In the area of security, the most prevalent form of authentication is something you know. However, this form of authentication has been increasingly defeated due to the amount of information one needs to recall. Often, laziness gets the best of us. We store our secret passwords on computers, write it down. Therefore simply defeating this security mechanism... Often, the security policy is to implement two-factor or multi-factor authentication, such as 1) something you know (passwords, mother's maiden name) 2) something you have (key card) 3) something you are (biometrics). Anderson cleverly stated in “Security Engineering”, these 3 forms of authentication often becomes “something you forgot, something you lost, something you were”. Therefore, research in a better form of authentication continues to be a hot topic. Many forms of breaches originates from social engineering attacks techniques; that is, understanding how human behavior contributes to its eventual downfall in giving away privacy.

Security research regarding human subject studies involving usability and psychology needs permission from IRB review of research. At Berkeley, if your study is to appear in a published form of research paper, permission needs to be approved at http://cphs.berkeley.edu/. The committee for Human Protection provides the guidelines of informed consent on both parties; investigators and subjects. Private information on the subjects should not be revealed. For example, if the research study is done on phishing, the subjects' private data such as social security number and ip address cannot be collected. However, the overall sample data such as click-through rate and other statistics are not regarded as private information. This is because in a commercialized study, these statistics are also collected and stored.

Think the computer age started in the 20th Century? think again. My eyes had the honor to see Charles Babbage's difference engine no. 2. mountain view's Computer Science History Museum. The 5 tons machine is hand crank operated to perform polynomial functions to the 7 decimal digit precision- the inputs are entered via columns of movable digits and the results are printed onto a roll of paper. All the theoretical design by Babbage and Ada Loveless took place in the early 19th Century. The difference engine was demonstrated and operated for me, the cranking, the oil dripping from the gears, I was looking at the first computer.

Sustainability Summit Applauds Michel Gelobter for Green Work

Michel Gelobter, one of the most prominent voices in developing a sustainable future; he is the executive director of Redefining Progress, using his experience as an academic, activists and administrator, he is currently the founder and CEO of Cooler. One of my latest hero in the battle against environmental injustice. On 4/21/08, he gave a keynote speech at the UC Berkeley Sustainability Summit. A speech which outlined current environmental problems, such as carbon economy investments, provided methods for potential responsible solutions. His voice of optimism echoes deep in my long fight against this crisis.

Our nation could look to New Orleans as a model green city, the finest environmental workers rebuilding not the destroyed city but the reborn city. Instead, the Bush administration allowed the rise of emission to continue at a steady pace of 1% per year until 2025.

Our capitalistic society value system must be altered to factor in environmental costs. The cost of polluting the rivers, the sea, the forests have all been greatly minimized. The effects of such oversight is clear, with new evidence uncovering everyday from research institutions, investments in a carbon economy must be redistributed. Investment towards a greener, sustainable future must be highly monetized. Giving incentives for the tumbling economy. I see a connection between climate change and world economic downturn of 2008.

Avg(Thai / Indian / Japanese) * Chicken Curry

(+)white onions caramelized with
- cumin - chili powder - mace - mustard seeds - chili pepper flakes - nutmeg - coriander - cinnamon - turmeric -

(+)chopped up garlic / giner with chicken drenched in rice wine, lime juice concentrate - soy sauce - melted gee

(+)warmed up coconut milk

(+)skinned potatoes with vegetable broth - white cap mushrooms - squash - red bell peppers

Cook each + separately in a cast iron pan. All stirred and simmer together to taste.
Salt to taste on each +.

Steamed Artichoke

This is how Julia MacMillan, the editor of the Berkeley Farmers' Market Cookbook, prepares artichokes.

Spring Artichokes- From Berkeley Ecology Center

4 medium or large artichokes
1 quart water
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp olive oil
1 bay leaf
4 black pepper berries
1 small sprig thyme (1/2 tsp dried)
1 small sprig oregano (1/2 tsp dried)

Are you curious about the computer are you using? The car you're driving? The phone you're using? Do you know where they came from? Well, this video will give you a conscious mindset of consumerism in the world post-1950.

I urge you to check out http://www.storyofstuff.com with Annie Leonard

Recently I purchased an AirPort Extreme: for a n standard wireless router, I was not impressed by its performance interacting with multiple g/b compliant devices. (-) However, the ease of installation and setup through AirPort was the best interaction I've seen. (+)

The USB function on AirPort Extreme allows me to mount volumes over wireless. However, I would like to backup to the drive via TimeMachine.
After some searches, i came across two solutions:

1. TimeMachine Hack
2. Download and run iTimeMachine made by xiotos-

CAVEAT:
1. Make sure on your Drive options in AirPort utility, the WAN Bonjour option must be turned off. Also make sure read/write access is enabled for the NAS drive.
2. Make sure to create a first backup version via USB 2.0 before setting it up for network backup. This seems to do the trick.

Remember, Bonjour, turn that of.

From "Planet Earth" to this: Pedro & Frankensheep

Inspired by Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Keywords: Lewis Caroll's What the Tortoise Said to Achilles

Achilles had overtaken the Tortoise, and had seated himself comfortably on its back.
"So you've got to the end of our race-course?" said the Tortoise. "Even though it does consist of an infinite series of distances? I thought some wiseacre or other had proved that the thing couldn't be done?"
"It can be done," said Achilles. "It has been done! Solvitur ambulando. You see the distances were constantly diminishing; and so --"
"But if they had been constantly increasing?" the Tortoise interrupted "How then?"
"Then I shouldn't be here," Achilles modestly replied; "and you would have got several times round the world, by this time!"
"You flatter me -- flatten, I mean" said the Tortoise; "for you are a heavy weight, and no mistake! Well now, would you like to hear of a race-course, that most people fancy they can get to the end of in two or three steps, while it really consists of an infinite number of distances, each one longer than the previous one?"
"Very much indeed!" said the Grecian warrior, as he drew from his helmet (few Grecian warriors possessed pockets in those days) an enormous note-book and a pencil. "Proceed! And speak slowly, please! Shorthand isn't invented yet!"
"That beautiful First Proposition of Euclid!" the Tortoise murmured dreamily. "You admire Euclid?"
"Passionately! So far, at least, as one can admire a treatise that won't he published for some centuries to come!"
"Well, now, let's take a little bit of the argument in that First Proposition -- just two steps, and the conclusion drawn from them. Kindly enter them in your notebook. And in order to refer to them conveniently, let's call them A, B, and Z: --
(A) Things that are equal to the same are equal to each other.
(B) The two sides of this Triangle are things that are equal to the same.
(Z) The two sides of this Triangle are equal to each other.

Traveling Blues: Tuning into my Misery

As i sit here pondering in a zombie-eque unfamiliar airport terminal, my mind takes me on a trouble-free journey back to my room. The Berkeley Room CZ 314, the familiar roomie Tony fashioning his usual black slender pants jamming away Greenday rock & roll tunes. If only my imagination rhythm can syncopate with the stressful reality of my traveling blues.

My late afternoon in this rarely sunny Seattle took a Muhammad Ali uppercut at my travel-worn morale. After getting lost in the city, running from avenues to boulevards, the Pacific Northwest wind seeped through my resistant lung to say "hello, it's me, asthma, anyone home?" My Alaska Airline flight was scheduled to depart at 6:05pm from SeaTac, as I struggle running up Capitol Hill and perfectly executing an agile Magina blink attack to avoid a suicidal taxi driver, I caught a glimpse at my sweat-drenched iPhone- it reads "4:36pm". The recursiveness of air travel starts to haunt me with a sad beckoning. My first unfortunate mishap with the airlines started 5 days ago; when Microsoft Travel Recruit booked me on a flight to Richmond, VA instead of Redmond, WA. It could simply be a harmless misclick but after today's disastrous encounter, I have an alternate theory, a conspiracy theory.
- Are you ready? - The god, kama of traveling is dishing out payback lessons on punctuality.