Mar 22 2008
If you happen to see this error in Rails:
ActionView::TemplateError (superclass mismatch for class Cookie)
It really means:
Don't require CGI, because I already screwed with it, and you're just going to confuse your server. Love, Rails.
That took me a not-trivial amount of time to figure out.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Mar 21 2008
I tried it out, wasn’t all that impressed, but the Ruby.MN crew have pulled me back in. We’ll see if I stick around. So far, I’ve mainly been using it like IRC, and for dropping links out into the world.
I’m RobertFischer on Twitter, and there’s a nifty little RSS feed or two if you just can’t get enough of me. Also put my current Twitter status into the sidebar of my blog.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Mar 20 2008
FasterFox and Google Web Accelerator. Combine that with CustomizeGoogle and it’s a whole different interwebs.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Mar 16 2008
by Brian Hurt
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
There are two kinds of cryptography in this world: cryptography that will stop your kid sister from reading your files, and cryptography that will stop major governments from reading your files.
-Bruce Schneier, “Applied Cryptography”
Kid Sister Crypto is a project dedicated to the idea that there are times when you don’t need, and are unwilling to pay for (in terms of code complexity and computational cost), crypto strong enough to defeat major governments. Sometimes, crypto systems only strong enough to defeat your kid sister are sufficient. Examples of uses that fall into these categories are hash functions for data structures and simple pseudo-random number generators.
But that even in cases where “kid sister” strength crypto is sufficient, you don’t want to use an algorithm designed by some dilettante with no knowledge of cryptography or even awareness that a cryptosystem (however weak) is what they’re designing- it is much better to use a system designed by some dilettante with some knowledge of cryptography, and doing so explicitly as designing a crypto system. It’d be better still if a real cryptanalyst were to do this, but they’re all busy inventing (and breaking) major-government-proof ciphers, so this is what you get.
The name is picked explicitly to remind everyone that this is not a cryptosystem that will protect you against major governments.
Popularity: 17% [?]
