Blaster virus likely caused the Blackout of 2003

Found this link on Doc’s website. Bruce Schneier thinks the Blaster virus caused the Great Blackout of 2003. He makes a convincing case, too, reading between the lines of the offical report. Something caused all of First Energy Ohio’s monitoring computers to simultaneously freeze. Sound like a virus to you?

This could also be the fuel for the recent road show that Tom “Mr. Homeland Security” Ridge and his trusty sidekick..er, deputy, Robert Liscouski, have been taking to techies. Their blunt message to tech companies is the proverbial offer-you-can’t-refuse: clean up your code or face potential regulation.

“There should be no mistake about where we stand,” Liscouski said during a press conference at the summit. “We are not going to let anybody who operates in this space dodge their responsibility, and I will be sticking my finger into people’s chests to make sure they live up to their responsibilities.”

I was a bit mystified by this statement when the story broke last week. Why the hell does Homeland Security care about viruses? Surely no fool would run mission-critical systems on flawed operating systems? Yet, if that is in fact what happened, you could expect this exact reaction. That is: don’t dare let on that a stupid computer virus took out a huge chunk of the North American power grid, but discreetly go after the perpetrators once the lights are back on. If YOUR computer caught a virus that crashed an entire power grid, would YOU ‘fess up? I thought so!

This is not without precedent, of course. The same power company had its network completely o\/\/n3d earlier this summer by the Slammer worm. And here I was, thinking guys like Homer Simpson only worked at nuke plants in the CARTOONS! Morons.

(I’ll refrain from pointing out that there are other choices for clean, stable operating systems because that should obvious.)

Return Of Bubb Rubb

There’s been a revival of Bubb Rubb in the office lately. I got tired of Bubb months ago, but some folks in the office are just catching on. It’s still amusing to hear the occasional “wooo whoooo!” around the office. I know I’ll soon be praying he will soon disappear again. 🙂

Even stranger than that is the fact that I still get a significant number of search engine referrals with “Bubb Rubb” in the search term.

Thunder and Quakes

December thunder…sounds like a name for a military operation, huh? I heard thunder about 20 minutes ago. It was quite out of place, seeing how its mid-December. It’s rained buckets today, too. And it still continues.

There was some talk in the office yesterday about how strange it is to have two named storms cruising the Atlantic, long after hurricane season has offically ended.

And what is this talk about an earthquake west of Richmond? When I first heard that, I thought “yeah, west… as in California.” But the epicenter of this 4.5 quake was 30 miles west of Richmond. When it struck at 4 PM yesterday, I never noticed a thing. Dang.

Ol’ Mother Earth loves keeping us on our toes.

The Clock Runs Out For Norm Sloan

Legendary N.C. State basketball coach Norm Sloan passed away yesterday. Lots of comments today about his life.

He coached an N.C. State with David Thompson and Tommy Burleson to a national title in 1974 and provided a spark to the N.C. State-Carolina rivalry.

Even Dean Smith’s comments on Sloan still hint of the sting. No mention of “he was a good friend,” or “what a great guy,” Dean only mentions Norm’s coaching ability:

“What a great coach Norm Sloan was,” Smith said Tuesday. “Believe me, they were our main rivals when he was at N.C. State. His teams played extremely hard.

“He was such a competitor. He passed that on to his players. They played hard, but they played smart, too.”

Sloan obviously did a lot for N.C. State, but he also did a great deal for ACC basketball, too. The Wolfpack faithful owe a lot to him.

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Something to say

I have something to say tonight, but I don’t have time to put it into words. Still beat from this friggin’ cold. Couldn’t even keep my eyes open after dinner.

As my old division chief used to say “I have my reasons …I’m just not ready to go into them now.”

Hello out there

So I’m being a Google Groupie (or ‘ho?) tonight, checking to see who is linking to my site. Turns out I got linkage once on a site called the HippyHillNews, run by a gentleman named Todd Melet. Funny thing is, my link isn’t there anymore.

Looks like I’m down to four MarkTurner.net readers, though, as Todd apparently doesn’t stop by anymore. Guess he decided his politics (quite conservative, if I read him right) and mine (fiscally conservative, otherwise pretty damn wide open) are pretty far apart. No biggie. I’ll add him to my blogroll, anyway.

You see, I don’t have anything against Republicans. Some of my best friends are Republicans. I chuckle at P.J. O’Roarke. I even admire things George H.W. Bush, Barry Goldwater, John McCain, and – hell – even Jesse Helms have done. That doesn’t mean I agree with everything they’ve done.

In fact, a lot of things Republicans do I don’t agree with. But you know? That’s okay. Because this is America, where everyone has an opinion and is entitled to a voice. As long as you can reason for yourself and have something to add, I’ll listen. That doesn’t mean I have to agree, mind you, but you’ve got a chance to make your pitch.

What triggers my defense shields are the so-called “dittoheads.” These are the folks who don’t choose to think for themselves, turning over that task to whatever talk-radio personality might be raging at the moment. That, or the folks who continually paint things in extremes, demonizing the other party (and yes, I include “both” parties).

Truth is, America was built from the input from all sides. It thrives when all sides are participating. Think of that “United We Stand” junk, but not just a marketing scheme. For real. There’s a name for a system where only one party matters: it’s called “communism.”

I’d like to see less finger-pointing and blaming going on in politics. But then again, I’d like to see peace in the Middle East, and flying pigs. My point is, the two-party system in this country lends itself to the “anybody-but” crowd. Its often too easy to demonize the other side, rather than explain what you can do.

So here’s what I’ll do. I’ll link to the conservative blogs I find. In return, I ask you post a link to mine. Let folks read what they want and make up their own minds.

(In case you are still wondering, I consider myself libertarian.)

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Googlebombing

In the spirit of the last post, I’d like to make mention of the biggest Seminole fan on the Internet. I’d also like to mention the Bad Ham song author, as well as the original Blizzog, the one J.G. writes.

I’m trying to think of other appropriate names for my favorite pages. Y’all help a brother out.

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Clay Aiken

It’s been a while since I mentioned Clay Aiken, the Raleigh native who went on to snag the silver medal as American Idol. Now I know Clay’s the best thing since indoor plumbing, but I don’t know much else about him, except that he’s generally a good guy.

Recently, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made a reference to Clay Aiken in a recent ad campaign about neutering. The ad read “Neuter your pets. It didn’t hurt Clay Aiken.” As you can see, the ad copy doesn’t really make sense, and one wonders why Clay’s name was even mentioned (other than perhaps to improve the web hits through search engines, but who would stoop so low?)

It turns out that in an interview Clay once made mention that he doesn’t like cats. “They’re satan,” he said, in what was probably an innoculous statement. PETA didn’t take kindly to the remark, apparently believing that everyone must swear allegiance to cats. “If Clay makes a pro-cat statement, we’ll consider withdrawing the ad.”

I think PETA’s cause is generally a noble one. Animals do suffer in our world, and it’s not right. I don’t always approve of their means of getting attention (although the “naked model” method is an exception 🙂 ). But this has gone too far.

I don’t approve of them attacking Clay. Sure, his music career was born in cheese. His fifteen minutes may have been up a long time ago, but the fact of the matter is that Clay’s a good kid. Before he made it “big,” Clay worked as a YMCA counselor. That’s right, he did social work. And I happen to believe anyone doing social work deserves a ton of respect.

So to PETA, I say “call off the dogs!” Leave Clay alone. This is still a free country and Clay is entitled to hate cats if he chooses. Quit picking on good-hearted pop singers and bring back the naked models!