The Non-Profit Tech Guru

Some enterprising teenagers in Maryland have found a way to send speeding tickets to their enemies. Send these kids to Harvard! Don’t like speed cameras? Use them to punk your enemies

There was a scare a while back when someone supposedly found a quick way to crack WPA passwords. Well, it turns out that as long as you use a strong (read random and lengthy) password, it should be fine. Read on…. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081201-gpu-based-wpawpa2-crack-struggles-with-good-passwords.html

ArsTechnica has a piece about a security company’s study showing that there is a significant (read 3-day) lag time between when new threats are released onto the internet and when most anti-virus programs are able to detect them. This definitely reflects my experience – for my clients AVG, Norton/Symantec, and McAfee were helpless in the [...]

GreenPeace apparently keeps track of how green tech companies are in their annual review. Their site lists the following criteria: “The ranking criteria reflect the demands of the Toxic Tech campaign to the electronics companies. Our three demands are that companies should: * clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances; * takeback and recycle [...]

It looks like presidential communication via email is public property – so these guys say he may have to give up his Blackberry. The very notion of this happening to me makes me suicidal…. Of course, I have an iPhone, so I am a much more reasonable handheld addict. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/16/politics/p161249S56.DTL&tsp=1

This just in: Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

OK, I didn’t really buy one, but you can’t be too careful these days. Apparently these new computers are shipping with a virus pre-installed. Is it a feature or a benefit? Read on… http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2016

The pencil-necked geeks over at Google Labs have a new Gmail addon – it’s called Mail Goggles. Using a series of math questions, it pops up at certain times of day (ahem… after midnight…) and helps you to NOT embarrass yourself with a drunken rant sent to your co-workers or loved ones. Pretty soon Google [...]

This guy got 12 people to think he was hiring them for a construction job. Turns out they were unwitting decoys in a bank job. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081003-bank-robber-crowdsources-disguise-to-craigslist-floats-away.html

Turns out Visa, Mastercard etc. are finally getting the picture that WEP wireless encryption can be cracked by a 2 year old with a kazoo. OK, maybe not. Anyway, it too a 45 billion transaction CC number theft to convince the credit card companies that a technology that was effectively cracked in 2001 is not [...]