The First Amendment is not just for artists

So this young NPR intern named Emily White wrote a breathtakingly clueless defense of her choice to steal music rather than to pay for it, her ridiculous argument boiling down to it being more “convenient” to steal than to purchase. She apparently doesn’t see how her actions hurt the very artists she claims to admire.

Over at the Trichordist blog, musician David Lowery wrote a rebuttal to White. Lowery is the force behind the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. I’m a big fan. I own a number of Cracker CDs and even got Lowery’s autograph after Cracker swung by Raleigh for a show a few years ago. Some of my money wound up in Lowery’s pocket and I’m happy with that. He earned it.
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The Art of Deception

The recent LinkedIn password crisis got me looking for good book on hacking. Sadly, Kevin Mitnick’s book The Art of Deception is not that book. On the foreward page of the book, one reader scrawled a message that said:

WARNING! THIS BOOK COULD HAVE BEEN A MAGAZINE ARTICLE, FOR ALL ITS SUBSTANCE!

I got through about ten pages before I concluded that the previous reader was right. Mitnick’s a terrible writer, with many of his sentences tend to ramble and lack focus. It reads as if he was told by his editor to fill x pages and so he put little thought into what he is trying to say.

What’s more, much of what he says doesn’t rise beyond simple common sense. It’s not entirely Mitnick’s fault, as network security became far more sophisticated while he was serving time for his crimes. While he might have been a big fish when he was arrested in Raleigh in the early 90s, his hacking methods don’t compare to those used today. For instance, Mitnick recommends against writing down passwords, even though most security experts now agree that this policy encourages people to use simple, easy-to-remember passwords that can be easily cracked. Even if Mitnick was up on the latest techniques, though, it’s likely he can’t reveal these techniques due to terms of his parole.

What we’re left with is a book that is actually pretty boring. I’m a guy who enjoys learning about network security but even I can’t bear to finish this book.

Computer Security Session 1: Passwords, Overview

In light of LinkedIn’s password disaster, I found this advice on choosing passwords to be very helpful:

Passwords are like housekeys for computer services. They are intended to be secrets that allow you to access resources, but deny access to others.

Here are some questions to ask yourself about passwords:

What are the passwords protecting?

If one password is breached how many other computer services become vulnerable?

Who else knows your passwords? How much do you trust them?

What services have your passwords? How much do you trust them?

How many passwords do you have to manage?

How do you manage your computer passwords?

via Computer Security Session 1: Passwords, Overview « KW FreeSkool.

Ubuntu Unity desktop


I have tried using the Ubuntu Unity desktop and can say that in spite of a few week’s use, it has not grown on me one iota. In fact, it drives me nuts not being able to find a running application, or to start a new instance of a running application, or not to have things tucked into nicely hidden menus.

Ubuntu Unity is a horrible mess of a user interface, a colossal misstep by Canonical which sets Ubuntu back by years. The day that a sensible desktop is no longer available for Ubuntu and all that’s left is Unity is the day I’m leaving Ubuntu for good.

Update: This handy script will help downgrade Gnome3 to Gnome 2, which is what I need to do after flubbing the removal of Unity.

Fake “morgue shooting” headline

"17 remain dead in morgue shooting spree"


A blurry image shared by the George Takei Facebook page showed an edition of the News and Observer that had a story headlined “17 remain dead in morgue shooting spree.” It looked fishy, so I went hunting for the source.

Turns out, Andy Bechtel already did the legwork:

So where did the fake N&O page come from? A Facebook friend points to the Brunching Shuttlecocks, a defunct comedy website, as the source of this image. If you happen to know more, please add a comment on this post.

Good job, Andy!

(For those who are curious, here’s the real front page appeared on September 7, 2001. [PDF] )

World music

AfroCubism


I kicked myself when I found out the world music supergroup AfroCubism played at the North Carolina Museum of Art on Sunday and we missed it. I’ve been on a world music kick for a few years now and it doesn’t get much better now than AfroCubism.

In surfing the art museum’s concert page, I noticed it was sponsored by a group called Friends of World Music. I’d never heard of this group but was delighted to learn it is a Raleigh-based non-profit that works to bring live world music to the Triangle. I’ve often mused that my “second career” would be being a world music promoter and Friends of World Music seemed like a serendipitous find.

On a whim I called the number listed, began leaving a rambling message on their machine, and soon the longtime executive director, Jessie Cannon, picked up and spoke to me. It turns out I may be just the person the group is looking for, she said, telling me the group used to put on more shows in prior years but haven’t been able to keep up that pace in recent years. Jessie and I are meeting for lunch on Friday to discuss the possibilities.

Kelly tells me I need another project like a hole in the head and she’s got a point. I see this one as a long-term thing that I’m happy to be patient about and grow at my own pace.

Again, I’m open to the possibilities. We’ll see where it leads.

South Meck reunion

After my friend Mitchell Franseth invited me a few months back, I decided to attend the South Meck High School Class of 1987 reunion later this month. I left South Meck near the end of my junior year to move to Great Falls, VA, so I’m not officially a part of the class of 1987. Even so, I spent more time at South than I did at my last high school, Herndon High School in Herndon, VA.

My time at South Meck was a challenging one. I was a poor student, feeling hopelessly and embarrassingly lost in my math classes (due to my laziness coupled with my frequently-interrupted educational experience, I think). I was a geek before geeks ruled the world. The closest friends I had moved away before I did. My best friend attended a different school. It was also the first time that my older sister, Suzanne, didn’t attend a school before me, which I think tended to help me know what to expect. Charlotte in those days wasn’t as accepting of newcomers as it is today – certainly not as welcoming as the Northern Virginia suburbs where I’d soon live. I found it challenging at South to find my identity.
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Your Paypal.com transaction confirmation.

I got a realistic-looking but fake notice in my email purporting to show someone spending money from my PayPal account. Needless to say, this is a phishing scam.

PayPal logo Transaction ID: 33746045
Hello supercoolguy@supercoolguy.educomnet,

You sent a payment of $357.48 USD to Xavier Parrish

Thanks for using PayPal. To see all the transaction details, Log In to your PayPal account.

It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account.

Seller
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A world without secrets

I felt compelled to read up on a recent email thread on the Triangle Linux User Group list that discussed the recent LinkedIn password fiasco. While the discussion didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know, it did get me thinking.

I decided that LinkedIn could be cut some slack for their outdated notions of what constituted password security, because the truth is that 99.9% of us also hold outdated notions of password security. That is, the vast majority of us still believe in password security when in fact there is no such thing!
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