Archive for the ‘Time Out!’ Category
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
I decided to take a short hiatus from my 4+ month hiatus from blogging on my blog to request that you support the Haiti Earthquake Relief. The devastation and destruction there is simply unimaginable.
Every dollar counts. Every thoughtful gesture counts. Every prayer counts regardless of your religious beliefs.
Also, don’t forget to check with your employer as they may provide a charitable matching gifts program.
Back to my indefinite hiatus from blogging because I didn’t get the memo that (full) blogging is now lame and you should (micro) blog in less than 140 characters per entry but at a higher frequency.
Posted in Faith/Spirit, Time Out! | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
A couple of Scrubs quotes for your enjoyment.
Dr. Cox: (peptalk to new residents) Each and every one of you is going to kill a patient. At some point in your residency, you will screw up, they will die, and it will be burned in your conscience forever. Now take pee pants here. He just might go get himself a good clean kill this morning seeing as his patient, Ms. Samson, is in DKA and he hasn’t been tracking her phosphate level, her phosphate level, her phosphate level.
JD: Doug! Stop writing and go!
Dr. Cox: That young man has killed so many patients I’m starting to think he just might be a government operative. The point is, the harder you study, the longer you just might be able to hold off that first kill. Other then that, I guess cross your fingers and hope that the guy you murder is a jackass with no family. Great to see you kids. All the best.
And another…
JD: Ooh, Dr. Cox- can I ask you something?
Dr. Cox: The answer is yes, it was me who saw you doing leg lifts in the gym on that inflatable ball. Quite the display of girl power. Ab-so-lutely love the leg warmers.
JD: First of all, they were just big socks. Okay? And secondly, if you need to do some laundry, here’s the washboard (lifting up scrubs to show flat abs), riiiighht?
And another…
Dr. Kelso: That young man’s father is very important.
Dr. Cox: Don’t tell me, he donated a wing.
Dr. Kelso: He donated a wing, a thigh, and a breast.
JD: Sir…
Dr. Kelso: Yes, genius, in this metaphor the hospital is a chicken.
JD: Please sir, I totally get that. (Inner monologue: How can a hospital be a chicken?)
… yes, I’ve been watching reruns of Scrubs lately. 
Posted in Fun Stuff, Time Out! | No Comments »
Monday, February 5th, 2007
I saw an article on Slashdot today which lead me to an NY Times article titled Study Finds Web Antifraud Measure Ineffective. In the article, an experiment was conducted where the researchers brought 67 Bank of America customers in Boston and asked them to conduct day-to-day online banking activities. To give you a background, Bank of America's online banking site uses SiteKey, a simple yet padded layer of authentication for its users. The idea is that you select an image to represent your account as a visual key so that you know the site that you are logging into is the legitimate site and not some phishing site before you enter in your password to log in. Here's a snippet from the article that best summarizes the study:
The premise is that site-authentication images increase security because customers will not enter their passwords if they do not see the correct image,” … “From the study we learned that the premise is right less than 10 percent of the time… He added: “If a bank were to ask me if they should deploy it, I would say no, wait for something better,” he said.
… the study demonstrated that site-authentication images are fundamentally flawed and, worse, might actually detract from security by giving users a false sense of confidence.
The study found that 60 out of the 67 subjects in their experiment still entered in their password even when the experimentation website did not display a sitekey at all. Apparently, from this result, the researchers concluded that features like sitekey only gives everyone a 'false sense of confidence' because their experimental subjects neglected the security layer altogether.
Now, I certainly hope that I am not the only one here that can't make logical sense of how they went from result to conclusion. Not to take any credit away from these researchers but by completely neglecting their conclusion and focusing on the results, the conclusion I make for myself is that people don't understand the risk of neglecting security measures such as this. I think that instead of degrading such features and recommending institutions to "wait for something better," researchers either need to find how best to make people aware of security risks and/or find that "something better" that will resolve this issue altogether (if there is such a thing). It is as if the study was about one problem with two variables but on the other side of the equation, the 'solution' only refers to a single variable. Meaning? It's not a flaw in such systems, it's a flaw of human judgment.
Arguably, let's adopt the conclusion of the experiment. From that, we can generalize that any security scheme that is dependent on a human being is flawed because… well, because of the human inability to make absolutely correct judgments. So for example, PIN numbers and passwords are all flawed because people give them away while being victimized in a phishing scheme. Likewise, the idea of ATM cards is flawed because people get them stolen. A bit far-fetched but theoretically, a 256-bit RSA encryption scheme is flawed because it can be decrypted by an intellect (artificial or not) eventually as time approaches infinity.
I wonder how many man hours and money was spent carrying out and studying this experiment. Certainly, all those resources could have been better spent on research into how security can be improved and not to undermine a measure to thwart phishing. I would consider this experiment incomplete until "something better" comes out of it.
In other news, tomorrow, we're probably going to see the result of a study that concludes that the idea of cars is flawed because humans who drive them cause accidents. So everyone should walk while twiddling their thumbs until "something better" comes along.
Posted in News, Time Out! | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
If you remember ApC on AOL, you know who you are. I just had a flashback of those years. Names like Steven (Moshi), Debbie (Dotty), Vinh, Dong, Jeanie, Kun, Jenny, Han, and acronyms like ArS, ROK, and PFL used to mean something to me yet is just a distant memory now.
Haha, wow – how dorky were we back in those days? Anyway, I hope all of you are doing well.
Posted in Fun Stuff, g33kl0g, Time Out! | No Comments »
Monday, August 28th, 2006
A bit over five weeks ago, I was about 50% excited about going up to NYC and the other 50% dreading it. It was difficult for me to think that I finally got accustomed to my first full-time job but now I needed to temporarily settle down in another location for something totally different. I can’t say I knew what to expect.
Yet here I am, five weeks later, I keep thinking of all the fun I’ve had and all I’ve learned. While I don’t believe in the idea of fate, I can’t help but think that I was meant to be there at those times. As if all the choices that I’ve made in my life has led me to this point and my experience there was simply a confirmation. Tell me, is it too weird to think that?
It didn’t have to be NYC. I honestly think it could have been anywhere and anytime. It was the people. However crazy this may sound, even though at first they were complete strangers, I felt an affinity with a lot of the people I’ve met there after the first week. And it only took a week.
They are all coming down to Charlotte in a few months; however, I am not naive enough to say that we’ll all keep in touch afterwards. I know we won’t. I will certainly try to keep in touch with everyone but I know I am not very good at it.
Thanks.
Posted in Faith/Spirit, My Life, Time Out!, Work | No Comments »
Friday, April 21st, 2006
I read multiple news sources on the net daily; it has almost become an everyday ritual as soon as I wake up. However, it’s not everyday I blog about current events or politics unless there is something I just need to rant about.
It’s official: Distracted drivers are dangerous – Some sources: CNN, Chicago Sun Times
A new study lends scientific credence to what many already suspect: Drivers dabbing on makeup, chatting on cell phones or eating breakfast are three times as likely to be involved in a crash as more attentive motorists.
[sarcasm] Wow, that is a breakthrough scientific study! What the heck?! [/sarcasm] There needed to have been a scientific study to find that out? That is like saying “It’s official: Distracted hair stylists cause bad hair days!” or “Distracted surgeons cause deaths!” or “Distracted police lets loose perpetrators!” or “Distracted students fail tests!” or *ahem* “Distracted test scorers incorrectly grade tests!” or “Distracted American Idol* contestant gets booted!” I can think of hundreds of these “no duh” headlines. The problem I had with this story was that almost every single newspaper, online news site, and other news sources carried this article as one of their top headlines. Either the research group(s) who ‘conducted’ this awesome study thinks the American public is absolutely stupid or the news agencies do; either way, I vote it to give it the ‘No Shit Award of 2006′ where we write that in pencil on a notebook paper and give them a box of crap to go along with it.
Duke Lacrosse Rape Case – Google Aggregated News
Two lacrosse players arrested on rape and kidnapping charges have been suspended by Duke University, a source familiar with the investigation told ESPN on Wednesday.
There has got to be a rape reported somewhere in the United States at least once a week. Why is the Duke case given so much attention by the entire nation? I’m surprised President Bush hasn’t made a comment about this case to the press seeing as how the press is all over this. For example, the Chicago Tribune has an article about this case… why would anyone in Chicago give a crap about this case? Are there no lacrosse teams in Chicago? Are there no rape cases in Chicago? Is the nation a big fan of Duke’s lacrosse team? Honestly, I never even knew Duke had a decently skilled lacrosse team. You know, I’d understand the national attention if Duke’s basketball team was involved in such a controversy because they were one of the top NCAA teams last season; there are fans and haters of Duke basketball alike spread out across the entire nation… but Duke’s lacrosse team? I feel bad for the three students that are involved (the accused and the accuser). Move on and find better things to report on, media.
American Idol* – Google Aggregated News
This season, the singing contest has hit its highest note yet: An average of 31 million Americans are tuning in to watch Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, Taylor Hicks and the others vie for instant success and celebrity, to follow in the recording contract footsteps of previous Idols Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia and Carrie Underwood.
I hate American Idol. I thought it was dumb the first season, I still think it is absolutely dumb. I don’t understand how so many Americans seem addicted to this glamour-ized version of whatever it was at the Apollo show decades ago. It’s a reality show that is governed by television gimmicks like any other show on 24 hours a day. What? The show gets viewers involved? How do you know? You ever seen a 1994 movie called Quiz Show? It was about a very popular quiz show with contestants that were picked to win prior to the show being taped. Now, I’m not saying American Idol is fixed (although it would be awesome if it was and it causes the downfall of American Idol). In the end though, all those votes that the American public sends in – they are not ever accounted for in their production of the show. There is always news once every season of American Idol where media reports “Favorite American Idol gets booted” – no viewer stops to question how they got booted and why they were labeled as favorites in the first place. People made mistakes grading the SATs. People made mistakes keeping track of Presidential election votes. And at the end of the day, 31 million Americans trust a TV show to keep a record of ~31 million (more or less) votes.
What FOX should do is provide a confirmation ID everytime someone voted and keep a database of their votes and this database should be released to the public. This way you can always go check to make sure they got your vote counted correctly and those interested can actually take the data and make sure it matches with what FOX shows as the results on television. And no, I’ve never voted and never will. This was just a random thought that I had when I was reminded of the Quiz Show movie whenever I saw a news article about American Idol. I wouldn’t think it as the dumbest show on television if they had a way for the public to account for the show’s results since this would actually take some guts to incorporate for a TV show.
* I’m sorry but I think American Idol plainly sucks; I can not believe it is the most watched show. It’s a karaoke show with better lighting and TV cameras. There, I said it.
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