Parents protect your children.  If your child’s computer has a webcam on it please physically disable it in some way when it’s not in use. If it’s a laptop, put a piece of electrical tape over the lens. If it’s on a desktop computer put a paper bag over it. You can remove the tape or bag if the webcam needs to be used.

In addition to virii which can unexpectedly turn the camera on, and remote technicians who may unexpectedly turn the camera on we now have a new threat… School administrators.

School-issued PCs were spying on kids

Official: FBI probing Pa. school webcam spy case

I was dog gone excited. Finally my Kindle was going to be able to read .pdf files. I uploaded the 2.2.3 firmware manually (for some reason my Kindle 2 did not automagically upgrade from 2.0.3 to 2.3.3) uploaded the .pdf files from the CD in Shon Harris’ CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Fifth Edition. By George! I was ready to study! Then I tried to read the .pdfs.

It appears that the Kindle’s .pdf client does not support zooming. What you see is what you get. Unfortunately things were way too small. I attempted to rotate the .pdf to landscape. This did increase the size some, but not nearly enough. Converting the .pdf files to Amazon’s proprietary  format messed up the file’s pagination. Not good for a book with pictures.

AMAZON – PLEASE UPGRADE THE KINDLE’S PDF CLIENT TO SUPPORT ZOOMING!!!!

MS. SHON HARRIS – Please sell the latest version of your CISSP study guide in Kindle format!!!!

Very inexpensive adapters. They cost $6.49 each. The same size and form factor as the original. Now if I could find a cheap battery…

A5000-025US Power Supplies

It appears that Alfa has increased the output power on it’s latest production AWUS036H WiFi cards. The old version of the card was rated at 500mw. Per Alfa’s new specs they’ve doubled the output power on the card to 1W. This card has historically been the wardriver’s workhorse. It’s nice to see it updated for higher output levels.

Alfa has also come out with the AWUS036NH 2W WiFi card. It’s supports the G and N protocols. It uses the Ralink 3070 chipset. I have one incorporated into my vehicle. I’ll be posting a review shortly. You’ll probably want to hold off buying one. The card was a bear to get working under Ubuntu 9.10 and I still have not been able to get Kismet to work with it.

If you plan on using the AWUS036H (NOT the AWUS036NH ) with Kismet the proper source line in /etc/kismet/kismet.conf is:

source=rt8180,wlan0,ALFA

I just replaced the Broadcom card in my Mini 9 with an Intel WiFi Link 5100. It supports the A/B/G/N protocols and at $23 it’s a bargain. If you plan on using it with Kismet the proper source line in /etc/kismet/kismet.conf is:

source=iwl4965,wlan1,wifiKis

Well, today I braved the unseasonably warm temperatures to stand in front of my local Office Depot to score a $320 laptop. I arrived at 10:15. They opened at  11:00. At approximately 10:50 two other gentlemen joined me to score the three MSI A5000-025US (9S7-168344-026)  laptops they had available. Sold out at 11:03.

I’m VERY impressed with the laptop. It’s got LED back lighting, a dual core processor, 3 GIGs of memory and a webcam. The only thing missing is bluetooth.   I’ll probably add one of the $2.36 bluetooth modules from DealExtreme. The OS which came with is is Windows 7 32bit Home Premium. My OS preference is Ubuntu. 9.10 Karmic Koala installed without a hitch. The only thing needed was to turn on the webcam and WiFi using the top buttons.