What can lists tells us about the personality of the list-maker? An exhibition in Washington reveals the obsessive and controlling sides of some of the world's greatest artists.
Thinking About Security : Microsoft’s Many Eyeballs and the Security Development Lifecycle
Topic: Miscellaneous
12:59 pm EST, Feb 16, 2010
The open source community uses this argument to assert that open source software is more secure than proprietary software. Advocates of proprietary software attack this argument on a variety of grounds, but here’s a little secret: Raymond was right. One cannot deny the logic. In fact, it is a tautology. If you assume that all individuals have a non-zero probability of finding and fixing a bug, then all you need is “enough” individuals. A million monkeys banging on a million keyboards will eventually produce Twelfth Night. Mathematically, the many-eyeballs argument, and the million-monkeys argument are equivalent.
My Blackhat DC paper, slides and videos are online
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:40 pm EST, Feb 7, 2010
There is material covered in the talk that isn't covered in the paper, so it might make sense to start with the sides. I'm very interested in any thoughts, comments, or feedback that you might have.
Cisco's wiretapping system open to exploit, says researcher
Topic: Miscellaneous
4:57 am EST, Feb 5, 2010
The IBM researcher, Tom Cross, notified Cisco of the issues back in December, and recommends revisions to the standard that will ensure that it is more secure by default. That might be helpful, but it still wouldn't deal with the problems posed by unpatched systems—Cross himself apparently recognizes that network administrators can be hesitant to risk the disruption of service that may come with updating major pieces of equipment.
Activists have long grumbled about the privacy implications of the legal "backdoors" that networking companies like Cisco build into their equipment--functions that let law enforcement quietly track the Internet activities of criminal suspects. Now an IBM researcher has revealed a more serious problem with those backdoors: They don't have particularly strong locks, and consumers are at risk.
In a presentation at the Black Hat security conference Wednesday, IBM ( IBM - news - people ) Internet Security Systems researcher Tom Cross unveiled research on how easily the "lawful intercept" function in Cisco's ( CSCO - news - people ) IOS operating system can be exploited by cybercriminals or cyberspies to pull data out of the routers belonging to an Internet service provider (ISP) and watch innocent victims' online behavior.
BBC News - Why do people often vote against their own interests?
Topic: Miscellaneous
9:10 am EST, Jan 30, 2010
The Republicans' shock victory in the election for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts meant the Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. This makes it even harder for the Obama administration to get healthcare reform passed in the US.
Voltage, Current, and Resistance - three of the most important electrical properties, are elegantly intertwined by way of a the simple equation - V = IR, better known as Ohm's Law.
This is the most basic concept in electronics presented for those of you who read this blog who have taken an interest in circuitry but don't happen to be operating with a degree in engineering...
New York Times Best-Selling Authors Unveil Secrets of The Lost Symbol
Topic: Miscellaneous
6:46 pm EST, Dec 22, 2009
Elonka Dunin, America’s leading code-breaker, who “appeared” in The Lost Symbol as Nola Kaye, teases readers with a puzzle that helps drive the plot: "Is the secret to the infamous and as-yet-unsolved Kryptos sculpture at the CIA truly 'buried out there somewhere'?"
Whee, "America's leading code-breaker"? Publicity's nice and all, but that's a bit much. "World's #1 expert on Kryptos", sure, but for a modern code-breaker, I'd be more inclined to list someone such as Bruce Schneier.
