I keep hearing on the news that today is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech. I also keep hearing that today is the last day of the Democratic Convention, which will be featuring a speech by Barack Obama. I have to wonder if the timing of the convention happened to be planned to be corresponding to the anniversary of the Martin Luther King speech? If not I find it a very interesting coincidence in historical events!
The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) has a department called Information Systems and Internet Security (ISIS) Lab. This Lab concentrates on the newest areas of information security. Currently they are focusing on digital forensics, computer and network security, digital watermarking, steganography, and hardware for secure systems.
The ISIS Lab is holding their fifth annual Cyber Security Awareness Week from now until October 14. A very large part of the week is an information security competition run by students. The competition will culminate with an awards ceremony and presentations by industry leaders. The competition is open to students around the country, not just limited to NYU-Poly. Interested students can register for the competition at isis.poly.edu/csaw/.
Cash prizes will be given to the winners of the competition. There are seven categories of competition, and each category will have their own prizes. The categories are Security Quiz, Research Poster, Forensics, AppSec Capture the Flag, Essay Contest, Security Awareness Posters, and Underhanded Hardware.
First prize is $500. Second prize is $250, and third prize is $100. There will also be door prizes, bonus prizes and raffles for high school and undergraduate participants. A travel scholarship will be awarded to qualified finalists to attend the awards ceremony in New York City.
We’ve got the television on tonight, waiting to hear Hillary Clinton’s speech at the convention. My parents and I were all hoping that Hillary would have been Obama’s VP choice, and are very disappointed that he picked Biden instead. We think it will be very difficult for Hillary to make a good speech encouraging everyone to vote for Obama under the circumstances, and we want to see how well she does.
I was reading an article in a local newspaper about how many public transportation methods are upgrading their services to attract more riders. The article was talking about how bus stations are equipping themselves with Wi-Fi, and making their buses more comfortable to ride in. One of the things they are doing with the new buses is putting more soundproofing in the floors. That should help! I think it would be great if the long distance buses and trains offered Wi-Fi on the bus and/or train!
I know that poodles are among the smartest dogs, but I really was quite amazed when I read the news story on ananova.com about the Chinese couple that got a warning ticket for trying to teach their poodle how to drive their car on a Chinese expressway! The article talks about how the local police noticed a car that was driving too slowly, and upon investigation saw that a poodle was sitting on a woman’s lap, steering the car. The woman was operating the foot pedals. I think that the woman deserved more than just a “warning” ticket! What a nut!
