SteveBellovin

SteveBellovin, 9 months ago to random

I feel sorry for Nauta and Oliveira in the classified documents case. They're low-level employees who basically had to bet their jobs—if they cooperated with the government, they'd lose their jobs whether tfg is convicted or not. If they didn't cooperate, they’d likely keep their jobs, but possibly not if the main culprit went to jail. They likely can't afford top lawyers, unless tfg pays (in advance…), but he’d cut that off if he learns that they're cooperating.

SteveBellovin, 3 months ago to random

Not sure who needs to hear this, but US passport renewal times have gotten quite reasonable. I mailed mine off on January 12 and got it back today—22 days, end-to-end.

SteveBellovin, 6 months ago to random

The Hell Gate railroad bridge—which is gorgeous to photograph, but you don’t really get to appreciate it when you take a train across it. (Given where I could stand, this photo probably would have benefitted from @mattblaze's trick lenses. I don't have any such lenses (and I took this photo with my phone, since the only DSLR lens I had with me was a telephoto for bird photography), so I had to make do with Lightroom's perspective correction.)

SteveBellovin, 7 months ago to random

We all have a limited amount of time in this world. I'm going to use mine wisely by not bothering to read that latest Andreessen rant.

SteveBellovin, 6 months ago to random

Proposed new regulation: any household gadget that beeps should be required to encode a device identifier in the beeps, so that a phone app can tell you what is beeping. It took me several minutes today to realize that it was the washing machine cycle being done, rather than someone boosting a post of mine on Mastodon.

SteveBellovin, 22 days ago (edited 22 days ago) to random

I gave a retirement/farewell talk today. Video at https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/talks/farewell.mp4; slides at https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/talks/farewell.pdf.

SteveBellovin, 7 months ago to random

The US seems to be drifting towards a parliamentary system without calling it that. Two of the last five presidents (and quite possibly three) have faced removal by impeachment trials in the Senate. Going back a few more presidents, Nixon almost certainly would have had he not resigned. McCarthy just lost a vote of no confidence. I'd say that we should rewrite the Constitution to adopt such a system explicitly, but in today's political climate I'm really afraid of what else would happen to it…

SteveBellovin, 9 months ago to random

I've seen a lot of posts about Zoom using "user-generated content" to train their AIs. How is this supposed to work with end-to-end encryption? Are the clients doing training and uploading just the vectors?

SteveBellovin, 7 months ago to random

Here’s a lovely sign at a street corner near Columbia. The concept is fine—but there’s no braille on the sign or any way for a blind person to know of its existence or location.

SteveBellovin, 9 months ago to random

This exercise in destroying a brand reminds me of the old jokes about AT&T, like if they bought Coca Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken they'd rename them to AT&T Global Liquid Refreshments and Hot Dead Birds 2000.

SteveBellovin, 6 months ago to random

Gee—today is my lucky day. I've been offered the opportunity to manage $150,000,000 by the Bezos Family Foundation, $50,000,000 from the Zuckerberg Foundation, and $100,000,000 from the Warren Buffet Foundation and the Musk Foundation, plus another $80,000,000 from a dying cancer patient. Of course, I have to use all of that money for philanthropic purposes. Any suggestions on worthy recipients?

SteveBellovin, 11 months ago to random

I've been mulling how the GOP fascists could legally destroy the Constitution, and now I'm even more scared. The image below describes the amendment procedure. I think there are only 13 safely blue states, partly due to gerrymandering. That means that 34 states—⅔ of 50—could call a Constitutional Convention. But what about the ¾ for ratification? Turns out that Texas can (probably) split into five states (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/more-150-years-texas-has-had-power-secede-itself-180962354/). Add gerrymandering, and you have 54 states, 41 pretty red…
Oops.

SteveBellovin, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

Cable TV companies are

SteveBellovin, 1 month ago to random

I also found some ancient Usenet maps.

A map from April 15, 1981, showing noticeable growth, though in the same areas.
A June 1 map, with even more slow growth. It’s mostly the same areas, but more sites in each. Quite notable: a link over the ARPANET.

SteveBellovin, 9 months ago to random

Here is a picture of myself, @mattblaze, and Susan Landau with our Flame awards. A very few of you will recognize the T-shirt I'm wearing—it's a Usenix 10th Anniversary shirt…

SteveBellovin, 1 month ago to random

Cleaning out my office, I found my old Unix licenses.

SteveBellovin, 8 months ago to random

Maybe the missing F-35 is on its way to Tybee Island, GA, where there's a lost H-bomb…

SteveBellovin, 1 month ago to random

From a science fiction book written in 2014…
https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/112298676107501073

SteveBellovin, 6 months ago to random

Anyone else seeing this? I see it on my iMac but not my iPhone.

SteveBellovin, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

First Powell copped a plea, and don't you see,
That's ok ‘cause she’s crazy.
Now Chesebro pleaded out, and that is fine,
Because he’s gonna drop a time.

Who's next?

(With apologies to Tom Lehrer.)

SteveBellovin, 11 months ago to random

DeSantis sues to block Federal government accreditation requirements because the heads of a school’s astrology and haruspicy departments told him it was an auspicious time to do such a thing, and the tarot card guild encouraged him: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/06/22/desantis-lawsuit-college-accreditation-education-department/

SteveBellovin, 10 months ago to random

I'm watching the Boston Pops doe their July Fourth concert. One song, amidst the patriotic ones, was Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land". Funny, when I was in school they never taught the last three verses given at https://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/This_Land.htm.

SteveBellovin, 6 months ago to random

I noticed a new pair of buttons at the bottom of the meeting scheduler for Zoom, for “enhanced" versus "end-to-end" encryption. “Enhanced”—the default, at least for my account via the university, sure sounds better, but in fact it’s weaker: the key is in the "cloud" somewhere.

The “?” button for enhanced encryption says “Your encryption key is stored in the cloud”.
The “?” button for end-to-end encryption says “Your encryption key is stored locally. No one else can obtain the encryption key, not even Zoom.”

SteveBellovin, 6 months ago to random

What are the odds they'll get the encryption right, @mattblaze ? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/19/nyregion/nypd-police-scanner-radio.html

SteveBellovin, 22 days ago to random

Note that that is after graduation—if it occurs.
https://journa.host/@w7voa/112363347141688823