“Is hacking a national security threat?,” Yoran said. “The one word answer is yes.”

As proof, Yoran pointed to stories about the denial-of-service attacks in Estonia, attacks on government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and the recently reported breach of a defense contractor that let hackers get at information on the Joint Strike Fighter.

“Cyber 9-11 has happened over the last ten years, but it’s happened slowly so we don’t see it,” Yoran said.

I'm going to beat the shit out of the next person who uses the phrase "Digital Pearl Harbor" or "Cyber 9-11" with a god damn PIPE.

Is the Hacking Threat To National Security Overblown? | Threat Level | Wired.com

Lots of fast pipes out there. Didn't realize how small dial-up was now.

US Broadband Penetration Grows to 93.4%

video of the Tank Man.

YouTube - 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests

It’s a busy, meeting-filled day for Yours Truly down at the local headquarters for The Empire

I totally need a sign that says "Is it good for the Empire?" in my office?

A Busy Day — Global Nerdy

There are just some days you see how brilliant people are compared to you. And the worst (best?) part was I felt smart before I read this. I even felt smart while reading it (caught the cipher block chaining mistake in the code before the explanation).

Then they have to get to bit flipping and BLEW MY MIND. My seemingly small and primitive mind that consumes Kahn's books for the historic and not mathematical joy. This reminds me how I was in Chicago on a panel once with Thomas, Dave Aitel, and Alex Sotirov. I remember being about to hop on stage and thinking (as I'm sure they were) "So who got sick and dropped out?"

blah blah blah DOM tree blah blah blah document.referer blah blah blah XSS blah blah blah charlatans, punch in the face

Matasano Chargen » Blog Archive » Typing The Letters A-E-S Into Your Code? You’re Doing It Wrong!

Enter an improbable accident waiting to happen. Rust, 19, was determined to prove that the empire really wasn’t all that evil and that Gorbachev was earnest in his desire to end the Cold War. His plan was simple: Violate the most heavily defended airspace in the world, get to Moscow in one piece, and show the world the softer side of the Soviets.

[snip]

Within minutes Rust was picked up by a radar station in Skrunda, Latvia (then part of the Soviet Union). Missile units were activated. Ground units were put on high alert. It wasn’t long before a Soviet fighter jet was in pursuit. Rust could see his fellow aviator, but said later he wasn’t given any instructions by him. Turns out the MiG could only communicate on military frequencies that the Cesna couldn’t receive. Eventually, the MiG just broke off and disappeared.

[snip]

At any moment Rust could have been fired upon, or at least forced to land. But the KAL incident had made the Soviet military gun-shy. Only the most senior commanders now had the authority to issue shoot-down orders and, on this day, they were all at a meeting in East Berlin.

May 28, 1987: Teen Tests Soviet Air Defenses | This Day In Tech | Wired.com

As a webmaster, you have a unique understanding of your web pages and the content they represent. Google helps users find your page by showing them a small sample of that content -- the "snippet." We use a variety of techniques to create these snippets and give users relevant information about what they'll find when they click through to visit your site. Today, we're announcing Rich Snippets, a new presentation of snippets that applies Google's algorithms to highlight structured data embedded in web pages.

For later reference

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Introducing Rich Snippets

Why oh why do I need Silverlight to view other background images in Bing?

Cause Tom makes me write out all the source...

<img id="paint">
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var index = photos.length -1;

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Load the array through a remote JSON call and add a fading transition and you are good to go.

100 VC blogs. Hold for later

Global VC Blog Directory – Ranked By # of Google Reader Subscribers (May 2009) « Thinking About Thinking

In the tradition of Garfield minus Garfield (where if you remove Garfield from Garfield comics you are left with the sad delusional rants of Jon Arbuckle talking to himself) I give you Porn Sans People.

Porn Sans People