Firesheep, SPDY, and you

For the past year, the SPDY team has been advocating that SPDY only work over SSL.  Many pundits have asked why, citing that this is not in the best interest of performance.  Of course, that is true – security is not free.  But what if we can make it almost free? 

SPDY aims to give you the full security and privacy of SSL without the latency of SSL.  When you combine the improvements inherent in SPDY with an improved SSL, we believe we have a new protocol which is both significantly faster than HTTP, and yet also fully encrypted, private, and secure.  Sure, we could make SPDY without SSL.  But that would be unsecure.  And is there any good argument for a protocol of the future that doesn’t embed security natively?

So, if you weren’t convinced before, you should be convinced today.  This weekend, Firesheep was unleashed.  It’s an extension for Firefox which leverages HTTP’s lack of security to allow any user to take over most of your social networking accounts – Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Of course, Firesheep isn’t doing anything that couldn’t be done yesterday – it’s just making it available to anyone.

As we move forward, all data communication needs to be secured and private.  It’s the only way.

Mike’s Voting Guide to the Propositions Nov ‘10

First, some guiding principles:

  1. Consider who is backing each bill and how much they’re spending to back it.  The more they are spending, the more valuable it is to them.  Ask yourself why.
  2. Remember that every law has overhead – a new commission, a new study, a new enforcement, etc.  Even if the burden is placed on existing agencies (like our police officers or our firefighters or our court systems), each law usually costs money.  Unions (teachers, firefighters, police) usually support more work, because they get bigger.
  3. Be skeptical.
  4. If everything looks equal, vote no.

Second, some resources:

  1. BallotPedia.  I have found this site to be pretty comprehensive, well organized, and fair.
  2. OpenSecrets.  OpenSecret tracks political contributions and lobbying.  Their coverage is mostly at the federal level, however.

Finally, the votes!

yes Prop 19:  Legalize Marijuana.  As with alcohol, legalize it and deal with the consequences.  I won’t touch the stuff.

yesProp 20: Redistricting of Congressional Districts via committee.  Committees are just as corrupt as congress.  A computer should draw the lines, but this is better than today.

no Prop 21: Tax to fund state parks.  The park system is plagued with administrative overhead.  Supporters should donate to the parks rather than to this bill.

no Prop 22: Prohibit State Spending against Local Funds.  Our governors need to be able to legislate holistically.  This creates unnecessary boundaries.

yes Prop 23: Suspend the “Global Warning Act” until unemployment drops below 5.5%.  I don’t like California at an economic disadvantage in the global market.

no Prop 24: Increase business taxes in California.  Check out the Teacher’s Union support on this bill.  This is just a tax to prolong big government.

no Prop 25: State budget via simple majority.  The teacher’s union working to expand big-government.  I don’t want the budget controlled by the ruling party.  This is downright scary.

yes Prop 26: Make “fees” require 2/3 vote since they are taxes.  The state doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.  Act now, or “fees” will cripple California.

no Prop 27: Abolish committee for State Legislature redistricting.  It’s either Prop 20 or Prop 27.  Prop 20 is better.

Introducing Eco-Water

dietwater As many of you know, several years ago I came up with the concept of Diet Water.  Given the worldwide thirst for bottled water, Diet Water simply recognized the fact that diet-anything is better than non-diet, especially when the flavor can be maintained.  After months of lab research using state-of-the-art technology, Diet Water was born.  The Diet Water vision was fully realized when popular beverage maker Sapporo started distributing the Diet Water concept which so many people take for granted today.

But that was nearly 10 years ago.   So it is with great pride that today I introduce a new brand of water designed to address the concerns of modern times:  Eco-Water.  Lets face it – we live in a dirty world.  We contaminate our skies, our forests, our rivers, and our oceans.  Unlike other bottled waters, Eco-Water is completely earth friendly and totally “green”.   It is 100% bio-degradable and non-toxic.  Why buy those other waters when you can be saving the world with a refreshing glass of Eco-Water today?

Still in testing, but coming soon:  Diet Eco-Water.