July 2005

Significant Bits

A Reminder!

The American flag is made of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white. The upper hoist-side corner bears a blue rectangle with 50 small white five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal alternating rows of six stars and five stars. The American flag is known as Old Glory. The 13 stripes represent the original colonies and the 50 stars represent the 50 states.

Excellent description of USENET newsgroups
http://www.grc.com/discussions.htm

I had been using a newsreader for so long that I had never bothered to read this page before. I had reason to read it today in its entirety, and found it to be a great introduction to the subject. If you are not currently using a newsreader and are not familiar with the subject, I urge you to read this page. You can ask questions, get answers, and learn a lot from the use of the USENET. For instance, I have learned most of what I know about computer security from reading articles there.

I like and use a free newsreader called Xnews from: http://xnews.newsguy.com/. You just unzip the program archive into a folder of your choice and it is ready to use, no installation. Then you go to the following page to get the latest update to the program: http://xnews.newsguy.com/test/ An update consists of simply replacing the program executable file. Bob Ennis, HUG

I strongly urge all Windows XP users to read the following referenced article:

Found this news:d9fnnl$2312$1@news.grc.com in grc.security.software: -= BEGIN forwarded message =- Microsoft is sparing no expense to spread the Least-privileged User Account security gospel ahead of next year's Longhorn launch, but a little-known fact-especially among IT administrators and end users-is that the technology is already available in the Windows operating system. The LUA principle, also known as non-admin or minimum rights, is accepted within software security circles as a key to reducing damage from malicious hacker attacks, but on Windows systems, although the option is available, experts say end-user adoption remains "frighteningly low." http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1830637,00.asp Bob Ennis, HUG

Darwin Awards Time to remind you again about the annual Darwin Awards, "Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it." The 2005 awards are out and they go to those that went to incredible lengths to create events that lead to their deaths!

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