Thank bog. This book was excellent. Totally washed away the funk left by Spook Country. Go, read Little Brother. Go.
I’m talking to you, go.
Fine, you don’t want to pay for it, go read it for free (legally even). Just go read it.
This was one of those books that at 1am I’d say, fuck, just one more chapter. At 2am I’d crawl into bed as my eyes were drooping too much. This is by far one of the best books I’ve read so far this year (and one that stepped up my sleep deprivation a notch).
On recommendation, from the excellent bibliography in the back of the book, I’m thinking of heading down to the used book store to try to pick up a copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
So, in conclusion, kudos Cory. Another excellent creation.
Didn’t I just tell you to go read it? Go, damn it.
The video from LayerOne has been posted to YouTube. For the one person that’s maybe, kinda, interested, you can see my Exploit-Me: Firefox Plug-ins for Application Penetration Testing. The slides in the video are a bit hard to read but you can grab a PDF copy off the LayerOne archive site.
Let me know what you think.
If you’re curious about this XSS and Sql Injection stuff take a look at the OWASP Top Ten they’re both in there.
So, I was reading Slashdot today and came across a story in the Vancouver Sun about the ACTA: Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers. This kinda pissed me off so I decided to, you know, actually exercise some of those rights I have and wrote an angry letter to the government. I sent it in through the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Contact Us pages. If it’s warranted they’ll reply to me within 5 business days.
For your reading pleasure.
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the Destruction of our Rights
It’s troubling to be presented with news of secret agreements which are designed to destroy the rights of Canadians in favour of corporations. Reading about the ACTA agreement and the governments stance behind it is frightening. (Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers)
I thought this was a free country. I thought this was a country that would defend its citizens. I thought we were innocent until proven guilty?
Has the Canadian government learned nothing from the debacle that is the DCMA in the United States? The destruction of private rights by corporations is shocking. The ability to wield the DCMA to stifle security research and hamper consumers from using their legally purchased products has happened time and again.
Is the assumption now that all music on my laptop or iPod is stolen? Do I have to submit to searches of my home to ‘prove’ I own the music I am listening too? Are we now going to re-appropriate our over-worked law enforcement offices from catching real criminals to looking through the contents of everyones iPods?
The amount of mis-use to stifle innovation and harass honest citizens is astounding. The invasion into my privacy is shocking.
The idea that the government is backing these types of legislations is a clear indication of the failure of the government to honestly care about it’s citizens.
Through the cost efficient access to the Internet that has been afforded by broadband in the last few years the large media companies are affraid for their bottom lines. There are a few artists who understand and embrace the new media. Look to the Radiohead In Rainbows release or the recent Nine Inch Nails Ghosts and The Slip releases. There are ways for media companies to work in concert with the Internet to grow their business. Instituting a police state on consumers is not the answer.
Please reconsider the governments stance on the ACTA. Please move the discussions and developments of these agreements which have a wide reaching impact on all Canadians into the open. Cloak and Dagger agreements hurt the consumer in the end.
I do a lot of programming in my spare time. I enjoy programming so that kind of makes sense. During University we had to take courses in algorithm design. At the time I wasn’t really into it but after spending a few years in the field, as it were, I’ve grown a fondness for designing fast, efficient and, in some cases, sexy algorithms.
To that end, I picked up a copy of The Algorithm Design Manual which I’d heard a few people mention as being a good book. I have to say, I agree with them.
This book works really well. The first half is a discussion of different types of algorithms and contains war stories which discuss actual instances where the author needed to call upon the previous topics. The last half the book is a reference manual of algorithms. These can come in quite handy when you’re looking for information on a specific topic.
I found it quite easy to sit down and read through the first half the book. Although, I admit, dynamic programming and backtracking still trips me up. The author has a writting style that works. As a bonus the book comes with a CD containing the information in the book. Much easier to search and carry around with you. A great addition by whoever thought it up.
All in all, if you do programming work this is a good book to read.
I’ve had Spook Country on my shelf for a while now. I’ve read a bunch of William Gibson books but my interest has been waining. I was pretty put off after reading Pattern Recognition but I thought, hey, this is the author of Neuromancer, how can I go wrong?
Well, wrong is where I went.
I had a lot of trouble getting into this one. I only really finished it because I had a flight to Seattle and back that needed filling (along with some time flying to Pasadena). I struggled through but even at the end I just thought, that’s the end? I didn’t get engaged with any of the characters and felt no desire to stay up until 2am at any point to read just one more chapter.
So, now the problem I’m trying to solve is, do I go back and re-read Neuromancer? Is it going to get crushed under the weight of how I remember it? I think it was grade 9 English (or was it 10?) that I first read Neuromancer. That’s a long time ago now.
So, instead I’m moving on to Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. I’ve read a bunch of Doctorow books lately and have loved them all so I’m looking forward to this one.