“When we read a book for the first time,” Nabokov complains, “the very process of laboriously moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, this complicated physical work upon the book, the very process of learning in terms of space and time what the book is about, this stands between us and artistic…
Archives for June 2015
Stop Being Proud of Complexity
The main virtue of an architect is the ability to reduce complexity. Thus, a good architect would never be proud of a complex diagram. Instead, he would be proud of a simple and easy-to-understand drawing with a few rectangles that perfectly explain an entire multi-tier application. That is what is really difficult to do. That’s where a true…
When Companies Go Out of Business, What Happens to Your Data?
That respect could lapse, however, if the company is ever sold or goes bankrupt. At that point, according to a clause several screens deep in the policy, the host of details that Hulu can gather about subscribers — names, birth dates, email addresses, videos watched, device locations and more — could be transferred to “one or more third…
The Best Interview Question
I’m somewhat obsessed with how to find good people to do things. I’ve been deeply involved in hiring in information security over the last six years, and loosely involved in it for nearly two decades. The number of theories and systems and templates are legion. But I think I’m closing in on the answer. Anyway, if you can…
Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 15
Topics for this episode: iOS flaw The Chinese hacking campaign against the US Breach at Recorded future Hacking cars through key fobs NSA/GCHQ hacking of people through security software Snowden’s documents in the hands of the Chinese and Russians Samsung re-enabling Windows Update Mr. Robot Blackhat/DEFCON Notes The intro track is from one of my favorite EDM artists:…
The Downside of Police Scrutiny
The crime rate in New York City is far above what it has been in recent years, and the reasons seems to be that cops are afraid to do their jobs for fear that they’ll be labeled oppressive, racist, or some other negative thing. There are a few pieces to this, and we have to take the bad…
Automation: First we rejoice, then we panic…
Automation is humanity’s two-edged sword. First we rejoice because we have less to do, then we panic because we have nothing to do. First it’ll come for the jobs you are glad you don’t have, then it’ll come for yours. Basic Income may be a radical idea right now, but it’s about to become infrastructure in the same…
Uber’s CEO Would Buy 500 Thousand Driverless Teslas to Power His Company
Steve Jurvetson, a partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, said that he spoke to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick about the Tesla Motors RoboCar. He said that if Tesla can make cars autonomous by 2020 he’ll buy 500,000 of them. Elon Musk says that he expects to build 500,000 cars by that year, including the Model S sedan, the Model…
William Thompson Designed the Confederate Flag Explicitly as a Racist Symbol
We’re all aware of the debate around the Confederate flag. Progressives argue that it’s a symbol of racism, and its defenders say it’s a harmless, non-racist icon of their heritage. People argue back and forth, but there’s never seemed to be any convincing evidence one way or the other. But now there is. July 29, 2015 — Added…
Why Aren’t University Lectures Broadcasted to the World?
We know why healthcare isn’t broadcasted over the internet. It’s because you can’t fix 1,000 people’s broken leg’s by live streaming the repair of a single person’s broken leg. We know why we don’t broadcast money. It’s because money is (kind of) a static resource. If 1,000,000 people receive the money that we’re giving to a given person…
Separating Compute Components
I’m dreading contemplating the next fresh install on my main laptop, and it’s not a pleasant experience. It usually takes me around three weeks to become completely happy with my installation after a fresh install. I was thinking that it would be nice if we could break our computing environment into a few main components that go on…
How Mobile Changes Everything
This is a powerful presentation by Andreessen Horowitz about how much mobile is changing technology. Here are my takeaways and analysis. By 2020, 80% of humans on earth will have a smartphone On iPhone 6 launch weekend, Apple sold 25x the CPU transistors that existed on earth in 1995 The poorer a group is, the more important mobile…
Speaking at DEFCON 2015
I just received news that I’ve been accepted to speak at DEFCON this year! The talk is on the topic of IoT Security, specifically around the IoT attack surface area, and how to build a methodology around testing an entire IoT ecosystem. I’ll update this thread with dates/times as soon as I have them.
Stannis is George Bush
One of the best things about Game of Thrones is how well it captures real personal and political conflict, with people being intricate mixtures of good and evil simultaneously. Stannis is one of those people, and so is George Bush. Stannis is often seen as a power-hungry evil person who would do the worst things to get what…
Possible Outcomes for Jon Snow After Book/Season 5 [SPOILERS]
The final scene in book and season 5 of Game of Thrones has a lot of people thinking about what could be next for Jon Snow. Here are my thoughts on the options. Jon Snow dies, just like the scene would have us think he does. The rest of the characters are strong, and Game of Thrones is…
An HTTP/2 Overview
Here are a few key things to know about HTTP/2. First, the primary goal of the protocol upgrade is performance improvement, with the focuses being on improving latency, reducing the required number of TCP connections, and otherwise improving the user experience for getting content over HTTP—all while keeping the semantics of HTTP/1.1 So, here are a few of…
The Experience of Free Will Isn’t Free Will
Many people make the following argument in favor of free will: I know I have it because I, and billions of other people in the world, experience having it every day. This seems compelling enough, but there is a fundamental mistake being made here, and that’s the difference between experiencing something vs. that something actually being real. It’s…
Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 14
Notes The intro track is from one of my favorite EDM artists: Zomby. The song is ‘Orion’, and it’s from the ‘With Love’ album. Highly recommended if you like chill EDM.
A Question for Obama Supporters
So I have a question for the Obama supporters out there. Why did he support this trade deal, and rather than pitch it to us, just try to sneak it past? Why? I like a lot about Obama, and would even call myself a fan, but I’m not the kind of fan that’s blind to the flaws. What…
Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 13
Notes The intro track is from one of my favorite EDM artists: Zomby. The song is ‘Orion’, and it’s from the ‘With Love’ album. Highly recommended if you like chill EDM.
DNS Queries Getting the Respect They Deserve
The Turing tool works by rapidly storing and analysing Domain Name System (DNS) query data using a patent-pending metadata storage architecture that Nominet has spent the past four years developing.Nominet claims that the system can process terabytes of DNS traffic and manage over 250,000 queries per second, providing an in-depth and dynamic view of all network activity.The data…
Apple Music Will Be Fine
Hence the anger and frustration. Apple didn’t need to buy Beats to retake the high ground in online music. It went in precisely the wrong direction — and by doing so, it appears to have poisoned the company culture where music is concerned. Source: Apple Music is a major mess, and it won’t beat Spotify I agree a…
Give Talks on More Than Just Your Job
I’ve come to see public speaking as a vital part of a thriving life, but not for the reason you think. Most people, if they do public speaking at all, give talks about their field. In my field, everyone is talking about how to attack and defend computer systems. And there’s nothing bad about that. Your own field…
Creationist Science Isn’t
And since stars were made during Creation Week when God was supernaturally creating, how do we know for certain that distant starlight has arrived on earth by entirely natural means? Source: Does Distant Starlight Prove the Universe Is Old? | Answers in Genesis The next time you’re arguing with a creationist about evolution, or global warming, or anything…
Ad-based Business Models and Privacy Are Mutually Exclusive
Tim Cook went on the attack Tuesday in a speech on the topic of privacy and encryption. He directly criticized companies that profit by selling customer data: We believe the customer should be in control of their own information. You might like these so-called free services, but we don’t think they’re worth having your email, your search history…
Account Harvesting as the Most Serious IoT Vulnerability
The Internet of Things introduces significant security risk because it takes objects and machines and systems that used to be private and puts them online so that people can interact with them. What could go right? The biggest concern is really that these systems, when placed on the internet, can be accessed by billions of people, programs, and…
Seeking a Universal Law for Tolerance and Intolerance
Conservatives and progressives are troubled in different ways by the concepts of tolerance and intolerance. Conservatives do silly things like chastise progressives for not being tolerant of their refusal to serve gay people in their businesses. They say things like: Liberals are all for tolerance, up until someone disagrees with them. Presumably, they mean liberals should tolerate them…
Windows 10 Introduces the Era of the Ecosystem
Microsoft is back, and few seem to realize how dangerous they are about to be to their competition. Starting with the launch of Windows 10 on July 29th, we’re about to leave the era of the product or service, and enter the era of the ecosystem. Apple already has an ecosystem, and that’s why they’re crushing everyone in…
Subway Getting Out-Subway’d
With 43,945 sandwich shops in 110 countries, Subway has become the world’s most ubiquitous restaurant chain, posting armies of “sandwich artists” in more U.S. outposts than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined.Yet at the dawn of its 50th birthday, all is not well in the land of Jared and jingles about $5 footlongs. Subway’s U.S. sales last year declined 3…