January 1, 2014

There were 4 posts published on January 1, 2014 (this is page 1 of 1).

Highlights of 2013: Volunteering

The year 2013 was a busy year for volunteering. Most of my attention was devoted to Little Raleigh Radio, both as a boardmember and as a volunteer. We obtained equipment and set up a studio on St. Mary’s Street. I configured a music server and helped integrate it into the studio. We worked together in the fall to locate suitable transmitter sites and filed our FCC application.

Then the filing window closed and we saw we were one of five groups to apply for our frequency. Not only that, we were the youngest organization to file, meaning we almost certainly lose out to the others when the FCC grants its license. We’re still plotting our next steps but it’s depressing to see this opportunity slipping away with little we can do about it.
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Happy New Year 2014

I’m really looking forward to 2014. I see it as the year that I kick things up a notch in many ways, the first of which is to better myself as a person. I hope you achieve the goals you set for yourselves as well.

De-cyst

Operating Cyst-em

Operating Cyst-em

Above is an X-ray of my upper jaw, taken in July 2013. Back in 2000, dentist Dr. Brown expertly performed a root canal on my Tooth 14. Not long afterward, though, a cyst of some sort (the dark circular area above the root in the X-ray) began developing above the affected tooth and took up residence inside my jaw. My dentist, Dr. Bill Sowter, is amazed that I don’t jump out of his chair whenever he taps the area, yet it doesn’t hurt at all.

Friday morning I go under the capable knife of Dr. Gerald Upton when he cuts into my gum and removes the cyst. Because he will have to really stretch my mouth in order to work in the area, he will be giving me general anesthesia for the surgery. I’m not thrilled with the pain and recovery time I’ll be facing but this thing has been lurking in my jaw for almost ten years and I’d rather have a say in when it decides to start hurting.

Dr. Upton will also be performing an apioectomy which will keep the root of the tooth from harboring bacteria.

I’ll be recovering for a week or two afterwards, with my ability to eat affected for a few days. Probably won’t be a lot of fun, but my family will take good care of me, I’m sure. Kelly jokes that I’ll be removing my alien implant and E.T. will no longer be able to find me but I’m guessing this won’t be a problem.

Wish me luck!

The NSA Uses Powerful Toolbox in Effort to Spy on Global Networks – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Germany’s Der Spiegel claims the NSA’s TAO unit routinely intercepts computer and electronic shipments of targets and surreptitiously plants listening devices and/or backdoors in them.

One of the two main buildings at the former plant has since housed a sophisticated NSA unit, one that has benefited the most from this expansion and has grown the fastest in recent years — the Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO. This is the NSA’s top operative unit — something like a squad of plumbers that can be called in when normal access to a target is blocked.

According to internal NSA documents viewed by SPIEGEL, these on-call digital plumbers are involved in many sensitive operations conducted by American intelligence agencies. TAO’s area of operations ranges from counterterrorism to cyber attacks to traditional espionage. The documents reveal just how diversified the tools at TAO’s disposal have become — and also how it exploits the technical weaknesses of the IT industry, from Microsoft to Cisco and Huawei, to carry out its discreet and efficient attacks.

via The NSA Uses Powerful Toolbox in Effort to Spy on Global Networks – SPIEGEL ONLINE.