The Zincan Slate

I discovered Gibson Research Corporation’s (www.grc.com) Shields UP! website today. Shields UP! is a utility that allows you to check how secure your connection is to the Internet. It’s easy to use: no registration is required and it’s web based, so there’s no files to download.

My machine passed the file sharing and common ports tests. After that, I decided to put Shields UP! to the test. I tested ShieldsUP! by activating XAMPP, a simple Apache distribution. I ran XAMPP because I knew that the machine would be insecure while it was running. It successfully displayed that ports 80 and 443 were open.

I’m not a computer security professional, so I don’t know how stringent these tests are. But, I like the idea that I can perform a hassle free security checkup on my computer.

I was going through some of the pictures that I took last year and I sorted out a few of my favorites. I took this one last August at the Cleveland Zoo. I’ve seen Eagles before in the wild, but I’ve never been this close to one before. If it wasn’t for the enclosure, I could have reached out and touched him. (Click on the picture for a 1024 x 768 version - 373kb)

If you were a Transformer, GoBot, or Robotech fan when you were a kid then you’ll want to click here (techeblog.com) to see your childhood fantasy come to life. My girlfriend’s nephew got geeked when he saw the machine transform then show off its battle stance. I hope they market an affordable RC version of a similar transforming robot someday. It wouldn’t be worth it for me to buy one though. I’d get into BattleBot mode and end up destroying it.