talkingDigital

Organizing for America called for volunteers to help with Obama’s visit here in Grand Junction, CO. They held a meeting for those interested in setting up chairs, working the crowd, and some telephone stuff.

Once the meeting began, this form was passed out and it was explained that volunteers would be picked from those who followed the instructions on the form.

For Obama supporters, this assignment was likely an honor, for non-supporters it probably felt more like a hazing to prove your loyalty.

This article from the Register contains a lot of jargon and techno-babble. In our reading between the lines, we interpret this article to mean that Microsoft is one step closer to creating their own version of MS Linux.

We (namely, Adam Cochran, the guy who does all the work at talkingDigital) have predicted that Microsoft’s next major overhaul of Windows (not Windows 7, 8 or 9 – but total rewrite of the OS) will be their own brand of Linux.

Every step Microsoft takes acknowledging Linux, the closer they come to accepting it. I hope they name it something cool like MSLinux, or Open Windows.

Here’s the lengthy article from the Register – we warned you about the technogobledygook.

Microsoft set for open source outpouring? • The Register.

Big Secrets

In about 1985, I checked out a book called Big Secrets by William Poundstone. Actually I can’t remember if that was the book or one of his sequels, but in that book was a list of how to guess Social Security numbers.

Based on that list, I have been telling people for years that Social Security numbers were based on a simple system based on birth date and location. I have been challenged on this several times. Most often, people would tell me that if it were that simple, everyone would know.

Last week all the big tech news sites broke the “news” that Social Security numbers were based on a simple system of birth dates and location.

I felt smarter, but I wish that talkingdigital.org would have broke the news first.

Social Security Numbers Are Easy to Guess — Fox 2009 (706): 1 — ScienceNOW.