Brian Gongol
General in charge of new Air Force Cybercommand takes public questions
Among other things, he deflects a question about China's aggressive use of Internet attacks
Welcome to the 21st Century
A story that could never, ever have happened fifteen years ago: A high-school student in Des Moines sent threatening text messages to a girl at UNI, who reported them to police. Campus officials sent out automated alerts to the entire student body via voice mail, text messages, and e-mail. The university's website nearly crashed when people went to find out what was going on. News reports are now relying heavily on Iowa's online court registry and the suspect's MySpace page to fill in the blanks. And yet some of our lawmakers are so behind the times they think the Internet is made of plumbing. If that doesn't make the case for lots and lots of public education about science and technology, there's no telling what possibly could.
IBM security researchers say Internet crooks have the equivalent of a Swiss Army knife
That is, they've learned how to put crooked tricks together in such a way that makes them more powerful than ever before. That's obviously not a good thing.
Newton vs. Michor
If you didn't already hate PowerPoint, try this
Look at what happens when good speeches are marred with bad PowerPoint presentations. That doesn't necessarily make the technology itself bad, but it does highlight the importance of putting the message first.
Prediction markets expect higher taxes within three years
That shouldn't be surprising -- we have rapidly-mounting liabilities in the form of entitlements that the Baby Boomers are about to start receiving, and Congress and the White House have shown a general disregard for responsible fiscal policy for the last eight years. Mount some additional costs on top of that -- like the irresponsible "fiscal stimulus package" of late and the need to spend billions making long-overdue repairs and replacements to infrastructure, and it's time to lock down those wallets. A bumpy ride is most assuredly in the forecast.
Expect flooding in Iowa this weekend
