I really like the concept behind this. This would make an excellent backup system for places in which “the cloud” has gone dark.
First solar-powered Linux laptop
Summary: A new kind of laptop, the SOL, is being designed for the great outdoors and it’s powered by sunlight and it will be running Linux.
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Linux and Open Source | August 9, 2013 — 14:06 GMT (07:06 PDT)
WeWi Telecommunications, a Canadian telecommunications company, is better known for its disaster recovery services than it is as a Linux or PC company. But if Wewi have its way about it, the business will be the first to build a fully solar-powered, Linux laptop.
Say hello to the SOL: The first solar-powered laptop with Linux
The new laptop, which is still in development, will be named the SOL. WeWi hasn’t revealed any pricing but it’s rumored that it will list for $400.
To make the SOL capable of running on solar-powered batteries alone, it’s a relatively low-powered laptop.
The SOL’s specs are:
CPU: Intel Atom D2500 1.86 GHz Duo Core, Intel 945GSE + ICH7M
HDD: Seagate 2.5″ SATA HDD 320GB
RAM: Kingston 2-4GB DDRIII SDRAM
Graphics: 1080p HD Vide, Built-In Intel GMA3600 Graphics
Display: 13.3″ LCD, WXGA, 1366 x 768
Camera: 3MP
Audio: Realtek ALC661 HD Audio, Built-in 2 Speakers | Internal mic + 1/8″ input
3 USB2.0, Headphone jack, HDMI, LAN(10/100), Card reader (SD/MS/MMC)
Modem: 3G/4G World/multimode LTE
GPS: gpsOne Gen8A
Wi-Fi: MIMO 802.11b/gn (2.4/5GHz)
Bluetooth: Integrated Digital Core BT4.0
The company claims that with this configuration, and its built-in Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels with 16-percent efficiency, it will have a battery life of eight to ten hours.
For its operating system, it will run Ubuntu 12.04. Eventually, this will be upgraded to later versions of Ubuntu.
The Sol isn’t just about solar-power and Linux. Its real purpose, according to the company, is “With a rugged design, durability and a solar array that allows you to work wherever you are, you can take SOL with you to the most remote places on earth.”
The business means it. David M. Snir, WeWi’s founder, told me that “SOL is first going to be available in countries where it is needed most, starting with:”
1. Ghana
2. Kenya
3. Zimbabwe
4. Rest of Africa
Snir continued, “We are then going to introduce SOL in the European, US/Canadian market with both SOL and SOL-X (with higher specifications).”
This project sounds a lot to me like the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Linux laptop. I asked Snit about this and he replied, “Somewhat yes. People have asked us about OLPC. While we admire their effort and their initiative, SOL is somewhat different, in that it is a fully functioning laptop which young adults and professionals can use for work.”
He concluded:
“SOL is also very open and a user can install whatever OS they wish on it (We have a test unit running Windows for example, as well as others running different Linux distributions.) Having said that, we are working with several governments to introduce SOL into their One Laptop per Child program – where the machines will be either heavily subsidized or entirely given for free by these governments – for us this is a wonderful thing as this way those who need it most but can’t afford it will have access and future in computing.”
Alas for those of us in North America and the European Union, it’s going to be a while before the SOL is in our hands. No release date has been set yet for its arrival in either Africa or the rest of the world. I’m sure I’m not the only one who hopes that it will be soon.
miss teen usa extortion plot foiled suspect arrested
Observations:
Being semi-famous makes you a target for all sorts of sickos.
Make the password for your home WiFi very difficult to guess.
No birthdays, no phone numbers, and nothing that is publicly available
Using the “clearnet” to communicate threats is really stupid.
Minimize the number of devices on WiFi
Turn off Bluetooth on davices when not in use.
The Bluetooth protocol has widely known security vulnerabilities
If you are using a myDLink account to access your home router or home wireless surveillance cameras,have the email account associated with the myDLink account be something that cannot be extrapolated from a Craigslist posting or a Social Media account
The same password rules apply to your myDLink account.
Periodically change the passwords for your social media accounts
Put a band-aid over the built-in webcam of your laptop
Put a band-aid over the built in microphone of your laptop as well.
Use a LiveCD Operating system each time as well.
Miss Teen USA Extortion Plot Foiled, Suspect Arrested
By CHRISTOPHER WEBER 09/26/13 03:30 PM ET EDT
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A 19-year-old man was arrested Thursday in an investigation into the hacking of webcams at the homes of Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf and other young women in an attempt to extort nude photographs and videos, the FBI said.
Jared James Abrahams of Temecula surrendered to agents at the FBI office in Orange County, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
He was scheduled to be in federal court in Santa Ana later in the day, Eimiller said.
Wolf, a 19-year-old graduate of Great Oak High School in Temecula, won the Miss Teen USA crown Aug. 9. According to the criminal complaint that names her by initials, she was one of several female victims. The other victims were not identified.
Last month, Wolf told the website of NBC’s “Today” show that earlier this year she received an anonymous email in which the sender claimed to have stolen images from the camera on her home computer.
The sender of the email threatened to go public with images captured from Wolf’s webcam unless she would provide nude pictures of herself, Eimiller said.
Instead, Wolf went to authorities.
Based on an investigation launched in March the FBI said there were “multiple” victims from Riverside County, where Temecula is located, and beyond.
According to the complaint, Abrahams used malicious software to disguise his identity in order to capture nude photos or videos of victims through remote operation of cameras on their home computers without their consent. He allegedly contacted some victims using others’ email accounts he had taken over. Abrahams, the complaint alleges, threatened to make public the images and videos unless they submitted to one of three demands: send nude photos, send a nude video, or log onto Skype and do what he says for five minutes.
FBI agents raided Abrahams’ Temecula home in June and seized computers and hardware, cellphones and hacking software, court records show.
Wolf, who was Miss California Teen USA, has said she would use her fame to highlight cybercrime.
Wolf’s mother recently told The Press-Enterprise of Riverside that her daughter was in New York, where she was planning to attend the New York Film Academy.
how to shoot from a seated position
I highly recommend any of Dave Spaulding’s material.
Keep in mind that your method of carry needs to be one in which you can easily access the gun or other weapon fro a seated position under stress and in a short time frame. Practice it dry in your garage in the car to get good with it.
protip drop the magazine first then pull the slide back to clear a pistol
Sooooooooooooooo dumb.
From http://gawker.com/man-tries-to-show-wife-gun-isnt-loaded-ends-up-shooti-1286035028
NEETZAN ZIMMERMAN
GUNS
Tuesday 3:12pm
Man Tries to Show Wife Gun Isn’t Loaded, Ends Up Shooting Her Instead
1
An attempt to show his wife that a gun brought into their home by a friend wasn’t loaded went terribly awry for one Vermont man who ended up shooting his wife in the legs.
Authorities in Windsor say Matthew Coleman, 37, had brought the 9mm handgun into the couple’s bedroom for safekeeping out of concern that children in the house might play with it.
When his wife, Dorthea, asked him if the gun was loaded, Coleman assured her it wasn’t, and demonstrated by pulling the trigger.
The gun went off, and a bullet struck Dorthea in one leg and exited through the other.
Emergency services were called to the scene, and Dorthea was rushed to a nearby hospital. She was conscious and alert at the time.
Police officers subsequently arrested Coleman and charged him with simple assault with a deadly weapon.
The county’s Deputy State’s Attorney David Cahill said Coleman avoided a harsher charge of aggravated assault because he failed to demonstrate “extreme indifference to human life.”
“Simply put, the state has charged Mr. Coleman for making a tragic, easily avoidable mistake,” Cahill told reporters.
Coleman pleaded innocent just the same.
[screengrab via WCAX]
getting google to spy on you a just a little bit less
From http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/security-tools/
Skip to content
Good to Know
How you can stay safe and secure online
Know your Google security and privacy tools
Know your Google security and privacy tools
With Google, you have a variety of tools that can help keep you safe and keep your information private and secure. Here are some of our most popular tools that help make Google work better for you.
Stay secure and private
2-step Verification
Once you’ve created a password for your Google Account, we encourage you to add an extra layer of security by enabling 2-step verification. 2-step verification requires you to have access to your phone, as well as your username and password, when you sign in. This means that if someone steals or guesses your password, the potential attacker still can’t sign in to your account because they don’t have your phone. Now you can protect yourself with something you know (your password) and something you have (your phone).
Incognito mode in Chrome
In incognito mode, pages you open and files you download aren’t recorded in Chrome’s browsing or download history. You can also use this feature in Chrome for Android – and Chrome is now the default browser for new Android products, letting you browse the web on your phone or tablet in private. Find out how to access incognito mode.
Google Talk
Google Talk, the chat feature in Gmail and other Google products, allows you to take chats off the record. Chats that have been taken off the record aren’t stored in your or your contact’s Gmail chat history. When you take a chat off the record, a message will appear to you and your contact confirming that future chats won’t be saved, unless one of you changes the setting.
Google+ Circles
Google+ circles help you manage your friends and contacts. You can put your friends in one circle, your family in another and your boss in a circle all by himself – just like real life. Then you can share relevant content, like Google+ posts, YouTube videos, or Local listings, with the right people anytime you choose.
Unlisted and private videos on YouTube
YouTube was created for people to share ideas with the entire world. But sometimes you might just rather share it with a small group of friends or keep it to yourself. You can do that by choosing either unlisted or private when you upload your video.
See and control your information
Google Account Settings
On your Account settings page, you can see services and information associated with your Google Account and change your security and privacy settings.
Google Dashboard
The Google Dashboard shows you what’s stored in your Google Account. From one central location, you can easily view and update your settings for services such as Blogger, Calendar, Docs, Gmail, Google+ and more.
Me on the Web
Me on the Web can help you understand and manage what people see when they search for you on Google. It helps you set up Google Alerts so you can monitor if information about you appears online, and it automatically suggests some search terms you may want to keep an eye on.
Account Activity
Account Activity makes it simple for you to review how you’re using Google services while signed in, and make sure only you have been using your account. If you sign up, you’ll get access to a monthly report where you can see things like how much email has been sent and received from your account, the countries from which your account has been accessed, and what the top Google searches from your account have been.
Google Takeout
Google Takeout provides you with an easy-to-use tool to download your personal data, like your documents or photos, so that you can always have a copy of it or easily be able to upload your information to another service.
Google Web History controls
If you’re signed in to a Google Account, Web History helps provide you with more relevant results and recommendations. If you choose, you can delete entries, pause collection or turn off the service altogether. You can do the same with YouTube History.
Manage what advertisers and websites see
Ads Preferences Manager
Ads help fund many of the free online services on the web you love and use every day. With Google’s Ads Preferences Manager, you can understand how ads are selected for you, control your information that is used to select ads, and block specific advertisers.
Google Analytics opt-out
Google Analytics generates statistics about visitors to websites, such as the number of page views or times of peak traffic to help website publishers improve their sites. If you don’t want your browser data to be shared with publishers when you visit sites that use Google Analytics, you can install an opt-out.
Good to Know
How you can stay safe and secure online
Secure your passwords
Prevent identity theft
Avoid scams
Keep your device clean
Signing in and signing out
Lock your screen or device
Report abuse and illegal activity
Check your Gmail settings
Use secure networks
Manage multiple accounts
Know your Google security and privacy tools
How you can protect your family online
Google’s safety tools
Reporting inappropriate content
Sharing controls and privacy settings
Advice on safety issues from our partners
Tips from parents at Google
FAQ
Learn how Google helps protects you
Helping combat identity theft
Protecting you from personal fraud and scams
Working to help keep your computer and device clean
Making the Internet safer for everyone
Know your web
Jargon buster
Internet 101
Google Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum
Good to Know School Roadshow
Partners
Learn more
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do you know why belts are an important part of your ccw rig
Great article!
From: Do you know why belts are an important part of your CCW rig?.
Whenever the topic of holsters comes up someone always says… “The belt is more important than the holster.”
Um… sort of. The holster is what retains the gun, it is what protects the trigger guard and its design can do a lot to help the belt, but I am getting ahead of myself.
How your belt fails
Bad belts fail in one or more of three different ways…
1) They sag. The weight of the pistol can cause the belt to bow down.
2) They list. The weight of the pistol can twist the belt.
3) They taco. The weight of the pistol actually causes the belt to fold length wise. If your belt is doing this it probably isn’t sufficient to hold up your pants… let alone a pistol.
1 & 2 often happen together and combine to have the gun pull the pants down on one side fall away from the body. This effectively makes the muzzle longer increasing the chance it to pokes out from under your coat or shirt. It makes the gun print more since it is falling away from your body. It increases the felt weight of the pistol because the center of mass is farther from your body. And the swaying increases the chance of it bumping into things and can be annoying.
How do you know when you have a bad belt?
You know you have a bad belt if you need to adjust your pistol back up onto your hip or that you need to cinch it tighter that you would if you weren’t carrying.
What should you look for in a belt?
There are a large number of good belts that are made from either leather or nylon webbing.
Leather belts should be double layered leather and designed for the purpose. Typically they will be 1.25” tall and a 0.25” thick. 1.5” belts are available, but they are often too big for normal pant belt loops. Your reversible black/brown dress belt isn’t going to cut it.
Webbing belts, often called instructor belts, are thinner but are also great choices because they don’t stretch… which is the reason for the thickness of the leather belt. Some companies market 3 or 5 stich models and for the extra $5 get the 5 stich. This serves to add a little more stiffness which is what you are after.
The other big advantage of the webbing belts is that they don’t have discrete adjustments so they can be set to the perfect tension.
How can the holster help the belt?
My favorite concealment holster is the Comp-tac MTAC and while it does benefit from a good belt, its design reduces the importance.
1) It is an inside the waistband (IWB) holster so the waistband of your pants acts as another layer keeping it from rotating away from your body. This eliminates the printing, the swinging and the increased felt weight issues.
2) It uses 2 clips separated by more than a couple of inches. This divides the weight each point on the belt is supporting reducing the chance of sagging or tacoing.
So yes, a good belt is definitely part of a well-designed CCW rig, but the right holster can minimize its importance.
We don’t stock any belts because the well known brands are all so good that there is little performance differentiation. However, I would love to know what your favorite belt is. Post it in the comments below.
65 20 0 2 90
About Ron Larimer
Ron is the Founder and President of When the Balloon Goes Up! He competes regularly in IDPA as an ESP/Expert, his focus is on concealed carry, home defense and analyzing equipment to find “Gear that Just Works!”
FDA Issues Alert on Preventing Medical Device Hacking
Please read the article below. Some of you may have loved ones who require medical devices such as pacemakers or insulin pumps.
- You may want to consider a dedicated Internet connection for the wireless medical device at home.
- A mobile hotspot card can do the trick.
- Be sure to have a strong and long password!
- Make sure that the device provider has practices in place to update the medical device.
- Document everything!
- Network activity logging devices and software can help you keep track of what is occurring on the network that your loved one’s medical device is on.
- Product liability and wrongful death suits are a grim thing to think about but do have to be taken into consideration.
A couple of years ago, we wrote about the vulnerability of certain insulin pumps to outside hackers. Since then, many more many medical devices with embedded computer systems also seem to be vulnerable to cyber security breaches. Add to that the increasingly interconnected nature of hospital networks and smartphones, and the risk of cybers ecurity breaches affecting medical device operations is compounded.
A hacker messing with your medical device can make you sicker, or even put you at risk of death.
The FDA gets it. The agency has issued an alert recommending that medical device manufacturers and health- care facilities take steps to assure that appropriate safeguards are in place to reduce the risk of failure due to cyberattack. Such attacks can result from malware sent directly to the medical equipment or by unauthorized access to configuration settings in medical devices and hospital networks.
At this point, the alert is strictly a warning—the FDA is not aware of any patient injuries or deaths associated with hacking, nor does it have any indication that any specific devices or systems in clinical use have been purposely targeted.
So this is a heads-up announcement for manufacturers, hospitals, medical device user facilities, health-care IT professionals and biomedical engineers to make medical devices secure, and keep those protections up to date.
For manufacturers, the FDA recommends:
- Taking steps to limit unauthorized device access to trusted users, particularly for devices that are life-sustaining or could be directly connected to hospital networks. Such security controls can include: user authentication via password, smartcard or biometric; strengthening password protection; limiting public access to passwords used for technical device access; physical locks; card readers; and guards.
- Protecting individual components from exploitation and developing strategies for active security protection such as timely deployment of routine, validated security patches and methods to restrict software updates to authenticated code.
- Designs that maintain a device’s critical functionality, even when security has been compromised, known as “fail-safe modes.”
- Providing methods for retention and recovery after security has been compromised.
For health-care facilities, the FDA recommends:
- Restricting unauthorized access to the network and networked medical devices.
- Ensuring that antivirus software and firewalls are up-to-date.
- Monitoring network activity for unauthorized use.
- Protecting individual network components through routine and periodic evaluation, including updating security patches and disabling all unnecessary ports and services.
- Contacting the specific device manufacturer if you think you have a cyber security problem related to a medical device.
- Developing and evaluating strategies to maintain critical functionality during adverse conditions.
If you or a loved one is being treated with a programmable, chip-embedded medical device, find out who the manufacturer is and what safeguards are included in its design.
If your practitioners can’t provide this information, that’s a red flag—they should be as concerned with cyber protection as you are.
Also, ask your practitioner s what safeguards their facility has in place to protect against hacking.
Use the list above to ensure they have adequate standards, and that they are being followed.
Man uses assault rifle to kill charging bear near Anchorage
Who says you can’t use a Kalashnikov to go hunting?
Granted I prefer the AK-47 (in 7.62x39mm) over the AK-74 (in 5.45x39mm), but still any gun is better than no gun when it comes to facing down a bear
Man uses assault rifle to kill charging bear near Anchorage
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A trail south of Anchorage has been closed after a man killed a brown bear that charged him.
Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Jessy Coltrane tells the Anchorage Daily News that an unidentified man came across the bear Sunday morning while hiking alone. He told Coltrane the bear charged him, and he fired 13 rounds from an AK-74 assault rifle he was carrying on his hike.
Chugach State Park Ranger Tom Crockett said the bear ran off, but later died.
Officials say the bear was skinned and the head taken to Fish and Game. But a large portion of the carcass remains about 100 yards off the trail, and likely will attract other bears.
Rangers have closed the trail between McHugh Creek and the Rainbow trailhead.
___
Information from: Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News, http://www.adn.com
Managing Unknown Contacts: Task Fixation
Check him out at www.shivworks.com
You can also download a PDF of the entire article here.
SNContacts
Or you can also sign up for Total Protection Interactive and read the classic thread here.
http://www.totalprotectioninteractive.com/forum/showthread.php?t=770
Managing Unknown Contacts
I’ve been on the road now teaching citizen self defense courses for about a year, and it’s been very educational for me. I’ve been able to improve my own course work based on student feedback and more importantly I’ve been able to prioritize the presentation of my material.
As everyone probably knows at this point I’m a fanatic about contextually underscored training. We should always be examining the problem and focus our solutions accurately.
Tactics
I’ve come to realize in the citizen self defense world are more often than not, merely paid lip service to. Most training focuses on technical development of motor skills whether that’s shooting, blade work, or empty hand skills.
So what we’re going to focus on in this tutorial are tactics, particularly pre-engagement tactics. I teach this block of instruction first in every class I do, regardless of the particulars of the skill-set, and I feel like it’s probably the most important.
Lee has already written an excellent piece on stranger confrontations, and this material is very in-line with his thread. This is just my take on the subject matter.
There have been several threads in The Codex already which cover the Criminal Assault Paradigm and it’s important that one study that material first. After all we must understand the problem, before we can discuss solutions.
Awareness
We speak about this often in self defense and protection training and we even have models such as The Color Code to help us understand this
concept. Awareness is critical. The more aware we are of our environment,the earlier we can spot a potential problem developing.
Is there any key to “awareness”?
The biggest issue I see with the population and awareness is task fixation in public venues. When I say “task fixation” I mean allowing yourself to
become overly distracted by whatever menial chore you happen to have to perform.
Examples of this?
Talking on a Cell Phone
Now we all do this in public, but how often have we seen someone totally engrossed in the conversation they’re having and completely oblivious to the environment? I use an earpiece usually and this keeps my hands free and more importantly my head upright. We all use cell phones day in and out, but be cognizant of not allowing yourself to become so fixated with the task of speaking, that you forget where you’re at and what’s around you.
Finding the right key
Is there any reason that one couldn’t do this in the safety of a well light supermarket, before they walk into that poorly lit parking lot?
Sitting in a stationary vehicle with the ignition off
This is a pet peeve of mine that’s a borderline phobia, I believe due in part to the number of times I’ve been assaulted in a vehicle. One is extremely vulnerable in a stationary vehicle. Is there any reason why we can’t wait to balance the checkbook until we get home? Now these are all simple common sense things, but unless you are conscious of the tendency we all have towards task fixation, it’s really easy to allow oneself to fall prey to it.
Avoid task fixation in public.
That’s the best advice I can give someone to increase their sphere of awareness.
friends dont let friends wear cheap nylon holsters or carry a 25 auto
So what did this clown do wrong?
Carried a gun that was obviously not drop safe
The gun he was carrying was most likely an older design that is not safe to carry with a loaded chamber because a sharp impact can cause it to discharge.
Carried a .25 Auto
.25 ACP is notorious for being an low velocity and lightweight cartridge
He was wearing a holster that was most likely a cheap floppy nylon holster that was not molded to the gun.
Just about any serious handgun class will disallow floppy nylon holsters since they are simply unsafe and can easily foul a draw.
From http://blog.al.com/tuscaloosa/2013/10/man_shot_after_holstered_gun_f.html
Man shot after holstered gun falls, fires, strikes him in the leg while shopping in Tuscaloosa
From http://blog.al.com/tuscaloosa/2013/10/man_shot_after_holstered_gun_f.html
Print
By Ben Flanagan | bflanaga@al.com | Follow on Twitter
on October 07, 2013 at 8:25 AM, updated October 07, 2013 at 8:29 AM
View full sizeA man suffered a gunshot wound Saturday after his holstered firearm accidentally went off and struck him in the leg while shopping at a Tuscaloosa store. (Joe Songer/al.com)
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – A Tuscaloosa man accidentally shot himself in the leg while shopping in a local store on Saturday after his holstered gun fell to the floor and fired, according to the Tuscaloosa Metro Homicide Unit.
On Saturday at approximately 9 p.m., homicide investigators responded to DCH Regional Medical Center Tuscaloosa in reference to a shooting that took place at 4201 East University Boulevard, according to Tuscaloosa Metro Homicide Unit Commander Sgt. Dale Phillips.
Investigators spoke with the victim who said that while shopping in a local store, a 25-caliber handgun that he had in his waist fell to the floor and fired. The victim stated that he had the weapon in a holster, according to Phillips.
The projectile from the handgun struck the victim in the leg and traveled up to his hip. The projectile will have to be removed in surgery, according to Phillips. Police do not have information on the victim’s condition.
There were no other injuries or damage to report.