Drew Carey?!?! OMG!+iPhone vulnerable to hackers

It’s deja vu all over again. Bob Barker and the iPhone…again! One of my more popular early articles was titled “Goodbye Bob Barker+recovery partitions+iPhone” (click here to view) and here we have two news items that I just can’t pass up:

• Drew Carey says he’s to be the new host of The Price is Right
• iPhone vulnerable to hackers

My loyal readers know that, while I generally am not a big watcher of television, I am (since childhood) a “loyal friend and true” of Bob Barker and The Price is Right. The … discomfort caused by his retirement has been delayed by the Summer rerun season, but I know it won’t last. Bob Barker retired, and one day — very soon — I will tune in at 10 a.m. and he, and one more part of my youth, will be gone.
I haven’t spent much time wondering who will CBS attempt to replace Bob with, but it has been my … hunch (for lack of a better word) that my show will never be as good, and I just would “let it go” and stop watching. Now I’m not so sure. I had figured CBS would go with an ‘unknown’, because I just could not picture anyone in Bob’s role. I sure as heck would’ve never guessed Drew Carey (although I guess his hosting the new The Power of 10 was a clue). Maybe I will keep watching. I still enjoy watching folks win “fabulous prizes”…
Still, no one can “replace” Bob. I wish Drew the very best of luck in a very difficult task.

A $600 price tag, small storage, and a marriage with AT&T doesn’t seem to be enough to stop people from buying iPhones. Sales are still brisk*, I understand, though I haven’t yet interviewed an owner. There seems to be no let up on the television advertising either (at least not here where I am), perhaps to compensate for the hype and “news” coverage’s passing. I will be curious to see if the announcement of a ‘vulnerability’ results in any damage to Apple’s stock.

A little geek vocabulary: A “vulnerabilty” means that security experts (the good guys) have found a ‘weakness’ that a hacker (Evil Doer) may figure out an “exploit” for. An “exploit” is the script or code (or other method) used by the Evil Doer to ‘crack’ a vulnerability, and take control and/or steal data. When a machine, or program’s, vulnerability has actually been exploited, it’s said to have been “hacked”. Some “hacks” can be beneficial, such as the software hack that “unlocks” a cellphone, or boosts the gain on your wireless router’s antenna. It all gets a little confusing, I admit.

Tip of the day: never try to open up and work on a CRT monitor or a power supply — they can retain lethal charges of electricity long after being unplugged and should only be serviced by trained professionals.
As you may have figured out, this is not my typical tech how-to Tip of the day, tweak, or technique offered here today. I invite you to tune in again tomorrow for answers to reader’s questions that I haven’t covered before, and remind you that you can review some of my past articles that you may have missed. Also, feel free to post a comment or question while you’re here.

Today’s free link: today’s free link is a resource for those of you who like to tinker with their toys, and who aren’t afraid of a soldering gun. It is the online magazine for hardware hackers (referring to themselves as “makers”), those folks who like to “improve” existing devices, and cobble together new devices out of old ones. You may know the type — they say, “why buy something when you can make it?” Makezine.

*Apple does not publish actual sales numbers that I can find. There are some statements published on the Web that “The much ballyhooed launch of the iPhone turns out to have been much more of a flop than the long lines and all the hoopla in the press would lead you to believe.” And, “In fact according to the Dow Jones newswire, “the figure seemed to worry investors who had been primed to expect much larger numbers.”

Copyright © 2007 Tech Paul. All rights reserved.

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