sky, Author at Sky's Blog

WiserEarth- Finding organizations you can work with

29 April, 2009 by sky 2 Comments

WiserEarth is an online community space connecting the people, nonprofits and businesses working toward a just and sustainable world.

WiserEarth is another example of online technology being used to support the greater good. WiserEarth was inspired by Paul Hawken, Executive Director of the Natural Capital Institute, which sponsors the project. In their words:

What has been missing is a map and directory of our network that includes the resources for communication and cooperation; in essence, an infrastructure through which to coordinate our efforts. WiserEarth…provides a way for us to become better connected and more effective at working together.

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I Don’t Know, I Don’t Know, I Don’t Know

23 April, 2009 by sky 1 Comment

They have to be the words I say more often than any other phrase in any language… “I don’t know.”

What does it mean to say “I don’t know?” My first thought is “it means nothing at all.” Because it just means I don’t know the answer to the question. One is constantly moving from a state of ignorance to a state of knowing. From the first day of life, first day of school, last day of university life, first day of professional life, and every day after that. S

I don’t know – means I have a gap in my knowledge.

I don’t know – means there is something new to explore.

I don’t know – means there’s an opportunity to ask someone else. Maybe you can teach me.

I don’t know – means there’s an opportunity to learn.

MySQL and Java – two birds with one stone

22 April, 2009 by sky Leave a Comment

The old phrase “killing two birds with one stone” – yeah it sounds impossible when you think about it realistically – ka-bing, ka-bing, there they go. But Oracle may succeed in killing off both Java and MySQL after its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Or at least sidelining both into stagnation in favor of big-ticket licensed Oracle products.

In 1999 to 2001 I was responsible for purchasing Oracle licenses for a large organization with large plans. We paid hundreds of thousands of dollars (US) for initial and continuing licenses on Oracle database software. The stuff was industrial-strength. But since then I’ve used (the free) MySQL dozens of times for small-to-medium size sites. And several systems I’ve used or designed have been Java-based as well. The availability of these free tools is critical to the existence of millions of web sites around the world. [Read more…]

Watch your step – you might be surprised

21 April, 2009 by sky Leave a Comment

Walking down the street a couple of months ago, I was amused to notice this manhole cover in front of the Museum of Modern Art. Brightly colored at some previous time.

Art is everywhere.

How many people think about manhole covers? Not many, I guess, but there are a few… Illuminated manhole cover so you don’t fall in at night, especially if you’re old. Manhole covers as art.

Can short URL sites and Twitter together be attack vectors?

19 April, 2009 by sky Leave a Comment

On my site The Social Graph of Malware, I try to present current information (with appropriate background) on malware and attack vectors that use social engineering as a part of their methodology.

Last week I read somewhere (I know not where) about the potential for URL-shortening sites pointing you at sites containing malware. It’s pretty simple – imagine that someone posing as your friend twitters you and there’s one of these shortened URLs inside the message … but that this shortened URL points you at a site containing an embedded virus rather than at a site that you would want to actually visit. Your actual or supposed friend might not even know the site is poisoned. How can you protect yourself against this? Read this page at The Social Graph of Malware for more details. (I promise you there are no shortened URLs in the article.)