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Albuquerque – Best Spot to View May 20 Eclipse Spectacle
Like many things, astronomical events rarely live up to the advance hype excited enthusiasts promise, but this one should. Late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 20, there will be an annular eclipse of the Sun – and Albuquerque is dead-center along the path of maximum coverage. And the view should be truly awesome as the Sun sets as a burning ring of fire. Solar eclipses are, of course, caused by the Moon passing in front of the Sun. But the Moon’s distance varies, and so those eclipses where the entire Moon is between us and the Sun vary also. Since the Moon was at its closest to Earth recently with the “supermoon” when it was last Full (and therefore opposite the Sun), now on the other side of its orbit it will be at its farthest point from us when it passes in front of the Sun, and will appear smaller. While during a total solar eclipse, the Moon exactly covers the entire solar disk, in an annular eclipse like this, a thin brightly-glowing strip around the edges will still be visible. This means that when the Moon passes before the Sun that afternoon, it will not cover it completely but leave a red burning circle in the sky. Though the sky should not blacken and the stars come out as the flaming atmosphere of our parent star suddenly becomes visible, the view from right here should be pretty … Continue reading
Posted in Events, Interesting Items, This and That
Tagged Albuquerque, astronomy, cool stuff, upcoming events
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CISPA: The Fight for Privacy Continues
The price of freedom, it is said, is eternal vigilance. That has been demonstrated once again in the ongoing legal struggle over privacy on the Internet. The celebration and congratulations among the people who united to defeat SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act“, the last proposed draconian legislation aimed at protecting copyright and intellectual property, had not even ended before another such bill was proposed. This one is called CISPA, the “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act“, which indicates it’s a somewhat different beast than SOPA, directed against hackers rather than file-sharers. (You can download a PDF of the actual bill, H.R. 3523, here.) It’s not quite SOPA risen like a zombie from the grave, but it is written in such ambiguous language that many privacy advocates consider it even more insidious and potentially harmful. CISPA, opponents claim, allow “cyber entities” such as ISPs, social networks, and cell phone and other service providers, to circumvent Internet privacy laws. It allows the government to monitor online communications if it suspects any kind of cybersecurity threat to be involved. And since the bill does not really define cybersecurity, that leaves the door wide open, allowing virtually anyone to be spied on for any reason. Not only the government is given this power. If a cyber entity thinks a threat is involved, it can take action. The only safeguard built in is that it cannot be done for “unfair competitive advantage”. All that’s … Continue reading
Posted in News, Security
Tagged CISPA, copyright, cybercrime, EFF, file sharing, Protect IP Act, security, SOPA
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Flashback Trojan is a Warning to Mac Owners
It finally happened: for the first time, Macintosh computers have been attacked by a trojan virus in a big way. Few viruses have ever targeted them before, and for decades Apple owners were told simply not to worry, that viruses were a Microsoft problem. Now the owners of over a half-million Mac OS X computers share the pain – and some of the vulnerability – that Windows users have long been familiar with. The malware is called Flashback, and was discovered not long ago by Kaspersky Labs, a leading Moscow-based software security firm. Flashback can hijack a Mac without even an administrative password, due to its exploit of a flaw in Java. Though discovered last September, Oracle, the company that makes Java, patched the hole back in February, but that didn’t solve the problem. It turns out Apple ships its own version of Java, and their patches weren’t issued until early April. (Obviously, the company has a learning curve about prompt and effective security responses in front of them.) By now there are a lot of infected Macintoshes – not really all that many by Windows standards, but it can still spoil your day if you have one. The virus masquerades as an installer for Adobe’s Flash, and it can install itself. All you have to do is visit an infected website with an unprotected computer. As of the latest reports, the trojan has created a botnet – a network … Continue reading