Wednesday, June 29, 2011

In the Meantime, IT Revenge

I am working on a synopsis of the past week or so.  It has been busy, U2 and East-West-East trip, and some other goodies.  So to tide you over, here are two things going on in Ol' Baltimore:  NASA is going to be flying planes all over the city looking for pollution, and be careful who you piss off in the IT department.


NASA said it will be sending aircraft over the Baltimore-Washington region beginning next week to help improve how satellites monitor air quality.
NASA said two aircraft will make a series of flights to measure gases and particles in the air. The flights will be coordinated with an extensive network of ground observation sites from the D.C. Beltway to northeast of Baltimore.
NASA has scheduled a news conference for Thursday morning to discuss the flyovers.
The space agency said satellites already monitor many components of air pollution, but it is difficult to use measurements from space to detect pollution near the ground.
The multi-year study is designed to help improve the ability of satellites to measure conditions near the surface.

Read more at WBAL



IT Revenge

Sometimes, revenge is bitter.
The reason for this is that sometimes you get your revenge and then you get, well, caught.
Please consider the feelings of Walter Powell, a 52-year-old IT manager at Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems. Actually, he became a former IT manager there. Which, perhaps stimulated a desire for a little revenge.
I am grateful to The Baltimore Sun for offering this story which begins with revenge, has porn in the middle, and whose denouement is played out in court.
Powell, you see, was reportedly fired in 2009. He wasn't very happy about this, so began to use his significant expertise to tap into his former employer's computer systems, according to the story.
It seems he may have had a piece de resistance in mind. I cannot be sure that this particular piece actually involved any sort of resistance, or even bondage. However, Powell managed to remotely control his former CEO's presentation to the board of directors of this nonprofit organization, which distributes public funds to substance abuse programs.
At the point at which the CEO was to unveil a particular PowerPoint slide and give forth, Powell remotely shut down the system. When it rebooted, there, alas, was porn.
Well, to be precise, it was some kind of a picture of a naked woman on the rather sizable 64-inch screen.
I know that there will be those will admire his ingenuity. I know there will be those who can only imagine the smirk that must have come across his face--and perhaps those of one or two Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems board members--when the lady was projected.
However, court papers show that Powell admitted his guilt--at least to two counts of "unlawful access to a computer causing it to malfunction" and one of "possessing a pass code without authorization."
He reportedly received two years suspended (all but time served), 100 hours of community service, and three years probation. He was also barred from "possessing software that enables remote access and monitoring of other computers."
How, though, might that last part be enforced? He's an IT guy. IT guys know how to do everything surreptitiously.
They can get everything from everywhere with every kind of software. They press a couple of keys in Baltimore and traffic lights stop in Mumbai. They slip a little custom software onto their MacBooks and the prime minister of Montenegro is heard to talk like Donald Duck.
I know that they occasionally get caught.
But you cannot keep a clever IT guy down. What price a porn movie gets projected onto the doors of a courtroom in, say, Baltimore in the very near future?

Read More at CNET.com


Thursday, June 16, 2011

EZW: North Edition, Eh


Just when you thought Candians were pissed, comes this gem:

From Esquire: Love in the Time of Rioting (Updated: Backstory of a Kiss)

Certainly the greatest photo from Wednesday night, and maybe ever. More on the night in Vancouver here and more on the hockey here.
UPDATE 2 (3:23 P.M.): Getty Images photographer Rich Lam writes....
I was covering last night's Stanley Cup Playoffs for Getty Images when Vancouver erupted in riots after the Canucks' Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins. It was complete chaos. Rioters set two cars on fire and then I saw looters break the window at a neighboring department store. At that point, the riot police charged right towards us. After I stopped running, I noticed in the space behind the line of police that two people were laying in the street with the riot police and a raging fire just beyond them. I knew I had captured a "moment" when I snapped the still forms against the backdrop of such chaos but it wasn't until later when I returned to the rink to file my photos that my editor pointed out that the two people were not hurt, but kissing.
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/vancouver-riots-2011-photo-5929916#ixzz1PTPGhcz9

Monday, June 13, 2011

Crossed Off The List: The Senator Theater

Just because it is crossed off, doesn't mean I wouldn't go back.  This theater caught my attention last week, because it was listed in Flavorwire.com's "Best Movie Theaters in America" list.  Coming in just behind one of my other favorites (The Alamo in Austin), the Senator was prime to-do material.  Luckily, we already had plans to see Super 8.  
The Babcock, Billings, MT
Premiere slabs outside The Senator
The Senator, Balimore
Originally opened in 1939, this single-screen, 900-seat Art Deco landmark has been fully restored and currently shows first-run titles. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, the theater’s lobby includes the original terrazzo floors and murals, and the 40 foot curved screen is revealed at each screening by the opening of a massive gold curtain. In recent years, the Senator has faced threats of auction and foreclosure, but it has managed to stay open thanks to support from the community and City of Baltimore. Our own Judy Berman sings the Senator’s praises: “They’ve had all kinds of trouble staying open, and ownership has changed hands many times, but no matter who owns it, nothing beats the experience of seeing a film in one of America’s few remaining classic movie palaces.”--Flavorwire
Senator Interior
But this landmark, isn't just a new Easterly experience.  In fact, it reminds me of the Babcock theater back home.  It may house bands and boxing today, but I remember my parents dropping me and my brother off to see Beverly Hills Cop II back in the day.  My dad even gave the usher $20 to let us in, even though it was rated-R, so that he and my mom could go out without us.  Since it was the only theater downtown, it worked out well for us, and presumably my parents.

Friday, June 3, 2011

NCAA Lacrosse Championships: Onionized


I almost forgot that this is what I was doing last weekend, until I was reminded by the The Onion.

NCAA Lacrosse National Championship Goes Off Without A Hitch

JUNE 3, 2011 |

BALTIMORE—The NCAA men's Division I collegiate lacrosse championship was successfully contested as expected Monday, crowning the season's winning team as easy as you please. "Both schools got there on time with all their lacrosse equipment, the field was fine, and there were the required number of refs. So we played the game," University of Virginia captain Bray Malphrus said the night after completing the match. "When it was over, the winning team was handed a trophy, pictures were taken, we changed out of our uniforms, and everybody went back to their hotels." Though the NCAA head office and officials directly involved said they were content the game had gone off without a hitch, all admitted it really would not have been a big deal if there had been some problems.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Next Move (East or West) I'm Ditching the Cardboard for RentAGreenBox

Rentagreenbox.com is so brilliant.  The premise is that cardboard boxes suck when moving.  Case-in-point:  I have a storage unit (a year later) that is full of unpacked goods.  Part of the reason is that moving in general sucks.  The other part is that I get recycling pick up once a week and don't want all the left over cardboard hanging around the house.  This means, I take a few boxes at a time.  Well, then I see RentAGreenBox, and my world is turned upside down.
1.  No cardboard
2.  Better packing materials
3.  Nothing to own, use the boxes, give 'em back
4.  Be all envionmentally and stuff

Of course every city you move from and too needs to have a location to retrieve and return boxes.  So who wants to start opening locations?


Wednesday, June 1, 2011

East To West, What is Your State's Stereotype?

And more importantly, what do you have to say about it...North Dakota?