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

Reading Day

Spent almost all day reading "Revolution In The Valley" by Andy Hertzfeld. It consists of a series of anecdotes about the making of the Apple Mac. The reader is given the clear impression that Steve Jobs is a fucking psycho.

I've recently realized that I'm surprisingly poorly read where computer history and culture. In the near future I intend to read "Insanely Great: Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything " and "Crypto: Secrecy and Privacy in the New Cold War" by Steven Levy, and "Accidental Empires": How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can't Get a Date" by Robert X. Cringely. Are there any other books on the history and culture of computing that I should read?

The Jonathan Meades Collection

I received the Jonathan Meades Collection today. It consists of three dvds, containing a total of eleven programmes, every second of which is genius.

Severn Heaven

In Search Of Bohemia

Get High

Belgium

Remember The Future

The Absentee Landlord

Double Dutch

Fast Food

Father To The Man

Magnetic North

Hacking At Random: Call For Papers

A call for papers has been give for "Hacking At Random".
https://www.har2009.org/

While trawling YouTube I came across a moving impromptu performance by RATM:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=CYwzW2QFnwo

History And Culture

A relative sent me three books on computer history/culture for Christmas. "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" by Cliff Stoll, "Revolution In The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made" by Andy Hertzfeld, and "Hackers: Heroes Of The Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy.

Karamoon's Kristmas Address, 2008

I, Karamoon, condemn the world in the strongest terms possible. I guess that's enough...

Earthships For Breakfast

Breakfast with Ben and Chi-chan. We talked a lot about Earthships and the possibilities of building them in Japan.

A brief guide to Earthships:
(1) Earthships use passive-solar heating.
(2) Earthships use thermal mass, in the form of very thick walls which hold heat.
(3) Thermal mass is significantly different from insulation.
(4) Earthships do not require any connection to infrastructure.
(5) Earthships are the future and the past.
(6) www.EarthShip.net

Vincent Van Gough, Vincent Can Cough

Watched a documentary series about the life of Vincent Van Gough. The documentary claimed to be based on letters Vincent wrote to his brother Theo. It made Van Gough out to be a drunk pervert, which he may well have been.

The Pinkest Of Cows

Watched "The Corporation" with Alex. In the evening we went to "The Pink Cow", a popular gaijin hangout in Shibuya. It was my first time to The Pink Cow, and I was semi-impressed. It was expensive and a bit smoky, but it was slightly better than I expected.

All The President's Pen

Watched "All The President's Men" for the first time. Overall it's very good, but it's let down by poor acting. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman can only be described as lame.

Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level Three

Took level three of the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam. I hadn't studied much so I didn't have any chance of passing but I was happy to find that the listening section wasn't so tough. The test was held at several sites across Japan. I took it at a campus of Tokyo University. The campus was swarming with French. They were simply everywhere. Being French they were instantly recognizable. They were all wearing blue jeans, brown shoes and leather jackets...

After the text I ate "soup curry" in Shimokitazawa. It was rubbish but as I had walked for two hours in order to find a restaurant that looked inviting, I told myself that it wasn't so bad.

In the evening I borrowed "All The President's Men", "The Conversation", "Take The Money And Run" and "The Front" from the DVD rental shop. I also borrowed the first DVD for Miami Vice.

Keep It Miyashita

Bumped into a friend and her daughter in the local Indian restaurant. This kind of thing never happens in Japan. They joined me and Chichan for lunch. We talked about hard-to-diagnose blood-borne diseases and we ate curry.

Hung out in Shibuya. There was a very small protest against Nike consisting of about 20 protesters and 50 police. Nike have bought a small park in Shibuya and plan to destroy it. Currently there are a bunch of homeless people living there, and poor people like me hang out there drinking cans of tea from vending machines because we can't afford to go to cafes.
More info here, but only in Japanese: minnanokouenn.blogspot.com

Security Resources

Here are some security resources that I have found to be of the highest quality.

Websites:
www.lightbluetouchpaper.com
www.crypto.com/blog
www.doxpara.com
www.phrack.org
www.renderlab.net
www.churchofwifi.net

Non-technical Books
"Secrets And Lies" by Bruce Schneiner
If you buy one book on security, get this one.

"Beyond Fear" by Bruce Schneiner
If you buy two books on security, get this along with the above...

"The Art Of Deception" by Kevin Mitnik

"Hackers' Handbook 3.0" By Dr. K

Semi-technical Books
"Security Engineering" by Ross Anderson

"Hacking Exposed Series" by various authors

"The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey" edited by Emmanuel Goldstein

Technical Books
"Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneiner

"Hacking: The Art Of Exploitation" by Jon Erickson

I also recommend attending the CCC in Berln and HOPE in New York. See www.ccc.de and www.hope.net for details.

If you are in Tokyo come along to a Tokyo 2600 meeting. www.tokyo2600.net

Learn Japanese Pod

Anyone wanting to learn Japanese should listen to the Learn Japanese Podcast by Alex Brooke.

The main site is here: learnjapanesepod.com
Episodes can be downloaded here: japanese.libsyn.com
The forums are here: learnjapanesepod.com/forums

DVD Bonanza

It was poor-peoples' day at the DVD rental place(200 yen per dvd) so I borrowed a bunch of films.

"Mister Lonely" directed by Harmony Korine, "Modern Times" directed by Charlie Chaplin, "Coffee And Cigarettes" directed by Jim Jarmusch, "Naqoyqatsi: Life As War" directed by Godfrey Reggio and "The Sting" directed by George Roy Hill.

I watched Mister Lonely in the evening. The story is irresistible; a Michael Jackson lookalike living in Paris meets a Marilyn Monroe lookalike who invites him to live in a commune for lookalikes in the Highlands of Scotland. It's the type of film I could watch for the rest of my life. In fact, I think I will.

Terrie Lloyd Talk

A businessman called Terrie Llyod gave a talk at the Tokyo PC Users Group. I love attending the meetings, it's like being in a Glengarry, Glen Ross. Everyone is so desperate. There was even a mineral water salesman. When he introduced himself he tried to sell mineral water. There were two clowns who claimed to be getting energy from hydrogen. It's all so funny yet so tragically sad, like Japan.

Llyod's talk was about starting software companies in Japan, then selling them to foreigners. Someone should tell him that there's already too much software.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead

The first of the month is cheap cinema day in Japan so I watched some cheap cinema in Ebisu.

Ebisu is a lovely place, close to Shibuya but very different in character. Before watching the film I went to Good Day Books. Although I have many books, I felt it necessary to buy some more. Buying books at Good Day Books is very unpleasant for several reasons. The books are expensive, their condition is poor and most of them are trashy novels which the dumb Americans here read. The main reason that shopping at Good Day Books is so unpleasant is that the owner is a total, utter, fucking cunt.

Despite the above, I bought "Secrets And Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World" by Bruce Schneier and "Call For The Dead" by John Le Carre.

The cheap cinema I watched was "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead", directed by Sidney Lumet. Good, but grim.

I Ain't Gonna Work On Maggie's Farm No More

My last English lesson at the community centre. It was also my last early morning lesson. From this point on I don't need to teach before 10 am.

Goodbye, Cruel Beard

Today I shaved my beard off in preparation for going to Thailand on Friday. It feels strange. When I return from Thailand I shall re-beard and I vow that I shall never be beardless again.

Bother That Cat

Read "Mog The Forgetful Cat" with one of my students. Life is very, very good.