The cost of security failure
February 25th 2010
Marcus recently finished this ‘creative project’ as he calls it. Having just walked a class through numeric risk assessment, the basic lesson is especially apt..
Archive for the ‘Tech Teaching’ Category
Intro to Multiprogramming
January 8th 2010
Back in 1964, Boston’s public TV station, WGBH, did a show on interactive computing at MIT. They interviewed Fernando Corbató, MIT’s timesharing pioneer, who demonstrated the old CTSS system. The Computer History Museum got permission from MIT and WGBH to post the episode on YouTube:
During the episode, Corby explains how timesharing (multiprogramming) works, in terms of taking turns between programs using round-robin scheduling.
A 21st Century Family Library
December 16th 2009
Over the years, our family has bought three copies of the Crosby, Stills & Nash album. My wife and I each bought a vinyl copy back in the ’70s. Recently we bought a “clean” (not copy protected) copy from the iTunes music store. I expect that’s the last time anyone in our family will have to buy a copy of that album, including all our descendants.
I believe that music sharing is “fair use” within a family. I’m inclined to feel that way about video, and no doubt I’ll feel the same way about digitized books. Cousin Jon sent me a couple of links describing “do it yourself” book scanners. I need to get myself one of those. But a family library of digitized books has an interesting implication for publishers: it will decimate the reprint market. My (not-yet-existing) great grandson won’t ever have to purchase a copy of Pride and Prejudice and should never have to buy any other books I collect in digital form.
AES in Cartoon Form!
October 21st 2009
I’ve always been a fan of graphic presentations. More people understand graphs and diagrams than understand equations. While this is a bad thing in some ways, it remains a fact. So it’s always great to see a graphical representation of a really difficult set of concepts.
Jeff Moser Fisher has posted A Stick Figure Guide to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). He has wisely structured it in layers. Interested readers can learn about AES to their level of interest or understanding: they can get the history and process, the high-level summary, or go diving into S-boxes.
Great!