I finally got my mailbox over to my new office building. One of the things that had collected dust before the switch: a retractable modem cable with a Microsoft product logo on it. I assume they sent it to people in the field to raise awareness of their product. But a modem cable? In the past year, I can count the number of times I’ve used my laptop’s modem on one hand. Besides, I have a dozen of these stupid things.

Our group has GREAT giveaways. At an event last year, we gave away USB phone chargers. They’re more common now, but I had never seen one before at the time. We’ve also given away USB lamps and portable USB webcams.

Every once in a while, I think about just yanking the Wired feed from my aggregator. I don’t usually read the articles. With Scoble posting so much, who has time to read both? 😄 However, today I actually read two. One very interesting and one that I thought was pretty stupid.

Spies Attack White House Secrecy points out that document classifications are up 400% from 10 years ago. On the surface, post 9-11, that may sound like a good idea. But look at the examples they give:

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, prepared a report last year for firefighters and other so-called “first responders” on how to react to a chemical weapons attack. But when the paper was completed, the Defense Department classified it, CSIS analyst Jim Lewis noted. Now, the firefighters will never get the benefit of that information.

In July, a George Mason University graduate student mapped out in his dissertation (registration required) the details of the country’s fiber optic network. Using information publicly available online, he spotted vulnerable spots where terrorists might strike. The paper could have been used to shore up weak links in the country’s infrastructure. Instead, the government immediately suppressed it.

I particularly liked this quote from the article: “To counter far-reaching, stealthy terrorist cabals, the country needs more openness, not less.” Sounds like Scoble’s stance on corporate transparency.

Then there is Windows: More Flawed Than Ever. While I may be a biased b0rg, I think this article offers little in the way of unbiased “news”. Yes, we released four critical and one important updates for Windows yesterday. I’m not sure what’s “particularly embarrassing” about them. ALL security bugs are embarrassing. That’s why we work with the security community and get the stuff patched in a timely fashion, usually before anyone knows it’s a problem.