speaking of strong crypto

hate long and intricate passwords? after all, the best passwords aren't passwords at all, but random key combinations.

i hate 'em. one way around it, if the length of your password is arbitrarily long, is to use passphrases. you can achieve as many bits of protection as you may want. and a good solution to generating these phrases is diceware (for non-u.s., try this list--it's been internationalized).

i've used it myself, and while i don't know how successful an attacker would be (suppose i keep a low profile, but now that i've mentioned it, murphy's out to get me), but it makes me feel secure.

my contact info

i've noticed a couple of people have searched for my contact info, so i put my email to the right. just below medication and the search box.

i've tried to disguise it a little, writing ``AT'' instead of @, which i hope people can figure out and will trick the spam.

if the inbox gets too spammy, will have to find some other way.

but, if you like, feel free to contact me. i'll respect your privacy.

and if you want to remain anomymous, there are several remailers around the interweb:

Anonymous speach

My trash mail

Anonymous email

Anonymous

Trashmail

Mailinator

i've never gotten mailinator to work, but i've had good luck with my trash mail. the others, i've never tried. for most of these, you can set-up a password so you can check and see if i've replied yet.

i haven't set-up pgp yet for this account, so i can't cryptographically sign or encrypt. if this becomes an issue, i'll gladly set it up (if you're posting from outside the US, there's international pgp, which pretty much works the same way).

A fun game

Rules:
1) five words per line
2) five lines
3) one word, determined at random by diceware http://world.std.com/~reinhold/dicewarewordlist.pdf (if you get an abrieviation or a word not in the dictionary, roll again (don't use the oed, unless you're on expert mode)); that word goes into the position of the line number (i.e. on the fourth line, the random word is in the fourth position)
4) the order of the five digit number is determined by position along the box's larger dimension, if rolling five dice in a box, or one at a time, if rolling one die outside a box
5) rhyme every other line (slant rhyme allowed) (i.e. ababc)

corollery--each word determined at random is exactly five words away from the next random word

examples:

sloe jin fizz bought by
a cop eyeing refuse that
he'd easily slag until mystery
and world did bite, spat
blood and all that's known

Geese dance, I find it
as lewd as those monkeys
when they unite in public
on a yoga mat, absurd
it is like insomniac junkies
earning by pedling their hineys

Mite who takes a piss
like papa brought into this
world, a hue ungodly like curdled
milk. A cookie batch. bliss:
it's more chunky than gawky.

Crack in the glass would
infrequently converge toward the path
of landed gentry. They should
fuck off, take soma, math
the unforgiven world and wince.