Thursday, February 24, 2011

How To Safely Store A Password | codahale.com

Use bcrypt

Use bcrypt. Use bcrypt. Use bcrypt. Use bcrypt. Use bcrypt. Use bcrypt. Use bcrypt. Use bcrypt. Use bcrypt.

Why Not {MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA512, SHA-3, etc}?

These are all general purpose hash functions, designed to calculate a digest of huge amounts of data in as short a time as possible. This means that they are fantastic for ensuring the integrity of data and utterly rubbish for storing passwords.

A modern server can calculate the MD5 hash of about 330MB every second. If your users have passwords which are lowercase, alphanumeric, and 6 characters long, you can try every single possible password of that size in around 40 seconds.

Posted via email from sente's posterous

Thursday, February 3, 2011

China Bans Reincarnation Without Government Permission

MSNBC:

In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.

At 72, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959, is beginning to plan his succession, saying that he refuses to be reborn in Tibet so long as it's under Chinese control. Assuming he's able to master the feat of controlling his rebirth, as Dalai Lamas supposedly have for the last 600 years, the situation is shaping up in which there could be two Dalai Lamas: one picked by the Chinese government, the other by Buddhist monks. "It will be a very hot issue," says Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford. "The Dalai Lama has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in Tibet, and so it's quite likely the battle for his incarnation will be a lot more important than the others."

Read the whole story: MSNBC

Posted via email from sente's posterous

How Did God Get Started? » Arion » Boston University

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

One day in the Middle East about four thousand years ago, an elderly but still rather astonishingly spry gentleman took his son for a walk up a hill. The young man carried on his back some wood that his father had told him they would use at the top to make an altar, upon which they would then perform the ritual sacrifice of a burnt offering. Unbeknownst to the son, however, the father had another sort of sacrifice in mind altogether. Abraham, the father, had been commanded, by the God he worshipped as supreme above all others, to sacrifice the young man himself, his beloved and only legitimate son, Isaac.

...
via bu.edu

Posted via email from sente's posterous

This Week in God - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 12/01/04 - Video Clip | Comedy Central

Steve Carell vs Stephen Colbert on Islam Christianity

an honest debate from both sides

Posted via email from sente's posterous

S0BtP.jpg (485×728)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

nixon.jpg (800×552)

There’s a little Neanderthal in us - The Boston Globe

“It’s like living in a science fiction story that comes true,’’ said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University not involved in the research. “Do some of those genes help us understand why it is we’re here and Neanderthals aren’t? The answers aren’t there yet, but the fact that these data are available and we could start asking these questions is incredibly exciting.’’

Posted via email from sente's posterous

Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way on Vimeo

Where I want to be

Posted via email from sente's posterous