Monday, January 26, 2009

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Bullet In The Head

Taught kids this morning. Had lunch with my friend and her lovely 3-year-old daughter. Afterwards I felt happy, so I watched some stuff about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes: video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7106504922469354610
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockwell_shooting
The incident was investigated by the Independent(sic) Police Complaints Commission, which is rather odd as de Menzezes was shot by special forces, not police. Needless to say, I no longer feel happy and probably never will again.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

The Cuckoo's Egg

Started reading "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Cliff Stoll. I tend to agree with everyone else, it really is one of the most exciting books on computer security ever written...

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Don't Be Afraid Of The Light

We are told that it is darkness, and that entering it will result in unspeakable woe. The nature of the woe is not even hinted at, I guess this is why it is "unspeakable woe".

To go as far as to say that the darkness is actually light, and that what we are living in is darkness, to say that we should all plunge into the light and find salvation within it... Talk of these ideas in forbidden.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Resorting To The Resort

For some reason I was compelled to telnet to "The Resort", a virtual community from the days before the web.

If you've never telnetted to anything before, now is the time to start:

In Windoze: Hit Start, click "Run" then type "cmd" and hit return. This will open a command prompt. Type "telnet resort.org:2323"

In Mac OS X: Open a terminal window and type "telnet resort.org:2323"

In Linux open a text shell such as bash and type "telnet resort.org:2323"

Enjoy.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Finding Japan: Last Episode

Christopher has posted the final episode of his podcast: Finding Japan. Well worth a listen.

www.findingjapan.com/2009/01/04/347/

Saturday, January 03, 2009

The Cheshire Catalyst Makes Me Want To Die

Well, it's not really Richard Cheshire who makes me want to die, it's actually his writing. Cheshire's writing is evil. There's no other word for it. Read his articles in 2600, read his website, and you too will want to die.
http://cheshirecatalyst.com

I particularly recommend his coffee stories. They take you beyond death.
http://cheshirecatalyst.com/coffee.html

Friday, January 02, 2009

Hackers: Bystanders Of The Computer Revolution

Currently reading "Hackers: Heroes Of The Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy. It's not very good.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Rogue Trader 88888

Watched "Rogue Trader", the true story of Nick Leeson, a Singapore trader for Barings Bank. Leeson started to secretly trade for the bank in an effort to cover up a mistake that one of his colleagues had made. Needless to say, the consequences were as disastrous as they were hilarious...

Rogue Trader is a very cheap film with a made-for-tv feel, but the story is engrossing and the lead is played by Ewan McGregor who manages to add a little quality to the film. Watch it now.

Nick Leeson now tours the UK, telling people how to crash the banking system. You can book him at www.NickLeeson.com