You only need to succeed once...

When I studied computer security concepts in University, I found that it was an exciting field to be in: images of late night hackers 'rattling doors' of our servers and we patching up security in an attempt to be one-up against any malicious attempts may have conjured up some adrenaline and romantic thrill. But thinking about it after the adrenaline had worn off, it was a terrible industry to be involved in, unless you have an addiction to adrenaline or heroism.

The fundamental fact of life is this: the bad guy only has to succeed once, and you on the security side, have to succeed all the other times. Nobody's going to say you've done a good job if you thwart a thousand attack attempts, but that one time that you left a vulnerability open, a thousand eyes cast blame on you.

Needless to say, I changed my mind about being in computer security. I guess I don't want to be a person who sees and speaks of different 'zones': restricted, secure, demilitarized, public; when it comes to real people and places. I don't want to live with paranoia thinking that someone's out to get us — all the time.

Once in awhile though, we hear of clever stories like this (and another retelling of the story from another angle here): of British military intelligence thwarting terrorist bomb-making factories in North Ireland. Another story linking it mentioned this story: to install a bug in a house with motion and noise sensors, they started shooting mints to the windows during thunderstorms, thereby triggering the alarm and the security people — who predictably associated thunderstorms with false alarms and began to shut off the alarm system during thunderstorm. Thus the spying party was able to drill the bug into the house wall during a thunderstorm when the alarm had been turned off. Mints were used because they quickly dissolve in the rain. Clever!

In military intelligence, the stakes are thousands of lives, civilian lives. I always thought of people working in it to be truly heroic, despite the countless times that we wish the whole transport security farce would just cease.

Defending Cathedral of Neuquen, Argentina

I just saw this horrific video of a pro-abortion mob attacking youths who were defending the Cathedral of Neuquén, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The arguments said by the protesters are nothing new (except that they are in Spanish) that proper logic cannot destroy, but the vitriol is scary. Taunting, jeering, spitting, burning... they acted as if they were possessed. The defenders held their cool and kept praying Hail Mary's until the end (of the video, at least).

(It is interesting to see the comments at the end of the YouTube video)

Of monkeys and men

Two monkeys are serving in a restaurant in Japan. They have learned how to serve hot towels and bottled drinks to customers, it seems! Funky!

Video link here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7654267.stm

And in other news, in India, some human have learned how to behave like monkeys to scare away the real monkeys.

Video link here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7644469.stm

Dark night in plainspeak

Somehow these images remind me of this passage. Or rather, this passage reminds me of this scene in the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship movie, where the company found a dead scribe clutching a book next to Balin's tomb, recording the last moments before the goblins overran and annihilate the dwarves in the mines of Moria.

We've tried to get out of this place but so far haven't managed to do so; all out attempts have come to naught, one after another. How should we react? By not losing our peace. We should continue to use all the available means and confidently place our hope in God. In the face of this situation do we become angry or give in to impatience and ill-humor?
...

No, from the depths of this darkness I'll trust in my God. Lord, may whatever you want be fulfilled. You know what is best for me. I only want to fulfill your Will.
...

I'll use all the means, and above all prayer, the most important one. But if our prayer and activity bear no apparent fruit let's not grow impatient. Let's know how to wait and always seek our joy in that aspiration which has often brought us peace:
"Fiat, adimpleatur, laudetur et in aeternum superexaltetur iustissima atque amabilissima voluntas Dei super omnia."

New, non-invasive prenatal testing method

Some researchers in Stanford had discovered that using DNA sequencing on a pregnant mother's blood, one would be able to tell whether the baby she carries is having Down's syndrome. Since it is still at experimental stage, the sample size was only nine women, with 100% accuracy.

While this is a good move to protect the baby from miscarrying (a risk that is present with amnioscentesis - a procedure that is synonymous with prenatal testing today), I think this might make it easier for pregnant women to 'screen early' (as early as 14 weeks, the study cited) for genetic disabilities in the baby and might, might, just increase their propensity to abort any less-than-healthy baby!

Article here: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/1006/3

Mobile rosary anyone?

So it felt like 35°C yesterday and I really wished the bus would come soon! Anyway, despite trying to forecast the arrival time of the bus from the IRIS system, I had no such luck and ended up waiting for close to 40 minutes in the sweltering heat. What's one to do? I had no interesting book with me, so I decided to pray the rosary.

The rosary, well, as any prayer, requires contemplation. It is easy to find myself already finishing the five decades without really getting into contemplation. So I whipped out my phone and started googling for "rosary reflection" on the mobile. All kinds of junk results were returned! I was frustrated beyond belief. And even those which are actually real reflections were not properly formatted for the phone screen...

"Ay, que calor!" was on the tip of my tongue. But yesterday was a good day to offer up the little suffering and a new idea is born! I'll start putting up mobile pages for reflection on the rosary. Let's see how feasible it is to do this...

Another advance in iPS research!

Researchers working on induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) have announced another breakthrough today. Earlier results showed that organs grown from retrovirally produced iPS cells in mice grew cancer very soon after. This most recent methodology "added cell-reprogramming genes to adenoviruses, a type of virus that infects cells without affecting their DNA." The adenoviruses, after producing cell-reprogramming proteins, turning the cells embryonic, departed. The goal was to produce genetically unmodified iPS cells.

Link to paper abstract here.

I'm seeing stars

Most people coming to this blog aren't here to read my ramblings, here's one 'reminder-to-self' post with links of potential future interests. There are many exciting news from the tech front:

1. The 3G iPhone
   
   iPhone - almost every developer's wet dream. Other than lousy battery life, lack of MMS, lack of copy-and-paste, and the fact that to use it outside AT&T you have to break the law (though the latest iPhone is now jailbroken), it's still a disproportionate leader in terms of mobile Internet traffic contributor. Also, the number of paid-apps on iTunes App store has now surpassed free ones. With 500+ apps and counting, you can't rely on stunts like "I am Rich" to get rich ;)
   
   
2. Google Android
   
   The first Android phone, HTC Dream, is out now. With so many platforms available, it really makes any developer pause before committing to support a new platform. Is Android the future? Or iPhone? Or Symbian? The trends point towards the web app model. Companies everywhere are tired of releasing different versions of apps that need to work on thousands of OS & VM variants running on different phones. Write once, run anywhere? Write once, pray it'll run somewhere :) All in all it makes more sense, but not for another few more years...
   
   
3. Mobi-ready?
   
   Interesting movement to make the Web (as we know it now) mobile-ready and mobile-friendly. Some sites here and here.
   
   
4. J2ME Security Vulnerability
   
   Adam Gowdiak broke the JVM sandbox on J2ME architecture. Whee! This could be a cry of freedom for many J2ME developers, though it requires more than a wee bit of bytecode-level hacking to be able to commercially exploit this flaw. Also, if you can exploit this flaw, so could the malicious hackers.
   
   
5. Facebook Connect
   
   Is this the "one ring to bind them all"? OpenSocial is another competitor. Much as this would be a boon for developers, I have reservations about using just one ID online. Plus Facebook wants every site to know your real name and identity.
   

I just came back from a trip to Vancouver, the world's capital of mobile and games developers, and San Francisco. Beautiful cities, great ideas, optimistic people!

Gratia plena

In the past one month or so, the topic of "grace" has been dominating my interest and reading. It started out with a simple question during a doctrine class in which a priest was teaching a bunch of us about sacraments - and in particular, baptism. I can't recall exactly what the question was -- I think it was adherence to natural law and the merits of non-Christians -- but the reply given was like a burst of light.

In short, he explained that in his experience, conversion to the Christian faith owes most of it to grace, rather than human merit alone. So, the non-believer or those who have never encountered the faith can be saved not only because they live in a just manner, but chiefly because God gave them grace.

Grace... what is that? Although I have been a Catholic for thirteen years now, the word "grace" has only been part of my familiar vocabulary in the last one year. Partly as part of discerning my vocation, the term "grace" entered my life through the various spiritual directors and mentors. And yet, its meaning was never made clear. At best, grace is defined as "participation in divine life." As if this definition would elucidate anyone...

Since then, I searched to find out more about Grace, and found an excellent primer in Charles Journet's "Meaning of Grace". He wrote brilliantly about grace - what it is, what it is not, and the role of grace in the Catholic interpretation of what some Protestants believe of 'predestination.' Pick it up and gain a deeper appreciation for the treasure that we have in earthen vessels.

And today, as we celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady, a day that has always been graced with signs thus far, I turn my thoughts to Our Lady, Our Mother, who is full of grace, gratia plena. Her immaculate conception probably meant that she never had to struggle against resisting graces. In fact, thinking about it, all we have to do is to NOT obstruct the workings of grace in our lives. Next to the Holy Spirit, she is our best teacher when it comes to cultivating disposition towards grace. Mater divinae gratiae, ora pro nobis.

Update on the rosary widget

The latest rosary widget is here... I know it has been a long time since I wrote here... here's one update I'd like to share with everyone.

What are the changes? I've put the rosary into beads-string form, and you can track your 'current bead' as indicated by a single rose. Also, I've added another link to reflection, not only to Fr Z's patristics rosary project, but to St Josemaria Escriva's Holy Rosary reflections.

You can download it from Yahoo! official Widgets Gallery here.