AndrewStuckey.com

My new article is out on ITS Tactical:

“Today we’re surrounded by massive computational power and vast communication systems. When you visit your bank’s site, you don’t think about negotiating cryptographic keys and verifying digital signatures. When you talk on a cell phone, you don’t have to worry about COMSEC (supposedly).

Not too long ago, however, a “computer” was a young woman at a desk, and cryptographic links were short messages. In this article, I’ll show you proven, uncrackable encryption scheme that can be done with pencil and paper. If properly implemented, One Time Pad encryption can be used in virtually any medium, and is still used by our favorite black helicopter organizations to conduct missions abroad.”

“Death and Taxes” is a large representational graph and poster of the federal budget. It contains over 500 programs and departments and almost every program that receives over 200 million dollars annually. The data is straight from the president’s 2011 budget request and will be debated, amended, and approved by Congress to begin the fiscal year. All of the item circles are proportional in size to their funding levels for visual comparison and the percentage change from both 2010 and 2001 is included so you can spot trends.

When I was in elementary school, my father and brother helped me build my first computer; I had scavenged the parts from the obsolete equipment my school was throwing out.

I had only the vaguest idea of what we were doing, but I distinctly remember firing up a word processor and finding several letters written by former teachers of mine still on the hard-drive. Unfortunately, this kind of leak is not unique.

This week’s hosts are Andrew Stuckey, Andy Trevino and Niki Exterovich. This week we discuss Madison, WI governance issues that may be related to your home town. The first is the Alcohol Density Plan and how liquor licenses are inconsistently awarded; we review city publications and debate if limiting alcohol actually affects violent crime downtown. The second issue is the redevelopment of the luxury Edgewater Hotel on the Isthmus. The plan was notoriously bogged down in approval committees and now our mayor Dave Cieslewicz is using it as an example of how Madison has a perceived anti-business climate. Also at issue is the $16 million in “Tax Incremental Funding”. This week’s intro song is Johnny High Ground - Bad Girl and the outro song is Jonathan Coulton - Shop Vac.

The feds and state governments routinely fails to prevent firearms straw purchases, wiretap the mob, and can’t even stop Faisal Shahzad from getting on a plane to Somolia with a one-way ticket. Registering pre-paid phones is at best a cheap, ineffectual political hot-button or at worst another mechanism for mass surveillance like the NSA mass-wiretap at Folsom Street in San Francisco.

This week’s hosts are Andrew Stuckey, Ted Snyder, Andy Trevino and Niki Exterovich. This week we take on alcohol; first we discuss the drinking age and the culture around it. Then we discuss the legalization of home distilling and what legal framework (if any) should be put in place to control it. This week’s intro song is The Belvederes - Gamblin’ Blues and the outro song is Braces Tower - El Fuego. Run time is roughly 73 minutes.

I sympathize with their IT team, and forcing the CIO to personally approve new Windows machines is a good way to say “no”.