The Baltimore Leg
I slept through my oppportunity to see Baltimore's Inner Harbor via an early morning run. By the time I finally got to the Sheraton down the street from Camden Yards and settled in, it was way past my normal bedtime and my throat was killing me. I made up for it with a two-hour evening stroll. I heard the collective screams of adolescent girls coming for a pavilion and learned an actor/singer named Jesse McCartney was performing. He's in a show called "Summerland." At least that's what I think the woman at the Will Call ticket booth told me. Heard lots of other live music in various sections of Harborplace. What a great place to hang out, even in this heat and humidity.
The bulk of my day was of course spent at one of the final days of the USENIX Security Symposium here at the hotel. As usual, the quality of presentations did not disappoint. One round of talks from academics focused on new ways to secure networks through improved anomoly detection systems and vulnerability assessment tools. Then came a compelling panel on the legality and morality of a common practice at security conferences: using simple hacking tools to "sniff" for people's passwords. (The unusual slowness of my Internet connection here in the hotel makes me wonder if I'll be the next to find her password on a "wall of shame.") It was followed after lunch with a trio of presentations on the latest attack trends.
Back to the boardwalk. Ever since noticing the lack of water fountains at the Brandeis University campus, I've made a concerted effort to scout them out in public places and am now convinced said features are endangered. This waterfront tourist attraction with its long stretch of pathways should have been lined with them. Instead, I couldn't find a single one. A conspiracy among food vendors? Concerted effort to keep the homeless from congregating?
NOTE: I'll be incommunicado the next few days while I drive across Virginia. Promise pictures upon my return to San Diego.
The bulk of my day was of course spent at one of the final days of the USENIX Security Symposium here at the hotel. As usual, the quality of presentations did not disappoint. One round of talks from academics focused on new ways to secure networks through improved anomoly detection systems and vulnerability assessment tools. Then came a compelling panel on the legality and morality of a common practice at security conferences: using simple hacking tools to "sniff" for people's passwords. (The unusual slowness of my Internet connection here in the hotel makes me wonder if I'll be the next to find her password on a "wall of shame.") It was followed after lunch with a trio of presentations on the latest attack trends.
Back to the boardwalk. Ever since noticing the lack of water fountains at the Brandeis University campus, I've made a concerted effort to scout them out in public places and am now convinced said features are endangered. This waterfront tourist attraction with its long stretch of pathways should have been lined with them. Instead, I couldn't find a single one. A conspiracy among food vendors? Concerted effort to keep the homeless from congregating?
NOTE: I'll be incommunicado the next few days while I drive across Virginia. Promise pictures upon my return to San Diego.
