You can't help but notice these days all the reports of companies or government agencies suffering security breaches and information on thousands if not millions of people being stolen and used for who knows what. I know one individual who has had personal information about him stolen from various place three times in the past six months.

But what can you do if you think you've been a victim of identity theft or worse yet KNOW you've been a victim of identity theft. Wired is running on article on steps you can take to protect yourself from others using your good name to do naughty things. One of the easiest steps and from my experience one of the least pursued is checking your credit report regularly. Each individual is entitled to one free copy of their credit report from each credit reporting agency each year.

One of the interesting options available to some US citizens, depending on which state you're in, is freezing your credit report. This prevents anyone from viewing your credit report without your authorization. If someone applied for a credit card in your name and the credit company tries to check your credit score, DENIED. Please call Bob Smith to unlock this credit report. Some states offer this service for free if you have been a victim of identity theft while they may charge a small fee to perform this action if you are suspicious but not sure you have been victimized. Unfortunately, Oregon does not offer this service yet.

In a surprising move Samsung, a maker of many kind of electronics including mobile phones, has banned one of their products from being brought onto company property. The SCH-B570 is an mobile phone that Samsung produces with an crazy 8GB storage capacity. But Samsung is worried about some disgruntled or greedy employee using one of these phones to steal Intellectual Property (IP) from the company.

This is an interesting move where a company bans one of its own products in an attempt to protect it's IP. With a move like this you have to ask yourself, will banning a cell phone really going to solve anything. With higher capacity flash drives, MP3 players and the ability to email for that matter, stealing IP is pretty easy.

At my company we have very strict rules about attaching external and unauthorized devices to company equipment and with good reason. I work in security in the online banking space and a leak of any information or IP could spell disaster for someone or a family and thats not something I ever want to have to face.

Read about it here. (Article requires registration.)

As I mentioned here, back in October I recieved my motorcycle endorsement. I had the helmet, jacket, gloves and the M on my license. All I needed was a bike. Well after much deliberation I have made my purchase. I'm the proud owner of a 2005 CBR 600 F4i. Let the good times roll

When web mail first hit the Internet, way back when, it was a pretty revolutionary thing. Now you could have access to your e-mail where ever you were. Over the years lots of places started offering web e-mail accounts for free, but with limited storage.

Then enters Google and not to be outdone offers free web e-mail with TONS of storage. But something was missing. I was always email myself to remind me of something I had to do. But not anymore. Google has just announced their web calendar. It integrates with your gmail account, you can add friends calendars or public calendars that support the iCal format, and if you so desire can allow it to be search-able on Google.

Check it out here.

Tonight, at 123 seconds past 1 a.m. the time will be 1:02:03 04/05/06. Now if you take into account that we're only using two digits for the year this event won't happen again for another 1000 years in the year 3006. If you happen to be out and about at that time of the night you way wish to find a 7/11 and purchase a lottery ticket :)

Remember back when single core CPUs where king? Man those were the days. Now we've got hyper threading and dual core CPUs at the top of the stack. And for all purposes, a dual core CPU should be more than sufficient. But what if its not? What if you do DNA modeling simulations in your spare time. Well Azul Systems has just the chips for you.

Azul has plans to integrate 48 cores onto a single chip, expected out next year. The company currently has a 24 core chip out but expects to double that. With their new chip, Azul's computer appliance will be able to offer 768 way symmetric multiprocessing. Slick! You'll never play video games the same way again.

Read about it here.