Posted on December 26, 1999

• I hope you are having a wonderful holiday! Jessie and I flew home to Bloomington, IL on the 21st and returned to San Diego around 11 last night. I really enjoyed seeing my family again and spending a few precious hours with some old friends. I just wish my brother Eric would have come home from Ohio! Highlights from the trip included attending midnight mass with Jessica (who wants me to be Catholic), and having a too brief visit with Chad (my best friend since 7th grade), his wife April, and their two adorable kids Jordan (she’s 2) and Dylan (the baby).

  Lowlights from the trip included snow, bitter cold, and being very antsy to get back to work. All three of those are history now. I know a lot of you are still enjoying winter weather so I won’t bother you with how warm and sunny it is in San Diego.

  My presents? I have a few of the Field Guides I asked for on my Amazon Wish list. Thank you K Morgan for sending me the Insect guide! My favorite gifts were “Coral Seas“, a stunning photography book featuring flora and fauna from coral reefs, and Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran” on DVD. Of course I gave all my family and friends copies of my CD-ROM, except for my grandfather (who uses a Mac). I gave him my personal portfolio 8″ x 10″ prints, which he seemed to enjoy.

  Enough “relaxing” now. I’m more than ready to start making wallpapers again.

• Security Update: From what I can tell, my custom security program has been 100% effective at blocking access from “password sites”. Since I last mentioned the issue, there have been 6 DB logins posted on various sites. The latest was this morning. Each login was disabled almost as soon as it was posted.

  I’ve decided not to waste my time or energy writing programs to track password traders. I’ve contracted with a security company to monitor login activity. You are still welcome to log in from home, work, and school, but if I feel you that you are logging in from too many networks I will have to disable your account until we can discuss the matter. If you feel your account requires special treatment, please drop me a line.

  My last security related chore will be to make it difficult for “script kiddies” to use brute-force programs for cracking passwords. This is a daily occurance and I’m getting tired of it.

  Cable Modem/DSL users: Your PC is especially vulnerable to hackers ad your connection is “always on” and your IP address is fixed. Anyone on the Internet with the right software can easily break into your system. You can easily protect yourself though by using an excellent little app called “BlackICE Defender”. It sells for $39.95 and can be downloaded from the Network ICE website. This is totally unrelated to my site and my security problems, and I’m not getting anything for this (or any other) endorsement. I just want you all to be safe!