Security and Simplicity

A Microsoft official is quoted here, confessing the sad state of the company's software with respect to security:

I'm not proud [...] We really haven't done everything we could to protect our customers [...] Our products just aren't engineered for security.

Oh, how that's a quotable quote. But frankly, Microsoft is just too easy to pick on, here. Just what is it that makes software secure?

D.J. Bernstein has some ideas that make a lot of sense, paramount amoung them: simplicity.

Now who amoung us would contend that Microsoft is the only one writing complex software? I for one am putting down my stone.

3:07:04 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Welcome to Middle School

Back and forth. Forth and back. City to country. Country to city. Country to river. River to country. I drilled him on what he was supposed to know for the quiz.

Which is further west, the Indus or Ganges? You can remember if you remember Alexander the Great on his eastward march.

Where is Bucharest? You can remember if you know that roman is a word (in some languages) for novel. I gave the book a rest in Romania.

Niger! It's a soft 'g', like Nigeria.

Lima is in Peru. They both have four letters.

Quick! What are the two rivers near the capital of Iraq? What is the name of that city? Where in the world is it?

He climbed into his bunk later than usual. He had done a lot of work: reading, trombone, and now this quizzing for his first quiz. After he got to the top and I gave him his hug and turned out the light and walked back into the computer room, he said,

This sixth grade thing is really going to burn some new paths in my neurons. I like it.

2:08:06 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Technology that works for me

Steve Pilgrim writes here about looking at technology from a less geeky perspective, about making it not only work but also work for us:

It's finally dawned on many of us that our software has fallen behind our infrastructure [...]

Software that embraces mobility, synchronization, security, and manageability as transparent core attributes.  Software that recognizes "people" as being just as important as "documents". 

Funny. Yesterday John Siracusa had some interesting things to say about Mac OS X 1.2 and said this about Apple's Rendezvous and in particular quoted Stuart Cheshire, an Apple employee and key contributer to the IETF's effort to bring zero-configuration networking to the masses:

The IETF is generally populated by people who care very little for ease-of-use [...] Even today, it remains something of a minority view in the IETF. [Cheshire]

Apple's implementation of Rendezvous forces their infrastructure to be more useful in the sense above. Maybe I'll upgrade after all.

1:09:59 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Just Say Off

Go Tara!

[...] here is a little known secret that no network wants you to know---On every television set there is a little button, usually larger than all others.  Some T.V.'s have knobs you turn.  Press this button and your television disruption is over for your entire household.  Just look for the words Power or Off.  If that doesn't work, just pull the plug!

12:30:35 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Carter Speaks

Is any one listening to what he says?

Formerly admired almost universally as the preeminent champion of human rights, our country has become the foremost target of respected international organizations concerned about these basic principles of democratic life. We have ignored or condoned abuses in nations that support our anti-terrorism effort, while detaining American citizens as "enemy combatants," incarcerating them secretly and indefinitely without their being charged with any crime or having the right to legal counsel.

12:16:33 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []