Antarctic Weather

I am wowed. I will never consider last week's temperature of -25°F cold ever again.

A Disney Surprise

It's incredible.

William Perry on his Confirmation

The following is a hilarious segment of one of former Secretary of Defense William Perry's lectures in my Stanford MS&E 293 class on national security:

"The Washington Post responded to the announcement by running an article observing that I was soft-spoken and humble, and questioning whether those were the right personality traits for the job of Secretary of Defense. They were simply reflecting the well-known fact that those in Washington that traveled the high road of humility are never bothered by heavy traffic. As a result of the Post article, my confirmation hearing was a surreal experience. Senator Byrd, instead of asking me questions about my views on defense issues, took off on the Washington Post article. He observed that George Washington was humble. Robert E. Lee was humble. And yes, that Jesus was humble. This is true. So he concluded that my humility ought to be an asset. He did concede, however, that in his 40 years in the Senate, he had never before seen humility in a Cabinet officer. After that ringing endorsement, the other Senators fell in line and confirmed me as Secretary by a vote of 98 to 0. After all, they did not want to get on the wrong sides of any of their constituents, who might be admirers of Washington, Lee, or Jesus. That experience was the highlight of my experience with Congress. It was all downhill from there."

The RIAA is Suing My Printer

There is an interesting study out by the University of Washington's Computer Science department revealing flaws in the detection of copyright infringers online. In the study, it was found that enforcement agencies sometimes used merely the fact that an IP address was seen in connection with a certain file online in implicating a user, without verification that the owner of the IP address did actually download anything, or that the owner of the IP is even a person. With IP spoofing tactics, they managed, hilariously, to get three printers in the CS department to receive DMCA takedown complaints from the MPAA. Is this result likely to get noticed in the next wave of countersuits against the RIAA and MPAA? Probably. Are universities going to change their policies because of this? No comment.

See the official page for the paper, an FAQ, and more details.


(Image courtesy of the Washington University CS Department.)

The Dangers of Toothpicks--and not what you think

Read the following article:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354327,00.html

I mean, I entirely understand the stance the school is taking. Wizards should not be tolerated. Zero-tolerance has worked well in drugs and alcohol prevention, so we can rather safely assume that it should work in wizard prevention as well. Of course, the school should naturally assume the worst when it comes to the toothpick-vanishing wizards of the world. Blink an eye, and they might end up vanishing unsuspecting students, rival teachers, or worse, the number zero or the letter 'A'. Schools across the nations should look up to this school on a hill (or floodzone, as it's in Florida), and weed out all wizards that may be feigning as teachers. Think of the children!