Michael's Rant

hay folks,
i have been stressing over insurance lately. as an officer in the southeastern climbers coalition land trust i have many duties. one of which is finding insurance for our oraganization and the lands we manage. it has been really tough. after month of searching one of our other members found a liability policy that is costing us 350 dollars per acre per year. that is almost as expensive as buying new land. we cannot afford to buy much land at that insurance rate. we have been turned down on several inexpensive land trust policies due to our organization being oriented toward rock climbing. this difficulty in obtaining insurance is heavily influenced by the events of 9/11 and the stock market crash.
apparently a lot of insurance companies took big hits over the 9/11 claims. then the stock market crashed and many of them were making much of their revenue from stock investments. now they are in the double back slide. making big payouts while taking substantial decreases in revenue. to combat this the insurance business has become much more conservative. they are not writing moderate or high risk loans or they are charging astronomical rates when they do. if anyone can help us with these issues please e-mail me at michael@crowderinc.com.
the most recent big updates to the web site have been in the tractor and travel sections. all have seen some work though and i am presently working on the launch of a motorcycle page. my number of hits had been averaging around 20 to 30 per day but has slipped of late. this morning i posted update notices to 10 news groups and have had over 100 today. i hope most of the new visitors have been pleased. although this is just a non paying hobby i hope that other folks find the visit worthwhile. for all you new folks i update the site frequently and try to post the larger updates to the blog. everybody have a double sweet day.
michael

why cant i insert links. i thought i was doing it correctly. well here is the address missing from the last post. http://grc.com/xpdite/xpdite.htm
michael

a quick amendment to the last post. the best and quickest fix for the new xp security vulnerablity is at . the new microsoft service pack one has some issues of its own so use steve's patch until microsoft comes up with a patch for the service pack. seems a lot like a dog chasing its tail dealing with xp. microsoft needs to introduce some more oversight and testing into their work. on a fun note i went to the 1st annual all harley dirt drags this weekend. what a blast. watching top fuel motorcyle drags on a wet dirt track was more than exciting. them boys are crazy.
michael

to all you paranoia freaks,
i am sure you have heard of the f.b.i.'s carnivore program. it is designed to monitor a suspects e-mail and web habits at the i.s.p. level. the problem is that while they are watching that i.s.p. they have access to all the traffic going over the system. they claim they ignore traffic other than what they have a warrant to look at but it is still right there in front of them to see. so if they are investigating some nut that happens to use the same i.s.p. as you they see your traffic even without you being named on a legal warrant. every major i.s.p. except earthlink/mindspring has let the feds install carnivore on their systems. if they get a warrant on a earthlink/mindspring client then they must present it to earthlink and they monitor the person and hand the records over to the feds thus avoiding the chance that one of their other customers privacy gets compromised unduely.
enter majic lantern. this is the codename for the f.b.i.'s new program. it is based on the hacker program called back orofice which was released at the 2000 defcon convention. the newer majic lantern allows the feds to actually walk past your firewall and software security and read all of the contents of your drives. remember that even files encrypted with p.g.p. are not secure right now. keep watch on the international pgp site for an upcoming update which will fix a major security problem. there are defesenses for this but you will have to research it yourselves.
also microsoft released a major service pack on monday that fixes the biggest security violation to date. if you are running xp you must download this immediately or you will be hacked soon. it takes about an hour at 28.8 so do it at night if you don't have much bandwidth. meantime surf no suspect websites until you have done the fix. this is a must do. also there is currently a major security breach of apples os10. do not use the web based update feature until this is fixed. the new os10 is more vulnerable to virus attack than past apple operating systems and there are currently 3 viruses out for the mac now. apple folks, welcome to virus land.


i think i see somebody watching me... over there... behind that bush... paranoya may destroy ya...
michael

well crag day was successful again. while i had an unusually low turn out at tallulah and currahee most of the other locations had lots of workers. we built a set of steps on the new slab side trail at currahee and put in several new water bars at tallulah. there is more work that needs to be done at both areas and sooner rather than later. look for another event in the next month or two.
i spent most of my spare time last week and all day on sunday figuring out my new video capture box. i can now hook my computer, v.c.r., digital camera and t.v. all together and spin the signals anyway i want. i have learned the basics of my video editing software and put together my first video project. i will be adding video clips to the site for those with lots of bandwidth in the near future. no updates over the last few days as learning digital video editing scarfed all my spare time. gotta go ride...
michael

tomorrow is adopt a crag. check out the message board at www.seclimbers.org to find an event near you. i will be running between currahhee mountain and tallulah gorge. hope to see lots of ya'll out there.
michael

last night i was watching t.v. while i worked on the website. i noticed that motorola was advertising their new cell phone. i forget the model number but it is the little shiney silver latest and greatest. i also noticed that actors were using the same phone on a couple of the major network shows. don't you just love product placement. what is funny is that they are acting like this phone is brand new and it is better than any other. well i have had one for six months and it is not much better than the star tac that it replaced. if you are still using a star tac then i think there is a class action suit against motorola for how crappily they worked. the only thing though was they were the only handheld cell phones on the market that passed the f.c.c. radiation regulations. you have to pay something for safety and sometimes its performance.
the new phone has a better menu and easier to use memory funtions but some of the buttons are ridicuosly small and hard to find, especially when driving. it is still a 3/10 watt handheld and limited by f.c.c. regulations to being a stepchild. next time i get by cingular i am going to buy the car kit that upgrades the phone to an external antenna and a full 3 watts when parked in its cradle. even with the newest handheld and using the provider with the most local and national coverage and not worrying about roaming i still spend a good deal of my time saying "can you hear me now... can you here me now."
michael

aw heck,
i was trying to put active links in that last post but it didn't work. i'll try again next time...
michael

test, test, test...

i actually got to go climbing this weekend. what a novel concept. went to looking glass and hung out on the glass menagerie and had a blast. i may have to sacrifice a few cycling days to get in some more climbing. time sure is in short supply when you have to go to work and make a living. i have updated my peru page with the start of my inti raymi film. i have also worked on the knife pages http://www.coolclimbing.com/knives1.htm and the tractor pages. http://www.coolclimbing.com/tractors.htm
as always have a lot to spew about but work is calling my name and i must bolt. remember that this saturday is adopt a crag day so go to to find an event near you. i could really use help at my curahee and talullah gorge events if any n.e. georgia folks are looking for something to do this weekend. we will meet at 8:30 to 9:30 at the curahee parking lot and then i will bolt to talullah about 10:00-10:30 to meet anyone there. we will be doing trail work and trash detail. bring picks, shovels, and other landscaping tools if you have them. after we work for several hours then we will have a hot meal and some prizes for the workers and there is always a little time left for climbing at the end of the day.
michael