I’d really like to get some intellectual friends together, get some coffee going, and spend the night discussing these questions. Very cool stuff…

A List Of Really Cool Questions

A great comedy skit by a very talented guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFnzKDFD9To 

Here is an excellent piece by Orson Scott Card about how our civilization could fall, complete with analysis of why the comparisons to the Roman empire are both valid and invalid. Read the whole thing.

How Our Civilization Can Fall

A friend of mine is finishing his Masters in Information Security and just told me the craziest story. As a bonus question on the final exam in his information security management class, the professor asked if it was ever possible to guarantee e-commerce security if one were to implement security recommendations such as SET and SSL.

Can we guarantee the security of e-commerce if we adopt all recommended security mechanisms including SET and SSL?

Half the class — over 30 people — answered yes.

The professor got so infuriated that he threatened to fail everyone that answered in the affirmative. I think he’d be completely justified if he were to do so. I seriously can’t believe this many people are about to enter the security field — some of them probably as managers — without understanding this key concept.

If I were the professor, I’d send out an email to those who got it wrong that simply said, “You make me sad.” – [Edit: Posted the actual question, which was more specific than just "perfect security" in general]

I am a bit pedantic when it comes to language, so seeing as how I’m now engaged I thought it appropriate to learn how to pronounce (and write) the word fiancé correctly.

A long time ago I was schooled by some French relatives about the fact that you pronounce fiancé differently, depending on whether you’re talking about the man or the woman. That stuck with me. Even though I was not fit for even a girlfriend at the time I knew that when it came time I was going to say the word correctly. So here I am.

So anyway, I think the way it was explained to me was that the man is pronounced fee-ON-say, and the woman is fee-on-SAY. It turns out that in English it’s pronounced the same, however, which is the latter way. Here’s the link to the pronunciation:

fiancé.

Last night I finally retired from the PHP Security Response Team, that was initially my idea a few years ago. The reasons for this are many, but the most important one is that I have realised that any attempt to improve the security of PHP from the inside is futile. The PHP Group will jump into your boat as soon you try to blame PHP’s security problems on the user but the moment you criticize the security of PHP itself you become persona non grata. — Lead PHP Security Developer

Not encouraging…

This personality test, designed by Carl Jung, is one of the few metrics for personality that I’ve found actually useful. Most are little more than entertainment.

The Myers-Briggs Personality Test

Be sure to read about your score after you’re done. I’m an ENTJ, by the way.

The world today is failing to help the less fortunate due to cowardice. This is true in the U.S., in Mexico, in Africa, and most everywhere else on the planet. The issue isn’t obstacles that cannot be overcome; it’s that we are unwilling to correctly identify the obstacles in the first place.

When we as world citizens approach a situation in which a certain segment of the population is in pain, we approach it in one of two ways: it’s either a problem with the group itself or it’s a problem with the group’s environment, i.e. they are victims of something external to them that they cannot overcome. Inevitably, we chose the latter.

What’s needed, however, is an aggressive move away from politically-correct, “victim” policy and one towards logic and reason. The sad reality is that in order to do any good we have to stop treating many of these groups as equals.

When a child starts lighting things on fire, the role of the adult is not to convene a summit composed of equal numbers of children and adults in order to decide whether they should be allowed to continue the behavior. Instead, the adult’s job is to simply state that it cannot continue. Children are not entitled to equal treatment because they are children.

This should be no different in the “adult” world. If a population or culture seems unwilling or unable to subscribe to the concepts that make civilizations successful, and human suffering ensues as a result, the world should step in and put a stop to it. But not as an equal — as a parent. A loving parent, to be sure — a parent that knows that this child will one day be an equal — but a parent no less.

Failure to adopt this approach will lead to the child simply lighting things on fire over and over. The role of the world in that scenario is reduced to sending firetrucks (and money for new furniture) and politely asking for the kid to stop. I say the time for that has passed. Let’s call a failed system what it is and find the courage to “talk down” to our family members who have lost their way. Anything less is superficial and ultimately pointless.

The challenge here, of course, is determining who should be included in the group of parents, and what the message to the child should be. And given the recent Bush administration the perception of arrogance and condescention is somethiAny discussions along this line inevitably lead to charges of racism, religious oppression, cultural elitism, etc. But one fact is clear: the unwillingness to classify these situations correctly, i.e. as groups/cultures that need behavior modification rather than environment modification will only prolong the suffering.:

…they’re all complex systems that worked in the past but are now failing. This is true because they rely on an advanced, educated population to sustain them. We don’t have one of those anymore.

We have teachers sleeping with students, parents abandoning children in order to fornicate, and people watching reality TV instead of getting an education. Our society is failing, and it will continue to deteriorate because we are becoming mouthbreathers.

Healthy society is based on using logic and reason to create rules that benefit society. It requires that people participating in such a system place their own interests on hold in order to benefit someone else. It’s intellect vs. animal.

The animal is now winning. The society is crumbling. I have no idea what the outcome will look like, but I do know that it’s going to be ugly. The process is in motion.

Many know about the merits of Del.icio.us (no intro necessary), and plenty of others are also aware of Firefox Quick Searches, which allow you to search anything from the Firefox address bar. Very few, however, know how powerful it is to combine them.

Peanut Butter + Chocolate

The cool thing about Del.icio.us is that it combines two really cool technologies: RSS and Tags. This functionality is really sick just by itself; it lets you subscribe to your friends’ bookmarks via a news aggregator, search for interesting bookmarks on a certain subject, etc.

But when you combine that power with Firefox you get something truly brutal — searching bookmarks from the address bar.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Log in to your Del.icio.us page
2. Right-click in the search-field
3. Select “Add a Keyword for this Search”
4. Give it a keyword of “b” (for bookmarks)
5. Name it “Bookmarks Quicksearch”, or whatever

Now simply go to your address bar (ctrl/cmd-L from the keyboard) and type: b searchterm

So simple, yet so powerful.: