For better or for worse, we presently rely very heavily on username/password combinations to identify ourselves to computers and other devices in our daily lives. Many — perhaps most — of these password management techniques are flawed, despite the fact that they show up in many so-called Best Practices guides. Although we should be moving rapidly toward 2-factor authentication, this note examines the problems with passwords as they exist today.
I served as the head referee for the 14th edition of the annual Tour of Japan professional bicycle race during May 16-23. The race, which ran from Osaka to Tokyo over the course of a week, was challenging for riders, organizers and officials alike. These are some of my observations about the seven-stage, eight-day event.
Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama announced his resignation this week, leading to the first major leadership challenge for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan since taking office in a landslide last year. The selection of Kan was not unexpected, but highlights a number of more subtle, long-term trends in Japan’s post-war evolution.
The cherry blossom season holds a lot of importance in Japan. It’s a sign of beauty and life, but it’s also a social occasion across the country. I did a bit more hanami, or flower viewing, this year than I was able to last year, and had an excellent experience at the famous castles of Osaka and Himeji.
Recently, an amusing phenomenon came up on Facebook: a page that claimed to let you type words upside down. But when I actually followed the link later on, I found it led you to a gaming website. But I discovered the Unicode characters they were using to generate the upside down characters, which would be easy enough to enter manually.
On Tuesday, January 5th, 2010, I headed to my local train station, as usual, to head toward the Tennoji section of Osaka. The traditional new year’s holiday is called o-shogatsu, an honorific term referring to it being the start of the first month of the new year, and typically strings along from the first to [...]
