In the spirit of encryption – and to encourage people to start using PGP as standard – you may now send me encrypted e-mails via tom%40plasticbag.org. All you have to do is install PGP and look up my public key on the PGP servers.
I have a long-standing interest in issues of cryptography – particularly as it relates to privacy laws. I’ve become increasingly aware of the presence of surveillance cameras over the last three or four years, and have followed the development of face-recognition software closely. I recently got sent a copy of as a present off my wishlist, and I ploughed through it at a phenomenal rate. While it wasn’t as technically illuminating as either The Code Book or the extraordinary (and must-read) novel Cryptonomicon, it did cover the level of NSA interference in the development of cryptography very well. At the back of my mind, though, I’ve always been convinced that whatever they may say, the NSA must be close to developing either some level of quantum computing or some kind of system for factoring large numbers – both of which would signal the end of much of the security that encryption currently provides. But according to an article at the BBC, this is far from the case. In fact the NSA is asking for more and more money to find some way to fight the rapid spread of strong encryption around the world.
Horror of horrors: I am not nearly as woolly a liberal as I had initially hoped: “More of a damp and flaccid liberal, you’d like the world to be a little better – you just don’t want to have to make the effort yourself. So, you once went on a demo and you watch Children in Need and you voted Labour last time round. But don’t kid yourself – that shrivelled and underused liberal conscience impresses nobody.” [via the Dragonthief]
The answer to yesterday’s puzzle: If you want another perspective on the problem then wander over to NotSoSoft where Meg has explained it all. Other people also got the answer correct, but weren’t nearly as forthcoming about the process. Here’s my solution for you all:
Here are the three doors:
—1— —2— —3—
Behind one of the doors is the thing we want. Behind the other two are things we don’t want. We select a door, but before it is opened, another door is opened to reveal a thing we don’t want and we are offered the choice to switch from our original choice to the other door.
Let’s assume that we chose door one, as it doesn’t make much difference which one we select. Here are the potential variations:
—1— —2— —3—
GOOD BAD BAD
—1— —2— —3—
BAD GOOD BAD
—1— —2— —3—
BAD BAD GOOD
At this stage then, we have a one in three chance of being correct. At this point one of doors two or three is opened to reveal a BAD thing. The
doors that CAN be opened to reveal a bad thing are bold below (don’t forget we have selected door one so that can’t be opened):
—1— —2— —3—
GOOD BAD BAD
—1— —2— —3—
BAD GOOD BAD
—1— —2— —3—
BAD BAD GOOD
If you STICK in the first variation you will definitely win, but in either
of the other two you will definitely lose. If you SWITCH, in the first variation you will definitely *lose*. In the
second and third variations you will definitely win. Which means the chances of you winning if you STICK remain 1/3, but the
chances of winning if you SWITCH are 2/3. Therefore you should switch.
Dear Simon, While I am delighted to hear that you got the A-levels that you required to go to Surrey, I have to point out one major thing. I bloody told you so. It’s difficult to get worked up by someone’s concerns about their exam performance when you know that they’ll be fine. Silly bastard. While we are at it, I hate you for the redesign, because it’s really nice, and I still don’t understand why you chose Surrey of all places. Jeez.
Last night I decided to watch Chasing Amy on TV, and remembered why I like it so much. Then I decided to go to bed. It was around 2.00am. I check my e-mail first, and find a link to a game on Lego.com: Junkbot. I play it for a little while. I then glance up to my clock. It’s 4.00am.
An annoying problem for you to work through (e-mailed to me by an old friend in Bristol and subsequently sent to Haddock.org):
Imagine there are three doors in front of you. Behind one of the doors is a brand new iBook. Behind the other two lurk buckets of maggots. You want the iBook and you don’t want the maggots. There’s a doorman waiting to open one of the doors for you, but only one.
You decide which door you wish to open, and tell the doorman. He looks at you with a sparkle in his eyes and says he’d like to make it interesting. Turning to one of the doors you didn’t select, he whips it open to reveal a bucket of maggots. “There,” he says, “That should make it a little easier for you. Now do you want to stay with your first choice of door, or do you want to switch to the other one?” You look at him as if he were a drooling fool. Do you stick or do you switch?
I’m thinking that I should annotate every single minute of a day. Maybe. I could spend the day noting down everything I did as I did it, and carry a digicam with me. Then for all the bits that I missed, I could (perhaps) go and reconstruct it afterwards. I could record all my conversations onto MD and then plug it in the back of my Mac and see if I could rip MP3s from it. So you could hear what kind of funny things people get up to in my world. I may sound like I’m taking the piss, but I’m honestly not. The whole thing sounds like an excellent project. [inspired indirectly by the awesome dinnerblog‘s reconstruction of the meal I went to the other night. And before anyone asks, no this is not a dig. I think it’s really cool.]
Because I’m a sad sad man: Buffy and Angel spoilers and news: Who might be Angel’s nemesis this year?, Buffy’s Musical episode and … Eddie Izzard?. Need I say more?
I’m getting very bored with discussions about meetings about issues in my house. I just want to be left alone to get on with things. I’m very easy to please really.