Category: Tom

  • Quis custodiet custodes ipsos?

    To security professionals, Bruce Schneier is considered a guru. His book, Applied Cryptography is considered the authoritative book on computer security, and is the first book anyone should purchase when considering entering the field. Bruce has published an article in Wired entitled, “The Eternal Value of Privacy“, where he defends an almost Calvinistic distrust in […]

  • Why Encryption is Good

    After watching recent events regarding our Federal Government reading the phone records of American citizens, and the acknowledgement by the NSA chief that they’re monitoring the phone calls of Americans, I’ve decided I’m getting a little annoyed with these casual little incursions into our privacy. Since it seems that our Federal Government has show no […]

  • Memorial Day Pig Roast 2006

    Once again, it’s time for the (fourth) annual pig roast, and you all are invited to attend the party at the home of Tom and Sarah Albrecht. We plan on starting off around noon, and going into the evening. The pig should be done around 4pm, but we’ll be serving food throughout the party. Please […]

  • What’s Your Beer Personality

    You Are Guinness You know beer well, and you’ll only drink the best beers in the world. Watered down beers disgust you, as do the people who drink them. When you drink, you tend to become a bit of a know it all – especially about subjects you don’t know well. But your friends tolerate […]

  • Google Earth Plus

    Since the kids have been asking to go treasure hunting again, I finally broke down and bought a GPS receiver, a Garmin GPSMap 60. We’re planning on going out today or tomorrow to go find some caches in Lancaster county. For a small fee, I found out I can upgrade Google Earth to import data […]

  • But a Sub is Just Not the Same

    Looks like some students at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee conducted a dialect survey, asking questions like how do you pronounce “coupon” (the correct form is “coop-on”), or whether selling things in your back yard is a tag sale, a garage sale, a rummage sale, or a yard sale (again, the correct answer is […]

  • He Must Play Darts

    My boss and I were sitting in the business class lounge at Narita Airport. We had been out the night before at a bar on Akasaka-Mitsuke playing darts, and had a great time. As often happens when I have a glass of Bailey’s Irish Cream on ice in my hand, an epiphany came over me. […]

  • Ubuntu Rules

    You know, my life is busy enought with “normal” activities without the random emergencies that keep popping up. Somehow, my wife managed to get the SurfSidekick installed on her computer. ‘Tis an annoying piece of software that causes random advertisements to load up one’s browser, no matter what you happen to be doing. I ran […]

  • The End of Dollar Hegemony

    Ron Paul gave the following speech before the House of Representatives on February 15, 2006. It’s amazing that such an honest man could ever be elected to public office. ——– A hundred years ago it was called “dollar diplomacy.” After World War II, and especially after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, that […]

  • Another New Look for the Site

    Some people do crossword puzzles when they’re bored. Some people knit. I redesign my website. Actually, I stole the theme from another website and added my own header. It’s not a trivial task, but nearly as complex as the one I gleaned from, which was an enhancement of the default theme. Anyway, let me know […]

  • Lynn Swann for Governor

    Fox Sports is reporting that Lynn Swann, former Pittsburgh Steeler and Hall of Famer, is going to announce that he’s running for the office of governor of Pennsylvania on the Republican ticket. This is a very intersting development. I have no idea of Mr. Swann’s political views, although I do remember when he was on […]

  • Lessons in Sushi

    For those of you who enjoy this foreign delicacy (and even for those who have not yet had the pleasure), this instructional video on sushi is one of the most informative lessons I’ve enjoyed on the subject. In this video, you will learn some very useful points of etiquette, including how to enter the sushi-ya, […]

  • Tyranny Retreating

    One more shadow of prohibition has been thrown out the door. South Carolina is finally allowings bars to use full-sized bottles of liquor bottles, instead of little mini-bottles used on airplanes. It never ceases to amaze me how many stupid infringements the people allow the civil government to make on them. The mini-bottles were a […]

  • Yucky Peas

    2719 Bit of shameless self-promotion, but who cares. My wife has been working for the past few days on different clothing ideas, but so far, I haven’t heard any ideas on how she plans to advertise her products. So check them out and let us know what you think.

  • Coatesville a Biking Mecca?

    I wake from my long slumber to post this interesting tidbit of gossip. According to CyclingNews.com, “The City of Coatesville in southeastern Pennsylvania is conducting a feasibility study to develop a new indoor velodrome and cycling complex.” For those of you who are aware of the recent golf course debacle at the Saha farm, the […]