Kim Jong-un and North Korea’s criminality

March 7, 2012

in Bombs and rockets, Law, Politics, Security, Writing

Sheena Chestnut – a friend and former Oxford classmate – recently had an article published in the Sunday Review section of The New York Times: A North Korean Corleone. She has written some very interesting things about the illicit dabbling of the North Korean regime, including in terms of nuclear weapons proliferation.

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Twitter grabbing address books from phones

February 18, 2012

in Geek stuff, Internet matters, Politics, Security, Writing

Here’s an example of what I mean about the internet creating all sorts of new security vulnerabilities. Twitter has recently confessed to grabbing entire address books from the smartphones of people using the service. As well as being a violation of privacy, this is a practice that could seriously endanger people. Consider all those brave [...]

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Internet surveillance in Canada

February 14, 2012

in Bombs and rockets, Canada, Geek stuff, Internet matters, Law, Politics, Rants, Security, Writing

The Conservative government is proposing a new law that would require internet service providers to monitor and record what Canadians do online, and to provide that information to the authorities without a warrant. As well as being an obvious violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (§8 “Everyone has the right to be secure [...]

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The TOR browser bundle

February 7, 2012

in Geek stuff, Internet matters, Politics, Security, Writing

The TOR browser bundle seems like a reasonably effective and very easy-to-use means of circumventing web censorship and surveillance. The speed of web browsing falls significantly when data is routed through the TOR network, but tools like this are increasingly essential as governments undertake more and more inappropriate meddling with the free flow of ideas [...]

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When to shiver and when to work

January 31, 2012

in Geek stuff, Law, Politics, Rants, The environment, Writing

From Daniel Yergin’s The Quest: To demonstrate environmental sensitivity [at the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol], the Japanese organizers turned down the heating in the conference center. But this created a new problem as Kyoto in December was cold. To compensate, the Japanese decided to distribute blankets to the delegates. But they did not have [...]

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Idea novelty versus urgency of publication

January 31, 2012

in Geek stuff, Writing

One sign that a person has had a genuinely novel idea is that they are in no particular hurry to publish it. When Idea A and Idea B are all over the place already, it is obvious that Idea A+B will be thought up by dozens of clever people in short order. There is less [...]

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The Hobbit

January 20, 2012

in Books and literature, Geek stuff, Writing

I recently re-read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The book is a wonderful one, with a compelling story, beautiful language, well-crafted characters, and moral complexity. It’s a classic journey tale, in which a protagonist goes from one place to another and changes along the way. I first read The Hobbit in high school. One of my [...]

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SOPA blackout

January 18, 2012

in Canada, Geek stuff, Internet matters, Law, Politics, Writing

Many websites in the United States, Canada, and around the world are joining together to protest SOPA – the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill, which could become law in the United States, would have unfortunate consequences for the internet as a whole. I agree with Michael Geist that Canadians should be concerned. I remember [...]

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My first exposure to the value of mindfulness

January 14, 2012

in Books and literature, Psychology, Writing

After having my interest piqued by some iTunes University lectures, I have been reading Mark Williams’ and Danny Pengman’s book Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World. In the midst of a number of urgent projects, I am reading it in fits and starts, so I am not really following the [...]

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A Liar’s Autobiography: Volume VI

January 14, 2012

in Books and literature, Geek stuff, Psychology, Writing

Graham Chapman, one of the Monty Python gang, drank himself to death at 48, having already been an alcoholic for 23 years when he was 37. He died exactly 20 years after the first recording of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. A Liar’s Autobiography: Volume VI was published nine years earlier, written by Chapman, his long-time [...]

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