Posted on by lhl

Ouch, take a look at this new IE exploit. I wonder how long it’s been in use in the wild? Hook it up to some JS status mouseover, and you have yourself a pretty convincing fraud potential (just in time for xmas shopping!). via Simon

Not a problem if you’re using a better browser, of course.

[To elaborate, yes the user@domain attack affects all browsers; that’s just URI syntax for you, and yeah, there are people suckered all the time by this. But w/ this 0x01 flaw, I suspect it’ll catch a whole lot of people off-guard who would otherwise ‘know better’; if you click on a link from an untrusted site, this attack can pretty much be made completely transparent (on the surface).]

Posted on by lhl

Russell Beattie writes about UI Heirarchies, starting with high praise for the iPod UI:

There’s the picture of the iPod’s user interface again. I just think it’s so clear, consistent and easy to understand and use by just about everyone. My Mom could easily navigate that menuing system. Apple could have put buttons and drop downs and a whole load of crap on that UI, but they didn’t. They kept it insanely clean and easy to use. I think this is the nicest gadget interface there is.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my iPod, but personally, I get aggravated by its UI. Perhaps it’s just me, but it just seems like its missing some really obvious things

  • The touch-button holding down play to turn it off – doesn’t work for me half-the time; so annoying; having an option beep/flash or something when it turns off would also be nice (w/o a real off button, there’s no tactile feedback)
  • If you’re playing something and you go to browse and play something else, you can’t just select it w/ the action button to play, you have to hit the play button twice. Once which pauses what you’re playing and a second time to play what you’ve highlighted. Don’t ask
  • Why isn’t there a way to fast-forward to the next album in album shuffle mode? It seems so obvious to me that it’s mind-boggling that it’s not there; maybe I’m using the wrong keys or something, but neither poking around or flipping through the manual has shown a way
Posted on by lhl

The Link Prediction Problem for Social Networks

Given a snapshot of a social network, can we infer which new interactions among its members are likely to occur in the near future? We approach the problem through the “proximity” of nodes in a network.

Jon Kleinberg also has other interesting papers on his site (one on word bursts, others on web structure, small world-phenomena, data clusting. His course on The Structure of Information Networks looks immensely interesting; lots of links (toread).

q: Is it feasible to precalc or rt approximate relationship proximity via # of connections, other arbitrary reputation/network properties

related: LINKED: The New Science of Networks – How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What it Means for Science, Business and Everyday Life

Posted on by lhl
  • Teacher to 1st-graders: Santa is fake – Parents irate after class told that Santa Claus is ‘make-believe’

    Donzelli said the school’s principal “had a real stern conversation” with the teacher. But there will be no written reprimand because she did not violate any school district policy.

    “We have no Santa clause,” Donzelli said. “We would think that teachers would use better judgment.”

  • AT&T Wireless Fumbles Number Portability
  • It’s not going to get any better. – I work for AT&T Wireless… (quite interesting thread, as you might imagine)
  • Cell Hell

    “You are holding my number hostage,” I said. “That’s not a porting issue. It’s some strange act of sabotage. What you are doing is a violation of FCC regulations. May I speak to another supervisor?”

    “You can, but he’ll just tell you the same thing,” Lance said.

    “I’m reporting you to the FCC,” I said.

    “I understand, sir,” Lance said.

  • ‘Just Bring ’em In From Space’ – An Interview With the Creators of Aqua Teen Hunger Force
  • Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns

    “With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them,” Colonel Sassaman said.

  • The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012
  • Five Geek Social Fallacies

    Geek Social Fallacy #4: Friendship Is Transitive

    Every carrier of GSF4 has, at some point, said:

    “Wouldn’t it be great to get all my groups of friends into one place for one big happy party?!”

    …

    Arguably, Friendster was designed by a GSF4 carrier.

  • MobyDock – Apple Dock-clone for Windows; see Matt’s post
Posted on by lhl

A couple of leads on describing complex trust relations via Paul Ford.

I should probably be doing some more in depth searches in the ACM and IEEE digital libraries. Probably won’t get time to do this for a month or so, but will be continuing to put up stuff that I find.

Posted on by lhl

Went to the Azure Ray/Crooked Fingers show last night at the at the Glass House in Pomona. It’s a bit of a hike, but man, it’s a completely different world – easy parking, laid back ins-and-outs, nice people all around, nice and spacy, and clean restrooms to boot. A sharp contrast to the hellhole that is LA. Also, and this is just strange – all ages and no bar – how does the place make money? In any case, quite cool. My friend said it reminded him of high school, and I knew what he was talking about; really makes one nostalgic for simpler days.

Azure Ray/Crooked Fingers will be at Bottom of the Hill tonight in SF and at Berbati’s Pan on the 8th and in Seattle on the 9th, would definitely recommend catching them if you can. Crooked Fingers and Azure Ray play together, first w/ Crooked Fingers backing up Azure Ray: vocals that don’t seem to be coming from their mouths and songs so pretty they make you want to lie down. And then the band sort of reconfigured (apparently everyone is multi-instrumental, they pretty much play musical chairs until practically everyone plays everything; it was quite surprising when Orenda first picked up a trumpet) and Eric Bachmann (also a great voice; grounded and a perfect complement for Azure Ray’s ethereal vocals) sung a set of his songs, equal parts sad and rockin’, a Tom Waits/Springsteen feel. One of the most satisfying shows I’ve been to in a while.