Tim Hardy

Phil Zimmermann, the creator of Pretty Good Privacy, is about to launch a program for encrypting VOIP.

“The PSTN [Public Switched Telephone Network] is like a well-manicured neighborhood, (while) the internet is like a crime-ridden slum,” Zimmermann said. “To move all of our phone calls from the PSTN to the internet seems foolish without protecting it.”

Privacy Guru Locks Down VOIP

Zimmerman was criticised in the wake of the events of September 11 for providing a tool that might be used by terrorists. He believes that this is a possibility but that, overall, the benefits of providing cryptography to everyone outweigh the cost that some may use it for evil purposes. On balance, I think he is right - although living in a city with suicide bombers at large makes me hesitate before coming to that conclusion.

I’m teaching myself C++ with Koenig and Moo’s “Accelerated C++” at the moment.

I haven’t found a book such slow going since struggling through Kant’s “Introduction to the Metaphysics of Morals” as an undergraduate. I should perhaps have chosen a gentler introduction to programming but, from what I have read elsewhere, this is regarded as the best book on the language and I’d rather learn slowly from the best than race through easier texts, picking up bad habits that will later need to be unlearned.

Exercise 5-2 asks you to compare the performance of two student-grading programs, one using vectors, the other lists, against records of different lengths.

I’ve generated some data files to represent student records and am sharing them here in case anyone else wants to use them. They are plain text files. Each line gives a name followed by a list of 10 numbers between 30 and 90 that represent the student’s grades. (NB assuming a pass mark of 60, about half the students fail their course using this data set).

There are four files listing 10, 100, 1000 and 10000 sets of names and results. Download the tarball (linux/unix) containing all four and unpack it with tar -xvzf students.tgz. I’ve also created a zip file for Windows users. Mac users I believe should be able to handle either version. Please let me know if it doesn’t work.

Feel free to use them and save yourself the hassle of generating your own.

(UPDATED: 22 July)

You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.

You get ideas when you ask yourself simple questions. The most important of the questions is just, What if…?

(What if you woke up with wings? What if your sister turned into a mouse? What if you all found out that your teacher was planning to eat one of you at the end of term - but you didn’t know who?)

Neil Gaiman on inspiration

This test only has one question, but it’s a very important one. By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally. The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous. Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line…

You are in Florida, Miami to be specific. There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding. This is a flood of biblical proportions. You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper, and you’re caught in the middle of this epic disaster, The situation is nearly hopeless. You’re trying to shoot career-making photos. There are houses and people swirling around you, some disappearing under the water. Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury. Suddenly you see a man floundering in the water. He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the debris. You move closer . . . somehow the man looks familiar. You suddenly realize who it is. It’s George W. Bush! At the same time you notice that the raging waters are about to take him under…forever. You have two options–you can save the life of G.W. Bush or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the world’s most powerful men. So here’s the question, and please give an honest answer: Would you select high contrast color film, or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?

Calculate Your Ethical Quotient from venture capitalist David Cowan’s weblog.