I received a link in my email at work today, which contained an opinion about Windows Vista. I thought the article was abnormally correct, which caused my hands to flurry across the keyboard and spit this out (slight edits for context and security):

Warning: Vista technical rant incoming...
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I would say that the title of the article should read "Vista logged fewer vulnerabilities in its first year than XP, Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Apple Mac OS X did in their first years, but annoyed the living tar out of nearly everyone who used it."

Granted (and I agree) that Vista is inherently more secure, a computer that is turned OFF is also more secure. Vista blocks user productivity with its User Account Control, forcing a confirmation prior to ANY administrative system change. I would bet that it is the number one feature users disable (or ask someone to disable) when they use Windows Vista, yet is the number one stopping feature of Vista's security. "Are you SURE that YOU want to make this change?" every few minutes makes any computer user want to club baby seals.

Rather than blocking/confirming administrative changes, why not rewrite the kernel so the OS doesn't drop its pants every time a browser extension goes awry. Data Execution Prevention = the RIGHT way to secure an OS. We need more fundamental code changes that support legitimate software and foul illegitimate software (see: development dollars). Microsoft Windows is NOT the only offender in this realm (see: profit margin).

If Vista hadn't been created to be a DRM 7-layered media cake, it might have had a shot. Adoption of the OS has largely been due to consumer OEM sales, lack of understanding of how to order XP instead, and tough licensing practices. Their corporate acceptance has been abysmal. Windows 7 is already in the works and rumors have it that a beta could be out as early as 14 months from now. Vista could be the blip on the radar like the-os-that-should-not-be-naMEd.

*** This Vista link is a great article because of the statement from Rich Mogull, founder of Securosis LLC: "I think a measure of vulnerabilities, with criticality, mapped to exploitability, mapped to active exploits, is a more interesting metric...It would be a good follow-on," If you look at the stats, he is very correct. More drop-the-pants vulnerabilities occur in OSes other than Windows, but market share provides opportunity for exploitation. I'd wager that if OS X had the market share Windows does, we'd be in worse shape for security. At least we'd have a prettier-looking version of User Account Control that might stay my bat-hand from maming innocent aquatic mammals.

Oh, and all of this was written from my webmail in Windows Vista. *sigh*

The other night, I took a break from The Two Towers DVD to put together a couple little puzzles with my kids. The puzzles were both picturing Marvel super heroes, and so as we built the puzzles, my kids asked about the different characters, their history and special abilities. Having been blessed growing up with an older brother who had means to subscribe to comics, I was happy to impart my fairly vast pool of fictional hero lore to my eager children. They were a great audience and seemed very excited by some of the powers. Once they had amassed what they felt was an adequate degree of knowledge, they began to choose which ones they wanted, as if I would somehow bestow these super gifts upon them myself. My son's choice went so:

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Caleb: [Pointing to the heroes as he talks about them] If I had Cyclops' laser beam and Wolverine's claws, I could STOP EVILDOERS. [Does a decent upper body power pose.]

Dad: [Looking quite impressed] I bet you could! You'd be a GREAT superhero.

Caleb: Yeah! [thoughtful pause] What's an evildoer?

Dad: [Controlling himself] It's someone who does what is wrong and sometimes hurts other people.

Caleb: Yeah! Like making a boobytrap chair...or...giving tickles.
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Apparently giving tickles is akin to villanous torture. Enhanced chairs? Not sure about that one. I was taking too much care not to blow tea out my nose in laughter to delve further into the evils of modified recliners. I'll just look before sitting down anywhere in the home until I am sure my son's super allegiances are clear.

Word to the wise: Take care when explaining Johnny Storm. My kids got waaaaay too excited about his powers. "Fire is nothing to play with. It will burn you. The Human Torch is just pretend.", I told them. That seemed to quell their thirst for flying pryomania. For now.

More posts incoming, but I thought I'd break my silence with something fun: The Disintegrator.

This rubber band machine gun pumps out 288 rubber bands from 24 barrels at a whopping 40 rounds per second. And it is portable.

Question is: Available in black?

Construction details here.