May
31
2007
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Thursday, 31 May 2007 |
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There is always something magical about South-American writers. They seem not to have forgotten how to write a novel - that it takes a story, then some chuzpa telling it, and a pinch of mystique in the presentation. All those things together make a compelling world in which you can get lost no matter where your physical self is.
The young Marquez had the gift, as the gigantic Isabel Allende. When you read their stories, they sound a lot alike: full of characters that are always described with humor in the mind; redolent with thoughtful and thoroughly researched descriptions of worlds the author does not know; filled with tension that finds its release on time, and slowdowns that never last too long.
Not many authors can do that well. Tolkien comes to mind, who could be the honorary patron of these Spanish writers. Capote would be the closest I can associate here in the States. Maybe Michener on a good day.
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Apr
17
2007
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Tuesday, 17 April 2007 |
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 My friends Stephen and James decided they would go to the AIDS
LifeCycle ride this year again, and are getting all their friends
to help out, or join. After a little bit of prodding, and after a
very positive weather forecast, I finally agreed to join them for
their Sunday training ride.
I thought it was just going to be a bunch of guys from spinning
class, but it turned out to be a major training ride for the whole
San Francisco contingent of ALC. So, while I was puzzled as to why
we would want to meet at 6:45 for a ride that wouldn't start until
7:30, it all made sense once I saw the about 200 riders
congregate.
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Mar
27
2007
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Tuesday, 27 March 2007 |
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I decided I need to do something useful with my spare time, and instead of continuing with useless trial projects, I will create a component that is of general use: a note taking tool that allows for strong encryption, defines password areas, and uses its own authentication schem. It is meant to store user account information in a secure fashion.
Given the amount of security coding I do, I have a clear idea of what I want: the component will store per-user specific notes whose first line becomes the title of the note. The content will be split in two categories: sensitive and highly sensitive. Sensitive content will not be encrypted in the database (but fully protected by the component). Highly sensitive content (essentially, passwords) will be encrypted using a specific passphrase.
Users can search for a note, get the content, then enter the passphrase if they want to see the actual passwords.
In addition to the note text, the system will keep metadata such as note creation and note modification, as well as note last access time.
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