This week we mourn the loss of two great men.

This weekend the radio world suffered a loss that millions of Americans will feel and the rest will never understand. Paul Harvey Sr. passed away this weekend in a Phoenix hospital. Just short of a year past the date of the passing of his wife (May 3, 2008), it's no wonder that they were meant to be together. They were married for 68 years before her passing, and I have no doubt that his body likely gave up after the loss... Ready to pass onto whatever was next to relieve some of the grief and once again be with his Angel.

I remember hearing his voice as a youth and thinking "This guy is really cool... He seems to know EVERYTHING!" I have pondered several times over the last year whether nor not the Paul Harvey I was hearing was actually a recording (knowing of his illness and just learning of his wife passing), noting that there were more and more guest speakers including his son, Paul Harvey Jr. (Paul Aurandt, Jr).

Outside of the public world, the second great man celebrated today is Terry Nowka. It has been a year since his passing and his wake has still been seen in those who knew him. He was a friend's father, and I had the pleasure of having him as a friend all the way up until he passed away due to pancreatic cancer last year (I still have his memorial program in my car visor, to remind me to enjoy life and remember that you can never know what is going to happen... If it's not big enough to end life, it's not big enough to worry about so much that you ruin your life over it).

Today is his 1 year memorial, and it's a shame that I had plans set up before. I WILL be going, I just won't be able to stay the whole time.

Terry, know that all of the people you have touched will forever hold a place in their hearts for you. Karla (wife) and Mica (daughter), I've been there with you through the hard parts. I'm sorry you have lost the most important man in your lives. It makes me smile to think that the two of you can be truly happy again.

Take care.
B

[Security] PCI Compliance SUCKS

Ok, so basically I was going to post something here about PCI (Payment Card Industry Security Standard Council) compliance, but it turned out more into a helpful post that provided some assistance that is apparently not out there. You can view this post by going to my other site.

The basic gist of it is that attempting to become PCI compliant in the first place was a task and continuing to keep up with their requirements has proven not to be a difficult thing to DO, just a difficult thing to keep up with. The changes can sometimes come swiftly and in bursts and the companies that are PCI compliance certified scanners use commercial scanning products (such as Nessus which is available for free for home use as well as commercial use without the update feed, or OpenVAS which is open source much like Nessus was before they went commercial). The problem with this is that there are still false positives for security measures... This causes a lot of unneeded stress to be sure!

Anyways, enough boring crap. Go to my site if you want to read about it or if you need help with your "SSL weak cipher" failures for your PCI compliance.

Take care,
B