Do We Have The Courage To Stop This?

That is the question being asked.  In the wake of yet another school shooting, the focus is already on banning the tools used.   NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF of the New York Times asks this very question, and suggests regulating guns as seriously as we do cars.  I am 100% in favor of doing just that.

I'll get to why shortly.  First lets look at some facts.

Fact:  This assault, like almost every other in recent years, used guns which were in whole or in part NOT owned by the perpetrator.  
Fact:  No gun law can protect you from a stolen gun.  None.
Fact: This recent assault went on for a fairly long time.  Not seconds, but many minutes.  Others have lasted much much longer.
Fact: The perpetrators have (or are alleged to have) mental issues which should have prevented them from carrying or owning a gun UNDER EXISTING LAWS.
Fact:  If these individuals didn't have guns they would have killed fewer people.

These people are terrorists.  Whatever their mental state, their goal is to create terror.  As such, they are not and will not be deterred by the legality of what they are doing or the tools they use to do it.  They are and will be deterred by one thing that comes in two flavors.  Prevention.  Early prevention is best.  We want to stop them before they ever step out the door.  If at all possible we want to prevent their ever  reaching the point of wanting to do something so terrible.  Mental health has taken a backseat to other health concerns recently.  Maybe that's because the people who suffer the most from mental health issues can't or don't vote.  I don't know.  But it's a problem that needs to be addressed.

But that's the first (and best) line of defense.  Some will eventually slip through.  Is the best solution to prevent these attacks on our children by taking guns away from the people who aren't attacking other people?  Is the solution to hope that the next terrorist, the next maniac, will be stopped because he can't buy a gun legally?  Is the plan going to be hiding behind locked doors?

None of those work, none have worked.  Look to the places with strict gun control.  China?  No guns - but almost as many school children killed by a knife wielding madman.  England?  Knife violence escalates to the point they now want to ban knives!  Knife control laws.  Ban those high capacity assault knives!

As an aside, what exactly is an "assault weapon?"  Isn't anything I can assault you with an "assault weapon?"  Anyway.

This attack could have been stopped at the school entrance by an armed faculty member.  Stopped dead.  Most, if not ALL, could have been stopped DEAD, before there were any casualties or before there were nearly as many if one person had had the courage and the legal ability to stop it.  Do we have the courage to stop this?  Do we have the courage to be prepared for the eventuality of those who would attack?

But these people need training.  At least one firearms training facility has extended the offer to train three faculty member per school district.  For free.

But I said I'd explain why I was in favor of regulating guns the way we regulate cars.  Here's why I am 100% in favor of that.

I bring my car to work.  I bring my car to church.  I drive wherever I want whenever I want subject to no restrictions that are particularly meaningful.  I can buy any car I can afford without asking the government.  I can then take that car and drive it across state lines and back as I please.  When I need to go somewhere I hop in and go.  Sure I have a license.  Issued by the state and subject to a few perfectly reasonable demonstrations of reasonable ability.  I can, if I have the funds and the desire, buy a HMMWV or a duece and a half.

You want to see these crimes stop?  You want to see a decrease in violent crimes overall?  Re-read the 2nd amendment.  A "well-regulated militia."  I propose, and will gladly give the proposition to anyone who can move it forward, that we pass a new gun law.  All able-bodied persons of sound mind and over 18 must be prepared to maintain a firearm for the sole purpose of national defense, self defense, and community defense.  Furthermore, such persons will be provided training consistent with their duties on responsibilities, legal use of deadly force, weapon familiarization and maintenance, and small unit tactics.  This militia should be under the local supervision of the sheriff or other duly constituted legal office.

Some people will want to "opt-out".   That's ok, but they will pay a tax penalty,  Preferably at the state or local level, but whatever works.  The militia should be armed and vigilant, but not aggressive.  An armed man on the street or other public area should, rather than being a cause for alarm, be the first person you ask for directions, or help with a tire change.  These should be the responsible adults.  Indeed, the man carrying a rifle should be emblematic of personal and civic responsibility.

I ask you, do we have the courage to stop this?

SFTP (and scp) Gripe

SFTP and SCP are part of the SSH family of tools.  These are specified for enhanced security and are pretty good at it.  They are also only recently being migrated to because of a perceived implementation difficulty.

One major difficulty is that these tools are designed to ensure that you, the client, do NOT store usernames and passwords in unsecured files such as .netrc or shell scripts.  That's an indisputably good thing.  The problem is that the morons implementing server side SFTP at uncountable numbers of vendors, EDI clearinghouses, insurance companies, etc. seem to be incapable of grasping the notion of key based authentication.  SSH requires this.  If your SSH doesn't (there are many, almost all Windows based, if that tells you anything) then your SSH isn't in spec and may be insecure in other ways as well.

What these guys (the implementers at the various vendors mentioned) are doing is a) trading the minor inconvenience of key management for the major inconvenience of creating insecure workarounds to the ssh specification, b) foisting that inconvenience off on you, the client, and c) ultimately dropping responsibility for the insecurely stored credentials squarely in your lap.  Go figure.

So, fine, I don't care that I have to work a little extra to make this happen, I'm used to it.  But this complete disregard for the years of thought that went into the SSH framework, the casual disregard of the inherent security issues with storing passwords in the clear, it's a little hard to stomach.

But then, it's my server that has the credentials stored insecurely - not theirs.

The End of The World

Allegedly the world will end, or at least be the beginning of the end, sometime tomorrow.  I haven't put much thought into why Mr Camping thinks May 21st is the big day.  It's pretty much irrelevant.

Let me say it again:

Whether or not the Rapture occurs on May 21st is IRRELEVANT.


In my experience only two kinds of people worry about the rapture, the end of the world, whatever, with regard to a specific date.  One, there are those who fear the coming of the end, primarily for themselves.  Not always because they fear eternal damnation, but because they fear the loss of the things they know and love.  The other type looks forward to the end of a world they cannot understand and perhaps enjoy the idea of people who have wronged them getting their just rewards.

They both miss the point, although the oblivionists less so.  One day, the world will end. Whether that is tomorrow or two thousand years from now makes no difference to me.  It only matters to anyone in as much as you may have another day's grace to work out your own salvation.  But even if the Big Day is called on account of idiocy, you personally may not get another.  Anyone, at any time may get hit by the proverbial bus.  ANY time.  Think about that.

Who do you need to apologize to today?  Who do you need to show, not just tell, your love to?  Have you gotten your heart right with God?  You may not even make it til tomorrow night.  The time to get yourself straight is now, rapture or not.

I won't be waiting up tomorrow night.  I feel pity for those who will be sorely disappointed Sunday morning.  That will be when the true test of your "faith" is.  If you are convinced Camping is right, and excited about the end, one way or another, you need to take a long hard look at why that gets you so worked up.  It may not be the reasons you are telling yourself.

As for me, the rapture is welcomed anytime.

Scio Redemptor meus vivit

xkcd: The Difference

http://xkcd.com/242/

How many times I have ended up having to repeatedly reinstall
(rebuild, reconstruct, remake, recook, etc.) because of the phrase: "I
wonder if..."

Tornado in Ridgeland

Three Months with The Cr48 Notebook

I got a Cr48 notebook in late December and have been messing with it ever since.  More or less.

I was initially rather excited about the notebook, it was fast, secure, light.  It has insane battery life, it is Linux based, it's more or less open to developers and reverse-engineering.  I took the time.  I tweaked.  I updated.  I joined a number of Cr48 discussion groups.

After three months, I still use it.  Some.

The overall design just doesn't work.

So, the parts, and what makes them great:

The hardware is robust and fast enough for what it does.  Really, the CPU is a little slow by today's standards, but everything else is well matched to it giving an overall experience that feels lightning fast.

The browser is Chrome, of course and it is awesome.  I really feel that the Chrome browser is the best browser you can get today.  It does an unbelievably good job of keeping the state of your browser sync'ed over multiple machines with usually being obtrusive about it.  Almost everything "just works."

The OS is just the browser,  basically.  This is where the trouble starts.  The Cr48 is basically useless without a network connection.  I'm not always well connected.  Thus, when I want to write a paper, a lesson plan, a blog entry, even a simple note to self, I do NOT pull out the Cr48.  I use my clunky (but reliable) old Toshiba, or increasingly I find that I use my Android phone.

In fact, I am becoming more and more solidly of the opinion that the Cr48 needs to be dumped in favor of fully integrating the Chrome browser into Android.

Sorry, Cr48 team, I tried.  I'm still trying.  But I think the Cr48 is going to be remembered as a false step on the path to better things.

Science Fair, Here We Come!!

Building nuclear reactor at home - from scratch

http://3.14.by/en/read/building-nuclear-reactor-at-home

(Credit & Copyright: Svarychevski Michail Aleksandrovich)

Svary shows how to make a homemade nuclear reactor for under $50.

Unfortunately it doesn't even produce enough power to charge a cell phone.  But perhaps there are improvements?

Regardless, it -looks- cool!!