Infrequently Noted

For those of us that spend our days pushing browsers to do things they really shouldn't, this is just about the coolest thing ever.

Aparently the idea that if you say it often enough it'll be true only works when your audience isn't trained to be suspicious and eternally vigilant against assult (internal or external). I think the best part of the article has to be Spaff's quote: "With open source, there is no need to wait for a large software firm to decide if a set of changes is in its best interests." I love that about Spaff, despite the fact that he's no Open Source lover, he calls 'em like he see's em, no matter who's funding his research.

I could go on for hours about how MS really doesn't understand security and/or what security people care about, but I'll spare everyone that pain. Instead, I propose a better marketing strategy for MS with regards to the DOD: make the case that having a heterogenous network is good for them. MS can't approach the DOD they way they did the free market in that the idea of a homogenous network is a security risk and will be flatly rejected by anyone in the DOD with a lick of sense. Therefore, MS should make a strong case that security-critical systems not have single points of failure in a common codebase (defense in breadth). As a security person, I can put faith in that argument, and it'll keep MS in contracts for the forseable future now that OS X is Unix based. Will they be that cunning? No, but at least it won't be my fault that they failed...sigh...

I really can't beleive how qickly this week has flown by. So much is changing so fast...sometimes I feel like I'm suspended in time and other times I feel like I'm holding on by the seat of my pants.

Yesterday I got acquainted with the PostScript language, and I can say without a hint of reservation that it's not the kind of thing I'd wish on anyone. Don't get me wrong, it's a VERY capable system, but it's something of a pain to write by hand.

I still don't have any furniture at my apartment, but all the appliances got replaced, which is a start. I'm sleeping on the floor (sleeping bag and thermarest) which is something I got pretty used to last summer. I think I'm going to have to wait for another couple of weeks before I can afford a bed so with a little luck I won't get any major back problems in the mean time =)

I wound up spending an extra day in SF entirely by accident (although I can't say that I'm sorry about it in any way). The flight I was supposed to be on was scheduled for 6:30 am departure, but when I awoke the daylight comming through the blinds me that despite the fact that I needed the sleep, I'd screwed up.

A quick call to the airline straightened things out and I got a flight out of SF at 11:20 yesterday evening. Just as we were leaving for the airport I noticed that things seemed to be shaking ever so slightly in Jennifer's apartment. The flowers on the counter top were gently swaying back and forth and I seemed slightly sea sick for just an instant. It took me a second for my brain to process what had happened, but slowly it dawned on me that it was probably an earthquake. Jennifer didn't even notice it, but it was all over the news today, so I guess I wasn't just dreaming.

Quite an end to a weekend full of suprises.

So I'm in San Francisco and having a GREAT time visiting my friend Jennifer. We went to a cookout today at which a pseudo-spontaneous game of bicycle polo broke out and then watched fireworks from the balcony at her apartment. Tomorrow we're going to see a Jose Carerras recital from the 2nd row. I'm so spoiled =)