Lion's Head

The weather has been great recently, so I decided not to waste it staying indoors, and walk up Lion's Head. And, convincing Hans-Peter was not too difficult either! I really love Lion's Head - it is relatively easy to walk up, and has some of the best views of Cape Town. It was also a great opportunity to have more fun with the DSLR. (photos have been resized ... don't have the patience to upload 3MB+ pics)

There has been a lot of rain, so there were a number of streams on the mountain. The aim was to capture "frozen" water droplets from one of the small water falls ... worked out, but could have been better.

Table Mountain from the top.

Devil's Peak from the top.

Trying out the long range telescopic shots ... there seemed to be some oil rig mooreed in the harbour.

It has been cold recently - snow in Africa :p


A bird eating something.


Hans-Peter charging down the mountain!

Working Life: Differences between Google and Microsoft

I came across this article via Slashdot. It is primarily crafted at trying to improve working life inside Microsoft, but some of the insights are quite interesting.

The free food and clothes is well known, but the idea that there is no real career advancement is interesting. After all, is there a need for defined career advancement? Surely, the fact that you get paid better for being a better employee is equivalent? After all aren't titles meaningless without the associated salary increases? Maybe I am missing something - after all I have no corporate experience!

Movie: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Horrible plot, horrible acting, horrible script. And, an utterly, mind numbing, stupid ending. Good CGI though. An utter waste of time, otherwise ... why do they keep making stupid movies?

Movie: Ocean's Thirteen

The third installment of a rather drab series. I found it quite slow, and even the heist, rather uninteresting - particularly because, the opponent is a very advanced computer AI. It had its moments, but nothing spectacular.

Movie: The History Boys

There have been a number of movies with a similar theme, and I haven't watched any of them. The plot is simple - a group of boys, in a fairly non-distinct school (not exactly poor, but not very well off, lower-middle class probably) have a fighting chance to get into Oxbridge if they do well in their A-level exams. Thus, the teachers (in this case History teachers) and the headmaster are pushing a lot to try ensure that they do actually get to go to either Oxford or Cambridge, and if possible, get a scholarship to attend either. There is an eccentric teacher, a very modern teacher and there is fun and games. All in all, an entertaining story, with a bit of a sting in the end.

One thing that did stand out for me, was really the environment of the story. The fact is, people who get to go to the top universities, get to perform well at exams are often from the "established" schools. This is not because that the children are any brighter, nor because the teachers are any better - these are definitely factors - but the story pushes that it is a lot to do with the general environments - trips to Rome and Paris help a lot with learning French or Itallian, and similarly discussing renaisance art history is easier if you have actually seen a collection of Renaisance art. Ultimately, the movie argues, this is the hardest opposition for great students from poorer schools have to overcome, when competing with the affluent students.

Music: Ashtray Electric and The Dirty Skirts

A bit of a "Indie Brit Rock" night, last night at the Armchair Theatre. Despite the bad weather outside (the usual cold and wet winter's day in the Mother City), the Armchair Theatre was packed! The Dirty Skirts commented that it was the first time they had to turn people away - maybe - but there still too many people - unsafe even. In fact, if something bad did happen, there would have been quite a few casualties. And it is not only that you couldn't move - it was compounded by not enough ventilation (the fans weren't turned on) and poor bar service - too many people, not enough bar tenders.

The Ashtray Electric (no website), are a new band, and while well dressed, did not really have much to offer. They play music well enough - but the lead singer was hardly audible, and they just didn't have any stage presence. Maybe it's the newbie blues, but the fact is, they weren't impressive enough such that I would want to pay to see them again.

Sara did not rate The Dirty Skirts as musical geniuses - they probably aren't - but regardless, they are great entertainment! A very energetic stage act, coupled with a number of easy crowd sing-alongs, and generally brilliant performance. Maybe they aren't musical geniuses, but very few acts are. They do make a great night out though!

Finished!

End to end, 278 Pages, 82 367 words, 3 and a half years. It is a rather long dissertation, but it is done, and submitted. All 5 copies of it! Hopefully, the examiners find it as impressive!

Destination Germany

So, I have got a quite a good compromise to my problem. I will be doing both internships, but only 6 weeks at DT Labs and 3 months at Fraunhofer IIS. Off course all these depend on me getting the visas, but that shouldn't be a problem. Really excited - 6 weeks in Berlin in summer followed by 3 months in Bavaria. All I need to do now, is to organise my timetable well enough to go to at least one F1 race (currently thinking Monza would be awesome on 09 Sep and I could even make the German F1 race on 22 July) and off course travel around Germany. In fact, I am sure I am not going to make any money out of all this ...

Movie: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Stanley Kubrick aparently said that this movie was unfilmable. I have never read the book, but if the movie is a true reflection of the book - it must be an amazing novel. The story explores the story of a man (from his birth), who has an extraordinary sense of smell - a super power, almost. And with that, he aims to become a perfumer - to capture the smells of the world. The story is dark, but in it's brilliant, and I really want to read the novel now.

Movie: Shortbus

Gay sex, gay threesomes, transsexual, hetero-sex, orgies, oral sex, bondage, in fact, other than pedophilia, bestiality and necrophilia, Shortbus features it all. It can be called a porn movie with a plot - but it's not a porn movie, even though it features more sex than the average late night movie on eTV. It is a movie about sex, told primarily from the view of a married, female sex therapist (sorry couples counselor) who has never had an orgasm.

It is a movie by artists, about art and pushes many of the boundaries present in movies. But, to paraphrase the movie, I think it is a load of pretentious bullshit, that tries to be intellectual, but isn't really.

The end of an era?

So, last night was the last time I played badminton as a member of the UCT Badminton club, for the forseeable future. I have "threatened" to leave before, notably at the end of my 3rd and 4th year, but this time it is for real.

The club has changed a lot, since Tim, Murray, Kevin (Feng) and I joined in our first year (2000). It was a social club, and back then, it was struggling to sign up enough members to justify itself as a UCT sports club. Since then, the membership numbers have improved, and there is a good balance of competitive and social activities of the club, although some may justifiably say that the social aspect of the club has diminished substantially.

My association with the badminton club has been rewarding. I don't think I set out to get the club to be competitive, and many of the things that happened, almost arose from accident. I remember going to Frans' office, to ask him about SASSU, and whether he thought I should run. I left, not only wanting to run for SASSU but also the WPBA.

It is in the WPBA that I have possibly had the most rewarding time, but also the most frustrating time. The red tape, and the pig headedness is difficult to get used to, esp when you are used to getting things done (because usually, you are the only one doing anything). At the same time, seeing the results of the development program, such as Gugulethu and more obliquely Ocean View, is reward enough.

Unlike Navine, I don't think I can commit to UCT Badminton club after I leave UCT. It takes special dedication to commit to a club for 20 years, and sail through the turbulence without actually taking the helm. I don't know what my future holds, but if it is in Cape Town, then, maybe I should start my own club :P

Movie: Spiderman 3

Take one hero, who is going through a "I am the best, the greatest" etc phase. Take an alien "molecule" with a mind of it's own. Take a criminal with a concience. Take a self centered guy who just hates our hero's alter ego. Take the son of the hero's fallen nemesis, who wants revenge. I think we have enough for a good dose of action ... but wait, throw in a love triangle, some self loathing, some other girls going for the heros charms.

In the end, there is too much - it becomes boring, long winded and a bit too preachy. I can see why many people didn't like the movie, and I am with them - there isn't much to see. There was just too much hype and not enough substance.

Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End

Way too long - and at the same time, still leaves enough scope for yet another sequel. Don't get me wrong - there is a lot of action, and the effects are super brilliant. But when you get bored during a movie, then there is something wrong. Worth watching once, just for entertainment maybe - but not more than once.

Perpetual Copyright

In this New York Times article, Mark Helprin presents the case for perpetual copyright.Basically, ownership of property is perpetual - ownership can be transferred, but property is rarely transferred back to the commons. Helprin suggests that a similar concept should apply to intellectual property. The concept of perpetual copyright is not new - it was in fact suggested at the very begining, and for a brief while, perpetual copyright actually existed.

However, intellectual property itself is not like normal property, as it is intangible. It is also used in different form to normal property, and has different characteristics. Firstly, there is no wear and tear in IP, and there is a need to maintain property, to maintain its value. IP is valuable in itself - there is no attached maintainance costs for example.

Secondly, physical property, if fallen into desrepair and left unused, is often recycled and available to the commons. There are means to get rid of ownership of a physical property. IP cannot have perpetual ownership, until there is a means to recover abandoned works without fear of prosecution.

Lastly physical property has a narrow range of uses, morphing physical property to other uses is not easy. However, IP is about the idea - and a design of a house can be morphed to a design of a boat etc.IP is also used differently - you can't really combine physical assets to form new usable physical assets, while retaining the use of the original assets. With IP - you can mix songs and videos to produce something new.

IP and physical property are different types of property. In fact, copyright protection period is too long and need to be shortened; and not the other way around!

Jo'burg Notes

So, Stephen and I was in Jo'burg for IFIP Sec 2007, for the past three days. I am not a big fan of Jo'burg, and every time I go there, I am reminded why, I am not a big fan of Jo'burg. We stayed at the Parkmore Lodge, a quiet little B & B near Sandton; definitely a place to consider next time I am in Jo'burg.

And most of the gripes is about the drivers and the roads. The traffic is horrible, but I suppose it's not anything different to the M5 in Cape Town. But, for the richest city in Africa, the road conditions are terrible, especially at night. For example, the road marking at night are hardly visible in some places, and I am not the only one who thinks that. And then there are the drivers - who all seem to be in a rush, and not care about anybody else on the roads. Everyday, there seemed to be some one who decided to turn in front of us (to cross the road), even though we (and others on the road) have the right of way, and are actually moving forward. No wonder there are so many road accidents!

On Monday night, Stephen and I met up with Siya and Reinhardt at a restaurant (the Butcher's Shop and Grill) on the Nelson Mandela Square. Phathu was also supposed to come along, but unfortunately he was feeling ill - hope he gets better soon.

Things I was hoping to see, but saw no evidence of: the intelligent highway and the Gautrain.

Things I was hoping not to experience and didn't experience: The famous Jo'burg crime.

Coincidence: Parked next to our car (a white Toyota Corolla 160i) was a white Toyota Corolla 140i whose number plate started with the same first three letters!

Oh yeah, had the most expensive ice cream at the Sandton store of Häagen-Dazs. Really worth the price!

Rustenberg

Initially, I was supposed to meet up with Sarai in Sandton on Sunday. Due to various things, that idea got canned, and I drove to Rustenberg to see her instead. and, as Sarai has commented a number of times before to me, there is nothing much to see in Rustenberg.

It's a sleepy little town, where children still play in the streets (and ride bikes in the streets), there are no walls surrounding houses, houses are pretty big in size and leafy subrubs mean exactly that. And, watching F1 in the comfort of Sarai's mom's couch (on a massive rear projection TV) was great too!

The side trip was quite good, a welcome break in fact. But, it's hardly a town that I am dying to go back to. Oh yeah, property prices are quite cheap, and with the Royal Bafokeng Stadium due to host a number of matches, 2010 prospects are good!

IFIP Sec 2007

I normally describe IFIP as the European version of the ACM, which is unfair, because it is a lot more international. However, the participants of IFIP conferences tend to be more European centric, than US centric. This year, South Africa hosted the 22^ndIFIP Security Conference (2^nd time in South Africa), at the Sandton ICC.

I suppose the organisation of the conference was not bad, except the Sandton ICC venue was too large for the number of delegates. I think, it would have been far better, if the venue was the Balalaika Hotel, as per the Information Security SA conferences from the last two years. Another gripe, mainly associated with the venue, was the lack of free WiFi access during the conferences - come on, a computer conference without WiFi?

There was a distinct lack of local students at the conference - yes it is marginally more expensive than ISSA last year, but it is still cheaper than SATNAC and the value of this conference far outstrips that of ISSA and SATNAC, put together.

Day 1
Judge Mervyn King delivered the opening plenary talk, and it was the only, really general talk of the entire conference, focusing on management and risk over all, rather than specifically on IT. That said, his talk was quite entertaining and informative.

The first paper I attended was an adaptation of ticket based authentication, through the use of TPM chips. This was effectively an advance on my own ISSA paper from last year, which looked at the advantages of ticket based authentication systems for DRM, although my paper was focused on a software approach.

The other notable papers discussed identity management, with a specific focus on national government level identity systems, which was the focus of a panel discussion. I think it all boils down to two things: one governments need some sort of identity system to provide services to its population in a cost effective manner. However, there are too many features, and too many requirements being hoisted on to these systems, limiting their potential success and usage.

Day 2
Prof. Ross Anderson delivered the keynote talk in the morning, focusing on the economics of security, including a discussion on monopolies, buggy Microsoft products and why many large scale government projects fail (eNatis anyone?). I have heard most of the content before, but it was still a well presented, and well thought out presentation.

Most of the talks I attended were on access control, and one of the privacy session (which was where I presented my paper). Of note, was the Deutsche Telekom lab talk focusing on role based extensions to single sign on. The concepts were great, but their current approach creates a privacy problem where the single sign on service provider, potentially knows too much about the user. A paper earlier in the day, focusing on signing e-learning material (e.g. Moodle) was also interesting, but I think the problems could be solved easily if they use a verifiable digital identity system, like the proposal I outlined in my paper at ACM-DRM last year.

My own presentation went well, and was surprisingly short. At 40 slides, I thought my presentation would be longer than the 20 minutes I did take. There was some good discussion afterwards, always a good indication. The paper before me, in my session was interesting, although the presentation was a bit dry (and it was a difficult topic): about signatures that can be used to prove integrity and non-repudiation to a target user, but such a signature would prove nothing to any other users. One problem with the presentation was a lack of a useful example; so here is mine: whistle blowing. In whistle blowing, the user (often at risk) can inform securely to the monitoring organisation, but the monitoring organisation cannot unveil the whistle blower without his/her permission.

Day 3
Prof William Caelli presented the last keynote paper, on the requirement for a newer, updated definition of MAC, or Mandatory Access Control. This is good news, because in my thesis, I propose DRM as a new form of access control, and one that could potentially cater for the requirements placed by MAC.

Another, soon to be PhD graduate, Thierry Sans, presented a paper on a DRM policy administration model, which is similar to my own approach. However, my approach does not follow his approach of resigning the data at every step of the distribution cycle, as I think that strategy is inefficient, and ultimately un-necessary. Prior to that paper, there was a paper which discussed the potential to use web counters as a means to craft covert communication channels - great idea, but incredibly difficult to follow.

Another interesting paper was a theoretical trust model that looked at the possibility of clustering crowds according to their respective trustworthiness. Interesting, because it provides possibilities for wireless mesh routing (and possibly even other routing solutions).

My New Toy

I have wanted a Digital SLR camera for a while now, primarily because I want to get better at taking pictures, and also take better pictures. So, I have finally got myself a Canon 400 D and a Sigma 18-200 lens.


I bought this, primarily thinking of my South American jaunt, where I wanted a decent optical zoom capability but did not want to carry too much equipment around. And, this was the best package I could get overall.


And, I have been busy - the Boland Badminton Open was on this weekend, and I exhausted the battery already, after about 300 plus shots!

Music: Unit.R and The All Star Funk Four

I went to the album launch of The All Star Funk Four's new album, Control Alternative Delete, not to see them, but the support act, unit.r. My friend Mary (also known as my editor, Mary) was so enthusiastic about them, I just had to see them play.

And unit.r did not disappoint. They are a mix of electronic and heavy rock, with some interesting lyrics, and even more interesting music. They were simply a great band at a party, and were, in my opinion vastly superior to the headline act. In many respects, unit.r has what it takes to become successful, and this is a crossover act that works! Incidentally, the drummer, Aleks was in my honour's class.

The All Star Funk Four, was a disappointment. They are best described as a rock band with a rap singer (and lyrics). While that worked with Linkin Park, the problem with the band is two fold. Firstly, the lyrics are not clever, and it seems like he is trying too hard ... another Eminem wannabe really ... very much like that guy in the VW Polo ad, trying to get street cred. Secondly, the rapping introduces very jarring music, to coincide with the rapping, which, for me, just did not work. However, looking at the number of people in the mosh pit, maybe, I am just being unfair ...

A good problem to have?

As many of you know, I am almost finished with my thesis, and should be handing in at the end of the month. Many of you also know, that I intended to take a 2 odd month backpacking trip across South America. The trip has sort of been put on hold (although I still intend to do it), but the reason why I have to put it on hold is the source of the problem ...

I have been given a firm offer for internship at the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories in Berlin between mid July and Mid October. This fits in great with two conferences I wanted to attend, first in Germany at the end of the internship period and then ACM CCS 2007 in Washington DC two weeks later. I would be associated with some general security projects, and would be a nice break from DRM in a way.

I also have an opportunity to do an internship at Fraunhoffer IIS (the inventors of the MP3) in Erlangen. The internship period is quite flexible, so should be able to fit in the conferences. The only problem is, I have yet to get a confirmed offer from Fraunhoffer. At IIS, I would be associated with some DRM projects, notably the development of the next step in the OMA DRM specifications, and thus would actually get to use my degree for something!