• personal,  public speaking

    Hacking at Random 2009 Conference

    January 18, 2009

    Hacking at Random, a hacking conference held every four years near Vierhouten in the Netherlands is back at it. Muddy, dirty, euro-hippie-hackers will descend on an otherwise quiet town (likely camping out and getting dirtier as the 4 day HackCon goes on) and, well, hack random stuff. It’s one of those funny things, either it sounds like heaven (in which case I’m guessing you’ve been to burning man at least once and while there tried to figure out why everyone seems to be such a luddite) or it sounds like hell (which means you’re likely not reading this blog). If you are one of the former I might just see…

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  • personal

    Vice Presidential Email

    October 17, 2008

    David C. Kernell must have been very curious about what a vice presidential hopefuls email might contain.  The 20-year-old got into Sarah Palin’s email (I’m sure he guessed her password was jesus) and now finds himself indicted for a single count of accessing a protected computer, which means he can get up to five years in the big house and a quarter million dollar fine.  All in all, it seems like if you were going to break into someone’s email it might be more interesting to log into Joe Biden’s (password = geezer), McCain’s (password=nukeiraq) or O’Bama’s (password = IAMNOTATERRORISTDAMNIT).   But really, what would the point be, to see…

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  • personal

    LOPSA + SAGE + USENIX = l@m3

    October 12, 2008

    I got the following email from LOPSA (of which I am a member).  I’m at a loss for words and am now unsure as to why I am a member of either organization.  The whole affair seems completely in contradiction to my opinions of all things *nix… Dear Charles,  As you may be aware, LOPSA was sued as a third-party defendant by the  USENIX Association in April 2008, as part of a lawsuit brought by  Association Headquarters, Inc., against USENIX to recover for services  AH provided to LOPSA for which USENIX is allegedly responsible.  LOPSA  secured legal counsel at the time and has been involved in the pre-trial  phase of…

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  • personal,  sites

    BabyCenter

    June 3, 2008

    www.babycenter.com.  It’s a great site.  Especially when you’re on the road.  Know what the baby should be doing when you’re away that way you’re well primed for some good questions to ask when you call home.  🙂

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  • personal

    Where do Phone Numbers Come From?

    March 20, 2008

    Originally posted at http://www.318.com/TechJournal In the beginning, phone companies used names and not numbers to connect callers. As more and more people started using telephones that became too confusing to build a telephone infrastructure, as many people in a town might share the same name. Starting in 1879 the switch to assigning each customer a number began, typically using a four-digit code. All calls were still connected by a human operator. AT&T’s operating companies started installing dial telephones in the mid to late 1920s. Customers could now dial numbers rather than having an operator connect calls. Rather than use all digits to indicate a telephone number, AT&T began a hybrid…

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