Educational CyberPlayGround NetHappenings News and Resources

Happy Reading,

<Karen>


1)
Latest version of Java automatically sens user's IP address to SUN. 
Opt-out available, but only if download different version from auto 
update version, then access to internet disabled, when alternate 
version is installed.
Just got update to latest Java, it came with following data collection 
policy disclosure:
http://java.com/en/data/index.jsp
<snip>
    WHO Sends Information to Sun?
Information under this program is collected and sent for Windows 
operating systems only. It may be sent for any customers running 
Windows who download and/or install Java Runtime Environment version 
1.5.0_u8 or later. If the customer does not have an Internet 
connection at the time of installation, installation data will not be 
returned to Sun.
<snip>

2)
GM wants Don't Ask, Don't Tell... for the CEO....
<>
GM asks government to block public tracking of jet
Thu Nov 27, 2008 5:14pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Corp whose chief executive was 
blasted last week by U.S. lawmakers for flying on a private jet to ask 
for public funds, has asked the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration 
to prevent public tracking of a jet it leases.
"We availed ourselves of the same option as others have," to have the 
plane removed from the FAA's tracking service, a GM spokesman, Greg 
Martin, said Thursday.
He declined to comment on why GM made the request or when the company 
expects the FAA to decide whether to grant it.

It has already happened! Go to www.flightaware.com and enter "N5116," 
the tail number of GM CEO Wagoner's leased Gulfstream G-4, and one 
gets the following message:
"AVN AIR LLC (DANBURY CT)
This flight is not available for tracking per request from the owner/ operator"
Keep in mind F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous 
observation in the Great Gatsby: “Americans, while occasionally 
willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.”
Mr. Wagoner's lame attempt at hiding his flights are thus certain to 
cause him vastly more grief than keeping them in the open.


3)

Linux on the iPhone!
I'm pleased to announce that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to Apple's iPhone platform,
with support for the first and second generation iPhones as well as the first generation iPod
touch. This is a rough first draft of the port,
and many drivers are still missing, but it's enough that a real alternative
operating system is running on the iPhone.



4)
FW: Rubin says not to blame for Citi's troubles: WSJ
= = =
Snippet:
"I bet there's not a single year where I couldn't have gone somewhere
else and made more," said Rubin, according to the Journal.
= = =
 
Rubin says not to blame for Citi's troubles: WSJ
Friday November 28, 9:04 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. Treasury secretary Robert Rubin said the
near-collapse of Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C - News), where he is a senior counselor,
was due to the buckling financial system and not his own mistakes, according
to an interview published on The Wall Street Journal's website on Friday.
Rubin, who is also a director at Citigroup, acknowledged he was involved in a
board decision to ramp up risk-taking in 2004 and 2005, according to the paper,
and said if executives had executed the plan properly, the bank's losses would have been less.
The Journal said Rubin has earned $115 million in pay since 1999, excluding stock options.
"I bet there's not a single year where I couldn't have gone somewhere
else and made more," said Rubin, according to the Journal.
Rubin cited former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan as another
example of someone whose reputation has been unfairly damaged by the
financial crisis, according to the Journal.
The paper reported that Rubin said of the current crisis: "what came together
was not only a cyclical undervaluing of risk (but also) a housing bubble and
triple-A ratings were misguided," he said. "There was virtually nobody who
saw that low-probability event as a possibility."
Rubin told the Journal that the Citigroup board could bear some
responsibility and that some things should have been done differently.
The former Treasury secretary also gave his support to Citigroup
chief executive Vikram Pandit.
"Vikram runs this company on a worst reasonable case for this economy.
Essentially, the pieces of Citi will look how they do today," the
Journal quotes Rubin as saying.
Citigroup could not immediately be reached for comment.
--
Rubin, stressing the important point (he could have made more somewhere else):
Other point  is that  Greenspan is not responsible.
As a matter of fact nobody is responsible.
SXXt happens.
Who could have forecast that if you buy mortgages guaranteed by people you don’t
know, granted by people you don’t know, on real estate you have never seen, that 
you could get in trouble doing that?  Who could have known?  Well not buying whole
mortgages, exactly.  That would be stupid.  Everyone knows that.  You buy little
pieces of a  million mortgages.  That changes it all.  That spreads the risk and
who the hell cares that there is one unknown borrower and a thousand unknown lenders?
It used to be the people who used to run this country were no smarter and no dumber
than we.  No more.
Bob Lee’s first law:  if you cannot explain it to the guy who fixes your car, don’t  do it.