Entries Tagged Random

Interesting read about what we have known all along about passwords.

In a lot of ways, the results shouldn’t surprise anyone, given what we know about the operation of human memory: if you give users a task that’s nearly impossible, they won’t do it.

A Stick Figure Guide to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

/afs/isis/depts/compsci/research/assist/

I’ve thought about this several times (that’s how geeky I am, when I can’t work, I think about things like this). Thinking about it the other day, I suddenly hit on a simple approximation made possible by the current prices.

The fuel tank of my truck holds 25 gallons. One cent per gallon would save me 25 cents. How far can I drive on 25 cents of gas? At $4/gallon, 25 cents buys one sixteenth of a gallon. If my vehicle got 16 miles per gallon, I could drive 1 mile on 25 cents. My truck actually gets about 18 miles per gallon and gas is not quite $4/gallon right now, but I’m just approximating.

So, if I drive 1 mile to save 1 penny per gallon I wasted my time (not to mention the wear on tires and such). My son’s car only requires about half as much gas to fill up but he can go twice as far on a gallon of gas so the result is the same. 1 mile, 1 penny.

The bottom line is you can’t drive very far out of your way to save on gas…

I really ought to use source code control. I know it. But my laziness combined with my poor memory, makes it hard.

I’m trying out subversion. I’ll make some notes here to help me remember.

To create a new project myproject in my repository I need to:

cd ~/Desktop
mkdir myproject
cd myproject
mkdir trunk tags branches
cp -r path_to_myproject_files/* trunk/
clean up any junk files
svn import ~/Desktop/myproject svn+ssh://gb@cvs.cs.unc.edu/cvs/user/gb/svn/myproject -m "initial import"
cd place_to_work
mv path_to_myproject_files out of the way if necessary
svn checkout svn+ssh://gb@cvs.cs.unc.edu/cvs/user/gb/svn/myproject/trunk myproject

Then in that working directory the commands to know are: svn add, svn update, and svn commit.

Atool is an extension to our previous CamKeys project. Like CamKeys, atool allows keyboard input based on a cheap webcam. Atool adds DDR pads (or other game controller buttons) as an additional input and it allows playing recorded sounds on input events.
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I’ve upgraded to Wordpress 2.5 and switched to a new theme based on the copyblogger theme. Please point out any bugs you see.

An article in the WSJ reports on a study of energy consumption in Indiana before and after their recent switch to DST. The switch cost them $8.6 million extra for electricity.

I was excited about potential for the XO as a delivery vehicle for assistive technology. The laptop looks great online so I ordered one through the buy one get one program. I figured we’d get to develop a demonstration on it for Maze Day. Boy am I disappointed…

I made my donation on 14 November expecting the laptop by Christmas.

I got a thank you note from Nicholas on 16 November.

I got an email on 22 December promising delivery by 15 January.

I got email on 19 January saying their shipment system could not ship to my address. We get shipments here on campus every day from every shipper. I responded that their shipment system is broken and they should drop it in US Mail. Their email included a 24 hour dedicated 800 number for speaking to an agent.

I got email on 21 January apologizing for the email of the 19th, saying ignore the request for updated shipping information.

I got email on 25 January saying it had been sent to the warehouse for shipping.

I got email on 6 February telling my how grateful they were for the overwhelming response.

On 14 February I called the 800 number. The lady who answered the phone “hello?” didn’t appear to know anything about the OLPC. I figured I had the wrong number so I apologized, hung up, and dialed again. Same lady, except this time after much silence she gave me another 800 number to call.

I called it, got a menu, chose to speak to a person, and was informed that my XO would ship “at the end of March”.

Yow. These guys are going to change the world? My confidence is waning.

An interesting post suggesting that the proper response to the inevitable increase in surveillance of every aspect of our lives is looking back. Why should public officials have more privacy that us?