Category: Technology

Catch-22 of the Digital Age

I like to listen to audiobooks on my iPod. I have a subscription to Audible.com and buy one or two books a month. In the beginning things were fine, but about two years ago iTunes stopped remembering my Audible password. I get around this by double-clicking on any Audible file and put in my password when it asks. This fixes the problem long enough to sync. But if I quit iTunes, I start over. If I forget, iTunes automatically deletes the files from my iPod. Needless to say this is a major pain in the butt!

This got me thinking about Digital Rights Management (DRM) and how wrong it is. The cartoonist xkcd sums this up nicely. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t! I stopped buying DRM’d music from the iTunes Store in favor of DRM-free tunes from Amazon.com. As far as I know I don’t have that option for books. Why not?! [The irony here is Audible is now owned by Amazon.]

Thanks to xkcd.com!

June 2009 Update: The iTunes Store has gone DRM-free for music! How about it Audible?

Better Passwords?

Password Entropy GraphThe best passwords are completely random—strong but almost impossible to remember. This report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) suggests a better solution—long pass phrases.

Entropy is a measure of password strength. The more entropy a password has, the harder it is to crack. Many systems enforce dictionary and composition rules (numbers, mixed case, punctuation) on short (less than ten character) passwords. This graph on page 23 of the NIST report shows that dictionary rules do not improve longer passwords, and the boost from composition rules is fairly small. A simple twelve character pass phrase (a-z plus spaces) is as strong as an eight character rule-based password, but can be much easier to type and remember. Throw in one digit and you’ve got a very strong credential indeed! I’ve written a quick three step approach for the UF campus system (which unfortunately does not allow spaces).

Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution

Norman Borlaug

What science gives, stupidity and geopolitics may take away. Norman Borlaug is the (largely unknown) hero of the last half of the twentieth century. He is credited with saving the lives of millions by developing high-yield crops and other agricultural innovations. He is one of only five who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal.

But things may be changing. The recent spike in oil prices, coupled with a switch from food to fuel production is putting the world at risk. A series of food shortages and riots may presage what’s to come.

Norman Borlaug Quotes…