irldexter

On Common Ground

2011-12-31T03:18:00.009+11:00

Where is the common ground but the human condition?

There is a lot to be said of 'choice architectures', surrounding oneself with elements of positivity, energy, and potentiality... but also in re-engaging one's roots and meeting the current reality with as much neutrality and equanimity as one can muster.

To be intimate with and embrace ephemeral feelings, to transcend and include, yet engage the impermanent… to be human?

Collaborative solitude. Borne of a box.

Where is the balance of focus to be found? In lessening attachments to facilitate action and mastery where are the fundamental lines drawn?

Deepening and widening: Inextricably linked, yet too fast in either direction and the other suffers.
Distracting and numbing: So much energy wasted in pursuit and attainment of escapism from the unbearable lightness of being.

Yet in novelty, adventure, and social interaction new patterns are found/formed… patterns perhaps so unlike the previous ones that higher order states are attained which include a freedom from foundational patterns. There is another pathless path, one of omission, abstinence.. which leads to a different asymptotic purity.

There will always be background noise. There should always be background noise whether internal or external.

This entropy in emptiness is where creation lives.

Ahimsa

2011-11-20T11:02:00.004+11:00

I don’t smush snails or spiders and such...
I avoid ants.
A while ago I think I woke up!
This week I learned of Russian wolves, nature or nurture,
More plastic communities breeding sterile foxes and rabid rabbits,
There are many layers ingesting each other.
Sometimes I maintain silence and omit others, maybe for their good or mine,
Whether my heart beats with ectropy or entropy, patterns emerge...
Two things, or is it three, that let me see from a multitude of angles,
The hornets nest inside is nearly empty,
Room for novelty or commitment?
I think something is living in my beard,
Another new home.

When Nature Conspires For You

2011-06-18T16:43:00.012+10:00

Dave picked us up in Byron Bay (minus his female companion who originally was supposed to come on this research trip) and we proceeded to drop Wade (another Buddhist networker) at Ballina airport. Luckily the Chilean volcano’s ash cloud had only slighlty affected his flight departure home. After a brief local supermarket trip we hit the road in earnest; me with my busted knee and him with his 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser. I had just spent 3 full days at a computer camp at Lake Ainsworth, Lennox Heads. There had been a confluence of our Australian ‘tech brethern’ of 150 strong Ruby on Rails(RoR) programmers and assorted digital makers who had met for some serious fun, learning and collaboration (unfortunately there was a pronounced lack of ‘tech sisters’).

There was intentionally no Internet at camp and albeit I didn’t write any new code, I did make plenty of new connections and learned a helluva’ lot (including some barrista skills) all while my Ruby robot continually nudged the rest of the sangha in cyberspace. The camp was an eclectic environment which supported and welcomed ‘n00b’s (also known as newbies or anyone new to a discipline or topic) which was great as I am a huge supporter of the concept and practice of both ‘beginners mind’ and peer learning in all walks of life. This ‘shoshin’ or beginners mind would also be applied to the next part of the trip as our mission was to delve deeper in to self-sufficiency, permaculture and alternative community models. Our goal was to be achieved by doing and interacting (rather than just reading about), and the destination was a little farm just west of Bellingen, New South Wales.

It was Monday around 9pm and decidedly dark on Darkwood Road when we finally arrived at the property. Having just snuck in across Hobart’s bridge, which was only a few centimetres below water at the time, we realised we were now trapped by the Bellinger river on a 4km strip of beautiful fertile valley. It was inadvertently perfect for a technical ‘cold turkey’ and some surreptitious solitude... though not an intentional goal, neither packets nor humans were coming or going for the next few days. A research trip begun with a reminder by Nature that she was always in control seemed fitting, as did an emphasis on food and energy security. Human and machine redundancy and preparedness, it seems, is crucial (especially when not suckling from a centralised supply chain).

After 36 hours solid rainfall there was a brief respite into which we ventured forth to see the extent of the flooding. The bridge was indeed deep under a torrent of water thus we took the opportunity to call on the neighbours for an informal chat and were taken on an impromptu tour of their garlic farm and homesteading efforts. It also turned out that we were around the corner from the infamous ‘Homelands’ commune (and others such as ‘Patanga’ and ‘Khandahar’) where only recently land divisions which were previously sub-divided and designated as multiple occupancy(MO) are done so no more, and all the land has been classed as environmentally protected.

Two days in and apart from some internal cleaning and sweeping, not much outdoor activity had taken place yet... so when the sky cleared on the morning of the third day it was out with the petrol ‘whipper snipper’s, chainsaw, rakes, gloves and buggy. At the end of the fourth day we dropped tools and headed in to town as the waters had finally receeded enough to get back over the bridge and have a poke around the main street in Bellingen. It remains to be seen how to engage fully with commune and collective members other than that of fostering more connections while volunteering locally or embedding oneself for a longer period of time. Intimate and direct experience of a thing is the only way to truly know something and as only fools rush in, we will tread lightly, cultivate our karma, and continue to do our practical and theoretical homework. Big thanks to @bmatt.

A mixture of brought and local reading material kept the neurons firing during the evenings and rainy days:

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide, John Seymour : ISBN: 978-0-7894-9332-3
Building Green: A Complete How-to Guide To Alternative Building Method: Clarke Snell & Tim Callahan: ISBN 978-1-60059-534-9
Walden and Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau: ISBN 978-0-14-039044-5
Ramana Maharshi and The Path of Self-Knowledge, A biography by Arthur Osbourne: ISBN 0-87728-071-1
You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment, Thich Nhat Hanh: ISBN 978-1-59030-838-7
 Chrome Yellow, Aldous Huxley: ISBN 0-14-000041-0
Grace and Grit, Ken Wilbur: ISBN 0-7171-3234-X
The Glass Bead Game, Herman Hesse: ISBN 0-14-003438-2
Eyeless in Gaza, Aldous Huxley: ISBN 0-14-001050-5
Who is the Buddha?, Sangharakshita: ISBN 1-899579-51-6
What is the Dharma?, Sangharakshita: ISBN 1-899579-01-X
What is the Sangha?, Sangharakshita: ISBN 1-899579-31-1
Be Love Now, Ram Dass: ISBN 978-1-84604-291-1

Proximity

2011-05-06T11:52:00.007+10:00

Why is proximity important? More so, why is human proximity important for pods, tribes and long term social cohesion? In my mind nothing can yet replace the smörgåsbord of signals seen and unseen, felt and unfelt that are transmitted between entities when they are physically close especially when they directly and voluntarily interact with one another. From the primary sense gates there is an influx of information via sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. These primary inputs reach us and are perceived as energy vibrations, particles bumping up against us or even passing through us. I breathe your stardust when I am close. Your mass attracts me and your energy can do the same too. There are other senses but we’ll save them for later or subsequent debate.

For any form of information exchange to take place there must be a medium (even a vacuum or the quantum foam) and some energy. Energy moves. Proximity is important because of attenuation (signal degradation) in most mediums. Proximity is important because it allows one to observe and learn about another with less attenuation. Proximity is important because more signals can generally be sent in a shorter space of time between two entities. This promotes understanding, empathy and entrainment between two or more beings.

There are vibrations made by each entity in the act of thinking, breathing, moving or just being. Air is exchanged. Energy is given, drawn or shared. Gravity exists between any two things with mass. With proximity to another there is no substitute for full spectrum engagement enhanced further by presence and awareness.

Technology is a wonderful bridge however... the smell of your hair in the morning, the taste of your skin, the specific momentary look of insecurity followed by a rush of endorphins that cause your nostrils to flare and the hair to stand up on your neck and arms, the timbre of your voice in the quiet of the night and the oneness of form when interlocked in the throes of passion... this all degrades with distance and the co-evolution fades further away irrespective of the initial strength of the connection. Proximity is mindshare and heartshare whether you like it or not. Trajectories must converge regularly enough to enable long term cohesion. From the smallest cluster of two to the largest cohesive tribes, we share signals and synchronise... the strongest signals literally come from the closest.

If one was to introduce quantum holism/non-separability and the spiritual realm in to the debate I would not disagree but would point out that the cultivation of personal depth and the subtlety required to access these mediums are not readily accessible to everyone though we may feel the effects or notice them at different times in our lives.

Soul Islands

2011-05-04T14:32:00.022+10:00

The mundane motel served its purpose well, too well perhaps... it was nothing like the cabin.

The cabin was surrounded by dense forest and nestled on the edge of a huge canyon. That night there was a new moon and between bouts of deep sleep I had awoken repeatedly from dreams of past, present and future. There was fresh water, a fire, logs, fresh herbs and comfortable furnishings. The dappled sunlight drew many contrasts and the latent energies and stories left by visitors formed part of the fabric of the space and time.

How I arrived there was not by chance, there was karma in it, there was intent in it and there was peace in it. The peace was as much cultivated and brought as it was a reflection and enhancement of the environment.

It’s more apparent to me each day that the energy, focus and attention I bring to my body, heart and mind, the better things become for those I interact with and also for myself. As I dropped one of my Dharma brothers off at the Blackheath Vipassana centre to serve again, I was reminded of the reticence by many in their daily lives to stop and investigate deeply that which they are. It is perhaps a luxury, though some would say a necessity to take time to be fully present within oneself. Presence may be cultivated through direct experience and investigation of oneself. This process benefits from a reduction and preferably a temporary cessation of external stimuli. Many of us numb reality and gravitate towards information rich and stimulating environments all the while ignorant of the subtle and even gross effects on our bodies, hearts and minds. As we stream experience in to our consciousness we also ingest air, water and food which constitute our being. It is not until we fast or shift large portions of these many diets that we have the ability to experientially compare and contrast different states of being.

There is indeed a certain dualism and test driven mentality that leads to a more holistic physical, mental and spiritual approach to life - but unfortunately not many have the awareness, will, time nor resources to indulge in such experimentation. Some continue seeking elsewhere or get trapped in the seeking itself (all the while believing something better is just around the next corner). Some never realise that a process of 'selective watering' is available to them internally at any moment. A process which does not require external journeying to elicit calmness, contentedness, tranquility, empathy or compassion. Once the choice is made to explore the inner world and not exclusively the outer world, a profound shift entails. The inward journey has no destination and is founded upon a constant arriving in the present e.g. the here and now. A new awareness is born and the life stream is never the same again.

Our relationships with people and things are predicated upon and evolve based upon our perceptions, emotions, consciousness and form. We find ourselves in certain environments, clusters of people or events due to complex yet simple connections and the conscious or unconscious choices we make every second. For the most part, that which we sow we reap. On each persons journey there may be fear of loss or that of a void, however the void is not empty, it is full of potential and there are many islands if required. These islands are those of other people and communities also on the path (sometimes encountered in the most unexpected of spaces).

As a liquid lifeform some of the most important things beyond basic survival may be:
- realising the control and potential you have to shape your own substance and that of others
- how you relate to, interact with and affect other entities and your environment
- which environments and entities to share and grow your energies with

Simian Seas

2011-03-31T00:50:00.013+11:00

This morning a small monkey climbed up my leg.

I did not react. I observed. I bore the monkey no ill will, nor he I. He was asking me for something, wanting a thing, trying desperately to see inside the cap I was carrying. There was nothing in the cap but pen and paper - no food, no sustenance... perhaps a thing of novelty value but nothing worth clinging to. A warden waved the monkey down and the bewildered monkey went off to harass a little japanese girl with a backpack and a NintendoDS.

Two monkeys - subject/object, object/subject. He and I, not much difference overall. Both monkey minds, both with base survival needs, both driven to explore, procreate, protect and survive. There in the forest was a microcosm of human society (though I not part of their troupe), me perhaps only in possession of a better understanding of fear, love and self. Welcome to the blessing and curse of consciousness; the ability to think about thinking, to symbolise, codify and to abstract, to transmit via language and stories over and above basic mimesis.

Post the simian encounter my mind focused on mind, mastery and flow. From whenceforth does ‘source reality’ and the perception thereof spring? What layers, means and methods can one either use, distill or dispense with to access it neutrally, fully, and in all its ‘oneness’. In either the act of commission or omission we utilise duality to come full circle and approach holism. When can there be a non-contradiction of opposites? And what is the state before and after meaning is made?

Later in the day a random girl tapped me on the shoulder as I explored Yoga Barn in Ubud and advised I go to a special Yoga workshop led by Mark Whitwell beginning in 30mins, so I did. He spoke of the most basic ‘practice’ with breath encompassing the whole body and mind, a practice that cultivates a loving intimacy with reality. He decried the conventional concept of guru as teacher but rather that of being a friend, “no more than a friend and no less than a friend” (Incidentally he is coming to Melbourne this week, a fact garnered after a serendipitious shared exit from Yoga Barn). We practiced overlooking rice paddies, the air rich in oxygen and love.

As I sat quietly after the workshop I thought about Zen practice and other similar disciplines. I thought about practices which investigate reality via direct experience and focus on shedding societal programming and pre-conceived ideas. These practices are test driven approaches that require discipline, effort and commitment from the participant. They ask to be rigourously challenged, doubted and debunked, and herein lies one of their strengths. It is interesting that in the same way I cannot explain the minutiae and autonomic process of walking, I can do it and experience the results e.g. locomotion. Some of these mind/body techniques and technologies to access reality more fully do indeed demonstrate results (in many cases science is only now catching up).

So I ask you, if snorkelling was ‘spiritual tourism’, open water scuba diving was a hierarchical ‘organised religion’, what would ice/night/cave/deep/rescue diving be?

In my opinion Zen would be free diving... would Yoga be swimming?

Compression

2011-03-15T11:02:00.006+11:00

Currently there are only 3 people on this planet I know of whom I can talk to in the manner below. We each share history in building and operating global computer networks, an alignment with Buddhism and having seriously detached+reattached to reality.

(One is currently sitting under the Bodhi tree right now / or about to bring his own Zen up a mountain in Nepal... and the other is back in Sydney from San Francisco; meet @wadeis )

Note: Of the three of us, I am the middle brother by age however we are all both little and big brothers to each other!

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 11:31 PM, Donal irldexter@gmail.com wrote to wadeis@gmail.com:

BASE überplasticity (Basically Available, Soft state, Eventual consistency)
Depends upon speed of convergence, integration and lifetime of the
conscious organism (meme horizon, ectropic, loci)
Would it entail singularity, death, punctuated equilibrium? Ectropy/Extropy?

Do we always need a trailing edge of entropy and a slipstream for the
successful memes/tech/moves for the mainstream, including a lagging
structural legacy to slow us enough for coherence?

Must we be dispersed and diverse to survive and prevent a monoculture
which is weak?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemical_evolution

Donal

Response:

the re-branding of indra's net as uberplasticity is cool, I find it harder to grok, but it has better language origins :).

BASE to me sounds like Hadoop! There's something to be said about the concept, and again, tying it back makes it easier to work with ;).

We're all different people with different experiences and understandings, always will be different levels and stages of acceptance and understanding. Nothing happens all at one. BASE just pushes that concept to it's maximums.

Keep in lalaland, BGP Peers required, perhaps multiple border routers, then propagate the information down/upstream. The idea of self-elected control/speaking points (both tech and real world) sounds fun to me. Allow nodes to change state based on environment. Reminds me of the dcpromo command, converting a server to a domain controller. escalate privileges. Backbone networks/links required to disseminate information. I LOVE sneakernets. (world a)-----walks to/meets------(world b) and we have convergence :).

Took a while to reply From Australia Day no less!

Kindly,

Me

--
wade.is

Question: Who in your life do you have the highest bandwidth conversations with?

Foundations and Founders

2011-02-20T21:34:00.014+11:00

Generally one seeks to minimise change in foundations. Foundations bear great loads and provide the groundwork for future development. Albeit we humans are überplastic in both mind and body, there is a continuum of being that we relate to over time. This identity emerges through consistency of actions, feelings and signals, and is the basis for most knowing and trusting amongst us.

This base level consistency allows us to build human relationships, to grow them, and to devise ever more complex systems, patterns and languages (such that the underlying principles are strong and unyielding). A child's formative years lay down the initial foundation for how they perceive and interact with the world, however there is still a chance to remould or supplement these foundations later in life. Irrespective of the depth or impact of the initial programming, one can still heal deep wounds or conversely damage or erode their own basis over time. Sometimes throughout life, events outside of our control may challenge us to the core and rock our own foundations.

Once an entity becomes fully self-aware there is the capacity to both re-architect and gradually morph ones foundations (if one so chooses). Self-determination is a powerful force to re-shape oneself and by association society... with the proviso that the entity cannot remain in a state of flux but must establish new foundations upon which to build and operate from.

When embarking upon such an endeavour, self-knowing and understanding of the system one operates within is paramount. When one decides to begin again, it is also helpful to adopt a beginners mind. Many have heard a child pester bigger kids or *adults* with the repetitive question ‘why’... this is a wonderful place to begin e.g. no assumptions, presumptions and a new blank slate.

A complementary practice to the question ‘why’ is that of creating more personal space and time with less chaotic energy. This allows ones own resources and senses to embark upon an inward journey to arrive at ‘what is’ ones own core or foundation.

When a new core set of principles and values are established they are hopefully demonstrated and embodied in all actions, reactions or inaction. Albeit they may be expressed in different ways, one should never bend, waiver nor submit to the excuse of context.

I challenge you to become your own founder.

Catapults

2011-02-02T00:27:00.007+11:00

Sometimes I search my plain text twitter archives on my laptop for keywords or groups of keywords and a blog post just kinda' emerges...

laptop-3:ruby doduibhi$ grep -i -P "(superorganism|augment|mindful|velocity|attention|plasticity)" archive | sort -k6n -k1 -k2 -M -k3 -k4 | cut -d ' ' -f 2,6,8-100 | uniq

May 2009 Is there a market for de-augmented and re-augmented reality?
May 2009 I just want the feature, not the featureset, not the feature velocity, not the product!
Jun 2009 Survival of the most adaptable. Information overload, brain plasticity or unplug?
Jul 2009 @rosshill "Time has no value without attention. " http://twitter.com/irldexter/status/2595276173 -> Awareness....
Aug 2009 Like TV,be mindful WHO or what you give unfettered/extended access to your consciousness +awareness, inc yourself #themiddleway #programming
Aug 2009 Loose coupling + autonomous systems, gift economy, transitive trust,complexity, architecture,superorganisms +homeostasis?FAIL@ #alr
Aug 2009 "If you're not tweeting about #techfail you should be paying attention to me!" @melinachan #sleepygeeky
Sep 2009 How to find coworking spaces with augmented reality http://www.worksnug.com/ #meljel #coworking coming soon?
Nov 2009 Augment me.Symbolic.Labels.Not the thing.Close.Describe.Convey.Share.Group.Quanta. Scale.Richness. Human #me #u #us #global
Jan 2010 No time is ever wasted if it results in realization. #mindfulness #awareness #tiring #recharge #both-always
Jan 2010 "Speaking of karma points and augmented reality".. awesome chat with colleague...
Feb 2010 Life repeats itself mindlessly, unless you become mindful, it will go on repeating like a wheel: Osho /via @TheGodLight
Feb 2010 Attention
Feb 2010 Mindshare, attention, time and energy. Discretionary? Precious gifts? Informed by? Elective environment/compulsory culture #freedom #maslow
Apr 2010 @LamyaB selfish intellectual pursuits & passions sometimes affect my mindfulness & love to/towards others + physical healthiness etc :)
Apr 2010 Hack ALL your human inputs,your perception/decision engines,value systems-> your outputs are others inputs. Global neuroplasticity!
May 2010 @lamyab Encoded information. De-augment my reality pls, are we heading for this perhaps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j16Zwx6_Ys0
May 2010 OMFG. Superorganism. Connectedness. Love. Super TED talk http://bit.ly/netnodes /aligns to @nodecity @inspire9 @wadeis #feedback
May 2010 Life repeats itself mindlessly, unless you become mindful, it will go on repeating like a wheel: Osho
May 2010 The Internet is a new hybrid nervous system for the planet. Faster global neuroplasticity than the original network?
Jun 2010 @paulzee experiment... hybrid emergent story.. Terry is real/MBW is not. Attention is power. Sheep. Scarcity. Dilution. Subversion?
Jun 2010 Attention seeking ego pacification.
Jun 2010 Aug 29th 2000 Goenka addresses the U.N. Peace Summit, simple yet powerful stuff: http://s.nodecity.com/goenka #neuroplasticity
Jun 2010 @pieterpeach this scares the shit out of me.. de-augment #simulacrum #multiverse http://s.nodecity.com/hyper #reality #soma
Jun 2010 @PieterPeach neuroplasticity 'The Brain that Changes Itself' :) http://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brain_That_Changes_Itself #nowapplytosociety
Jun 2010 Quantum foam. Waveforms. Consciousness. Neuroplasticity. Spheres/nodes. Influence. Interconnectedness. Fuzzy frameworks. Social cohesion.
Jun 2010 A mind that is very clear, a mind that is full of attention and love - why should such a mind demand any more experience?
Jun 2010 Be mindful of mind pollution. Image: http://s.nodecity.com/pollute #find #zerospace
Jul 2010 Tribalism. Social Cohesion. Value/Scarcity. Choice Architecture. Complexity. Influence. Amplification. Group entities. Superorganism.
Jul 2010 @wadeis @suzieis @janstewart Healing spaces, healing people. Choose (if you can) both wisely for you become them and they you #plasticity
Jul 2010 @KateKendall (e) All of the above and more ;) #privacy #attention #fatigue #productivity #utility #digitalmnmlism #phase1
Jul 2010 @xshay Smiling! Bravo! Aside: like to think of mind as a codebase & recursive filter. Architecture. Foundations. Neuroplasticity. Biohack.
Aug 2010 . @paulzee Rapid selection and convergence, ideas are cheap and fast. Superorganism. Cell walls still need to mutate.
Aug 2010 @paulzee Superorganism must survive. Interconnectedness realised. Bell curve moves in unison.Vote with attention.No energy wasted.Intrinsic.
Aug 2010 The fabric is fertile for the practice of mindfulness and the understanding of interconnectedness.
Aug 2010 The human superorganism is very sick. Aggregate mental health is worsening. We tipped too far towards individuality/selfishness.
Sep 2010 Attention seeking ego pacification.
Sep 2010 @rosshill Superorganism/aggregate mental health of humans is very sick. Healing comes from inside not outside.
Sep 2010 To give another pure undiluted presence and full attention.
Sep 2010 Meaning.Openness. Enthusiasm.Novelty. Connectedness.Relationship.Compassion. Psychosocial.Practice.Impermanence. ÜBERPLASTICITY=HOPE
Oct 2010 Novelocity
Oct 2010 Hee hee, I've been banging on about de-augmenting/diminished reality for a while :) Less encoding! HT @chenglau http://ow.ly/31LJ4
Oct 2010 Novelocity explained [New Post]: http://s.nodecity.com/novelocity
Oct 2010 Everything and anything degrades via neglect/impermanence #entropy ∴ everything worthwhile requires attention + TLC #ectropy #entrainment
Oct 2010 How I experience Time is directly related to the narrowness of my attention and focus. Realising Interconnectedness slows Time.
Oct 2010 @stevehopkins Novelocity!
Oct 2010 There is value in not seeking. Much time is handed back to observation, attention and depth of experience.
Oct 2010 @PieterPeach wondering whether Überplasticity can challenge this...
Nov 2010 As with persistence of vision, there is persistence of thought and imprinting by ones peers and environment #tarpitting #novelocity
Nov 2010 Visibly moving and energetic entities gain more attention.
Nov 2010 Constant change. Permanent impermanence. Maintain plasticity. Consistent character...
Nov 2010 Life repeats itself mindlessly, unless you become mindful, it will go on repeating like a wheel: Osho
Nov 2010 Biking from/to Elwood/Richmond shiny stuff ;) 18% novelocity achieved today. http://yfrog.com/mqnzuoj http://yfrog.com/86nf3cj
Nov 2010 Überplasticity = HOPE !
Nov 2010 Static environment, entities and immersion = depth yet distinct sampling bias #potholing #novelocity
Nov 2010 People who fire together wire together #überplasticity
Dec 2010 Sampling. Sample space. Time. Attractors. Amplification. Favourites. Invisible. Mindfulness. Loyalty. Faith.
Dec 2010 Yes it's very much about relating to a continuity of being whilst maintaining novelocity and witnessing entropy.
Dec 2010 What you see ain't always what you get http://youtu.be/D6t51q2sBjE #augmentedreality
Dec 2010 Mindful mimicry #twoyearolds
Jan 2011 What is Überplasticity? [new audio post] http://s.nodecity.com/uberplastic #hope
Jan 2011 Attention is energy.
Jan 2011 What is Novelocity? Hint: It's not entropy or extropy! Explained: http://wiki.nodecity.com/display/novelocity/nvy
Jan 2011 Sharing/collaborating/vocalising distributes cognitive load amongst greater (sub/un) conscious resources #superorganism #überplasticity
Jan 2011 A mind that is very clear, a mind that is full of attention and love - why should such a mind demand any more experience?
Jan 2011 Translucent mannequins in Indras Net connected umbilically with invisible plasticity. Shine!
Jan 2011 @edwardharran I see the arc... also the macro/societal picture which means: Überplasticity = real HOPE #notetoself #messages #trimtab
Jan 2011 People who fire together wire together #überplasticity /cc @edwardharran
Jan 2011 @evbogue @rosshill Welcome to überplasticity ... /cc @janstewart hyper-group-malleability based on individual trim-tabs & positive resonance
Jan 2011 What is Überplasticity? [new audio post] http://s.nodecity.com/uberplastic #hope cc @edwardharran @evbogue @rosshill @janstewart
Jan 2011 @monkeybrainsnet we call it #überplasticity http://wiki.nodecity.com/display/uplastic/plastic
Jan 2011 All attention is not the same. Beware your complicity in the game.
Jan 2011 @edwardharran loops and holons http://vimeo.com/1166968 #Überplasticity #wedata

kefaya

2011-01-30T12:47:00.005+11:00

I asked @wayupnorth to help me understand what's going on currently in Tunisia, Egypt and the Middle East... she wrote me a quick summary:

The Arab world has long been split, which is one of the reasons Israel gets away with treating the Palestinian Arabs so badly and blockading them in the Gaza strip.

The area involved is North Africa/Middle East.

In Jordan there's a royal family. Same in Saudi Arabia. Both very rich (while their people are poor.) In Yemen there is a dictator for about 26 years. Mubarak has been a dictator in Egypt for the past 30 years. Tunisia had dictator Ben Ali. All of these guys ripped off their countries and the people had unemployment and poverty, etc. Fifty per cent of Egypt's people live below the poverty line. Mubarak used his police to torture, imprison, and subdue the people, while rigging elections so he got 97% of the vote. All these Arab dictators keep/kept their people in line through fear. And they were never united (e.g., to help the Palestinians) as they were all looking out for No 1.

In Tunisia, a poor young man who was fed up with the police taking his unlicensed vegetable cart, set himself on fire, and eventually died on January 4. This sparked a huge rebellion on the streets, and after a few days, the dictator there, Ben Ali, fled to Saudi Arabia. There were murmurs that a "domino effect" *might* happen across the Arab world.

But nobody expected Egypt to erupt. Egypt (huge) is an ally of the US (like Saudi Arabia) and has a peace treaty with Israel -- even helping Israel with blockading Gaza. Everyone despised Mubarak, and the US stands accused of using him to torture people under "extraordinary rendition". Egypt also controls the Suez Canal, which is hugely important.

Several people had set fire to themselves in Egypt recently. On Facebook, a young group organised a general protest about food prices and unemployment for #Jan25. It's been going on ever since, getting bigger by the day, and now they want Mubarak out. Mubarak's family have fled to the UK, but he's still in Cairo. The US is "making noises" (waffle) and Israel is saying nothing. But the implications are *huge* for the whole region.

Thanks Mum... love as always. D.

states

2011-01-18T13:21:00.004+11:00

Gorging and feasting on signals, information and messages.
Glancing and stroking remote shadows of distracted non-present humans.
Catalysts abound, exhausting energy.
Reagents, few and far between.
Richness and depth stem from both acute and ambient focus.
Real connections require proximity.
Maturity, neutrality, transparency and trust in oneself, then uncertainty.
Consistency for the greater part of ones identity allows for relationships and bonds.
Lack of understanding and communication leads to fear and cascading separation.
Union requires love, practice and commitment to an entity.
The environment must be crafted as it reciprocally crafts you.
Awareness, human plasticity and willingness to inhabit emptiness is fertile and true.
Create a continuum that grows, loves, respects, honours and thus, survives.

Namaste D.

Trust_Musings

2010-11-22T21:08:00.005+11:00

From the last post/historical experiment on Trust, an email conversation emerged between myself and Mum (a very warm, humble, talented and enlightened woman!) :

Mum:
Did you learn anything from this? Just wondering ...

Donal: yeah!
a) I think about trust a lot
b) trust is not binary, it can be but is mostly aligned to certain traits in others
c) it's predicated on consistency or belief in anothers critical thought, capacity and history/stability/demonstrated path
d) it's not easily re-earned
e) it's hard to create and quantify trust networks
f) transitive trust is the trickiest bit and based upon clusters and dependencies
g) one needs honesty and trust to form commuity
h) one has to trust themselves before they can extend that understanding and level of trust to others?

What do you think?

Mum:
I think people vary a lot.

For example a child whose trust was broken by say, a teacher or a garda, may have difficulty trusting anyone in authority later on. A child whose trust was badly broken by its parents may have difficulty trusting anyone later on. Both generalisations.

On balance, we're programmed to trust, as it was vital for early man. We're not the biggest animals, or the strongest, and humankind learned early that they survived better in groups/communities. Both for hunting purposes and for their security. So they had to trust others - with their lives.

People with high levels of confidence will trust themselves a lot of the time and not be swayed by others. Those lacking confidence will tend to have less trust in their own judgement. And yes, once broken, it's not easily re-earned.

Note: Mum inhabits the net primarily here http://extra-extra.blogspot.com/ and on twitter here http://twitter.com/wayupnorth (her tweet count is more like 6K #twitterfail). She's been online since 2000, used to run her own domain and newsgroups, and knows a thing or two about how the net works!

TrustArchive

2010-11-18T23:13:00.013+11:00

From my Twitter/tweet archives this is a story about trust over 2 years:

grep -i trust archive | sort -k6n -k1 -k2 -M -k3 -k4 | cut -d ' ' -f 2,6,8-100 | uniq

May 2009 Trust is indeed an issue for the future. Transitive trust. A<->B<->C Identity and Integrity these are the real issues. #futuresummit
May 2009 Australia as a Swiss bank acc. style nation, but as a proxy for federated digital trust and identity? #futuresummit #innovation
Jul 2009 Trust is predicated on preserved identity and shared expectation of outcomes but transitive to how many degrees and historicals?
Jul 2009 @adzap was kinda more aimed at a mate trusting 3rd parties +large companies to "get it right"" cause they're big.Context not clear.Mybad.
Jul 2009 @rosshill more beneficial to think of a transitive trust model +only a single root node in the hierarchy. Not distributed. Ask Bob + Alice!
Aug 2009 Calling all humans: transparency,self regulating systems,trust, integrity,education vs awareness, growing together.... NOW!
Aug 2009 Loose coupling + autonomous systems, gift economy, transitive trust,complexity, architecture,superorganisms +homeostasis?FAIL@ #alr
Aug 2009 @pat yeah wasn't sure, hence the Tweet (even O'Reilly book ?!?) But peeps have2 start somewhere. #quality #trust requests <> good start!
Aug 2009 @Cama Ahuh,independent verification/specialisation is a toughy? In what r who do u place transitive trust? #absolutetruth #belief #nihilism
Aug 2009 @rosshill attribution is tied to identity,validation,trust,cohesion,anonymity,commerce,longevity,sharing,ain't going nowhere methinks buddy!
Aug 2009 @irlpol projects may have 10's or hundreds of servers/services in disparate TRUST zones running mutiple flavours/types of protocols.
Sep 2009 Infosec=Info/infra/services have value at point of utility.Trust +transitive trust predicated on persistent identity.Non-repudiation.Risk?
Sep 2009 T: "design by committee has not been successful in my experience".. D: "neither was the Homermobile" #architecture #choice #trust
Oct 2009 Decision engines. Inputs, processes, outputs, subject to morphing values? Constructive and destructive feedback loops. Transitive trust, ...
Oct 2009 #GovHack Canberra mesh usage 31.85 GB total (22.61 GB received, 9.24 GB sent) from #nodecity #trustbutverify
Oct 2009 Reviewing #trampoline "Trust + New Economic Model" http://vimeo.com/5026356 +recent use "food trust","time trust" etc sub-trusts FTW :)
Nov 2009 Non-profit IT. Trust. Community. Play. Self-directed learning. #tedxmelbourne #nodecity
Nov 2009 Open my human bandwidth, mindshare, headspace, filters, open, trust, rate-limit, time, slow, fast #quality #interactions is less more?
Nov 2009 I value openness, honesty, trust, integrity, awareness, mobility, choice and preparedness to be wrong or fail, improve on former self..
Jan 2010 Interesting proposition:how well do you trust yourself in different situations? What is your supposedly pre-determined outcome informed by?
Jan 2010 How :an adhoc grp self-polices? :to exp hidden agendas? Trust predicated on?+is it transitive? Commitment demonstration to open system?
Jan 2010 Constantly WAKING UP. Constantly ARRIVING. Who to journey with? #trust #given #offered #expended #rebirth #faith
Jan 2010 Interconnectedness. Spheres. Nodes. Intent. Trust. Love. Beings. Time. Stardust.
Feb 2010 Not sure who to trust? Yourself? http://s.nodecity.com/trust "When we are weak, or feel weak and dis-empowered, we.." @edwardharran
Feb 2010 Trust is not binary. It's an ongoing process of building and re-evaluating at every stage. #subset #superset #sets
Feb 2010 Trust http://bsdosx.blogspot.com/2010/01/trust.html
Feb 2010 Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Trust but Verify. #self-policing
Feb 2010 Trust issues = occupational hazard? ;) /via @kimmwood
Mar 2010 @DDrazic transitive trust and the broken outsourcing triangles... #metrics #out-tasking #governance #accountability
Mar 2010 A wise being lives inside of you, it is your intuitive self; trust the wisdom inside of you: Shakti Gawain /via @TheGodLight
Mar 2010 Understanding.Unassuming. Unadorned. Tolerance. Trust. Wisdom.Strength.Belief.
Mar 2010 AU: Recommendations for setting up a trust fund for a kid?
Apr 2010 Pure, clean, sober Awareness... when to honour, trust & listen to your Intuition above all else? Always?
Apr 2010 Time, love and trust. The ultimate currencies.
Apr 2010 Trust yourself, with great faith and great doubt :)
May 2010 If I don’t trust the people I am with, I can’t be interdependent with them. If I don’t trust them, I can’t build community with them.
May 2010 If I don’t trust myself, I will never be able to trust others. And if I’m not honest with myself, I can never be fully honest with others.
Jun 2010 . @paulzee beware phishing. Check WHOIS. Not Google owned. CAREFUL http://whois.domaintools.com/googlexistence.com #trustbutverify
Jun 2010 @Aida_Lee oceans of trust, love & time.. in fact any logical rep I choose4 anyone/thing ->nrgy, doobies :) http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Metta
Jul 2010 @rosshill Attribution/health of actions and thought! Digital DNA, personal trust & mind (mental health) stability/identity #cloudliving ;)
Jul 2010 @rosshill Trust, community and self-policing, governance. Ever seen Mad Max ;)
Jul 2010 Trust but verify.
Jul 2010 You cannot rebuild trust remotely.
Jul 2010 @jonathannen presence, awareness, social cohesion, edges, motivation, trust, love and time... and doors that say 'No Entry'... +5W's ;)
Jul 2010 @DDrazic @jloidl we aiming VCE/Year 11. a) 3R's b) transitive trust/ interconnectedness c) measure/empirical data d) enforcement capability
Aug 2010 @undrewb me neither, too invasive and overt, feels dirty.. like cheating on someone, breaking transitive trust... hard sell/syntax ☠
Aug 2010 ♫ It takes an ocean of trust...
Sep 2010 Perceived value and transitive trust.
Sep 2010 @nathan_scott @mikala_ it's all about trust bay-bee, it's all about... <3 from D
Sep 2010 What is the smallest trust cluster?
Sep 2010 Connection. Intimacy. Trust @trampolineday #trampoline #trampolineday
Oct 2010 "but trust me on the sunscreen".. ♫ http://youtu.be/OojsLDYr7RY (great way to start Sunday morning :) <3 D
Oct 2010 Mobile version: "but trust me on the sunscreen" ♫ http://j.mp/9SKLeE (great way to start Sunday morning :) <3 D

TheBirthofVulnerablity

2010-11-16T17:58:00.000+11:00

#tedx - Brené Brown

Futureself

2010-11-13T13:27:00.001+11:00

I write this to my future self, whenever, wherever and whoever you may be.

I do not like the term hope but I have faith that the continuum that is you recognises these words, thoughts and forms as your own. If anything, nourish the stillness inside as it is from this that flows that which is clear, wise and true. Do not forget your core and replenish your lifeforce often. Tune your body vehicle. Perceive everything but pay full attention to those you trust. Minimise harm in all your thoughts, words and actions yet do not be paralysed by the complexity, interconnectedness and beauty.

Hunt your fears. Confront your conflicts. Listen and learn.

Never stop seeking yet know that you never began. Home is constant arriving within yourself and letting go is not a permanent state. The riddle of action and inaction will continue. The drive of the superorganism to survive will persist and will manifest itself in many unexpected ways.

There is no imperative but to exist and leave with a tranquil heart and mind.

Fear may be befriended, our externalities will age, but in love, spontaneity and a pure heart we unlock immortality.

Novelocity and Sustainability

2010-10-25T14:50:00.010+11:00

Novelocity is a new term which means the rate of ‘newness’ experienced by a system or an entity. If 'novelocity' is too high, the ability to optimally react to unexpected or even standard stimuli is degraded and harm may occur. Additional energy is drawn from core competencies which subsequently undermine and weaken the system or host. If 'novelocity' is too low, habits and patterns are etched deeper in pathways and the ability of the entity or system to react, learn and adapt is hindered. Another byproduct of low 'novelocity' may be that of stagnation or boredom, which can result in some cases, in a subsequent extreme period of variance (a form of punctuated equilibrium) akin to a kick start to establish an optimal 'novelocity' once again. Change is constant, novelty not necessarily so.

Entities or systems that exhibit a drive for self-preservation (survival) will still cooperate or collaborate amongst themselves in manners which allow for the optimal creation, consumption and sharing of energy. This collaboration inevitably leads to increased production through specialisation and reciprocity in times of need. Whether intrinsic or extrinsic, in what may be deemed a sentient system, the concept of ‘enlightened self-interest’ is demonstrated. Once interconnectedness and interdependence is realised e.g. the underlying participation and involvement in a wider ecosystem, the system attempts to optimise and grow itself by cross pollinating, exploring and refining the intersections with other components of the macro system. The rate at which this exploration is actively sought may not actually be the ‘novelocity’ but is a correlate of the actual 'novelocity' rate. The energy expended in seeking this novelty (and subsequently engaging in it) can drain or dilute a systems core resources by drawing down upon the existing supply channels normally used to service core energies. This creates a negative feedback loop and overall system degradation. This suboptimal or failure mode is similar to that of a collapse or paralysis by virtue of expanding too quickly but is however predicated upon conscious/unconscious desire to seek out novelty whilst ignoring periods of required homeostasis. This is not necessarily ‘future shock’ but a cognitive and physical inability to deal with the rate of novelty.

Sustainability contains aspects of independence, interdependence and replenishment of energies. Sustainability also carries with it a concept of growth, homeostasis and self-awareness. Whether a system/relationship is two or more cells, people or planets; there is continual movement through time and space, thus, an implied ‘novelocity’. Entropy and ectropy notwithstanding, there are only so many states that one can pattern match against.

The question is what role 'novelocity' plays in sustainability? Can the aggregate survive without drawing down excessive energy from other dependent systems or overly diluting itself by constantly seeking out novelty and why?

Can elements of the local system/interdependent components both grow while satisfying the requirements of stability, safety and security all the while maintaining an optimal 'novelocity'?

Further reading:
Cohabitation in the Construct
Love 2.0
Go Deep

Alive

2010-10-03T14:50:00.013+11:00

As a physiological battle rages inside me, I bear witness to how my thoughts and feelings differ and how much less energy I have for others currently. As I walk along the packed St. Kilda promenade where people are playing, lazing about and enjoying the energy from the sun, a single thought haunts me like a shadow dancing in my peripheral vision, 'What is living?'.

My first reaction is to be an engineer and break down the question. Three words present themselves: 'What', 'is' and 'living'. Immediately the aggregate of 'What is?' gets replaced with 'What IS' and the application of a Zen like methodology of investigation via direct untainted experience… it recurses back in upon itself… 'IS, IS, IS, is'ing spilling forth'… thought then stops temporarily and the leaves in the tree rustle of their own accord, smells pass through me and sounds dance together in rings of folk celebration.

Then the 'LIVING' word hits home hard. The mind spiders backwards in time searching and indexing so many collected experiences, patterns played out both voluntarily and involuntarily. Patterns and models, nay... modalities of living swim in my oceanmind… individualism, collectivism, survival, procreation, shared experiences, ontologies… my heart both rises and falls simultaneously at the few times in this entity's existence that a very deep 'true love' shone through. Without grasping, seeking or searching, one wonders about the conditions and states that allowed such purity to blossom.

Meanwhile another process running in parallel is both comparing and scaling in and out of the planet, then universe, and back down to my neighbourhood where it focuses finally, fractal like, inside my body where cells fight for dominance. I acknowledge the ecosystem whereby there is no border between my mind, my bodily vehicle and its environment. At the quantum scale and beyond one vibrates while moving through the foam. This observer constantly affects and reinforces the reality it perceives. It touches us.

There is no want, need or desire. Neutral. Are only those privileged enough to have discretionary time the ones wasting it on such a question? The question repeats itself.

What is living?

What-happened-to-true-love

2010-09-20T23:50:00.001+10:00

Me to someone else:

Why do people say "can't satisfy all the types of intimacy". I fundamentally disagree with "can't satisfy all the types of intimacy".
This is very sad to me and absolutist.
Never say never and don't rule it out completely even if highly unlikely.
Broken hearts trying to defend themselves.
I think you could explore the 'needs' and 'satisfy' words more from a minimalist perspective as applied to a relationship.
Also, it saddens me to think people around our age don't believe in true love anymore.

Thinking

2010-09-19T19:45:00.000+10:00

Utopia

2010-09-19T19:03:00.001+10:00

Found @ http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2010/09/urbanism-in-the-house-tuomas-toivonen.html

Seeding

2010-09-17T11:52:00.003+10:00

"Because we've got to get to people's consciousness."

http://www.vallejo.to/articles/summit_pt1.htm

FuckinA.

Meet-The-Parents

2010-07-22T10:12:00.002+10:00

This is an email trail from my parents last night that I was cc'd in on (but did not take part in as I was asleep in Antipodean shores). Each line was a one line email with the initial subject line of: 'Translate in to English':

Mum: "Need for research in the paradigm of structured-data retrieval"
Dad: SQL
Dad: Dig up your ancestors.
Dad: Beat Alzheimers - back up your brain. In at least three places.
Mum: Let's see what Donal comes up with ... :)

Incentives

2010-06-22T21:26:00.001+10:00

What-is-code

2010-06-22T17:26:00.027+10:00

- Code is a set of rules, principles or laws.
- Code is a representation of information or the system for transmitting messages with brevity/secrecy.
- Code in computing terms is a set of instructions that process data (data also ending up a form of code too). At its lowest layers code becomes signals or patterns of electrical current or light travelling from one point to another.

Note: These descriptions are logical frameworks within which an entity operates. They are not natural laws and more often than not can be broken.

Code is used in many facets of modern human life and in many cases controls our financial, utilities, transport and telecommunications systems globally.

What is a node?
Pretty much everything in this universe can be described as part of a greater interdependent system at one scale or another. In Information Technology a node is a representation of an entity in a system. The node can be an intersection point, a discrete entity in itself or an aggregate of components (including other nodes) which have been grouped together based upon shared attributes or functions.

When any node in a system runs software (e.g. code) it may perform and/or offer local or remote services. The service is dependent upon message passing across a medium from point A to point B. This message passing or signaling occurs on top of many predefined layers. Each medium and layer has rules for message passing/interpretation called protocols. The robustness of the code at each layer and the ability to handle exceptions comes in to question at times of failure or unexpected input. Accordingly other similar nodes or code may be affected if vulnerable to the same set of conditions. At different abstraction layers there is generally tight coupling (e.g. a rigid dependence upon other components in the system). The robustness of a system or service is then predicated on how it handles exceptions, failures, unexpected circumstances or changes in its operating environment.

Who or what controls the inputs, processes and outputs of code?
Who or what dictates the command and control channels for certain services and signaling between layers?
Who governs the use of code, the maintenance and the life cycle thereof?

Does the code:
- perform the required functionality?
- fail gracefully and signal as such?
- handle unexpected inputs and conditions?
- prove suitable to the environment where it is deployed?
- operate within certain pre-defined tolerances?
- withstand sentient attackers (does it have to)?
- prove defensible over time?

What and where are the interfaces between local/foreign code or code and humans?
Can the humans inject possible weaknesses or inflict damage to the system?

When one looks at computing resources connected directly or indirectly to a global or local network there are many potential vectors for attack or failure modes to be accounted for. Fancy a nibble or a byte from a Smörgåsbord of code?

If there is one thing that's constant, it's change. IT is about managing change.
People, process and technology are constantly changing but where does that leave the code and previous "point in time" testing? I am going to start arguing for "feature viscosity" and massive warning lists of caveats for "unintended use" as part of End User License Agreements.

Note: There is no globally recognised certification for software engineering akin to other professional trades and there is no line in the sand when the tide keeps changing.

Aside: SEI Certification (http://www.sei.cmu.edu/certification/) and FIPS(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIPS_140) / CC(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Criteria) don't count.

Lessons4Life

2010-06-18T14:38:00.003+10:00

I grew up with He Man. This explains a lot in terms of a potential early moral compass and responsible edutainment in the eighties.

Awakening

2010-05-24T22:50:00.002+10:00

Parallel consciousness streams will overtake the existing legacy construct to create a new hybrid society. We can only bring the ones that want to come. Seekers. Cross generational mentors. When the students are ready the teachers will present themselves.

Those entrenched in the past will not be able to morph the historical wisdom, learning and legacy system in to the new encapsulations required, dying out.. an accelerated generational breeding out is occurring.

(As long as we don't totally disconnect by racing ahead too far, too fast)

Cohabitation-in-the-Construct

2010-05-12T13:34:00.019+10:00

Thoughts / intent ->
Words / conversations ->
Actions / connections / transactions ->

My local and universal influence carries with it a massive responsibility. Interconnectedness and feedback loops abound. Together our power is amplified when aligned. The medium only effectively carries a message when it is in harmony with the change or resonance of the overall superorganism.

This is why (for me increasingly) it is very important to have AWARENESS of all thoughts, feelings, words and actions (including from whence they arise e.g. fear/love/ego/repression/imprints or historical patterns) and also how these things affect the surrounding environment and entities. I must not carry negativity nor reflect it back on others. Constructive criticism and the drawing of contrasts can be positive when stemming from love. Unfortunately many feelings (in my experience) are ephemeral in nature and cannot be trusted especially when built upon automatic thinking and non-reality. Intuition is also a powerful signal, sometimes so loud yet sometimes so subtle that one must have a very quiet mind and open heart to even begin to notice it.

Hence the original and continual journey on the inside to try and understand the triggers and purify the influence I exert on my environment (including back upon myself).

I am you. We are us.

"Meaning no harm" is aside from "doing no harm" and herein lies one of the challenges.

What defines or encapsulates the initial state(s), processes and final state(s)?
In fact, there is no initial or final state... just a complex flux and a replenishing group of cells and entities with a complex aggregate neuroplasticity. Where do you want to grow today?

Survival is a balance between growth and protection. One cannot survive in protection mode all the time, nor can one grow continually without periods of homeostasis. This is all part of the dance. If you listen carefully you may even be able to hear the music. Why rush and who exactly are we competing with or dancing with anyway?

I have intuited and felt something very deep and important for some years now.. yet it's hard to walk the path, let alone find the right trail.. no excuses, just AWARENESS.

How deep is the rabbit hole? Sometimes so deep we(I) block it, numb it, try to escape from it, or fall in...

Much love to all...

Donal (human I think)

Love_2.0

2010-04-11T21:11:00.002+10:00

Questioner: Is it possible for a man and woman to live together, to have sex and children, without all the turmoil, bitterness and conflict inherent in such a relationship? Is it possible for there to be freedom on both sides? I don’t mean freedom that the husband or wife should be constantly having affairs with someone else. People usually come together and get married because they fall in love, and in that there is desire, choice, pleasure, possessiveness and tremendous drive. The very nature of this in-loveness is from the start filled with the seeds of conflict.

Krishnamurti: Is it? Need it be? I very much question that. Can’t you fall in love and not have a possessive relationship? I love someone and she loves me and we get married - that is perfectly straightforward and simple, in that there is no conflict at all. (When I say we get married I might just as well say we decide to live together - don’t let’s get caught up in words.) Can’t one have that without the other, without the tail, as it were, necessarily following? Can’t two people be in love and both be so intelligent and sensitive that there is freedom and absence of a center that makes for conflict? Conflict is not in the feeling of being in love. The feeling of being in love is utterly without conflict. There is no energy loss in being in love. The loss of energy is in the tail, in everything that follows - jealousy, possessiveness, suspicion, doubt, the fear of losing that love, the constant demand for reassurance and security. Surely it must be possible to function in a sexual relationship with someone you love without the nightmare which usually follows. Of course it is.

~ Krishnamurti, Meeting Life.

Fear 2.0

2010-04-06T21:02:00.001+10:00

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

"Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us."
— Marianne Williamson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Williamson )

Tribes.

2010-03-24T17:48:00.001+11:00

Tribalism. Social Cohesion. Value/Scarcity. Choice Architecture. Complexity. Influence. Amplification. Group entities. Superorganism.

Done.

2010-03-23T17:23:00.003+11:00

Kids

2010-03-22T11:08:00.000+11:00

For the kids, both old and young.
Unstained eyes, pure love..
Natural forms, sound harmony..
Complex effects, feigned change.
Slower is ok. Don't trust all adults.
Find answers both inside and out.

Go-deep

2010-02-09T13:29:00.004+11:00

“And so one has to be free from fear, and that is one of the most difficult things to do. Most of us are not aware that we are afraid, and we are not aware of what we are afraid. And when we know of what we are afraid, we do not know what to do. So we run away from it. You understand, sir? We run away from what we are, which is fear; and what we run away to increases fear. And we have developed, unfortunately, a network of escapes. So one has to become aware not only of the fears one has but also of the network which one has developed and through which one runs away."

"As we said, a mind that is afraid, do what it will, will have no love whatsoever; and without love you cannot construct a new world. Without love there can be no oasis. And you, as a human being, have created this social structure in which you are caught. To break away from that - and you have to break from it completely - you have to understand yourself, just to observe yourself as you actually are. Then out of that clarity comes action. And then you will find out for yourself a different way of living, a way of life which is not repetitive, which is not conforming, which is not imitating, a life which is really free and therefore a life that opens the door to something which is beyond all thought.”

“So we must question, we must doubt, not only the experience of another, but also our own experience. To seek further experience through expansion of consciousness, which is being done through various forms of psychedelic drugs, is still within the field of consciousness and, therefore, very limited. So a person who is seeking experience in any form - especially the so-called religious, spiritual experience - must not only question it, doubt it, but must totally set it aside. A mind that is very clear, a mind that is full of attention and love - why should such a mind demand any more experience?”

“So to free the mind from all authority there must be self-knowing, that is, self-knowledge. I do not mean the higher self or Atman, which are all the inventions of the mind, the inventions of thought, inventions born out of fear. We are talking of self-knowing: knowing oneself actually as one is, not as one should be, to see that one is stupid, that one is afraid, that one is ambitious, that one is cruel, violent, greedy; the motives behind one’s thought, the motives behind one’s action - that is the beginning of knowing oneself. If you do not know yourself, how the structure of your mind operates, how you feel, what you think, what your motives are, why you do certain things and avoid other things, how you are pursuing pleasure - unless you know all this basically, you are capable of deceiving yourself, of creating great harm, not only to yourself, but to others. And without this basic self-knowing there can be no mediation...”

Krishnamurti For Beginners, An Anthology, ISBN:8187326018

Reality.

2010-01-28T17:16:00.002+11:00

Beyond explanation and articulation. I am part of it.

Smile

2010-01-28T16:14:00.001+11:00

From: http://ffffound.com/image/0bf8bed9dd37c4033ec097b3ae16ecabbd208e03?c=4152632

Future, self-determination, mobility and copyright.

2010-01-28T14:50:00.000+11:00

Cory Doctorow, science fiction writer and one of the best known bloggers in the world (Boing Boing) talks about the future, self determination, mobility and copyright.

Trust

2010-01-25T15:02:00.001+11:00

"If I don’t trust the people I am with, I can’t be interdependent with them.
If I don’t trust them, I can’t build community with them.
If I don’t trust myself, I will never be able to trust others.

And if I’m not honest with myself, I can never be fully honest with others."

With thanks/props to http://www.daddytude.com/2009/09/prequel-humility-arrogance-trust-honesty/

Computer Timesharing Video

2010-01-13T15:08:00.001+11:00

Known-Knowns

2010-01-13T11:25:00.001+11:00

Challenge-Me

2009-12-26T20:31:00.004+11:00

So how do we truly learn?

Theoretical knowledge does not imbue wisdom nor experience. A head full of thought can paralyse. Sometimes we need to leap with faith and not necessarily rely on hope. Our minds may spider ahead in to the future, in to uncertainty, however the expected or imagined future is rarely the one we find ourselves meeting. It is indeed wonderful to give shape to projected futures, otherwise we walk an eternal void or leading edge immediately in advance of the present moment (with nothing to guide our next decision but transcient emotions and feelings) so how far to journey ahead? Perhaps a fuzzy framework helps to guide us without locking us in? Don’t rule anything out, don’t rule anything in? But what happens when you have a very distinct desired outcome? Can one try too hard to shape that future at the detriment of the present moment and the actual end goal? When we deal with the complexities of human emotions, irrational beings, rational paths, confusing contexts and lack of reference points.. what do we fall back upon? Instinct, gut... who or what do we listen to? Does the voice inside get drowned out.. do we cave in to fear... what does experience tell us, what does it lend us especially when there is no previous similar experience to draw upon? There are many versions of ourselves e.g. those we project, those that are informed by the surroundings and company we keep, those that we keep to ourselves at all costs, only rarely letting others see inside.

Is it about trust and identity? Is it about safety and security? What is it that defines us?

If we cannot separate the environment we exist in from ourselves, does that beg the question around what decisions we consciously and unconsciously make that place us in certain environments? What happens when we are trapped? Do we convince ourselves where we are currently at is the best there is? A concept of synthetic happiness perhaps... or do we journey willfully in to the unknown to help define ourselves in our novel interactions with people, places and things? When there is too much noise, how do we gain perspective and look back inwards as a neutral observer? Can we ever even be close to neutral or objective, or is this just something we strive for...? What happens when we oscillate wildly in thought, or by virtue of not addressing basic nourishment, rest and relaxation? Why are we so good at distracting ourselves, ignoring our “real” selves? We race to the company of others, especially those that help make us feel “better”.. rather than making us uncomfortable and challenging our deeper cores.. basically give me 1 person who challenges me over 10 who agree with everything I say and do.

Do not surround me with counsel of silver tongued sycophants. Challenge the core of my being if true growth and nobility lies in improving upon my former self. What is respect?

ConnectCambodia

2009-12-01T21:23:00.001+11:00

Client -> UBNT NanoM5(bat-un5-01b) <-> UBNT NanoM5(bat-un5-01a) -> GW -> internet

XM.v5.0# ping bat-un5-01a.connectcambodia.org
PING bat-un5-01a.connectcambodia.org (192.168.1.12): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=0 ttl=64 time=4.203 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.204 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.724 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.12: seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.424 ms

--- bat-un5-01a.connectcambodia.org ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 1.204/2.138/4.203 ms
XM.v5.0# ping bat-un5-01b.connectcambodia.org
PING bat-un5-01b.connectcambodia.org (192.168.1.5): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.255 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.152 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.150 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.5: seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.155 ms

--- bat-un5-01b.connectcambodia.org ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.150/0.178/0.255 ms
XM.v5.0#

Notes from 2006

2009-11-23T23:53:00.003+11:00

I want to help architect the future.

We are suffering from “Future Shock”, i.e. the disease of and rate of change.

Where and when are we centered in out perfect natural state?
Comission -> what is right or wrong with our current way of life?
Omission -> what is missing from our lives?
We are strangers in our own land. We are living in the external without acknowledging, accepting and adventuring in to the internal. For it is the internal that defines the external. The external has run away with itself in an ever increasing rate of change. The sleeper has awoken. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is being cultivated? Do we dare to dream? Mentally we are expending cycles worrying. Anxiety is rife. Worry drains the mind of much of its power, and, sooner or later it injures the soul. A natural reaction to insecurity or the unknown is to defend or lash out rather than to explore from a neutral standpoint. We pin our hopes on science, this so called neutral mentality of observation and hoped for understanding. Science is a framework for thought, but only supposedly practiced by trained scientists. How can one pour new thoughts and ideas in to ones mind, without first emptying the cup. Is there any absolutes? One must constantly make decisions with the data one has. *Concept of quality of data or information comes in to play*. Control the content, platforms and distribution, control the masses. Do you want to just exist or seek and explore all your human potential? I am actively re-architecting my mind. I am taking responsibility for my thoughts and actions. How does one adopt a positive paradigm about the world and all that is in it? Must we realise that mind management is the essence of life management?

Stop being a prisoner of your past, become an architect of your future.

I _had_ resigned myself to acting the way adults were supposed to act. The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. Personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Where is my natural energy and vitality? Too much worry caused a schism. Worry created a leak of mental energy and potential. My creativity, optimism and motivation was drained, leaving me exhausted. *Take the road less travelled*. I am taking the time to think. I am trying to discover my real reason for being here. Do I have the courage to act on it? Content and intent. Energy in thought. Your thoughts are your most prized possessions. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self. It doesn’t matter what others say to you or about you, it matters what you say to yourself. The purpose of life is a life of purpose. You will not find true joy in sleeping, relaxing or idling. Spirited, joyful and curious.

Never be reluctant to ask the most basic of questions no matter how stupid or irrelevant you may think they are. If they spring to mind and are unanswered, then ask! I really like this as I have thought and believed in this for a long time. Others will benefit too. Assumptions are the mother of all evil. Assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups.

Do the things you have always wanted to do but didn’t because you tricked yourself in to believing that you were too young, too old, too rich or too poor. No regrets. Grab it by the balls. What shall you do with this one wild and precious wonderful life? Fear is a mental monster you have created, a negative stream of consciousness. There is already vast reserves of knowledge available for our use. Every answer to every problem you have ever faced is in print. I need to be closer to nature. Overall reduce your needs (materialism, food, pleasure), your perceived needs.

Failure is not having the courage to try, nothing more, nothing less.

Don’t race against others, race against yourself. If you don’t take the time to control your thoughts, they will control you. I am more than I appear to be, all the worlds strength and power rests inside me.

The death of permanence, the rise of impermanence. Am I adapting myself out of a troubled existance? We must come to know and embrace transcience. Why are we so hurried? What are we racing toward? Do I want to live faster? No. Early adopter or stuck in the mud. Why are we not drawing from the wisdom of the ages? Is it still relevant? Is affecting “mass education” the way to try and influence the future for the better? Does the ecclectic internet facilitate self-learning more easily? What avenues would I have embarked upon should I have had the internet at such formative stages?

How does one take calculated risks without enumerating the negative, thus allowing objective negative thoughts in to ones head? Contrasted with only allowing positive thoughts. Can you ignore the pain, misery and suffering in the world? We all either subtract from or add to the future. What learning and inputs have brought me to this point? When did man become a virus?

It’s the stepping in to the unknown that’s the hard part. If an outcome is already known, there is no challenge. The bigger the void, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. The road less traveled is the inner road. I have been coasting. Why are people so taken with the gaze of a baby? Does it reflect the potential? Does it reflect the desire for nurture? Does it reflect the lack of worry? Pathways, patterns and habits do not facilitate growth. Neuroscience, neural pathways, feedback loops. Search wider and wider, absorb new inputs. Rates of change outstripping the generational divide. No time to educate new race. No time for them to mature. When time is divided up in to smaller and smaller pieces and travels even faster, when will we find the infinite again in the moment? How much faster can we go before we burn out? Incentives, rewards, challenges. ‘Thin slicing’ refers to the ability of our subconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviours based on very narrow slices of experience. ‘overwhelmed by the task of counting negativity’.

“lives based on having are less free than lives based either on doing or being”

In life, no one told us what to expect. Why do we let the media and advertising industry dictate our expectations. Stop the world I want to get off.

There has to be a maximum threshold for information absorption in humans. What is the maximum?

Maybe

2009-11-23T12:30:00.004+11:00

A work colleague modified a chain email , I really like it!

"Maybe... life just is and you make of it what you will. Maybe being kind and generous is more genuine if it isn't driven by a fear of retribution or the promise of reward. Maybe you don't have to fear a vengeful deity to be good.

Maybe the experience from mistakes and failures is actually the foundation of all knowledge and the building blocks for success.

Maybe the people who raised and educated us were only human like us. Maybe they didn't have the same resources and experience we have today. Maybe we can step back and form our own opinions based on what we observe rather than just what we're told. Maybe we can still trust the wisdom of others, but verify what we're told and come to our own conclusions. Maybe we should embrace new knowledge and readjust our perception of the world on a daily basis. Maybe we should question who we trust. Maybe our knowledge is influenced by our beliefs. Maybe it shouldn't be. Maybe right and wrong isn't so black and white.

Maybe we don't know everything. Maybe we can't. Maybe the universe can be awe inspiring, beautiful and overwhelming without having to believe in magic. Maybe if we can't explain something it is simply unknown rather than evidence of the supernatural. Maybe discarding new evidence and sticking with our beliefs makes us the closed minded ones. Maybe praying for and finding a convenient car park won't result in a mother's unanswered prayers for her dying son. Maybe the correlation between events is just a coincidence rather than divine intervention. Maybe the small chance of an amazing coincidence is more awe inspiring than fate dictating our lives beyond our control.

Maybe you mold your perception of the world around you to your own experience. Maybe you are solely responsible for your own interpretation of that experience. Maybe you are important. Maybe the world you live in is of your own making. Maybe your right to your beliefs doesn't grant your beliefs immunity to criticism. Maybe your beliefs can result in untold misery to others. Maybe the misery you find yourself in is yours to change. Maybe your success is your reward. Maybe you don't have to thank the universe for the results of your own hard work. Maybe luck is just a combination of chance and your ability to play the hand you're dealt.

Maybe we won't live forever. Maybe we should do something with the days we have left. Maybe nothing is predestined. Maybe fate won't drop prosperity or love in our laps. Maybe we need to make it happen.

Maybe you are responsible for your own happiness.

Tristan"

Original -> MAYBE

Maybe. . we were supposed to meet the
wrong people before meeting the right
one so that, when we finally meet the
right person, we will know how to be
grateful for that gift.

Maybe . . . when the door of happiness
closes, another opens; but, often
times, we look so long at the closed
door that we don't even see the new
one which has been opened for us.

Maybe . . . it is true that we don't
know what we have until we lose it,
but it is also true that we don't know
what we have been missing until it
arrives.

Maybe . . . the happiest of people
don't necessarily have the best of
everything; they just make the most of
everything that comes along their way.

Maybe . . . the brightest future will
always be based on a forgotten past;
after all, you can't go on
successfully in life until you let go
of your past mistakes, failures and
heartaches.

Maybe . . . you should dream what you
want to dream; go where you want to
go, be what you want to be, because
you have only one life and one chance
to do all the things you dream of, and
want to do.

Maybe . . . there are moments in life
when you miss someone -- a parent, a
spouse, a friend, a child -- so much
that you just want to pick them from
your dreams and hug them for real, so
that once they are around you
appreciate them more.

Maybe . . . the best kind of friend is
the kind you can sit on a porch and
swing with, never say a word, and then
walk away feeling like it was the best
conversation you've ever had.

Maybe . . you should always try to put
yourself in others' shoes. If you feel
that something could hurt you, it
probably will hurt the other person,
too.

Maybe . . you should do something nice
for someone every single day, even if
it is simply to leave them alone.

Maybe . giving someone all your love
is never an assurance that they will
love you back. Don't expect love in
return; just wait for it to grow in
their heart; but, if it doesn't, be
content that it grew in yours.

Maybe . . . happiness waits for all
those who cry, all those who hurt, all
those who have searched, and all those
who have tried, for only they can
appreciate the importance of all the
people who have touched their lives.

Maybe . . . you shouldn't go for
looks; they can deceive; don't go for
wealth; even that fades away. Go for
someone who makes you smile, because
it takes only a smile to make a dark
day seem bright. Find the one that
makes your heart smile.

Maybe . . you should hope for enough
happiness to make you sweet, enough
trials to make you strong, enough
sorrow to keep you human, and enough
hope to make you happy

Maybe . . . you should try to live
your life to the fullest because when
you were born, you were crying and
everyone around you was smiling but
when you die, you can be the one who
is smiling and everyone around you
crying.

Maybe . . . you could send this message
to those people who mean something to
you, to those who have touched your
life, to those who can and do make you
smile when you really need it, to
those who make you see the brighter
side of things when you are really
down, and to all those whom you want
to know that you appreciate them and
their friendship.

And if you don't, don't worry; nothing
bad will happen to you. You will just
miss out on the opportunity to perhaps
brighten someone's day."

MyNewSig

2009-11-08T21:33:00.000+11:00

--
Regards,

Donal x xxxxxx +61(0)xxx xxx xxx
xxx xxx xxxxx

- Facilitate decision making. Don't presume anything.
- Add value to email trails. One recipient, less cc'ing.
- Bring the pertinent facts to the top when forwarding.
- Call on the phone, don't clog my inbox/tasklist.
- Link me to files and use version control, don't attach!

Troubleshooting-101

2009-11-04T13:38:00.004+11:00

Social:

* TRUST BUT VERIFY. Information Technology is supposed to be rational. Humans are not rational. Verify both.
* You may hear people talking but don't listen to them, they will pollute your mind. Ask to see EVERYTHING for yourself.
* Only have
** device/infrastructure administrators
** one infrastructure architect
** and one application architect on a call at any time. (Anything else wastes money and mindshare!)
* Don't let anyone try a scattergun or consensus approach. In fact, don't allow any additional functions/capabilities on the call that are not technical or 100% required. More often than not the Project Manager is not required once the call starts
** Talk is most likely conjecture if it starts with "my understanding is", "I believe", "assume", "presume", etc.
* Explain you have to capture and share for audit purposes. Then capture and share.
* Always go back to first principles, including proving it's plugged in and switched on.
* Always ask to see the data/empirical evidence.
* Always get fresh data from the administrators, not stale logs.
* Never assume the admin knows how to use their tools.

Technical:

* Identify your application behaviour, if no one knows, end the call. AppFlowNow
* Ask for logs, if none, turn them on sparingly
* Separate your platform and application stacks
** the application stack is totally different from the platform/network stack
** the platform/network stack is totally different from the application stack

Warning:
All code contains bugs and every file can have configuration errors.
Humans write code, humans are fallible, code is fallible.

Testing:
* A failed application test proves absolutely nothing.
* Only a raw network test proves a data path exists.
* application stacks use many modules and functions to create messages
* application stacks may be their own protocols or use existing protocols
* application stacks can call on TCP/IP stacks on the host operating system or platform and uses device drivers to construct IP packets (or in the case of FC FC_frames etc)
* network stacks have many tunable parameters depending upon the platform

Build a matrix and diagram and use it! Make stuff or source stuff!
* build a flow diagram to contextualise relationships
* collaborate on the matrix/diagram centrally
* allow ICMP echo_request and echo_reply ICMPNow on all project flows

Identify your flows:
* end-to-end
* point-to-point
* point-to-multipoint
* mesh

Verify your endpoints and codebase(s)
* clients/servers
* Does arp complete?
* default gateway
* interface IP AND Subnet Mask
* client route table(s)
* operating system and patch levels
* device driver versions
* check the buglists for your versions, sometimes it's not a new bug nor unique (sometimes it is!)

Idenfity all your interim infrastructure nodes:
* local switch (layer 2, MAC/CAM table)
* default gateway (layer 3, FW/Router/LB)
* transit nodes (FW/Switch-Router/LB/Optimiser/IPS)
* operating system and patch levels

Verify the policies and configuration on all nodes:
* in-path
* pick one example flow and dissect it step by step
* check routes and routing on all devices
* go hop by hop

Voting quickie

2009-09-12T08:25:00.002+10:00

My response to a query about electronic voting to a family member:

Anonymity, trust, transitive trust and identity. The bane of my life
in IT. I agree in that if there is a boundary e.g. entry point that you
can control, then once authenticated and subsequently authorized to perform
an action/event, then the accounting should only count and not record
the authentication details (except the number of events), and the
authorisation should only record that a party of type A *was* authorised
to cast a vote, and hadn't done so before.

I would have more faith in a system run by humans with physical bags
of votes, than a system run by humans with bags of bits that represent
votes. The time, space and economics e.g. physics of digital voting
represent an order of magnitude more complexity and potential design
issues than the previous version.

We put our trust in representatives e.g. humans along the way and I
for one have more trust in humans when less things can go wrong and
there is literally more visibility in the units, tokens etc..

... Just when you think people are starting to "get it" shit like this
gets posted in professional journals.

I would however like you to think about micro-voting and technology
facilitating faster and more frequent decision making by the electorate
on a wide range of topics including electing where their tax dollars go :)

Welcome to the future, now and now and now...

2009-08-03T20:52:00.000+10:00

Videos: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/church_venter09/church_venter09_index.html

INTRODUCTION: APE AND ESSENCE
By George Dyson

Sixty-one years ago Aldous Huxley published his lesser-known masterpiece, Ape and Essence, set in the Los Angeles of 2108. After a nuclear war (in the year 2008) devastates humanity's ability to reproduce high-fidelity copies of itself, a reversion to sub-human existence had been the result. A small group of scientists from New Zealand, spared from the catastrophe, arrives, a century later, to take notes. The story is presented, in keeping with the Hollywood location, in the form of a film script.

On July 24, 2009, a small group of scientists, entrepreneurs, cultural impresarios and journalists that included architects of the some of the leading transformative companies of our time (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, PayPal), arrived at the Andaz Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, to be offered a glimpse, guided by George Church and Craig Venter, of a future far stranger than Mr. Huxley had been able to imagine in 1948.

In this future — whose underpinnings, as Drs. Church and Venter demonstrated, are here already— life as we know it is transformed not by the error catastrophe of radiation damage to our genetic processes, but by the far greater upheaval caused by discovering how to read genetic sequences directly into computers, where the code can be replicated exactly, manipulated freely, and translated back into living organisms by writing the other way. "We can program these cells as if they were an extension of the computer," George Church announced, and proceeded to explain just how much progress has already been made.

The first day's lectures took place at Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket laboratories — where the latest Merlin and Kestrel engines (built with the loving care devoted to finely-tuned musical instruments) are unchanged, in principle, from those that Theodore von Karman was building at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1948. The technology of biology, however, has completely changed.

Approaching Beverly Hills along Sunset Boulevard from Santa Monica, the first indications that you are nearing the destination are people encamped at the side of the road announcing "Star Maps" for sale. Beverly Hills is a surprisingly diverse community of interwoven lives, families, and livelihoods, and a Star Map offers only a rough approximation of where a few select people have their homes.

Synthetic Genomics is still at the Star Map stage. But it is becoming Google Earth much faster than most people think.

GEORGE DYSON, a historian among futurists, is the author of Baidarka; Project Orion; and Darwin Among the Machines.

SecurityShapes

2009-07-22T14:37:00.004+10:00

Click here for larger image.

Commentary:
Please help me pin the tail on the other donkeys re:green and red icons?

Somewhere below architecture, policy, ontology, taxonomy but above distinct methods/controls? Predicated on an existing trust, zone,domain model. Prescriptive but not restrictive. A hitch-hikers guide to data-flow security!

Can this help empower the guys on the ground to make decisions and know when to escalate something to the security team?

I kinda wanted this to be a cheat sheet for Ops/BAU engineers. Something pragmatic rather than a magic 8ball for PMs and Solution "Architects" too.

Flu piece for AUSDAVOS

2009-06-17T00:40:00.002+10:00

A few years ago I woke up hungover in a Vegas hotel room and wandered
down stairs to my conference, a conference cum cheerleading session
for which I had no real want or need. We had RFID(Radio Frequency
IDentification) tracking chips in our badges so managers could track
who went to what sessions. Technology was facilitating people
"management" akin to factory farmed battery hens. With these
micro-metrics available to our respective "managers" where was the
leadership, the humanity? I dumped my tracking chip early, pretended I
had lost it, and headed back to the pool to drink more silver rock
margaritas with my new buddies.

That was 2006. That person is gone, and springing forth from the
fertile scarred and charred earth, there is now a small green shoot; a
concept, an entity, a mission. We’ve decided that it is time to use
technology to facilitate humanity, not to constrain it. It is time to
enable the human mesh for the sake of all humans, plants and animals,
and not for profiteering. Accountability and humanity are lost in
organisational abstractions, out-sourcing, out-tasking and
off-shoring. Rather than pushing humans farther away, it's time to
bring us all closer together.

Time has indeed sped up. We are currently trying to shoehorn a new
"emergence supporting" fuzzy framework in to old legal cooperative
structures. It's hard to explain how once enough nodes or entities are
logically connected together, the new entity both mirrors the atomic
entities and creates a totally new previously unseen entity (the whole
being greater than the sum of its parts). This is nature, this is
interconnectedness, this is biomimicry.. or is it already just nature?

So what have we actually done? In 2009 we deployed free internet mesh
wireless networks to events that spread human awareness, including the
popular Future Summit and Trampoline events held in Melbourne,
Australia We continue to do so today, facilitating and helping those
who need it most. NodeCity also rebrokered a single internet
connection to provide wireless access across a temporary village built
for the displaced citizens of Flowerdale who had lost their homes in
the Victorian ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires this year.

We provide non-profit focused IT professional services, enterprise
computing and infrastructure to anyone who really needs it at a fair
and equitable price (if not gratis for good causes when feasible!).

It is this ability to access information, ideas, and to communicate
with vast pools of other people and systems outside of your normal
physical range which is so powerful. This is why we think NodeCity is
such an important project to commit to. The ability to organise is
amplified and accelerated, both locally and remotely. Dissemination of
information provides alternatives and increased numbers of options,
which facilitates real human potential. The main question however is,
are values transmitted in the same way as raw data? Does increased
information actually inform and provoke critical thought, improve
quality and benefit the world or does it detract from it? Maybe we are
seeing the next step in our shared evolution. We are a new type of
node based city, and we are going to answer the only way we can.

I want one

2009-05-28T21:49:00.001+10:00

Biking in, snap happy.

2009-05-22T22:47:00.001+10:00

Welcome back USA

2009-05-22T13:29:00.001+10:00

What is nodecity

2009-05-06T11:59:00.008+10:00

Nodecity was always going to be a community; a part of the greater network of beings and entities. Essentially, interconnectedness realised and respected.

With a mixture of technological advances, instrumentation and cooperation (through efforts like http://smartenergygroups.com/), Nodecity will be both a physical and virtual destination to learn about balanced living. Nodecity will utilise philosophies (both borrowed and evolving) from permaculture, meditation, and technology, to demonstrate a different way of living.

Currently we are looking at soil maps, climate, and building regulations around Australia. We will be looking for funding and grants to build an earthship centre and business plan around our model (including providing low footprint devices and service packages to individuals and groups wishing to utlise the internet more effectively and responsibly).

This is not about eco-tourism, it is about eco-living, learning and connecting.

Non prescriptive, explorative.

OMG

2009-04-22T14:35:00.002+10:00

This is essentially what some of our guys have been talking about.... Zen, IT and Permaculture.

IT-in-a-box

2009-04-16T12:12:00.000+10:00

Message passing.
Inter process communication.
Spawning processes. Process lifecycle.
Information management.
Trust, privacy, identity. Non-repudiation.
Superorganism inputs, processes, outputs.
Node inputs, processes, outputs.
Symbiotic entity node+interface+human.
Symbiotic entity human-node+network+human-node.
Symbiotic entity human-node+network+auto-node.
Symbiotic entity auto-node+network+human-node.
Flows.
Go to (Message passing)

TED-TIME-NOBEL

2009-04-13T19:52:00.004+10:00

FCUK-YOU-YOUTUBE

2009-04-13T18:09:00.004+10:00

DNS for dynamic geo-location

2009-04-12T11:35:00.005+10:00

Using DNS as a covert channel to do lookups against non-existant A records, which are in fact your latitude and longitude coordinates!

E.g. my device registers via dynamic DNS to a domain (mine or someones service) and enters its hostname, then subsequently does a lookup against my location+device+[sub]domain. DNS server intelligently sees query and does some stuff below:

So my device asks about a non-existant A record in my subdomain or hosted domain which now happens to contain my coords; such that the DNS server is originally told by my device where I am. The DNS server updates itself to contain a record that now reflects what I asked. Others can now query my location through a DNS resource record. Quick, single packet UDP geo-location.

Now other entities on the internet can a) ask for the IP for my host's A record b) ask for the PTR for my device in that or other subdomain, and the response points to the new 'geo' location data A record.

My latitude and longitude
-037.881721,144.978032

My device called 'bob-001' with IP address 123.123.123.123

My device uses 'dynamic DNS' and registers in a domain with:
bob-001.assets.nodecity.com 123.123.123.123

My DNS server creates the A record and also a sub-domain(no PTR record yet!):
bob-001.assets.nodecity.com 123.123.123.123
.bob-001.geo.assets.nodecity.com

My device asks about the A record:
037881721144978032.bob-001.geo.assets.nodecity.com

My DNS server now knows where I am and also inserts a PTR record for
123.123.123.123.IN.ADDR.PTR. 037881721144978032.bob-001.geo.assets.nodecity.com

Hmmmm.. can also use TXT records and/or oher DNSSEC stuff. PTR idea may not work against RFC1918 address space or devices behind NAT. Maybe just use AXFR for subdomain which could also contain the last X locations for the device....

Quality

2009-04-10T13:12:00.003+10:00

Stage 2

2009-04-09T22:12:00.002+10:00

When I get back from San Francisco a few things are going to happen.

I am going to spread information and connectedness with http://Nodecity.com/
I have just facilitated 3 conferences.
I am going to buy cheap land and build an earthship and free myself from the system 100% to facilitate true freedom. Shelter, air, water, food, excretion, homeostasis.

This will be my next 5 years. Probably at the base of the tropics, inland somewhat and about 100m above sea level. The islands of self-sustainable communes / gardens are about to take hold. I have a vision and need to engage in something meaningful in this super grid -> it's time to build, teach and play. Otherwise there's no point.

Time to play life like a dance, music, or some nonsensical chatter. The cosmic joke. Time to laugh along, not to be too serious.. but also to take responsiblity for my own survival, only then can one truly be free. Beholden to none. Then one can serve fellow beings and ecosystem. Time to become net neutral, before net positive.

Play life, do not race

2009-04-08T17:12:00.001+10:00

My mate Alan

2009-04-08T10:29:00.001+10:00

Senator Conroy

2009-04-07T13:29:00.000+10:00

http://nocleanfeed.com/action.html

Dear Minister,

As an Australian and an internet user, I have serious concerns about your mandatory Internet filtering initiative.

Given the importance your Government has attached to modernising Australia's broadband network, pursuing a policy that can only slow down and increase the costs of home internet access seems misguided at best. Australian households are diverse, and most do not have young children, so mandating a one-size-fits-all clean feed approach will not serve the public well. I don't think it is the Government's role to decide what's appropriate for me or my children, and neither do most Australians.

Given the amount of Internet content available, the Government will never be able to classify it all and filters will always result in an unacceptable level of over-blocking. I feel that the time and money could be spent in better ways both to protect children and improve Australia's digital infrastructure. Australian parents need better education about the risks their children face online. Trying to rid the Internet of adult content is futile, and can only distract from that mission.

Sincerely,

Donal

City, State

Cynefin Framework talk from Shawn

2009-04-06T12:58:00.002+10:00

Shawn Callahan is @unorder from Anecdote.com.au

I found the Muppets again. Resident Evil.

2009-04-05T22:22:00.000+10:00

Infosec and Management, ring any bells?

2009-04-03T22:50:00.000+11:00

First Principles

2009-04-02T22:22:00.006+11:00

Cloud Computing.
IAAS (Infrastrusture as a Service)
Network architects are your friends. QED.

This is how to do it. Water and veggies.

2009-03-31T20:35:00.004+11:00

Google Ventures begging letter....

2009-03-31T19:29:00.003+11:00

http://www.google.com/ventures/contact.html

To: ventures@google.com
Subject:Sustainable IT, Smart Energy Homes and modular platforms...

Hi,

I am working on a non-profit co-op startup called http://www.nodecity.com/ out of Melbourne, Australia which will scale globally as a decentralist movement; think of it as permaculture for IT. I will be at the SecurityMetrics conference in your headquarters April 20th, San Francisco, CA. -> http://www.securitymetrics.org/content/Wiki.jsp?page=Metricon3.5 e.g. visiting SF from April 18th to April 24th 09'. I would love to just chat to someone or buy them a coffee rather than pitch :) I am hingeing my plans on mesh and 3G/4G backhaul including geo-arbitrage of eco cloud services.

This is my background http://donalcv.blogspot.com/ and this is my passion http://tr.im/zentramp <--video explaining my 3 passions, as startups are about *people* and ideas methinks. The video is a rehearsal I did for a unique un-conference here in Melbourne http://trampolinemelb.com/ this past Saturday... I removed most of the 'ums' and 'ehs'... while actually speaking!

Essentially I wish to foster the coming awareness, social change, and sustainability via 'teaching people to fish'. I am sick to death of the snake-oil, silver bullet sales and profiteering by IT in general.

Thanks for reading my email and hopefully you'll take a peak at my video/cv http://tr.im/zentramp

Humble regards,

Donal

Wikileaks:Re-post

2009-03-30T20:26:00.001+11:00

Western internet censorship: The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?
From Wikileaks
Jump to: navigation, search

March 29, 2009

EDITORIAL (WikiLeaks)

We're arresting you for speeding.
What's the speed limit officer?
The speed limit is secret.

Cathy Wilcox
Cathy Wilcox

Shortly after 9pm on Tuesday March 24, Wikileaks related buildings in Dresden and Jena, were raided by 11 plain clothes German police.

Why?

Over the last two years, Wikileaks has exposed detailed secret government censorship lists or plans for over eight countries, including Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Germany.

Although Wikileaks' main site has been censored by the Chinese Public Security Bureau since early 2007, last week saw the site placed onto a secret list of sites "forbidden" by the Australian Media and Communications Authority, or ACMA.

The pro-censorship governments exposed by Wikileaks can be divided into three broad categories:

1. Countries with a mandatory censorship system in place: Thailand, the UAE, and Lebanon (films).
2. Countries proposing a mandatory censorship system: Australia and Germany.
3. Countries in which the internet censorship system is an unregulated agreement between several large ISPs and the police: Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Australia and Germany are the only liberal democracies proposing a mandatory internet censorship regime.

All of the schemes operate, or are proposed to operate, through multi-million dollar national networks of censorship machines.

The machines spy on the nation as each citizen attempts to read on the internet, and compares requested pages to those listed on a secret government "blacklist".

If the page is on the blacklist, the government forcibly prevents the citizen from viewing the information by intercepting his or her internet communication and diverting it to a machine controlled by the censorship system. This machine is often configured to record the identity of the person attempting to access the forbidden information. If the page is not on the blacklist, the government grants permission for the citizen to view the page.

Although originally marketed, in all countries, as a way of combating child pornography, the blacklists obtained by Wikileaks show that the systems have already been corrupted into censoring other content, including political content.

For instance, the secret blacklist for Thailand censors thousands of sites per year deemed to be critical of the Thai Monarchy, from academic books and YouTube to the Economist magazine and Wikileaks itself.

Similarly, the blacklist for Australia contains an anti-abortion site, fringe religions, a dentist clinic, gay sites, gambling sites, islamist sites, euthanasia activist sites, an astrologer's blog, misclassified material, and, like Thailand, Wikileaks itself. Even the Australian government's "Minister for censorship", Senator Stephen Conroy, has admitted that fully half of the sites on the secret list are unrelated to child pornography.

As newspapers and other publications migrate to an exclusive life on the internet, such totalizing censorship systems are able to instantly snatch "pages" from the laps of citizens across an entire nation, interdicting communications between publisher and reader, and the new civil discourse between readers and each other. The scale, speed and potential impact of this centralized intervention has no historical precedent.

Secret national censorship systems are dangerous and unaccountable. They are an afront to natural justice, due process and the balancing power of the fourth estate. They must be, and will be, stopped.

The Australian Government has stated it plans to increase the size of its blacklist list by 10 fold, from roughly 1,200 blocked pages to over 10,000, although the plan is now seems unlikely to pass the Australian Senate after the revelations of the last month.
* * * * *

To make what has happened clear to those who understand traditional book censorship, we provide the following simple analogy:

Within the libraries and book catalogues of Germany and Australia there are books (web pages) forbidden by the state.

The government of Australia has compiled a secret list of books it forbids. About 1,200 books are on the list.

Not even authors or publishers whose books are placed on the list are told their book has been banned.

Germany plans to adopt and expand a version of the Australian scheme.

Under the plans of the German and Australian governments, every attempt to borrow a book (read a web page) will be checked against the secret "forbidden books" (forbidden web pages) list.

If a book is on the list, the attempt to borrow it is noted down in another secret list and permission is refused. If the book is not on the blacklist, permission is granted.

The list of forbidden books (the blacklist) is a forbidden book.

The lists of books forbidden in other countries are also forbidden books.

Any book that mentions the title (URL) of a forbidden book is itself a forbidden book.

An international investigative newspaper (Wikileaks) reveals key internal documents on the censorship expansion plans for Germany, Australia and other countries. For Australia this expose includes the lists of forbidden books and the presence of clearly political books on the list. The newspaper warns that Australia is acting like a "democratic backwater" and risks following the censorship path of Thailand.

The article and lists, and then the entire newspaper secretly added to the list of publications banned by Australia.

The Australian "Minister for censorship", Senator Stephen Conroy, states "Any citizen who distributes [the blacklist] is at serious risk of criminal prosecution". The Minister threatens to refer the leak to the Australian Federal Police.

That same week, the newspaper releases three more articles on censorship and updates the lists of forbidden books.

Two buildings related to the newspaper in Germany are then raided by 11 plain clothed police. The police demand the keys (passwords) to a protected room (server) containing the newspaper's printing press so they can disable it. The newspaper staff refuse to comply--both the keys and the press itself have been sent to Sweden, a country with stronger legal protections for journalists.

The German police then seize what they believe to be the newspaper's archives (a hardrive) and a typewriter (laptop) "for evidence".

* * * * *

The story might end there, but 12 hours after the police raid, on Wednesday the 25th of March, the German Cabinet announced the completion of a proposed law for a nationwide, mandatory censorship system--to be pushed through before national elections in September, 2009.

For every noble human desire, in this case, the strong protective feelings most adults have towards children, opportunists such as Senator Conroy and his German equivalent, CDU Minister Ursula von der Leyen, stand ready to exploit these feelings for their own power and position.

Von der Leyen apparently hopes to raise her profile before a national election by promoting a national censorship "solution" to child pornography.

But forcibly preventing the average parent from seeing evidence of what may be an abuse against a child is not the same as stopping abuses against children. Absense of evidence is not evidence of absense.

Censoring the evidence promotes abuses by driving them underground, where they are difficult to track. Such schemes divert resources and political will away from proven policing solutions which target producers and consumers.

Children depend, even more than their parents, on the quality and viability of government. An assault against those systems and ideals which keep government honest and accountable - public oversight, natural justice, and protection from state censorship - is not just an affront to Enlightment ideals, but an assult on the long term interests of children and adults alike.

The March 24th raid is not the first time the German state has attempted to censor Wikileaks; back in December 2008, Ernst Uhrlau, former police chief and current head of the BND, Germany's equivalent to the CIA, threatened to prosecute the site unless it removed a BND dossier on corrupt officials in Kosovo and other information. The dossier was not removed. There is no evidence that the police action and the BND incident are related, but the situation, together with a recent Bundestag inquiry documenting illegal BND spying on the German press, does not paint a flattering picture of the state of German government.

The Plan

2009-03-30T19:37:00.001+11:00

From: http://soli.inav.net/~catalyst/Humor/plan.htm

In the beginning was the Plan.

And then came the Assumptions.

And the assumptions were without form.

And the plan was without substance.

And darkness was upon the faces of the workers.

And they spoke among themselves saying, "It is a crock of shit and it stinks."

And the workers went unto their Supervisors and said, "It is a pail of dung and we cannot live with the smell."

And the supervisors went unto their Managers saying, "It is a container of organic waste and it is very strong such that none may abide by it."

And the managers went unto their Directors, saying, "It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide by it."

And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another, "It contains that which aids plant growth and it is very powerful."

And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him, "This new plan will actively promote growth and vigor of the company with very powerful effects."

And the president looked upon the plan and saw that it was good.

And the plan became Policy.

And this is how shit happens.

FEAR

2009-03-27T01:57:00.000+11:00

Maybe you're right and I should play it safe and not express myself.

I don't think you understand what or where my mind is moving to... or the construct in which everyone is trapped. FEAR.

I'm sick to death of being sick to death of some 'future', playing it safe and bending to this future you speak of.

I am a good person, that's all anyone needs to know. My intent is honorable. Fuck em' fuck em all.

Now I am going to sleep. I think your concern is nice but misplaced, you need to try and understand fully and more deeply what you are afraid of on my behalf, what construct it is, why it scares you and not me....... and this is Donal the geek who can probably see further and faster than most in to the 'future'.

I appreciate your concern, however I will stand by my instinct and convictions.

I repeat. Fuck em' , fuck em' all, I don't want a part in any future that doesn't want a part of me. All of me. Do you understand now?

I can't live my life afraid or in fear. If it doesn't work, I will create my own reality or find others that share MY reality. Ask yourself what you are afraid of and then use the past to project a different future.

Questions for Conroy

2009-03-26T00:50:00.001+11:00

#nocleanfeed #censorship #wikileaks

With props to Dan Geer's essay on Convergence.

Web X.0:Faith:Vision:Life:Laughs:Remix

2009-03-22T18:58:00.001+11:00

Title:The Web and TV, a sibling rivalry...

Mandate from the masses

2009-03-22T18:28:00.000+11:00

Censorship:Getup.org.au:Children

2009-03-22T13:23:00.002+11:00

Dear Tim/Getup re: http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet&id=576

**** How about toddlers speaking with adult voices, with plain white backgrounds engaging in critical free speech and educational paradigms? ****

Won't someone think of the children? Well has anyone actually asked them about the internet and bad stuff? It's their future, not ours. Maybe you have a baby or child and each iteration of generation ~ 10-15 years speaks with the voice of a generation 20-25 years older? Then a very old person speaking with a toddlers voice to complete the circle and enforce the concept.

When you apply reductionist thought akin to 'give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime', unfettered access to information which provokes critical thought and enforces personal and parental responsibility is paramount. Privacy, identity, global networks with no geo-political boundaries, censorship, free speech, autodidactic education, decentralism, human organisation, publishing, commerce, literacy, all salient and prominent issues... we need to get toddlers/kids to speak on their own, and our behalf.. it will also provoke thought and positive/negative publicity to catapult this topic in to the pscyche of this fledgling nation.

As @Wadeis pointed out many moons ago a viral video "akin" to this *will* work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=0vtHwWReGU0 , albeit I see kids speaking with adult voices about important memes. Perhaps sound bytes from both sides of the debate from prominent opponents/proponents?

We need some public faces/voices and simple messaging. We need to leverage existing memes while creating a new one.

Additional:
I have been collecting internet history/safety information videos on your behalf: http://bsdosx.blogspot.com/2009/02/histornet-history-of-internet.html , for any historical or future references as unfortunately a lot of this is underpinned by technology that changes the playing field.

Internets

2009-03-19T10:59:00.002+11:00

I spent a lot of time at the weekend talking about how information,
ideas, awareness and cirtical thought spreads; and it's all about
unfettered access and freedom/transparency of information(and/or
non-contextualised raw data).

Information pollution/signal to noise ratios are required as both a
contrast and training mechanism e.g. duality. The internet is the
largest human mirror and 'community of practice' we know. The ultimate
'connected' neural net.

Warts and all.

Fun eco links:
http://www.thecoolhunter.com.au/
http://www.inhabitat.com/

Back to my roots

2009-03-16T17:26:00.004+11:00

So you know you're entering fun new territory when you see signs like this for Cassawaries!! I was heading in to one of the oldest jungles in the world for a weekend off the grid. Welcome to the Daintree

This is Dave's house. Note the solar panels on the roof. Water is running straight from one of the creeks. We swam in many of the non-croc infested creeks, hung out on beaches with sea-eagles, checked out the mangrove flora and fauna.. and sampled the Wine Doctors resveratrol enhanced wine all while eating local produce and muggins here being introduced to fruit that tasted like creme caramel (called Abiu[s]).

Many of the worlds problems were solved this weekend in Cape Tribulation; however, as the solutions weren't documented in the moment, they have unfortunately been lost to mankind. I will have to go back up soon and chill wit' da junglists once more. Cheers Dave and Sarah...

Lost

2009-03-12T21:25:00.001+11:00

More_cloud

2009-03-03T10:55:00.001+11:00

Histornet : History and Future of the Internet

2009-02-27T17:12:00.002+11:00

Then go here for "Warriors of the Net" for a fun view of some constituent parts:

Then go here for "A Common Sense Approach to Internet Safety":

And when you're finally ready, then go here for the future (38mins in is good!):

10 laws of networking (Donal)

2009-02-09T16:35:00.017+11:00

Remember a few simple paradigms
===============================
1) The risk profile of a network or fabric is greater than the aggregate of the risk profiles for each of its endpoint/client connected nodes or services.
2) Never underestimate physical *and* logical separation. Ask yourself what happens if the mgmt control plane goes down or gets stuck in 'flipmode'?
3) Protect your management and control plane above all else, try not to have them in-path with the data plane. IT is change management, if you can't manage your resources, you may as well not have them.
4) Where are your policy enforcement points which facilitate auditability and visibility? AAA is a must!
5) Always use subnets and NETBLOCKs to separate traffic when you can. [e.g. use good address management] QOS on subnets is easier than QOS on discrete flows.
6) Darkness is not good. Instrument and gather telemetry from your network. Inbound poll and outbound trap at a minimum. Baselining and trending helps.
7) Always look at logs, sessions and empirical data rather than listening to conjecture and hearsay.
8) Abstraction layers are a good thing such that logical resources and physical resources can move without affecting one another. Loose coupling not tight coupling is the order of the day.
9) Always use loopbacks or virtual interfaces to manage devices where possible. [see 8]
10) In-path tests are the only things that represent what a client or endpoint sees. Up isn't always up, sometimes it's down.

Note: This is evolving, please leave comments on adds, moves, and changes... including priorities!

4 Laws of Troubleshooting:
==========================
1) Get, define, refine PROBLEM STATEMENT and the 5 WHY's.
2) Always go back to basics and first principles.
3) Look for commonalities and deltas.
4) Document an end-to-end code/firmware matrix for your problem.

Hugo's take on things (Not that I specifically disagree, but I do have a slightly variying point of view to the previously released laws)
========================================

1. Lack of visibility does not constitute lack of activity. While being unable to manage a device constitutes a significant risk, it does not constitute an outage.
2. We spend a great deal of time building highly available data paths in networks. They constitute one of the most reliable ways to get around the network. It is a valid consideration for the carriage of management traffic.
3. In a redundant, highly available network, a down device does not constitute a disaster, in fact, it doesn't even constitute an outage. Delaying its recovery constitutes a risk, not a problem.
4. The weakest part of your management is your people and processes, think less technically and more simply. Sometimes an analogue phone is the best solution.
5. Focus your efforts on the areas you have problems. Management like to see rapid improvement, don't focus on what causes you 1 issue a month to the detriment of something causing you 10.
6. Before you ring for escalation support, type "show log". Or look at the appropriate logs on the device or host.
7. History is important. Nothing changes radically overnight, if you can see what has happened before, you will know better whether you are looking at a one off event or a re-occurring issue. Many other pointers come from history and trending information.
8. No matter how big a nuffer they are, the day to day or other incident staff may well have seen something important that they can tell you. Try to establish the information behind their assumptions.
9. Best practice is merely something that worked for others. Sometimes our differences necessitate divergence. The best German engineering software in the world is of little value to someone who only speaks English. The best network management software in the world adds little value if it does not gather call history and quality information on your VoIP network. Best practice is a great starting point, but usually not where you should end up.
10. Keep it simple. Networks have a way of complicating themselves, your efforts should be towards keeping it simple and reliable.

ADHD or Other FLA's

2009-02-04T23:15:00.000+11:00

The coming global Infosec freeze

2009-02-01T03:05:00.001+11:00

Our biggest problem is we can't demonstrate shit happens effectively enough. [Outcomes]
Especially when it get's rolled up in to operational 'stability' or the 80% of self serving retards running IT suppress ripples in the space time continuum. Or the snake-oil selling vendors manage to introduce more nodes and code rather than less.

Baselines and reference points are also missing, and we all know why. We're all using the same virtual bricks but building everything from lego turing machines to traffic systems to flying machines and fighting robots.

Google just did a lot of work for us classifying *everything* on the web as evil. So maybe we can just convince the web 2.0 fanatics to go join the luddites and take part in Donal's solution called....

.... wait for it....

"SLOW IT DOWN" I am now declaring a change freeze on all production systems till 2012 when we can get our shit together :)

Filtering in Oz: Australia's Foray into Internet Censorship

2009-01-11T12:02:00.005+11:00

I cannot recommend this independent paper enough! It's from the Brooklyn Law School.

S.Korean mirror: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1319466_code865180.pdf?abstractid=1319466&mirid=4

"Abstract: Australia's decision to implement Internet censorship using technological means creates a natural experiment: the first Western democracy to mandate filtering legislatively, and to retrofit it to a decentralized network architecture. But are the proposed restrictions legitimate? The new restraints derive from the Labor Party's pro-filtering electoral campaign, though coalition government gives minority politicians considerable influence over policy. The country has a well-defined statutory censorship system for on-line and off-line material that may, however, be undercut by relying on foreign and third-party lists of sites to be blocked. While Australia is open about its filtering goals, the government's transparency about what content is to be blocked is poor. Initial tests show that how effective censorship is at filtering prohibited content - and only that content - will vary based on what method the country's ISPs use. Though Australia's decisionmakers are formally accountable to citizens, efforts to silence dissenters, outsourcing of blocking decisions, and filtering's inevitable transfer of power to technicians undercut accountability. The paper argues Australia represents a shift by Western democracies towards legitimating Internet filtering and away from robust consideration of the alternatives available to combat undesirable information."

Relinked.

More doom?

2008-12-31T18:23:00.002+11:00

a) 1974 http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/protection/

and

b) SecurityMetrics mailing list going round in circles.....

including

c) "It'll be just as insecure as it possibly can, while still continuing to function."
http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/point-counterpoint/homeusers.htm

One does worry.

Until we can elicit a value to shared and dedicated nodes/messages + the organisational superorganism as a whole, risk and the quantification thereof is a joke.... unfortunately shared infrastructure and services such as routing/DNS/SNMP/NTP/logging *are* business critical e.g. data and control planes including management control planes. http://twitter.com/irldexter/status/1087480944

Here's to 2009! And some standardisaiton of code development and testing including liability etc as per David Rice's arguments in Geekonomics. http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780321477897

Peace.

Security Absurdity from Ranum

2008-12-31T17:59:00.002+11:00

Aussie Filtering Meme

2008-12-27T10:07:00.003+11:00

Gridlock 09': what do you think happens when every car is searched on the information superhighway?

Note: potentialy breath testing on the freeway, what do you think will happen?
NoteII: can use trucks, cars, buses and motorbikes to refer to packets/QOS etc.
NoteIII: easily accessible meme... 87% speed limit reduction on motorways for everyone..
NoteIIII: Australia, going nowhere fast.
NoteIIIII: Australia = Auto-BAN!

Internet linky fiddling

2008-12-22T14:16:00.003+11:00

Cavity searches and Internet Filtering

2008-12-21T23:44:00.013+11:00

Proxying and tunnels will always get around filters. Full stop. I do not support censorship. Full stop. I do not support child pornography. Full stop. If child pornography was served from static webservers it would be easy to pull down. Full stop. There are 65,535 usable tcp ports. There are 65,535 usable udp ports. There are ~4 billion usable IP addresses spread around different regions on the planet and advertised by different Autonomous Systems.

However some thoughts.

a) From a Cisco perspective on a CRS/SSG/SCE, a thousand+ line ACL and Policy Map that routes requests for certain IP addresses to 'null 0' or sets the next hop for traffic to a logging/404 host would be feasible at peering edges. Feasible. As would a live feed akin to the Team Cymru dynamic bogon and martian feed. Feasible but very dangerous to centralise such dynamic control. One could also insert better prefixed /32 routes on the fly, akin to 'clean pipes' solutions that sinkhole and try to scrub distributed denial of service attacks.

The above points in (a) are equally achievable with Juniper high end gear also... and probably others too.

b) Any appliance/blade based content filtering or 'inline/OOB' IDS(Intrusion Detection System) will result in an epic fail; as opponents could shunt bad packets and malformed/obfuscated http gets at the device from multiple shifting sources all day and night to bring it to its knees! (Unless it only runs a DST IP block list...) There would also be massive issues with scaling and redundancy for most ISPs, let alone power and space constraints.

Both of the above techniques with the exception perhaps of the Null routing option for option(a) would allow one to reverse engineer the list with web spidering and/or large scale scanning.

c) AHTCC(Australian High Tech Crime Centre) and AFP(Australian Federal Police); if they are aware of known IP source addresses of 'kiddie porn', should already be looking for these traffic flows via a form of (a) that only provides them logging e.g. fully honors the traffic request and then subsequently investigate which Australian devices have sent said illegal requests via standard process. Unfortunately there can be issues with malware and establishment of identity/intent, however subsequent forensic investigations on offending hard-disks *should* confirm innocence or guilt (though costly to pursue as most good investigations are). If the list of DST IP addresses was leaked, miscreants could play havoc with the authorities through spoofing requests from local ISP IP addresses e.g. valid local SRC ranges(which an ISP cannot filter), and/or use botnets on Australian networks to achieve denial of service. Devices would have to fail open.

If logging was bidirectional then both inbound requests to Australian hosted content and requests to external countries would be enumerated. Unfortunately one could only effectively begin with IP's reported to authorities as any form of deeper content inspection would facilitate issues and abuses mentioned in (b).

Essentially, as with real world crime, one issue encountered is sometimes to balance the benefit of blocking or pre-empting an ongoing 'crime', with the possible information garnered by passively monitoring and going for the 'crimebosses' or actual perpetrators. This is a tough topic. No one is suggesting child pornography is a victimless crime, however are we going after paedophiles or trying to block what kids *might* see?

I do not support censorship. I am across LI(Legal Interception) in mobile/PSTN and data networks somehwhat and one should have warrants to actively tap citizens communications based upon probable cause. If one can prove that an IP address serves or accesses child pornography individuals should be prosecuted as per the judicial system. Unfortunately filtering *all* flows is a slippery slope, especially for those that control the blacklist(s).

d) How does one vet content and keep the IP addresses in (a) up-to-date and based upon what criteria? This can be especially difficult when recent research found that 69.8% of the websites for .com, .org and .net domains shared an IP address with 50 or more other websites. Such that a device served illegal content from a fixed IP, the content would be brought down very quickly by the authorities in the hosting country once that country had laws governing hosting of said content.

e) DNS poisoning = epic fail. Go direct to IP. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

I do not support child pornography. I do not support censorship. I do not support wasting millions of tax payers hard earned money on a fallacy.

I support law enforcement that works. I support the AHTCC and AFP. I support democracy. I do not support strip searching everyone that enters and leaves the country. I do not support all phone calls being tapped for illegal seditious conversations. I do not support our mail service opening every one of our letters. What are we doing about child pornography being physically mailed around in hardcopy or encrypted on USB thumb drives in the regular mail, or is that too hard?

And yes I am having seditious thoughts.

Cyberlaw, cybercops and cyber-democracy are required for cyberspace. Not cyber kid gloves and cyber sledge hammers.

Some light relief?

2008-12-06T23:16:00.003+11:00

I might get in trouble for this with the natives but I love this guy. Protect the kids from predators but that's about it. Industrial schooling, FUCK YOU SOCIETY!

Read Summerhill and grow. Link to website here: http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/

Build more tubes for Australian Censorship!

2008-12-06T22:30:00.000+11:00

Wordle.net tres-cool-super-sexy

2008-12-06T20:20:00.003+11:00

"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."

This is my wordle of this blog.

De de de de de de de de de, duh de de...

2008-12-04T20:41:00.001+11:00

Internet Filtering

2008-12-04T11:32:00.001+11:00

RTFM

2008-11-20T14:34:00.002+11:00

Google RTFM screencast:
http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=advanced+google+search+tips

Arrogance of obfuscation.

2008-11-18T23:12:00.000+11:00

http://spittoon.23andme.com/2008/08/29/labs-remove-genetic-data-from-public-databases-after-forensic-breakthrough/#more-1174

"a new statistical method that can establish the presence of a single
individual's genetic signature in a sample containing DNA from
hundreds of different people."

"It was previously assumed that aggregating the data of hundreds or
even thousands of people — essentially giving the overall genetic
composition of the group as a whole — would make it impossible to
identify any one person in it."

"Hypothetical scenarios aside, it is highly unlikely that any person
has ever actually been picked out of an aggregate database, and not
just because the mathematics of the new method are so complex."

I sometimes worry more about DNA being 'stored' and derivitive
contextual information and the associated information security thereof
rather than any credit card data etc. This is prompted by a great new
service https://www.23andme.com/

In the future when a genomic representation of me can be anywhere and
stored in multiple locations, how do I asert that I am me.

The biometric system *must* be ensured to be localised and not
connected to any other networks... erm a bit like SCADA systems I hear
you say? Will we need an X point check system.. something I have,
know, macro am, micro am, quantum am, how Y is done/performed, how Z
is done/performed, how K is done/performed..

Fun: I spoke before about nanobots, I now present "nano-identbots"
which are like mayflies i.e. they die once they identify a host and
have a localised PGP relationship with the system with which identify
is supposed to be represented to. They generate keys on birth and
immediately go out to identify the subject etc...

Strategy and IT Architecture

2008-11-18T13:32:00.000+11:00

Greenfields accommodates top down thinking.
Legacy constraints force the dichotomoy of top down and bottom up, for the devil is in the detail!

Austraaaaaaaalia

2008-11-10T22:07:00.001+11:00

Had to re-post this. I love it.

2008-11-06T23:22:00.001+11:00

This is very like Open University or BBC2 programs for schools. Wonderful sardonic stuff!