May 6: Oregon Offers Tuition Waiver
Oregon’s State Legislature passed a law that provides a full-tuition waiver for a bachelor’s or master’s degree at an Oregon University System institution for children or spouses of service members who died on active duty, became 100 percent disabled in connection with military service, or died as a result of a disability sustained on active duty
My home state rocks.
Apr 23: Facebook chat - All that and a bag of cheesy poofs
Wow. I have to admit, they did the Facebook chat right. I like how it looks and how it works. I would only change one this and allow chats to disembark from the status bar, but other than that, congrats. It is actually keeping me on Facebook longer.

Enough brown nosing, here are the pros and cons:
PRO: very well done layout - clean, crisp and not in the way
CON: I have no idea when one of my friends sign on or off, it would be nice to have to show something simple as - Bob signed on, and have it as an option to turn off for those who have reached their 5000 friend limit.
PRO: I now have access to all of those old friends and people that I have lost touch with over the years and didn’t know their email or IM address. This was already the case, but IMs are much more inviting to use.
CON: Like I said above, it would be nice if I could dock and undock the IM windows. being stuck to the bottom kinda gets annoying.
I still think that Facebook is littered with a lot of useless apps and spam, but the IM ability is helping to ween me back into trying and cleaning up my profile.
EDIT:Alright, either the Facebook code really fast, or I just didn’t know where to click, but I have been corrected. You can undock the IM interfcae by clicking on the shiloutte and clicking “Pop Out Chat”. This will create a new window and put all of your chatting in the new window. After you are done being pop’ed out, just click Pop-In on the upper right and you are back to normal. While this isn’t the 100% solution I was looking for (Ajax floating chat boxes that could be together or seperate or tabbed)
Apr 20: The truth about hot air baloons
Programmers vs. Management
Posted on April 17th, 2008 by Carolyn Shelby
Received from my mom today, via email.
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.
The woman below replied, You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the
ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.
You must be a programmer, said the balloonist.
I am, replied the woman, How did you know?
Well, answered the balloonist, everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.
The woman below responded, You must be in Management.
I am, replied the balloonist, but how did you know?
Well, said the woman, you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.
Apr 16: Phrack is back! Again.
http://www.phrack.org
Phrack Issue #65 is out, as of April 11th, 2008. I am by no means a Phrack addict or aficionado on all things Phrack, and I have only read TCLH’s introduction which in my humble opinion it is close to Mentor worthy.
He makes a point to say that hacking is supposed to be fun, and the responsibilities that are impacted from hacking activities need to be offset by that fun. I whole heartedly agree on that point. While the word ‘poser’ is / was over used, like many words in the English language, to the point of meaninglessness, it exactly describes those who don’t have fun. They do it for the recognition. To see their name on a paper that is passed around, or to huddled around after a conference talk.
So, have fun, or leave. We don’t want you. As for the rest of you, enjoy.
EDIT: My preview of Maltego v2 has been delayed due to real life obligations. I apologize to those I had promised it to, and mostly to it’s creator, Roelof Temmingh
Book Suggestion: The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
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