Year: 2001

Ralphy old chap, you’re missing the point. It’s not that we make fun of Americans. It’s just that we make fun of each other, and the first thing we noticed about you is that you’re American. Love ya, baby.

Live: At this very moment, Zeldman is playing Photoshop Tennis. Much cooler and more geeky than you can possibly imagine. The game’s only half-way through. Check back tomorrow for the final results.

There’s currently a job going at the BBC and you can apply for it online and I’m completely obsessed with it. I need this job. I crave this job. But because of that, I’ve been putting off applying for it all week. I want my application to be perfect. It has to be great. It’s too intimidating a project. If I don’t get it, I’ll be incredibly depressed. It’s got to be done today otherwise I miss the deadline. I feel ill.

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@plasticbag.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.