Bits & Pieces

OK, we are mostly back now. The only loss is of pictures in prior blog posts. Otherwise, we should be good to go.

Further administrative improvements will be coming this weekend, including the return of a mobile theme for iPhones/Blackberries, and various other minor tweaks.

OK, so the blog is all screwed up. Notice the new (i.e, default or quasi default) theme. We have had a major malfunction here at Bits & Pieces. Rebuilding is in progress, but will likely take the rest of the weekend to complete. So please be patient, as we try to get back to where we were.

Onward and upward.

Update: The theme has been fixed and, lucky you, there will be no annoying ads for a bit.

Update 2: All Most still images have been lost (at least for now). Also previous pages are currently lost. Working….

I am currently attending a seminar and will likely have little or no posting until after the weekend. This morning I am enjoying at early breakfast and a lovely resort in Indian Wells, California. The view from my table:

I have now added an iPhone version of this site to the configuration. To use, simply access the site via Safari on your iPhone at the normal address:

http://freer.com/bits

Have fun.

Oh, and this also works on a number of BlackBerry devices.

Blogs powered by WordPress software (like this one) have come under attack over the past couple of weeks. All WordPress users should upgrade their software to the latest version (2.8.4) if they haven’t already.

Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, also has these recommendations on hardening the security on your site.

Fortunately, we keep Bits & Pieces updated always. No problems here.

Beginning now, I am splitting my personal Twitter account off from the posts in this blog. If you want to follow the blog, then follow @bits_blog. If you want to follow me personally, then follow @b_freer.

Thanks.

Brant

I am pleased to announce that a new voice is being added to this blog. A friend and colleague of mine, Dave, will be adding his thoughts to Bits & Pieces. I do have a day job and help in covering both politics and technology is greatly appreciated by me. I welcome his intelligence and his cogent view of the world. And thanks to our readers for following our writing and passing along recommendations to friends if they enjoy the blog. All the posts will show whether it is Dave or me, Brant.

There will be a much slower posting schedule for this blog for the next couple of days. I am moving to a new provider because of poor performance of the old one. The address will be the same after the move, but it will take a couple of days for things to stabilized during the move. I ask your patience in the meantime. I hope to have this process complete tomorrow night.

I keep searching for a better layout for the blog. So you see another one here. And this one seems pretty well focused on what I do, so I will keep it for now.

As of today, all posts to Bits & Pieces will be added to my Twitter stream. You can follow me on Twitter @b_freer, as well as here via RSS.

As of today, all posts to Bits & Pieces will be added to my Twitter stream. You can follow me on Twitter @b_freer, as well as here via RSS.

There sure seem to be a large number of technology announcements today. What a coincidence. Anyway, Google is also launching it Gmail “Autopilot” functionality that answers you emails for you like magic.

And Qualcomm has a major announcement regarding wireless convergence.

Protecting our technology infrastructure is critical. But should a spy agency, one that participated in what is surely illegal wiretapping and which is under the control of the Pentagon, have complete control over that infrastructure? The answer is surely no.

The official in charge of national cybersecurity has just resigned and made clear that excess involvment of the NSA is the reason.

The idea of the NSA taking over governmental cybersecurity efforts is not exactly new: it was discussed by a commission organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies last fall, and the agency already has some related responsibilities. Last week, Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair suggested (PDF) to a House of Representatives committee that the NSA would be an appropriate body to take over cybersecurity efforts, saying “there are some wizards out there at Fort Meade who can do stuff.”

But Beckström warned that would be a mistake and could significantly threaten “our democratic processes…if all top level government network security and monitoring are handled by any one organization.”

More here.

I have applied a new look to this blog. I am striving for a cleaner appearance where content is highlighted rather than design. I may go through a few more changes along the way.

This is the new location for Bits and Pieces, a blog I started in November, 2008.  Its permanent home will be here at this address:

http://freer.com/bits

Note that there is no “www” preceding the link.  I am now using WordPress to author and manage the blog which will allow me more control over the formatting of the posts. Hope you like it.