Tech News and Other News - Chris Ullrich dot net

Tech News and Other News

Some tidbits from recent tech and other news:

Brighthand reports that Sony will no longer develop and sell Clie handheld models to the United States market. Most certainly that means no more Clies for Europe, too.

That’s ok, I never really liked PDA’s anyway. Even though I have at least three of them in various stages of life. What I really want is a combo cell phone, pda, wireless, bluetooth device that will allow me to make a ffing phone call from my own house. Are you listening ATT Wireless? Get your shit together. I will also be holding my breath for Apple Computer to make the hardware. The iPhone, as it has been called. That would be cool.

From CNN comes an article that makes painstakingly obvious to the public what we already knew: 802.11 security is horrible. The article points out that nearly 40% of wireless network APs haven’t even been changed from defaults and as many as 80% of home APs have encryption disabled. The article goes on to say that ‘[t]o make matters worse, users who don’t secure their networks are often the very people who don’t keep their computers up to date with the latest security patches and antivirus software.’ It also accuses WiFi manufacturers of disabling security measures by default to make wireless easy to the lowest common denominator. My favorite quote? ‘Experts say that while Wi-Fi hardware makers have made initial setup easy, the enabling of security is anything but. Meanwhile, average users are no longer tech savvy.’ Which is to say that they at one point were?

Every day I open the laptop and find an open wireless network. And I don’t even live in San Francisco. I really do appreciate the cup of free broadband though. Thanks.

And becuase I take exception to the way Mr. Bush works:

From CNN.com — A federal judge Tuesday declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional, saying the measure infringes on a woman’s right to choose.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton’s ruling came in one of three lawsuits challenging the legislation President Bush signed last year.

“The act poses an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose an abortion,” she wrote.

I like Phyllis. Maybe she should run for President.

And last, but not least, the Chris Rock quote of the day:

“You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn’t want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named ‘Bush’, ‘Dick’, and ‘Colon’. Need I say more?”

Mmmmm makes you think.

Later

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