Many, many, many hits yesterday on this site for the Nimda worm. There were 675 hits probing one specific exploit, and over 200 for several others. Fortunately, my web host runs FreeBSD, so they all just show up as failed requests. By the way, I listened to a report on this worm on NPR yesterday and Microsoft was not mentioned a single time. They referred to it as an “Internet worm.” This worm exploits Microsoft servers and Microsoft email clients, nobody else.

Kevin Kelly’s thoughts on Osama bin Laden are worth reading, twice.

System administrators in the Microsoft universe, prepare to patch. The W32.Nimda.A@mm worm is on the loose. (Actually, you only need to patch your server if you’re not already up to date on Microsoft’s patches, which, of course, you should be.)

Here’s more fallout from Bush’s use of loaded terms. Anyone can make a mistake like Bush did, I just find it interesting how powerful language can be. When you’re on the world stage, you really have to be unbelievably careful about the words you choose.

So I was speaking with my Palestinian neighbors last night and they mentioned the fact that President Bush used the word “crusade” without my saying a thing about it, and were pretty incensed about that. The Arabic world has its own version of CNN — you can get it in America over satellite. (It’s based in Qatar and it’s called Al-Jazeera.) There’s no doubt in my mind that his use of that word got major, major play on the Arabic news all day yesterday.

On Sunday, Bush referred to the upcoming action against terrorists as a “crusade.” Does anyone else think that referring to Western actions against Arabs in the Middle East (or central Asia for that matter) as a “crusade” might be a poor choice of language?

The other day Larry Augustin posted a fine rant about the idea of replacing Microsoft software with free software on the FSB mailing list.

Disconnect the Dots is a Washington Post feature looking at the future (or rather, the present) state of war. I agree with a lot of the article, although many of the tactics they propose for war between (or against) networks are not actions I would advocate for a democratic country.

Gary Kamiya’s editorial on the importance of resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestine is excellent, and gets at a lot of issues regarding anti-American sentiment in the Middle East that I’ve been thinking about. The degree to which America is seen as not only a friend to, but a pawn of Israel among Arabs cannot be overestimated.

These days, nearly all politicians are saying the right things about the preservation of liberty in the wake of the terrorist attacks last week. If there’s one thing we know about Washington, it’s when politicians tell us what we want to hear that we should worry most about what they’re actually up to. Since the attacks, Congress has been working like mad to introduce new laws that will expand the privelege of law enforcement officials to listen in on our communications. I think now is the wrong time to permanently expand the powers of law enforcement officials.