Three+ things I learned at SANS 2010 (Legal Track) today:
1. Appropriately vague or tentative language is not a bad thing in security policies. What is the risk of writing a “must” into a policy, not delivering on the promise, then having to testify about your lack of enforcement in court or answer to it in a public forum?

2. Any effort to provide due care is better than no effort at all (e.g. having a security policy vs. not having one due to lack of enforcement concerns). Negligence when common sense states that there was a easy solution is bad - especially to a judge or jury.

3. Disclaimers, Terms of Service, and things like login banners should be used whenever possible. Words are cheap, and can save your ass. The key concept is to seek consent so that you can handle privacy concerns.

4. Handling a legal issue in the wrong way can turn into a PR nightmare. Decisions to take legal action should be ran through a PR filter to make sure it won’t stink when your opponents take their argument to the Internet.

Great class so far, loving the material and providing new perspectives.

Being the Thanksgiving/Black Friday I took a look for the currently discounted to free iTunes apps (apps that are discounted to zero, but didn't appear to be apps that just bounce up from paid to free all the time).

Here is the list I created tonight:

Current Free Apps:
Sip-N-Store
doubledrop
Lucha Libre Matchup
iSoroban
Creepytown
Perdiemcalc
TweetL
Squeezer
Super Shock Football
Burning Man 2008
Indian Snacks (veg)
Arcade Hockey
Flit
FAce It!
Vocaform
Wash Tub Bass
Galleryify!
Formalogy
Recipes with Conversions
Bug Eat Grass
UpNext 3D Cities
Ink
Christmas Fun Bells
Easy Sale Price Pro
Scare my Puppy - Dog Whistle
Dweebs
Flashlights
iCrossFingers
Blutalk - Bluetooth chat app
Snow Queen - comic book
Post - Twitter app
Pocket Paradise -- soundscape creator
Urinals: The Game
Hot Dog Down a Hallway
FlickTunes
AAA Watch
Baby Animals - A encyclopedia game
Pudge
Color Converter
iChing 2go
An Android's Odyssey
Tides of War
Rocket Bird
Coffee Order
Bubble Trouble
GoParking
DronEze
DodgeDot
Mood Mouse -- Remote control computer App
CA Sales Control
Escape I
Bugs Bubble
Besieged

Here are the settings I have found to work on the iPhone 3GS on the GCI (www.gci.com) Alaska cellular network. Note that my phone is running 3.1.2 installed using a Pwnagetool firmware bundle and 5.11 baseband w/ the Blacksn0w patch to carrier unlock it.

Note that after setting the settings for MMS, you should reboot the phone, then test.

Settings > General > Cellular Data Network > MMS
APN: mms.gci
MMSC: http://mmsc.gci.csky.us:6672/
MMS Proxy: 209.4.229.92:9201

Cellular Data Settings (Same tab in preferences):
APN: web.gci

All other fields should be left blank. At this time 3G data should be disabled.

If you need tethering or other profiles they can be downloaded at:
http://help.benm.at/help.php

Seeing clearly has changed my life. Reversed childhood trauma from being a geek, caused me to re-live my teenage life with all those girlfriends that I never had, it is the fountain of youth, a winning lottery ticket and the capability to live for all eternity, much like a vampire with a ready supply of victims.

Alright, maybe that is a bit of a exaggeration but the Lasik surgery was still excellent money spent.

The Good News:

-Vision is 20/20. My drivers license now has no restrictions.

-I’ve completely adjusted to not having glasses. No more reaching for them in the morning or feeling naked without them. About 3 months ago I donated all of my used pairs to charity (there are drop boxes in many prescription glasses stores).

-My Televisions/Computer Monitors are still noticeably larger than they were when I was wearing high-diopter glasses. Right now I can see a 46” LCD and it looks at least 5” bigger than it did before vision correction.

-My night vision is about equal to before. I traded big fuzz-ball headlights for slightly different looking snowflake-style headlights. I can see how people would report that their night vision worsened but in my case the degradation was about a equal trade to how it was before the procedure.

The Bad News:

-Occasional Dry Eye – I use drops every 1-2 weeks depending on the weather (read: humidity) and how much I ride my motorcycle or do other high airflow/low humidity activities such as fly on airplanes or drive with air conditioning on high. This isn’t much of a issue or concern, I just carry some instant tears somewhere in one of my bags when I travel or when riding. As of this writing it has been 2+ weeks since I used instant tears.

Normally the dry eye manifests itself as slight discomfort in one or both of my eyes and some blurriness. If one of my eyes has been dry for several hours it won’t focus quite right until I give it a break or lube it.

-I can tell I’ll need reading glasses one day. Before the surgery I was starting to notice it was hard to read small fonts on high-resolution screens (dang all that getting old stuff). After the surgery it’s more noticeable. I’ll contemplate in the future whether to always buy the highest resolution screen possible on new laptops I purchase. Ctrl-+/Command-+ to enlarge fonts in browsers is a godsend.

-My eyes get tired easier than they used to.  At a certain point of night I can keep going, but my eyeballs (normally just one of them unless I’m REALLY tired) starts to tell me to shut them for a bit by getting a bit uncomfortable. I can avoid this issue if I can find 10-15 minutes to close my eyes after work. Usually it’s about 10-11PM when they are telling me to go to bed or at least take a break.

The Verdict:

Still some of the best money I’ve spent. After posting the last Lasik post I started assembling a list of the best and worst things I’ve spent money on for another blog post, other than long-term investments such as retirement and buying a home it’s the top of the list of best money spent. In addition, all my childhood emotional scarring has been healed, and that is what really counts :^).

Went in for my three month check-up on Wednesday this week, Dr. said my eyes were looking good. As a whole I’m using my eye drops less and less, although I tend to still put drops in three times a day or so, usually when I wake up (flush them out), once often sometime during the day, usually right after work, then before I go to bed. I find that by doing it this way my eyes never get all gunked up.

I still turn off overhead lights while sitting in rooms alone or close blinds (still getting Hermit jokes at work :^)) to keep glare down, but I no longer am irritated by glare, it’s just more comfortable to work without the little glare that is left.

Car defrosters (or any vents that blow air directly onto your face) are perhaps the worst now, they will dry my eyes out really fast. I tend to use vent modes that put air as far away from my head as possible unless it is needed to defrost the  main windshield or keep things from fogging up and in that case I’ll do what I can to prevent the air from hitting me in the face.

Eyesight is 20/20ish in one eye and 20/25ish in the other most of the time (seems to shift a bit depending on how moist they are), plenty acceptable. No need for additional correction at this time.

Still happy with the decision to have it done? Yup, still some of the best money I’ve spent. Next year’s event – immunotherapy for all the stuff I’m allergic to (17 of 39 things they tested me for I respond at a moderate or higher level) to try to numb up my allergies and make Alan dog friendly.