Status Updates: 2009-04-01

  • I have not had cereal in the LONGEST time… it’s so good! #
  • Running Conficker tests on the network at work… I seriously hope its not infected. #
  • This whole “covering my clock” at work is really making the time fly by!!! http://twitpic.com/2nat0 #

Writer’s Block: To The Moon

What scientific or medical breakthrough do you most want to happen in your lifetime?

med_man_to_the_moon_0

I’d love i t if we could somehow get every-day people to the Moon, Mars, or somewhere in space along with a safe return.

It’s going to happen, and I’d love to go… I’m not expecting to go, but It’s going to be quite amazing to see YouTube videos of ordinary, everyday folks getting rocketed off into outer-space. We’ll see photos galore from digital cameras and whatnot.

bp515249Personally, I’d love to go, but I can just imagine how much it’d cost…

Right now Google is sponsoring the Lunar X-Prize. Which is basically a competition for a privately funded mission to the Moon. Anybody who can make it there first, and discover artifacts left behind, such as the flag, and rover from the first Moon missions receive prizes.

This is huge, it’s going to be the first people, not affiliated with NASA (or another country’s government program) to go to the Moon, these are going to be PRIVATELY funded groups of people… these are obviously very bright, and wealthy people, but alas, it’s quite an extraordinary event.

The grand prize is available until December 31st 2012, so that’s not far off at all… Just think of how fast the past 4 years have went by. Four years ago I was in high school still… that time has flown by. I’m 20 now… by the time I’m really old, I can absolutely expect to see ordinary people going to the moon, and beyond.


Conficker: Likely CLEAN

Well, with April 1st fast approaching, and the deadly “Conficker” virus that everybody’s been so stressed about right around the corner… I thought it was necessary to take action today.

In case you don’t know, the Conficker virus is something nearly undetectable, and its sitting dormant across millions of computers world wide, waiting for a digitally-signed command from a central location on April 1st. I know it seems like an April fools day joke, but who knows what could happen. The virus can’t be disabled by falsely giving it a command to shut down, since it only accepts signed code for the correct source.

conficker_clean

Anyhow, the nmap team discovered a way of detecting it across the network earlier this morning… just in time I know. I made sure I did a scan, and after a while of figuring out exactly HOW to do the correct scan, our results came back as CLEAN here at Michigan Drill. This means no worrying for [at least] our location.

dreamstime-virusI however assume we’re all safe in the matter.

I must say… I’m curious to know what this particular worm actually is going to do tomorrow to those who ARE infected… >_>






Powered by WP VideoTube