Well, seems the new version of Blogger has some posting enhancements (read that as BUGS) and so I can maintain my blog, but can't seem to get it to post to my site correctly. So, once they get it fixed, there will appear to be a flood of new posts... so goes the world of enhancements.

Welcome to summer. The summer soltice occured yesterday at 19:10 (GMT) [2003 JUN-21 @ 19:10]. We've already had lots of days of triple digit heat, but the summer will undoubtedly get warmer. Summer 2003 is also unusually green in the desert. With all the precipitation earlier this year there are an aweful lot of green plants. The desert is incredibly beautiful this year.

Well, finally go the comment thing working... After looking at several different approaches, I settled on Haloscan as the tool. It was easy to implement and seems pretty easy to use. Please let me know what you think by leaving your comments as you wander on my blog.

So you want to know if your computer and network are secure. To test how well the security is set up on your computer check out this tool from Microsoft (yep, I said Microsoft) Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. Or, for your corportate types check into Symantec DeepSight Analyzer. If you are concerned about the security of the computers on your network, go to Shields Up! at Gibson Research Corp. The best part about the Gibson Research site is that there are lots of explanations in something pretty close to plain english. I have said it before and I will say it again, "If you are connected to other computers or to the internet, then you need to be implement computer security at some reasonable and appropriate level".

For those of you who need a firewall and have an old machine sitting around (like a Pentium 300Mhz with 8MB or more of RAM and a floppy drive), you need to take a look at Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall project. I have recently built a firewall on an old machine using the Bering Firewall. It loads from a floppy disk and only requires 8MB of RAM. It requires a little bit of computer knowledge, but it is worth the time investment.

Here's another fun item from Slashdot. Ever wanted to keep your beer cold for the entire time you are enjoying it? ==> Peltier Beer may be the answer. This is just TOO fun a solution to the problem.

Well, I have to say that powerline networking is cool. Just found a Siemens SpeedStream SS2524 Powerline Wireless DSL/Cable Router that supports, powerline, wireless and ethernet networking on sale for, $49.99 (yes, I said 50 bucks). It is easy to set up and seems to have some nice features for security and control of who uses your network.