Stuff I'm reading recently

I don't usually favor those "linkbait" type of blog posts, but recently I've been a bit frazzled, and my attention has been wandering over a collection of completely unrelated things.

So, just for yucks, here's a bunch of what I've been reading this week, in no particular order:

• A Self-Study Course in Block-Cipher Cryptanalysis. The paper is a decade old, but I haven't found anything more recent that is similar. Has anyone tried this course? How far did you get? Did you do it alone, or with associates?


• Introduction to BitCoin. This is being discussed all over the place; time to go learn about it.


• Clang -- Features and Goals. As I noted the other day, people seem to be moving to Clang away from GCC.


• The Wu master. Tim Wu is widely credited with having coined the term "Network Neutrality", and has a very popular new book out.


• Farcical end to strong women's event. "it’s still unusual to find all the participants of a major tournament going on strike before the final round is played". In the comments section, the Romanian organizer of the tournament posts a machine-translated reply.


• Titles and Promotions. Ben Horowitz reflects on the use of job titles.


• Perspectives from Fred Wilson and Paul Graham about the emergence of AirBnB. "It is a story of pure unadulterated hustle", says Wilson.


• JavaScript Trie Performance Analysis. John Resig builds a Trie (pronounced "Try", in case you care) implementation in JavaScript, and studies it. Lots of interesting additional information in the comments.


• Optimizing Linux with cheap flash drives. We continue to learn how to incorporate flash memory into storage systems and software.


• Journalistic Irony. Before we go criticizing the complex interactions among government, industry, and the media in Japan, we should reflect on those same interactions here in the U.S.A.


• Dealing with Distributed State. I guess I haven't yet become sick of the continuing discussions over Professor Brewer's famous CAP theorem.


• 'No sysadmin' is the key to Freedom Box. John Gilmore reflects on shutting off the Internet in Egypt.


• Are Mathematicians in Jeopardy?. With a cute pun on "Jeopardy", Professor Lipton considers some possible futures of Artificial Intelligence


• Pocket Banks. Kevin Kelly brings us up to date on M-PESA and offers some thoughts about where it might be going in the near future.

As I said, it's a pretty random collection of stuff, and ranges all over the place. But maybe there's something in there you'll find interesting, and some new ideas to take you someplace you've not been thinking about recently!