Practice doing mental math: get 2 to 4 ten-sided dice from your local game store (or another random number generator of your choice) and practice doing addition, subtraction, and multiplication in your head. If you're good, you can do things like raising e to a random power, multiplying a number by pi, finding the sine/cosine of a number, etc.
I've been thinking for a little while that it would be interesting to apply the wiki concept of communal editing to legislative proposals. This might be a good opportunity to start, since so many slashdotters will interested. Someone could set up a project and allow anyone to edit the Congresswoman's bill. Then when there is some kind of consensus, it can be submitted to her so she can pursue it further. Any volunteers?
It seems like app designers and ad networks should be able to come up with a fairly simple scheme to detect when this is happening and (for instance), refuse to work until the ads are restored. App sends a UID along with the ad request, ad-network sends back a signature of the add content + UID using a public key, app can validate the signature to ensure their "ad" really came from the network. Not that I want them to do this, I'm just surprised I've never heard of it.
Yes, it's quite common, despite some of the timid stereotypes we've been given by the media. I would assume it stems from some combination of genuinely being more intelligent and more knowledgeable than the average person, and wanting to assert your self in the face of social pressures you've probably faced and may continue to face as a result of being a nerd.
It's probably also related to the fact that as a nerd you put a high value on intelligence and knowledge. There's a remark in Cryptonomicon to the effect that nerds, particularly young nerds, tend to reactive aggressively to any assertion of fact, as they take it to imply that they did not already know it.
In your case, and the case of your peers, it may also have a lot to do with the fact that you're in college. It's a ripe age of arrogance, and being in a relatively cloistered and academic setting only exacerbates the issue.
The good news is that you've identified it as a negative personality trait which you'd like to keep in check, so there's no reason you can't, at least mostly. It's actually something I've worked on over the past few years as well, so I can offer some general tips, though they're probably pretty obvious: Listen to other people: don't ignore them, don't cut them off, and don't block them out (bonus, you'll be amazed what you can learn from surprising sources). Don't assume you know everything, you most certainly don't. Ask questions when you don't know something: it's more awesome to actually know stuff than to just pretend you do. Allow people to make mistakes, it happens to all of us. When someone says "hey did you know that...", they're hoping you'll say "no": it's not a quiz to see how smart you are, they just want to share something interesting that they most likely just learned themselves. When somebody doesn't know something, it's usually more fun to teach them than to make fun of them (obligatory: https://xkcd.com/1053/). People open themselves up for insults all the time: limit how often you seize those opportunities, even if it's just in fun. Insulting someone isn't necessarily being arrogant, but it just a negative atmosphere around you which will tend to bring out the negative traits in you and those around you.
Overall, just keep it in your head that you want to be a nice guy. That's really all it takes. Any non-psychopathic person past the age of 5 or 6 should be able to tell the difference between being kind and not being kind, the key is just noticing it and making a decision about how you want to act.
Oh, and tone is everything: if you're used to being a smarty-pants know-it-all, then even when you're trying to be nice or helpful, it can come off as condescending. Just take a beat and think about what you're about to say and how you should say it before you actually do. It might take some practice: I gave up being condescending to my wife for lent a couple years back, and it stuck. Trust me: I'm much happier now.
Lastly, don't be self-righteous. Clearly, I'm still working on that one.
You have to power through. I agree, the beginning is slow, but for what ever reason it didn't really bother me so I kept going, and after a little while I was really glad I did. It's currently my number one favorite book, with Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon following.
Science classes are not (or at least should not be) just about learning a particular field of science. They're about learning science in the general sense, learning how science works, and learning how to use reason and think critically in order to reduce the number of people running around who think the Earth is only 10,000 years old, prayer is a viable form of health-care, global warming is a scam perpetrated by terrible people who's real goal is to reduce pollution, and vaccines will give your kid autism. We absolutely need to be encouraging, and if necessary requiring, more students to take science courses so they too can learn to think for themselves, follow the evidence, draw rational conclusions and reject superstition and hysteria. Not every child is going to grow up to be a scientist, but every last one of them is going to make decisions in their lives the affect other people, and it would be nice if those decisions did not contribute to the rise of a theocratic state in America, the outbreak of a flu pandemic, or the suffocation of the planet beneath a blanket of carbon.
You could probably perform most of the work that would be required of a mid level programmer, possibly even a computer engineer, with the math you already know. But you'll never be very good without advanced topics like calculus, linear algebra, and diff-eq. If you're seriously considering a technical career, I can't recommend strongly enough that you take these courses and put in the effort to really truly learn the material: not just enough to pass the courses, but for the long term. I've been an engineer for about 6 years and I'm constantly finding myself wishing I knew more math, even after having taken all the required engineering math classes and a few additional math classes in both undergrad and grad school.
The various fields of mathematics are like tools to hang on your belt: right now you probably have something along the lines of a hammer, a screwdriver, and a hacksaw. Yes, you can do most of what will be required of you with those, but it's not going to be easy. Why limit yourself? Take the advanced courses and you'll start acquiring skills more analogous to power tools. Honestly, you really can't imagine the kinds of problems you'll actually be faced with in a technical profession until you're actually in one, so it's not surprising if it seems right now like you don't need any more math. For instance, if you're thinking about game design, do you know how ray tracing works? Do you know what quaternions are? Can you do matrix operations for 3-D movement? No, you may not use those things everyday as a game designer, but you'll be at the bottom of your field if you can't at least understand them.
Besides, never mind the actual merit of these topics: you'll never land a half-way decent tech job if you go into an interview and let it slip that you don't know math beyond first year calculus, let alone high school. Unless of course you're planning to go into IT. If that's the case then never mind all of this.
Career aside, there will be a lot of topics that you'll likely find interesting later in your life---when your brain isn't so squishy---that will be out of reach without the additional mathematical background that you're currently lacking.
I've always found the most impressive presentations don't have any slides. Know the information cold (or maybe just a sheet of notes) and present orally and by writing on the write board. If you need to show charts or diagrams that are not practical to draw live, a few simple slides shouldn't detract from the over all effect. The overall impression is that you know and understand the information so well that you don't need to fallback on slides, you're able to present it naturally, almost in a conversational manner (even if it's not a two way conversation).
That email is insecure may be common knowledge among slashdotters and others of their ilk, I'd hardly say it's common knowledge among the general population of email users. People don't know or care how the Internet works, so they don't understand the concept of eavesdropping. I think the only security issues most people have any concept of with regards to email are phishing and "hackers" breaking into their accounts. The idea that there's a program or system out there which can defend against eavesdropping is even more remote to most people, let alone the knowledge or ability to find, acquire, install, and setup such a solution.
As for those of us who know all about the dangers and the solutions: For almost three years my email signature included an invitation to send me encrypted and/or authenticated mail using PGP, and not a single person took me up on it, or even inquired about it. And this was while I was in grad school for computer engineering and working at a tech company. So I took it out my sig, because clearly no one is interested. In short, I don't use it because there's no one for me to use it with, and I think that's how it is for most people. Your web of trust is a web of one.
Besides, I don't worry about encrypting my email because I know better than to but private stuff in emails. I use gmail, so the web client knows what I'm typing anyway, and trusting the person on the other end to handle private messages securely is a joke.
You know, a Linux sticker might actually be pretty effective (though not as effective as a Windows ME sticker). Not exactly what I'd call "good security", but it might be that extra few percent you need to beat the odds.
Encryption is always a good idea (unless you're some kind of freedom fighter in a hostile nation, then it's evidence) but that only protects your data, doesn't prevent the loss of your laptop and the money/time to replace.
When^H^H^H^HIf I'm a laptop thief, I'm going to have a stack of my own registered Stuffbak stickers to place on top of the owner's. If I can unregister it as "my own", then I can sell it without worries.
I think it's more his attitude. Plenty of people don't participate in Halloween for whatever reason, and that's fine. But people who bitch about other people's good time are a drag. I doubt things are really bad enough that he needs to "hunker down" and defend himself with a shot gun. Turning off the porch light would probably suffice. He's just being a curmudgeon.
True enough, but "1u3hr"'s comment was that blocking encrypted data going over port 80 would prevent people from following HTTPS links and using online banking, etc., which wouldn't be the case in general because the vast majority of "legitimate" HTTPS sites are going to be on 443.
That's just a good example of a poor policy. People can know that some of the camera's are fake as long as they know that some are real, and they don't know which ones (it could even change occasionally). That would probably be fairly effective at suppressing the specified habits.
However, the side effects of working in an environment like that may be a real concern. Nobody wants work under oppressive conditions, and for most people, constant surveillance monitoring is oppressive. You may well loose some employees from it, and those that stay for have the morale of an inmate.
I was wondering what "30% of most" meant. That could conceivably be as low as just over "15% of all". On the other hand, it could be as high as "100% of some".
I'm pretty sure I remember reading something exactly like this in Applied Cryptography. I'll have to check when I get home, but I'm pretty sure Schneier can argue he has prior art.
Slashdot Mirror
Practice doing mental math: get 2 to 4 ten-sided dice from your local game store (or another random number generator of your choice) and practice doing addition, subtraction, and multiplication in your head. If you're good, you can do things like raising e to a random power, multiplying a number by pi, finding the sine/cosine of a number, etc.
I've been thinking for a little while that it would be interesting to apply the wiki concept of communal editing to legislative proposals. This might be a good opportunity to start, since so many slashdotters will interested. Someone could set up a project and allow anyone to edit the Congresswoman's bill. Then when there is some kind of consensus, it can be submitted to her so she can pursue it further. Any volunteers?
It seems like app designers and ad networks should be able to come up with a fairly simple scheme to detect when this is happening and (for instance), refuse to work until the ads are restored. App sends a UID along with the ad request, ad-network sends back a signature of the add content + UID using a public key, app can validate the signature to ensure their "ad" really came from the network. Not that I want them to do this, I'm just surprised I've never heard of it.
Yes, it's quite common, despite some of the timid stereotypes we've been given by the media. I would assume it stems from some combination of genuinely being more intelligent and more knowledgeable than the average person, and wanting to assert your self in the face of social pressures you've probably faced and may continue to face as a result of being a nerd.
It's probably also related to the fact that as a nerd you put a high value on intelligence and knowledge. There's a remark in Cryptonomicon to the effect that nerds, particularly young nerds, tend to reactive aggressively to any assertion of fact, as they take it to imply that they did not already know it.
In your case, and the case of your peers, it may also have a lot to do with the fact that you're in college. It's a ripe age of arrogance, and being in a relatively cloistered and academic setting only exacerbates the issue.
The good news is that you've identified it as a negative personality trait which you'd like to keep in check, so there's no reason you can't, at least mostly. It's actually something I've worked on over the past few years as well, so I can offer some general tips, though they're probably pretty obvious: Listen to other people: don't ignore them, don't cut them off, and don't block them out (bonus, you'll be amazed what you can learn from surprising sources). Don't assume you know everything, you most certainly don't. Ask questions when you don't know something: it's more awesome to actually know stuff than to just pretend you do. Allow people to make mistakes, it happens to all of us. When someone says "hey did you know that...", they're hoping you'll say "no": it's not a quiz to see how smart you are, they just want to share something interesting that they most likely just learned themselves. When somebody doesn't know something, it's usually more fun to teach them than to make fun of them (obligatory: https://xkcd.com/1053/). People open themselves up for insults all the time: limit how often you seize those opportunities, even if it's just in fun. Insulting someone isn't necessarily being arrogant, but it just a negative atmosphere around you which will tend to bring out the negative traits in you and those around you.
Overall, just keep it in your head that you want to be a nice guy. That's really all it takes. Any non-psychopathic person past the age of 5 or 6 should be able to tell the difference between being kind and not being kind, the key is just noticing it and making a decision about how you want to act.
Oh, and tone is everything: if you're used to being a smarty-pants know-it-all, then even when you're trying to be nice or helpful, it can come off as condescending. Just take a beat and think about what you're about to say and how you should say it before you actually do. It might take some practice: I gave up being condescending to my wife for lent a couple years back, and it stuck. Trust me: I'm much happier now.
Lastly, don't be self-righteous. Clearly, I'm still working on that one.
You have to power through. I agree, the beginning is slow, but for what ever reason it didn't really bother me so I kept going, and after a little while I was really glad I did. It's currently my number one favorite book, with Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon following.
Science classes are not (or at least should not be) just about learning a particular field of science. They're about learning science in the general sense, learning how science works, and learning how to use reason and think critically in order to reduce the number of people running around who think the Earth is only 10,000 years old, prayer is a viable form of health-care, global warming is a scam perpetrated by terrible people who's real goal is to reduce pollution, and vaccines will give your kid autism. We absolutely need to be encouraging, and if necessary requiring, more students to take science courses so they too can learn to think for themselves, follow the evidence, draw rational conclusions and reject superstition and hysteria. Not every child is going to grow up to be a scientist, but every last one of them is going to make decisions in their lives the affect other people, and it would be nice if those decisions did not contribute to the rise of a theocratic state in America, the outbreak of a flu pandemic, or the suffocation of the planet beneath a blanket of carbon.
You could probably perform most of the work that would be required of a mid level programmer, possibly even a computer engineer, with the math you already know. But you'll never be very good without advanced topics like calculus, linear algebra, and diff-eq. If you're seriously considering a technical career, I can't recommend strongly enough that you take these courses and put in the effort to really truly learn the material: not just enough to pass the courses, but for the long term. I've been an engineer for about 6 years and I'm constantly finding myself wishing I knew more math, even after having taken all the required engineering math classes and a few additional math classes in both undergrad and grad school.
The various fields of mathematics are like tools to hang on your belt: right now you probably have something along the lines of a hammer, a screwdriver, and a hacksaw. Yes, you can do most of what will be required of you with those, but it's not going to be easy. Why limit yourself? Take the advanced courses and you'll start acquiring skills more analogous to power tools. Honestly, you really can't imagine the kinds of problems you'll actually be faced with in a technical profession until you're actually in one, so it's not surprising if it seems right now like you don't need any more math. For instance, if you're thinking about game design, do you know how ray tracing works? Do you know what quaternions are? Can you do matrix operations for 3-D movement? No, you may not use those things everyday as a game designer, but you'll be at the bottom of your field if you can't at least understand them.
Besides, never mind the actual merit of these topics: you'll never land a half-way decent tech job if you go into an interview and let it slip that you don't know math beyond first year calculus, let alone high school. Unless of course you're planning to go into IT. If that's the case then never mind all of this.
Career aside, there will be a lot of topics that you'll likely find interesting later in your life---when your brain isn't so squishy---that will be out of reach without the additional mathematical background that you're currently lacking.
I've always found the most impressive presentations don't have any slides. Know the information cold (or maybe just a sheet of notes) and present orally and by writing on the write board. If you need to show charts or diagrams that are not practical to draw live, a few simple slides shouldn't detract from the over all effect. The overall impression is that you know and understand the information so well that you don't need to fallback on slides, you're able to present it naturally, almost in a conversational manner (even if it's not a two way conversation).
That email is insecure may be common knowledge among slashdotters and others of their ilk, I'd hardly say it's common knowledge among the general population of email users. People don't know or care how the Internet works, so they don't understand the concept of eavesdropping. I think the only security issues most people have any concept of with regards to email are phishing and "hackers" breaking into their accounts. The idea that there's a program or system out there which can defend against eavesdropping is even more remote to most people, let alone the knowledge or ability to find, acquire, install, and setup such a solution.
As for those of us who know all about the dangers and the solutions: For almost three years my email signature included an invitation to send me encrypted and/or authenticated mail using PGP, and not a single person took me up on it, or even inquired about it. And this was while I was in grad school for computer engineering and working at a tech company. So I took it out my sig, because clearly no one is interested. In short, I don't use it because there's no one for me to use it with, and I think that's how it is for most people. Your web of trust is a web of one.
Besides, I don't worry about encrypting my email because I know better than to but private stuff in emails. I use gmail, so the web client knows what I'm typing anyway, and trusting the person on the other end to handle private messages securely is a joke.
Park in a crowded area and use a slim jim to unlock the other cars nearby.
Your country is weird....it's like you deliberately don't want people to buy small cars.
On the nosey!
You know, a Linux sticker might actually be pretty effective (though not as effective as a Windows ME sticker). Not exactly what I'd call "good security", but it might be that extra few percent you need to beat the odds.
Encryption is always a good idea (unless you're some kind of freedom fighter in a hostile nation, then it's evidence) but that only protects your data, doesn't prevent the loss of your laptop and the money/time to replace.
When^H^H^H^HIf I'm a laptop thief, I'm going to have a stack of my own registered Stuffbak stickers to place on top of the owner's. If I can unregister it as "my own", then I can sell it without worries.
Yeh, and they all have trunks. Big enough to hold a laptop. So his point stands.
The funniest part of this comment is that he thinks power users use ubuntu.
You must have a pre-release of Office 2012, with the new cheese transitions we've been waiting so long for. =)
I think it's more his attitude. Plenty of people don't participate in Halloween for whatever reason, and that's fine. But people who bitch about other people's good time are a drag. I doubt things are really bad enough that he needs to "hunker down" and defend himself with a shot gun. Turning off the porch light would probably suffice. He's just being a curmudgeon.
IANAL especially not in New Zealand
Are you sort of a lawyer else where?
True enough, but "1u3hr"'s comment was that blocking encrypted data going over port 80 would prevent people from following HTTPS links and using online banking, etc., which wouldn't be the case in general because the vast majority of "legitimate" HTTPS sites are going to be on 443.
That's just a good example of a poor policy. People can know that some of the camera's are fake as long as they know that some are real, and they don't know which ones (it could even change occasionally). That would probably be fairly effective at suppressing the specified habits.
However, the side effects of working in an environment like that may be a real concern. Nobody wants work under oppressive conditions, and for most people, constant surveillance monitoring is oppressive. You may well loose some employees from it, and those that stay for have the morale of an inmate.
HTTPS goes over port 443, not 80.
I was wondering what "30% of most" meant. That could conceivably be as low as just over "15% of all". On the other hand, it could be as high as "100% of some".
Not for another 22 minutes or so. See here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/full.html?sort=2.
I'm pretty sure I remember reading something exactly like this in Applied Cryptography. I'll have to check when I get home, but I'm pretty sure Schneier can argue he has prior art.