Once in a while, you just stumble into somewhere you’re not supposed to be… and there’s no security to keep you out. This is one of those times.

I was trying to ssh to a client’s server and was unable. I decided to try the IP address I was given in a web browser and was surprised to find myself staring at the configuration page for a TV station’s DTV Decoder/Receiver. These days, I try to stay out of computers I’m not supposed to have access to, but I just has to poke around a little.

The first thing I did was look around the surrounding IP addresses to find out what else was lying around, unguarded. I don’t want anyone getting tempted, so I’m only giving you the tail end of each IP. Below is a list of what I found with just a little snooping:

.3 APC Management console
.4 APC Management console secured by htaccess (”Switched Rack PDU”)
.9 DTV-150E
.10 DTV-150E
.11 DTV-150E
.12 DTV-150E
.13 DTV-150E
.14 DTV-150E
.15 DTV-150E
.20 NetVX Control Interface (htaccess)
.23 Unknown and protected by htaccess

As you can see, we’ve got a number of video decoders, a NetVX (which looks like a lot of fun if I could get into it), a couple APC Management Consoles, and something hidden properly behind htaccess. One of the APC consoles was busy, but when I returned later, I was able to confirm that they were both protected properly by htaccess. It’s just too bad they don’t have everything protected.

There’s a few ways to protect stuff on the web that is only meant for certain eyes. One of the most popular is with a .htaccess file. Essentially, you just throw this file in the directory you would like to protect, put a few lines in the file, and create a password file. Another, more involved, method is to allow only certain IP addresses to access port 80 (the traditional web port). Sometimes, people even skate by, utilizing “security by obscurity”, or just hiding their information in a directory and hoping nobody finds it. None of these methods were used here. Perhaps these are just test hardware, but if they’re not, they are wide open for anyone with a malicious streak.

If you put anything sensitive online, protect it with some form of secure access method. When you do, make sure you use a secure password. Never access anything sensitive from a public computer or on a public network. Above all, don’t leave an array of servers wide open.

Remember when I told you how you can legally smoke anywhere? It’s been a pretty interesting week. Over the weekend, I got an email from NJOY announcing what they had previously asked me to keep quiet about. I am excited to say that I can finally tell you what they’ve had in the works all this time. On top of that, one of the people who bought an NJOY starter kit after my last post let me know that they heard about the NPRO and are probably going to upgrade. A friend of mine had seen the NJOY products here and a few other places and wrote to thank me for the 10% discount he got by just using my coupon code, “Joe10″. The reaction I’ve gotten after my first post has just been so positive that it’s no wonder people are still thanking me for the 10% off code.

Introducing NPRO

I’ve been waiting a few months now for NJOY to unveil their new product because I knew a little about what was in store and I knew everyone would love it. Here’s the basics:

…available in black, white, burgundy and silver, is a smaller version of NJOY’s smoking alternative devices. Weighing only .5 oz and measuring 5 inches in length, the NPRO has the look and feel of a traditional cigarette. Each NPRO cartridge smokes the equivalent of ½ pack of cigarettes and is available in a assortment of nicotine levels and flavors.

The most exciting part about this to me is the form factor. I know a lot of people have really loved the original NJOY product, but they wanted something that looked and felt more like a cigarette. This is exactly what they wanted. It’s a smokeless cigarette that looks, feels, tastes, but does not smell like a real cigarette.

Why should I buy an electronic cigarette?
There’s a number of reasons, actually. For starters, it’s actually healthier. Because it doesn’t actually burn tobacco, there’s no carcinogens. It’s cheaper, too. Click the paragraph above and try the savings calculator on the right side of the NPRO products page to see what I mean. Of course, most people I know buy it so they can relax for a minute with their nicotine without having to go outside.

Here’s just some of the places you can enjoy an NPRO legally, where you can not enjoy a regular cigarette:

• on a long flight
• in your office
• in the local coffee shop
• in your favorite restaurant
• while shopping in the mall
• in any elevator

I wish I had this when I was a smoker. I was living in Michigan, having to come down from my 4th floor office and stand in the freezing cold every time I wanted to smoke. Then there were the 6 hour flights back to Phoenix with no smoking. The NJOY or NPRO would have been really handy for me.

Save some cash
Remember, NJOY gave me a special coupon code that allows me to knock 10% off the purchases of all my readers. All you have to do is enter “Joe10″ when asked for a coupon code while purchasing. You’ll automatically get a 10% discount.

Is the title too harsh? You tell me. I mean, I love my iPhone 3G. I do. It’s an amazing piece of technology that offers almost everything I’ve always wanted in a phone and more. Unfortunately, Apple really screwed up on one important feature of the iPhone : the phone.

Widespread problems
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, take a look at just a few of the mentions in the news and blogosphere about the iPhone 3G’s problems with actual phone calls:

• User anger: iPhone 3G problems emerging
• iPhone 3G Issues: The Plot Thickens
• FAQ: iPhone 3G reception — What’s the problem?

In short, the iPhone has been sporadically doing a horrible job of acting like an actual phone for many people, myself, included. What’s odd is that both my home and my office should have “Best” 3G coverage, according to AT&T’s coverage maps, yet the results are black and white. At home, I have no problems. At the office, I might as well sit on the roof and send smoke signals, because if you call my iPhone, only frustration comes from it.

Let’s point some fingers
I’ve read all sorts of theories in the last week or two. The top three possible causes are:

• AT&T can’t handle the load
• iPhone 3G switching software or the firmware is flawed
• The iPhone 3G hardware is flawed

I have money on the software/firmware, and it seems Apple does, too. After rumors of an impending update, Apple finally came through today with an update. What’s in the update? Your guess is as good as mine, because Apple sums up the whole 248.7 MB update as “Bug fixes”. Whatever the fixes are, I hope they allow me to use this pretty little toy as an actual phone from my office soon. If not, I’ll remain nervous that it’s either the network (which could take ages to update if that option is even pursued) or the hardware, and if it’s the hardware, I can only imagine the new iWait every iPhone 3G user will have to face.

AT&T + Apple = D-

Even if everything works swimmingly after my update installs, which is taking forever, both companies get a D- for failing to remember who made them filthy rich : their customers. As a Verizon wireless convert, I feel a little ashamed of what I left behind in the area of customer service. Even though Verizon was slipping just a bit, they’ve always seemed to have the customer’s needs in mind. In my first month as an Apple/AT&T customer, I’ve called AT&T twice about the horrible reception and was told that there was something wrong with my office building, even after I explained that every other phone on other carriers works like it should. Instead of opening a trouble ticket and looking into the problem, AT&T blamed my building and the “angle” of their tower. Apple’s closed-lipped take-no-blame approach to trying to quietly fix it hasn’t been quality customer service, either. Any believable theory had to come from unrelated experts and the general public.

Does the 2.02 update work?
It’s hard to say, but it’s not looking too impressive yet. Now that I’ve updated I seem to be at two bars, but it has dropped back down to zero bars and it jumped up, once, to 5 bars. Switching manually from 3G to Edge (or the other way around) still seems to take a couple seconds, so I can’t imagine the automatic switching has improved, but I’ve yet to test it. I just has a 12 minute phone call with my sister and even walked around the office without any problems on one bar, so I’m ever so slightly optimistic. Then again, I did drop another call after only a few minutes, so there’s obviously still some room for improvement.

How’s YOUR phone?
Moving from Verizon to AT&T, I’m beginning to feel like I left the better network behind for the shinier phone. If you have a cell phone, what phone do you have, who’s your cellular provider, and how’s the service and customer service?

For 11 days, I was on vacation. In the past, this meant that I would find myself without email or any internet connectivity. This time, I was more connected than ever. I was more connected, in fact, than I normally am at home. This was accomplished in a number of ways. In addition to bringing my new (pending road trip review) iPhone with me, I also packed the car up with several other goodies that made hours stuck in a car on the highway tolerable for a techie like me. On previous vacations, I’ve found myself unplugged and itching to get online, check email, etc. A vacation without electronics just feels unnatural, so I was determined to remain online in the most unobtrusive ways possible on this trip.

Working… just a little
I often need to work, if even just a little, while on vacation. Most times, I have been forced to spend 20 minutes walking someone through how to SSH into a server and make changes to something like DNS or a hosting configuration file. On this trip, I simply pulled out the laptop, plugged in my Verizon Wireless broadband card and made the change myself in about 5 minutes. Not only did I save someone else time, but I managed to get back to relaxing pretty quickly. In this photo, I was fixing a client’s DNS records as we were cruising down the highway. This may not be the most affordable for those of you who are tethered to a desk constantly, but if you travel enough, this is a great alternative to telling someone else how to do your job while you’re away. It was also a nice way to have a more secure connection than the hotels’ hacker-friendly wireless setups.

Keeping up with Email
One of the key features I looked for in a new phone was the ability to send and receive email. The iPhone promised this and has delivered to a marginal degree. When it works, it works and when it doesn’t, it just plain doesn’t work. Initially, I chalked this up to all the new iPhone owners, and that may still have something to do with the fact that I can only get it to actually GET my email about 70% of the time. Eventually, I still get all of my email, but if a client sends me something to review and I can’t get it right then, the whole “get email on your phone” functionality is useless. I remain optimistic, but will also enter an Apple or AT&T store with concerns this week.

Finding things and getting there
Finding things was relatively simple with my new iPhone handy. If it was food, I used Urban Spoon (1). While it works fairly well, it threw me a curve, suggesting 3 Monkeys in St. Louis, having me navigate through the “ghetto” to get there. After turning onto Compton St, we decided to just head down town for food. Another option that worked well for more specific navigation (such as the St. Louis Arch) was to just type my query right into the iPhone’s integrated Google Maps. Either way, you end up with a pin on your map (2). From there, you can simply click on the pin for more information, or to set up driving directions (3). We used this constantly, not only to determine drive times and best routes (4), but also to zoom right in for a turn-by-turn map of how to get there (5).

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3

4

5

Google Maps on the iPhone was one of the things that made our trip a lot easier. There were some glitches, but for the most part, this was a life-saver.

Keeping in touch
One of the most important things you can have on a road trip is a cell phone, even if you could care less about electronics or staying connected. If your care has ever broken down miles away from civilization, you already know about this first hand. A cell phone can be your life line to get medical help or even just a tow or a gallon of gas, but not if it says “No Service”. Since I was testing the iPhone, I took several opportunities to check the cellular availability of AT&T versus Verizon in places like the Painted Desert in Arizona, in mountain ranges, and everywhere else. Surprisingly, both did very will in most places and AT&T even outperformed Verizon a few times in the middle of nowhere, although Verizon is still king in the middle of Phoenix.

Satellite tracking for kicks
I took advantage of some test hardware we had at the office and rigged the car to be tracked constantly via satellite (except when I unplugged it). Below is the actual trek we made to Michigan last week, indicated by a couple hundred points on a basic map. While there can be some practical applications for this technology (and there are… trust me), we did it just for kicks so Michelle’s parents could watch us head their way.

Managing money
Have you seen the commercial in which a man and woman are scaling a mountain and she gets a text and a few hand motions later announces that she was almost overdrawn and that she just rectified the situation from her phone? Well, if it were that simple, there would be no security. However, after logging in, the Bank of America iPhone app allowed me to quickly move money from one account to another and pay my mortgage at 80 Mph. While it was more than just a few hand gestures, it was pretty painless and quick.

Plugging it all in
A lot of my favorite electronics just plug straight into the wall for power. What, then, do I do when I’m on the road of hours and hours? The answer is an inverter. This little guy juiced up my laptop, ipod, and iPhone when I needed it most and plugs right into the standard 12 volt socket most cars come with. This is a must for a cross-country road trip.

In case you haven’t already guessed, I’m a fan of the iPhone (or any comparable phone) that can keep me so connected in the most unconnected places. I suggest an iPhone for anyone who loves road trips as much as I do. The laptop was still like a monkey on my back, but was necessary for any complicated work to be done quickly, as well as for uploading photos from my digital camera. For now, at least, I’ll drag it along with me. Being able to plug it in for extended use was a huge bonus.

What do you use to stay plugged in when you’re away from home or the office?