The New York Times reports that IT people and ISPs are rushing to fix their DNS servers before the information about the exact problem is released to the public.

The potential consequences of the flaw are significant. It could allow a criminal to redirect Web traffic secretly, so that a person typing a bank’s actual Web address would be sent to an impostor site set up to steal the user’s name and password. The user might have no clue about the misdirection, and unconfirmed reports in the Web community indicate that attempted attacks are already under way.

One easy solution computer users can do for themselves right now if their ISP hasn’t responded to the threat is to switch to Open DNS, reports the New York Times.

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Technorati Tags: computer security, internet, life online, Open DNS

Supporters of Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. who have been interfering with public discourse on Hammond issues need to be reined in. And the one to reel them is the mayor himself.

Unfettered public dialogue on the issues is one of the founding principles of democracy. It’s important enough that the Founding Fathers put it in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

And yet that public discourse has been under attack in Northwest Indiana. Comments unfavorable toward McDermott have been under attack on The Times message boards.

It’s a sad day in America when a newspaper has to ask a government official — a Democratic mayor — to tell workers using government computers stop censoring items on its website.

It’s another piece of evidence that shows why it is always important to not give government officials unlimited control over our lives and our businesses because they can use their control of these things to limit our freedom and liberties.  When the government feeds and takes care of people, it can also withhold those same necessities to those it does not like.  If the government is so afraid of dissent it is willing to censor its opponents, what else is it willing to do to its opposition?  Unfortunately, world history is replete with examples of the horrors that power-drunk governments commit on their citizens.

In the heart of anyone in a power position in government, there is the potential to become ultimately corrupt like King George III, Stalin, Pol Pot or Robert Mugabe.  We’re seeing this evil tendency at work right at home when government officials censor the Northwest Indiana Times’ message board in an effort to silence the opposition.

It’s just another reason why the northern part of the county continues to lose population and businesses.  Why put up with corruption, waste and now censorship when there are better places to live and work?

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Technorati Tags: censorship, corruption, Democratic Party, Hammond Indiana, Lake County, life online, Northwest Indiana Times, Thomas McDermott

Wikipedia sums it up:

Vanessa Williams is the name of three contemporaneous African-American singers and/or actresses who are sometimes confused …

My name, Christopher Hedges, is also the name of a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist.  It’s also the name of another person in my own county, according to our county’s online docket –  and several other people in my state, as well as across the nation, according to Zabasearch.

Sometimes there is confusion because there are so many people named Christopher Hedges.

I remember arriving at an Indiana court one day for hearings on my commercial litigation cases and finding out that there was a trial in another courtroom involving another Christopher Hedges.  There was a second or two of confusion when I checked in with the court staff as they figured out that there were two people named Christopher Hedges in the court at the same time for different matters.

We’re sometimes separated by a middle initial, just like the various Vanessa Williams.

We’re also sometimes confused.

I often get comments on this blog praising Christopher Hedges, the journalist, who writes opinion pieces that take on the powerful elites in our political system — like his most recent post taking on the mainstream media, the GOP and Barack Obama.

When I was in college and working on an semester-long internship in Washington, D.C. during the First Gulf War, people asked me if journalist Christopher Hedges was related to me when news broke that he had been captured by the Iraqis.  I had to explain there was no relationship.

I feel a little like Vanessa A. Williams.  Somewhat famous, but overshadowed by the more famous of the trio — Vanessa L.

Remember Vanessa A.? She was the actress on Melrose Place, but wasn’t the most famous Vanessa Williams — Vanessa L. Williams of Miss America fame and who is now starring in Ugly Betty.  I remember seeing her name on the opening credits of Melrose Place and wondering if she was the beauty pageant winning Vanessa Williams.

I’m sure people think the same thing when they find my eponymous blog.  “Have I found the famous Christopher Hedges?” they must ask themselves.

It’s all good.

Sometimes it’s nice to have a name that is somewhat common, but also associated with someone making a difference in his profession.  It could be worse.  At least the name isn’t associated with anyone infamous.

The most famous Vanessa L. Williams

Video: Sexy Vanessa L. Williams

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Technorati Tags: Christopher Hedges, Vanessa Williams

Maybe the thousands of Hoosiers fans willing to pay for access keep the subscription model worthwhile despite the fact that it keeps many people out of the Herald Times Online website?

Why not move beyond the confines of the limited subscriber base and open up the newspaper to the world? More web traffic would mean higher advertising rates for online advertising and expanding readership beyond just Monroe County, Indiana.  More web traffic usually translates into higher revenue!

Is the Herald Times Online the last newspaper in America locked away behind a subscriber-only iron curtain?  The New York Times opened its doors in an effort to increase advertising revenue.  And, there was some talk about the Wall Street Journal doing the same — although most of the news and opinion is freely available on the WSJ site.

The subscription only model just keeps the newspaper low in the rankings for news sources people rely upon in Indiana.

Who is going to link to the newspaper if readers outside of Bloomington cannot read the news stories? Since news is plentiful, people just find their news elsewhere and there are plenty of options for local news from Bloomington, Indiana.  I’d love to be able to read and link to the Herald Times every so often — especially since I’m hoping my kids attend college at my alma mater.

If the Herald Times Online desires to have a subscription only model, why not free up the local news content — it’s probably not the real money maker — and require paid access to Indiana University basketball stories where loyal Hoosier fans are willing to pay a premium for access to Hoosiers news.

In the meanwhile, here are my favorite / alternative news sources from Bloomington news:

The Indiana Daily Student and its fine Sample Gates Blog.

WIBC

The Bedford Times-Mail

The Bloomington Alternative

And, for court information, the State of Indiana’s Odyssey Case Management System (limited to Monroe County and Marion Co.’s Washington Twp.)

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Technorati Tags: blogging, Bloomington Indiana, Herald Times Online, internet, local newspapers, online newspaper subscriptions