There are twenty chapters and three appendices. The first fifteen chapters (plus two appendices) have been written and submitted; several have already come back for author review. Of the remaining material, there are two new chapters written by contributors (one on archiving by Joshua Konkle of KVS, one on legal issues by Jay Friedman of Piper Rudnick) on the way, one revised chapter, and two new chapters (including one on Outlook Mobile Access/Exchange ActiveSync security issues) that I still have to write. Deadline: 12/31. Wish me luck!
Another reason to hate Michigan
As if the my son’s inexplicable passion for all things Wolverine wasn’t bad enough (at least Matthew can gleefully say “Michigan wucky!”), it turns out that Michigan takes, and files, DNA samples from all babies born in the state. ‘Scuse me, but I don’t see a compelling state interest in gathering DNA fingerprints for every live birth. Well, wait a minute– I do see one, but I don’t like it. I understand, accept, and support the idea behind doing DNA-based screening for health problems, but that’s not the same as maintaining the samples “indefinitely“.
This came across Politech today:
When our son Dylan was born at the University of Michigan Hospital, the blood sample was taken without parental consent and over my explicit objections. Two techs who worked for the state drew the blood sample, placed five drops on the top of a carefully marked card, and left without speaking to anyone else. Several doctors came in ahead of the techs, began giving us discharge instructions at the time the sample was taken, and they stood in my way as I tried to approach Dylan. They couldn’t understand how I would mind that a blood sample was being gathered by the state, merely saying that “it’s required by law” and that “it doesn’t hurt (too much)”. They later gave me several pamphlets explaining the importance of newborn screening. (Indeed, it is, but I can ask my doctor to do it too)
I spoke with Harry Hawkins of the Michigan Department of Community Health, who assured me that the samples were kept at an undisclosed warehouse which
locked behind a chain link fence, and that they would be destroyed after 21 1/2 years. However, he agreed to destroy the sample if both parents requested it.
His mother and I sent Harry Hawkins a letter stating, “Please destroy all samples of our son’s blood. If any identifying data such as a DNA fingerprint has been obtained from his sample, please destroy that data also.” (with all of the required details below)
I later received a notarized form indicating that the blood sample had been destroyed and witnessed. There was no mention of any DNA information, but I have no reason to believe that they gathered any, so I don’t intend to pursue the matter further.
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New Tablet on the way
Taking advantage of my generous partners (and the vendor’s 30-day return policy), I just ordered a new Toshiba M200. It’s fairly vanilla; the only changes I made were changing RAM to a single 512MB stick (vice 2 x 256) and a 60GB 5400-RPM drive. Adding Bluetooth apparently adds 21-28 days to ship time, and there’s no longer an 802.11g option (funny, I still don’t have a g card for my ThinkPad– conspiracy?) I can add more RAM for less money by avoiding Toshiba altogether, so that’s what I’m doing. My previous Tablet experiences were colored by the slow speed and limited RAM of the Acer C102, but this unit should have neither of those problems. Next up: a face-off between the T40 and the M200, both of which have approximately equal specs.
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Giving .mac a whirl
I signed up for my 60-day trial of Apple’s .Mac service today. We’ll see if it’s worth a hoot or not. In the meantime, you can now reach me at perobichaux@mac.com, although I don’t expect to be checking mail there very much. (I would like to experiment with iChat, though– Tim, give me a yell!)
Update: without having posted my address anywhere other than this blog, I got my first piece of .Mac spam last night. That didn’t take long.
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New holiday photo gallery
It’s a shame that Julie is better about posting pictures of my kids than I am. No more! I’ve added a holiday photo gallery for your enjoyment.
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The days are just packed
A brief sampling of the choices I have for allocating my time tonight: football (LSU vs the hated UGA Bulldogs, in high definition), reading (Wilson’s Blind Lake), video games (XIII, Splinter Cell), and work (the book, a competitive battlecard, and a long planning document for Microsoft Consulting Services). So, I’ve compromised: I’m watching the game (and it’s glorious now that my antenna is cooperating) while working on chapter 14 on the laptop. At halftime I’ll break out XIII.
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This year’s Christmas must-have
Last year, it was German spy underwear. This year, it’s “hostile undergarments for smiling professionals“. Either that or Pokemon. (Actually, I’m kind of thinking of an “evil engineer” T-shirt for John, although technically it’s not a hostile undergarment).
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Dual monitors
Mike wonders who’s using dual displays. I am, and I love it. With a combined 2560 x 1024 desktop, I have enough room for multiple RDP sessions, Safari windows, Word documents, PowerPoint slide decks, and other miscellanea, and the addition of Exposé makes it even better because I can quickly pick exactly the window I need.
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Quarantine! Get yer quarantine here!
I managed to miss this, but Microsoft Press has a book out on VPN deployment with Windows Server 2003: Deploying Virtual Private Networks with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Technical Reference. I haven’t read it yet, but it was written by two Microsoft PMs (including the guy who owns the network quarantine feature), so I expect it’s pretty good. Network quarantine is an interesting feature, but no one seems to really understand how to make it work. I’ve asked my editors for a courtesy copy and will post a review once it arrives and I read it.
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Integrate Apple’s iCal and Exchange
Technically this has nothing to do with security, but it’s cool: Snerdware’s GroupCal lets you see and share calendar information between Exchange 2000/2003 servers and iCal users. This essentially makes iCal act just like Outlook’s native calendar client. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m about to install it on my wife’s iMac and we’ll see how it works.
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Typhoon (White)
Typhoon is ty-riffic; it’s the kind of book that Tom Clancy used to write before he began having delusions of self-importance. Basic ingredients: the Russians are selling a Typhoon SSBN to the Chinese. Unfortunately, there are two minor problems: a) the Typhoon has all of its ICBMs aboard and b) the US has already paid Russia to scrap it. This obviously requires that the Typhoon be handed over without detection by the US, and that’s where the crew of the USS Portland comes in. Of course, the captain turns out to be crazy, and the presence of a female Navy linguist doesn’t help matters much. Tense, realistic, and fast-paced. You might be better off to wait for the paperback, though, as this is a quick read.
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Thanksgiving
We had a marvelous Thanksgiving, with turkey (Dad: “What kind of turkey did you get at the turkey farm?” Thomas: “A white dead one”), Arlene’s apple pie, rice and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, peas, and plenty of loud noise from the Three Boys. We missed Julie and Paul (especially when it came time to eat), but they’ll be with us for Christmas.
I was thinking yesterday of the many things I have to be thankful for, but I think I can sum them up thusly: my family and I are healthy and safe. That’s enough all by itself, to say nothing of the many trappings (great job, good friends, clean laundry, electricity, antibiotics…) After watching the new Christmas video we got in this month’s Ensign, I’m especially thankful that God loves us enough to have sent his Son to be our savior and redeemer. (Note to the non-believers: you should still see the video for no other reason than to hear the glorious music of the Tabernacle Choir, especially if you have a surround sound system– magnificent!)
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E2K3 security flaw? Sort of
Microsoft announced a security flaw in Exchange 2003. Basically, if you install Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) on an Exchange 2003 back-end, you may be allowing OWA users to access other users’ mailboxes. This occurs when Kerberos authentication gets turned off; to fix things, you should make sure that Kerberos is turned back on. You can also turn off connection reuse to fix the problem. The number of affected users is quite small, and it’s certainly understandable that MS didn’t test this particular configuration, but it’s still embarrassing.
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My new Tablet?
TabletPCCorner has a review of the new Toshiba M200. (It’s in French, which fortunately I read). It has a faster processor and disk than my current laptop, with the same screen resolution (1400 x 1050, albeit in a 12.1″ screen), plus integrated a/b/g wireless and Bluetooth. What’s not to like? Well, apart from the weight; this thing weighs more than a pound more than the Acer Tablet I had before, and its weight was just about right. Apart from that, it’s quite a powerful machine– the only question is when Toshiba will start shipping them.
Update: I was all set to complain about the gap between Toshiba’s specs and what you could actually order. When I first went to their web site last week, you couldn’t build custom configurations. Now you can. The tab for my dream machine: $4,639. Dang! That’s more my current laptop plus my previous Tablet; it’s within spitting distance of the combined price of the last two laptops I bought. Back to the drawing board.
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