Erik L. Arneson — Writer and Software Developer

Many Posts of Interest for January 2024

2024-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

Once again, I have collected far too many links over far too long a period of time. Anyhow, here is a collection of blog posts and links from around the web that I found to be good reading over the past couple of months. Is it too late in January to say Happy New Year?

2024 has been a pretty weird year for me so far. I spent the first couple weeks of the year in isolation, and then Portland got hit with a Snowpocalypse (I love how that’s a regular thing now), followed by freezing rain. This is the third day in a row that the sidewalk outside my front door is basically an ice skating rink. That means it’s a great time to do some reading!

Security

Privacy is Priceless, but Signal is Expensive [Security] I really appreciate this incredible breakdown of Signal’s costs and how they use donations. Signal is cool. You should be using it. For real.
Breaking Laptop Fingerprint Sensors (Bruce Schneier) [Security] Do people actually use their laptop fingerprint sensors? I hate mine. I just disable the dang things and use a password.
Surveillance by the US Postal Service (Bruce Schneier) [Security] To Catch a Thief, starring Cliff from Cheers.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon opens discussion of push notification surveillance by Apple and Google (Rick Turoczy) [Security] There is some interesting legal stuff going on around the ability of tech companies like Apple and Google to use push notifications to capture user data that could be used for nefarious purposes. Definitely a story to keep your eye on!
Holding NSA’s Feet To The Fire (jcs) [Security] Here is a second post about Senator Ron Wyden. He appears to be fighting the good fight! Go Senator Wyden!

Emacs

Transient for convenience with emms [Emacs] Tory Anderson shares a really convenient EMMS control panel that uses the new version of transient.
Talk to Emacs with a GPT4 Co-Worker [Emacs] Gallagher Pryor shares a method he has for speaking to Emacs using ChatGPT-4. This is from back in November, so perhaps he has a package now!
Jeremy Friesen: Mentoring VS-Coders as an Emacsian (Jeremy Friesen) [Emacs] I really enjoyed this talk about moving people away from VS Code and toward Emacs. The big takeaway for this talk seemed to be that demonstrating what Emacs could do was going to be more effective than just arguing. Let Emacs win just by letting it do what it does.
Jeremy Friesen: Test Driving a Campaign Status Document (Jeremy Friesen) [Emacs] This post has some superb ideas for running a TTRPG campaign from Emacs. I’ve been doing this for a while, but my documents get really messy. I need something a bit more structured.
EmacsConf backstage: Using Spookfox to publish YouTube and Toobnix video drafts (Sacha Chua) [Emacs] I love how crazy this is: using spookyfox to work with YouTube’s crappy interface to do things to videos. Go Sacha!
Charles Choi: Improving Emacs isearch Usability with Transient (Charles Choi) [Emacs] This is pretty cool. I recently learned about how rich the isearch feature set is, but I haven’t played around with it a ton yet. Another thing to add to my Emacs to-do list!
William Denton: Basic citations in Org (Part 1) (William Denton) [Emacs] This is an excellent introduction to how citations work in org-mode. There are four parts in the series so far, so keep reading!

Programming

Pike’s Rules Of Programming (jcs) [Programming] These are some good rules, even if they can make some parts of programming a little less exciting.
Variations on styling variables in SSGs (Bryce Wray) [Programming] I am still using Sass a lot more than the vanilla CSS stuff that should be replacing it. Also, I am starting to see that this is a change I’ll need to take in my future WebDev adventures.
Firefox on the brink? (Bryce Wray) [Programming] Bryce Wray is warning (or predicting?) that Firefox may be in a very dangerous spot in its loss of user share. This is really disappointing, given how evil Chrome continues to be. And it’s only going to get more evil. Convince your friends to run Firefox!
Zachary Kanfer: Numberdle! (Zachary Kanfer) [Programming] This is a really fun browser game for people who enjoy numbers more than words. Move over, Wordle!!

History

Finally, here’s something fun to share with the kids.

The Teddy Bear Was Once Seen as a Dangerous Influence on Young Children Before gifting stuffed animals to the wee ones in your life, consider that bears are dangerous!

Driftwood Public Library Follow-Up

2017-05-01T17:27:58+00:00

Driftwood Public Library is great! I had a wonderful time in Lincoln City speaking about secret societies and cryptography. Links to my slides are below.

Secret Societies in Fiction How Computers Changed Cryptography

For a bibliography for “How Computers Changed Cryptography”, check my notes for my OMSI Science on Screen talk.

Also, I would like to thank the ‘D’ Sands Condominium Motel for sponsoring the talks and providing me with a really lovely room.

[caption id=”attachment_708” align=”aligncenter” width=”1024”] This is the view from my motel room balcony at the ‘D’ Sands.[/caption]

Upcoming Lectures at Driftwood Public Library

2017-04-13T17:04:39+00:00

Driftwood Public Library in Lincoln City has selected Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore for their 2017 Everybody Reads event. They’ve invited me to give two lectures. This is going to be fun!

Secret Societies in Fiction

Tuesday, April 25, 6:30pm

This is going to be a lecture about secret societies. I’m going to talk about what a secret society is, and then we’ll look at how they’re portrayed in fiction. We will also talk about how fictional secret societies have sometimes become real secret societies, and the relationship between secrecy and fiction in the real world.

How Computers Changed Cryptography

Wednesday, April 26, 2:00pm

If you saw my OMSI talk, then you already know that this is a subject I’m passionate about! I will be discussing the history of computers and how it’s intertwined with the cryptography arms race. Maybe I will even introduce some hand ciphers to the crowd! I am going to have fun with this one.

I am sure that more information on both of these will be available soon, including Facebook events and other such things. In the meantime, visit the Driftwood Public Library website for more information.

OMSI Science on Screen Wrapup

2017-03-29T16:51:34+00:00

My talk at OMSI last night, “Computers and the Dawn of Modern Cryptography,” went really well. It was a great crowd and there was a good Q&A session afterwards. I’m going to keep this post really brief. First, there will be slides for my talk. Following that will be a brief bibliography if you’re interested in learning more about this fascinating topic.

Click here to download my slides.

Bibliography

Singh, Simon. The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography. Reprint edition. New York: Anchor, 2000. This book is the best resource I've found for a logical breakdown of how cryptography and cryptanalysis worked for WWII cryptology.
Boone, J. V. A Brief History of Cryptology. Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute Press, 2005.
Copeland, B. Jack, ed. Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. I can't wait to explore this book more! It is a massive collection of articles and papers from a wide array of authors.
Drea, Edward J. MacArthur’s ULTRA: Codebreaking and the War against Japan, 1942-1945. Modern War Studies. Lawrence, Kan: University Press of Kansas, 1992.
Wilcox, Jennifer, United States, National Security Agency/Central Security Service, and Center for Cryptologic History. Sharing the Burden: Women in Cryptology during World War II. Fort George G. Meade, Md.: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 1998.

In addition, almost all of the photos and information on individual cipher machines can be found at Crypto Museum. This is a rich and bountiful resource for those interested in the internal workings of modern encryption.

OMSI Science on Screen: The Imitation Game

2017-03-17T20:17:00+00:00

On March 28th, I will be giving a lecture called “Computers and the Dawn of Modern Cryptography” at OMSI as part of their Science on Screen program. I’ll be speaking and answering questions just before a screening of The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. I am really excited about this opportunity! Please come down to OMSI for an informative lecture and an excellent film.

Buy Tickets Here

Security Link Rodeo: Silk Road, the Patriot Act, Alan Turing, and Your Passwords

2015-06-05T17:33:25+00:00

The man behind the Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, received a life sentence after being convicted of money laundering and drug trafficking. It’s estimated that he made around $18 million on the website, which ran as a hidden service in the Tor network. Some of the operators for the Silk Road argue that it was a haven for libertarian philosophy, but does that really excuse the amount of damage they enabled? The Economist notes that since the Silk Road fell, illegal drug sales on the Internet have doubled.

Security Intelligence discusses the effectiveness of password security questions, pointing out that they are particularly weak points in a system. Two-factor authentication or some kind of physical key are definitely better. And when it comes to passwords, there’s a better way that produces easy-to-remember pass phrases!

Bitstamp, an online Bitcoin marketplace and wallet, now offers debit cards. I’ve used Bitstamp many times in the past and it’s always worked well for me.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act finally expired! Not willing to really stop bulk surveillance, Congress then pushed through the USA Freedom Act, which has nothing to do with freedom. Find out how long your mobile phone carrier will retain your call data in this handy chart. Demand Progress rightfully foamed at the mouth.

https://twitter.com/demandprogress/status/605849691675189248

Phil Zimmerman is still not happy with the state of privacy in the United States. He’s right to be concerned.

Two more papers are available from Alan Turing, the father of modern computing and an important cryptologist.

Finally, the UK Government has documented security guidance for Ubuntu. Read the document. It has a lot of really good suggestions for securing your Linux machines.

https://twitter.com/OUHOSCollection/status/603588936020131843

A Look Back on the History of Cryptography

2015-06-01T15:30:02+00:00

In May, I taught a class on the History of Cryptography at Portland Underground Grad School. I’m extremely grateful to PUGS for asking me to teach, because I’d never done it before. It was a great experience. My students were intelligent and the discussion was good. I learned quite a few things in the process.

Teaching Isn't the Same as Lecturing

I have a lot of experience with public speaking. I spent time in Toastmasters International and have given many lectures. In fact, here’s a video of me giving a lecture on the art of memory back in 2013. (( I embedded this video just to exploit a neat WordPress feature. ))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WpxbPHkq4A

I knew that teaching would be different, but I didn’t know what to expect. Luckily, Douglas Tsoi, the mastermind behind PUGS, helped me design my four-week curriculum and gave me a lot of advice. The two main differences that I noticed are that, first, teaching is a lot more like a conversation, and second, you continue following up week after week. Conversation and continuity!

Douglas’s help was invaluable. He’s the reason that PUGS is able to bring in experts without teaching experience while providing a rich educational environment.

It's Hard to Boil Down Experience

"There is so much to learn! I enjoyed being able to ask questions at will and go deeper into the subject with a knowledgeable instructor." -- An anonymous student

A PUGS class lasts four weeks, and there’s only one class per week. That’s not a lot of time to cover a complicated subject. Going into the class, I just didn’t realize how difficult it is to cram decades of experience into just a few weeks. In our third class, while discussing Phil Zimmerman and the creation of PGP, I realized that I’d been learning about cryptography for over 20 years.

The learning curve in cryptography is staggering. I didn’t realize that going into it, but it’s really difficult to introduce things like the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol to people who had just learned to do an alphabetic substitution cipher for the first time. All of my students were very intelligent people, but none of them were computer scientists or mathematicians. My curriculum is going to take some adjustment.

Teaching is Fun

Through this class I met many interesting people. While preparing for the class, I had to brush up on a lot of dusty knowledge. In the process I learned a lot. The entire thing was mentally engaging, socially stimulating, and a blast. I hope that PUGS will have me again, because this class is only going to get better.

If you enjoy learning, you owe it to yourself to take a class at the Portland Underground Grad School. Go check them out!

The History of Cryptography at PUGS

2015-04-21T15:11:17+00:00

Portland Underground Graduate School (PUGS) has invited me to teach a class on the history of cryptography starting May 4th. The class will be four sessions and is very affordable: only $40!

We will cover the basics of cryptography, where it came from, and why it’s important. In addition, I will teach you how to use a number of manual cryptographic techniques. I’m really excited about this class, and I can’t wait to share my knowledge!

To learn more and to sign up, please visit the PUGS class listing here.