Author Archives

Proxy Evasion, The Environment

There are a ridiculous number of organizations using transparent proxying as a means to limit access to external resources. The idea is that by proxying all web traffic, they can keep employees from visiting porn sites. I’m not necessarily convinced that this does them much good. My general experience has been that [...]

Math and Dividing By Zero..

So, I’ve had this domain for 7 years now. The concept behind the name goes back even further than that. In highschool in 1997, our AP Calculus teacher made the mistake of getting backed into a corner when displaying a graph of f(x)=1/x.

You see, the graph approaches positive infinity as you approach zero [...]

Is ‘Security Theatre’ Good Enough?

The American Populace is being inconvenienced, spied on, stripped of Constitutional Rights, and taxed without any idea where that money is going. The perpetrator is not some foreign, militant, activist group, it’s our own Government. There’s no outcry. All of these treacheries are being committed to increase security while the fact remains [...]

America from 30,000 feet.

Bruce Schneier has an interesting comment thread going.
There’s also a new movie coming out called “Catch a Fire” that deals with what happens when you torture the wrong people. Turns out, you pissed them off and they tend to seek retribution.
Hard to imagine anything could go wrong with this Administration allowed to define “curel [...]

Unrecognizable America

This article goes right for the juggular. The sad fact is, he’s not off by much.
America is all but lost. I hope this pisses you off. Careful with your disgust and anger, misguided and it will seal our fate.

The begining of the End …

If you’re an American citizen, you should hang your head low today. The US Senate has passed the torture bill. Over at Bruce Schneier’s blog, there’s some interesting discussion on the matter. Torture is wrong. Military tribunals are biased. See this entry on Emergent Chaos. We’re throwing centuries of progress [...]

Full Disk Encryption

As you may or may not know, I am gainfully employed by the Federal Government in the area of Information Security. Recently the Bush Administration responded to media hype to issue a Federal Mandate requiring all government owned laptops use encryption technologies to encrypt their data.
There are two interpretations of this memo.

Encrypt the ENTIRE [...]

Stop Being Afraid

I just found this interesting video blog, and this entry is right up my alley.
ZeFrank on Terrorism

Airport Security

Bruce Schneier always has spot-on posts. Here’s his editorial on last week’s terror plots.
It’s really that simple. Stop being terrorized. Stop being scared to live. Stop taking life so seriously, you’re never gonna make it out alive. We don’t need billions of dollars of security screening software/hardware. Anyone with [...]

PHP, Are you serious?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I programmed in PHP for a mortgage company. I ended up leaving that job for personal reasons. Apparently, 40 hours/week truly is not enough. I was a perl programmer prior to that excursion, and I guess I never grew out of it. [...]