Movie: 300

There are two ways to review this movie. It is visually stunning, over the top, a simple, straight forward plot line - all hallmarks of a great adaptation of a graphic novel. It is highly entertaining and enjoyable.

But it can also be seen as political and historical commentary - esp as it is a fictionalised account of a real event. The real event: a war between Sparta and Persia, where the Spartans were out numbered, but eventually won. But, it was nothing in the scale proposed by 300. In a a modern setting, it is like saying 300 men first went into D-Day, and paved the way for the latter onslaught. Most people, whether literate or not, get their history through visual means; ;not by reading. How many people learnt a bit of the history of Scotland through Braveheart for example? Surely, there should be a motivation to get the history fundamentally correct?

And lastly, it is a political comment - that a well trained army will always defeat a massive army of lesser talent; and we should never reference any help that is actually offered on the way. It is a war between the east and the west - it is a war about defending freedom (aparently). I am not sure, if the bloodshed potrayed is really good propaganda ...

Just Sarah and Fevertree

A bunch of us were thinking of going out to see live bands, and after much deliberation, we settled on going to Zula Sound Bar on Long Street. We didn't know too much about the bands, except that I had heard of Fevertree and the other bands on offer (at other venues) were either not liked or too expensive.

Just Sarah, fronted by Sarah I assume, describe themselves as a Indie/Pop rock band. And while there were one or two interested lyrics, on the whole they were not that great. Too much teen angst etc etc.

Fevertree on the other hand, are a great band to watch, great music, great stage acts, and just on a different level really, when compared to Just Sarah. It is no wonder - they are a SAMA nominated band! What was really disappointing was the crowd - they just did not seem to be interested; and there were just a few of us who seemed to really appreciate the music. And this is not a new thing; I have seen many bands suffer the same problem ... and they suffer despite their music being quite good ...

Phone Spoofing

Finally, the plebs have woken up! In this week's Mail and Guardian, there is a story about phone spoofing. It is about time really ...

How many times have you got a call, from some one telling you that they are from the bank or from a company XYZ ... how do you authenticate them? Phishing is too easy, as most people don't both ... just phone up some one and tell them that you are verifying their identity by checking their bank account number.

I remember, when I turned the tables and asked a bank clerk who phoned me to authenticate themselves. They seemed so surprised ... I take it most people don't do that from their response. But the biggest problem facing the consumer is, what do you use to authenticate a bank (or similar institution)? They do have public identifiers (company registration numbers etc) but those are public anyway. That, in the end is the biggest problem - how do you create mutual authentication without a predetermined code and without revealing any secrets? I sense a research topic ...

Movie: Ghostrider

A young man makes a pact with the devil to save his father; and when he grows up he becomes the ghost rider - the devil's bounty hunter. The idea of the movie is great; and it could have been a classic. But the execution was horrible: the script was bad; the action scenes were not that great, and apart from the CGI, there was nothing really brilliant about the whole movie. In fact, the list of plot holes on IMDB gives the idea I think ...

Movie: Happy Feet

I really wanted to watch this movie when it was on circuit, but I never got round to it. I quite like animated movies, their scorelines are usually simple, but I prefer the humour over slapstick comedy in most other types comedies.

The story is simple enough: in a colony of emperor penguins, who sing to find mates, there is a chick born who can't sing, but can tap dance instead. It's a story about having fun, fitting in when you are different and the effects of human over fishing. A bit simple, yes; but it is really an animated musical.

Unfortunately, it is not as clever as Shrek or Shrek 2; nor is it as beautiful as Finding Nemo. It is just average really ...

Masala Dhosa

I am a big fan of Dhosa, a South Indian rice pancake, usually served with very hot, dry curry, coconut chutney and sambar (a lentil soup/dhal with lots of vegetables and usually sour). There is a store in Long Street that sells Masala Dhosa (called Masala Dhosa) and I tried it out.

Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed - the dhosa was good but the accompanying curries and sambar was not, and on the whole was largely unsatisfying. And it cost way too much ...

Old Town House and Slave Lodge

I had a meeting at the Department of Sports, whose offices are located at Greenmarket Square. From my past experiences with trying to get parking in that area (and with the free concert taking place tonight) I decided to rather use the Jammie shuttle. Public transport can be remarkably efficient, and I had about 15 minutes to kill before my appointment. Thus, I took the opportunity to have a look at the Old Town House, which is on Greenmarket Square, and referred to as the centre of Cape Town (unlike the City Hall, which is usually the centre of town). As one of the oldest buildings in Cape Town, it is interesting in itself, but the exhibitions were being changed, and thus there wasn't much to see really.

After my meeting, I did not feel like coming back to UCT, and thus decided to continue my cultural exploration of Cape Town and visit Slave Lodge on Adderley Street.

Slave Lodge is a remarkable social history museum, in three parts. The most interesting is definitely the history of Slavery in South Africa; an often overlooked part of our history. Slave Lodge was originally the "storage and processing" centre for slaves, and thus an appropriate location to explore this part of our history. Of the South African museums and galleries I have visited, this was by far the most interesting and well presented exhibition. There is also some history of Afrikaans, a language that was born out of the slave trade by the slaves (through the amalgamation of different languages). It is most ironic that the language of the slaves became the tool to oppress others, 100 plus years after the abolition of slavery.

The other parts of the museum - a cultural history, through music, weapons, silverware, pottery and a small section on Egypt, seem a bit disjointed really and seemed to be largely ignored by the other visitors. The third part looks even more out of space, with an exploration of segregation in the USA, but parallels are drawn with Apartheid, and in that context it sort of "makes sense".

Movie: The Good Shepherd

In The Talented Mr Ripley, Matt Damon played a heartless bastard, and celebrated the idea that a villain could be the hero of a movie (and not suffer death or prison). In The Good Shepherd, Matt Damon is back playing a cold hearted, calculating, bastard ... it's a role that suits him well I think.

The Good Shepherd examines the early life of the CIA, but primarily through its effect on one of its veterans; and the effect of his job in other aspects of his life. It is far too long, and while it is a very interesting story, it just does not feel like a feature movie; but rather a mini series or something along that line. And apart from Matt Damon as a cold calculating bastard, there are no stand out performances or anything really worthwhile watching .... best avoided really.

Movie: Babel

There are really four separate stories here - a story of a village herding family, a story of a married american couple on holiday in Morocco, a story of a deaf and mute girl trying to get to grips with society's apparent rejection and a mexican nanny trying to balance caring for other peoples kids with the need to participate in her own children's lives.

Off course there is a connecting thread through it all; and like Pulp Fiction and Crash, the movie follows each story at its own pace. And more like Crash, the movie is a social commentary - on socity's general treatment of people who are not like ourselves ... immigrants, foreigners and the disabled. But it is also a movie about celebration - of how strangers are willing to help strangers, of how technology could make the disabled be more normal (3G video calling is a godsend for the deaf) and how the nanny's family treats the kids, who are really intruding on a very special family occasion.

The acting is superb, the filming is brilliant - esp when parts of the movie is shown through the deaf girl; how do you go clubbing when you can't hear the DJ - and it is well worth watching.

Culture and Shit

I have never watched Shallow Hal, but the quote describes yesterday morning in a way. Hans-Peter and I went to watch the RAG Floats procession around 11am, and then proceeded to see the National Gallery and have a general walk about in the Cape Town CBD. I have done this in many other cities, but I suppose it was time to do the same in the city I now call home.

As for the RAG Floats, I think it is a good move to go back to Adderley Street. There seems to be a lot more people, and more enthusiasm for the event. The theme was great inventions, although I don't think two of the floats, the soccer ball and the vuvuzela, really qualified, but maybe it's a matter of interpretation. And another interesting point - so many of the inventions were entertainment related: the iPod, the Jukebox and the TV. And there were only two engineering inventions on parade: the steam engine (again Kopano led the way with innovation, with steam coming out of the engine) and the hot air balloon (although it was a bad float as such).

And off course, the floats wouldn't be the floats, without the Dummies and their nursemaids.

As for the national gallery, it's really small. But there are are a few pieces that make it absolutely worth it (and it's free anyway). A bust of Othello in a hood, made completely of stone (I think, very solid regardless), but really looks like cloth, even up close.

There is also an old painting of Cape Town, with the harbour (or was it just a canal) near the City Hall. So, after lunch at the German Deli (in Gardens Centre), Hans-Peter and I walked back to see how much (if anything) of the painting remains today. Unfortunately, apart from one sculpture, the castle and the City Hall, not much remains ... a great pity :(

Cool Ads

http://moronland.net/moronia/moron/1000/

What a game!

No, I am not talking of the farce, that was the Netherlands-South Africa match, even with Gibbs' six sixes in an over. Instead, I am talking about the Pro20 semi final between the Warriors and the Cape Cobras.

Initially, the Warriors did not impress, with only 139 runs on the board at the end of their innings, and with minimal excitement in that innings, I was thinking I should have rather watched the SA-Netherlands game. With the Cobras in fine form this season, and having scored 221 (yes 11 runs an over!) recently, the match seemed decided, especially as Adam Bacher hit a six and a four in the first over.

But then the Warriors struck back, with regular wickets, and the run scoring from the Cobras was pedestrian at best. After 15 overs, they were scoring about 5.5 runs and over, with the asking rate reaching 13 runs per over, and with only 5 wickets in hand. But then the fight back began, and slowly the match was tussled out of the Warriors' hands with some massive sixes doing good damage. With 5 balls remaining, only 4 runs were required; and victory seemed assured. And then, the Warriors took two wickets in two balls, and the scenario changed drastically - the Warriors were almost back in command.

3 balls, 4 runs, and a hat trick ball to negotiate. Alan Dawson managed to get a single off, but then Kleinveld at the other end only managed a single instead of the two he needed to get to assure the tie. So with the entire crowd at its feet cheering him on, Dawson managed to somehow get the ball past mid wicket, and scramble for two ... it was close, but safe.

Certainly one of the best matches I have seen, and definitely the best live sports event I have attended ... now I wonder if the final is also at Newlands ...

Zimbabwe ...

So it has finally come to this - the opposition and the police state; the inevitable clash, and a farcical trial. It has happened countless times before, and I don't think this will be the last time. And, apparently it's all South Africa's fault.

The question that comes to my mind - what is South Africa or any other African state or any other world power to do? And this question applies, not only to Zimbabwe, but to Darfur, Somalia, Iraq etc etc. So as a neighbouring country (or a world power), what do we do?

Do we go guns blazing to depose the offending dictator? If so, what then? Do we get another Iraq, where the invading country (the liberators) gets saddled with the reconstruction bill, a population that doesn't want them and our own citizens that don't support our presence in a foreign country?

Or do we send in a team of special ops, that will assassinate the offending dictator? And then what? Are there people who will take charge, and lead the country? And who do you kill - just the dictator? What about his supporters? And how do you identify all of them, and what is the criteria we use to judge them?

Or do we go to the UN or a AU where, some members don't care; while other members have vested interests (because they own a mine or two) and thus don't want to interfere. And off course there is plain apathy, and some don't even bother voting, because, they frankly don't give a damn.

Or we could do nothing; and hope that some one else does something.

In the end, every one of these alternatives are problematic. Most of the successful, long term democracies, who have thrown off the yoke of dictators have done it themselves. Zimbabwe did it themselves 20 odd years ago. In the end, that is possibly the best solution .... but they do require support; and this is where South Africa has failed. In the end, the people of Zimbabwe who are tired of Bob Mugabe (remember, as in all dictatorships, not every one hates the dictator) need to stand up and be counted; and those who stand up must be helped. Doing nothing, achieves nothing.

DRM Doomed?

Yet another opinion on a tech site raises the question - was my 4 years of slaving (well ok not slaving) towards a PhD really worth it?

The thing is, DRM is not a copy protection mechanism - it stands for rights management; not copy management. Likewise, it is not a copyright enforcement mechanism. There are enough academic papers (including my own) about the last two points. And if that is the case; why on earth does everyone still rally on the same issue?

The fact of the matter is, DRM has been maligned with control of media in a veiled attempt at controlling piracy. DRM has been sold on the same terms as CDs and tapes; and not as new business measures which is what it really is. Furthermore, DRM has been seen as the big guys protecting their property from the public - the possibility that joe public could use DRM to protect their own things - photos, documents, home movies etc. has been ignored. So maybe, my thesis does have a place; but will anyone care?

Cash in Transit Vans

When I was in Durban, my mom raised a very fair point when we were trapped behind a cash in transit van at the traffic lights: why do cash in transit vans label themselves so clearly that they are carrying a lot of valuables on them? Surely, it would be best to remain anonymous - yes have armed guards inside etc - but there is no need to proclaim on the side "Coin Security Service - Cash in Transit"!

And it is a valid point. In computer security, we maintain security through obscuring the data - sensitive data is encrypted. And encryption of data, is more akin to obfuscation, than to the popular lock and key. Encrypted data is still data - it is not packaged inside another data file. Instead, it has usually the same length, just looks different.

Surely, cash in transit vans can do something similar - after all, I don't think there are regulatory requirements for Cash in transit vans to state that they are potentially carrying valuables. They can just be armour plated vans with a guard inside them. And, maybe then we will have a lower attack rate on cash in transit vehicles - after all, to attack a cash in transit vehicle, you will first have to find one.

Movie: The Last King of Scotland

Idi Amin was one of those weird leaders; respected because he honestly did a lot of good for (some) of his people. Reviled, because he also did a lot of bad things ... as Jay said after the movie - a lot like Robert Mugabe. And the movie portrays this conflict between the good and bad very well; at certain times, Idi Amin is a very charming, helpful man and at other times, he is a monster. Almost a real life Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde.

What is more interesting is the white Scottish doctor, who is effectively the narrator of the story. He is not cast as a general good guy, caught in the crossfire; like many other stories of this nature. Instead, we see how he does take advantage of his situations, although he does have a conscious; which is eventually what leads him to try get away. And, there is also the hints of western interference, when a British spy claims how they put Amin in power, and how they can take him out also.

Most of all, the movie is worth watching because of Forest Whitaker's performance. From the accent, to how he interacts with the people, it does not feel like it's an actor. Jamie Foxx, in his portrayal of Ray Charles was similar in this respect; and it is possibly the best accolade one can give an actor.

Gloriously Inept

Cricinfo has a wonderful article on Glen McGrath's lack of batting prowess in the ODI arena. It's just hilarious reading.

Movie: The Pursuit of Happyness

No it's not a spelling mistake, but a "in joke". On the whole, this is one of the uplifting, everyone can overcome their difficulties. But it leads you to think - are the homeless guys and other poor people, poor and homeless because they do not have what it takes; or is it because the roll of the dice have forced them to what they are. The movie is about a poor man, whose state in life so far has been dictated by rolls of the dice; and how he overcomes his obstacles to get out of the cycle of poverty. Yes, it's a cliche. Yes, it's a predictable story. But, at the same time, it is a wonderful acted story. And Will Smith thoroughly deserved his Oscar nomination. And his real life son, plays a wonderful on screen son.

Movie: The Queen

To be honest, I am not too sure what the hype is all about. Yes, it is a biographical movie about a recent event involving a living (and still ruling) head of state. Yes, Helen Miren had an uncanny resemblance to Elizabeth II. But, while the story does have some interesting points, a lot of witty humour, I would hardly rate it as one of the best movies of the past 12 months!

Movie: Blood Diamond

Blood Diamond has been criticised by some yet another movie exploring a bad white guy's redemption. And on the surface, it is no different to movies such as Tears of the Sun. However, I think the movie does justice in exploring the civil war in Sierra Leone, as well as the fact that wars and corruption in Africa also involves the support of certain people in the West. And the performance of both Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou provide excelent performances. It is a rare occurrence for an action movie to provide both a good plot and good acting performances.

International Historic Car Racing

Weather on Sunday was not spectacular; but at least I did not commit my self to go to the one sided cricket match. I saw the ad for an International Historic Racing and Car Show a few weeks ago, so I decided to check it out. And I was not disappointed at all.

Together with a number of old classics, including cars that once ruled Le Mans and other famous races around the world, there were bikes and many humbler aged vehicles. And the racing itself was fast and furious, as an accident where a car (I think it was an old Alfa Romeo or Fiat) went somersaulting through a corner proved. And I saw cars race, that I had only heard of (or seen on TV) before: Ford GT 40, one McLaren, Ferraris, Porches, Triumphs and even the famous Aston Martin DB 4. Sadly, I managed to forget my camera at home; but I did take a few pics on the cellphone.

Mavericks, a "gentleman's club" seemed to be a big sponsor; with many cars carrying their logo. This bike however, was just on a different level.

The best part of the whole day, was that spectators could watch the race from the pits, standing next to the pit wall as cars and bikes zoomed past. This alone, was worth the entrance fee. Plus, you could wander around the pit lane, speak to the drivers and mechanics and just see racing cars really, really, up close.

Viagra logo on a big exhaust ... just made me laugh

Movie: The Prestige

Two magicians fighting in a tit for tat war, in victorian London for the ultimate trick. I thought it would be yet another fantasy movie; and I was very pleasantly surprised; because the magic is not fireballs delivered by Harry Potter but rather the illusions and escape artist tricks. And for the most part, I loved the plot and the storyline - so realistic, and so believable. All except the final big machine - the final trick; where we leave reality and head into fantasy. Although, the resulting plot line is brilliant, I would have preferred a more ¨normal" outcome; something more believable ...

My Coke Fest

Last year Metallica headlined the CocaCola Massive Mix. This year, it's renamed to My Coke Fest, and features Evanesence, Guns N' Roses and Hoobastank. I am a big fan of Evanesence, so I am definitely going ... and with Golden Circle tickets at R550, it's going to be a tight squeeze. Aparently, there will be a total of 10 bands on the line up; and I am hoping the other bands include Springbok Nude Girls (in their now original line up), Seether and Karen Zoid. In fact, I am quite sure the Nudies will be on the bill ...

Movie: Apocalypto

Yes the movie is violent, and blood flows from begining to end. But it is also a beautiful movie, and it is one of the best action movies I have ever seen. Like Braveheart, Apocalypto can't be relied on as a historic record; and many of the cultural aspects, including the human sacrifices are overblown, and most probably in accurate.

This is not a movie about a clash of cultures, but something much simpler, resembling what can be considered very much a classic action movie plot. The hero is exposed to a great wrong (Mayan headhunters rape and pillages his village, and enslaves most of the adult villagers including the hero). The slaves are now taken to the main city, and the hero manages, against all odds, to escape, and tries to go back to his wife and child. He is off course pursued by the Mayans and he has to not only escape, but get rid of the threat as much as possible.

Yes it's violent, but it is great entertainment.

Movie: Kairo (Pulse)

The Japanese Film festival is on at the V&A,and it's free. Simon and I went to watch a movie, not even knowing (or caring) what the movie was about. The concept is pretty simple (and easy to understand if you have seen other Japanese Anime/Manga etc) ... after death all souls (from all types of animals) go to one place. That place has a finite capacity, and thus one day it will over flow, and then it will over flow to a different space - ours, and it has begun. In between that, there is also a bit of interesting philosophising: most religions with a heaven usually promise a life of fulfilment. However, what if it was the opposite - what if, eternity is just boring, and completely devoid of any company and completely lonesome.

And as ghosts start appearing, people who meet the ghosts are torn by this realisation, and usually get shocked to death that no one really cares; and no one will care. And to compound problems, it has spread over to the electronic systems, and every one is becoming infected.

It is a slow, and rather haunting movie. It's not horror through blood and gore, but rather of the bone chilling variety ... where you get scared by the reactions of the characters and the environment. And as people disappear, the new empty environment itself is a nightmare ... like the empty subway train in Tokyo, or the deserted streets. In a way, that is more terrifying.

Rock on Morning Radio

In a previous post, I mentioned that I got fed up with 5FM and Garteh Cliff, and was looking for an alternative. Anyway, over December, I was listening to the cricket on Radio 2000 on my alarm clock/radio; and then forgot to change over. The following day, I woke up to Barney Simon ... and for the rest of December, waking up was a pleasure. Sadly, Barney is no longer doing the morning show; but Mo G and Ray White (yet another ex 5FM person) also play rock, and morning radio is pleasurable once again.

For the record, Barney hosts a great 4 hour, South African music show on Tuesday evenings. Radio 2000 is now my favorite music station!

Movie: Shooting Dogs

According to the plot summary, the movie is:

Based on a true story. An exhausted Catholic priest (Hurt) and a young idealistic English teacher (Dancy) finds themselves caught in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. They must now choose whether to stay with the thousands of Tutsis about to be massacred or to flee for safety.

While this certainly gives the structure of the plot of how the movie unfolds, it is certainly a deeper movie, and possibly one of the strongest criticisms of the United Nations, ever.

The fact that the UN did nothing for 100 days is well known. The movie shows how far the UN went to do nothing; and how much the UN could be held accountable as assistants to the carnage, just as much as the Hutu militia. The story takes place in Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO), a high school in Kigali, where the UN has set up a military base. When the violence starts, about 2500 Tutsi refugees take up shelter in the school, where the UN provides a sense of protection, while the school is completely surrounded by the Hutu militias. But even then, while Tutsis are massacred with machetes metres infront of the UN soldiers, the UN cannot intervene - because the UN security council has refused to change their mandate from monitoring to peace keeping. In fact, the only thing the UN soldiers can do is shoot the dogs that are feeding on the human corpses, because it "is a health issue". But the ultimate insult is not that the UN did not do more, but that in the end they pulled out of the school leaving all the Tutsi refugees, including children, to face the Hutu militias. What followed, is one massive bloodshed ...

One would have thought that, 12 years on, the UN would have learnt their lesson. That, instead of fighting over the definition of what constitutes genocide (which is what the US were arguing about in the security council), we would do something to prevent such acts in the future. Instead, we have continuing violence in Darfur, unrest in Somalia; and let's not forget the Middle East. The Americans are right - the UN is pointless; but not because they do not bend to the wishes of the Americans; but because the so called super powers have no accountability on their actions.

Movie: Little Children

The movie is narrated as a children's story; but it is nothing like a children's story - no happy endings; no children content. Rather, the movie uses children (mostly playing at the park, in the streets, at the pool) to expose some of the hypocrisies and idiosyncrasies that make up western society. At the core there are two major story lines: Firstly there is the affair between a man who takes the role of the care giver in the family (while the wife works, and is ignored in bed) and a young wife of a rich, older man (who is older, and prefers jacking off to Internet porn than his wife). The affair develops while they take care of their respective toddlers at the town pool or the park.

The second major storyline is the tale of an ex con, who was in prison for exposing himself to a minor and an ex cop who wants him out of the community. This angle certainly raises questions - the prison service is supposed to rehabilitate inmates; and thus they should be fit to live in society - but that is hardly what happens. The anger and revulsion is certainly food for thought.

Off course it all blows up etc etc. It is a tragic movie in many parts; a thinking movie while providing many comedic moments brought about by the many hypocrisies. It is however not the most entertaining movie ... and maybe a bit too much food for thought.

Back on the saddle

After a long time (49 days to be exact), I finally went for a bike ride ... and a long one at that. Basically up to Constantia Nek (11 Km almost all uphill) down to Hout Bay (7Km of downhill bliss ... going faster than the 40 Km/h speed limit for cars :P) up Chapman's Peak (about 5Km and another 2 Km of uphill) - but the scenery alone is worth it down to Noerdhoek, back to Rondebosch via Fish Hoek. It did not feel too bad, but the last 10 Km were torturous ... even though most of it was relatively flat. And most of all, I think I need padded shorts ... I have done the route before, but it did not feel this painful last time!

Some stats:

Total Distance: Just over 61Km

Total Time: Under 5 Hours including a long stop at Noerdhoek for "brunch"

Pedalling Time: Just over 3h 30min ... giving a rather slow 16.5 Km/h average speed

Authentication Failure

Hot of the wire ... A Standard Bank branch was robbed by men who posed as security guards. The guards followed the same protocols as the security company, and made off with R1.4 million. It all boiled down to the fact that there was no real authentication mechanism at the bank to verify the identity of the security guards, other than a name. When names are hardly unique, they make really bad authentication elements anyway, so the flaw was bound to be exploited.

Hardware Blues

It started the week before Christmas; I bought a TV Card (manufacturer: Gigabyte) but I just couldn't get it to work. On Windows XP (SP2), the drivers would just not install; giving an error "Access is Denied", and would always rollback just after getting to the "registering" phase at the end of the installation. Trying out all tricks suggested from Google didn't help a bit. So I tried Linux, with little success ... and even KnoppMyth did not work. Surprisingly enough, it did "work" in Windows Vista, but my machine is too slow, and the sound does not work anyway (XP drivers in Vista that is).

The card itself works, and I suspect the main reason for all these problems is the VIA chipsetted motherboard. Many comments on Linux based TV card sites seem to confirm this theory; and it is yet another let down by the VIA based motherboard. My USB ports are already very dodgy and the onboard sound card does not seem to support 5.1 surround channels in Linux. And to compound all these problems, my Windows hard drive seems to be on its last legs, making all sorts of weird noises.

Off course, with a 2.5 year old computer, the best answer is to buy a new one; but I really want to save my money and buy a laptop and travel. So for now, I hope my other hard drive lasts until I finish my thesis (yes I do have back ups on two other machines).

Movie: Little Miss Sunshine

I had seen the trailer a long time ago, and the descriptions at first did not really appeal to me. But after recommendations from a number of people, I decided to see it; and I was quite impressed. As a comedy, it is superb; and has all the right ingredients. The motivation speak father, who is a failure, a nutcase uncle, a pervert grandfather, a young girl (Olive) wanting to be a beauty queen (but does not fit the mould of the traditional beauty queen) and the brother who has taken a vow of silence. The mom is the only one who seems normal ...

In part this is a road trip movie, part a movie about family and all those "msuhy" things ... I just think it is a great comedy; anda comment on the absurdities of life. And the final scenes involving Olive's talent show is easily one of the best comedic I have ever seen.

Trailer Park Lynching

That was the theme for our house warming party (and incidentally, our housemate Donal's birthday). And although not many people (including, I am ashamed to say, the hosts) dressed up - the party itself was a great success. A whole lot of people pitched up, and counting the number of people who had a bit too much to drink, most seemed to have enjoyed themselves. My new place, is simply a great spot to host parties; and it showed. A special mention must be made of Sara who definitely had the best costume. I would post a picture, but I am afraid I could be lynched ... .so if Sara is brave enough, she can post one on her blog :p

Movie: The Departed

With a cast of Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg; at a glance, The Departed seems to be yet another movie trying to make it through the names of the stars. Yet, for once, this is a movie where the stars actually prove why they should be stars - the acting is just absolutely amazing!

The story is about cops and robbers; focusing on "the rat". Matt Damon plays a cop, who effectively works for the Boston Mafia boss Frank Costello (Nicholson). DiCaprio plays a cop, who infiltrates the Mafia and to bring down Costello and the whole movie is about the parties on either side trying to catch the rat(s) for their paymasters.

Nicholson is simply amazing as the Mafia boss; and DiCaprio puts in a performance worthy of an Oscar ... indeed I think both will get nominated for Oscars this year. And even Mark Wahlberg can act ... something I wouldn't admit to after watching The Italian Job. But perhaps the best part of the movie is the amazing script ... with brilliant twists and the scene in the elevator at the end of the movie reminded me a lot about the classic standoff scene in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Movie: Flags of our Fathers

The Iwo Jima Memorial (or it's official name - The US Marine Corps War Memorial), is one of the most impressive war memorials in the Washington DC area. The memorial itself is based on a famous photograph, of US soldiers raising the US flag on top of Mount Suribachi, in the island of Iwo Jima, during World War 2. This movie, directed by Clint Eastwood and produced by Steven Spielberg, recounts the raising of the flag, but instead of focusing on the war itself (like Saving Private Ryan for example), it talks about the how the photograph was used as a publicity machine to generate support (and money) for the war.

It is amazing how lies are created, and the men are almost forced to parade these lies. It is an anti war movie like none before ... and challenges the very notion of heroism and hero worship. In the times of Jacob Zuma, Robert Mugabe and Iraq, the movie raises some very relevant questions for right now.

Cell C - Sound of the City

Instead of focussing on sport like the other telecoms companies in South Africa, from the start, Cell C has promoted South African culture, especially music. Their "Sound of the City" concert series basically features local music from bands based in the cities they tour. And at R50 for entry, they are great value for money.

From the outside, it seemed very disorganised and chaotic. But inside, it has to be the most organised concert I have ever been to. DJ Ready D was already spinning the decks as people filled up, and played during band set ups. Each band (there were 8) played for only 20 minutes or so, which was a bit sad, especially considering how well The Rudimentals and Springbok Nude Girls were received by the crowd.

And the Nudies, recently reformed, with their original line up, was simply heads and shoulders above the rest of the line up. They just had the extra something that others seemed to be lacking, not that Judith Spehuma and the Rudimentals didn't get the crowd going.

It was not a great end to the night unfortunately ... I had left the lights on before going in, and my battery had died. But thanks to Tim and a helpful car guard, I got it started, and is all working now! I need to remember to switch off lights next time though!

Gatecrashed

Tim and Murray had a braai on Friday night, with the occasion apparently being Tim's graduation (he graduates on Monday, so congrats to him!) and end of Murray's exams. Anyway, excuses are rarely required for a social occasion, right?

Anyway, there was a strange gatecrashing event ... which was very interesting. One of the guys at the party (sorry don't remember his name) wanted to meet up with a friend and her party, and Tim just asked him to invite them over. And so they came - a party consisting of two Americans (including the friend), a South African (also the owner of Butlers) and a Canadian of Japanese decent, who now lives in Japan.

Anyway, Mr. James Nakagawa (call me Jamie) and one of the Americans were attending the Diabetes conference at the Cape Town Convention centre, and Jamie, is the CEO of an IT firm, Lifewatcher.com, which specialises in delivering medical information on mobile phones. From things like reminding people to take drugs, to some really cool ideas (that I have previously read of) like: taking a photo of a meal, and getting an approximate estimation of calories and other important information (like, do not eat - too much sugar content for your diabetes condition). And we had an interesting conversation on the backward mobile technology in the USA to image rendering of X-Rays on mobile phones. Many of the projects are similar to some of the projects in the CVC lab (like Andrew or Marshini's telemedicine project) but what was most striking for me, was how true six degrees of separation seems to be.

Prison Break

So I went to Pollsmoor Prison today ... not something you do everyday really. The Western Province Badminton Association (WPBA) runs a development program in the Female Prison, and today was the official launch of the program (after 4 months of the program actually running!). The WPBA goals in this area are simple really - prison is not only about punishment, but also about rehabilitation. Most of the prisoners, will, one day, be back in the society. It is therefore necessary to allow them some level of interaction, skills and base for them to re-enter society. Sport is one such link, and Pollsmoor offers other sports including cricket, football (soccer) and rugby.

While going to the playing area (which serves as the dining hall at other times), I saw other prisoners (although I did not interact with them), and young children, who are incarcerated with their mothers because they do not have anyone else ... I suppose it is better than foster care. I was later told that for the most part, most of the female prisoners treat the kids as their own, and the kids are actually loved and cared for very well ... most, as some prisoners, like the infamous Dina Rodrigues (who was incidentally being led to counseling when I arrived) are apparently not tolerated or liked by the general prison population.

As for the participants - they may not be out for a while. Some of the ladies, including the most accomplished player to date) are there for the long term - 10 to 20 years, serving for, amongst other crimes, murder and robbery. But I suppose, judgment has been passed, and they are serving their punishment ... it is up to the society to also make sure that they do not commit again, and most of all perhaps, do not allow for a scenario where they feel they need to commit a crime?

Obz Fest 2006

It was supposed to be bigger and better than ever before.And in most respects it was ... but the weather on Sunday just messed up all the plans. For the uninitiated, Obz Fest is a big street festival in Observatory, the hippie quarter of Cape Town. Lot sof great live music, "interesting" stall and good food.

Movie: Casino Royale

Wow ... I have not watched every bond movie, but of the ones I have watched; I would vote this new one to be my absolute favorite. Sure there was no Q, or Moneypenny but the evolution of Bond from just an agent to a 00 is impressive and the movie is really backed up by an impressive script.

This new Bond is less of an action hero ... he makes mistakes, and gets hurt in the process, he bleeds and almost dies. But you can also see that he is, as M puts it, not just a thug. That said, it is hardly a perfect movie - the romance scenes are too drawn out and seem forced - but again, they do serve a purpose (another break from Bond tradition I suppose).

Moving House

After two years at Mowbray, I moved out of the flat and into a four bedroomed house in Rondebosch, a stone's throw away (literally) from UCT. Moving is tough work, especially with the amount of junk I have ...

Anyway, one of the best parts of the new place is the large garden ... ideal for Summer Braais ... so maybe one should be organised soon.

Movie: Borat

Or to give its full name: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

First and foremost - it is an amazing movie - because of its content. It is effectively one long, candid camera tale, but at the same time, provides very interesting view of America - uncovering racism, sexism and homophobia.

It is also a shocking movie ... the scene with Borat and his obese producer wrestling in the nude is just awful; but the followup where the two of them run (still naked) into a full convention centre - complete with a trip on an elevator full of people - is an amazing piece of film making and personal bravery.

But over all, it is not an easy movie to watch ... it is as Hans-Peter put it "very embarrassing".

Cricket Madness

Went to the cricket today with a whole bunch of people (mainly from badminton) ... SA played well to come back to a really good total, and Indian top order batted badly, so it was not really a contest, or a great game. But Kemp and Dhoni's innings were great to watch, so it was good value for money. I still have to see Sachin Tendulkar perform ... second time, and both utter disappointments.

Movie: Children of Men

In the near future, for an unknown reason, women cannot bear children; and as the movie starts out, the youngest person on earth, an 18 year old Brazilian has just been stabbed to death. The world is in chaos - with UK (the location of the movie), converted to a police state; where immigration is disallowed. Immigrants are treated as third or fourth class humans, confined to concentration camps, and subject to police brutality.

In this chaos, we have a miraculous 8 and a bit month pregnant teen, illegal immigrant from Fiji, who needs to be escorted to the ship "Tomorrow", which has connections to the almost mystical and legendary "Human Project". And off course, a pregnant woman is valuable commodity; and almost no one really cares about her or the baby - just the political gains that could be achieved ...

This is a brilliant movie; a definite must see, and the scene with Clive Owen (the bureaucrat/peace activist who ends up escorting/hiding/sheltering the woman baby through to the ship) coming through a warzone with a crying baby is really magical ... and also shows, how a crying baby is never enough to stop all the world wars.

PS3 Madness

So the PS3 is finally out, and it's already being sold on e-bay, and it's amazing how much people are willing to pay. A quick glance, some on bidded US $6 999! while there are a number of bids over US $1 000. This begs the question - why did Sony not just sell the initial units (limited availability after all) on auction in the first place ... I think they would have made a lot more money out of it.

Around the world on a plate

For me, one of the best parts of going to new places is trying out new food. Many years ago, a guidebook to Singapore claimed that you could go round the world sampling food from all over the world in Singapore. The same can be said about Washington DC, and as one of the attendees at WESII put it, the "food scene in Washington DC is awesome". But, being restricted by unfortunate things like "exchange rates" and "student budgets"; I could only restrict myself to the "budget" restaurants and food places; and unfortunately cannot give you any idea of how good (or expensive) the food is at some of the more well rated restaurants.

But even despite these limitations, I did manage to sample a variety of restaurants. This was helped off course, by the fact that, just two blocks from where I was staying, was a block of restaurants (about 12 in total IIRC) catering to the suburbia. I did not eat there every night, but it was the main area. So, in total I managed to go to the following different types (in no order):

• Japanese
• Afghan
• Italian
• Pizza and Movie place (see earlier blog post)
  
• Mexican
• Greek
• The American Diner (really greasy, really crap)
• A whole lot of Subway
• Chinese
  

I should have gone to the Bulgarian and El Salvodorian places ... but I ended up conserving money instead ... This list looks too small; I think I am also missing a few places ... oh well.

The "food scene" in Edinburgh was less diverse (from what I saw), and well, like everything British, more expensive. Thus, there was more eating at the traditional "English Pub" (well curry is a traditional English food right?) than anywhere else.

Movie: Kekxili - Mountain Patrol

First and formost - this movie is set in Tibet, so the landscapes are amazing; but that does not really distract from an amazing story; about a couple of people, risking everything to hunt down poachers of the endangered Tibetan Antelope. It is based on a true story, and is told in a documentary style; which makes the movie an even more harrowing tale, focussing on various angles of the situation - the poor vilagers who are almost "forced" into poaching, how patrolmen's lives are affected by their actions; and even how they have to make really, really dificult moral judgement calls. It is not a hollywood movie - so do not expect a fairytale ending; but it is one of the most impressive movies I have seen, and one of the most moving.

Movie: The Devil Wears Prada

It was billed as a darkish comedy, something different from the ordinary. Unfortunately, it was nothing special ... just a twist of an usual storyline ... girl (aspiring journalist) applies for job as a PA to a fashion editor, gets the boss from hell, refuses to quit and adapts, thus becoming a "different" person ... you get the idea. It was funny - only because of the number of outrageous tasks set by the boss .. like finding the new Harry Potter. A few laughs, but nothing special really.

Movie: Cars

Yet more reviews courtesy of the Virgin in-flight entertainment system.

Not much can be said in addition to what has already been written about the Disney-Pixar movie. It is a simple, predictible story, with the traditional Disney moral for the kids; but it is so much fun, and so well animated - it is weel worth watching. And if you like cars, you will appreciate the differences in the characters as represented by the different cars.

The Scottish Highlands (a phlog)

Yesterday, Eric had to go to work (yes some people do work), and I decided that a trip to the Highlands would be a nice idea. It was quite expensive (30 Pounds!), but the weather was good (i.e. no rain) and in the end, a great trip really. On the whole, I learnt two main things about Scotland: 1) It is a beautiful part of the world, and it would be great to do a similar trip on a slower pace. 2) There have been a number of rather violent people who have wanted this beauty, and have killed mercilessly towards this purpose. In fact, the major "people" highlights of the tour centred around wars and battles.

In my past trips (for the last 3 years anyway), I have never done city tours or paid guided tours (mainly because of the expense). These have one real advantage - you get to hear a lot more about the history and stories that come with the place. Stories and facts that are well arranged and well told ... a very nice complete package. Anyway, enough mindless mumbo jumbo ... and onto the pics

A highlands cow ... damn these things are big

The first loch we stopped at
Same loch, higher up
Route through the mountains
The highlands reminded me of almost every story I had read by British authors, with a number of rivers, small forests - just no wildlife
Urquhart Castle
Searching for Nessie at Loch Ness
Urquhart Castle (from Loch Ness)
Nessie Explained?

Reflections: ACM CCS 2006 and ACM STC 2006

I had been meaning to do a review earlier, but I have been busy exploring Scotland instead (and proof reading Honours Project reports) :p

To be honest, the program for the main ACM CCS 2006 was not very exciting; mainly because there was too much focus on cryptography, and less on security of systems in general. Also, I ended up at times choosing the wrong sessions - I went to a tutorial on Digital Forensics, where I learnt nothing new; and was a horrible presentation; and I later heard that the alternate, intrusion detection research papers, was quite good. Similarly, the paper sessions on Thursday turned out to be quite dreary; while I heard great reviews on the tutorials ... oh well.

The keynote talk, by Peter Neumann, while interesting at parts, was largely inconsequential - as he was effectively talking to the converted. His talk centred around software design that does not take account of the full scenario - and thus leads to security pitfalls. This has to do with a lot of things, including bad design principles and off course the lack of software liability.

The most interesting paper on Day 1, was "Hot or Not: Revealing Hidden Services by their Clock Skew", which investigated the potential of revealing a person's geographical location by studying his/her clock skew due to temperature fluctuations. It was a fun discussion; although maybe not very applicable.

Day 2 had a couple of interesting papers, mainly dealing with privacy. "Doppelganger: Better Browser Privacy Without the Bother", discussed a new cookie management system using Firefox extension. Not recommended for UCT though - requires quite a bit of bandwidth to work :p The very next paper, "Fourth-Factor Authentication: Somebody You Know", was also an interesting idea, discussing how to manage password retrievals in a more secure manner.

The paper in the session after lunch, "How to Win the Clone Wars: Efficient Periodic n-Times Anonymous Authentication", featured a brilliant presentation, and the content was interesting, but I don't think it will be easy to implement such a system in real life. The last session featured various attacks, and these were, as always, very interesting; including a discussion on botnets created through browser exploits, a discussion of 1-time pad problems in current software and a paper on short attacks through keyboard emanations - not as effective as last year's paper, but more useful for short attacks. Day 3 featured interesting papers but I wasn't really bowled over by any of them.

The Scalable Trusted Computing Workshop, on Friday was quite interesting - although the papers focussed more on "scalable" aspect. I learnt a lot more about the Trusted Computing Group, and even made some interesting contacts, so it was good from that point of view.

The highlight of the conference though, was probably, meeting Michael Schroeder (of Needham-Schroeder fame), who was being honoured by SIGSAC for his contributions to computer security. When we were talking, he mentioned reading about mobile banking in South Africa in the Economist, and he was very interested in the results of the honours mobile banking project. So, if we reference his paper, I am sure it is already one step to publishing (and the honours guys haven't even officially finished)!

Reflections: ACM DRM 2006

Yesterday was basically the reason I am here - to attend and present my paper at the DRM Workshop at the ACM Computer and Communications Security (CCS) Conference. So, this is a brief reflection of the proceedings of the workshop.

The first paper, by some researchers from SUN, looked at some of the business models that movie industry could adapt from the MMORPG world. While the ideas are certainly applicable; I am not really sure of the practicality of the ideas. The second paper looked at privacy, from the point of legal and economic practicalities. Basically, the paper argues that there exists certain legal and economic obligations if a business wishes to collect private information. These obligations create a risk; and thus creates ceiling on how much privacy can be afforded to customers. It was a very interesting paper; but I think it glossed over one crucial point - very rarely do businesses actually take into full consideration the economic and legal obligations when they do collect private data.

My paper, which was next, was very well received, and attracted quite a lot of interest. I was not really expecting a great reception; because the paper is quite simple in nature - but it is an area that has not really been addressed before. So, I was pleasantly surprised at the paper's reception.

The next paper on a view only file system has been discussed before as a mechanism for short term DRM solution. The one presented this year went a step further and designed a VM based system. It could work; but I am not convinced on the security layer between the VM and OS/lower level VM; or the performance overheads. The paper following it discussed an interesting key distribution strategy; but I must admit I did not follow it as well as I should have.

Tom Kalker, from HP Labs and Coral, presented the invited talk focussing on interoperability. Most people who have voiced opinions against DRM, seem to imply hatred on the lack of DRM interoperability, and not some of the other issues. He discussed how interoperability in DRM is not only a format issue; but also a business and complete technological issue. He talked about Coral, which uses a credential system, allowing for interoperability. However, it is by no ways a perfect solution, as every device would still require their own file format etc.

The next paper discussed more interesting code obsfucation and diversification as a mechanism to combat piracy. It was quite impressive, until the performance hit .... 840 times slower!

Pramod Jamkhedkar and Gregory Heileman presented their paper next, and their DRM project is very similar to mine; and we have been presenting or discussing similar ideas for the past three years. This year, they discussed, what they considered fundamental flaws in Rights Expression languages. In a few ways, their arguement was flawed, because it discussed mainly the flaws of XrML and did not consider the fact that some of the issues are being addressed or have been addressed in other RELs like ODRL. However, the issues raised are correct and needed to be recognised.

The next talk on interoperability, was a bit of a miss; simply because a lot of the content seemed to be contrary to the issues raised earlier; and the underlying details were hazy at best. The talk following it was very interesting; discussing some of the background to Intel's LeGrande architecture. Bascially, the OS is going to be dead - instead, the CPU itself will have a trusted OS base; complete with drivers and firmware. Applications will run on top of this base; in a completely protected environment, similar in operation to Multics. I am not sure of the maturity of the solution, but both Intel and AMD, together with other interested parties, have been pouring money into similar projects; so something is bound to come up.

The next paper, from Phillips Labs, discussed ideas on how to lower consumer anger and better ways to handle consumers who make use of pirated DVDs; or more appropriately Blu-Ray discs. Much of the work presented revolved around the use and operation of blacklists in Blu-Tay discs. It was really interesting; especially on the changing position.

The last paper of the workshop on watermarking presented nothing new; and in fact I have seen many better applications of watermarking.

Movie: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

I went to watch the movie here in DC with a friend from cyberspace ... one of the guys from the Atlas F1 Paddock Club. The movie house itself was interesting - basically an auditorium like most movie houses; but one that is also a full service restaurant and features arm chairs instead of normal movie seats. So we had two F1 fans watching a movie about Nascar while eating Pizzas.

The movie itself was surprisingly not too bad; and the rip offs of team orders and F1 were brilliantly done. As entertainment value, Nascar is not bad at all; and neither is the movie. If you are a racing fan; it's great; if only to identify all the different parallels.

Dam Festival 2006

I saw an ad talking about a Indie Rock festival in Washington DC; and I just couldn't give it a miss. Basically, a number of bands; spread out over a number of clubs playing in the evenings. Unfortunately, I managed to go to only one of the clubs - and it was an interesting experience.

First up; the club itself was quite small. Apparently, rock is a big genre in the DC area - the size of the club, Velvet Lounge, would lead you to think otherwise. Another disappointing aspect was the fact that most of the people who were there; seemed to be band supporters - they were there because they knew someone in one or more of the bands. The numbers were really small; and there was no real vibe - no mosh pits. Being Halloween weekend, there were a few costumed attendees - the best being a guy dressed up in a robot suit; completely with a functional iPod and speakers! At $8 cover charge; it was quite cheap; and good return for money.

The first band, Drunken Sufis (ft. The Psycho Terrorists), was in my opinion the best of the lot. They had an impressive stage show; and much of their music was about the War in Iraq, Bush etc ... almost Green Dayish. They had good songs and put on a great show - couldn't ask for much more.

The second band, from New Zealand, Over the Atlantic, was interesting - comprising of two members (bass guitarist and a lead guitarist/vocalist) and a computer doubling up as a synthesiser effort. It was interesting music - no doubt about that; but it just didn't click for me ... might work on radio; maybe - but not really a live band style.

The third and fourth bands, The Opposite Sex and The Object Lesson resp, were more mainstream rock bands; singing largely incomprehensible lyrics. However, they had really good music - brilliant guitar and drum play. The Opposite Sex features one member doubling up on a saxophone and a synthesiser; which reminded me a bit about the Nude Girls; but their songs were just not that great. The Object Lesson featured a hot keyboard player (wearing a catholic school girl outfit :p) instead of a Sax player and was the only band featuring a female member. I did not stay for the full set of the last band, The Chance, but they didn't seem too different from the two previous bands.

Overall, the music itself wasn't too bad - but it didn't have the vibe - maybe it was just a bad day.

Freak House

Halloween seems to be very popular in the US, and this being Halloween weekend, there seems to be quite a few themed events happening around here. I came across "Freak House" in one of the free newspapers here, and as the website bills it "Torture. Murder. Shark attack. You'll scream your tits off!!"; it was just too tempting.

It is similar to London Dungeon in concept; although, more adult in nature. Basically, they have taken a whole three story house and converted it into a 9 roomed, scary/freak show. In many of the rooms, audience participation is almost pre-requisite; and I am sure a psychologist would have a field day in analysing how people react to certain situations. It was very cool, although London Dungeon is certainly more polished.

Rights and Repression

Being the capital of the world's most powerful country, it has also been the scene of many civil rights protests, and with America's thirst for storing history, it has also preserved a lot. The day before, yesterday ended up being quite a sobering tourist attraction day - as I ended up going through the Holocaust Museum and also going through various neighbourhoods involved in the Civil Rights movement. I also went up the Washington Monument, which was closed for renovation in my previous two visits.


The visit to the Holocaust Museum was sad, and at the same time, it did have a ray of hope in the end. The detailed examination of what happened to minority groups before and during WW2 is downright frightening ... how can fellow human beings really do that? But what was most frightening is not that it happened; but the reactions of the other countries in the world to the plight of the persecuted. Not only did they not chose to interfere earlier; but countries like the USA, sent refugees back, and, during WW2, refused to bomb gas chambers in some concentration camps even if it was physically possible. It is the indifference that really shocks - and the scary thing is - we haven't really learned anything since. After all; Rwanda happened and the world stood by - and Darfur is happening - and the world still refuses to take action.

The ray of hope, however tiny, is that the Holocaust museum is starting to document other holocausts - and trying to raise awareness of pressing issues like Darfur. I hope that it is not too late - otherwise 50 years from now; we will have another museum to add to the list.

Walking around Adams-Morgan, U Street precinct in DC was less strenuous on the mind, although not less worthy. One guidebook I read while browsing at Exclusive Books before arriving, claimed that Washington DC is predominantly black and latino. Moving around in downtown DC, you wouldn't believe that. Thus walking around suburbia was interesting in itself - and gives a very different view of a city ... A lot of the old buildings are preserved, and the contrast in architecture and style is amazing.

Drug Free Zone

I came across this while walking around in DC suburbia ... and I was instantly reminded of various episodes in Season 2 of Weeds. There didn't seem to be any surveillance cameras though

Reflections: WESII

For the last two days, I have been attending the The Workshop on the Economics of Securing the Information Infrastructure, sponsored by I3P. It was quite an interesting conference bringing together people from different disciplines including computer security, economics and social sciences. A lot of the content did revolve around policies; but unlike ISSA, the content was much more constructive, and dare I say, more useful.

There were a few really interesting discussions and topics; so I will briefly discuss them - maybe some of you have something to say about them ...

First up, there was a panel discussion on DNSSec, including a very quick demonstration on how quick and easy it is to actually commit DNS spoofing attacks. Considering the fact that DNS forms the backbone of the Internet (from the users perspective), a secure DNS solution is really important. In summary, DNS entries themselves are not verifiable, and like the paper I am going to present next week at the DRM workshop; there is no verification service currently available for DNS. This means that a man in the middle attack is very possible scenario for DNS - because in the current DNS setup; the first response received from a DNS query is taken to be the correct query. For a spoofer, it is therefore possible to redirect any DNS query, and a malicious attacker can really cause a lot more damage than phishing attacks. DNSSec seems like a good solution; but implementation is the problem as it requires every top level domain controller to actually do it; and also enforce others to carry on.

Two papers at the end of the first day were also quite interesting. There was a discussion on modeling black markets for software vulnerabilities; a scenario that already exists with botnets - but can seemingly also extend to any malicious intent; just like the arms trade I suppose.

But it is the last paper that I am really excited about. Bob Briscoe from British Telecoms presented an idea on how to control congestion on the Internet; allowing users an equal share of the bandwidth pie. The proposal raises the potential for real quality of service guarantees for Internet access; but at the same time provide a very real solution for denial of service attacks. It is a very neat idea, and is definitely a paper I intend following up on.

One of the interesting papers from today was the analylis of the value of data, using techniques similar to the insurance industry. The paper discussed how data can be valued, and why the valuation easily explains why the uptake for some security products like disk encryption and email encryption is so low. Can't really say I agreed with the values; but the approach made sense overall.

Virgin Atlantic's Infight Entertainment System

In terms of intent; Virgin Atlantic's inflight entertainment system is quite amazing: on demand music, video and games - including playing games against other passengers on the plane. But after seeing a number of failures on both of my flights so far, I am convinced that the design is flawed.

Basically, the inflight entertainment system uses a very thin (anorexiac?) client which seems to process input and provide output only and one server (well atleast one per class anyway ... can't confirm about business class). Because the thin client performs no operations - the server does tend to become overloaded - and rebooting it; requires an inactivity period of over 30 minutes for most users. Furthermore, if too many users are using a certain feature - like the mapping service - then the system also becomes overloaded or too slow. In fact, there are a number of instances where the system (from the user's perspective) is just too slow or unresponsive.

In my opinion, it would be a better design in incorporate much of the interface processing components, like the menus on the client side. This way - the server does not have to do everything and the response time would be increased. Furthermore, if there are problems with one or two clients; it will not require the entire system to be rebooted. Just a few thoughts ... anyone else used a similar system?

How evil are you?

A link from Carl ... must say; many of the things listed are not really evil ...

You Are 58% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Movie: A Scanner Darkly

This is an adaptation of possibly Phillip K Dick's most personal novel - chronicling his own experiences in drug use. It is a celebrated novel; but I found it the most difficult to understand and follow of the ones I have read. The movie on the other hand is quite precise and easy to follow - a feat in itself.

The most obvious and impressive aspect of the movie is the technology used in merging live action and animation (almost painterly in nature) into one seamless movie. This gives the movie itself a certain look; which it self enhances the whole "drug use" genre in some respects.

The story itself is good - and like most other Phillip K Dick stories; it explores the various interconnections between various aspects of life taken to extremities - in this case surveillance, corporate influence and friendship. Keanu Reeves plays an undercover agent seeking out a drug cartel behind a very toxic and addictive drug - substance D.

Unlike some of the more blockbuster movies made from Phillip K Dick movies, like Minority Report and Blade Runner - this focuses more on the poor and the disenfranchised - and very much less explosive. None the less it is an amazing movie because it is made so well and even Keanu manages to show some expressions (although that could have been animation)

Movie: The Notorious Bettie Page

I did not really know much about Bettie Page - a pinup model from the 50's who has been apparently photographed more than some of her more famous and well known counterparts like Marilyn Monroe and Cindy Crawford. The movie is effectively a biopic about her heydays when she was a major, well known model.

What is really interesting is that she was a force before the so called sexual revolution; so some of her reactions and the reactions of the society in general is quite interesting. In particular, Bettie Page was a well known fetish model; and the movie stresses that she was not into the fetish lifestyle itself; and how she rationalises what she does - esp in the light of being quite a strong Christian.

Movie: An Inconvenient Truth

A few quick reviews on the movies I watched while there was nothing else to do on the plane.

Trailers in Ster-Kinekor put the movie as the most terrifying movie ever made. As a documentary it is - mainly because you soon realise that what you can do as a person may not be enough; because 6.5 billion people also have to do the same thing. Climate change and global warming ... it is a fact; and it is terrifying what the future could be if we can't stop the degradation. As the movie states - do we have political will to do it? And more importantly - do all countries have the political will to do it?

Unfortunately, like many other "movies that have to be seen" the people who really need to see it; will no doubt not see it.

Rent a Super Car

Now this is a business model that could work; and I would support! We all know that super cars are expensive machines; and thus most people can't really afford to drive one; let alone own one. So, Rio Prestige, based in Edinburgh, is a super car rental agency. For relatively low prices, you can hire a super car and drive it around.

Now they are based in Edinburgh; and I will be in Edinburgh in two weeks time ... an interesting opportunity except for the fact that you have to be 25 to hire ... maybe I can convince Eric to come along ...

Movie: The Black Dahlia

Almost, everything I read about this movie before watching it was negative; so I did not really have very high expectations of the movie. On the surface, it is a movie about a murder mystery and the lives of the detectives that solve the mystery. As a detective story; it is great - and the pieces of the puzzle do come together. While, it is in no way comparable to a Agatha Christie or any other crime fiction great; the story is good, and plausible.

But it is the style of the movie that was really iffy. Arthur correctly pointed out; that the movie was done in a certain style, and thus was a good movie for that style. However, I think it was too stylized; there was an over emphasis in style - and that was a detriment. That too much style forced the movie to be too long; and introduced a really slow pace at some parts of the movie. In the end it is like too much make up on women (especially old women) - unattractive and artificial.

Sam commented that watching the movie was like going to a wine tasting when you don't drink wine. Maybe; but I think it would be more apt to say it was going to a wine tasting where cheap wine is being served from really expensive looking bottles.

Ho Ha about Gay Marriage?

There has been so much debate on the legitimacy of the proposed Civil Union bill, which have set me thinking (which, as a self confessed idiot could be dangerous) and so this post is very much a mind dump. But first a bit of quick background.

Firstly, it has been criticised by some in the Gay and Lesbian community, because it is a separate act; and is different from the current marriage act. Thus they argue; it is different and discriminatory. The government argues that it needs to be; because the marriage act is primarily based around religious and traditional ceremonies; and since the new bill is independent of religion; it requires different treatment.

On the other hand, there is the criticisms from the religious, and virtually every homophobic person, on how gay marriage is against nature, and against every religious belief; and thus immoral. In fact, the government was really pushed to write this bill; because the Constitutional Court ruled that the current Marriage Act is unconstitutional; so it is obliged to change the law. And like the death penalty - referendums on the matter will not help. To change the legal position on either; there needs to be a change in the constitution; and even a simple 2/3 majority is not sufficient to do that!

So either way; like it or not, gay marriage will be legalised; and there is effectively nothing that the opposition can do. This off course raises a few very important issues and problems. First and foremost - in a constitution that separates the church and the state distinctly; is there a need for a marriage act, other than to recognise marriage can be performed under religious and traditional ceremonies? In that scenario; other than recognised state machinery to register and dissolve marriages; why is there a need to have separate acts governing them?

Secondly, and more interestingly in my opinion: why should marriage be between two persons (as dictated by the last Constitutional Court judgment on the issue)? Why can a marriage not be between more than two persons? And it is not a new thing in South African culture anyway - quite a few cultural groups, like the Zulus, recognise polygamy. And so do some religions, including Islam. So, if it is religiously and culturally ok to have more then two persons in a marriage; why should a civil marriage be any different? Why should it not be possible to have marriages involving multiple persons, of different genders? Do we really have any right to regulate people's love and sex lives - as long as every one in the relationship is a consenting adult?

Gay marriage controversy ... wait till the polygamy controversy starts :P

"Sundowners" on Lion's Head

At the last SASSU-UCT meeting, we decided to go up Lion's Head as a sort of last committee thing. Despite three people baling at the last moment, it was a great last team event; although, to be honest; sports at UCT tends to run itself, so SASSU does not really do much (or claim to do much, like SRC). I say "sundowners", because although the intention was there, none of us brought anything other than water; but it was a great hike up Lion's Head; and a wonderful view of the rising full moon; and a setting sun.

Clouds come in (quite fast), and envelope Signal Hill. By the time it was dark, virtually all of Cape Town was enveloped in the cloud and mist.

Some of the SASSU-UCT collective (Gary, Cheryl, Tarryn, Jacob)

Fraser strikes a pose

The hike down was quite interesting, under the moonlight and without torches. What made it even more interesting was the fact, that for the most part we were above the clouds, thus able to see the stars. Sadly, my camera and my photographic skills are quite lacking to give a really good perspective. A pic of the path down anyway ...

Movie: Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage (The Final Days)

Another movie from the EU Film Festival; and this was Germany's entry for the Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars this year. The plot is about Sophie Scholl and other members of "The White Rose", a anti-Nazi German, mainly student movement, in operation near the end of the WW2. What was interesting about many members of the The White Rose, was that most of them had actually spent time at the front lines; or were intimately connected to the front lines. The movie recounts the last days of The White Rose; from the arrest of Sophie Scholl (and her brother Hans), her interrogation, the show trial and finally the execution.

What is really amazing is the dialogue, and the arguments - not only by Sophie Scholl, on why Hitler's war strategy was wrong, and the war needed to end; but also the Nazi arguments; on why their course of action was correct - and would ultimately succeed. It is an intellectual debate that makes the movie worthwhile. But it is also the stark difference in arguments between the interrogator - whose arguments are philosophical and largely logical; and the judge (and chief prosecutor rolled into one) at the show trial - whose arguments are basically propaganda and righteous beliefs; that make it so interesting.

In many ways; the arguments are like present day Iraq situation; the Israeli-Palestinians conflict or indeed the Iranian Nuclear Enrichment tug of war ... both sides in the disputes have perfectly logical arguments; but these are all drowned by the rhetoric and the passionate preaching, often by both sides. It seems that, history truly repeats itself, often.

UCT Student Leadership Awards

Before I rant, congratulations to Chad for being awarded, for the second year running, the Student Leadership award for Postgraduate Students.

And now to my rant, I was nominated for the leader in sport, but just before the ceremony yesterday, I realised that it was not listed on the presentation schedule. I learnt from the MC, that it was not going to be awarded, because there was no suitable candidates meeting the high standards. I would have left it at that, except, one of the deputy vice chancellors, Prof. Nhlapo, came over during the reception and I was obliged to fill my curiosity, and ask him why it was not awarded.

His response was, that there was only one nomination, and therefore the award was not awarded because there was no competition. It is a position, I sort of understand; but baffles me none the less ... for two reasons. Firstly, why announce that there was no suitable candidates for the award ... because it implies that there were nominees and none of the nominees met the standard. Secondly, it implies, and Prof Nhlapo did concur when I raised it, that even if there a brilliant leaders who are nominated, they will never get the award if they have no competition ... it just seems so absurd.

In either case, my main motivation for the awards was not really the money (which would have been good, considering the crappy exchange rate) - but to prevent what has happened in the past, where the winner has been the SRC sports rep, who did not play for any sport teams and did not really belong to any sport clubs. In fact, most of the winners last night were from the SRC ... an amazing fact, considering the debacles of the SRC this year ...

Movie: Antonio Guerriero di Dio (Antonio, Warrior of God)

It's the European Film Festival again; although it seems to be a lot smaller affair. This is Italy's contribution to the festival, a biopic on Saint Antonio.

The movie begins with a shipwreck, with two survivors - Fibonacci (the mathematician) and a monk; and a supposed treasure. For the most part, the story focuses on the Monk, Antonio - who, as the film progresses is shown to be greatly admired by the general populace; because of his humility, and his affinity to the poor. For the large part, Fibonacci does not feature in the movie; except in the almost incidental contribution of the Arabic number system to the West; which is taken advantage of by a prominent money lender, who employs him. Antonio's major fight in the movie is against greedy money lenders, who feed of the poor and the unfortunate, but Fibonacci and Antonio are not shown together again.

It is a story about a Saint, and so it was like many religious movies, a bit preachy. The story, while simple, was not well told, in my opinion ... and Antonio's illness was never really explained. What was great about the movie though, was its cinematography - it's a stunning film, taking full advantage of some beautiful churches and medieval architecture.

A different comment: It is amazing to note how many scientific advances have been made on the back of persecution (or towards to cause of persecution) of other humans.