Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Increasing security with limited user accounts and restricted groups. In this article, we’ll talk about the differences between the built-in and default local account types, and the differences between local and domain user accounts. Then we’ll discuss how you can increase security by creating customized limited user accounts and using restricted groups. [Computerworld News] Geek post - serious Windows 2003/XP issues with Active Directory.  Read it. 8:11:45 AM    comment []

Pa. Eatery Offers New 15-Pound Burger (AP). AP - The burger war is growing. Literally. Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, which lost its crown as the home of the world's biggest burger earlier this year, is now offering a new burger that weighs a whopping 15 pounds. [Yahoo! News: Top Stories] Now, really, 15 pounds?  What family of four (or fourteen) is going to eat that? 8:09:54 AM    comment []

Report: Airport Screeners Lack Training (AP). AP - A congressional report released Monday criticized the Transportation Security Administration for failing to come up with a standard to measure the quality of its airport screeners and for not providing them the training they were promised. [Yahoo! News: U.S. National] And this comes as a surprise to whom?  The traveling public? Not likely.  Congress? It shouldn't.  TSA?  Oddly, yes...the bigger question is why does it come as a surprise, when most of us knew it ten minutes after the TSA was formed.  You cannot create a federal workforce and expect the same level of effort (in general) than you can from the private sector - all things being equal.  Of course, if you are not going to pay them, then you get what you payed for.  If you are not going to screen them, provide them with the training and proper staffing levels, then it just becomes a joke.  A very expensive one, but a joke none the less. 8:04:23 AM    comment []

Bush Working to Avoid Setback Over Bolton (AP). AP - President Bush, stunned when John R. Bolton's nomination for United Nations ambassador hit a Republican road bump, is working hard to avoid a political setback at the outset of his second term when senators hold a showdown vote next week. [Yahoo! News: Top Stories] Bush should never have appointed Bolton in the first place.  Good to see someone in the Republican party show some sense...almost gives me hope. 7:58:47 AM    comment []

Fed Likely to Hold Steady on Rate Hikes (AP). AP - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues are being buffeted by strong economic crosscurrents — rising inflation pressures on one hand and a sudden slowing in economic growth on the other. [Yahoo! News: Top Stories] Step one: Jump the rate a FULL point. Step two: Repeal any and all tax breaks issued in the last eight years. Step three: Throw out all bills that require increases in spending over the next ten years. Step four: Collect all taxes owed by all individuals and corporations. Step five: Reduce defense spending by 30%, civilian sector spending by 20%. Step six: Increase taxation on all banks and financial institutions.  Apply a luxury tax to all companies with quarterly profits higher than twice the mean quarterly profits - and make it a 10% to 20% tax.  Include land in the equation (since those in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization - like, oh, K-Mart, seem to have made a profit...). Step seven: Eliminate the current tax code.  Introduce a sliding scale percentage tax with a rate of 50% at the $500,000 mark.  Include ONLY the following tax exemptions: principle home mortgage, retirement savings, personal savings accounts (up to twice the FDIC guarenteed limit), volunteer activity charges, and a deduction for ALL medical charges.  Step eight: Introduce a federal excise tax on all goods and services of 5%, monies SPECIFICALLY earmared to pay down the deficit with extra funds diverted to by back the IOUs on Social Security. Painful?  You bet, but not as painful as the nation going bankrupt, which is closer to happening than many will admit. 7:57:23 AM    comment []

Black leaders want new Million Man March. Black leaders called Monday for a rally in Washington this fall to mark the tenth anniversary of the Million Man March, this ... [USATODAY.com Nation - Top Stories] Couldn't they pick a city OTHER than Washington, DC...we have enough problems with security without loonies coming to town, forcing the various police agencies to go into goofy mode.  How about Boston?  Or Los Angeles?  Or Duluth? 7:45:59 AM    comment []

A blind spot in Colo. license law. A Colorado teenager can't practice driving because her mom is blind. Julianna Barber, 15, and her mother Marcia, of Colorado ... [USATODAY.com Nation - Top Stories] The Attorney General claims that he cannot over ride a state statue - but isn't that his job?  To make sure that statutes, that are bad, are brough to the attention of the legislature for modification so that the state does not wind up in Federal court over something that, quite frankly is DUMB.  I understand the state wanting to have control over its young drivers and their learning experience behind the wheel, but it would seem that the law as it is portrayed here rules out driving schools, which is a much prefered method to learning how to drive than the bad habits of parents.  That being said, the state has shot themselves in the foot, and if they are smart, the legislature will amend the law before the case goes to court. 7:42:56 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2005 David Lane.