Ron at 11:24, 12 February 2010

2010-02-12T11:24:58Z

Ron at 11:43, 5 February 2010

2010-02-05T11:43:30Z

Ron: Created page with ' {{blog}} {{bheader|Feb 5th|Devar/5770/Yitro}} Hi again! Brrr! It's been cold this week -- getting down to just over freezing here i…'

2010-02-05T11:41:58Z

Created page with ' {{blog}} {{bheader|Feb 5th|Devar/5770/Yitro}} Hi again! Brrr! It's been cold this week -- getting down to just over freezing here i…'

New page

{{blog}}
{{bheader|Feb 5th|Devar/5770/Yitro}}

Hi again!

Brrr! It's been cold this week -- getting down to just over freezing here in the Jerusalem area. Snow fell in the north of the country, and here there was lots of cold rain as well as some hail. The forecast for tonight is ''cold'' (down to freezing) but mostly dry; tomorrow it is supposed to be partly cloudy and warmer. We'll see how accurate they are -- right now, it looks gray and cold outside.

This week we finally, after living in the house a year and a half -- finally! -- purchased some lighting fixtures for our "salon"/dining room. Of course, there were several other places in the house needing fixtures, so we got some for those places as well. Once we got them home, it was my job to install them -- which, with a sore shoulder, is not fun. But B"H, we got them installed and running, and it is amazing just how much brighter the "salon" is with proper lighting. Now we have to paint ...

I didn't mention this last week, because I had forgotten. Several weeks ago, one of my "Facebook" friends became a fan of "Tommy's Burgers", in Los Angeles. If you're not from L.A., you won't know what I'm talking about, so [http://www.originaltommys.com/_images/TommysBURGER3.jpg here's a picture]. It may come as a shock to some of you, but I wasn't always the upstanding religious man you know today -- and "in the day", I had been known to enjoy a Tommy's burger. So when I saw that link from my friend, the seed was planted in my mind that I wanted a Tommy's Burger -- but in a kosher variety. I mentioned this to my long-suffering wife. I may have mentioned it a number of times over the course of several weeks. Actually, I mentioned it enough times that she finally (in order to shut me up) examined the picture of the burger so she could emulate it. Then last week, the day arrived! She had made the ''perfect'' Tommy's Burger (kosher edition)!! But I was so overloaded from it that I must have forgotten by the time blog-writing time arrived. So now I'm trying to make amends.

This ''shabbat'' two seminary girls will be staying with us. We're also having friends/neighbors of ours over (the one whose birthday was last week). So hopefully all will enjoy our most excellently illuminated ''salon''.

A former Microsoft VP talks about [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html Microsoft's Creative Destruction]. Interesting read from an insider. And another MS executive shows why the first one is right, by talking about requiring an [http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/04/2249241/Craig-Mundie-Wants-Internet-Drivers-Licenses?from=rss internet "drivers" license] -- no wonder ms is heading down the drain!

I recently read a technical-thriller called {{wiki|Digital Fortress}}, by Dan Brown (author of the "Da Vinci Code"). I'm not a good audience for these kinds of books, since I'm unwilling to let glaring technical mistakes slip by. It turns out [http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf340 I am not alone] in saying this book is a technical travesty. There are three main technical problems with the book, and therefore the entire premise is faulty:
# Complete misunderstanding of how secure a cryptographic key is. The usual 1024 bit [http://gnupg.org GnuPG] private key (21024, or roughly 10308) would take the "30 million keys per second" machine 10301 seconds to crack using brute-force -- approximately 10293 years. The most liberal estimate of the age of the universe is only about 1010 years... you do the math. Of course, if the {{wiki2|Nsa|NSA}} has some way of cracking the underlying ''algorithm'' of GPG all bets are off; but brute-force is clearly inadequate. Even the 128 bit GPG session key (used for each specific message) would take 1024 years to crack by brute-force -- longer, probably, than the NSA wants to wait. Current GPG encryption is effectively unbreakable (but there are [http://xkcd.com/538/ other ways to get your information]).
# The notion that it is possible to crack a code without knowing what algorithm is being used. For example: without knowing which encryption algorithm is used, the code <tt>'''23jfi30aSF!$Rwf'''</tt> could mean <tt>'''attack at dawn!'''</tt> or <tt>'''empty the trash'''</tt> (or in fact, anything else). There is ''no way'' to determine that one plaintext is preferable to another, absent knowledge of the cipher used.
# The idea that there is not already an unbreakable cipher. One such has been known since the early part of last century, the {{wiki2|One-time_pad|"one-time pad"}}. Hardly something the NSA would get excited about today.

In other assaults on [[Privacy|your privacy]], the various police are lobbying internet providers to [http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10446503-38.html install "backdoors"] to get at your private information. Yet another reason to promote the wide use of encryption software.

The Swedish police stood idly by while demonstrating Arabs [http://wejew.com/media/3552/Arab_Gang_Attacks_Peaceful_Jews_in__Sweden_with_OMG_Rockets_and_Bombs/ Arabs fired rockets against Jews]. Makes you wonder how long Sweden will stand, doesn't it? And you in the US: pay attention to what [http://pathofmostresistance.org/tag/congress fifty-four of your Democratic Congressmen] just did. The road to Hell, and all that.

On a positive note, one of my loyal readers just sent me a speech given by [http://www.israpundit.com/2006/?p=1673 Joe McCain] in 2002. Somewhat reminiscent of Mark Twain's famous essay [http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/mtwain/bl-mtwain-concerningjews.htm Concerning the Jews].

This week we're having baked {{wiki2|European_seabass|sea-bass}}, a beef stew (the cut turned out to be impossibly tough, so it's stewing as I write this). Also on the menu: "shnitzel", vegetable soup, homemade ''challah'' and various and sundry ''salatim'' as usual.

Until next week, 
Shabbat shalom! 

{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/January 2010/Jan 29th|Jan 29th||}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:24, 12 February 2010
Line 36:		Line 36:


−	{{nav\|Blog\|Blog\|Blog/January 2010/Jan 29th\|Jan 29th\|\|}}	+	{{nav\|Blog\|Blog\|Blog/January 2010/Jan 29th\|Jan 29th\|Blog/February 2010/Feb 12th\|Feb 12th}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:43, 5 February 2010
Line 29:		Line 29:
	On a positive note, one of my loyal readers just sent me a speech given by [http://www.israpundit.com/2006/?p=1673 Joe McCain] in 2002. Somewhat reminiscent of Mark Twain's famous essay [http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/mtwain/bl-mtwain-concerningjews.htm Concerning the Jews].		On a positive note, one of my loyal readers just sent me a speech given by [http://www.israpundit.com/2006/?p=1673 Joe McCain] in 2002. Somewhat reminiscent of Mark Twain's famous essay [http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/mtwain/bl-mtwain-concerningjews.htm Concerning the Jews].

−	This week we're having baked {{wiki2\|European_seabass\|sea-bass}}, a beef stew (the ~~cut~~ turned out to be ~~impossibly~~ tough, so it's stewing as I write this). Also on the menu: "shnitzel", vegetable soup, homemade ''challah'' and various and sundry ''salatim'' as usual.	+	This week we're having baked {{wiki2\|European_seabass\|sea-bass}} with vinaigrette, a beef stew with ''tsimmes'' (the meat turned out to be very tough, so it's stewing as I write this). Also on the menu: "shnitzel", vegetable soup, homemade ''challah'' and various and sundry ''salatim'' as usual.

Blog/February 2010/Feb 5th - Revision history

Ron at 11:24, 12 February 2010

Ron at 11:43, 5 February 2010

Ron: Created page with ' {{blog}} {{bheader|Feb 5th|Devar/5770/Yitro}} Hi again! Brrr! It's been cold this week -- getting down to just over freezing here i…'