Category: Geek stuff

If it involves physics, math, computer science, electronics or has general geek cachet, this is the place for it.

Black Code

Written by Ron Diebert, the director of the Citizen Lab at U of T, Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace contains some very interesting information, of importance to anyone concerned with the future of the internet and communication. He discusses the major discoveries made by the lab, including massive criminal malware enterprises, government surveillance and censorship, and the use of cyberweapons like Stuxnet.

The first few chapters may seem basic if you actively follow the news on IT security and surveillance, but the material in the later parts is undeniably novel and interesting. The book is a bit of a lament for the death of the idealistic open internet, and the emergence of control by governments, particularly after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

The stakes here are high: the internet is a critical tool for maintaining democracy in open societies, confronting autocratic regimes, and dealing with global threats. The network is now in real danger of being suffocated by governments fixated on terrorism or maintaining domestic control, or who see it as a promising avenue for attacking their enemies.

Diebert proposes a distributed model for both securing and protecting the internet, while repeatedly underlining how governments are now the major threat to online freedom and political participation. Governments have rebuilt the backbone of the internet in order to achieve their censorship and surveillance objectives. It’s not a problem with a technical solution, from the perspective of citizens, but rather one which requires ongoing political agitation.

Preliminary review: Shure SE-215 earbuds

After years of using Etymotic earbuds (first the ER-6is and then various telephone headset versions), I grew frustrated with how they always break when the cable frays at the point where it connects to the miniplug jack.

Because they have a $35 replaceable cable and sounded good in an in-store trial, I switched to the Shure SE-215s.

In terms of sound quality, I think they are very similar. Maybe a bit more bass, but the same high-fidelity rendition of all sorts of music, podcasts, and audiobooks. They are also similarly good at excluding external noise, and nearly inaudible to people beside you, even at high volumes.

The one significant downside is the weird design. The Etys definitely take getting used to, because of how deeply they sit in your ear canals. The part of the Shures that actually goes inside your ear is more comfortable, but the process of putting them in (which requires a weird half twist and putting the cable over the top of your ear) is still strange after a few weeks.

I also find that they stay in place less well than the Etys when I am walking around.

All told, I am happy with the Shures and will report on how long they last, whether I eventually get used to the insertion procedure, and anything else of note.

Related:

Attendance histogram

With a couple lost to the CUPE 3902 strike, I taught twelve sets of tutorials this year.

The histogram below shows how many students attended more than any particular number of tutorials:

Histogram of tutorial attendance, out of twelve

Any thoughts on the distribution? It looks approximately unimodal and symmetrical, with the largest number of students having attended six to nine of the twelve tutorials. Students were free to attend any tutorial they wished, but these numbers include students who missed their normal tutorial and attended an alternative one.

This histogram shows active participation in tutorials:

Histogram of tutorial participation, out of twelve

Students who contributed to the conversation either spontaneously or when prompted, or who demonstrated knowledge of the readings, were coded as ‘active’.

If I could change anything for next year, it would be to do more to shrink those first two categories in the participation chart.

STS-27/107

I fear that my list of project ideas, which I assemble out of an optimistic hope that the future will bring a long span of free time for such undertakings, includes an idea for a screenplay.

It would be a film in the style of Apollo 13 (technically and historically accurate, and developed with lots of research in collaboration with the people involved) based on the STS-27 and STS-107 Space Shuttle missions.

I have a bunch of ideas, but I definitely don’t have time to write such a script, given my work with Toronto350.org, photography, and being on strike as a TA at U of T.

Still, I think it could be a powerful story. Ultimately, it’s a sadder story than Apollo 13, which may limit its aesthetic and commercial appeal. Still, like any story about crewed spaceflight, this is a story of courage and dedication applied in the pursuit of scientific understanding. Twelve amazing people: 5 who lived and 7 who died.

I can provide a more detailed breakdown of the screenplay idea, if someone wants to try working on it a bit.

Cameras since 2010

It has been a while since I have updated my chronology of cameras at: All my cameras.

These days I use two overwhelmingly: my old 5D Mk II (with my excellent four-lens system), which is doing well despite several repairs, and my Fuji X100s. There are distinctive examples of both types of photography in my many Massey albums from this year.

The 5D is definitely a lot more capable in many ways. While it’s possible to use my radio triggers and flashes with the X100s, they generally make a better setup with the dSLR for more action- and flash-oriented photography.

Examples:

Softer, always-wide-angle style of the X100s:

Robbie Burns Night

Generally sharper, much more often in colour, much more often with flash work from the 5D:

Halloween at Massey 2014

Post-processing

I also shoot directly into B&W JPEG often on the 5D because the custom functions feature makes it so convenient. I usually have one of my Pocket Wizard Plus X transceivers in the hotshoe, which I can easily switch on and off to control the flashes (sometimes, a flash misfire works out pleasantly). Then, I can shoot in manual mode with my flashes on and a suitable ISO setting, and easily switch to my JPG custom mode to get the other set of shots.

Canon’s RAW processing software for Mac OS X (Digital Photo Professional) is worlds better than Fuji’s rather appalling Silkypix offering, which I shun in favour of processing the Fuji RAW files in LightRoom. LightRoom definitely has a distinctive interpretation of how Fuji’s RAW file should be processed which obviously differs from the JPEG-processing algorithm in the camera. I think both look fine, though they may each favour somewhat different kinds of photography.

With B&W JPEGs, I often try processing them into duotone in PhotoShop to give them a different look. For example:

High (and low) Table

Duotone doesn’t work out very well with photos that start out very dark.

For example: both of these shots work well with duotone, and both of these work better as unaltered B&W.

Both are fantastic cameras to work with. With just one extra battery for each, I can work for decently long periods, including in very cold temperatures. I have found both super-reliable and a pleasure to work with.

I am saving up for a 5D Mk III so I will have the dual-dSLRs (for quick lens-switching and backup) which I need to shoot weddings commercially.

Jacobs of the sharp pen

There is a wistful myth that if only we had enough money to spend – the figure is usually put at a hundred billion dollars – we could wipe out all our slums in ten years, reverse decay in the great, dull, gray belts that were yesterday’s and day-before-yesterday’s suburbs, anchor the wandering middle class and its wandering tax money, and perhaps even solve the traffic problem.

But look what we have built with the first several billions: Low-income projects that become worse centers of deliquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace. Middle-income housing projects which are truly marvels of dullness and regimentation, sealed against any buoyancy or vitality of city life. Luxury housing projects that mitigate their inanity, or try to, with a vapid vulgarity. Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums, who have fewer choices of loitering place than others. Commercial centers that are lacklustre imitations of standardized suburban chain-store shopping. Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. 1961. p. 4 (hardcover)

SSL glitches

I recently updated the SSL certificate used to provide encrypted access to this site via HTTPS. Chances are, nothing sensitive is passing between my server and your computer. Running the site this way by default does, however, increase the overall volume of encrypted traffic on the web, which may hamper some ubiquitous surveillance efforts.

In any case, if you see warnings from your browser about this site’s encryption, let me know. I am hoping they will clear on their own as various caches update.