The Noise
Sometimes you get caught up in the “noise” of your daily work and then suddenly realize that you haven’t gotten around to the “signal” in months.

Jury Says it’s Okay to Record the TSA
Go figure, we still do have some rights left at the airport!

Cloud Government
A fun idea about reinventing the US Government in a way that actually works, using technology.

10 Surefire Ways To Live Below Your Full Potential
This is a good reminder about how not to live your life.

Security Scoreboard – “Yelp” for Enterprise Security Products?
It can be hard to know if an IT product really does what it claims. This site provides reviews of IT security solutions.

Google Refine
Yet another awesome tool from Google. This one helps you clean up and make sense of messy, inconsistent data. It looks very helpful for people who want to write code against public databases.

The Incredible Freedom Of A Facebook Engineer
A day in the life of a Facebook engineer. Yes, they probably do have it better than you.

Amassing a Small Army Against a Growing Enemy
Some more research into using statistical anomaly detection on the Internet. I haven’t given up hope, yet.

U.S. and Italian authorities said Friday they arrested a group of hackers and conspirators who allegedly stole from phone companies around the world. The illegal profits funded terrorist activities, Italian officials alleged.

A federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted three people Friday, including one man who has been linked to al Qaeda. The three suspects, who live in the Philippines, are accused of providing Pakistani nationals in Italy with access to stolen phone lines.

via Alleged Hacking-Terror Effort Thwarted – WSJ.com.

Obama plans to keep his BlackBerry
There will be plenty of security and legal hurdles. Here’s one already: “The security question was inadvertently highlighted on Friday as Obama’s BlackBerry tumbled from his belt as he exited his limousine and got onto his plane…”

Widest night/day megapixel lens without distortion for the security industry
This is cool for those into physical security or surveillance: “Theia leveraged their patented Linear Optical Technology platform with all-optical barrel distortion correction to provide a nominal 110 degree horizontal field of view…” The article has a picture showing the difference from a regular wide angle lens.

Frankly Speaking: What would really make software more secure
Not a bad idea, although I’m not sure how I feel about yet another expensive software certification process: “…SANS says some state governments are already thinking about requiring software suppliers to certify in writing that their code is free of the errors on the list.” Hasn’t the federal government already tried similar approaches?