Bell Curve

IQ seven two

Just enough to understand

Fitting in’s not yours

IQ one three nine

Not quite ready for prime time

Asks what might have been

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2009, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Air Force Aims For Full Control Of Any And All Computers

Initially, this post was written for a different audience, but I believe it is something that should be of interest to mental health professionals. Although I have a love for computers, I also have a great distrust that anything transmitted from them is secure or private. We need to think of HIPAA requirements, electronic billing, chats with clients online or on the telephone, the elecronic medical record, and so on. Everything on the internet is forever, stored in memory somewhere, and accessible from more and more sources, legal or not A post on this topic geared specifically to the purpose of this blog will be done soon.

Does that read too much like a scare headline from the Far Left? It isn't. Wired News online reports that the US Air Force itself has made it. In an April 13, 2008 article by Noah Schachtman, it is stated that:

The Air Force wants a suite of hacker tools, to give it "access" to -- and "full control" of -- any kind of computer there is. And once the info warriors are in, the Air Force wants them to keep tabs on their "adversaries' information infrastructure completely undetected."

The US Air Force Cyber Command is already being developed. Its website has many articles, pictures, FAQ's, and a countdown timer to "phase one stand up" on October 1, 2008.

I have included links to both the Wired article and to the Air Force website to allow readers to judge for themselves where we are headed. Most of my regular readers know that I border on the paranoid in my responses to be watched by recording cameras at stoplights, at toll road transponder lanes, and on our streets and intersections. I strongly object to being listened to, phone tapped, having my mail read, or just generally being observed in any manner unless someone has reason to believe I am committing a crime or am planning one.

On the other side of this topic, I want my government to protect me - from criminals, from street muggers to multi-national corporate muggers, from enemies foreign and domestic, to preserve our constitution, and defend our land. I appreciate the brave people in the military services and in the public sectors who serve us and take care of us so well and who we too often take for granted.

At a deeply frightened level, I know that a current "World War III" would be fought like no other. China has demonstrated to us their ability to blind and disorient our spy and navigation satellites by shooting down one of their own. In turn, our "accidental" transport of six W80-1 variable yield live nuclear warheads From Minot AFB in ND to Barksdale AFB in LA was given much more publicity than I would expect any military organization to allow the media. I do not see these incidents as unique, or even highly significant in the bigger picture, of which the public sees only tiny fragments through a glass, darkly. If an enemy had unfettered access to any of the Internets or grids that control our distribution of electricity, natural gas, vehicle fuel, traffic and transportation flow, food and water distribution, public and military communications, financial tractions (commercial, investment, and banking,) ... well, you get the picture. Our nation would be brought to its knees in a grinding, chaotic halt. In a much more localized manner, the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) of a conventional atomic weapon or an "E-Bomb" destroys MOSFETs, FETs, transistors, and the like if not Faraday shielded, thus disabling electronic devices in the area of the explosion. The government and Military knows this in infinitely greater detail than do I.

On a personal, much less significant level, I have been affected wrongly by the same type of capabilities as are needed to defend our nation. I sold a car to a friend who ran through four "I-Pass" toll stops without paying. I received a ticket for four infractions, complete with a very clear picture of the back of the car with my plates still on it, and a statement that not being the driver was no excuse for not paying the tickets. In another incident, Medicare gave the Veterans Health Administration all of my personal and business information (including SSN, EIN, bank routing numbers, addresses, etc.) without any notification to me. I found this out when the VHA notified me that a portable hard drive with this information on it was missing. At least they had the decency to notify me and provide for one year of credit fraud alerts. I have no doubt that, despite the precautions I take personally, this type of information has been lost, discarded, or stolen far more times than I am aware. As a simple example of the laxity of transactions in the area of credit, I have written "Require Photo ID" on all my cards, along with my signature. It has been checked only once in approximately 10 years.

So what do we do and where do we go with this sort of information? I honestly do not know. The same technology that protects us can destroy us. The same types of devices that allow surveillance of criminals, terrorists, and enemy actions are easily able to be turned on a country's own law abiding citizens. It is, after all, so very much easier to listen in on our own cell phone conversations and take pictures of our own license plates than it is to definitely identify what is happening in an enemy's hardened military site or know if a satellite is armed and has military capabilities.

*sigh*

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood Ph.D.

"We realize our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time; it is basically a problem of priorities. We confess, We have left undone those things that ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done." - Charles E. Hummel

A Nightmare in 51 Syllables

Just breathe in, breathe out.

She tried until she could not,

Then peacefully stopped.

~

Fifteen compressions

For each time our lips were pressed,

Cried the kiss of life.

~

So cold, my Annie.

Tried to warm you with my breath

Changed to kiss of death.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Eureka! A Server Mystery Has Been Solved!

Have you ever had a small mystery that nagged at you over time. The event only occurs in one circumstance, but you couldn't quite put the pieces together to get that "Aha!" finality? It is the kind of recurring puzzle that is of no real consequence to anyone, but it bugs the bejesus out of you that you can't find the answer. I am relatively certain that I am the only person on earth who would choose to be bothered by this particular mystery, but I did. In all likelihood it was not "solved" sooner because only a few other people in the world would have cared and they already knew the "answer." They made the puzzle. To an obsessive and inquisitive shrink, however, this became a "thing!"

I host a website with what used to be known as Microsoft's bCentral. At one point last March I had nothing better to blog about so I simply listed the names of the mail servers then in use for the email accounts on the site. I assumed that they had to be given some designation so that the rest of the network would recognize them, but the names were seemingly random and were probably assigned by whatever IT person installed and maintained them. I noted what they were, but gave no real thought to a pattern being there, as the names appeared whimsical and individual. They were:

freddie
io
monty
nudel
onyx
sparky
squeaky
sylvia

Since Microsoft outsourced its web hosting services to Concentric however, the names changed and became much more numerous. The more I saw, the harder I tried to find a pattern to their names. Some sounded like defenders of the realm, some seemed almost loving, some had an attitude, some seemed threatening, and I couldn't even pronounce one. Different subsets and arrangements were tried until one server name that I had not encountered before appeared. Click!! The names are listed below, along with a link to a list of which they are a subset:

adamant
albion
ardent
audacious
brilliant
dauntless
defiance
desperate
diligence
excellent
exertion
fervent
formidable
fortitude
hood
impregnable
indefatigable
indignant
inflexible
insolent
intrepid
invincible
iphigenia
irresistible
isis
nimble
resolution
retribution
safeguard
sentinel
strenuous
superb
tremendous
triumph
unicorn
vigilant
zealous

If you found the "giveaway" name, the derivation of the names won't come as too much of a surprise. If you didn't, it may. Give it a moment's thought before you click this link. I have to pull you into my obsession for at least a few seconds. There were four discrepancies from the list at that link, all of which I finally verified despite a slight difference in the spelling of one name, the fact that two were simply missing on that link, and that "safeguard" was included as something of a technicality.

*sigh*

I can find some of the most irrelevant things in the world to become enthralled with when I'm avoiding moving a huge bookcase. 'Twas a turrible fight, but the dreaded bookcase has now been moved.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2007, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

"Procrastination" - Kurtis Karr

Storage and Backup of Clinical Records

Clinicians should all be aware of the necessity of keeping secure and private clinical records. A major problem is where to store them. I have been engaged in a seemingly endless quest to find places to put my "stuff" following the sale of a large house in a rural-suburban area and the subsequent move into a much smaller apartment. This compacting process has included such trivial efforts as discarding standard sized Jewel Cases and using either the slim-line type or paper or vinyl sleeves to store CDs and DVDs. I have purchased a very large capacity but small sized Maxtor outboard hard drive. Along with efforts in the computer area, I have given away, donated, discarded, or sold items such as a breadmaker, fine, unused cooking equipment, antique furniture, and half my "wardrobe." The latter was comprised primarily of jeans with holes in the knees and flannel shirts with gaping rents at the elbow, so not much loss there. I have shredded many records and plan to store client records in .PDF file form soon. I had tried the free CutePDF Writer and free Converter and found them to be the best for my needs among the various types of .PDF programs. I liked them so much, really, that I purchased the CutePDF Pro version which included the CutePDF Form Filler for $49.95. Among the many other features provided in the Pro version are the ability to scan to PDF (scan your session notes directly into a PDF document,) the ability to FTP upload the document (for file sharing or for online storage,) and most important to compliance with HIPAA requirements, the ability to encrypt the document at a 40-bit or 128-bit level. With the Form Fill portion, one could easily produce a standard intake or interview form, save to PDF, encrypt it, and be compliant in storing it online, burned to disk, or saved on a hard drive. I'm sure by this point I must seem like I am doing a paid advertisement. I am not. Certainly there are other similar programs available, but I have used this one and am thoroughly satisfied with it.

Another aspect to consider when using any computer to produce important documents is the absolute certainty that it will crash or die, taking all your records with it, at the most inconvenient possible time. The answer to this is backup, backup, backup! I have had enough computers quit without giving the required two weeks notice that I have learned this lesson several times over. Again, I have tried and accepted a method to insure against this disaster. I use a Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 750 GB external drive which can be used with either a USB.2 or a FireWire 400 connection to the computer. A review of this drive by PC Magazine staff rated it very good and states that the bottom line is; "The Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus exists as extra storage, but it's really there to save your butt. The next time your system crashes, this drive will get you on your feet again." The drive comes in 250, 500, and 750 GB models, with a very recent release of a 1000 GB (1TB) model, made by pairing two 500 GB drives in one case. One can store the usual documents, pictures, music, and the like on any of them. This series of drives also backs up everything on your computer, including the Operating System, to restore to a new drive in case of a catastrophe. Again, I know that there are similar drives and programs that allow the same types of backup, but after obsessively studying the specifications and abilities of everything I could find with these capabilities, this was my choice and it has worked well.

Backing up only files of whatever type can be accomplished by burning them, in encrypted form, to CD or DVD. There are many programs that will do this efficiently and effectively. I use Roxio's Easy Media Creator 8 (it has advanced to Easy Media Creator Suite 10 recently) and find it more than adequate to do what I want it to do.

Finally, there is online storage for files. I trust it enough for blogs, songs, pictures, and relatively unimportant documents. However, having had my EIN and SS numbers with all other personal and business information "lost" by a government agency, I am less than enthusiastic about the security of information stored anywhere not directly under my control. If you have a Google account and use the Firefox browser, there is an add-on available called G-Drive that allows one to store up to about 5 GB of information online free. A number of other companies offer free and paid storage with varying sizes, charges, and layers of security. I will simply mention MediaMax which offers 25 GB of free storage and increasingly larger amounts for increasing fees.

Until I write next, I'll be trying to force myself to part with my dissertation data (collected over 30 years ago) and deciding what to do with the toy airplanes with 16 foot wingspans. Even the cats seem a bit anxious.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2007, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Here-A-Ku, There-A-Ku, Everywhere A Haiku

Having awakened several times during the night, I finally ceased resisting and arose early for the morning, remembering some dream fragments. There were several that might have inspired a haiku (or a limerick.) These are variations on the themes of past, present, and future which were interlaced into one dream. Whether you like them or not, the reader may at least be thankful that nothing was written about a portion of another dream concerning the frustration of trying to clean projectile cat poop from carpeting.

Tightly grasp your Now

Far too fast becomes your Past

Future's not yet lived

___

Learn Now's lessons well

Too soon fading into Past

There will be a quiz

___

Old man once told him

Get a good education

They can't take from you

___

Older now himself

He's come to realize that

Aging surely can

___

Unwilling to stay

In the Now, he meanders

The paths of his Past

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2007, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

"Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again." - Willa Cather

Neuropsych Haiku

I love to dream. Not daydreams. The all out, longer, stranger ones that occur late in the sleep cycle. Traveling in time, changing the past, reliving parts of it, when even being changed by the dreamstuff itself seems possible. I don't really mind if I wake in a panic from a dream if it was interesting. One type that I like the most combines concepts, people, words, images, or events in ways that would be highly unlikely in a waking state. I had one of that sort recently that somehow intertwined my confusion about my future with the mnemonic device for remembering the names of the 12 cranial nerves. Further, in the dream, I realized that the words of the "standard" version of this memory aid had seventeen syllables. Ooh, haiku! Of course upon waking I could not leave the version I had learned alone. I had to modify and add meanings to it. "Meanings" is deliberately plural to allow for good or bad outcomes.

The most frequently used mnemonic is, "On Old Olympus' Towering Top, A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops." There are other versions, one quite lewd, but all help the student to remember the names of the cranial nerves by using the first letter of the nerve as the first letter of the associated word in the mnemonic; Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Acoustic, Glossopharyngeal, Vagal, Spinal-accessory, & Hypoglossal.

One Omen Only
To Tear Apart Fantasies
And Give Vent Sour Hate

-or-

One Omen Only
To Tease Apart Fantasies
And Grant View Soul's Hope

Quite likely a bit of each is present or I wouldn't have felt conflicted enough to have written two versions. I'm working on the latter, though.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2007, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

"BP = f(E & RV)" - Julian Rotter, Ph.D.

Keyloggers and Viri and Rootkits, Oh My!

In the last post, I ranted about rootkits being planted in consumers’ computers without their knowledge by unscrupulous corporations or by hackers with even less honorable motives. I vented my displeasure with a corporation but did not give any information about what one can do about a rootkit. To remedy that oversight I embarked on a quest for some free software that will detect their presence. I shall try to rectify the omission in this episode.

It has been written that rootkits and keyloggers hide quite well in the deep recesses of your computer’s innards, often to the degree that excellent commercial software cannot find them. I found two anti-rootkit applications and one keylogger sniffer.

AVG, an excellent commercial security software company, offers three security software applications that are free for the downloading. The best known is their free anti-virus program, but they also offer an anti-spyware application and a rootkit detector. All three are available here.

Sophos Software also offers free anti-rootkit software, a threat detection test, and an application discovery tool in addition to their commercial line of security software.

One of the stranger freeware security tools I found, the SnoopFree Privacy Shield, is a paranoid and compulsive little program that detects any application that could be a keylogger or take over your browser, displays what it is, what it is doing, and asks if you wish to allow it. I found it to be something of a revelation that it classified Google Desktop as a serious threat and desperately tried to convince me not to allow it to function. This program for Win XP is worth installing, if only to see which applications are paying attention to what is being typed on your keyboard.

An updated version of Check Point’s free ZoneAlarm Security Firewall has just been released and is certainly worth using.

Belarc freely gives its Advisor application that lists all the software installed on your computer, for non-commercial purposes only. This app lists every piece of software installed on your computer, along with patches, identification numbers, version numbers, and much other valuable information. This program has been installed on every computer I have owned since 1995.

Finally, EmiSoft’s a-squared free anti malware program (Anti-Trojan, Anti-Worm, and Anti-Spyware) is available, as is an Anti-Dialer program.

When you try these programs, as I have, please give consideration to purchasing the full featured versions or making a donation to the software’s author if you like them.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2007, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Moving Forward, Looking Back

Salutations, faithful readers (both of you.) I have not written to my blogs for several weeks because I have signed a contract to sell my house and I elected to do all the realtor/broker work on my own with the help of my attorney to tell me when I have just done something stupid. This, along with the facts that I have nobody to help sort what to keep, sell, donate, store, or aim towards a landfill, to lift heavy objects alone, and that I have no idea where I am going to live after September 14 has left me with somewhat less blogging time than usual. For this reason, I will share with you (inflict upon you?) the haiku that are reflective of my feelings about moving. It went over well, even in my primary blog, where my regular readers are known to have thrown rotten cyber-tomatoes when I post a haiku. One of my severest critics even wrote that she liked it. I think she just feels sorry for me.

Organization
Possessions and memories
Safely locked away

Pictures of Annie
Boomer’s ashes in a can
Packed, ready to move

Box of Gone fuller
Never too much to carry
Full becomes empty

I shall soon return to blogging for the private practice mental health community for whom I generally write. This will occur when my daughter and my two cats feel I am settled down enough to do so. The cats won't care, anyway, as I often find one standing on my chest at 3:30 a.m. Thankfully, Firstborn does not live with me nor is she given to standing on chests.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2007, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Security Software

Most mental health professionals would agree that we have a duty to keep confidential our clients’ PHI. This seems especially true if we keep that information on computers that can be lost, hacked, or subject to viruses of all kinds.

I recently had, and am continuing to have, an experience of possible identity theft. I did nothing to cause it or to leave myself open to that attack. Stupid things happen. A portable drive with a database of providers was lost or stolen. The VHA wrote to notify me and to offer a year of free credit monitoring and fraud alerts. As most of my personal information including SSN, EIN, name, address, and all the rest was on it, I accepted their offer quickly. My suspicion is that a less experienced employee or an intern copied it to a thumb drive to work on at home. The information was obtained from the Social Security Administration’s database of mental health providers without my knowledge or permission, to be used in a provider demographics study. As a client would feel in a similar situation, I am concerned, anxious, and feel that someone is responsible for potential harm to me. To the VHA’s credit, they immediately admitted their loss and offered some protective measures. Of all the times that I believe my personal information may have been lost, stolen, or compromised this was the only time I was notified.

We owe our clients the best security we can provide. Probably the best security software available to the public is produced by Norton/Symantec and McAfee. They are good and their respective prices reflect that. Many other commercial security software brands are available and usually, as good as the two named, but possibly not as comprehensive.

I have found free versions of some lesser-known software brands available that have proven as effective, in combination, as one of the major manufacturers’ software suites. AVG offers free versions of their Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, and Anti-Rootkit software. As far as I am currently aware, their Anti-Rootkit program is the only free rootkit software available. I use all three. CheckPoint Software’s ZoneAlarm Firewall is a well-known and effective free security application that I also use and rely on. Spybot-Search & Destroy is a very effective free “donation-ware” anti-spyware application. I also use it with confidence. LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware-2007 is a free adware search and removal application. It has very recently been updated and apparently did not install well on my computer. Its past versions have been quite useful and worked perfectly in combination with all the other free programs listed. Microsoft also offers free anti-virus and internet filters, as well as updates to your operating system. I use Microsoft Update, Windows Live OneCare safety scanner, Windows Defender, and the Malicious Software Removal Tool. All of the Microsoft tools may be found on the single Microsoft link appearing above.

These are some of the best free security programs available. I recommend them with some caveats, however. I am making recommendations based on my personal use of Microsoft’s XP Pro and XP Home operating systems and cannot generalize to other OSs. If you do not use these links to obtain the software, be certain that the providers and spellings of the program names are exactly the same. There are imitators using names very similar to the good software that may contain malware or be malware themselves. Finally, if you like the software, please consider purchasing their commercial versions. Be careful out there.

Peace, Doc

EverNote 2.1 Update

EverNote®2 is offering a free, updated version of their remarkably versatile and useful note and web information collection program. It is version 2.1.0.327 which employs a new database. If you update from a previous version, your content will be saved and updated to conform to the current database engine, but it will no longer be useable with prior versions. The commercial versions of this software offer extensive additions to the basic free version. Web clips, graphics, e-mail, notes, handwriting, snapshots, sketches, and much more may all be recorded, many on either free or commercial versions. It is simply remarkable that so much versatility is offered in their free version. It is definitely worth a trip to the download section of the EverNote Website to compare versions and download one of them.

I find that I am not alone in my high regard for this application. Those with much more knowledge and ability concur:

EverNote is a genius piece of software that collects and stores all of your digital data, indexing them and making them searchable. - Michael Calore, Wired News

EverNote 2.1 - Free Version
Software Version: 2.1.0.327(14.9 MB)

EverNote 2.1 lets you easily store and quickly access typed and handwritten memos, webpage excerpts, emails, phone messages, addresses, passwords, brainstorms, sketches, documents and more! This is a FREE version with no expiration. Learn More

Peace, Doc