Wow, flying out of SFO just became much worse. While traveling this morning I surprised to find out that TSA is now requiring that you remove all electronic devices from your carry-on bags, including cables etc. and place them in a separate bin to be scanned at the security checkpoints. Along with slowing down the line to a crawl, this will undoubtedly lead to people losing expensive equipment, not to mention the possiblity for your stuff to be accidentally taken by someone else or even stolen.

Of course none of this information is mentioned on either the TSA or SFO websites.

Does anyone know if TSA is requiring this at any other airports?

What horseshit.

New Arbitrary TSA requirement: all electronics out of your bag (cables, too) - Boing Boing

du has been informed that the cuts on both FLAG and SEA-ME-WE4 cables occurred at approx 12km north of Alexandria. This incident has impacted international and regional telecom services from operators across the Gulf, Egypt Middle East and India. The two cables are 400m apart at this point which suggests that a ship has dragged its anchor through both cables.

FLAG and SEA-ME-WE4 have activated their emergency repair process. Given the proximity of the two systems, it is likely that one ship will do both repairs. While no schedule is available yet for the repair, initial estimates indicate it will take at least two weeks to repair the FLAG cable.

Ouch.

Dubai City Guide: Update On Submarine Cable Cuts

Here is a Web 2.0 period table of elements. It has a slider for temperature that causes the table to show you the elements state at that temperature.

Dynamic Periodic Table of Elements

Every downtown area has it's local color. DC is no exception. In the area where I work, there is this guy who dances in circles down the middle of 14th Street every day hooting, hollering, and rocking out to his headphones. And by middle of the street, I mean directly in the middle of the street. He tends to stop in the middle of intersections and dance as the traffic goes around him. The police in the area pay him no mind.. The scene tends to invoke statements from bystanders along the lines of "is that guy crazy?"

Yesterday when I was walking back from getting a coffee, he was over toward the side of the road, so I asked him how long he has been doing this. The answer: 1984.

This guy should be a tourist attraction..

The general rules of this game are no different from any other drinking game. A drink is either a shot or a good gulp from a beer (or cider). Different events call for different numbers of drinks and all you do is watch the speech and play along. If all goes well, you'll be unconscious by the time they show the other party's response.

It's that time again folks!

Remember to lay on your side so you don't choke on your vomit...

Update:

[20:27] In addition to whatever State of The Union drinking game you may be playing.. I have and addition.
[20:27] You must have one pre-prepared shot.
[20:28] Something you either really like, or that can hurt you badly. Your choice there.
[20:28] You drink it upon hearing the word "cybersecurity".
[20:28] Or, for that matter, anything cyber- that has to do with infosec.
[20:28] UNDERSTAND?

Update^2: So much for that...

The State of the Union Address Drinking Game 2008

President Bush has promised a frugal budget proposal next month, but one big-ticket item is stirring controversy: an estimated $6 billion to build a secretive system protecting U.S. communication networks from attacks by terrorists, spies and hackers.

WSJ | Bush Looks to Beef Up Protection Against Cyberattacks

Greg Conti published a book last October!

Information overload. If you're responsible for maintaining your network's security, you're living with it every day. Logs, alerts, packet captures, and even binary files take time and effort to analyze using text-based tools - and once your analysis is complete, the picture isn't always clear, or timely. And time is of the essence.

Information visualization is a branch of computer science concerned with modeling complex data using interactive images. When applied to network data, these interactive graphics allow administrators to quickly analyze, understand, and respond to emerging threats and vulnerabilities.

Security Data Visualization is a well-researched and richly illustrated introduction to the field. Greg Conti, creator of the network and security visualization tool RUMINT, shows you how to graph and display network data using a variety of tools so that you can understand complex datasets at a glance. And once you've seen what a network attack looks like, you'll have a better understanding of its low-level behavior - like how vulnerabilities are exploited and how worms and viruses propagate.

You'll learn how to use visualization techniques to:

# Audit your network for vulnerabilities using free visualization tools, such as AfterGlow and RUMINT
# See the underlying structure of a text file and explore the faulty security behavior of a Microsoft Word document
# Gain insight into large amounts of low-level packet data
# Identify and dissect port scans, Nessus vulnerability assessments, and Metasploit attacks
# View the global spread of the Sony rootkit, analyze antivirus effectiveness, and monitor widespread network attacks
# View and analyze firewall and intrusion detection system (IDS) logs

Security visualization systems display data in ways that are illuminating to both professionals and amateurs. Once you've finished reading this book, you'll understand how visualization can make your response to security threats faster and more effective

You can download Chapter 5, "One Night on my ISP", from the publisher.

Security Data Visualization: Graphical Techniques for Network Analysis

After Velvet Revolver wraps a spring tour in support of its second album, "Libertad," frontman Scott Weiland will rejoin his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots for a handful of summer reunion shows, guitarist Slash tells Billboard.com.

STP broke up in late 2002; the band's last album was the previous year's "Shangri-La Dee Da." No other details have yet been revealed about STP's plans.

Nice!

Weiland Playing With STP This Summer

... based on exit polls.

Ever read a book (required or otherwise) and upon finishing it thought to yourself, "Wow. That was terrible. I totally feel dumber after reading that."? I know I have. Well, like any good scientist, I decided to see how well my personal experience matches reality. How might one do this?

Well, here's one idea.

1. Get a friend of yours to download, using Facebook, the ten most popular books at every college (manually -- as not to violate Facebook's ToS). These ten books are indicative of the overall intellectual milieu of that college.
2. Download the average SAT/ACT score for students attending every college.
3. Presto! We have a correlation between books and dumbitude (smartitude too)!

Books <=> Colleges <=> Average SAT Scores

4. Plot the average SAT of each book, discarding books with too few samples to have a reliable average.
5. Post the results on your website, pondering what the Internet will think of it.

Yes, I'm aware correlation ≠ causation. The results are awesome regardless of direction of causality.
You can stop sending me email about this distinction. Thanks.

Virgil strikes again!

Booksthatmakeyoudumb