Author: cdwan

Security

In light of the Christmas Day “hot pants” would-be plane bomber, I would like to make a couple of comments about security – both for air travel and in general.

First off, I like security. I used to be annoyed by bag checks and the like – until I realized that those men and women standing outside the buildings were being paid far too little to take a bullet or a bomb blast on my behalf. Their job is to keep me safe. Here’s the kicker: So long as what they’re doing actually keeps me safer – I appreciate it.

I was recently in India. While I was there, the whole damn country was on high alert because several Jihadis had come across the border from Packistan, vowing a repeat of the Mumbai massacres. For those who weren’t paying attention, in 2008 there was a well organized set of attacks in the city of Mumbai. The terrorists struck ten locations simultaneously, killing 173 people and wounding 308. They both set off bombs and (more disturbingly to me) ran from place to place, gunning down groups of people in hotel lobbies and the like.

Every hotel and public building that I entered on this last visit had both a metal detector and a bag check. After the metal detector, I was patted down – including a crotch and ass grab – every single time. When I flew from Kolkata to Delhi, every single passenger passed through a metal detector and got a pat down – including a crotch and ass grab.

These procedures didn’t slow things down too much. A pat down takes less than a minute. You can do it in parallel with the bag check. You probably need a separate line for men and for women. Some people will choose to not travel by air rather than endure it. That’s fine with me.

You know what? I felt safer on that plane and in those hotels than I do when I fly in the US. For all the hassle with TSA guards, the yelling, the pointlessly changing rules and the constant confusion about who gets to see my footsies – our airport security theater does less than what India was able to accomplish with their existing personnel, on their existing budget, for their airplanes, hotels, and malls. This is because they have the willpower that we lack – to impose a bit of inconvenience on everyone in order to make us a bit safer.

A lot of noise is being made about millimeter wave imaging in the airports. That’s a red herring. The problem is not one of technology. It’s not for lack of expensive machines at the airports that we’re at risk. We are at risk for lack of willpower.

You want a safe flight? Here’s what I say: Pat downs. Men’s lines, women’s lines. Look in every suitcase. No carry on items beyond a newspaper or a book. Pat everyone down.

Security would go faster under the model.

Don’t like it? Take a train. Drive. Walk. Take a bus.

Security – real security – involves trading in some liberty for your safety. Real security is invasive. Real security gets in your face and emphasizes that the safety of all the passengers is more important than the convenience or assumed right to privacy of any one individual. Real security takes more time than security theatre, but not much more. You have to get your crotch grabbed to be sure you don’t have a pipe bomb strapped to your upper thigh. You have to stay seated during critical parts of the flight. People knock on the bathroom door when you’re in there more than 10 minutes.

The tactics used by America’s 9/11 bombers (seize control of commercial airliners and slam them into population centers) will never work again because of two changes that happened immediately:

1) We put locks on the cabin doors.
2) Passengers know that the rules are changed. I grew up under the “sit quietly and it will be over soon” school. We will never again sit quietly and allow ourselves to be flown into buildings.

All the rest of this crap is theater. Taking off my shoes, taking my laptop out of its case, 3oz containers of liquid … that’s all bogus. With those changes, the stakes change from 9/11 to a single plane being blown up. Still bad – but not nearly so bad as 3,000+ people dying. If you’re trying to prevent 9/11, we’re already done. Now we’re trying to keep pipe bombers off of planes.

Obviously, the hot pants bomber represents a failure of the air travel security system. It failed insofar as it could never work reliably over the long term in the first place. Without the will to get in people’s faces, to check their upper thigh for pipe bombs – we will continue to be unsafe.

No security system is perfect. Locks do not buy you security – they buy you *time*. All systems – and all components of systems – fail eventually. We fly millions of passengers all over the world every single day. In that regard, actually, we’re doing pretty well. Can we do better? Absolutely – but it will be invasive and and it will involve pat downs.

Countries with a little bit of backbone are already doing this. Why aren’t we?

Working for ME, day 1

My company is ostensibly closed this week, and I’m making an effort to put in time on stuff that has been on the back burner all year. To wit:

* Spent a few hours getting back up to speed with the iPhone developer kit. Got back to the point where I could build a hello world app, from scratch, and put it on my phone. Tomorrow begins the application development in earnest.

* Cleaned the basement, level 0. I don’t claim that it’s “done,” by any stretch of the imagination – but there are four big garbage bags of crapola out back, plus a waist height stack of cardboard to go out. In addition, we have the tool chest of many drawers, and a primitive beginning of a work bench. I even found an ancient Powerbook running Linux to be the workbench computer. If only I knew the root password.

* Ate Pho for lunch. Let us not forget lunch.

On deck for tomorrow is expanding my hello world to include some calls to built in tools (GPS, accelerometer), and cleaning the office – level 0. On day 3, I hope to get either the office or the basement to level 1.

Mixed in with all this, I plan to get to Judo, karate, and finish Dragon Age, Origins.

Homeward, with cat

And so, fed – gifted – and feted, we pull for home today. Hopefully this will be another simple 5 hour jaunt up the expressway. We have already had the ritual conversation (Meritt parkway? Tappan Zee bridge? What about that route up the middle of PA?) and I think we’re going for “exactly how we got here.” The Tappan Zee is a friend of mine. We intend to set out in the mid morning, to miss the “we’ll stay for lunch” crowd.

This has been a restful vacation. I feel safe and comfortable here. I also feel safe and comfortable In Boston.

My life is good. Time to go find the cat, stuff her in a carrier, and listen to her protests for a few hours.

A successful holiday feast

I’m pleased to report that we have properly feted the solstice. The tree was decorated, the presents piled high. The songs were sung, candles lit, the foods prepared and eaten, the wrappings destroyed in a frenzy of ripping, shredding, and barking of small dogs. Then we ate again. After that, there was a cake and two pies. So much food! Finally, we all sat in the comfy chairs – sated – and played with various small trinkets we had received.

And now, into the “weekend of the year.” Time to put dots on the i’s and crosses on the T … so to speak. Time to finally clean the office, to shred the utility bills from the apartment, and so on.

To all a good – um – morning!

News from India

I’ve been meaning to comment on the news in India. I very much enjoy reading local papers when I travel. Here are four articles that I liked a lot, all from the 16th of December in the Times of India, Kolkata edition:

Baby saved from building ledge

Kolkata: He lay peacefully on the narrow sunshade above the third-floor window of an apartment in Dum Dum’s Mailakhana area, inches away from a fatal fall and blissfully unaware of the commotion he was creating

Residents and passers-by had their hearts in their mouth when they spotted the newborn, wrapped in a towel, lying on its precarious perch. Even as they panicked, a young police officer held his nerves, clambered up a neighbouring building, jumped onto the ledge and rescued the infant with the deftness of a trapeze artist.

Nikhil Ranjan Mitra, a sub-inspector (SI) of the Dum Dum police station was rewarded for his courageous effort. But the police could not explain how the baby came to be on the sunshade. The owners of the flat said they were unaware of the baby’s presence above their window. The police are investigating the incident.

It was around 11.30 am that neighbours first spotted the baby. Soon, people gathered under the building, trying to figure out if he was still alive. Some tried to climb up the building but failed. The police were called in but they were at a loss. The fire brigade was also informed.

It was then that Mitra swung into action. Climbing up the pipes of a neighbouring building with the skill of a seasoned athlete, the braveheart stepped onto the narrow perch and gingerly picked up the tiny bundle. The baby was alive.

Everyone, including Mitra’s colleagues, heaved a sigh of relief when he managed to climb down safely with the baby in his arms. He has been given a good service (GS) mark and a letter of appreciation by North 24-Parganas SP Rahul Srivastava. “He did a good job. So, I gave him a GS mark and sent him a letter of appreciation,” said the SP. The baby is healthy and has been taken to Sukanya, a home for destitute children in Salt Lake. The baby boy, his rescuer Nikhil Ranjan Mitra and the building where the child was precariously perched

Women give birth by candlelight

Malda: Two women allegedly gave birth to baby girls at a hospital in Malda in neardarkness on Monday night as doctors operated upon them using candles during a load shedding. The generator, it was learnt, was not working.

The load shedding at Malda District Hospital started around 8 pm and lasted for three hours. Nurses and doctors were left with no option but to use candles so that they could carry out their duties despite the risks.

Rashuda Biwi of Old Malda was taken to the labour room around 10 pm on Monday. Being an emergency, doctors decided that the nurses would hold candles to facilitate the operation. After Rashuda, Ranu Roy of Englishbazaar went under the scalpel in near-darkness. Fortunately, both operations went off without any glitch and the mothers gave birth to girls.

Hospital superintendentin-charge Dr Subrata Shome said he was not aware of the incident. “I’ll look into the matter,” was all that he said.

Sabhadipati of the Malda Zilla Parishad, Sabina Yasmin, who visited the hospital on Tuesday evening, said: “It is a crime. The hospital had been provided with a generator. I need to know how and why this could still occur.” A probe has been ordered into the incident.

CMOH Dr Srikanta Ray said: “There’s nothing unusual about a power failure. But there should be adequate alternative arrangements. It seems the generator was not working.”

Behead rage singes Assam health centre

Guwahati: Villagers of Jogdol went on the rampage on Tuesday after they found the heads of two children in a bamboo grove near a private research centre, Dhaniram Barua Heart City, at Sonapur. The children were among six of a tribal family hacked to death on Sunday.

Early Tuesday, villagers saw a dog carrying the chopped-off head of a child from a nearby thicket, close to the Heart City campus run by controversial “surgeon” Dhaniram Barua, who had shocked the world 12 years ago by transplanting the heart of a pig in human body.

Smelling foul play, tribals of the area stormed the research centre armed with sticks and sharp weapons. They pelted stones, broke windows and beat up employees before setting the private research on fire. The second head was retrieved from the grove around 3.30 pm. Police and villagers identified the two heads to be that of Atul (6) and Tukul (9).

Though locals alleged Barua was behind the killings, he denied the allegation. “I was in Bangalore,” he said.

Car Crash leaves her craving for sex

London: A car crash has left a woman sexually aroused 24 hours a day.

A nerve in Joleen Baughman’s pelvis that controls desire for sex got permanently switched on during the accident two years ago. Now even the slightest movement like sitting on a bus, bending over or walking across a room gets the 39-yearold mother turned on. “It’s unbearable. Just my clothes rubbing gets me so aroused that I can hardly think straight,’’ the Mirror quoted her as saying.
She added: “It’s very embarrassing and it’s impossible to concentrate.’’

Joleen who comes from New Mexico confessed that even sex with her husband does not completely please her. She said: “We’d have sex once and I’d feel no release at all. “So we’d go again and then it would start really hurting but I would still want sex, even more than before. “If my husband managed to go for a third time it would be agony but I would still feel no release.’’

“Being aroused pretty much 24-hours a day is exhausting.’’

“It’s so embarrassing. I have to try to keep my feelings under control and to ignore them so I can get on with normal life.’’ “But I often worry people can guess what I’m feeling even though they can’t.’’ However, she is learning to deal with her condition known as Restless Genital Syndrome or Persistent Sexual Arousal. She added: “If my urges get really strong I lie down very still so there is no vibration at all and that helps a little bit. “It’s mind over matter. But I’m hoping a medical cure can be found in the future.’’

Awake

Once again, I find myself awake at three in the morning. Of course, this time it’s my own dumb fault. I had just gotten back from the auto dealership – spending untold dollars to rid it of a squeal, a jiggle, and a leak. Bearings, ball joints, and a transmission case gasket – if you’re curious. I laid down for a “nap” at 6pm, intending to bounce up at 7 to go to judo. Riiiiight. Wound up giving up and getting *under* the covers around 9 … and now it’s 3am.

Well. 3:36am. Got the dishes done and made some tea. Now I think it’s time to shine up the holiday letter – and then perhaps do the pain in the butt work task that I truly wasn’t feeling up to yesterday.

Onward.

House

Anyone want the house where I lived until I was five?

It’s pretty awesome, and it’s for sale.

More self aggrandizement

Since some of you are interested in the work stuff I do, I’ve posted my slides from India in a more formal context, my work blog! Hooray!

Cluster user training
Cluster admin training

I’m blogging about blogging about training. I’m so meta.

Debugging poems

Debugging a mail server is one of those painful tasks that I have to do from time to time. One of the important bits is to have a unique test message for every test, so I can see if recent changes had an effect. Spam filters can also make it a real beast.

Therefore, among other reasons, I tend to write little poems for my test messages. Here’s a sampling:

applecluster:log admin$ mail me@mydomain.org
Subject: Testing
More test mail
And yet more test mail
Fills my heart with sadness.
.
EOT
applecluster:log admin$ mail me@mydomain.org
Subject: Another test
Birds fly swiftly up
To heaven where they find peace
While I sit and work
.
EOT
applecluster:log admin$ mail me@mydomain.org
Subject: Test poem
Without knowing how
My hands bring life to machines
And I get paid well
.
EOT
applecluster:log admin$ mail me@mydomain.org
Subject: Another poem
Cheese, lightly rests upon
Burning hot skillet and steams
Onions, cilantro
.
EOT
applecluster:log admin$ mail me@mydomain.org
Subject: A test poem
Tense voices from next door
Do not disturb the swimming
Of my mental koi
.
EOT

(more…)

Year End Wrap Ups

I do a bunch of these most years. This is the first sentence, phrase, or paragraph from the first post of each month in 2009. Makes for a good way to go through a year’s posts. No wonder I’m tired!

Previously:

* 2004
* 2005
* 2006
* 2007
* 2008

Jan: I’ve been disconnected from the net (by choice) for a couple of lovely days with family out in Virginia.

I return to see that Israel is actually invading and conquering Gaza.

Feb: Check these people out. Though, as the Buddhists say, you would be wise to “guard the gates of the senses” so as not to get any crazy on you. I do recommend clicking down into some of the stories if you have the time.

March: I notice that I haven’t been posting all that much lately. What can I say? February tends to emphasize to me that life is short … a short month full of short days … so I spent more time doing rather than documenting.

April: I spent my day waiting for a system crash.

May: Lightly edited for content and privacy, I present here a chat between and myself on the topic of her notional new charity. Also included is a discussion of whether “getting laid” must always have an integer coefficient – as opposed to the existence of both negative and imaginary lays.

While it was still funny this morning, please keep in mind that this was “beer up the nose” funny last night.

June: We bought a house. Our house rules. It has an awesome twisty curvy staircase and hardwood floors and a basement an an attic. It’s approximately three times the house we need and almost more house than we want. Today I mowed the lawn, like a good little domestic homeowner.

July: So I’m coming back from lunch yesterday, having dropped off the check for the shiny new gutters on the shiny new house. I reach the path from the street to my door and I see this bird clinging to the underside of said gutters. I had just enough time to think, “huh, he’s hanging upside down but he’s a little big for a nuthatch. Hey, is he a wood …”

B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BANG!

August: I find that I’m tired of my last epistle about Merlot being at the top of my blog … but I don’t have much else to say.

September: Gorgeous morning on the early train here. I boarded around 5:20 at the station perhaps 10 minutes from my apartment. At 9:15 I’ll get off the train in Newark, NJ and rent a car for the day. A quick drive down to New Brunswick working for Rutgers, and then back on the 6:30pm train to get home around 10:30pm.

October: Another milestone, I’m brewing the first pot of coffee in the new house.

November: Here’s a new one: I missed the last train to Boston from Philly last night

December: I really can’t say enough good things about the visa outsourcing companies that help travelers get to places like India and China.