(Fri Apr 8, 6 pm) I'm sitting in Portland Int' Airport (PDX) waiting for my flight. In 2 hours. I've been here for 2 already. I have a class to prep for - a first teach in 2 weeks of stuff I knew solid 15 years ago - so I still need to prep. And I'm only 1/6 done. Maybe 1/5 if I lie. So here I am.
Ah well, I'll go get a double shot espresso shortly and get it done.
First teaches are like first dates - you just want to get through it and on to the next.
Then lots of coffee and Bailey's on the plane. Bet they take the drink coupons this week!
PDX to SMF - (That's Sacramento Int'l for those who don't know, although Donna always called it SMurF when she came up) then SAN.
Breakfast was at Pannikin in Encinitas:
Yes, the pie really is that big.
This weekend I'm home for only a day - again - in late Friday night from Portland.
Good flight again - exit row aisle, no middle - probably helped that the passenger on the window was a gorilla - so maybe we intimidated people not to sit between us. Nice thing about Southwest, if the plane is not 100% full, intimidation is a viable seat-choosing strategy.
Parking shuttle van waiting for me again and the ride home was quick and easy.
This is worth mentioning.
Driving on the Encinitas Corridor of I-5, excuse me "The" I-5 as they refer to all the freeways South of Monterey, for some reason that still escapes me,
turns to shit between Via de la Valle and approximately Poinsettia.
Might help if they removed the Big Red Line
that sits on the freeway. Just sayin'.
And since I live off one of the exits between the two I have to drive it. A lot.
People totally lose their minds here. They go slow when they should go fast, go fast when they should go slow, forget what little consideration they pretend to have most of the rest of the time. The whole "slower traffic keep right" thing goes right out the window and lays moaning by the side of the road.
It's enough of a thing that when I mention it to the locals, they all go: "Yes, you're right....Why is that?"
I have no idea.
I suspect that part of the freeway was built over an old indian graveyard:
or is the landing site for the next alien attack:
Uh, no, not that kind
That's it
- which is soon, according to NASA.
Or all the hippie-surfer energy in the area bleeds over onto the freeway, Dude, and people think being cool means driving like a fool.
Anyway, last night was fast and easy. Nice.
The encryption mess isn't over, it's just ramping up. Senators Feinstein and Burr have created a genuinely offensive, if not plain stupid, piece of legislation, covered well here and here.
to uphold both the rule of law and protect the interests and security of the United States, all persons receiving an authorized judicial order for information or data must provide, in a timely manner, responsive, intelligible information or data, or appropriate technical assistance to obtain such information or data;
And if that's literally impossible, as is the case with strong encryption or end-to-end encryption?
Let's be clear, here. This bill makes effective cybersecurity illegal. Think about that for a second. This is insane.
Then there's this kicker:
Nothing in this Act may be construed to authorize any government officer to require or prohibit any specific design or operating system to be adopted by any covered entity.
Yeah, except for the entire bill which absolutely prohibits the kind of design that basically all security experts say you need to adequately protect data and communications.
There are lots of other issues as well. As Jonathan Zdziarski notes, the bill is so ridiculously drafted that it doesn't distinguish between encrypted data and deleted data.
“Burr-Feinstein may be the most insane thing I’ve ever seen seriously offered as a piece of legislation. It is ‘do magic’ in legalese,” tweeted Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute studying privacy and technology.“Well, the Feinstein-Burr bill is pretty much as clueless and unworkable as I expected it would be,” tweeted Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins University.
“No one, unless he is addicted to drugs,
will give you any fixed guarantees for this airport.”
The airport, known as BER, was originally due to open in 2012. However, it has still not been completed and is now likely to cost at least €6.5bn (£5.2bn), instead of the €1.7bn that was projected in 2004. Having fired most everyone associated with the project, the spokesman for the airport/most recent casualty, had this to say:
“I have no interest to keep under wraps what … [others] have screwed up. Until now it was mostly said: ‘No, everything’s fine’. But that’s bullshit.
I believe the German word is Entlassen (Sacked).
Where's the edit?
A good end of week and good class. Back home next week for a first teach.
Stay tuned and take care.
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