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Two good ideas that help people

Posted by Micah Sherr on Thu 13 of March, 2008 [21:37 EST]

Recently, I grew curious about the explosive effects of mixing Mentos with Diet Coke. Specifically, what would happen if you swallowed Mentos (without chewing them) and then immediately downed as much Diet Coke as you could stomach? Would a huge stream of Diet Coke spew rapidly from your mouth, reminiscent of the famous scene from the Exorcist? I have enough grey matter not to try this out myself, so naturally I turned to the Internet to find out if there was anyone out there who had the testicular fortitude to try this moronic stunt. (It turns out, many people have attempted this.)

What's my point? No, it's not that downing Mentos and Diet Coke helps people. But it turns out that there's a way to help people by using the Internet to search for answers to important questions such as the one posed above.

Goodsearch.com is a search engine, powered by Yahoo!, that donates $0.01 to the charity of your choice whenever you issue a query. (I Goodsearch for one of my favorite charities, UNICEF.) You can select any of 55,000 charities to receive a penny for each of your searches. The search results are decent (on par with Google's), and you can take comfort in knowing that every time you search for information about stupid bodily experiments, you're helping someone.

Related to Goodsearch.com is its sister service, GoodShop. GoodShop is a jumping point to many popular online retailers (e.g., Amazon, Dell, buy.com, hotels.com, iTunes, Expedia, etc.). If you go to GoodShop before buying something from one of its many partner vendors, some percentage of your purchase (anywhere from 1%-10%, depending on the outlet) is donated to your favorite charity. Again, this costs you nothing.

Ohio voting report released

Posted by Micah Sherr on Fri 14 of Dec, 2007 [21:37 EST]

The Ohio Secretary of State published our study of electronic voting systems early today. (Warning: the report is 11MB.) This is separate from the California Secretary of State's Top-To-Bottom Review of electronic voting machines (in which I also participated).

A statement by the Ohio study's team leaders is also available.

New Addition to the Family

Posted by Micah Sherr on Sun 30 of Sep, 2007 [11:51 EST]

Lisa and I are proud to announce the newest member of our family.

Meet Curious George (or Georgy for short). He's 50% beagle, 50% something else (dalmation?), and 100% nudist.

(Despite the photo evidence, we did not acquire Georgy from Crate and Barrel.)

More photos are posted in the gallery.

Mahwidge

Posted by Micah Sherr on Sun 2 of Sep, 2007 [18:00 EST]

Lisa and I were married on August 19th. We'll post tens of thousands of photos that no one else is interested in in the near future.

Here's a teaser:

Review of Electronic Voting Machines

Posted by Micah Sherr on Thu 2 of Aug, 2007 [15:45 EST]

In July, I participated in the California Secretary of State's Top To Bottom Review of electronic voting systems. The purpose of the review was to investigate the security, reliability, and accessibility properties of electronic voting systems. Both frontend (i.e., voter-facing) and backend (i.e., vote tabulation) systems were examined.

This review was especially novel in that it gave investigators unfettered access to the voting systems' source code. Existing studies of e-voting system security typically relied upon leaked source code or reverse-engineering (e.g., binary decompilation) techniques. In contrast, we had access to the source code used to build the exact voting systems that are certified for use in California elections.

In particular, I was a member of the team that reviewed the source code for Sequoia voting equipment.

Unfortunately, the results of our investigation were not encouraging. The executive summary of the Sequoia report reads, in part,

We found significant security weaknesses throughout the Sequoia system. The nature of these weaknesses raises serious questions as to whether the Sequoia software can be relied upon to protect the integrity of elections. Every software mechanism for transmitting election results and every software mechanism for updating software lacks reliable measures to detect or prevent tampering.

The public portion of the report is now available from the California SoS' web page.

Funny Vista video

Posted by Micah Sherr on Thu 15 of Feb, 2007 [13:17 EST]

Effective speech recognition is one of those technologies that computer scientists have been promising for decades. Unfortunately, very little progress has been made. Here's a very unfair but hillarious test of Vista's speech recognition. The narrator is attempting to code a Perl program using only his voice.

The video is available at YouTube.

My sole surviving goldfish

Posted by Micah Sherr on Tue 30 of Jan, 2007 [17:37 EST]

I updated my goldfish page for the first time in months. 10 died awhile back, some now I'm left with 11.

(If the above confuses you, that's because I've named my goldfish after a binary iterator.)

51 of 100 of world's largest economic entities are corporations

Posted by Micah Sherr on Sun 01 of Oct, 2006 [21:14 EST]

If true, this is rather nuts. According to some site on the Internet I've never heard of, 51% of the world's largest economic entities are corporations, not countries. Wow.

From the list, it also appears that General Motors, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler could get together and buy Canada and Singapore. That's a useful tidbit of info.

Turning trash into power

Posted by Micah Sherr on Sun 10 of Sep, 2006 [15:34 EST]

The Associate Press reports on a very innovative way to produce power, and one that seems to solve two problems at once. That said, I have no idea if this actually works. Hopefully the Florida Department of Waste Management knows what it's talking about.

FORT PIERCE, Florida -- A Florida county has grand plans to ditch its dump, generate electricity and help build roads -- all by vaporizing garbage at temperatures hotter than parts of the sun.

The $425 million facility expected to be built in St. Lucie County will use lightning-like plasma arcs to turn trash into gas and rock-like material. It will be the first such plant in the nation operating on such a massive scale and the largest in the world.

On a related note, everyone should see An Inconvenient Truth, starring my good friend, Al.

HOPE

Posted by Micah Sherr on Sat 08 of Jul, 2006 [10:19 PST]

We (Eric Cronin, Sandy Clark, Matt Blaze, and I) will be presenting our wiretapping vulnerabilities paper at this year's HOPE in New York City. The talk is scheduled for 9pm on Saturday, July 22nd.

Here's the abstract of our talk, Law Enforcement Wiretaps: Background and Vulnerabilities:

The politics of wiretapping is a hot topic (again) lately. But how do the police actually tap telephones anyway? How might tapping technology fail? Telephone wiretap and dialed number recording systems are used by law enforcement and national security agencies to collect critical investigative intelligence and legal evidence. This talk will examine the technology of (legal) wiretapping and show how many of these systems are vulnerable to simple, unilateral countermeasures that allow wiretap targets to prevent their call audio from being recorded and/or cause false or inaccurate dialed digits and call activity to be logged. An exploration of possible workarounds, as well as the broader implications of the security vulnerabilities in evidence collection systems.

Mahwidge

Posted by Micah Sherr on Tue 23 of May, 2006 [11:01 EST]

Lisa and I got engaged on Saturday, May 20th.

The NSA knows how often you order pizza

Posted by Micah Sherr on Thu 11 of May, 2006 [11:29 EST]

According to USA Today, the NSA has an uber-large database of phone calls made by pretty much all Americans.

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans -- most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

It appears Qwest is the lone holdout among the telephone service providers, refusing to sell out phone records to the NSA. I'd switch from Verizon (which sold their records to the NSA) to Qwest, only I'm required to have Verizon for my apartment buzzer to work (thank you Michael Singer Real Estate).

From now on, I'll be doing all of my dialing using confusion and evasion.

Intel Inside

Posted by Micah Sherr on Sun 30 of Apr, 2006 [16:03 EST]

I'll be interning at Intel Research this summer in Santa Clara, California.

I'll also be living in Mountain View, which apparently is served by the Google Wifi Project. Does anyone know if this is a good, reliable service?

Movie made entirely of symbol signs

Posted by Micah Sherr on Mon 17 of Apr, 2006 [11:11 EST]

Here's a short movie about a guy who gets on an airplane to fly back home. It's done using only symbol signs.

AT&T and NSA collude to become the new Big Brother

Posted by Micah Sherr on Fri 07 of Apr, 2006 [11:35 EST]

This ain't good. The EFF is reporting that AT&T has given the NSA unfettered access to its customer's Internet browsing habits.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T on January 31, 2006, accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications.

The lawsuit also alleges that AT&T continues to assist the government in its secret surveillance of millions of Americans. EFF, on behalf of a nationwide class of AT&T customers, is suing to stop this illegal conduct and hold AT&T responsible for its illegal collaboration in the government's domestic spying program, which has violated the law and damaged the fundamental freedoms of the American public.

I'm just glad that I use Comcast as my ISP. I'm sure a cable company that charges $100 a month for cable access would never do anything as morally objectionable as the actions taken by AT&T.

China puts tax on chopsticks

Posted by Micah Sherr on Wed 22 of Mar, 2006 [13:19 EST]

According to the New York Times, China is placing a tax on chopsticks. This may not be a bad idea, since wooden chopsticks consumes 70.6 million cubic feet of forest per year.

The finance ministry is imposing a 5 percent tax on disposable wooden chopsticks and wood floor planks, citing a need to conserve timber. Environmentalists around the world have been warning that China's voracious demand for wood was contributing to the clear-cutting of many forests, especially in Southeast Asia.

The production of disposable wooden chopsticks consumes 2 million cubic meters (70.6 million cubic feet) of timber each year, the ministry said. Plastic chopsticks, which can be washed and were reused, will not be subject to the new tax.

Stay tuned for info on Israel's lox taxation.

Fish butcher

Posted by Micah Sherr on Sat 25 of Feb, 2006 [16:40 EST]

Unfortunately, I am a goldfish butcher. More information on the fish page.

Cell phone records for sale

Posted by Micah Sherr on Fri 06 of Jan, 2006 [13:23 EST]

The Chicago Sun-Times has an interesting article describing how cell phone records can be bought for around $100. The phone records are apparently sold illegally by insiders at the service providers (i.e., cell phone companies) to unscrupulous websites such as locatecell.com.

I propose making the mobile phone companies accountable. It is their employees who are selling the records. The phone companies should be adequately able to protect the privacy of its customers. Suppose Joe Consumer was compensated $1 by his service provider for every one of his calls that was reported through a website like locatecell.com. This could potentially cost phone companies millions. The end result: phone logs would be much better secured. Alternative result: phone logs would not be better secured, instead phone rates would be substantially higher. Even in the latter case, however, companies that provide better security would not have to pass this reimbursement cost to the consumer and could therefore lower their rates, attracting more customers to the more secure service provider. Just my $0.02.

Wiretapping Vulnerabilities

Posted by Micah Sherr on Sun 18 of Dec, 2005 [17:45 EST]

If you are looking for information regarding our paper on vulnerabilities in telephone wiretap systems, more information can be found on crypto.com and the IEEE Journal of Security and Privacy. Also, I can be contacted at the email address listed on my homepage.

Best diet... ever.

Posted by Micah Sherr on Wed 14 of Sep, 2005 [20:45 UTC]

Cookie lovers rejoice. I came across this today: http://www.nbc10.com/health/4970080/detail.html?rss=phi&psp=news

Fall Semester Begins

Posted by Micah Sherr on Thu 08 of Sep, 2005 [02:04 UTC]

This semester I will be co-instructing CSE381, the lab component of CSE380 - Computer Operating Systems. Should be fun.

Goldfish... RIP

Posted by Micah Sherr on Sun 31 of Jul, 2005 [02:26 UTC]

Lisa and I bought three goldfish two weeks ago. All three died this morning. (we sold the remains to a Japanese fish reseller)

In lieu of flowers, please send money to us.

Moved west

Posted by Micah Sherr on Thu 16 of Jun, 2005 [04:18 UTC]

Recently (as in last week), Lisa and I moved out west. And by west, I mean three blocks west. For those that care to stalk us, we're now located near Fitler Square in Center City, Philadelphia.

Politics and Science in the Bush Administration

Posted by Micah Sherr on Fri 13 of May, 2005 [03:00 UTC]

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform (Minority Staff Special Investigations Devision) published a very interesting report entitled "Politics and Science in the Bush Administration". This is a particularly interesting read, particularly for those working in the sciences. Here are some excerps:

"The Administration's political interference with science has led to misleading statements by the President, inaccurate responses to Congress, altered web sites, suppressed agency reports, erroneous international communications, and the gagging of scientists. The subjects involved span a broad range, but they share a common attribute: the beneficiaries of the scientific distortions are important supporters of the President, including social conservatives and powerful industry groups.

The report identifies over twenty scientific issues affected by the undermining of science, including:

Other affected topics include HIV/AIDS, agricultural pollution, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, environmental health, lead poisoning, oil and gas exploration, prescription drug advertising, stem cells, substance abuse, drinking water, women's health, workplace safety, and Yellowstone National Park. Across this wide range of issues, the report identifies the three principal ways in which the Bush Administration has pursued its agenda: by manipulating scientific advisory committees, by distorting and suppressing scientific information, and by interfering with scientific research and analysis."

Brawnyman Innocent Escapes

Posted by Micah Sherr on Tue 05 of Apr, 2005 [20:24 UTC]

This is really hysterical! What a great marketing campaign.