In The Cuckoo’s Egg, astronomer-turned-detective Cliff Stoll chases down a trespasser on his university’s computer network. The chase winds across the US, through the networks of US defense contractors and US military bases, past satellites in orbit, and even into computers as distant as Japan and Germany. Despite there being very little physical action, the process of untangling this path (and avoiding detection in the process) is surprisingly satisfying. Stoll recounts the whole ordeal with great detail, likely thanks to his rigorous practice of note taking.

Unless you’re a web developer, you probably missed the announcement that Microsoft Edge (the browser that comes with Windows 10) is being rewritten to use the Chromium project under the hood. Chromium powers the Google Chrome browser, so Edge is going to start to display websites just like Chrome does (even if the things like the URL bar and bookmark list look different). When VP Joe Belfiore announced this change, they shied away from explaining why this is necessary.

I started reading Kali Linux Revealed because I wanted to learn a bit about the work of professional penetration testers. I’m also interested in the specific software tools those folks use. In my experience, books on GNU/Linux tend toward operator manuals, so I was fairly confident I’d find content like that here. I was disappointed on both fronts. While the book has some information on the trade of penetration testing, it’s limited to about 20 pages in the penultimate chapter.

By networking everything, we are making awesome things possible. I mean awesome in the sense of inspiring awe; much of the potential is also awful. The empowering nature of technology, particularly its tendency to become faster, cheaper, and simpler over time, means that destructive capabilities are being pushed down to small nations, corporations, organizations, and even individuals. In his latest book, Bruce Schneier tries to sort out the risks, precautions, and likely effects of this situation.

I came across this book when looking for a more practical follow-up to Applied Cryptography. (Being a web developer, my interests are focused around Internet security.) I believe Amazon recommended it to me, and I was convinced by the pedigree of the publisher (No Starch Press) and the credentials of the author (Daniel Zalewski). Zalewski seemed to anticipate my concerns specifically, and addressed them in his introduction: In any case, through the remainder of the book, I will shy away from attempts to establish or reuse any of the aforementioned grand philosophical frameworks and settle for a healthy does of anti-intellectualism instead.

I’ve written a new article for the Bocoup.com weblog entitled “Third-Party JavaScript Development: The Future!”. You can find it here.

I’ve written a new article for the Bocoup.com weblog entitled “Third-Party JavaScript Development: CSS Defensive Techniques”. You can find it here.

After watching “Kara is Self Aware”, I put my foot down and purchased “The Singularity is Near” by Ray Kurzweil. While the author would contend the book is anything but science fiction, I felt that, as a subject, the Singularity was woefully under-represented in my sci-fi reading. The Singularity describes an exponential growth in technological capability, but my own interest in Kurzweil’s opinions varied with an exponential decay. Visions of the Future Kurzweil has much to say on possible futures of the human race, and his predictions range from highly speculative to relatively concrete.

I’ve written a new article for the Bocoup.com weblog entitled “Third-Party JavaScript Development: Optimizing CSS Delivery”. You can find it here.

I’m not sure how I first heard about Bruce Schneier, but his ideas have appealed to me for a while now. He has an impressive background in computer cryptography, but his transition to a personality in the field of security that interests me most. Utilizing a technical background to build a more socially-relevant identity is a feat I personally hope to accomplish one day (just like Tony Stark, “Mannie” O’‘Kelly-Davis, or Mitchell Hundred).