Michael's musings

Thu, 07 Aug 2008

Blue Skies parking

Last weekend was the 35th Blue Skies Music Festival. We went on Saturday for the day. I've been to this event since I was about 16 (yes, with my mom!). I'm 37 now. It's a great place, and I was very excited for Liam, my 3 year old, to visit.

It's his 3rd trip (we didn't go when he was 2 months old), and this time was a bit familliar for him. He'll remember it.

It was very rainy. We arrived at noon, just before the torrential rain. Oh well. That's life. It cleared up between 3pm and 10pm, enough to enjoy ourselves.

What I do not enjoy is driving to Blue Skies. As a non-car owner, we have either rented cars, or gone with people who had them. This time we took a vrtucar. We stayed in Perth at a B&B on Saturday night, which involves 30 minutes of driving before we can sleep.

You can camp there, but it can be hard to get camping tickets. Camping involves bringing more stuff, which, alas, really means more/larger vehicles.

This year, they parked more of the weekend people on the road, and the result was a 2km long row of cars parked on the side of the road. Some people parked on the right-hand side as well, which was really bad idea. Walking down the road, on the cloudy night at 10pm, to fetch the car, was a bit scary: dark (except for my "shaker" flashlight, and my freeswan keychain), except when a car came at you, at which point one was blind.

But, I kept wondering: why do I have to drive at all. Why do we have to have so many cars HERE?

It is time to organize a bus to Blue Skies.

Years ago, I wanted to cycle all the way there (strong cyclists can do it in a day from Ottawa, no problem. Go Friday, come back Monday). I wanted someone to take my stuff, however.

A bus might be able to take people, stuff, and stuff for cyclists.

Best would be to have several bus loads of people. If the buses are available, do not drive them back, but rather, park them there. The last bus could return, however, and take the drivers of the other buses back home.

Bill C-61 and tcpdump -- my concerns

I am concerned that Bill C-61 will make possession of tcpdump, (i.e. having it installed on your computer), illegal.

Here is the thing: despite ample evidence that the TV "scramblers" were easily defeated, satellite TV operators have never actually deployed much security other than security-by-obscurity.

Even the "modern" digital systems, where you need to use a phone line to get pay-per-view, which could TRIVIALLY use public key cryptography to provide security, they do not use such systems.

Instead, they have relied upon ligitation to prevent "theft"

look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTA_Receiver

"Unlike traditional methods of pirate decryption that involve altered smart cards used with satellite receivers manufactured and distributed by the provider, piracy involving FTA receivers require only an update to the receiver's firmware."

"Periodically, the provider will change the processes in which encryption information is sent. "

But, if they are sending the encryption keys inline, then there is no real security. It might as well just be encoded in a complex way

The Radiocommunications act says:

(http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/ShowFullDoc/cs/R-2///en)

OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENT
Prohibitions
9. (1) No person shall
(a) knowingly send, transmit or cause to be sent or transmitted any
    false or fraudulent distress signal, message, call or radiogram of
    any kind;
(b) without lawful excuse, interfere with or obstruct any
    radiocommunication;
(c) decode an encrypted subscription programming signal or encrypted
    network feed otherwise than under and in accordance with an
    authorization from the lawful distributor of the signal or feed;
(d) operate a radio apparatus so as to receive an encrypted subscription
    programming signal or encrypted network feed that has been decoded
    in contravention of paragraph (c); or
(e) retransmit to the public an encrypted subscription programming
    signal or encrypted network feed that has been decoded in
    contravention of paragraph (c).

but the act does not define encryption. As the Supreme Court found that satellite systems were in fact "encrypted", and therefore protected (cf: http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2002/2002scc42/2002scc42.html)

that tells me, that if I decode (not just "decrypt" as cryptographers would think) a signal, then I may be enfringing copyright.

That's okay so far, as it's been the act of infringing that was illegal, so as long as I do not "decrypt" the wrong signals, then I'm okay.

But, C-61 makes possession of such tools illegal.

Note that tcpdump/wireshark not only decodes dozens of protocols (including some which have never had published specifications), but it also, provided with the keys, will decrypt IPsec ESP (VPN) packets.

I even wrote the ESP code --- because I needed it to debug VPN code. It's still very secure, because I have to provide the keys "out-of-band", but there are dozens of protocols which is not secure.

For instance, all of the emails that you send, web pages that are communicated between my server and your computer (including this one) have an implicit copyright. If I look at them transitting the internet, I may be violating your copyright! (Am I violating your privacy? Did you have an expectation of privacy? I'm not sure.)

references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_decryption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTA_Receiver http://www3.sympatico.ca/dylan.reid/satellitetv.html http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2002/2002scc42/2002scc42.html http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/ShowFullDoc/cs/R-2///en

Hey Big-Daddy's: Blackened Catfish should be black

On Sunday night, we went out for dinner. We were divided between Indian and Cajun. Liam decided he wanted catfish, so to Big Daddy's Crab Shack we went. We don't visit Fisher/Baseline much, as it's a pain, but we still had our Vrtucar from the Blue Skies trip.

Liam mis-behaved, and went to sleep on me instead of eating, but that's a different storey.

My fish arrived. It was white. At first, I didn't pay attention, too concerned about keeping Liam awake. I cut it up with my fork, and then was about to eat it when I looked carefully and noticed... it's not black. It doesn't even look like it's been near a pan!

I finally called our waiter over, and complained. He took it back. I couldn't see the kitchen, but Meaghan could, and she said the cook came out to look at us. My fish was returned to me, with some red-spice on it. Allspice or something.

We should have gotten up and left at that point, but Liam was fast asleep and I was hungry, so I ate it.

I question whether this fish was cooked, or just defrosted.

But, we certainly will not be returning to Big Daddy's Crab Shack.

Fri, 01 Aug 2008

Strollers on buses (letter to CBC all-in-a-day)

From: Michael Richardson <mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>
To: allinday@cbc.ca
Subject: strollers on buses
X-Mailer: MH-E 7.82; nmh 1.1; XEmacs 21.4 (patch 19)
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:52:04 -0400
Sender: mcr@marajade.sandelman.ca

I am the father of a 3 year-old. I depend upon transit. I expect to have more children.

I have definitely seen strollers that are too big, but I have also seen far too many patrons, including older people, who will not move to get out of the way. I think is the because most of the bus operators do not give the older people (or the people with strollers) enough time to sit down.

I have both large (running stroller, yes a Chariot Cheetah) and smaller ones, including an umbrella stroller that we bought for $10, and has over 20,000km of travel on it (much of it in a luggage hold)

With a three-year old I do not need a stroller anymore, fortunately.

I am definitely in favour of limiting the size of strollers on buses. I definitely would like that. It would make my life easier, as it would make more room for more babies!

I am also in favour of limiting who can bring their walker on the bus, and where they can sit, and how big the walkers can be.

The fold-down triple seats need to be replaced: they should have a a two-seat and one-seat fold down, so that I can fold up two seats and sit next to my smaller stroller. Otherwise, I take up FOUR seats.

There is a vertical bar on many buses which keep the motorized wheel chairs from being able to get off the bus easily, causing those patrons to RUN OVER other patrons feet.

Many of the people who have to "move" to keep their feet safe are themselves older people.

Finally, on articulated buses, there are now seats in the articulation. In rush hour, we do not need 4 useless seats, we need standing room. Outside of rush hour, we have lots of seats.

They need to be removed so that there is space for luggage and people to stand, and yes. STROLLERS.