After listening to the left criticize President Bush for eight years, we move into the era of a new party in the White House, and the party out of power becomes the vocal critics. Unfortunately, I’m already hearing some sink to the same low arguments I was hearing from the left. So I’d like to know, where can I hear the intelligent discourse?
By Chip Hammond
The American Humanist Association has put up some $40,000 to run a “holiday ad campaign” on D.C. Metro buses. The mobile bill boards read, “Why believe in a god? Be good for goodness sake.”
I’ve heard people who should know better trying to make the case that these ads should be taken down because they “violate the separation clause of the first amendment.” Nonsense. No aspect of government is displaying these. It is paid advertising, and provided it is not obscene, as long as Metro takes everyone’s paid advertising, people can ask the questions they want, be it in magazines, newspapers, or on bill boards.
There are, however, two problems with the ad campaign, one having to do with societal hypocrisy, and the other having to do with an astonishing lack of ability to think logically.
A spokesperson for the AHA has argued that they are not attacking anyone. They are simply asking a question (“why believe in a god?”) and making a statement (“be good for goodness’ sake”). But they are doing it at Christmas time. What, I wonder, would be the response of the AHA, D.C. Metro, the ACLU and any number of self-proclaimed crusaders for “fairness” if a church or Christian group took out ads at Ramadan asking this question and making this statement: “Why believe in allah? Trust in the God who can save you.”
At worst hate crimes against that Christian group would be overlooked because “they had it coming.” At best it would appear to most to be boorish. How rude to crash someone else’s holiday. Despite the AHA’s reference to “a god,” at Christmas time you don’t have to be a genius to figure out who they are trying to refer to.
That’s the societal hypocrisy. Here’s the lapse in logic. Without God, and therefore a deontological ethic, just what exactly is “good?” None other than Frederick Nietzsche asked this question. No one who reads Nietzsche’s bold statement “God is dead” in various places can fail to see the anguish as he writes it. He deeply believed the proposition, but also knew that once the cat was out of the bag man would be ungrounded, unanchored, and there would no longer be any right or wrong. “Good for goodness sake” would be a fluid perspective now, not a bedrock touchstone.
So where would we get perspective? Nietzsche told us. I would come from the Übermensch, the “superman,” who will give us guidance and direction. Nietzsche’s ideas were read with fascination and embraced by Adolph Hitler, who believed he would become the vehicle for delivering to the world the Übermensch.
The spokesperson for AHA said that “good” is defined not by moral absolutes, but by what is deemed acceptable to a society. Does he really want us to go there? What was acceptable to German society in the 1930s? What was acceptable and “good” to the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan? Does the AHA really want to define “good” as whatever direction society goes in? What if society goes in the direction of seeing American Humanists as the problem for which is needed a Final Solution? Do you see the predicament?
Interestingly, Aristotle who lived in the age of Greek gods, saw beyond them to a First Cause, a Creator of even the gods (if they existed). The later medieval synthesists could not resist identifying this Unmoved Mover with, not a god, but with God. For somewhere a wise man had said that even for the pagans, “What may be known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.”
I don’t quibble with the “right” of the AHA to put up their bill boards. I do think it is boorish to do it at Christmas time. And it is hypocrisy if Metro will not accept formally equivalent advertizing at Ramadan from churches. Mostly, though, I just feel sorry for them. They are behaving like a man who so hates the Christmas Tree that he calls for it to be cut down while he barks out the orders from atop of it.
Christmas time is the celebration that God sent his Son into the world to announce amnesty to rebels, and a grace period for them to come to their senses. He does not call for the immediate judgment of those who rebel against his rightful rule, and who seek to replace God with a nebulous and shifting definition of “good” that can encompass anything from Meals on Wheels to the Gestapo, depending on “were society is going.”
The question of the AHA is a valid one: “why believe in a god?” A god, as distinct from God, is anything short of God which men worship and by which they order their lives. In other words, the members of the AHA worship a god. So I’ll ask a question of the members of the AHA and make a statement to them: “Why believe in a god? Put your trust in the true and living One.”
It’s good to live out in the country, away from Washington, D.C…
The trades are all talking about a new WPA hack, but is it really a big deal? The media would have you believe so, but Steve Gibson explains exactly what has happened, and what to do to protect your wireless network, on the latest episode of Security Now.
At this point, hackers have discovered that TKIP and QOS together enable them to be a nusance to your wireless network, but it isn’t a complete hack… yet. It is something that could become a point of vulnerability, so it’s a good idea to move toward shutting down the possibility.
Basicly, turn off the TKIP protocol and use AES (CCMP protocol) and don’t use QOS (Quality of Service, a.k.a. WMM) on wireless (VoIP traffic should be connected to your wired router ports, or to put before your router). The combination of TKIP and QOS create the vulnerability, since QOS channels allow more attempts at the crack. Another way to defeat the vulnerability is to reduce the key lifetime to 11 minutes, instead of the default 60 minutes, since it takes a minimum of 12 minutes to perform the hack.
Many routers don’t have QOS, and a lot of routers and wireless devices don’t have AES. But if your equipment is new and WPA2 certified, you probably can switch to AES, and turn off TKIP protocol to be safe.
* The TKIP Hack, Security Now, Episode 170
It’s a sad day today for us as we say goodbye to Prince. We’ve had him since 1994 when we adopted him from a local shelter. He’s been a good gentle dog for our family, only learning to bark years after we adopted him. In recent times, he’s been plagued with cancer, tumors, tremors, breathing difficulties, and trouble getting up and down. It’s hard to know when the end has come because he has good days when nothing seems to be bothering him. He acted so alive when a neighbor’s puppy ran into our yard and they started playing together. But on most days, he moves slowly and grunts as he lays down trying to get comfortable. So today, we’re taking him to the vet one last time, and he won’t be coming home. Prince, you’ve been a very good dog!
The following is a selection of broadcasting equipment manuals and brochures:
I’ve been using VoIP services since 2005 and have experience now with several different companies. VoIP has come a long way in that time, and I’m considering getting rid of my landline telephone service altogether.
In 2005, I signed up for Broadvoice, a VoIP service that was only 14 months old at the time. They’re unlimited service was priced at $19.95, charged monthly. They also offered a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) plan for only $5.99/mo. with a limited minutes allowance. At the time, my choice to use them was based on price, features offered, and availability of a local number. Since 2005, I have subscribed to Broadvoice three times - twice on their unlimited plan, and once on their BYOD plan. Each time, their service was comparable to cellular telephone service, with occasional loss of audio in one direction or another, total dropped calls, or loss of dial tone. It is unclear whether these early problems were caused by their system or packet loss on the internet. Their customer service is fine - most of the time they were great, but on my cancellation in 2007, they sounded displeased.
For a period of one year (2005-2006), I subscribed to Voicepulse’s unlimited plan at $24.99, billed monthly. Voicepulse was a better service with more features I liked including unavailable forwarding (essential during service outage) and customizable caller id to identify incoming calls the way I want to. The quality of Voicepulse service was similar to Broadvoice, which makes me suspect it has more to do with the internet than the individual companies. Voicepulse customer service was professional in tone as well as well as their level of technical expertise.
In 2007, I signed up for a BYOD, no-monthly-fee service with VoipVoip. It’s an outgoing-only service which issues a 555 number (one that can not be called) and requires customers to setup an account to deposit funds in $10 increments. I only ever paid $10. It worked very well, and I had almost no quality issues. Their customer service was by email, but only needed for signup and cancellation (no technical problems to resolve).
Later in 2007, I purchased a MagicJack voip device, which plugs into a computer’s USB port and requires the computer to be up and running (not off or hybernating). MagicJack has its own peculiarities in setup to get it working just right. I bought the device and 5-years of service for around $80. For me, it’s a good second line.
In 2008, I tried ViaTalk. Their service was very good, and I particularly liked their 2-line service where the 2nd line is a clone of the first. They told me they have a 97% success rate at porting numbers, but they were unable to transfer mine saying they couldn’t confirm my address in their databases. I bought a newly built home 16 months ago.
Then in 2008, I switched back to Broadvoice. They now offer the Grandstream HT502 adapter which also worked very well with ViaTalk. Broadvoice has local numbers to me and they say they can port my existing Verizon number. My signup and number transfer request was all handled online, and my existing local number was ported in 3 business days. They are now my current provider.
Devices:
My first Voip device was a Sipura 1001 from Broadvoice, then a Sipura 2000 from Voicepulse, then a Linksys Sipura 2102-R. The Sipura 2102-R unit had the phone 1 port fail, but otherwise it worked with Broadvoice and VoipVoip. My latest devices (from ViaTalk and Broadvoice) were Grandstream Handytone HT502s which I installed between my cablemodem and router. They worked great.
Broadband Providers:
I used Sprint DSL (now known as Embarq) and Adelphia Cable (now merged with Comcast). At 1500Mbps, DSL was probably too slow to provide adequate bandwidth for Voip and the entire household. At 3000Mbps, we did better. On cable internet, service was probably better, particularly in 2007-2008 when Comcast increased our speed even further.
Settings:
The DSL modem was blocking service after a short time (blocking Session Initiation Packets), and it was necessary to reconfigure it to bridge mode.
Setting routers to assign the Voip device to a DMZ port was never adequate. With the Voip device assigned to a fixed IP address, it was always necessary to also forward ports to the Voip device. The broadest port list included TCP on 80, and UDP on 69, 5060-5063 & 10000-20000.
QOS (Quality of Service) is a router setting that allows the setting of traffic priority which means your Voip is less likely to loose packets due to local congestion.
SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) is a router setting that can cause local congestion and is best disabled for Voip usage.
Some Voip devices can be installed between a broadband modem and a router, allowing it unrestricted access and negating the need for the above settings.
Call Centers:
It seems to make a difference which call center your VoIP company assigns your account to, and it isn’t necessarily the one you’re closest to. It will be the one you experience the least amount of packet congestion with. I have experienced dramatic improvements by asking them to assign me to a different call center.
Local Number Portability:
When I requested Broadvoice turn my landline phone number into a VoIP number in 2006, the process took about 3 weeks. More and more companies are now able to port customer’s numbers, even in areas where they don’t offer local numbers. Cell phone numbers are usually not transferable to VoIP.
Online Reviews:
It is difficult to tell which companies are the best in terms of technical quality or customer service. I suspect that many online reviews are written by customers blaming companies for technical problems caused by local configuration and internet congestion. Criticism is fair when equipment fails or customer service is slow, rude and/or unresponsive. Voip review sites vary widely. For example, in a search today, I find Vonage rated #1 in a magazine review while they appear the worst in customer service on another review site. They do have a lot of customers, but they also advertise a great deal.
Conclusion:
I still like the quality of landline service the best, but as more and more business and home users adopt Voip, I’m paying for quality I won’t get when connected to the VoIP of others. As VoIP continues to improve, it just makes sense to make the switch.
A giant knitted rabbit in Italy can be seen from space by visitors to Google Earth. The 200-foot-long toy rabbit lies on the side of the 5,000 foot high Colletto Fava mountain in northern Italy’s Piedmont region.
The idea of giant art installations is not new. In June this year, artist Giancarlo Neri unveiled his giant writing desk and chair on Hampstead Heath. The sculpture, called The Writer, is 30ft high and has already become such a part of the London landscape that pranksters have been using it as a pizza delivery address. Now who would do that? 
* A giant knitted rabbit in Italy can be seen from space by visitors to Google Earth
To use the internet, one enters a domain name into their browser, and the name is looked up to find its address using DNS (a Domain Name Server). So of course, the DNS system needs to be strong and secure against attacks by those who would want to bring down the net. In the past, attacks have included flooding DNS with too many requests to handle. Firewalls were then designed to detect DNS Flood attacks.
Now, a new form of vulnerability has been identified and unfortunately, the concept is now public before a solution is known:
They’re claiming that they can bring down any server that they have aimed this tool at so far - Windows, Linux, BSD, and apparently [backbone] routers … [which] will typically accept BGP, Border Gateway Protocol connections, from anywhere because that’s the way they exchange their routing tables. And so they say in this audio that in some cases it’ll only kill one service. In some cases it will kill the entire machine. And they said in one case, and this has been repeated in text that I saw in several postings, that the machine would no longer boot after they did this to it…
* Socks Stress, Security Now, Episode 164
* DNS for Rocket Scientists, Zytrax
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Edward Stoffel
Winchester, VA
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