I had a good time giving my trusted computing talk at the SDForum security SIG in Mountain View. I spoke right after Whit Diffie, went on for a long time, and got a variety of interesting questions (though questions fairly similar to the ones I'd gotten by e-mail after the publication of Trusted Computing: Promise and Risk).
Co-incidentally, "Give TCPA an Owner Override" is now available on-line, or in print in the December Linux Journal.
Now I know how to make a Thai curry. I used this recipe I found with a Google search. (I added basil, baby corn, chili pepper, and bamboo shoots.) I've made this curry twice, and it's good.
I never understood cooking with coconut milk before. It seems that it's not a good idea to make the coconut milk boil.
I have often heard that erasing (not storing) data is what unavoidably consumes energy. I never heard quite so picturesque an explanation of why as this one, seen on slashdot:
For example, when a computer erases something, what it does physically is ground one part of a circuit that holds a charge, in effect converting the stored energy -- and the information it represents -- into heat, Frank said. When chips perform millions or billions of erasing and other operations in a short time, the total heat becomes substantial, limiting both the performance of the chip and the number of chips that can be packed together in a small space, he said.
I am still troubled that CodeCon continues to discriminate against attendees on the basis of age. I want to know: What is CodeCon doing to try to find an age-neutral venue?
I disapprove of the routinization of identification, and I disapprove of age discrimination. I'm saddened but not surprised when corporate event producers encourage age discrimination and ID demands (they have paranoid lawyers who advise them in the service of increasing shareholder value to the exclusion of all other values). But I am surprised when world-renowned activists for anonymity and privacy continue to choose venues for their own events that exclude minors and that demand government ID.
SDForum, where I spoke Wednesday, didn't ask for ID (despite being held inside a corporation's offices!). SVLUG, where I've spoken twice before, didn't ask for ID (despite being held inside another corporation's offices). BALUG, where I've also spoken twice before, didn't ask for ID (despite being held in a restaurant where alcoholic drinks are served). DEF CON doesn't ask for ID. Computers, Freedom, and Privacy doesn't ask for ID (although a conference hotel recently made the mistake of asking CFP guests for ID to stay there). HOPE (etc.) don't ask for ID. CCC doesn't ask for ID. Several conferences on telecommunications policy I've attended recently didn't ask for ID (despite the presence at the conferences of actual civil servants who have made extremely unpopular political decisions). The student-organized conference at the University of Illinois where I spoke two weeks ago didn't ask for ID. Some of these events are smaller and lower-budget than CodeCon. All of them have somehow succeeded in finding venues accessible to the general public.
What is CodeCon doing to try to find such a venue?
Contact: Seth David Schoen
