cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts via mail.
The sad thing is, I have known it all week. Monday morning started with meetings with Bob Ehrlich at his home in back of Hogle Zoo, and just after Ed Gray arrived at about 9:30, there was a call from Andrea in Houston on the cell phone with words from Marc Roulston, my system's guy, saying `You've been hacked.' Andrea was saying we needed to call the FBI, and I was in the middle of a meeting with Bob and Ed, and I told her it had to wait until I called later in the afternoon. It is really exciting to me to see Bob catching the vision of the Infinite Grid (SM), and to see how well he and Bob got along. After Ed described his efforts to get Bountiful Electric to pay for leases in exchange for a call on any gas found, Bob blurted out, `I could just give you a hug.' It was a fun meeting, and Dynamic is coming together more and better. Ed left at 11:30 and I left about noon. As I left I told Bob about the phone call and the hacker, and he said, `Why is it that any time there is something good, there is something evil that trys to stop it?' He is Jewish. I smiled and didn't say anything, because I know there is a Satan, and I know he is trying to put images in our minds and actions in our lives which will lead us to be his servants.
I tried to connect with Audrey, and talked to her Senator, and I'm sorry I missed you. I drove over to the state capital and tried to find the Intern room, and the closest I came was the exercise room in the basement. Oh well! As I was walking in the basement, I recalled the Tom Clancy book I had bought when I got Heather some groceries Saturday evening. I was about half way through it by this time. It is called `Divide and Conquer' and is about a terrorist using the web and the latest of new technologies and how he bombed an Iranian oil platform in the Caspian Sea in order to create the appearance of a war between Iran and Russia and the U.S. in order to get the President to resign and allow the Vice-President to take over as President. A consistant theme was: `You've been hacked.' On Sunday afternoon at Paul's I had logged on with his computer and written and sent out last week's Thoughtlet. And I thought then how some of my regular life is like some of the folks in some of these Tom Clancy Novel's I enjoy. Then Erica Hudson came over and spent some time with us. I have Home Taught her Dad, Haden Hudson, who is not a member of the LDS Church, for several years now. Her brother Bow is Rob's age, and Haden helped with cub scouts when Paul was a cub scout. His x-wife, Mary Hudson, was a member in name only of the Nottingham Country Ward. It was very interesting listening to what Erica remembered about our Family, and her perceptions. She is a very good looking young lady, and works at a ski shop in Park City. She talked about the famous people she has met and who visit. Of course, I don't know any of the music groups. Paul and Kate did.
Anyway, I drove from the State Capital building down to the parking at ZCMI's. I ate clam chowder and a root beer, the perfect lunch for someone whose been hacked (dum-da-dum-dum-da-da-da-dum-dum-dum, think 007). Then I made a couple of trips to the car to bring in the Ken Turner originals and prints I had brought to show Heather Erickson at Deseret Book. Heather is a nice lady, and even though she only allowed me 15 minutes, I felt like I did a reasonable job of showing off Ken's work. She said she will get back to us in about two weeks. Audrey called looking for me, and we missed each other. I took the paintings and prints back to the car, packed everything up, filled Paul's car up with gas, parked it at the airport, called Kate and told her where the car was, and went and stood in lines until just before it was time for the plane to leave. I finished Tom Clancy's `Divide and Conquer' on the plane on the way home. Delta had cancelled their direct flight to Houston. We went by way of DFW, where the connecting plane had mechanical problems. We were put on an American Airlines plane (and almost missed it), and our bags were not transferred. I ended up waiting until the original plane came in so I could get my checked bag, and got home about 1:00 AM Tuesday. There was a letter from Rob's school saying he has missed too much class time and is in jeopardy of not being able to graduate from High School. Maybe I should pull out a stick and stop paying child support, if he is not going to graduate (the divorce decree would allow me to do that). However, I think it is better to tell all of you he is slacking off, and encourage you to encourage him to get his act together. I feel so sorry for Rob, and I don't know what I can do to help him. Especially since he will not talk to me. I feel like my family has been hacked by an unsavory influence, in addition to my computers. For all of my faults, we did not have these kinds of issues when I was involved in your lives each day.
Needless to say I was tired when morning came. Marc was on the phone first thing giving me detailed reports on the hacker's activities, and reviewing what my various options are. I planned to spend the day at the house catching up. About 10:00 John Risinger called, and at 10:45 Dick Coons, Sam LeRoy and I were meeting with him at La Madeline's on Westheimer just inside the Tollroad. It was another wonderful meeting. I came home and proceeded to work straight through until 11:00 AM on Wednesday preparing material for his partner in Melbourne to look at. Andrea gave up on me at midnight, after proofing some pages, and then she came out at 4:00AM and proofed some more pages, and then she was proofing pages as I left for the George Brown Convention Center at 11:00 AM. So I got downtown at the appointed time and place and John stood Neal Brossard and me up for lunch. I was too tired to be too disappointed. I went over to The Park and ate some spinach filled gyoza for lunch, then spent some time with Dave Agarwal and Les Denham at II&T, and drove home with the intention of taking a nap. However, based on notes from Tuesday I had called Carl Davis, as Risinger had requested, and Carl called back just as I got home. So I went over to meet him at the Holiday Inn at I-10 and Highway 6. Great meeting. He is thinking about raising money for Dynamic. I anticipate there will be an entire Thoughtlet dedicated to talking about Carl's activities since he got his Mechanical Engineering degree and then became a petroleum engineer and then a banker. His most recent years have been spent writing a book about Pan Am 103, which exploded over Lockerbee, Scotland. He was originally going after the two Libians, whose trial ended Wednesday in The Netherlands, the same day Carl and I met in West Houston. Neat guy. Kind of like out of a Tom Clancy novel. I got home in time to eat and to go to Young Men's / Young Women's. Tyler Camp was in charge this week, and Alan Peterson gave an exellent lesson on guitars and the history of guitars. We had about 10 guys there, including a few from Katy 2nd Ward. It was a good evening. I was tired, and so I was glad when it was over and I came home. However, there were several e-mails, and it was after 11:00 by the time I got to bed.
John had called on Wednesday afternoon and apologized for missing the lunch meeting. We had arranged to meet at 8:30 back down at La Madeline's. He left the notebooks I had loaned him and his entrance badge to NAPE on the front porch at about 4:00 AM, and then had left to drive to Dallas to catch a noon flight back to Australia. He called about 7:45 to tell me his plans had changed and he had to leave at noon from Dallas to get back. We discussed next steps, and specifically some things he wanted me to look over at NAPE (North American Prospect Exposition). He sees how the Infinite Grid (SM) will provide a context to all of the different prospects shown at NAPE, and he committed they will be using Dynamic to help them with their 100 well drilling program in the Illinois Basin this year. There was a couple of hours spent catching up on different things, including the latest developments with being hacked, and I finally got out of the house about 2:00 on Thursday afternoon. I went in using John's badge (I didn't have $250. for a badge and I was going to follow-up on stuff for him is my justification. I have always strived to not do badge switching at conventions, specifically because it is wrong, and especially because I am so well known.) I just kept the badge turned inward, and did not have a problem.
NAPE was pretty much shut down by the time I got there. It is interesting how I can not walk down an isle without having several people stop me to talk to me. Even though these Thoughtlets have turned into my diary, I won't bore everyone with all of the different conversations that went on on the floor. I have started an on-line diary for Dynamic Resources at http://www.walden3d.com/dynamic/news for any of you interested in details. The most interesting thing about Thursday afternoon to me was that two of those I talked to mentioned the HyperEdge Expert Association, their participation in it, and one told me he started his company, Petris, after attending one of our meetings. I asked him where my percentage was, and he said he would work on it for me. The other guy had done a bunch of work in the Black Warrior Basin in Alabama and Mississippi and is interested in heading up a Dynamic AMI. I used the digital camera to document his work, and we came up with a basic agreement of how he will work with Dynamic. The more of this I do, the more excited I get. I worked with him until 5:30, and then drove to the Canyon Cafe on Post Oak by the Galleria to meet with Steve Joseph and Albert Boulanger. They were late, and it gave me an opportunity to start outlining the cost, term, rights, and upside for each of 71 different investment opportunites in Dynamic Resources. We had a good dinner meeting. Albert is concerned about the Master Agreement with Dynamic, and it will take a little bit of work to cross the `T's' and dot the `i's'. I was tired when I got home and only worked until about 11:00.
I intended to spend all day Friday finalizing the material I started to prepare for John on Tuesday. However, Marc called with the words `You've been hacked again this morning.' We ended up spending most of the morning resetting electonic mousetraps, calling the FBI, and doing stuff I really don't have time to do. Marc is really excited about the international nature of what is going on. The hacker is probably in Europe. He is using the main system in a Japanese bank to get into my system. He has placed a program called spacheldraht, which is more commonly known as `denial of services.' This is part of a German family of hack programs called the `tribal flood network' and is what was used over the last few years to shutdown MicroSoft and Amazon.com. It appears my system was one of the systems used to do that attack. The hacker was using the system on Friday morning to attack a system at a consulting services firm in Germany. We called the FBI. Like a typical bureaucracy they had no idea how to handle the information we were giving them. In fact, they never called us back. I expect I will hear from them next week.
I actually did get some work in. I created a secure site for reporting on my work for Chroma Energy. I reviewed their web pages and talked in some detail to Swede Nelson in San Francisco about issues he sees with the Chroma pages. Swede is very interested in Dynamic, and we will be spending a lot of time on the phone next week discussing how we will work together. This really is a lot of fun. Riley called, and we talked about setting up the Indian Reservation AOI (Area-Of- Interest). However, it is really suprising how much effort goes into picking up the pieces once you've been hacked. Andrea and I went with Floyd and Mary Lunt to the Annual Scouting Leader's Awards Banquet. Floyd received a very nice award, and I received the Scout Spirit Award for the second time. When we got back I was working on the material for John Risinger and Swede Nelson until about midnight when Rachel came in.
Saturday started for me with choir practice from 8:00-9:00. At 9:26 I forwarded the e-mail which came in at 6:02 AM, and which I started this Thoughtlet out with. Rachel wants to earn money for Sadie Hawkins and so she spent the day helping Andrea clean out the garage. I took Matt to his Young Men's basketball game at 11:00. While I was there I did most of the proofing of Sharon Boyce's new business plan. It is interesting, and I'm sure we will talk about it in the future also. When I got back to the house Marc was there, and based on the e-mail I had forwarded him, and the fact the hacker was using my system for an attack again, he had pulled the plug. We spent the next several hours moving files, backing up stuff, and tightening up the firewall. I learned I have 7,443 html files or web pages on my site. Since Roice built the first web pages for HyperMedia Corporation in about 1994, that means we have averaged over 1,000 web pages per year or about 3 web pages per day. I don't have a lot of financial growth to show for all of this work, however I expect the seeds are going to start blooming and we will soon have fruit.
Paul, this was the circumstances when you called on Saturday afternoon and said `You have a problem, and you caused it.' I'm pleased with myself, in that I responded with civility. Maybe when you've been hacked you will understand how I was feeling. Kate, I'm glad you like the painting, and I'd love to sell it to you (US$8,000. + US$300. for a frame), or sell you a giclee print of it (US$375. or US$515. framed). In fact, if I could afford it, I'd give the giclee print to you as a Christmas present. However, right now I can't, and so the fact you like the painting, is your problem and not mine. Hope you find a way to solve it before you next go to Cedar City and need to return it.
I was so tired Saturday evening, I could not keep my eyes focused on the computer screen. So Andrea, Matt, and I went to see the new Sean Connery movie `Finding Forrester.' Matt made it through about 2/3rds of the movie before he left. I thought it was really good. I recommend you all see it. When we got home I kept working on the material for Australia, and sent the e-mail at about 1:00 AM.
Today was Fast & Testimony Meeting. I like the 9:00 service best. There were wonderful testimonies. I was particularly touched by Tim Gebauer's testimony about how close he and his father were, and how hard it was to bury his father earlier in the month. I'm jealous. Both because I wasn't near as close to my father, and mostly because I am not near as close to any of you. Tradeoffs. I guess this is one of the things we learn to regret as we grow older. We always make tradeoffs, and sometimes we could have spent our time better. In Sunday School I got the teacher's goat unintentionally when I referred to Joseph Smith vision of the Prophet Moroni as the first example of use of a Star Trek transporter. Opps. In the afternoon Matt and I visited the Moores as Home Teachers, and Richard and I gave a blessing to Colleen. As we were waiting for Richard to come in the room, Colleen mentioned that Richard is concerned about me. He said he asked me how my week was and I said `It has been a long week.' She said he said the only other negative thing he's ever heard me say was when I was taken advantage of in HyperMedia for a very large amount of money and I said `It didn't go like we planned.' It is nice they have this perception of me. Too bad it is not true, as each of you know.
Thanks for the responses about being visual, auditory, or kinesetic. I'm intereted in the type of test you took to find out. I apologize for not responding to e-mails from several of you. Hopefully I'll be able to get caught up this week, and hopefully you will never hear the words `You've been hacked.'"