wireless card

Just so I don't forget, here are the specs on my wireless card:

Buffalo wli-cb-g54hp
Driver : bcm43xx
Chipset : Broadcom BCM43xx

R.I.P. Pimp C

Chad Butler (December 29, 1973 – December 4, 2007)

How RSA tokens work

First post in a series (hopefully) related to general computer security.

When I first started my current many years ago I was issued of these keyfob thingies which displayed a 6 digit number that changed every minute. I just blindly accepted that it did some complex random number generation that allowed me to log in to systems securely.

Here's how it works (paraphrased from this).

The token is a completely standalone unit. It does not have any sort of connection to any other electronic device.

Each token contains a clock chip and a unique seed number, which I assume is displayed on the back of the token.

Every minute, the combination of the current time and the unique seed number as input of the algorithm and produces the six digit number you see on the token (I have no information on the algorithm itself).

The server performing the authentication (known as an ACE Server) knows your unique seed number, the algorithm being used, and the time. With this information, it performs the same function on the server. It receives your code and compares it to the code it computes. If the codes match you are authenticated.

Edit:
I found a more detailed breakdown after the original post is here:

All versions of the SecurID use RSA's patented
technology to synchronize the use of Current Time in a SecurID token and
its remote authentication server, what RSA calls the
ACE/Server. (Typically, as you know, the link between the token-holder and
the ACE/Server is through an intermediary -- an ACE/Agent or RADIUS agent
-- which intercepts an authentication call and relays it to the ACE/Server
for processing.)

The classic SecurID, for 15 years, used a proprietary algorithm to
hash a token-specific 64-bit seed and Current Time. The new SecurID --
introduced at the beginning of 2003 -- uses the AES block cipher, in
standard ECB mode, to hash:

- a 128-bit token-specific true-random seed,
- a 64-bit standard ISO representation of Current Time
(yr/mo/day/hour/min/second),
- a 32-bit token-specific salt (the serial number of the token), and
- another 32 bits of padding, which can be adapted for new functions or
additional defensive layers in the future.

Conflated and hashed by the AES, these inputs generate the series
of 6-8 digit (or alphanumeric) token-codes that are continuous displayed on
the SecurID's LCD, rolling over every 60 seconds. (The standard mode of
use, as you know, requires two-factor authentication: the token-holder is
required to provide both a SecurID token-code and a user-memorized PIN to
the remote ACE/Server.)

ECB mode in AES is executed on 128-bit blocks, of course, so it is
obvious that RSA had to pad the standard 64-bit expression of Current Time
with another 64 bits. Using a token-specific salt blocks any attempt to
pre-calculate a library of possible token-codes for all 128-bit seeds. That
means that any brute-force attack on the AES SecurIDs would have be focused
on a particular token.

Gold Digger Pwned

I know everyone has probably linked to this craislist listing and there's a good reason for it... It rules.

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I'm tired of beating around the bush. I'm a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy. I'm not from New York. I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won't get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she's not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?

Here are my questions specifically:
- Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars, restaurants, gyms
-What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won't hurt my feelings
-Is there an age range I should be targeting (I'm 25)?
- Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east side so plain? I've seen really 'plain jane' boring types who have nothing to offer married to incredibly wealthy guys. I've seen drop dead gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village. What's the story
there?
- Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows - lawyer, investment banker, doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they hang out? Where do the hedge fund guys hang out?
- How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE ONLY
Please hold your insults - I'm putting myself out there in an honest way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I'm being up front about it. I wouldn't be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn't able to match them - in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a
nice home and hearth.

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 432279810

THE ANSWER
Dear Pers-431649184:

I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament.

Firstly, I'm not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here's how I see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here's why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here's the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity...in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold...hence the rub...marriage. It doesn't make good business sense to "buy you" (which is what you're asking) so I'd rather lease. In case you think I'm being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It's as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as "articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful" as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K hasn't found you, if not only for a tryout. By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn't need to have this difficult conversation.

With all that said, I must say you're going about it the right way. Classic "pump and dump."

I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.

NFS - Topic #1

Topic #1

1) On the server, the port mapper starts (usually by the server upon boot).
2) On the server, the mountd (sometimes known as rpc.mountd) starts and open one ephemeral TCP port and one UDP port. It registers these newly opened ports to the port mapper.
3) On the client, the mount command issues an RPC call to the port mapper on the server to obtain the port number for the mountd daemon.
4) The server replies back with the port number.
5) On the client, the mount command issues an RPC call to the mount daemon to mount a filesystem on the server. This is where validation happens.
6) On the server, the mount daemon replies with the file handle for the given filesystem.
7) On the client, the mount command issues the mount system call to associate the file handle to the mount point on the client.

- The NFS server privides 15 procedures in the form of procedure calls.

- TCP or UDP capability

One Skill A Day

I'm going to try something new to beef up my arsenal of skills before I start looking for a new job. Each day I'm going to learn one new tech skill. The topics will not follow any particular pattern or will not stick to one technical area. Rather, I'll probably jump around between disparate topics. That'll prevent me from getting bored.

In this blog I will type out a brief synopsis of what I learned in addition to key concepts. Some topics will obviously take more than one day to even learn the basics.

If I miss a day I'll will learn two things the next day.

Here are a few topics I want to brush up on:

1) NFS
2) XEN
3) VxFS
4) Performance Tuning
5) IP Subnetting
6) DB queries
7) Basic Oracle Admin
8) netstat usage

the brand, the image, the logo

Go Bag Revisited

I've been obsessively adding and removing stuff. Here's what I still need:

1) A new bag (looking at Ogio, The Northface, Supreme)
2) Ibuprofen
3) Multifunctional space pen
4) Bandaids (2) and small tube of antibiotic ointment
5) Ziploc containing spare change
6) Vitamins
7) Caffeine Mints
8) Pictures
9) Laptop Lock
10) Keycatcher
11)

Remember This (Re: Kids)

Do you ever notice when you're genuinely happy and you smile at your son he almost always smiles back with the same genuine fervor?

Do you notice when your attitude is very positive your daughter always responds back with the same positivity despite being in the midst of a tantrum?

It never fails.

It's like these kids (pre-3 yr old as far as I know) possess an innate bullshit detector that we all lose as we get older. Actually we don't lose it but it transforms into different type of BS detector --one that detects layers and layers of bullshit, I guess.

What does that tell you?

If you desire a specific positive behavior from a child (good temperment, good grades, etc) you must be true to them. And that means you can't pretend you've been doing positive things when you've really been out there with your homies snorting coke or screwing whores. A consistency between what you've actually been doing and what you want to present yourself as been doing needs to exist and needs to be legit.

Kids can see through your charlatan ass.

Keep it real, always.

Lead by example.

Job Opening at Ning

Lately, I've been hyping up Marc Andreessen's new company, Ning, to many of my tech savvy friends. My argument is that everyone of his creations have changed the world (the first web browser) or at least changed (or will change) the IT world (Opsware).

They all think I'm talking out of my ass. So here it is for the record:

Ning (or whatever it evolves into) is my prediction for the next big thing.

And here is an open req they have open that fits my skillset (although I haven't done Sysadmin work in years).

Here it is in its entirety in case they take it down one day:

Unix/Linux System Administrator Profile

* You love the operations of online services and Internet start-ups. You love the thrill of a 24/7 infrastructure that’s always changing.

* You have experience with online services run at scale or would like to.

* You don't mind being on-call. It sort of reminds you of college.

* You've stayed at a few companies for enough time to see an infrastructure evolve over time. You've also had alot of different projects within that environment.

* You are an expert in Solaris and Linux systems. You have experience with DTrace, Zones and Xen.

* You’ve spent a lot of time with storage management, such as SAN and NFS. If you’ve spent time with iSCSI that’s also a plus. ZFS experience? Another big plus.

* You know your way around database and network administration. You consider your time with Oracle, Cisco and Force10 time well spent.

* You love a solid night of system performance tuning, troubleshooting and problem solving.

* You started in operations because you were curious about how you manage a data center with thousands of servers. You’re constantly looking for the most efficient ways to do so. Some might call it lazy. We call it smart.

* Google isn’t your main source of information. You love spending a lot of time online and staying up-to-date on new things in infrastructure via a variety of favorite blogs.

* You are equally comfortable building everything yourself as you are with buying shrink wrapped software. You aren’t religious about either path, but instead look for the right tool for the job.

* You are independent, but not so independent that you don't enjoy working on a great team.

* You graduated from a university, ideally with a technical degree. If you didn’t graduate from a university with a technical degree, your hands on experience will blow our minds and we’ll forget about school.

* You choose simplicity, iteration and continuous improvement over ivory tower, complex architecture projects.

* Before you send in your resume, you create a social network on Ning. In doing so, you want to know how the heck we’re going to scale to millions of social networks. And the thought of which is already getting you pretty jazzed.

Go Bag

Probably influenced by this Lifehacker article, I've been thinking about building the Ultimate Go Bag. It would comfort me knowing I could jump out of bed grab this said bag and diffuse a bomb then pwn some NSA servers at any given time. Here's what I would need. This list will be updated frequently.

1) Quad-function space pen
2) Victorinox Cybertool 41
3) Toothbrush
4) Toothpaste
5) Moleskine
6) Notebook computer
7) USB thumb drive
8) Flask
9) Cliff Bar
10) Ibuprofen
11) Carabiner
12) Keys
13) Wallet
14) Mobile Phone
15) Blackberry
16) Knife
17) tiny first aid kit (antibiotic ointment, bandaid)
18) Kleenex
19) Gum
20) Laptop lock
21) Claritin
22) Ipod
23) earphones
24) maglite mini flashlite
25) cough drops
26) mints
27) hipster PDA
28) lip balm
29) camera with usb cable
30) business cards
31) pictures
32) sharpie markers
33) highlighter
34) vitamins
35) pencil with eraser
36) dental floss
37) spare change in a altoids can
38) All purpose boot CD *
39) Extra phone and blackberry batteries
40) bluetooth headset
41) ethernet cable *
42) sunglasses
43) stamps
44) universal charger
45) extra contacts
46) Verizon PC5740 Wireless adapter card
47) Tiny post-it notes
48) Notebook AC adapter
49) Caffeine mints
50) Lighter
51) Cigs
52) Ogio or Northface bag (light one with more pockets)


Ninja Jump Kit

1) Blank CDs/DVDs
2) OTS cable
3) Tiny Network Hub
4) Crossover ethernet adapter
5) Keycatcher
6) Western Digital passport USB hard drive (2)
7) Ethernet Loopback Adapter
8) Ethernet LinkCheck
9) Flexible Shaft Ratcheting Screwdriver
10) Workstation Repair Kit
11) Analog notebook
12) digital voice recorder
13) soldering iron
14) USB Floppy Drive
15) Torx Screwdrivers
16) Universal wire stripper/crimping tool
17) IDE/SATA to USB Converter
18) Yaesu handheld

Inspiring Post on Success

from DrFrylock a post on the RMMB

Heed these words my man...

Succeeding, in my experience, takes a number of factors, all playing into one another.

Willingness to fail: The difference between a successful person and an adequate person is, ironically, that the successful person has fucked up about a hundred times more. You have to be willing to fail a hundred times before you succeed. I think most people think that "tenacity" and "perseverance" are synonyms for "doing something for a long time." They are not. They mean fucking up until you succeed. The problem is that a lot of neophytes see experienced people, who don't fuck up very often and show remarkable insight and assume they were always that way. Of course they weren't. They had hundreds of fuckups too, although probably many years ago. In my case, I was lucky and got to do eight years of fucking up before I even got to college. Now, I don't fuck up very often. When I do, it's more minor, and I'm very good at covering it up until I fix it. If I want I can usually look pretty infallible. When it's advantageous to do so, of course.

Self-esteem: This country has a serious self-esteem problem, especially in women. There has been a slow but substantial change in attitudes about self-esteem. We have all heard about the trend in little league sports to not keep score, not to identify winners and losers. There is a hypothesis hanging in the air that self-esteem can be built through simply trying at something. Then, we can avoid all those messy failures, and the bad feelings that go along with them. We can instead focus on encouragement, and everybody likes effort and encouragement, right? The problem is, the hypothesis is wrong. Effort and encouragement are not enough to cultivate self-esteem. Self-esteem is built through overcoming real challenges and failures. It comes from success in spite of real adversity. Societally, we moved from being a nation of asshole fathers that simply humiliated our kids into overcoming adversity "for their own good" to a nation of nurturing mothers where nobody ever has to feel bad and everyone is special in their own way. We need something in the middle, but we haven't found it yet.

Willingness to sacrifice: You can't have it all. You can't be a partner at a top 50 law firm and have copious free time. You can't be a straight-A student and party every night. You can't kick it with your friends and gain work experience at the same time. Sometimes, you have to go all out to pursue a dream, and that means letting other things go by the wayside. I graduated college with something like a 3.97 GPA. I held a part-time job all four years. To do that, I consciously chose to give up the social aspects of the college experience. I did not have the time nor (more importantly) the energy to do it all. I have no great "man one time this party got SO out of hand" stories. I have no "dude this chick from my anthro class and I hooked up and we didn't leave the dorm room ALL weekend" stories. None. Nothing even remotely like that. Oh, I'm not socially retarded. I don't drool and my T-shirts are remarkably free of Cheeto stains; there's a point at which too much sacrifice retards success. But there's a lot of leeway in between. However, as you get older and you pursue greater degrees of success, you must be honest with yourself about sacrifices. It is very, very hard to be a world-class success in something and have a great family life. If you look back at the history of most professions, I bet you'd find a strong correlation between extreme success and divorce rates.

Willingness to learn: Collectively, we still haven't figured out quite how to handle higher education. The European system, in which students are assessed and then forever consigned to their fate in the factory, a vocational school, or a real university, isn't quite right. There's a class-ist, demeaning aspect to it. It's worse in places like India. The American system isn't quite right either. Here, thanks to a combination of community colleges, an overabundance of four-year colleges and universities, liberal arts majors, and living at home for seven years, even Forrest Gump could manage a Bachelors degree. It's certainly more egalitarian, but at what point is education diluted beyond recognition? How many Forrest Gumps with degrees does it take before everyone else's is devalued? This dilution is the grappling hook with which the vocal anti-intellectuals in America hold on to their argument that formal education is overrated. (Our postgraduate systems, on the other hand, are excellent, but those affect a much smaller number of people).

The relationship of education and learning to success is simple: to be truly successful at any established activity, craft, or profession, there is a corpus of knowledge that you must not only be exposed to, but study and internalize. A formal education at a good university will expose you to that corpus of knowledge and attempt to compel you to study it. Internalizing it is a separate issue, and that cannot be compelled. This is why so many industrial practitioners are constantly complaining that students fresh out of college "still don't know anything" and have to be trained extensively on the job. This is because in many professions, you have to practice with the corpus of knowledge to internalize it. As any anti-intellectualist will tell you, you don't need a university to learn. However, what they don't generally understand is that whether a university is involved or not, you have to study and internalize the same things. Making a go of it on your own is rewarding but awfully hard, and you have a much better chance of missing something important.

In any case, you will likely find that (with the exception, perhaps, of prodigies) that the most successful people in any activities are sponges. They study, understand, and internalize all the information that flows past them, and they seek out more. They develop expertise in related areas that aren't necessarily their focus. This enables them to make connections between things that aren't obvious to the less studious, and often appear as "left field" insights when in reality they are simply natural consequences of a breadth of knowledge.

Willingness to push limits: Being successful is about having a keen understanding of one's own limitations and also pushing beyond them. This is uncomfortable, often stressful, and sometimes (but not always) risky. Risk is an element of any success, but there are good risks and bad ones. When presented with any new endeavor, ask yourself: "is this primarily an opportunity or primarily a risk?" If it's an opportunity, you will generally do well to take it. If it is primarily a risk, greater care must be exercised. There is no greater self-esteem boost, no straighter path to success than to attempt something that you don't know you can do and then accomplish it. Do this often enough, and with a little luck you will eventually have the chance to do something that might even be impossible. Accomplish that and you get a small taste of transcendence.

Willingness to collaborate: "It's not what you know, it's who you know." This phrase, occasionally preceded generously by "Sometimes," is one of my least favorite sentences in the English language. It has a core of truth surrounded by a worm-infested husk of anti-intellectualism. If this were really true, the only criteria for success in life would be membership in a fraternity. As I pointed out above, ignoring what you know is fatal to real success. If you are smart and inquisitive and a little ambitious, you will have the opportunity to interact with other successful people that can be facilitators and role models in your life. It's a virtual certainty. The question for you is: will you cultivate these relationships or not? Being a team player and learning from others (while they also learn from you) is a critical catalyst to success. You will see indirect but substantial gains in your life if you are respectful of the people who know more than you, and generous with those who know less than you. Becoming very successful does not mean you have to be a diva, and 'diva' is (or should be) an entirely derogatory term.

Setting realistic, incremental, and motivating goals: If you don't decide what you want to happen in your life, nothing probably will. Nobody ever got successful sitting on their ass playing Xbox and waiting for something to happen. It won't. You are not the Chosen One and there is no Ancient Prophecy written about you. On the other extreme, having your only goal be to be 1) President 2) a major-league sports star 3) a rock star or 4) famous in any way is even stupider. Those aren't goals, those aren't ambitions, those are crack-pipe dreams. If you want to have one of those in the back of your head, fine. Here's something a little bit more localized: look at the people around you who are one step closer to your eventual goal than you are. These are people with whom you should be able to associate directly. Figure out how to achieve that level of success, and then go from there. Life is a ladder, not a teleportation device. Very few successful people skip intermediate steps, no matter how lucky they are or how many people they associate with.

My Learning Style

(From this site)

The results of sun tzu's learning inventory are:

Visual/Nonverbal 30 Visual/Verbal 36 Auditory 11 Kinesthetic 19

Your primary learning style is:

The Visual/ Verbal Learning Style


You learn best when information is presented visually and in a written language format. In a classroom setting, you benefit from instructors who use the blackboard (or overhead projector) to list the essential points of a lecture, or who provide you with an outline to follow along with during lecture. You benefit from information obtained from textbooks and class notes. You tend to like to study by yourself in a quiet room. You often see information "in your mind's eye" when you are trying to remember something.

Learning Strategies for the Visual/ Verbal Learner:

To aid recall, make use of "color coding" when studying new information in your textbook or notes. Using highlighter pens, highlight different kinds of information in contrasting colors.

Write out sentences and phrases that summarize key information obtained from your textbook and lecture.

Make flashcards of vocabulary words and concepts that need to be memorized. Use highlighter pens to emphasize key points on the cards. Limit the amount of information per card so your mind can take a mental "picture" of the information.

When learning information presented in diagrams or illustrations, write out explanations for the information.

When learning mathematical or technical information, write out in sentences and key phrases your understanding of the material. When a problem involves a sequence of steps, write out in detail how to do each step.

Make use of computer word processing. Copy key information from your notes and textbook into a computer. Use the print-outs for visual review.

Before an exam, make yourself visual reminders of information that must be memorized. Make "stick it" notes containing key words and concepts and place them in highly visible places --on your mirror, notebook, car dashboard, etc..

Welcome Back Stevie

Yes, he's back...

CISSP

I've decided to start studying for the CISSP exam. I've decided the first step will be to memorize the ten domains that comprise the Common Body of Knowledge as defined by International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)^2 before I start reading some e-books on the subject. Here we go from memory using a new trick I learned today:

1) Access Control
2) Application Security
3) Business Continuity and Disaster Recover Planning
4) Cryptography
5) Information Security and Risk Management
6) Legal
7) Operations Security
8) Physical and Environmental Security
9) Security Architecture and Design
10) Telecommunications and Network Security

Amazingly I got them all correct in the right order just by studying for a about 5 minutes. I swear I didn't peek. What's funny is the words my brain was spitting out felt so wrong but they were precise (WTF is Operations Security??)

The trick is to say the first item in the list out loud, read the second item, say the first and second item out lound, read the third item... and so on.

I can't believe I just learned this trick today.

Skills Assessment

The art of war teaches us to protect ourselves from all sides. And although I've produced brilliantly at the workplace by designing new tools that make our jobs easier, I haven't really learned any new skills. I've just further honed existing tools already in arsenal. With so much uncertainty in the near future it's in my best interest to add some new skills. This will be a long and comprehensive list in the end.

Business Processes
RFI
RFP
RFQ

Secure Protocols
Diffie-Hellman
IPsec
Kerberos
L2TP
PGP
PPTP
S/MIME
SET
S-HTTP
SOCKS
SSH
SSL/TLS
WEP

Networking
TCP/IP Model
OSPF
BGP
IGRP
EIGRP
MPLS

Windows
Samba

Network Management
NAGIOS

Database
SQL
Oracle
OCFS

Firewalls
CheckPoint
PIX

Programming
Python
C (need to master)
C++
Perl (need to master)
Expect
PHP
AJAX
RSS
XML
Fuzz Testing

Wireless
802.11i
RADIUS

Storage
LVM
SAN
GFS

Pen-Testing
Netstumbler
Wireshark (formerly Ethereal)
NMap
Nessus

Compliance
SOX
HIPAA

Virtualization
Xen

Reverse Engineering
IDA Pro

General Security
IDS
IPS

Memo From Child to Parent

Memo From
A Child To Parents

1. Don't spoil me. I know quite well that I ought not to have all I ask for. I'm only testing you.

2. Don't be afraid to be firm with me. I prefer it, it makes me feel secure.

3. Don't let me form bad habits. I have to rely on you to detect them in the early stages.

4. Don't make me feel smaller than I am. It only makes me behave stupidly "big".

5. Don't correct me in front of people if you can help it. I'll take much more notice if you talk quietly with me in private.

6. Don't make me feel that my mistakes are sins. It upsets my sense of values.

7. Don't protect me from consequences. I need to learn the painful way sometimes.

8. Don't be too upset when I say "I hate you". Sometimes it isn't you I hate but your power to thwart me.

9. Don't take too much notice of my small ailments. Sometimes they get me the attention I need.

10. Don't nag. If you do, I shall have to protect myself by appearing deaf.

11. Don't forget that I cannot explain myself as well as I should like. That is why I am not always accurate.

12. Don't put me off when I ask questions. If you do, you will find that I stop asking and seek my information elsewhere.

13. Don't be inconsistent. That completely confuses me and makes me lose faith in you.

14. Don't tell me my fears are silly. They are terribly real and you can do much to reassure me if you try to understand.

15. Don't ever suggest that you are perfect or infallible. It gives me too great a shock when I discover that you are neither.

16. Don't ever think that it is beneath your dignity to apologize to me. An honest apology makes me feel surprisingly warm towards you.

17. Don't forget I love experimenting. I couldn't get along without it, so please put up with it.

18. Don't forget how quickly I am growing up. It must be very difficult for you to keep pace with me, but please do try.

19. Don't forget that I don't thrive without lots of love and understanding, but I don't need to tell you, do I?

20. Please keep yourself fit and healthy. I need you.

Don't Praise Innate Ability

From what is becoming my favorite blog:

* Praise for effort:
- imbues kids with a greater sense of control over their lives
- leads to improved study habits and grades

“When we praise children for their intelligence," explains Dweck, "we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart, don’t risk making mistakes . . . Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control. They come to see themselves as in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child’s control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure."

Something my wife needs to read. Here in its entirety: http://geniusblog.davidshenk.com/2007/02/interesting_pie.html

Formula For Genius

According to this thought provoking post, genius is "a massive aggregation of distinct qualities, each critical". This is the formula:

GENIUS = curiosity + persistence + flexibility + resilience + risk-taking + passion

I swear those qualities seem very familiar...

Top Ten Reasons Why We Hate Oprah

From this highly educational site.

(1) Power Abuse and Influence - Spiderman's guardian said it best, "with great power, comes great responsibility". Oprah abuses her power and influence over her audience to sell materialistic items, unhealthy foods, hollow weight loss diets, etc.. all for her own personal gain. These items in no way help people. What's even worse is during the same week, Oprah usually has a show which completely contradicts her advice and promotion. She claims America is falling further in debt because of the expensive things we should not buy, ie. designer clothing, etc... that America is getting fatter (if you go to Oprah's web site, you will see ads for Oreo cookies, and other fattening foods), bottom line, Oprah is a hypocrite, who wears expensive clothing, promotes it, then tells you not to wear it, all the while keeping her ratings and profits up. Stupid house wife stormtroopers rush out and buy whatever Oprah says. Poor husbands all over the globe have no choice but to succum to the dark side and give in to their the brainwashed wife.

(2) Personal Attacks and Shallow Tactics - When Oprah is put in her own place, she uses her show and influence to attack way below the belt. Take the fashion clothing company Hermes. Oprah wanted in after hours to shop. The store was closed. So she called the store and company racist. She devoted a whole show on the subject and attacked the company. Of course because of her influence, sales suffered, so the CEO of the company had to come on and publicly apologize for something they never did wrong. THE STORE WAS CLOSED. Oprah is not better or special then anyone else. Using the race card to reduce a companies profits because of bitterness is PATHETIC and IMMORAL.

(3) Arrogance - Just because Oprah's show is popular, she thinks she is always right. Oprah does not have any degree(s) of education in psychology. She imposes her poor advice always on people, and what's unfortunate is most people that watch her show believe it because, well it's Oprah, and she is rich and famous, so she must be right. How pathetic.

(4) Deception for Personal Gain - Do you remember that show were Oprah "gave" away all those cars?! People thought she was the best! So generous! After all, 276 cars is a lot of cash to give away! 8 million to be exact. Guess what. Oprah never paid for them, she just wanted it to appear that way. General Motors wanted to launch the new Pontiac G6 in a big way, so they stuck a deal with Oprah, yet another clever product placement deal, GM gets themselves a massive market, and in turn, Oprah's image is better than even. Clever deception indeed. Watch her show closely, and you will see all the product placements and clever lines and tactics she used on her viewers to buy her promoters products.

(5) Cultural Bullying - Oprah pushes her promoters culture and her guest's products onto everyone else. She always displays someone's new clothing line, or book, or some product, that rarely provides any relevant use or help to someone's life. Oprah preaches how everyone wants in and that you need it this product, thus of course many brainwashed viewers rush out and buy whatever Oprah recommends, helping you once again thrust deeper into debt. But don't worry, Oprah will soon have another show on American poverty, and debt diet plans!

(6) Celebrity Worship - Actors and Singers are at the top of the American social ladder, despite the fact that they don't actually do anything. Oprah's show used to actually have relevant topics, now its just celebs appear to boost Oprah's ratings, and interject commercial products.

(7) Child Exploits - Usually once a week a child is brought on the show and tells their tales of physical or mental abuse, sexual abuse, etc... What never happens is no real professional help is given to this child. They come on the show, Oprah imposes her poor advice, her ratings are up at the expense of the child, because of such a shocking story, and in the end, Oprah wins in the ratings, and they child never receives any real help. Oprah has even brought on children that have received death threats, i.e. Web cam teen porn kid, where the child's life was threatened if he went on the show, but that didn't seem to stop Oprah from having him come on.

(8) Oprah Morphing Ability - Oprah is so fake. When an African American women or man is on the show, Oprah talks like "Yo, what's up girl", or "Aight ya'll" but when theirs a white guest, she morphs into Jackie Kennedy and is composed and talks so conservative. Just be yourself, and stop changing into different people to fit your demographic audience.

(9) Oprah is a Proven Liar - Oprah said on her show she never did drugs. Then a media company finds out and is about to expose her. So Oprah does a 180 and confesses her drug (crack) use. Then blames it on her boyfriend. Talk about shallow.

(10) Hypocrisy - Oprah is a total hypocrite. One show is about poverty, and how everyone is going into debt, or we're all getting fatter, then the next show its the latest fashion, what to wear to make you look skinny and popular, and of course the $50 dollar brownies to buy, and all your favorite goodies that can be flown, yes by airplane, to your doorstep. Unbelievable.

Jus' Bought a Cadillac

Man i can't stop bumpin this joint. Rich Boy's delivery is hard as fuck.

Fighting the Cold or Flu

Nice post from Crash on TMMB on how to fight a cold/flu:

I choke down as many vitamin C (or, even better, Emergen-C drinks), beta carotene, and echinacea/golden seal pills as I can. This usually kills it within 12 hours; then I take Mucinex to get the mucus out.

I think they only make Mucinex for kids (to be honest, I've never looked for it in the regular cold&flu aisle), but it's a decongenstant that loosens mucus in the chest and actually induces coughing, to help you get the nasties out faster. Otherwise, you can feel great, but still be coughing up strands and strands of mucus for days. Loogies; yum.

Oh, and also - for those of you who are big on taking the spicy food route to rid yourself of excess mucus and congestion - STOP. That is a terrible idea. I know it provides temporary relief, but in the long run, it makes your problem much worse. Capsaicin,* which is the compound in peppers and some other foods that makes them spicy, opens your blood vessels, which is why you seem to feel better - it eases headaches, makes your nose run, gets the mucus out, and can relieve (temporarily!) sinus pressure. However, once the effect wears off, and the capillaries in your now-dry sinuses constrict, your body senses the need to moisturize that very sensitive tissue, and then sends mucus production into overdrive. You'll end up with twice as much boogery mess than you had before you downed all the Texas Pete-laced chili.

*Capsaicin is not found in wasabi, however (the spicy green asian horseradish paste served with sushi), so it's ok to use that to try to turn yourself into a drippy human faucet; you won't get the nasty side effects.

Raising High Acheivers

I came across this this book at B&N yesterday. I found the title interesting yet stereotypical and automatically assumed what was contained in it was probably dangerous. Despite my instinct to call bullshit I made a mental note to read about it anyways. I mean, who doesn't want to give their kids a scholastic edge? Besides, I promise to read it with slight skepticism and tweak it to incorporate some of my own beliefs.

Asian parents secrets in raising high achievers:

1) Instill a love and need to learning and education
2) Instill a sense of family pride and loyalty
3) Instill a respect and desire for delayed gratification and sacrifice
4) Clearly define your child's role as a student
5) Cultivate a respect for elders and persons in positions of authority
6) Play an active role in your child's education
7) Determine and develop your child's individual talents
8) Set clearly defined short-term and long-term goals
9) Teach your child the art of valuing academic success over social status or popularity
10) Reward positive school performances and devise a plan of attack for poor school performances
11) Forget the "Do whatever makes you happy" mentality and strive for professions with financial security and intellectual fulfillment
12) Keep your money in perspective
13) Limit extracurricular activities that interfere with schoolwork
14) Promote an environment of healthy competition
15) Surround your children with similarly minded friends and role models
16) Accept responsibility for your children for their failures at school

Happy New Year!

This year it was spent in our new pad in San Brew. Drankin Tito's Vodka and Budweiser. Quietly bumpin Jawbreaker's Condition Oakland. Wife and kid(s)are sleeping soundly.

Resolution: Stay hungry and maintain focus. You haven't done shit. Do not relax as stakes are high.

From Robert Greene's post on Machiavelli:

Necessity governs the world. This is a thought that finds great expression in The Prince and is scattered throughout his work. At first glance it might seem rather obvious, but for Machiavelli it goes to the heart of everything. When you feel necessity biting at your heels, you are moved to respond in some way that is creative. It is either that or die. When you do not feel necessity, your actions lack purpose, your spirit wanders, you grow fat and dependent.