Kurt's Weblog

Port security dives beneath the surface [gcn]

The post-9/11 goals of port security were initially to fence
perimeters and install gates, Ellis and others say, but a more recent
focus has been on providing a common point of reference and tools for
communication among response agencies.


Major port security contracts are attracting major systems
integrators, including L-3 Communications Corp., Lockheed Martin
Corp. and Science Applications International Corp. For example, SAIC
won a contract to provide an integrated surveillance system in the
Port of Miami. The value of the work was not disclosed.


A number of smaller integrators have received port security contracts,
too, including Zel Technologies LLC for networked systems at the Port
of Norfolk, Va., and Ciber Inc. for harbor security at the Port of
Lake Charles.


"We competed with all the major defense companies for [the Norfolk
port]," said Joe Bouchard, senior program executive for homeland
security and maritime security with Zel Technologies of Hampton, Va.
... 

schwehr.org is down. I am not sure when I will be able to get it back up. But I will keep blogging as it really seems to be a good way for me to document things. I am trying to decide where to host this thing. I was thinking about at home, but don't know about that now. Verizon's support on getting DSL installed has been terrible to put it nicely. One week of dialup was the ultimate in pain.

Today we had a lightning strike that took out the line into UNH around 10:30 this morning. My UPS did a fabulus job. I have a light and the computer plugged into the UPS, but not the displays. The light is not on when I am not there, so I figure I need to see to deal if I am there. I yanked the light and plugged in the display to the UPS and was able to shutdown my box cleanly. I really need to automate this process in the case that the outage lasts more than a couple minutes. The biggest bummer is that my data logging tasks are down. I can't automate this since part of it requires logging in so that a JAVA GUI can start. I just got daily log rotation working yesterday too!