You really owe it to yourself to start using OpenDNS for three reasons: it’s free, it’ll speed up your web surfing (a little), and it will help protect you against phishing attempts, drive-by downloads, and other evil things created by the evildoers of the Internet.

The last reason is the most important, especialy now. In case you hadn’t read the news, the domain name system (DNS), which is basically the address book of the Internet, is fatally flawed. And this week an exploit was released to take advantage of this flaw. The flaw allows evildoers to “poison” a DNS server’s data with phony addresses, which allows them to “hijack” domains to make you think you’re browsing the site you see in your address bar when really your browsing the evildoer’s site. Imagine this happening to your bank’s website and you start to see the problem. Usernames, passwords, anything you enter and submit into web forms all go to the evildoer. Game over.

There are patches for the DNS flaw, but many Internet Service Providers, even the big ones like ATT, haven’t fully deployed the patches yet. OpenDNS is fully patched. So if you switch to OpenDNS now, you’ll be protected right away.

Try out OpenDNS for a week or two and see if you like it.  I bet you will.  (And, no, I’m not being paid by OpenDNS to write this. I just think it’s a great service.)

At Dulles International Airport near Washington, one traveler reported that screeners were also making passengers remove all food items from their carry-ons for inspection, and one passenger was told to peel her banana. - The New York Times

TSA Screener: Next in line.

Passenger: Hi there, officer.

Screener: Sir, I’m not an officer and please refrain from chit-chat. (Reaches in passenger’s bag and finds something frozen solid.) Sir, what’s this?

Passenger: Well, I heard about the new restrictions against bringing liquids on board, so I froze my liquids before coming here. Now they’re solids! Swell, eh?

Screener: Sir, I don’t think we can let you on board with these, er, frozen liquids. We’re specifically not allowing liquids on board.

Passenger: But they aren’t liquids. They are solids. As solid as a rock! Get it?

Screener: Sir, don’t try to be funny. This is a matter of National Security. It’s possible these frozen liquids could contain dangerous substances.

Passenger: You mean like nitroglycerin?

Screener: Yes.

Passenger: What’s the freezing point of nitroglycerin?

Screener: Excuse me? I don’t know.

Passenger: It’s actually higher than water unless mixed with something like ethylene glycol dinitrate, about 45 °F. Pretty cool, huh?

Screener: Sir, how do you know so much about nitroglycerin?

Passenger: Read about it on the Internet last night as I was freezing my… er, packing my solids.

Screener: I see, well, I’m afraid I’m going to have to confiscate your solids. (Grabs the frozen items and dumps them in huge bin full of confiscated bottles of water, hair gels, and lip balms.)

Passenger: But isn’t it kinda risky to be mixing all those potentiallly dangerous liquids together like that, right here?

Screener: Sir, I’m just following orders.

Passenger: One last thing, is it okay for me to bring my knitting needles on board?

Screener: Sure thing, buddy. Now please move on. There are lots of passengers waiting behind you.

Microsoft senior vice president Bob Muglia opened up TechEd 2006 in Boston Sunday evening by proclaiming that Windows Vista was the most secure operating system in the industry.

I managed to download a copy of Beta 2 and I’ll be damned if I can find a computer around here capable of running it. The system requirements for the full Vista experience are hefty, and my not-that-old Dell D600 didn’t pass the test.

I think Muglia’s “most secure” claim is probably true. What could be more secure than an OS you can’t run?

What’s it like? People, I really hated the GE product. It is tiny, and closes around you. I felt seriously claustrophobic. Then it shot bursts of air at me so hard it actually hurt. I had been told there would be “puffs of air”, but these were not, by any definition, puffs. “Puffs” make me think of cigar smoke. Or “Puff the magic dragon”. Puffs of wind. But these were hurricane strength blasts. Meanwhile the machine barks orders like a concentration camp commandant. Where did they get the voice? It speaks in a chilling metallic imperative borrowed from a really bad science fiction movie. In fact it was barely believable that adults would unleash this contraption on anyone.

I have to agree. I got “puffed” on a return trip to Seattle last November and had a similar reaction to Cameron’s. The woman in the security line behind me also got puffed and we chatted a bit afterward comparing our experiences. We both thought it extremely weird. Neither one of us had the dreaded “SSSS” on our boarding passes indicating to security personel that we were suspects. Both of us had purchased our tickets well in advance. Both of us were traveling round-trip. In fact, we both looked exactly like the 30-something knowledge-worker wage-slaves that we were. Weird.

Cameron does a good job of explaining the feeling of being inside one of these things. It’s like a sci-fi gas chamber. Your thoughts trend toward, “What happens if the machine detects something? Will robotic arms shoot out and immobilize me? Will a tranquilizer gas be released? Will a trapdoor open sending me sliding down to some underground holding cell?” It’s creepy.

A lot could be done to improve the experience. But in addition to making it more “people friendly” how about adding features that might get people to want to be puffed? How about turning it into an “air shower” that blows dust, germs and microbes off your body? Maybe it could use ionization to clean your skin? This would help make air travel be less of a burden on the immune system. If we’re going to have sci-fi security systems, why shouldn’t we have sci-fi personal care systems, too?