Bits and Pieces

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I’ve been out of town quite a bit for work and pleasure, so here’s a catch up post of several bits and pieces.

You may have heard that Sarah Palin’s email got hacked. The background story is here on Wired’s site. The yahoo mail account was apparently accessed using the password reset system. That’s where you have to answer a few personal questions that confirms that you are the owner of the account….or know how to use google. According to Wired, the information required to unlock the account was Palin’s birthdate, ZIP code and where she met her spouse. All of this was acquired by searching the web and making a few educated guesses. How secure is your web-based email account?

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ is following in the footsteps of his father, astronaut Owen Garriot W5LFL by taking a ride in space. The difference is that Richard is buying a ride on a Russian spacecraft, similar to other space tourists. It turns out Richard is a very successful video game designer and can afford the ride. He does plan to make ham radio a key part of the adventure. Check out his web site here.

Meanwhile, China is advancing its manned space program with their first space walk (EVA). Meanwhile, things are moving a bit slower at NASA such that we’ll have to continue to rely on the Russian space program to keep the ISS alive.

The ARRL made the QST magazine archive available online. While this archive is not complete, it has a ton of good articles in it. Great move, ARRL! This is open to ARRL members only. (What, you are not an ARRL member?)

The ARRL is also active on twitter at http://twitter.com/arrl. Now, if I could just figure out the purpose of twitter.

I still have not tried Google’s Chrome browser which makes me one of the few people on the planet that hasn’t done that. I think there are about 10 of us left. (Of course, I don’t own an iPhone either, so go figure.) In general, I am consciously trying to avoid Google as they collect way too much personal information. The NSA should contract their work out to Google.

73, Bob K0NR

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