Monthly Archives: August 2009

What about the less obvious errors?

Posted on August 27, 2009 by ben

The New Scientist points out a case of genotyping error by one of the consumer genomics companies, where a software bug caused a genotype to appear non-human. The article attempts to be reassuring: Before other deCODEme customers get too irate … Continue reading →

Posted in genomic, health, medical | Leave a comment

Real-world usage sometimes includes things you don’t like

Posted on August 25, 2009 by ben

When people criticize RDFa without much experience really working with it, I tend to ignore the comments, because they’re usually out to prove some subjective point about what they think the Web should be like (“prefixes are ugly!” “Yahoo’s RDFa … Continue reading →

Posted in web | 12 Comments

Schneier on self-enforcing protocols and voting

Posted on August 18, 2009 by ben

Bruce Schneier pens another great article on how certain protocols between people who do not trust one another can be set up to prevent cheating without third-party oversight. Of course, the gem of the article pertains to voting: Modern voting … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, voting | Leave a comment

Quick Thoughts from EVT Day #2

Posted on August 12, 2009 by ben

I gave an invited talk on crypto voting. Ran out of time, as usual. I need to find a way to describe this stuff more efficiently. Later, I also presented MarkPledge2, joint work with Andy Neff. Olivier de Marneffe presented … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting | Leave a comment

EVT/WOTE 2009, Day 1, Afternoon

Posted on August 10, 2009 by ben

I had to miss the first afternoon session of EVT/WOTE to attend WOOT (Workshop on Offensive Technologies) where Adam was presenting a paper Collin and I co-authored on hijacking bookmarklets (I wrote about this work a few months ago). Sadly, … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting | Leave a comment

EVT/WOTE 2009, Day 1, Morning

Posted on August 10, 2009 by ben

I’m at the Electronic Voting Technology / Workshop on Trustworthy Elections get-together (in Montreal). A few thoughts about the day and talks. Keynote Larry Norden from the Brennan Center is proposing a few ideas about what the voting community should … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting | Leave a comment

HealthEngage leaking email addresses?

Posted on August 3, 2009 by ben

For more than 10 years now, I’ve used custom email addresses when I log in to a web site I don’t fully trust, e.g. ben-SITENAME at adida.net. Until recently, the only time I’ve actually been able to trace emails to … Continue reading →

Posted in medical, privacy | 4 Comments

Creative Commons and the Associated Press

Posted on August 1, 2009 by ben

Some thoughts about the recent Associated Press / Creative Commons story: When Creative Commons launched in 2002, we were often asked “is Creative Commons a form of DRM?” Our answer: no, we help publishers express their rights, but we don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in uncategorized | Leave a comment