General . Machine Learning
MIT Spam Conference 2008 Concludes
On March 28, 2008 by Jonathan ZdziarskiThe MIT Spam Conference concluded today with some great talks by various researchers in the field. I was particular sorry that I arrived late to miss Kathy Liszka’s talk on “Neural Networks for Image Spam”, as the tail end of it appeared very good. One thing I did notice that was quite refreshing about this
Apple
Tales From the Apple Store
On March 25, 2008 by Jonathan ZdziarskiLast night marked a unique event in history. The Apple Store in Cambridge MA allowed me to come in through the front door and deliver a keynote to some 200+ people as they hosted the Mobile Monday Boston conference. In spite of the sheer chaos of fitting so many people into such a small store, and the generally poor acoustics of a mall, what the conference lacked in elegance was quickly made up for in quality of content.
Apple . Essays
The Ethics of Hacking
On March 1, 2008 by Jonathan Zdziarski
It looks like I missed the 1960s, but I’ve read that there were plenty of free drugs and free sex to go around. One thing that apparently wasn’t free, though, was telephone equipment. And behind all of the groovy things to do back then, the one thing nerds seemed to be into was having fun with the telephone networks. The digital telephone network was brand new, and so consumer ignorance was at an all-time high. This made for easy profiting – AT&T had made a killing by charging their customers not only for telephone service, but to pay usage and equipment rental fees for telephones, answering machines, and anything else you wanted to plug into your phone jack.
Forensics
File Vault’s Dirty Little Secrets
On January 1, 2008 by Jonathan ZdziarskiFile Vault is the encryption mechanism used to protect user accounts on Apple’s Mac OS X file system. While disabled by default, many people rely on file vault to protect their personal data. Many criminals, no doubt, also use file vault to encrypt content that would otherwise be incriminating. The security offered by an encrypted volume comes at a price – Apple’s closed source approach has left a significant amount of ambiguity about how the system actually works, and many erroneous assumptions have left holes for data to be recoverable. Among these misconceptions are the idea that raw data inside a vault cannot be accessed, and the erroneous belief that mechanisms such as Apple’s free space wipe will remove deleted data. This brief how-to shows you how to obtain a raw disk image from a file vault, and illustrates that deleted data can be recovered. It also shows that mechanisms like Disk Utility’s “Erase Free Space” option doesn’t affect the deleted contents inside a vault.
Christianity . Essays
The Fallacy of the Prosperity Sermon
On June 1, 2007 by Jonathan ZdziarskiCountless sermons have been preached instructing people to give, and God will let you have the car you want, the house you want, and the life you want. Amusingly, my web logs indicate that this essay is found frequently by pastors Googling for prosperity sermons to preach on Sunday. It seems strange, though, that a people who profess to follow Christ are so anxious to convince the church that God wants them to be rich, when the Bible teaches no such thing – God has promised us no such prosperity, but only trials, tribulation, and possibly martyrdom. James teaches us that there’s something profoundly wrong with a miser, treating the notion of being rich as a sign of poor character in their lack of generosity. So are pastors just in error, wanting to see their congregation blessed in this consumer driven American culture, or are they preaching up promises of breakthroughs and finances because they know they’ll reap some of the benefits? In either case, Christians shouldn’t be so naive, given the role models we have in Jesus and the apostles.
Christianity . Essays
Restoring the Beauty of the Didache
On August 1, 2006 by Jonathan ZdziarskiI’ve spent many late evenings over the past month translating and researching an intriguing early Christian manuscript called the Didache. Greek for teaching, this first century Greek manuscript reveals the life and heart of the early Church. It has been the center of much academic interest and controversy since its rediscovery in 1883. Prior to this, it was once thought lost to history, although many early church fathers including Athanasius, Rufinus, and John of Damascas cited the book as inspired scripture. It was also accepted into the Apostolic Constitutions Canon 85 and the 81-book Ethiopic Canon. Many early church fathers including Barnabas, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen either quote or reference the Didache.
Essays
Embracing Senility
On February 1, 2006 by Jonathan ZdziarskiA friend of mine proceeded half way home with lunch in hand after being delayed four minutes by an old, senile man who insisted upon checking his sandwich order. Shortly thereafter, she realized that her own turkey sandwich lacked an all-important ingredient – namely the turkey. They say that it’s counterproductive to turn back once you pass the halfway-home marker, and so she did what any other ordinary American would do –