As a follow-up...

The M$ patch (MS08-037) is flawed.  I just spoke with a rep at M$ who stated that they are working on fixing it (it pretty much stops you from reaching the internetz if you have ZoneAlarm, and from reaching any update sites anyway), but that "it was a good thing that you haven't installed the latest patches for MS08-037."

How reassuring...

To those of you who are currently stuck as patch monkeys like me, hell, to everyone, this is HUGE!

Over on the Network Security Podcast, Dan talks about how he got the cooperation of damn near every vendor out there and developed the patches that were simultaneously released today (including MS08-037) patching a "gaping hole in the DNS protocol."

He basically states that on August 6 at BlackHat Vegas, he'll be releasing proof of the vulnerability.

To prove how rediculously huge this is, when have you ever seen all the competitors work on something together AND keep it secret?

(The CERT advisory Word doc lists all the vendors)

That's because you're running Vista 

Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.

Damn...now everybody's gonna know that I watch old episodes of Charles in Charge.  I just love that Willie Aames 

Wait for the shake...

See what happens...he's gone for a little while, comes back and steals the show 

Way to go buddy!

Now I have to fix my Lenovo laptop because I just spit my coffee all over it!  Brutal, Bill.

You're just egging him on.  Don't you know he's going to be too busy defending Vista 

So ready for the long weekend...

The actual bill is located here.

It's not the easiest thing to read (legalese plus poor formatting), so I'm slowly making my way through it. 

According to what I've read so far, there really is no clear definition as to what can be considered an investigation.  As to who asked you to perform the duty, if you read to the end of the linked article, you'll see that consumers are subject to the same penalties should they use the services of an unlicensed individual.

Apparently it's not just required for forensics now.

Check out this story out of Texas:

New Texas Law Limits Computer Repair To Licensed Private Investigators

WTF?

How about my PC techs inside the company?  Is that next?  And all of us watching logs...technically we're investigating!

Think I might just drop the $250 that MD requires and get the license before this spreads.  Like herpes.

Wonder if we know anyone on EHNet that may have given this interview...

This certainly makes my decision easier as far as which cert to NOT attempt next.

it's the ten grand pay cut more than her that's keeping me from going.  She was originally planning on flying out the last night of the con so we could make a mini-vacation out of it...and she'd go to the clubs with us.

Which means one of two things, either:

1.  As with most government prognostications, it'll actually take 10 - 15 years

-or-

2.  It's already in place and has been for a while longer than anyone even knew it was in existence.