Duffy's Rant Netcast

WGN will be moving upstairs in the Trb Tower this summer, leaving the showcase studio intact.

Radio World article

Ban incanedescent light bulbs?  Not so fast says Congress.

Dixie Square to finally go

Check out the article from USA Today.

Agents "irked"?

Sounds to me that they’re POd that their gravy train’s been derailed again.  And ya gotta wonder what the players reps are thinking.

Not so much!  It actually started back in the 1880s.

Ars Technica article

Certain 2012 Impala and Buick LaCrosse have been recalled.

Impala for a faulty power steering hose installation and the LaCrosse for problems with the “Stabilitrak” system.

Owners that are affected will be getting a letter frrom GM this month.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t post this but this is more than just a little serious.

Unfortunately, I think PayPal uses the SecurID token system (I have one for just that reason!) and you may be getting notice from them that your token is being recalled or whatever.

Anyhow, here’s the article:

–RSA Deeply Penetrated; Says SecurID Information Stolen
(March 17 & 18, 2011)
An "extremely sophisticated cyber attack against RSA" may have
compromised the security of RSA SecurID two-factor authentication
products. In an attack preliminarily identified as an Advanced
Persistent Threat, digital information relating to SecurID tokens was
stolen from RSA systems. The company is contacting customers to let them
know of the breach and to offer suggestions for "strengthen[ing] their
SecurID implementations."  Forty million SecurID tokens have been
deployed; they are often used to conduct financial transactions and at
government agencies.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20044455-245.html

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/rsa-hacked/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12784491

http://blogs.computerworld.com/17995/rsa_securid_hacked_2fa_fob_and_software_compromise

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/technology/18secure.html?src=busln

http://www.rsa.com/node.aspx?id=3872

The letter to customers from RSA is at http://www.rsa.com/node.aspx?id=3872

[Editor's Note (Paller): APT attacks use three primary infection vectors
and each has a corresponding "most-effective" defense. This RSA attack
used the least common of the three according to insiders who are doing
the investigation. Sadly, it appears that RSA users are not protected
by any of the three defenses.
(Skoudis): This story has major importance because organizations are
increasingly depending on two-factor authentication.  I imagine some
very hard questions are going to be asked (and perhaps answered only
behind closed doors) about RSA's security practices.  Also, if there is
a significant weakness in the implementation of SecurID tokens, servers,
or other components of their suite, we may be in for a major
redeployment.  Likewise, if the bad guys stole seeds for deployed
customer tokens, we may face a recall of some tokens.]

Well now.

The NFL Players Association has been decertified and, as the contract expired, the owners locked out the players.

Sound familiar?  Remember when baseball did the same thing and nearly destroyed the whole shebang?

Here’s background on this mess from USA Today: 

http://tinyurl.com/4wk9nnt

ComEd, aka CommieEd, etc., says that they want to be able to automatically stick it to the consumers every year so that they can get back the 2 billion they spent on upgrading the grid.

Seems to me that they should have been upgrading the grid all along and only after the shit hit the fan with outages, explosions and fires, did they finally get off their asses and do something.

Screw ‘’em.  Let ComEd eat that 2 billion.

Activision gave the axe to “Guitar Hero”, one of it’s best known titles, and “True Crime”.

Could this be the inklings of trouble ahead?