A good fourth. A good hike. And go read Ortega; and the DNS attack

View 731 Thursday, July 05, 2012

I hope you had a good Fourth. We stayed home, joined by my son Alex and his wife, and by Larry and Marilyn Niven. Then today Niven and I went up the hill.

For reflections on the Fourth see https://statelymcdanielmanor.wordpress.com/ 

In digging for something else I came across this:

Ortega y Gasset’s “Revolt”

and the Problem of Mass Rule

E. Robert Statham, Jr.

http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_03/statham.pdf

It is not a substitute for reading Ortega’s Revolt of the Masses which is one of those books that every civilized person should read as part of his education, but it is a good exposition on Ortega’s thesis. It will seem quite alien to many. Ortega, after all, said in answer to the charge that he was in favor of aristocracy said that he was guilty of much more than that: he believed that societies were societies to the extent that they were aristocratic, and if they ceased to be aristocratic they ceased to be societies. The Revolt of the Masses is why he holds that view. This essay in Modern Age – a journal founded by my mentor Russell Kirk. One of his collaborators in the founding of Modern Age was Kenneth Cole who was my professor at the University of Washington. If you’re looking for some heavy reading, this essay is worth your time. And if you haven’t read Ortega, put him on your list. You should.

It’s late, and it was a strenuous trip up the hill. I went to the LASFS meeting after dinner, and it’s very much time for bed now. More another time. LASFS will have a memorial meeting in memory of member Ray Bradbury this Saturday at 2 PM. A number of people who knew Ray will be there. The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society has a tradition: death will not release you, even if you die; which is why I say member rather than ‘former’ member. Ray would agree. I’ll tell a couple of my Bradbury stories. Others will tell even better ones.

Larry and Marilyn Niven, and alas my old shed needs painting worse than I thought. Sable is negotiating for anything Marilyn didn’t eat. Viking dogs don’t beg, they negotiate…

 

It got hot on the trail today. Sable sees a big handsome Husky Malamute coming up the hill.

I got this on another conference. Then a Pentagon contact told me his IT guy told him to check his computer

In case you haven’t heard, come Monday, the FBI is going to take down a DNS server safety net that could leave thousands (or more) U.S. internet users without internet access. This is not a hoax, it’s a real thing.
If you have not gotten your computers checked for the malware, please go to this link ASAP (http://www.dcwg.org) and do so. Otherwise, you risk being offline until you can get your computer fixed.

That got me asking my security experts about it, and Rick Hellewell has this to say:

True….somewhat overhyped, but true. See msnbc story here http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/malware-may-knock-thousands-internet-monday-864024

Facebook and Google users may have already gotten warnings. But that link is a good place to check; it’s run by the FBI.

..Rick…

Eric Pobirs expands:

From the descriptions I’ve read it’s very unlikely for an actively used machine to be infected and the user unaware. The malware was usually accompanied by other items that did obnoxious stuff like ad popups. I strongly suspect the estimated 350,000 infected systems are rarely used directly and things like monitoring systems checked by remote access or machines that have been left running and completely forgotten.

http://www.dns-ok.us/

This site, link provided by the DCWG.ORG site, appears to be a simple and painless test.

I wonder though, if instead of shutting everything down on the substitute DNS servers, if they should spend a day or so redirecting anything that talks to them from a web browser to a page saying YOU ARE INFECTED in big text and linking to the DCWG site. Perhaps they have and I just missed the mention.

Eric