battis.net

…and I’m all out of bubble gum.

title

battis: has an apartment in LA. Now gearing up to deal with the California DMV.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2461128363&rdquo

description

battis: has an apartment in LA. Now gearing up to deal with the California DMV.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2461128363&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:45:52 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: has an apartment in LA. Now gearing up to deal with the California DMV.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246661152&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0030&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3681622569/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2665/3681622569_2a0b80a094_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3681622569&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:25:48 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2665/3681622569_2a0b80a094_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559148&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0029&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3682436090/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3619/3682436090_0c763c1ea4_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3682436090&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:25:43 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3619/3682436090_0c763c1ea4_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559143&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0028&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3682435766/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2472/3682435766_41290868f9_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3682435766&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:25:36 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2472/3682435766_41290868f9_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559136&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0027&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3682435496/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/3682435496_d07151e437_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3682435496&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:25:30 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/3682435496_d07151e437_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559130&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0026&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3681621533/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2545/3681621533_c1a404673c_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3681621533&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:25:24 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2545/3681621533_c1a404673c_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559124&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0025&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3682434926/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2457/3682434926_e1b0bc1811_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3682434926&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:25:18 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2457/3682434926_e1b0bc1811_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559118&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0024&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3682434666/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2566/3682434666_79f13477c0_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3682434666&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:25:12 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2566/3682434666_79f13477c0_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559112&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0023&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3682434438/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2424/3682434438_84c943e434_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3682434438&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:25:06 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2424/3682434438_84c943e434_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559106&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0022&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3681620429/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2461/3681620429_fee3748e58_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3681620429&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:25:00 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2461/3681620429_fee3748e58_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559100&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0021&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3682433662/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/3682433662_9dbc3a1093_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3682433662&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:24:50 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/3682433662_9dbc3a1093_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559090&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0020&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3681619681/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2580/3681619681_0a5661a90a_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3681619681&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:24:43 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2580/3681619681_0a5661a90a_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246559083&rdquo

---

title

battis: thinks his girlfriend is pretty funny. ;) http://twitpic.com/8yp1j&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2423781729&rdquo

description

battis: thinks his girlfriend is pretty funny. ;) http://twitpic.com/8yp1j&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2423781729&rdquo

pubdate

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:14:01 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: thinks his girlfriend is pretty funny. ;) http://twitpic.com/8yp1j&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246472041&rdquo

---

title

When Is It Worthwhile To Buy Organic? [Organic Food]&rdquo

link

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/consumerist/full/~3/rFMaZUN7fHQ/when-is-it-worthwhile-to-buy-organic&rdquo

author

McLaren and Torchinsky&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/1189c538b56f3565&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:56:52 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246381012&rdquo

---

title

Superhacker Max Butler Pleads Guilty&rdquo

link

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired27b/~3/g1-Sr4fDEcM/&rdquo

description

PITTSBURGH ? A skilled San Francisco-based computer hacker who once sought to unite the cyber underworld under his benign rule pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges here Monday, admitting he stole nearly 2 million credit card numbers from banks, businesses and other hackers, which were used to rack up $86 million in fraudulent charges.

Max Ray Butler, 36, faces up to 60 years in prison for the two felonies under law, but his actual sentence will be influenced by a number of factors, not least a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that was filed under seal Monday.

Wearing an ill-fitting orange jail uniform and round glasses, his hair cut short and neat, the six-foot-plus Butler towered over the burly deputy marshals that brought him into the court room. Once he settled into his seat, he spoke softly and evenly as he answered questions from the judge, frequently drawing admonishments to speak up for the benefit of the court reporter.

?I actually did the actions that are relevant in the indictment, and I am guilty,? Butler said, at one point.

Butler identified himself in court as ?Max Vision,? the name he gave himself in the 1990s when he became a superstar in the computer security community. At that time Butler was billing himself out as a $100-an-hour computer security consultant, and he earned the respect of his peers for creating and curating an open source library of attack signatures used to detect computer intrusions.

But it turned out Butler was staging recreational hacks on the side, and in 2001 he was sent to federal prison for 18 months for launching a scripted attack that closed security holes on thousands on Pentagon systems, and left backdoors behind for his own use.

While in prison, Butler met more serious criminals, and he was befriended by a professional swindler named Jeffrey Norminton. After his release, Norminton introduced him to an Orange County, California entrepreneur and former bank robber named Chris Aragon.

Butler admitted Monday that he began hacking banks, merchants and other hackers to steal credit card numbers, then sold them to Aragon. Aragon, who?s pending trial on related state charges in southern California, turned that stolen data into near-perfect counterfeit cards, complete with holograms, and recruited a crew of shoppers who used the cards to snap up designer merchandise for resale on eBay. Aragon earned at least $1 million in the business, police say.

Butler became a priority to federal law enforcement officials in 2006, when, under the handle ?Iceman,? he staged a brazen takeover of the online carder forums where hackers and fraudsters buy and sell stolen data, fake IDs and specialized underground services.

He hacked into the forums, wiped out their databases, and absorbed their content and membership into his own site, called CardersMarket.

On one of the sites he hacked, called DarkMarket, Butler later discovered that an administrator named ?Master Splyntr? was logging in from an FBI office in Pittsburgh. Butler partnered with a Canadian hacker to try and expose Master Splyntr as a fed, but his claim was largely dismissed in the underground as inter-forum rivalry. DarkMarket went on to become a full-blown undercover FBI operation, and the FBI and Secret Service began an investigation into ?Iceman.?

(I wrote about Butler in the January issue of Wired. I?m now working on a book about him and the carder forums for Crown publishing).

Using informants and some genuine electronic gumshoe work, the feds identified Iceman as Butler about a year later, and arrested him in September 2007 at a corporate apartment he used as a hacking safe house.

When the feds seized Butler?s hard drive, they found five terabytes of encrypted data on his harddrive,? the government said Monday. They later cracked Butler?s crypto, and discovered 1.8 million stolen credit card numbers belonging to 1,000 different banks. The banks tallied the fraudulent charges on the cards at $86.4 million.

But Butler?s defense attorney told U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill Jr. Monday that Butler and his associates weren?t? responsible for all of the fraudulent charges.

Butler, noted federal public defender, Michael Novara, frequently cracked the computers of other members of the underground, and stole their stuff. Some of the credit card numbers found on Butler?s hard drive had been in the hands of cyber thieves before Butler began his hacking spree.

?Max is kind of a hacker?s hacker,? said Novara. ?There was a lot of stuff on his computer that he was not responsible for, and did not intend to use.?

?I don?t think I ever heard the expression, ?a hacker?s hacker? before,? said Judge Cohill, with a smile.

Sources say Butler?s plea deal will also wrap up a separate federal case in Virginia, in which Butler is charged with staging the first documented ?spear phishing? attack against employees of a financial institution, gaining access to the corporate network of Capital One bank.

Butler was calm and attentive at Monday?s proceeding, which opened with federal prosecutor Luke Dembosky crossing to the defense table to shake hands with the hacker, who smiled and nodded.

Through his attorney, Butler released a two-paragraph statement following his plea.

?Max Vision, known in this case as Max Butler, pled guilty today as a first step toward getting this sad chapter of his life behind him. It is unfortunate that his life circumstances in 2005 led him to participate in this criminal conduct, and he very much regrets doing so,? he wrote.

?Max has always preferred using his extraordinary computer skills ? his computer vision ? for the good of society and the cyber world, and he hopes that he will be given the opportunity in the future to once again don the white hat.?

Asked afterward what kind of sentence the government expects for Butler, Dembosky was vague with reporters. ?Suffice to say, it won?t be probation.

See Also:

• Notorious Crime Forum DarkMarket Goes Dark
• Cybercrime Supersite ?DarkMarket? Was FBI Sting, Documents Confirm
• 56 Arrested in DarkMarket Sting, Says FBI
• One Hacker?s Audacious Plan to Rule the Black Market in Stolen Credit Cards
• A ?White Hat? Goes to Jail

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?i=g1-Sr4fDEcM:jzZKlZJRZdo:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?i=g1-Sr4fDEcM:jzZKlZJRZdo:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?d=yIl2AUoC8zA

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wired27b/~4/g1-Sr4fDEcM&rdquo

author

Kevin Poulsen&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/7080828f2740a9a4&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:46:59 -0700&rdquo

summary

PITTSBURGH ? A skilled San Francisco-based computer hacker who once sought to unite the cyber underworld under his benign rule pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges here Monday, admitting he stole nearly 2 million credit card numbers from banks, businesses and other hackers, which were used to rack up $86 million in fraudulent charges.

Max Ray Butler, 36, faces up to 60 years in prison for the two felonies under law, but his actual sentence will be influenced by a number of factors, not least a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that was filed under seal Monday.

Wearing an ill-fitting orange jail uniform and round glasses, his hair cut short and neat, the six-foot-plus Butler towered over the burly deputy marshals that brought him into the court room. Once he settled into his seat, he spoke softly and evenly as he answered questions from the judge, frequently drawing admonishments to speak up for the benefit of the court reporter.

?I actually did the actions that are relevant in the indictment, and I am guilty,? Butler said, at one point.

Butler identified himself in court as ?Max Vision,? the name he gave himself in the 1990s when he became a superstar in the computer security community. At that time Butler was billing himself out as a $100-an-hour computer security consultant, and he earned the respect of his peers for creating and curating an open source library of attack signatures used to detect computer intrusions.

But it turned out Butler was staging recreational hacks on the side, and in 2001 he was sent to federal prison for 18 months for launching a scripted attack that closed security holes on thousands on Pentagon systems, and left backdoors behind for his own use.

While in prison, Butler met more serious criminals, and he was befriended by a professional swindler named Jeffrey Norminton. After his release, Norminton introduced him to an Orange County, California entrepreneur and former bank robber named Chris Aragon.

Butler admitted Monday that he began hacking banks, merchants and other hackers to steal credit card numbers, then sold them to Aragon. Aragon, who?s pending trial on related state charges in southern California, turned that stolen data into near-perfect counterfeit cards, complete with holograms, and recruited a crew of shoppers who used the cards to snap up designer merchandise for resale on eBay. Aragon earned at least $1 million in the business, police say.

Butler became a priority to federal law enforcement officials in 2006, when, under the handle ?Iceman,? he staged a brazen takeover of the online carder forums where hackers and fraudsters buy and sell stolen data, fake IDs and specialized underground services.

He hacked into the forums, wiped out their databases, and absorbed their content and membership into his own site, called CardersMarket.

On one of the sites he hacked, called DarkMarket, Butler later discovered that an administrator named ?Master Splyntr? was logging in from an FBI office in Pittsburgh. Butler partnered with a Canadian hacker to try and expose Master Splyntr as a fed, but his claim was largely dismissed in the underground as inter-forum rivalry. DarkMarket went on to become a full-blown undercover FBI operation, and the FBI and Secret Service began an investigation into ?Iceman.?

(I wrote about Butler in the January issue of Wired. I?m now working on a book about him and the carder forums for Crown publishing).

Using informants and some genuine electronic gumshoe work, the feds identified Iceman as Butler about a year later, and arrested him in September 2007 at a corporate apartment he used as a hacking safe house.

When the feds seized Butler?s hard drive, they found five terabytes of encrypted data on his harddrive,? the government said Monday. They later cracked Butler?s crypto, and discovered 1.8 million stolen credit card numbers belonging to 1,000 different banks. The banks tallied the fraudulent charges on the cards at $86.4 million.

But Butler?s defense attorney told U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill Jr. Monday that Butler and his associates weren?t? responsible for all of the fraudulent charges.

Butler, noted federal public defender, Michael Novara, frequently cracked the computers of other members of the underground, and stole their stuff. Some of the credit card numbers found on Butler?s hard drive had been in the hands of cyber thieves before Butler began his hacking spree.

?Max is kind of a hacker?s hacker,? said Novara. ?There was a lot of stuff on his computer that he was not responsible for, and did not intend to use.?

?I don?t think I ever heard the expression, ?a hacker?s hacker? before,? said Judge Cohill, with a smile.

Sources say Butler?s plea deal will also wrap up a separate federal case in Virginia, in which Butler is charged with staging the first documented ?spear phishing? attack against employees of a financial institution, gaining access to the corporate network of Capital One bank.

Butler was calm and attentive at Monday?s proceeding, which opened with federal prosecutor Luke Dembosky crossing to the defense table to shake hands with the hacker, who smiled and nodded.

Through his attorney, Butler released a two-paragraph statement following his plea.

?Max Vision, known in this case as Max Butler, pled guilty today as a first step toward getting this sad chapter of his life behind him. It is unfortunate that his life circumstances in 2005 led him to participate in this criminal conduct, and he very much regrets doing so,? he wrote.

?Max has always preferred using his extraordinary computer skills ? his computer vision ? for the good of society and the cyber world, and he hopes that he will be given the opportunity in the future to once again don the white hat.?

Asked afterward what kind of sentence the government expects for Butler, Dembosky was vague with reporters. ?Suffice to say, it won?t be probation.

See Also:

• Notorious Crime Forum DarkMarket Goes Dark
• Cybercrime Supersite ?DarkMarket? Was FBI Sting, Documents Confirm
• 56 Arrested in DarkMarket Sting, Says FBI
• One Hacker?s Audacious Plan to Rule the Black Market in Stolen Credit Cards
• A ?White Hat? Goes to Jail

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?i=g1-Sr4fDEcM:jzZKlZJRZdo:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?i=g1-Sr4fDEcM:jzZKlZJRZdo:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?d=yIl2AUoC8zA

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wired27b/~4/g1-Sr4fDEcM&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246308419&rdquo

---

title

Oh FriendFeed, What You Really Need is Accountability&rdquo

link

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/dSgqhQvsC7U/oh_friendfeed_what_you_really_need_is_accountabili.php&rdquo

author

Sarah Perez&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/0ccc38fd01d660b2&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:57:28 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246291048&rdquo

---

title

battis: is now a Californian. Sort of. :)&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2378143422&rdquo

description

battis: is now a Californian. Sort of. :)&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2378143422&rdquo

pubdate

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:22:38 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: is now a Californian. Sort of. :)&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246231358&rdquo

---

title

battis: is in Holbrook. LA is totally in reach by Sunday afternoon. w00t!&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2367839513&rdquo

description

battis: is in Holbrook. LA is totally in reach by Sunday afternoon. w00t!&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2367839513&rdquo

pubdate

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:16:49 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: is in Holbrook. LA is totally in reach by Sunday afternoon. w00t!&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246162609&rdquo

---

title

battis: is in Albuquerque. Headed to Base Camp in an hour or two. Hoping to get far enough tonight to make LA a reasonable shot tomorrow.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2362667883&rdquo

description

battis: is in Albuquerque. Headed to Base Camp in an hour or two. Hoping to get far enough tonight to make LA a reasonable shot tomorrow.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2362667883&rdquo

pubdate

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:44:35 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: is in Albuquerque. Headed to Base Camp in an hour or two. Hoping to get far enough tonight to make LA a reasonable shot tomorrow.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246131875&rdquo

---

title

Baseball Statistics Minimal Infographics&rdquo

link

http://feeds.infosthetics.com/~r/infosthetics/~3/t5i-Tf2lsBk/baseball_infographics.html&rdquo

author

(author unknown)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/2ea2c331df3e9d56&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:39:57 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1246009197&rdquo

---

title

26 Jun 2009&rdquo

link

http://page2rss.com/14dadf054ab8b5d8f605258e1086bd6d/4465149_4466840/jun-&rdquo

author

(author unknown)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/4757d49fcc6af637&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:00:00 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245985200&rdquo

---

title

battis: is in Dallas (via Wheeling, Effingham and Muskogie), gorging himself on his sister's cooking.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2336373008&rdquo

description

battis: is in Dallas (via Wheeling, Effingham and Muskogie), gorging himself on his sister's cooking.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2336373008&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:53:41 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: is in Dallas (via Wheeling, Effingham and Muskogie), gorging himself on his sister's cooking.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245977621&rdquo

---

title

battis: wonders if it's time to unsub from the /. feed: too many stories already analyzed by other sources before they've made it to /. Hmm.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2330697679&rdquo

description

battis: wonders if it's time to unsub from the /. feed: too many stories already analyzed by other sources before they've made it to /. Hmm.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2330697679&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:18:02 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: wonders if it's time to unsub from the /. feed: too many stories already analyzed by other sources before they've made it to /. Hmm.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245957482&rdquo

---

title

Eclipse release train leaves the station, delivers Galileo&rdquo

link

http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/KR3hnjxhzN0/eclipse-release-train-leaves-the-station-delivers-galileo.ars&rdquo

author

segphault@arstechnica.com (Ryan Paul)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/fdabf2c3add4a326&rdquo

pubdate

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:16:00 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

group

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245867360&rdquo

---

title

battis: @arb124 The summer is still young. But you won't be if you don't take some R&R. ;)&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2317490914&rdquo

description

battis: @arb124 The summer is still young. But you won't be if you don't take some R&R. ;)&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2317490914&rdquo

pubdate

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:40:02 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: @arb124 The summer is still young. But you won't be if you don't take some R&R. ;)&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245883202&rdquo

---

title

battis: http://twitpic.com/8bi1z Seriously?! The irony is delicious.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2317355941&rdquo

description

battis: http://twitpic.com/8bi1z Seriously?! The irony is delicious.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2317355941&rdquo

pubdate

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:29:03 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: http://twitpic.com/8bi1z Seriously?! The irony is delicious.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245882543&rdquo

---

title

Engineers More Likely to Become Muslim Terrorists&rdquo

link

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/06/engineers_more.html&rdquo

description

Shared by Seth Battis
There's a wealth of jokes about engineers' engagement with the world here. Perhaps the big issue though is that this may well highlight how important it is to help our students grasp that there are shades of grey, as well as black and white in neat bins.

Time to start profiling.

EDITED TO ADD: here's the paper.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/schneier/fulltext?d=2mJPEYqXBVI http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/schneier/fulltext?d=7Q72WNTAKBA http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/schneier/fulltext?d=dnMXMwOfBR0

&rdquo

author

(author unknown)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/f0ddd5181ad24a52&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:29:50 -0700&rdquo

summary

Shared by Seth Battis
There's a wealth of jokes about engineers' engagement with the world here. Perhaps the big issue though is that this may well highlight how important it is to help our students grasp that there are shades of grey, as well as black and white in neat bins.

Time to start profiling.

EDITED TO ADD: here's the paper.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/schneier/fulltext?d=2mJPEYqXBVI http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/schneier/fulltext?d=7Q72WNTAKBA http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/schneier/fulltext?d=dnMXMwOfBR0

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245796190&rdquo

---

title

battis: is having a #lazyweb moment: any way to subscribe to FirstClass calendars from, say Google Calendar... or vice versa?&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2304108411&rdquo

description

battis: is having a #lazyweb moment: any way to subscribe to FirstClass calendars from, say Google Calendar... or vice versa?&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2304108411&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:04:31 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: is having a #lazyweb moment: any way to subscribe to FirstClass calendars from, say Google Calendar... or vice versa?&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245809071&rdquo

---

title

battis: Hey @twitter, howsabout implementing tags in profiles to facilitate finding users? I see directories of X on twitter...why not in real-time?&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2303871546&rdquo

description

battis: Hey @twitter, howsabout implementing tags in profiles to facilitate finding users? I see directories of X on twitter...why not in real-time?&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2303871546&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:45:39 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: Hey @twitter, howsabout implementing tags in profiles to facilitate finding users? I see directories of X on twitter...why not in real-time?&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245807939&rdquo

---

title

battis: @digiphile The best part is the motion blur that proves he's not a cardboard cutout. :)&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2303824861&rdquo

description

battis: @digiphile The best part is the motion blur that proves he's not a cardboard cutout. :)&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2303824861&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:42:01 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: @digiphile The best part is the motion blur that proves he's not a cardboard cutout. :)&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245807721&rdquo

---

title

battis: is loving tags on Mint: project-based accounting! Woo hoo!&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2303815033&rdquo

description

battis: is loving tags on Mint: project-based accounting! Woo hoo!&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2303815033&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:41:13 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: is loving tags on Mint: project-based accounting! Woo hoo!&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245807673&rdquo

---

title

battis: is in Illinois tonight, reveling in how many fewer variables there are in his life this week vs. last week. 'Tis a gift to be simple.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2301676829&rdquo

description

battis: is in Illinois tonight, reveling in how many fewer variables there are in his life this week vs. last week. 'Tis a gift to be simple.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2301676829&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:45:46 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: is in Illinois tonight, reveling in how many fewer variables there are in his life this week vs. last week. 'Tis a gift to be simple.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245797146&rdquo

---

title

Jell-O Mold Cheeseburger Vanilla and walnut flavored Jell-O bun,...&rdquo

link

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thisiswhyyourefat/PvLK/~3/gSQPrEBihKI/128343032&rdquo

author

(author unknown)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/26af40406541b3d8&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:20:07 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245709207&rdquo

---

title

battis: @gruber Mophie's battery is what you want. I use it as a backup. Seems to hold about 2 full iPhone charges.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2281339962&rdquo

description

battis: @gruber Mophie's battery is what you want. I use it as a backup. Seems to hold about 2 full iPhone charges.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2281339962&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:58:53 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: @gruber Mophie's battery is what you want. I use it as a backup. Seems to hold about 2 full iPhone charges.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245689933&rdquo

---

title

strip for June / 22 / 2009&rdquo

link

http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/090622.html&rdquo

description

http://www.sheldoncomics.com/strips/sd090622.gif

Jump to a Random Strip in the Archives! | Get Sheldon Books 'n Shirts | Buy This Original Art | Forum Chat | Archives | E-mail Dave

&rdquo

author

(author unknown)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/1fd73846925bebdb&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700&rdquo

summary

http://www.sheldoncomics.com/strips/sd090622.gif

Jump to a Random Strip in the Archives! | Get Sheldon Books 'n Shirts | Buy This Original Art | Forum Chat | Archives | E-mail Dave

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245654000&rdquo

---

title

battis: is back in Philly, by way of Logan, Southborough, the Tappanzee and Princeton. Cheesesteak tomorrow, before heading to West Virginia.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2273230486&rdquo

description

battis: is back in Philly, by way of Logan, Southborough, the Tappanzee and Princeton. Cheesesteak tomorrow, before heading to West Virginia.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2273230486&rdquo

pubdate

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:18:05 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: is back in Philly, by way of Logan, Southborough, the Tappanzee and Princeton. Cheesesteak tomorrow, before heading to West Virginia.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245637085&rdquo

---

title

battis: shouldn't let the f---ing TSA get to him... But they do. Every inch of their martinet-ness offends and infuriates him. Security Theater. Bah&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2262801960&rdquo

description

battis: shouldn't let the f---ing TSA get to him... But they do. Every inch of their martinet-ness offends and infuriates him. Security Theater. Bah&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2262801960&rdquo

pubdate

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:15:57 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: shouldn't let the f---ing TSA get to him... But they do. Every inch of their martinet-ness offends and infuriates him. Security Theater. Bah&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245564957&rdquo

---

title

battis: @nkogan Heard what I wanted. It was a good day.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2247629868&rdquo

description

battis: @nkogan Heard what I wanted. It was a good day.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2247629868&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:23:08 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: @nkogan Heard what I wanted. It was a good day.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245464588&rdquo

---

title

battis: @arb124 Two-a-days? Are you trying out for the football team this fall?&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2245954624&rdquo

description

battis: @arb124 Two-a-days? Are you trying out for the football team this fall?&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2245954624&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:53:02 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: @arb124 Two-a-days? Are you trying out for the football team this fall?&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245455582&rdquo

---

title

battis: is in Claremont, debriefing the day. No NASCAR driving jobs, but a computer animation class, which is cooler anyway.&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2245930568&rdquo

description

battis: is in Claremont, debriefing the day. No NASCAR driving jobs, but a computer animation class, which is cooler anyway.&rdquo

guid

http://twitter.com/battis/statuses/2245930568&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:50:53 -0700&rdquo

summary

battis: is in Claremont, debriefing the day. No NASCAR driving jobs, but a computer animation class, which is cooler anyway.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245455453&rdquo

---

title

Want to Work for the City of Bozeman, MT? Hand Over Your Social Network Logins and Passwords&rdquo

link

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/YXr3UZWn8WY/want_to_work_for_the_city_of_bozeman_mt_hand_over_passwords_login_info.php&rdquo

author

Frederic Lardinois&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/93a3cbbe97c270b9&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:40:53 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245350453&rdquo

---

title

Iran Activists Get Assist from ?Anonymous,? Pirate Bay&rdquo

link

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/WiredDangerRoom/~3/CRSFuDJNOUk/&rdquo

description

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/images/2008/04/25/roflcon_jmm_0352_2.jpg

Iranian democracy activists, meet your new pals: a masked protest movement best known for needling the Church of Scientology, and a group of file-sharers so infamous they?re facing a year in jail.

Anonymous Iran is a collaboration between The Pirate Bay ? operators of the world?s largest torrent site, convicted in April of copyright infringement ? and Anonymous, the prankster collective dedicated to exposing ?Scientology?s crimes.?

The new site offers tips on how to navigate online in private, upload files through the Iranian firewall, find the best activist Tweeters, and launch attacks on pro-government websites.

This week, The Pirate Bay launched its virtual private network service that promises to mask users? indentities online. More than 180,000 people have already signed up. Earlier this month, Sweden?s Pirate Party won a seat in the European Union Parliament, after outrage about the file-sharers conviction erupted.

[Active: Linkfilter; Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com]

ALSO:

• Iran: Before You Have That Twitter-Gasm?.
• Tehran Threatens Bloggers, ?Deviant News Sites?
• Web Attacks Expand in Iran?s Cyber Battle (Updated Again)
• Iran?s Tweets: Windows into Protests - or Digital Mirrors ?
• Taking to the Streets ? and Tweets ? in Tehran
• Iran Reporting = MSM Fail?
• Activists Launch Hack Attacks on Tehran Regime
• Iran?s Wired Generation Challenges Ahmadinejad

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AKGI5FFcATCjW8ifXny-KS1GK4c/0/di
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AKGI5FFcATCjW8ifXny-KS1GK4c/1/di

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/WiredDangerRoom?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/WiredDangerRoom?i=CRSFuDJNOUk:BnAzInNU4rY:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/WiredDangerRoom?i=CRSFuDJNOUk:BnAzInNU4rY:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/WiredDangerRoom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/WiredDangerRoom/~4/CRSFuDJNOUk&rdquo

author

(author unknown)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/84a6251422da52df&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:25:13 -0700&rdquo

summary

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/images/2008/04/25/roflcon_jmm_0352_2.jpg

Iranian democracy activists, meet your new pals: a masked protest movement best known for needling the Church of Scientology, and a group of file-sharers so infamous they?re facing a year in jail.

Anonymous Iran is a collaboration between The Pirate Bay ? operators of the world?s largest torrent site, convicted in April of copyright infringement ? and Anonymous, the prankster collective dedicated to exposing ?Scientology?s crimes.?

The new site offers tips on how to navigate online in private, upload files through the Iranian firewall, find the best activist Tweeters, and launch attacks on pro-government websites.

This week, The Pirate Bay launched its virtual private network service that promises to mask users? indentities online. More than 180,000 people have already signed up. Earlier this month, Sweden?s Pirate Party won a seat in the European Union Parliament, after outrage about the file-sharers conviction erupted.

[Active: Linkfilter; Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com]

ALSO:

• Iran: Before You Have That Twitter-Gasm?.
• Tehran Threatens Bloggers, ?Deviant News Sites?
• Web Attacks Expand in Iran?s Cyber Battle (Updated Again)
• Iran?s Tweets: Windows into Protests - or Digital Mirrors ?
• Taking to the Streets ? and Tweets ? in Tehran
• Iran Reporting = MSM Fail?
• Activists Launch Hack Attacks on Tehran Regime
• Iran?s Wired Generation Challenges Ahmadinejad

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AKGI5FFcATCjW8ifXny-KS1GK4c/0/di
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AKGI5FFcATCjW8ifXny-KS1GK4c/1/di

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/WiredDangerRoom?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/WiredDangerRoom?i=CRSFuDJNOUk:BnAzInNU4rY:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/WiredDangerRoom?i=CRSFuDJNOUk:BnAzInNU4rY:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~ff/WiredDangerRoom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/WiredDangerRoom/~4/CRSFuDJNOUk&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245331513&rdquo

---

title

US State Dept. Helping Twitter Stay Up For Iranians&rdquo

link

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/4bkl9DGBF9A/us_state_dept_helping_twitter_stay_up_for_iranians.php&rdquo

author

Marshall Kirkpatrick&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/4609a7cd3bb3869a&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:49:48 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245181788&rdquo

---

title

Study: PowerPoint animations are comprehension killers&rdquo

link

http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/JmYvgkLHe7U/study-powerpoint-animations-are-comprehension-killers.ars&rdquo

author

jtimmer@arstechnica.com (John Timmer)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/c478df3518b7cb22&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:18:21 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

group

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245179901&rdquo

---

title

Encrypt the Cloud, Security Luminaries Tell Google - Update&rdquo

link

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired27b/~3/nvAJQcS3wTA/&rdquo

description

Google is putting millions of users at risk of fraud from hackers and needs to enable encryption by default on its most popular web apps, including Gmail and Google Docs, a gaggle of security researchers told the search giant Tuesday in an open letter.

At issue are the current default settings for Google?s popular web applications. The settings use the secure ?HTTPS? protocol only for logging in, and fall back to unencrypted browsing thereafter. If a user doesn?t know how to force Google to use HTTPS full time, he?s vulnerable to a host of nasty hack attacks when using an open or badly secured network, particularly a public Wi-Fi spot.

Most of the web?s cloud computing applications leave users just as vulnerable to having their e-mail and social networking accounts hijacked, the letter admits, but the collection of security professionals is leaning on Google to take a leadership role.

?Few users know the risks they face when logging into Google?s Web applications from an unsecured network, and Google?s existing efforts are little help,? the letter reads. ?As a market leader in providing cloud services, Google has an opportunity to engage in genuine privacy
and security leadership, and to set a standard for the industry.?

The 37 signatories to the letter (.pdf) include the country?s top encryption and security experts, ranging from Ron Rivest ? the inventor of some of the most popular encryption tools ? to Rsnake, one of the net?s most agile good-guy hackers. The posse seems to have been called together by Christopher Soghoian, a computer researcher, programmer and privacy provocateur.

The letter notes that Google locks down other applications, such as Google Voice, Health, AdSense and AdWords, by running all their traffic ? not just the login ? via the https protocol. That?s how banks run their sites, since that encrypts the communication between a user?s browser and company?s servers, making it virtually impossible for a hacker to get at the data in transit. That?s important, given how often people use open and untrusted wireless connections that can easily be snooped on.

Currently, Google?s web apps do require users to log-in via https, but after that, most users check their email, read their documents and look at their calendars ?in the clear.? That means any ne?er-do-well with the brains to install WireShark or Linux can sit in a cafe, using their packet sniffer to check, read, and look along with them. Even worse, a clever attacker can ?side-jack? the user?s cookie and actually log-in to those services at the same time the user is in them. From there they can edit and delete your documents, scour your email for sensitive data and even send out mail under your name.

Google responded Tuesday morning, saying that it is already ahead of the pack by even offering HTTPS, and that the company is looking into whether it would make sense to turn it on as the default for all Gmail users.

?Free, always-on HTTPS is pretty unusual in the e-mail business, particularly for a free e-mail service,? Google engineer Alma Whitten wrote Tuesday morning on Google?s security blog. ?It?s something we?d like to see all major webmail services provide.?

The company is planning a trial where small samples of different types of Gmail users will be shifted to a default HTTPS to see how fast things load, how happy users are and what networks or computer setsups fair badly, according to Whitten.

?Unless there are negative effects on the user experience or it?s otherwise impractical, we intend to turn on HTTPS by default more broadly, hopefully for all Gmail users,? Whitten wrote, noting that the extra cost associated with the computing power needed for encyrption was not holding the company back.

For right now, the security problems can largely be solved currently by into Google?s options and changing the ?Browser Connection? setting from ?Don?t always use HTTPS ? to ?Always use HTTPS.? Firefox users can also use the Customize Google extension to fix the problem for many Google applications, and others can force Google to use HTTPS for a particular session by going directly to a Google HTTPS address, rather than being redirected there. (Note, the last solution doesn?t stop so-called sidejacking attacks unless users also change the Google account SSL option).

So why hasn?t Google switched on HTTPS for all accounts?

Well, according to Google?s own post, the default to HTTP was made for speed and user experience reasons. HTTPS sessions involve a lot more computation on both sides of the transaction, and that also means more load on Google?s servers ? which easily translates into larger expenses for the company. And that?s good enough security for users of a secure wireless or a wired network, unless there?s an intruder in the network or someone is spying on all of an ISPs? internet traffic.

The letter?s signatories say Google engineers can solve any technical problems with always using https.

?Google?s engineers have created a low-latency, enjoyable experience for users of Health, Voice, AdWords and AdSense ? we are confident that these same skilled engineers can make any necessary tweaks to make Gmail, Docs, and Calendar work equally well in order to enable encryption by default.

Shorter version of the letter: What do we want? H T T P S! When do we want it? Now.

UPDATE: This post has been updated Tuesday morning to include comment from Google.

Photo: An Enigma machine, a sophisticated encryption tool used by Germany in WWII. English codebreakers managed to reverse-engineer the system, leading to much havoc for the German navy. Flickr/Kevin Bocek

See Also:

• SSL Gmail Not As Safe As You Thought ? UPDATED
• Instead of Adding Privacy, Google Lets You Watch Privacy Videos on ?
• Gmail HTTPS Doesn?t Protect Account, New Setting Does
• Users Ignore Security Features, Including HTTPS
• Encrypted E-Mail Company Hushmail Spills to Feds

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?i=nvAJQcS3wTA:nob8o6IzfcY:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?i=nvAJQcS3wTA:nob8o6IzfcY:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?d=yIl2AUoC8zA

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wired27b/~4/nvAJQcS3wTA&rdquo

author

Ryan Singel&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/cc17d42c483bd631&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:00:06 -0700&rdquo

summary

Google is putting millions of users at risk of fraud from hackers and needs to enable encryption by default on its most popular web apps, including Gmail and Google Docs, a gaggle of security researchers told the search giant Tuesday in an open letter.

At issue are the current default settings for Google?s popular web applications. The settings use the secure ?HTTPS? protocol only for logging in, and fall back to unencrypted browsing thereafter. If a user doesn?t know how to force Google to use HTTPS full time, he?s vulnerable to a host of nasty hack attacks when using an open or badly secured network, particularly a public Wi-Fi spot.

Most of the web?s cloud computing applications leave users just as vulnerable to having their e-mail and social networking accounts hijacked, the letter admits, but the collection of security professionals is leaning on Google to take a leadership role.

?Few users know the risks they face when logging into Google?s Web applications from an unsecured network, and Google?s existing efforts are little help,? the letter reads. ?As a market leader in providing cloud services, Google has an opportunity to engage in genuine privacy
and security leadership, and to set a standard for the industry.?

The 37 signatories to the letter (.pdf) include the country?s top encryption and security experts, ranging from Ron Rivest ? the inventor of some of the most popular encryption tools ? to Rsnake, one of the net?s most agile good-guy hackers. The posse seems to have been called together by Christopher Soghoian, a computer researcher, programmer and privacy provocateur.

The letter notes that Google locks down other applications, such as Google Voice, Health, AdSense and AdWords, by running all their traffic ? not just the login ? via the https protocol. That?s how banks run their sites, since that encrypts the communication between a user?s browser and company?s servers, making it virtually impossible for a hacker to get at the data in transit. That?s important, given how often people use open and untrusted wireless connections that can easily be snooped on.

Currently, Google?s web apps do require users to log-in via https, but after that, most users check their email, read their documents and look at their calendars ?in the clear.? That means any ne?er-do-well with the brains to install WireShark or Linux can sit in a cafe, using their packet sniffer to check, read, and look along with them. Even worse, a clever attacker can ?side-jack? the user?s cookie and actually log-in to those services at the same time the user is in them. From there they can edit and delete your documents, scour your email for sensitive data and even send out mail under your name.

Google responded Tuesday morning, saying that it is already ahead of the pack by even offering HTTPS, and that the company is looking into whether it would make sense to turn it on as the default for all Gmail users.

?Free, always-on HTTPS is pretty unusual in the e-mail business, particularly for a free e-mail service,? Google engineer Alma Whitten wrote Tuesday morning on Google?s security blog. ?It?s something we?d like to see all major webmail services provide.?

The company is planning a trial where small samples of different types of Gmail users will be shifted to a default HTTPS to see how fast things load, how happy users are and what networks or computer setsups fair badly, according to Whitten.

?Unless there are negative effects on the user experience or it?s otherwise impractical, we intend to turn on HTTPS by default more broadly, hopefully for all Gmail users,? Whitten wrote, noting that the extra cost associated with the computing power needed for encyrption was not holding the company back.

For right now, the security problems can largely be solved currently by into Google?s options and changing the ?Browser Connection? setting from ?Don?t always use HTTPS ? to ?Always use HTTPS.? Firefox users can also use the Customize Google extension to fix the problem for many Google applications, and others can force Google to use HTTPS for a particular session by going directly to a Google HTTPS address, rather than being redirected there. (Note, the last solution doesn?t stop so-called sidejacking attacks unless users also change the Google account SSL option).

So why hasn?t Google switched on HTTPS for all accounts?

Well, according to Google?s own post, the default to HTTP was made for speed and user experience reasons. HTTPS sessions involve a lot more computation on both sides of the transaction, and that also means more load on Google?s servers ? which easily translates into larger expenses for the company. And that?s good enough security for users of a secure wireless or a wired network, unless there?s an intruder in the network or someone is spying on all of an ISPs? internet traffic.

The letter?s signatories say Google engineers can solve any technical problems with always using https.

?Google?s engineers have created a low-latency, enjoyable experience for users of Health, Voice, AdWords and AdSense ? we are confident that these same skilled engineers can make any necessary tweaks to make Gmail, Docs, and Calendar work equally well in order to enable encryption by default.

Shorter version of the letter: What do we want? H T T P S! When do we want it? Now.

UPDATE: This post has been updated Tuesday morning to include comment from Google.

Photo: An Enigma machine, a sophisticated encryption tool used by Germany in WWII. English codebreakers managed to reverse-engineer the system, leading to much havoc for the German navy. Flickr/Kevin Bocek

See Also:

• SSL Gmail Not As Safe As You Thought ? UPDATED
• Instead of Adding Privacy, Google Lets You Watch Privacy Videos on ?
• Gmail HTTPS Doesn?t Protect Account, New Setting Does
• Users Ignore Security Features, Including HTTPS
• Encrypted E-Mail Company Hushmail Spills to Feds

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?i=nvAJQcS3wTA:nob8o6IzfcY:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?i=nvAJQcS3wTA:nob8o6IzfcY:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/wired27b?d=yIl2AUoC8zA

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wired27b/~4/nvAJQcS3wTA&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245157206&rdquo

---

title

Broke Counties Turn Failing Roads To Gravel&rdquo

link

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/vLqeygaFrdA/Broke-Counties-Turn-Failing-Roads-To-Gravel&rdquo

description

Shared by Seth Battis
Depending on the conditions, the gravel road may actually hold up better than the paved road over the long term, contributing even more greatly to amortized maintenance costs. Consider the Mokie Dugway, which is a gravel stretch in the middle of a paved highway, since if it were paved, erosion would undercut the pavement and create a truly treacherous road surface.

To save money, more than 20 Michigan counties have decided to turn deteriorating paved roads back to gravel. Montcalm County estimates that repaving a road costs more than $100,000 a mile. Grinding the same mile of road up and turning it into gravel costs $10,000. At least 50 miles of road have been reverted to gravel in Michigan the past three years. I can't wait until we revert back to whale oil lighting and can finally be rid of this electricity fad.

http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&op=image&style=h0&sid=09/06/15/1641219

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

&rdquo

author

(author unknown)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/282c1e57eed0352b&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:59:00 -0700&rdquo

summary

Shared by Seth Battis
Depending on the conditions, the gravel road may actually hold up better than the paved road over the long term, contributing even more greatly to amortized maintenance costs. Consider the Mokie Dugway, which is a gravel stretch in the middle of a paved highway, since if it were paved, erosion would undercut the pavement and create a truly treacherous road surface.

To save money, more than 20 Michigan counties have decided to turn deteriorating paved roads back to gravel. Montcalm County estimates that repaving a road costs more than $100,000 a mile. Grinding the same mile of road up and turning it into gravel costs $10,000. At least 50 miles of road have been reverted to gravel in Michigan the past three years. I can't wait until we revert back to whale oil lighting and can finally be rid of this electricity fad.

http://slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&op=image&style=h0&sid=09/06/15/1641219

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245113940&rdquo

---

title

Apple announces Snow Leopard Up-To-Date program&rdquo

link

http://feeds.tuaw.com/~r/weblogsinc/tuaw/~3/kkVmSof2kFw/&rdquo

description

Shared by Seth Battis
Gyarrrgh! Talk about adding insult to insult: I bought my 2.0GHz MacBook literally hours before the 2.13GHz speed bump... and apparently a week or two before this Snow Leopard offer kicked in. I wonder if Apple will someday give a credit to all the people who have been repeatedly "just a few days outside the upgrade window." I'd like some frequent-Mac-purchaser points or something.

Filed under: OS, Apple, Snow Leopard

If you purchased a new Mac or Xserve on or after June 8th, Apple just announced that you'll be able to take advantage of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date Program.

Under the terms of this program, if you purchase a Mac or Xserve on or after the cutoff date, and Snow Leopard is not included in the box, you'll be eligible to receive an upgrade DVD for only US$9.95 (shipping is included in price).

The program web page is currently stating that additional information will be posted tomorrow (June 16th), and we'll be sure to keep you in the loop if any changes or additions to the program are announced.

TUAWApple announces Snow Leopard Up-To-Date program originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/%7Eat/NxuGUPIlCBCg-Rfm_Rr1EKEszx4/0/di
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/%7Eat/NxuGUPIlCBCg-Rfm_Rr1EKEszx4/1/di

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Eff/weblogsinc/tuaw?i=kkVmSof2kFw:4KQiEc-ersE:wF9xT3WuBAs http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Eff/weblogsinc/tuaw?i=kkVmSof2kFw:4KQiEc-ersE:V_sGLiPBpWU

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Er/weblogsinc/tuaw/%7E4/kkVmSof2kFw&rdquo

author

(author unknown)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/d49f03987e8c4d70&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:57:20 -0700&rdquo

summary

Shared by Seth Battis
Gyarrrgh! Talk about adding insult to insult: I bought my 2.0GHz MacBook literally hours before the 2.13GHz speed bump... and apparently a week or two before this Snow Leopard offer kicked in. I wonder if Apple will someday give a credit to all the people who have been repeatedly "just a few days outside the upgrade window." I'd like some frequent-Mac-purchaser points or something.

Filed under: OS, Apple, Snow Leopard

If you purchased a new Mac or Xserve on or after June 8th, Apple just announced that you'll be able to take advantage of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date Program.

Under the terms of this program, if you purchase a Mac or Xserve on or after the cutoff date, and Snow Leopard is not included in the box, you'll be eligible to receive an upgrade DVD for only US$9.95 (shipping is included in price).

The program web page is currently stating that additional information will be posted tomorrow (June 16th), and we'll be sure to keep you in the loop if any changes or additions to the program are announced.

TUAWApple announces Snow Leopard Up-To-Date program originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/%7Eat/NxuGUPIlCBCg-Rfm_Rr1EKEszx4/0/di
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/%7Eat/NxuGUPIlCBCg-Rfm_Rr1EKEszx4/1/di

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Eff/weblogsinc/tuaw?i=kkVmSof2kFw:4KQiEc-ersE:wF9xT3WuBAs http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Eff/weblogsinc/tuaw?i=kkVmSof2kFw:4KQiEc-ersE:V_sGLiPBpWU

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/%7Er/weblogsinc/tuaw/%7E4/kkVmSof2kFw&rdquo

date_timestamp

1245113840&rdquo

---

title

Dear CNN, Please Check Twitter for News About Iran&rdquo

link

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/Ka-slParwWs/dear_cnn_please_check_twitter_for_news_about_iran.php&rdquo

author

Marshall Kirkpatrick&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/8a31a5aa13406661&rdquo

pubdate

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:46:47 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1244965607&rdquo

---

title

The Bureau of Communication - Fill-in-the-blank Correspondence&rdquo

link

http://bureauofcommunication.com/&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/ee45ba94db7f30dbaca5ad4e65a641e1#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:46:41 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1244782001&rdquo

---

title

Are Trolls Ruining Social Media?&rdquo

link

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/XPscb6jn6n4/are_trolls_ruining_social_media.php&rdquo

author

Sarah Perez&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/82bb316edfc84c7c&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:54:40 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1244735680&rdquo

---

title

Getting a theory of everything by ditching tenet of physics&rdquo

link

http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/rGejXuxcqA4/getting-a-theory-of-everything-by-ditching-tenet-of-physics.ars&rdquo

author

editors@arstechnica.com (Chris Lee)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/86991ce19d3342f4&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:32:00 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

group

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1244734320&rdquo

---

title

Hey It?s Barack Obama Sitting On Some Stairs&rdquo

link

http://wonkette.com/409087/hey-its-barack-obama-sitting-on-some-stairs&rdquo

description

http://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/obamastairs.jpgGeorge Will is dying right now. The president is sitting on a pile of trash, basically. And is the fellow on the left wearing dungarees and flip flops? Can we get a column on flip flops, George Will? Close those legs, Obama. [Pete Souza/White House]

&rdquo

author

(author unknown)&rdquo

guid

tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/5eb13b7bcec1b947&rdquo

pubdate

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:48:30 -0700&rdquo

summary

http://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/obamastairs.jpgGeorge Will is dying right now. The president is sitting on a pile of trash, basically. And is the fellow on the left wearing dungarees and flip flops? Can we get a column on flip flops, George Will? Close those legs, Obama. [Pete Souza/White House]

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1244677710&rdquo

---

title

Google Contacts&rdquo

link

http://www.google.com/contacts&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/f9b63a1742183e78bae14cfad5289dd2#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:53:28 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1244217208&rdquo

---

title

Chartle.net - interactive charts online!&rdquo

link

http://www.chartle.net/&rdquo

description

Over 1 billion charts, maps, plots and diagrams are found in print publications each year - but only 40 million online. This huge discrepancy is a reflection of the complexity to create & publish charts online. Chartle.net tears down the complexity of online visualizations - offers simplicity, ubiquity and interactivity instead.&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/b229eee48181bbc4c491d6cf0290b36c#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 21 May 2009 15:44:52 -0700&rdquo

summary

Over 1 billion charts, maps, plots and diagrams are found in print publications each year - but only 40 million online. This huge discrepancy is a reflection of the complexity to create & publish charts online. Chartle.net tears down the complexity of online visualizations - offers simplicity, ubiquity and interactivity instead.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1242945892&rdquo

---

title

Kayak.com&rdquo

link

http://www.kayak.com/&rdquo

description

Cheap Flights, Airline Tickets, Cheap Airfare & Discount Travel Deals&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/9e6928d26589b342f34effa47e904ef0#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 21 May 2009 15:37:48 -0700&rdquo

summary

Cheap Flights, Airline Tickets, Cheap Airfare & Discount Travel Deals&rdquo

date_timestamp

1242945468&rdquo

---

title

craigslist&rdquo

link

http://craigslist.org/&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/300c7d39cb3c261c7472ad1e6a83f432#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Wed, 20 May 2009 20:02:58 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1242874978&rdquo

---

title

Twitter / Home&rdquo

link

http://twitter.com/&rdquo

description

What are you doing?&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/1cc089548931c4fe0463e7a98ec6078e#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 15 May 2009 07:32:42 -0700&rdquo

summary

What are you doing?&rdquo

date_timestamp

1242397962&rdquo

---

title

literacyconversation.org&rdquo

link

http://www.literacyconversation.org/&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/397533bd66652966ae0a4099d8345cd9#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 08 May 2009 09:16:30 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1241799390&rdquo

---

title

Fliggo&rdquo

link

http://www.fliggo.com/&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/ddbf2cb4ab3c8f7f7ad1de78f0238147#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Wed, 06 May 2009 17:06:24 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1241654784&rdquo

---

title

Project Phoenix: Streamed Video Publishing&rdquo

link

http://phoenix.sacredsf.org/Site/Welcome.html&rdquo

description

A free, open-source streaming movie publishing system, similar to YouTube. This site is a demonstration of the capabilities and benefits of a managed and individualized equivalent, ideally for schools that want to publish movie media on the web.&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/bb115cd672fc726a2f6bbbaabbf1f128#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Wed, 06 May 2009 16:55:59 -0700&rdquo

summary

A free, open-source streaming movie publishing system, similar to YouTube. This site is a demonstration of the capabilities and benefits of a managed and individualized equivalent, ideally for schools that want to publish movie media on the web.&rdquo

date_timestamp

1241654159&rdquo

---

title

Coding Horror: Adventures in Rechargeable Batteries&rdquo

link

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001078.html&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/e1e1d210b8704ac3c5fc735b67699169#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Sat, 02 May 2009 22:32:54 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1241328774&rdquo

---

title

Tech Tools In The Classroom - National Council for the Social Studies&rdquo

link

http://ncssnetwork.ning.com/group/teachingwithtechnology/forum/topics/tech-tools-in-the-classroom&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/ebc121a23b16ab578c404d4f7ce0c4b8#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:18:21 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1240705101&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0152.JPG&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3377551238/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3425/3377551238_e37316d05d_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3377551238&rdquo

pubdate

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:39:00 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3425/3377551238_e37316d05d_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1237765140&rdquo

---

title

TripIt | Online travel itinerary and trip planner&rdquo

link

http://www.tripit.com/home&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/b2794a6c6ca43c76f6c03de59532c848#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:22:24 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236982944&rdquo

---

title

Mint | Refreshing Money Management&rdquo

link

http://www.mint.com/&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/190f30382ec805572303b56c3911c126#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:43:47 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236908627&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0625.JPG&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3344769755/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3394/3344769755_d4ccda388b_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3344769755&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:35:28 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3394/3344769755_d4ccda388b_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236728128&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0623.JPG&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3345602094/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3361/3345602094_de9ea6c751_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3345602094&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:34:33 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3361/3345602094_de9ea6c751_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236728073&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0622.JPG&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3344766579/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3336/3344766579_0f155d6443_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3344766579&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:34:00 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3336/3344766579_0f155d6443_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236728040&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0619.JPG&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3344765121/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3597/3344765121_cee0ce8706_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3344765121&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:33:23 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3597/3344765121_cee0ce8706_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236728003&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0618.JPG&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3344763647/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3327/3344763647_1cc5e88547_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3344763647&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:32:47 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3327/3344763647_1cc5e88547_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236727967&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0617.JPG&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3344762185/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3400/3344762185_981db446df_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3344762185&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:32:10 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3400/3344762185_981db446df_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236727930&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0615.JPG&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3345594812/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3367/3345594812_8c687a474a_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3345594812&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:31:21 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3367/3345594812_8c687a474a_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236727881&rdquo

---

title

IMG_0614.JPG&rdquo

link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/battis/3344758441/&rdquo

description

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3622/3344758441_670190b256_m.jpg

&rdquo

author

nobody@flickr.com (Seth Battis)&rdquo

guid

tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/3344758441&rdquo

pubdate

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:30:34 -0700&rdquo

media

Array&rdquo

summary

Seth Battis posted a photo:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3622/3344758441_670190b256_m.jpg

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236727834&rdquo

---

title

Hulu - Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free.&rdquo

link

http://www.hulu.com/&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/19585f3671ae8e2beb6a962f62fa1841#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:05:32 -0700&rdquo

date_timestamp

1236639932&rdquo

---

title

Letter Monsters - a set on Flickr&rdquo

link

http://flickr.com/photos/jamesdavid/sets/72157613157333670/&rdquo

guid

http://delicious.com/url/549e73c10ebde8c185198be277ca7048#battis&rdquo

pubdate

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:35:43 -0800&rdquo

date_timestamp

1234647343&rdquo

---

title

Synergy on OS X&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/10/25/synergy-on-os-x/&rdquo

description

Having just spent some time fiddling with Synergy on OS X, it seems that there aren’t any current instructions on how to make Synergy start automatically on OS X Leopard (and starting it manually is kind of a hassle). My approach is based on Jan Varwig’s instructions, which needed yet more modification for my purposes. [...]&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/?p=31&rdquo

pubdate

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:39:57 -0700&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

summary

Having just spent some time fiddling with Synergy on OS X, it seems that there aren’t any current instructions on how to make Synergy start automatically on OS X Leopard (and starting it manually is kind of a hassle). My approach is based on Jan Varwig’s instructions, which needed yet more modification for my purposes. [...]&rdquo

atom_content

Having just spent some time fiddling with Synergy on OS X, it seems that there aren’t any current instructions on how to make Synergy start automatically on OS X Leopard (and starting it manually is kind of a hassle). My approach is based on Jan Varwig’s instructions, which needed yet more modification for my purposes. Having configured synergy.conf (nota bene: Synergy treats hostnames as case-sensitive, so read the results of hostname carefully!), I set the server and client machines to automatically start their Synergy processes on login.

This requires creating a Launch Agent on each machine (the server and the clients) to start the processes. I use Lingon, mostly because it validates my XML and lets me use the GUI, sometimes (this, by the way, was a time when the GUI failed me — it tended to trim off parameters, be forewarned and use the Expert view).

On the server, I created a new My Agent thus:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict> <key>Label</key> <string>net.sourceforge.synergy2.server</string> <key>OnDemand</key> <false/> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/path/to/synergys</string> <string>--no-daemon</string> <string>--no-restart</string> <string>--debug</string> <string>WARNING</string> <string>/path/to/synergy.conf</string> </array> <key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

And on the client, I created a similar My Agent thus:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
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A reboot on each machine (server first) and all is ready to go (and, in fact, going).

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1224981597&rdquo

---

title

Teaching Design and Problem Solving&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/06/26/teaching-design-and-problem-solving/&rdquo

description

I’m in the throes of reworking my Introduction to Computer Science course for the coming fall. I was thoroughly dissatisfied with how I taught the course this year: I’m at the stage of teaching where I know how I want it to go, but can’t always make it happen. Of course, this may not be [...]&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/2008/06/26/teaching-design-and-problem-solving/&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:41:44 -0700&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

summary

I’m in the throes of reworking my Introduction to Computer Science course for the coming fall. I was thoroughly dissatisfied with how I taught the course this year: I’m at the stage of teaching where I know how I want it to go, but can’t always make it happen. Of course, this may not be [...]&rdquo

atom_content

I’m in the throes of reworking my Introduction to Computer Science course for the coming fall. I was thoroughly dissatisfied with how I taught the course this year: I’m at the stage of teaching where I know how I want it to go, but can’t always make it happen. Of course, this may not be a stage, but could, depressingly, be the existence of a grown-up.

I have divided the course into three broad areas that I think are most important to cover: computer science (as a discipline: concepts like variable scope, Boolean logic, object-oriented design, and so on), programming in Java (concrete details like how a for loop works or how to declare a class) and design and implementation. Design and implementation is actually really the core of my fascination with this course: how do you teach problem solving? And how do you get students to apply those skills.

In doing this, I’m plowing through a lot of articles.

• Jason Tselentis does a great job of identifying the challenge (with a special focus on graphic design problem solving and software, to be honest), although what he’s really talking about has more to do with my general challenge in academic computing: developing able and fearless tinkerers.
• Anthony Cowling goes into much deeper, and more software specific, detail, pushing the idea not just of scaffolded design education, but helping students learn to assess the quality of design (subscription).
• Phillip Greenspun tackles not just the problems of teaching problem solving and design, but discusses MIT course 6.916, on developing web applications with an eye towards developing broadly competent and self-reliant alumni. Again, his basic ethos flows directly into my primary concern in any approach to academic computing: are we teaching a shamanistic approach to computers (”follow these specific steps in this order and it works.”) or are we supporting the development of true independent learners who can sit down and “just figure it out.” Greenspun and I are in the same camp, supporting the latter option.
• Gary Pollice wrote a great article describing his introductory software engineering class — which touches not just on design, but on teamwork. Again, he’s preaching somewhat to the choir as I read about his students working on semester-long courses with real clients.

Of course, the challenge is now to boil down all these design concepts into something that is useful not in a first-year computer science or software engineering undergraduate course, but in a first-semester high school course. How much do my students really need to know about UML, CRC cards, flow charts, eXtreme Programming, incremental development, rapid prototyping, functional requirements and use cases? Not a whole damn lot. Mostly, I want them to learn to enjoy the process of rigorous problem solving as manifest in learning to program a computer.

But I’d certainly like them to not be starting down the garden path of bad habits based on ill-considered pedagogical frameworks.

Ah, for the days of Pascal as a first programming language!

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1214520104&rdquo

---

title

Master Feed&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/05/23/master-feed/&rdquo

description

Want a way to track all of my varied output? Try the master feed. (Okay, it’s not all my output — but I’ve combined my blog feed, twitter feed and the the various filtered feeds I send to my classes in one. The class feeds run off of Google Reader, so that I can clip useful [...]&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/2008/05/23/master-feed/&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 23 May 2008 21:23:52 -0700&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

summary

Want a way to track all of my varied output? Try the master feed. (Okay, it’s not all my output — but I’ve combined my blog feed, twitter feed and the the various filtered feeds I send to my classes in one. The class feeds run off of Google Reader, so that I can clip useful [...]&rdquo

atom_content

Want a way to track all of my varied output? Try the master feed. (Okay, it’s not all my output — but I’ve combined my blog feed, twitter feed and the the various filtered feeds I send to my classes in one. The class feeds run off of Google Reader, so that I can clip useful articles for them as I see ‘em.)

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1211603032&rdquo

---

title

Time&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/05/23/time/&rdquo

description

As we steam towards the end of the year here, I’m watching my next few weeks and, in fact, my summer start to disappear under encroaching project creep. Not that I object too much: most of the projects are pretty cool — in fact, some of them are projects that I’ve been dying to find [...]&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/2008/05/23/time/&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 23 May 2008 19:52:17 -0700&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

summary

As we steam towards the end of the year here, I’m watching my next few weeks and, in fact, my summer start to disappear under encroaching project creep. Not that I object too much: most of the projects are pretty cool — in fact, some of them are projects that I’ve been dying to find [...]&rdquo

atom_content

As we steam towards the end of the year here, I’m watching my next few weeks and, in fact, my summer start to disappear under encroaching project creep. Not that I object too much: most of the projects are pretty cool — in fact, some of them are projects that I’ve been dying to find time to work on during the school year.

I’m painfully aware of my propensity to put off inordinate amounts of work for my next medium-sized chunk of free time. My canonical example is the year in college that I put off about a dozen errands until my Thanksgiving break. Boy howdy, was it ever a rude awakening to realize that Thanksgiving break is only about three or four extra days on the weekend, and probably at least two to four of those days are chock full of commitments to family and friends. Not so much time.

With that in mind, I was fascinated by Steve Pavlina’s article on calculating your fudge factor: that ineffable amount that your horseback estimate of the time necessary for a project is off from reality. My fudge factor is approaching 1.0 for things like driving time — and has been for years. But for coding projects and curriculum development, it might be closer to 3-10 (as in, it takes me 3 to 10 times as long as I plan for).

I’m not convinced that I have Steve’s discipline, but I rather suspect that I can use old data to get some sense of how off I usually am in my time estimates. I have surely made lots of promises archived in my email and then documented my progress (and extensions) in that same medium. Sounds like an interesting project to work on this summer…

Although building an intelligent project monitor that used heuristics to identify project commitments and updates in my incoming and outgoing email and automatically calculated the fudge factor… Now, that could keep me off the street for days at a time. Or weeks. Depends on what my fudge factor is.

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1211597537&rdquo

---

title

Ticking right along.&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/04/28/ticking-right-along/&rdquo

description

I realized that I have abandoned this experiment for over a month. No doubt this is indicative of something. Not quite sure what yet, though.&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/2008/04/28/ticking-right-along/&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:34:53 -0700&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

category

Blog&rdquo

summary

I realized that I have abandoned this experiment for over a month. No doubt this is indicative of something. Not quite sure what yet, though.&rdquo

atom_content

I realized that I have abandoned this experiment for over a month. No doubt this is indicative of something. Not quite sure what yet, though.

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1209393293&rdquo

---

title

Multiple Intelligences About Coding&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/23/multiple-intelligences-about-coding/&rdquo

description

Having just struck upon the similarities between Pink’s six new senses and Gardner’s multiple intelligences, I continue to be fascinated by examples of folks employing these ideas in creative ways: enter Basildon Coder, recently highlighted on Slashdot for describing a Wodehouse-ian approach to code refactoring. As always, I look at this and start to ponder how to use it in [...]&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/23/multiple-intelligences-about-coding/&rdquo

pubdate

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 08:55:23 -0700&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

summary

Having just struck upon the similarities between Pink’s six new senses and Gardner’s multiple intelligences, I continue to be fascinated by examples of folks employing these ideas in creative ways: enter Basildon Coder, recently highlighted on Slashdot for describing a Wodehouse-ian approach to code refactoring. As always, I look at this and start to ponder how to use it in [...]&rdquo

atom_content

Having just struck upon the similarities between Pink’s six new senses and Gardner’s multiple intelligences, I continue to be fascinated by examples of folks employing these ideas in creative ways: enter Basildon Coder, recently highlighted on Slashdot for describing a Wodehouse-ian approach to code refactoring. As always, I look at this and start to ponder how to use it in the classroom with my students: one of the real challenges that my students face is not the development of new code (although that is challenging) but figuring out how to use a body of code written by someone else (me, their classmates, some godawful Windows GDI API, etc.). I have been struck by the difficulty my students have faced this year in grasping the 50,000 foot view of coding — perhaps a visual representation like this might be a first step. Sort of a Powers of 10 for programming.

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1206287723&rdquo

---

title

Pink?s Sense of Meaning (in Rachel?s Numbers)&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/21/pinks-sense-of-meaning-in-rachels-numbers/&rdquo

description

I have a shelf (well, two shelves now) of books that I want read in their entirety (many of which I have cherry-picked and explored already). But one of the things that I’m particularly bad about is setting aside the time to really sit down and read a book cover-to-cover (even in chapters — I [...]&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/21/pinks-sense-of-meaning-in-rachels-numbers/&rdquo

pubdate

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:13:38 -0700&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

summary

I have a shelf (well, two shelves now) of books that I want read in their entirety (many of which I have cherry-picked and explored already). But one of the things that I’m particularly bad about is setting aside the time to really sit down and read a book cover-to-cover (even in chapters — I [...]&rdquo

atom_content

I have a shelf (well, two shelves now) of books that I want read in their entirety (many of which I have cherry-picked and explored already). But one of the things that I’m particularly bad about is setting aside the time to really sit down and read a book cover-to-cover (even in chapters — I get distracted easily, like a cat with shiny things). Fortunately, I am traveling today, which creates the enforced seat-time necessary to get some good reading in.

I read Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind on my flight from Dallas to Chicago this morning. It turned out to be a shockingly quick read. While I was put off for several chapters by his apparent need to ingratiate himself to left-brain directed skeptics (myself included), I was gratified to find that he did have a clear line of reasoning, rich in examples of why right-brain directed folks will be in greater comparative demand in the coming years. Much like Thomas Friedman, but much, much quicker to get through. And with interesting portfolios to match each of his new six senses.

Ironically, Pink’s last sense is the sense for meaning, touching on what he perceives a general human need for meaning in life beyond, say, comfort or safety — Viktor Frankl was his dramatic example of this. (I have some doubts that this is really a “sense” per se — much like Howard Gardner’s intelligences: they represent ideas that are hard to categorize, so any categorization is necessarily arbitrary.) Pink offers some interesting suggestions for how to try to hone this sense, particularly focused on establishing reflective rituals for oneself. I say ironically, because I just saw that my friend Rachel posted this reflection earlier this week. Way to go Rach!

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1206134018&rdquo

---

title

I do believe I shall have another?&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/13/i-do-believe-i-shall-have-another/&rdquo

description

An interesting study that suggests that will power takes real, actual, measurable energy. I wonder a) what all the ramifications of this are (is this going to be like light being both a particle and a wave?) and b) if this is correct, what ramifications does that have for how we educate our students? Hard [...]&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/13/i-do-believe-i-shall-have-another/&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:50:53 -0700&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

summary

An interesting study that suggests that will power takes real, actual, measurable energy. I wonder a) what all the ramifications of this are (is this going to be like light being both a particle and a wave?) and b) if this is correct, what ramifications does that have for how we educate our students? Hard [...]&rdquo

atom_content

An interesting study that suggests that will power takes real, actual, measurable energy. I wonder a) what all the ramifications of this are (is this going to be like light being both a particle and a wave?) and b) if this is correct, what ramifications does that have for how we educate our students? Hard to expect them to exert will power if we run them into the ground. I wonder how we could help them “bulk up” their wills. Mine too (says the portly gentleman on his third cream soda of the last hour).

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1205466653&rdquo

---

title

Project Fatigue&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/13/project-fatigue/&rdquo

description

A rather substantial constellation of coincidental events over the past week has gotten me thinking about how we approach project-based learning: a course-planning conversation with the genial mad scientist whose classroom I share, happening to reflect on my experiences in graduate school last year as I walked past the Kennedy School of Government (not my [...]&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/13/project-fatigue/&rdquo

pubdate

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:53:45 -0700&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

summary

A rather substantial constellation of coincidental events over the past week has gotten me thinking about how we approach project-based learning: a course-planning conversation with the genial mad scientist whose classroom I share, happening to reflect on my experiences in graduate school last year as I walked past the Kennedy School of Government (not my [...]&rdquo

atom_content

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/2332470390_8a553fae05_m.jpg
A rather substantial constellation of coincidental events over the past week has gotten me thinking about how we approach project-based learning: a course-planning conversation with the genial mad scientist whose classroom I share, happening to reflect on my experiences in graduate school last year as I walked past the Kennedy School of Government (not my alma mater), pondering a spring of senioritis, and trying to figure out which of many projects I most wanted to tackle myself over this break, ranging from budgeting curriculum development grants to grading to just plain building code.

Right now I’m starting to overhaul my computer science courses for the 2008-2009 school year, while simultaneously talking with my colleague about a potential joint course in 2009-2010. I have a strong personal preference for project-based learning as a teaching tool because I believe that it provides both an engaging and demanding environment in which students are challenged to learn more in order to do more (rather than just to keep me off of their backs). I also think that projects are an ideal forum in which to draw together the disparate strands of a student’s education — helping them to accomplish an integration for which there is rarely, if ever a formal structure at any level of education. (Perhaps the course on How to Make Almost Anything at MIT is the exception.)

Some of this is based on my experience working with summer programs where we pushed students — during their vacations, in the wilderness — to take on an ambitious personal project over the course of the summer. The outcomes of these projects reflected a great deal of real learning, as well as some very idiosyncratic fascinations. I worked with students who were mapping and analyzing the population of our program over the past three-quarters of a century, students who were focused on writing collections of place-based poetry and short fiction, students who were determined to build a new tool that the expeditions could use in years to come. Anything and everything. But the key was that, by and large, students were genuinely excited about these self-designed projects and put in far longer hours and more effort to complete these projects than they would with normal schoolwork (as I know based on some conversation with their school faculties). Engagement and the discovery of an intellectual passion are no trivial accomplishment for an adolescent summer.

Two summers ago, the faculty reading for my school was Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, a book which raises some interesting questions about the direction of education and economics (I suggest skimming liberally through the early chapters… I think it got interesting around page 600 or so). In large part, Friedman’s argument (which is not novel to the educational world) is that those who are able to integrate knowledge and create and construct new ideas based on that integration will have the whip hand in the world of tomorrow (a phrase normally uttered only in echo chambers).

Where in our schools do we offer those opportunities, practice or guidance for our students to integrate the knowledge that they have learned in each discipline. Certainly our instinctual tendency is often to “silo” that education, each discipline focusing exclusively on its own branch of learning, without substantial interaction with other disciplines, or alternatively engaging with other disciplines only as subservient tools of our own, intrinsically more important, discipline. (God knows I’m guilty of this: I’ll look at anything, so long as I get to write some code to work with it down the road.)

As we each start to move towards a project-based curriculum, rich with alternative assessments and challenges to individual student’s passions and interests… we’re going to burn the little puppies right out. This realization came to me as I walked past the Kennedy School, where I took a superlative accounting course last spring — the only course in which I did not have a final project. None of my final projects connected with any other final project, and several were in areas in which I had but marginal interest. This is not something unique to me: all of our students take classes in which they are only marginally interested, in order to fulfill requirements (yes, I’m starting to think about course selection advising as well!).

If every class is so well-designed that it uses the breadth of our pedagogical knowledge and the entire scope of our educational best practices, no student will be able to take a breath long enough to even start to integrate what it is that he or she is learning through this process. How much more powerful would it be for us to guide our students towards a grand, culminating project that required them to draw on multiple disciplines, integrating their knowledge and uniting their teachers as a team in support of this creative work?

Perhaps this is an overly idealistic rendering of the scene, but as I discussed curriculum planning and projects with my mad scientist friend, it became rapidly apparent that the most interesting projects were those that would require more than just one of us (and often more than just one or two of our friends and colleagues) to accomplish. This will require a culture shift at my school. But it will accomplish three major feats, if done well:

1. Engagement. These projects will be truly fascinating, whether it’s developing a process for fermenting ethanol, building a room-mapping robot or carving giant toltec figures in the landscape.
2. Authentic Challenges. These projects are clearly not artificial: students working on real problems (often with real professionals) are challenged to learn real things. With careful design, they might even learn the real things that we want them to learn!
3. Integration. These projects will drive faculty to role model and guide students through making connections between distinct educational disciplines in new and creative ways, in order to accomplish the overall goal.

So why is there a picture of my cat on a table up above? Because I’m struggling with all of this at once and finding it fairly overwhelming. If you click through and look at the list of texts, you will either wonder if I’m trying to build SkyNet by myself, or if I have technology-induced ADD. I suspect the latter. But my hope is that out of this chaos, I will be able to start to bring first order, and then some new ideas for the coming year. And then maybe I can look at training the cat to stay off the table.

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1205463225&rdquo

---

title

I knew that signpost looked familiar?&rdquo

link

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/03/i-knew-that-signpost-looked-familiar/&rdquo

description

This sounds really familiar. I wonder how you can train folks to achieve this sort of memory more rapidly — and in other fields.&rdquo

guid

http://battis.net/blog/2008/03/03/i-knew-that-signpost-looked-familiar/&rdquo

pubdate

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:10:39 -0800&rdquo

content

Array&rdquo

summary

This sounds really familiar. I wonder how you can train folks to achieve this sort of memory more rapidly — and in other fields.&rdquo

atom_content

This sounds really familiar. I wonder how you can train folks to achieve this sort of memory more rapidly — and in other fields.

&rdquo

date_timestamp

1204582239&rdquo

---