Events

I lost my ID case last week here in New Hampshire, and had Anne overnight my passport to me so I could go home. It turns out, I needn't have been so paranoid, as reported on Bruce Schneier's security blog: According to the TSA, in the 9th Circuit Case of John Gilmore, you are allowed to fly without showing ID -- you'll just have to submit yourself to secondary screening. Here's a link to the 9th Circuit decision (pdf).

Frontal systems can be a lot of fun. A warm front passed through Southern New Hampshire today; see if you can spot when that happened: Time Temperature 09:51 ET (14:51 UTC) 3°C (38°F) 10:51 4°C (39°F) 11:28 6°C (43°F) 11:51 9°C (48°F) 11:58 10°C (50°F) 12:51 (18:51 UTC) 17°C (63°F) The cold front following behind won't be quite as dramatic, but it will bring some wind. Gusts are predicted to 81 km/h (45 kts, 54 mph) this afternoon.

I'm not sure what Anne thinks, but as long as I'm commuting to New Hampshire, maybe we should get these Wi-Fi wine glasses: Jackie Lee and Hyemin Chung, experts in human-computer interaction...have incorporated a variety of coloured LEDs, liquid sensors and wireless (GPRS or Wi-Fi) links into a pair of glass tumblers. When either person picks up a glass, red LEDs on their partner's glass glow gently. And when either puts the glass to their lips, sensors make white LEDs on the rim of the other glass glow...

MSNBC is reporting today that thieves have stolen a batch of PINs from a retailer—PINs the retailer shouldn't have stored in the first place: Criminals have stolen bank account data from a third-party company, several banks have said, and then used the data to steal money from related accounts using counterfeit cards at ATM machines. The central question surrounding the new wave of crime is this: How did the thieves managed to foil the PIN code system designed to fend off such crimes? Investigators are...

Here's a hint: the problem is between chair and receiver. Bruce Schneier linked today to this excellent essay on the unseen dangers of mobile phones: About four seats away is a gentleman (on this occasion pronounced 'fool') with a BlackBerry mobile device and a very loud voice. He is obviously intent on selling a customer something and is briefing his team. It seems he is the leader as he defines the strategy and assigns each of his unseen team with specific tasks and roles. Eventually, he starts to...

My colleague Cameron Beatley sent me this handy chart: Quick Guide to Programming Languages The proliferation of modern programming languages (all of which seem to have stolen countless features from one another) sometimes makes it difficult to remember what language you're currently using. This handy reference is offered as a public service to help programmers who find themselves in such a dilemma. Task Shoot yourself in the foot. Comparison C You shoot yourself in the foot. C++ You accidentally create...

This made me laugh.

Ah, the Peter Principle rears its ugly head once again, in its purest form. MSNBC is reporting that a Costa Mesa, Calif., middle school has suspended students for viewing a Web page. They're also trying to expel the student who put up the page (internal links mine): A middle school student faces expulsion for allegedly posting graphic threats against a classmate on the popular myspace.com Web site, and 20 of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting, school officials said. Police are...

I just started reading The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery, which contains a fairly good overview of climate change and how we're making it happen. It's important to understand that climate change has happened rapidly throughout history, meaning changes of 2-4°C (4-7°F) have occurred over decades rather than millennia. So, having started that book yesterday, I'm warmed (so to speak) by this morning's Washington Postarticle on the shrinking Antarctic ice sheet: The Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as...

Andy Borowitz today jokes about a hypothetical Bush visit to reality: For Mr. Bush, the visit to reality, while brief, was still significant because it represented his first visit to the real world since being elected President in 2000. "The President deserves a lot of credit for making this visit to reality," one aide said. "He doesn't have a natural constituency here."