"But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." - Carl Sagan

***

Today was a flag day, so there was ample prey roaming about Orchard Road - mostly Raffles Guys and girls from Jurong Secondary. What happened to all the boys?!

Unfortunately, only the girls with short hair or long hair that I didn't want to tug (one had 2 pony tails, another had frizzy hair) approached me to ask for donations.

Maybe flag day organizers distribute a poster with my face on it, warning those with nice long hair to stay away. Dang.


There was also this vagrant in the underpass between Wheelock Place and Shaw Centre playing a didgeridoo.


My sister complained (not to me) that I complain about her here, but don't give her credit where credit is due.

So even though I've mentioned more than once before that she's been urging me to rebond my hair for many months now, I shall mention it again.

Happy?

***

Chick Publications is now blocked with the notice that:

"Due to Media Development Authority (MDA) regulation, this website that you are trying to access is a restricted website."

Safesurf complained that they were being given a bad name, I guess.

I tried using a proxy server, but somehow it didn't work, and What Is My IP told me I was still using a Singaporean IP and proxy.

Argh! Have they found a way to block the use of proxies to access sites that the Powers That Be, in their wisdom and foresight, deem Singaporeans too immature, stupid, vulnerable, infantile and mindless to access?!

[Addendum: Okay, my use of a proxy works now. My build of Deer Park must be buggy.]

***

"There are times when I see Kreia as a magical, mythological Ayn Rand. These are the times when I realize that I’ve spent too much time thinking about this game and that not everything has to have a deep meaning."


"Funny thing; now the whole "wound in the force" idea is also beginning to make sense in a 'life mimics art mimics life ...' sort of way.

As I finally grasp the ending that should have been, I am also beginning to grasp another truth - KotOR 2 is filled with echos. The broken quests and unfinished dialogs are echos in the force. Echos of a sacrifice some believed necessary. Echos of a sacrifice that collapsed the world of KotOR 2, much like the sacrifice wrought by the mass shadow generator that collapsed the planet of Malacor V.

The real "wound in the force" is the sacrificed game ending; an ending that might have made KotOR 2 a true contender among all RPGs, both past and yet to come. And so we have a wound within a wound, and echos within echos. Those echos refuse to be silenced, and even now continue ringing into the future."

***

Crypto-Gram: February 15, 1999 - Snake Oil

"The problem with bad security is that it looks just like good security. You can't tell the difference by looking at the finished product. Both make the same security claims; both have the same functionality. Both might even use the same algorithms: triple-DES, 1024-bit RSA, etc. Both might use the same protocols, implement the same standards, and have been endorsed by the same industry groups. Yet one is secure and the other is insecure.

Many cryptographers have likened this situation to the pharmaceutical industry before regulation. The parallels are many: vendors can make any claims they want, consumers don't have the expertise to judge the accuracy of those claims, and there's no real liability on the part of the vendors (read the license you agree to when you buy a software security product).

... Elsewhere I've talked about building strong security products, using tried-and-true mathematics, and generally being conservative. Here I want to talk about some of the common snake-oil warning signs, and how you can pre-judge products from their advertising claims. These warning signs are not foolproof, but they're pretty good."

***

Ways to recycle a CD-ROM - "6) Recycle CD-ROMs into Carpet Protectors. Use them under your couch and chair legs to help protect your carpet from getting the dreaded furniture indent."