text:
...and the NetBoots service is being shut down. As you may have noticed, we've not billed for hosting in months and customer service is no longer available. All phone numbers for NetBoots no longer function.
To run your site moving forward, we'd recommend great services such as Squarespace or Wix -- all are comparable in price and have a ton of great features to run your website. Looking forward, as of March 15, 2016 your site may no longer be available and your content will NOT be retrievable.
Thank you for your patronage.


text:
To the Drupal Commuity
You may know me through my work with the Media suite of modules, and before that for my work with Embedded Media Field and Views Slideshow. You may have read my book, Drupal Multimedia, which I wrote before the birth of my second daughter, or seen me speak at a Drupal Camp or DrupalCon. You might have worked with me at a code sprint. Even if you haven't met me, you might have seen some of my handiwork through one of the many sites I've helped developed over the years with Advomatic. Drupal has been a central part of my life - one of my three loves.
Earlier this year, my family and I were given some devastating news. I was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known in the US as Lou Gehrig's Disease, which is a motor neuron disease that is slowly killing the motor neurons in my body. This is an incurable, terminal illness: 50% of patients diagnosed are dead within 2-3 years, and a further 20% in five years. Only 10% of patients are still alive after 10 years, and the majority of those are "locked in", like Stephen Hawking, unable to move any part of their body other than their eyes. The senses and cognitive functionality are spared. The disease is a progressively degenerative Motor Neuron Disease (MND), that eventually kills every voluntary muscle in the body, until the diaphragm collapses, which is generally when the patient dies, unless they are given a tracheostomy (and don't succumb to pneumonia).
This rare disease is sporadic, with no known cause. It's considered an "orphan disease", with an incidence rate of about 1 in 100,000. My neurologist is hopeful in my case, as it's limb onset (rather than bulbar, or brain-stem, onset), and I'm on the younger side of the bell-curve. Still, an early prognosis is impossible, as the disease progresses randomly. Right now, he said that based on my EMG, he expects to see clinical signs in my legs by next year, although he can't say if I'll be in a wheelchair by then.
Currently, I am unable to lift more than about 1-2 pounds. It's been hard on my wife, as she's doing everything I'm unable to do (vacuuming, dishes, etc.), on top of raising our children and pursuing her Masters. Our house is the opposite of accessible, with no first floor bathroom and being on a steep hill. Thus, we're in the meantime looking to buy a ranch house that we'll be able to modify.
Although I have some visible atrophy in my shoulders, wrists, and thumbs, I'm feeling on top of the world. I'm trying to front-load my life now, to ensure I'm doing what I'm able to at full capacity while I still can. I'm hopeful; I've been expecting a medical revolution this decade, and if I can hold on with my wits, I might be able to take advantage of that. Even if that doesn't happen, from reading about and connecting with other PALS (Patients with ALS), I've learned, unsurprisingly, that the longer-lived people are those who manage to maintain a positive attitude in life.
I'm fortunate to be working with Advomatic, both because my job (Drupal!) is something I'm still able (and love) to do, and because I'm surrounded by such a supportive team. I plan to develop for as long as I'm able; I'm looking into voice recognition software for when my hands ultimately go. In a race against time, I'm also 'voice banking', recording my voice so that when I ultimately lose my voice, the computer will sound roughly like me. (Hawking's complaint is that he sounds "like a damn Yankee").
I know that many of you will want to know how to help me and my family. I know from experience that the first response is to want to make food. I appreciate that, as a gift of food directly helps to sustain a person, but we have a large, helpful community through our daughter's school that is delivering meals once or twice a week. (Although if you're local to us, we could use some occasional help with the yardwork...)
You can also send donations to the ALS Center at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
(see http://pennstatehershey.org/web/neurology/patientcare/specialtyservices/als for more details).
Finally, Advomatic will likely be setting up a fund to help for when I'm unable to work any longer, and to provide a legacy for my family. Please contact Aaron Welch if you are interested in contributing to this.
Aaron Winborn
"It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth - and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had." - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Keep faith!
Hello Aaron,
just discovered your blog recently and read about your diagnosis. Illnesses are one of those things in life that you cannot predict and that can alter your projects and life forever. I can't imagine how hard this news has been on your family and yourself. Even if life might look bleak, hold on, keep faith and cherish every moment spent with your loved ones. Let's hope that science will eventually find a cure to ALS.
My thoughts goes to you and your family...
Only faith
Hi Aaron,
I don't know your present condition but if you are reading this post then listen me seriously. Or if anyone maintain this blog, please give this message to him at the earliest. First thing, don't believe the doctors at all. Certainly I am not blaming them. They are telling what they have been told during their training. But believe me.This MND is curable. As my brother had this around 25 years ago. His hand was shaking or sometime could not be moved and gradually became thin. The doctors told the same thing as you are told. But my father took him to a very old ayurvedic doctor. He advised that the first thing was that my brother had to keep faith on himself. And he gave some medicines and told to continue for at least 8 months. And after 25 years, my brother is still here among us.
So if you have any contact in India, please come here and go to any good ayurvedic doctor. But the first thing is to keep 100% faith on yourself.
My best wishes with you and pray God for your complete recovery.
One more thing for some persons who comment here. Don't forget that you are humanbeing. I also come here to place my link here. But when a person is in such a condition and place his feelings here, then how the hell you are posting your links here for business purpose. I am also doing SEO. But not at the cost of humanity. It is the time to help and support him, materially or mentally. If you can't do that please don't at least post here.
It is my sincere request.
Hopefully will be able to return you a favor
I have been inspired by your work in the Drupal community. I watched your video and downloaded your notes on YouDrup which has been essential for starting my Drupal career. I just visited your site and am sad to hear about your health issues. I have heard a little about ALS and know some researchers who know about ALS and other neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and they have taught me a bit about neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, I have spent a bit of time studying MS. I don't know much about your ALS but know that a doctor from Australia, Prof. Thomas Borody, has recently published several reversals of MS where people have left wheelchairs. Borody is not a quack, but a cutting-edge GI doc who actually invented the antibiotic cocktail therapy for stomach ulcers. Up to now, MS has been regarded as an incurable disease. His discovery was an accident as he is a world famous gastroenterologist who was treating MS patients for constipation by replacing their bowel flora. By accident they left the wheel chairs and no longer have MS. This is not hocus-pocus but rather some newly reported information that was published in October 2011 so it is fairly new and the science is cutting-edge. This information was released at a normal American College of Gastroenterology conference in Washington DC.
Also a research professor of medicine, Dr. Terry Wahls from Iowa, reported reversing her MS with a very specific diet which inevitably would change the chemistries in the bowel also, even though she did not mention this possible explanation in her videos.
I don't know how these discoveries could affect your situation but I suggest you look into it. If you haven't looked already, go to http://www.pubmed.gov to find the latest research on ALS for yourself. Practicing doctors are often decades behind the research in the labs and many have helped themselves from tough illnesses from the published research there. There is a website that discusses new research in MS at http://nubiome.com/blog/cutting-edge-multiple-sclerosis-research/ . If you review all of the information on the site, you can start to see the dots connecting between neurology, gastroenterology, immunology, and cardiovascular fields. In particular, unknown bowel bacteria creating chemistries that cause MS. It doesn't seem like too big a stretch to think that ALS could have a different set of chemistries involved that are also caused by undesirable chemistries from the bacteria bowel. Perhaps learning about the bacteria interactions will help you find a safe therapy.
A problem with medical research so far is that each branch of medicine (neurology, immunology, cardiology, etc.) seems to be fairly compartmentalized into silos with little cross-communication. From this MS discovery, it clearly shows that scientists need to look outside the central nervous system to find the root causes and therapies of the "incurable" neurological diseases. The lack of this activity is probably why these conditions have not yet been cured. However, this new announcement will surely accelerate new research and treatments for ALS and I hope can have an impact on your situation.
Take care
Proud of you
As a fellow web developer and father of two girls I wish the best to you and your family Aaron. You've already inspired many of us and I'm sure you'll continue doing it for a very long time.
All the best
I'm just a web designer from Germany who came here unsuspecting via a link in an issue queue ... I'd like to say thanks for your great work and I hope you can keep on working on the projects you love and – even more – be there for your loved ones for a long time. I sincerely wish you and your family all the best in these troubling times.
Hi Aaron,
Thank you for writing so bravely and openly about the challenge you face. 15 years ago my acting teacher was diagnosed with ALS and her body weakened quite quickly over a couple of years. But even when she could not move and needed around the clock care, she chose to continue teaching us and all her caregivers. I could never again think that the body was anything more than a temporary vehicle. The only variable is how temporary. I am positive that you too will continue to inspire the people around you and allow your soul to do its work with the tools provided. I know I will continue to look up to your work and draw inspiration rather than fear from your life. May God be with you.
We are all expecting a revolution
It is already happening and it would be more beneficial for whomever wants to be in that revolution to find where it is already happening rather than wait for it to reach him.
Face Life's challenges with a head up high. Never give up. Ever. On anything.
Bless you and your family. May we all see the help that's given to us every day.
I've never met you in person,
I've never met you in person, but I really appreciate your work. I wish you and your family all the best.
Be strong and positive!
I'm really sorry to hear about your illness. I'm shocked, actually. You have been an incredible asset to the Drupal community, and I truly hope that you will continue to be one for many years to come. Stay strong, Aaron!
I'm so sorry to hear your news. This is devastating, for you, your family, the Drupal community and for me. (Cause you are so young and I hate to hear about this sort of vulnerability.)
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
Thank You
I hope you know how much your contributions are appreciated, but I want to say it personally.
I also hope your vision for the Drupal Guild moves ahead, with you at the front of it. It's really a great concept, and the world needs more movements like it.
All the best,
Drupal was never about the
Drupal was never about the code, we're where we are because we have an amazing, supportive community of people that stand behind each other. Thanks so much for all your work and future work in the Drupal community its had a huge impact on all of us. Your positive attitude is a true inspiration.
Thank you for sharing such a
Thank you for sharing such a personal story - you have, and continue to be an inspirational and dedicated member of our community. Through my experiences, I have found it important (although sometimes hard) to be open to requesting and receiving support from others during hard times, and I would encourage you to do the same.
Get Well Soon
I never really had the opportunity to work with you, but you and your books have been a true inspiration for an amateur Drupal developer like me. Hope you get well soon.
Take care :)
What a courageous blog post. Sharing information like this in such a straight-forward and personal way really puts things in perspective.
I can't imagine what you and your family are going through. Stay positive and remember you've got a huge source of strength in the Drupal community rooting for you.
thoughts are with you
Aaron, you are an inspiration to the Drupal community, and my thoughts, as all of us, are with you. Your spirits and attitude are amazing, even before this unfortunate event.
The Difference
you made a difference in my life. Products, modules, hobby, business, Drupal aside - it is always a pleasure to listen and to do (and change!) something with you. It's been primarily your initial and ongoing initiatives, open thoughts, and arguments that gave me and many others lots of hope and direction.
I'd like to pass forward (or back!) that hope and direction to you. You really deserve it. There are many thoughts from others about time, tragedy, and sadness already. I merely hope that you're able to just do whatever you love to do with your time (which isn't always easy to do). Let us know if you need any kind of help (which is also not easy to do). You have an entire force behind you.
Thanks for who you are, what you did, and what you're going to do!
It means a lot,
I hope that all of our love
I hope that all of our love and admiration for you adds to your strength and positive attitude in this time of adversity.
I never met you personally but I admire your writing and I consider you a valued Drupal big brother (since really all Drupalers are family). So hang in there and lean on us when you need to...much love to you and your family.
Aaron, I've known you through
Aaron, I've known you through your amazing work for the Drupal community and I am grateful for all that. I was shocked when I heard about your disease.
I pray for hope and strength for you and your family and wanted you to know that I will keep you in my prayers!
Many thanks Aaron for your
Many thanks Aaron for your Drupal work and advice. Remember we are always happy to help. Best wishes to you and your family
You've got a huge family
Namely, all the people you've helped through your work on Drupal. Anything we can do to help, we will. Thanks for sharing this with us. I can't imagine how challenging this is.
Best wishes,
Your attitude is inspiring
Aaron, It's amazing to read your post and see your positive attitude, thank you for sharing openly as you do with your code! It's saddening to hear and I can only imagine how difficult it is, but if there is anything that can help you beat ALS it will be that positive attitude.
Sending more positive vibes to you and your family!
Good vibes to you and your
Good vibes to you and your family! You are truly inspiring. Thank you and best wishes.
Sorry to hear the news
Hey Aaron,
Really sorry to hear this news, and I wish you the best luck as you go forth with all of these new beginnings. It sounds like you're able to keep a positive attitude and choose your meaning around this.
"Everything can be taken from a man but... the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." - Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
You got this one
Your support and positive attitude throughout the drupal community shows that you are the type of person who can take this on with the strength necessary for this challenge. I look forward to continuing on the work you did with Views Slideshow and am sure I'll still see you in the queues supporting it for a long time to come.
"All that we are is the
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become." - I actually seen many Thai people recovered from serious illness, like cancer. I don't understand how it happened, but it did many time. They seem to have very good attitude.
Some of them do enjoy meditation, and look happy and stressless everyday. They cooks and eat natural foods, do exercise, practice breathing, live in fresh air and natural environment. Actually, they don't look like patient at all, they cure themself from the way they live.
For your infos, take a look at:
And you can ask him anything here:
PS: This wonderful man is a Ph.D. doctor, but freed his life and become kind of 'open source' doctor. He actually cure 1,000 peoples a year for free without any catch, so he received many awards unintentionally. There's a week short course too, maybe you might considered a Thailand vacation. Planned well, and it's a wonderful country to stay ;)
Get well soon.
Cheers from the Drupal Community
I've never met you, but I've chatted with some of your colleagues at Advomatic and have appreciated your work and presence in the Drupal community for years.
I just wanted to say that I appreciate you reaching out to the Drupal community directly, honestly, and personally. It's a great reminder that amidst all of Drupal's meteoric growth -- the case studies of high-powered web sites and the wide reach of the software -- we are a community of people, that is our strength, and may it continue to be a source of strength for you.
Thanks for all you've done, and all you will do.
-- Andy
our thoughts are with you
just wanted to say our thoughts are with you.
Hey Aaron - I read your post and I understand that now is a terribly difficult time for you. I thought I would mention that you have some options you might not have considered. No disease is absolutely incurable, or static - that would be unnatural, everything in the universe is defined on change. Sometimes, however, we're unable to change or don't know what kind of change would be required to achieve the result we're looking for.
I do Drupal work and live with my Tai Chi instructor - I went over your situation with my teacher and he said if you were willing to practice for 2-4 hours a day, and basically dedicate your life to self-recovery, it could be possible to turn you around. Do a quick google search, you'll see that some people have already considered this. It isn't a pill or a medicine that you take to cure yourself, in fact its not just a cure - more than anything its a way to dedicate yourself torwards healing. Your health is more important than Drupal or the Media module, and frankly, I hesitate to mention this, but the 'programmer mind' itself is very much part of the problem, and why so many programmers get diseases. If you could somehow let go of that a bit, and recover, you might not have to lose your voice and your hands! Just saying, if that's important to you, you might consider some other stuff. Acupuncture / Tai Chi could potentially be the way to go...so really this is an open ended suggested and I've left my email and the website...feel free to contact me. If your first thoughts are doubt, unease and uncertainty about what I've said..that's about right, you should be unsure - so just follow up and check it out! Best of luck -
I don't live that far away
Aaron, although we've never met, I am familiar with your work. I'd like to offer whatever assistance I can provide. If you ever need help on a weekend, please feel free to add me to your list of contacts.
Ken Whitesell
(tskww on drupal.org)
Maybe Roger Ebert can help inspire
Hi Aaron,
So sorry to hear about this. So happy to read that you haven't lost your will to live and fight this as much as possible.
Not long ago I watched a truly inspirational TED Talk speech by Robert Ebert. He lost his lower jaw to cancer. He was a film critic, so speaking was very important. The cancer took not only that, but also his ability to eat.
He talks about how he, with the use of modern technology, has got his voice back. Since you write that you are already recording your voice, I think you can find some very useful information in his story about what he has done working with a UK company to improve their technology about giving the voice back to people who lost it.
Hopefully his story can help you too.
You'll find his talk at http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_ebert_remaking_my_voice.html
Hope to see you for many many years in the Drupal community.
Voice Software
I'm very sorry to hear of the news, a major asset to the Drupal community, Aaron your contributions speak for themselves.
I am not a programmer but I was recently giving some thought to the idea of a type of software that attempts to capture a "record" of one's personality and character by building an extensive collection of one's opinions and daily log records.
I lost my dad when I was about 21 and miss him greatly, I have faced many a dilemma and wished he were around so I could seek his counsel.
I was thinking along the lines of using voice to text software so a video can be archived, perhaps have photo's/albums associated and the content of it made reachable through indexing and searching.
I'm thinking this is possibly in part something that could be done with the help of Drupal, perhaps it would be possible to setup a site to hold all the data collected from recordings and make it accessible from there, I believe it would be possible to pull in one's twitter feeds, blog posts etc to further extend the data.
I am no expert in the field but I know Drupal can give us fine grained control over who gets to access what, maybe something like og_groups could be leveraged to restrict private content to for example "family group".
The voice records could also be useful towards as mentioned above 'voice banking', and the video could be recorded from multiple angles for later use with emerging technologies such as holographic projection.
I am not sure what is already available in this area or whether a Drupal distribution could be used to create a sustainable project, I simply wish to humbly share my ideas in case they may be of any use, I am just saddened it is under such unfortunate circumstances.
Keep the force, Keep the
Keep the force, Keep the faith. We are with you.
Do what you love...
...as long as you can.
I hope you can maintain your positive attitude (I think the Drupal environment might be good for that). It would be "fair" if you get a long and good ride for all your positive contributions.
Strength and good karma is what I wish for you and your family.
Aaron, that's terrible news. Thank you for everything you have done for Drupal so far and for everything that it yet to come. I wish you and your family all the luck and strength in the world.
Damn these illnesses. I'm so
Damn these illnesses. I'm so sorry ALS ha found you.
Your strength to carry on with work and finding a new home and pursuing new treatments is really inspiring. Thanks for all you have done, and continue to do for the Drupal community.
An amazing man with more contributions than can be counted
My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family. You are loved by everyone in the Drupal community for your contributions to the project and to society. Thank you for everything you have done.
-Jacob Redding
Here's to beating the odds
Aaron, thank you for your Drupal work so far, not just in media and games other contrib but in your advocacy of Drupal Guilds. Don't let this stop you from taking advantage of the overdue medical revolution, but the Drupal community could really use our own Stephen Hawking... Great spending some time at DrupalCon Chicago; looking forward to more at DrupalCon Denver!
Reading your post shook me to
Reading your post shook me to tears. We've never meet or talked, but I owe you hugely for your work, both professionally and in the fun I've had working with your code and modules. I just wanted to echo what Mike said above that you and your family are in my thoughts and that I wish you all the luck in the world.
You are in our thoughts...
I'm am devastated to hear of your condition. I hope for the best as the ALS progresses and wish that I were a doctor to provide that medical breakthrough that would help cure or reduce the impact of your disease. Though were I a doctor I won't have had the pleasure of working with you in the issue queue and contributing along side you.
Thank you for your contributions and for the work you continue to do. You are in our thoughts.
- Mike
The Society for Venturism has chosen me as the recipient of its charity for this year, to hopefully offer me cryonic preservation when the time comes. And this month, Longecity, an excellent forum for the discussion of issues related to extending the lifespan of humans, has offered up a matching grant of up to a thousand dollars to help out! So help out! Please.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Saving Our Bacon: Snort Security Holes and Strategies for Safe Network Monitoringby Robert G. Byrnes, coauthor of Linux Security Cookbook
In April, a CERT advisory announced the discovery of two separate buffer-overflow vulnerabilities in Snort, a popular security-monitoring tool used for detecting suspicious network activities. This development was disturbing and ironic: system administrators install and run programs like Snort to improve security, and don't often consider the possibility that the tools themselves might be attacked and exploited to create entirely new security holes. It's therefore important to understand precisely what happened here, especially since the same mechanisms used against Snort could threaten other security tools.
In this article, I will review the attacks that have been launched against Snort in the past, as well as the recent (and more serious) buffer overflows. In each case, I'll discuss the ways Snort developers have responded to the attacks, and the strategies system administrators can take to minimize the risks. Furthermore, I'll show that Snort's vulnerabilities extend to other security-monitoring tools, implying that we need to be careful when we use them, as well. Finally, I'll summarize techniques to do just that: secure monitoring.
Snort is a network intrusion detection system, or NIDS. It sniffs packets from the network, and analyzes them using a database of pattern-matching rules. These rules identify a wide range of suspicious or hostile activities, such as misuse of network protocols, attempted buffer overflows, denial-of-service attacks, port scans, and so on. When such activities are detected, Snort can be configured to log the network trace data for more detailed examination, and to send alerts so that system administrators will notice.
Related Reading
Linux Security Cookbook
Since the main purpose of Snort is detection, a primary goal of attackers is evasion. If attacks can be structured so that they are overlooked by Snort, then system administrators will be left with a false sense of security -- arguably a worse situation than if Snort had not been used at all.
The evolution of Snort has been driven largely by the endless arms race between the attackers and the defenders. The open source distribution of Snort allows the bad guys to study the detection mechanisms and devise ways to bypass them. The Snort developers, aided by reports from the user community and examination of often widely available attack tools, then respond by enhancing the algorithms, and the cycle continues. The history of innovation on both sides has been fascinating and instructive.
When new malicious network activities are discovered,
pattern-matching rules are added to Snort's database.
These rules are stateless,
meaning that only one packet is examined at a time.
Snort also supports a variety of preprocessors
that track multiple packets,
and hence are stateful.
The modular design of Snort allows preprocessors
to be easily added or modified, and
more complicated evasion attempts
have been countered by improvements in the preprocessors.
The increasing focus on preprocessors for Snort
is reminiscent of the expansion of Linux firewall technology
from stateless
to stateful
Attackers frequently exploit IP fragmentation for evasion.
For example, the
port-scanning tool provides an option
to use tiny, fragmented packets
that break headers for higher-level protocols
into pieces during transmission.
frag2 preprocessor reassembles the packets,
so the headers (and the payload) can be scanned all at once.
Similarly, many aspects of TCP can be abused by attackers, for example, by retransmitting packets with slight variations,
in the hope that they will be incorrectly handled by Snort.
stream4 preprocessor catches these protocol anomalies
and ensures that Snort will interpret the packets
as a destination host would.
In addition,
stream4 reorders packets and reassembles entire TCP sessions,
which allows other preprocessors to easily access data as it
would have been reliably delivered by TCP.
These operations make
one of the most important preprocessors
in Snort's arsenal.
A favorite technique for attackers
to defeat simple pattern-matching rules
is restructuring network data in many different,
but equivalent forms.
A variety of Snort preprocessors respond
by converting specific protocols
to standardized, canonical formats
for more reliable matching
by other rules and preprocessors.
http_decode preprocessor
rewrites the URLs used by HTTP.
Similarly, the
rpc_decode preprocessor
reassembles RPC data
that has been split into record fragments in various ways.
Attackers have also developed tools like
to generate polymorphic shell code for use in buffer overflows,
and the experimental
fnord preprocessor
attempts to detect these;
this is an area of active research.
Some stealth strategies are based on timing.
For example,
nmap can do very slow port scans,
in the hope that probes separated by long intervals
will not be noticed.
portscan preprocessor detects these
by performing a statistical analysis of the traffic, and
the newer, experimental
portscan2 and
conversation preprocessors
offer potentially improved detection.
There is really only one good defense
against these evasion techniques
for system administrators:
keep your Snort installation up to date.
Install new rules frequently: fortunately, this is easy,
since the rules database can be downloaded separately
from the Snort web site.
Upgrade Snort frequently too,
in order to obtain the latest preprocessors,
and be sure that the desired preprocessors
are enabled in the
snort.conf configuration file.
Denial-of-service attacks can launched directly against Snort. These attacks are designed to disrupt the NIDS operation, and are in some sense complementary to evasion tactics, since they are certainly easy to detect. A barrage of traffic will at least contribute to the load on whatever machine is running Snort and will consume system resources, which makes this form of attack potentially more serious. Snort is lightweight and efficient, and can therefore tolerate high traffic rates, but other NIDS programs can be overwhelmed, and some have reportedly even crashed when subjected to these assaults.
Attack tools like
stick and
have been developed to construct random noise packets based on Snort rules.
These packets are designed
to match the patterns in the rules,
and hence produce a flood of bogus alerts.
The goal is to conceal some other genuine attack
within an avalanche of false alarms.
A cunning plan.
Snort retaliates by using the
stream4 preprocessor:
the random noise packets can be readily identified (and ignored)
because they do not belong to a valid TCP session.
This is a consequence of the stateless nature of the Snort rules
used by the noise generators.
System administrators can best defend against denial-of-service attacks by running Snort on a separate, dedicated monitoring machine. Any extra system resources that are consumed by Snort during a denial-of-service attack will therefore not affect network services running on other machines.
If you are being bothered by stick-style attacks,
use Snort's
-z est option
to limit alerts to only known, established TCP connections.
stream4 preprocessor
must be enabled for this mode to work.
The worst kind of attack to fear is one that allows evildoers to hijack the operation of Snort itself. Unfortunately, two specific buffer-overflow vulnerabilities have recently been discovered that show this is possible.
The security holes occurred in separate preprocessors:
An attacker could exploit a flaw
in Snort's computation of the size of packets,
and consequently overflow a buffer,
causing stack corruption.
This problem was found in March 2003,
and fixed by Snort 1.9.1.
By using carefully crafted TCP sequence numbers,
an attacker could cause the overflow of an integer
used to check for buffer overruns,
leading to heap corruption.
This was exposed in April 2003,
and repaired in the latest Snort 2.0 release.
Both of these preprocessors are enabled by default,
and as we have seen,
stream4 is critical
for the stateful operation of other preprocessors,
as well as for protection against denial-of-service attacks.
You really wouldn't want to run Snort
stream4 disabled.
The impact of these security holes is severe: either can be used to cause Snort to crash, or (even worse) to insert malicious code where it will be executed by Snort.
The good news is that our knowledge of these vulnerabilities and subsequent fixes are the result of security audits, and Snort is an even more valuable tool if it is ironclad. The modular design of preprocessors encourages incorporation of new code, which is an important advantage for Snort, but the latest flaws demonstrate the need for ongoing security audits, especially for any preprocessors that are enabled by default for production use.
The most obvious defensive strategy for system administrators is to keep your Snort installation up to date, and to monitor security advisories so you can apply patches for any newly discovered holes. Most system administrators are already doing this for external network services -- the key here is recognize that tools like Snort are also vulnerable, and hence need attention too.
Next, don't run Snort as root! The CERT advisory says ...
"Both vulnerabilities allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running Snort, typically root."
... but there is no reason to accept this risk.
Although Snort (like all network-sniffing programs) requires
superuser access to put interfaces into promiscuous mode (so they will act as wiretaps), Snort can and should run as an alternate user (and group, if appropriate)
after initialization is complete.
Use Snort's
-u and
-g options
to specify an unprivileged user and group,
chosen to minimize risk by ensuring
that only Snort's own log files are writable.
An even better strategy is to run Snort in a
chroot jail.
Create a directory with all of the files that Snort needs,
remembering shared libraries and so on.
(Some experimentation will probably be necessary,
but it is worth the effort.)
Then specify the directory with Snort's
-t option.
chroot jail works best
when Snort runs as an unprivileged user -- this isn't an excuse to continue running Snort as root!
Finally, run Snort on a dedicated, untrusted machine. This will help to contain the damage if Snort is ever compromised, especially if the machine contains little or no state, and can be easily rebuilt.
Buffer-overflow vulnerabilities are, unfortunately, still common, as shown by even a casual examination of recent CERT advisories, and the techniques used against Snort aren't especially original or innovative. We often speak loosely of network sniffing programs (like Snort) as "listening" to traffic, so it's easy to conclude that Snort's recently discovered security holes are just another case of an attack on a network service. We've seen it all before, right?
In contrast to network servers like
sendmail, BIND, and so forth,
Snort does not accept connections or receive datagrams
from client programs.
Instead, Snort passively
observes and analyzes network traffic,
and from a security standpoint
it is actually similar to other monitoring tools like
or web log analyzers.
The network traffic plays the same role as a log file.
The easiest way to see this is to separate the packet-capture and traffic-analysis functions that are built into Snort. Although Snort is often run in a configuration that does both, this is not the only way to use the program, nor is it necessarily the most secure mode of operation.
Packet capture can be performed
by a variety of network-sniffing programs other than Snort,
This is relatively safe,
as long as the network data is not really analyzed,
but is simply dumped in "raw" form to trace files,
for example, using the command:
tcpdump -w tracefile ...
These tools all use the
libpcap library
(provided with
and hence the trace files share a common format,
which is very convenient.
Traffic analysis can be done later,
possibly using a different program,
or on a different machine.
For example,
tracefile saved previously
could be analyzed by Snort
using the command:
snort -r tracefile ...
Traffic analysis is considerably more dangerous than simple packet capture, because (as demonstrated by the Snort buffer-overflow vulnerabilities), malformed network data can cause program operations to go awry.
Network-sniffing programs like Snort are often run on machines with unconfigured interfaces, and some system administrators even use modified network cables with severed transmit lines to ensure that only passive observation can occur. While these stealth techniques undoubtedly offer some degree of protection to the monitoring system as a whole, the CERT advisory for Snort warns that:
"... it is not necessary for the attacker[s] to know the IP address of the Snort device they wish to attack; merely sending malicious traffic where it can be observed by an affected Snort sensor is sufficient to exploit these vulnerabilities."
This is somewhat misleading, however -- the danger arises not from the observation but rather from the subsequent analysis of the traffic, and that could happen elsewhere.
The portability of network trace files amplifies the risks. Traffic analysis is often performed on trusted machines, deep within the perimeter protected by external firewalls. Trace files can be sent by email, and public collections are available on web sites such as the Honeynet Project, which offers periodic challenges for study of attacks observed in the wild, or the Internet Traffic Archive, which is more generic, and unfortunately, hasn't been updated recently.
Although Snort performs more complex traffic analysis
than most other network-monitoring tools,
and hence offers more opportunities for attack,
it's important to recognize that
the other tools are also vulnerable.
Ethereal, for example, can perform TCP stream reassembly,
and even
tcpdump's simpler packet printing code
is aware of many protocols.
Are buffer overflow bugs lurking in this code?
other programs that analyze derived network data indirectly
could also be vulnerable.
The earlier analogy between network traffic and log files
offers a clue about how this could happen.
Could an attacker induce a network server
sendmail or BIND
to emit a syslog message
that would be crafted
to compromise
when it later analyzed the system log?
could a web server be tricked
into recording an entry in its log file
that would subsequently confuse a web-log analyzer?
These kinds of attacks would be difficult
because they involve multiple interacting programs,
but they are certainly not impossible,
and they are conceptually similar
to the recently discovered Snort security holes.
When we recognize the threat of attacks on network monitoring tools,
and indeed any other tool that analyzes network data (even indirectly),
it is clear that we need to pay more attention
to writing and using these tools securely,
as we do for network servers.
Snort's buffer overflow security holes
were discovered during security audits -- similar audits for other network-sniffing programs
tcpdump and Ethereal would be welcome news,
even (or especially)
if they lead to the discovery of other vulnerabilities.
Data from untrusted sources (that is, the network)
must be viewed with suspicion by security tools,
and subjected to sanity checks before use.
Programs need to verify the assumptions
(known as invariants)
that are critical for correct operation,
that is, packet headers don't lie about sizes,
integers won't overflow,
URLs aren't malformed,
printf-style format strings
contain no stray "%" characters, etc.
These invariants are different for each program,
so derived data that is considered sanitized by one program
must still be checked by other programs to be safe.
Perl provides a wonderful facility for tracking untrusted data:
taint mode.
Scripts like
which is written almost entirely in Perl,
would benefit from use of Perl's
-T option
to track tainted data read from log files.
The individual
logwatch filter scripts
are analogous to Snort's preprocessor modules,
and they deserve a similar defensive posture.
Users of security tools and system administrators can protect themselves first by recognizing vulnerable applications. As we have seen, the most important principle is: follow the data. If it can be traced back to an untrusted source, take steps to mitigate the risk.
The best way to minimize the potential impact of decisions
based on maliciously crafted data
is to analyze the data in a restricted environment.
This can be a dedicated, untrusted machine,
or a
chroot jail.
At the very least, avoid running security tools as root --
choose an unprivileged user (and group, if appropriate)
that is only allowed minimal access to the data being analyzed,
and nothing else. The data often contains sensitive information
and requires protection from the general population anyway.
Separating the collection of data
from subsequent analysis steps
can make it easier to set up these safety nets.
Finally, be wary of automated processes that are triggered by decisions based on untrusted network data, especially if the actions require privileged access. For example, Snort provides experimental "flexible response" features (fortunately disabled by default) for killing connections, and a Perl script for dynamically modifying firewall rules, both based on traffic analysis. Imagine the havoc that could ensue if an attacker managed to subvert or gain control of these actions!
Monitoring can be done securely, if proper attention is devoted to the safe use of our available security tools. By recognizing the vulnerabilities and taking steps to run applications in a restricted environment, we can derive the maximum benefit and enhance security, without worrying (too much) that our tools will be hijacked and used against us.
Robert G. Byrnes is a software engineer at Curl Corporation, and has worked in the fields of networking, telecommunications, distributed computing, financial technology, and condensed matter physics.
O'Reilly & Associates will soon release (June 2003) Linux Security Cookbook.
Chapter 9, "Testing and Monitoring (Sample Recipes)", is available free online.
You can also look at the Table of Contents, the Index, and the full description of the book.
For more information, or to order the book, click here.
Return to the Linux DevCenter.
Copyright © 2009 O'Reilly Media, Inc.


text:
This is the most essential resource for all commissioners. They can obtain the latest revision from their local council Scout shop or from National Supply Division, 1-800-323-0732.Download the latest version by clicking here.
The purpose of this fieldbook is to provide a resource of practical, usable information, simply stated and readily adaptable. The fieldbook is designed as a reference to fit into a standard notebook. As you and your commissioner leaders review the Commissioner Fieldbook, discuss any modifications of staff methods that may be necessary to produce more effective unit operation in your district. Write these out clearly and insert them in the proper section. The fieldbook allows your commissioner service to be flexible in method while remaining firm in purpose and principle.
The Fieldbook includes the following major sections:


text:
In response to The Wall Street Journal article by Melinda Beck: Poor Prognosis for Privacy
Most healthcare institutions and John Halamka ignore the fact that for over a decade technology has empowered millions of patients to control which parts of their electronic health records are disclosed for mental health and addiction treatment. The technology for 'segmentation' exists.
Congress, the courts, state and federal laws, and medical ethics require that patients control who can see and use sensitive personal health data, yet federal regulators who write the rules for industry have not required electronic health systems to use either 'segmentation' or other technologies like meta-data tagging that could also enable selective disclosures of health information.
When the public finds out they can't control the use or disclosure of sensitive personal health data, many millions will refuse early diagnosis and treatment for cancer, depression, and STDs every year—and millions more will hide information, refuse tests, and act in ways that put their health at risk. These are bad outcomes.
Should the public be forced to use health technology systems that cause bad outcomes? Why not require technology that IMPROVES health outcomes?


text:
Ikea To Offer Solar Panels In British Stores
By editor • Oct 1, 2013
Originally published on October 1, 2013 6:45 am
The Sweden-based company plans to roll out solar panels in 17 British stores over the next 10 months. The company does say the solar panels will look like flat screen televisions on your roof. Basic solar packages will be sold for more than $9,000.


text:
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Geo Print Knit Top
Style: 570082398
Out of Stock
Merlot and Couture Pink brighten a lightweight, jersey knit top with camisole straps and a lace-trimmed sweetheart neckline. 95% Polyester, 5% Spandex. Machine wash. Imported.
- Close-to-the-body stretch fit.
- Pleated straps. Center ruching at the bust.
- Hits at mid-hip (25" from shoulder).
Read more… Read less…


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Marketing Via Rings
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The new art of illustrated blogs, illustration used as a means of blogging, illutrated by the blog owners. They'll be illustrated blogs then! entry now closed. sorry. spam beat us.
blog about illustration and more...
The View From Here...an illustrated journal.
Postings from my daily journals, travel journals and garden journals.
H. A. Calles
Illustrated Movie Review Blog
Penguin Tales
Tales from the life of Kate Hamilton, a children's illustrator who has a freakish obsession with penguins and all things bird. Featucommunity original illustrations in watercolor, doodles in pencil, and ...
GingerCat & Non-GingerCat
Drawings, paintings, digital art, some scribbles. I'm a teacher, an illustrator, a messer-around with computers. I'm learning as I go.
A Tic In The Mind's Eye
The comics and stories about everyday things that keep my shrink in business. And possibly yours. Stories and musings illustrated with my comic.
No Place Like It
Canadian artist in Paris. Sketches and chatting.
Middle of Nowhere
Journal of children's artwork in progress and a quiet life in the English countryside.
Blob[p]: Gastrono-Me
An illustrated journal about life, gastronomy, cats, books and other favorite things.
Shano's Blog
Camano Island artist and illustrator Shano presents one-of-a-kind illustrations, paintings, and prints of her bold figurative art.
Dreamjar Design
The Blog Obsessed with Art 'isms - Graphic Design - Illustration - Animation - New Media
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Life according to Krissie in words and pictures.
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The online journal of artist Élena Nazzaro explocommunity art, inspiration, and why life is like french toast.
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From Argentina. My daily work in journalism with caricatures and illustrations for newspaper articles. Notes both in English and Spanish.
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I illustrate and embellish incidents that may or may not have ever happened.
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i paint. i print. i draw. i illustrate. i gocco. sometimes for fun, sometimes for childrens books, but always an adventure. this is about that.
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Arty Velarde is a computerized photo and sketch journal of a California artist. It's sprinkled with assorted ramblings about art adventures, life in San Diego and little buddies.
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Chronotes : blog d'Agnès Cappadoro - graphiste plasticienne
Agnès Cappadoro travaille autour des problématiques de la féminité, la mémoire, la sociabilité et le territoire en mixant photographies, multimédia, dessin et installation mixed media. Elle est également ...
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Must-do exercises
Published On: Jun 05 2012 01:56:50 PM PDT Updated On: Nov 26 2012 06:14:59 AM PST
Are you no longer getting the desired results from you workouts? It might be because you are not doing the right types of exercises.
The views expressed are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to our Terms of Use.


text:
Online Journalism Internships Offered
Interested in getting your feet wet in new media?
WLWT.com has an unpaid internship available for college juniors or seniors eager to learn the ropes in the fast-paced, cutting-edge environment of online journalism.
The internship is for a Web reporter. This intern will be a one-man-band, producing, writing, shooting and editing stories exclusively for WLWT.com. This position is aimed at students who wish to gain reporting experience, which is often not an option with most TV station internships.
The Web reporter intern must have their own transportation.
You must be able to earn college credit with this internship. Also, the candidate should be available 20 hours a week throughout the internship period. The Web reporter intern will be asked to work two to three days a week, 8 hours a day. The position is available winter, fall and summer.
Questions about the position can be directed to Jay Murdock, managing editor, at email@example.com.
Interested applicants should send cover letter and resume (tape/disc also for reporter candidates) to:
Jay Murdock Managing Editor WLWT.com c/o WLWT News 5 1700 Young Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202


text:
Borla 140433 Touring Cat-Back Exhaust System
Buy this Borla Touring Cat-Back Exhaust System 140433 2.5 in. - Incl. Connecting Pipes/Mufflers/Hardware/4.5 in. x 5.75 in. Dual Round Rolled Angle-Cut Tip - Dual Center Rear Exit at Mudflaps.com with the lowest prices online for all Borla aftermarket parts & accessories.
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text:
Exclusive to Scrappin Doodles, our Freddy collection includes adorable Knight themed Graphics. Great for craft projects, teaching projects, teaching lesson plans, teacher papers, student handouts, scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking, paper crafting, card making, etc.. Graphics come in JPEG and PNG format. 300 dpi for perfect printing. I created these graphics large so they are suitable for printing and Digital Scrapbooking projects and can be easily resized smaller to suit other needs, graphics measure up to approx 8". Graphics shown at approx 10% of actual size. Original Artwork by Scrappin Doodles
Key words: knights, knight, castle, kingdom, horse, sword, sheild, knight in shining armour, king, queen, dragon, cute, graphics, clipart, clip art, illustrations
Product 314/955
This product was added to our catalog on Monday 15 July, 2013.


text:
Patrick Ellis
Patrick's Interview
Electrical Engineering
I knew I wanted to be a successful student, though the kind of student I wanted to be escaped me. Since I had no outstanding interest in a particular career, things such as college cost, location, and a simple gut feeling played the major roles in my college decision. I visited, applied, and enrolled at Bradley without being able to say just what it was I wanted – something just fit. It wasn't until several months after I enrolled, that I knew my college search had succeeded.
Until my senior year, sports, particularly soccer, seemed a viable and promising path to college. Then, a crippling track injury completely changed my outlook. I call it my "Lucky Mistake," for without it, I'm not sure I would have fully realized that, despite state records in soccer, numerous records at my high school, and a state championship in track, it had come time for me to focus on one thing – being a student.
One difference between Bradley and some of the schools I looked at was size. Bradley has roughly 6,000 students – enough where you will never know everyone, but when you walk to class you're guaranteed to see at least a few people you know. Because of size, from the education to the social life here at Bradley, you get the culture and diversity of a larger university crossed with the personal aspects that only a smaller university can offer.
Having lived both in small Illinois farming towns and large Californian metropolises, Bradley's unique size and personalityis incredibly appealing to me. It's difficult to find a world class education within the bounds of a tangible, diverse, personal atmosphere, and I couldn't be more thankful. I never thought it would be possible to gather the perks of both places I've lived, but Bradley definitely encapsulated it.
I am currently an Electrical Engineering major with a biomedical concentration. You might find my interest in biomedical research surprising, as it is a relatively new career path. New research and discoveries are being undertaken and made every day that further augment the excitement surrounding this new field. I never close myself to options, but one day I wish to work on comprehending the coding of information passing through the sensory and motor systems, with the ultimate goal of hopefully helping out research neural diseases.
I'm enjoying all the benefits Bradley affords me outside of my academic program. For instance, a group I am in, Engineers without Borders, is planning a trip to Honduras to help implement a water filtration system project that will provide help to the victims of Hurricane Mitch. We will hopefully be spending this summer completing this project. I am also an active member of Student Senate (active means you have done…or become…), FISH! Philosophy presentation group, and Club Soccer (Couldn't quite give it up… ), and occasionally I make an embarrassing attempt to dance with our Swing Club.


text:
Fort Delaware: a new day dawns
June 30, 2011 —
NARROWSBURG, NY — "Everything I wear requires two forms of documentation to the time period I represent," historic interpreter Mark Walter told students gathered around the assemblage of artifacts on display at Fort Delaware Museum in Narrowsburg during Student Days recently.
Mark, a member of the New York branch of the American Longrifle Association, portrays a farmer and hunter from 1763 as a volunteer at Fort Delaware, a living museum of colonial history located within the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, a unit of the National Park Service.
Fort Delaware focuses on the Cushetunk settlement of 1755 to 1785, where the first pioneers of the Upper Delaware River Valley lived. Although the original site of the settlement was located nearby in Pennsylvania's Milanville, today's replica sits along Route 97 and features a living museum where special events are scheduled throughout the summer to recreate what life was like for those early settlers.
Cooking demonstrations utilize 18th-century recipes, while encampments offer mock battles, military and musketry demos and period costumes. Three cabins, each dedicated to a particular colonist, are appointed with period-appropriate artifacts depicting the lives and activities of inhabitants. They frame a yard where a hand-drawn well, an outdoor oven and livestock can be viewed.
Under the leadership of its new director, Debra Conway, historical accuracy, professionalism, authentication and documentation are taking priority. For example, Mark and his wife, Nancy Walter, who portrays a teacher, have spent countless hours researching and developing their clothing and the artifacts they use to bring to life the types of activities experienced by the settlers.
"We try to educate the children for the time period, wearing the kinds of clothes that were worn then, using the kinds of tools they had," said Mark. "By about 25, you were basically toothless, given the poor hygiene. You carried a stitching kit for accidents because you might have to do it yourself. There was no Novocaine; you had to bite on a stick."
Besides getting to "dress up, play with toys, talk with kids and have fun," Nancy's favorite part is seeing children realize that life was different then. "Not better, not worse, but different, and that technology doesn't necessarily make it better today. They're enthralled with how the low-tech toys work, such as corncobs recycled into darts."
Upcoming events at Fort Delaware
(Friday, Saturday and Monday Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday Hours: 12 Noon to 5:00 pm)
• July 2-4, Independence Day Weekend, Colonial cooking demonstrations, reading of the Declaration of Independence by Revolutionary War re-enactor Gary Cochrane. The reading will be preceded by a special flag-raising event which begins at noon and features a flag donated by Congressman Maurice Hinchey that was flown over the United States Capitol in Washington, DC in honor of Fort Delaware Museum of Colonial History.
• July 9 and 10, Children's Weekend, Lenape games, Colonial music, animals, sheep-shearing and spinning demonstrations and more.
• July 23 and 24, Revolutionary War Encampment, multiple re-enactor groups interact with the public.


text:
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Emma Watson Is Tophat Happy for Lancome
Mike Hess
| March 16, 2011 - 8:26 am
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Information on making a swimsuit and personalizing a wall decoration will be the featured topics on "Creative Living" at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and noon Thursday.
Apparel designer, Laura Keith will demonstrate how to sew a custom-fit swimsuit using easy sewing methods that are handy for any stretch knit fabric as well as for swimwear fabric. Her business is Laura Keith Apparel Design in Vancouver, Wash.
Donna Salazar is a professional crafter and designer, and she's going to show how to make a framed butterfly wall decoration that includes a quote to make it personalized for the recipient. Her business is Donna Salazar Designs and she lives in Tarzana, Calf.
Information on making designer pillows, using organic sugar, and making window treatments will be the featured topics on "Creative Living" noon Tuesday and 2 p.m. Saturday.
Nancy Lovett is a sewing instructor for Ann Silva's Bernina Sewing Center in Albuquerque. Lovett will demonstrate making pillows that are easy on the budget but resemble designer home décor pillows.
Marie Oser is a cooking expert with Wholesome Sweeteners, Inc., in Sugarland, Texas. She will show how to use organic corn syrup and organic pancake and waffle syrup to create delicious treats for breakfast.
Jana Beus is a licensed designer for Simplicity Pattern Co. in New York city. She will show how to make what she calls "Shirt Tail Window Treatments." This technique uses multiple fabrics that are pressed and folded, and then folded again.
1 cup Wholesome Sweeteners organic sugar
1/2 cup Wholesome Organic corn cyrup
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup whole macadamia nuts
1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
1 Tbsp. Organic Earth Balance (non dairy buttery spread)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat oven to 200° F. Spray a cookie sheet with olive oil cooking spray and place in oven.
Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in a heavy gauge saucepan. Cook over medium heat, until syrup begins to darken and reaches the "soft ball" stage, about 230° F. on a candy thermometer.
Stir in macadamia nuts and Earth Balance. Cook, stirring constantly, until thermometer reaches about 270° F. and syrup is medium brown in color.
Remove from heat, add vanilla, and baking soda. Mixture will foam a bit.
Pour the candy onto prepared cookie sheet and quickly spread about 1/4 inch thick, cool about 20 minutes and break into pieces.
Store in a tightly covered tin.
"Creative Living" is produced and hosted by Sheryl Borden. The show is carried by more than 118 PBS stations in the United States, Canada, Guam and Puerto Rico and is distributed by Westlink, Albuquerque.


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The NSA knows we are sick because we phone doctors' offices.
As a mental health professional, Dissent Doe explains in her blog (below) how revealing phone call metadata is:
"Because my phone is used mainly for calls to and from patients and clients, can the NSA figure out who my patients are? And could they, with just a query or bit of analysis, figure out when my patients were going into crisis or periods of symptom worsening? I suspect that they can. And because I am nationally and internationally known as an expert on a particular disorder, could the government also deduce the diagnosis or diagnoses of my patients or their family members? Probably."
There is a huge national media response to the NSA spying on Americans' cell phone calls, but the media does NOT report on the far worse systemic corporate and government spying on the nation's electronic health records.
The US healthcare system is engineered for hidden corporate and government surveillance of personal data about the minds and bodies of all 300 million Americans –from prescriptions to diagnoses to DNA—it's all collected and sold.
- -For example, see Bloomberg BusinessWeek story about 33 states that sell residents hospital records:http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-06-05/states-hospital-data-for-sale-leaves-veteran-s-privacy-at-ris
The US media simply repeats industry and government talking points about the benefits of electronic health systems without reporting on the massive harms:
- -Millions of patients/year avoid early diagnosis and treatment of cancer, depression, and sexually transmitted diseases because they know that information will not be private (see citations and statistics in:http://patientprivacyrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/The-Case-for-Informed-Consent.pdf)
- -1/8 people hide health information because they know that information will not be private
- -Should we use technology that causes millions to suffer bad outcomes?
2013 is a critical year: every state will share your health data with hundreds-thousands more hidden users via Health Information Exchanges (HIEs).
- -Many states to not allow you to 'opt-out' of HIEs that exchange your health data.
- -Most states do not allow you to prevent your most sensitive health information from being exchanged.
- -So far, not one state gives patients control over data exchange.
SIGN PPR's petition and say "no" to data exchange without your consent at: http://patientprivacyrights.org/2013/06/sign-the-petition-for-patient-controlled-exchange-of-health-information/
We need trustworthy technologies that put patients back in control of the use, disclosure, and sale of their sensitive health data.
- -Patients have always controlled who could see and use paper medical records.
- -Now institutions (corporations and government) control who can see and use the nation's electronic health records.
Great existing technologies can fix badly designed electronic health systems, but we need new laws that require privacy-protective technologies are built into all electronic systems that handle health data.


text:
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Listed minutes are based on one call using a local access number (if available).
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text:
Matthew never stopped smiling as the children swarmed around him and wanted to shake his hand. Even though he was not their sponsor, the children were thrilled to meet the very first sponsor to visit their child development center.
"Matthew! Matthew! Look at my picture!"
The children called out enthusiastically in Indonesian as they ran to Matthew, carrying pieces of paper in their hands to show off their artwork.
Matthew responded in English, a language they had never heard before, and smiled warmly at them, causing them to laugh.
Although the children could not understand what Matthew said, they were delighted with his presence.
Matthew is a young man from the United States who, since January 2009, has given from his heart to support one of the registered children at Sangihe Evangelical Church in Kolongan Beha, Sangihe Island.
He sponsors Mariana, a child who lives in East Indonesia on Sangihe Island, where her child development center is located.
Although their communication before Matthew's visit was only through letters, Matthew and Mariana enjoy sharing many things as they write to one another.
They understand that mail can seem slow because it first has to be processed and sorted through our Global Ministry Center before it is sent to Mariana's home country. Our office in Indonesia then processes the letters by dividing them according to area, then sends them to each development center.
Although Mariana and Matthew have to go through a long process to send and receive letters, they never stop writing about their day-to-day lives.
This includes sharing information about their family members or their favorite things.
Mariana wrote in one letter that she learned about Jesus Christ.
"I like to share anything that I experience with Brother Matthew because he loves to hear what I am doing every day."
As their friendship grew, Matthew wanted to meet Mariana face-to-face and interact with her directly. Matthew took a big step: He decided to go to Indonesia and visit his sponsored child.
So along with a friend, Matthew traveled to Indonesia. In addition to meeting Mariana in person, he touched more lives than he had ever imagined. Matthew had not realized that his decision to visit Mariana would impact other children, parents and community members who at times had doubted whether their "invisible" sponsors actually existed.
Pastor Leopold Tamalawe of Sangihe Evangelical Church shared,
"People in this area did not believe that children have sponsors. They thought sponsors were just in a dream and they thought we lied to them."
Because a sponsor had never before come to visit the Ikhtus Student Center, this belief is not surprising.
Sangihe Island is one of the remote areas of East Indonesia that can be reached only by an eight-hour boat ride or by plane, and it is not well known to foreigners. Not many people, especially from abroad, visit this island.
"It is very rare to see people from abroad come here, especially sponsors of our children."
When Matthew arrived at the center, the children surrounded him to shake his hand and hug him. Children everywhere long for their sponsors to come and meet them personally, and as the first sponsor to visit the Ikhtus Student Center, Matthew demonstrated to the children and their families the reality of sponsors and their love for the children.
Matthew's first opportunity to see Mariana in real life came when he and a translator picked her up from school. After meeting the school principal and asking about Mariana's academic progress, Matthew and the translator then visited Mariana's house. Mariana smiles as she describes her first experience with Matthew,
"I took Brother Matthew to play and took cassava that we planted behind our house for our lunch. He even liked to eat it. We ate it together."
Matthew spent several hours with Mariana and her family, trying local dishes like cassava. He also tried pineapple, fried banana, and panada — fried local cookies filled with vegetables or meat. Matthew even went to see the sweet potato tree.
Fransin, the development center coordinator, shares,
"Matthew loved to try anything. He not made difference between Western people who has to eat Western dish with Asian people like us."
During their short time together, Mariana and Matthew really enjoyed interacting in person. Although they could talk only through the translator, they communicated through actions such as holding hands and sharing one coconut with two straws.
They encouraged each other and promised to continue upholding one another in their daily prayers.
"Brother Matthew promised to keep praying for me, so I can reach my dream one day. He also asked me to pray for his ministry so he can help others to know Jesus more."
Matthew's visit was not only a special moment for Mariana, but it was also special for the other children who felt their sponsors' love through Matthew because he was very welcoming to all the children. Fransin told us,
"After Matthew's visitation to our development center, we can see that children and their parents realized that the invisible sponsors that they thought were a lie all this time have great love for them.
"We also got acknowledgment from local government in Sangihe because the development center impacted tourism sector in this area. Many foreign people are getting know about Sangihe Island.
"Even though we live far away from North Sulawesi capital city, but we believe a step of a sponsor has changed everything."


text:
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Wordsmith Talk
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#93402 - 01/25/03 10:12 PM Simple Quiz
Registered: 11/22/00
Posts: 1289
Here's a nice simple quiz for y'all, which I don't believe has been seen here yet. Once you get a chance to try it, I'll post the answers.
1. How long did the Hundred Years War last?
2. In which month did Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
3. In what country are Panama hats made?
4. From what country do we get Peruvian Balsam?
5. Which seabird has the zoological name Puffinus puffinus?
6. From what animal do we get catgut?
7. From what material are moleskin trousers made?
8. Where do Chinese gooseberries come from? [Shame on anyone who misses this one!]
9. Louis XVIII was the last one. How many previous kings of France were named Louis?
10. What kind of creatures were the Canary Islands named for?
11. What was King George VI's first name?
12. What color is a purple finch?
13. In what season of the year does Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream take place?
14. What is a camel's hair brush made of?
15. How long did the Thirty Years War last?
#93403 - 01/25/03 10:30 PM Re: Simple Quiz
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 7210
Loc: Vermont
16. Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?_________________________
formerly known as etaoin...
#93404 - 01/25/03 10:38 PM Re: Simple Quiz
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/03/00
Posts: 10538
Loc: this too shall pass
for those as can't wait, here's the link to some answers in this yartish quiz:
-joe (unaccented) pate
#93405 - 01/26/03 05:37 AM Post deleted by Wordwind
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 6296
Loc: Piedmont Region of Virginia, U...
#93406 - 01/26/03 09:51 AM Re: Simple Quiz
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 03/13/01
Posts: 4189
Loc: Rio Grande, Cape May County, N...
17. If a plane crashed right on the border of Canada and the United States, in which country would the survivors be buried?
#93407 - 01/26/03 10:05 AM Re: Simple Quiz
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
AThe Hundred Years War lasted more than a hundred years:
Hundred Years' War, armed conflict between France and England during the years from 1337 to 1453.
The October Revolution did not occur in October, because the Gregorian calendar was not adopted
until more than a year later.
Peruvian balsam comes from San Salvador.
Get the drift?
"Hundred Years' War," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
#93408 - 01/26/03 11:19 AM Re: Simple Quiz
old hand
Registered: 09/03/01
Posts: 872
Loc: Birmingham, Alabama
17. If a plane crashed right on the border of Canada and the United States, in which country would the survivors be buried?
This one is easy. The U.S. and Canada are too civilized for such barbaric behavior. So it follows that the survivors would be buried up to their necks in the disputed Dakota Indian Territory along the Canadian-US border. The Dakotas would then set loose 10,000 starving, snarling-mad, black ants to dine on the survivors honey-smeared heads. These savage indians are still mad...
In 1879 the Dakotas...
... debated the failure of the US Government to live up to the terms and conditions of the treaties. They debated their pending starvation and the extermination of the buffalo. The Indians noted that when buffalo are killed the Whiteman shipped the bones east for fertilizer.
But later the buffalo bones played out, and so, in desperation, the inventive Whiteman exhumed dead Indian bones and shipped them east to make buttonhooks.
The Dakotas, being uncivilized, still hold a grudge.
#93409 - 01/26/03 11:33 AM Re: Simple Quiz
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 03/13/01
Posts: 4189
Loc: Rio Grande, Cape May County, N...
Man, milum...what did you have for breakfast today?
#93410 - 01/26/03 11:40 AM Re: Simple Quiz
old hand
Registered: 09/03/01
Posts: 872
Loc: Birmingham, Alabama
A bowl of self-righteous indignation. And you?
#93411 - 01/27/03 12:22 PM Re: Simple Quiz
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 11/25/00
Posts: 3439
Loc: New England, USA
Good on ye, Millum
A bowl of self-righteous indignation.
Sustaining, isn't it!
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James Glave | March 6, 2008
By James Glave • Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 17:00
The trouble with wind is that it's a bit like Adam Sandler's career. Sometimes it blows, and sometimes it doesn't.
That's just fine if all you want to do is fly a kite, but if you're an electrical utility seeking a steady supply of carbon-free juice for millions of homes and businesses, the resource needs a Plan B.
For one Canadian company, that plan B is "battery."
If the deal goes through as expected, next year Richmond, B.C.-based VRB Power Systems will install an enormous "flow battery " in a wind farm at Donegal, Ireland.
When the North Atlantic is truly honkin', turbines will feed a steady 32 megawatts of juice into the island's grid while simultaneously charging VRB's battery.
The battery itself will be large enough to need its own warehouse. Picture a series of enormous plastic tanks containing electrolyte solution. Power will be stored in the bank and later released to the grid via a central "cell stack," about the size of a large commerical refrigerator.
When fickle air currents abruptly die or shift and the Donegal turbine blades slow, VRB's two-megawatt-hour storage system will seamlessly kick in to pick up the slack, "filling in" the power hiccups, and turning a stop-and-go proposition into a resource that the company calls 95 percent constant.
VRB says its batteries–which can be endlessly scaled-up in size as need arises–could also work with widely distributed solar systems such the California Solar Initiative . As part of Arnie's Million Solar Roofs initiative, the Golden State has set a goal to create 3,000 megawatts of new, solar-produced electricity by 2017.
RWD replied on Permalink
Sandler's career does indeed
Sandler's career does indeed sometimes blow but, not to cut him short, the rest of the time it pretty much sucks. Look at windpower from the perspective of those places where solar is an equal option. The two, in combination, can be nearly ideal in the right places.
Suricou Raven replied on Permalink
Flow batteries.
A vanadium redox flow battery? Its not new - this technology has been in use for years. But 32MW? Thats… big. I dont think a VRFB that size has ever been built.
It will work, I am sure of it - one advantage of flow batteries is that increasing capacity just means getting a bigger tank. But cost-effective… I am not sure.
If it works well though, once one company has shown its success I predict every other wind farm is going to want one of their own.
James Glave replied on Permalink
Not 32MWH
The battery won't be 32 MWH, that's the whole wind farm's output. The battery's specs are still tba but will be closer to 2MWh.
Emil Möller replied on Permalink
pumped storage
Imagine sailing in the battery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity
Emil Möller
Ron Swager replied on Permalink
Canuck MegaBattery "Cleans Up" Wind Power
How much land destruction results from Vanadium mining? When these megabatteries cease operating, and they will, where and how will these huge warehouses full of toxic waste be disposed of? How serious would a short circuit explosion of a toxic chemical warehouse containing hundreds of MWh of energy be?
Canuck MegaBattery "Cleans Up" Wind Power
World is moving fast we can
World is moving fast we can ascertain from the technologies that are introducing day by day. MegaBattery is really a good thing and it will save electricity too. If you are willing to setup these things than you must need professional hands. For these works I would like to recommend you Jackson Electrician. For high quality professional works.
protagonist of a hydrogen economy
It started as a discussion about the potential for a future hydrogen economy. The protagonist of a hydrogen economy argued that hydrogen is one of the only methods to store electricity - electricity is used to electrolyse water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be stored and run through a hydrogen internal combustion engine or fuel cell to produce electricity when required.The antagonist argued that the efficiency losses in electrolysis, storage and subsequent electrical generation rendered hydrogen impractical as a method of electricity storage and that a hydrogen economy could never come about due to these inefficiencies, and that alternative methods of electricity storage would be used instead.
switch mode transformer


text:
Take your role seriouslyFebruary 27,2013
@Body Ragged Right:In the coming week, most towns in Vermont will ask townspeople to consider how public departments should be best funded and governed. Town Meeting Day is a tradition, an annual rite as true and predictable as sap flowing. Without question, town meeting differentiates our state from most others and makes us the envy of many governments eager for more grassroots participation and input. It is democracy in its purest form: eligible citizens convene in face-to-face assemblies, debate issues appearing on the town warning, and vote on them as citizen legislators. It also is an annual tradition among neighbors a day to catch up and share. It is the original social media for Vermonters.
@Body Ragged Right:Town officials will tell you that it is a tremendous amount of work to prepare for town meeting (this year on March 5 in most communities; a few convene Saturday). Budget talks start in early fall in what is always a challenging process, especially when faced with tight economic times; town committees meet to prepare annual reports; final tallies must be taken in accordance with deadlines set by the secretary of state.
As is the case with most elections, turnout for town meeting often is less than 15 percent of the eligible voters in any given town. (There are a few notable exceptions.) Critics say the day often is decided in advance or overrun with special interests determined to railroad through their pet projects or causes.
That is precisely why participation in town meeting is crucial.
This is an opportunity to have your voice be heard, regardless of issues appearing on the warning. By debating and voting, changes in town governance can be made.
To be an effective participant, however, you have to be informed. That is why each town is required to produce an annual town report to be presented to voters.
Reading the town report reminds you of the community where you live and who your neighbors are. If you havent been following it closely, you may discover your town is embroiled in an interesting controversy, and your town report could give you the inkling you need to start asking questions so you can know whats happening when you get to town meeting.
It is your most vital tool for the day.
One piece of math you should know before you delve too deeply into the town report: To calculate the percentage increase (or decrease) in a budget, take this years number and subtract last years budget number; take the remainder and divide it by last years budget number. Multiply the answer by 100 to get the percentage change.
Here are a few things every voting member of town meeting should take the time to find in the annual town report:
n First, read the town managers or select boards report. It will not only tell you what has been accomplished in the last year, it outlines the goals and vision for the coming year. With that in mind, its easier to ascertain why specific personnel or line items are being funded the way they are. (Be mindful, each budget article in the warning usually gives the bottom line; you have to hunt to see how much has been appropriated by town officials.)
n Look at the budget summaries to see how line items vary year to year. Be mindful of any double-digit increases, especially in capital or equipment accounts. Always look for increases in salaries.
n Find out how much health insurance costs went up over last year.
n Find out whether the town has any surplus and how it is held.
n Know how much debt the town has, and whether any obligations will be paid off in the next year (or more).
n What is the school portion of the tax rate? The largest budget question for most towns is the local school budget. This is usually given in a report near the end of the annual report. It is important to inspect the report just as you would the town budget.
n Glance at the town audit and read any footnotes indicating proposed changes in the checks and balances the town has in place. Ask whether there was a management letter from the auditor, which is a more private scolding of town officials. If it is not included, ask to see it.
What matters most to voters and taxpayers is how the changes in budget are going to drive the tax rate. This information usually is not available in the annual report. Before you leave your town meeting, know what the current tax rate is and approximately how much it will go up or down according to the budget that was just approved. The town manager or a member of the select board should have that information after the final vote.
As for getting more people to town meeting, that depends on how much townspeople come to eventually trust their elected officials, and how transparent governing can become.
The more people who are involved in town affairs throughout the year, whether it is attending meetings or hearings, the fewer surprises on the meeting floor.
More letters appear today on B8.MORE IN EditorialsProtesters converged on a bank in Montpelier early this week to show their solidarity with the... Full StoryPhil Scott will take office next month after winning with a margin of 51.11 percent to 43. Full StoryIdeologues and partisans work from the outcome backward. Full Story
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On the barren foothills of the West Potrillo Mountains southwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico, a group that included sportsmen, ranchers, biologists and conservationists looked out over the landscape as a crop duster appeared in the distant sky. Ray Lister with the Bureau of Land Management's Las Cruces District Office convened the group last December to witness the early stages of an effort to restore a vast swath of Chihuahuan Desert.
Motivated by a shared concern for the health of the West Potrillos, this diverse group of individuals came together to form a unique partnership to restore an area they all value.
"When you're out here, there's nothing but creosote as far as the eye can see," explained Lister. "A couple years from now, this will be a grassland again, restored to a healthy ecological state."
Early settlers wrote of the flowing grasslands across New Mexico. However, years of overgrazing in the late 1800s put a tremendous strain on the lands, causing significant vegetation changes as brush species like creosote and mesquite came to dominate the landscape over time, consuming precious resources and out-competing native grasses. What was once a healthy grassland has now become a degraded creosote-infested monoculture. With very little grass left, the habitat cannot support the abundant and diverse wildlife it once could.
"I've been coming out here since the 1950s to hunt and camp, and over the years I've seen with my own eyes how much the land has declined," said Bud Starnes from the New Mexico Department of Agriculture. "There used to be so much more grass out here 50 years ago. I'm so glad to be a part of these efforts to bring back the land to a healthy state."
Restore New Mexico, the BLM's collaborative partnership effort to restore degraded landscapes like these, has seen tremendous success since its inception in 2005. Over 1.4 million acres have been treated across the state so far.
On this particular 26,000-acre project, planes will apply an herbicide to significantly reduce the creosote and allow for native grasses to return. This, in turn, will reduce harmful run-off and erosion, and significantly improve habitat conditions for wildlife.
These rich but fragile lands, a volcanic area with historic lava flows, have long been valued for their scenic, recreational, and wilderness qualities. Recreation opportunities include hiking, bird watching, photography, and hunting.
"This area is a very special place to a lot of different people," explains Lister. "Ranchers, sportsmen, and wilderness advocates all care deeply about the West Potrillos. This is a unique restoration project because it occurs within a wilderness study area. And even though everyone's approaching this effort with their own perspective, we've been able to come together and find a lot of common ground to develop a strategy to improve the health of the watershed and return the vegetative community to its natural potential."
Ken Leiting from the New Mexico Association of Conservation Districts has been involved in the funding of the project, working as an intermediary between the BLM and the local conservation districts. He sees this partnership as a unique collaborative effort between federal, state, and local agencies, as well as a wide variety of conservation and sportsmen groups.
"This partnership effort goes far beyond traditional partnerships," said Leiting. "This project out here in the West Potrillos is about folks on the ground figuring out how to work together and then actually doing it to benefit the land."
For Nathan Small with the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, this partnership has a long history, going back years to improve access. When he first heard about the potential treatment, he had a concern over the use of herbicides. Lister organized a field trip to the West Potrillos and a previously-treated site for members of the Wilderness Alliance to see for themselves the benefits of these restoration treatments.
"Because this project involves chemicals, this isn't an issue to be taken lightly," said Small. "But once we got out and saw the successes and potential of what was happening on the ground with these types of treatments, we got on board to support the effort. There are many diverse stakeholders involved, and we've got the opportunity to restore native grasslands and help get the land back to a healthy state. It's a very positive situation."
There is a sensitivity over the use of chemicals to treat landscapes, even unhealthy landscapes like these, but Lister explained that not only is the use of herbicides safe and effective, but it is the only viable option of returning these shrub-invaded landscapes back to healthy ecological condition.
"Once a brush species like creosote or mesquite overtakes a landscape and drives out the native grasses, it won't revert back to a healthy, balanced state on its own," explained Lister. "Other removal techniques, like prescribed fire or mechanical removal, are ineffective or problematic, especially considering the scale of the problem. And in the future, after the shrubs have been reduced and the grasses return, the land's healthy state can be maintained with natural or prescribed fire."
The herbicide used for treating creosote is tebuthiuron, which inhibits photosynthesis in the targeted brush species with little or no impact on grasses and forbs. Areas designated for treatment are programmed into the applicator plane's GPS-guided navigation system, which guarantees high accuracy when pellets of the herbicides are applied. Sensitive habitats, such as riparian areas, drainages, or raptor nesting areas, are mapped as "leave-out" areas and not sprayed.
All herbicides used by the BLM have undergone extensive testing, have been approved for use by the Environmental Protection Agency, and comply with rigorous safety standards.
Tebuthiuron is activated by rain, and Lister said it typically takes three to five years for the creosote to die off and grasses to take over. Then watch out, he said. "We'll go from 100 pounds of grass per acre to 1,000 pounds, just by getting rid of the creosote," he said.
The BLM regularly consults with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to identify priority areas for habitat restoration and participate in project design to ensure wildlife habitat objectives are addressed.
Pat Mathis, a wildlife biologist with New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, was an early supporter of the project. "Without any intervention, this place would not get better on its own," said Mathis. "We're enthusiastic about this project and think it will be great for wildlife."
In addition, funding approved through the New Mexico Game and Fish Habitat Stamp Program will help develop yearlong water sources for wildlife in the West Potrillo project area.
Many of the lands treated as part of the Restore New Mexico program, including this area in the West Potrillos, allow cattle grazing. In order to participate in restoration projects, ranchers must agree to remove their cattle from the treated area for a minimum of two growing seasons following the treatment to allow the land to recover. Also, even though there is a much greater abundance of grass after treatment, more cattle are not permitted. Nevertheless, most ranchers typically support treatments because of the overall benefits to their ranching operations from healthier rangelands.
Rancher Dudley Williams, the permittee on this particular site, spoke highly of the many partners coming together to accomplish this project.
"I've always been an advocate of restoration, because the BLM and I can work together to find an option that works for all of us," Williams said. "We all see the need to maintain healthy grasses, and not just for the ranching community, but for the health of the land and wildlife as well."
New Mexico Quail Inc. and its predecessor Quail Unlimited have worked with the BLM in the past to improve quail habitat in southern New Mexico. The Quail Unlimited Southwest Chapter (now New Mexico Quail Inc.) provided the BLM with $34,000 to help fund the West Potrillo project.
"The sportsmen in our organization are excited to be part of such a worthwhile project," said John Moen, president of New Mexico Quail Inc. "The habitat values in the West Potrillos will be increased a hundredfold. We have been waiting many years for a project like this in Doña Ana County. To see it finally happen is very exciting."
Bob Tafanelli, representing the Mesilla Valley Audubon Society and New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, was approached by Lister for input from the wilderness community. Tafanelli had some initial concerns over the use of herbicides, monitoring and grazing. After visiting other treatment sites and seeing the potential benefits of using herbicides to restore degraded landscapes, and being assured that scientific monitoring would be conducted and that no additional cattle will be grazed on the treatment sites, he endorsed the project.
"Grassland bird species have been in decline for the past fifty years," said Tafanelli. "With this project we have the opportunity to restore crucial habitat for grassland birds and other wildlife."
Treatment began in December 2010. Results will not happen overnight, but the partners are confident this project will restore the West Potrillos to a healthy ecological condition, benefitting the land, wildlife, and many stakeholders who value this special place.
"This project is a win-win for everyone involved," said Small.