Thursday, June 30, 2005

More LAF Fundraising

The Washington Post has a "review" of Lance Armstrong's new clothing line. The writer, unnamed in the byline, spends a significant amount of time describing how you can only look good in cycling apparel when you are actually cycling. Yet, if you wear a basketball or baseball jersey, your fashion statemtent is considered normal.

I suppose that I can see the difference. The baseball and basketball apparel are not tight fitting and tend not to reveal one's Mesopotamia (the area between a person's Tigres and Euphrates. Got it?).

The author takes his/her sweet time in getting down to business. The real purpose of the article is to describe Lance's new clothing line. He and Nike are making some casual and active apparel that will feature the 10/2 logo. This is a reference to the day he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, October 2, 1996.

With the purchase of each item, Nike plans to donate its customary one dollar to the LAF foundation. As the writer of the article points out, the simplicity of the yellow wristband is lost with the introduction of this clothing line. With the wristbands, Nike donated all the money it made from their sales. However, these clothes will be selling for $20 to $160. No matter what the item's price, Nike will donate a flat $1.

The monetary donations from the sales of the LiveStrong bands are extraordinary. The LiveStrong bands have generated over $20million in donations to the LAF from Nike. Nike paid for all of the production costs of the bands and donated every bit of the sales. Impressive.

One question remains about this new clothing line. Would Nike, a company that had $13.7 billion in revenue last year (fiscal 2005), really suffer if it were to donate a little more than a dollar on each purchase?

Nike should be commended for monetarily supporting Cancer research and public awareness efforts, but the question must still be asked.

eBay Documentary Update

Fraudulent bag purchases aside, the eBay documentary on CNBC has been a huge ratings success for the network, according to this story.

I want to restate my recommendation about this documentary. There is a great technical side to it as I mentioned in my previous entry. The images of their server rooms and network operations center are really cool.

Technical "stuff" not your cup of tea? No worries. The documentary contains some juicy nuggets for you fans of the social, managerial or operational aspects of the company.

No matter your needs, technical or nontechnical, it's worth your time.

Relatively Normal at Room Temperature

Well, I never thought that I would say this, but it appears that Hollywood finally produced a fairly normal relationship.

According to their publicists, Ben Affleck and Denison graduate Jennifer Garner are now married. These are two fairly well known celebrities and their marriage comes as a surprise, at least to me.

In the hyper publicized relationship of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, this is almost an interesting contrast.

I say almost for two reasons. First, normal people don't actually announce their wedding through a publicist. Second, when it comes right down to it, who cares.

I am fielding bets on the over/under for the length of this marriage. Post to the comments if you want in on that action.

Programming Notes at Room Temperature

Hello.

I just wanted to alert everyone to an excellent bit of programming on CNBC. As it turns out, I normally cannot even say C-N-B-C before I fall asleep. But, this recommendation is for real.

CNBC has put together an hour long documentary about the rise of eBay and its place in the Internet community. This is not a PR project for the company. CNBC reporter David Faber does an excellent job of presenting both the good things and the bad things about the company.

The documentary describe eBay's fraud preventation division in some detail. Faber choose a few special cases of fraud and attempts to follow those from the initial complaint until the situation is resolved. It is an interesting look at how these cases are handled. They report that something like one-one-hundreth of all sales are fraudulent. That's a small percentage, but eBay does process a ton of requests so they add up. ("ton" is a technical term in that usage.)

One of my favorite parts of the documentary comes near the beginning. The vice president of operations takes the film crew on a tour of its data center and network operations center. It would appear that under normal circumstances cameras are not allowed inside these two areas.

The network operations center (NOC) is filled with wall monitors listing bandwidth, the number of new user registrations per second, listings per second, bids per second, etc. The operations staff collects lots of information that users probably consider trivial. However, they use this information to shave fractions of seconds off of common page rendering operations. These seconds, accumulated over millions of users, represent significant savings for the company and customers alike.

Also, Faber take us into several high level meetings where controversial listings are discussed. One of these scenes revolve around bodily fluids. I can't do the scene justice by simpy quoting it. So, I urge you to watch. It is a great laugh.

I am sure that in the coming evenings CNBC will be re-airing this original documentary. Be sure to search it out and watch.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Study Crazy

Hey.

I am in DC attempting to solicit responses for my study. I knew that this was going to be difficult. But, I have run into much resistance from participants than I expected.

It appears that most people are "too busy" to participate.

One guy was sitting in a Starbucks and told me that he was a Day Trader. Was I supposed to be impressed with how busy he was? Or was I supposed to be impressed because he was going to make lots of money? I was impressed by neither. As a matter of fact, I determined he was an idiot. Anyone who relies on WiFi at a Starbucks for second-by-second buy and sell decisions is a moron. Hopefully he doesn't have a family to support because a glitch in the WiFi could cause him serious problems. What's more, I can imagine that the Starbucks staff would not be too likely to provide technical support. Latte anyone?

Update: The day was long and mostly unproductive. I had one insight, however. I often hear people complain about those Presidential approval polls. These moaners complain that the surveys can't possibly be representative since they are never personally contacted for their opinion. Today I approached people all day trying to get their opinion. However, there were very few takers. They were too busy to answer. They can't be bothered with a few questions.

So, they whine about not being asked and then they whine about being asked! You can't have it both ways people. Wise up.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Academic Advisor Trouble

Update: Sorry for posting this multiple times. Weak signal last night.

Good evening.

Tonight I received a very odd email from my advisor. It appears that he received a tenured professorship offer from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. He has to decide to accept or reject the offer within two weeks.

If he accepts this position, he would have to start working there this Fall. As he said in his email, it is a great opportunity for him. UIUC is a top 5 CS department and it is a great honor for him to be offered this position. Honestly, I don't see how he could turn it down.

My advisor is very well known in the field of real time computing. He has worked hard for 20 years (dating back, I'm sure, to his undergraduate days) to acheive a prominent position in his field. This is a great reward for that hard work.

He asked all of his advisees to send their thoughts about his offer. To say anything other than "accept" would be an incredibly selfish thing to do. Offers like this are few and far between. I like my advisor. He's a great guy. He worked hard and he deserves to benefit from that effort.

If he does decide to take the position, I have no idea what I would do. Despite the many uncertanties, I know that I would absolutely not take the other professor in our research group as an advisor. Other than that, I honestly have no idea what I would do.

So, like usual, I choose not to think about it until I have to. When/if he takes the offer, I will have to ask myself some serious questions about my future as a CS researcher.

Since he only has two weeks to decide, we'll know soon enough. Stay tuned.

More Cruise

According to this insider report, almost 20 minutes of the Today Show interview with Tom Cruise were cut from broadcast. Cruise's "people" wanted the Today Show to only air portions of the interview that dealt directly with the War of the Worlds. Obviously, the Today Show producers realized they were sitting on ratings gold and initially refused to cut any part of the interview.

Cruise reps threatened to keep Cruise from appearing on the show ever again if the interview was broadcast as filmed. What was aired appears to be a compromise between the Today Show producers and Cruise PR staff. If what was aired was a compromise to make Cruise look as good as possible, what else could he have possibly said?

Tom: "Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt. Do you even know the history of America? I do. It was founded by L. Ron Hubbard, Matt."
Lauer: "Tom, America was founded before L. Ron Hubbard was even born."
Tom: "Matt, stop being glib. You should be more responsible as a journalist."

Internet Crashes in Pakistan

What a great headline! But, alas, I cannot claim credit. That little gem of English was crafted by the folks at CNN. The full story can be found here.

I really love the fact that after almost 10 years of the mainstream Internet, reporters still think that the Internet can crash.

Of course, a more appropriate headline would have been "Internet Connectivity Crippled in Pakistan". An undersea cable was knocked offline by a faulty power system. It turns out that Pakistan operates only one land based connection to the rest of the Internet. Officials claim to operate a satellite based backup system which provides a much lower data rate.

Obviously! It has to go all the way through the atmosphere and then back down. Duh!

The article does not mention if intra-Pakistan Internet traffic was affected. I would assume that such communication remained available.

Cancer Myths

If you believe that "[t]he medical industry is withholding a cure for cancer from the public in order to increase profits," then you are in the company of 27% of the American public. That is according to this article at CNN.com.

The complete results appear in the journal Cancer.

The other myths, and the frequency with which Americans believe them, are astonishing. The story is a must read.

In a Forbes article describing the same research results, the study's lead author is quoted as saying, "[t]he higher the income and the higher the education, the less likely [respondents] were to believe the myths." That's quite the statement.

Whether or not that's true, I hope that this study helps underscore the importance of Cancer education.

As they say, a lie is halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its shoes on.

My Bad

http://www.lostremote.com/archives/005152.html

Check out that juicy nugget!

Monday, June 27, 2005

Politician's as Medical Doctors

It was reported today that medicine prescribed by doctors to treat anxiety and insomnia will no longer be covered for patients on Medicare.

Obviously I am no medical doctor. Or am I? I once read a book about how to read an ECG. So I guess by Tom Cruise's definition, I am a cardiologist.

In any event, I know little about these benzodiazepine-based drugs. From this article it would appear that there are possible downsides to this drug, such as addiction.

Shouldn't doctors be the ones who make the decision as to what drugs are appropriate for the treatment of their patients? I know that argument has been made many times before, but it bears repeating. As a matter of fact, Dr. Donna Fick does just that in the aforementioned article:

"I would never say someone should never be on a certain class of drugs. That's up to a doctor who can see the whole picture, but I generally think they should be avoided in older adults."

These things should be debated by people with a background in toxicology and medicine, but I just had to say something.

I guess I'll stick to Technology, where at least I am trained!

Doing not talking

The recent controversy about the Downing Street Memo (ref) has been well reported in liberal circles, but largely ignored by the popular press. This memo claims that the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq without completely exploring diplomatic solutions to the "problem", as they told the American people. In other words, war with Iraq was not a last resort as the administration would have Americans believe.

This is disturbing enough.

Today, however, the Times (those who broke the DSM story) revealed that Iraq bombings in the months before the invasion were in preparation for war and not for ethnic protection, as the administration claimed. The story also reveals that the British RAF was just as responsible for these bombings as the American forces.

Advance internal decision about war plans is deceitful enough. Actually perpetrating war actions. amidst claims that no war decision had been made, is horrifying.

When will the lies stop?

I am glad that, for whatever reason, the American people are starting to wise up about America's position in Iraq. Hopefully real change can be made.

Has it been four years yet?

Tom Cruise Update

Did Tom try to recruit Scarlett Johansson into Scientology? According to this article, the answer is "yes"!

Not only that, but the article reports that her disinterest cost her a role in Mission Impossible III.

I see a possible EOE violation here. Do you?

Sunday, June 26, 2005

The Long Post Home

Hey? Where do I come up with these blog titles? Its really hard to say.

Recently I have posted about things that should interest my readership. First, the post containing a reference to Google Maps should have generated at least one response. Second, I assumed that my previous post about Scientology would generate a commentary from a different, but just as important, reader. And yet, nothing.

I try not to meta-blog, but I wanted to find out if I was missing something?

Meta blog: Blog about your own blog.

We are still in Cortland, NY. Cortland is about 20 miles away from Ithaca and about 8 hours from Charlottesville. It's a nice town that houses a SUNY college. The Country Inn and Suites where I am staying offers free coffee, apples and cookies 24/7. Its a taste treat to be able to munch away on a cookie and sip a coffee any time I feel the urge. Of course I can't eat cookies, so that part is pretty much out. And, come to think of it, the apples are quite nasty. So, I guess that leaves coffee? Well, there is no Splenda to be found. So, I guess there's really no such thing as free snacks.

Today was consumed by about 8 hours of volleyball. Are you kidding me? It was great. I have always had a special place in my heart for volleyball. Every Tuesday evening in the summer after HS graduation was spent playing pickup sand volleyball with my friends. I was known as the only guy who would leave each game with sand in his ears. Today's games were a little different since we were playing on grass. For most Americans, touching grass is not a huge problem. My histamines, however, seem to stage a wicked, violent revolt every time my bare skin comes into contact with those green blades of pain. So, I was trying to stay on my feet. That goal was definitely accomplished through what the outside observer may describe as lethargy.

My fondness for volleyball was cemented during the last summer olympic games when Misty May and Kerri Walsh engaged in vigorous celebrations while rolling about in the sand. Talk about compelling video.

If 8 hours of volleyball was not enough, the temperatures here in NY reached a balmy 102 degrees. During our lunch break, I went for a 1/2hr run. The run was excellent, but the farms of NY offer little in the way of shade. To give you a better idea of just how hot it was, my foot actually stuck to the ground when I accidentally stepped into asphalt goo during my run.

Asphalt goo: The tar like substance applied to asphalt in a futile attempt to keep the cracks in the surface from spreading.

I checked my face in the mirror, and it occurs to me that I should have worn sunscreen. Not to fear, my beard provides a very natural UV repellent!

Tomorrow I return to Charlottesville.

I'll see you there, hopefully!

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Odd Friday Happenings

Good evening.

I am reporting live from upsate New York. You will be happy to know that we happened on a hotel that provides free Internet access. Who would have thought this Internet thing was going to catch on?

Well, I just wanted to post a URL that describes the "Tom Cruise, Matt Lauer Fight". This seems to prove that Tom Cruise has completely lost his mind and now lives in some sort of fantasy world where he is an expert on anything that he reads about.

Let'e put this in perspective. I read a book titled "Bringing Down the House." Its a fascinating book about MIT students who figured out an elaborate card-counting scheme that would help them win at blackjack with incredible frequency. So, if I lived in the same world as Tom Cruise, this would make me an expert on blackjack, card-counting, statistics, mathematics and the life of MIT students since that is the focus of "Bringing Down the House"! However, I know absolutely nothing about cards. This is evidenced by my inability to understand or remember the rules of Crazy 8s. I am assuming that my lack of knowledge in the other, above named, topics goes without saying.

In addition, Tom Cruise called psychiatry as a "psuedoscience." Listen, I am a Computer Scientist. If there is anyone who knows about the psuedosciences, it's Computer Scientists.

However, it gets better. I was flipping channels tonight and landed on "Scarborough Country". Let me just say that I cannot stand that guy, but they were talking about this so I decided to give it a listen. Joe introduced the expert that would discuss this issue: Dr. Drew. Almost all of you will recognize him as the cohost of the now cancelled MTV show Loveline. (It should be noted that the radio version of the show still exists as a nationally syndicated program hosted by Dr. Drew and Adam Corolla.) Yes, Dr. Drew is a medical doctor specializing in addiction. However, for most people he is a goofy guy who talks about the sexual dysfunctions of teenagers while sitting next to a cohost who's resume includes a stint as the host of Comedy Central's flagship show "The Man Show."

So, let's recap: we have celebrities claiming to be experts while celebrity experts comment on the validity of the first celebrity's claims.

Could we actually get a real expert to talk about this before Americans start to dismiss those who seek psychatric help as weak, stupid, incompetent or disposable? Oh wait, it may already be too late. According to the CNN QuickVote, 21% of the respondents agree with Tom Cruise and believe that psychiatry is a psuedoscience.

Before I sign off, I want to report one more interesting tidbit that I learned this evening: I went to Furman University as an undergraduate. Furman is located in Greenville, South Carolina. It turns out that the flight that killed the lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd (no, his name is NOT Lynyrd or Skynyrd) took off from Greenville. As a guy who considers Lynyrd Skynyrd as one of his favorite bands, I am ashamed to say that I didn't know that until tonight. I suppose it pays to watch CMT.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Things aren't easy

Things aren't easy. I think, however, that if they were then it wouldn't be challenging or fun.

Having said that, a little help every now and again isn't all that bad. I would be doing a great diservice to my reader if I were to start ranting. So, I won't.

To the news of the day:

1. It is important to note that the roads on Google Maps are not necessarily paved. I spent some time on maps.google.com earlier today planning a nice, interesting, new ride. I had a great path that seemed to be about 2 hrs. I was going to ride out to the airport and make a right staying on a road that would eventually loop around to the otherside of the airport and return me to where I started. 1 mile after making a right at the airport, the road turned to gravel. For those of you who have heard my Knight's of Columbus dancing story may be reminded of the following quote: "Oh, I didn't know the road turned to gravel this soon." Needless to say, the route was ruined and I was forced to improvise.

2. The dining room captain at Panera threatened me today. He said that he keeps his eye on "campers" like me. Michael Jackson jokes aside, I felt put off. I was sitting at a booth for two, minding my own business. I was not sitting at a table for four spread out like an eagle. Also, I just finished a Caramel Latte (yes, I am *that* guy) and a lunch. That comes to a grand total of about $12. Doesn't that get me a seat in the "dining room" for 4 hours? I agree that during the lunch rush space is at a premium and I adhere to the social laws. If I saw people holding food in their hands waiting for a seat then I certainly would have collapsed my work area to allow a patron to chow. Also, I would have never taken up a table for four. Anyone who does that must be an undergrad! Needless to say, I was a bit miffed. I have talked with this captain before and I know that he means well. The more he and I talked about this, the more upset I got. Eventually I was sure that I would never return to Panera. However, when I walked out he slipped me a coupon for a free coffee and bagel. You know exactly where I am going for breakfast!

3. Softball. That doesn't even get a comment.

4. I seemed to be very hungry and operating on a huge calorie deficit. I really thought that I was eating enough, but apparently I was wrong. So, tonight I tried to make up for that a little bit. To do so, I decided to satisfy a recent, surpressed craving -- peas! I have wanted cooked peas for almost a week now. I was able to partially satisfy this animalistic urge yesterday when we frequented the Ruby Tuesday for a late lunch. However, those peas are cold and I, like a pregnant woman who wants Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, was not satisfied with the plain Chocolate Chip ice cream of cold peas. Close, but no cigar. I digress. (If I hadn't just digressed, I would digress about how much I enjoy saying "I digress". But, I digress.) The frozen peas that I bought at the 'teet cooked up nicely in the microwave. Once cooked, they appeared a radiation (not radiant) green and they tasted excellent. In addition to the peas, I had some pasta, carrots, a turkey sandwich and an apple. Mmmmm, good!

5. The 11:00pm Seinfeld is no longer being shown on one of the local ABC affiliates. In the past months, the Seinfeld has started at 11:05pm. From 11:00pm to 11:05pm a news snippet was shown. The affiliate is a small, local operation and during the first few weeks of the newscast, you could really tell. But, things slowly fell into place. The newsreaders are actually quite good and the stories aren't awful. A few nights ago, however, the news snippet turned into a full out evening newscast. Apparently this was not a planned thing, since my Tivo schedule still thinks that Seinfeld is on. So, I suppose its both good and bad, at the same time!

That's all for now. You can expect some full updates this weekend about my volleyball escapades. Remember Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes from the pro beach volleyball circa 1990? Yeah, they were losers! I am going to kick some butt. Get off me, net!

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Top Movie Quotes

Well, that lovely group AFI has posted another of its movie related rankings. This time it is another iteration of the top movie quotes list.

You can find the entire list here.

I think that many good quotes were missed. Let me list a few of them here:

"Rubbing is racing", "Days of Thunder"
"Better late than never", "Ghostbusters II"
"Get her!", "Ghostbusters"
"Vegas, baby!", "Swingers"
"Don't be that guy.", "PCU"
"You're so money and you don't even know it.", "Swingers"
"Razzle-dazzle", "Stripes"
"That's a fact, jack!", "Stripes"
"She gets around, like a record!", "Office Space"
"Hack the planet!", "Hackers"
"Are you reading the dictionary? I like to break a mental sweat too!", "Dodgeball"
"Nice shot nurse", "Meet the Parents"
"I got the style that makes the ladies smile", "Be Cool"

This is just a list from the top of my head. All the server space in the world could not possibly store all of the movie quotes that are lodged forever in my cranium.

Read the list, and add your favorite quotes in the comments!

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

CNN Wifi Security Coverage

In the continuing efforts to understand Wifi, here comes another article from the popular press.

This one does not consider the types of people who use Wifi, or their patterns, but rather the security risks associated with connecting to Wifi hotspots.

The article contains quotes from an "ethical hacker" who talks about how easy it is to uncover the data being sent by users. The article also details another common type of attack -- rogue access points. Again, according to the "ethical hacker", this attack consists of setting up an access point with the same SSID as a legitimate access point in an attempt to lure the user into their control. Once a user is associated with the rogue access point, the "ethical hacker" claims it is easy to control their computer.

He does echo my sentiments when it comes to online security: assume that nothing is secure. Only then will you be more likely to make wise decisions about storing or transmitting sensitive data.

By the way, I use quotes around "ethical hacker" since that is a very odd term that seems invented by this guy or CNN. I have heard of "grayhats" and "whitehats", but "ethical hacker" is new to me! Do you believe that such "ethical hackers" exist? Or is the lure of that susceptible data too much to resist?

Slow Day

Well, today was a slow news day for me. So, I don't have much to say of substance.

It was a lively distraction, however, to make the lunch time trip to Bodos on the Corner. This Bodos location has become the subject of folklore here at the University of Virginia. The "Coming Soon" signs were posted on the store front 10 years ago. As time passed, the joke became, "Will so-and-so get his PhD before Bodos opens?"

But, last week, the wait was over and Bodos on the Corner was open for business. The Cavalier Daily, the paper of record at the University of Virginia, reported that the owner had overcome personal, monetary and motivational problems to open this location. If you are interested, the article can be found here. It is worth the read.

Bodos specializes in sandwich bagels and, as you all know, I love a great bagel sandwich. They also make a mean Caesar Salad. The perfect storm of lunch restuarants! I picked up a whole wheat bagel with lettuce, tomato, turkey and mustard. The only downside: SPICY mustard. Ugh.

Otherwise, things were pretty normal today. I made the daily trip to Panera and said hello to all my friends. For some reason, they know my name and my order! Who would have thought that spending hours in Panera every day for almost two weeks would get you noticed?

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Mastercard Debacle

Just this week it was revealed that almost 40 million credit cardholder's information may have been compromised through a breach at Cardsystems. Of the companies affected by the breach, Mastercard appears to be the most vocal. In my opinion, they appear to be hiding behind Cardsystem's noncompliance with Mastercard security practices as a way to salvage their public image.

CardSystems processes about $15 billion worth of transactions a year for Visa, Mastercard and a variety of smaller credit card providers.

Given the amount of data passing through the company, the casual observer may assume that Mastercard would care about Cardsystems security practices. According to a NY Times article, they must not:

Jessica Antle, a MasterCard spokeswoman, said that CardSystems had never demonstrated compliance with the payment association's standards. "They were in violation of our rules," she said. ref.


So, Cardsystems never displayed compliance with Mastercard security standards? Mastercard has been a customer of CardSystems for at least 5 years. Given more than five years, how could a company like Mastercard that is ostensibly considered about customer security and confidentiality not conduct a security audit of Cardsystems?

Note: This timeframe was gathered based upon a quote taken from a former employee of the CardSystems corporation. The employee, Gary Knotts, claimed that CardSystems worked with "... Mastercard on compliance issues" while he was employed by Cardsystems in the late 1990s. (The original quote can be found here: link).

To answer this, let's take a look at the Mastercard security practices. These guidelines appear to have been recently updated. The entire set of compliance practices enforced by Mastercard can be found here.

As far as I can tell, their documentation for security is quite exhaustive. Per that site, Mastercard is supposed to ensure compliance of TPP (Third Party Processors) through annual onsite audits. Additionally, TPPs are responsible for quarterly network evaluations. According to my reading of the documents, it appears that these results must be submitted to Mastercard to ensure compliance.

On the other hand, if Mastercard classifies Cardsystems simply as a merchant, then its security requirements are a bit different. However, Mastercard still requires certain audits. Depending on the number of Mastercard transactions processed yearly, an annual onsite review may be required. For merchants processing greater than 20,000 transactions a year, a network security scan is required quarterly. Again, one would "assume" that these results must be sent to Mastercard. Given Mastercard's claims that 16,800 accounts are at high risk for compromise after the breach, it is not unreasonable to assume that Cardsystems processed more than 20,000 Mastercard transactions a year.

In either case, Mastercard customers could reasonably expect that Cardsystems would have been audited at least once in that five year period to ensure compliance. Why weren't they?

I understand that Cardsystems has openly admitted to having lax security procedures and inappropriately storing customer data, but it would also be nice to find out where Mastercard was in this whole mess!

In their defense, Mastercard does offer zero-liability protection so any charges made by theives using the stolen credit cards will not be seen by customers.

Hopefully lawmakers will join the fight to protect our identities. California lawmakers recently passed legislation that forces companies to report all security breaches. Hopefully other states will follow. This legislation does nothing to create a new data security standard, but it does ensure that any company allowing such a breach to occur will face intense public scrutiny. No company wants bad press and hopefully that will drive them to increase their security standards.

However, legislation can only go so far. Each company must use common sense and enforce upon itself a higher standard of security than is mandated by its partners. By challenging themselves to provide more than the minimum amount of data security, let's hope that these companies keep our data safe and situations like this never happen again.

LA Times Wiki

Good evening.

Per the Slashdot story, it appears that the LA Times has launched a Wikitorial. This appears to be a new term for an editorial that is available for edit via Wiki software.

For those who have never heard of a Wiki, it is a piece of software that allows viewers of a website to edit its content. This type of content management system has been made popular by Wikipedia which is a user-editable online encyclopedia. The articles are initially entered into the system as shells and then users are responsible for adding more content. Additionally, the users are responsible for policing themselves as to the accuracy of the articles. For an encyclopedia, where the "facts are the facts", it seems to work well.

However, will this work for articles that are written specifically to stir emotion, as editorials are? Many respondents in the forums at Slashdot seem to think that this will fail. Whether this particular implementation fails or not, I think this creates an interesting opportunity.

Traditionally politicians/leaders have gauged the constituent's opinions about matters through polling. These poll questions are typically answered by those selected from a random sample and are yes/no in nature. This gives our leaders a binary reaction to their policies or our opinions. However, each person has a slightly different take on that yes/no response. So, do Wikis provide the public a way to collaborate and form a document that represents the many subtle intricacies of their opinion on a matter? With a base position statement posted to a website, constituents could interact in that web space by editing the document until people are satisfied that it represents their opinion. This would give the politicians a great way to take the pulse of the people. In other words, it may be like 500,000 people signing a petition supporting a particular statement. Except, the statement they were supporting would include their own opinions and users/signers would feel a vested interest in the document knowing that they have personally contributed to the final product.

Obviously, social laws would have to be strictly "enforced". Ie, people with stricly opposing views may spend their days and nights editing each other's edits. Maybe in this case, there could be a way to have multiple versions of the same sentence to make both happy? Or, these two battling minds could "fork" the document to create two new documents that cater to their opinion? I consider this second option to be less than ideal since too many "forks" in the document would not give the politicians that coherent view of what their constituents believe.

These are just a few of my thoughts. Does anyone else have an opinion? I really think that this could revolutionize the way politicians/leaders discover the true, detailed, subtle and sometimes contradictory opinion of their constituents.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Great DC Ride

Good afternoon all!

As many of you know, I am not a morning person! But, today was a welcome exception. After hanging out with Amanda last night, Patrick and I made a great ride around the DC area this morning.

It is something that I have wanted to do for years. Every time I drove into the city I would see bike riders traversing the Key bridge and riding through Georgetown. Having a dream of being a bike messenger, seeing riders zig zag through traffic in the city always makes me smile. Well, today it was my turn.

Patrick and I started from his apartment in Crystal City. We went to the West, away from the city. The bike/running path system in and around the DC area is great. Patrick had an excellent map of all the paths and their distances. We made a critical mistake by leaving the map behind, however. The trails are quite intertwined and we lost our way on one or two occasions.

On the whole, we managed to follow the Custis trail around the metro area. We ended up riding parallel to 66 into Rosslyn. Once in Rosslyn, we crossed the Key bridge back into Georgetown. It really was quite fun to finally be the guy riding across the bridge and not the guy watching. As many of you know, I am not particularly fond of bridges ("Charleston, SC, Hello!" --Larry King). But, perched atop the bridge we were able to see Georgetown University to the left and the Kennedy Center to the right. Once in Georgetown we weaved with and against traffic and had a blast. Of course, safety was our top priority!

From Georgetown we rode to the White House. Another goal was to ride down Pennsylvania Ave (the closed portion directly in front of the WH!). ACCOMPLISHED. It wasn't that crowded so we had a good view of 1600 and didn't end up in too many tourist photographs.

1:58 and a huge smile. I am a happy camper. I have talked about riding with Patrick in the city for almost a year and I am glad that I finally did it. If he enjoyed himself as much as I did, we'll do it again soon!

Friday, June 17, 2005

Creative Spam

Well, today marks a new day in Spam technology. Let me tell you what I mean.

I was lucky enough to receive a message giving me advance access to a brand new underground college magazine. How great?! But wait, it gets better. The sender obviously realized that people are wising up to spam and can spot it more quickly. So, to throw me off the scent, they addressed me as an old friend: Bill. Seeing how my name is William, that makes obvious sense. Except, no! My friends call me Will, thank you very much.

It appears that the spammers creation of a trivial formal to informal name translation function has backfired. Any email I receive that is addressed to "Bill" will be immediately marked as spam.

What losers!

Thursday, June 16, 2005

More Wifi Insanity

Hello again.

I just had to pass this on: http://www.metrofreefi.com. This site lists all of the confirmed, free WiFi access points across the country. Of course, it is entirely community operated, so your mileage may vary. But, for those who are going between cities and need quick, cheap wireless access, this site seams like the place to be.

I also happened upon this article at the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/technology/13wifi.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1118930667-7Z2OvphR49V35BGpFRFWEA
It would appear that people are getting tired of people freeloading of their WiFi and taking away seats from actual, paying customers! How rude. More interesting, however, is the mention about a researcher at Berkeley who just got his Masters doing research similar to what I have started to study. Those Berkeley bastards are always stealing my ideas. (Sorry, the alliterative desire was too strong to censor myself!)

I guess that is all for now. I will post more tonight about the insanity that is air conditioning installation.

Internet Memory Lane

Well, folks, the Internet has done it again. The wayback machine has made it possible for me to easily lookup the past contents of my personal webpages.

I originally started to peruse the archive to find the "Email Loser". However, no such luck. (Don't worry, I will eventually find it!)

But, during my search I did come across a few of my "rants". I wrote four rants during my freshman year at Furman. I thought they were hysterical at the time. People didn't really rally around them like I hoped. But, that's their loss!

And now, I present you with my favorite of the rants: Girls Asking Guys.

I have found that the most ridiculous thing ever created in this universe are dances where the girls get to ask the guys. Some may say, "Great, this is a perfect way for the girls to show that they are an independent gender!" On that note, I heartily agree! Unfortunately, ladies asking is where the feminine initiative ends. The remainder of the neverending evening is the responsibility of the guy, despite the fact that I find her loathsome. Oh wait, that got personal. Anyways, the point remains. Since when do I get the pleasure of being asked by a girl that I may -- or may not -- want to go with and then also have the honor of paying for the dinner and driving her around like I am Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy? Here's what I propose: Either the girl pays for the date and makes the arrangements, or the guy gets to choose who he wants to make miserable for an entire evening (again, my case only).


Please note that this version differs slightly from the original. Edits were made to correct embarassing uses of slang that no longer sound as cool as they did five years ago!

Deprecating Blog Titles

First, let me say that I am very guilty of what I am about to write about.

With that out of the way, let's press forward.

I have long wondered why many people title their blogs in a self-deprecating manner. I have informally studied the titles of blogs and have seen a very sad trend. Of the blogs that my friends operate, many of them are titled in a self-deprecating fashion. Consider these:
"Diversionary thoughts of graduate research, pondered instead of pursuing legitimate thoughts of graduate research..."
"the unequivocally undeniable rantings of a ..."

However, I think that the problem is wider. I looked through a list of all the Microsoft Blog titles. Superficially, these are supposed to be professional weblogs that are hosted by Microsoft for their employees. They are meant to provide information to the community about the inner workings of Microsoft and their products. However, a significant number of the blogs were titled in a self-deprecating manner! If you were the administrator of such a site, would you want your employees portraying themselves in a less-than-favorable light?

Note that I am not saying the administrators should censor things written in these blogs that may be bad for the company. Rather, I am suggesting that Microsoft would want blog readers to believe their employers aren't idiots.

Do you think that when people choose the titles of their blogs they are trying to lower their reader's expectations? Would a new blogger prefer to have their readers expect little and be pleasantly surprised? I think that it is definitely harder to title the blog self-importantly and try to live up to those expectations post after post!

I think that a nice middle ground would be to title the blog factually. If you are going to write about compilers, title it something like "Compiler Blog". If you are going to write about pop culture, title it "Culture Clash". Or, if you are going to write about me, title it "Boring!"

See, I did it again!

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Be Cool

Tonight I was able to finally see "Be Cool".

When the movie first came out, I couldn't wait to see it in the theatre. It had been forever since I saw a movie in the theatre, and was quite excited about this film. However, its time on the big screen came and went too quickly. I missed out.

Last week the movie came out on DVD and I realized that it was time to strike, while the iron was hot. I put aside my intense dislike for Blockbuster and rented it. I will spare you a review, but suffice it to say this: EXCELLENT.

I was most interested in seeing the movie because I am a huge Vince Vaughn fan. I will see that he did not disappoint, however he was not the standout performance. That standout performance was turned in by Andre Benjamin. You pop culture fans may know him better as Andre 3000 of Outkast fame. Amanda also tells me that he is a vegetarian.

Anyways, he is absolutely hysterical. No line's comedic value was wasted. His performance was reason enough to rent this movie.

As many of you may know, I love to quote movies. Vince Vaughn's characters are usually quotable, in any movie. For instance, "Vegas, Baby" and "You're so money and you don't even know it" from Swingers. Or, try, "I, for one, will congratulate each and every one of them -- Hi, purple bikini" from Dodgeball. This one is no exception. I will leave you with the single greatest quote from the movie:
"I got the style that makes the ladies smile."

Rent it! You'll laugh.

More Wifi Statistics

Good evening.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to present some further Wifi data that I collected today. This collection was particularly interesting.

Many people came and went giving me some insight into session length. I was able to capture the beginning and end of 11 sessions. The average session lasted 57 minutes. The longest session lasted 133 minutes (over 2 hours) and the shortest session was just over 1 minute in length. So, the 57 minute statistic may be slightly misleading.

I have included another pie chart below. A few observations are in order:
1. There were no p2p sessions.
2. There was less IMAP traffic this time.
3. There was no POP traffic.

This differs slightly from the previous statistics slightly. However, overall the picture looks the same -- lots of web!



From the data, I was also able to extract the sites visited by users (using DNS queries). It is hard to say anything about this data. However, it is obvious that webmail was a frequent destination of surfers: UVA webmail, hotmail, and gmail. Also, the DNS queries seem to indicate that many surfers frequent sites that are supported by Akamai technology -- very interesting.

In the next few days I hope to set up a website to facilitate country wide data collection. I would like to make it possible for a person to capture their own data and submit it. By letting people submit statistics, I think that I can create a picture of wifi statistics that are more applicable to the general population. One Panera in Charlottesville, VA does not a well-rounded study make!

Thanks for the comments about the study. Keep them coming!

Monday, June 13, 2005

Wifi Hotspot Statistics

Good evening.

I was at it again today. Besides cooking, I was collecting data for my study. I have expanded the scope of the study slightly. Instead of focusing simply on the length of connections, it would be interesting to see if the Internet workload is different depending on your connection type. Specifically, is there a specific set of network resources (email, certain websites, etc) that are more often used when temporarily connected to a free access point? Or, do people treat these free wireless hotspots as a second office where they perform the same routine network activities they would from their home or desk?

First and foremost, people need to be aware that when they are connected to these access points, there is very little security. As people sit down and start up Outlook to check their email, a password may be transmitted in plain text making it available to anyone sniffing the network. This security gap can easily be corrected by using a webmail client that offers HTTPS connections or using IMAP with certificates.

If you were to look at the statistics I collected today (displayed to you, the reader, in the following pie chart), you would not notice anything out of the ordinary. However, I was surprised by one thing in particular. It was part of my initial hypothesis that users of these free access points would primarily do web/email. I figured there would be a little AIM chatting also. But, I never imagined that someone parked in a cafe would fire up a p2p app (Gnutella) and start downloading. I have not looked at the specific packets yet, so it is possible that these packets are a result of a system tray application that automatically executes on connection to any network and do not represent a user request. Nevertheless, I am surprised.



I am going back tomorrow for round three of data collection. I wonder if I'll see anything new.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Sunday

Well, it would appear that one, JulieP, has reemerged from Internet darkness. There were times today when I almost broke into tears as friends of mine got emails from Julie and I didn't! Oh, tears. :-)

In other meta-news (defined as bloggable items that arise from previous blog entries): Someone nicknamed "bee" has mysteriously appeared in the comments. I would like to say that I have honestly no idea who this "bee" is. Dan used his expert "ninja" skills to try to ascertain the true identity of "bee". However, Dan has failed and I with him. So, if you have any insight into who this may "bee", please let me know.

Finally, I would like to regale you decent readers with more tales from the kitchen. I am sure that one, or all, of you have dined at a Chipotle, Moe's, Zazus type restuarant. I always love these places but they slather their creations with Sour Cream. Don't get me wrong, I love Sour Cream. However, the amounts they use actually disgust me. To their credit, they do not use a caulking gun to dispense such cream (like Taco Bell).

But I digress. I decided to try my hand at something like this. So, I purchased the ingredients and set to work. The beans were the most interesting part. I put some diced onions, garlic, diced green pepper, extra VIRGIN olive oil and the beans in a sautee and let them COOK! Added some Uncle Ben's white rice and grilled chicken into the mix and I was good to go. As for a tortilla, I bought the biggest one possible. By this metric, I ended up purchasing some stupid low-carb shells. This turned out to be a mistake. Whatever they do to low carbify them makes the tortillas stringy and elastic. I needed a very sharp knife to cut through the shell. I also had great intentions of adding some salsa, but simply forgot. The beans, peppers, onions etc did provide enough sauce to keep me going.

Overall, I would say it was another resounding success. If you want to try this sometime, let me know. I'd love to have people over.

I am off to the 'teet to purchase fluids -- gatorade and Fruit20.

Keep me posted!

Chef Will

Some say it couldn't be done. Well, I went ahead and did it.

In the face of a long summer with very few friends nearby to hang out with, I decided that I needed another hobby. When you train for athletic events, it is almost more important to eat well than it is to do the workouts. Almost, almost. So, I decided to try my hand at cooking.

I have previously documented my escapades with stir fry and with a grilled veggie, chicken, spinach salad. Today I was trolling the cooking sites and saw "calzone". So, I decided to give it a try. The only hurdle was that I have no idea how to make dough. But, I found a nice recipe for whole wheat dough. I bought the ingredients and I was off.

After one false start (just blindly mashing all the ingredients together at the start), I pulled it off. The kneading process was slightly messier than I had imagined. But, it worked out well enough. Not only did it end up tasting great, it also looked great. To prove that it looked good, I have included some pictures!




I think that the next time I make this dish, I will add more tomato sauce inside the calzone. Also, I'll put a little more cheese. Come to think of it, I should probably make a little more chicken.

You wanna suggest a dish for me to try? Pop it into the comments!

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Initial Test Results

Hello.

I have recently embarked upon some research to study the usability patterns of people connected to free wifi hotspots. In my first study, I noticed some data that was quite different than previously published figures. We'll have to see how this holds. Not only did I find some interesting patterns in periods of usage, but I also noticed that many people access the wireless 'net using some form of an Intel adapter. This is probably the result of Intel manufacturing most "built-in" wireless adapters that are shipped with laptop computers these days.

Tomorrow I plan on collecting some more data at a different hotspot location. Eventually it would be nice to try to figure out if those who offer free wifi see a significant increase in their revenue. In other words, do people consider usage of a free hotspot as an obligation to purchase something from the owner of the hotspot? I know that I do. I would be interested to hear what the loyal readers have to say about this? Do you buy from those who offer free wireless internet access?

Not much

Hello!

I don't have much to say. Actually, I don't have anything to say at all. Hopefully tonight I'll meet up with Dan at BW3, hang out and watch the Nats game!

Julie's email made me really want to work at Google! Those snack carts are enough right there. Who needs and insurance plan when you have snack carts?! I sure don't!

Check out Scott's website and follow the construction of a floating car. He wants to use this floating car to watch Boston's Independence Day fireworks! This kid has forgotten more than I'll ever know.
web.mit.edu/~johnston/

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Long Day

I have to tell you, travelling is quite a long process. I had a flight tonight back from Cincinnati to Charlottesville. To no one's surprise, it was delayed. The plane was supposed to depart at 11pm. It finally departed from Cincinnati at 12:30am.

My ride back from the airport, Dan, noted some mysterious behavior on the Delta website. When he entered my flight information to check the status, there was a note saying that the departure time was 11:00pm. Then, there was an actual (estimated) time of departure showing, at the time, 12:00am. Finally, under "status", the flight was listed as "on schedule." This really made us both wonder what definition of "schedule" was actually being employed at Delta?

I would like to make this a longer post, but my eyes are having trouble focusing. Before I sign off, I would like to send out congratulations to Spiegel. He recently had a paper accepted to a very prestigious conference and will be making a trip to Disney World to present his work! Great job!

More tomorrow, hopefully!

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Back in USA

We have arrived safely back in the USA. I have been awake for over 24 hours now and must say that I am a little tired. The flight back from Warsaw to Chicago was 3 hours delayed. Once we got into Chicago, or connector to Cincinnati had long since left. We were booked into a United Airlines flight that would have departed at 9:15.

Attempting to check into the UA flight, however, was no laughing matter. We had to line up and enter a trough-like staging area. Patiently we waited as the three ticket agents worked through the line. Mom and I were the next ones in line when one of the three ticket agents looked at us and said, "The union's not paying me anymore." After this, he walked off. Within 20ft a pretty, female air traveller flagged him down for help. He stopped to help her, but refused to help him since the union didn't make it worth his while. So, I yelled after him, "I thought you were off?" No response. Probably for the better.

After being delayed in Chicago on board the aircraft, we finally left around 10:15pm (Central Time). We arrrived in Cincinnati at 12:38. Dad was there and was quite perky for such a late hour. We made our way to the Perkins and everything is good. I had the Everything Omelette, Banana Nut Muffin and Hash Browns. Wow, Perkins beats IHOP at WaHo any day of the week!

In other news, I received a notice from Apple that I was part of a voluntary battery recall for the 12'' iBook. I was pretty excited since my battery doesn't quite fit within the battery well. It sticks out and looks fragile. Looks are deceiving, apparently, since the battery has never been a probably. Nevertheless, a new, free battery is a new, free battery. I was disappointed to find that I didn't end up qualifying for the refund. My serial number does not quite match. I guess its good in that my laptop won't catch fire and explode. However, I am a little upset that I won't be getting a new battery for free!

Saturday, June 04, 2005

I Lied

Well, it turns out that I lied. I am in the Warsaw airport and our flight is delayed. I heard a rumour that there is free internet access in the airport so I decided to give it a try. Surprisingly enough, there is! So, here I sit and write.

I think that Polish coffee is awful. Its not the same as American coffee. I guess that Polish coffee is more like espresso. They don't give you very much and it tastes like bitter crap. We are in a Polish coffee shop in the airport and I considered trying to order American coffee, but then decided against it -- I'll be home soon enough.

Finally, to the person commenting on my photos of the Pope's statue: bite me.

Friday, June 03, 2005

Final Poland Entry

Well, it must come to an end. The Poland trip is almost over. Tomorrow we return to the USA. It has been quite fun, but I am very excited to be home again. It is very uncomfortable to be in a place where you don't speak the language. Even though you are surrounded by people, you share nothing in common with them. You can't say "excuse me" if you bump into them, or "thanks" for holding the door. Although I learned how to say such things in Polish, I feel silly saying them to native speakers. I consider it similar to saying "gracias". Even though I mean it sincerely, I am afraid I will come off sounding like I am making fun of their language.

Today was fun. We visited the salt mines. Many have asked, "What are the Salt Mines, Will?" Well, I will tell you: It is a place where salt was mined! I was surprised since I didn't know that you had to mine salt. As it turns out, for years and years you didn't mine salt. Salt for cooking was originally created by heating salt water until the water evaporated leaving granules of salt. After it was discovered that such granules exist naturally, mining was the preferred method of finding salt. The salt mines we visited today were on the original UNESCO World Heritage list. The original ten sites on this list were selected because of their "natural" occurrence and their importance to world culture. These salt mines are over 1000m deep and have been around for hundreds of years. They are organised into chambers where the salt was removed through shafts and sent upwards. The removal system was run by horses and was quite creative. The tallest cavern within the mines is over 35m. A few years ago, a hot air balloon was inflated and launched within this chamber -- the flight is the highest within a closed area as reported by the Guinness World Book of Records.

The pictures are slightly blurry because it was very dark within the mines. I had to use a long exposure to get as much light as possible. Also, we ran into battery issues. In any event, here they are. I hope that you enjoy!

Day 7

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Will, The Polish Pimp

Today was an interesting day. We saw the Cathedral where Pope John Paul II was the Bishop and then Cardinal. There were no pictures allowed inside the Cathedral itself. That did not seem to stop people from taking photos. I followed the rules for a number of reasons. I will let you imagine what those reasons were.

We got to see DaVinci's second most famous painting. Of course, the first is the Mona Lisa. But, The Lady with the Ermine is the second most famous. It turns out that historians think the Ermine is really a weasel. If you see the painting, you would agree that its a weasel. I gotta tell you, I don't understand art. I was excited to see it just because its famous. However, I can't see how it ever became famous. I am going to do a self portrait of me holding a field mouse and we'll see how famous that becomes. Yes, I know, I am completely uncultured. Maybe Dan or Nolan can tell me why these things are important since they are more cultured in the arts.

We spent most of the aternoon shopping for things. The market was nice. There were lots of original Polish items. So, we scooped up as many as possible. I didn't buy anything for myself, but nice silver things were purchased. Also, I bought a carved wooden Santa for a gift. I really wanted to buy a carved wooden monk, but I couldn't find one that I like. Before you judge me on that last sentence, you should really see the faces that are carved into these little guys. They are hysterical.

And, as for the title of this post, you'll just have to look at the pictures. If you can't stand the wait, skip to the second page to see the Polish Pimp in action.

Day 6

Tomorrow it is off to the Salt Mines and then back to Warsaw. On Saturday we start our trip back home. Let me tell you: I am very much looking forward to Perkins on Saturday night. An Omelette, a muffin and some AMERICAN coffee are sounding really good!

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Poland, Sad Poland

As we travel deeper into the country and learn more about the history, it appears that Poland's history is incredibly sad. They are a very patriotic people. They are full of pride and our tour guides continue to emphasize that they fought for their own freedom without the help of other countries. As it turns out, they have fought for their freedom more than once.

Today we visited and incredibly sad historic place -- Auschwitz. Unfortunately, it is something that I think everyone should see. It is such a sobering place. But, as the quotes say, unless you see it yourself, you are bound to repeat it. Obviously, I have learned about the Holocaust during elementary and high school, but it is just so different to be there. Standing inside the concentration camp, it is hard to believe that people can believe it never happened.

Also today, we visited a very uplifting religious Shrine. The Black Madonna, or Our Lady of Chestahova. It is a painting of the Virgin Mary done on wood. As scientists attempted to preserve the painting throughout the years, they applied a dark varnish. This is what actually turned the face of the Madonna the dark black color. We had a nice Father who gave us a tour. They do have quite a sense of humour.

Enjoy the photos!

Day 3
Day 4
Jasna Gora (Black Madonna)
Auschwitz