2008 River Ride & Eco Fiesta

It’s time to Ride and Celebrate Norfolk’s wonderful natural waterways!

River Ride: We have added two new put in points, one at the newly renovated Haven Creek Boat Ramp in Colonial Place and one in Ocean View at the 20th Bay Avenue, near the East Ocean View Recreation Center. Both new locations will be a “loop” tour, and will return to the same start point. Larchmont Library and the Robertson Rowing Center at Lakewood Park will be back on the tour. We again have the assistance and excellent boats from some great local tour companies.

Eco Fiesta: The Eco Fiesta starts at 5pm at the Ernie Morgan Center, includes great food, music, beverages, children’s activities and exhibitors. I have attached an announcement about that. Tickets can be purchased through the Ernie Morgan Center. Larger quantities of tickets can be purchased through FONE Board member Debora Mosher- 857-4754 / deboramosher@aol.com.

It should be a fun day and we hope you will join us to celebrate the River by paddling, partying or both, and support our local environmental education programs.

Please call our offices if you have any questions and we will see you on the River on May 2nd!

Please feel free to forward this to your friends and family members!

John W. Deuel
Executive Director, Norfolk Environmental Commission
Recycling Coordinator, City of Norfolk
Executive Director, Friends of Norfolk’s Environment
3500-A Granby Street
Norfolk, VA 23504
Business Phone: 757-441-1347
Fax: 757-441-5285
Email: john.deuel@norfolk.gov
web site: www.norfolkbeautiful.org

Think Seven Generations Ahead!

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IT Workers like McCain and Obama

IT workers total 12 million votes in the United States today. Here’s how they surveyed from a Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) and Rasmussen Reports poll.

Political Party breakdown:
Republican 35%
Democrat 26%
Other 40%

Most important issue facing the next President:
Economy 39%
War in Iraq 18%
Immigration 15%
National security 14%
Govt. ethics/corruption 6%
Health care 4%
Other 2%
Not sure 2%
Social Security 1%

If the 2008 Presidential Election were held today who would get the vote:
McCain 29%
Obama 29%
Clinton 13%
Huckabee 11%
Paul 9%
Not sure 9%

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Helpful Tips for Developers on Fighting SQL Injection

Michael Coles wrote a nice little tips article for SQLServerCentral.com on doing your best to fight SQL Injection.

As a developer you probably already have many little tricks in your toolbag to fight these pesking predators. It certainly doesn’t hurt to see another coder’s ideas.

Here’s a quick exerpt -

For many years now, SQL Injection attacks on large corporate websites have been highly publicized. Several articles around the Web have described what an injection attack is, how it works, and the basics of how to defend against it. A couple of very good articles here at SQL Server Central also delve into this topic (SQL Injection by Christoffer Hedgate and SQL Injection – Part 1 by Randy Dyess).So why did I feel the need to write another article on SQL Injection? For three reasons:

1. The good work by Mr. Dyess and Mr. Hedgate offer code samples and examples for ASP. I felt that a sample pertaining to ASP.NET, for those without the ASP background, was in order.
2. These two authors focus on using parameterized queries; and in the case of Mr. Hedgate, validating user input. Excellent advice all around, but I feel there are other lines of defense which should be addressed as well.
3. Finally, no matter how many SQL Injection articles are posted around the Web, DBA’s and developers continue to post highly exploitable code samples to newsgroups and discussion boards.
In this article, I hope to build upon the good work of Mr. Hedgate and Mr. Dyess, and provide updated samples as well as a more complete defensive strategy for dealing with SQL Injection.

Get Michael’s full Update SQL Injection article here.

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iPods and Other Gadgets a Source of Computer Viruses

CNN.com is reporting an AP story of confirmed cases of computer gadgets being purchased from manufacturers and retailers pre-installed with multiple electronic viruses.

Apple has confirmed many video iPods were delivered to your homes with viruses as serious as providing hackers a way to steal passwords from your computer; including your bank account login information stored in your web browsers’ configurations.

Best Buy has pulled many gadgets including electronic photo frames from their shelves blaming their partner manufacturers for the virus issues.

Sam’s Club and Target are performing internal investigations to attempt to validate complaints against their products.

The AP said they’ve contacted some of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers to interview them on protecting their processes from virus insertions but all have declined comment or did not respond. Among them are Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which is based in Taiwan and has an iPod factory in China; Singapore-based Flextronics International Ltd.; and Taiwan-based Quanta Computer Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc.

The bottom line for each of us as consumers is to be prepared. Be prepared for the worst and protect yourselves and your computers. If you have not already, purchase an anti-virus software application from one of the major manufacturers such as Symantec or McAfee. And be diligent about keeping the anti-virus definitions up-to-date.

If you’re prepared, are smart about your Internet surfing and have taken the proper security steps to protect your computer system(s), you can sleep soundly 95% of the night. Let us worry the other 5% for you.

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Most Used CSS Tricks

Dejan Cancarevic posted his most used CSS tricks on his blog, StylizedWeb.com. You might want to shoot over there and check them out.
1. Rounded corners without images.
2. Style your order list.
3. Tableless forms.
4. Double blockquote.
5. Gradient text effect.
6. Vertical centering with line height.
7. Rounded corners with images.
8. Multiple class name.
9. Center horizontally.
10. CSS drop caps.
11. Prevent line breaks in links, oversized content to brake.
12. Show Firefox scrollbar, remove textarea scrollbar in IE.

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You are living in the Web Services Generation now whether you like it or not

If you don’t read any other blog articles today (besides this one!) read Steve Rubel’s The Future is Web Services, Not Web Sites.

He speaks of brand messages on the Internet expanding beyond just a single website image. The constellation consisting of many satellite sites involving social community profiles will represent the brand as importantly as today’s main website.

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PocketCop & BlackBerry – Quick Information in the Hands of Law Enforcement on the Street

BIO-key has announced the release of version 3.5 of PocketCop, which gives law enforcement officers access to state and federal databases, including motor vehicle information. Police officers can quickly and easily check to see if a given person is wanted or if a car was reported stolen.

According to their website, “PocketCop is BIO-key’s industry-leading solution for secure access to federal and state law enforcement and motor vehicles databases from handheld devices.”

“With PocketCop, officers on foot, motorcycle, bike, marine and mounted patrol, as well as investigators and command-level staff, can quickly and easily identify a wanted person or stolen vehicle directly from a BlackBerry smartphone.”

PocketCop also takes advantage of the BlackBerry wireless platform’s built-in web browser to reduce IT administration costs. With real-time deployment, the PocketCop end-user can download and activate the PocketCop thin client application software from any location to make the PocketCop-enabled BlackBerry smartphone fully operational and ready for use in the field.

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Voice your Opinion and Add Suggestions on Ubuntu Linux

The official Ubuntu website is conducting a brainstorming session in which anybody can participate. Ever wish there were a particular feature or wish one functioned more efficiently?

Suggest a new (or upgrade to a) feature by creating an account at the Ubuntu Brainstorm website and then submitting your wish. Other visitors to the site can then vote on your wishes.

Ubuntu is saying if your wish receives a number of votes to deem it top popular, then it will have a very good chance of getting integrated in the next release.

Current most popular ideas that were submitted -

• Play button should change to pause button on Rhythmbox.
• OpenOffice Documents Thumbnails in Nautilus.
• Improve speed of the thumbnail feature in Nautilus.
• Compiz Effect Preview.
• Window previews for closed windows (compiz fusion).

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iPhone and Exchange Integration

JASE Podcast #9 (0:52 minutes):

This is the first positive step we’ve seen taken by Apple towards making the iPhone a possibility in the secure world of the business enterprise. The rumors have been flying for a while that Apple had licensed Microsoft’s ActiveSync so the iPhone could function on Microsoft Exchange.

The introduction of the iPhone SDK this week verified those rumors. We can’t get too slap happy yet though. Apple has only licensed the protocol. The functionality is not there and won’t be for a couple of versions later in the iPhone. That means at least mid – 2009. But this is a good first step for iPhone enthusiasts.

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A Connected World and how important is it?

JASE Podcast #7 (3:50 minutes):

Keith Parnell put up a post on his blog this week talking about varying, vital departments of organizations being connected via smartphones. Interesting. We’ll reprint it here.

CIO.com recently stood up an interesting survey – BlackBerry Users Vote: How Tethered Are You?

I think a more important question for company decision-makers would be, How Tethered Should My Team Be?

My world is very interesting and overall I think unique. Not unique for the tech industry but unique as compared to the work force as a whole. I require myself to be electronically connected at almost all hours of every night and day. Much to Nicole’s chagrin, yes, ‘every’ night and day. My tech team is nearly the same and during their disconnected times there should be another connected person capable of filling the needs of the organization.

Let’s move to other member (sets) of the organization’s team. Should the Operations team be consistently connected? Should the Creative team be consistently connected? Should the Sales team be consistently connected? Should the Marketing team be consistently connected? (I’ll stop there but there are other teams just a critical such as HR, Finance / Accounting, etc.) Within each of these teams an evaluation of senior management, team leads and team members should also be weighed. Should they, or at least their role, be consistently connected?

Here’s my answer – YES! Yes, they absolutely sure should. Each of these teams occupies a vital role in the decision-making processes that are important to the organization’s success. A senior member of each of these teams should be always available, reachable and able to communicate at any given time as dictated by the real-time needs of the organization.

So how do we make this connected state happen? Smartphones. Smartphones that are reliable, (platform) stable, secure, usable, functional and yes, okay attractive. Smartphones that put email, SMS, MMS, Internet access, IM and phone calls at your fingertips. RIM’s BlackBerry tops the list of recommendations from leaders of most top organization around the globe including myself. Nokia (the N95) makes fine smartphone products as does Palm (the Treo series) and HP (the iPAQ series).

CIO.com’s Survey Results for “How Addicted to Your SmartPhone Are You?
5% – My phone is for business. I put it away at night, unless I’m traveling for work.
2% – I check messages every few hours after work and on weekends. But I’d never bring my smartphone on vacation.
19% – I’m more productive because of my smartphone, and it doesn’t negatively affect my work/life balance. I wouldn’t call it an addiction.
67% – My smartphone never leaves my side. At work, rest, play, vacation, you name itmy best electronic friend is with me.
7% – IMHO That’s NOYB. BB4N. EOM. (In my humble opinion, that’s none of your business. Bye bye for now. End of message.)

Where do you stand? Do you make yourself available to be a vital piece of your organization?

See Keith’s full post here on his blog.

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