Anyone going to CES in January?

[Stolistic]

I'll probably be going to CES next month.   Just checking to see if any other NLG'ers will be in attendance too!

2010 International CES, January 7-10
http://www.cesweb.org/

[KirkLasVegas]

OH YES!
I am already signed up for it. For people that have never seen this show, this is the GRANDDADDY/BIG KAHUNA/OH BABY of electronic toy shows! (BAR NONE)
If it uses batteries/power and you can use it in your home/car/hands or wear it..it's there.Simply amazing show.
Now, as usuall..the IDIOT hotels are still screwing/gouging/cornholing and generally ripping off the visitors to the CES show.You CAN "Beat the system"
Just get a reservation AWAY from the dreaded "Strip" area and financially "Choke the life" out of these greedy A$$holes. Get your rooms at the OFF STRIP hotels and drive a few miles to the show location. There are MANY of them, Sam's Town,Cannery East,Boulder Station, Sunset Station, Fiesta, Texas Station,Arizona Charlies.
Until the Las Vegas "Strip" hotel operators finally learn that a reasonably priced room brings in more than a EMPTY room, these greedy bastards need the life choked out of them.
For hotel rooms check out www.cheapovegas.com or www.stationcasinos.com and a few others. DONT pay the inflated rip off price!!!


Kirk

[rickhunter]

I used to attend the one in Chicago every year in the late and early 90's.  I have never been to the one in Vegas.  Did some Comdex shows but that's about it.  CES has gotten smaller since they spun off E3 for interactive entertainment and such, but it is very worthwhile show to attend.  You can get a lot of goodies and lots of deals on cool electronics.

[stayouttadabunker]

Comdex....is that the co. that made those Comdial office telephones?
I'm always playing with the configurations at work...
seems like I'm always adding prefix numbers so workers can call here and there.

[jay]

Comdex was the big computer show. Key phrase WAS.....
All of the computer vendors used to announce new versions and releases of software at this show.....
Then later on it everyone used to start announcing weeks before the show to get the jump on the others.
Soon Comdex became redundant and then it declared bankrupcy.

The show guide was 300 pages thick, with about an 8point font.
 
I was there when the president of Word Perfect made the statement "What self respecting word processing person would take their hands off the keyboard to use a thing called a mouse".
Word Perfect didn't get onto the Windows band wagon until about 3 years later, and then the product was so far behind the curve it never recovered. The question was answered. 90% of us are not self respecting word processing people.

[KirkLasVegas]

We have time to plan this one out. It would be nice to put a group together AFTER the show for a dinner or coffee.
Maybe start with a "Landmark" at the end of the show (day) and get the group together. If needed I can set up
a "call in" number that will TELL the caller when/where to get together is located (googlevoice).
OK, we now have a call in number that ends in (000)WMSSLOT (no joke) will give out the areacode in PM
We can use this for information/gatherings in the future...


Kirk

[daso]

You bet, I go every year just to see what they have.  I will just be there for 1 day, so I walk fast.  I think anyone that enjoys electronics would like it.  See you there.

[rickhunter]

Lots of cools stuff this year at CES.  I should have gone this year as I'm a big 3D Stereo fan.  Oh well, too late now.

[daso]

If you like 3d then you missed a good show.  I tried several new 3d TV and they are getting much better.  They are now broadcasting 3 channels in 3d.  It is the futrue TV, also you can made phone calls for free anywhere in the world and see who you are talking to using the enternet.

[jay]

Sounds like they are embedding skype.
There are viruses out there right now that can turn on your web cam and audio and basically spy on you.

[StatFreak]

Sounds like they are embedding skype.
There are viruses out there right now that can turn on your web cam and audio and basically spy on you.

Not if you unplug your camera and microphone when not in use.      

I also recommend a hardware firewall with strong set of rule restrictions on outgoing connections. That's one that a lot of people miss, IMHO.

[jay]

Stat - I can't agree with you more......

However imagine embedding an active engine in your TV .... 50% of consumers don't have a hardware firewall, those that do rarely have them updated to the latst firmware, even fewer would know to setup outbound rules.

I don't wear a tinfoil hat, havent been diagnosied as a professional paranoid, but I wouldn't put it past the NSA to have full access (covertly) to all commerical firewalls ...

[StatFreak]

... but I wouldn't put it past the NSA to have full access (covertly) to all commerical firewalls ...

Well, they're welcome to browse my porn collection as long as their meddling doesn't make my videos stutter.
And I'm not worried about their planting any viruses -- Microsoft has been doing that on their behalf for years!  

 

[brichter]

I also recommend a hardware firewall with strong set of rule restrictions on outgoing connections. That's one that a lot of people miss, IMHO.

Ya mean like this?


access-list 112 deny   udp any any eq 135
access-list 112 deny   udp any any eq netbios-ns
access-list 112 deny   udp any any eq netbios-dgm
access-list 112 deny   tcp any any eq 135
access-list 112 deny   tcp any any eq 139
access-list 112 deny   tcp any any eq 445
access-list 112 deny   tcp any any eq 6346
access-list 112 deny   udp any any eq 6346
access-list 112 deny   tcp any any eq 6347
access-list 112 deny   udp any any eq 6347

[StatFreak]

Actually, more like this:

etc.
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  132.163.4.22, 32.163.4.203, 129.6.13.32-35  port 8013  (government time)
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  WAN * ICMP     (outgoing ping)
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  specific mail server only port 110 and 25
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  specific DNS servers UDP  port 53
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  WAN TCP  port 443
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  WAN TCP  port 80
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  LAN  * *
ALLOW WAN *  to LAN BOGUS IP with no machine attached * Port 113  (Stealth port 113 by routing it to a non-existent IP.
                                                                               Not needed if your router does not report port 113 as "closed" to incoming requests.)
DENY LAN * *  to   *  *  *   (Block all LAN devices from everything inside and out.)
---------------
DENY * * (or WAN *)  TO LAN * (typical built-in default setting for all home firewalls)
ALLOW LAN *  TO  * (typical built-in default setting for most home firewalls)


Most devices read rule sets from top to bottom, so the most specific rules are at the top and the broadest at the bottom. I put DENY EVERYTHING from the LAN to ANYTHING right above the built-in default to deny all WAN to LAN. Then I allow the specific IP's I've assigned to my devices unlimited access to the LAN, and then I start opening up specific IPs, ports, protocols etc. for my machines.

So even if someone taps my wireless and gets an unassigned IP, they won't have access to anything, inside or out. If my computer gets a Trojan or virus and tries to send information to someone's computer, it won't go through unless they use port 80 or 443 (I don't know of any way to stop that , except that I don't allow FTP.)

<ADD> I do have a rule allowing FTP on ports  20-21, but I only turn it on when I need to use FTP and turn off when I'm done.

[StatFreak]

PS: I also have an inactive redundant rule at the top of my list:

DENY LAN *  to * *    which I can use in an emergency to shut everything down quickly. (Keep in mind that the rules are applied from top to bottom.)

Of course, one can also pull the plug. The fastest way to stop something undesired from continuing is to pull the CAT cable.  

[brichter]

Actually, more like this:

etc.
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  132.163.4.22, 32.163.4.203, 129.6.13.32-35  port 8013  (government time)
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  WAN * ICMP     (outgoing ping)
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  specific mail server only port 110 and 25
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  specific DNS servers UDP  port 53
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  WAN TCP  port 443
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  WAN TCP  port 80
ALLOW IPs of my specific machines only  to  LAN  * *
ALLOW WAN *  to LAN BOGUS IP with no machine attached * Port 113  (Stealth port 113 by routing it to a non-existent IP.
                                                                               Not needed if your router does not report port 113 as "closed" to incoming requests.)
DENY LAN * *  to   *  *  *   (Block all LAN devices from everything inside and out.)
---------------
DENY * * (or WAN *)  TO LAN * (typical built-in default setting for all home firewalls)
ALLOW LAN *  TO  * (typical built-in default setting for most home firewalls)


Most devices read rule sets from top to bottom, so the most specific rules are at the top and the broadest at the bottom. I put DENY EVERYTHING from the LAN to ANYTHING right above the built-in default to deny all WAN to LAN. Then I allow the specific IP's I've assigned to my devices unlimited access to the LAN, and then I start opening up specific IPs, ports, protocols etc. for my machines.

So even if someone taps my wireless and gets an unassigned IP, they won't have access to anything, inside or out. If my computer gets a Trojan or virus and tries to send information to someone's computer, it won't go through unless they use port 80 or 443 (I don't know of any way to stop that , except that I don't allow FTP.)

<ADD> I do have a rule allowing FTP on ports  20-21, but I only turn it on when I need to use FTP and turn off when I'm done.

You can set access lists up that way if you don't need to deal with RTP (or other protocols that uses dynamic ports). I've not found a consumer router that does a good job of that yet.  In order to function properly for my purposes, the firewall needs to understand protocols, not just port numbers.

As far as ftp: don't use it, usernames and passwords sent in cleartext and all that. SFTP is encrypted and provides for MIM protection, so it's a much better solution and there are freeware packages available. If you really need to run FTP, run it on a dedicated box in your DMZ and make sure it's not a Windows box unless you like remote controlled robots.... 

[StatFreak]

Yeah, commercial/professional firewalls do a much better job, but cost 

[brichter]

You'd be surprised:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cisco-1700-1751-Router-w-WIC-1DSU-T1-w-1ENET-Tested_W0QQitemZ220537595555QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCOMP_EN_Routers?hash=item335910a6a3 is a steal at $19.00 with 11 hours left. Heck, the shipping will probably be more than the router...

Sometimes, eBay makes me sick with the price differential between us and them...

I've had one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Cisco-837-ADSL-Broadband-10-100-Router-NEW_W0QQitemZ360224891851QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCOMP_EN_Routers?hash=item53df13a3cb
running at my Mom's house for over 6 years, never a problem.