solvitur ambulando
I'm setting up a new computer. I get through the registration screens, install my software, change my wallpaper, and everything's working fine. I'm left, though, with a lingering, uneasy feeling: I don't know if this machine is secure. I'm a computer guy, so I know how to set up strong passwords and firewalls, but I'm … Continue reading SCAP: Computer Security for the Rest of Us
It's a phrase you'll hear often in the open source community: "patches welcome". It's sometimes earnest, sometimes passive-aggressive. It's a cultural norm that's tough but fair: you've voiced an opinion, and now you need to back up that opinion with working code. Without code, it's just a distraction. It's an important component of what makes … Continue reading “Patches Welcome”
So 19 months into the Open Government Directive, we seem to have a backlash. The government has spent millions of dollars collecting, organizing, and cataloging its data to make it more available to the public. An unprecedented effort. Some of this data is frivolous, some of it is valuable, but I think we can all agree … Continue reading The government doesn’t look good naked.
The GSA is currently planning forge.gov, which is widely assumed to be based on forge.mil, the much-discussed collaboration platform from the Defense Information Systems Agency, or DISA. forge.mil is a pretty incredible idea: a single destination for testing, certification, and software development in the Defense Department. It sounds obvious, but the idea remains revolutionary. For … Continue reading The future of the government forges
I think I was a surprised as anyone when I heard that Larry Lessig was stepping away from Creative Commons. It seemed like a sudden change of direction, because Lessig has been a vocal advocate for freedom and choice for so many years. But as I hear Lessig describe his journey from Creative Commons to … Continue reading Larry Lessig is Susan B. Anthony
I had a chance to talk with Matthew Burton, the former intelligence analyst turned open source cause celebre who just launched a tool that helps frame and understand arguments with imperfect evidence. It's based on method called Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH), which has been around for quite some time. Matthew and his friend Josh … Continue reading Spook Developer Speaks! An interview with Matthew Burton.
After patiently waiting for me to stop prattling about how useful open source can be to facilitate meaningful cooperation among parties, even when they're competitors, a colleague asked for examples of how open source has facilitated international cooperation. I started to respond, but stopped short. About three times. I could name all kinds of projects with … Continue reading International cooperation through open source
Today, we announced that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is shooting for its 14th Common Criteria certification. My job means I get excited about Common Criteria certifications, which also means I'm unpopular at dinner parties. This certification, though, has me more excited than usual, because it means much more than a rubber stamp from a certification … Continue reading How Linux, sandboxes and happy accidents can help a soldier.
I do a lot of presentations. When I export to PDF from OpenOffice, things usually work great. When I do these presentations online, though, the web tool will sometimes wreck the design: fonts get dropped, transparent backgrounds turn white... it's a mess. So I need a way of turning each page of the PDF into … Continue reading Flatten PDFs almost painlessly.
I got a lot of compliments on the design of the ignite session I did for Mil-OSS. Part of what made it work so well, I think, is the drop shadows, like you see here: For a long time, I did these using the Gimp. It's kind of a tedious process, especially if you are … Continue reading Beautiful drop shadows now bow before me.
a technology job is no excuse 