Security & Hacking: The Matasano Crypto Challenges

Really cool the Matasano Crypto Challenges is "a collection of 48 exercises that demonstrate attacks on real-world crypto."

It's designed to teach real Crypto attacks by doing, great for improving the security of code you write, or to get an idea of what Pen Testing or malicious hacking involves.

Very good review, worth reading in it's own right here https://blog.pinboard.in/2013/04/the_matasano_crypto_challenges/

Note in the Pinboard review the original link for Matasano Crypto Challenges  didn't update for server move, current working link (I have correct link at top of this blog post of mine as well) is http://web.archive.org/web/20140213141638/http://www.matasano.com/articles/crypto-challenges/

Computer Desk of the Week (CDotW)

This week's desk of the week is a loft, but it still has room for three 27" screens http://lifehacker.com/5952844/the-lofted-workspace

Quote from link above with specs & bit more:

"liquid cooled 6 core, 64 gb RAM custom machine and 3x 27" Achieva Shimian Korean IPS displays. These are mounted to the wall with monitor arms and can be pulled closer to the edge of the table if needed. The setup works really well for my 3d modeling and coding work"

Nerd News: Open Source Software thanks to Netflix

Full story at Ars http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/09/eureka-netflix-makes-amazon-more-reliable-with-open-source-software/

Short version, the product called Eureka, "fills a gap in Amazon Web Services by providing load balancing and failover for middle-tier servers."

Nice to see that at least some big companies believe in Open Source.