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What you need to know about Heartbleed
Here we go. Another online security alert, reports of widespread personal information vulnerability, dire warnings, alleged security breaches at the biggest websites around and a general the-sky-is-warning panic by the Media. It’s all about something called the Heartbleed bug, a wide-reaching security vulnerability in the SSL (Secure Socket Library) computer code used to secure something like 20% – or one in five – of the websites on the Internet. The sites with SSL start with https://, not the normal http://. Not all https:// sites are or were vulnerable. But all sites that were do start with the https:// prefix. According to CNET, an attacker can exploit Heartbleed to essentially “get copies…
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The end of Windows XP: What it means
Microsoft has announced that, effective April 8, 2014, it will no longer support Windows XP. But what, exactly, does that mean? First of all, it means if you have it and use it, it will still work. But for how long, who knows? That’s because Windows will no longer provide security updates and hackers, who are surely lying in wait out there in cyberspace, will be able to exploit the 12-year-old operating system with no worries of Microsoft every coming along behind them and shutting the doors they blast in to the rickety old application. That’s why Microsoft is crying wolf. “It is very important that customers and partners migrate…
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Using Glass as a journalism tool
I’ve been using Glass as a reporting tool on my RV Travel blog (roadtreking.com), live blogging and tweeting as I drove an RV into the arctic vortex in the snow covered North. It is a lot of fun and adds a great POV aspect…. But, the thing that makes it not so cool is the lack of a mass delete tool. All those photos and tweets and Google + videos and updates stay on Glass and so clutter up the interface that trying to use it for other functions in the field is extremely cumbersome. I know I am far from the only one complaining of this but I think…
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My personal tech gear lineup for 2014
I get lots of questions about the tech gear I use to capture and blog for this blog and my RV travel blog. I change and add gear all the time so this is current as of the last update note below. (Last Updated – January 19, 2014) My main video camera: I use the Canon XA20 Professional Video Camera. I love this camera. It is the perfect “run-and-gun” camcorder that is suitable for HD Electronic News Gathering (ENG), event coverage, independent and documentary filmmaking. The camera features a 1/2.84″, 1920 x 1080 CMOS sensor that captures video at various frame rates up to 59.94p, including a 24p mode for a more…
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Do you have sitting disease?
I just learned that I have sitting disease. Yes, there really is such an disease. And it’s reached epidemic proportions and is linked to all sorts of other ailments, the first and foremost of which is obesity. Blame it on our sedentary lifestyle. Our deskbound working days. Our computer and Internet use. But the fact is, the average American these days sits – at a desk, in the car, on a couch – eight to 10 hours every day. Sitting. Planted. Not moving. A growing body of medical research is documenting terrible health effects from all this. I am always at the computer, blogging, updating social media. But added to…
