Fooling the “watch” dog
A birthday ages me. My children’s birthdays age me even more. Simple, really. I don’t see myself getting older, but each year makes the sons that much closer to “full adulthood” with all the responsibilities and penalties attendant. And so, as I celebrate their special moment, I realize that none of us ever get to pull a Benjamin Button. Happy birthday!
We went out to a restaurant, with all the surrounding logistics. Convocation and appointment on Facebook. The GPS to actually find the address. Learning how to operate one of the fancy new parking stations, which assume that you pay attention when you arrive in a “spot”, all the better to let the credit card bear the weight. $2 qualifies as micropayment. After dark, the rate should fall to zero, but that would be in a more solvent universe. This city has debts.
Our corporate firewall played a new trick on the clientele this morning. All of Microsoft’s services were blocked, marked as phishing. Hotmail. The ISO download site. Etc. After contacting the service department of our protective box, we learned that someone had added a range of addresses to their DNS record set, effectively tagging the big guys with their spoor. Good trick! There was a simple workaround, for us, but it shows how a system built on trust is doomed to failure. A sad commentary on the mentality of those who would rob.
While watching TV, we learned that the dog is easily faked out by the sound of a doorbell. A new take on being a “watch” dog, I guess.
