Public Key Cryptography

Dignitaries from the computer security field took the stage at the Computer History Museum this evening to note the 30th anniversary of public key cryptography and wax historical about academic, governmental, and commercial developments in security, and ponder the future.

Panelists included Whitfield Diffie, who is a cryptography pioneer and chief security officer at Sun Microsystems, Martin Hellman, a Stanford University professor, Notes founder Ray Ozzie, now Microsoft's chief software architect, and Brian Snow, retired director for the National Security Agency's Information Assurance Directorate.

Public key cryptography uses public and private keys between sender and recipient of a message for security purposes. The sender encrypts a message with a public key and the recipient uses a private key to decrypt it. Its birth is traced to the November 1976 publishing of a paper entitled, "New Directions in Cryptography," by Diffie and Hellman.

Panelist Dan Boneh, also a Stanford University professor as well as a co-inventor of identity-based encryption, said government has gone from stalling deployment of cryptography to mandating it with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA. "There's been a complete flip, recognizing that encryption is there to help us, not just to help our enemies," Boneh said.

Counterpane

BT [British Telecom] announced today that it has acquired Counterpane Internet Security Inc., a leading provider of managed networked security services. Post-acquisition, Bruce Schneier, the founder of the company, will continue in his role as CTO.

Tear Our Laws?

One of my local newspapers had this heading: "Extend terror laws: MP's."

Is this a Freudian slip? I thought that they are ANTI-Terrorism laws.

Some people believe that, in some countries, these laws ARE terror laws, used to keep citizens terrified enough to surrender their civil rights and their reasoning faculties in exchange for security ... and not real security at that!

Parity?

Women have been fighting for years for equal pay for equal work, sadly achieving only wage parody.

A Trip Down the Route of All Evil

This past Sunday night (September 26, 2006), the CBC's The Big Picture aired The Root of All Evil, a documentary, written and presented by British ethologist, evolutionary theorist, popular science writer, and atheist Richard Dawkins, in which he argues that the world would be better off without religion.

[I understand that this was not Dawkins' first choice for a title.]

Visitors to the CBC website's online discussion board for the Big Picture, people were asked for comments. These are my comments:

I very much enjoyed Mr. Dawkins' documentary. I believe in G-d, and this belief has a very strong influence on my moral and ethical behaviour. I also believe in the ability of science to explain many of the physical manifestations of our universe, and in the need for the "separation of church and state." Or is that church and hate?

I hope that Mr. Dawkins' conversation with Ted Haggard serves as an alert to "Western" people that there is a fundamentalist "Jihad" being waged in North America against science and progress. No, Mr. Haggard, you don't know anything about evolution, and your war against evolution in particular and science in general has no basis in fact, let alone in morality.

His conversation with the very disturbed Yousef al-Khattab demonstrates that there is no way to have a rational dialogue with someone who combines fundamentalism with whatever brand of madness afflicts Joseph Cohen - my anger at his raving about "fornication in the streets" and "dressing YOUR women as whores" was secondary to my deep sympathy for this deranged man!

Thank you for the opportunity to view this documentary and to share my reactions.

I Can't Believe I Hate the Whole Thing

The recent events triggered by the Pope's statements suggest that, in some parts of the "West," there are problems concerning the separation of Church and State, and in some parts of the "Middle East," there are problems concerning the separation of Church and Hate!

Important Books II

Everyone should read these books by Malcolm Gladwell:

• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference




• A new way of understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does




• Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking




• About rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye

Don't Try This at Home!

VANCOUVER (CP)

British Columbia taxpayers are already on the hook for more than double what their provincial government estimated for the 2010 Winter Olympics and audit reports released Thursday suggest things could get worse.

British Columbia's auditor general, Arn van Iersel, concludes the 2010 Olympic Games will cost federal and provincial taxpayers $2.5 billion (Cdn). The budget, said van Iersel's report, has increased to $2.5 billion for the B.C. and federal governments. Most of that - $1.5 billion - will be covered by British Columbia.

British Columbia has provided a guarantee to the IOC to cover any budget shortfalls incurred by the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee.

Despite the risks, the B.C. government didn't have a proper watchdog agency to monitor the amount being spent on building venues, van Iersel said.

He noted that, for the Sydney 2000 Games, an authority was established to manage the capital budget. A similar agency was created for the Turin 2006 Games. "With the 2010 Games, no one central agency is taking responsibility for managing these costs."

Canadian cities - Don't Try This at Home!

Important Books

Everyone should read these books by Thomas L. Friedman:

• Longitudes and Attitudes, Exploring the World After September 11


• The World Is Flat, Expanded Edition: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century


• The Lexus and the Olive Tree


• From Beirut to Jerusalem

Muddle East

I think that the following quotes from Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Thomas L. Friedman, from March and April, 2002, are worth repeating:

"The Israeli-Palestinian violence had so inflamed the Arab street - thanks in large to Arab satellite TV stations that were competing to see who could show the most Israeli brutality in the most pro-Palestinian manner."

"The ongoing struggle with Israel is such a valuable resource for failed Arab leaders, such a perfect diversion, such an all-encompassing excuse for not democratizing or modernizing their states, that they will not give it up easily."

"Young Arab men were angry because of the brutality they saw Israel meting out to Palestinians on their TV screens. Forget the fact that their own governments had shown enormous indifference to the plight of the Palestinians over the years. Forget the fact that Osama bin Laden never mentioned the Palestinian cause as motivating his actions until he felt he was losing support in the Arab world. Forget the fact that all kinds of people around the world are angry today, but don't go hijacking planes and driving them into skyscrapers in New York."

[from the 'Diary' section of Longitudes and Attitudes, Exploring the World After September 11, Copyright © 2002 by Thomas L. Friedman]

Goldan Rule

Over 30 years ago, when Golda Meir was Prime Minister of Israel, a reporter asked her when she thought that the surrounding Arab states would stop trying to destroy Israel. She answered, "When they love their children more than they hate us!"

I think that we can use her answer to improve some aspects of our lives today. For instance, "When will we stop using television as a babysitter?" "When we love our children more than we hate taking care of them!"

Now, you try one.

World Cup

Hurray, hurray! It's Soccer World Cup time! Another one-trick sport dominates the airwaves.

And, the Stanley Cup lasts well into June, and Canadian football starts soon. Oh ... let's not forget poker; an FSN ad referred to a tournament with all the "Poker Royalty" in attendance!

Poker players, billionaires, celebrities, supermodels, chefs, soccer players, home renovators, bounty hunters ... the people of North America are so lucky that we will never run out of asses to kiss!

Gimme a Bee

Our sports networks are at it again! Poker, World's Biggest Cigar, Celebrity Dancing, and now ... televised Spelling Bee!!

Next? Celebrity Spelling Bee: "Cat? Could you use it in a sentence, please?"

Interleague Baseball

I hate Interleague Baseball! It's slanted against the American League teams.

If the game is played in a National League park, the AL team loses its Designated Hitter, and its Pitcher has to hit. Lose-lose for the AL team!

If the game is played in an AL park, the NL team gets to play an extra hitter, and its pitcher does not have to hit. Win-win for the NL team.

This is all profit-driven, of course; some team rivalries sell more tickets, like New York/New York, Chicago/Chicago, and the Angels/Dodgers, but what's in it for the fans who are offered Colorado/Toronto?

More interesting might be for Toronto to play Detroit or Oakland or Cleveland more often. In fact, teams in a strong division, playing against their divisional rivals 19 times means less movement within divisions than when they played more games against teams in other divisions. The Wild Card situation means that a team that gets clobbered in its own division can still be stronger [have a better record] than the leaders in the other divisions, but not make their way into the postseason.

Bob Rae

Former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae has formally declared his intention to seek the federal Liberal leadership, but says he has no plans to shift the party to the left.

Rae, who governed Ontario from 1990 to 1995, says he would stake out the political centre if elected as Paul Martin's successor. "What happens to Canada and what happens to Canadians matters," Rae said. "I believe that Canada needs a party that embraces change."

Zatoichi

The character's name is actually Ichi. Zato is a title, the lowest of the four official ranks within the Todo-za, the traditional guild for the blind, which was abolished in 1871. The three other ranks, in ascending order, were koto, betto, and kengyo. Ichi is therefore properly called Zato-no-Ichi ("Low-Ranking Blind Person Ichi," approximately), or Zatoichi for short. Giving massages was a traditional occupation for the blind.

A recurring theme of both the films and television series episodes concerns Zatoichi protecting the innocent from oppressive warring clans and general injustice.

Hockey

I'm not a hockey fan - never was. When it was announced today that Toronto didn't make the playoffs, I shrugged, "Whatever!"

Then my wife said, "Hockey used to be a sport - now it's a brawl;" adding, "like wrestling on ice."

"Don't give them any ideas," I answered

Books II

I just finished The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell, and enjoyed it even more than I did her Assassination Vacation.

Bread and Circuses II

With all of the celebrities dancing, skating, and cooking, is there going to be a market for Celebrity Freecell? Stay tuned!

Blue Jays vs White Sox

Pitcher A. J. Burnett made his debut as a Blue Jay yesterday. The score was Chicago 4, Toronto 2.

Paul Konerko of Chicago hit two 2-run home runs, accounting for all 4 White Sox RBI's.

Some sportscasters reported, "He threw only 2 bad pitches." I'm thinking that, since he gave up two 2-run home runs, he threw only 4 bad pitches.

It's only his first start, and he's sure to pitch better as the season continues.