The Register, an online journal that covers computer security issues, reported yesterday on the first Mac OS X “Trojan,” or computer virus. Mac users should be wary of anything that prompts them to enter their login name and password. Link to article

According to a February 8, 2006, article in The Register, computer security experts expect Apple computer users, long free of viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc., to experience increasing numbers of security breaches in the coming year. This is partly due to Apple’s switch to Intel processors for new Macs, processors which are more familiar to malicious hackers. But it’s also due to Apple’s increased market share in the personal computing world, making them a bigger, and more tempting, target. Worst of all, Apple has had little or no experience dealing with malware, while remaining uncommunicative as to its security measures.

“The reality is that security work does comes from a trial by fire,” [independent consultant Dan Kaminsky] said. “And Apple really has not had that experience. It had not had the experience from some 20 years that Unix had and that Linux has absorbed. It has not had the experience that Microsoft had with its summer of worms.”

If you’re a Mac user like me, take note. Link

You, too, can calm traffic in your own home town. If you’re a Brit, you might try placing a lovely 3-piece living room suite in your road. No, I’m not kidding. According to the BBC:

Initially the street was legally closed, to allow the setting up of this outdoor living room, including such middle-England touches as a standard lamp.

It was then re-arranged to allow traffic to pass through, but Mr Dewan says the reactions of motorists showed how motorists expect nothing to stand in their way.

“A driver of a 4×4 didn’t so much disapprove – he was too crazed and violent for that. He seemed to be made psychotic by the idea that roads could exist for anything other than him to drive on,” he says….

It’s this sense of entitlement that he says he wants to challenge – leaving a 4×4 blocking half the street is called parking but a couple of chairs and a magazine rack put in the same place is seen as a senseless provocation.

Here in the boring old United States, the same impulse –to make our cities liveable and enjoyable places — drives what’s called “New Urbanism,” which so far is the province of only a few forward-thinking urban designers, architects, and real estate developers. Pragmatists that we Americans are, we try to design good solutions for the future; those crazy Brits just engage in performance art. On the other hand, maybe the Brits have a good idea: perfomance art done now might make cities of the future into places where cars and pedestrians can co-exist on the same streets, and have fun at the same time.

In fact, here in New Bedford, when Home Depot goes to demolish the historic Fairhaven Mills building to put up their new “category killer” store (a store which will add an insane amount of insane traffic to that street) — maybe someone should set up a beautiful living room suite. You know, a sort of performance art piece in front of the bulldozers — photograph the bulldozers running over a dining room table on the way to the mill building — show the photographs at the New Bedford Art Museum. It would be a hilarious artistic statement about what the ironically-named Home Depot really does to our home city.

Just thinking out loud… feel free to steal this idea….

This is the best Christmas card photo I’ve seen this year.

UMass Dartmouth professors have alleged that a student was approached by federal officials after requesting Mao’s Little Red Book through interlibrary loan (my original post is here).

The New Bedford Standard-Times has an update of the story online here. The lead for the Standard-Times article plays up the fact that the story they broke has gotten worldwide attention. After seven paragraphs, they finally turn to a Department of Homeland Security official who says, “We’re aware of the claims…. However, the scenario seems unlikely.” Maybe the story is a hoax….

Boing-Boing, a widely-read blog, has been following the story, and in yesterday’s post here there’s an extended quote from an announcement sent out to UMass Dartmouth librarians saying merely that UMass Dartmouth officials are investigating further — as well as a quote from interlibrary loan officials who say, “We do not believe this story is a hoax.” Maybe the story is not a hoax….

I obviously lead a sheltered life, but fortunately I have people who let me know what’s going on out in the big, bad world. Niko sends a link to an entry in “The Daily Kos,” about some folks on the religious right who are trying to smear a North Dakota senator for being (gasp) a Unitarian Universalist. I suppose I should be offended or something, but the whole thing is so silly I just had to laugh. Not as funny as silly hats, but still pretty funny.

This happened way back in November — as I say, I lead a sheltered life. Thanks for the link, Niko!

According to today’s print version of the New Bedford Standard-Times, a senior at UMass Dartmouth received a visit from federal agents after ordering a book through interlibrary loan:

NEW BEDFORD — A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung’s tome on Communism called “The Little Red Book.”

Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library’s interlibrary loan program.

The student, who was completing a research paper of Communism for Professor Pontbriand’s class on facism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents’ home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.

The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a “watch list,” and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.

“I tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book,” Professor Pontbriand said. “Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring interlibrary loans, because that’s what triggered the visit, as I understand it.”…

The student told Professor Pontbriand and Dr. Williams that the Homeland Security agents… brought the book with them, but did not leave it with the student, the professors said.

I find it sad that the Department of Homeland Security saw fit to include the “Little Red Book” on their watch list. I actually own a “complete and unexpurgated” version of Mao’s “Little Red Book,” published as Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung in 1967, by Bantam Books. It’s a dated collection of quotations from Mao’s political speeches and longer theoretical works, meant to be used as part of a larger political indoctrination program. These days, it just reads like a historical artifact, and it’s hard to imagine terrorists taking it seriously.

Unfortunately, this incident reinforces my sense that the Department of Homeland Security is looking for trouble in all the wrong places. Mao’s “Little Red Book” on their watch list doesn’t make sense. Targeting an undergrad at UMass Dartmouth, a school not known for revolutionary tendencies (to put it mildly) seems silly.

Worst of all, although they brought it with them, the agents didn’t even leave the book so the poor student could write his term paper. That action has the faint stench of censorship. It’s the sort of thing Mao’s government agents would have done, back in the days when the “Little Red Book” was widely read in China.

Moral of the story: if you want to read Mao’s “Little Red Book,” don’t go through interlibrary loan. Just go to the library that owns a copy, and read it there.

Update, Feb. 11, 2006: This post continues to get a fair number of hits. Until Spicy Lime gets their own Web site, here’s some basic info:

The original post, below, has info about the menu….

When we first moved to downtown New Bedford, I felt it was missing something important. Downtown Geneva, Illinois, where we lived last year had a good cheap Thai restaurant. And the Rock Ridge neighborhood of Oakland, where we lived the year before, had a good cheap sushi restaurant within walking distance. When we eat out, we tend to prefer good cheap Asian food. When we moved here, downtown New Bedford had only one Chinese restaurant, which friends warned us away from: friends don’t let friends eat bad greasy MSG-laden Asian food.

Downtown New Bedford now has Spicy Lime Thai restaurant, which opened a couple of weeks ago at 522 Pleasant St., near Union St. It’s relatively cheap, with a $5.95 lunch special and most dinner dishes priced at $8.95. And it’s pretty good. What more could I ask?

For dinner tonight, we started with spring rolls: taro root, some kind of dark mushroom, and bean thread in a yummy deep-fried roll. Carol had basil seafood soup, with shrimp, fish, and mussels in a light broth swimming with basil leaves, lemongrass, other spices (the only turnoff for me was that they put tomato in it). I had pad se-ew; I almost always have pad se-ew at Thai resturants; this is the third time I’ve had Spicy Lime’s pad se-ew, and the waitress even said, “You had that last time, didn’t you?” Good thick stir-fried rice noodles, not too greasy, with broccoli, zucchini, and carrots; not exactly Asian vegetables, but good nonetheless.

It’s not fancy, but we liked what we ate. The ingredients were fresh, the cook has a nice way with the herbs and spices. The tables are crowded together in a small room with minimal decor, but it feels friendly. The staff is still working on their timing (be sure you order an appetizer because chances are you will wait a while for your meal), but they’re getting better.

I think Spicy Lime fills a void in the downtown resturant scene at dinner time. The other bars and restaurants have their niches. The waterfront bars get the people who just want to drink, Minerva’s pizza gets people who want fast food, Freestone’s draws the white yup-scale crowd, The Main Event seems to draw the hip Portugese yup-scale crowd, Cafe Arpeggio the academics and scruffy singer-songwriters; but Spicy Lime seems to be the place for the cultural creatives: gallery owners, artists, downtown residents, students from the art school.