Wireless Networks and the Law

A Texas man who was convicted of possessing child pornography tried to use his open WiFi (wireless) network as a defense, saying that someone else could have used the same network to traffic in pornographic images.

Guess what? His wireless connection COULD have been used illegally by someone else to download child pornography, but it doesn't matter. It was his connection, and he's guilty.

Scary thing for those of you who might have wireless networks at home and no security.

Link to story

Knoppix Linux

Sometimes, the operating system Linux comes up in classes. The problem many students have is that they don't necessarily have an extra machine hanging around to install Linux on, so therefore, they never get the chance to experiment with it.

However, there is another way. One distribution (version) of Linux is called Knoppix, and it is specifically designed to fit on a CD. You burn it on to a CD and then boot off of it, and that's it. No installation of anything on your hard drive, and like most versions of Linux, it's free. It's a great way to test drive an operating system that we really don't do anything with in our IT program.

It can be downloaded below. Note that the ISO image is about 700 MB, so it may take a while to download.

Download Knoppix!

School will be OPEN: Friday, April 20

According to an email I just received, PCCC WILL be open tomorrow, Friday, April 20th.

Massacre at Virginia Tech

The Massacre at Virginia Tech.

Scary.

The latest news: The killer sent a video, pictures, and documents to NBC via US Postal Service mail. Apparently, it was mailed after the first shootings but before the second shootings. It's amazingly creepy.

Link to Videos and Pictures on NBC

I just don't know how to interpret something like this. People get picked on, people feel defenseless, people feel alone. These things I think we can all relate to. I just can't understand how it comes down to what he did. We live in a world that can certainly be cold sometimes, but to punish people randomly...that's the part that is scary. We can control how nice we are to people, things like that, but there is always a random element that we have no control over.

In this age of technology, we get a glimpse in to a killer's mind that we never got 100, or even 25 years ago. You can see he has his own video and digital cameras that he uses to make a permanent record of what was happening.

Between this, the flooding at our school, the whole Don Imus thing, and the Governor being in the hospital, it's been a truly sobering week.

School Closed Thursday, April 19

PCCC is closed again tomorrow. Here's the official email I received:

The College will be closed again tomorrow, April 19, due to the flooding conditions. Please continue to check the website for future updates about when normal operations will resume.

I was watching the news and saw that PCCC is being used as an emergency shelter for the hundreds of people who have been flooded out of their homes. Here's a link to the video on the Web.

School Closing Early Tuesday 4/17/07 and closed 4/18/07

Just came across the email. Hope everyone is safe out there. Also - even though it says "Paterson" in the email, they have closed Wanaque as well.

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE COLLEGE IS CLOSING TODAY, APRIL 17, 2007 AT 2:00 P.M.

BE FURTHER ADVISED THAT THE CAMPUS WILL NOT BE OPEN TOMORROW, APRIL 18, 2007. THESE CLOSINGS ARE DUE TO THE CURRENT WEATHER CONDITIONS AND THE RISING FLOOD LEVELS PURSUANT TO THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR OF PATERSON.

School Closing Early Monday evening 4/16/07

This just came across the email:

Due to the weather conditions, the College will close today, April 16, 2007 at 5:30 p.m.

Free Stuff: PC Magazine

Mercury Magazines is giving away a free subscription to PC Magazine. If you ever wonder why there are all those free magazines outside H304/H306, Mercury Magazines is one of the reasons. I've gotten tons of free subscriptions from them.

I trust them, but as always, I use a secondary email account when I sign up for any free stuff.

http://www.mercurymagazines.com/pr1/121/12119

White House: We Screwed Up!

So, incriminating emails "disappear" from the White House email system?

Somehow, I do doubt that. Most large companies, to protect themselves, run many backups. Information loss can cripple a company, so they take care that it doesn't happen. Just ask any of Professor Bamkole's Networking students, they will tell you all about backups and how critical they are. I just cannot believe that these things could disappear.

"This story is really now a two-part issue," CREW's Melanie Sloan told CNN. "First there's the use of the RNC e-mail server that's inappropriate by White House officials and secondly we've also learned that there were between March of 2003 and October of 2005 apparently over 5 million e-mail that were not preserved and these are e-mail on the regular White House server."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/13/white.house.email/

Career Fair: Thursday April 12

Another Campus Announcement!

Career Services Presents

CAREER FAIR 2007
Thursday, April 12
11:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
PASSAIC COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Gymnasium
PATERSON, NJ

SOME INVITED EMPLOYERS ARE:

* Aramark * IKEA * Commerce Bank * The Record * State Farm
* UPS * FEDEX * Bank of NY * WAMU * Earthlink * METLIFE
* Sprint Nextel * KNTM * Hoffman-La Roche * WMBC TV
* Chilton Memorial Hospital * Cingular Wireless * Primerica * Comp USA

Job Fair Success Tips for Students
• Dress Professionally
• Bring lots of copies of your resume
• Have a pleasant attitude

For further information, please contact the Career Resource Center at (973) 684-6797.

Transfer Fair - Next Week

If you are looking to transfer to a four year college...it's never to early to talk to a representative from some schools.

Here's the scoop:

The Fourth Annual PCCC Transfer College Fair will take place on April 9, 10:30am-1:00pm and April 10, 4:30-6:30pm in the Paterson Room (in the back of the cafeteria).