philisha.net

Bruce Schneier, a respected security expert and cryptologist, writes about the Real ID legislation that was recently passed in the US. This guy is really sharp about the technological and mathematical side of cryptology, but he doesn’t forget the social and practical issues either.

His main point is that a universal ID system will make people feel safer without actually delivering any security benefits. When people feel like they can rely on a system, they will often let their guard down in other areas. This would be worth it if the system actually helped make things safer. But as he points out:

“Proponents of national ID cards want us to assume all these problems, and the tens of billions of dollars such a system would cost — for what? For the promise of being able to identify someone?

What good would it have been to know the names of Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber, or the DC snipers before they were arrested? Palestinian suicide bombers generally have no history of terrorism. The goal is here is to know someone’s intentions, and their identity has very little to do with that.”

Unfortunately this bill passed with few people noticing it since it was tacked on the back of a military spending bill. (Whoever came up with the idea of bundling completely unrelated laws in the same bill obviously wasn’t thinking clearly.) And the fact that it “gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to unilaterally add requirements as he sees fit” [*] doesn’t make me feel much better. More info here.

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Summer heat considered harmful:

The above can got that way by spending three hours in our car in the sun.

I’m going to die this summer.

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Alisha and I went to a wedding yesterday.

I was also inspired by Tim Malabuyo to change my blog to use friendly URIs. For instance, if you want to see my archives for November 2003, it’s easy: http://philisha.net/blog/2003/11. Apart from being nicer to look at, apparently search engines like it better that way.

Also I took a hint from Nat Friedman: when you’re viewing archives, it doesn’t make sense to order them new-to-old. On the front page, you want the new posts at the top so you can instantly see the updates. But on pages of the past, you want to see oldest-first, because that’s what makes sense. Say I describe something in one post, and then reference it in a later post. If you are reading newest-first, the second post won’t make any sense, because you haven’t read the first yet. Think about it, it makes sense. But it may be a little confusing because it’s not what you expected.

Also, if you want to search for something, just go to http://philisha.net/term, and it will search my whole blog for “term”.

My blog is the best!

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This is absolutely hilarious. Apparently sales of MS Office 2003 have been pretty slow because people running Office 97 have no good reason to upgrade. As always, Microsoft is not content with its users doing things the way they want, so now they have resorted to mocking their users who see no compelling reason to upgrade.

The magazine ad I saw was much more blatant in its mocking than the web site, but the message is still there:
“Are you stuck in the stone age?” “Get with it, you pathetic corporate dinosaur!” I guess this is what happens when you are your own biggest competitor. (It could also be an artifact of forgetting that people buy new software because it’s better than the old stuff, not because it’s newer.)

Even Microsoft employees are questioning the wisdom of this move.

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It’s hard to tell if the things Paul Graham says resonate with me because they are what I want to hear or because they are true. “Yes, of course, Python programmers are much more productive than Java programmers.” (The observant reader will note that his argument also applies against PHP, which I will admit even though I’ve written more code in PHP than in all my other languages combined. It does not apply, however, unless you are dealing with a relatively large pool of potential programmers.) “Yes, of course young disruptive hackers are undervalued!”

His latest essay is no exception–he writes about how hackers fresh out of college often underestimate the value of their position. Most people look to get hired by a big company right away because they assume that’s the only way they will make it. What they should be doing is looking for innovative ways to do what the market wants, because their unique position allows them to be much more flexible to deliver what is in demand than a huge company would be.

What he says is encouraging, though, because I don’t want to work at a big company. Taking career risks (inherent in independence or smaller companies) that would be silly later in life is a prerogative as a soon-to-be graduate.

Graham’s wit and insight is perfect when he discusses why certain projects succeed: For example, the stated purpose of Powerpoint is to present ideas. Its real role is to overcome people’s fear of public speaking. It allows you to give an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it causes the audience to sit in a dark room looking at slides, instead of a bright one looking at you. This is really key–the bigger the problem you tackle, the greater the the potential for success. (What, you think Powerpoint is successful because it’s a shining gem of software engineering?) And what unsolved problem is bigger than
that of public speaking?

The funny thing is, this has been on my own mind recently. For a long time I’ve been employed by people who want me to solve fairly well-defined problems in ways that were pretty much laid out in advance. My job has been getting from point A to point B using code. Recently I’ve been asked by The Academy to come aboard as their “Tech man”. This involves much more than just solving a given set of problems. My job is now “identify as many ways as you can in which technology can be harnessed to make things work better at the Academy”. (my own paraphrase)

This is really refreshing in many ways. Although it carries more responsibility, I think in the end it is more rewarding since it forces me to think more. It’s kind of tough to shake the cobwebs loose and actually think independently once you’ve been a code monkey for so long, but I’m loving the open-endedness. (As a bonus, it justifies some experimentation with new technologies, which is always fun. Instiki, Jabber, and Hula are first on the menu.) I really hope the projects I set up change the way things are done for the better.

I almost posted this without a photo. But then I would have broken my 15-day record. So here’s a photo, courtesy of myself and Biola University. Don’t ask why the sign is there. It just is.

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I’d just like to take this moment to thank my employers for giving me a job which I can do from anywhere. On a similar note, thanks to The Java Company for providing free wireless Internet. I am unqualified to evaluate their claims as “the best coffee in La Mirada”, but their tea is fantastic and comes in the biggest teabags I have ever seen. I’m thinking you could get away with three brews before the flavour began to fade, though this has yet to be tested.

On an entirely different note, Alisha and I just bought tickets to Singapore for next Christmas:

Whee! Of course, this means we won’t be able to afford moving to a new apartment for a couple months, but I am really looking forward to it. We may even get to go back to Cameron Highlands if we are lucky.

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I think I get excited about nifty browser tricks too easily. Still, coolness:

Here’s the latest: some script magic that allows for 3D models to be viewed in the browser without any external plugins.

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Heh.

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