Category: technology

Kindle Swindle… Does anyone get sick of it?

Amazon just has this thing about trying to screw over it’s customer’s doesn’t it.  I hope people catch on, and I hope it really hurts their bottom line.

Every 6 months Amazon comes out with the “new improved” model of the Kindle – such that, people scrambling to buy their latest version find that the version they bought is instantly out dated by the next release 6 months later.

Take for example:  Kindle 2, then a few months later, Kindle DX, then a few months later (well a little bit more than a few months), Kindle Global, then a few months later, Kindle WiFi.

Perhaps they don’t realize how much they’re going to piss people off by only offering these tiny little incremental upgrades, and as a result, trying to force people that want to have the best functioning reading device to continue to fork out money over and over as they make their pathetic little updates.

I have caught on personally.  I would love to buy the WiFi model, but first, it doesn’t appear to be in DX – so I know that’ll come out in about 6 months, AND, I’m sure they’re thinking of color sometime soon.

No thanks Amazon & Jeff – I’ll hold off for a long time to come, and I hope everyone else does too!

CBK 4 – Physical Security

I am now well versed in fence heights, and chain diameters, fire extinguishers, and IDS systems.  My score was actually higher than this too – as I found at least one bug in the testing software where it said my answer was the correct answer, but then marked it wrong :-0

 

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Another one down – Security Architecture

This was probably the most extensive learning I had to do so far in the CISSP around the different security Models, like the Bell-LaPidula, the Biba, the Clark-WIlson, the Graham-Dennig and the Harrison-Ruzzo-Ulllman security Models… you have all that right? LoL

Funniest part is, I scored almost 100% on almost all of the concepts except:  I couldn’t seem to make the distinction between multiprocessing, multiprogramming, mutithreading and multitasking – how lame is that!

Oh, and I was exposed to a very cool side-channel attack (or more appropriately called a covert storage attack) having to do with information flow.. with an example of using storage state (like files being locked and unlocked) to steal data one bit at a time… that was pretty neat thinking!

Anyway – after 120 pages of very extensive reading under Security Architecture – I’m off to the next CBK starting tomorrow.

 

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Access Control CBK

I read over a 100 pages last night, and there was SO much information and acronyms galore!  I have a really good understanding of Access Control, but I still learned a bunch! 

I have to do school reading tonight, so I’m going to unfortunately be behind now in the CISSP review, but I’ll have the weekend to try and catch up!

Oh, and I found out that I can read SO much more a night if I shut down my computer and put it away!  There is too much tempting me on the computer to actually keep me from peaking and playing every couple minutes…  I need better attention skills!  LoL

 

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The new Rubik cube…

My wife pointed me to a new Rubik cube that was recently released call the Rubik touch cube:

I have to admit that there is some “wow” factor in the having the technology (although the technology integrated into the iTouch devices is old, this is certainly a new use for it), however, how many people would say that they would be fulfilled by sliding their finger across the top of a device to move different colors into place?

For me the entire urge to play with a Rubik cube is the shifting, twisting, turning, spinning and strategizing that comes with touching a square box that has little interlocked pieces that slide around and making a “clicking sound”. 

Additionally, part of the fun of the Rubik cube is to see how fast you can turn and spin and sift and twist, as it shows motor skill and hand eye coordination and the ability to think at so many different levels; it seems this new cube has completely lost that tactile experience.

And what about the cheats of taking it apart and the challenge of putting it back together right – that’s just completely gone.

So, while there is something kind of cool in this new use for this old technology, I would still have to say that I prefer the old fashion Rubik cube, do you?