For Brittany

Brittany;

I have been working on this for quite a while now; and, although the plan was to have it completed some time ago, unexpected hurdles presented themselves slowing the already sluggish pace. Even though its timeliness is not quite there, it was (and still is) meant as a congratulation on both your graduation from High School and your matriculation into PSU. Although I am sure you do it with complete confidence, it's not at all easy to imagine you as a young undergraduate signing up for her courses, moving into her dorm room, and attending classes whose beginnings and endings are not marked by a loud obnoxious bell; the little girl with her head wrapped in gauze, helping her father to learn first aid comes much easier.

I hope you know how proud I and all of your family is of you. You are a young woman who has worked hard to make it to where she is today. Hopefully before you started classes this Fall you let yourself sit back, relax, and enjoy the accomplishment. I know that now the demands of school are probably not letting you sit, relax, or enjoy very much of anything. I wish you the best in school and in whatever comes along with it. It can be one of the most exciting and sometimes frightening times of life. Best of luck and all my love and support as you move into this new chapter.

I hope you enjoy the video.

Love,
Uncle Mike

Federal government

Story Published: Oct 9, 2007 at 8:46 PM PST

By Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - The federal government said Tuesday that a petition to protect the giant Palouse earthworm as an endangered species does not contain enough scientific data to conclude that such protection is warranted.

The petition seeking threatened or endangered status for the rarely seen worm - which can grow as long as 3 feet and spit at attackers - was filed on August 30, 2006, by environmental groups.

"We share the petitioners' concern for the species," said Susan Martin, supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office in Spokane. "While we will not be initiating an in-depth status review at this time, we will continue to cooperate with others to monitor the species."

The decision upset conservationists, who blamed the Bush administration.

"Given that the earthworm has been seen only three times in the last 40 years despite considerable survey, the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision is utterly ridiculous and flies in the face of common sense," said Noah Greenwald, biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

"At the very least, the extreme rarity of the earthworm and substantial threats to its habitat warranted further study," he said.

The giant Palouse earthworm was first discovered in 1897 near Pullman, Wash. Although only a few specimens have been collected, it was thought to be abundant in the Palouse.

But the last confirmed sighting of the species was in 2005 by a University of Idaho researcher. Previously, the giant worm had not been seen since 1988.

There is little about the worm in the scientific record. Information regarding the range, distribution, population size and status of the worm is limited, preventing the assessment of population trends, the agency said.

The agency concluded that while the Palouse prairie has experienced a dramatic conversion of native habitat to agriculture, it was not clear if that hurt the worm.

The agency also found no information on predation or transmission of pathogens by other earthworms to the giant Palouse earthworm.

"The service could not determine if a lack of regulations may pose a threat to the species," the agency said.

The giant worm is the largest and longest-lived earthworm in North America. It is reported to have a peculiar flowery smell, and to be cream-colored or pinkish-white. It has been reported to spit at attackers and move quickly through the soil to escape predators.

The petition was filed by the Palouse Prairie Foundation, the Palouse Audubon Society, Friends of the Clearwater and three private citizens. ---

space

Microsoft quietly unveils Vista-to-XP downgrade

Microsoft has reportedly begun offering a downgrade option to PC makers who want to allow their customers to have the option of using XP over the pre-installed Vista software.

Computer manufacturers including Fujitsu, Lenovo, and HP now mainly offer PCs exclusively with Vista pre-installed. Customers who would prefer to have XP can request a downgrade disc for computers that come with Vista Business and Vista Ultimate. These two versions allow downgrading as part of the software licensing, but the process is difficult without a specifically coded disc.

Several big PC makers never stopped offering XP as an option for custom-built computers. However, the standalone operating system software has nearly vanished from all retail outlets.

The new policy dates back to June, when Microsoft caved in to allow the manufacturers to include a special XP downgrade CD with systems that come pre-loaded with one of the two high-end Vista packages. Per Microsoft's licensing terms, it is not obligated to supply earlier versions of its operating system to consumers or manufacturers.

Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech

Stealth Microsoft update breaks Windows Update on “repaired” XP Blog Archive Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech

While Microsoft said the “stealth install” of updated Windows update files — even when users had disabled automatic updating — which we wrote about earlier, was harmless, it turns out it wasn’t quite that simple. For XP users, if you happened to do a “repair” using a repair CD, you would no longer be able to use Windows update … period.

The basic reason for this was that the aforementioned stealth update replaced certain Windows update files. When a repair is done, that file is replaced, and Windows Update is no longer able to function. Nate Clinton, program manager for Windows Update, said on the Windows Update blog:

Here’s what we found: when an XP repair CD is used, it replaces all system files (including Windows Update) on your machine with older versions of those files and restores the registry. However, the latest version of Windows Update includes wups2.dll that was not originally present in Windows XP. Therefore, after the repair install of the OS, wups2.dll remains on the system but its registry entries are missing. This mismatch causes updates to fail installation.

I was confused at first, but what he means is the registry entries for the new wups2.dll are missing — I think. BTW, this is the same Nate Clinton who initially said the stealth update was harmless. I’m being a little harsh here; it’s really the combination of the update and the repair that cause the issue.

How do you fix it? There’s a Microsoft KB article on it, KB943144. Unfortunately, while people like you and I won’t have issues with the procedure, it’s certainly nothing most users would be comfortable with.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, register the Wups2.dll file in Windows. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Stop the Automatic Updates service. To do this, follow these steps:
   • Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   • At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
     net stop wuauserv
2. Register the Wups2.dll file. To do this, follow these steps
• At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
  regsvr32 %windir%\system32\wups2.dll
  Note: For a computer that is running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
  regsvr32 %windir%\syswow64\wups2.dll
• Click OK on each verification message that you receive.
3. Start the Automatic Updates service. To do this, type the following command at the command prompt, and then press ENTER:
   net start wuauserv
4. Exit the command prompt. To do this type exit, and then press ENTER.

We Say: This just goes to show why why it is important that Microsoft shouldn’t force undocumented updates upon users — though I will admit that if a notification popped up with an update centered around Windows Update, I most likely would have downloaded and installed it anyway.

Hey There Delilah

i can never go home

Microsoft admits to stealth updates

• Date: September 17th, 2007
• Blogger: Paul Mah
• Category: News, Security
• Tags: Microsoft Windows Update, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Corp., Paul Mah

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+1

Worthwhile?

Over the last few weeks, and without user approval of any kind, Windows Update has updated nine executable files on both Windows XP as well as Windows Vista.

We first reported about this last week in Microsoft caught doing stealth updates, in which a user noticed files being modified by Windows Update despite automatic update being disabled. This has since been echoed by various users and reports around the web.

Well, it is now official. Microsoft has now came clean and admitted to the ’stealth’ updates.

To their credit, the updates in question were actually limited to updating Windows Update’s own files. Also, the only reason this update occurred is because the alternative would mean that Windows Update itself would stop functioning properly, according to Microsoft.

Wrote Nate Clinton, Windows Update program manager on the Windows Update team blog:

“That result would not only fail to meet customer expectations but even worse, would lead users to believe that they were secure even though there was no installation and/or notification of upgrades.”

However, Microsoft is adamant that there is no wrong here and that the entire issue is more a matter of Microsoft not being clearer. Microsoft Windows programmer Nick White wrote:

We do recognize that we should have been clearer in our explanation of this process earlier in the game…

Note that this issue only affects computers that use Windows Update. Most large businesses will probably be using Windows Server Update Services or a feature in Systems Management Server to perform their updates. They are not affected by this snafus.

Still, Microsoft seems to be missing the bigger picture here. As mentioned in my earlier post, if Microsoft is able to ‘push’ updates to a computer with automatic update disabled, what is there to stop a hacker from figuring out how to do the same.

Is this silent update ‘ability’ a major security vulnerability waiting to explode in our faces?

Happy Ending

For the past few months i keep coming back to this song.... it at least sounds happy.

OutRiders - Taking Care of Their Own

Some of the guys back in Philly taking care of their own. Wissahickon trails are among the top mountain biking trails in the northeast and only 5 minutes from center city Philly. Hiker/Equestrian/Biker relations could stand to be a little better but from what I experienced there are just a couple jerks in every camp and for the most part they are all pretty cool. I used to make a point of talking with the equstrians and never found one (ok, maybe one) who was rude or obnoxious. Close by in MD about 45 min from Philly is another beautiful spot to ride and user relations there are fair to strong. The bikers all around are awesome and some of the friendliest folks I've ever met. One day s/he is a stranger on the path, couple weeks later they're regulars on the ride! Can you tell I miss it?

the title links to more information about Outriders.

These are a few of the pics from Africa that you might see if you check that blog out. Not sure which of these i actually put on. I am in the process of uploading a number of pics and albums at picture trail.... seems like an ok site so far.

Cool Slideshows

the beginning...

It's not easy to get things started....boy, can I tell you that those first few lines are the freakin worst. But there! They're done.

Oh actually I have one other blog - from my volunteer work in Africa - but it's been well over a year since i wrote anything... I did add some music to it. If you wanna check it out... just click here.

I have been thinking about a website or something for a while now and here goes.. Not expecting it to make any sense in the beginning or to really know how i want to use it... That will just be decided as I use it (this) I guess.

First thing was this video I just watched (yes, I SHOULD be working) and wanted send it out to a few people but opted to stop talking about some kind of web space and actually do it...

So, check out the Tony Blair video.. pretty awesome.