Hello, I'm   Jason

The CISCO PIX IOS is now for sale. But, it’s not by CISCO. Back in May the IOS was picked up by a group of hackers. Now, that group is selling the IOS. For more information, visit the recent eWeek article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1710415,00.asp?kc=ewnws110304dtx1k0000599

When visiting the ASP.NET website, I noticed that today’s featured article was about integrating PayPal into a .NET ECommerce application. I must say that the author, Rick Strahl (president of West Wind Web Connection), did a fine job explaining how to use the PayPal component. The example he has shown with the step-by-step instructions is phenomenal. Check it out at http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/PayPalIntegration/PayPalIntegration.asp.

The ICANN organization has approved two new domain extensions: .post and .travel. .Post will be used for Post Offices internationally. .Travel will be used for travel agents, bed and breakfasts, hotels, etc. To find out more, visit http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-27oct04.htm.

Ziff Davis has scheduled a virtual security trade show for November 30th through December 1st. There will be online keynote presentations including:

As a reminder, the October .NET Valley meeting will be tomorrow (Wednesday), October 27th. For more information, please read http://weblogs.asp.net/jgaylord/archive/2004/10/14/242603.aspx.

We are now only one week away from Election Day in the US. In most states, government officials are prepping the voting booths and checking the security of the voting facilities. Voters are narrowing down their choices. Florida is preparing for an electronic vote.

This year, 15 counties in Florida will switch their push buttons and pull down levers with a touch-screen. As mentioned by eWeek (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1682520,00.asp), the Florida race is tight, almost as tight as my home state of Pennsylvania. With the race being so tight, there is now a fear of security. What will happen if the electronic systems are hacked? What happens if Mickey Mouse is nominated in Florida? The task of preventing these things from happening is now in the hands of technology. Many organizations lack all faith in e-voting (http://www.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/).

E-Voting is not new in some countries. Australia (http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,61045,00.html) setup e-voting a few years ago. Venezuela (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1641288,00.asp) also partakes in e-voting. So, what makes America’s e-voting any different?

I don’t have the answers to these questions. All we can do is wait to see how secure America’s electronic voting systems are. Will this be another security failure? We’ll soon find out.

I’ve been using the GDN workspaces for awhile now. However, I’ve really began to notice some issues with the GDN workspaces as of late. Apparently, there are a few “rules” that need to be followed for them to work, at all. First, make sure that the 2005 .NET Framework is not installed on your PC in any shape or form. Secondly, be sure the PC is not a Windows Server 2003 box.

Bjarke Viksoe created a cool little app to add file storage capability to your GMail account. Check it out at http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm.

The ASPInsiders.com website has been revamped. Be sure to check it out at www.aspinsiders.com.

Be sure to check out http://www.aspnetwebcasts.com/ and sign-up for ASP.NET webcasts. These presentations feature areas from the current version of .NET as well as version 2.0. The presenters are all very well known authors, developers, and community leaders. Plus, if you participate in at least 3 webcasts, you’ll receive a free gift!