Now Hiring

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The University of Northern Iowa is now looking to hire a Programmer Analyst.

NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information management, or related field required. Candidates must possess an understanding of administrative uses of computing services, have a working knowledge of SQL, knowledge or exposure to a relational DBMS, and course work or practical experience with modern programming languages such as Java, Perl, C++. Experience with UNIX operating systems, Oracle DBMS, and Oracle PL/SQL, Oracle Reports, Oracle Forms, Oracle Discoverer, JSP, and familiarity with University standards and practices preferred.

McAfee Anti-Spyware

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I saw today that Staples has McAfee AntiSpyware free after rebate, so I picked up a copy. I re-did my home machine when XP SP2 was released, so it's pretty clean. After installing and updating McAfee's product, I did a scan, and it detected 3 things: "Adult Links": This was something related to the ICQ search bar that ICQ annoyingly installed in IE, but since I don't use IE, I really hand't worried about removing it yet.

"ABCKeylogger" mouse/keystroke logger: This is what it thinks my registry entry for Macromedia Flash files is, as well as my Windows Update/Auto Update .adm template. Don't ask me why, I looked them over, and they're completely normal as far as I can tell. If you can hide a keylogger in an .adm file, you're pretty clever.

"BackAttack" remote administration tool: Again, this is what it thinks of my .mfp file association in the registry, and all it contains is "MacromediaFlashPaper.MacromediaFlashPaper"

So, in conclusion, McAfee Anti-Spyware seems to be worth about what I paid for it, after rebate. :)

It's all Greek to me

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If you're looking for a challenge, I highly suggest computing in another language. I spent yesterday afternoon working on a student's french laptop, updating it to work with our 802.1X wireless configuration on campus. I think I was successful with that, we'll find out when he comes back to try it with his username and password. Today, I'm working on a Russian laptop, a Roverbook of all things. This one isn't working the way I think it should, and Service Pack 2 hasn't been issued in Russian yet. It's easier to work on than the French laptop though, because the keyboard is the same as the U.S. keyboard, so I can at least type at normal speedy, though I can make no sense of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Back from the North Woods

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I'm back in Iowa, and connected to the world once again, albeit via dial-up until I get home on Monday. I had 287 messages in my inbox today, which caused Thunderbird some consternation at first, but I finally got most of them read and/or deleted. Now to figure out what I missed out on during the communcations blackout that results from being in a remote cabin. While setting down my luggage, I noticed the new Newsweek on my grandparents' table, and realized that it was showcasing a brand new iPod, so I immediately grabbed it to get up to date. Now to download that 10MB iPod software update that my PowerBook is urging me to get, maybe it'll update something on my iPod Mini?

Success

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I managed to get 802.1x up and running today, at least in a test Active Directory forest. And I managed to get my Mac and a Windows XP box to authenticate through it, this should give me enough to show off to the big-wigs at work so they can decide what it is we're doing for wireless this fall. The 802.1x solution is cheap, but Mac users prior to 10.3 aren't going to work out of the box, nor are Windows users prior to Windows 2000 SP4. But, when you think about it, how many people use wireless that don't meet those system requirements? Not very many...