Monthly Archives: September 2013

New King Crimson lineup!

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Kevin

 KALOO CALLAY!  There’s a new version of King Crimson heading our way!  From DGM Live:

The 8th incarnation of King Crimson will be Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Mel Collins, Jakko Jakszyk and Robert Fripp.

Writing on his (not yet published) diary for September 24th Fripp notes “The Point Of Crim-Seeing was of a conventional Back Line – Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin and Pat Matstelotto – reconfigured as the Front Line, with Mel Collins, Jakko Jakszyk and myself as Back Line.”

Robert goes on “All the Crims have expressed great excitement at the return to Go! mode. Given the considerable commitments of all members, it will take a year before Crimson is able to perform.”

 

Bill Rieflin mentioned to me that he told Jacknife Lee (REM and Robbie Williams’ producer) of the triple drumming, and Jacknife’s reply: Of course. We know what two drummers sound like! I’m hoping we’ll find out, and have a pile of fun doing so.”

In his (not yet published) diary for September 7th Fripp begins “dear brother crims, we have one year to prepare for action of the savage variety, and be in Go! mode for september 2014… but essentially, King Crimson is in motion.”

Robert expects that they’ll be rehearsing, in full and small group formations over that period.

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Greatest auction item ever?

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Kevin

Walter White’s Briefs – Current price: $250








These may be the most iconic tighty-whiteys in television.

Breaking Bad begins its run with Walter White wearing this pair of briefs. Throughout the series, Bryan Cranston’s character appears in tighty-whiteys. This underwear, now on display at the Museum of Moving Images, is the pair Walt wore on the first episode of the Emmy-winning show.

Walt’s tighty-whiteys are an iconic, key part of Breaking Bad. They will remain at the museum until the exhibit is over, and will be shipped after Oct. 27, when the exhibit ends.

They are important enough to be in a museum, and will be a treasured addition to any collection.

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New OpenPGP key

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Kevin

My 13 year old OpenPGP key was getting a bit long in the tooth (and vulnerable!), so I’ve decided to publish a new, stronger key. Please check out my OpenPGP page and download/import my new key.

If you have no idea what any of this means, check out this article.

Posted in Personal, Security | Leave a comment

Schneier – How to remain secure against NSA surveillance

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Kevin

How to remain secure against NSA surveillance | Bruce Schneier | World news | theguardian.com

1) Hide in the network. Implement hidden services. Use Tor to anonymize yourself. Yes, the NSA targets Tor users, but it’s work for them. The less obvious you are, the safer you are.

2) Encrypt your communications. Use TLS. Use IPsec. Again, while it’s true that the NSA targets encrypted connections – and it may have explicit exploits against these protocols – you’re much better protected than if you communicate in the clear.

3) Assume that while your computer can be compromised, it would take work and risk on the part of the NSA – so it probably isn’t. If you have something really important, use an air gap. Since I started working with the Snowden documents, I bought a new computer that has never been connected to the internet. If I want to transfer a file, I encrypt the file on the secure computer and walk it over to my internet computer, using a USB stick. To decrypt something, I reverse the process. This might not be bulletproof, but it’s pretty good.

4) Be suspicious of commercial encryption software, especially from large vendors. My guess is that most encryption products from large US companies have NSA-friendly back doors, and many foreign ones probably do as well. It’s prudent to assume that foreign products also have foreign-installed backdoors. Closed-source software is easier for the NSA to backdoor than open-source software. Systems relying on master secrets are vulnerable to the NSA, through either legal or more clandestine means.

5) Try to use public-domain encryption that has to be compatible with other implementations. For example, it’s harder for the NSA to backdoor TLS than BitLocker, because any vendor’s TLS has to be compatible with every other vendor’s TLS, while BitLocker only has to be compatible with itself, giving the NSA a lot more freedom to make changes. And because BitLocker is proprietary, it’s far less likely those changes will be discovered. Prefer symmetric cryptography over public-key cryptography. Prefer conventional discrete-log-based systems over elliptic-curve systems; the latter have constants that the NSA influences when they can.

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