Diogenes

Here: http://techdirt.com/articles/20100325/0403568713.shtml

And the offending appliance: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/packet-forensics/

I've got hundreds of clients who use the Internet, but are not - as we would say - Internet savvy. What do you think I should tell them (and what will you tell YOUR customers) when the idea that ANY government agency can spy on supposedly "secure" connections hits the mainstream? I have some ideas, but you, my colleagues and superiors frequenting HN, must have some more insight...

This shameless plug is for my nephew James, who was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 3. James has entered a video contest for his Omnipod insulin pump. His video is posted on YouTube. Part of the scoring is based on how many views his video has. Can you take 2 minutes to watch his video? The theme of the contest is how the Omnipod makes diabetes a smaller part of life. Right now, one of the competing videos has over 16,000 views. We would really appreciate your help!

Here is the link to his video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcNLVTvY96w

Oh yeah, the prize he's going for is a MacBook Pro. And to make it even more relevant, his insulin pump is some very cool tech. My nephew is a cyborg.

As the guy in the family who gets the call when computers don't work, I wasn't surprised when I got the call today that mom & dad's computer lost connection to the Internet. After all the troubleshooting was complete, the DSL modem was on and connected, the computer was talking to the DSL modem just fine, etc., I said he needed to call his ISP. AT&T (rebranded from SBC/Yahoo!) in the Texas town where they live had an automated recording giving them a Microsoft phone number to call.

After being on hold for nearly an hour at that Microsoft number, the operator gave him a case # and said told him he could either call back in a day or two with that case #, or wait on hold for up to 4 hours - as the Microsoft techs dealing with this issue are swamped. It is apparently a VERY big issue. I can't find ANYTHING in the news about it.

What I did find was this: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4304820.ece. I found that highly curious, and probably related, but dad hasn't had ZoneAlarm on his machine for over 2 years, and I removed it myself.

I can't believe that either or both of these issues aren't getting more coverage? What's the matter...is twitter down again?