Do tools make us dumber? I don’t agree with the idea exactly, as they are just that, tools. Tools are just another level of abstraction from thinking at a lower level. It’s what distinguishes an engineer from a kit builder. Who here wants to program in 1’s and 0’s, or use Maxwell’s equation in designing […]

Who else besides me thinks “ThreatCon” levels are bullshit? (not to be confused with vulnerability alerts) After checking out Slashdot this morning, I came across CERTStation, which attempts to aggregate current threat information into one page, entirely in Flash. I won’t get into how much Flash sites irritate me, as we can debate for days […]

On Christmas, I went to the movie theaters and saw The Good Shepherd. I liked it, but felt that the romance with Angelina Jolie and family issues took away from it. It did a good job showing how family and relationships are affected by secretive lives, but I didn’t care too much for that. I […]

A new case in my coverage of espionage stories, the Houston Chronicle is reporting this time a Chinese engineer working in Silicon Valley is indicted on 36 felony counts, including economic espionage to benefit a foreign government and various military export control regulations.
Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, 42, a Chinese national with Canadian citizenship… Prosecutors say […]

Yikes, the reps at Verizon need to be trained in elementary mathematics. George Vaccaro definitely has more patience than I do.
Best quote in the audio clip at ~15:33
…
Andrea: What do you mean .002 dollars?
George: Do you recognize that there’s a difference between one dollar and one cent?
Andrea: definitely
George: Do you recognize that there’s a difference […]