PayPal/eBay Security Key

My security key arrived last night from PayPal/eBay.  I've activated it, and it seems to work pretty well.  They're in the early stages of deploying this, but for $5, my accounts are a lot more secure.

Their implementation requires you to login with your username and password, the way you do today, but then also requires you to push the button on the front of your keyfob and enter the six-digit code that appears there.  The code changes every 30 seconds, so that even if someone does see your code, they have very little time to do something with it.

If you use PayPal or eBay much, I'd suggest ordering yourself a key as an extra layer of security on your accounts.

MovableType 3.34

And this blog has now been upgraded to MovableType 3.34, with no apparent casualties...

Word 2007 Blog Publishing

One little-advertised feature of the new Word 2007 is that you can use it to post to your weblog. In fact, I just wrote this in Word. J

Vista Bug #1

So yesterday Microsoft made Windows Vista available to the masses. I've actually been using it for the last month or two, since we got the final code back in November due to our license agreements with Microsoft. I'm sure there will be a lot of whining and hand-wringing about people's poorly written applications that no longer work on the new OS, because they're from some shoddy company, who hasn't updated the application in 5 years, and never even coded the app to work with limited user rights on Windows XP. I'm actually glad that those applications break, because they should be fixed, breaking them isn't a bug, it's a necessity to move the Windows platform forward.

That said, there are some bugs that are still out there, that I've run into, and they're really annoying. I'll write them up here as I get time.

The first one is a bug with the PowerShell installer. Yesterday, Microsoft released their final PowerShell software for Vista. For those of you who aren't hard-core geeks, PowerShell is an updated command line, designed to give the Windows environment the same sort of rich tools as UNIX, plus a whole lot more.

So, I happily downloaded the new code to install on my x64 Vista box here at work, I started the installation, only to be greeted with the message: "Installer encountered an error: 0x8007177f This machine is disabled for file encryption."

So, I posted a message to the PowerShell blog, and Microsoft confirmed that it's a bug in the installer. So, why did this ship? Why do I need to have the ability to encrypt my filesystem enabled in order to install software? We disable EFS on all the machines at work, because we don't have a Public Key Infrastructure in place, and using EFS without it can actually result in data loss, as there's no easy way to ensure that you have recovery keys.

So now I have to either go modify the group policy for our domain to allow me to turn on EFS long enough to install PowerShell, or remove my computer from the domain, install the software, then rejoin it later. God help me if I actually want to use PowerShell on several computers or servers.

So, Microsoft, get back to work and fix this bug.

UNITalk

The UNITalk website is back up and running, after being on hiatus for a couple years... If you're a member of the UNI community, here's a forum just for you.

Wii for Sale

I was lucky enough to get a Nintendo Wii when Amazon had a few for sale last week. After seeing what they're going for on eBay, I decided to put mine up for sale. If I can make a decent profit on it, I'll sell it and wait to possibly get a new one. If not, I'll just be happy with what I've got, and keep it.

A new Vista

I took the plunge today and installed the release version of Windows Vista Business on my work computer.  So far, most things work, though I hit a nasty bug during the installation that left me unable to see anything on my screens, though I found a workaround.

So far, the only app that won't work (refuses to install) is the RASM software for managing our Enterasys Roamabout Wireless Switch.

Liar, pants on fire.

Soooo, now that the Republicans have lost, Rush Limbaugh says he didn't really like them anyway:

The way I feel is this: I feel liberated, and I'm going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried. Now, you might say, "Well, why have you been doing it?" Because the stakes are high. Even though the Republican Party let us down, to me they represent a far better future for my beliefs and therefore the country's than the Democrat Party and liberalism does.

Translation: I'll say or do anything to keep the Republicans in power. I'll lie, pretend to believe things I don't, and say whatever they ask me to, just because they're Republicans. How can even the die-hard people listen to him, when he doesn't even believe what he's saying himself?

R.I.P. Ed Bradley

One of my favorite 60 Minutes correspondents, Ed Bradley, died of leukemia today at the age of 65.  He was always great at keeping such a cool exterior while asking hard, probing questions.  Rarely combative, he'd get people to own up to things, and say more than they probably would have liked to, just because they were having an intimate conversation with such a likable guy.  Thanks for all your hard work, Ed.

Morning in Iowa

For the first time in 42 years, the Governor's job and both houses of the Iowa state legislature will be in the hands of Democrats.  David Yepsen, of the Des Moines Register, has a look at what this should yield.  Of particular interest to us is the bullet point about spending more money on the state universities, so that we can attempt to slow the rate of tuition increases we've inflicted on the students.  Here in the IT department, our budgets have not kept pace with the technologies we've implemented, we have several programs that we initially started small (and cheap) that have turned out to be quite popular, which turns out to not be such a good thing, when you don't have the money to grow the programs that rapidly.  Here's to hoping the Democrats make good on that, and we can get our house in order.