Thoughts
Busy Weekend
This weekend, starting with Thursday, has been quite enjoyable and interesting. I met a guy from Canada on Thursday. He was doing laundry in the coin laundry below our apartment building. He started speaking Japanese at me. I say, "at me," because he was speaking it so quickly. I blinked twice as I caught, "eigo daijobu ka?" Blah, it wasn't a great moment in Japanese speaking history for me, but I said, yes. The guy, from now on to be referred to as A. He's been living in Japan for thirteen years, had a Japanese wife, two kids. He had been living in Tokyo, but this is first time in the Kansai region. We talked for a bit, but he had to finish his laundry. Still, in the brief time we talked he seemed like a pretty cool guy.
Friday was Japanese class as usual. I've been making an effort to go out of my "comfort zone" and talk with people that aren't native English speakers during the tea break. Friday was very good in that way. I talked with Kim sensei, who is from Korea, and several Chinese guys who are here as trainees. I also talked with a Brazillian guy, who I have talked to before, but not at this level. We talked about where we wanted to travel, and friends, as well as some martial arts. He used to practice Kung Fu with a friend of his named Fletcher, when he was living in the States. Now he practices Jiujitsu in Konan. Even more interesting, he went to school with Vanderlei Silva. We were talking about how, when he fights, he is a very scary individual, but outside the ring, he is a really nice guy.
Saturday, I started my Shadowrun game. As a GM I felt that it went pretty well, but I'm not certain what my players felt. I'm running the game for a group of three which is different from everything else I've GM'd. I think it is pretty cool though, gives a lot more opportunity for roleplaying.
Sunday, The Wife and I went to the Japanese Class sports day. It was really quite enjoyable, despite initially not wanting to attend. We talked to a group of Vietnamese people that are working in Shigaraki. They said, "While we are working, we have fun, but at night, we are very bored." The Vietnamese were really friendly, and pretty crazy. It was fun. My volleyball team won. We then went out to eat at Mama's, a Japanese Italian place, with Nishida as well as K from Shigaraki and The Bitter Baron. After that, the Wife and I came home and I went to bed, while she typed out a post for the Hero Wars PBEM.

Security Thoughts
A couple of very interesting things happened over the weekend. I think the most interesting is the research at Brisbane University which found "a major flaw in wireless network technology that means hackers can bring down critical infrastructure in as little as five seconds¹. This is a flaw in the IEEE 802.11b standard. The beauty of it is the trivial nature of the attack. You can read the article here or the technical description of the problem on the AusCERT page here.
The other thing, which just recently occurred, Cisco's source code has been reportedly stolen. Some of the code has been released on unmentioned IRC channels. Read about that story here.

This summer I start a class on Computer Ethics and Law, which I am looking forward to. In regards to this, I've included some links to articles written by Bruce Schneier. The first talks about using the current system in place to reclaim civil liberties by requiring the use of surveillance to be accompanied by a warrant. It is an interesting article, and I think he has some very valid points. I don't suppose I would include it if I thought that it didn't have anything to say. The next article is about a pilot program installing undercover security personnel in airports looking for "suspicious behavior." I'll let you read it. He mentions several of the strong points, like reduction of false positives, but also weaknesses. You can find that here. The third article is about being a security consumer, as a nation. Essentially, the article asks the question, "Are we getting our money's worth out of our nation's security decisions?" You can read that at news.com.com. The last article is something to do for fun, in your spare time. Turn your disposal camera into a stun gun!

That's it for today. Later.

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1) "Students Warn of Hacking Threat," The Courier-Mail.