Yes, you read that right.  Though we’ve basically known it for a while now, the US Department of Labor – Bureau of Labor Statistics has officially announced that the unemployment rate in the United States is now at 10.2%.

What can you really say after that?

Clearly the economy recovery is not going as well as it should.

The US Department of Labor has crunched their unemployment-rate numbers and yet again it looks like the September-Sack Race is 263,000 hard-working individuals, much up from the anticipated 180,000 firings that were predicted by the “experts”.  This is the second month in a row now where the laying (off) of hands has been considerably worse than expectations, in spite of the Obama administration’s efforts to save the United States economy.

This brings the unemployment rate up to a whopping 9.8%, darn near double-digits, which, frankly, at this rate we’re sure to reach.  This “recession” (that with the rubber numbers being used took so long to even earn that moniker officially)  is seeing nearly a double in the unemployment rate, and it ain’t over yet.

But what about those “future-proof” careers like IT?

In September alone:

Computer and electronics manufacturers have axed 10,600 of their 1.1 million workers.

Telecommunications companies have let go 5,800 of their 971,300 positions.

Data processing and hosting companies cut 300 of their 255,400 jobs.

Computer systems design and related services punted 10,800 of  their 1.46 million people.

Management and technical consulting services firms released 2,000 of their 1.18 million managers and consultants.

All-in-all Information Technology has been hit just as hard as everyone else.  In fact some hit even harder, as businesses find the nebulous and oft misunderstood world of IT one of the easiest to justify cuts in as well as to find “outsourcing” replacements to.

It’s a hard world out there and no one is safe.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is being used more and more every day.  As we putter about our lives we follow the navigation directions in our car, track where friends are at on our cell phones, and do all sorts of wonderful things that we now practically take for granted as the GPS satellite system managed by the US government makes it all possible.  Even C.J. Driscoll just released a new study that says that the 3.6 million vehicles tracked by GPS will increase to 6.5 million vehicles by 2012 as in three years the industry grows to a 2.4 billion US dollar worth thanks to how cheap and readily available all things GPS are getting.

Which sounds great, right?

Well, except apparently C.J. Driscoll may have missed one tiny detail.  It’s entirely possible that as early as 2010, world-wide GPS coverage will fail.

Oops.

What’s this then?  Who’s to blame?

According to a report by the US Goverment Accountability Office (GAO) the GPS Block II F ugprade has cost 870 million USD more than expected and taken three years longer than scheduled to complete.  This puts the GPS IIIA upgrade, now on the blocks, into a rather bad position.  If the US Air Force can’t throw the upgrade into high gear, the GPS satellite system may be put into a precarious situation.

“Of particular concern is leadership for GPS acquisition“, the GAO sites, “as GAO and other studies have found the lack of a single point of authority for space programs and frequent turnover in program managers have hampered requirements setting, funding stability, and resource allocation.“  Or, in other words, because no one single authority is actually in charge of the GPS system, mismanagement from multiple points has caused lots and lots of problems.  Instead of blaming the little guy at the bottom, it’s the fault of the big guys on top, and from there problems have trickled down.  Tough but fair words from the GAO.

Their suggestion is, of course, “appoint a single authority to oversee the development of GPS, including space, ground control, and user equipment assets, to ensure these assets are synchronized and well executed, and potential disruptions are minimized.”

It’s common sense, really.

But in the mean time, what will happen to the GPS satellite system is anyone’s guess.  How well will it hold up?  When will anything happen?  It could that things start to fail in just a handfull of months.  It could be that nothing bad will happen at all.  Only time will tell.  But as not just national security, but countless lives and businesses will be affected if something bad does happen, you can bet people will be watching.

The world is a scary place. The internet is no different. Everyone is out to get you. Everyone wants to hurt you. And they’re always thinking up horrible new methods to do it.

Okay, so yeah, that’s just a tad over the top. No, life isn’t really that bad. But yes, there really are hackers out there in the world trying to be mean and nasty.

Just ask Adobe. What is more internet than Adobe’s Flash providing all sorts of goofy little Flash applets all over the intarweb? Well Symantec has found a weakness in it. An exploited weakness. With at least 20,000 web pages found to carry links to a site that hosts malicious Flash applets that exploit the weakness. Not good. Fortunately, it’s only Adobe’s own Flash Player stand-alone application that is vulnerable. Internet browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, et cetera that support Flash plug-ins aren’t vulnerable. They’re safe. Still, not such a great moment for Adobe.

Speaking of the internet, what about one of the biggest ISPs out there, Comcast? Well just a couple days ago, for a mere few hours, Comcast.net was hacked by a couple of losers who redirected the webpage to one with text that read, “KRYOGENIKS Defiant and EBK RoXed COMCAST. sHouTz To VIRUS Warlock elul21 coll1er seven.” Wondrous stuff that. Just the hack of the ages there. Fortunately Comcast fixed everything by Thursday and is working with the police, even if they are stymied.

Still, a hack is a hack, and of all businesses out there to be well protected, you’d have thought one of the great cable ISPs like Comcast.net would have held up better than that. Oh well.

And speaking of ISPs and hacks, let’s jump across the pond to everyone’s favorite BT Home Hub wi-fi internet router, which has yet another security hole. When left on the default settings. You see, to combat stupidity from being a factor in hacking the device, recently the default administrator password from “admin” to the device’s serial number. Each being unique and relatively harder to guess than “admin”, it seemed a fairly intelligent way to go. And since it’s stamped on the device you never have to go far to find where you wrote it down. Except that, according to GNUCitizen, it’s not actually all that difficult to request the serial number from the device over a network connection. Hmm. Not so brilliant then. Just yet another reason to change from the default settings to actually secure ones. Good advice for everyone out there, not just for BT Home Hub owners.

In fact, when was the last time you Windows users patched your bugs and holes? You naughty naughty lot. Automatic Updating should be fixing it for you. If you haven’t turned it off that is. Why do I ask? Well, according to a new study by Akamai, China and the US lead the way for denial of service and exploit traffic in 2008. Yes, that’s right. Exploits. As in your computer has a security hole the size of Texas that was fixed years ago, but because you don’t think updating is worth it, you got hacked and now hackers are sending out traffic from your computer. Goodness knows that the past years have seen a great number of really effective worms, viruses, and Trojans for Windows PCs. All of them with fixes. Have you updated your computer with those fixes? Because in the world of always-on-line high-speed internet, if you’re not part of the solution, you really are part of the problem. Update your PC today. With Windows it’s just as simple as turning on your Automatic Updates. Or clicking on that little Windows Update button. It’s never been easier. Protect yourself. Protect us all. Update your PC. Please!

So yes, hubs, computers, even cell phones can be hacked.

Cell phones?

Yes, that’s right, cell phones.

Such as a bug found in Motorola’s RAZR firmware allows intentionally malformed JPG images to execute whatever code a hacker’s little black heart desires. Fortunately, after a year of working on it, Motorola finally has a fix. Yipee! Way to keep on top of things Motorola!

But all is not lost. It’s a scary scary world, but there are plenty of folks out there finding the security holes. And plenty of people fixing them. Or telling you how to protect yourself from them. It’s a scary place, but we’re here to help. If you let us.

It’s the Vernal Equinox. Yay! Winter is officially over! (In theory. Looking out your window may reveal different results.) Personally, I’m already seeing flowers bloom and rain fall like mad. There’s not a speck of snow on the ground. Spring has sprung!

But while Mother Nature is doing her best in spite of our efforts to poison the Earth and bring about “Global Warming”, technology has taken a few serious blows. Oh my! Is it some nefarious plot by nature to reclaim her power over us? I’ll let you decide.

Pennsylvania, the state you may remember as being previously bone-headed when their roads iced up, causing major highways and even their famous state turnpike to be down all night long with many stranded motorists, and heard PA state officials say things to the tune of, “the roads aren’t being salted because ice gives more traction,” has done it again. Any and all voter registration forms completed online in PA were made quite available for anyone to view all of the included information such as name, date of birth, driver’s license number, and political party. All by simply changing the unique number request parameter included in the URL of the voter registration site to a different number. Since each online registration is given a unique number, all you had to do to view someone else’s was change that number to a different one. Go through all of the numbers possible, and you’ll have gone through all of the online registrations. Can we say, “Oooops!” Once again PA proves their genius to the world and renders online voting unsafe for everyone in the state.

Meanwhile the US military has run into yet another nasty snag in their efforts to crossbreed a helicopter and an airplane. The V-22 Osprey is having problems with their AE1107C “Liberty” turboshaft engines made by Rolls Royce. The engines simply wear out too fast, making it costly and difficult to keep the Osprey in the skies. While not exactly new to problems in its development, this is certainly no boon for the V-22.